When Tim Peterson finished planting his 900 acres of winter wheat last
week, the usually market-savvy Kansas farmer unexpectedly found himself
struggling to make critical marketing decisions without being able to
access to vital agricultural reports, casualties of the federal
government shutdown.
"We have no clue what is going on in the market," said Peterson, who
farms near Monument in northwest Kansas. He typically protects his
investment in seed and fertilizer by "locking in" the price his wheat
crop will fetch next July with a futures contract that shields farmers
from market fluctuations by guaranteeing a price while the crop is in
the ground.
Farmers and livestock producers use the reports put out by the National
Agriculture Statistics Service to make decisions — such as how to price
crops, which commodities to grow and when to sell them — as well as
track cattle auction prices. Not only has the NASS stopped putting out
new reports about demand and supply, exports and prices, but all
websites with past information have been taken down.
"It is causing a direct void in information that is immediate," Peterson said.
This worries him far more than his other problem: When will his $20,000
subsidy check from the government, which usually comes in October,
arrive?
Since the U.S. Agriculture Department's local farm services offices also
have been shuttered, farmers can't apply for new loans, sign up
acreages for government programs or receive government checks for
programs they're already enrolled in. And at a time when researchers who
are seeking new wheat varieties and plant traits should be planting
experimental plots, all work has ground to a halt.
Kansas Farmer's Union president Donn Teske, a grower in the northeast
Kansas town of Wheaton, worried about payments he's owed for idling some
environmentally sensitive land under the Conservation Reserve Program.
"I always look forward to that check coming in the mail," the 58-year-old said.
But all of that, farmers say, pales in comparison to the lack of
agriculture reports, because farmers today depend far more on global
marketplaces than government payouts.
The reports, for instance, can alert them to shortfalls in overseas
markets or if there's a wide swing in acres planted, both of which would
prompt U.S. growers to plant extra crops to meet those demands or hang
on to a harvest longer to get a better price.
"That information is worth a lot of money, a lot more than $20,000 a year," Peterson said, a reference to his subsidy.
Major commodity players can pay for crop size estimates usually provided
in the NASS reports from "private sources," said Dalton Henry, director
of governmental affairs for the industry group Kansas Wheat. "Producers
aren't going to have that same luxury," he said.
During the shutdown, the USDA won't provide sales reports from Oklahoma
livestock auctions that are used to help set prices on the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, state Department of Agriculture
employee Jack
Carson said.
"We are working. They are not," Carson said.
Another ripple effect is that farmers may see a delay in checks they're
owed from federal support programs, said Wisconsin agriculture secretary
Ben Brancel.
Brancel also noted that his office heard from a farmer on the first day
of the shutdown who had received a check for a cow he sold, but because
he had a Farm Service Agency loan, he couldn't cash it without obtaining
a signature from an FSA official.
"Our advice to him was he was going to have to wait, that there wasn't anything he could do about it," he said.
The shutdown came just as the current farm bill expired. Farm subsidies
remain intact for fall crops currently being harvested. Crop insurance,
funded under a permanent authorization, is mostly unaffected.
The expiration of the law won't have an impact until the end of the
year, when some dairy supports end and milk prices are expected to rise
sharply.
Congress has been debating the new farm bill for more than two years, but a resolution has likely taken a back seat.
"Farmers, all of those impacted, have been waiting and waiting and
waiting. And frankly have had enough," said Senate Agriculture
Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., last week. "They want this to get
done."
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