12/29/08 What Farmer Want for the Holiday

What Farmers Want for the Holiday. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Christmas was last week. Did you get what you wanted under the tree? Here's a questions&if Santa could bring any present to the nation's farmers and ranchers, what do you think it would be? THATCHER: I think it would be that prices would remain at healthy levels; that input prices would indeed drop and that farmers would have some certainty on the rules and regulations that they're going to have to operate under. But American Farm Bureau Farm Policy Specialist Mary Kay Thatcher knows that's probably a little more than Santa can handle, but if the Senate could confirm the new Secretary of Agriculture quickly that would be nice. THATCHER: With governor Vilsack of Iowa being nominated to be secretary we would hope that there would be plenty of time to do all the background check that needs to be done so that that appointment can be made very quickly after January 20th. And Thatcher says the new secretary will have his work cut out for him, because many of the rules and regulations for the new farm bill are still up in the air. Those rules should play a big role in planting and business decisions that farmers and ranchers will have to make soon. THATCHER: The fact is that in a new administration when you deal with all the secretaries and the undersecretaries and the agencies' heads that have to be appointed and confirmed by the senate, not much is really going to happen in terms of rules and regulations 'til April or may which is very late in terms of planting decisions. Thatcher says uncertainty about farm bill rules is going to linger for a while. THATCHER: There are rules that are being put out by the bush administration as we speak which very likely will be overturned by the Obama administration once they get in. Others will be left standing, but there are just many rules and regulations that have yet to be issued. Thatcher explains why knowing the rules is so important to farmers and ranchers. THATCHER: Certainly there are rules on country of origin labeling, on the conservation programs in the farm bill, things like acre and disaster assistance that will affect practically every farmer in the country and if we had an indication of what those rules would be looking like it would provide them with some more certainty about what to expect as they get ready to plan 'what are we going to plant?', 'how much?', 'what other issues do i have to consider?' That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.