My Two-Day, Seven Stop Drought & Farm Bill Tour Across Western North Dakota
The best part of my job is getting to travel across the state and meet with North Dakotans — to learn about what they do, the challenges they face, and how I can be their voice in the halls of Congress. Last week during my two-day, seven stop drought and Farm Bill tour I did just that.
North Dakota farmers and ranchers are no stranger to tough times — enduring frigid temperatures, floods, and the blistering heat. But this months-long drought has swallowed up almost all of our state and burned through our usually-lush grasslands unlike anything we’ve seen before. You can’t go anywhere in the state without hearing about how the drought is impacting local farmers and ranchers, and how that’s trickling back to impacting local economies and communities.
The drought is a stress test for the 2014 Farm Bill — which I worked across the aisle to help write, negotiate, and pass when I first joined the Senate as a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry. We are seeing firsthand how the safety net in place for ranchers works, and how we can strengthen and modify those programs in the 2018 Farm Bill so they provide more certainty and support.
The goal of my two-day, seven stop drought and Farm Bill tour was two-fold: to hear about the short and long term challenges faced by the drought and how I can help, and to hear the priorities of North Dakota producers so I can advocate for them when we’re putting together the 2018 Farm Bill.
This tour built on my initial Farm Bill tour which I did in August 2016 across eastern North Dakota.
Stark & Dunn County FSA Offices in Dickinson and Killdeer
I hear from folks all the time about how much they rely on the employees at their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices to make important decisions about their farm and herd. No one has a better understanding of the challenges facing North Dakota producers than the folks who are helping navigate the programs with them. That’s why I wanted to hear directly from the folks working at the FSA offices in Stark and Dunn Counties. I’ve also heard about how understaffed these offices are to tackle even their normal responsibilities, let alone an influx of drought-related inquiries that are only going to ramp up as harvest ends.
To help address that issue, I’ve successfully called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide more staff to FSA offices in North Dakota, including Stark County, to help farmers and ranchers get immediate drought assistance. I have and will continue to encourage USDA to do everything it can to provide additional relief for folks.
NDSU Extension in Manning
American agriculture advanced to where it is today because of innovative research — which is why I made sure that the 2014 Farm Bill included strong investments in research at land grand institutions like the NDSU Extension in Manning.
On a surprisingly humid-less August day, I was able to see the projects and research on soil health being done, and talk about the impact the drought has had on soil and what this means for upcoming planting season. For years, the NDSU Extension has had a team of passionate and dedicated researchers who have found innovative ways to improve soil health in our state.
Anyone who tries to say that we should cut funding for agriculture research needs to visit this facility to understand that it is absolutely critical for the future of agriculture in North Dakota and our nation. In fact, I would tell anyone who wants to know more about soil health to visit this facility too — because there’s nothing better than walking through fields and pastures, driving Gators, and learning about innovative techniques that would keep our state on the cutting edge of agriculture innovation. That’s why I fought for strong investments in agriculture research in the 2014 Farm Bill and will do the same in the next Farm Bill.
North Dakota Grazing Association Forum in Watford City
Wrapped up the first day of my tour meeting with ranchers in Watford City to hear about the array of challenges they have faced throughout the course of the drought. As I mentioned before, the drought is a stress test on the 2014 Farm Bill and the safety net that’s in place for ranchers — and this forum gave me the opportunity to hear about what is and isn’t working. I was just missing a cowboy hat.
I know what the corn growers want in the 2018 Farm Bill, I know what the wheat growers want, I know what the sugar beet growers want — but I don’t always know what the ranchers want. This meeting was a good opportunity to start a dialogue about what they need and how I can help.
I’m working to make sure ranchers and farmers can count on such safety nets during severe weather, like drought. Just last month, I successfully pressed U.S. Senate Appropriations leaders to increase and expand funding to the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) to cover haying and livestock hauling expenses.
In addition to talking about the drought and 2018 Farm Bill, I heard quite a bit about ranchers’ concerns of fires and the U.S. Forest Service’s ability to quickly control them, and the threat of leafy spurge and prairie dogs. Ranchers tend to be pretty independent folks, but during the meeting we were able to identify several key areas that I can help them work through their challenges and get the answers and resources they need.
Woodsworth Honey & Bee Co. in Halliday
First stop of day two on my drought and Farm Bill tour across western North Dakota was at Woodworth Honey & Bee Co. in Halliday. North Dakota is the number one beekeeping state in the nation, and our honeybees contribute to nearly 90% of the nation’s crops which are pollinated by managed honey bees. The drought has been tough on all aspects of North Dakota agriculture — including beekeeping — and I was able to hear about how the drought has impacted the health of bees as well as honey production across the state.
In the 2014 Farm Bill I successfully secured a provision to help restore the health of honey bees, and as we look forward to the 2018 Farm Bill, it’s critical that I hear firsthand about what is working, what we can do to make it work better, and make sure bee producers can access the additional disaster relief they need.
Stone Mill in Richardton
Stone Mill is North America’s largest organic food flax processing facility, and a wonderful family-owned business that represents the best of North Dakota. As a growing business with big and attainable ambition, Stone Mill has relied on federal export promotion programs through USDA and U.S. Commercial Service to export their quality products and grow their business.
Trade is critical for agriculture. Agriculture exports are a key component to North Dakota’s economy where agriculture supports 27,000 good-paying jobs, our state sells $4.1 billion dollars in agricultural products overseas each year, and one in four workers is a farmer or rancher, or works in a farm-related job.
In the 2014 Farm Bill, we continued funding many export promotion programs that are needed for farmers and ranchers in our state — and Stone Mill Inc. is an example of how important those programs are.
Export programs are important to growing North Dakota’s economy, and I’ll fight for them in the next Farm Bill. But the president’s budget would have eliminated USDA’s export promotion programs.
95% of the world’s consumers are outside of the United States, so if we aren’t exporting, we’re losing.
Agriculture Economy Roundtable in Mandan
For the last event of my tour, I brought together agriculture and banking leaders from across the state, as well as researchers, soil conservation districts, and North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, to talk about how the stress of the drought, compounded by already low commodity prices, is creating deep challenges across North Dakota’s farming and ranching economy. Many of the challenges and additional relief I had heard during my previous visits, but by having everyone in the room, we were able to have a comprehensive and productive discussion.
We also spent a great deal of time talking about how we can maintain and strengthen the 2018 Farm Bill so it is effective and efficient for North Dakota farmers and ranchers. There was a strong agreement that crop insurance if vital for our farmers, as well as making fixes so programs are more workable, necessary clarifications and more. Farmers and ranchers need to be able to count on safety net programs during severe weather, and that is certainly apparent during the drought.
I’ll keep fighting to protect critical U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, like crop insurance, which the president’s budget would slash by one-third — as well as reject the president’s proposed cap of $40,000 on crop insurance premium subsidies, which would severely undermine farmer safety net programs and provide much uncertainty in an already volatile commodity market.
Agriculture is a way of life in North Dakota — and at a time like this, it’s vital that we all come together to do what we can to support our farmers and ranchers.
My two-day, seven stop drought and Farm Bill tour across western North Dakota gave me the insight, background, and inspiration to keep fighting for the commonsense solutions folks need to weather the drought and come back even stronger.
