Now the money is gone. Producers in Texas, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and elsewhere are beginning to liquidate herds because they lack the money to purchase feed or because pastures and hay are ruined. There appear to be holes in the safety net. We're not asking for a handout. We just want to be on a level playing field.
Crop insurance is another big issue.
Enacted to replace disaster assistance once regularly doled out by Congress, it doesn't work in places where calamities have happened several years in a row because policies are based on past crop yields. If yields drop, so does the available coverage. And if a farmer takes advantage of the 1996 law's flexibility to plant something completely new, insurers wait a few years until the crop is established before they are willing to cover it. Both dilemmas affect how much a banker is willing to lend. Agriculture is not very well-protected against acts of God.