Ag leaders in South Dakota are disappointed in the lack of a five year Farm Bill.
As part of the fiscal cliff negotiations Congress passed a nine month extension of the Farm Bill with many programs cut.
Doug Sombke the president of the South Dakota Farmers Union calls the Farm Bill extension a complete disappointment for rural America.
“It definitely is something that is being looked at as a scapegoat in my opinion for the debt problems that we have simply because we are a minority of the population in this country, “ says Sombke.
Meanwhile Wane Smith the Executive Director of the South Dakota Farm Bureau says given the natural uncertainty of the weather, the added uncertainty within in this short extension makes farming and ranching even harder.
“It’s really tough to not know what kind of safety net you can put underneath yourself to protect the input costs that you put into that operation and the input costs are really significant compared to what they were 20 years ago,” says Smith
Both Smith and Sombke add that there is some good news in the Farm Bill extension, they say some of the programs that are being sustained are vital.