- Industry: Government
- Number of terms: 41534
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
A program that offers subsidies to exporters of U.S. dairy products to help them compete with other nations. USDA pays cash to exporters as bonuses to help them sell certain U.S. dairy products at prices below the exporter’s cost of acquiring them. The program was originally authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985 and extended by the FACT Act of 1990 and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1994. The total tonnage and dollar amounts of these and other export subsidies have been limited by the Uruguay Round’s agreement on agriculture. The FAIR Act of 1996 extends the program through 2002, and permits its use for market development in addition to offsetting the subsidies of other countries.
Industry:Agriculture
A program announced March 8, 1999, that makes direct payments to dairy farmers on the first 26,000 hundredweight of milk marketed during 1997 or 1998. The actual payment rate will be determined after signup by dividing $200 million by the total eligible milk. This program was authorized by the emergency provisions of the FY1999 USDA appropriations act (P.L. 105-277, October 21, 1998).
Industry:Agriculture
The federal program that maintains a minimum farm price for milk used in the manufacture of dairy products. The CCC indirectly assures a minimum price for milk by purchasing any cheddar cheese, nonfat dry milk, and butter offered to it by dairy processors at stated prices. These purchase prices are set high enough to enable dairy processors to pay farmers at least the support price for the milk they use in manufacturing these products. The support price was $10.20 per hundred pounds of milk (cwt.) in 1997, it declined to $10.05/cwt in 1998, and $9.90/cwt in 1999. Under provisions of the FAIR Act of 1996, the dairy price support program is scheduled to terminate on December 31, 1999.
Industry:Agriculture
The Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 authorized a national producer program for dairy product promotion, research, and nutrition education as part of a comprehensive strategy to increase human consumption of milk and dairy products and to reduce dairy surpluses. Dairy farmers fund this self-help program through a mandatory 15-cent per hundredweight assessment on all milk produced in the 48 contiguous states and marketed commercially. Dairy farmers can direct up to 10 cents of this assessment for contributions to qualified regional, state or local dairy product promotion, research or nutrition education programs. The national program is administered by the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board (Dairy Board), a group of 36 dairy farmers appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to staggered 3-year terms. This program should not be confused with the processor-funded Fluid Milk Promotion Program.
Industry:Agriculture
Also called the whole herd buyout, this program was authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985. Under it, farmers received USDA payments for agreeing to remove their entire dairy herds from production for 5 years.
Industry:Agriculture
A part of the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) process of developing key required test data, especially on the long-term, chronic effects of existing pesticides, in advance of scheduled Registration Standard reviews. Data call-in from manufacturers is an adjunct of the registration standards program intended to expedite re-registration.
Industry:Agriculture
The Packers and Stockyards Act includes provisions aimed at protecting the financial interests of livestock and poultry producers. Under the act, the inventories and accounts receivable of a packer or live poultry dealer — but not livestock (e.g., cattle, pigs, sheep) dealers such as auction houses — must be held in trust for unpaid cash sellers when the packer or poultry dealer fails to pay due to bankruptcy or other financial difficulty. In such situations, the seller is to be paid with these assets before other creditors. USDA for several years has been seeking an amendment to the act extending this protection to those who sell to livestock dealers, which, the Department says, have caused a significant amount of unrecoverable losses for livestock producers.
Industry:Agriculture
A financial ratio that measures the percentage of a farm operator’s assets that are financed by debt. For example, a ratio of 0.4 means that for every $100 of assets the operator has $40 of debt. The ratio indicates to a lender the degree of security of a loan. Higher values indicate greater risk. Although a safe or acceptable level varies greatly by enterprise, a debt-asset ratio in excess of 0.4 may indicate financial stress. A ratio of 0 means that the operator owes no debt; a ratio greater than 1 means that the borrower’s debts exceed the value of assets, indicating the insolvency of the farm business.
Industry:Agriculture
The concept of separating federal farm payments from the requirement that farmers produce specified program crops and/or divert land from production. A chief goal of decoupling is to remove a seemingly inherent contradiction in traditional policy: asking farmers to reduce production, while implicitly encouraging more output by tying their benefits to each unit produced. The decoupling concept was first introduced during debate over policy options in the 1985 omnibus farm bill, and was effectively implemented by policy changes made by the FAIR Act of 1996.
Industry:Agriculture
A cash forward contract that provides for determining price by formula at a later date. This also may be called "booking the basis," when the formula sets price relative to a futures price.
Industry:Agriculture
