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Corn and soybean producers confused by CFAP calculation

Some corn and soybean farmers remain confused about how USDA calculates Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments.

Kent Thiesse, a farm management analyst with MinnStar Bank in southern Minnesota, says he continues to get questions about how “non-specialty” crops are covered in CFAP.

“A lot of folks are thinking they are being shorted on their payments. And the formula is actually, for a simple program, is quite complicated. The application form is very simple, but there’s a double factor in there of .5 that kind of confuses people.”

He tells Brownfield the calculation is based off 2019 production.

“And the maximum bushels that you start with is half of your production last year. Or whatever (unpriced) inventory on-hand on January 15th. Then that amount of bushels, which has already been factored a minimum of a half, gets factored by .5 again.”

Thiesse says a lot of people forget about that, or make the mistake of taking the inventory while forgetting that the maximum is only half of last year’s production.

Farmers have until the end of August to apply for CFAP payments.