Congress is beginning to hear testimony on various subjects related to the upcoming 2018 Farm Bill. The National Farmers Union established the weak family farm economy as a point of emphasis last year. Please find below NFU’s recent press release regarding President Roger Johnson’s testimony. What’s happening on your farm? If you participate in ARC, PLC, MPP or other safety net programs, how are they working for your family business? It’s not too early to bring up the importance of the Farm Bill and a better safety net for farmers. Stay tuned here and to the Ohio Farmers Union Facebook page for upcoming announcements about Farm Bill Information and Listening Sessions. Also, consider writing a letter about your farm’s economics and how Farm Bill programs, including conservation measures, impact your ability to continue to farm. If you need assistance in identifying your member of Congress or U.S. Senators and their contact information, let Ron Sylvester know at rcs@ronsylvester.com and he’ll assist you.

from National Farmers Union:

Family farmers and ranchers are enduring a severely depressed farm economy, with projections pointing to a prolonged period of depressed commodity prices. To ensure the growth and success of family farm agriculture, Congress must strengthen the overall farm safety net, National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson told the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture today.

In his oral testimony to the Committee’s hearing on “Commodities, Credit, and Crop Insurance: Perspectives on Risk Management Tools and Trends for the 2018 Farm Bill,” Johnson urged senators to improve the farm bill safety net, protect crop insurance, and improve access to credit.

“We continue to witness pressure in the countryside as commodity prices remain low and farmers and ranchers struggle to adjust,” Johnson told members of the Committee. “We are three years into this downturn, and forecasts by USDA point to a prolonged period of depressed prices. Given this scenario, NFU believes that the farm bill safety net should provide meaningful assistance in two fundamental circumstances: when disaster strikes and when prices are low and remain below the cost of production for extended periods of time. These two scenarios have separate solutions, the first is crop insurance and the second is commodity programs.”

[Read more…]

In between chores and anticipating the coming harvest, many of you are considering the costs of doing business on the farm. Now, through the end of summer, you’ll be receiving information from OFU and CareWorks Comp regarding your on-farm risk management program.

CareWorks Comp is once again partnering with OFU in offering it’s first-class – and affordable – group rating program for workers’ compensation. For every $1 in fees associated with joining CareWorks Comp’s group rating program, Ohio businesses save $11 in BWC Workers Compensation premiums. As a group member you also enjoy the benefits and administrative services of CareWorks Comp.

As a partner with CareWorks Comp, the Ohio Farmers Union also benefits when one of our members joins the program.

If you would like to learn more about CareWorks Comp’s group rating program, visit our BWC Group Coverage page.

If you know right away that you would at least like a quote from CareWorks Comp, follow this link which automatically identifies you as an Ohio Farmers Union member.

As always, thanks for your support of OFU – and for always considering our partners’ quality insurance products when you make decisions affecting your farm, your business and your family!

After several years of tax increases, legislators on verge of providing some relief

COLUMBUS – As state budget negotiators enter the final days of House-Senate budget negotiations, the Ohio Farmers Union reminds legislators that CAUV reforms contained in both versions of the budget are desperately needed – and overdue.

“We’ve been fighting for some meaningful changes in the CAUV formula since around 2012,” said OFU President Joe Logan.

“It’s been a long haul, and along the way farmland property taxes have increased 300 percent or more for family farmers in every corner of Ohio, Logan said.

Logan points out that while farmland property taxes have skyrocketed, other small businesses in Ohio have seen large tax breaks.

“Family farms, which have struggled to generate income in an era of low commodity prices, are perhaps the only small business category that have been taxed more while others’ taxes have decreased over the past three state budgets.”

CAUV, or Current Agricultural Use Valuation, is the way farmland property tax values are determined.

President Donald J. Trump announced earlier this year his intention to weaken and eliminate funding for rural development at USDA as part of a larger ‘re-organization.’

This isn’t selling well with many in rural America.

The National Farmers Union and the Ohio Farmers have joined  joined a coalition of 578 farm and rural organizations, businesses and local governments in sending a letter to Congress pushing back on the administration’s recent budget proposal and proposed reorganization for USDA. The groups urge lawmakers to reject both proposals, as they would eliminate Rural Development as an essential Mission Area of USDA and cut Rural Development funding and staffing by 30 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Let’s start with what USDA Rural Development programs mean to Ohio.

The Avita Health System facility in Ontario, Ohio, just west of Mansfield in Richland County recently opened. It brought 350 jobs to the area and according to USDA, Avita Ontario will serve the health care needs of around 125,000 north-central Ohioans.

It would not have happened without USDA Rural Development.

Avita Ontario got $91 million in Community Facilities loan funding to repurpose nearly 200,000 square feet of abandoned retail space. Inpatient hospital services, an emergency department and labs are among the features at Avita Ontario.

Rural Development dollars in Ohio for FY 2016 included (among others):

• $53.6 million in rural electrification loans or guarantees
• Nearly $500 million in single-family housing lending in rural areas
• $44.5 million in waste and water district lending in rural areas

“The administration’s proposals do not sit well with family farmers and rural residents who benefit tremendously from the work of USDA Rural Development,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “While we appreciate Secretary’s Perdue’s heightened interest in rural economic development, President Trump’s proposed budget does not align with this interest. In fact, the budget proposal and proposed USDA reorganization bring the long-term viability of USDA RD into question.”

The coalition letter noted that for more than 50 years, USDA rural development programs have improved housing, utilities and community facilities, and economic opportunity for rural America. In fiscal year 2016 alone, USDA made available more than $29 billion in loans, guarantees, grants, and related assistance to over 157,000 individuals, businesses, non-profit corporations, cooperatives, and governments.

Yet there is still much work to be done in rural America, the coalition argued.

According an analysis of socio-economic well-being prepared by the Wall Street Journal, rural counties in America are in worse condition than big cities, suburbs and small or medium metro areas. Rural communities, and the people who live in them, have higher poverty and unemployment rates as well as a higher incidence of substandard housing and rent overburden when compared to metropolitan areas.

Despite this information, the Trump Administration proposed:

• Eliminating funding for two dozen housing and rural development programs.
• Rescinding USDA’s responsibility to provide direct rural housing loans, grants for mutual and self-help housing, financing for water and waste disposal systems, or loans and grants to small rural businesses, cooperatives, and value added producers.
• Reducing funding for many other programs under Rural Development well below their current rate.

“What will be left is a hollowed-out Rural Development function, degraded within the Department with far fewer resources to help rural America,” the coalition noted. “We urge the (Appropriations) Committee to reject the Administration’s FY 18 budget and reorganization proposals for Rural Development and instead provide appropriations at no less than the current rate and maintain the Rural Development mission area and position of Under Secretary for Rural Development.”

[Read more…]

U.S. Should Create a Fair Trade Framework That Puts Family Farmers, Ranchers, & Rural Communities First

The National Farmers Union released today public comments it has made to the Trump Administration regarding re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In public comments submitted today to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Johnson highlighted the shortcomings of the United States’ current free trade paradigm, citing its contribution to the massive U.S. trade deficit and abandonment of U.S. sovereignty to the detriment of farming and rural communities. He urged Lighthizer to use the NAFTA renegotiation as an opportunity to create a new, fair trade framework for future trade deal negotiations.

“While exports and trade are essential to family farmers and ranchers, free trade agreements too often result in the corporate consolidation of power that ultimately undermines the economic opportunity for farmers,” Johnson wrote. “Renegotiation of NAFTA should prioritize family farmers and ranchers, not agribusiness, and the working people across our country.”

In his comments, Johnson stated that NFU has long been concerned with the nation’s massive and persistent trade deficit that U.S. trade negotiators have failed to address in past negotiations. In 2016, the U.S. accumulated a trade deficit of $502.3 billion, which represented a 3 percent drag on the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

“While agriculture typically maintains a trade surplus, which is beneficial, it represents less than 4 percent of the overall trade deficit,” he added. “Unfortunately, in recent years, even the agricultural trade surplus has declined. Free trade agreements have not resulted in a stable positive balance of trade for U.S. agriculture.”

Johnson noted that free trade agreements – which typically operate under the framework that NAFTA initiated – have benefited multinational corporations, often at the expense of farming and rural communities.

[Read more…]

Big news on the Farmers Union membership benefits front. National Farmers Union has negotiated a great deal with Sprint for your wireless phone service. Below you’ll find the flyers from Sprint that outline these great savings. You should know that Sprint has been improving its national wireless network over the past couple of years, so their coverage areas are bigger and better than ever. If you are currently with another provider and find that the Farmers Union Sprint program will provide savings for you and your family, Sprint is also offering up to $300 to take care of any costs associated with getting out of another contract early.

If you would like to download PDF versions of both of the documents below you can do that:

1. Sprint Flyer 1
2. Sprint Flyer 2

The Ohio Farmers Union has put on another program explaining Current Agricultural Use Valuations (CAUV) and why the formula for how our Ohio farmland is taxed needs to be reformed.