North Central Iowa | WeaveFarmer - 3/20/2024 07:45
No one is being forced to do anything. Seems to me like everything is a carrot, not a stick.
If a farmer in Iowa can raise a crop on black soils using strip-till and cover crop practices, as opposed to running a v-ripper and leaving the soil uncovered 5 months out of the year, and the government wants to subsidize one practice and not the other, that is nothing more than an opportunity.
If you don’t like the carrots, don’t go for the carrots. If your neighbor likes the carrots and goes to the trouble of getting the carrots, why complain?
Anyone who says the government shouldn’t get involved probably isn’t taking subsidized crop insurance or signing up for ARC / PLC or certifying their acres or following HEL practices or enrolled in CRP, right?
This is the thing, let everyone make there own decision. If you don't want to keep track, don't. If you do, great. It's almost like the ones that don't are jealous of the ones that do.
"Well eventually we'll be forced to participate" is a common argument. I've been trying to think of when the government has taken a carrot in farming and make it a rule for everyone (at least for a practice that doesn't make sense). You don't have to enroll in crop insurance. You don't have to enroll HEL in CRP. You can plow in the fall and do it again in the spring the opposite way if you want. You don't want to raise prop 12 pork, you don't have to. You don't want to raise organic grain, don't. You don't want to raise cage free chickens, don't. Non GMO? Go for it while I continue to use the new technology. The only thing that comes to mind in my area is the closing of ag drainage wells that dump surface water into the aquafer. That makes sense to me and I think its a good policy that new ones can't be installed.
"It's a government boondoggle" I assume those that have this argument pay their full share of income and sales taxes without using any loopholes for being a farmer and don't sign up for any of the programs you mentioned otherwise they'd be a little hypocritical. Good for me, not for thee kinda thinking. The CI scores are the next step in the renewable fuel world that we live in and have benefited from the last 20 years. Renewable Diesel carrot has resulted in a huge increase in soybean processing in the Midwest. It's driving sustainable aviation fuel that could be made from the crops we produce. It's keeping the the ethanol plants running wide open and adding value to the co products like corn oil. It's really hard to overstate the importance of what all of this means to the ag economy and midwest economy over the next 20 years.
Everyone is at a different stage in their farming career. I am sure someday I'll be more set in my ways and not need the extra income that the next opportunity brings. As of today I am not there yet and if you are congratulations!
Edited by Al Swearingen 3/20/2024 14:20
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CIS for ethanol feedstock
