Recently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) updated their website to address questions concerning existing agricultural exemptions and exceptions for agriculture along with those hauling horses or show animals.  The updated website is here.

At the Senate EPW hearing last week, Senators Ernst (R-IA) and Moran (R-KS) pressed Secretary of Transportation Chao about the challenges around ELD’s and the lack of the agency’s response to our petition for a longer term exemption from ELD’s.  Secretary Chao responded by saying: “If we do anything, it will be another waiver, but that is not a long-term solution,” Chao told the committee. “A decision will have to come up before March 18.”

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While again urging the Department of Transportation to grant agricultural haulers a waiver and limited exemption from the electronic logging device mandate, Farm Bureau in recent comments responded to the department’s efforts to provide clarity to the 150-air mile agricultural commodity exemption and the hours of service regulations.

Until recently, very few Farm Bureau members or agricultural haulers were aware of their ability to use the newly interpreted 150-air mile agricultural commodity exemption, which provides exceptions from the HOS rules for the transportation of agricultural commodities within a 150-air mile radius from the source of the commodities. Enforcement officials, too, likely have very little knowledge about this exemption. This lack of awareness, combined with the unforgiving realities of ELD technology, makes the need for clarity all the more pressing, Farm Bureau emphasized.

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AFBF’s Andrew Walmsley, director of congressional relations, explained the intent of the electronic logging device mandate and what it means for agriculture in a recent RFD-TV segment. Most farmers and ranchers should be exempt from the ELD mandate because they can claim covered farm vehicle status, but drivers who haul livestock, live fish and insects are likely to fall under the requirements.

The Transportation Department’s “one-size-fits-all approach” to implementing the regulation is of great concern, Walmsley noted.

Drivers who have to use ELDs would be limited to current hours of service rules, which restrict a driver to only 14 “on duty” hours, with no more than 11 active driving hours. Once a driver hits those maximum hour allotments, he must stop and rest for 10 consecutive hours, which would be problematic when transporting livestock and other live animals. DOT’s 90-day waiver from the requirement that agricultural and livestock haulers install ELDs in their vehicles expires March 18. AFBF remains in contact with the agency regarding agriculture’s concerns and continues to urge lawmakers to come up with a legislative solution.

Watch the RFD-TV clip.

The “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) was signed into law in July 2012, and it included changes to the exemptions that farmers had for hauling agricultural commodities to and from market as they related to for a Commercial Driver’s license, these additional exemptions were allowed when the farmers operated a “Covered Farm Vehicles” as defined in the act.

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When planning for the sale of their crops, grain farmers should use “realistic optimism.”

That was the message delivered Feb. 20 by Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Grain Division Manager Robert Harper during the 2018 Virginia Grains & Soybean Annual Conference.

Harper told attendees there are many factors that affect grain marketing, but farmers should start by “looking in the rearview mirror” to 2017.

Last year corn production was 176.6 bushels per acre nationwide, the highest corn yield in history, Harper remarked. And by Aug. 31 of this year 2.4 billion bushels of corn are expected to be left unsold, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We need to get that number down by increasing exports and using the corn,” Harper said.

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The American Farm Bureau Federation is calling on all members of Congress to support House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte in his goal of including the AG Act in the Securing America’s Future Act.

“We are at a crisis point in agriculture,” American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said.  “Chairman Bob Goodlatte wants to address our problem and has included the AG Act in pending legislation related to the DACA issue. Chairman Goodlatte’s AG Act would establish a new H-2C agriculture worker program that is far superior to the existing H-2A program. The new H-2C program offers a much brighter future for agriculture.  For farmers in sectors like dairy, mushrooms and others, who are excluded from H-2A and have nowhere else to turn, the H-2C program offers a path forward in meeting their future labor needs.

“At the same time, we are continuing to work with Chairman Goodlatte and other members of Congress to provide greater assurances on how the AG Act would affect our existing workforce.  Farmers today rely on these workers. They sustain our farms. They are part of the fabric of many rural economies. Farm Bureau policy supports providing these workers the opportunity to earn permanent legal status. That is our goal and we will do everything we can to achieve it.

“We applaud Chairman Goodlatte’s leadership and support him in his effort to include a solution for agriculture’s labor issue in the Securing America’s Future Act.”

From American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall: 

The nation’s system of laws and regulations is filled with policies that come from good intentions but, when applied without enough thought or input, don’t make sense in their implementation. One example that agriculture faces right now is the requirement that truck drivers install electronic logging devices in their vehicles. By switching from paper records to the electronic devices, it’s supposed to be easier to keep truckers honest about not going over the hours of service limits.

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After rebounding slightly in 2017, net farm income in 2018 is expected to fall to $59.5 billion, a 12-year low, according to the Agriculture Department’s most recent 2018 Farm Sector Income Forecast from the Economic Research Service. If realized, this would be the lowest net farm income since 2006 and would represent a decline of 6.7 percent from USDA’s 2017 projection.

Net farm income is a comprehensive indicator of U.S. farm profitability – for all crops and livestock – and includes cash receipts from farming as well as farm-related income, including government payments and noncash items like changes in inventories, economic depreciation and gross imputed rental income, minus cash expenses.

Net cash farm income is less comprehensive and does not include noncash items. Net cash income in 2018 is projected at $91.9 billion, down 5.1 percent from 2017 levels. If realized, this would be the lowest level since 2009.

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“The budget deal approved by Congress and signed by President Trump today includes a number of important agricultural provisions that will help America’s farmers and ranchers and support food security for all Americans,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall in a statement issued last week.

“First, the measure assists farmers affected by natural disasters. Last year’s fires and hurricanes were devastating for many farmers. This disaster assistance is much needed so that affected producers can recover and continue to help feed, house, fuel and clothe our citizens.

“By including measures to improve policies for cotton and dairy farmers, Congress has taken important steps to address two of our biggest farm bill priorities. Also important was eliminating the cap on USDA livestock risk management tools to provide more options in the livestock sector.”

For more information about those provisions, go here: https://www.agweb.com/article/inside-track-new-budget-deal-good-for-agriculture-naa-agweb-guest-editor/