As a new administration steps into office on Jan. 20, I hope for some changes in the agriculture world. I’m not sure how the new administration’s policies will shake out, but I hope some of the current barriers and restrictions will go away and make room for better policies.
I have to keep reminding myself being in an agriculture business is just that, a business, not much different from any other business anywhere. I’m in the business to make money to support my family and others in the business.
For those who ranch or farm, assets are mostly tied up in land, machinery and livestock. Cash flow may not be a monthly happening.
We do have bigger backyards than all of those in urban areas, but we live under the same laws.
Besides livestock, we care for wildlife in most of our management decisions as well.
As with living in urban areas, we don’t like laws, executive decisions and unnecessary policies which harm our businesses. Like other businesses, we recognize “money isn’t money until it’s in our pockets.”
I hope the new administration keeps products such as grains, beef, pork and lamb competitive worldwide. I don’t want meat imported from a country with foot and mouth disease or any other foreign animal diseases.
Remember, I’m in the business of helping to provide a safe food product worldwide. We don’t take chances with our food security.
I want to be able to help manage water, wildlife and predators on the ranch. I don’t want a bear, wolf, sage grouse or any other endangered animal’s management forced on me. If they are present, I want to be part of management decisions.
I want everyone to respect my private lands and get permission to come on them. Remember, the trespass laws for my private lands are the same as those for backyards in urban areas.
I want large meatpackers that process our livestock to operate in an open and fair market and restore competitive market forces. I look forward for the new administration to keep our foreign export markets open and competitive. People in these export markets want our meat, and there are good markets for our meat.
If I have a permit to graze on federal lands, whether they are intermingled or all federal, I don’t like to see top-down decisions from Washington, D.C. restricting my grazing or doing away with multiple uses such as grazing, recreation and minerals.
I realize if misused, there are penalties to deal with. If there are wild horses on the allotment, the government needs to manage numbers like I do with my livestock and realize I’m on those lands less than five months of the year, whereas wild horses are there all of the time.
Some farm economists say the agriculture industry is in the beginning stages of a recession. I hope the new administration brings inflation down for all those across the land. High prices hurt everyone.
I realize I want a lot, but all of these things are possible without harming others. We’ve been there before. It is tough to manage any business with so many unknowns or policies that are off the charts on one side, as it is hard to correct these policies to the middle and not go towards the other side.
Dennis Sun is the publisher of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, a weekly agriculture newspaper available online and in print.
