Farm Progress

For first time, Kansas producer is member of panel discussing farm issues at Kansas State Fair.

Walt Davis 1, Editor

September 20, 2017

5 Min Read
THE PANEL: The leaders discussing farm issues at the Kansas State Fair included Sen. Pat Roberts (left), Rep. Roger Marshall and National Association of Wheat Growers President David Schemm.

Farmers and others attending the annual WIBW Radio Ag Forum at the Kansas State Fair this year were witnesses to a “first” for the decades-old event. For the first time, a Kansas farmer was part of the panel that has traditionally been made up of politicians.

This year, Sharon Springs farmer David Schemm, who is serving as president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, was on the panel with Sen. Pat Roberts, a senior politician with 36 years of experience in Congress, and Rep. Roger Marshall, a freshman congressman.

Despite the disparity of experience on the panel, there was agreement when questions from farm groups in the audience were presented.

Kansas Farm Bureau President Rich Felts pointed to Schemm’s position as being a farmer in “high-risk” territory and reminded the group of the importance of crop insurance in a year when farmers faced a late-season blizzard, drought, flooding, wheat streak mosaic and other diseases. He said farmers understand that it is not the government’s job to guarantee a profit, and they don’t want that; they simply want a support structure that allows them to hang on for another year.

Roberts said there will be “a fuss” from people who perennially want to use crop insurance as their “personal piggy bank,” but he isn’t deeply concerned.

“In the end, they will raise a fuss, and we will persevere,” he said. “I have a personal assurance from the president that crop insurance will not be cut. There will be a tussle, but we will win.”

Schemm said it is important for people in urban areas to realize that crop insurance helps every family in America — not just farm families who need the safety net but all families who rely on a safe, nutritious food supply at a reasonable cost.

“Out in the countryside, people are proud of our congressional ag committees,” he said. “They reach out across commodities. I represent wheat, but I don’t just grow wheat. I grow other crops, and I have livestock. Our ag committees do a good job of representing all of us.”

Producers made it clear to the lawmakers that they want to see both agricultural risk coverage and price loss coverage programs continued in crop insurance to provide flexibility for growers of different commodities.

Schemm said almost half of the wheat grown in Kansas is sold overseas and reminded his fellow panelists of the importance of trade agreements and trade support programs including market access and foreign market development programs.

“These programs have brought a 28-1 return on investment from the 1970s to 2014,” he said. “These are programs that work.”

Marshall and Roberts agreed that marketing programs are working and that there is a challenge in keeping the White House on board.

“Why are we rattling the cage of South Korea?” Roberts asked. “We know that we have to sell our products, and we have a reputation for predictable, dependable delivery. We cannot move backward from that. We are committed to maintaining trading partnerships and building new ones.”

Roberts and Marshall agreed that “sooner is better than later” when it comes to moving a farm bill to the floor in both chambers. Roberts said that a glut of legislation, including tax reform, hurricane relief and a possible return to health care legislation are challenges, but that he has told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that the ag committee can move the bill fast.

“I asked for two days,” he said. “We may get pushed to the beginning of the next session, but we can move through committee and onto the floor fast. This is no time for revolutionary ideas. We want to get the basic needs taken care of and get it through.”

Marshall said the House goal is to have the bill done this fall. He said the less uncertainty, the better for the economy.

Schemm agreed. He said uncertainty is the great enemy and that the next generation needs predictability to ensure that they can return to the farm.

The leaders also agreed that disaster relief is going to have to be a theme moving forward on a number of fronts.

While the devastation of major hurricanes dominates the news, there is also the reality of wildfires in the west with millions of acres burning in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California and Utah and horrific fires wiping out thousands of miles of fencing and tens of thousands of head of livestock in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas last spring. Those losses stack up against a federal livestock indemnity loss ceiling of $125,000 per entity — an amount that doesn’t cover even 10% of losses for many ranchers.

Roberts said that finding additional money in the current economy is going to be difficult, but that some themes will emerge.

One, he said, is the need for change in forestry management.

“For too long, the focus has been on not disturbing nature in the forest,” he said. “We have to come to grips with the fact that maintaining the forest environment requires management. You can’t just leave it alone and nature will do the right thing.”

Schemm said that from a producer’s perspective, being able to manage in a way he or she knows is right matters.

“The last thing that a farmer needs to worry about when he’s lighting a backfire to try to save his house is ‘Am I violating my CRP contract?’ That’s just not what should happen,” he said.

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