Nebraska Cattlemen commends the House of Representatives and the Nebraska Delegation on completing the Farm Bill. NC appreciates all the effort to resolve many of the contentious issues that arose during deliberations.
Due to the exclusion of certain livestock provisions, Nebraska Cattlemen is extremely disappointed with the exclusion of language on the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Act (GIPSA), the Conaway-Costa amendment. If included, the Conaway-Costa amendment would have refocused the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s regulation on the five specific areas of contraction and prevented much unneeded government intrusion in the free market. NC is also disappointed that a WTO-compliant resolution to mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (MCOOL) was not included in the final Farm Bill, particularly in the face of retaliatory actions by the governments of Mexico and Canada.
“Nebraska Cattlemen has direct policy on these issues and it is disheartening to see that a sensible resolution was not achieved for GIPSA and MCOOL”, said Jeff Rudolph, Nebraska Cattlemen President. “Even though rewrites of these very important and key issues were not included due to the need of passing a long awaited Farm Bill, we will, and have already continued discussions with our delegation to keep the GIPSA and MCOOL discussion at the forefront of our membership.”
Nebraska Cattlemen continues to work for the betterment of members, and fully appreciates the many positives that the 2014 Farm Bill brings to the livestock industry such as the renewal of the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) and appropriating funds retroactively to 2012 and 2013 to cover disasters as well as through the life of the Farm Bill.
Nebraska Cattlemen is also pleased with the Livestock Forage Program that provides funds for grazing losses from drought or fire and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program that allocates 60 percent of its mandatory funding for livestock production. “In total Nebraska's farmers and ranchers will benefit from the business securities that a new farm bill represents”, said Rudolph.
Source: Nebraska Cattlemen association