After House and Senate farm bill negotiators failed to reach a compromise on the bill by the Sept. 30 deadline, Oklahoma Farm Bureau District Four Director Jimmy Kinder shared how Oklahoma farmers and ranchers will be affected by the current bill’s expiration with KGOU Radio.
A wheat and cattle farmer near Walters, Oklahoma, Kinder explained that he and other farmers and ranchers in the state are facing uncertainty due to trade tariffs, low commodity prices and poor harvest yields.
“This layers on top of the tariffs that are going on with a lot of the ag commodities, so it just adds to all the uncertainty that we have out here on the farm,” Kinder said in an interview with KGOU.
The Cotton County farmer said that though the federal crop insurance program is not affected by the current farm bill’s expiration, funding for programs like research will only extend through the end of the year.
“Some of these other smaller programs are vitally important to farmers,” Kinder told KGOU. “You need to have a healthy research pipeline to make sure that you stay current.”
A farm bill conference committee was created by lawmakers to negotiate the differences in House and Senate versions of the bill. Failing to reach a compromise before the House’s recess, the committee now has until mid-December to either pass a new farm bill or extend the current one.
