House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Collin Peterson of Minnesota has sent a letter to Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue urging changes for the next round of the market facilitation program payments. Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish agrees with Peterson and says those payments need to be figured correctly.
Under the MFP, dairy producers receive payments based on production history and not on actual production. Wertish and Peterson think they should be based on actual production. Wertish also says with the trade war impacts, MFP payments are badly needed.
He says most producers would rather get their income from trade and the markets rather than from the government.
Wertish says a long term fix is needed to the commodity safety net and Peterson says he’s ready to work with the administration to achieve that.
In his letter, Peterson said crop rotations have prevented farmers from receiving MFP payments and the payments don’t account for the impact on crop basis created by trade disruptions.
