A loaded legislative calendar, leaner budget goals and partisan battles in Washington, D.C., have injected a great deal of uncertainty into the 2018 farm bill debate, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation leaders said last week at the organization’s annual Summer Policy Conference in West Des Moines.

"Every farm bill has been progressively harder to attain," said IFBF President Craig Hill. "I think every day you wait beyond today, it becomes more difficult to get a farm bill."

House and Senate agriculture committee leaders have been holding listening sessions this summer to gather input on what farmers want to see in the next farm bill, IFBF National Policy...