While driving through Kansas and Nebraska recently to visit a farmer and equipment dealer, I honestly never felt so far away from the bureaucratic inertia of Washington. Passing through one humble small town after another, I hoped the workaday farmers and ranchers — and their families — could somehow skate through it.

But 2025 has been no friend to the status quo. Elon Musk’s army of DOGE cost cutters have gutted federal departments and programs — probably with some justification. But pain has been felt at the USDA and NRCS, where money for EQIP and CSP was temporarily frozen, agents and staffers have lost their jobs and some offices are being tagged for closure. Trade tensions were also escalating with Canada and Mexico. 

Fast forward to the Commodity Classic in Denver last week, where USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins sat for almost an hour taking questions from ag media about federal staff and program cuts, trade prospects and the statements made about production agriculture by Dept. of Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Rollins finally called on me, and I asked how she saw conservation programs shaking out as the administration works to “refocus” the USDA (including the NRCS) on serving farmers and ranchers. I didn’t get a very specific response.

“Listen, our farmers are the original conservationists. There’s no doubt about that,” said Rollins. “Our revolution was fought by farmers 250 years ago. They are the best purveyors and preservationists of the land … (and) we are…