The South Dakota congressional delegation reacted cautiously Thursday to farm bill proposals from former Senate leaders Tom Daschle and Bob Dole.

"Senators Daschle and Dole understand farming in our

region of the country," Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson said in a written statement issued through his staff.

Republican Sen. John Thune, also through a spokesman, said he "appreciated their efforts."

Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin "supports many of the concepts" in the proposal, a spokesman said.

The caution is understandable. The result of farm-bill negotiations in Congress will have an impact in South Dakota.

South Dakota's agriculture economy had cash receipts of $5.7 billion in 2005, according to the state Bureau of Finance and Management. Payments from federal farm programs for field crops and dairies were $806.7 million, or 14.2 percent of farm income.

Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, and Dole, a Kansas Republican, joined in a plan to save $4.68 billion in farm spending.

The Daschle-Dole plan would save money partly by eliminating "direct payments" to farmers, partly by capping annual payments to individuals at $250,000 and by other measures. They would also expand the Conservation Reserve Program and promote biofuels.

The Senate Agriculture Committee takes up the farm bill next week, and Thune, a member of the committee, said he would continue promoting his biofuels program to promote production of "cellulosic ethanol" - a form of ethanol that proponents say reduces greenhouse gases better than ethanol made from corn.

Cellulosic ethanol also can be made from a range of plants, including corn stalks, switchgrass and fast-growing trees.

Thune, the senior Republican on the agriculture energy subcommittee, is a co-sponsor of the Biofuels Innovation Program Act, which would provide cash incentives to raise energy crops.

Johnson, meanwhile, is taking an "Agricultural Issues and Farm Bill Survey" among South Dakota ag producers. The 17-question survey, which is being sent to 3,000 producers, asks farmers to weigh in on a number of subjects, including whether farm bill payments should be limited and what those limits should be.

Johnson is on the Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittee, where he's an advocate for biofuels, country of origin labeling, controls on market concentration and other measures. But Johnson also is still recovering from a brain aneurysm that has kept him off the Senate floor since December.

Herseth Sandlin noted that the new farm bill already has been through "markup" in House committees, including the conservation, credit, energy and research subcommittee on which she serves.

Herseth Sandlin agrees with Daschle and Dole that there are flaws in the system of direct payments, which, unlike counter-cyclical payments are not tied to current prices. Direct payments are based on past production.

She would also "re-examine" payment limits.

But Herseth Sandlin noted that some of the Daschle-Dole recommendations are not covered by the farm bill - such as a mandate that new cars can run on the "E-85" ethanol-based fuel.

She also cautioned that proposals for the new farm bill exceeded the money available. "Given the current budget, Congress will have to make many tough decisions about what programs to prioritize," her e-mailed statement said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com