News

Extension helps ease concerns over farm bill delays

The head lobbyist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says he isn’t worried about the farm bill delay, yet. 

Ethan Lane says, “We’ve never done a farm on time, that’s never a thing that’s happened.”  He tells Brownfield the lengthy process isn’t out of line. “But it feels very heady because of all the other high drama on Capitol Hill,” he says.  

Mark Eisele, NCBA’s newly installed president says it’s time for Congress to quit playing politics.  “Let’s get this thing done and let’s leave those protections in that the producers need,” he says. “The disaster aid, price protection, anything that’s veterinary related.  We’ve got to keep that stuff funded.”

Jake Thompson a western Minnesota cattle producer says the outlook for the farm bill this year is murky, but members are optimistic it will get done this week. “If something is not done by July, these guys are gonna go home and be gone for the early part of the fall/late summer,” he says. “It’s just gonna extend much more longer.”

He says if a new farm bill isn’t completed before the current extension expires, the ag sector would need another extension because without one farmers and ranchers would be in a world of hurt. “It would be awful,” he says. “We have to have protection for some of those programs and it wouldn’t be available I doesn’t get extended.” 

Brownfield interviewed Lane, Eisele, and Thompson during last week’s Cattle Industry Convention.