Farm Bureau Press - August 22, 2014

In Farm Bureau Top young farmers, ranchers Finalists for the 2014 Arkansas Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) Achievement Award have been announced. They are: • Alechia Meador of Green Forest (Carroll County). Alechia has a farm-andranch operation consisting of six chicken houses and 100 head of beef cattle. She has four sons: Mason, 6, Jace, 4, Cole, 2, and Blaze, 1 month.

• Kevin and Jacque Smith of Decatur (Benton County). The Smiths own K2J Poultry, a poultry-house equipment installation service, and raise 360,000 broilers on their poultry farm each year. They have three children: Brittany, 17, Jacey, 9, and Kylie, 4.

• Caleb and Briana Plyler of Hope (Hempstead County). The Plylers raise more than 300 head of registered Charolais cattle on their ranch. They also grow hay.

They have one son, Huck, 3.

ArFB’s YF&R Achievement Award recognizes farmers and ranchers age 18

Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach (right) was the honoree Aug. 7 at the fifth annual Brandon Burlsworth Foundation Legends Dinner.

Several dignitaries spoke to honor Randy, including former ArFB Executive Vice President Ewell Welch; U.S. Senator John Boozman; ArFB Vice President Rich Hillman; Mark Waldrip, owner of Armor Seed; and Brandon Veach, son of Randy and his wife Thelma. Randy was the inaugural recipient of the Lindsey/Reed Vision Award, which pays tribute to work done for the foundation by Jim Lindsey and the late Stanley Reed. to 35 for exemplary effort in farming and ranching, leadership and community involvement. Candidates are judged on a combination of farming operation growth and financial progress; leadership within and outside Farm Bureau; excellence in operation management and scope; and self-initiative displayed throughout the development of their operation.

The winning couple will be announced at ArFB’s annual convention Dec. 3-5 in Hot Springs. They will receive a $40,000 (Left to right) Judge Brian Kirksey, 2013 Arkansas Farm Family of the Year winner Andy Gill, and judges John Woodruff and Clark Garland discuss Gill’s farming practices, Aug. 7, during judging for Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. Gill is one of 10 finalists for the regional award. The winner will be announced Oct. 14 in Moultrie, Ga.

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General Motors gift card, which can be used toward the purchase of any GM vehicle. The winners also get an expense-paid trip to the 2015 American Farm Bureau Federation convention in San Diego.

There, they will compete with YF&R Achievement Award winners from the other 49 states and Puerto Rico.

PD meetings are important Arkansas Farm Bureau reminds county Farm Bureau leaders to attend their pol-

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A Publication of Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation

August 22, 2014 • Vol. 17, No. 16

In Arkansas

Arkansas Plant Board officials, forestry specialists and others met Aug. 13 to discuss options for containing the emerald ash borer found in six Arkansas counties. The beetle’s larvae feed on and kill ash trees. Plant Board survey coordinator Sam Kim explained efforts to identify damaged ash trees in the state. A task force will be formed to develop a public awareness strategy.

This year’s Arkansas 4-H State Horse Show, held July 14-17 at the White County Fairgrounds, drew 902 entries from more than 100 youths in 26 counties. That makes it the largest state horse show in the past five years. Ashley, Benton and White counties had the most youths participate in the horse show, with 12 from each county.

Roedel of Jonesboro and Gennie Bariola of Carlisle.

Contest judges were Katie Jacques, Brinkley Argus; Mary Francis Perkins, Arkansas Women in Ag; and Jennifer Victory, Arkansas Farm Bureau.

The goal of the Miss Arkansas Rice program is to encourage youth interest in rice promotion and to publicize the importance of the Arkansas rice industry to the state’s economy. Contestants were judged on their promotion activities and knowledge of the rice industry. They also

cooked a rice dish at the competition on which they were judged. Madison’s recipe was “Chocolate Rice Parfait.”

The Arkansas Rice Council sponsors the annual contest in cooperation with Arkansas Farm Bureau and the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. This was the 53rd year the contest has been held.

KEITH SUTTON photo

KEITH SUTTON photo

New Miss Arkansas Rice Madison Coleman of Brinkley was named 2014-15 Miss Arkansas Rice on Aug. 9 at the Brinkley Convention Center.

Coleman will be a senior at Lee Academy in Marianna this fall. She is the daughter of Shannon Coleman of Brinkley.

Coleman Josie Brown of Wynne was first runner-up, and second runner-up was Anna Thrash of Conway. Other county winners participating in the state finals were Lizzy Bronson of DeWitt, Brittany

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icy development meetings.

“These meetings are important as they set the tone for policy decisions by the delegates and eventually for what we lobby for to benefit the state’s farmers and ranchers during legislative sessions,” said Stanley Hill, ArFB’s vice president of public policy.

Leaders and members can contact their county Farm Bureau office to find out when their policy development meeting is.

More than 100 people attended Arkansas County Farm Bureau’s annual meeting Aug. 12 at the DeWitt Community Center. Among the highlights of the evening were talks by ArFB President Randy Veach (center) and U.S. Senator John Boozman (right).

County president Heath Long of Tichnor (left) presided over the meeting.

ArFB Vice President Rich Hillman (left) and Stanley Hill, ArFB’s vice president of public policy, visited with John Andrews, director of the Arkansas Dept. of Rural Services, at ArFB’s Agricultural Agency Appreciation Luncheon Aug. 14 in Little Rock. ArFB hosts the luncheon each year to thank state employees who work diligently to represent agriculture in Arkansas.

Water Plan meetings After two years of meetings and public comment periods, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission is holding meetings next month to present to the public a draft of the Arkansas Water Plan’s updated executive summary. The meetings are scheduled as follows: • Sept. 3, Stuttgart, 10 a.m., Grand Prairie Center, Phillips Community College, U of A, 2807 Highway 165 South • Sept. 4, Jonesboro, 9 a.m., Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce, 1709 East Nettleton • Sept. 5, Russellville, 10 a.m., Lake Point Conference Center, 171 Lake Point Lane, Training Room C • Sept. 15, Smackover, 1 p.m., Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources, 3853 Smackover Highway • Sept. 16, Texarkana, AR, 10 a.m., Southwest Arkansas Electric Coop, 2904 East Ninth St., (must park in designated areas) • Sept. 17, Little Rock, 2 p.m., Central Arkansas Main Branch Library, 100 Rock St., Darragh Center Auditorium

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Symposium features top speakers The Center for Food Animal Wellbeing, a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, hosted its fourth annual symposium Aug. 7 on advances and current issues in food animal wellbeing. Featured speakers included Temple Grandin, a Colorado State University animal science professor and a designer of livestock handling facilities, who addressed animal behavior and welfare.

Grandin stated that with genetic selection, one should focus on optimal selection. “If you focus on one trait too much you’ll wreck the animal,” she said.

The one-day symposium addressed issues being faced by the swine and poultry industries, as well as topics important to animal production agriculture, including property rights versus animal rights and animal behavior and welfare.

Joy Mench, director of the University of California-Davis Center for Animal Wel-

Members of the Benton County Farm Bureau Policy Development Committee met Aug. 7 at the county office in Bentonville to discuss resolutions to be considered at their Sept. 16 annual meeting. The group developed resolutions related to energy, livestock, the environment and other issues that directly affect local Farm Bureau members.

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• Sept. 19, Fayetteville, 10 a.m., U of A Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Cen ter, Room 109, 1335 West Knapp After the meetings, public comments on the executive summary will be taken through Oct. 24. After the comment deadline has expired, a final executive summary will be prepared and submitted to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission in November. The plan will then go before the legislature for final approval.

Rodney Baker, ArFB executive vice president, spoke Aug. 14 in support of the new H2O initiative announced by Delta Plastics and a consortium of partners. The effort will provide free web-based software to farmers to create more efficient pipe irrigation of crops.

This could enable Delta farmers to save more than 1 trillion gallons of water per year. fare, shared her views on the layer industry of the future. “Why cages?” she asked.

“Improved egg cleanliness and quality, improved hen health and more efficient production.”

Other speakers included David Newman, North Dakota State University; Paige Glover, Aviagen Poultry; Mark Cooper, Cobb-Vantress, Inc.; Janeal Yancey, a UA animal science department staffer who writes the Mom at the Meat Counter blog, and Elizabeth Rumley, a staff attorney at the Division of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Law Center.

Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton, director for the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing, said, “I am thrilled that this year we had an extraordinary roster of speakers with international reputations speaking on animal welfare and related issues of current interest to those of us in animal agriculture.” Thaxton said the goal for the Center for Food Animal Wellbeing is to improve animal health, animal handling, food safety and productivity by developing and defining objective measurements of wellbeing including measures of behavior, stress physiology, neurophysiology, immunology, microbiology and production efficiency.

Elsewhere Missouri passes Right to Farm On Aug. 5, voters in Missouri approved a constitutional amendment allowing for a

“right to farm.” Results from the Missouri secretary of state showed the amendment prevailed with 50.1 percent of the vote, a difference of 2,528 votes. Nearly 995,000 votes were cast.

The proposal, known as Amendment 1, guarantees the rights of Missouri residents to “engage in farming and ranching practices,” making farming an official constitutional right, similar to existing protections for the freedoms of speech and religion.

Currently, only North Dakota has a similar constitutional amendment. The amendment passage will undergo an automatic recount, triggered by the margin of victory being less than 1 percent.

Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst issued the following statement after passage: “Thanks to the thousands of Missouri family farmers who made this victory possible. In my 35 years of involvement with FB, I’ve never, ever, seen this much enthusiasm and work from our members.

We’ve always prided ourselves on being a grassroots organization, and we celebrate what true grassroots participation can accomplish.”

Supporters of the amendment said the measure was needed to preserve Missouri’s agricultural heritage, under attack from national groups like the Humane Society of the United States. The agricultural industry in Missouri, with nearly 100,000 farms, has been rattled by the push in other states to pass measures regulating livestock conditions and genetically modified crops.

Editor Keith Sutton

keith.sutton@arfb.com

An Open Letter from Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach Many of you, no doubt, have heard about a developing situation involving an east Arkansas grain dealer. The circumstances around this situation seem to change daily, although it is clear it will have implications that affect a number of Arkansas farmers.

We know the U.S. Department of Agriculture has shut down one of the affiliated companies of Turner Grain Merchandising, due to concerns about its financial practices. Two lawsuits have already been filed – one by a group of farmers and another by a company owing money to Turner Grain Merchandising. One thing we know is that the specifics of any legal filings will obviously impact the scenarios and outcomes for everyone involved.

Arkansas has limited laws pertaining to grain merchandising and no indemnity protection for situations like this. Sadly, there does not appear to be anything we can do to help those caught in this financial tangle. This will be up to our court system to sort through.

Please know that Arkansas Farm Bureau is keeping close tabs on this situation, and that we are committed to finding the most equitable resolution for our farmers. We will be listening closely on Friday when a joint hearing of the state Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development committee conducts a hearing on this matter. We intend to let our elected officials know that Farm Bureau is committed to protecting Arkansas agriculture, our members, farmers and ranchers.

We continue to research regulations, laws and the legal implications of the situation.

The state office of the Farm Service Agency has confirmed a 15-day extension of terms for farmers’ USDA-backed commodity loans. We believe that is helpful, though we will keep up our efforts to try to get these extended further.

We appreciate the effort by FSA and the support of our Congressional delegation.

We have long recognized that additional laws in this area were needed in Arkansas. We have made previous attempts to get something passed, although, frankly, agriculture was not together on that issue. Several states have laws that provide protection for similar situations, and we expect the Arkansas General Assembly will see proposed legislation in the next session.

It is reasonable to expect that not all farmers are going to view this dispute from the same perspective. Arkansas Farm Bureau will let our member-defined policy guide our dealings on this issue in front of the Legislature. As you can imagine, this has been a growing topic of discussion within the organization. We need the collective knowledge and expertise of our members so that future policy offers protection for Arkansas farmers and ranchers.

We are saddened to hear of this situation, because we know it will negatively affect Arkansas agriculture. It will almost certainly lead to financial hardship for some of our family farms, as well as a number of business interests that work closely with the men and women of agriculture.

We will continue to monitor this situation, and as more information is confirmed we will be working with our county Farm Bureaus to make you aware of those details.

Sincerely,

Randy Veach, President Arkansas Farm Bureau