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Hi. I'm State Representative Terry Brown. Welcome to my weekly update, "Talking With Terry."

Farming is a tough business – one that involves a lot of risk.  That's why many farmers invest in crop insurance. This year, many Thumb-area farmers were hit hard by rains that damaged their wheat and their ability to sell it at good prices.  But because of the outdated way the federal crop insurance system determines wheat quality, farmers aren't being adequately compensated.

Farmers pay good money for this insurance, and they deserve to have the most scientific methods used to measure their losses and help them through tough times like these.  What happened is that heavy rains this year caused many wheat kernels to prematurely germinate, or sprout, before harvest.  This degraded the wheat and damaged its quality. Currently, the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. accepts only a subjective "sprout count" to determine the quality of wheat.

Grain elevators and millers, though, use a scientific "falling numbers" test that often results in a lower determination of quality – and market price. This discrepancy forces wheat producers to take the full financial loss, despite having purchased crop insurance.  I am pushing for the government to use both methods of measuring wheat quality in order to more fairly compensate farmers.

State Representative John Espinoza and I asked our U.S. Representatives and Senators to intervene immediately. I have also introduced a resolution in the Michigan House of Representatives calling for this change in the crop insurance system. This would result in higher crop payments as well as protection of our agricultural community as a whole. We have to make sure that individual farmers AND the wheat industry survive this setback.

In the U.S., white wheat is grown primarily in Michigan and the Northwest.  Major Michigan employers such as Kellogg cereal company rely on Thumb-area farmers for their white wheat. If white wheat is seen as too risky to grow, and farmers don't have confidence that the federal insurance system will back them up, Michigan could lose this specialty crop and all the jobs that it produces.  The federal government must immediately re-evaluate its payout policy for wheat crops so we can create and maintain jobs and keep our economy moving in the right direction.

As your voice at our State Capitol, I will continue to work hard to ensure that our agricultural community can grow and prosper.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

You can call me, toll-free, at (888) 254-5284. Or, you can e-mail me at terrybrown@house.mi.gov.  You can also visit my Web site to see updates on my work and sign up for my e-newsletter. The address is house.mi.gov/tbrown.

Thank you for listening to "Talking with Terry."

Make it a great day!