White House loan rates plan ‘Baffling’ (DTN – Progressive Farmer) 

Progressive Farmer published an article on how since the White House first rolled out its proposal to boost marketing loan rates for certain crops on April 28, USDA’s key leaders, including Vilsack, have remained silent. USDA press secretaries also did not respond to questions from DTN about the aid package. Senior research fellow Joseph Glauber has been paying close attention to the agricultural and food security issues stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Still, Glauber told DTN he doesn’t understand the logic of raising loan rates, noting the current high prices for commodities already provide incentives for farmers to plant. “I get the urgency to try to do something,” Glauber said, but described the move on loan rates as ‘baffling.’ “You actually raise a couple of those loan rates above reference prices” under Price Loss Coverage. “Again, it just doesn’t make any sense. Right now, prices are, of course, well above those levels. Farmers already have a lot of incentives to plant. No question about that. Raising a loan rate doesn’t really help that.” Also, if prices do come tumbling down, those higher loan rates would open the federal government to a lot of financial exposure through the Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL) program. Regardless of a government loan incentive, Glauber said winter wheat acres next fall would likely see a bump in acreage if prices remain high. “Come fall, particularly in the Southern Plains, if prices are really high for wheat, there is going to be an incentive to plant wheat. And the same thing with double cropping. The last time we had a big double-crop area was in 2013. Same thing — we had really high prices. So, I suspect some people will want to look at potentially double-cropping soybeans.”