AGam in Kansas - 2018 Farm Bill Policy Issues Discussion - March 30, 2017

(Dan Atkinson) My name is Dan Atkinson; I'm a farmer from Stockton, Kansas. I serve as the Vice Chairman of the National Sorghum Producers and also the head of the Legislative Committee. I was pleased to be in Manhattan and sit on a panel that discussed Farm Bill policy issues for the upcoming Farm Bill cycle in 2018. As producer leaders, we need to stay focused on maintaining a budget for this upcoming Farm Bill. We all know that farm profitability has fallen by 46% over the last two years. It's a time where we cannot take any more cuts to our program. As producers, it's important that we go to Washington, DC and share with our legislators that this Farm Bill has real implications to our producer membership. These are not just numbers on a page, these have real implications when people sit down to do budgets and talk to their ag lenders. This is meaningful and it does matter for farm families. (Kent Winter) I really enjoyed the back and forth in the discussion today from the panel that was informing us of the things going on in Washington, DC. It's time to write another Farm Bill now. Our legislators, our congressman, our senators are wanting to hear from us to find out how to go about this. Do we want to tweak it or there are certain things that we want to tweak? I know a lot of discussions are going to sit around the fact that things in farm country are much tougher now than what they were several years ago when the current Farm Bill was written. The other thing going on with the sorghum industry is we are dealing with a pest called sugarcane aphid that we are asking for more assistance to deal with this. I want to mention that the advice and the information that we've received from our Kansas State Extension Service to deal with this has been excellent so far and I appreciate the good job that they've done on that. (Dan) Continued research within sorghum is a big priority for us. When we're lobbying efforts for our new Farm Bill, a lot of times we can find places within the Farm Bill to find dollars for sorghum investment. Although in the appropriations process, a lot of times those dollars can find their way into other pockets, so we're pleased in Kansas that we have Senator Jerry Moran there for us. He does a great job with the appropriations process and keeping those dollars coming into not only Manhattan, Kansas, but in our other ARS locations. (Kent) I think we have to remember here in the state of Kansas is that the vast majority of our legislators in Topeka come from urban areas and if they don't hear straight from us producers they may not get the right information. They might not hear the correct message. When you get a chance to visit with your legislator or your state senator, your state representative, let them know what's going on. Let them hear it from you, the producer, so that they get a better handle on what's actually taking place on our farms. It's a tough economic environment right now and they need to hear that. (Dan) As we begin to discuss passing of the Farm Bill in 2018, it's very important from the producer level that we become engaged with our commodity organizations and the National Sorghum Producers is no different. We have an organization, an association for sorghum producers on the state level and on up to the national level so just because you're a farmer does not mean that you have to travel to Washington, DC to impact farm policy. Become engaged at the local level, at the state level, or at the national level so that we can all come together and make our voices heard.