In an interview with the Red River Farm Network, Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey said it was hard to deliver the 2018 Market Facilitation Program in a fair way. “Some producers still had old crop on hand. They lost price on that or needed to move something for cash flow reasons so they took more or less of a hit,” explained Northey. “It’s hard to be fair and equitable between all producers, but certainly speed and transparency matter. People need to understand what the payment was. They weren’t always going to agree it was the right amount, but they could understand the rates and we could deliver it fast.” Northey said there will likely always an argument over rates. “We look at all of the commodities and all of them could have ended up with more. We’ve also seen the soybean and corn markets soften from last year.” Listen to the story.
