2018 Farm Bill

Not only has production of specialty crops, organic crops, local food, and greenhouse production grown in recent years, but as the RMA's acting Administrator Richard Flournoy pointed out, so has crop insurance offerings in those areas. "All the growth we've had in those programs over the years, as well as the interest in those programs and that we have made a lot of changes to organic and spe

The National Milk Producers Federation’s Board of Directors voted last week to request an emergency USDA hearing on a Federal Milk Marketing Order proposal. The proposal, NMPF said, would restore fairness for farmers in the Class I fluid milk price mover. The ...

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the USDA is only days away from announcing “greater opportunities” for landowners to take fragile farmland out of production in exchange for a payment. The Biden Administration is looking for ways to halt a 13-year decline in the number of signups under the Conservation Reserve Program, the largest land set-aside program in the country. Vilsack r ...

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service recently extended the deadline for public comment on proposed revisions to 23 national conservation practice standards. The proposed revisions were published March 9 in the Federal Register with comments originally due April 8. Comm ...

COVID vaccine distribution, rural broadband, climate change, and racial equity were among the top issues House Ag leaders laid before USDA’s 97th Ag Outlook Forum last week. From his roots growing up on his grandfather’s farm, House Ag Chair David Scott described the plight of America’s black farmers through generations of discrimination and earlier slavery and are make up less than two percent o

Setting Farm Bureau’s focus for 2021, Key topics ranged from farm diversity to farm labor and dairy policy to livestock marketing. Sam Kieffer, AFBF Vice President of Public Affairs, said Farm Bureau delegates voted to increase racial diversity in agriculture. ...

Northwest producers interested in participating in the 2021 Dairy Margin Coverage program have just a few more days to sign up. "It's good management tool," said USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey. "We encourage producers to look seriously at it ...

The Farm Service Agency restored the previous definitions of terms like “active personal management, significant contribution, and related phrasing” in a rule regarding farm program subsidy eligibility and payment limitations. FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce said the change is more of a “correction.” He says, “These ...

The USDA is reminding dairy producers that the deadline to enroll in the Dairy Margin Coverage program for the calendar year 2021 is quickly approaching on December 11. The USDA’s FSA opened DMC signup back in October to help producers manage economic risk brought on by milk price and feed cost disparities. ...

Earlier this week, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, NRCS, published a new list of updates to its National Conservation Practice Standards. The revisions include 58 standards that have been updated or revised since August. The 2018 Farm Bill required NRCS to review all 169 of its national conservation practices to seek opportunities to increase flexibility and incorporate new technolog