BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. (ICGA) announced formal support for a revenue-based safety net in the commodity title in the farm bill during a discussion on Nov. 29.

ICGA delegates gave a thumbs-down to extending the 2006 farm bill. New ICGA President Steve Ruh, a farmer from Sugar Grove, Ill., said change is needed.

“ICGA has done extensive surveying of its membership, conducted a series of statewide farm bill listening sessions, and our delegates recently debated farm bill options at our annual policy session,” Ruh said. “This extensive corn grower input allows us to move forward with confidence that we are pursuing a needed change in farm policy.”

Information gathered by the ICGA determined that farmers believe farm payments should be made when income is low, rather than when yields are low. More than 60 percent of the farmers said the current farm bill should not be extended, according to the ICGA.

“Many Illinois producers were hurt by unfavorable weather in 2005, and due to low yields, did not benefit from significant loan deficiency payments,” Ruh said. “Growers told us current disaster aid proposals do not do enough to help producers in times of poor crops. There is good consensus that a revenue-based approach is viable and sustainable.”

The Iowa Corn Growers Assoc. previously declared support for the same revenue-based concept favored by their Illinois contemporaries.

Earlier this year, delegates attending the National Corn Growers Assoc.’s meeting in Washington overwhelmingly voted to explore support of a revenue-based proposal at the organization’s Corn Congress in March 2007.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 6, the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) announced delegates attending the 92nd Farm Bureau meeting in Chicago urged the organization’s leadership to seek changes in American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) policy so AFBF “can be at the table” when the 2007 farm bill is written.

Current AFBF policy calls for an extension of the current farm bill until an agreement on the World Trade Organization is reached. However, with WTO talks stalled indefinitely, IFB President Philip Nelson said the AFBF must rethink their policy because incoming chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees are motivated to write a new farm bill next year.

“I think it will be a spirited debate, but there’s a lot of realization that a farm bill will be written and we don’t want to be on the sidelines when that happens,” Nelson said.

For more information on their respective farm bill policies see the ICGA’s website at www.ilcorn.org and the IFB’s site at www.ilfb.org

This farm news was published in the Dec. 13, 2006 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.