Nebraska Farm Bureau Seeks Extension For Farm Bill Sign-Up

The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation (NFBF) is asking U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to provide farmers more time to evaluate and make decisions on farm programs associated with the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill. The new farm bill brought many changes to farm programs and decisions related to those programs are currently required to be made by the end of February, while others must be made by the end of March.

“Over the past several months Farm Bureau has had the opportunity to work one-on-one with farmers across the state to see how changes in farm bill programs might affect them and how different options might fit into their risk management strategies. While Nebraska seems to be equal or ahead of states in terms of sign-up, providing additional time would be beneficial to many farmers here in Nebraska and across the country,” said Steve Nelson, Nebraska Farm Bureau president.

In a Feb. 24 letter to Sec. Vilsack, Nelson asked the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to give farmers until April 30, 2015 to make decisions related to base acre reallocations, yield updates and all other commodity related farm program decisions.