Wanted: Younger Farmers & Ranchers

The annual meeting of the Valley County Farm Bureau was held at the Cottonwood Inn last Tuesday with about 20 folks in attendance.

After a nice buffet style meal, bureau president Scott Cassel called the meeting to order.

The first speaker of the evening was Scott Kulbeck, Montana Farm Bureau Federation director of membership development. He stressed the bureau's desire of attracting more young farmers and ranchers to join and get involved.

“The stock growers take care of livestock issues while the farm bureau concerns itself with the land usage, water rights, wildlife and government agencies,” Kulbeck said.

The next speaker was Nicole Roth, MFBF Eastern Montana regional manager and deputy director of legislative affairs.

Roth mentioned a few bills that were passed this year in Helena that were positive for the farmer/rancher, but in the final analysis were vetoed by Gov. Bullock

One that got passed, however, was the Business Equipment Tax Relief Bill, which is a great help to the farmer who, for example, just paid $300,000 for a new combine.

Roth stressed the need for young ranchers and farmers to join the farm bureau and “let their voices be heard in Helena … That's about the only way things will get done to the satisfaction of all concerned”.

“There are 20,200 member families statewide in the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, up about 600 from last year” Kulbeck said. Valley County has 342 member families.

The members approved resolutions by voice vote with no one dissenting. Those resolutions included:

• We oppose excessive stockpiling of ammunition and ammunition components by federal agencies.

• We support more transparency and accountability of federal agencies' ammunition supplies.

Election of officers also was held. Scott Cassel remained president. The members didn’t feel the need for a vice president. Wayne Shipp remained secretary/treasurer. Dean Reddig and Tom DePuydt were elected to the board of directors..

An ice cream social followed with some homegrown music and cowboy poetry by Virgil Vaupel.