—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 ”