—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 26; 1977 18 USDA names set-aside, grain program WASHINGTON D.C. - Acting Secretary of Agriculture John White today announced a 10 per cent set-aside in acreage of com, sorghunr and barley and other details of the 1978 feed grain program. “Announcing this con ditional action today will give us the opportunity in January and February to review the world and domestic situation again and revoke the set-aside if conditions change sub stantially,” said White. White said the Department has decided on a set-aside program for these reasons: “Current farm prices are below the effective loan rate and estimated cost of production. World coarse grain production exceeds world consumption by 8 million tons. This means stocks at the beginning of the 1978-79 marketing year will be nearly 80 million tons. “Domestic 1977 coarse grain production appears to Joe a record, and carryover stocks are expected to rise to 43.5 million tons. We predict that at the start of the 1978-79 season we will have the largest stocks since the summer of 1972. “We conclude that a 10 per cent set-aside will reduce U.S. production by an estimated 7 million tons; that’s 3 per cent of U.S. production and 1 per cent of total world coarse grain production. The set-aside should result in a 4 million ton difference in U.S. stocks or a 5 per cent change in total world coarse grain stocks. This is not expected to have an effect on con sumer food prices. “To remove excess grain from the market to help insure our ability to remain a reliable suppier to other nations and to protect consumers, the 17-19 million ton feed gram reserve will be captured prior to the 1978-79 season. “The feed grain set-aside also supports good con servation. It is an effective tool to take the pressure off farmers to use their marginal lands to raise crops and provide en couragement to farmers to concentrate production -on prune agricultural lands. It will result in less erosion, less environmental damage, and improved water quality - - all leading to the protection of renewable resources.” White also announced that national program acres in. millions of acres will be 67.6 for com; .13.7 for sorghum and 7.4 for barley. National program acreage is based on projected domestic and export use, less imports, divided by the national program yield, and adjusted for desirable carryover levels. He further stated that there will be no land diversion payments; there will be no limitation on planted acreage; and that oats will not be included in the fesd grain program. Participation in the feed grain set-aside program is voluntary. Non-participants, however, are not elegible for price support loans, disaster payments, or deficiency payments. Participants must “set-aside” one acre for every 10 acres actually planted for harvest in 1978. Under “cross-compliance” rules a farmer who does not participate in the set-aside is ineligible for loans and payments on other crops. Producers who voluntarily reduce their corn and sorghum acreage by 5 per cent, or barley acreage planted for harvest by 20 per cent, in 1978 from that planted in 1977 are guaranteed target price protection on the normal production from their entire acreage and qualify for loan programs on all they produce. _ To be eligible for loans, purchases and payments, if applicable, on .crops in cluded in the normal crop acreage, the producer must comply with the feed grain set-aside if corn, sorghum or barley is planted for the 1978 harvest. The Department is proposing that acreage designated as set-aside under the ’7B feed grain program must be in ah approved vegetative cover crop such as annual or perennial grasses "and legumes or small , grain which is not allowed to mature. It also proposes land eligible is any cropland that was tilled within the prior three years in crop Duroc Association forms FREDERICK, Md. - Twenty Quroc enthusiasts met at the Chat & Chew 'Restaurant in Frederick, to reorganize the Maryland Duroc Breeders Association. This organization which has been inactive for the last ten years, will be brought back to existence by the following breeders. President, James Boone, Keym'ar; Vice-President, Raymond Martin, Keymar; and Sandra & Douglas Lechlider, Laytonsville, will team up as Secretaiy-Treas. production other than hay or pasture. Summer fallow is not included. Publication of final regulations on these proposals is being deferred until all comments received are evaluated. The five directors are, J. Quinton Johnson, Salisbury; Earl Wyand, Williamsport; Mike Malone, Hampstead; Donald Morrison, Dayton. The Maryland Duroc Association will hold their first annual picnic next July. A Maryland Duroc Queen will be selected at the picnic. Anyone interested in joining the Maryland Duroc Association should contact Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Lechlider, 7815 Rocky Road, Gaithersburg, Md. 20760." Teachers Writes On the first day of school, each first-grader arrived home with a note from their new teacher. It read: “Dear Parents: If you promise not to believe all your child says happens at school. I’ll promise not to believe all he saus happens at home ”
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