What are the biggest issues facing farmers today?

by Brad Lubben

This column marks the 20-year anniversary of the first Policy Report I wrote for publication in Nebraska Farmer.
Back in the fall of 2005, I had just started work in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, after working 13 years in Extension with the University of Illinois and with Kansas State University.
The chance to return to my home state and to specialize in agricultural and public policy education in the department where I had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees was a great opportunity. The chance to pick up the responsibility for the Policy Report column in Nebraska Farmer from my predecessor and distinguished policy expert Roy Frederick was also a great opportunity, albeit a daunting challenge.
I shared that task with colleagues in the first few years before becoming the primary author and have now written nearly 200 columns over the past two decades.

Circling back 
My first column was on the farm bill, which is not surprising. Some of my colleagues kid me that my primary role is to talk about what is coming in the next farm bill for four (or more) years, and then talk about what is actually in it when it does pass.
Thanks to some analysis of my column’s titles over the past 20 years by one of my students, I can report that I’ve written about the farm bill in more than 20 percent of my columns — not quite every one, but certainly a frequent topic. I’ve also written about general policy development more than 20 percent of the time, likely to include farm bill discussions but also broader ag policy issues and budget challenges.
I’ve written about the farm income safety net numerous times as well, including my most recent column in the past month. While the farm bill columns tend to focus on how farm policy is written or how it might impact producers, the safety net columns tend to focus specifically on how programs work and how producers might make participation and management decisions.
All combined, writing about the farm bill, the policy development process and the farm income safety net account for more than 50 percent of my columns and reflect the primary focus I have developed on federal agricultural policy.

Seen it all
With current safety net programs such as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) now extended through the 2031 crop year, I’ve watched new farm income safety net concepts develop from ideas into programs into what has effectively become the new (semi-)permanent farm bill.
Of course, that doesn’t replace the actual permanent farm bill legislation from 1949 that still exists on the books. Each new farm bill has to regularly suspend the permanent legislation to avoid the “dairy cliff” that would occur if decades-old legislation had to be enacted on Jan. 1 when the first crop (milk) of the new year is harvested.
That issue comes up every farm bill cycle, generating fodder for discussion, and is before us again now as farm bill language not addressed in the budget reconciliation process this past summer has expired and awaits congressional action before the permanent legislation would kick in at the end of the year.
Another of my regular topics is risk management. While it closely relates to the farm bill and safety net discussion and may often overlap, it also encompasses a broader focus on the risks that agricultural producers face and the policies, tools and strategies that producers might use to manage risk.
A major impetus for this focus is my role as director of the North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center. The center is competitively awarded funds from USDA to, in turn, run a regional competitive grants program for producer-focused risk management education projects. The funding opportunity is open every fall (information available at ncerme.org) and supports projects that help producers manage production, marketing, financial, legal and human risks.
Other policy topics I’ve covered in the past 20 years include bioenergy, conservation, food and trade. I’ve also addressed rural policy and other issues of more relevance at the state and local level here in Nebraska, as we deal with important issues such as rural economic vitality, school funding, and of course, property taxes. That was a particular expertise of my predecessor, and it remains particularly relevant to the state today.

Here’s the beef
One of the many enjoyable opportunities I have is to write about beef industry policy issues through the lens of students who I teach as part of the Krutsinger Beef Industry Scholars program.
Students identify and study important policy issues in the beef industry and engage in industry discussions as part of their final class in the program. The class provides relevant insight into current issues, as well as a look at the future participants and leaders in the industry.
Finally, I’ve written numerous times on the general farm economy and the farm economic outlook, including state-level analysis and forecasts we produce in conjunction with the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center at the University of Missouri.
The fall 2025 analysis will be the topic of next month’s column, but the picture from earlier this year is still with us as record cattle prices and sizable government payments mask real challenges for agriculture, particularly the crop sector.
In a state where agriculture and the broader agribusiness complex are the largest part of the state’s economy (a topic of another study and column), the economic outlook for agriculture drives a large part of the economic outlook for the state (and a large part of the outlook for state tax revenues as well).
Addressing the current challenges in agriculture will be critical going forward. Whether it is the farm economic outlook and financial challenges for producers or it is policy development and uncertainty, it will be important to keep informed of the issues. 
Understanding the economic factors, the policy choices, and the decisions that producers and others must make will be an important part of the discussion. I look forward to this column continuing to address these issues and, hopefully, increasing the level of understanding in the years ahead.
The writer, Brad Lubben, is a Nebraska Extension associate professor, policy specialist and director of the North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center in ag economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This article was first published by Nebraska Farmer and is reprinted here with permission.