By Gene Hall

I am a huge fan of the “redneck” comedian Jeff Foxworthy.  I run the gamut from chuckle to guffaw when listening to his “you might be a redneck” routine, even if I’ve heard them before.  My own neck is a bit on the reddish side.

I hope Jeff doesn’t mind me paraphrasing his formula when it comes to which and what kind of farmers and ranchers are considered BIG AG, a term so many activists consider agriculture’s ultimate evil. 

Be advised that BIG AG is more of a tactic than an actual description. Since I’m often accused of being part of BIG AG—let me attempt to interpret in the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy. 

• If you are a member of an organization that speaks for farmers and ranchers … you could be BIG AG
• If you think science should be part of any discussion about modern agriculture … you could be BIG AG
• If you don’t run screaming from the room every time the word “corporate” is used … you could be BIG AG
• If technology does not scare you … you could be BIG AG
• If you’re impressed by the achievements of U.S. agriculture … you could be BIG AG
• If you think it’s very cool that we grow several times more food on the same number of acres as 50 years ago … you could be BIG AG
• If you love the fact that soil erosion has dramatically declined, chemical use is significantly reduced, water use has declined and yields have increased, all with the modern technology of U.S. agriculture … you could be BIG AG
• If you feel some responsibility for feeding the hungry in the world … you could be BIG AG
• If you do business with a corporation and don’t consider yourself an indentured servant … you could be BIG AG
• If your family has been on the land for multiple generations and has grown with each generation … you could be BIG AG
• If you like growing food that nearly everyone can afford … you could be BIG AG
• If you identify with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and not PETA or HSUS spokespersons … you could be BIG AG
• If you don’t feel the need to apologize for growing safe, abundant and affordable food … you could be BIG AG.

Modern agriculture has real problems begging for solutions, but big is not necessarily bad.  Agricultural people accused of being “big” may not, in fact, be all that large. Being demonized for disagreeing with pop culture conclusions does not mean we should stop dealing with the challenges farmer and ranchers face every day.

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By Mike Barnett

2011 was a year of great contradiction for Texas Farm Bureau and Texas agriculture. As an organization, it was a year of great success. As an individual farmer or rancher, it was a year of bitter disappointment.

Through the hard work of our members, Texas Farm Bureau had the greatest legislative year in our history. True eminent domain reform, groundwater rights and a grain indemnity fund—as well as a host of other agriculture-related legislation—were achieved because of grassroots efforts.

It was a different story for Texas farmers and ranchers. The year started out dry and got drier. Some of you planted crops—some of the seed never sprouted. You watched helplessly as pastures withered under the blazing, hot summer sun and you started selling your herds as rain refused to fall. You watched in envy as farmers in other states sold good crops and livestock at great prices, while you had little or nothing to sell.

But you haven't given up hope.

Let me tell you a story about a neighbor of mine.

Jack and Susie have twin boys whose only resemblance to each other is their looks. If one of the boys thinks it’s too hot, the other thinks it’s too cold. If one says the television is too loud, the other claims the volume needs to be turned up. One is an eternal optimist. The other is a doom and gloom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, on the twin’s birthday, Jack loaded up the pessimist’s room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist’s room he loaded with horse manure.

That night Jack passed by the pessimist’s room and found him sitting amid his new toys, crying bitterly.

“Why are you crying?” Jack asked.

“Because my friends will be jealous that I have all these toys,” the pessimist twin wailed. “And I’ll have to read all of these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff. And I’ll constantly need batteries. And my toys will eventually get broken.”

Passing the optimist twin’s room, Jack found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure.

“What are you so happy about,” he asked.

 To which the optimist twin replied: “There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

Yes, 2011 was a tough year. Not only were you battered by the weather,  there were a host of people wanting to take a chunk out of you: bureaucrats at EPA with their regulations, animal rightists with their undercover videos, national legislators with their inaction on the budget and farm bill... the list goes on and on.

Will 2012 be any better? Who knows? What I do know is that you wouldn't be in this business if you weren't an optimist.

We've had a heap of horse poop piled on us this past year.

Anyone found the pony yet?

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By Gene Hall

I haven’t lived on the farm for 40 years, but I am still at heart a “farm boy.” 

Nothing that’s happened in my life could squeeze that out of me. And, for an old farm boy, there is not a more beautiful sight than the torrents of rain that battered my windshield as I drove to work yesterday. Add that precipitation to the 2 inches I poured from the rain gauge the night before and you have “significant rainfall,” enough to soak into our parched land and produce runoff for our sadly low ponds, tanks, lakes and rivers.

I knew there would be calls from the media. The predominant question: “Is the drought broken?” This rain means a lot and farmers and ranchers lucky enough to receive it are saying heartfelt prayers of thanks. But no, the drought is not yet broken.

The effects of a drought are cumulative. This one, stretching over a long, dry and heartbreaking year—and coming as it did on the heels of other droughts—cannot be broken by the string of encouraging rains with which we’ve been blessed this fall and early winter. It won’t be broken by a return to normal rainfall. There’s some catching up to be done.

This rain was thankfully fairly widespread, but my contacts in Lubbock and the Rio Grande Valley report no rain at all. In those places and others, the drought is still a killer beast.

This link  from the Weather Channel was posted in September, when things were much worse than now. But it provides a glimpse of what it takes to break a drought.

In September, more than 85 percent of Texas was in exceptional drought—the worst possible drought condition. On those acres, it would take an estimated 24 to 28 inches of rain over a six-month period to reach drought-breaking potential.

A return to normal rainfall will help, but the actual need is to “catch up,” so that the scarred ground and the vegetation can replenish itself. Farmers count on surface moisture to plant but also on subsurface moisture to sustain crops and pastures.

The best thing about these recent rains is that some areas got quite a lot.  The runoff will help store some water in ponds, tanks and lakes. The ground will store some, too, increasing what is called the soil moisture profile. 

This spring, many farmers can plant with a bit of hope now and the pastures should initially rebound some. But the long-term forecast still looks dry. La Nina is still the predominant weather maker. For Texas, that almost always brings drought.

I have no wish to look this gift horse in the mouth. We are thankful for the best gift Texas could receive. A good bit more like this and we can offer thanks for the breaking of this epic drought.

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By Mike Barnett

Agriculture. Animal Science. Horticulture. Lop those in with fashion design and theater and you have the top 5 “dud” college degrees, according to Terrence Loose in an article on the Yahoo Education website.

Granted, Mr. Loose is reporting on the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) 2012 outlook study, which surveyed almost 1,000 employers on their future hiring plans. It showed that greatest job demand lies in the business, accounting and computer science fields. Fair enough, knowing that business, accounting and computer science are far larger employers than agriculture sciences will ever be.

Where Mr. Loose gets it wrong is labeling agriculture-related degrees as useless. Speculation on my part, but I bet he is one of a crowd who thinks food comes from the grocery store. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t know any better.

Agriculture has been able to meet the world’s growing demand for food—with fewer farmers, less land and less inputs—precisely because a fair number of dedicated professionals chose to study this noble science.

The miracle of modern agriculture encompasses a vast array of disciplines and practical applications that would stun both Mr. Loose and his readers, if only they would take the opportunity to learn.

Six billion people are being fed every day because good people are putting “dud” degrees to good use. Scientific advances by dedicated professionals with “useless” degrees will be key to feeding nine billion in the not too distant future.

I don’t think the answer to misconceptions about farming and ranching is internal grousing or Facebook sites like I Studied Agriculture and I Have a Job, which has topped 4,000 friends in a few short days. I applaud that effort, and I enjoy reading the comments on the Facebook page, but I imagine those friends are 4,000 people in agriculture telling each other they have jobs in agriculture.

 If those 4,000 people would start a conversation with their urban neighbors, or start their own Facebook page—spending a few minutes each day telling people like Mr. Loose their role in putting food on the plate—real progress could be made with a huge demographic that hasn’t a clue how food appears on their tables.

For an education writer, Mr. Loose needs a bucket full of learning. So do a lot of other people.

Maybe it’s our job to teach them.

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By Gene Hall

 We’ve all heard it. We’re only a few short years from climate change devastating agriculture. We’ll have food riots as soccer moms fight to the death over a can of beans. 

We used to call this global warming until the earth actually cooled a bit over the last decade. Now we call it climate change, but I won’t get into that disagreement. I’ll just concede for now that Mother Earth has warmed a bit over the last few decades. For growing food, it doesn’t seem to matter, because there is exactly zero evidence of a climate driven calamity for agriculture.

James Taylor, senior fellow for the Heartland Institute was a speaker at last week’s American Farm Bureau Federation convention. Taylor has some interesting numbers with regard to all that cataclysmic impact on agriculture.

“Since 2007 we’ve seen record yields in production per acre in edible beans, cotton, alfalfa, sweet potatoes, canola, corn, hops, rice, wheat and more,” Taylor said. “This is a long-term trend, and it applies globally, too, as global grain harvests have nearly tripled since 1961. Climate is not the only factor, but even if we accept global warming as a problem, it’s clearly not inhibiting crop production.”

Taylor says there are regional exceptions to the rule, but most of agriculture is making out quite nicely. Record yields are racked up almost every year for one crop or another.

 I’ve been sitting right in the middle of one of those regional exceptions for three of the last four years. National writers have assured me that climate change is to blame for the epic Texas drought. But, people who ought to know say it also has a lot to do with those well known weather cycles meteorologists call “El Nino” and “La Nina.” We are under the spell of La Nina right now. It means different things for different regions.  For us Texans, it means drought and we’ve had more than our share.

Still, it’s worth noting that compared to some of the mega droughts of the ancient world—long before fossil fuels—this current one is just a troublesome dry spell. Drought is not a 20th and 21st Century phenomenon.

Taylor does warn that climate change could bring about a real calamity in agriculture. That danger is the very real possibility that government might overreact to it and impose punitive, costly and job killing regulations. If that happens we really will have U.S. agriculture on its knees.

It’s time to debate climate change without the hyperbole and name calling. We need to remember the ever present danger of unintended consequences.  The evidence suggests that excessive regulations have already done more harm than climate change.

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By Mike Barnett

The possibility of really good times returning to the cattle business any time soon are as remote as a Republican in East Texas.

Although livestock prices are high, the cost of feed and other inputs eat into the profits, said Dr. James Mintert at a recent livestock conference at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting. Add the price of non-existent hay in Texas to stay ahead of the drought and cattle producers continue to be pounded.

To see what a truly healthy beef economy looks like, Mintert drove us back to a half-century stretch between 1925 and 1975. Demand and cattle numbers grew with a growing population and steady income growth.

Things started changing in 1975, when cattle numbers peaked at 132 million head. They’ve been declining since then, to 90 million this past year. That 40 million head drop over a span of 30 years means one thing to Mintert: a lack of profitability.

So how do cattle producers reverse the trend?

• Consumers value convenience. Although beef is making strides, it’s lagging behind chicken.
• Consumers are receptive to information about health and nutrition. Give it to them.
• Food safety is a significant concern.
• Hope the economy gets better. Income is a very important demand driver.

 One bit of good news for cattle producers is a reversal of fortune in the export market. Exports have rebounded from the collapse in 2004—when the discovery of a cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy shook our markets. Beef exports are due to set a record in 2012.

The biggest concern facing all livestock producers is the drop in total meat consumption. Per capita, consumption dropped from a high of 220 pounds from 2003-2005 to an estimated 200 pounds in 2012. Farmers and ranchers have addressed that concern by putting less meat on the plate. That may keep prices up in the short term. Long term, we need to rebuild that demand.

A lot of rain would help, too.

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By Gene Hall

“One regulation away from being out of business.” Reed Rubinstein, senior council of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, began his presentation at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention that way.

For the farmers and ranchers in his audience, that was no surprise, but Rubinstein also claimed that unfortunately the Sword of Damocles hangs over the head of many other business entities. He spoke of the growth of the regulatory juggernaut and the complexity of environmental law.

It’s a governmental phenomenon that does not necessarily respect the division of Democrat or Republican administrations. George W. Bush did not have the reputation of being necessarily green, but EPA regs grew during his eight years in office. Even that might be viewed as a speed break after the last three years of the Obama administration.

Rubinstein told his audience that it’s helpful to look at the structure of government agencies and their work force. Regulators are hired to regulate…and that’s what they do. He quoted government communications that pretty much admit that many of the “big” environmental issues have been solved or nearly so. So now, this great regulatory apparatus, built to regulate, will continue to regulate. For agriculture that means “beginning a transformative process of collaborative efforts” toward sustainability in agriculture.” This, despite acknowledgment that agriculture has made substantial progress not only in production but in farming more sustainably.

The audience did not have long to wait for the BIG question. Rubinstein asked it. “Who gets to define what sustainability is?”

Okay, this is me talking now. I’d put a big bet down that it won’t be farmers. Those of you who’ve read me know that I have some problems with that word. “Sustainable” has far more political than scientific meaning. It will mean, almost certainly, whatever the regulators want it to mean.

Rubinstein says that EPA operates today by lawsuit. The formula is repeated over and over again. EPA is sued by a green group of some kind. EPA capitulates. EPA regulates. He’s not the first to notice that the regulators don’t put up much of a fight on most of these lawsuits. The unfortunate thing is that this model, now being fought out in places like the Chesapeake Bay, will be in the laps of farmers all over the nation before long. Decisions ably made by farmers and ranchers over decades will be taken out of their hands. U.S. agriculture might be run like the Post Office. That’s me again.

What can be done?

By the time you get a letter from the government, it will probably be too late. Sometimes, EPA ignores Congress for awhile, but they can’t do so indefinitely. Rubinstein (and me) encourages farmers, ranchers and citizens to approach Congress in numbers and insist on being heard. Activism…advocacy. We have to make it real. Some of the regs EPA is churning out now are not even achievable, let alone profitable.

Speak up, speak out, or go out…of business, that is.

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By Mike Barnett

Ho’okahi ka ‘ilau like ana.

That’s Hawaiian, y’all. It means  “Wield the paddles together.”

How fitting as we gather in Honolulu, Hawaii, for the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Farmers and ranchers from all 50 states and Puerto Rico are here to do the business of agriculture.

Ho’okahi ka ‘ilau like ana.

The ocean set the tempo of life and death for the ancient Hawaiians. Times were tough—even in this tropical paradise. When the ocean was gentle, life was good. When seas got rough, only by cooperating—wielding the paddles together—could the Hawaiians thrive. And survive.

Ho’okahi ka ‘ilau like ana.

This Hawaiian proverb fits American agriculture. True, we are multi-faceted. One size does not fit all. The cotton grower doesn’t always agree with the soybean farmer. The corn farmer is at odds at times with the cattleman. But when times get tough, we pull together toward common goals. That’s the beauty of Farm Bureau.

Ho’okahi ka ‘ilau like ana.

Many challenges face farmers and ranchers as we navigate our way through 2012: a new farm bill,; immigration reform; excessive regulation; developing opportunities to keep agriculture profitable. We’ll have to get our hands wet to chart these rough waters.

Let me leave you with this thought.

Komo mai kau mapuna hoe.

“Dip in your paddle.” Join in the effort. Don’t be a canoe filler.

Wield the paddles together and agriculture will remain strong.

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By Gene Hall

Farming and ranching is a tough business to get into these days. There’s no question about that. Production agriculture is capital intensive, requiring huge investments in land, expensive equipment and livestock. Formidable adversaries, like drought, predators, insect pests, volatile markets and government regulation, lie in wait to ambush even the most astute farmer or rancher.

In 2009, the 81st Texas Legislature approved the Texas Department of Agriculture’s proposal for the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority (TAFA) to establish the first-of-its-kind Young Farmer Grant Program. Since TAFA’s creation in 1987, the program has provided financial assistance to individuals and businesses through partnerships with banks or other agricultural lending institutions.

Last month, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced TAFA awarded $150,000 in the form of matching grants to 15 young farmers. The funds, in the amount of $10,000 each, are awarded through the Young Farmer Grant Program to farmers ages 18-46 who will create or expand agricultural businesses in Texas. Texas farmers fund the program themselves through farm vehicle registration fees.

“According to USDA, the average age of a principal owner of a Texas farm or ranch is 59 years old with only 6 percent under the age of 35,” Commissioner Staples said. “As today’s farmers and ranchers near retirement, we must find ways to support a younger generation who will be tasked with feeding a growing population. The Young Farmer Grant Program, which is funded entirely by Texas farmers and ranchers, offers user-friendly, effective financing options that can help new and young operators get started and become more firmly established.”

When the farmers of this generation pass from the scene, not only will there be a lack of numbers, but of the expertise that could well retire with them. Who will grow food and fiber we’ll need for future generations?  Programs like TAFA and its Young Farmer Grant Program are small parts of the answer. Industry-funded, this is what a private and government partnership should look like.

For a list of the Young Farmer Grant award recipients, click here. For information about the Young Farmer Grant Program and other TAFA programs, visit www.TexasAgriculture.gov.

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By Mike Barnett

2011 was a tough year for Texas farmers and ranchers. Will this year be any better? Here are my fearless ag predictions for 2012.

January: Oscar Mayer names Anthony Weiner as chief spokesperson.

February: Local food movement suffers disenchantment as Minneapolis residents discover vegetables don't grow in snow.

March: Rain in Texas. Widespread and plentiful.

April:  2012 Texas primaries cancelled as courts still cannot reach consensus on redistricting lines.

May: Beef consumption surges as BOLD new study shows a daily dose of beef does the heart good.

June: National Bean Eaters Association gets indigestion over EPA proposed rule to limit human flatulence.

 July: Congress curbs EPA rule making authority after investigation reveals EPA procedures suffer from lack of regulation.

August: PETA suffers funding disaster after actor Alec Baldwin poses naked in ad protesting animal cruelty.

September: As jobs become more plentiful and economy improves, Occupy Wall Street shifts focus to Operation Easy Street.

October: Vegetarian Paul McCartney writes theme song for Meatless Monday entitled Let it Bean.

November: Meatless Monday dies from lack of interest.

December:  Multimillion dollar government study shows the chief cause of obesity in America is overeating.

Happy New Year!

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