The American Relief Act was pushed through in late December. It was a 1000 page bill, only 51 pages made it to the finish line.
It does extend the 2018 farm bill provisions, avoided a government shut down and let the farm producers know whose lobbyists were good and whose need to learn how to kiss the ring a little harder.
Plenty of money flowed into CSP, EQUIP, RCPP and ACEP programs which will have plenty of suitors in the coming years as the funding cliff starts in 2027 for other conservation programs. Programs like ag research, rural support, and conservation were left out of the funding approvals, including organic certification and other organic and scholarship programs.
Wheat, Corn, Soy, Cotton, Rice and Peanuts are clearly the varsity level athletes of the ag sector based on funding (like a D 1 Football program). Your small niche sports..er producers (like specialty crops and small mid-scale operations ) will have to do with last year’s jerseys and flying coach.
The commodities in Iowa that matter, Corn and Soybeans , look to get a payment of $43/acres and $30/acre to make up for high production costs. These payments are in addition to any other existing programs. Some limits (Like a cap at $125,000) are imposed for those that have significant off farm income but it will likely not limit the checks in many cases. The payment limit is double for those operations that have 75% of their income from all sources is from farming.
Some weather-related ad hoc disaster payments are also baked into the 51 pages of law.
So, we talk about capitalism and marketplace decisions and independence and “nobody gave me a handout”, yet the government has just opened up another vein of money to keep things in the country on par. Those payments will quell some of the whispers in the machine sheds about lack of operating funds and notes being called, but it may not be enough.
At some point, those who run books tight and even leaner budgets will be rewarded with opportunity to expand at the expense of those who kinda sorta balance their books and rely upon their lenders to complete cash flows and balance sheets for them. Today however it not that day, as just enough will flow out to make some payments and some operators will once again look at the headsman’s ax, laugh, stand up and live to farm another season.
In other news, a case where the meat packers were accused of misbranding meat as products of the use because it was harvest (i.e. slaughtered) in the US and not raised survived a dismissal motion. This is a big deal as the meat packers were relying upon the USDAs policy book (which is not a law btw) that said in essence, if the animal was alive on US soil for moments, or the product had some US beef in it, it was a product of the US. Most consumers don’t think of that when they see that label and I am happy to see the case has survived the dismissal attempt.
