An Overview of the Decisions and Changes Made in the 2014 Farm Bill

ABSTRACT Changes to farm program support in the 2014 Farm Bill was driven by budgetary concerns and desire to place more emphasis on risk management. As a result, farmers and landowners in the US were faced with a set of decisions. Landowners were able to update payment yields and reallocate the base acres. Farm operators were given the choice of three different farm programs, with either price-based or revenue-based risk protection. These decisions led to some fairly significant changes in the way federal support will be provided to farmers of program crops. These decisions will impact all current and future landowners, farmers, farm managers, appraisers, and other downstream parties such as lenders and input suppliers.