Soon after the congressional enactment of the 1973 Farm Act, Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz announced that: There will be no set-aside requirement and no restriction on planting for the 1974 crop program and there will be no conserving base requirement for the 1974 through 1977 crop years, the duration of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973. With this statement Secretary Butz considerably reduced the options available to control production during the latter years of the 1973 Farm Act, should such control appear desirable. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possible impact of the decision by Secretary Butz to lift the conserving base requirement from program participants. The specific objective is to estimate the possible effect of this decision if set-aside is required in the Great Plains in 1975.