The Gardner Agriculture Policy Program is funded by the Leonard and Lila Gardner/Illinois Farm Bureau Family of Companies endowment. This generous gift is dedicated to the memory of Len Gardner, a leading voice on agricultural policy for decades. The program will coordinate and prioritize analytical and outreach efforts for farm, conservation and international trade policies, elevating the University of Illinois’ voice in the national debate.
The cover crop project seeks to provide farmers with a practical web-based decision support tool designed to help manage cover crops in their fields. The project makes use of existing research to demonstrate the potential for cover crops, as well as providing useful information for decision making and management of this practice. It will also seek to apply future research on cover crops as results are incorporated into updates and new iterations of the tool. This remains a work in progress with a goal towards adapting with the science.
Latest in Gardner Policy Series
Reviewing the History and Development of USDA’s Farm Loan Programs, Part 1: Origins
Each fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides an important source of credit to farmers who are unable to borrow from commercial sources. The farm loan programs provide direct credit and guarantees loans made…
Using farmdoc Tools to Make the ARC-CO and PLC Decisions
Two tools are available on the farmdoc website for evaluating Commodity title choices faced by farmers. The first is the 2018 Farm Bill What-If Tool, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that calculates payments under differing price and yield scenarios. The second…
Release of the 2018 Farm Bill What-If Tool for 2021 Decisions
For the 2021 cropping year, farmers can change their Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) choices from the selections made for the 2019 and 2020 crop years. We have revised the 2018 Farm Bill What-If Tool to…
Reviewing USDA Revisions to the Payment Limitation and Eligibility Rules
On Monday, August 24, 2020, USDA implemented changes to the payment limitation and eligibility rules for federal farm payments enacted by Congress in the 2018 farm bill. The revisions were published in the Federal Register. This article reviews the latest…
Farmdoc 20 Year Retrospective on Agricultural Trade (In Chart Form)
For some of us, 1999 doesn’t feel like it was that long ago. We were two years into the Asian financial crisis, and commodity prices were in the dumps. We were watching the release of the Matrix, living la vida…
2020 Growing Season Weather & Climate Summary
Although perhaps not as challenging as 2019, the 2020 Illinois growing season weather was remarkable. From late spring and early fall freezes, to wet-dry-wet swings, to drought that visited most of the state, and even a derecho, in this article…