In most cases it would be difficult to develop marketing orders that most major crop growers would agree to because of the diverse production and marketing conditions for field crops. Most crops covered by marketing orders are grown by relatively few producers within well-defined geographic areas and are marketed in few channels. In contrast, field crop production occurs over wide areas of the country and involves many producers marketing many crops to many different markets. Growers may undertake efforts to boost farm prices by restricting sales of high-quality produce to a price responsive markets only when the industry can isolate its product from other competing suppliers. It is generally easier to isolate markets for horticultural crops such as Walla Walla Sweet onions than for major field crops because of the specialized production regions and short marketing seasons for many specialty crops.
Field crops producers in other countries compete directly with U.S. producers through world trade.
Any attempt to elevate the U.S. price of field crops via marketing order activity would likely cause domestic producers to lose export shares. Even if marketing orders could be used to increase U.S. prices of field crops above the world price, imports would enter the U.S. market causing domestic U.S. prices to fall. Furthermore, higher farm prices would encourage domestic grain users to circumvent the marketing restrictions by producing their own grain and selling it in a different form. For example, beef feedlots could grow corn and market it through fed cattle. Despite their potential benefits for producers of many horticultural crops marketing orders do not appear to offer a workable alternative to the current price and income support programs for major field crops.