House Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development Committee
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Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
0:00
and a lot who have returned to this committee from the last go-around. I think everyone will find that it's an important committee and deals with a wide variety of issues, and I look forward to serving as your chairman this year. Our vice chairman is Representative Nate Steele. Nate, do
you care to have any comments? No, thank you. I look forward to working with this
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
0:24
committee. We've got a lot of good members here and a lot of good
interested parties, and working alongside my friend, Representative Shepard.
I think we're going to get a
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
0:35
lot of good work done, so thank you all. A few comments before we get started. As you can see from the agenda, we have no bills on the agenda today. There was actually a bill that was assigned to our committee, inadvertently assigned to our committee, and one that was inadvertently assigned to judiciary. Those two bills are being basically flipped between committees, and I anticipate us having at least one and possibly more bills at our next meeting, which, by the way, will be Wednesday.
A few thoughts. Our staff here, we've got a great group of staff members here. Tammy Martin is our committee analyst, and Kendra Drone is our administrative assistant here. And any questions that you have, if I can't answer them, I'm sure they can. but they have been very accommodating, and I would like to thank them for their help in bringing me up to speed and preparing me to serve as your chairman.
As we think about the operations of this committee going forward, obviously I hope that we can carry on our business in an efficient manner. I know that we have a number of responsibilities that many of us will be running bills in other committees. If you have questions regarding scheduling or any other matter, please don't hesitate to contact me or Vice Chairman Steele. And I certainly would desire to work with you to accommodate your schedule
as we move into the session and as we all, I'm sure, will become busy with many other things, carrying bills and keeping up with what's going on with our bills elsewhere. A few other thoughts. I would ask that if you know that there's a particular procedural maneuver that you might be looking to make, that you kind of give us a heads up to that.
I kind of liken it to a football game that, you know, if there's any trick plays, Usually the coach goes to the referee before the game and says, look, we're going to have three tight ends on one side or we're going to run the old swinging gate so that the referee is not caught by surprise. And to the extent that you can, I would ask that you do that, cooperate with me in that regard so that the chair can be prepared for that and be prepared to make proper procedural rulings.
On the other hand, I also understand that many times things arise procedurally that for whatever reason, you know, there may be some reason not to share ahead of time, and I understand that as well. But I would ask that to the extent you can, that you would cooperate with us in that regard, because ultimately my goal as chairman is to run this committee in an impartial and fair way that does the people of Arkansas proud and that conducts the people's business in an efficient and proper manner.
At this time, what I'd like to do, and I know each of us has had ample opportunity to introduce ourselves in the past, but I'd like to go around the table here and just briefly introduce yourself, where you're from, if there's any particular piece of information that you think is important to share. And it's not only for our benefit, but we also have lobbyists and directors of agencies and others who are going to regularly attend this committee,
and it's really for their benefit as well to give some background so that they get to know who you are. And I'll start Representative Matthew Shepard. I'm from El Dorado. I'm an attorney in El Dorado, and I'm serving my second term. We'll go to Representative Steele, and then we'll just proceed around the table. Thank you. I'm Representative Nate
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
4:40
Steele. I'm also an attorney in Nashville, Arkansas. I represent all of Howard County, Pike County, and half of Clark County. So a lot of cows, chickens, a lot of pine trees, and I'm looking forward to this committee.
Representative Greg Leding
Unverified
4:52
Thank you. I'm Representative Greg Letting. I represent downtown Fayette, where we don't have a lot of cattle or chickens down there. This is my second time on ag, and I'm happy to be back. But because of term limits, I'm the second most senior person on this committee, which seems to me to be a little bit of
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
5:13
an issue. So I just wanted to point that out. I'm Representative Stephen Meeks. I represent Central Faulkner County, Greenbrier, Bologna,
and so forth. This is my second time on ag. I really enjoyed it last time.
Representative John
Unverified
5:23
I'm looking forward to a second round. My name is Representative John Eubanks. I represent District 74, which is Logan County, mainly in west central Arkansas. I'm a poultry and cattle farmer, and this
Speaker 17
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is my first time on NAG. Representative Sheila Lankin. I represent part of Drew and part of Ashley County, and we have our School of Forestry in Monticello. So I'm really interested in that and economic development. But Lord knows we need it in southeast Arkansas.
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
5:55
Representative Jeremy Gillum, represent District 45, which is a ball nom to BB minus Searcy there in White County. We in White County possess a very diverse base of agriculture. I think we've got most everything that can be grown in Arkansas is grown there, as well as a lot of cattle and poultry as well. I personally am a fruit and vegetable farmer, have a commercial operation there. And this is my first time on Agriculture Committee, and I'm thrilled to death to be here this time,
and I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues and getting
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
6:34
a lot accomplished. Thank you. I'm Representative Dan Douglas from Benton County, representing a portion of Benton County. District 91 is the new district through reapportionment. My district is mainly a rural district up there that has a lot of cattle and poultry in it, And I am a cattle and poultry farmer by trade and raising. So I would point out Benton County, while it's thought of a lot of business up there, which there is,
but it's still the number one county in agricultural production dollars in the state. Kind of interesting. Thank you. Good morning, members. I'm Joe Jett
Speaker 24
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from District 56, Clay County, Green County, and Randolph County. I have a little bit of a rice
Speaker 25
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farm up in Success, Arkansas, so I'm certainly glad to be a part
Speaker 26
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of this. Thank you. I'm Charlotte Douglas, and I'm from District 75, which is the rural parts of
Speaker 27
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Crawford and Sebastian counties from Mountainburg to Greenwood.
And I do live on a farm, and we have four mules. So I'm sure that puts me in high esteem in this group of esteemed agricultural experts. So I'm tickled to be a part of this, and I look forward to it. Thank you.
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
7:56
Representative Bob Ballinger from District 97, which is parts of Carroll County, parts of Madison County, and the eastern part of Washington County.
And there, once again, a lot of poultry and ag in the district, and then also Eureka Springs, which is tourism. in my
Speaker 30
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district, and I'm an attorney actually out of Berryville. I'm Representative Steve McGee from
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Conway, Arkansas, I represent District 72. I'm the only physician on the Ag Committee. I do have an agricultural interest in that my family, we have poultry and cattle. We raise replacement gilts for Cargill Pork
and have a farming interest in Lone Oak County, where Representative McCreary is our neighbor. Happy to be on this committee. Thank
Representative Walls McCrary
Unverified
8:50
you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Walz McCreary from Lone Oak. District 14 is a new district. It's expanded. It's still primarily all row crop, a little bit of cattle on the north end, but I have part of Pulaski, Jefferson, Arkansas, Prairie, and the farming area of Lone Oak County. My interest in agriculture is that's number one, and that comes from I've been involved in farming all my life.
We had a farm supply store for about 15 years, and I've managed and been involved in farming along with other things. i just would like to say that the good thing that i see about this committee is in just listening to it uh everyone in here except charlotte and her mules uh has a real interest in agriculture i can tell that what's that well i don't know how to raise mules so i guess i better back up uh and
And anyhow, it's vitally important, agriculture is, to our state. And so, anyhow, better hush.
Speaker 38
10:03
Thank you. I'm James Ratliff. I represent District 60,
Speaker 41
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which is a diverse district. It's got Sharp, Lawrence, Green, and Randolph County. They raise rice, corn, a new crop up there that's very important, Peanuts, Milo, and then you go over in the hill and you've got poultry, of course you
got your cattle industry up there, and then we're kind of proud of our Moonshiners up there in Sharp County. I've taught ag 28 years and I've been in the cattle business about 37 years, thank you. David
Speaker 21
10:53
Branson from Marshall. Trying to figure out how to
Representative Kelley Linck
Unverified
11:00
follow that. Kelly Lank from North Central Arkansas, Flippin' Yellville.
We don't grow any crops that are currently legal in Arkansas. We do grow some cattle and some poultry and we pick a lot of tourists every
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
11:16
year and they're very profitable as well. Homer Linderman. I represent District 53, which is the eastern part of
Cricket County. I grow lots of rice, cotton, corn, soybeans up there. I have part of the ridge. We've got a few cattle. I've got a small cattle and hay farm. I spent 30 years teaching high school agriculture in Brooklyn.
Both my children teach high school agriculture, and so I certainly have a vested interest in agriculture. Thank you. Tommy Thompson,
Speaker 50
11:46
District 65. After working 38 years at the
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
11:50
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, I retired and thought I was out. And some of my friends talked me into getting into politics. This is my second term, and looking forward to working on the Ag Committee.
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
12:06
Thank you. A few other items of housekeeping. As you're aware, normally in our committee meetings we will have the tablets with the agenda and bills available on that. But given the fact that we did not have any bills on the agenda today, I had instructed the staff that there was no need to put the tablets out. It actually takes a little bit of time for them to set them out and log on to them. But as we move forward and as we move into an agenda where we actually are taking up bills,
then the tablets will be here for your use. The committee, we will meet typically Wednesdays at 10 a.m. and Fridays at 9 a.m. right here in room 138. As I mentioned earlier, we will not meet this Friday, as it's my understanding that we will, the House will be in recess on Friday, and so our next meeting will be next Wednesday. As a reminder, a quorum must be present to start each meeting.
Eleven committee members constitutes a quorum, so it's important that you as members be here on time so that we can get started and conduct the people's business. Finally, as I have alluded to, pursuant to the direction of House leadership, members will not be provided with hard copies of the bills. If you wish to have a hard copy of a bill or resolution, then I believe we have a printer that's dedicated to that use here in the committee room, and I'm sure our staff will be glad to assist in that regard.
At this time, I'd like to give representatives from various agencies, organizations, and associations that are here today and who will likely be here in the future, just go around the room and give each an opportunity just to introduce themselves, their name, and what organization you're with. So let's just start right down here in the
Speaker 55
14:07
front, and we'll move back and forth across the room here.
Speaker 58
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Bill Reid, I'm with Rice One Food, we're a cooperative of Family Farmers, and process about 40% of the rice in Arkansas, which is appropriate because we also have a sort process
Speaker 69
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I'm Micah, Tyson Foods, 26,000 team members, statewide, and about a $2 billion impact.
Speaker 58
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Marvin Silverman, the Poultry Federation, we represent about 20 poultry deaf people.
Speaker 21
16:45
I'm Scott Soltman, I've heard the same farm credit services for
Speaker 71
16:50
the association of Arkansas. Thank you.
Speaker 55
18:15
Do we have somebody else come in? I'm Helen Jones. Actually, I
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
18:39
work with this gentleman right over here, Bill Reed, and my husband, Earl Jones, and we're ready to sit right with him. Thank you. Members, I would – Mr. Hall, former Representative Clark Hall, is a governor's liaison and a long-time member of the House of Representatives,
so we welcome him back to the House and to the House AgROT committee. At this time, given that we have no bills on the agenda, I have asked that the staff arrange for various presentations over the next several meetings. And today, we have Butch Calhoun, who's the Secretary of Agriculture, who is going to give us a brief presentation about his office.
And so at this time, I'd recognize Secretary Calhoun. Up here. Yes, sir. I
Speaker 76
19:40
feel like I'm fixing to get attacked. Everybody's looking down
Speaker 78
19:44
here. Mr. Chairman, my mic is on, right? Okay, good deal. I want to thank you and the committee for having me over here today.
It is an honor to be here. I did the Senate Ag Committee yesterday afternoon at 1.30, and I am a former House member, served eight years in the Arkansas House of Representatives, and I told them yesterday I never was as comfortable down on that end of the Capitol as I am on this end of the Capitol. So it's good to be here with y'all, and I served on this committee, I think, for two terms when I was in the House, on the House Ag Committee, and a very important committee and me and my agency and all of our people, we look forward to working with y'all during
this session, and anything, any knowledge that we can, anything that y'all need to know at any time that we can help you with, and I hope it to be vice versa if there's things that we need that we can come to y'all for help and guidance. So I'm going to give a brief background of myself for some of y'all that don't know me. I like what you did going around the room, and I'm usually pretty short what I say, but I'm not as short as Representative Branscombe about what I say. But a lot of y'all on here, I think about 15 of you, I've worked with before.
I'm a former legislator, former county judge, made 33, I think, 33 rice crops in Prairie County, rice, soybeans, wheat, a little bit of corn. I rented my farm out several years ago to a family member, and so I'm still active. I spent the weekend out on the farm and doing some things out there. But always I was served in the legislature, and then I become a county judge for eight years. And then when Governor Beebe got elected, I just got elected to my fifth term,
and I talked to him, he talked to me. Anyway, I ended up coming over, and I ran rural services for five and a half years, Department of Rural Services, which we did grants for small communities around the state. I think we did grants in all 75 counties. So a lot of you folks on here, you all know me. You've worked with me. I've worked with you all and built relationships, and I want to do the same thing. I've been there since July the 1st, and I'm going to do everything I can, my agency and the people that I work with to promote agriculture here in the state.
It is our lifeblood. We've got to keep it strong. There's a few things I'm going to discuss. But first, I mean, I like what you did. You went around the room and introduced everybody that was here. But we were formed in 05. Before that, Arkansas was one of two states, the way I understand it, that didn't have a Department of Agriculture. So we were formed by the legislature in 2005. And I've
Speaker 76
22:28
got a handout. Can we do that? Sure.
Zach? We've got three things. One of them is a deal that Zach has put together that y'all
Speaker 78
22:46
can take a look at, but it's got kind of the missions of all. We're like an umbrella agency. You've got the ag agency. There's me and Cynthia, the deputy secretary, and Zach, director of marketing, and we have an executive assistant. And then there's a bunch of other agencies that we all work together.
And one of them is Joe Fox and State Forester. And then we've got Darrell Little here with the plant board and the livestock and poultry, which Fred Weedar is the deputy director there. And as you all know, we lost Steve Briles a few weeks ago as the director. And Fred is stepping in and doing that for right now and doing a good job. But he had a funeral he had to attend to today. Then we've got aquaculture, which is Ted McNulty. He's down at Pine Bluff, based at UAPB, and he's in some meetings down there this morning and couldn't be with us.
And then we've got Everett Rowland, who is over the surveyors, and that agency was one of the last ones to come on board. But there's some printouts in there that you can go to and look at later on. It's got our website. You can go to our website, and you can find all the information about these agencies, Anything you want to know and the key personnel and those sort of things. Also with us today, we've got Keith Reed. He introduced himself a while ago. He is the chief fiscal officer for the whole agency.
And so that's one thing that when the act was formed in 05, we were supposed to have a central fiscal plant and a central human resources, and we were working on that at this time, getting that in place. And so that's a work in progress right now doing those things. We work with a lot of the farm organizations are here today that got up and talked about what they did and who they were representing.
And we work with all of those. We work with Farm Bureau, the Cattlemen's Association, the Ag Council, the Poultry Federation, Timber Producers, Arkansas Forestry, the University of Arkansas. We work very close with the Extension Service. We work with ASU. We work with all the state universities. We've got Zach will be going down to SAU tomorrow, I mean Friday, for a meeting. But we work with all the schools. And as I said a while ago, each one of our agencies that's in with the agro department,
they've all got their own boards. They've got their own directors. And we all work together as a team. And so it's kind of like an umbrella deal. And we've got over there, but I work with all the directors. and we've got some good people. Y'all know Darrell Little's been around for many, many years running the plant board who does the regulatory part, and we're working with anybody. I'll work with anybody that we need to work with to promote agriculture. I have a row crop background.
I'm quickly learning about forestry. I've spent some time with Joe traveling around the state. Fifty-five percent of our state is in timber, And the Forestry Department has a very big responsibility. And this year, with the drought and the fires, Joe and his crew did an outstanding job. Saved many, many homes. Saved many, many acres of land. Lots of public property. He works very closely with the rural fire departments around the state.
And that's how my other job, I got to kind of knowing what forestry did on that. And they do a great job. And that group at Greenbrier that does the equipment and stuff like that is such a savings for the rural fire departments around this state. The drought this year, I think, did you all get the map? Did you hand out the map, Zach? It's got the state broke down. You've got the drought this year. You know, Arkansas is one of the hardest-hit states around the country.
It kind of, and it's still western Arkansas, it's still extremely dry. And the cattle farmers and the poultry industry took the brunt of that. Last year, in 2011 in Arkansas, we had about 1,600,000 head of cattle. Talking with the Cattlemen's Association and some different people, it looks like we may lose 25 to 30 percent of our herd. People had to sell out. I went to some sales and sat and watched people selling off their brood stock, their mama cows, those sort of things,
that some of them are like my age and older are not going to be getting back into the cattle industry or cutting way back into the cattle industry. So we've got some, I feel like prices are going to do pretty well on it, but those guys, those folks have really took a hit this year. And poultry people, the cost of their feed is just astronomical. And I was listening to the news this morning while I was getting ready, and they was talking about the price of chickens. Chicken was going up some. And it has to. I mean, it's got to. When you have to spend more, you have to get more.
But the cattle industry, farmers are resilient people, and we will come back in these industries. But it is my job to promote, I think, anything that I can do to help these industries, and that's what we plan on doing. Now, when you get to the row crop, and I'm a row cropper, And we had the best crop that we've ever had on my farm. And it pretty much goes over the whole delta that we had. If you had water, you had a good crop, but you spent a lot of money.
I'm a small landowner, about 700 acres, and I had two wells go out this year. And they're very expensive to fix. And so I think one of the things that's coming up to facing the state in the next two years is writing a new state water plan. And I think y'all need to be very observant about what's going on with that. I understand it will have to come back to y'all probably in 2015. But we have attended some meetings, and some of the meetings that I attended,
one of the meetings that I attended, the people there wasn't that interested in agriculture. So what I'm saying is we can get y'all some information. Randy Young, the NRC, is the best place to get that information. But keep up with that. Watch this state water plan that's going to be drawn up. The meetings are going to start again this fall around the state, and I think it would be very diligent on y'all's part. I know we're going to be monitoring very close. Cynthia has a part in some of that. They're doing some of the technical stuff now.
But we're going to stay on top of that. Another thing that we do, we work very closely with the FSA office, the federal offices, the NRCS, we've got Linda Newkirk over that, over FSA, Mike Sullen, NRCS, and we work with Debbie Moreland with the Association of Conservation Districts. We reach out to people and work with people like I was talking about these different farm group groups, the U of A and all the other schools. We work with anybody that we can to get all the information
that we can to help the farmers here in the state, the agricultural industry here in the state. But we were in constant contact with our congressional delegation during the farm bill debates and with Secretary Vilsack and his staff. I think the best thing that could have happened, y'all got a copy. We handed out a copy of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture who put out a thing after January when they did the extension for the farm bill. And I think it was the best thing that could have happened for southern agriculture,
especially for Arkansas. I see Bill Reed nodding his head yes over there. It took care of us for another year, but we need to be very diligent. And y'all as a committee, I think especially, needs to let our congressmen and senators know what we need here in Arkansas. They will listen more to y'all than they will listen to anybody, to let them know what we need to be looking at when they write this new bill. One thing that I've learned, and I learned it through Bill Reed and some more people, with some meetings we had with a trade ambassador,
our direct payments that we've been getting does not count against us on the world trade. And so that's been a good thing, but they may go away. But what we've got to make sure, if it goes to crop insurance, that they understand southern agriculture with the cost of irrigation and stuff. It's not – we've got to be where we're covered on that too. So it's going to take a lot of work, but I feel confident our federal legislators have put a lot of work into that. And so we need to let them know what we don't need to drop the ball on that.
Another thing that I'm worried about here in the state is our cotton industry. We had less cotton this year than we had corn, which it's been 50 years or so since that's happened in Arkansas. Corn is going to be a coming crop here. I hate for us to see, hate for us to lose our cotton infrastructure because if it ever goes away, it's so expensive, it'll be hard to come back. And I feel like our acreage is going to drop some more. You know, we was down to a little over about 575, 580,000 acres,
and I hate to see it go much lower than that. Peanuts is something that Representative Ratliff that's showing a lot of promise here in Arkansas. We had a few people down my way that grew them that they went all the way to Walnut Ridge with them. We had about 18,000 to 20,000 acres here in the state this year I think it's going to be a growing industry I think on certain type soils It's going to be something that's really going to be a good thing for Arkansas And it's strictly a southern crop Georgia is growing about 700,000 acres
I don't think we'll ever get to the point where Georgia's at But I think we'll maybe get to 100,000 or so acres around the state We've got some in eastern Arkansas But most of it is based in northeast Arkansas and there's some information in our packet about the peanut industry. But we're very glad to have that. Rice, I look for rice to drop down a little bit. I don't look for it to go very low, but I look for the acres to drop some. We was at 1,250,000 acres this year. I look for it to go down just a little bit.
The yields were great. Some of the milling wasn't so well. And you have to take all that into consideration. But right now, corn, I look for us to go up maybe 100,000 acres on corn. Been to some marketing meetings around the state. They're talking about people, if they want to market their corn, they need to market in the first six months of this year because if we have a normal crop up in the Midwest where most all the corn is grown, it will go down. So we need to keep all those things. Agriculture needs to keep all those things in perspective here in the state.
We are a $16 billion industry. One in six jobs in this state is related to agriculture. It's a very big industry. We're number one in rice. We're number two in broilers. We're high in eggs, high in cotton, lots of other things. We're number four in saw logs in the south. Joe was showing me when we were driving around the timber is going to be hurt. He was showing me like up on ridges or trees he thought, you know, wasn't going to make it and things like that back in the summer
when we was going around meeting with some of his people. So we've got a lot ahead of us, a lot of things facing farmers. But like I said, we're resilient. Timber people are resilient. They've been around for, you know, we're going to stay in the business. But we've got to have y'all's help. They've got to have our help. And we're going to continue to work on those things. The dairy industry, northwest Arkansas, kind of west central Arkansas, hurting very, very bad. We did a $9 million dairy stabilization program.
We've got about $75,000 left in that program, and we hope to be able to get it okayed and sent out sometime between now and maybe the 1st of March. But we've done over $9 million, but we're down to about 100 dairies, give or take, here in the state. And they are really struggling. We have a dairy stabilization board, which was formed back in 07 or 08, and we meet once a month. They meet there with us, and we're looking at some different things,
keep up with milk prices, what's being brought into Arkansas, those sort of things. I think the growers got a little bit of help with the extension of the farm bill. I think they're going to get a little bit more adjustment for feed, and that might help some, but the dairy industry in Arkansas is really, really hurting. I think yesterday, Zach, didn't you say we had about 12,000 dairy cows in the state? And we've got about 100. So you're looking at about 120 cows per herd average. Another area of agriculture that's hurting in the state is aquaculture.
And that is through the catfish. Those guys are having a hard time. Again, they're like poultry and livestock. They're being faced with some high feed prices. The price of catfish is just staying kind of flat. I think it's because of some of the catfish that's coming in maybe from overseas. I don't know exactly what it is, but the catfish price is not good right now. Bait fish, there's quite a bit of bait fish down in Lone Oaken Prairie County, and those guys are doing fair.
They're not doing great. I got a good friend that's in that business told me a couple of weeks ago that the warmer weather up north was hurting their business because the lakes wasn't froze over as solid as they should be for ice fishing. So you never know what's going to affect agriculture here in this state, where it's going to be at. But, again, we've got our website in there. Y'all go to it. I sent all y'all, I think, out a letter. It's got all our business cards and stuff in it. Anytime we can be of help in any way, please do. One other program that we're working on, in fact, we're going to do a presentation Friday,
is the Century Farm program. I know some of y'all have heard of that. It's for farms. It's been in the families for over 100 years. We've done 83 of them this year, and with 83 people, we're going to open it back up February 1. If y'all know anybody in y'all's district that you think has had a farm in their family for over 100 years, it can be through marriage, through adoption, lots of different things. To me, I went through the drought in 1980, and it weeded out a lot of us that was farming. I made it through, but I learned a whole lot in 1980, and that's what I talk about resilient.
We come back, and we started working on irrigation projects instead of buying equipment, more tractors and things like that. We started working on irrigation projects, and it's paid off in the long run. But a lot of people didn't survive that, and we've had price problems and things like that. And in this drought this year with our cattle farmers, it's always something in agriculture. It's always something. I know a lot of y'all are very deeply involved in that. But another program that we've got, what it gives me is those people have been able to hang on through the Depression,
through divorces, through lots of different things, and kept those farms and their families over these years. We did a farm in Washington County that was started in 1837. And I'm hearing we may get one from 1836. That's the first year that we were a state is 1836. But another thing that we're doing, and y'all are going to hear more about that probably in the next month, we're doing an Arkansas Grown Magazine, which is going to come out, and we'll make sure y'all all get a copy.
We're going to have a little fanfare when we do it. It's going to have all parts of agriculture represented from timber to row crop to poultry to peanuts. I think we're going to have a store in there on the edamame on the soybeans up in the Arkansas River Valley. So I think it's going to be good for Arkansas, and no state money involved in that. So it kind of pays its own way. But that's really about all I've got, Mr. Chairman, just in kind of an overview of what we do.
Speaker 55
39:11
I'm sure I've left out some things. Would you be willing to entertain some questions if the committee has any?
Speaker 6
39:18
If they're simple. Yeah, no, sir, anything y'all want me to do, I'm kidding. Any questions from the committee? Representative Jett. Butch, without putting you on the spot,
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
39:29
for some of my colleagues that don't know, the farm program's going to go away. We're looking at $285 million going to come out of the state. Now, when you couple that with the insurance that farmers have to buy, that's another $50 million what the government's telling us we've got to do.
So you're looking at $300 and some million. Could you explain to my colleagues how that's going to impact the state of
Speaker 77
39:51
Arkansas when that happens, please? I tell you what, probably some of these bankers and, like, Scott Sullivan's people
Speaker 78
39:56
over here could explain that even better than I can, Representative Jet. It's going to be disastrous if we don't come up with a farm program that suits southern agriculture is what it's going to amount to. These prices are not going to – you know, the row crop I've said this year had a heck of a year, But they're not going to stay like that.
Things are going to level off, but it's going to be disastrous if we don't get a farm program that benefits southern agriculture. You go to pulling that kind of money out of all these small communities, it's
Representative Walls McCrary
Unverified
40:33
going to be devastating. Devastating. Representative McCreary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Calhoun, you mentioned the state water plan. Yes, sir. My first question is, who is the current chairman of the state water plan?
Speaker 78
40:50
It's the person that you would need to talk to that's working on that is Ed Swaim over at Randy
Representative Walls McCrary
Unverified
41:00
Young's shop, the Natural Resources Commission. Okay. Now, I know it's run out of Randy, and I know we appropriated, what, $2 to $4 million to get this program for two years of reports, It supports to come back in 2014 or 2015. Okay. Let me – how well is agriculture represented on the –
Speaker 78
41:27
I think we're represented very well on it, but we're just going to have to stay on top of it. One of the first things it says in what they're going to do is – and I thought I had that with me, but apparently I
Representative Walls McCrary
Unverified
41:46
didn't bring that with me – It says that agriculture will be a top priority, along with drinking water. Well,
you realize how scared all the farmers are of a water plan because somehow how it may affect agriculture, and I assume that's what you're referring to.
Speaker 44
41:58
Yes, sir, that's what I'm referring to. It says
Speaker 78
42:01
optimize the use of service and groundwater for the differing economies of the unique region of the state. And the first thing it says is reliability for meat and agricultural water needs. Reliably to meat and agricultural water needs. The plan
Representative Walls McCrary
Unverified
42:16
before it's adopted, where does it go? It'll come back before y'all. It comes to the Agriculture Committee.
Speaker 78
42:23
I'm pretty sure that's right. But we're talking about they started the meetings in November around the state.
They had four. They had one in Fayetteville, one in Jonesboro, one in Little Rock, and one in El Dorado. Just kind of letting people know what they were doing, public meetings. And then they're going to start meeting again in May. They're going to meet in Little Rock, Springdale, Stuttgart, McGee, Eldorado, Texas County, Mountain Home. And they're going to talk about the existing and future water needs of these areas. And then they're going to come back for a third round this fall in November of 2013 with different meetings around quantifying what the sources are for the water.
And then they're going to come back in the spring of 2014 and start meeting again, developing what they're going to do. And then the way I understand it, it will come back to y'all
Speaker 55
43:12
in 15. That's my understanding of it. Thanks, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
43:20
Any other questions? I'd like to thank Secretary Calhoun for taking time out of his schedule to be here and to share some information on the Department of Agriculture
and also the current state of agriculture in Arkansas. I saw Secretary Calhoun's always been very good to work with, and I know in the past as I've had constituent issues and other matters, he's always been very good to work with. So I'm sure as things come up, don't hesitate to be in touch with him. Never hesitate to call us. One thing, y'all, the university puts out
Speaker 55
43:50
this little pamphlet that tells a whole
Speaker 78
43:53
lot about what's going on around the state. I don't know, I'm sure y'all have access to that, but a lot of good information on where we stand, where the money's coming from,
how much is spent in each one of these areas of agriculture here in the state. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
44:12
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. That completes our agenda today. Seeing no further business without objection, we will adjourn until Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Agenda
ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING
PRESENTATION BY GUEST SPEAKER BUTCH CALHOUN
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
Representative Greg Leding
Unverified
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Representative John
Unverified
Speaker 17
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
Speaker 24
Speaker 25
Speaker 26
Speaker 27
Representative Bob Ballinger
Unverified
Speaker 30
Speaker 31
Representative Walls McCrary
Unverified
Speaker 38
Speaker 41
Speaker 21
Representative Kelley Linck
Unverified
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
Speaker 50
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
Speaker 55
Speaker 58
Speaker 65
Speaker 66
Speaker 67
Speaker 69
Speaker 71
Speaker 76
Speaker 78
Speaker 6
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
Speaker 77
Speaker 44