The federal government has guaranteed minimum prices, or floors, to farmers for generations. Loan deficiency payments, created in 1985, have become the largest component of that guarantee. The subsidies -- available for major commodity crops including corn, wheat, cotton and soybeans -- can vary each day for each crop in each county where it is produced. Here is how the LDP works, based on market conditions and estimates for corn published by the U.S. Agriculture Department last year for the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
SOURCE: Washington Post compilation of USDA data | GRAPHIC: By Sarah Cohen And Laura Stanton, The Washington Post - July 3, 2006
