With diesel fuel over $4 per gallon and the costs of production soaring, farmers and ranchers in South Dakota have enough to worry about without adding a presidential veto of the farm bill to their problems.

There is much wrong with the new farm bill coming out of a congressional conference committee. Certainly, it lacks any serious reform of farm subsidies to wealthy farmers.

The proposed Farm Bill would spend about $5 billion per year for the next five years on direct, or automatic, payments to farmers. Sadly, about two-thirds of those payments will go to the top 10 percent of growers of five crops: corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans. President Bush favors ending payments completely for those whose adjusted gross incomes from nonfarm sources is above $200,000.

The current subsidy system is a classic example of corporate welfare at its worst, and unless Congress bows to the administration's demands to lower those income limits and decrease subsidy payments to high-income farmers, Bush threatens to veto the nearly $300 billion bill that would establish America's food policy and land conservation policies for the next five years.

Certainly, there must be room for negotiation somewhere between $2.5 million and $200,000, isn't there?

There has to be, because there is also much right with the proposed farm bill.

It contains country of origin labeling that South Dakota beef producers have long sought for their product and a $3.7 billion permanent ag disaster aid program which will be an important new safety net for ranchers in drought-prone western South Dakota. We hope that program is coupled with the Senate's sod-saver provision, which would eliminate federal subsidies to those who plow under native prairies as cropland.

The new farm bill also includes a big increase in nutrition and food aid spending at a time when America's community food banks are facing increased demand for services from low-income people struggling with rising food prices. Also, it broadens government policies toward promoting locally-grown, seasonal and organic foods.

Congress has until May 16 to craft a farm bill that is long overdue. South Dakota agricultural producers need legislation in place now to navigate the next five years in an increasingly complicated, sophisticated and financially risky industry.

Congress is duty bound to send President Bush a farm bill that he won't veto, even if that means turning a deaf ear to the demands of powerful agriculture lobbyists.

At the same time, neither Bush nor Congress should allow the perfect farm bill to be the enemy of a good one for South Dakota agriculture.