RUNGE, Texas – The White House said President Donald Trump is ready to sign the proposed government funding bill, avoiding another government shutdown, and that could be a sigh of relief for workers across the country, especially farmers in Texas. But many farmers and ranchers are still feeling the effects of January’s partial government shutdown.
KSAT's Max Massey met with one farmer who shared the effects the shutdown has had on the farming community.
Q: Have you seen a lot of negative impacts pile up form the shutdown?
A: “I do have some friends that are producers of grain sorghum, and also cotton, who have had a tough year,” said Zachary Yanta, a farmer and rancher in Runge.
Yanta said he's seen firsthand how the recent government shutdown and agriculture industry uncertainties have affected him and fellow Texas farmers.
“The (agriculture) economy has been suffering through low commodity prices, so anything that adversely affects our markets has a direct hit to us,” Yanta said.
One of the biggest issues was when the processes stopped through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“There were people that may have had farm loans through the USDA programs, and they were directly impacted and that hurt a lot,” Yanta said.
Q: You deal with more than 1,000 cattle and 1,000 acres of cotton. What does a shutdown do to sales?
A: “It hurts sales quite a bit. We depend on (25 percent) of our (agriculture) sales in the U.S. market, depend on the international market for anything, and everything that impacts them adversely, affects us,” Yanta said.
With another shutdown most likely averted, farmers like Yanta can avoid the added struggles they could have had to deal with.
“It will probably mean the continued depression of our prices that we see for our products and all and that will hurt directly,” Yanta said.
The next situation farmers are monitoring are the tariffs and trade war with China. For now, Yanta is standing by the president.
“If it’s necessary, we will weather it. We are cautiously optimistic,” Yanta said.