A bill to improve the nation’s waterways could help grain farmers in the Midwest compete in the global marketplace. The Waterways Resource Reform and Development Act, or WRRDA (pronounced ‘word-uh’), has been over a year in the making. It authorizes spending $12 billion for improvements such as deepening ports. Grain farmers hope it will ultimately allow for larger ships to carry corn, soybeans, and wheat to foreign markets. Corning, Iowa farmer Ray Gaesser is president of the American Soybean Association.

“The demand for soybeans, that protein and oil that we have from the soybeans, has just been growing so terrifically in the last 20 years and meeting that demand is important,” Gaesser say. Exports are an increasingly important part of grain marketing, but according to Gaesser, many locks and dams are 80 years old and new modern ships are too big for the depth of some ports.

“That infrastructure, that ability to effectively and efficiently move our products within the United States and throughout the world…it’s a big deal to agriculture,” Gaesser says. Congress passed WRRDA earlier this month, but President Obama has yet to sign it. Congress must still decide exactly how and whether to appropriate the funding.

(Radio Iowa)

Some Iowa cattle producers report they’re having trouble qualifying some of their acreages with the federal government’s livestock forage disaster program. Ed Greiman of Garner, president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, says the Farm Service Agency isn’t to blame, but the problem is with how the program is defined and who is eligible for assistance.

“I’ve certified all of my pasture acres as haying and grazing, which puts it in the category that does not qualify for the disaster program,” Greiman says. “It needs to be classified as grazing only. For instance, I’ve got sorghum that we were going to chop, we ended up grazing, that doesn’t qualify.” Greiman says he’s coordinating with Iowa U-S Senator Chuck Grassley, the head of the F-S-A and the U-S Ag Secretary to try and find the proper and most efficient solution to the difficulties.

Greiman says, “We’re working on, not only with Senator Grassley, but with Whitaker’s office and Vilsack, is can we maybe change those classifications because we ended up grazing them.” He says most Midwest producers hay and graze their acres, so it’s not one-size-fits-all that brings the best program benefits.

(Radio Iowa)