AUBURN, Ill. — When National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA) members visited their legislators in Washington, D.C., they wore pins saying “Farm Bill Now.”

“We put it in large print because that is exactly what we want,” said NCGA President Garry Niemeyer. “We do not want an extension, we don’t want to wait any longer; we want a farm bill now.

“Essentially what we’re looking for is a farm bill that highlights, for the most part, crop insurance. Crop insurance is our highest priority.”

The second thing NCGA wants is a market revenue program, the Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management (ARRM) that fills the gaps left in crop insurance.

“When you take out crop insurance, you usually purchase it by March 15, in my area,” Niemeyer said. “It is based on the February prices of December futures. Then the harvest-end of it is based on the October price of December futures. But from year to year, there is the potential for multiple years of price or yield decline. That is the gap we don’t have any protection on.”

Major losses are covered by crop insurance, he said. Multiple years of declining prices or yields would be covered by ARRM. Essentially it replaces direct payments.

Last November the NCGA, through its Corn Policy Development, developed a program called the Agriculture Disaster Assistance Program. This is almost the same as the AARM program, although the numbers were changed by a small amount.

Recently the corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum associations all signed a letter of intent to legislators toward a proposal similar to NCGA’s, Niemeyer said. Those organizations adopted the concept of crop insurance being highest priority in the farm bill, and a revenue risk management tool filling in the gaps left when direct payments and counter-cyclical payments were replaced.

“Those four groups combined amount to 70 percent of the total cropland planted to crops in the United States,” Niemeyer said.

In developing its program NCGA worked with a group of 12 senators and representatives, he said. At that time they had proposed a $2.3 billion reduction in agriculture programs.

“Since that time the President came out with a $3.2 billion for reduction for 10 years,” Niemeyer said. “Then Congressman (Paul) Ryan (R-Wis.) came out with the Republican budget to drop it by about $3.3 billion.

“One of the points I was trying to make was, here we are in agriculture. We understand business; we understand that sometimes you have a budget that is a little bit out of kilter and you need some help.

“We’re willing to do our part – not more than our part, but our part – to help fix this budget by going through the process of being willing to take a $2.3 billion hit to the agriculture programs. If you won’t work with us, who are you going to work with?” he asked.