Farm Bill meeting set Wednesday for Havre

A state agricultural group is discussing in Havre Wednesday a two-year past-due federal policy with major impacts on north-central Montana’s major economic driver: Agriculture.

Montana Grain Growers Association is holding a meeting at the Northern Agricultural Research Center at Fort Assinniboine six miles southwest of Havre from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, the latest of a series of meetings on the 2014 Farm Bill. The meetings are being held by agencies that include MGGA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Although it will be several months before FSA is ready to begin program sign-up, it is important to get yourself educated now about the new programs so you can make a well-thought-out decision about which ones will best suit your operation’s needs,” MGGA President Matt Flikkema said in a press release announcing a Farm Bill meeting.

“Anyone affected by the new Farm Bill is welcome … and I strongly urge you to be there,” Flikkema added in the release. “This could well be one of the most important informational meetings you’ll attend this year.”

The bill had stalled in Washington since 2012, when the last Farm Bill expired. Supporting its passage was one of the last acts of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., before he resigned to take office as U.S. ambassador to China. The 2104 act was the fifth farm bill Baucus, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, helped write.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock all praised the passage of the bill, along with Baucus.

MGGA and USDA both have held sessions to help explain, and answer questions about, the bill, which also provides nutrition assistance such as the SNAP program, formerly food stamps.

Some programs were eliminated or cut back with others created or strengthened in the 2014 act, which cut about $23 billion in federal spending. That included cutbacks to the nutrition programs.

MGGA has previously held sessions including in Great Falls, Fort Benton and Shelby, and with the Montana Farm Bureau Federation at a Hobson meeting and USDA also has held sessions including in Hays at the Hays-Lodge Pole school and at Stone Child College on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

MGGA has more about the 2014 bill online at: http://mgga.org/what-we-do/federal-policy-issues/

Online: USDA Farm Service Agency Farm Bill pages: http://fsa.usda.gov/farmbill.