Chenango Farm Bureau

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Teaching from experience

by: Michael McGuire

If they haven’t already, most landowners in the county will likely soon be approached to sign a natural gas lease. Before they sign anything, the Chenango County Farm Bureau wants people to know what the pros and cons of gas leasing are.

That’s not all.

Throughout 2007, the Farm Bureau has remained dedicated to educating its members and the public on wide range of issues – from land management to renewable energy, President Bradd Vickers says.

Annette Connick, a Norwich resident who taught 4th grade in Brooklyn for 35 years, said the Farm Bureau played a vital role in educating her and her students not only about the importance of agriculture, but all subjects.

“The students were enthralled by it,” said Connick, who used advice and resources provided by Vickers and his wife Rainy to incorporate agriculture into math, science, geography, history and writing lessons for over eight years. “Agriculture was something different and interesting to these kids. It was very exciting for them and me to be able to incorporate it into our day-to-day curriculum and it was reinvigorating for me as a teacher to be able to do that.”

Over the years, with the bureau’s help, Connick’s classes simulated basic farm operations in and outside the classroom to learn about math and science. For example, they once mapped out the acreage of their auditorium to calculate how much lettuce could be grown in a space that size. Using math and supermarket prices, they then figured out how much money they could’ve made.

The kids also developed relationships with Chenango County farmers through letters and later the computer that taught them reading, writing and interpersonal skills.

“We’d correspond almost every day and the kids would ask them all sorts of questions. The farmers would answer every single one,” Connick said. “The farmers I met here really went out of their way to accommodate my children and me.”

The Farm Bureau is also a grass roots lobbying arm that acts as the voice of local farmers in Albany and Washington. According to Vickers, one of his many jobs is to make sure local farm concerns make it to the floor of the Legislature.

“It’s pretty simple. We have to convince our lawmakers each year that one way or the other they need to support our national food supply,” said Vickers. “There’s a number of different policies we put forward, but it all comes back to one thing; it’s our job to make them realize that our nation’s food supply is number one on the list.”

Locally, producers were threatened by drastically low milk prices in 2005 and 2006. However, in the last eight months of 2007 and first month of 2008, prices have reached record highs. But input costs – feed, fuel and equipment – remain high and continue to rise. Farmers have been able to bounce back some on crop sales, but Vickers say the industry still has a long way to go before it turns the corner.

“There’s no bigger gamble than agriculture,” he said. “It’s a lot like playing the stock market; it has its ups and downs.”

Arguably second on the list is energy. Specifically renewable energy. As business evolves, so too must the farm. That means finding ways to diversify. Vickers and other ag leaders see renewable energy as the jumping-on point for local farmers to ensure they’re viable in years to come.

“Energy is a key issue,” he said. “If we can target marginal properties locally to grow energy crops, that can create a lot of value-added possibilities.”

By value-added, Vickers essentially means helping farmers find more purposes for their products and land without increasing their input costs. An example would be if a farmer could make extra dollars growing switch grass and rape seed – both used for ethanol production – on their worst acres without disrupting their normal crop production.

“In the near future we should be able to start-up education programs that will help local producers to buy into this as things move along,” Vickers said. “Once government clarifies the legalities of the issue, like taxes and regulations, things should move forward.”

Overall, Farm Bureau at the county, state and national level promotes the “25/25” program, which seeks to have agriculture producing 25 percent of the nation’s energy supply by 2025.

Marketing is another of the organization’s important functions. Not only does that mean promoting farm products – in Chenango, dairy is a large focus – but also attracting people from outside the county to move here and farm.

“Compared to some places across the country, we’re not too bad,” said Vickers. “We have excellent water quality, land that’s relatively inexpensive and we have land that’s available.”

Unless measures are taken, however, losing farm land to subdivision and commercial development is always a threat. One of the biggest threats is the New York Regional Interconnect Inc. power line project. In total, the line threatens to encroach 62 miles of designated agricultural properties. That majority of that would be in Chenango County, which will host 44 miles of the line if built.

Farm Bureau has testified against NYRI in several venues and continues to compile information against the project as the case moves toward a state review.

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