- New Farm Bill Provides Flexibility
for Traditional Growers
-
By Greg Brown
Associate Editor
The fine print of the Farm Bill could hurt vegetable growers who are just starting out, but established vegetable growers and producers shouldn’t have too much to worry about.
Ken Nye, with the Michigan Farm Bureau, said that the fine print of the Farm Bill is not that much different than previous years. But one critical difference is that soybeans are now a program crop.
“There will be some things in the bill that potentially are going to effect some growers in Michigan and the Midwest,” said Nye. Most established fruit and vegetable growers do not have to worry about the change of the soybean acres to a program crop, but they should be aware of the potential impact on their individual operation.
Fruits and vegetables are considered a restricted crop, just as in past bills. Some concerns have been voiced that adding soybeans to the list of crops eligible for program payments will limit available land for growers who need to rent or want to expand their operations.
“Most growers in Michigan are going to have limited amounts of problems,” Nye said.
The language and terms of the planting prohibition are essentially the same as the 1996 act, said Nye. Growers are prohibited from planting fruits and vegetables on program acres. But there are three important exclusions, and they are very important.
The first exclusion involves growers in areas that have a history of double cropping. Under this exclusion a producer would be allowed to double crop a non-program crop with program crop, as long as it has been historically done in the area, said Nye.
The second exclusion involves growers who have traditionally grown a specialty crop, such as fruit, vegetables or dry beans. “If you have been growing one acre of any specialty crop, then your entire farm has a “farm” exemption. Under the “farm” exemption, you can in any given year, plant any fruit and vegetable - you simply give up acre for acre benefits on that land.”
The “farm” history, and the third exclusion – “producer” history provides the grower with significant flexibility. The “producer” history allows growers who have been planting a specific number of acres of a non-program crop on and rented or leased land to carry that flexibility with them from farm to farm. These rules have a lot of flexibility in places that have a fair amount of non-program production,” said Nye. In Michigan, counties like Van Buren and Oceana would have more total flexibility than a county like Calhoun or Hillsdale, where primarily program crops have been grown.
States without growers who are traditionally specialty crops producers, such as some parts of Iowa, could face problems.
Growers need to consider what they want to do in the future. “They should ask themselves, how do I need to structure my operation to take best advantage of these rules, given my own ‘farm’ or ‘producer’ history?” Nye said.
In terms of what they think they are doing next year and the year after, they need to be giving that some thought before they sign up for participation in the new farm program, according to Nye.
Nye said there is a valid tradeoff - a program crop producer signs up in the program for a crop such as corn and gets the base payment whether he plants corn or not. The fruit and vegetable planting restriction keeps program crop growers from saying I’m not going to plant corn, rather, I’ll plant squash and still take the base payment, anyway.
“There needed to be some production protection for the specialty grower,” said Nye. “Hopefully for most producers the exemptions that are in there for historic production will provide the flexibility.”
“But, new growers who want to get into that business could be restricted. The advantage they would have is that they can sign up in the program year by year. They can simply not sign up the farm, give up the farm program payments and plant any non-program crop.
“Growers need to keep in mind that as long as it is grown on non-program acres they can grow anything they want,” said Nye.
For more information contact a Farm Service Agency representative.
