The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 15-5 today to approve the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013, which includes the Dairy Security Act. The House Agriculture Committee will take up their version of the bill on Wednesday, where an alternative plan to the DSA will be proposed. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told farm broadcasters meeting in Washington on Tuesday … Read More
Farm Bill Markups Begin
The Senate Agriculture Committee meets this morning to consider the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 and the House ag committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow morning to consider their version of a farm bill. Drafts from both committees were released last week. Chris Galen with the National Milk Producers Federation says both drafts contain the Dairy Security … Read More
Coalition of Organizations Support Dairy Security Act
A coalition of more than 50 state and national dairy organizations have sent a letter to members of the House Agriculture Committee urging them to include the Dairy Security Act in the farm bill when they begin mark up next week. The letter states the need for “a financially-sound risk management program to help farmers better manage margin volatility.” The … Read More
Some Dairy Interests Pleased with Farm Bill Extension
While the National Milk Producers Federation is very opposed to the farm bill extension included in the fiscal cliff deal, at least one other dairy group supports the extension. Officials with the Dairy Business Association (DBA) in Wisconsin say they are “extremely pleased” with the extension because they are opposed to the program that was included in the Senate version … Read More
Farmer Poll Favors Romney
A poll for election day shows a significant majority of farmers say they are voting Romney over Obama for president, and most blame Democrats for failure to pass a new farm bill. The Agri-Pulse Farm and Rural Poll released today found that 78 percent of farmers polled are voting for Mitt Romney in the presidential election. On November 1, 2012, … Read More
Milking Parlor: Vilsack Talks Farm Bill, Regs at WDE
It’s regulations and legislation on the minds of dairy farmers. Producers are worried about whether they will be able to get a waiver from the federal Food and Drug Administration for corn hit by aflatoxin because of the drought, as well the lack of a new farm bill, which means the loss of the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program, … Read More
Listen to Secretary of Ag Vilsack at World Dairy Expo
We had a great town hall meeting today with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. He spent an hour and a half taking questions after making some opening remarks. I’ve uploaded the whole session for your listening pleasure. He really hammered Congress for not passing a farm/food/jobs bill and addressed a number of other topics as the audience asked questions. … Read More
Expiration of the 2008 Farm Bill
Several major agricultural organizations issued a joint statement today on the official expiration of the 2008 farm bill. The 2008 law governing many of our nation’s farm policies expired on Sunday, September 30th, and the 2012 Farm Bill needed to replace it is bottled up in Congress. While the Senate and the House Agriculture Committees were both able to pass … Read More
Milking Parlor: No Farm Bill Puts Dairy WAY Back
Congress left town with a little unfinished business… in this case, without passing a new farm bill! The old one expired at the end of September, and for dairy, that means the expiration of the Milk Income Loss Contract … or MILC … Program. And that means that program reverts back to the original 1949 policy. In this edition of … Read More
No Farm Bill Means MILC Will Expire
No new farm bill means dairy producers will be left holding an empty bucket at the end of this month. “With expiration of the farm bill, dairy farmers will lose what little safety net they have,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) who led a failed attempt last week have the House consider the Senate-passed farm bill prior to adjourning until … Read More