The newly passed Farm Bill was the main topic of discussion at the Greene County Extension Ag Coffee this past Friday.

While Extension Farm Management Specialist Tim Christensen didn’t have a lot of information to share at the informal discussion due to the bill being passed a couple of days prior, he is thankful to have a Farm Bill approved by Congress before the end of the year.

“We got one in place now so we know what we’ve got moving forward. We’ve got a lot to sift through but I think the big emphasis is, is there is not a lot of huge changes. There’s some modifications on some production and how we’re going to come across those and maybe some opportunities to switch back between the ARC (Agriculture Risk Coverage) and the PLC (Price Loss Coverage) and make those decisions as we move forward and change some things up there. But nothing groundbreaking and we didn’t expect anything real groundbreaking.”

Other topics that were covered with the Farm Bill include: more acres being included with the Conservation Reserve Program; funding for farm stress and mental health; and utilizing more funds for the federal food and nutrition programs.