As the head of the Farm Service Agency prepares to leave his position in Washington he has some parting thoughts for Congress as they write the next farm bill. FSA Director Val Dolcini says for the most part the Ag Committees constructed an adequate safety net program, but there are some areas that need tweaking. He says the Margin Protection Program didn’t provide the type of payments dairymen were expecting in a down market.

He also hopes for some changes in the conservation title of the next farm bill.

Dolcini says during the first year of the ARC and PLC programs they had a few issues with the disparity of ARC County payments, even county to county. However, he thinks many of those wrinkles have been ironed out.

He also believes the farm and nutrition programs should remain linked in the new farm bill.