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NeFB: An exhaustive review of reference prices needed

A state Farm Bureau organization says an exhaustive review of references prices in the next farm bill could help producers manage uncertainty.

Jordan Dux, senior director of national affairs with NEFB, says crop prices are significantly higher than target prices for the Price Loss Coverage program, which has created a unique situation, “We’re going to try and write a farm bill with record farm income again, and it’s a difficult conversation to have. But as we saw the last time we tried to do that, it was only two years later that we saw a drastic drop in farm income.”

He tells Brownfield references prices need to come in line with the cost of production, “Is this an opportunity, relatively inexpensively from a federal budgeting standpoint, to update those?  I think there is a large cry in Washington from ag groups to do that”

Dux says changes to references prices is likely something the organization would support.

Brownfield’s Kellan Heavican spoke with Dux at the Nebraska Farm Bureau’s 2022 annual meeting.