§7912 Establishment of payment yield

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must set a payment yield for each farm and each covered commodity. That yield is used to figure direct payments and counter-cyclical payments for the 2002 through 2007 crops. Normally the yield used is the farm’s 1995 program payment yield, adjusted for any extra yield payments made under the 1995 program. If a farm has no 1995 yield for a commodity (except soybeans and other oilseeds), the Secretary will pick a suitable yield by looking at similar farms, using those before any updates described below. For soybeans and other oilseeds, the yield is based on the farm’s average yield per planted acre for 1998 through 2001 (skipping years with zero acres). That average is multiplied by the ratio of the national average yield for 1981–1985 to the national average yield for 1998–2001. If any 1998–2001 year is below 75 percent of the county yield, it is counted as 75 percent of the county yield when making averages. If a farm owner chooses the base acres calculation method, they get one one-time chance to partially update payment yields for counter-cyclical payments only. The owner must make that election at the same time and in the same way as the base acres election. The updated yield is either: (A) the direct-payment yield plus 70 percent of the difference between the farm’s 1998–2001 average yield and the direct-payment yield, or (B) 93.5 percent of the farm’s 1998–2001 average yield. In computing those 1998–2001 averages, years with zero acres are excluded and any year below 75 percent of the county yield is raised to 75 percent of the county yield. The owner must pick the same update method for all covered commodities on the farm.