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New study shows year-end farmer assistance could misrepresent overall crop losses

An ag economist at Ohio State University says a new study shows year-end farmer assistance could misrepresent overall crop losses.

Professor emeritus Carl Zulauf says policies need to change. 

“One of the solutions is to move commodity payments from the end of the year to the beginning of the year by using harvest cash prices as opposed to marketing year prices,” he says. “The 2025 ARC and PLC payments would then be made now, as opposed to October 2026.”

He tells Brownfield this could help producers bridge the gap financially. 

“There’s a wide variation across the crops and the coverage of their losses,” he says. “We need to figure out a way to make ad-hoc payments with better knowledge of what the current programs are paying so we minimize under and overcompensation.”

Zulauf says corn and soybeans have consistently had the largest collective losses for U.S. crops in recent years.

AUDIO: Carl Zulauf, Ohio State University