DATE:    8/31/99
CONTACT: Dr. Charles Curtis, (864) 656-3475
WRITER:  Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343

Clemson to Host Farmer Meetings on Price Crisis

     CLEMSON -- Clemson Extension will host a series of meetings
around the state to help farmers understand their marketing
options during the current commodity price crisis.
     "Under the 1996 Farm Bill, the government set price thresholds
to provide some protection for producers," said Charles Curtis,
Clemson Extension agricultural economist.
     "Across the board in the major commodities, prices are below
those levels where government needs to respond with Loan
Deficiency Payments," he said. The 
commodities include cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, oats,
grain sorghum and minor oilseeds such as canola.
     Times and locations for the marketing meetings will be
announced.
     Curtis said it is important for farmers to get in touch with
their local Farm Service Agency office and sign appropriate forms
that put them in position to accept the maximum amount of benefits
due them under the disaster 
loan program.
     "In this series of meetings we want first to make sure our
producers understand the requirements for them to participate in
safety net price support mechanisms and how to work with FSA," he
said.
     "We also want to discuss how to market crops during times of
low prices, and to make sure producers don't do anything in the
government program arena or 
in the market arena that hurts the other," Curtis said.
     He said it is common for a farmer to sell a crop at harvest
while leaving the pricing open for the next eight or nine months.
Unfortunately, under such contracts the farmer gives up beneficial
interest in the crop. The title 
changes hands.
     "Under government program regulations, the farmer must retain
beneficial interest," he said.
     Curtis said Clemson University is coordinating with other
agencies, including FSA and USDA's Risk Management Agency, and
with producer groups and 
agricultural lenders.
     "We want to make sure everyone is singing off the same page of
the hymnal," he said.
     Two types of LDPs are available, according to Riley Odum of
the state FSA office.
     One is a Field Direct LDP. Eligible producers must request an
LDP for an eligible commodity prior to harvest by signing Form
CCC-709 when the producer will lose beneficial interest in the
commodity at harvest by delivering the crop directly from the
field to a processor, buyer, warehouse or cooperative, or if the
commodity is fed during harvest. The rate that will be in effect
will be the LDP rate on the date delivery is made.
     The other is a Farm Stored or Warehouse Stored LDP. The
producer must maintain beneficial interest in the commodity on the
date an LDP is requested by signing Form CCC-666. The LDP rate
that will be in effect will be the rate on the date the form is
signed.
                                   END