"We're out here meeting with hog farmers, cattlemen, ranchers, corn and soybean growers and the banking industry that works with them — just trying to grow my background and the understanding of the issues so I can be a better advocate on the agriculture committee," the Republican who represents the 2nd District said Monday during an interview with the Daily News while in Norfolk.

Just three months into serving his first term, Bacon is a member of the ag committee along with two other committees and six subcommittees. He grew up on a farm in Illinois raising corn, soybeans and beef cattle. At 21, he joined the U.S. Air Force and made military service his career.

Bacon said he wants Northeast Nebraska ag producers to know that committee members are committed to producing a farm bill in the coming months, one that probably will be similar to the 2014 bill with some incremental changes and improvements.

"I think most of us who are working on it realize that the farm bill had already taken some cuts in previous years," he said. "But I think we can work hard to defend the farm bill itself with incremental changes, and I will tell you that I've heard loud and clear, we've got to maintain crop insurance with some improvements."

One area that he is focusing on specifically is foot and mouth disease (FMD), which can affect cloven-hoofed animals like pigs and cattle.

"I'd like to have a good impact on the foot and mouth disease issue that a lot of our ranchers and hog farmers are concerned about. What I've learned is a lot of the immunization or the medicine out there to counter this is kept offshore,” he said. “We don't have stockpiles that can deal with an outbreak, and one outbreak in our country could just ravage our livestock producers. So I want to work to come up with a better fix for that."

Another priority is crop insurance, he said.

"We've got to make sure that we've got an affordable crop insurance, and we need to make some smart modifications to how folks receive support," Bacon said.

The farm bill will be voted on in 2018. But Bacon said now is the time to voice concerns for the shaping of the bill.

"I think the time and place to have a good impact is now. Because we are doing all these committee hearings, subcommittee hearings … really it's the foundation of what that bill's going to look like next year," he said. "Have a voice now, while the key ingredients are being put together.”

Bacon said he acknowledges that there are areas of agriculture that he needs to learn more about.

"Even in Nebraska, we have sugar beets, sorghum, so I have to learn," he said.

With farm incomes being cut in half and reductions in land values, Bacon said that it is important to get this farm bill right.

"We want to provide stability, not a quick jerk to the left or right on this thing. So I think our agriculture committee — and community — wants the stability," he said.

Bacon said that of the six subcommittees and three committees on which he serves, the agriculture committee is the most bipartisan.

"For the most part, there's a lot of bipartisan buy-in, that we need the farm bill, that we need crop insurance. That's just my observation being there three months," Bacon said, as compared to other committees where he said that stark partisan lines are formed.

"You know, it's funny, Republicans and Democrats have got to eat. We all can relate," Bacon said.