TABLE I.-1956 and 1957 acreage reserve program participation and payments by States-Continued TABLE II.—1956 and 1957 acreage reserve programs—Participation by commodities 1958 acreage reserve program 1. Major changes in program.-General provisions governing the 1958 acreage reserve program were announced by the Secretary on August 2, and November 21, 1957. The major changes are: (a) Establishment of a total acreage figure for specified crops for each farm, to be based primarily on past production history and known as the soil-bank base, with the requirement that total harvested acreage of the crops in 1958 be held below the base by the equivalent of the number of acres placed in the soil bank. (b) A limit of $3,000 on the total of 1958 acreage reserve payments which can be made to any one producer, as required by the provision in the 1958 Appropriation Act. 2. Soil-bank base.-Crops making up the soil-bank base will, in general, be all crops produced for harvest on a farm, except hay crops. In addition to the six basic crops, they will include, among others, such crops as the grains, annual grasses cut for seed, oilseeds, cowpeas, potatoes, commercial vegetables, field and canning peas and beans. The soil-bank base for individual farms will be established by county ASC committees primarily on the basis of the average acreage of land devoted to soilbank base crops during the past 2 years-1956 and 1957. Where a farm already has a base established under the conservation reserve program, that base will apply. In the acreage reserve agreement, participating farmers will agree to limit their harvest of soil-bank base crops. The limit, called the permitted acreage, will be determined by subtracting the number of acres in the acreage reserve from the total in the soil bank base. Farmers who do not comply with the permitted acreage provision will forfeit the entire payment. Both a civil penalty (50 percent of the payment) and loss of payment will continue to apply for any farmer who harvests a crop or permits livestock to graze on land designated for the acreage reserve, or who harvests more of the acreage reserve crop than his farm acreage allotment less the acreage in the reserve. If the acreage reserve and conservation reserve programs are in effect on a farm, the required reduction in harvested acres below the soil-bank base will be the total of the acres in both programs. 3. Compensation and allocations.-A comparison by commodities of the maximum compensation under the 1957 program with the allocation of funds for the 1958 program is as follows: 4. Payment limitation.-In accordance with the provision in the 1958 Appropriation Act, not more than a total of $3,000 in acreage reserve payments for 1958 can be made to any one producer with respect to the same farming unit. If acreage of 2 or more eligible basic commodities is put into the acreage reserve, the $3,000 limit applies to the total of all acreage reserve payments. No limits are placed on the number of acres which may be offered for the 1958 program except the limitation that is the result of limiting the amount of payment to the producer. 5. Signup period.-The signup period for 1958 spring-planted basic crops opened on January 13 and will close March 7, 1958. For the early cotton area of Texas and the early tobacco area of Florida, permission was granted to begin the signup at an earlier date. 6. Unit rates.-Individual payment rates for the 1958 acreage reserve will be determined primarily on the basis of average per acre rates. For each reserve crop except tobacco, there will be a "national" average rate of payment per acre. Then State and county rates will be established. These will vary in accordance with productivity and other factors, but in total will reflect the national rate. For tobacco, individual rates will be determined on the same basis as for 1957-the established unit rate per pound multiplied by the yield figure for the farm. The average payment rates per acre for the 1958 program are somewhat higher for most crops than those which were in effect for 1957. The average 1958 per acre payment rates compared with the 1957 rates are as follows: County ASC committees will determine per acre rates for individual farms. These will be based on the county average rate for all crops except tobacco, but they will vary among farms primarily according to relative productivity. The individual farm per acre rates will be available before acreage reserve agreements are signed. There will be provision for appeals to county and State ASC offices if a producer is not satisfied with the per acre rate or with the soil bank base established for his farm. Farmers who took part in the 1957 acreage reserve program will be paid a 10-percent premium, above the 1958 compensation rates, if they put the identical land in the acreage reserve program for 1958. 7. Other provisions.-In addition to the provision that noxious weeds must be controlled on acreage reserve land, participants in the 1958 program may also be required to control erosion. Otherwise, the land designated for the acreage reserve may be left idle, or a soil or water conservation practice may be carried out on it. It is possible for participating farmers to qualify for agricultural conservation (ACP) cost-sharing practices on land in the acreage reserve. After the deadline for signing agreements covering a particular crop under the acreage reserve for 1958, participating farmers will not be permitted to withdraw from the program, except in some cases involving "new" commercial corn counties. For the 1957 program, there were special provisions under which in certain circumstances a producer could withdraw voluntarily from an acreage reserve agreement up to the time he received notice of the last basic crop allotment for his farm. 8. Winter wheat program. The 1958 acreage reserve program was available first for winter wheat, seeded during the fall of 1957, for harvest next year. The national acreage reserve goal for 1958 wheat is 4.5 to 5.5 million acres compared with 12 to 15 million acres on the 1957 crop. The signup period for winter wheat opened on August 26, and closed October 4, 1957. During this period, all farmers who had an "old farm" wheat acreage allotment for 1958, and who normally grow winter wheat, were eligible to sign an acreage reserve agreement with their county ASC committee. The signup reported through October 4, is shown in table III. Before the signing of an agreement for wheat or other basic crops, a farmsoil-bank base must be established for the farm. Each producer is responsible for furnishing the county ASC committee the production history and other information needed to establish this base. This information must be supplied at least 15 days before the end of the signup period. In acceptance of agreements, preference will be given to those farmers who first signed agreements, in the event more acreage is offered than can be accepted within the funds available. The national average rate for the 1958 wheat acreage reserve will be $20.88 per acre-with available wheat price supports averaging $1.78 a bushel. This rate will be translated into varying State, county, and individual farm per acre rates. For the 1957 wheat acreage reserve, the average rate of payment per acre available to producers on a national basis was approximately $20.04 per acre-with wheat price supports averaging $2 a bushel. The average payment for those who actually signed agreements for 1957 was about $18, reflecting the fact that the land put in the reserve was of less than average yield. 9. Acreage reductions.—It is difficult to determine the extent of reduction in production of agricultural commodities as a result of the acreage reserve program. There are many factors that have an important bearing on production, such as the weather and the farming practices employed by the individual farmer. However, it is estimated that about 225 million bushels of corn, 175 million bushels of wheat, 2 million bales of upland cotton, 6 million hundredweight of rice, and 93 million pounds of tobacco would have been produced on the 21.4 million acres in the 1957 acreage reserve. These were allotment acres, and represented a net reduction from the total allotments previously established for the year under the basic crop adjustment programs. The national crop goals for 1958, compared with the goals for 1957 and actual 1957 participation, are as follows: TABLE III.-1958 wheat acreage reserve program-Agreements signed through Oct. 4, 1957 (preliminary report as of Nov. 15, 1957) Preliminary information on the 1957 program as of 6 weeks after the close of the signup period in order that a comparison may be made of the participation between the 1957 and 1958 programs. |