With another legislative marathon under way in Washington to decide the next federal budget, the agricultural industry is demanding action on the Farm Bill, which hasn’t been reauthorized for its full term since President Trump’s first term.
Much of what’s discussed during budget reconciliation could impact the Farm Bill, including the conservation title in the bill that focuses on voluntary programs that help farmers and ranchers implement natural resource conservation efforts on their land.
Growers and industry stakeholders are already concerned about a reduction in services due to proposed staff reductions at the USDA. The reductions are currently in legal limbo due to an emergency petition filed in federal court.
NRCS Associate Chief Louis Aspey, noting the agency’s 90th birthday this year, recently addressed the situation at the Conservation In Action tour in South Dakota hosting by the Conservation Technology Information Center. He said NRCS Chief Audrey Bettencourt and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins are focused on s streamlining the agencies and re-focusing them on serving farmers.
“We have unlimited technology available to us. I’m Really excited about some of the changes that are forthcoming. The NRCS may look a little bit different but it’s going to be focused on farmers first,” Aspey said.
Several high-ranking farm conservation officials recently implored lawmakers to minimize staff cuts and office closures, preserve technical assistance and fully fund conservation programs.
Here’s a recap of what several prominent conservation officials had to say during a hearing before the U.S. Senate on Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
Gary Blair — President, National Assn. of Conservation Districts
With approximately 60% of U.S. land in private ownership, achieving landscape-scale conservation goals relies on the voluntary cooperation of farmers, ranchers and forest stewards.
Blair said farmers and ranchers “are land stewards at heart. They want to leave the land better than they found it, but they can't do it alone. They need timely, high-quality technical assistance and conservation programs like EQIP and CSP to keep their lands healthy and productive.”
Blair said about 39% of U.S. land is in farmland and 88% of our farmers are “small to medium” size operations that have secondary sources of income so they can continue their passion for working the land. About 30% of those operations are new and beginning farmers, Blair said. 
“I can't overstate the level of expertise and capacity needed to serve our nation's landowners and operators. Technical assistance is the foundation of our conservation delivery system and cultivating relationships drives successful outcomes,” he said.
During the previous Trump administration, according to Blair, former USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue assessed the NRCS's conservation workload, producer needs and drive times to visit NRCS and conservation district offices, which are often co-located. Blair said Perdue’s staff identified the optimal office locations and approved an 11,000-employee staffing cap at NRCS.
Farm bill programs have been constantly oversubscribed, he adds, noting that in fiscal year 2024, Inflation Reduction Act funding allowed the NRCS to fund 80% more EQIP and CSP applications, which is still only 43% of the $8.7 billion requested by producers.
He applauded USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins for ensuring existing contracts with farmers are honored and lifting the pause on funded contracts with producers.
“American farmers, ranchers and forest stewards are ready and eager to participate in conservation programs. They simply need certainty and tools to get it done,” Blair said.
“Maintaining strong investments in Farm Bill conservation programs and technical assistance and supporting an efficient and skilled conservation workforce and local presence in communities across this country, allows us to fulfill our mutual commitment to delivering results for producers, taxpayers and the land.”
Brad Doyle — Producer, Board Member, Arkansas Farm Bureau
Doyle, his wife Joyce and son Cody farm rice, soybeans and wheat in their home state and their farm has been in operation for more than 100 years. They also run a seed business for soybean, rice, corn and wheat with markets in the U.S. and Canada.
The U.S. government has invested in agriculture for more than 90 years, Doyle notes, dating back to the Dust Bowl and Great Depression and farm crises of the mid-1980s. But the current state of U.S. agricultural economy reveals a “widening and unsustainable gap” between the prices farmers are paid for products and what they pay to produce them, he said.
The USDA’s farm sector income forecast shows inflation adjusted crop cash receipts have declined since 2022 by $67 billion, or 22%, while input costs for seed chemicals, repairs and taxes remain at near record levels. Recent improvements to crop insurance and ad hoc government assistance haven’t helped much, he said.
“Unless structural changes are enacted through a modernized Farm Bill that provides commodity support that reflects the cost of production, enhanced risk management tools, meaningful investment in trade and strengthened conservation support, the United States risks irreversible damage to its agricultural foundation,” Doyle said.
Doyle, whose family farms in Poinsett County, the No. 1 rice-producing county in the U.S. offered a personal story about EQIP and how the funding was used to build a second reservoir on their farm for to capture rainwater and improve irrigation pumping capacity and lessen the burden on aquifers in the area.
The demand for these programs consistently outpaces available funding, leading to a need for more robust support in future farm bills
“The irrigation timing and management of excess water on a flat rice and soybean farm are critical to crop production. The reason our soils hold water well is they're very shallow and thin and we get a great response from irrigation,” he said. “The project that we started was completed in 2023 with a follow-up cover crop plan that we initiated through 2024.
“With limited funds available, it is critically important to formulate a plan, get on the waiting list and follow the detailed criteria to follow the local NRCS support and fund such a large project,” Doyle said, noting that in the 2018 Farm Bill, conservation programs only account for 7% of total farm bill spending.
“The demand for these programs consistently outpaces available funding, leading to a need for more robust support in future farm bills.”
Lynn Tjeerdsma — Board of Directors, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever
Tjeerdsma, a farmer and rancher, said the organization has 490,000 members, supporters and partners and 750 local chapters that make up the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation.
Since 1982, the organizations, combined, invested more than $1 billion dollars in 580,000 habitat practice projects benefiting 28.8 million acres. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever partner with thousands of private landowners, farm and ranch families, state and wildlife agencies and federal partners at USDA.
“The voluntary incentive-based locally-led conservation programs in the Farm Bill on my farm have protected the fragile acres, improved soil health, reduced erosion and provided ample wildlife habitat, resulting in sporting opportunities for me, my son, grandsons and friends,” Tjeerdsma said, noting that in South Dakota alone pheasant hunting provides $281 million to the state’s economy.
“The technical assistance I've received thanks to the Farm Bill and Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever biologists has been invaluable in selecting the best practices in achieving my farming operation goals.
“This is why we need to pass a 5-year farm bill with strong investments in conservation practices and technical assistance to meet oversubscribed farmer and rancher demand. Incorporating unspent Inflation Reduction Act funding into the conservation title baseline is a necessary move that has bipartisan support in Congress.
“We also need to shore up and improve the Conservation Reserve Program, which is one of the most essential farm bill programs for America’s soil, water, and wildlife producers,” he said, adding that the Voluntary Public Access Program and EQIP also need full support.
Chad Ellis — CEO, Texas Agricultural Land Trust
Texas Agricultural Land Trust was developed by producers and founding members of the Texas Farm Bureau, Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and Texas Wildlife Association to serve as a, “trusted source to keep our working lands working, and providing tools for land stewards for their heritage and legacy and providing food and economic stability for their communities,” Ellis said.
The program has helped more than 70 families and over 300,000 acres across Texas. But he sees trouble on the horizon: In the last 5 years Texas has lost more than 18,000 farms and ranches. Some 1,400 people are moving to the state on a daily basis and the state loses over 1,000 acres of working lands each day, “that are being basically converted into the last crop, the crop of concrete.”
Farm Bill programs such as the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Agricultural Land Easements Program and Regional Conservation Partnership Program are what help TALT assist landowners protect their legacies through voluntary conservation easements.
“These are not just conservation programs, they're national security programs. They ensure that future generations of Americans have access to healthy food, clean water, open space,” Ellis said. “They keep private working lands productive and in the hands of the people that know them the best. That's my fellow ranchers, farmers, and private foresters.”
He asked lawmakers to eliminate the adjusted gross income limitations from ACEP-ALE, “because compensation for the purchase of a conservation easement is not a subsidy but a conveyance of a private real property.
“We also ask you to look at the exempt conservation easement program payments from future AGI. Reduce administrative burdens that delay the project implementation and discourage participation. One viable tool that we have for streamlining implementation is through certified entities which recognizes exceptional land trust and delegates authorities to these entities. And lastly, to support flexibility in these programs designed so that landowners and partners can effectively deliver these tools.”
Megan Dwyer — Director of Conservation and Nutrient Stewardship, National Corn Growers Assn.
Dwyer, a fourth-generation farmer, certified crop advisor and ag professional, raises corn, soybeans, alfalfa and beef cattle near Coal City, Ill., and works at the NCGA to ensure policies and regulatory efforts, “are grounded in both science and common sense.”
“For decades, we’ve rightly focused on protecting our most vulnerable soils. I’m here to ask us to think differently — to consider how programs can better protect our most productive soils,” Dwyer said.
For example, the state of Illinois is 70% farmland, which represents 24 million acres that are among the nation’s most productive. But from 2018 to 2022 the state only received 1.3% of EQIP funding, while Georgia received three times as much while having one-fifth of the crop acres, she said.
Last year, she adds, only $6.4 million of the $21.5 million in EQIP funds Illinois received supported cropland conservation. The Illinois Corn Growers Assn. and the Illinois Department of Agriculture recently secured an additional $15 million of traditional EQIP funds to address conservation priorities. “This more than doubled the state’s cropland EQIP budget, enabling targeted efforts to reduce nutrient loss and preserve topsoil,” Dwyer said.
Those funds were contracted, but it highlights the intense competition farmers face for federal conservation programs and the value of partnerships, Dwyer notes.
“Meaningful progress requires financial investments, and securing sufficient funding to fully support a state like Illinois with its 24 million acres of farmland takes a creative and strategic approach that recognizes we can't fix the problem overnight,” Dwyer told lawmakers. “One way to sustain this momentum is incorporating IRA conservation funds into the Farm Bill baseline.”
Without modernized, effective programs, technical assistance and meaningful funding, “we can expect more outcomes like the 2023 and 2024 with dust storms in central Illinois that closed major interstates and caused loss of life,” Dwyer said. “Too often, we zero in on one granular issue or promote a one-size-fits-all solution without stepping back to consider the broader path to success.
“Accessible field offices for NRCS and FSA, along with well-staffed agencies like the EPA and US Fish and Wildlife ensure we have boots on the ground and every tool in the conservation toolbox. Public-private partnerships amplify this effect.
“While a strong safety net and technical assistance help drive real adoption, we could spend hours discussing the barriers ranging from financial constraints, technical assistance, machinery time, and the fact that over 70% of Illinois farmland is owned by someone other than the farm family tenant, I'd prefer to focus on solutions.”
Success won't come from rebranding programs for working lands, she said, "but the design of new approaches that recognize the uniqueness of each acre and meet farmers where they're at.
“We must re-evaluate practice standards and decide if close enough is acceptable to achieve greater scalability, or if the pursuit of perfection will limit our progress. We must consider how federal crop insurance can be supportive by recognizing the risk-reducing benefits of conservation, covering the transition to new practices and offering flexibility for innovative approaches like growing cover crops ahead of your cash crop.
“Baby boomers currently own the majority of farmland across the United States and within the next decade, their average age will reach 80. This puts us on the edge of a generational cliff. Without robust programs to help the next generation not only gain access to farmland but also be economically equipped to adopt conservation practices, we risk losing our position as a global leader in production agriculture.
