Montana Young Farmers and Ranchers Learn, Network at National Conference

Networking, new ideas and leadership were all part of the American Farm Bureau National Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference February 8-10 in Virginia Beach, VA. Twenty-nine Montana Farm Bureau and Collegiate Young Farmers and Ranchers found the trip invaluable.

MFBF YF&R Jenny Stovall found the networking incredibly worthwhile. "There were young farmers and ranchers from all commodities. We had differences but also similarities and struggles," said Stovall, who ranches with her husband south of Billings. "I sat with a tobacco and cucumber farmer from Georgia. He told me how labor intensive it is to grow cucumbers. They apparently have a huge employment problem as they have 8 to 15 acres of cucumbers that need to be picked by hand. They pick half of them every other day for 40 days. It's hard to find help, yet when they hire immigrants, people complain."

Stovall said the Commodity Market Situation and Outlook for 2014 workshop was very interesting. "Bob Young, chief economist for the American Farm Bureau, said the cattle market looks good for the next three or four years. He said the middle cuts are carrying value, not just the high-end cuts.  Of course, beef inventory is low which will keep prices up. One downside was he said they are expecting interest rates might increase and land prices will decrease."

Stovall said a workshop for state YF&R chairs was excellent as they learned good leadership values and discussed how leaders need to recognize the strength of their members. She found the  networking dinners, where selected YF&R members from states were paired together for a meal, informative and enjoyable.

Ben Johnson, a student at MSU whose family raises cattle and grain in Sidney, found the workshops relevant. "One workshop was how to build capital, another covered world trade and exporting agricultural products, along with Country of Origin Labeling ( COOL). We had two Canadians give us their perspective on COOL in that discussion," noted Johnson. "The other good workshop I attended covered creative problem solving."

Leah Nelson, president of the MSU Collegiate Farm Bureau, agreed the workshop on creativity was extremely helpful. "The workshop on creative problem solving with Kyle Perry of AFBF,  was informative because it looked at different approaches to problem solving. One of those ways is to find a mentor to assist you in making big decisions. We had the opportunity to interact with other young farmers and ranchers in that workshop."

On the tour Nelson attended, she visited a cotton gin facility , a peanut farm and a farm that grew a specialty soybean for the Japanese food market. The also visited a paper mill that made products out of recycled paper.

"We had a long visit with a young farmer at the cotton gin," noted Nelson. "It was very interesting to hear about the cotton process because it's so different than agriculture in Montana."

Nelson, whose family ranches in Opheim, believes the best part of the conference is the ability to be around people who are in the same position. "They have the same challenges in farming and ranching, even if they are from different states or grow different commodities. We can relate to each other. This conference gave us a good way to tie what we learned back to Farm Bureau as well as advocating for farming and ranching and being involved in the legislative process."

This was the third year Lane Nordlund, a senior at MSU, attended the national YF&R Conference.

"Every year I come back passionate and pumped about advocating for farming and ranching and proud to be a part of production agriculture," said Nordlund. "This conference takes us back to our roots as to why we grow crops and raise cattle. We get to meet people from across the board and learn what their passions are in agriculture. Everyone is different, whether they are organic or conventional, raising cattle or raising soybeans."

Nordlund thought the workshop on rural development was especially valuable. "I learned more about what the USDA offers, and I'd like to see small towns in Montana doing more. You look at many of our towns in rural Montana and there isn't much business going on except agriculture," said Nordlund, whose family ranches near Malta. "It's difficult for small businesses to survive in these towns and sometimes impossible for young people who graduate from college to come back home if there aren't jobs.   A lot of people in Montana don't understand the importance of rural development."

"We toured Smithfield Foods and learned that even with the company being purchased by a Chinese company, nothing is changing in exporting pork because most of the parts of pork sent out to the Chinese market are not part of the American diet," Nordlund explained. "In addition, we got to learn more about history. We toured Jamestown and saw what crops the first white settlers planted."

Nordlund echoes his colleagues that networking is a valuable part of the conference. "It was great to talk to other producers about how they handle state and federal leases. Some farmers from the south couldn't understand how we handled all the cold weather and snow," he laughed. "It was wonderful to have 29 young farmers and ranchers from Montana as part of this excellent experience."