Political Quotes

“and that is bad for farmers. The question is how big is a family farm and Members can get into that argument. But the average-size farm in the United States is 460 acres. The average size commercial farm that does not have other outside income has been reported to be 960 acres. How big would it be if we reached the limits that we are calling for in this motion that we are passing tomorrow? Using average prices for the 2002-01 crop year, it would take 27,392 acres of corn to reach the payment cap without the loophole. It would take 11,195 acres of cotton, 2,683 acres of rice, 5,261 acres of soybeans to run up against the limit in the House and Senate bills. Wheat and sorghum farmers could harvest an unlimited amount of acreage without reaching the limit because average harvest prices exceeded the loan price last year. The Congressional Research Service, CRS, also calculated the acreage needed to branch the proposed cap based on the lower harvest period prices. What farmers do is they try to farm the program. So they get the largest government benefit when that daily reported price is the lowest. So when the market is the lowest, that is when they want to go to their USDA office and say this is the day that I want the difference between today's local price and the price that you are guaranteeing me for this product. So that is going to increase the amount that they get from government.”