Disaster Assistance Payments Expected Early ‘05

The $2.9 billion disaster assistance package approved on Capitol Hill last fall is expected to make its way to eligible producers next year.  Program rules are still being worked out, and Payments will be made to qualifying crop producers who have suffered crop losses because of natural disasters and drought in 2003 or 2004 (producer’s choice). Rules are expected to be similar to the last round of disaster assistance. Crop producers will be compensated if their production yield losses exceed 35% of historic yields. A quality loss provision provides compensation for losses that are at least 20% of the crop’s value.

The payment formulas provide greater benefits to producers who bought insurance on their eligible crops. Crop disaster assistance compensation rates:

•  Insured crops - 65 percent of the crop insurance market price election. (MPCI/APH established price).

•  Uninsured crops - 60 percent of the crop insurance market price election. (MPCI/APH established price).

•  Non-insurable crops - 65 percent of the 5-year NASS average price.  (NAP area loss triggers do not apply).

Benefits are limited to $80,000 per person.

Disaster assistance provisions are outlined on the Internet at http://agriculture.house.gov/info/AgDisasterAsst10_04.pdf .

As well, there are several online sources to check as more details become available:

•  USDA FSA -- http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov/agas04.htm

•  FSA State Office -- www.fsa.usa.gov/edso/statedefault.htm (Click on the state)

•  Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, www.smallgrains.org or the N.D. Grain Growers Association, www.ndmarketmanager.org

The technical name of the underlying disaster legislation is the Military Construction Appropriations & Emergency Hurricane Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2005.  In the legislation that included assistance for a number of commodities, pecans, sugar cane, and cottonseed among them, Northern Plains commodity groups and federal lawmakers tenaciously worked together to ensure that northern producers affected by this year’s train wreck of a growing season weren’t forgotten.

Even after the disaster assistance was passed, leaders of the MAWG, NDGGA, and other grain groups continued to lobby administration officials to exact fairness to the rules.  The grain groups want to ensure that quality loss provisions take into account the severe quality discounts for many northern grain producers at harvest, and point out that a payment cap which limits assistance to 95% of crop value unfairly penalizes growers who bought higher levels of crop insurance.  However the final rules shake out, the disaster assistance proves once again the importance of grain producers having a voice in Washington, D.C., and that membership and involvement matters.

Some of the coldest growing season conditions in history combined with wet weather created delayed harvests and disastrous crops for a number of farmers in the upper reaches of the Northern Plains. The photo of the commercial sprayer hung up in muddy field conditions was taken in north central N.D., near Mohall.  The wet wheat harvest photo was taken in late September on the Art Brandli farm near Warroad, Minn. “This is what happens when we get almost 35 inches of rain in a 4½ month timeframe,” says Brandli.  “Obviously, the wheat quality suffered with sprout damage and lower test weights.” Photos courtesy Art and Nancy Brandli and the N.D. Grain Growers Association.