07/17/07 Full House Ag Committee begins Farm Bill mark up

Farm and Ranch July 17, 2007 The U.S. House Agriculture Committee begins its mark up of a 2007 Farm Bill today. Chairman Collin Peterson has said there will be two bills put forward; one that meets pay-go rules, and another that would include use of the 20-billion dollars in reserve funds for which offsets have to be found. That bill is expected to be tabled for now. Peterson recently put out his chairman's mark which includes language to rebalance target prices and loan rates among commodities. The National Association of Wheat Growers says it is appreciative of that effort but also disappointed that there was no increase in direct payments. A group that is really disappointed are pulse growers. Tim McGreevy of the US Dry Pea and Lentil Council explains why. McGreevy: "The loan rate was lowered in the chairman's mark from $6.22 for dry peas down to $5.40 and in lentils it was moved from $11.72 down to $11.28. So we took a significant hit probably the biggest hit of any of the commodities in farm programs in terms of loan rates. And on the flip side we didn't get the benefit of becoming a full program crop which is what we have been requesting as an industry, to get a direct payment, to get a counter cyclical program and also to include large chickpeas in the marketing assistance loan program" None of that was in the chairman's mark and McGreevy says they hope to do better in the Senate where the pulse industry has a few more friends on the Ag Committee. I'm Bob Hoff. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.