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Missouri Corn CEO urges farm bill action, backs mandatory base acre update

U.S. Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman has said he wants to mark up the farm bill this month, and the CEO of the Missouri Corn Growers Association says time is running out before the August recess.

Bradley Schad tells Brownfield “We need some support in the ag world, really, across the board. Hopefully we can get this accomplished by the end of the year and for the future of the farmers.”

Schad, who is attending Corn Congress this week, says corn farmers are asking lawmakers to include a one-time mandatory base acre update in the next farm bill. This proposal goes beyond what was included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

He says this solution better aligns commodity program base acres with current production.

“This would put a five year time frame on it to where it doesn’t affect markets,” he says. “We want to make sure our farmers who don’t have base acres are able to get into that program, and acres that, you know, may have not been planted in any crops or specific crops, that we’re more accurate.”

U.S. Senate Ag Committee staff tells Brownfield at this time, there is no farm bill markup scheduled for next week.

Schad says corn farmers in Washington D.C. this week are also focused on nationwide, year-round E15 legislation, high fertilizer costs and the renewal of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.