Should the farm crisis continue or even worsen, there are some in Washington D.C. who say it may be necessary to do a farm bill a year early, with the regular deadline for a new Farm Bill set for September of 2018. House Ag Committee ranking member Collin Peterson said it’s something that may have to happen. Peterson said if there’s a real crisis this winter with farmers unable to get financing and bankers up in arms, “Does it make sense to do a Band-Aid or admit that the safety net in the 2014 bill is inadequate and try to fix it?” He said it depends on how bad things actually get. While Peterson readies for the worst, other farm state lawmakers are hoping the safety net programs in the 2014 farm bill can help carry producers through low prices, soaring production domestically and abroad, and weak global demand. Politico’s Morning Agriculture Report said interviews with key lawmakers showed skepticism about even getting the 2018 bill done on time as the last one took an extra year to get approved.

Retail sales of tractors under 40 horsepower and between 40-100 horsepower rebounded in August. However, sales of larger tractors and combines continued their double-digit declines in the newest data available from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). U.S. retail sales for two-wheel drive tractors under 40 horsepower gained 21 percent in August, and are 11 percent higher on the year-to-date. August four-wheel drive tractor sales declined 48 percent year over year, and combine sales declined 22 percent for August. “Growth in the under-40 horsepower segment was strong during August and farm tractors in the 40-100 horsepower range reversed a lower recent monthly trend,” said Charlie O’Brien, AEM Senior Vice President. He said the over 100 horsepower two and four-wheel drive tractors are underperforming their five-year average. “Earlier in the year, we felt the market was stabilizing,” said O’Brien. “As we passed the middle of 2016, we continue to see smaller equipment sales thriving and the larger equipment sales remain depressed.”

A Dow Jones Report says investors generally seem positive about the deal struck by Bayer CEO Werner Baumann to acquire Monsanto. The head of a global equities asset management company in Paris that invests in Bayer said, “So far, he’s proven to be quite a good negotiator. He’s been very efficient.” Markus Manns, a portfolio investor at Union Investment, another Bayer shareholder, said Baumann has shown that he won’t spend money recklessly just to get the deal done. “I’m a little more optimistic,” he added. Investors are particularly pleased with how the financing worked out. Baumann took advantage of access to debt at very low interest rates to largely pay for the deal, which would allow the new company to quickly grow its earning potential. There is some uncertainty that the deal will get regulatory approval from roughly 30 agencies around the world, and the fact that Bayer will pay Monsanto $2 billion if the deal falls through. A professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management said just closing the deal is not a sign of success. “It’s going to depend on whether or not he can turn this acquisition into reality,” said Professor Nils Stieglitz.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the Water Resources Development Act this week by a 95-3 vote. Agri Pulse said the bill will pay for waterway improvement projects in 30 states, as well as projects to improve delivery systems for drinking water. The bill also includes an exemption for some farmers with above-ground fuel storage tanks from Environmental Protection Agency requirements to prepare spill-control plans. Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer inserted the storage tank provision in the bill to give farmers some relief from the EPA’s Spill, Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures requirements. Fuel storage tanks of 1,000 gallons or less, or an aggregate capacity of not more than 2,000 gallons would be exempt from the rules. Containers that hold animal feed ingredients would also be exempt. Fischer said, “Most agricultural producers live miles away from the nearest source of fuel, so they have to rely on on-farm fuel storage to have access to the fuel when they need it. This ensures that they can maintain their on-farm storage and bring reasonable exemptions for small and medium sized farms as well as livestock producers.”

Farm and banking groups spoke with congressional appropriators this week about using upcoming appropriations bills to give authority and funding for Farm Service Agency Loans to farmers. The Hagstrom Report said the 15 farm and banking groups feel a continuing resolution should be used to solve short term funding issues, while the upcoming omnibus appropriations bill could be used to help clear up a backlog of funding requests from fiscal year 2016. The appropriations bill could also be used to prepare for the expected rise in the number of loan applications next year because of the economic downturn in agriculture. “We realize time is short and the demands on appropriators are many, but there’s a crisis in farm country,” said Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. He said it should be easily fixed by giving FSA increased flexibility in the short term and a moderate increase in funding in the medium term to allow the agency to meet the growing credit demands from farmers. It will also allow the FSA to continue focusing on the needs of the next generation of agriculture as well.

The National Pork Producers Council held its annual fly-in this week in Washington D.C., and TPP was at the top of their conversations with their senators and representatives. Over 130 producers from 20 states pressed their congressional lawmakers to push for a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year. They also want funding for a Foot-and-Mouth Vaccine Bank included in the next farm bill. Farm families also asked their congressional representatives to oppose a U.S. Department of Agriculture regulation, the GIPSA rule, that would restrict the buying and selling of livestock. NPPC President John Dyer of Iowa said those three issues are very important to pork producers but getting TPP passed in the lame-duck session of Congress is the primary issue they’re working on. During the Capitol Hill visit, producers are stressing just how much of a negative impact not passing TPP would have on their bottom line. “We cannot just walk away from this deal,” said Weber. “The entire economy would lose access to one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, but we also lose market share in the 11 other TPP countries, and that means lost jobs and a devastating impact on the economy.”

The House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on potential trade opportunities with Cuba and several major ag groups, including the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, weighed in on the possibilities. The National Association of Wheat Growers supports the elimination of trade barriers with Cuba, which represents a potentially large export market for wheat. Current financing restrictions don’t permit Cuba to buy on credit, but instead require cash up front, and the Wheat Growers say that puts them at a competitive disadvantage to other countries in the Cuban market. The American Farm Bureau has long pushed for trade with our neighbors 90 miles to the south. The Farm Bureau said, “Real opportunities of increased sales exist in Cuba for American agricultural products because of demand driven by a population of 11 million people. There’s no better time to provide American farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to expand exports and survive a difficult economic time.”

A Bloomberg report says anti-trust officials have their hands full as they review several pending mergers and acquisitions in agribusiness, with the newest being Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto. The $66 billion deal consolidates the biggest seed and chemical producers in the industry. Elai Katz is an antitrust attorney at a major New York City law firm, and he said antitrust reviewers around the world have to look at how all the deals would impact the world instead of considering them on a case-by-case basis. “It’s always about the future,” Katz said. “You have to imagine what the world will look like after these mergers, and that complicates things.” According to Jonas Oxgaard, a Sanford Berstein analyst, seed and crop chemicals are major expenses for producers and this combination of Bayer and Monsanto could have some political backlash. “There’s a political angle that will make this deal hard to get past regulators,” said Oxgaard. With four other major consolidation deals in the works, economists are questioning whether there’s too much consolidation in agriculture. “Have there been too many mergers, are companies getting too big, is there not enough competition,” asked Keith Fugle, a U.S. Department of Agriculture economist. “Experts have been asking questions like this in other sectors of the economy and now this trend is happening in agriculture.”