By Les Strojan, SJFB President
With most of our crops in and the election over, it’s time to pause, take stock of our operations and with new information we now have update plans for next year(s). Business as usual will work for very few going forward both on the farm and at the Farm Bureau. To support our members, we are planning three financially related events for November and December. One is on taxation and multi-generational planning. Things may be changing since your last plan was established. There may even be actions you may want to take prior to the end of the year.
The second is a panel of local agricultural lenders to review their current lending and/or loan servicing standards and information they will need to support actions for you. Hopefully this interface can provide insights to what can be expected when meeting with lenders.
The third will be a day when we will have the local governmental agencies working with farmers to present their current programs. These events will be at the Farm Bureau office in Stockton and open to all members. We will get more information to you when the details are known.
Like at many farms, next year at the Farm Bureau will be different. Operating efficiencies need to be tested to eliminate low rewarding efforts while we continue to support our members in these difficult times. We will focus on our recently updated mission statement:
“Our mission is to be the premiere advocate for farmers, ranchers and dairymen in San Joaquin County by providing a united voice for governmental, economic, and regulatory issues. We coordinate pertinent training courses, tell agriculture’s story to the general public. and sponsor social events promoting interactions among agriculturalists.”
The elements of the mission statement are not new but rather a recommitment to our core responsibilities to support farmers and farm families. Your membership in the county Farm Bureau also includes membership in the California Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau to provide support at all levels of government. For instance, the American Farm Bureau has recently been pressuring the administration to close the trade gap in agricultural products that has grown with other countries over the last few years.
Farmers have shown over and over they can out produce domestic demand, foreign trade is critical to match supply restoring profitability to the farmer. Advocating in Washington is slow and expensive but is vital to our industry at a reasonable cost to us because it is shared across all the counties across the nation. The work of the California Farm Bureau is exhaustive as seen in the weekly Ag Alert.
We are excited about our 111th year here at the county Farm Bureau and grateful our predecessors left so much to work and build upon. The latent support that I hear in most conversations about Farm Bureau makes our current challenges easier to address. Please feel free to contact me regarding any of our programs and thanks for being a member. Happy Thanksgiving!
