Federal

From NAWG On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the “State of the Rural Economy” with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue testifying. The hearing focused on a variety of issues ranging from crop insurance, the reorganization of the rural development office within the USDA, trade and more. Secretary Purdue made comments before answering questions ... Read More »

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) urge caution today as the Trump Administration officially submitted to Congress its notice of intent to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The U.S. wheat industry welcomes the opportunity for improving the framework for cross border wheat trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico, but ... Read More »

From NAWG Today, the House Committee on Agriculture held a Full Committee hearing on the “State of the Rural Economy.” U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue shared his perspective on the on the current state of the agricultural economy and how to make USDA programs work better for America’s farmers and ranchers. National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) President David ... Read More »

From NAWG Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the creation of an undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He continued by declaring that the reorganization includes the formation of a newly-named Farm Production and Conservation mission area to have a customer focus and meet USDA constituents in the field. National ... Read More »

From NAWG Last night, congressional leaders announced an agreement to fund the government through the remainder of FY 2017 (through September 30, 2017).  The full bill text of the agreement can be found here, and the report language for the Agriculture Appropriations bill (which provides explanations and some more details about the funding bill than is in the bill text) ... Read More »

From Politico’s Morning Ag TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS ON THE FARM: Tomorrow marks 100 days in the White House for President Donald Trump, and it took 95 of them to get Sonny Perdue confirmed as Agriculture secretary. Perdue was announced as Trump’s pick on the eve of Inauguration Day, so for agriculture, the story of the first 100 days has really ... Read More »

From Agri-Pulse After his state was shorted in recent enrollment of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts, South Dakota Sen. John Thune is suggesting the next farm bill give the program a higher acreage cap and more flexibility. In a release last week, Thune, a republican who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, proposed a CRP cap of 30 million acres and expanded ... Read More »

From USW’s Wheat Letter U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) shares strong support for more investment in agricultural research with our sister organization, the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG). NAWG notes that wheat relies on public, private and grower funding for crop innovation. Only 1.6 percent of the $142 billion U.S. federal investment in research is allocated toward agriculture research, according ... Read More »

From Agri-Pulse Capitol Hill appropriators received a pair of letters Wednesday outlining funding priorities for conservation and waterway infrastructure. One letter was signed by more than 220 ag, wildlife, and conservation groups; the other by 22 farm organizations. Read the rest of the story here. Read More »

From Brownfield Ag News The president of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) says current federal commodity support programs must be tweaked before reauthorization in the next Farm Bill. During a House Ag Subcommittee hearing on general farm commodities and risk management today, Kansas farmer David Schemm spoke about his personal experience utilizing both the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) ... Read More »