BISMARCK — Showdown in the Southwest. American Farm Bureau Federation convention came to a close last week and we returned to North Dakota.
We had some successes by some of our participants in the competitions down there. We had some initial successes in some policy and then some reconsiderations and in the end we came home with without a policy that’s pretty important to us here in North Dakota and that’s the fact of having crop insurance eligibility being linked to conservation compliance.
We’ve had that policy here at NDFB that we do not believe that conservation compliance should be a prerequisite for crop insurance eligibility. We offered that amendment on the floor. There was some debate. We gave our explanation of the importance that it is to us, and how it can affect people. And we won that debate. And we got the policy passed, only to have a few hours later a reconsideration happen of that policy. And in the end, we weren’t successful in having that policy placed in the AFBF policy book.
We don’t want to hang our head too low, though. We got a lot of good comments out there. We ended up with some interviews to talk about the importance of this to North Dakota. And in last week’s Dialogue, I told you that we would go down there and stand up for those policies important to North Dakota. And we did just that.
But the highlight of the week was seeing Rocky Brown, our Discussion Meet winner, make it to the Sweet Sixteen. Out of 38 contestants, he made the top 16, and by his performance in that round, narrowly missed the final four. He started out his professional career as a, well, none-other than an ag teacher and an FFA advisor down in Wishek, North Dakota. Now he’s involved in agriculture in the cattle business a little bit and in the equipment sales with his father-in-law, and has done a great job representing NDFB in the Discussion Meet.
And, if anyone’s interested, it’s not too late to sign up for our Farm and Ranch Conference coming up this weekend, the 20th and 21st, at the Holiday Inn, in Fargo. And if you want more information – the successes that Rocky had – he’ll be there to share ‘em with you. So come on out and enjoy the conference and meet the people that are going to be competing for that four-wheeler that we give away, and a chance to go, and hopefully make that Sweet Sixteen and Final Four next year, in Nashville, Tennessee at the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention.
For questions or comments, please contact Dawn Smith-Pfeifer.
— Daryl Lies, North Dakota Farm Bureau President
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