Not all farm programs ended when the farm bill expired at the end of September. Kansas-based Washburn University School of Agriculture Law Professor Roger McEowen says the programs funded outside the farm bill will continue. The permanent law for commodity programs takes effect on January 1. “What that means is a farmer would get base prices that are far above current base prices due to parity,” said McEowen. “They take it back to what the prices were from 1910 to 1914 adjusted for inflation. This is a fun one to play with. I don’t think it’ll ever happen but the support price for wheat would be $15.08 a bushel; corn would be $7.45 a bushel. Soybean doesn’t have a support program. The parity price for sugarbeets is $166 per ton.” McEowen was part of the Ag Credit Conference in Fargo.
