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Senator Young meets with Indiana farmers, stakeholders

Indiana Senator Todd Young met with farmers and agriculture stakeholders today in Indianapolis.

He says Hoosier farmers have faced unprecedented weather and field conditions this spring and need certainty now more than ever.

Young says farmers want clarification on how they can apply for disaster assistance relief.

“My office sent a letter to USDA, encouraging USDA to come up with this clarity soon,” he says. “They’re working hard to do that, but it’s our intention to continue to encourage them to provide our producers that clarity.”

Jane Ade Stevens, CEO for the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Growers Association, says trade was also part of the discussion.

“We’re dealing with a natural disaster now and it would be very useful to get our trade issues solved so that we can start working on becoming a reliable supplier again,” she says.

Audio: Jane Ade Stevens, ISA and ICGA

Shelby County farmer Phil Ramsey says ratifying the USMCA would benefit farmers across the state.

“This is really a long-range issue- even when we get past this weather event, we still have to have exports to move our grain and meat to,” he says. “We need to get these agreements in place so we can move forward and get some level of certainty and consistency to our decision making.”

Audio: Phil Ramsey, Indiana farmer

Ramsey says it’s been a challenging planting season on his farm. He was able to finish soybean planting but has several corn acres enrolled in prevented plant this year. 

After a wet start to the season, DeKalb County farmer Sarah Delbecq says she was able to begin planting around mid-May.

“We got about 80 percent of what we hoped to do done, there’s still acres that are unplanted and decisions to be made as to how we move forward through the year,” she says. “Our biggest priority at this point is making sure that what we did get in the ground will be a viable crop and will leave us with something to harvest.”

Audio: Sarah Delbecq, Indiana farmer

Delbecq says there will likely be movement in the next few weeks on getting a designation for the portions of Indiana that are facing a disaster. It’s unclear how many counties that would include.

“The number one priority for everyone is to get Indiana in line as soon as possible, because we know we’re not the only state that’s in this boat,” she says.

The roundtable discussion was hosted by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Growers Association.