Crunch Time is Now for Farmers with no Farm Bill

Christmas is just over a week away and it is looking more unlikely that farmers will find a new farm bill under the Christmas tree, and farmers are worried about the repercussions.

Negotiators say the House and Senate aren’t close to a deal and one national farm leader says the inaction by Congress is like getting coal in your stocking.

“Our elected officials need to realize it’s crunch time and farmers are really stressing out right now wondering how they need to plan for 2013 to make sure that they have adequate income to pay the bills, to reduce debt and to make sure that their farm is viable for next year.”

That’s Missouri rancher and chairman of the American Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee, Glen Cope who says the 2012 drought should have driven home that message.

“We planted over 100 acres of corn this year and we were looking forward to having a good year, but unfortunately as spring turned into summer and the rains just were non-existent, we watched our corn crop shrivel up. Unfortunately we had nearly a zero yield on our crop. So if it wasn’t for crop insurance and offsetting the cost to plant that crop our farm would have been in a world of hurt.”

And he says members of Congress should realize that he’s not alone. New versions of the farm bill enhanced crop insurance so that it covers more commodities. That’s a safety net farmers and ranchers hope they won’t need, but need to know it’s there.

“Farming, it’s a little bit like going to Vegas. It’s kind of a gamble because you’re depending on Mother Nature. So it’s important that our elected officials get back to work and make sure a farm bill with good crop protection in place is available for farmers. It doesn’t matter how high grain prices are, if there’s no yield at the end of the harvest then there’s no income.”

Cope says that makes it difficult to get the banker taken care of and difficult for farmers to continue being able to farm next year.[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/12/young-farmer-leader-on-farm-bill.mp3|titles=young farmer leader on farm bill]

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