From the desk of President J.J. Goicoechea:

February 2012

As we continue to be inundated every day in the media with talk of jobs, the economy, recovery, change and change from that change, I cannot help but think about the economic future of agriculture in Nevada.  High hay prices, high calf prices, high lamb prices, etc. are on side A of the record.  You turn the record over and we you get high fuel prices, high fertilizer prices, high feed prices, etc.  Now let us not forget the other myriad of costly regulations and hoops to jump through just to get our products on the ground and off the farm and ranch.  The margins are still the same, everything just costs more.  If the media wasn’t telling me it isn’t true, I would swear it was inflation.  I just wish I could turn on Fox News, CNN, NPR, some media outlet and hear, “I am pledging to protect agriculture and work to expand the possibilities within the industry”.

I recently had the privilege of attending the first meeting of an agriculture committee of Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA).  This group of producers, educators, and representatives from rural Nevada is determined to bring agriculture to the forefront of economic discussions.  The committee will first embark on a fact finding mission relating to agriculture in Nevada.  I know what a lot of you are thinking, “what the hell do I need someone telling me how many cows I have, how many acres I hay, or how much it costs to market my products?”  To be honest, it isn’t about telling you what you already know it is about telling our story to those we see in the media pledging to save Nevada and America.

How many people in government office do you think have any idea about what we do?  I don’t mean raising cows, raising hay, or milking cows.  I am talking about what we do for the economy of Nevada.  How many non-agriculture businesses exist to serve the needs of agriculture?  Think about the parts stores, the hardware stores, the gas stations, groceries stores and restaurants in our rural communities.  Many of these depend heavily upon the agricultural industry to stay in business.  It is easy to tell the cowboy hats and greasy ball caps “no” when they are in Carson City or Washington DC, but is it just as easy to do the same when Mr. and Mrs. Main Street America come asking?  I don’t think so and I don’t think it would be a wise move when working on turning an economy around.

So how will this committee help?  How do we start projecting the importance of agriculture in Nevada’s economy?  It is the hope of the Agriculture Committee of NNDA to send a survey out to producers, suppliers, and vendors in the agriculture industry of Nevada within the next few weeks.  I am asking all of you to take the few minutes to complete the survey.  We need to gather a list of supporting businesses, such as hay trucks, cattle trucks, stores, and suppliers that we do business with.  We need to put some real numbers to what we are currently doing and where we are going.  When an issue pertaining to agriculture comes up, we need to fight back with real economic figures.  We can stand up and say “agriculture is the third largest industry in the state”, but what does that mean?  How does the third largest industry contribute?  Why is it important that lawmakers know what we contribute?

Let’s take the current “hot button issue”, of sage grouse.  The scoping meetings being held around the state are about as informative on the impacts the listing would have on rural Nevada as I am on the workings of nuclear power plant.  They throw a few maps on the wall, some copies of literature explaining what is as stake relating to habitat and the bird and wait for everyone to have enough and go home, thus completing the public meeting portion of the scoping process.  Where is the discussion about alternatives, improvements in range health, habitat augmentation currently underway?  What about the impacts to rural Nevada’s economy?  We need to make sure we submit comments relating to these issues now during scoping, so we have an argument for them to be addressed going forward.  Don’t be lulled into thinking this issue is strictly about public land uses, the sage grouse habitat will be addressed on a landscape basis, inclusive of private, state, and federal land.

In almost every large scale study or analysis, there is always discussion about the socioeconomic impacts relating to the proposed action.  I have not seen anything relating to Nevada’s economy and the Sage Grouse presented at these initial scoping meetings.  I guess we could wait around and allow the BLM to use the economic data the Department of Interior produced last year in regards to what grazing contributes to the economy.  In that report, recreation on public land was far more beneficial to the economy than public land grazing.  I don’t think I want to wait around and allow the government to produce economic numbers for us.

I encourage everyone to take the time to contribute information to NNDA’s survey.  The sage grouse issue is not the last time we will have to defend agriculture in the state.  There will be taxation issues, water issues, transportation issues, environmental issues, etc. for years to come.  We know that most of what the opposition groups are claiming is untrue, but how do we defend ourselves without valid numbers?  We can never hope to correct the misperceptions about agriculture that many of our urban lawmakers have if we don’t talk in their language, dollars and jobs.

I hope to see you all February 18^th at Fallon Livestock Exchange for NCA’s annual bull sale.  Until next month, I wish you all good health and excellent precipitation.

J.J. Goicoechea, DVM