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Kansas wheat damage stark reminder of need for safety net

The CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) says the devastating snow and cold that’s wiped out nearly half the wheat crop in Kansas is a stark reminder of the need for a strong safety net.

Chandler Goule visited with Brownfield earlier this week as part of NAFB Washington Watch activities in Washington D.C.

“David Schemm, our current national president for NAWG, lives in Sharon Springs, Kansas.  He was out with a shovel, went down 12 inches to find his wheat.  Then I’ve got other members north of Manhattan that didn’t have any precipitation, but it dropped to 32 degrees about 2 a.m.  Then went down to 27 (degrees).  We already had flag leafs out (and) heads pushing through.”

He says early estimates suggest about 43 percent of the Kansas wheat crop has been destroyed.

“When you listen to these organizations that attack the Farm Bill, like the Heritage Foundation.  This is exactly why we have crop insurance, Farm Bill, and a safety net.  Because as far as I know, neither you nor I or the Heritage Foundation or any of them can control the snow, hail, and everything that happened in eastern Colorado and Kansas and wiped out our producer’s entire annual income for this year.”

He calls the situation heartbreaking and says it reinforces the importance of public policy that gives farmers certainty.

Moving into the next Farm Bill, Goule adds NAWG is mostly supportive of the ARC and PLC programs and that only minor tweaks are necessary.