In next week’s issue we will have much more about these items.
In the meantime, we encourage you to check out the Journal’s website, www.hpj.com each day, for breaking news.
Kansas Gov.
Jeff Colyer signs drought declaration At a press conference on March 13, Colyer signed a drought declaration for all 105 counties in Kansas, to provide assistance to farmers and ranchers impacted by drought.
The action “…activates the disaster response efforts at the state level and provides authority for the deployment and use of personnel, supplies, equipment, materials or facilities available to aid the drought response.
Importantly, this declaration will temporarily suspend certain motor carrier rules and regulations in order to expedite efforts to transport hay to livestock in drought-stricken areas.” Colyer issued letters to David Schemm, Kansas State executive director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, and all county executive directors, to urge them to act quickly on requests to permit the use of CRP ground for haying and grazing.” In Kansas, 57 counties are considered to be in D2 (severe) or D3 (extreme) drought levels, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
It can be found at www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
A fix for Section 199A tax provisions In January, we learned that an unintended consequence of Section 199A of President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was that members of farmer-owned cooperatives received a favorable tax ruling on the sale of commodities to their cooperatives.
The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation developed a fix to the 199A provision, which, if approved by Congress, will be part of a larger omnibus bill later this month.
Filed in September 2016, the lawsuit claimed farmers lost revenue due to Syngenta’s genetically modified Viptera being made available to U.S. farmers before it was approved for export.