Subsidy for grains takes the shape of non-recourse loans, counter-cyclical payments or direct payments. All 3 forms of subsidy are intended to increase the supply of a grain beyond that which the market would support, in essence guaranteeing artificially low prices for for farm commodities.
The FSA publishes a "target" price for each program crop, including corn, which triggers the production related subsidies (the direct payment is made regardless of how much is produced and is nothing more than a bonanza paid by the government to speculators to acquire farmland). While the total bill for farm subsidies in the 2005/6 crop year was about $9.4 billion, the market price of farm commodities exceeded the target price throughout the 2006/7 crop year, eliminating production subsidies entirely and reducing the total subsidy cost from $9.4 to about $2.4 Billion.
Thanks for that information.
I am out of farming for 20 years now, and thus reduced to arguing concepts, it’s good to have some hard, current, facts supporting those concepts.