3-10 NWR Tax Reform

This is your Northwest report for Friday, March 10, I'm David Sparks and I don't recall the amount of rhetoric, planning and debate going into the 2014 Farm Bill as there is going into this one for 2018. It may be primarily stimulated by tougher times for farmers. But, agri-pulse.com is reporting that as groups get ready for the next farm bill push, agricultural producers want to go to Capitol Hill with a unified voice. Illinois farmer Ron Moore says groups should learn from the lessons that came out of the 2014 farm bill. "As we go forward in discussing this new Farm Bill, I want to make sure that we speak clearly, forcefully and in a unified manner to make sure that this legislation gets passed. In the previous farm bill, it took a little bit longer than anybody expected because we were not speaking in a unified manner and we want to work on that this time." Moore says he wants to protect risk management programs, in particular the county option for agricultural risk coverage. "The majority of farmers in the United States use our County and we want to keep that program as an option in this next farm bill. The national agricultural statistics yield data, we are trying to get it converted to the Risk Management Agent yield data so there aren't discrepancies within counties.

Elsewhere, farmers, ranchers and forest owners can do business with USDA from the comfort and convenience of their home, 24/7, with the launch of two new websites operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA).