At the AFR Convention, National Farmers Union President Rob Larew provided updates on key issues affecting farmers and ranchers, ranging from a significant lawsuit settlement to concerns about USDA cutbacks and the stalled Farm Bill. After his time on a panel with Congressman Frank Lucas discussing these issues, Farm Director KC Sheperd sat down with him to talk further.

Beef Industry Lawsuit Settlement:

Larew announced a significant development in the lawsuit against major beef packers. He explained, “The Farmers Union has been in a lawsuit with R-CALF against the four major packers in the beef industry, and the case, itself, continues to kind of move its way through the courts. We do have preliminary approval for a settlement in that case by JBS to the tune of about $83.5 million.”

He explained that “those who have sold fed cattle directly to any of the four defendants in this case will ultimately be eligible to recoup some losses.” He urged producers to “continue to watch this case very carefully, and additional news will be coming out with the details.”

Larew expressed excitement about the upcoming National Farmers Union Convention in Oklahoma City next month. “We are so excited not only to see you but to be back here in Oklahoma for our national convention. This will be the culmination of pulling together policy positions on all kinds of issues like the Farm Bill, fairness for farmers, and the new administration, bringing that all together to develop national policy positions. It’ll be a great time. We’re looking forward to celebrating and kicking back here in Oklahoma City.”

National Livestock was founded in 1932 in Oklahoma City. National’s Marketing Division offers cattle for sale weekly at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City. The Finance Division lends money to ranchers across several states for cattle production. The Grazing Division works with producers to place cattle for grazing on wheat or grass pastures. 



National also owns and operates other livestock marketing subsidiaries including Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction in Ada, Oklahoma, OKC West Livestock Market in El Reno, Oklahoma, and the nation’s premier livestock video sale, Superior Livestock Auction. National offers customers many services custom made for today’s producer. To learn more, click here for the website or call the Oklahoma City office at 1-800-310-0220.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins today announced a $1 billion comprehensive strategy to curb highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), protect the U.S. poultry industry, and lower egg prices. This is in addition to funding already being provided to indemnify growers for depopulated flocks.

As the Secretary detailed in the Wall Street Journal, the five-pronged strategy includes an additional $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers, and $100 million for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens, and exploring temporary import options.

“The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks and high egg prices that followed. By contrast, the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously,” Secretary Rollins wrote. “American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food. To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way.”

USDA’s Five-Pronged Approach to Address Avian Flu:

• Invest in Gold-Standard Biosecurity Measures for all U.S. Poultry Producers
• Increase Relief to Aid Farmers and Accelerate Repopulation
• Remove Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens on the Chicken and Egg Industry to Further Innovation and Reduce Consumer Prices
• Explore Pathways toward Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Other Strategies for Protecting Egg Laying Chickens to Reduce Instances of Depopulation
• Consider Temporary Import-Export Options to Reduce Costs on Consumers and Evaluate International Best Practices

Impact of Supreme Court Rulings on the New Trump Administration: Insights from NCBA’s Mary-Thomas Hart

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Chief Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart about the new Trump administration and what has changed.

“There have been some pretty significant changes, especially coming down from the Supreme Court in the last four years,” Hart pointed out. “These are changes that the Trump administration is going to have to make some effort to conform to, and a new structure that they are operating within.”

Hart was primarily referring to the Supreme Court Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision from 2024 which overturned the Chevron deference holding that courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.

“There are layers to this Chevron question because only a couple of months after the Supreme Court dropped the Chevron decision, they dropped the decision in U.S. V. Trump – his criminal case – and endorsed the concept of the unitary executive theory which, in short, means that if the president does something, it is legal and constitutional because they are the president. It is going to be really interesting to see how these two decisions play out in court because we have gotten a ton of executive orders just in the first couple of weeks of this term, and a lot of them are the subjects of litigation,” Hart detailed. “I think it is going to be really interesting to see how this really newly established Supreme Court precedent is implemented by lower courts across the country.”

We continue to share comments from the Director of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Edmond Bonjour as Class XXI travels across parts of Kenya for their International Capstone study experience. 

On the second Wednesday of their international travel, the OALP visited Egerton University, the oldest institution of higher learning in Kenya. It was founded as a Farm School in 1939 by Lord Maurice Egerton of Tatton, and became a university in 1987. The university has 19,000 students and 1,450 staff. About 30% of the university faculty are in agriculture. We initially met with the CESAAM (Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management) core-team and the Division of Research and Extension team.

There are 24 Centers of Excellence supported by the World Bank. This center was established in 2016. They have had 272 graduate students sponsored, 52% of which are women. Some of the issues they are working on include food insecurity and persistent hunger, and youth unemployment. Some of the innovations of the center are sorghum bread, cassava beer certification (8% alcohol), reduced-sugar jam, capsules to detect antibiotic residues in raw milk, and bean seed varieties for the market. They are very innovative, but there are challenges getting these innovations to farmers and the public. The center has farm internships where students live and work with farmers.

As Class XXI continues to travel across Kenya- the application for Class XXII is now available on line at the OALP website. Click here for that application - which is due by May first, 2025. In person interviews will happen in June and the XXII will meet for the first time in August of this year.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate, on a vote of 56-43, confirmed Jamieson Greer as U.S. Trade Representative.

U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom issued the following statement:

USMEF congratulates Ambassador Greer on his confirmation and we look forward to working with him to expand global opportunities for U.S. beef, pork and lamb. Though often overlooked, significant market access improvements for U.S. red meat were achieved under the previous Trump administration in critical markets such as Japan, China and Europe, with Ambassador Greer playing a key role at USTR.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall commented the following:

“AFBF congratulates Jamieson Greer on his confirmation to serve as the next United States Trade Representative. He steps into the job at a critical time for American agriculture. Growing trade imbalances and potential tariffs by trading partners threaten to hit rural Americans with more economic hardships at a time when they are already dealing with high supply costs and shrinking paychecks.

“Mr. Greer’s experience with trade issues will help create a level playing field to help farmers and ranchers compete internationally and continue to address food needs around the world.”

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Lori Stevermer, a pork producer from Easton, Minn., brought the industry’s point of view to the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee today through her “Perspectives from the Field” hearing testimony. 

Stevermer highlighted the top pork industry issue – California Proposition 12, a state regulation posing an existential threat to all of U.S. agriculture. 

“We must fix the problems caused by Prop. 12, which has increased farmers’ operating costs, created business uncertainty, and raised pork prices at the grocery store,” said Stevermer. “We stand with farmers and consumers across the country, grateful to have the support of both President Trump and former President Biden in clearly and decisively opposing Prop. 12.”