BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota farmers and ranchers are set on a new Farm Bill to maintain the federal programs that help keep their operations going in tough times.
North Dakota Corn Growers Association executive director Dale Ihry says there’s a strong sense of need for a 2018 Farm Bill.
Corn growers held four meetings in the eastern half of the state last week to gauge what producers would like to see in U.S. farm policy, The Bismarck Tribune (http://bit.ly/2jSiWCu) reported. The issues brought up in those meetings will be shared with the corn growers’ national organization to form the group’s policy and lobbying agenda.
A priority for producers is maintaining, and possibly improving, crop insurance. One suggestion is restructuring how payments are calculated for the popular Agriculture Risk Coverage insurance program.
That program is based on a particular crop’s average yield in a county. The average yield is combined with the average price for a crop over the previous five marketing years to determine a revenue guarantee. Payments are triggered if revenue in the county falls below that guarantee.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture ARC uses USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service surveys to determine yields. But commodity organizations say issues with the survey’s sampling methods and criteria result in inaccurate or inconsistent results.
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— Bismarck Tribune via The Associated Press
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