Farm And Ranch Country (Bill Graff)

How does USDA/NASS set county yields? From the top down not the bottom up. NASS comes up with a National Total, which is then divided into State Totals and then further divided into individual county yields.  This did not matter much years ago, except for bragging rights, but now with…Read MoreUSDA, NASS, County Yields And You

So the Farm Bill has expired as of midnight 9/30/12.  And the world did not end. I discuss what is really important to commercial production agriculture and what is fluff. I talk about what progressive liberals want in a farm bill and what tea party conservatives do not want in…Read More064 – 2012 Farm Bill – The World did not end!

Everywhere you look asset values are stagnant or declining except with food and energy.  When does agriculture de-leverage. Home prices are down.  Commercial real estate is down.  Governments around the world are in money trouble.  Banks have needed massive bail outs.  Even facebook  cannot hold its perceived value.  Leverage was…

If the election were held today and if the current polls are correct then the electoral college vote tally would be Obama 237 votes, Romney 191 votes, with 110 votes too close to call.  Remember you need 270 electoral college votes to win the election. The battleground states are getting…

2012 Drought and what all the experts are predicting.  Are the predictions right, wrong, or just outdated by the time they are printed. I review what I think is happening and will happen to the U.S. Meat Industry. I wonder if the fallout between meat and grain farmers is more…

The drought of 2012 is going to be one for the records.  So may the attempt to get a new Farm Bill in 2012. This “battle” in the house has 3 main sides and probably 6 total factions or more if all were figured in. Traditional Farm State Congressman, a…

MY apology to the good Lord. Hell is much worse I am sure; but it is bad, bad in my area in the ways droughts go. My wife has wondered why after a little apprehension at the beginning of this drought I am pretty calm, well calm for me.  Once…

  Very little goes to actual farmers anymore.  The commercial production people who actually feed the world, farmers and ranchers get very little of the total Farm Bill spending anymore. And, many from both the left and the right of the political spectrum want to make it less.  Have you…

More on the Farm Bill This was a question posed to me by a farm bill lobbyist. Who is going to help people with $13,000 an acre land? Where is this all leading to and what do I think the farm bill “end game” is.

Leave a voice comment by clicking on the microphone on the right of the screen. I might put it in the next podcast. What do I mean by the “Middle”? The middle ground is where much farm policy has been made in years past.  Now in many arenas, especially politics…

The South, Peanuts, Rice and to an extent Cotton rose up and at least for now, opposed the Senate Farm Bill proposal. Senators from the south, and yes Republican Senators are speaking out against what they see as a lack of an equitable program for southern crops.  Namely rice, peanuts and to a certain extent cotton.  Saxby Chambliss - R Georgia, and John Boozman -R Arkansas.  I also find it interesting that Larry Combest, former House Agricultural Comm. Chairman helped organize the letter that opposed the Senate Farm Bill Draft, at least for now. Cochran - R Mississippi, and the Republican Senate leader McConnell - Kentucky also voted against the bill. Where are you going to find the money to make them happy? Is there enough Political will to keep a form of Direct Payments for them, or raise target prices like they would like ? Farm Bill fight is still Regional not political, at least not yet. Stabenow and Roberts did not have their bases covered.  That is surprising to many observers.  Things like this do not generally move unless they have broad support. This Southern Slowdown of the Farm Bill will make it that much harder to get anything done before the 2012 election. I am not saying they should not have done it.  They need to do what they think is best for their farmers. Stabenow did change some things to placate two very powerful democratic senators from North Dakota and Montana.  One chairman of the Finance comm., the other chairman of the Budget comm. Did the corn growers over reach?  Will all this support for corn, be used against ethanol, etc., at a later time? It looks to me corn got everything it wanted and then some in this Senate draft.  So, does this mean since there are around 300,000 corn farmers and 5,000 rice farmers, corn should get a better deal.  Now I know a lot of corn producers will say the payments going to crops down south have dwarfed what ever corn and or soybeans have gotten in the past, but corn also gets a lot from the ethanol backing by the feds. Now the process goes to the house.  This is where the real fight is.  Senate Bill is what I think the Ag Committee in the house will start from, but will Lucas go along? Getting a Bill out of the Senate Ag committee is a start, and increases the odds a farm bill will be done before the November election, but this by no means is  a sure thing.  

Senate Agricultural Committee has sent a Farm Bill to be "Marked Up". A bill mark up is where a committee goes over a proposal and "marks up" the paper with changes.  But, the major stuff has already been decided in the Senate Agricultural Committee. $23 Billion in budget cuts over a 10 year period.  Major component will be the Agricultural Risk Coverage Program - the same thing that purposed during the "super" committee debate last year. I go over many of the details of this program. Cotton growers get their "STAX" program. A new specialty crop program, Supplemental Coverage Option. Conservation, food stamps, Dairy, etc. programs are discussed. I also further discuss where the house agricultural committee is at and doing with the farm bill.

I discuss many of the twists and turns that could happen before a farm bill will be completed. John Boehner leader of the house does not want a farm bill discussion before the election.  He does not want Republicans fighting each other before the election.  I go through all the factions in a farm bill debate. World Trade Organizations and problems with parts of the farm bill. Crop Insurance is under attack.  Environmental Working Group and others really do not like privately administered crop insurance.  EWG funded a "study" by Bruce Babcock a professor at Iowa State University that takes major hits at crop insurance. Not all agricultural groups are united in what they want in the next farm bill. Is the number to cut 23 billion or 33 billion? Big discussion on Food Stamps and how much the program has grown in the last 10 years. If there is no farm bill is an extension of the current bill possible? Dairy - I have a good idea what will not be able to pass the house, so what will the policy be?  Nobody may know the answer to that. Conservation - there will be some reductions and consolidations, but where and how much? Other Factors - Where will commodity prices at? Drought or surplus crops, either extreme has implications for a farm bill.  EWG - just what is their game?  Food stamps and attempts to rein this program in could spill over into other areas of the farm bill and gain or lose votes on the final passage of a farm bill.  2012 presidential election will have effects this summer and fall on the farm bill debate.  Senate and House election also will have big effects. Possible Government shut down right before the election? Government workers "partying" cold and will affect everything the government does as long as people remember what has went on. Senate is moving fast. I always thought Senate would move before the House.  When politicians want something done and they all agree on it, it can happen fast.

I take a look at the controversy over Lean Finely Textured Beef or as the radical foodies would call it "pink slime". I believe many of these attempts to influence food choices by the "masses" has turned into THE INTENTIONAL RAISING OF FOOD PRICES SO AS TO LIMIT "CHOICES" BY LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME PEOPLE. It is a radical agenda by vegans, vegetarians, radical "local" and "organic" "foodies" to destroy commercial production agriculture.  To some it is a religion to them.  These people are also going out of their way to target women. Commercial Agriculture may have to stop playing nice and use their tactics against them.  Which would be to copy the "Rules for Radicals" playbook from Saul Alinsky and isolate and destroy them.  This is also a clash of cultures. Their choices (radical foodies) are their choices but leave the rest of us alone and don't force your views on us. We can do all the know your farmer know your food campaigns, but we will never win over the radicals.  These radicals re-define the terms, law, and language to fit their needs.  Commercial Production Agriculture and the way all of mainstream agriculture has communicated for years may not work anymore.  We (ag communicators) do not want to upset anybody, we want full access to everybody, and we play way too nice. I also discuss the new American elite and how they grow up and live isolated from the rest of America.  These "super" zip codes where these people with tremendous wealth and influence live do not understand anything about how a lot of things are done.  But, it does not matter, they want it their way.  And, they suffer from "elite guilt" that everybody else should have "it" that way too. Hopefully Commercial Production Agriculture will figure out it is in the fight of its life (that includes you grain farmers too). And commercial production agriculture will be able to defeat these radical foodies and their attempts to limit choices of food through any means available to them. Including the radical foodie's policies pricing food out of the reach of many of the consumers in America.

Farm Podcast Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening. This is the 51st podcast in just over a year. I talk about who is listening and give a shout out to a few of my loyal listeners. I have even had a you tube video of some one listening to one of my podcasts, while driving on the road M6 in England. I go over my goals for the next year with the podcasts and why I think I can be more independent than many agricultural communicators. I also come at this from a commercial production agricultural perspective. But I also have a bunch of experiences to build on in this endeavor. A special thanks to my wife Judi for making all this possible.  And once again thank you to all my listeners.