In Farm BureauArFB elects officers, board

Randy Veach and Rich Hillman will continue as president and vice president, respectively, of Arkansas Farm Bureau following their Dec. 5 re-election. Delegates also re-elected five board members and two new board members during the final day of the organization’s 80th annual convention at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

Veach, 64, of Manila begins a seventh term as president. He is ArFB’s 10th president since its creation in 1935. Veach farms cotton, soybeans, rice, wheat, corn and milo near Manila. He is a third-generation farmer and he and his wife, Thelma, farm with their son Brandon.

“I’m humbled to continue to serve this great organization and the hardworking farmers and ranchers who are the backbone of this state’s economy,” Veach said. “I’m deeply committed to agriculture and understand the great responsibility we have to advocating and strengthening the interests of agriculture. Thank you so much.”

Hillman, 51, hails from Carlisle and will begin his seventh term as vice president. He is a sixth-generation farmer. His main crops are rice, soybeans and wheat. He and his wife Tina have two grown children, Collin and Caroline. “I’m blessed to be able to represent and advocate for the family farms that make this state great,” he said.

The voting delegates re-elected five board members to new two-year terms. They include: Joe Christian, Jonesboro;

Terry Dabbs, Stuttgart; Tom Jones, Pottsville; Rusty Smith, Des Arc; and Leo Sutterfield, Mountain View. The new board members are Caleb Plyler of Hope and Dan Wright of Waldron. Plyler, 34, is a rancher with more than 300 Charolais cattle and hay on his 1,362 acres. He and wife Briana have a 3-year-old son, Huck. Wright, 54, is a poultry and hay grower. He and his wife, Belinda, have two grown children, Dustin and Megan.

December 12, 2014 • Vol. 17, No. 23A

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Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson addressed more than 970 Arkansas Farm Bureau members and leaders at the Dec. 3 opening session of ArFB’s 80th Annual Convention in Hot Springs, asking them to support his plan for a middle-class income tax cut he will seek during his first year in office. For more highlights from this year’s convention, see the special insert inside.

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David Wayne Gairhan, Jr. (second from left), a rice,

soybean and corn farmer from Jonesboro, received this year’s Stanley E. Reed

Leadership Award at the state convention Dec. 3.

The award was presented by ArFB President Randy

Veach (left), Charlene Reed, wife of the late FB leader and award

namesake, and ArFB Vice President Rich Hillman.

Voting delegates also addressed a wide

range of policy issues including positions on grain dealing and warehousing safeguards; protection of agricultural interests in the state water plan; additional funding for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and retention of the existing structure of the Division of Agriculture within the UA system; funding for Arkansas veterinary students at Mississippi State University; adequate and accessible rural Internet connectivity; and national policy addressing newly proposed drone regulations, including private airspace protection and exemptions for agriculture producers.

Board action later resulted in the election of Christian, 51, as Secretary/Treasurer. Christian is a row-crop farmer who farms 2,400 acres. He and his wife, Leah, have two children, Alex and Grayson.

Craighead is top county againCraighead County is the state’s top

county Farm Bureau organization for the second year in a row. Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach presented the President’s Award Dec. 4 to County President Scott Gibson at the organiza-tion’s 80th annual convention at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

Counties competing for the President’s Award must earn a Gold Star in each of 10 categories and be a top scorer in their respective membership category. The

10 Gold Star categories are membership acquisition, organization, public rela-tions, commodity services, governmental affairs, women’s activities, Young Farmers & Ranchers activities, member services, safety and youth.

The other finalists for the President’s Award were Cross, Scott, Van Buren and Greene counties.

Women in Ag surveyThe American Farm Bureau Women’s

Leadership Program has launched “Wom-en in Ag,” an online survey that aims to gauge the goals, aspirations, achievements and needs of women in American agricul-ture in a number of different areas.

All women who are farmers, ranchers, farm/ranch employees, employed in ag-ricultural businesses, pursuing ag-related higher education or supportive of agricul-ture in other ways are invited to participate in the survey at womeninag.fb.org. Respon-dents must reside in the United States.

“This comprehensive survey is the first of its kind to ask women in-depth ques-tions about how they are connected to agriculture and what leadership skills they think are most important today, as well as the top business challenges they’re facing,” said Terry Gilbert, a Kentucky farmer and chair of the American Farm Bureau Wom-en’s Leadership Committee. “All women involved in agriculture, not just Farm Bureau members, are invited to participate in the survey.”

Data collected from respondents will be used to gauge trends related to the achieve-ments of women in agriculture, including leadership positions, business successes and election to public office.

The AFB Women’s Leadership Commit-tee is sponsoring the survey and is working with other farm and agriculture organiza-tions to encourage participation. Partic-ipants will be eligible for an opportunity

Joe Smith of Brookland took first place in the 2014 YF&R Discussion Meet at ArFB’s annual convention. Smith won the use of a Kubota tractor for one year and the choice of a Honda 500 ATV or a Kawasaki 550 Mule, compliments of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company. Smith is a vocational agri-culture teacher in Craighead County and cattle rancher.

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Washington Co. FB’s Women’s Committee won its seventh consecutive Outstanding County Women’s Program award. Chairwoman Querita Faddis accepted the award from President Randy Veach at the ArFB convention in Hot Springs. The award honors a committee that exhibits exemplary support of its county organization, activities and goals.

Josh and Laura Beth Baker of Moun-tain Home won this year’s Young Farm-ers and Ranchers Excellence in Agricul-ture award. The award recognizes young farmers involved in agriculture but who get the majority of income off the farm. The Bakers have a beef cattle operation and run a custom spraying business applying pesticides and fertilizer.

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ArFB ag education coordinator Andy Guffey (left) and Faulkner Co. FB President Chris Schaefers (right) presented the Outstanding Ag Ed-ucator Award to Harold McCain of Vilonia during the state convention in Hot Springs. McCain’s program at Vilonia High School includes 240 students in ag education and 100 FFA members.

to win one of five $100 gift cards after the survey closes. Preliminary findings from the survey will be released in February at AFBF’s FUSION Conference in Nashville, Tenn. The full report will be released in late spring.

In ArkansasHorticulture Industries Show

The 34th annual Horticulture Industries Conference and Trade Show, sponsored by Oklahoma State and the University of Arkansas, will be held Jan. 16-17 at the Holiday Inn City Center in Fort Smith. In educational sessions and round-table dis-cussions, growers, educators and research-ers will share the latest information on vegetables, fruit, Christmas trees, farmers market crops and public gardening issues. The trade show starts daily at 8 a.m.

The conference pre-registration and hotel reservation deadline is Dec. 24. For more information, visit www.hortla.okstate.edu/events/HIS/.

ElsewhereGutter named veterans ag liaison

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Krysta Harden on Nov. 14 announced Karis Gutter,

a Marine Corps Reserve veteran and current USDA deputy undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, as the first USDA military veterans agri-cultural liaison. Gutter will coordinate USDA leadership across the department to provide information, resources and sup-port for active duty military and veterans interested in agriculture. He also will have authority to facilitate formal relationships between USDA and other government agencies and nonprofit organizations to strengthen USDA support for veterans.

Harden made the announcement at the Farmer Veterans Coalition and Drake Uni-versity Agriculture Law Center’s inaugural national conference in Des Moines, Iowa.

U.S. ag exports set recordThe U.S. Department of Agriculture

released its final total for U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year 2014, which soared to a record $152.5 billion (up from last year’s record of $141 billion).

“American farmers and ranchers have once again achieved another year of record exports,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Agricultural exports have climbed 41 percent in value over the past five years. U.S. agricultural exports have increased in volume as well as in monetary value,

which demonstrates an increasing global appetite for high-quality, American-grown products.

“The administration’s Made in Rural America initiative, led by USDA, remains committed to strengthening rural com-munities and will continue to focus on investments in rural businesses, manu-facturing, energy, water and other infra-structure development,” Vilsack continued. “Collectively, these efforts help to expand export opportunities for what is grown and made in rural America, create jobs and foster growth that strengthens our nation’s economy.”

Veterans’ ag career guide releasedFarmer Veteran Coalition has released

Veteran Careers in Agriculture: A Resource Guide. The 40-page PDF publication intro-duces the Farmer Veteran Coalition and its work, profiles veteran farmers, discusses opportunities for veterans to find employ-ment in agriculture, and offers resources for business planning. It also serves as a directory of agricultural organizations and educational opportunities for farmer veterans.

To download the free guide, visit www.farmvetco.org and click on Our Resources.

Donette Spann, the Arkansas Beef Council’s promotion coordinator, visited Van Buren County on Nov. 21 to discuss the importance of beef and its nutritional value with Food & Nutrition classes at Shirley, South Side and Clinton high schools. Sixty-five students participated in classes where Spann taught them to cook Steak au Poivre using flatiron steaks.

On Dec. 11 in North Little Rock, the Reed family of Marianna was named 2014 Arkan-sas Farm Family of the Year. ArFB President Randy Veach (left) and Rob Roedel (right) with the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas presented the recognition to Nathan and Kristin Reed who have a 6,000-acre corn, cotton, milo and soybean operation in Lee County.

EditorKeith Suttonkeith.sutton@arfb.com

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In the MarketAs of Dec. 11, 2014:

USDA forecasts lower soybeans and corn stocks

In Wednesday’s Supply and De-mand Report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast lower soybean and corn ending stocks. Corn stocks were lowered some 10 million bush-els to less than 2 billion on increases in food and industrial uses for corn. Soybean stocks were lowered to 410 million bushels after exports were raised 40 million to a record 1.76 billion bushels.

While this increase in corn is small, it is significant because it pushed stocks to less than 2 billion bushels. The market may not see strong gains from this, but longer term this could provide necessary support to keep 2015 corn prices over $4, especially if corn exports pick up in the coming weeks. The corn market needs to see additional export sales as well as more exports leave the ports. Year-to-date corn sales are up about 8 percent from last year, but actual corn shipments are not showing the same strength. The market will watch these numbers closely in the coming weeks to see if they improve, which would cause the USDA to revise corn exports higher. If you remember, last year the USDA revised exports higher during the first half of 2014, which caused a re-duction in stocks and provided some needed support for prices.

The USDA recognized the strong soybean export sales year-to-date as well as the strong export shipments when they raised the U.S. soybean export forecast in this month’s report. Beware as you start to hear some analysts talk about strong demand

significantly reducing soybean stocks here in the U.S. While crush mar-gins are great right now, and record amounts of soybeans are leaving our ports, this may not hold longer term. It is unlikely we will see stocks fall significantly as we progress through this year, however, it is possible, and here are some indicators to watch for:

January Production Report: In January, the National Agriculture Statistic Service will release final acreage and yields for this year’s crop. While the expectation is for higher production, there is always a chance this number could be revised lower. Last year everyone expected corn production to increase with this report and NASS surprised everyone by estimating a lower corn number. If this happens in soybeans, we will likely see stocks fall below 400 mil-lion bushels.

Export Sales: As we head into Jan-uary and February, this is typically the time frame global buyers switch to South American soybeans. Last year, U.S. soybeans remained very competitive during this time, and we saw seasonally large export sales and shipments, which caused the USDA to increase its U.S. soybean export forecast a couple of times last spring.

Domestic Crush: Crush margins are at record levels and we have seen domestic mills crush soybeans at record levels the last couple of months. If these margins hold, we could see the U.S. soybean crush forecast increased over the next few months. We have the soybeans, and if the crushers are able to bid them out of farm storage and get them to the mill, we could see an even larger record crush here in the U.S.While these scenarios could set up a very bullish outlook for soybeans, the fact remains if all of these things happen, we are likely to still have soybean stocks around 300 million bushels. While this looks very bullish compared to the current forecast,

this would still be one of the largest ending stocks the U.S. has seen in the last decade. Watch this market closely and take advantage of some of the short-term rallies we are likely to see, because at the end of the day, large soybean stocks are still forecast, which will limit upside potential in this market.

USDA lowers cotton productionIn Wednesday’s report from the

USDA, the only production number change was in the cotton balance sheet where the USDA lowered yields from 797 pounds per acre to 773 pounds per acre. This resulted in a 500,000-bale decline in ending stocks. While in most cases this would be viewed as bullish, most traders were expecting the export forecast to be revised lower as cotton exports have been disappointing so far this year. Export shipments have only averaged just over 87,000 bales a week, and the U.S. needs to average more than 216,000 bales through the remainder of the marketing year in order to reach the current export forecast of 10 million bales. The mar-ket does not expect the U.S. to reach this forecast, especially given the lack of buying from China, and the fact that our largest trading partner, Turkey, has filed an anti-dumping case against U.S. cotton. These slow exports are likely to have a major im-pact on prices and push 2015 cotton prices to less than 60 cents.

CONTACT• Matt King 501-228-1297, matt.king@arfb.com.

Farm Bureau Press Insert — Vol. 17, No. 23

This large group of conference attendees from Washington County Farm Bureau posed for a photo between sessions. At top right, weather historian Evelyn Browning-Garris brought some perspective on what farmers can expect from the weather in the coming year. At right, UA agri-cultural economics professor Robert Coats led a workshop on the 2014 Farm Bill Decision Tool.

Katie Waldrip Branscum (left) sang the national anthem with state board members Brent Lassiter and Janice Marsh to start the first general session on Wednesday.

Winners in the Sew With

Cotton Contest were Ashley Eye (left), a senior at

Lakeside High School in Hot Springs, who

won the Youth Sweepstakes,

and Brenda Sandage of

Batesville who won the Adult Sweepstakes.

Between sessions and workshops, everyone had plenty of time to catch up and have a few laughs, including Pulaski County delegate John Philpot (left) and Ned Ray Purtle of Hempstead County.

The 80th ANNUAL ARFB CONVENTION

The Arkansas Farm Bureau’s 80th Annual Convention took place Dec. 3-5 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. Almost a thousand members from throughout

the state showed up to attend educational conferences, hear from noted speakers and determine Farm Bureau policy on issues im-portant to agriculture and rural Arkansas. The conference theme was “Commitment, Community, Compassion.”

Photos by Keith Sutton and Gregg Patterson

Farm Bureau Press Insert — Vol. 17, No. 23

Randy Veach (right) of Manila and Rich Hillman of Carlisle were re-elected as president and vice president, respectively, of Arkan-sas Farm Bureau.

Above, Alechia Meador of Green Forest won the 2014 Young Farmers & Ranchers Achieve-ment Award. She raises 4 million pounds of broilers annually, along with 100 beef cattle she raises with her husband Chris and four young sons.

Retiring Secretary of Agriculture Butch Calhoun (right) was recognized for his service to Arkansas agricul-ture by President Randy Veach.

Congress-men-elect Bruce Westerman (pic-

tured) and French Hill stopped by to discuss their

plans when they take office in

2015 and to talk about their stanc-

es on several key

80t h ANNUAL ARFB CONVENTION

At left, many of those at the convention attend-ed the Connect Arkansas Internet training to learn more about the technology right at their fingertips and the many ways it can help them. At bottom left, farmer-turned-co-median Jerry Carroll kept ArFB members in stitches with his high-energy humor.