Hays ? Drought in western Kansas, coupled with passage of a new farm bill that ends emergency supplemental government payments, will mean less money for farmers this year, an economist said at the 2002 Wheat Day.

“This year is going to test your skills,” Barry Flinchbaugh, an agricultural economist from Kansas State University, told farmers at the Fort Hays Agricultural Research Center.

Although the new farm legislation increased base government payments by 90 percent from $100 billion to $190 billion it provides far less money than farmers received under the old farm bill and the emergency payments combined.

Farmers got $32 billion from all farm programs in 2000, but will get only $19 billion in 2002, he said.

“At best this is flat funding, and it is clearly a cut for this year,” Flinchbaugh said. “There will be no supplemental (payment) this year in September.”

For this crop, wheat growers will get just 6 cents per bushel more above what they already received last year for their fixed payment. They will get another 19 cents per bushel in October.

That’s about half of what they could have gotten with the emergency supplemental income payments, he said.

The situation is more grim for farmers in drought-stricken western Kansas.

Even an increase in the basic farm program will not help farmers who have no crop to harvest, officials say.

Flinchbaugh said the legislation favors cotton and dairy farmers, unlike Roberts’ 1996 bill which was better for wheat growers.

The 1996 bill gave farmers production flexibility, which he said exists in the current bill.

“I would argue this farm bill has less horse sense than the 1996 farm bill,” Flinchbaugh said.

The Kansas delegation was split evenly on the farm bill, with U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran voting for it. U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who drafted the 1996 farm bill, opposed it.