It is scenes such as this that come into scrutiny every five years, when Capitol Hill passes its $955 billion farm bill, which entered the U.S. Senate floor this week. It’s one step closer to an update, with new provisions that include something Michigan farmers have wanted for a long time: specialty crop insurance.

While MSU’s Dairy Farm Manager Robert Kreft said last year’s early frosts and drought have the dairy center shelling out about $225 per ton of hay this year, instead of the usual $150 a ton, it’s the tart cherry farmers that suffered most from last year’s unseasonable weather fluctuations and drought, losing 97 percent of their crops.

But there could be a glimmer in some growers’ eyes after Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, worked to pass the bill through committee with a provision that could extend insurance coverage for such specialty crops, paying 60 percent of farmers’ insurance premiums. And there’s another provision that would close what some advocates consider an arbitrary coverage gap for dairy farmers, providing greater risk protection benefits, said Ryan Findlay, an expert on the farm bill with the Michigan Farm Bureau.

“In general, (the bureau) is very pleased with the direction this farm bill is going,” Findlay said.

Findlay said tart cherry farmers could benefit substantially if the provision stays, and dairy farmers also could look forward to more protection against product loss.

David Schweikhardt, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, said last year’s devastating crop damage — which affected the entire Midwest — “brought home the fact” that more people are calling for the insurance expansion.

The bill currently is being debated on the Senate floor. Meanwhile, Kreft’s cows are being milked.