An Economic Appraisal of the 1961 Feed Grain Program

Excerpts from the report Summary: Following a 9-year buildup in feed grain stocks, the 1961 Feed Grain Program was enacted by Congress to enable farmers to maintain their incomes while reducing production of corn and grain sorghums. The program offered farmers incentive payments to divert at least 20 percent of their corn and grain sorghum acreage to conservation uses. It also offered them support prices on their normal yield on the reduced acreage at a national average price of $1.20 a bushel for corn and $1.93 a hundredweight for grain sorghum. About 1,200 farmers in 8 areas were selected for study. The sample in each area included about 75 participants in the 1961 Feed Grain Program and 75 nonparticipants selected at random from the records in the county offices of Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. In personal interviews with these farmers, information was obtained on size of farms, acreages of cropland and land in corn and grain sorghum, productivity of the land, personal characteristics of the operators and their families, and other factors that were presumed to have some bearing on participation in the program