The nation’s farm bill, which officially expired in 2023 and has been floundering in Congress for months, is finally seeing some tangible momentum — at least from the outside looking in. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania has released a title-by-title overview of the bipartisan policies and priorities he hopes are included in the 2024 farm bill.

“This bill is a product of an extensive and transparent process, which included soliciting feedback from members of both political parties, stakeholder input from across the nation, and some tough conversations,” he said in a statement. “Each title of this farm bill reflects a commitment to the American farmer and viable pathways to funding those commitments, and is equally responsive to the politics of the 118th Congress. The Committee on Agriculture will mark up this bill on May 23, and I hope for unanimous support in this endeavor to bring stability to producers, protect our nation’s food security, and revitalize rural America.”

This coincides with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) also releasing framework documents.

The five-page document from Thompson that was sent to members of the ag media spans 12 Titles, from topics that impact production growers through regulatory overhauls, trade, and crop insurance to those that don’t directly connect with food production itself, like conservation, forestry, and SNAP. At the high level, they are:

• Title I: Commodities. Aids farmers in managing risk and provides assistance following precipitous declines in commodity prices. Through the reauthorization and enhancement of commodity, marketing loan, sugar, dairy, and disaster programs, producers are provided some certainty in times of unpredictability.
• Title II: Conservation. Provides farmers, ranchers, and growers with financial and technical assistance to address a variety of natural resource concerns such as soil health and erosion, water quality and quantity, and wildlife habitat. The 2024 farm bill continues to support our proven system of voluntary, incentive-based, and locally led conservation through various improvements.
• Title III: Trade. Agriculture is the backbone to most of the world’s economies, and robust promotion programs not only create market access, but protect our agricultural interests and act as a catalyst for innovation and economic growth. By expanding the reach and impact of the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) program, the 2024 farm bill will mitigate global food insecurity while providing U.S. producers new markets, improving local economies, and lessening the damage of this Administration’s ineffective trade agenda.
• Title IV: Nutrition. Supports access to families formerly disallowed to receive benefits, refocuses work programs to support upward mobility, invests in and modernizes food distribution programs to create parity with urban programming, promotes program integrity and State accountability, and advances policies related to healthy eating, healthy behaviors, and healthy outcomes.
• Title V: Credit. Our nation’s producers borrow more capital in a single harvest season than most Americans do in their entire lives. Interest rates have exploded under the Biden Administration, resulting in skyrocketing borrowing costs which fall especially hard on our nation’s younger, less established producers. Programs within the credit title are instrumental in helping producers both start and maintain their operations.

• Title VI: Rural Development. Programs offered by the USDA’s Rural Development play a vital role in enhancing rural life and fostering economic growth. The 2024 farm bill continues the long history of bipartisan support for rural development initiatives and implements important improvements to ensure a robust rural economy.
• Title VII: Research, Extension, and Related Matters. Keeps American agriculture at the forefront of innovation and productivity through cutting-edge research and supports the nation’s land-grant and non-land-grant colleges of agriculture.
• Title VIII: Forestry. Promotes active forest management through incentivizing public-private partnerships creating new market opportunities and revitalizing rural communities while reducing wildfire risk and improving forest health to ensure healthy and productive Federal, State, Tribal and private forests.
• Title IX: Energy. Increases access to energy system and efficiency updates for farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses while encouraging growth and innovation for biofuels, bioproducts, and related feedstocks.
• Title X: Horticulture, Marketing, and Regulatory Reform. Critical investments to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops and protect plant health. Delivers commonsense regulatory reforms necessary to relieve American farmers and ranchers from overregulation by the Biden Administration.
• Title XI: Crop Insurance. Agricultural producers are greatly affected by numerous factors outside of their control, ranging from extreme weather to geopolitical instability. Crop insurance — a vital risk management tool — is available to help producers manage the unique risks of farming and is delivered through an effective public-private partnership in which the Federal government shares in the cost of the premiums, which would otherwise be unaffordable for most farmers.
• Title XII: Miscellaneous. Brings together provisions related to livestock health and management, foreign animal disease preparedness, young and beginning farmers, and other key areas. Directs additional resources towards the three-legged stool to protect the entire livestock and poultry industry in the U.S. from foreign animal diseases.

Congress narrowly passed a stopgap bill that has extended funding for the 2018 farm bill programs for one year. But we are already on the fifth month of 2024, and committees need to start considering new agriculture and nutrition legislation.

“Dairy farmers are heartened that today, both House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-PA, and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, each released documents providing an overview of their farm bill priorities and plans,” said National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Gregg Doud. “Dairy farmers and the cooperatives they own are better-served by the certainty provided under a five-year farm bill, and as both chairs point the way toward important dairy priorities across multiple farm bill titles, all of dairy is eager to see this process get moving.”

Amid cattle depredation by wolves in Colorado, a bill to delist wolves as endangered species managed to slip through the U.S. House on Tuesday with a narrow vote of 209-205. 

The bill from Republican U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, named Trust the Science Act, would force the Department of the Interior to delist gray wolves in the lower 48 states, and it would prohibit judicial review of the decision. 

“Out-of-touch Denver and Boulder leftists voted to reintroduce wolves in Colorado. Farmers and ranchers are powerless to defend their livestock from wolf attacks and there have been eight confirmed wolf livestock killings in April alone,” said Boebert. “Rather than celebrating the gray wolf recovery success story, leftists want to cower to radical environmentalists and keep them on the Endangered Species Act list forever. The gray wolf is fully recovered and should be delisted in the lower 48 states.”

Gray wolves were first listed under the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1967.

Then, in 2009, the Obama administration upheld the decision to delist gray wolves when then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a Democrat from Colorado, announced the decision at a news conference, that the Fish and Wildlife Service decision to delist gray wolves was “a supportable one. … Scientists have concluded that recovery has occurred.”

In 2011, Congress directed USFWS to reinstate a rule to delist the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies Ecosystem, followed by an Obama Administration proposal delisting gray wolves in the lower 48 states in 2013. 

“The science is clear; the gray wolf has met and exceeded recovery goals,” Tiffany said.

In 2020, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted the gray wolf in the lower 48 United States through a process that included the best science and data available. At over 6,000 wolves at the time of delisting, the gray wolf has been the latest Endangered Species Act success story with significant population recoveries in the Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions.

In April of 2022, a California judge unilaterally relisted the gray wolf under the ESA. The Biden administration appealed the ruling and supported the 2020 rule that delisted gray wolves in the lower 48 United States.

State and tribal wildlife agencies have a proven record of successfully managing gray wolves. Montana’s successful state management resulted in gray wolves being 500 percent above Fish and Wildlife Service recovery goals. Idaho’s successful state management resulted in gray wolves being 700 percent above recovery goals.

There are an estimated 6,000 wolves in the lower 48. An additional estimated 7,000 to 11,000 gray wolves make their home in Alaska. And there are an estimated 30,000 gray wolves in Canada. Twenty-four member of Congress co-sponsored Boebert’s and Tiffany’s bill.

»Related: Federal court relists gray wolves under Endangered Species Act

North Park Stockgrowers Association sends another letter to Colorado governor

As growers continue to try to carve a living out of the Colorado landscape in Grand County, the North Park Stockgrowers Association sent another letter to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and the wildlife team in his state. 

“Tending to the stock this spring is taking more time, energy (physical and mental), and fuel. Peace of mind for the rancher is gone. We ranchers knew these factors would come into play,” reads the letter. “However, proposition 114 failed to bring these costs to voters’ attention; just as it failed to provide an overview of a wolf’s diet to voters as a press release from the Governor’s office suggested it did.”

The association asks that Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials deal with chronic depredators, and alongside the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association asks for a pause to wolf introduction efforts. 

On Saturday, the routine task of leveling a grain silo turned tragic for one Pennsylvania family when the silo collapsed, fatally entrapping 31-year-old farmer Bryan Kendall inside. 

At about 11:33 a.m., the Annville Cleona Fire Department responded to a building collapse near the South Annville Township. Despite having the Citizen’s Fire Company of Palmyra, Campbelltown Fire Company, Lebanon County Hazmat, and Lancaster County Rescue Taskforce on the scene, when emergency responders arrived, additional emergency and heavy equipment support was requested. 

“Regrettably, what began as a rescue mission transitioned into a recovery effort when a body was discovered within the silo by a K-9 unit at 1:10 p.m.,” reported the fire department. “The ACFD offers our sincere condolences to the family and friends affected. Our thoughts are with them during this time.” 

Kendall leaves behind his wife and two young boys. To help support the family, Landon Allebach set up a GoFundMe on April 28, which has already raised $64,251 of a $10,000 goal with 382 donations. 

“Words simply can’t do justice in honoring someone like Bryan. He was a wonderful husband, dad, son, brother, and friend,” wrote Allebach. “His life was a reflection of God’s grace as he selflessly served those around him at home, his church, and in his community. He was an incredibly hard worker who loved every aspect of farm life.”

While the collapse of a silo is a rare occurrence, it’s something that Bruce Johnson, president of the International Silo Association, shed light on the situation and a warning to other farmers with aging silos to conduct regular inspections on both new and aging silos. Their website includes a section detailing maintenance and aspects of concrete deterioration. 

Johnson shared details on the collapsed concrete silo with Lancaster Farming, saying that the silo was 40 years old, over 70 feet tall, and had been filled with triticale. 

“As these silos are now getting older, we’ve made it a point to raise awareness about maintenance,” Johnson said. “They’ve performed well for so long, and farmers are busy so that slow process of deterioration is easily overlooked, but that preventative step is key when it comes to silo safety.”

For the 10th straight year, Culver’s is offering guests a single scoop of Fresh Frozen Custard in exchange for a $1 donation to local FFA chapters and other agricultural education organizations as part of its annual Scoops of Thanks Day fundraiser on May 2. This year’s milestone event also features the one-day-only return of Culver’s How Now Brown Cow flavor of Fresh Frozen Custard, which made its debut on Scoops of Thanks Day in 2023.

Scoops of Thanks Day is a core part of Culver’s Thank You Farmers Project, a guest-fueled initiative that supports local agricultural efforts in the communities Culver’s serves along with national organizations working to advance the industry on a broader scale, such as the National FFA Organization and U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action.

Since the creation of the Thank You Farmers Project in 2013, Culver’s guests have helped the brand donate over $5 million to support agricultural education efforts, with an astounding $891,000 in donations having come directly from previous Scoops of Thanks Day fundraisers.

“Uplifting the next generation of agricultural leaders is something that means a lot to us at Culver’s, and we couldn’t be prouder to celebrate that with the tenth annual Scoops of Thanks Day,” said Alison Demmer, Culver’s senior marketing and public relations manager, and former Wisconsin FFA president. “We’re excited for our guests to join us on May 2 and show their support for local FFA members by making a $1 donation in exchange for a scoop of delicious Fresh Frozen Custard.”

Inspired by the Thank You Farmers Project, How Now Brown Cow is a celebration of the farm-fresh dairy that makes Culver’s Fresh Frozen Custard beloved by guests. The flavor, which features Chocolate Fresh Frozen Custard infused with Culver’s Signature Root Beer swirled with chopped Dove Chocolate and chocolate cake pieces, was created especially for Scoops of Thanks Day last year and made its debut to rave reviews.

Guests can choose between How Now Brown Cow, Chocolate, or Vanilla for their single scoop in exchange for a $1 donation. This year, guests can also make their donation in exchange for a single scoop of Fresh Frozen Custard through Culver’s website or app. Culver hopes to surpass the results from last year’s Scoops of Thanks Day, during which the brand served up more than 153,000 scoops during the fundraiser at locations nationwide.

To find your nearest Culver’s location and celebrate Scoops of Thanks Day, visit Culver’s locations page.