In October, Sen. John Thune's thoughts turn to pheasants, and the opening day of the South Dakota season on ringnecks.

This October, Thune's also got the 2007 farm bill on his mind, which the Senate agriculture committee will begin debating on Oct. 23.

More than two months after its passage by the House of Representatives, the farm bill has stalled in the Senate. Some political analysts suggest that may be due to the absence of the man that Thune defeated for a South Dakota senate seat in 2004 - Tom Daschle.

None of the three major players in the farm bill debate - Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) - are the Democratic strongman that Daschle was during passage of the 2002 Farm Bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears to have neither the agricultural expertise nor the temperament to lead on this issue.

Thune and Sen. Tim Johnson would both like to see reductions in the subsidy totals farmers can receive, and lower income eligibility limits for those payments as well. So would we.

But the Senate is usually a place where populist Midwest demands for strict subsidy limits run into cotton and rice interests allied with Southern Democrats and Republicans.

Even some of those Republicans say they miss Daschle's power right now. "When Daschle walked in, it was like Gen. Patton. Everything sort of came together," Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) told the Wall Street Journal's David Rogers earlier this month. "There's no Gen. Patton this time."

That lack of consensus will soon hurt farmers who need to plan for the 2008 growing season. We hope someone - if not Reid or any of the other Democrats in leadership positions, then perhaps a bi-partisan coalition led by Johnson and Thune - can fill the void that Daschle's departure left. Someone must lead on the farm bill. Who will it be?