Agricultural News
Wheat Growers Association VP Jimmie Musick of Oklahoma Empathizes with Kansas Producers
Tue, 02 May 2017 16:35:47 CDT
During the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Washington Watch Fly-in to Washington, DC this week, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Jimmie Musick, a wheat farmer from Sentinel, Oklahoma and sitting vice president of the National Association of Wheat Growers. Hays took the opportunity to ask Musick his thoughts pertaining to the extreme weather that ripped through the central Plains this weekend, devastating large portions of the wheat crop along the way. Listen to their full conversation about the devastating winter storms in Kansas, by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of this story.
"My fellow neighbors up in Kansas are really having some challenges up there with 3.1 million acres of wheat and they're talking about possibly as much as 43 percent of it could be damaged, but no one really knows what the extent of the damage is yet and won't for a week or so," Musick said. "It's going to devastate some of that wheat crop I don't have any doubt."
Musick echoed others who say this sudden and unexpected devastation, while tragic, perfectly illustrates the importance of including crop insurance safety nets in the Farm Bill.
"A great deal of these farmers in Kansas would be out of business without crop insurance," Musick asserted. "It's not an optional plan anymore, we've absolutely got to have it."
If crop insurance were taken off the table, Musick fears there would not be another generation of farmers that could survive financially without the support of a safety net to fall back on, when disaster strikes.
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