Special Report

Iowans have compliance concerns

During the farm bill process, many farmers and farm groups expressed concerns about tying conservation compliance to crop insurance.  The Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) was one of them.

ICGA brought those concerns, in the form of a resolution, to the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) business meeting in San Antonio. The ICGA resolution, which was approved by NCGA delegates, asks that any violation of conservation compliance affect only the premium subsidy and not a farmer’s eligibility for crop insurance. It also calls for a grace period for a farmer to come back into compliance and seeks to have any penalty be applicable only to the farm with the violation, not the farmer’s total acres.

Another part of the resolution asks to have the Natural Resources Conservation Service/Farm Service Agency continue to handle both spot checks and appeals, requests that enforcement not be applied retroactively to prior crop years, and asks that enforcement only occur after all rights to appeal are finalized.

At Commodity Classic, we talked to ICGA president Roger Zylstra of Lynnville, Iowa about their conservation compliance concerns and other issues of importance to Iowa corn growers.

AUDIO: Roger Zylstra (5:37 MP3)

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