The new farm bill may be delayed a few months, but National Association of Wheat Growers representatives say they are optimistic that it could be completed by early next year.

“I think the September deadline is probably a little ambitious, but I think there’s real opportunity to … get something done by the year-end or over the winter,” said Jake Westlin, NAWG vice president of policy and communications. “Beyond that, you do get into the 2024 election cycle, and it gets into a little bit of a silly season, so you don’t really want to be trying to do what has historically been a bipartisan bill in the middle of a presidential election and all of these House and Senate races.” 

Westlin and Mariah Wollweber, NAWG communications director and a fifth-generation farmer from Edwall, Wash., spoke April 19 as part of the Idaho Wheat Commission’s “From the Field” webinar.

The “four corners” — the Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate and House agriculture committees — all say they are working toward a new farm bill this year, Westlin said. The committees are “still in listening mode,” holding hearings to get farmer perspectives about their needs.

NAWG president Brent Cheyne, of Klamath Falls, Ore., will testify April 26 before the House Agriculture Committee’s General Farm Commodities, Risk Management and Credit subcommittee.

NAWG priorities in the new farm bill include:

• Protecting and enhancing crop insurance.

• Increasing the crop insurance reference price from $5.50 per bushel. “This is not an adequate safety net for wheat production,” Wollweber said, adding that it neither covers the cost of production, nor does it take into account input costs.

• Double funding for USDA’s Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program. 

How much new funding is brought into the new farm bill is “an ‘X factor,'” still to be determined, Westlin said. That may be the biggest resistance lies politically in the current fiscal climate, he added.

The best approach is education of new legislators and staff members, with farmers talking about the need for updated programs, the NAWG reps said. 

“You want to get someone’s attention, show them your diesel bill, your fertilizer bill,” Wollweber said.

Legislators and the general public are not connected to the economics of farming, she said.

“They don’t understand that you’re getting paid one time a year if your harvest is sellable because you had a good year,” she said. “It is so different and hard to understand this policy, and what these people are voting on, without getting to hear from and talk to you, to actually know what’s going on in your life.”

Wollweber likened NAWG to the American Farm Bureau Federation, but noted that NAWG uses “a very wheat-specific lens” advocating for farmers in Congress.

“That’s super important, because wheat is actually a very complicated crop,” she said, pointing to six wheat classes, various planting rotations and diversity of growing regions as examples. “It’s really critical to have a wheat expert here in D.C. … talking about what works for wheat growers and maybe what doesn’t work for wheat growers.”

Watch the Idaho Wheat Commission webinar athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aruGnY2bQ8o

https://wheatworld.org/