October 31, 2000 / By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Gary Gollehon hasn't scratched a profit from his farm in years. Last spring, he gambled again, planting much of his farm near Brady in high-quality malting barley, only to see it wither in the powder-dry soil and be sold instead as cheaper livestock feed.
Coming off one of the worst droughts, a bad crop and the knowledge that his farm payments are getting cut again, Gollehon isn't optimistic things will turn around anytime soon.
"There have been too many dry years," said Gollehon, who farms with his son-in-law in west-central Montana. "We're hoping for a good year, but hope's running out here."
Farmers who had difficulty turning a profit during the drought -- and that was most of them in Montana -- are facing another whammy next year: continued withering federal aid.
Payments to farmers with production flexibility contracts will be 20 percent less than they were this year, when high fuel and fertilizer costs only added to the drought, said Bruce Nelson, state executive director of the federal Farm Service Agency for Montana.
It is the single largest drop under the seven-year schedule of declining payments set out in the 1996 farm law, Nelson said.
The law was designed to ease farmers' long-term dependence on the government by ending a decades-old system of production controls and lowering federal price supports. In turn, farmers were guaranteed continued -- but diminishing -- payments through 2002. They also would be able to plant whatever they liked, without the risk of losing government subsidies.
Supporters called the program "Freedom to Farm." Opponents dubbed it a more ominous nickname -- "Freedom to Fail" -- and they say it has unfortunately proven more accurate.
The expected rise in commodity prices after the adoption of the farm legislation never happened. Meanwhile, farm payments, which did not allow for any adjustments for the low market, continued to fall.
In Montana, the payments will drop from about $117.5 million this year to about $95 million next year, said Bill Flanigan, FSA program specialist. In Wyoming, payments will fall from $7.5 million to about $6 million.
Producers in Montana, Wyoming and other states have received emergency federal assistance to try to tide them over. But experts admit it's no solution.
In Montana, millions of dollars have been paid to help farmers get water to their livestock. And land in the Conservation Reserve Program was opened to haying and grazing to help relieve the shortage of hay for livestock.
In Glacier County, where drought has visited for the past three years, livestock already have grazed on much of the small grains that weren't salvageable, extension agent Darren Crawford said.
"It's really tough on people who have started in the last few years, generally because of their debt load," he said. "Some guys who went in without a debt load probably have some now."
Cattle in central Wyoming have been grazing on winter pastures for up to two months, when they're normally not turned out until Nov. 1, because water on their range dried up, said Natrona County agent Tom Heald. Additional feed for coming months may be necessary.:
