Will There Be An “Agriculture Abyss”?
The Economist Magazine based in England writes several good articles a year on items related to farming. They just recently posted an article dealing with the farm bill making its way through Congress.
Most farmers know that the Farm Bill has technically expired as of September 30, 2012, but many probably do not know that we are now under the 1949 Farm Bill. Each four-five year extension of the Farm Bill is actually an extension of the 1949 Act. When the 2008 Farm Bill expired, we technically go back to the provisions of the 1949 Act.
This Act has various support prices and some of these prices are extremely high. For example, milk support price is somewhere in the $30 plus range. Wheat is around $15. These prices are one of the primary reasons that Congress will either extend the Farm Bill or pass a new one. The Milk support price would take effect on January 1, 2013. The others would take effect when the crop is harvested.
I do not think we will have the Agriculture Abyss mentioned in the article, but all of thought that the 2010 no-estate provision would have been fixed long before December, 2010 also.
Paul Neiffer, CPA
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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