Nebraska Ag Connection
D.C. Fly in Shows Producers What Farm Bureau is All About
Nebraska Ag Connection - 03/15/2024
Farm Bureau members were in Jackson, meeting face to face with their representatives and senators in the State Capitol.
This time, members sat down with United States Congressmen and Senators from Mississippi and across the country. They came prepared with a list of issues to discuss. All a part of being the voice of agriculture for their fellow Farm Bureau members back home.
“To get doors open for us and to have those conversations with folks that we might not normally get a chance to be in front of, and these are people who are making decisions that are impacting Ag and producers here in Mississippi,” said Murray Haslip, DeSoto County hay farmer.
“It’d be real difficult for yourself as an individual to take time to come up here,” said Justin Brown, Prentiss County cattle and sheep producer. “When we have people that support the issues that we see that need to be taken care of, it’s great to have a backing like Farm Bureau.”
With a Farm Bill still yet to be voted on by Congress, farmers were able to bring their needs right to those who make the final decision in the process from Congressman Bennie Thompson to Nebraska’s Don Bacon to Texas’s Henry Cuellar not to mention the agriculture committee staff on both the House and Senate sides who keep members informed.
“It’s great to represent the State of Mississippi and come up here and see people, and use a real grassroots effort with Farm Bureau and get to shake hands, and get to help the Mississippi policies, what we want to change and what we can do to better agriculture,” said Brown.
In fact, while this group of North Mississippi producers were in Washington D.C., Senator Cindy Hyde Smith announced vehicles with a Mississippi State Harvest Permit transporting agricultural products, such as grain and timber, will be allowed to haul up to the existing state limit of 88,000 pounds on an interstate highway within the borders of Mississippi. A policy change pushed by Farm Bureau.
Makes you realize just how quickly things can change on Capitol Hill and in agriculture.
“Constantly changing you know from floor pricing, LFP payments. You know, the list can go on and on, EPA, especially under this latest dicamba ruling,” said Collin Hutcheson, Lee County livestock producer. “You know, it can vary from anything to everything also.”
“Getting to see what we’re putting into works on the ground back at home versus what we’re actually applying here in D.C.,” said Edith Bouler, Lafayette County, specialty crop producer. “So that was kind of my realm of coming because you don’t get to do this not often really.”
Other “asks” included keeping the Livestock Forage Program or LFP in the next Farm Bill which allowed producers to receive forage for their livestock during last year’s extreme drought, adjusting policy within the USDA Emergency Forestry Restoration Program allowing producers to receive advance in payments to clean up destroyed tracts of land, and providing adequate staffing in USDA Farm Service Agency offices which help farmers tap into information on many different programs.