Agricultural News
NCBA President Craig Uden Has Multiple Reasons to Celebrate at this Year's NCBA Summer Meeting
Wed, 12 Jul 2017 17:02:02 CDT
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association summer business conference is getting underway this week in Denver, and now that the US has reached a trade deal with China, the Waters of the US rule being repealed and movement now being seen on delaying electronic logging devices for another year, NCBA President Craig Uden of Nebraska tells Ron Hays, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network farm director, there is a lot to celebrate at this year's meeting. You can listen to their entire conversation by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of this story.
"We've had a lot of successes this year," Uden said. "There is a lot of good things, even as we're here at this convention. Trade's been very, very beneficial."
Indeed, trade with China has been a dominate talking point in industry discussions as of late, but Uden says it even goes beyond that.
"It's not only with China. We've had exports as high up as 20 percent this year. We're up 46 percent to Japan right now," he said, insisting that a bilateral agreement with Japan is of top priority at NCBA. "We're going to keep that front and center because we don't want to back track from where we've gained this year."
Still, Uden says having access to China's market now, is a "golden opportunity," although it will take time for the market to fully mature - much the same way other Asian markets, like Korea, have in the past.
"I think the benefit is two to three years down the way," Uden said. "It's a trust factor we have to continue to build."
Considering the developments with the repeal of WOTUS, though, Uden says at long last, producers will have a seat at the table when discussions begin on what to replace the existing rule with, once it is in fact repealed for good.
"Administrator Pruitt has invited our input into this rewrite of the Waters rule," he said, "and consequently, we are adamantly working on that with many different states and producers on that so we can get a bill out there that we can live with in our production models."
Also, as the conference kicked off this week, word from Washington arrived that a delay on the electronic logging devices mandate, currently hindering the ability of cattlemen to transport their livestock, may be in the works.
"Just visiting with people in Michigan, when I happened to be up there, they have a hard time getting cattle from feedlots to the packer under this new rule," Uden said, explaining that transporters have only limited time to load, travel and unload their livestock during the course of a day when there could be extended miles to travel. "It's very detrimental and we're going to continue to stay engaged on that. It's a big, big item to a lot of producers in the United States."
You can listen to Hays speak with Uden about his experience at the helm of NCBA, now half way through his term as president, by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below.
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