2014 Farm Bill Meeting – How will it affect me, the farmer?
By Sam Custer
OSU Extension, Darke County

On February 4, 2014, the 2014 Farm Bill (named the Agriculture Act of 2014) cleared its final Congressional hurdle.  The President signed the bill into law on February 7, 2014. It now goes to the United States Department of Agriculture for implementation.  The commodity programs in Title I of the farm bill and the choices required all begin with the 2014 crop year.  The final regulations will further determine program and decision parameters, as well as when farmers can begin to sign up. 

The difficult negotiations between competing approaches to the farm safety net resulted in the compromise approach in the final bill that requires decisions. In short, the House farm bill required the owners of a farm to choose between a county revenue program and a fixed-price program.  The Senate version of the farm bill provided both a price and revenue program for all farms and covered commodities but within the revenue program it required a choice between county level revenue or individual farm level revenue.  The final bill requires a choice among a price program, a county revenue program or an individual farm revenue program.

The 2014 Farm Bill's safety net requires farmers and landowners to elect which program design they prefer based on what they think will be most effective for their operation, particularly in conjunction with crop insurance.  Significant analysis is needed to compare the new programs and provide valuable information to the farm's decision makers, who will be locked into the program choice for the life of this farm bill.

In an effort to inform the farmer so they can make good decisions, a meeting will be held on March 20, 2014 at 7:00 p.m., at the Versailles Schools Cafetorium. Refreshments will be served beginning at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will consist of a panel discussion by three experts from across the Midwest.

The panelists are: Jon Coppess, Clinical Professor of Law and Policy, University of Illinois and author of much of the commodity portion of the bill; Adam Sharp, Vice President of Public Policy, Ohio Farm Bureau and Art Barnaby; Professor of Policy and Risk Management, Kansas State University and a nationally requested authority on crop insurance.

Directors of the Darke, Shelby and Miami County FSA offices will be in attendance to answer questions where possible.

You can register for the meeting online at http://go.osu.edu/2014FarmBillMeeting and a full brochure can be found at http://go.osu.edu/darkefarmbillflyer

The meeting is being co-hosted by OSU Extension, Darke County; USDA Farm Service Agency, Darke County; Farm Credit Mid America; Versailles Agricultural Education and FFA; and the Ohio Country Journal and Ohio Ag Net.

For more information about OSU Extension, Darke County, visit the Darke County OSU Extension web site at www.darke.osu.edu, the OSU Extension Darke County Facebook page or contact Sam Custer, at 937.548.5215.

A flyer for the event can be downloaded here