PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Randy Knight, President, Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation
I am writing my column in October as Senate and House conferees begin working out the details of a final Farm Bill reauthorization. Sen. Thad Cochran, who serves on the Farm Bill conference committee, has strived to bring all sides together to work in a bipartisan manner to complete this bill, and progress has been made. Mississippi farmers are hopeful. It has been a bumpy road, and we could not have gotten this far without Sen. Cochran’s steadfast leadership and knowledge. Hopefully, we will have a new Farm Bill that meets the needs of all farmers by the end of the year.
EXCELLENT AG LEADERS
The type of leadership exemplified by Sen. Thad Cochran is important to the future of our farming industry. Farm Bureau is all about shaping the agricultural leaders of tomorrow, and the men and women honored during our 92nd annual membership meeting in December have benefited in one way or another from our excellent leadership programs. In this issue, we visit with a few of our honorees, and the rest will be featured in our March/April issue. Ag Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith received our Distinguished Service Award while Rep. Bill Pigott and Sen. Russell Jolly were our Friend of Agriculture Award recipients. Our Excellence in Leadership Award went to Robert Naron of Bolivar County, and Julie White and Nelda Starks of Oktibbeha County received our Ag Ambassador Award. All of these outstanding leaders are deserving of our recognition and thanks. Our first-ever Farm Woman of the Year is Rita Seward of Jackson County. Like most farm women, Rita wears many hats on her family’s large row crop, cattle and quarter horse
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industries. A humble, unassuming man, Keith tries hard to avoid the spotlight, but I am going to beam it on him anyway. Keith is a former MFBF director and the current president of Tippah County Farm Bureau. He is a former chair of the MFBF Soybean Advisory Committee, a former first vice chair of the MFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers State Committee and a former state Young Farmer of the Year. Keith serves in leadership positions with the Mississippi Land Bank, Mississippi Soybean Association, Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board and Northeast Mississippi Producer Advisory Committee for Soybeans. In the past, he has served as chair of the Northeast Mississippi Producer Advisory Committee for Cotton. And how about those soybeans? Keith and his wife, Beth, farm together in a true partnership, growing soybeans, cotton, wheat and corn in the North Mississippi hills near Falkner. As the women’s chair for Tippah County Farm Bureau, Beth has also served our organization well.
operation. The family also continues to operate one of Mississippi’s first agritourism endeavors. And finally, I know you noticed our cover. Through the years, longtime Farm Bureau volunteer leader and past annual membership meeting honoree Keith Morton of Tippah County has well served our organization and the Mississippi soybean and cotton
MISSISSIPPI FARM COUNTRY
I want to conclude my column on leadership by encouraging you to continue your grassroots efforts to raise the visibility of our Farm Bureau programs in your communities, even as we work together to tackle issues that affect our farmers, ranchers and Farm Bureau members across the state. We have accomplished a lot in 2013, but we still have many goals to reach. I am eager to begin.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
MISSISSIPPI FARM COUNTRY
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