A piece of federal agriculture legislation years in the making passed earlier this year and many local farmers are making use of it.

Mike Fusilier, of Fusilier Family Farms located at 16400 Herman Road in Manchester Township, said a critical component of the Agricultural Act of 2014, also called the Farm Bill, is the risk management portion for crop insurance.

He believes the majority of Washtenaw County farmers make use of some component of the Farm Bill, which he said is overall very beneficial. He said almost every type of farmer uses some form of risk management.

The 2014 Farm Bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 7, is projected to cost $489 billion over the next 4 years. Among what it does is make some crop insurance available to specialty crop growers and federal block grants for specialty crops.

Fusilier described his farm, which also has a second location near Chelsea, as a mid-size operation with about 300 acres now being farmed by his family’s fifth and sixth generations. He grows a variety of fruits and vegetables.

He does wish the Farm Bill went a little further for specialty crops, he said, which is a large percentage of what he grows.

Ed and Diane Makielski, owners of Makielski Berry Farm at 7130 Platt Road in Pittsfield Township, do not expect to get much help from the Farm Bill for their efforts.

“There’s nothing that’s going to help me,” Ed Makielski said.

He believes the Farm Bill’s programs are aimed more at large farms, particularly corporate farms and those with over 500 acres. For the last 30 or maybe even 40 years, he said none of the government farm programs seem to be designed to help “the little guy,” even if they’re under the guise of doing so.

Ed Makielski, an 87-year-old World War II veteran, has been farming for 62 years. In November, the Makielski Berry Farm, which is known for its raspberries and blackberries as well as jams, raw honey, squash and gourds, will have been in operation for 63 years, and he plans to keep it going for more years to come.

Programs for specialty crops could have potentially helped his berry farm, he said, but raspberries are an exception and cannot be insured in Michigan.

Both this and some unpredictable weather have caused others he knows to give up growing raspberries, he said. He said he thinks he’s about the only farmer in southeast Michigan with a large quantity of raspberries at about 12 acres.

Fusilier said he does believe the Farm Bill helps pave the way to more specialty crop coverage in the future and more opportunities for companies to try pilot programs that could get wider use if successful.

“The grants will help growers sell their produce, protect crops from pests and improve production practices,” said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, an author of the farm bill and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

“What this is, is a food and farm bill,” said Stabenow, who started working on the bill in 2011. “It’s all about supporting the food system, from the farmers who are growing it to the consumers who are putting it on the table.”

Any farm bill sees its share of criticism, said Fusilier. He said he thinks most of the money has been going into the farm industry before, but with the Agricultural Act of 2014 more funding seems to be going into risk management and there are more programs for smaller farmers than there used to be.

Fusilier said another positive part of the bill he likes is programs it offers to help young farmers get started, something his son is making use of to start his own farm. It costs a lot for the land and equipment to get a farm going, and he said although the Farm Bill may not offer a lot of money to new farmers it can still help them get started.

Recently, he said he is seeing more young farmers going into agriculture and he thinks the Farm Bill is a part of that. He said he thinks residents are going to see some great things from new farmers as time goes on.

“We’re seeing bright young people coming back into agriculture,” Fusilier said.

Research block grants from the Farm Bill are yet another good part, he said, because they will help fund future research into various pests that damage specialty crops and what can be done in response. Nature brings a variety of challenges to farmers like this, he said, such as the more recent problems with emerald ash borers.

Funding for more conservation efforts are also part of the Farm Bill.

Michigan’s cherry farmers, who were hit hard by freezes and other bad weather, are likely to take advantage of the crop insurance program. Unlike cherry farmers, it is more costly and time-consuming for commodity farmers to submit an insurance claim however, in part due to the challenge of keeping track of produce that have lots of varieties like tomatoes and peppers.

When it comes to Michigan’s dairy farmers, Michigan Milk Producers Association president and St. John dairy farmer Ken Hobis says what they gained with the new farm bill is a safety net in case the economy flatlines again, as it did in 2009.

At the time, feed costs escalated while milk prices dropped, resulting in the farmer paying more than $10 per hundred pounds to feed the cow, while milk prices dipped below $2. The farm bill’s new margin protection program mandates if milk prices go below $4 the USDA will buy dairy products and distribute them to area food banks, shelters and low-income food programs.

Major reforms were made to the farm bill during its creation including the elimination of direct payments, which were paid every year whether they were needed. Instead farmers will gain access to better crop insurance and the option of two programs, including Agricultural Risk Coverage or the Price Loss Coverage.

ARC covers losses at either the individual farm level or at the county-level. PLC provides payments when the price of a crop drops below a reference price. The problem is farmers have to make a one-time irrevocable decision to enroll in ARC or PLC and both are extremely complex.

Data compiled by the Michigan Farm Bureau shows the state’s spending breakdown: 20 percent for farming (including commodities, conservation, crop insurance and miscellaneous programs).

The other 80 percent is all about nutrition, encompassing everything from food stamps and loans for new farmers to funding research for the ever-growing bio products economy.

Among the agencies that will benefit from the bill’s nutrition programs is Gleaners Food Bank. Last year, Gleaners partnered with 562 other agencies in order to distribute 95,241 meals, amounting to 41,601,477 pounds of food for Michigan families.

The new farm bill also increases food assistance and expands access to local, tribal, Kosher and Halal foods in assistance programs.

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