The average family farm household income is projected to be $82,000 in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Between 2003 and 2005, commodity payments received totaled:
• $34.8 billion for the United States
• $1.14 billion for Missouri
• $6.67 million for Boone County
There are two types of crop subsidy payments in the 2002 Farm Bill:
Direct payments are annual payments made to farmers based on how many acres the farmer devotes to growing qualifying crops.* A direct payment is fixed for each crop and is not affected by current production or by current market prices. For example, the direct payment rate for wheat is 52 cents a bushel. Direct payments to farmers are based on historical acreage and on historical yields.
Counter cyclical payments are payments made to farmers when the price of qualifying crops fall below a certain target price. Farmers receive payments for wheat when the price of wheat falls below $3.92 a bushel.
*Qualifying crops for both programs are wheat, corn, soybeans, other oil seeds, grain sorghum, barley, oats, rice, cotton and peanuts.
The top commodity programs in Boone County are:
• Corn subsidies: $3,870,773
• Conservation Reserve Program: $1,964,294
• Soybean subsidies: $1,254,810
• Wheat subsidies: $1,075,42
• Sorghum subsidies: $448,108
• Environmental Quality Incentive Program: $109,807
• Wetlands Reserve Program: $96,546
• Dairy Program subsidies: $61,314
• Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program: $24,106
• Conservation Security Program: $13,282
• Mohair subsidies: $12,707
• Grasslands Reserve Program: $6,869
• Wool subsidies: $1,737
• Sunflower subsidies: $1,207
• Barley subsidies: $240
• Oat subsidies: $222
The first U.S. farm subsidies appeared in the 1930s as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Farmers were paid to plant fewer crops and reduce supply in order to drive up crop prices during the Depression.
