Farm Bill Legislation: The NRCS

For this assignment, students were asked to focus on and discuss one narrow attribute of Farm Bill expenditures. Of the many pieces of the pie when it comes to Farm Bill spending, I chose to focus on a very small piece of that pie. Coming in at a meager 7%, on the pie chart you will notice the "conservation" allotment. What does conservation have to do with Farm Bill funding and agriculture?

Well, my first experience with the Farm Bill in regards to conservation that I can recall came when I was about 14 years old, through a USDA agency called the "Natural Resources Conservation Service" of NRCS for short. The loan came actually came more directly from a sub-branch of the NRCS called the "Farm Service Agency" or FSA. At 14 year old, I heard about a youth program in which eligible and approved youth could apply for agricultural loans up to $5,000 to fund their own agricultural operations. Upon learning of this, my step father suggested to me that it would actually be easier for me to get this type of loan than it would be for himself, and that we could increase our cattle operation by doing so. So, at 14, I applied for the loan, from what I can recall a very lengthy process, but it did educate me a great deal about loans, the stipulations of being approved and paying them off, interest rates, and even record keeping and developing business plans. With $5,000 I bought 8 pair of young cows with calves from a local rancher and began my own cattle business. I made my loan payment each fall with all of the income from the sale of my calves. It would be a few years before I would actually pocket any of these profits. Today it still amazes me that an agency such as this would take on such a risky loan investment in a young man such as myself.

Shane Kerner, Idaho FSA Youth Loan Recipient http://fsa.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/08/29/from-an-idaho-youth-loan-to-national-youth-leader/

A Panguitch "flood irrigated" farm

Later in life, I was able to see the conservation side of the NRCS drastically affect farmers and ranchers along the Sevier River in southern Utah for the good. Specifically in Panguitch, where I lived during high school, the agency made a big push to encourage farmers to move away from "flood irrigating" to installing and utilizing more efficient pressurized irrigation, using pipes and sprinkler lines. Flood irrigating involved utilizing canals and ditches to get water to the fields, then simply allowing the water to run down "furrows", or rows through the field. Under this old practice, much water is lost through leeching through the ground through the canals, as well as loss due to evaporation. Sprinklers allow an cased environment for water to be delivered, resulting in less water wasted. Farmers were allowed to apply for grants and loans for the funding to convert to these pressurized systems. Many farmers in the Panguitch valley utilized those funds to install pivot sprinkler lines. Those that could not find the means to make sprinklers usable were able to receive funding to install pipelines to deliver canal water to their properties, and gated pipes to the fields to minimize water loss during delivery. Water then is still allowed to run over the field.

Panguitch fields that have been converted to pressurized irrigation. http://utahspatchworkparkway.com/panguitch.html

*I was not able to obtain any source information about irrigation grant work done in Utah, but have cited a source of this type of work being conducted in California. See "citations" at the end of this post.*


While I knew these things about conservation programs such as the NRCS, there are things I did not know about the program and it's funding. For example, the program also uses it's funding to provide relief to loss that farmers face from drought, crop disease, pests, etc., as well as assistance in many other ways to improve their lands besides just through irrigation means. The NRCS also provides easement programs that are designed to help landowners conserve not only their working famrlands, but also wetlands and forested lands. They also provide landscape planning to help people manage natural resource problems and to manage those resources in accordance to "economic, social, and ecological considerations to meet public and private needs". (NRCS California)

NRCS (Alabama) Pine Plantation. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/al/programs/?cid=nrcs141p2_023019

I knew the NRCS worked a lot with other federal agencies (such as the US Forest Service that I work for), however I was not aware that Farm Bill funding made that work possible until this week. Just days ago I learned that a future timber sale on the Ashley National Forest (if approved per environmental process called NEPA) will be made possible through funding provided by the Farm Bill by way of the NRCS. Quite often I think we tend to forget that timber harvest truly is a form of agriculture.

I would dare say I am just scratching the surface of the different ways that the Farm Bill provides to conservation. I definitely know that there are a lot more unknowns to me when it comes to the Farm Bill than what I do know about the work that it does.

Sources Cited:

NRCS Main Page/Farm Bill:
 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/farmbill/

 NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program
 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/programs/financial/csp/?cid=stelprdb1242683

FSA Youth Loans
 http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=paca&topic=you

NRCS (California) News Release:
 http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ca/newsroom/?cid=nrcs144p2_064274

USDA Water Quality Information Center/Irrigation:
 http://wqic.nal.usda.gov/irrigation-1

Film Review,Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern

Academic Review of Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern

Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern. Dir. Jeanne Jordan, and Steven Ascher. 1995. 1996. Film. In Association with PBS American Experience.

“Good guys, bad guys, trouble”. Russ and Mary Jane Jordan use this term to define western films. This definition of a western movie is also a fitting description of the plot and challenges that played out in the lives of farmers in the 1980s and 90s as thousands of American farmers lost their family farms. Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern by Russ and Mary Jane Jordan’s daughter Jeanne offers a great account of the struggle that the Jordan family went through as they tried to hang on to the farm that had been in their family for nearly 4 generations. Although the fate of their farm ends up being fairly unique, the film offers a great perspective into the plight that faced farmers across the nation during that time period.

Throughout history farming has pulled on the hearts and emotions of man. There’s always been a strong desire in people to own their own land, to provide for themselves, and hopefully to be able to make a profit doing it, but few people actually understand the reality of farm life. As Jeanne Jordan puts it, “People love to idealize farm life. They think it is wholesome and simple”. Most people that grow up farming understand the luck and chance that exists with farming, and the hardships associated with that chance, along with the complexities of everyday life as farmers try to keep a farm alive. Those not exposed directly to farming have difficulty seeing that even “life and death are a matter of chance” on the farm, and that uncertainty, toil, and stress are all part of a “normal” life of the farmer.

Jordan summed up her family as having “incredible luck, incredible timing, and teetering on the edge of disaster”. How true those words are when one looks at the life of a farmer. Markets are hardly ever predictable, Mother Nature is less so, and the farmer is at the mercy of both of those forces in the struggle for success. This struggle is brought to life as we look at farming at the close of the 1900’s. Farmers enjoyed nearly 40 very successful years from the 1950s to the early 1980s. During those years farmers were able to expand their operations, made possible by banks that were willing to lend to those farmers to provide for that expansion and further success. Nationwide, this began to change in the 1980s as first prices crashed, followed by banks changing policies on lending.

Jordan likens this change to the western, as her parents, the good guys, struggled to save the farm that had been in their family for nearly 100 years. Not only had dealing with the bank began to be difficult, the bank also changed ownership, and their new loan officer now seemed like more of a “hired gun” than someone that was there to help them keep their farm alive. Russ and Mary Jane even went so far as to say that they felt “ambushed” just as the cowboys in their western movies.

For most family farms, examples like this are not the first time that someone has fought for a family farm throughout a family’s history of ownership. Even Jeanne Jordan shared the example of her great-grandfather fighting off the “Crooked Creek Gang” that threatened their way of life in the farm’s early life. While not all farmers fought gangs to keep their farms alive, farmers have fought other battles such as drought, crop failure, pests, land disputes, water rights ownership, and even economic hardships such as the Great Depression. It seems that this “good guy, bad guy, trouble” scenario of western movies has played out over and over for farmers throughout history. It becomes clearer to see why families fight to the bitter end to keep their family farms, even when the odds seem insurmountable. There’s a great sense of duty to keep the farm in the family and keeping it productive, and also probably a great fear of shame of being the one who lost it. Jordan shares the experience of her parents visiting the farm that they rented until the time came for them to move onto the family farm and to take over operation from Russ’ father. Visiting their old farm was hard on the family. In fact, Jordan explains that her family stayed away from the farm for 15 years in order to “remember it as it was”. It was easy to see that Russ and Mary Jane had a hard time visiting the farm and seeing it in a rundown state. This really increases the understanding to why they chose to fight the bank and the challenges to keep their farm in their family, rather than simply giving up and selling out to satisfy the bank debt.

As those that idealize farming see the peace and simplicity, it would probably come as a shock to them to see where the minds of those that grow up in a farm life tend to wander to. Jordan describes the farm being everything when young, but as a teenager “town” became everything, and the goal seemed to be more of getting away from the farm. This makes a lot of sense. Jordan describes the life of her parents on the farm, which is fairly typical of the farmer and his wife. She explains that Russ, the farmer, has little time to worry as work requires his full attention, and he works to avoid the worry as well. Mary Jane, the farmer’s wife, was dubbed “the family worrier”. She was the one that took care of the bills, the bank, and put on the face of confidence in order to keep the family calm and steady.

How true this “Midwestern” struggle is. Growing up when my own family went through losing our farm I truly never understood that we were in trouble until it was gone. Jordan also mentions that through her mother’s calmness she never knew the trouble either. Maybe the calmness that the farmer and his wife display is why those not acquainted with farming view farming with that simplicity and peacefulness.

Jordan points out that in a western, while the bad guys find some success, the good guy eventually wins. But as she says, “since when have westerns ever been true?” One could only wish the western would ring true in the case of the farmer and the crisis of the 80s and 90s. While Jordan’s family found a unique way to ensure the survival of the farm enabling it to stay in the family, most families lost during this crisis. Jordan points out that quite often these farms end up in the hands of a wealthy neighbor that can afford to buy them. While those that idealize farm life might dispute farming hardships and loss, Jordan points to evidence that is hard to dispute when it comes to these hardships. Jordan talks about families leaving as they sell farms and towns shrinking. This has happened all across the country, not just Iowa. This also hit me hard personally, as I have watched my own hometown dwindle with the loss of families as the family farm has gone to the wayside. The schools in my hometown teeter on the edge of closing today. What will the fate of my hometown be? 

I can only hope that in the future the good guy will continue to find a way to win.