The nation’s Ag groups reacted positively to the Senate passing its version of the 2018 Farm Bill, but all said there is still a lot of work to do.

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson says his group is pleased by the outcome, saying, “Family farmers and ranchers are in need of some certainty. The Senate’s version of the Farm Bill includes several encouraging provisions.”

American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall is pleased that the final farm bill is one step closer to the finish line. “It was time for some good news and the Senate delivered it in a bipartisan fashion,” Duvall says. “While we do have some concerns, no bill is perfect, but this bipartisan effort gives us a solid framework for progress.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says this is another step forward for the 2018 Farm Bill. “Much work remains to address the priorities of cattle producers,” says NCBA President Kevin Kester. “The House version of the bill contains more provisions of critical importance to cattle producers than the Senate version does.”

Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts says Congress is one step closer to providing producers with the certainty and predictability they deserve.

Ag Committee member Chuck Grassley of Iowa says the bill gives American farmers a number of victories, including funding programs to promote American agricultural products overseas to increase exports.

Bottom line instead of brand loyalty. Tractors and harvesters will look more like computers. Data will drive productivity. These are just a few of the realities that equipment manufacturers will have to contend with over the next 25 years, according to an Association of Equipment Manufacturers research report written by the Context Network. According to the AEM and Context report, these three trends will have a significant impact on agriculture over the next 25 years: Changing farm structure and retiring farmers selling land, the Accelerating adoption of precision agriculture technologies, and the Service-Based economy; a new sort of trusted advisor. “We launched this research project in order to examine the broader trends with which our members will have to contend, and to help them better prepare to compete in the marketplace of the future,” says Curt Blades, AEM’s senior vice president of agriculture services. “It would be to every manufacturer’s benefit to sit up and take note of these industry-shaping trends.”

The self-proclaimed number one farm insurer in the United States is providing grain bin rescue technology to 28 fire departments throughout the United States. Nationwide, in partnership with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety, selected the fire departments as winners of the fifth annual Nominate Your Fire Department Contest. The contest was created in accordance with Grain Bin Safety Week, after identifying a lack of specialized resources available to rural fire departments, who are often the only line of defense against grain bin entrapments. Brad Liggett, president of Nationwide Agribusiness, says that until farmers are “convinced to develop a zero-entry mentality,” Nationwide will continue to make rescue resources as widely available as possible. Over the last 50 years, more than 900 cases of grain entrapments have been reported in the United States, and have resulted in a 62 percent fatality rate. Since 2014, Nationwide has awarded rescue tubes and specialized training to 77 fire departments across 23 states.

The Senate passed a bipartisan farm bill Thursday, sending the legislation to conference so the House and Senate can mend their differences. The vote, 86 to 11, capped off a day of consideration on the Senate floor. In a way, the Senate offered a warning shot to the House, tabling an amendment Thursday afternoon that would tighten work requirements under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in a lopsided vote 68-30, showing resistance to similar language in the House bill. Meanwhile, House Republicans charge it may be difficult to pass a final bill through the House without SNAP reforms. The Senate bill was blocked Thursday morning by Senator Marco Rubio regarding Cuba trade provisions by Senator Heidi Heitkamp, but the two reached an agreement to allow USDA trade funding to Cuba, if it’s in accordance with administration policy, and allow consideration of the farm bill Thursday.
Overall, the Senate bill offers little fanfare in major changes, compared to the current bill that expires later this year. The bill includes Senator John Thune’s amendment to allow partial haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve Program land, which was approved by voice vote before final consideration of the bill. Included in the bill is Senator Chuck Grassley’s proposal to reform the definition of “actively engaged” in a farming operation in order to receive farm payments. Before passage, the Senate defeated an amended by Senator Mike Lee that farm groups, such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, say “sought to undermine commodity checkoff programs.

The American Petroleum Institute says the Environmental Protection Agency “made the right call” to not reallocate volumes of biofuels displaced by hardship waivers from the Renewable Fuel Standard. The EPA volume proposal this week included a small overall increase, but kept conventional ethanol at 15 billion gallons for 2019. API made the comments while at the same time calling the RFS an example of “a broken government program.” The proposal by the EPA followed a Reuters report that the EPA “consistently ignored” direction from the Department of Energy to restrict or reject the hardship waivers. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says the waivers are “at odds” with the Department of Agriculture, President Trump, and now the Department of Energy. The ethanol industry contends the waivers are destructing demand, and the recent volume proposal for convention ethanol “isn’t a real number” because the EPA won’t make up lost volumes or stop the waivers.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in Chicago this week says he is hopeful his aid program for farmers will be released by Labor Day and the harvest season. Perdue spoke at the United Fresh event Tuesday and told the Chicago Tribune that while farmers want “trade, not aid,” the Department of Agriculture is following the trade war on a “weekly basis,” and assessing the impacts of trade disputes while having a plan ready to assist farmers. Perdue continues to hold off on announcing those plans, but conceded he has “probably” given himself a “Labor Day deadline” with the corn and soybean harvest looming. Perdue says he and USDA see the trade environment as “temporary.” A 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans as part of the trade dispute will take effect next week. While there may not be enough export capacity globally for China to stop all U.S. soybean purchases completely, Brazil’s production and exports are growing, and China is seeking alternatives to U.S. agricultural products.

The Senate farm bill now contains 18 additional amendments, including Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s payment limits amendment. Grassley was the lone vote against the bill when it passed through committee because it did not contain his amendment. The change would “amend actively engaged in farming requirements by allowing only one person or legal entity per farming operation to be considered ‘actively engaged’ in farming based on active personal management.” Grassley said earlier this week that he had the votes on the Senate Agriculture Committee to get the amendment approved at the markup of the bill, but ran into a last-minute procedural problem that prevented him from offering it, according to the Hagstrom Report. The amendment is one of 18 attached to the farm bill and announced Wednesday afternoon by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts in an effort to expedite the passage of the bill.