The Farm Bill and the Cattle Industry

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service at the Cattle Industry Annual Convention and Trade Show,
Nashville, TN
Jan. 31, 2003

Thank you, Chandler. Good Morning. It is a pleasure to be here with you this morning to talk about the future of conservation in the cattle industry. Secretary Veneman covered the 2002 farm bill pretty well, so I’ll keep my remarks to how technical assistance, combined with farm bill programs, can help cattle producers meet your conservation objectives and your financial objectives.

Secretary Veneman got it right when she thanked America’s cattle producers for your longstanding support of conservation. I am a rancher myself, and I know from experience how strong the land ethic is among cattle producers. These beliefs are why ranchers are such strong advocates of voluntary conservation.

Bob Lee is a good example of the conservation ethic at work. Your peers recognized your hard work by giving you the Environmental Stewardship Award. And there are several other award winners here in the room today. Not only was Bob an award winner, but he was also one of the founders of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative in Montana.

And Bob Drake, Chair of the National GLCI Steering Committee, who will be speaking next, is another fine example of the conservation ethic. I know many of you here today are active in GLCI, and I thank you for your efforts. By working together in efforts like GLCI, we can do more to put our conservation ethic to work on the land.

I want to second Secretary Veneman’s thanks to you for the work you did to make sure the conservation provisions of the new farm bill reflected the concerns of cattle producers. Your brand is clearly visible in many parts of the conservation title of the farm bill, and we have been hearing from you each time one of the rules for implementing farm bill programs comes up for comment. We appreciate your hard work and interest, and we value your opinions.

THE NEW FARM BILL
There is a lot in the new farm bill to be excited about. It includes an increase of $17.1 billion in conservation over ten years – and that will help cattle producers do a lot of valuable conservation work, while maintaining profitability.

The farm bill changes the emphasis of conservation programs from idling environmentally sensitive land to promoting conservation on working lands. The farm bill also builds on the joint accomplishments of NRCS and producers on pasture and range land management and nutrient management.

Both in its size and its emphasis, the farm bill announces our entry into what I call “the next golden age of conservation.” The farm bill offers a portfolio of conservation tools that will help more producers get more conservation done than ever before.

The program that increased the most in the new farm bill is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program -- EQIP. Its increase is $9 billion over 10 years! Nine billion dollars will help many more livestock producers and crop producers reach their conservation goals. And, for the first time, 60% of that money is designated for livestock producers.

EQIP is designed to help producers voluntarily meet the significant environmental challenges they face. It gives feedlot and other animal feeding operations more flexibility and resources to protect air and water quality. As Secretary Veneman announced yesterday, we have completed the proposed rule for EQIP. We will be working hard over the next few weeks to inform producers of the contents of the proposed rule.

The farm bill also provides resources for the other programs that can help you do the work of conservation:

• The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program – $360 million over six years.

• The Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program – nearly $600 million over six years. (And notice that “ranch” is now part of its name!) This program helps ensure agricultural lands stay in production for future generations.

• The new Grassland Reserve Program -- a quarter of a billion dollars in mandatory spending to enroll up to two million acres of grazing land.

• The Wetlands Reserve Program has significant increases in its acreage cap.

• The new Conservation Security Program will provide payments for producers who historically have practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands and incentives for them to do more.

It is your stewardship that produces environmental goods and services, such as clean water and air, healthy vegetation, and improved fish and wildlife habitat. We are working hard on the proposed rule for the CSP program, and will be releasing the first step in the rule making process any day now. We are determined to create a program that works, so it may take some time to iron out the details.

One last feature of the farm bill that will be of interest to you is that it provides for confidentiality of case file data. We recognize that this is your data and that you are entitled to confidentiality. Protecting confidentiality is an important part of building trust between producers and NRCS. We need information from you to provide technical assistance and to administer farm bill programs, and you need the assurance that we will protect any information you give us.

FARM BILL IMPLEMENTATION
I want to spend just a minute on what we have been doing to implement the farm bill. With our partners’ help, we not only have enough applications to invest the 2003 farm bill money -- we are back in the position of having a backlog of applications.

We also have been working hard to write the rules needed to implement the conservation provisions of the farm bill. We are making the rules as simple as possible, making the rulemaking process fully collaborative, and keeping as much decision making as possible at the local level, so that local people have as much control of the programs as possible. Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley refers to this approach as keeping things “lean and local.” In the case of EQIP, the new rule is 1/3 less in volume, due to our lean and local effort.

As Secretary Veneman pointed out yesterday, the 2002 farm bill made EQIP much more flexible for producers. The farm bill also keeps much of the decision making at the local level. One example is the provision for State and local input into ranking systems and cost-share rates.

The public comment period for the EQIP proposed rule runs for 30 days. I hope you will make your views known, so we can make changes that make the program operate better for you.

OUR STRATEGIC PLAN
We still have a lot to do to implement the farm bill over the next few years. This year, we are emphasizing three strategic ways to help ensure we invest the farm bill money wisely.

First, we will increase our efforts to get the word out, so we are sure we have reached the underserved groups in the producer community. As part of our outreach effort, USDA is conducting a string of regional informational briefings to reach more farmers and ranchers.

Second, we will focus more on conservation goals and less on programs – and work with producers to do the same. We will be looking at how applications relate to a producer’s overall conservation goals. And, we will be looking at how applications relate to national and local conservation priorities.

Third, we will focus more on getting as much conservation done as we can. We will look carefully at applications in a number of ways to be sure we are getting the most for the taxpayer dollar. We will be adopting cost-share rates based on particular practices and what they achieve. We will be working with producers and our partners to develop other sources of funds that will leverage the Federal dollar.

The Federal government and producers can get more conservation done when the cost is shared several ways. The new farm bill gives us the resources to work with new and existing partners and the flexibility to take on new projects. The more partners we have, the more conservation we can do.

And finally, we need – always – to remember the importance of local leadership. The most important work does not happen in Washington. Local participation and local leadership is what conservation is all about. That is why it is so important for you as producers to be involved in conservation decisions in your county and state.

For example, NRCS recently agreed to help the livestock and poultry industries develop a long range plan to ensure continued improvements in environmental performance and address regulatory requirements by 2015. As the first step in this effort, I have asked our State Conservationists to assess their local situations and identify appropriate partners to address these issues locally. Local input will give us a better chance of developing a framework that will meet animal agriculture conservation needs, address regulatory requirements and maintain economically viable operations.

This is just one example of how we can work with our partners to make the right choices and make this new farm bill live up to its potential.

I look forward to working with all of you to make the next golden age of conservation a reality.

Thank you.