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Farm Bill stakes extend beyond the farm gate

Creating a farm bill that works for all of agriculture.

CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Colin Woodall says passage of the legislation would bring much-needed certainty to the industry. “It’s not just about us. We also need to make sure that all of our friends in agriculture need to be healthy too. For us, that’s looking at our partners in the corn industry. When they’re not in a good place, then it makes it harder for cattle producers to be successful.”  

He says the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included several of the organization’s priorities, but there is still work to be done. “We are looking at keeping bad ideas out of this version. We were successful in doing that on the House side. The Senate side is a different animal. Things like Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling and animal right’s issue. We have no doubt that they will come up and be an issue that we have to fight.”

Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman tells Brownfield, “This is about rural America and making it successful. If you don’t have a healthy agriculture component, you don’t have a healthy rural America because that’s all that left. We used to have a lot of factories and we’ve lost a lot of our manufacturing in those areas, so this is very important.”

Boozman says he’s optimistic there will be enough support in the Chamber to get it across the finish line.

The Chairmen’s office says markup could begin as soon as July.