Happy New Year!  We are back from the holiday and ready to kick off 2025 with a round up of recent ag law stories in the news.  We know many of you have been dealing with frigid winter weather, and we hope you are all staying warm and safe!

Photo by Scott Ymker 

*Corporate Transparency Act ping pong.  If you are a subscriber to this blog, you saw multiple posts over the holiday as the status of the Corporate Transparency Act changed multiple times.  On December 23, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lifted the injunction that was previously issued.  Shortly after this decision, FinCEN announced the deadline for filing beneficial owner reports under the Act would be January 13, 2025. [Read article here.] Then, just three days later, on December 26, 2024, a merits panel of the Fifth Circuit reinstated the injunction, meaning the reporting deadlines were no longer in place. [Read article here.]  Since then, the United States has sought review of this decision by the United States Supreme Court.  [Read article here.]  To be sure you stay up to date on this lawsuit and the status of the Act, be sure you are subscribed to this blog!

*Farm Bill extended for 1 year, disaster relief provided for ag producers.  On December 21, 2024, Congress enacted the American Relief Act, 2025, which extended the 2018 Farm Bill through fiscal year 2025.  The extension will expire September 30, 2025, for programs with fiscal year authorizations and December 30, 2025, for commodity support programs authorized on the basis of crop years.  Additionally, the bill provides $31 billion in disaster relief for agricultural producers. To read a detailed explanation of the extension, click here.

*USDA providing 3 million additional EID tags for producers.  You may recall that in November, the new electronic identification tag requirements for certain cattle and bison crossing state lines went into effect.  [Read prior blog post here and listen to podcast episode here.]  After producers complained about a lack of available tags in certain states, USDA announced it will be providing an additional 3 million EID tags, on top of the 8 million originally provided.  [Read article here.]

*Montana Supreme Court upholds youth climate change ruling.  We previously mentioned a 2023 trial court decision holding in a Montana case where a group of children brought suit claiming they had a “fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment” under the Montana constitution.   They claimed that laws prohibiting the analysis of greenhouse gas emissions or other impacts on climate change violated this constitutional right.  The trial court found in favor of the children.  In December 2024, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed.  [Read Opinion here.]

*Newsletter following Texas Legislature agricultural-related bills.  My friend, Cahil Murchison, has started a newsletter where he will be tracking the agricultural-related bills introduced in this year’s Texas Legislature.  If you are on LinkedIn, you can view it and subscribe here.  If you do not have LinkedIn, you can subscribe on SubStack here.  He has four newsletters out thus far outlining bills related to foreign land ownership, prohibiting cell-cultured proteins, keeping domestic chickens, tax exemption, honeybees, and more.

 *AALA award for professional scholarship.  In November, I was honored to receive the American Agricultural Law Association Professional Scholarship Award for a law review article I co-authored with my colleagues and friends, Shannon Ferrell, Bart Fischer, and Brad Karmen. [Read press release here.]  Our article, Paved with Good Intentions: Unintended Impacts of Farm Bill Payment Limitations on Farm Risk Management and Farm Transitions, was published last year by the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law.  We look at current USDA payment limitation rules and how these rules have a negative impact on farm and ranch estate planning.   For those of you interested in reading about 300 words rather than 60 pages…we wrote a summary of the article for Southern Ag Today, available here.

*Rural Impact Award Finalist.  I am honored to be a finalist in two categories of the Rural Impact Awards hosted by Ranch House Designs.  Each year, these awards recognize those making a difference in rural life and agriculture in a wide range of categories.  I am a finalist for Lawyer of the Year (along with my friends and former podcast guests Cari Rincker and Audra Rod Smith) and my Ag Law in the Field Podcast is a finalist for Podcast of the Year.  If you would like to vote for your favorites in any or all the categories, click here.

Upcoming Presentations

My 2025 presentation schedule is now posted!  You can see all of my upcoming programs here.

Additionally, remember that I have a number of online courses that are available on demand, 24/7 and can be taken at your own pace. Check out our Owning Your Piece of Texas Online Course, our Online Ranchers Leasing Workshop, our Online Where’s the Beef Course.