OWGA attends spring board meeting in Washington
Untitled
Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association attended the spring board meeting of the National Association of Wheat Growers March 4 to 7 in Washington, D.C. Representing Oklahoma were Jeff Krehbiel, president; J.T. Winters, vice president; Joe Caughlin, secretary; Kent McAninch, past president; Eddie Bowman; Terry Detrick; and Tim Bartram, executive director.
Joe Caughlin participated in the Wheat Leaders of the Future (WOLF) program sponsored by Bayer Crop Sciences and the NAWG Foundation. This program is designed for producers who will soon be serving on the NAWG Board of Directors. The rest of the group participated in a program for current and past participants in the Wheat Industry Leaders of Tomorrow program sponsored by Monsanto. The program focused on the trend for Wheat production and prices as predicted by USDA Economic Research Service. They predicted Wheat acres in the U.S. to stabilize near current levels while yield continues to climb at a very slow rate. Also they expected prices to remain around the $3.20 area.
On Sunday, March 5 the group attended the official board session for NAWG and the NAWG Foundation. First on the board's agenda was adoption of the budget for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. This was made more difficult by projections of a poor Wheat crop in Oklahoma and Texas. Several other states stepped forward to help balance the budget. There was a report from the Domestic Policy Committee on their continuing work on the next Food Security Act. An update on the preliminary report from FAPRI about the scoring of a proposal that was submitted by NAWG was given. Jeff Krehbiel serves on this committee.
In the Foundation meeting the focus was on how to balance the need to rent the building and on going discussions with U.S. Wheat for possible collocation of the two groups. It was decided that any rental agreements with possible tenants should include an escape clause for collocation. The group also instructed NAWG president, Dale Schuler to appoint a committee to represent NAWG in any discussions with U.S. Wheat's Building Committee.
The rest of March 5, was spent in preparation for visits to Capitol Hill. The NAWG staff briefed the group on what was currently happening and some key issues. The staff also discussed how the budget process works in Congress.
On March 6 and March 7, the group had the opportunity to visit all of Oklahoma's congressional delegation (or their staff). The group emphasized the current drought situation and encouraged the delegation to continue working for both disaster and energy assistance legislation. The group also discussed crop insurance rules that are not appropriate when in a long-term drought situation. The fact that drought does not qualify for preventive planting and the requirement to continue to invest in inputs when the prospect of a crop is very risky does not make economic sense.
The topic of trade was discussed in great detail, especially concerning the chance to continue developing cash only trade with Cuba. This also led to a discussion about the lack of railroad competition in the state and how proposed legislation would help not only Oklahoma Wheat producers, but other industries in the state.
The next item on the agenda was research. The group stressed the importance of federal funding for research in agriculture. Discussion centered not only on the amount of funding, but the type as well. The group expressed their concern about proposals to do away with or limit formula funding which supports infrastructure such as the Oklahoma State Experiment Station System. Without this support the people and facilities needed to support research projects, many of which are funded by Oklahoma producers through the checkoff system, would not be as effective or even possible. OWGA would like to thank Dr. Brett Carver, head of the OSU Wheat Improvement Team, for participating in some of these visits. Dr. Carver served as a valuable resource to help explain this very crucial issue to the congressional delegation.
The OWGA held an educational session for the agricultural aides from Oklahoma as part of this trip. Dr. Carver was able to participate in this session to help educate the aides on research priorities of the Wheat industry and how they are funded. This session was very successful. OWGA would like to thank the Oklahoma Wheat Commission for sponsoring this educational session.
Date: 3/23/06
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