Douglas County farmers are getting nervous, and it’s not because of the weather.

Their concern has to do with Congress and what it will do with the Farm Bill.

Congress has been working on the bill for months. Farmers say they would like to have a definitive answer about how the bill will affect this year’s crops before it comes time to harvest wheat and plant soybeans and corn.

“We’re disappointed that they haven’t gotten it done,” Pat Ross, of rural Lawrence, said. “It’s a little untimely that we’ll be planting real soon and we don’t have something in place.”

The Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation that covers nearly every aspect of food production. Ross likened it to the tax code because of its length and complexity.

The bill is usually revised every five years and includes programs that cover commodity prices and support, farm credit, conservation, cattle and dairy. It also includes nutrition programs, including food stamps and school lunches.

Last year the Senate and House passed their own versions of the Farm Bill. Now a Congressional committee is working to combine the two bills and work out differences.

Of special concern to farmers is the “safety net” system of the bill, which includes three types of subsidy payments: direct, countercyclical and market loan.

Direct payments are annual fixed payments to crop farmers and are based on historical production of a type of crop on a certain acreage. There are different rates for different crops. Farmers go to Farm Service Agency offices for calculations.

A countercyclical payment is based on the national season average price for crops. Marketing loan payments help farmers recover from losing a crop because of bad weather.

The Farm Bill has a baseline price tag of $597 billion. Congress is trying to keep any increase at no more than $10 billion. That is where there are differences of opinion in the Senate and House. Ironing it all out is a difficult process, said Adrian Polansky, Kansas Secretary of Agriculture.

“Certainly for Kansas it’s important to maintain as strong a safety net for agriculture production as possible,” Polansky said.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is one of the conferees in the Farm Bill negotiations. He described the Senate’s bill as not the best possible bill, but the best bill possible. He said he will continue to work to protect direct payments, which is the only commodity title program that provides direct assistance. Roberts also said he wants to make sure that the crop insurance program remains intact.

Only about 14 percent of the Farm Bill cost covers farm commodity production, while two-thirds of the funding will go to food and nutrition programs. Funding for research in biofuels, renewable energy and environmental programs also is important for Kansas, Polansky said.

“I think its critical and hopefully they will be able to find some funding for that,” he said.

At press time, Congress was hoping to get a Farm Bill approved by April 18. If it doesn’t, an extension of time will have to be allotted or farm laws will revert back to what was in effect during the 1930s and 1940s. That would be mostly detrimental, farmers and Polansky said.

“I’ve always been supportive of leaving that 1930-’40s legislation on the books because I think that history has shown that sometimes Congress needs to have that in the background in terms of needing to avoid moving that far back,” he said.

Polansky and Roberts are optimistic a bill will be passed.

“My sleeves are rolled up and I hope Congress can get a bill passed to provide stability and reliability for our Kansas producers who will be in the fields for harvest,” Roberts said.

Farmers hope so.

“The big picture at the end of the day is they need to come together and get something passed so we’re not dealing with those issues,” Douglas County farmer Jason Flory said.