This week’s Open Mic guest is Steve Censky, CEO of the American Soybean Association. ASA was among the chorus of agriculture groups pleased to see an extension of the 2018 farm bill as time ran out to produce a new bill in 2023, and Censky hopes congressional leaders can make progress early in 2024 on new policy. He says soybean growers want higher reference prices and a voluntary update for base acres in a new bill. Censky has worries about the EPA’s implementation of Endangered Species Act regulations on pesticides and is very encouraged about the benefits of renewable fuels for the soybean industry.  

This week’s guest on Open Mic is U.S. Representative John Garamendi. California's 8^th district Democrat is a strong advocate for agriculture, nutrition programs and global humanitarian aid. As a member of the Agriculture Research Caucus, Garamendi believes DOGE cuts in government employees and spending cuts will lead to ill fated consequences for farmers in the form of crop and livestock disease research and readiness as well as dramatic cuts to food and medical aid for those in impoverished areas of the world. Garamendi sees little chance the California legislature will make changes to Prop 12, leaving that responsibility to Washington and perhaps a new farm bill. 

This week’s Open Mic guest is Kurt Coffey, Vice-President, Case IH North America. Reduced farm income has resulted in lower volume sales of large agriculture equipment in the nation.  Coffey expects some improvement if USDA releases disaster and economic assistance funds approved in the continuing resolution in the latter hours of the 118^th Congress. Coffey says artificial intelligence is helping in machine repairs as well as more efficient field operations. Case-IH supports farmer repairs to their machines. Coffey says proposed tariffs on Canadian imports as well as tariffs on steel could impact their operating margins in the year ahead.

This week’s Open Mic guest is U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Less than 24 hours after being sworn in as the 33^rd lead of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, Brooke Rollins found herself in Louisville, Kentucky being introduced in Freedom Hall at the Championship Tractor Pull. A native of the small town of Glen Rose, Texas, her career path led to the White House in President Trump’s first term and now as a member of the Trump Cabinet. Speaking on the sidelines of her first event outside the Beltway as Secretary, Rollins shared thoughts on building her team at USDA, working with other cabinet members and how downsizing government may impact the work of the USDA. 

This week’s Open Mic guest is Jeffery Hall, Board Chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration and the longest serving member of the current FCA board. Hall reports system debt at the end of 2024 at just over $448 billion dollars - just shy of an 8% increase from the end of 2023. Since the beginning of 2020, system debt outstanding has grown over 52%. The FCA has seen a dramatic downturn in the number of institutions and farmers since the farm crisis of the 1980’s, but the amount of debt continues to climb. He discusses softer farmland values in some areas, the interest rate environment, and future areas of focus for the FCA.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Garrett Hawkins, President of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation.  Hawkins says his state’s farmers echo calls to Washington to get a new, modernized farm bill approved as quickly as possible. Hawkins says his state takes issue with the Biden administration’s Green New Deal policies favoring electricity instead of an “all of the above” approach to the nation’s energy future. Missouri landowners are facing property rights issues as the private Grain Belt Express has been given the power of eminent domain to run transmission lines across the state.