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Sugarbeet Grower leader trying to stay positive about new farm bill in 2024

The president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association says he’s trying to stay positive about the farm bill getting done in 2024.

Neil Rockstad tells Brownfield some lawmakers are saying the legislation can get pushed through despite relatively few legislative days remaining before the presidential election.

“I’m not going to discount that, they know their business better than I do. I don’t know if I would be too optimistic that anything is going to happen in 2024, at least not before the presidential election. But that’s just my personal opinion.”

He says beet growers need the certainty of a new farm bill, especially with the downturn in commodity prices.

“As we walk into our lenders’ offices, what’s the environment in farm policy going to look like over the next five years? And one-year extensions, kind of kicking the can down the road, yields itself to a lot of uncertainty at the farm level and a lot of nervousness.”

Rockstad grows sugarbeets, soybeans, and wheat near Ada in northwest Minnesota and says his and many other farms have gone through intense inflationary pressure that’s not accounted for in the current farm bill.