The Wick Forum Building at Farmfest was filled to capacity Thursday morning for the Farm Bill Field Hearing. There will be only six Farm Bill Field Hearings in the United States and it was nice to see such at big crowd at the one in Minnesota. The current Farm Bill expires in about a year, so Congress has been working on a new Farm Bill for a while already. I am sure there is more interest in the next Farm Bill because of the low commodity prices

This was really was a Farm Bill "hearing." Farmers could sign up to address members of the House Ag Committee. If your name was drawn you had two minutes to explain what you thought should be in the next Farm Bill. There were more than 40 farmers who had an opportunity to speak. If there was one theme, I would say it was be sure to protect risk management or the crop insurance provisions in the Farm Bill. Ag lenders use the crop insurance guarantees as collateral for operating loans so it is very important.

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