From staff reports While attending the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association spring legislative conference, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association Executive Vice President Michael Kelsey addressed issues within the beef industry.
“We scheduled time to see all seven of our congressional representatives, and then we also took an opportunity to catch another representative from New York City and visit with him about the beef cattle industry,” Kelsey said.
While visiting Capitol Hill, Kelsey discussed the timeline of the Farm Bill, which provides funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commodities, crop insurance and conservation efforts.
“The House is progressing forward and looks like they are going to try to have something out by Memorial Day and try to keep moving forward,” Kelsey said. “The Senate is a little bit different story; maybe a little slower.”
Kelsey noted that the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service plans to discontinue several important cattle industry reports.
“One of those being the July Cattle Report as well as different county reports and some crops regarding row crops and so forth,” he said. “That July County report is really critical to us, especially right now as we are trying to rebuild the herd, understanding heifer numbers, those types of important data points are really critical.”
Kelsey underscored the cattle industry’s wish to retain those reports and data.