Agricultural News
OFB President Previews Upcoming Convention and Trade Show
Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:11:14 CDT
The annual convention and trade show of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau is scheduled for the end of next week and OFB President Mike Spradling sat down with Radio Oklahoma Network's Ron Hays to preview the convention and talk about some other important issues. Spradling will also appear on "In the Field" Saturday morning at about 6:40 a.m. on News 9.
Spradling said the convention is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of farm bureau members all across the state. One of the main purposes of the convention is to set policy for the organization for the coming year.
"Not only state policy, but national as well. Of course, we've got some things we're looking at. We all have a concern about water in the state of Oklahoma and that's certainly going to be on the minds of our delegates. Another thing this year coming up we know there's going to be a lot of tax exemptions, maybe, going away if something's not done on the federal level. The death tax is certainly one of those things we're really interested in. Something has to be done before that happens.
"At the same time, we're looking, also, to see what we can do to be certain we get a farm bill finished. It's probably not likely it's going to happen this year so we may have to start this whole process all over."
Spradling said the resolutions presented to the delegates for their consideration next weekend stared at the county level. The proposals from individuals in their various counties are brought to the state resolution committee where they are then prepared to be put before the delegates during the annual meeting.
In addition to voting on resolutions at the convention, Spradling said a number of speakers will address attendees including Senator Jim Inhofe and Oklahoma Secretary of State Glenn Coffee. Also on the program is Mary Kay Thatcher, a top lobbyist with the American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington.
"She's going to come in and speak on the farm bill," Spradling said. "And we have John Anderson, one of their farm economists, that's going to talk about food prices with the environment we have now. And we'll have an individual talking about succession planning in business and wealth transfer. It's very important in agriculture. You know we have a lot of assets as agriculturists, not always a lot of money but we do have assets that are valued at our time of death that's kind of shocking to some people. So we need to be certain that we are prepared to be certain that our assets go in the direction we want them to go."
Spradling said the Farm Family of the Year Award is one of the meeting's highlights and is but one of several awards that will be made.
In other work for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Spradling said he just returned from a trip with other farm leaders to examine the water transportation infrastructure available to farmers.
"It's very important what's going to happen by the year 2050. We know we're going to have to produce 100 percent more food by then than we do now. But the important thing is how do we move that food? One of the most economical ways is through water systems. And we're very fortunate in North America to have the Mississippi River which a lot of the tributaries come in from major ports in major cities and utilize that navigational system, but there's some infrastructure problems that we have."
Spradling said that, especially with the drought, it is very hard for the Army Corps of Engineers to meet their commitment to guarantee barge traffic no less than nine feet of water remains in the system at all times. He said that maintenance and repairs need to be made all along the system. Spradling's group also toured the Panama Canal which is undergoing reconstruction to allow larger ships to use it, and that project is about a year behind schedule. He said it is crucial to ag producers to utilized the canal because it is only a 48 mile transit. The detour around South America for ships that cannot use the canal adds 8,000 miles to the trip. He also said some work will have to be done on American ports to handle the huge ships that require 50 feet of draft. New Orleans, for example, currently has a draft of 45 feet.
"If we have all this grain that we're going to have to produce in the next several years, the important thing is we have to get it out. Because, again, if we have a backlog of it that means we have a surplus in one particular area and we know what that any surplus does to the prices. And we just can't afford to have a backlog in transportation of our grains going out of this country."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the full conversation between Mike Spradling and Ron Hays.
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