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Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Star Tribune
– Thursday – August 16, 2007
Ag’s Cloudy Future
By RENA DELBRIDGE
Star-Tribune correspondent
DOUGLAS -- At the
Wyoming State Fair to address an annual gathering of cattle producers, McFadden
rancher Olin Sims had one overriding message about the politics behind the new
farm bill in Congress.
As president of the National
Association of Conservation Districts, Sims has traveled the nation listening to
farmers and ranchers. One woe keeps surfacing, from the fruit farms of central
California, to the rugged ranchlands of the Rocky Mountain West, to the small
produce farms of New England.
The nation is in danger of losing
its family-owned and -operated ranches and farms.
"The tragedy is as our
metropolitan areas grow, we’re taking the most productive ag and ranch lands out
of production,” Sims told a packed room here Wednesday afternoon.
He cited an
example close to home. As a child he loved driving south on Interstate 25 from
Cheyenne to Denver, where rich, fertile soil sprouted all manner of crops
interspersed with livestock. Today, that’s a land where all that grows is
concrete, new roads, shopping malls and housing developments.
He said that encroachment, coupled
with the dearth of interest younger generations have in keeping a family ranch
or farm going, is the biggest issue facing agriculture today.
State Sens. Jim Anderson,
R-Glenrock, and John Schiffer, R-Kaycee, at the conference to keep abreast of
producer issues and visit with constituents, couldn’t agree more.
Anderson said agriculture is aging
quickly, and the state will have to work together on how to sustain the industry
while moving into the future.
“We have to make the industry
attractive and vibrant enough that young people can make a living and raise a
family,” he said during a conference break.
Shiffer agreed, adding that many
of the state’s producers are most worried now about drought, animal health and
potential changes to the state’s tax structure.
He said producers and the state
should focus attention on developing water, including constructing reservoirs,
building pipelines and increasing conservation, in preparation for the time when
droughtlike conditions become the norm. Likewise, although brucellosis is on a
back-burner in Wyoming, the disease remains a problem.
He also cautioned producers to
keep an ear for talk about balancing the state’s revenue stream, which raises
the question among some groups as to whether agriculture is paying a fair share.
“That always scares me,” he said.
“For the ag industry, that could be devastating if we go to market taxation.”
Some in the state have proposed
ending the current land taxation system, which assesses ranchland on its ability
to produce. Those in favor of a market system claim too many property owners
shrug from a fair tax burden when land is assessed as agricultural instead of as
rural vacation property or something similar.
Also at the Cattlemen’s
Conference, sponsored by the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and Double S Feeders:
* With the 2002 farm bill expiring
with the federal fiscal year in September, lawmakers may run out of time to
reconcile House and Senate versions of a new bill to carry producers from 2007
through 2012, Sims said. The House has passed its version, which is generally
favorable to Wyoming’s producers, but the Senate is lagging behind. He
anticipated some sort of resolution by the end of the year.
The House-approved version
simplifies various programs available to producers, mandates adequate assistance
at field offices and directs to the local level more decisions on how dollars
are spent.
“The best decisions are made
closest to the ground on how to spend those dollars,” Sims said.
* Elizabeth Drake, an attorney for
the Washington, D.C., firm representing the producers group R-CALF in trade and
international marketing issues, discussed components of the country-of-origin
labeling rules, which will be implemented a year from now if the farm bill
passed in the House is also approved by the Senate. Country-of-origin labeling,
hotly debated for several years at the national level, would require consumer
packages of meat products to state which country it came from, among other
things.
* Cheyenne attorney Frank Falen
told landowners what they need to be thinking about should a wind energy company
come knocking at their door. Interest in wind energy is perking up throughout
Wyoming and is proving a “complex issue” that requires good legal representation
for landowners, he said.
Most everyone in the room raised a
hand in response to Falen’s query of who thought they had wind energy potential
on their property. No hands shot up when he asked how many knew what dollar
value to place on that asset.
“It’s not like selling your
calves,” he said. “There’s no place to go see what the market is.”
He urged producers to talk with
their neighbors, seek legal counsel early in the process and to turn any
interest into a competitive process in order to negotiate the best deals.
* R-CALF President Max Thornsberry
addressed the producers’ organization's efforts to protect the U.S. livestock
industry by banning imports from countries including Canada, where mad cow
disease is known to be a problem. He also urged producers to use caution in
signing onto the U.S. Department of Agriculture's nationwide animal
identification program, which R-CALF says is unmanageable and will become a cost
burden on taxpayers.
Thornsberry delved into a summary
of R-CALF’s attention to private property issues and the need to foster an
environment nationally that encourages the children of producers to stay on with
the family business.
“We’re really approaching a time
where we don’t have anything to offer the next generation,” he told the
gathering. “It’s up to us to raise a generation that’s willing to take over
livestock.”
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2007/08/16/news/wyoming/ac8567c48ee50d928725733800816fcb.txt
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