While at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Convention, Oklahoma Farm Report’s Maci caught up with the President and CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association, Mike Seyfert. The National Grain and Feed Association represents about 850 member companies from country elevators up through export elevators, soy crush facilities, ethanol plants, millers, exporters, livestock feeders, integrated poultry, as well as several transportation companies.
“Our members are responsible for trading, marketing, and moving the commodity from once it leaves the producer’s farm until it reaches its final destination,” Seyfert explained.
National Grain and Feed Association members enjoyed a good harvest year with plenty of commodities to work with and a latter-year export increase. While prices have been as tough on them as for producers, members are overall satisfied.
Post-election concerns for Seyfert are similar to those of other ag entities: learning who cabinet appointees will be is one. He expressed a good working relationship with the Biden administration and with the previous Trump administration, so anticipates more of the same.
“The farm bill is still hanging out there,” he said. “Folks would like to get it done in the lame duck, but it feels like it is moving more towards an extension.”
He hopes the Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) which impacts the lock and dam system, will come to a resolution during the lame duck session. He related the Act to its effect on Oklahoma’s system which carries barges into Tulsa, and then back down the Mississippi River.
“There are some funding issues, particularly, as it relates to NASS reports and how our members use them, that we would like to get done this year, but it looks like the funding is going to get kicked to 2025,” Seyfert said. “As we head into 2025, we may still have the farm bill, we may still have WRDA, and we would like to see some regulatory relief, hopefully, from the new administration. We are going to have a tax package probably moving, developments on the trade front with the new administration, and about 4,000 political appointees in every new administration, and around 1200 of them have to be approved. A number of them are important to ag, so we are going to be watching for who those nominees are closely, and then asking how we can get them confirmed and then educated and up to speed on some of our key issues.”
Going forward, the National Grain and Feed Association will continue to work with the Army Corp of Engineers on getting the Mississippi dredged to help with low water levels. All methods of transportation of grain are crucial to the organization and its members.
“The rail system has been working pretty good this year, but we have had some significant challenges on the Mexican border which have impacted some of our members in Oklahoma and particularly, the center of the country not being able to get their product moved across the border, because of rail challenges in Mexico. That is something we are going to continue to address with the Mexican railroad, but it is also something that we will be talking about to both the current and incoming administrations here in the U.S. We really do feel like U.S. Ag is being singled out unfairly through some of the blockages and difficulty we have had getting into Mexico. We feel pretty strongly that it needs to be addressed.”
Broader trade under the new administration presents both trepidation and opportunity for the National Grain and Feed Association. “We think there is a good opportunity for the new administration to go back and take a look at knocking the dust off of phase one, and seeing what we can do with that on exports to China,” Seyfert said. “We know it is going to be a different approach, maybe a different playing field, but we think there are some real opportunities in those areas to do some individual deals on some specific commodities.”
