House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said Wednesday that he has had several conversations with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, about moving forward with the farm bill and that he is "optimistic" that the House will take up the bill this year.

Peterson made the remark during an organizational meeting of the committee. Earlier this month, he wrote Boehner that he would not participate in a markup of the farm bill unless the speaker promised to bring the bill to the House floor.

Boehner and Peterson are in disagreement over a dairy provision that Peterson has written that Boehner considers "Soviet-style" market interference. Dairy farmers support Peterson's provision, but dairy processors oppose it.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said there are so many big budgetary issues facing Congress that it will be impossible to know "the lay of the land" for the farm bill for several months, according to the Oklahoma Farm Report.