(Radio Iowa) — The near-trillion-dollar Farm Bill is headed to a conference committee where differences between the House and Senate versions will be ironed out. Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman  says he’s encouraged the new five-year piece of legislation will pass before the current Farm Bill expires at the end of September.  “We are still hopeful that we can see some signs that serious compromises need to be made in order to move a good product ahead,” Lehman says. “It’s a good sign but we know there’s quite a bit yet to be done to get us to where we need to be in the end.”

Lehman says members of the conference committee have plenty of work ahead. House Republicans proposed sweeping changes to the food stamp program or SNAP, including a work requirement. Senators didn’t include any major changes in food stamps in the 956-billion dollar Farm Bill. “The window is getting tight to get the work done and that is certainly the issue that we anticipate is going to be front and center between the two versions,” Lehman says, “but I’ve got to tell you, there’s a lot of other issues that are so important that the two versions are very different.”

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley added an amendment to the Farm Bill which aims to close the loophole he says enables Wall Street bankers to get federal farm dollars, even if they’ve never had dirt under their fingernails. Grassley says, “Allowing these types of nonfarmers to milk the farm safety net for millions of dollars in subsidies each year is ridiculous.” Lehman hopes members of the conference committee will include Grassley’s proposal in the final package. “It’s so important to direct our dollars in the right way to family-sized operations as much as possible,” Lehman says. “We’ve got a limited pool of money that we can work with in the farm bill and we’ve always felt that we haven’t dedicated the resources we need to in order to help farmers.”

He adds he’s hopeful Grassley’s proposal will “win the day.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Many farmers remain critical of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the damage done to commodity prices and markets but were appreciative Tuesday that he offered to provide some cash to help offset their losses. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $12 billion three-part plan that would borrow money from the U.S. Treasury to pay producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy, and hogs.

The USDA also will buy the surplus of commodities that would otherwise have been exported and distribute them to food banks and other nutrition programs. That will cover fruits, nuts, rice, legumes, beef, pork and milk. The third prong of the plan is to help farm groups develop new export markets.

The money comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a USDA agency founded in 1933. It has authority to borrow up to $30 billion from the Treasury at any one time to “stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices.” Farmers said they would rather have Trump settle the trade disputes with China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union and get free trade flowing again.

“A Band-Aid doesn’t cure an illness, but it might make it temporarily better,” said Dave Struthers who grows corn, soybeans and hay on a 1,100-acre Iowa farm near Collins, about 30 miles northeast of Des Moines. He also sells about 6,000 pigs a year.
Reaction from trade partners to Trump’s tariff policies have pushed soybean prices about 18 percent lower and corn and pork prices down 15 percent from the time Trump began discussing tariffs this spring.

China is the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans and one of the largest importers of U.S. pork. U.S. farmers are expected to grow 14.2 billion bushels of corn this year and 4.3 billion bushels of soybeans, down some from last year but still huge crops. There were 73.5 million pigs on farms as of June 1, the highest number on that date since records began in 1964.

Some farmers were more skeptical of the administration’s actions, believing the midterm elections in November had more to do with the announcement than concern for farmers. Some farmers expressed concern that few details have been released. The USDA said it planned to roll out some of those details around Labor Day and the program would begin to make payouts after the fall harvest.