Senate Ag Committee and South Dakota Producers Want "More Farm in the Farm Bill"

At farm bill listening session in South Dakota members of the Senate Ag Committee expressed optimism about getting a farm bill done yet in 2024 and putting more farm in the farm bill. 

Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR) told attendees House Ag Committee Chair GT Thompson will release the chairman’s mark in early May and has resolved the controversial SNAP changes. 

"What we’d like him to do is go ahead and go first and then the minority side on the Senate is we will come through with a framework shortly after that, we’ve pretty much got that done.  The idea is just to get a farm bill done this year." 

Boozman says farm bill updates are needed to reflect today’s market environment and tighter margins.

"We need a major restructuring now because of inflation, because of the fact that the last two years we’ve had the greatest drop in farm income in the last 100 years."

That’s why he and North Dakota Senator John Hoeven introduced the FARMER Act to make crop insurance more affordable.

Boozman says, "And what we want to do is change crop insurance a little bit where it helps everyone more but also so that its more accessible to other regions of the country where they’re not able to use it successfully."

This is something the crop insurance industry says they support because it will replace ad hoc disaster assistance.

Glenda Blindert owns Blindert Insurance Agency in Salem, South Dakota and is also a member of the National Crop Insurance Professional Agents.  She says they want to get rid of ad hoc disaster assistance.  "There’s been about $65 billion that’s gone out for ad hoc disaster that really didn’t help a lot of our producers.  It should have.  :46 What we want to see is Senator Boozman and Senator Hoeven have released legislation to potentially raise crop insurance subsidies at those higher levels."

Senate Ag Committee member John Thune says they also need to put more farm back in the farm bill. 

"The nutrition title for example, the climate issues that’s become a big priority for a lot of particularly on the Ag Committee and especially in the Senate.  So, when we say that what we’re saying is those parts of the farm bill that focus on production agriculture."

The reference price increase is something the soybean association is pushing for as the current level is only $8.40 says Kevin Deinert, president of the South Dakota Soybean Association: 

"Yeah, reference prices are just well below what they should be.  As we’ve seen back when we’ve had trade wars or what not we’ve seen a significant decrease in the price of soybeans, we never triggered a loss in terms of those reference prices."

Meanwhile, South Dakota Corn Growers Association President Dave Ellens told the Senators they also want crop insurance preserved, higher reference prices and updated base acres.

"Those base acres are based on data from what our grandpas used to plant and now that the corn belt has moved west and north, we need those to be reflective of what’s actually being planted out there."

While this will cost more money the Senators are pushing for updates on reference prices and base acres. 

Thune adds, "I think it's more likely we’ll get something done on reference prices you know that’s expensive too.  If we went to mandatory update base acres, I think you would get actually savings that you could apply but it's also incredibly controversial."

And Boozman thinks they can find the money in the CCC. "I think that’s a viable option.  As there’s a lot of money being spent in the CC and a lot of money left over."

Scott VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, agree economic changes dictate a new bill and timing is critical before it gets caught up in politics.

"We need to get it done now because there’s so many other things coming along the tax cuts and JOBS Act expiration that’s going to happen in 2025 that’s going to be a big issue politically and we don’t want to have so many big things going on at one time."

But with the farm bill cost estimated at $1.5 trillion over 5 years, the changes are a small cost compared to 80-percenf for nutrition programs and food security is national security.