UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Office of Communications News Room 460-A

Washington, DC 20250-1300

Internet: News @usda.gov

Phone: 202-720-4623

World Wide Web Home Page: http://www.usda.gov

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2007 - USDA today announced that USDA's approximately $4 billion in final 2007 direct payments will soon be issued to producers with base acres enrolled in the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP).

To receive direct payments, producers with base acres must be enrolled in the DCP for an eligible commodity for the respective program year. Direct payments are tied to historical acreage bases and yields established for a farm, rather than the current farm's production. It is a complicated formula: for each commodity, the direct payment for each crop year equals 85 percent of the farm's commodity base acreage, times the farm's direct payment yield, times the direct payment rate. The Commodity Credit Corporation reduces final direct payments by any advance direct payments producers have already received.

Commodities with historical base acres eligible for direct payments and their rates are: barley, $0.24 per bushel; corn, $0.28 per bushel; grain sorghum, $0.35 per bushel; oats, $0.024 per bushel; soybeans, $0.44 per bushel; other oilseeds (canola, crambe, flaxseed, mustard seed, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, sunflower), $0.008 per pound; peanuts, $36 per short ton; rice, $2.35 per hundredweight; upland cotton, $0.0667 per pound; and wheat, $0.52 per bushel.

USDA's Farm Service Agency distributes direct payments for the Commodity Credit Corporation. For more information on DCP visit your local USDA Service Center or http://www.fsa.usda.gov.