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Feenstra says farm bill uncertainty growing for producers

U.S. Congressman Randy Feenstra says farm bill delays have been frustrating.

The Iowa Republican tells Brownfield the 2018 Farm Bill has been extended twice and now the partial shutdown of the federal government is preventing lawmakers from working on a new five-year farm bill.

“We were planning to take it through the ag committee in mid-October and then take it to the floor in late October.”

He says growers are navigating uncertain times.

“When it comes to ag research and conservation, there’s a lot of (farm bill) uncertainty there,” he said. “And, the modernization of precision ag and stuff like that.”

Feenstra says he’s thankful lawmakers were able to strengthen the safety net in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“The great thing is through reconciliation we increased reference prices which is so valuable. We increased that corn price to $4.10. I’m sure that floor will be used this year. We double the Section 179 expensing and so forth.”

The most recent farm bill extension expired at the end of September.