Thu, 22 Sep 2022 13:08:12 CDT
At the National Farmers Union Legislative Fly-In this past week in Washington, DC, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network intern, Cheyenne Leach, had the chance to visit with the CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, Chandler Goule. Goule talked about what he would like to see in the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill.
A big priority, Goule said, is the safety net, which is made up of crop insurance, ARC and PLC, and making sure it is sufficient to the current cost of wheat production in the industry.
“I want to be very clear, though, we are not trying to say that the safety net needs to make sure that growers make money, but it needs to be a solid backstop and it is clearly not keeping up with the total cost of production that we are currently seeing across the country,” Goule said. “Clearly, our number 1 priority for the 2023 farm bill will be to maintain crop insurance, but other things we will be looking at will be an increase in the PLC reference price for wheat, making sure that we continue to have good access to crop protection tools to continue our voluntary conservation programs, and then trying to seek additional budget authority so we can expand some of those programs we do like and have the potential to raise that reference price to increase that safety net.”
As for increasing reference price for ARP and PLC payments, Goule said they have been static for the last three farm bills, but it is expensive to raise those prices. Whether or not the reference price will be increased, Goule said will depend on getting more funding into the farm bill.
Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Cheyenne Leach and Chandler Goule talking about the 2023 Farm Bill.
