Last month, President Obama signed into a law a nearly $1 trillion farm bill.

The new bill spells out big changes for the local agriculture industry, especially cotton farmers.

Until now, whether cotton season was good or bad, farmers received direct cash payments for their product. The money was paid, regardless of acreage, yield, or what the market was doing.

Mary Jane Buerkle, with Plains Cotton Growers, says the new farm bill will instead have producers compensated through a crop insurance program if they lose their commodity.

"Cotton is essentially going to crop insurance based programs - so it's been said that your crop insurance agent is going to become a very good friend," Buerkle said.

The goal, from the Government's standpoint, is to save money.

The new bill is projected to save $23 billion over the next decade. However, Buerkle says the farm bill can be complex to understand even for the most seasoned producer.

"The National Cotton Council, the Southwest Council of Agribusiness, among several others, are hosting farm bill informational sessions this week in order to help producers understand the complexities of this new farm bill," Buerkle said.

There are several changes in the bill that directly affect cotton farmers. That's why several local agencies are teaming up to hold the informational sessions free of charge.

"The goal of these meetings is to ensure that producers have access to the very best information that they can get about this new farm bill and the changes that they're going to have to make in their operation whenever it comes to dealing with the new bill," Buerkle said.

Source - http://www.kcbd.com/