Agricultural News
Flooding and Fire and Crazy Markets Oh My!!! Michael Kelsey Says Oklahoma Cattlemen Have Had It All in 2019
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 15:41:23 CST
As 2019 comes to a close, its been a year of extremes for the cattle industry. Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Michael Kelsey, Executive Vice President for the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, to talk about the year's ups and downs.
In some cases, the industry has done really well, but there have also been some challenges. Kelsey agrees, "Yeah, we're going to look back on this year in history and go wow! That was just a crazy year. Weather has just been horrendous all across the country, but certainly here in Oklahoma. Flooding that we had early on, and then just odd weather. Beyond that, so started out, we had completely depleted our hay supply in the winter. So we really needed to go into the year to make hay. Some folks started making hay late, made us nervous, wound up making tons of hay pretty much at least the reports we're getting. Quality maybe we're a little concerned about but, and then we had a fire in August at the Holcolm Plant, The Tyson plant, and boy that shook the market up. The market way overreacted. And so, boy howdy things are just we're going to look back on this year and go, whew! Just a crazy year. That being said, we did get some things done in the legislative session that we were pretty proud of. The ribeye is the new steak of Oklahoma, that's a jolt of morale, if you will, a feel-good that we'll play for a long time as we promote beef and Oklahoma for a long time that's going to give us an opportunity to do some things. We positioned ourselves on the fake meat here in Oklahoma. We think we helped push that issue nationally a little bit for Congress to take that issue up so that we can make sure that these non-meat protein alternatives don't use the term beef, that's what our main issue is. So we set ourselves up to do that very well.
"We've got some other priorities that we're going to continue to follow through on this next year, but from that standpoint, pretty good. We're ending the year now with some pretty good news regarding trade. USMCA, the house appears like it's going to vote on it this week. Hopefully, the Senate will take it up as quick as possible. Leader McConnell is saying maybe wait till after the impeachment hearings are done. They've only got a 90-day window so we'd really like for him to check that up a little quicker than that and get that done, that signals the world that we're hey we're open for trade. Then with the opportunity for China, that's a good thing for U.S. beef, so we're ending on a positive note, a good note. Japan's one of our major trading partners. And so that was great news to solidify that as well. So again, that trade standpoint has been very positive here at the end of the year. We're hoping that we can carry that momentum forward continue to grow global beef demand for U.S beef and continue to move forward in that fashion."
As we look forward to this next legislative session several things are on the docket pertaining to agriculture, but Kelsey says we may be playing some defense this year, "Yeah, I think we're going to have to play some defense. There's going to be some initiatives that come along. From the tax front ad valorem taxes, we're going to see some issues come along there. The budget, it's going to be interesting to see how the budget turns out. The budget discussions we know that oil and gas here in Oklahoma is not doing very well. And so that's going to reflect upon the budget discussions, so will that require us to play defense on things like the ag sales tax. I think we better be ready to do so. I think we're just going to have to be ready for those, those discussions, it's going to be an interesting legislative session we've been working with some legislators in the offseason if you will to gear up for a few bills here and there we want to follow through on our groundwater rights bill and try to get that across the finish line and so forth. But I think it's going to be an interesting session. Another interesting component of this is we've got a big freshman class that's in their second year of their first term. So they've got a little experience under their belt if you will. They've spread their wings a bit in the first session; they've tested the waters if you will. They don't need to know where the restrooms are anymore. They know where they are so they can branch out a little bit. Some of that may be good, some of that may be bad. Some of it may not affect us at all, but it will play in terms of the overall condition, and morale, and momentum at the legislature. So we're going to have to watch that very close should be an interesting session."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the complete interview with Michael Kelsey as he talks with Ron Hays.
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