COLUMBIA CITY - A few things are certain about the 2002 Farm Bill: it's here (farmers have been "under" it since May); it's confusing (even Purdue University experts are struggling with it); and decisions made in the next couple of months are binding until 2007.

Purdue's Dr. Allan Gray met with regional farmers at the North East Purdue Ag Center, Columbia City, Thursday afternoon to talk about the legislation and to demonstrate a university-generated spreadsheet to assist farmers making binding decisions regarding their crops.

Kosciusko County Farm Bureau representative John Newsome attended the meeting at the ag center as well as Steve Palmer of Huntington County.

The Title I portion of the bill - commodities - has three basic support mechanisms: marketing loans, which are the same as the 1996 bill; direct payments (the same as PFCs) and counter-cyclical payments, a new feature of the bill.

All three types of payments are available for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, grain sorghum, barley, oats, peanuts, other oilseeds, small chickpeas and lentils.

The 2002 Farm Bill's funding seems enormous at first glance, Gray said. Costs are $180 billion over 10 years representing a $6 billion increase in annual spending for program crops. That increase, however, equals the emergency agriculture funding spent in the last five years.

There is an additional $17 billion for environmental and conservation planning - known as Title II. Grey said the particulars of Title II are being worked out.

What he did know was Title II had the potential to pay out a lot of dollars for not doing too much.

"No-till fields will receive $12 to $18 per acre on top of other payments," he said. "Waterways already developed will bring in a check.

"You don't have to plant a crop to get paid and there is no set aside."

Gray said there was an ulterior motive for all this seeming generosity, however.

"Remember, the Democrats control the Senate by one vote," the professor said. "Because the one vote matters and power hangs in the balance, they're going to write a check to every friend they can find."

Extra commodities are a direct result of politics, he said. Commodities that were specifically taken out of the '96 bill - wool, mohair, chickpeas and honey - are back in the mix.

Gray said the 2002 Farm Bill is a "good" one as long as the cash flow risk is about prices.

"If it's about yields, it's not a good bill because it doesn't protect against yield drops. If prices and yields go up, government payments go down."

He advised the 70 men and women in attendance to "produce as much as you can and bring it in."

Farmers must update base acres and yields this year under a four-option plan.

They may:

- Not update base acres or yields and simply add soybeans to fully base the acres.

- Update base acres but not yields; in other words, keep 1985 frozen program yields.

- Update base acres and update payment yields for CCP using 70 percent of the difference between 1998 and 2001 average yield and 1985 program yield, or

- Update base acres and update payment yields for CCP using 93.5 percent of the 1998 - 2001 average yield.

Purdue's computerized spreadsheet, available on the Internet (www.agecon.purdue.edu/ext/policy.asp) and at all Farm Service Agency offices, takes out some of the guesswork.

Acres for specific crops and yields can be "plugged" into the program and the payments under all four options are displayed.

The spreadsheet is provided as a public service to farmers in Indiana. The university is providing no warranties concerning accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of the information.

The program "recommends" the best option, one the producer is bound to use until the 2008 Farm Bill - or until something changes in the 2002 legislation. [[In-content Ad]]