STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann,

UNL Extension Educator,

Webster County March 12, 2011 Edition I had the great opportunity to join about 100 or so farmers, ranchers, educators, and agribusiness leaders to attend the Governor’s Ag Conference a few days ago. We heard our governor and several excellent speakers discuss how our state’s number one industry has fared in the past year and what we can look forward to in the coming year. The message I heard was that Nebraska’s agriculture industry is strong and the outlook for 2011 is for continued strength, with anticipated record net farm income. A number of the speakers pointed out that what’s been good for Nebraska agriculture has been good for the entire state. An economist with the Federal Reserve Bank stated that the economy of Nebraska has flourished because of the success of our farmers and ranchers, while the rest of the nation suffered through a major recession. All though our state has its own financial problems, we and other northern plains states have done well in difficult times in large part due to our farms and ranches. Speaking of the world, it was really interesting to hear Lt. Col. Lynn Heng with the Nebraska National Guard talked about their mission in Afghanistan, where 27 Nebraska soldiers, with various agriculture and farm backgrounds, are sharing farming practices and other techniques with local Afghan farmers to help their people move forward in creating a sustainable economy. I know that Jenny Rees, UNL Extension Educator in Clay County, and her husband Chris have both been very involved with this project. It was particularly interesting to me because Lt. Colonel Heng knows one of my brothers really well, and was a fraternity brother of one of our Webster County farmers. I now have some stories! We had a former chief of staff to several Secretaries of Agriculture inform us that as Congress is preparing to begin work on the next Farm Bill that we need to be active in the development of this critical policy. He indicated that this will be a whole different ballgame this time around, especially with the environment of budget cuts and good farm prices. It is going to be interesting to see what is in store for the 2012 Farm Bill. We definitely have seen an evolution over the years. The global presence of U.S. agriculture was the focus of the conference keynote address by the president of Pioneer Global Seed Genetics. He spoke about the global economic climate, currency issues, and other factors that will ultimately determine international trade. Agriculture exports are anticipated to be at or near an all-time high in 2011, maintaining agriculture’s position as one of the few industries in the United States to have a consistently positive trade balance. Another topic that really got my attention and raised my blood pressure was the concern about current and impending regulations, especially EPA regulations and their potential impact on our agriculture industry. It is unbelievable what they have on their agenda. The general consensus of the audience and the people I talked to feel that the over-regulation by entities like EPA is one of our biggest stumbling blocks in agriculture and likely to be an ongoing concern. I want to take my hat off to Senator Mike Johannes for standing up to the EPA and taking them to task on the overreach and overregulation that is and will have devastating impacts on agriculture. Thank you Senator for standing up for us! While we were talking about the EPA, a couple of people I met started talking to me about another government entity that I had never heard of - NEPA. It peaked my interest, and I have since done a little research and I think this may be as troubling as EPA. NEPA is the granddaddy of environmental statutes, signed into law on January 1, 1970. The purpose of the act was simple. It became national policy to protect the environment and NEPA required environmental impact statements (EIS's) be prepared for major federal actions having a significant effect on the environment. This simple act has now taken up hundreds of pages of regulations and thousands of pages of court cases. And, cost thousands of jobs and kept our country from using its oil and gas resources, which will contribute to $4-plus gasoline! Will NEPA do the same to agriculture? I suggest you do a little reading on this “little known about law” and I will be interested in what you think. I really enjoyed listening to South Dakota ranchers Troy and Stacy Hadrick. You may remember the YouTube video of a rancher pouring out a Yellow Tail wine bottle in his cattle lot after the company donated a lot of money to HSUS. That was Troy. The couple has a Facebook account called “Advocates for Agriculture”, which is what they said we all need to be. They echoed, what I have been saying for quite some time, that as the focus on livestock animal welfare/rights grows, it is up to everyone involved in farming, ranching and agribusiness to let consumers know about what they do every day to put food on the table for our state, our nation and the world. I was particularly pleased with our Governor Dave Heineman and his stance and comments about the Humane Society of the United States. Governor Heineman told us that he isn't buying into HSUS President Wayne Pacelle’s statement that they aren’t interesting in Nebraska and that they weren’t out to destroy animal agriculture, our number one industry in the state. He told all of us that he was prepared to stand up and fight with our farmers and ranchers against the HSUS because it's important to our economic future. He said HSUS tries to go into states and intimidate people. He stated that he won't be intimidated, nor will our citizens by the HSUS. He pointed out that HSUS is a Washington DC special interest group trying to tell us how to run our state and that we don't need their help, we don't want their help, and that Nebraskans are completely capable of making decisions about our state. Amen! Way to go Governor! Thanks for a great conference! The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home