Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays is talking with the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s Executive Vice President, Michael Kelsey. Kelsey is currently attending the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association spring legislative conference.
“We scheduled time to see all seven of our congressional representatives, and then we also took an opportunity to catch another representative from New York City and visit with him about the beef cattle industry and so forth,” Kelsey said.
During this time on Capitol Hill, Kelsey said it is an important time to educate individuals about issues impacting the beef industry and share issues being faced. The first of those issues, Kelsey said, is the Farm Bill timeline.
“The House is progressing forward, and looks like they are going to try to have something out by Memorial Day and try to keep moving forward,” Kelsey said. “The Senate is a little bit different story; maybe a little slower.”
Last week, Kelsey said the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) announced the plan to discontinue several important reports to the cattle industry.
“One of those being the July Cattle Report as well as different county reports and some crops regarding row crops and so forth,” Kelsey said. “That July County report is really critical to us, especially right now as we are trying to rebuild the herd, understanding heifer numbers, those types of important data points are really critical.”
Kelsey underlined the cattle industry’s proactive efforts to fight to retain those reports, demonstrating its commitment to maintaining crucial data.
Another significant issue Kelsey brought to light is the potential threat of policy discussions in the appropriations process. In the past, Kelsey revealed, the animal rights industry has attempted to attack the livestock industry through the appropriations process by injecting policy. Kelsey is excited to have the chance to work with the new Chairman of House Appropriations, Tom Cole, on such issues.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
