With no new farm bill in place after the 2018 farm bill deadline passed, there are already impacts on U.S. farmers and ranchers. Sam Kieffer, vice president of public policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation, outlined some of the programs that went away.
“Most of the impacts won’t be felt until the new crop year, or for dairy producers, the impact will be felt beginning January 1. But immediately, we will see several important animal health programs stop. Some USDA programs for new and beginning farmers and ranchers will not continue, but most importantly, there won’t be any certainty for growers who are already planning their 2025 crop year.”
He says partisanship in the nation’s capital is likely the biggest roadblock to getting a new bill done.
“We have narrow margins in both the House and the Senate, and those narrow margins require bipartisanship, but we’re not seeing a whole lot of that, and the presidential election cycle is only exacerbating that challenge. We’re also seeing a lack of momentum, and the House Ag Committee tried to create momentum with a bipartisan markup, but we haven’t seen any real action come out of the Senate.”
Kieffer says farmers and ranchers, and their bankers, can’t wait for Congress to kick the can even further down the road.
“Those businesses, those farms, are already talking about financing for the next year, and there’s no certainty right now because Congress has not taken their responsibility in putting in place that safety net for growers to count on, and January 1 is not that far away. And starting January 1, producers, particularly in dairy, will no longer have a safety net on which to rely.”
Learn more at fb.org/farmbill.