Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with the vice president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, Keeff Felty, about the 2023 Farm Bill.
Keeff Felty is a fourth-generation family farmer in the Altus area. He is also very active with state commodity boards and agriculture organizations including the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association, Cotton Incorporated Oklahoma State Support Committee and has served on various commodity committees within the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau PAC Board.
“NAWG’s priorities, number one, is to protect our crop insurance and enhance it where we possibly can because that really is the cornerstone of our farm safety net,” Felty said. “Following that, we are seeking a reasonable increase in reference price for ARC (Agricultural Risk Coverage) and PLC (Price Loss Coverage), and also in the trade regards of doubling of the MAP (Market Access Program) and FMD (Foreign Market Development Program) funding.”
Felty talked about why it would be beneficial to see an increase in reference price.
“The cost of production has gotten so high on everything, as everybody knows,” Felty said. “Inflation has hit everybody and everything. Cost of inputs, cost of especially fuel and fertilizer, and equipment are the main things that go into that. It is just a relative measure of cost of production and trying to get it to more closely represent our true cost of production.”
The workings so far in the 2023 Farm Bill, Felty said, are directed toward the continuation of those in the last farm bill- and improving them where possible.
Felty also talked about why increasing promotion program funds would be effective.
“Fifty percent of our (wheat) production is exported and needs to be exported because we are a global economy, it is important, and we need to have the ability to move the product off our shores and into the kitchen and homes around the world where food security is a concern,” Felty said. “This is important in that it helps the overall process of the industry.”
As a National officer of NAWG, Felty said he is grateful to exercise his ability to serve in such a role for those in the industry.
“Everything that is important takes time and effort, and this is truly important because there is so much of everything that is impacted by either legislation and/or regulation,” Felty said.
