§7952 Establishment of Payment Yield and Base Acres for Peanuts for a Farm

Summary

The Secretary must figure out each historic peanut producer’s average peanut yield for each farm for the 1998 through 2001 crop years, leaving out years the producer did not plant. A producer may replace up to three of those years with the county average yield from 1990 through 1997. The Secretary also must compute a 4-year average of acres for each farm using acres actually planted and acres the producer was prevented from planting because of drought, flood, or other disaster. Years when a producer did not plant still count. If more than one producer shared the crop, each gets a proportional share of the acres. The Secretary must make these calculations as soon as possible after May 13, 2002, and must handle changes like deaths, dissolved groups, or other shifts in who shares the farm. Each historic peanut producer can assign the average yields and acres for a farm to cropland on that farm or to another farm in the same State or a bordering State, but they cannot assign acreage to a bordering State unless they grew peanuts there in 1998–2001 or were a producer there by March 31, 2003. The Secretary must give one notice about this assignment chance, explain the rules, and tell producers how to submit their choices. Assignment notices must be given by March 31, 2003, or in another way the Secretary allows. The averages assigned become the payment yield and the farm’s base acres for direct and counter-cyclical payments. If conservation reserve contract land is added or released, the Secretary must adjust base acres and let the farm owner choose either the program payments or a prorated CRP payment for the first year, but not both. If total base acres plus other enrolled acres would be more than the farm’s cropland, the Secretary must reduce base acres or other base acres so the total does not exceed actual cropland; the owner can choose which acres are cut, with an exception for approved double cropping. A farm owner may permanently reduce the farm’s peanut base acres at any time under rules the Secretary sets. Historic peanut producer = someone who planted peanuts for harvest in 1998–2001. Payment yield = the farm’s average yield used for payments. Base acres = acres counted for those payments.