More than 70 attendees the July Board and our All-Staff meeting in Ames, Iowa, July 28 and 29 and listened to commodity marketing reports about current conditions and their plans to expand this fiscal year.
Employees also heard updates about their employee benefit programs, including health insurance and our 401K program, and received training on a couple of other systems they use.
I believe everyone experienced a great outlook on the future of all three of our commodity departments and National Farmers.
It’s always difficult to assemble staff together in person, since they dedicate themselves to being available to our producers night and day.
I had a great time meeting a lot of our new staff and talking with those who have worked with National Farmers for some time. It was mentioned to me numerous times how refreshing it is to see so many young field and office representatives. It really shows how interested people are in National Farmers and the agriculture industry as a whole. I look forward to continue working with all these great employees in the future.
Last week I came across an article about the fact that beef herd expansion remains stubbornly slow as USDA reopened the Mexican border to cattle imports. We now know the January through June beef cow slaughter was the lowest rate since the 1980s.
I had many initial thoughts jump through my head including the fact we don’t have enough cattle for beef in the United States, so now we’re going to ship them in from Mexico…along with how do we know this food that’s coming across the border is safe?
Do their safety measures match up with the United States? It is interesting that Mexico has such a surplus of beef to send to the United States. My biggest fear is how the U.S. seems to be failing our farmers and ranchers so they can’t feel confident in continuing in the beef industry or able to pass it down to the next generation.
The more I thought about it the more concerned I became. At National Farmers we have great resources such as Beef Profit Plus, FeederConnect and Freedom Hedge to help farmers and ranchers to keep more money in their pockets and expand their herds.
We want our members to feel confident that we have a great livestock team to support their family farm and herd expansion when the time is right. I hope we can continue to make strides in the livestock department and to make sure the meat we eat isn’t crossing borders.
Congress once again has failed to pass the Agricultural Act of 2026. The Senate ag committee failed to advance it out of committee because of disagreements over Snap cost changes. Farmers remain hopeful we can see a new farm bill yet this year.
Wishing you all the best for a safe harvest season.
