The theme of this year’s Virginia Ag Expo on Aug. 2 is “Utilizing Precision Agriculture to Manage Challenges.”
That theme will be explored during the state’s largest agricultural field day, which will be held at Cloverfield Farm in Essex County.
A field tour will feature corn and soybean variety test plots, and the discussion will focus on precision agriculture, a management practice that makes farming more accurate with the use of information technology.
AFBF Vice President Scott VanderWal
American Farm Bureau Federation Vice President Scott VanderWal and Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening today warned Congress that many farms will lose money and even go out of business entirely if the growing trade war continues. Each called for a resumption of talks and removal of tariffs that are undoing decades of progress in trade.
Kevin Paap, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, testified separately for his state’s organization. “Agriculture has been and continues to be the tip of the spear,” the corn and soybean farmer told the committee. “Once you lose a market, it is really tough to get it back. We cannot afford to lose our place as a leader in the agricultural global marketplace.”
By Emmalee Edwards, Craig County Young Farmers
On July 10-12, a group of Farm Bureau Young Farmers from Southwest Virginia took on Washington, D.C. to meet with Congressmen and organizations such as National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Animal Ag Alliance, and BIO. We spent July 11th on Capitol Hill, meeting with Congressman Garrett and Congressman Griffith.
We divided the group between the two congressmen; those in Congressman Garrett’s district met with him, and those of us in the 9th District met with Congressman Griffith. We had four key issues to bring to Griffith’s attention: electronic logging devices (ELDs), rural broadband access, trade tariffs, and the Farm Bill. Our time with our Congressman was limited as he had been called into an important meeting (top secret, of course), so we had only five minutes to discuss the first issue – the effect of ELDs on livestock transportation. The requirement for livestock haulers to use ELDs would be detrimental to beef cattle operations in the district, where the best option for feeder calves is to ship them via trucks from Virginia to Midwest feedlots. Griffith agreed that livestock haulers should be exempt from using ELDs, and is currently pushing for further reprieve from compliance for those transporting animals.
National grain supplies are stockpiled, which means lower profits for Virginia grain producers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a quarterly grain stockpile report June 29 that showed the nation’s corn inventory at approximately 5.31 billion bushels as of June 1, an increase of 77 million bushels from a year earlier. The national soybean inventory reached 1.22 billion bushels, which is 256 million bushels higher than in 2017.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) Regional Animal Health Laboratory in Harrisonburg recently was certified to perform screening testing for the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus in animals. Because of this new capability, the lab, which is part of a network operated by VDACS, will perform a valuable early warning function for the detection of Foreign Animal Diseases, including FMD.
Below are two Action Alerts concerning FDA proposals, which if ever enacted, would have major negative implications on tobacco production here. At the very least, the manner in which tobacco is grown and marketed would change significantly.
We ask you to comment on each proposal and personalize the comments to your farm and situation. Virginia Farm Bureau will submit additional comments.
With passage last week of the Senate farm bill, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (S. 3042), congressional lawmakers are expected to soon head to conference to iron out the differences between the House and Senate legislation. The House passed its version of the bill, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R. 2), on June 21.
Noting the tough circumstances farmers and ranchers are up against, American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said progress on the farm bill is very timely.
We have two new additions to the Governmental Relations team after departures from Jessica Walton in April and Arielle Brown in May. Jessica pursued an opportunity at William & Mary in Williamsburg to shorten her long commute. Arielle decided to pursue an opportunity with a law firm back in Washington D.C. We wish them well in their new jobs.
I am pleased to announce that Emily Dunne joined our department on June 4th. Emily is a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in political science. During her academic career, she gained some valuable experience through internships with a non-profit group lobbying on behalf of college students as well as the Richmond office of Senator Mark Warner. In addition, she provided administrative support at the Federal Aviation Administration during some of her breaks. She will be serving as the Administrative Assistant supporting the Governmental Relations team and taking on numerous projects such as providing support for the Resolutions process.
On July 9th, Ben Rowe will be joining our department as National Affairs Coordinator/Legislative Specialist. He will be coordinating our efforts at the national level with Virginia’s congressional offices. In fact, his first day he will be heading to the AFBF Public Policy Conference in Washington D.C. and provide support to other Farm Bureau staff bringing a group of young farmers visiting D.C. that week. In addition, he will handle issues surrounding labor, energy, plant-based commodities and providing back-up to me on environmental issues. Ben has a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from Randolph Macon College. Ben is currently finishing up his duties as Vice President of Association Management with the Alliance Group. In this role, he served several agricultural and forestry clients including Executive Director for the Virginia Grain Producers Association, President of Virginia Forest Products Association and previously as Assistant Director to the Virginia Wine Council.
Plows and Politics 