Stay Informed

The Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing Agency law was last amended in 2021, but some of the changes are just now being felt.

The law, House Enrolled Act 1483, was passed by the General Assembly and then signed by the governor in April 2021. This act established new statutory requirements within the Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing and Bonding Law for grain purchased using deferred pricing (DP) agreements, explained Andy Tauer, Indiana Farm Bureau executive director of public policy.

Producers now have only one crop year, as defined by the law, to price their grain that is delivered to a licensee on a DP agreement. The reason for this requirement is to prevent DP accounts from running beyond the 15-month indemnity coverage period.

“The big thing is that those members who have grain on DP, at the end of the crop year they either have to price it out or move it into another type of marketing mechanism,” Tauer explained. “It can’t just be sitting there on a DP arrangement.”

In the past, he added, many of the failures and other challenges facing grain elevators involved having long-term DP on their books, and the Indiana General Assembly was responding to that.

Another deadline that is coming up is one involving grain sold on a DP agreement before July 1, 2021. The Indiana State Department of Agriculture is reminding Hoosier grain farmers that if they sold grain on a DP agreement before July 1, 2021, the licensed grain buyer who purchased the grain must pay the farmer for that grain before Jan. 1, 2024.

The Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing Agency, a division of ISDA, asks grain farmers to make note of the Jan. 1, 2024, deadline, as payment for this specific DP grain will be coming.

In a recent news release, ISDA adds that this law does not affect any grain sold on a DP agreement on or after July 1, 2021. Beginning July 1, 2022, licensed grain buyers were no longer allowed to keep grain on DP agreements for any length of time that extends beyond the crop year.

“ISDA and the Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing Agency encourage producers to talk to their grain buyers today to learn more about how their companies will be implementing these pricing and payment procedures,” the release adds. “Producers are also encouraged to seek advice from their own legal counsel, accountants, creditors and other trusted financial professionals to help better prepare their farming business for any potential changes in their grain marketing practices.”

More information on the changes to the Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing and Bonding Law can be found at www.in.gov/isda/divisions/indiana-grain-buyers.