Farm Bill 2.0, Land Security, and the Time Management Key to Farming Success

This week on American Family Farmer, host and farmer Doug Stephan (www.eastleighfarm.com) shares the latest news impacting small farmers across the U.S. Doug breaks down the “Big Beautiful Bill,” being called Farm Bill 2.0, which includes:

• Higher statutory references for all commodity program crops 🌾
• Increased agricultural spending 💵
• More affordable crop insurance 🌱
• Expanded foreign market development in favor of U.S.-owned land 🇺🇸

He also covers the reintroduction of the Farmer to Farmer Education Act, designed to expand farmer-led conservation education and technical assistance—especially for underserved farmers and high-poverty areas. Other topics include the new U.S. Farm Security Plan, challenging Chinese ownership of farmland and major agribusinesses, and Doug’s own reflections on what makes family farm operations successful. His conclusion? Time management is the most critical variable. For many farmers, balancing off-farm income with the demands of the land is the reality—and not always sustainable. Doug shares his perspective as both a broadcaster and working farmer on how to navigate these challenges.

Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The American Family Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron
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out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer where we are family Farmer friendly
with lots of news as we begin the program, but
I thought i'd start this week with another focus on

(00:20):
the farm. Well, it's kind of the Farm Bill update,
but it really isn't because it's part of the Big
Beautiful Bill that's been passed by Congress and everybody's been
talking about it at nauseum. But it has been referred
to by some as Farm Bill two point zero. It's
not too controversial, according to the chairman of the Agriculture Committee,

(00:42):
had bipartisan support. The situation in the Farm Bill or
the provisions from the Farm Bill in the one big
beautiful bill. There's about twenty or twenty five percent of
what needs to be fixed that isn't or needs to
be addressed hasn't been so we'll see where that goes.
But if you look at the highlights of the bill

(01:05):
and this I'm bringing it back up again because last
week we talked about it. I think for about a
month we've been talking about it here and there, trying
to as far as AG News is concerned, see how
it affects the farming industry that I'm concerned about, and
that's the small family farm or smaller family farms. And
so do you like it? And the more we find

(01:28):
out about it, do you kind of engage? Can you
put yourself into some of the provisions, like the Commodity
Title programs that have been updated through twenty thirty one,
There are prices. Actually, the bill includes higher statutory references
for all commodity program crops varies by crops. Sixty five

(01:51):
billion dollars in additional AGS spending fifty nine billion directed
toward updating farm safety program, safety net programs, agricultural risk
loss coverage, price loss coverage, dairy margin coverage losses, federal
crop insurance. Think about listening to that and think about

(02:13):
what kind of a horrible state are we in that
we have to spend this much money supporting that which
is good for the rest of the country. Doesn't it
drive you crazy? It does me. All right, let's talk
about fruit vegetable farmers. This is something that is part
of this bill, the farm title of the bill. It's

(02:36):
not really there. But you know what I'm talking about.
It increases reference prices, expands base acres, makes crop insurance
more affordable and versatile, doubles the market Access program and
the Foreign Market Development Program. I think that ladder the
Foreign Market Development Program is the most important part of this,

(02:57):
because we have lots of great stuff that's being grown
and produced in our country that hasn't received the kind
of respect. Now other countries can say that about what
we do here, but we kind of have a strange
way of looking at agricultural products from other countries. Beef
being the number one concern that I have, and it's

(03:21):
addressed somewhat in this farm bill or the big beautiful
bill farm Bill part of it, but still we are
allowing things to come into this country without proper supervision,
and that is not addressed in this bill. As far
as I'm concerned. That's a no no, all right. So
the other things that have been part of the discussion

(03:41):
of the farm bills in the past, Supplemental Nutritional Assistant Program,
the SNAP program, it doesn't belong in the farm bill.
And I've said that one hundred times if I've said
it once, And those farm oriented provisions they were not
supported in a bipartisan way like most of the rest
of the of the project was for one reason. It

(04:05):
doesn't fit, it doesn't belong. It's cock eyed. Also, part
of the bill stops tomato acquisition. I guess there was
an agreement with Mexico on how you know how many
tomatoes or how much tomatoes we import, and that's been
and it should be. You know, we need to encourage

(04:25):
more growth in areas like that. Speaking of what's going
on with Congress, Senators Barry Ray Lujeon of New Mexico
and Jerry Moran of Kansas have reintroduced the Farmer to
Farmer Education Act. It was written in collaboration with the
American Farmland Trust the National Young Farmer's Coalition. It facilitates

(04:49):
farmer to farmer conservation education and successful practice adoption by
building capacity and increasing support for farmer led educational networks.
It sounds like a lot. Let me see if I
can dig into this here. Conservation practices like cover crops,
for example, and nutrient management and rotational grazing that all

(05:11):
benefit by reducing input costs to benefit the farmer, increasing
resilience to the land and under the extreme weather conditions
we have in some parts of the country. It's good
improving water and air quality and other ecosystems. It's a
crucial conservation practice, and this is good. So let's see,

(05:35):
let's hope that this thing gets beyond first base, if
you will, coming up talking about who owns what land
here in America and thinking about potatoes as well. I'm
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(05:56):
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(06:17):
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of the week, feeding your head with all sort of
stuff with all sorts of information. This is something that
intrigued me. I saw this week that I wanted to
pass along to you. The new US Farm Security Plan.

(08:04):
One of the good things that Trump is doing is
challenging Chinese ownership of major land and ag businesses. Already,
the Chinese owned Smithfield Foods, the pork producers, and Syngenta,
and those two have been the biggest in focus of
Secretary Beth Rawlins, USDA Secretary. There is an executive order

(08:30):
I think that's flying around and being contemplated because there
are a number of members of the cabinet. Nudge is
miss Rollins, I said Beth, but her name is Brook Rollins.
This is called the make agriculture the spreading is It's okay, listen,
make agriculture great again. Another MAGA deal. The National Farm

(08:53):
Security Action Plan is what it's called. And if you'll
put the pieces together. According to various announcements from the administration,
the plan aims to address the threats that's the word
they use from foreign adversaries, and that's what it is.
They should not have been allowed to buy Smithfield or Sigenta.
And I've been saying that from now before and now

(09:15):
in the future. So they're looking at every available option.
The agg Department is and they are going to at
least according to her, Miss Roland said quote likely we'll
see an executive order on this very soon and be
looking at multiple different authorities within the federal government to
begin to claw back what China has bought. So the

(09:39):
Senior Counselor for Trade brought up the companies during a
press conference last month. The purchase of Smithfield especially has
been troubling. Chinese bought Smithfield and basically control the world's
pork supply. We get the shortened. I've talked about this.
I've talked about on the old Good Day program. When

(10:01):
it came to the we used to talk about food,
farm and family every day. And what's happened here is
that they are taking our good pork and sending it
to China, and they're sending their crappy pork over here
from there, and they're mostly it's it's a big Smithfield
is a big a sausage. They have other pork, but

(10:23):
sausage is a big thing. And remember the old expression,
you like the taste of sausage, but you don't want
to know what goes in it. Well, that's especially true
with the Chinese controlling the country. I mean the company
in our country. Now there's Syngenta as well. It's a
seed company. And in the world of ever changing pests

(10:44):
and things like that, climate difference is about where water
is that sort of thing. This is a this is
a way. This is an important way to keep the
world fed with companies like Sytjenna and China owns a
key part of that. So what Rollins is saying is

(11:04):
I guess drawing a line in the sand. In matter speaking,
she said, quote, the US is no longer going to
tolerate the attacks on our agricultural system, the land, the
supply chain, all of those things. Now you can imagine
that Smithfield and noted that it's publicly traded and it's
not controlled by the China. That's the usual baloney. Hopefully

(11:27):
we are all united in the front against foreign threats.
I think I saw something from the Attorney General Pam Bondi,
citing recent events in Michigan which suggests the Chinese are
trying to buy a lot of land and they're trying
to build up a business that concealed biological materials in

(11:50):
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(13:08):
Have you thought about that? Have you traveled? Have you
seen those of you who are in it? Up to
your mickey. It's what my father used to say, if
we were really into something and it was dangerous, he's
up to that. Up to his mickey in that. Well,
whatever your mickey is, or whatever your mickey is telling you,
if you're doing the right thing on your family farm,

(13:31):
you'll feel satisfaction. You'll feel good, not all the time,
but much of the time, most of the time because
you have blended your personal passion and your business objectives.
I've certainly tried to do that, not only on my farm,
but all of my business life. All of the things
that I've done in my life have been in that direction.

(13:53):
Not always have they been successful. So what's the key
to success for your operation? Because you have unique challenges.
There are small and mid sized producers that are trying
to balance their income streams and the time that you
have is leveraged for sure. So what does success require.

(14:14):
It's a different kind of a playbook than traditional farming.
The things that I've observed more doing this program over
the past four or five six years, I've observed some
different kinds of lifestyles that have led to operations being
quite successful. And all of them have one thing in common,

(14:36):
something that I'm not really particularly good at, and that's
time management. That's the critical variable. Time management stands as
the way to operate to juggle because most of us
have off farm employment, right, most of us have off
arm businesses. In some cases like me, some people can

(14:58):
call my farm a hobby farm. It's not really, but
it doesn't make any money. I don't have the time
to give to it in order for it to be
sustainable because actually it's not sustainable as a farm the
way it's operated and where it is, because it's in
an area where the land is so expensive and there

(15:18):
are you all know what I'm talking about. There's something
I read about called the three thousand hour rule. If
you're off farm job demands two thousand hours or so
a year, that leaves a thousand or maybe depending on
your work ethic two thousand hours for farm operations, technology, innovation,

(15:41):
leveraging human resources, all part of how to make it work,
you know, looking at this AI thing and how to
manage that. What are we going to do? That's the
thing that's the big question I think about lifestyle. I'll
admit that we have. I've had people using various forms
of AI around me, and I can't make up my

(16:04):
mind whether I think it's a threat or a help. Frankly,
because it does spur creativity. It gives us all a
fresh look at information. Maybe in your if you have
a dairy, for example, you've used it to help image
and brand and market what you have. And so I've

(16:24):
seen some of the other people on this program we've
talked about AI, and I've seen it certainly in the
Jersey group that I belong to as sire. Selection is
coming through AI channels, fertilizer application, the kind of things
that are suggested for your soil. This certainly is a lot.

(16:46):
Using AI for weather forecasting has been something that universities
in big AG areas are doing a lot of. But
you know, there's a lot of bad information also that's
coming from AI. I saw somebody use AI for as
this person's an egg supplier and their increase was like

(17:11):
two hundred thousand dollars last year in business. I'm not
sure what they did, but they used They said they
were using AI for group brainstorming. So maybe you can
think of it as an important player on your team
filter the information that comes from it. Maybe let's turn
the letters around to IA intelligence augmented, your customized and

(17:36):
humanized way to use the specific help. I've been a
lifelong learner. Maybe that's part of the radio world has
helped me be that way. I've always been curious. Maybe
you as well might remain curious because we do have
to have a balance here, no matter what, some thoughts
for us all here. This is Doug Stefan. You're listening

(17:59):
to the American Family Farmer. This program was produced at
Bobksound and Recording. Please visit bobksound dot com. The American
Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron. Which is
the safe way for you to lose weight and keep
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