WASHINGTON – The clock is ticking for Congress to renew the Farm Bill. The 2018 version was extended at its current funding level until September, and House lawmakers have released a summary of a possible new five-year deal.
“Having action on the Farm Bill at this point is really exciting,” said Tyler Wenzlaff, the director of national affairs for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau.
Wenzlaff said increasing the Dairy Margin Coverage is of particular importance. This is a risk-management program that farmers buy into to be reimbursed when the price of milk falls below a certain amount.
“We have an enrollment rate of about 80%, which is the highest in the country,” Wenzlaff said. “And so what you see is, as the size of the medium farm in Wisconsin has crept up, that program has become less available to people at an affordable coverage rate.”
The House Agriculture Committee’s proposed Farm Bill aims to change that. Wenzlaff said the average farm in Wisconsin has increased to about 220 cows. By increasing the first tier of coverage from five million to six million pounds, which is the amount of milk a farm produces, more average-sized Wisconsin farms would be able to be covered at the lowest rate.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, who is the only Wisconsin member on the House Agriculture Committee, cosponsored the legislation to do this.
“I am the only Wisconsin Member of Congress on the House Agriculture Committee… so having a Farm Bill that works for our farmers and agricultural professionals is my number one priority right now,” Van Orden told Spectrum News in a statement.
Not everyone is so optimistic. A coalition of farmers and ranchers said the House version of the bill favors the biggest industry giants. Over the next month, the coalition is holding events to discuss how Congress can level the playing field.
“The largest 10-15% of producers in the country continue to get the largest chunk of federal subsidized programs,” said Darin Von Ruden, the president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. “And so let's get to a point where it's evenly spread out or when farms don't need that kind of coverage or help, maybe we shouldn't be spending taxpayer dollars.”
Wenzlaff said he’s still getting clarification on whether the Dairy Business Initiative will be included in the House version of the bill. Wenzlaff described the initiative as a way to look for new ideas for dairy programs or startups and to create additional markets for dairy products across the country.
“Right now, it's in statute at $20 million funded each year,” he said. “We're hoping to get that money bumped up to $36 million per year… We know through the work of Senator Baldwin that it’ll be included in the Senate version, but we're hoping that it makes its way into both versions, so it’s not traded away at some point when they go to conference committee.”
The conference committee is made up of members from the House and Senate, who meet to iron out the differences in legislation passed by both chambers. The House agriculture committee is expected to review its own version of the new Farm Bill next week. It remains to be seen what the final bill will look like.