News Update
January 14, 2015
Sherry Saylor of Arizona Elected Chair of AFB Women’s Leadership Program
Members of the American Farm Bureau (AFB) Women’s Leadership Program elected Sherry Saylor, an Arizona row crop farmer, to a two-year term as chair of the AFB Women’s Leadership Committee (WLC). Saylor and her husband, Rick, are partners in R&S Farms, where they grow cotton, wheat, alfalfa, barley and soybeans.
Saylor has been a Farm Bureau member since 1974 and is a former chair of the Arizona Women’s Leadership Committee. She was elected to serve on the AFB WLC in 1990 and most recently served as vice chair.
A graduate of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Saylor also holds a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Phoenix. In addition to farming, she is currently the guidance counselor at Buckeye Elementary School, a position she has held for 28 years.
Saylor and the WLC members look forward to collaborating with other Farm Bureau committees and programs to advance the shared goal of furthering the cause of agriculture.
“It’s so important for those of us in agriculture to be transparent about what we do to produce food,” Saylor said. “We must commit to taking our messages to local, national and even global platforms.”
The year-round Our Food Link program is one avenue of outreach the AFB Women will be focusing on this year. Another is the Women in Ag Survey, which remains open for submissions until Feb. 20 and will help Farm Bureau gauge the needs and aspirations of women in agriculture.
During remarks at the annual meeting of the AFB Women, outgoing chair Terry Gilbert told attendees that studies show farm and ranch women are seen as credible information sources about the production of food, fiber and renewable fuels. She encouraged women to continue their efforts to forge connections with consumers and be open to responding to questions.
Committee member Isabella Chism of Indiana was elected for a two-year term as vice chair.
Lorenda Overman of North Carolina and Carol Guthrie of Idaho were elected to two-year terms on the committee. Deb Walsh of Indiana was nominated to fill a one-year term. Marieta Hauser of Kansas and Debbi Tanner of Connecticut were re-elected to two-year terms on the committee.
The AFBF delegate body will vote to approve the election of the five Women Leadership Committee members at the conclusion of the organization’s annual meeting.
ScoutPro of Iowa Honored as Farm Bureau
Entrepreneur of the Year
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) together with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Global Social Enterprise Initiative and Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative’s StartupHoyas has announced the Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year as part of the first Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge. The winner was announced at AFBF’s 96th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show. Four finalists competed for the award by pitching their business ideas to a team of judges before a live audience.
ScoutPro of Lone Tree, Iowa, team lead Michael Koenig was named Entrepreneur of the Year from a field of four finalists and received a total of $30,000 in prize money to implement his business idea, which is software to assist farmers with crop maintenance.
Pasturebird LLC of Temecula, Calif., team lead Paul Greive won the People’s Choice award in the competition and $10,000 in prize money. Members of the live audience at the challenge finals competition and members of the general public voted online to select the People’s Choice winner. Pasturebird is a cost-effective method of producing pastured poultry on a large scale.
“Rural entrepreneurs continue to be a major driving force in our nation’s economy,” AFBF President Bob Stallman said. “We congratulate all the finalists and wish them well in their future business endeavors.”
The finalist businesses were chosen from more than 200 applicants. Golden Bridges Inc. of Palmyra, Mo., team lead Suzanne Ellerbrock, and Pulaski Grow of Pulaski, Va., team lead Lee Spiegel were the other two finalists who competed in the final round of the challenge in San Diego.
“The seed money provided to entrepreneurs through the challenge will help them take their businesses to the next level, which can make a huge difference in small, rural communities,” said Jeff Reid, founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative.
For more information, please view the full release here.
Farmers and the Public Must Act to
Help Improve Nation’s Largest Conservation Program
The nation’s largest federal conservation program that helps working farmers manage their land sustainably — the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) — is in need of improvements, says the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), reflecting the views of farmer constituents of their member organizations.
Problems with the program are making it hard for farmers using advanced conservation systems to access the program and receive support for the highest-impact environmental practices on their farms. At the same time, it is difficult for beginning farmers and small-acreage growers to utilize the program.
Fortunately, there is an opportunity for farmers and the general public to weigh-in with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on improving the program, so that it can have a positive impact on the nation’s land and water, reach all types of farmers and ensure taxpayer dollars are invested wisely in America’s agricultural legacy.
What’s going on?
CSP has been in operation for many years, but with the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, NRCS was directed to make some changes to the program.
At issue: some of the most important conservation activities a farmer can undertake on his or her farm are long-term, ongoing efforts across the entire farm, such as planting continuous cover, transitioning to organic production or switching from a chemical-focused to a sustainable pest-management approach. CSP is intended to support farmers who undertake these kinds of practices by providing 5-year contracts with financial support — but NRCS isn’t doing this. Instead, they’re aiming the program toward first-time conservation, putting those farmers that continue conservation methods at a disadvantage.
This has the unintended effect of penalizing some of the nation’s best conservation-oriented farmers.
NRCS has not ensured that CSP is accessible to beginning farmers and small-acreage farmers, and they have yet to close loopholes that allow some farmers to exceed the farm bill’s per-farm payment limits.
What can farmers and the public do to help?
Anyone can submit a comment to NRCS before Jan. 20 at http://bit.ly/helpCSP.
The above link goes to NSAC’s CSP Action Center, which includes a sign-on letter, comment guidance and more detailed information about CSP and key issues at stake.
For more information, please view the full release here.
Exciting Time for Meat and Livestock Sector
An expanding supply and strong demand for meat and poultry will create a positive outlook for future livestock markets, according to Glynn Tonsor, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. Tonsor presented to farmers and ranchers from across the country during a featured workshop on the livestock market outlook at the AFBF’s 96th Annual Convention.
“The meat-to-feed price ratios will be very attractive, which will create a multi-year period of industry expansion,” Tonsor said. Producers can look for an expansion in pork sooner than in beef, but an overall increase in U.S. red meat and poultry will occur in the first quarter of 2015, according to projections. Tonsor also mentioned that global demand for meat provides a long list of reasons to be confident.
Certain circumstances in the United States could have effects that push the market in either direction. Changes in the economy like lower gas prices and perhaps wage increases could allow for additional expendable income for consumers to spend on protein, yet the impact of pork diseases such as porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, as well as pasture and range conditions have not yet been fully determined, Tonsor said.
Key political issues to keep an eye on that could have major effects on livestock markets include country-of-origin labeling (COOL), international poultry trade bans, a second beef checkoff and public acceptance of scientific advancements, he pointed out.
Tonsor ended his presentation by challenging producers to understand that the livestock industry is constantly changing.
“This is not your father’s world anymore,” Tonsor said. “Recognize what it is going to be like to be a producer in the coming years because it is going to be different.”
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