As NAWG continues to develop its Farm Bill priorities, it has created and launched a Farm Bill Survey to gather feedback from growers about what policies are most important to farmers and identify practical policy recommendations that would benefit the grower community. NAWG relies on grower input to be effective advocates before Congress and across the Administration. The Farm Bill Survey asks farmers to describe their experiences on a wide variety of programs set to expire or lapse with the 2018 Farm Bill on September 30, 2023. NAWG encourages growers to complete the NAWG Farm Bill Survey and contribute their voices to planning a successful Farm Bill reauthorization. The survey is 33 questions in length and provides opportunities to comment on a broad array of farm programs.

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* 1. What best describes you?

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* 2. In what state do you live?

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* 3. In what age range do you fall?

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* 4. Are you a beginning farmer (defined as farming less than 10 years)?

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* 5. Which class(es) of wheat do you grow?

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* 6. Is wheat your primary crop?

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* 7. Over the last 5 years, have you increased, decreased, or maintained your wheat acreage (or percent acreage in a rotation)?

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* 8. Over the last five years, have you experienced disease or insect issues with your wheat crop? If so, what have been the primary disease/insect issues that have impacted your wheat crop?

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* 9. What other crops do you grow?

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* 10. What type of risk is the most important to cover in Title 1? Provisions of Title I, the “Commodity Title,” of the 2018 farm bill authorize current commodity revenue support programs like marketing assistance loan (MAL) program and the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) programs?

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* 11. Rate each of the following Title I programs in terms of effectiveness relative to wheat.

  Unsatisfactory Less Than Satisfactory Satisfactory Above Average Excellent N/A
Price Loss Coverage (PLC)
Agriculture Risk Coverage-County (ARC-CO)
Agriculture Risk Coverage-Individual (ARC-IC)
Marketing Assistance Loan (MAL)
Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP)

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* 12. How effective is your wheat crop insurance policy at covering losses? In the comments, please elaborate on which additional crop insurance policies and/or endorsements provide value to you in managing risk.

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* 13. What challenges or hurdles do you face when purchasing crop insurance or making crop insurance claims?

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* 14. What is your biggest concern about the future of crop insurance?

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* 15. What would you like to see improved or changes in the crop insurance program?

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* 16. Do you think that the following ad-hoc programs were effective and necessary to cover disasters? If yes, rate them on their effectiveness? 

  Unsatisfactory  Less Than Satisfactory Satisfactory Above Average Excellent N/A
Market Facilitation Program (MFP)
Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP)
Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+)
Quality Loss Adjustment (QLA)

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* 17. Are you supportive of reestablishing a permanent disaster aid program, like WHIP+, if it meant reduced funding for some Title I (ARC/PLC) or Crop Insurance programs?

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* 18. If farm bill programs were condensed or eliminated, which of the following would you prefer to use as your main risk management tool?

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* 19. Does the current wheat PLC reference price of $5.50 per bushel cover cost of production?

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* 20. What do you think is the highest level at which the PLC target price could be set without affecting your planting decision?

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* 21. If NAWG were to pursue an increase in the $5.50 reference price for wheat, what offsets would be willing to consider to pay for the increased reference price within the Farm Bill Title I area (ARC, PLC, and Marketing Assistance Loans)? According to some preliminary analysis by a land-grant institution, every 10-cent increase to the reference price for just wheat would cost approximately $1.2 to 1.5 billion over 10 years. Therefore, a 50-cent increase in the wheat reference price would cost approximately $6.73 to $8.42 billion over the next decade.

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* 22. If you could make any change to Title I or Crop Insurance without worrying about off-sets, funding, the debt, or any other repercussions, what would you like to see?

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* 23. When working with FSA, NRCS or your conservation district, what type of conservation assistance are you seeking to address?

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* 24. What type of conservation assistance is most important to you?

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* 25. Are there sufficient conservation options/practices/enhancements available in the USDA conservation programs for wheat growers in your area?

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* 26. If you could make any change to conservation programs, what would you like to see?

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* 27. Are you using cover crops?

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* 28. Are you aware of local recommendations on the use of cover crops?

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* 29. Do you participate in Farm Service Agency (FSA) guaranteed or direct loan programs?

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* 30. If you participate in FSA guaranteed or direct loan programs, what programs?

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* 31. Currently, the Marketing Assistance Loans (MAL)/Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP) programs do not kick in unless prices drop below a certain threshold. The national loan rate for wheat is $3.38 per bushel and there are also county and regional loan rate that vary. Do you have any feedback about the current wheat loan rate or how this program could be improved in the next Farm Bill?

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* 32. How valuable do you consider local FSA office services to be?

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* 33. Do you use USDA online services? If so, how useful do you find online services like aerial photography, Farm+, the Common Land Unit system, and ACRSI to be?

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