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Texas Agriculture Archive

April 4, 2003

Young farmers: profits biggest concern

America's young producers are feeling the pressure of continued economic stress in agriculture, and they think the U.S. government can best help by pushing hard to open export markets for U.S. farm goods.

For the fifth straight year America's young farmers and ranchers say the biggest challenge facing them is overall profitability. And, for the sixth consecutive year, young farmers say the best way to address that challenge is to boost U.S. agricultural exports.

Those were among the key findings of a survey of 304 young farmers and ranchers from 41 states, ages 18-35, conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The 11th annual survey of participants in AFBF's Young Farmer & Rancher Program revealed the traditional optimism of younger producers continues to be tempered by economic challenges.

The informal survey was conducted in February during AFBF's 2003 YF&R Conference, held in Hershey, Pa.

Reflecting on today's economic situation, nearly a third (31.9 percent) of the young farmers surveyed said overall profitability was their top concern. Limited availability of land and other resources was second, selected by 21.9 percent of respondents; the cost of government regulations (13.6 percent, down from 16.8 percent in 2002) was third; urban encroachment on farmland, selected by 9.4 percent of the respondents, was fourth; fifth on the list (7 percent) were challenges associated with parental control of farm decisions, followed by healthcare availability (3.8 percent) and tax burdens (3.1 percent). The availability of water resources and worries about competition from more established farms tied for eighth. Agricultural financing and labor issues rounded out the list.

U.S. sends food aid to Iraq

As part of a broad effort to provide emergency supplies of food to Iraq, the United States will be releasing up to 600,000 tons of wheat from a government-run grain reserve, Ag Secretary Ann Veneman has announced.

The wheat is being removed from an emergency reserve, the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which the government draws on for unanticipated food crises. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which is in charge of distributing the food, is already sending water, blankets, shelters and medical kits to the Iraqi people.

"President Bush has assured the people of Iraq that they will have the food and medicine they need," Veneman said.

The first wheat and rice shipments, totaling 200,000 tons, will go out in the next several weeks, and another 400,000 tons is ready for shipment if needed, she said.

House okays ag tax cuts

The House recently passed several Farm Bureau-supported tax cuts as part of H.R. 1308, the Tax Relief, Simplification and Equity Act of 2003. Originally provisions of the House Ways and Means Committee-approved military tax bill, the items were split off and passed in H.R. 1308.

The provisions included in the bill were:

• Income averaging and alternative minimum tax, which will ensure that the use of farm income averaging does not trigger the AMT calculation.

• Livestock disaster tax relief, which will extend the replacement period for cattle sold because of natural disasters from two to four years and allow the deferment of capital taxes for the same length of time.

• Capital gains treatment of timber sales, which will tax all timber sales as capital gains rather than ordinary income, as is the case for some timber sales under current law.

• Tax benefits for cooperatives, which will allow payments of dividends on cooperative stock without reducing patronage dividends so that cooperatives can use preferred stock to raise equity capital.

The Senate has not yet taken up these issues.

Notable Quotables

"The new list issued last week is significant because it marks a refined, focused set of products that are targets for retaliation at any time. This new list is real. The products are carefully chosen to have maximum impact on U.S. manufacturers, farmers and exporters while having minimum impact on the EU because there is an alternative supply."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif), in a "Dear' Colleague" letter on the European Union's new list of U.S. products—including a "large proportion" of agricultural products—that are potential targets for $4 billion in punitive tariffs.