{"id":468525,"date":"2026-10-17T05:18:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468525\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T05:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:18:35","slug":"ag-secretary-warns-texas-could-lose-farmers-offers-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468525\/","title":{"rendered":"Ag Secretary warns Texas could lose farmers, offers solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">CALDWELL, Texas (KBTX) &#8211; U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins delivered a stark warning to Texas farmers Friday as she announced two new policy changes aimed at easing their financial strain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rollins visited Giesenschlag Farms in Caldwell for a roundtable with local farmers and agricultural leaders before holding a press conference on site.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Visits Giesenschlag Farms in Caldwell for round table discussions and a press conference.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/UPLOXCJVWBCTBCRALUG5TGE6NA.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Visits Giesenschlag Farms in Caldwell for round table discussions and a press conference.(KBTX)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIf we\u2019re not able to reverse this trend of only two of every 10 years our farmers are profitable, then we will continue to lose tens of thousands of farmers and ranchers every year,\u201d Rollins said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rollins said she came with solutions, not just warnings. Starting with a fix for cotton farmers who\u2019ve had to gamble on the weather when buying crop insurance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Currently, cotton farmers can only insure their crop against one weather disaster, either a hurricane or a drought, but not both. Rollins said that will change starting with the 2027 crop year, when USDA\u2019s Risk Management Agency will allow producers to purchase multiple endorsements on a single policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIf having to make this decision ahead of time doesn\u2019t drive you to drink, making the wrong decision absolutely will,\u201d said Matt Huey of the South Texas Cotton and Grain Association.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The second announcement addresses a bigger, longer-term problem: in 2023, the United States lost its title as the world\u2019s top cotton exporter to Brazil. Rollins said USDA will now oversee efforts to push countries overseas to buy more American cotton. This included Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia to buy more American cotton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis puts us in the right place to where we can make the better decisions to service our growers, our farmers,\u201d said Seth Stevens, general manager of United Ag.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rollins acknowledged farming costs remain too high but said growers in Caldwell left Friday with two new tools and a message that Washington is listening.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALDWELL, Texas (KBTX) &#8211; U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins delivered a stark warning to Texas farmers Friday as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2389,43022,2101,2114,69646,8809,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-468525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-agriculture","tag-cotton","tag-farm","tag-farmers","tag-secretary","tag-solutions","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}