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federal disaster program and emergency programs meant to help farmers. 



We see that our local ASCS offices are making loss allowances for poor 

 quality wheat, com and other grains. This is very important this year, since 

 some of our small grain harvests are selling at a very low price due to 

 vomatoxin or aflotoxin. In some cases, local elevators won't accept this 

 grain, ^fhe quality adjustment payment will help cushion this lost income. 



We urge Congress to take similar steps to make allowances for lost hay 

 quality. Many livestock producers have lost alfalfa hay quality, where the 

 yield is the same but the quality is greatly reduced. Some fanners and 

 ranchers feed the hay out themselves, and some use the hay as a cash crop. 

 Either way, lost quality means lost income. South Dakota is a leading 

 livestock production state, and it is critical that disaster assistance fairly 

 address the needs of these producers, whose losses aren't covered with 

 federal crop insurance. Attached to my testimony is a proposal from our 

 members for detennining lost hay quality, based on feed-related value 



Some of our local ASCS offices have been celling farmers that they will 

 have any advanced deficiency payment deducted out of their disaster 

 payment. Yet Congress pas.sed a measure that requires the pay back to be 

 delayed until January of next year. Many farmers don't know this and 

 therefore, their disaster payment will be greatly reduced. Dakota Rural 

 Action and the National Family Farm Coalition urge you to drop the pay back 

 requirement, since it will mean more lost income and more farm failures. We 

 will also see more delinquencies on farm loans if the pay back requirement 

 stands. 



We also urge Congress to amend the disaster program to address 

 individual market differences for specialty crops. A person raising specialty 

 crops is paid based on whether the crop is conventionally or organically 

 marketed. We recotnumend that there be a quality adjustment in the federal 

 disaster program for organically grown and marketed produce. 



In regards to the drought in the south, the poultry growers there are 

 almost all contract fanners who don't actually own the birds. When the heat 

 killed hundreds of thousands of birds, these contract farmers couldn't qualify 

 for any program because they don't own the birds. However, the family fann 

 Tysons could apply for the loss. The contract farmer has lost his flock and 



