Ag News

Digging In webinar recaps 2025 legislative session

On April 15, Georgia Farm Bureau partnered with AgCredit to host “Digging In,” a webinar in which the organization visited with Georgia House Agriculture Committee Chairman Robert Dickey (R-Musella) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Russ Goodman (R-Homerville) along with Georgia Department of Agriculture Policy Counsel Katherine Russell and Ag Georgia and Ag South Farm Credit Marketing Manager Rhonda Shannon.

Dickey, Goodman and Shannon were asked to talk about a number of bills addressing agricultural topics, including disaster relief for those affected by Hurricane Helene, tort reform, veterinary loan repayment, truck weights and others.

Disaster relief

The two committee chairmen were asked to review action taken to help farmers recover from damage caused by Hurricane Helene.

“I’m really proud of what the state has done,” Goodman said. “No amount of money is ever going to be enough. The sun went down that night and when the sun came back up, we’d lost a third of our number one industry in the state, which is hard to imagine.”

House Bill 223 is intended to provide relief from Hurricane Helene by exempting federal disaster relief payments for agricultural losses and crop insurance payments for Hurricane Helene received in 2025 from state income tax, providing a tax credit for eligible losses of trees used to produce wood or food at $550 per acre, and exempting building materials used in 2025 for repairing poultry houses, livestock barns or greenhouses from sales tax.

The final bill includes the language from Senate Bill 52, which suspends the “severance tax,” the tax on harvested timber that is calculated based on dollar value rather than volume of harvested timber. Timber producers suffered because of diminished value when extraordinary quantities of downed trees had to be harvested following the storm, and local communities receiving funds from the severance tax saw drastically diminished revenue.

The bill also included $285 million toward the Georgia Development Authority to fund low-interest loans for producers whose farms were damaged by the hurricane. Goodman said the total financial response authorized by the legislature was approximately $1.2 billion. At press time the bill awaited signing by Gov. Brian Kemp.

“I think we’ve done all we can do from a state perspective,” Dickey said. “I hope our federal partners will come in helping soon.”

Tort reform

Kemp placed high priority on tort reform, and the legislature passed Senate Bills 68 and 69. SB68 contained most of Kemp’s proposals, including premises liability, seat belt laws, attorney’s fees and others.

“Farmers are small businesspeople,” Dickey said. “We all have vehicles on the road, we have a lot of assets, buildings … a lot of liability out there and we were just wide open.”

Veterinary Loan Repayment Program

Russell detailed updates to the Veterinary Loan Repayment Program authorized in House Bill 172. It increases the total amount a recent veterinary school graduate can receive, from $80,000 over four years to $90,000 over three years.

“The purpose is to support loan repayments for veterinarians who have recently graduated from vet school and are servicing specified areas that are rural and they really focusing on large animal veterinary practices,” Russell said. “We would just like to see those vets available to our constituents who need them.”

Truck weights

House Bill 164 removes the sunset provision on truck weights legislation passed in 2023, making permanent the provision allowing up to 88,000 pounds to be transported. Prior to 2023, the limit was set at 84,000 pounds. Goodman said this put Georgia at the same weight limit as bordering states and saves money by reducing the number of trips for farmers who ship their products across state lines.

Water metering

House Bill 143 relieves farmers of the responsibility of installing sufficient infrastructure for state-funded meters to be installed by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) if the EPD attempts to put in a meter and determines there is insufficient infrastructure to complete the installation. The bill will authorize EPD staff to undertake maintenance and new meter installation in specific cases.

CUVA acreage

House Bill 90 doubles the maximum allowed acreage in Conservation Use Value Assessment (CUVA) from 2,000 acres to 4,000 acres. If passed, owners can qualify for multiple covenants if the total acreage does not exceed 4,000 acres.

“Ag is changing,” Dickey said, noting that many farms have had to increase in size. “I think this will be a benefit to a lot of farmers.”

House Bill 129 removes restrictions on certain leased properties that were previously disqualified from entering a CUVA covenant. The leasing entity must be owned by a U.S. citizen, the primary purpose of the land use must be agricultural, 80% of the entity's gross income must come from bona fide conservation use, and one member must own at least 25% stake in the property for the leased property to remain eligible.

Pesticide labeling

Senate Bill 144 absolves chemical manufacturers of liability if the product meets Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) standards set forth by the EPA, shielding the manufacturer from lawsuits as long as the product meets the labeling requirements.

Goodman said the bill would keep manufacturers from being held responsible for “failure to warn” here a manufacturer or seller is held liable for failing to adequately inform consumers about the potential dangers or risks associated with their product. Failure to warn has been the basis for successful lawsuits against chemical companies.

“All this legislation did was it said that the label is the law. Anyone who thinks they have been harmed, anyone that they think they bought an adulterated product, whatever it is, they still have multiple avenues to sue,” Goodman said.

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