Senate names nine Farm Bill conferees

Aug 02, 2018

The group consists of five Republicans and four Democrats

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

U.S. lawmakers are one step closer to passing a new Farm Bill before the current one expires at the end of September.

Yesterday, the Senate appointed nine members the conferees for the 2018 Farm Bill debate. The Senators will work with 47 House members to come up with a unified bill.

Five Republicans and four Democrats will make up the Senate panel.

The Republican representatives are Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate ag committee, Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, John Boozman from Arkansas, John Hoeven from North Dakota and Iowa’s Joni Ernst.

Senate Agriculture Committee photo

The Democrat contingent consists of Debbie Stabenow, ranking member of the Senate ag committee, Patrick Leahy from Vermont, Sherrod Brown from Ohio and Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota.

Farm groups urge legislators to work together and send a bill to President Trump as soon as possible.

The National Association of Wheat Growers is asking members to “put politics aside and growers first by completing one bill that works for all of agriculture,” the organization said in a statement yesterday.

“The Farm Bill is important to farm families and rural communities in Kentucky and across the country,” Mark Haney, president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, said in a statement today. “It is critical to the agriculture industry to get this piece of legislation finalized and on the President’s desk.”

Fellow Senators are confident their colleagues will send a bill to President’s Trump before the expiry date.

“Right now, we’re on schedule to make the Sept. 30 deadline,” John Thune, a Senator from South Dakota, told the Capital Journal yesterday. “I feel good about the bill that the Senate has put together. It’s a pro-farmer, pro-agriculture bill that protects the people and the industry that is the backbone of our country.”

Congress failed to pass the 2008 Farm Bill before its expiration date.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.