Missouri Farm Bureau Archives

Missouri’s governor to sign bipartisan broadband legislation on Thursday in Tipton

July 1, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Legislation extending Missouri’s broadband grant program through 2027 will be signed into law by the governor on Thursday morning in central Missouri’s Tipton.

Governor Mike Parson (R) will travel to Co-Mo Connect in Moniteau County for Thursday’s 10:15 a.m. ceremonial signing. The bipartisan bill is sponsored by State Rep. Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, who will join the governor in Tipton.

State Rep. Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on March 9, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Missouri’s broadband internet grant program is for unserved and underserved areas in the state. The grant program is currently scheduled to expire in August 2021. House Bill 1768 extends the program until June 2027.

In addition to extending the broadband grant program, the Riggs legislation requires the state Department of Economic Development (DED) to maintain a record of all federal grants awarded to entities to provide, maintain and expand rural broadband in Missouri.

Representative Riggs’ legislation was approved by the Missouri Senate in May by a 31-0 vote. The House approved it in May, on a 143-3 vote.

Governor Parson emphasized the importance of rural broadband, during a February address to the Missouri Farm Bureau in Jefferson City. At the time, the governor noted there were about ten Missouri school districts that didn’t have broadband.

Parson says broadband ties-in with education and workforce development.

DNR: Missouri’s soil and water conservation tax has improved more than five million acres

June 6, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) credits Missouri’s soil and water conservation tax and program for reducing soil erosion, and for improving more than five million acres.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Carol Comer listens to testimony at the Joint Committee on Agriculture hearing on May 28, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

DNR agricultural liaison Kurt Boeckmann tells the Joint Committee on Agriculture that a one-tenth-of-one-percent parks, soils and water sales tax was first approved by Missouri voters 36 years ago.

“In every county in Missouri, there are 114 districts, one in each county, and those districts provide technical assistance and cost-share that is generated through that sales tax,” Boeckmann testifies recently.

Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment for a one-tenth-of-one-percent sales tax for parks, soil and water conservation in 1984. Voters have overwhelmingly renewed the tax four times, with the last one happening in 2016.

DNR credits soil and water conservation programs for helping Missouri landowners keep 186-million tons of soil from eroding into our waterways, since 1984. Mr. Boeckmann testifies the tax has been crucial.

“Most of the practices that are offered through this program are practices that are benefiting the soil loss that we have … over 255,000 contracts have been offered to landowners,” says Boeckmann.

The majority of the soil and water portion of the tax has been used to assist farmers through voluntary programs that are developed by the Soil and Water Districts Commission.

The tax has historically received bipartisan support and is backed by both Missouri Farm Bureau and the Sierra Club.

“So it’s extremely important to anybody who uses our park system, our beautiful parks system, or anybody who drinks water in the state of Missouri, because this (tax) makes a real difference in both preserving our soil and protecting our water supply,” Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst told Missourinet in 2016, just before the election.

Lawmakers to hear update on Missouri slaughter facilities and economic impact from COVID-19

May 23, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

We’ll learn more details next week about the impact of the coronavirus on local slaughter facilities in Missouri.

State Rep. Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Hill, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on May 11, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The Joint Committee on Agriculture plans a Thursday morning hearing at the Statehouse in Jefferson City. The committee will meet at 9 a.m.

The committee’s co-chairs are State Rep. Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Hill, and State Sen. Justin Brown, R-Rolla.

Haffner’s office tells Missourinet that the joint committee will hear a general overview about how production lines at slaughter facilities are influenced by COVID-19, and the responses to it. Haffner’s office says State Reps. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, and Don Rone, R-Portageville, will present the update.

Shaul and Rone plan to discuss the current economic issues that local slaughter facilities are having due to COVID-19 and how that financially impacts Missouri’s cattle industry, according to Haffner’s office.

Shaul also heads the Missouri Grocers Association.

The $35.2 billion operating budget approved by state lawmakers this month contains $20 million for Missouri meat processing facilities, impacted by COVID-19. House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, says it’s for plants with less than 200 employees, for support, workforce assistance, equipment and capital improvements.

The Joint Committee on Agriculture will also hear testimony on Thursday from Missouri commodity groups and agricultural organizations about their economic impact, specifically their contribution to state and local tax revenues.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) plans to present on Thursday, along with B.J. Tanksley of the Missouri Farm Bureau and Casey Wasser of the Missouri Soybean Association. Dr. Scott Brown of the University of Missouri and Tony Clayton of Clayton Agri-Marketing are also scheduled to present, along with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Missouri hospitals losing $32 million daily during coronavirus outbreak

April 14, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The resiliency of Missouri’s hospitals and healthcare workers is being tested in ways we’ve never seen before, according to Herb Kuhn, president and CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association. To battle against the coronavirus outbreak, they have stopped doing elective procedures to protect workers and patients, and to save personal protective gear. During a Capitol briefing, Kuhn says that move has taken a toll on hospital profits.

Missouri hospitals losing $32 million daily during coronavirus outbreak

“We currently estimate that Missouri hospital revenues are off by more than 50%,” says Kuhn. “This amount is pegged at $32 million a day, nearly a billion dollars a month.”

Last week, Missouri healthcare organizations received about $618 million in federal aid through the recently-enacted coronavirus stimulus package. Kuhn says that money dried up in about ten days.

He says to respond to the respiratory disease, hospitals have also reconfigured their setup to boost the state’s hospital bed count, created remote testing sites and constantly track hospital capacity and personal protective equipment. They are working under heightened levels of stress, in an environment that is of great risk to their own health and with struggles of proper protection from COVID-19. Employees are working long hours and some of them have strained staffing levels.

Since 2014, ten rural Missouri hospitals have closed. Kuhn says the coronavirus related money problems have been especially tough on Missouri’s rural hospitals.

The financial pinch that hospitals are feeling from COVID-19 has led to the creation of a statewide task force.

“I salute the governor and his team for this, they’ve joined with us to create a financial task force to help us monitor the liquidity challenges of hospitals and to look at every federal and state program we can support and use to provide sustainability,” says Kuhn.

The Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Bankers Association will both be part of the panel.

Northern Missouri Congressman Graves focusing on flooding and levees (AUDIO)

February 29, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A congressman who represents north Missouri on Capitol Hill warns that northwest Missouri is still suffering from flooding, and that there’s a lot of damage to infrastructure.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, tours the MFA Rail facility near northwest Missouri’s Hamilton on October 8, 2018 (file photo courtesy of Congressman Graves’ office)

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, traveled from his Atchison County farm to Jefferson City this week to file for re-election to his 11th term. Graves is the longest-serving Republican in Missouri’s congressional delegation. He’s also a dean in the delegation, along with U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis. Both were elected to Congress in 2000.

Congressman Graves spoke to Missourinet after he filed, reiterating that flooding and transportation are his top two priorities. He says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and other House Democrats have focused too much attention on impeachment.

“We haven’t worked on flood legislation, we have not worked on prescription drugs, we have not got an infrastructure bill because they’ve been spending all of their time with impeachment, and that’s all they seem to want to do,” Graves says.

Graves, the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee, says there are flood-damaged roads and bridges in northwest Missouri that still need to be rebuilt.

He’s critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saying they don’t listen.

“It’s a management situation, that’s what it comes down to is how they manage the Missouri River,” Graves says. “And we’ve got people’s lives on the line, and their livelihoods and the farms and their communities.”

Congressman Graves and Governor Mike Parson (R) have both criticized the Corps. Parson and the governors of neighboring Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska have met with the Corps of Engineers three times to discuss what needs to be done differently in the future.

The governors have signed a four-state agreement to cooperate on issues relating to flood control and the Corps.

As for Graves, he wants to see changes in Corps plans.

“It’s very frustrating that the Corps doesn’t seem to want to to change,” says Graves. “And it’s like dragging them, kicking and screaming.”

Graves says flood control should be the Corps’ top priority for the Missouri River. He also notes the severe flooding that happened in 2019 in north-central Missouri’s Brunswick, which is in his district.

Severe flooding from the Grand River caused a railroad bridge to wash out in Brunswick, and it also damaged other infrastructure in the town of about 800.

The Missouri Farm Bureau says more than 1.4 million acres of farmland in the state went unplanted in 2019, due to flooding.

The state Department of Agriculture (MDA), the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Farm Bureau, the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association and the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River will hold round table discussions Monday and Tuesday about flooding.

The meetings are designed to answer questions from farmers about 2019 flooding and to help them prepare for potential flooding this spring.

There will be two meetings on Monday in northwest Missouri: at 10 a.m. at the Atchison County Extension Building in Rock Port and at 2:30 p.m. at the East Hills Library in St. Joseph. Tuesday’s meetings will take place at 9 a.m. at the Knight and Rucker Banquet Hall in Brunswick and at 2:30 at the Corner restaurant in east-central Missouri’s Rhineland.

Graves was re-elected to his tenth term in 2018, defeating Democrat Henry Robert Martin with about 65 percent of the vote.

Four Democrats have already filed to challenge Graves. They are Kansas City’s Martin, Kansas City’s Ramona Farris, Canton’s Charles West and Platte City resident Gena Ross.

The sprawling sixth congressional district covers 36 northern Missouri counties, from the Missouri to the Mississippi River. It covers more square miles than nine U.S. states.

The district includes St. Joseph, Chillicothe, Bethany, Macon, Kirksville and Hannibal.

Click here to listen to the full three-minute interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, which was recorded on February 25, 2020 at the Kirkpatrick Building in Jefferson City:

Longtime Cardinal broadcaster McLaughlin emphasizes importance of rural Missouri fans to St. Louis (AUDIO)

February 24, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Veteran St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Dan McLaughlin is starting his 23rd season in the broadcast booth. He broadcast the Cardinals’ first 2020 spring training game in Florida Saturday on Fox Sports Midwest.

Longtime Cardinal broadcaster Dan McLaughlin (right) visits with Brian Hauswirth at the Cardinal Caravan in Jefferson City on January 17, 2020

During a recent Jefferson City appearance, McLaughlin visited with Missourinet about his career and about the Cardinals. He emphasizes that Cardinal fans traveling from rural Missouri and other locations are crucial to the team and to downtown St. Louis business.

“It’s something like 60 to 70 percent of the tickets sold on a weekend is from, if you took a radius and did a circle there and drew it out 60 miles, they’re outside that area,” McLaughlin says.

The “St. Louis Business Journal” reports the Cardinals drew 3.48 million fans to Busch Stadium during the 2019 regular season. That ranks second in Major League Baseball, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

McLaughlin notes the economic impact of those Cardinal fans staying in downtown St. Louis hotels, and the impact on downtown restaurants and other businesses.

As for McLaughlin, he says he’s living his dream. He notes he grew up seven minutes from Busch Stadium, and his mother still lives at that house. McLaughlin graduated from Lindenwood College (now Lindenwood University) in St. Charles, and praises the school. He says it gave him his life.

He also says Cardinal baseball gives fans a release on the reality of life.

“And what they want to do is go home, flip on a tv, flip on the radio and hear a couple of people that are excited to do the game, excited about Cardinals baseball,” says McLaughlin.

He emphasizes the importance of having fun, during the broadcasts.

“Bottom line is this should be entertainment,” McLaughlin says. “It should be fun, it should be something you enjoy. Should be something that you enjoy with your children or your friends or your family.”

McLaughlin emceed the January Cardinal Caravan event at Missouri Farm Bureau headquarters in Jefferson City, which raised about $1,200 for “Feeding Missouri.” The coalition of six Missouri food banks works to provide hunger relief in all 114 counties and St. Louis city. “Feeding Missouri” distributes 120-million pounds of food annually.

Despite frigid temperatures and snow that night, a few hundred Cardinal fans turned out for the event.

McLaughlin tells Missourinet he’s beyond grateful for the opportunity he’s been given. He has two jobs: he works for Fox Sports Midwest and for the Cardinals.

He emphasizes that the Cardinal employees he works with care, and that they love what they do.

The St. Louis Cardinals open the 2020 season on March 26 at Cincinnati, when they play the Reds.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and veteran St. Louis Cardinal broadcaster Dan McLaughlin, which was recorded on January 17, 2020 at Missouri Farm Bureau headquarters in Jefferson City:

Task force gets some positive news on Missouri spring flooding potential

February 24, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The National Weather Service says Missouri faces above-average flood risk this spring because soil is still saturated from last spring’s flooding. About 1.2 million acres of Missouri farmland was damaged by flooding in 2019.

Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn (Photo courtesy of Brownfield Ag News)

But, Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn says the Governor’s Flood Advisory Task Force has received a glimmer of good news from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the potential for spring flooding.

“The reservoirs up north right now have more storage capacity than they did last year at this time. So that’s a positive piece of information that we were really glad to hear,” says Chinn.

Chinn is a member of that task force. She farms in northeast Missouri’s Clarence.

“Last year at this time, we had a really deep freeze in the ground. Right now, we don’t have that,” she says. “So, we’re not going into the spring in the exact same situations that we were last year.”

Chinn says a lot of farm ground is unprotected.

“We do have a lot of levees right now that have not been able to be repaired because the water simply did not recede,” she says.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture, Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River are hosting meetings in northwest Missouri March 2nd and 3rd for farmers to meet with state and federal emergency management officials and the USDA’s RMA, FSA and NRCS agencies to ask questions and share their concerns.

Missouri’s governor focusing on rural broadband, especially for schools (AUDIO)

February 19, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Governor Mike Parson (R) emphasized the importance of broadband in rural Missouri during a Jefferson City appearance on Tuesday, and is praising USDA’s announcement that the state will receive $61 million to expand it.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson delivers his State of the State Address on January 15, 2020 in Jefferson City, as House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, looks on (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The governor discussed the issue, while addressing a few hundred Missouri Farm Bureau members at Jefferson City’s Capitol Plaza Hotel. While the Farm Bureau event was closed to the news media, Parson spoke with Missourinet after his presentation.

“If we can get electricity in every home, and we did that back years ago, we can get internet to everybody’s home to where they can be out there and be competitive,” Parson says.

One of the grants announced in late January by USDA is a $2.5 million grant to help the Green Hills Telephone Corporation expand its fiber network in northwest Missouri’s Caldwell and Livingston counties. That’s expected to help a fire district and two educational facilities.

Governor Parson has noted that there are about ten Missouri school districts that still don’t have broadband. The governor says broadband ties-in with education and his workforce development initiatives.

“We’ve got to make sure we got broadband available to our schools, to give those kids a fighting chance out there in today’s world in technology and everything,” says Parson.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R) also praises USDA’s announcement, calling it an important step toward ending what he calls the digital divide. Senator Blunt says one-third of rural Missourians lack access to broadband.

As for Governor Parson, he’s also emphasizing the importance of infrastructure, rural health care and the rural way of life.

“I always say the agriculture is so important to our state and what it means for the way of life for a lot of these people (Farm Bureau members), but really for what it means for everyday Missourians no matter where you’re from,” Parson says.

The governor is also concerned about possible flooding again this spring. He tells Missourinet he spoke to President Trump about the issue a few weeks ago, and that the president is engaged on the issue.

Parson’s proposed budget sets aside $4 million in disaster recovery funds.

Agriculture is an $88 billion industry in Missouri. The state has about 100,000 farms.

Click here to listen to the full three-minute interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Governor Mike Parson (R), which was recorded on February 18, 2020 at Jefferson City’s Capitol Plaza Hotel:

Haahr and Hansen focused on Missouri property rights legislation

February 14, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Legislation aimed at preventing private entities like the Grain Belt Express from using eminent domain could hit the Missouri Senate floor in Jefferson City soon.

State Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Frankford, briefs Capitol reporters about eminent domain legislation on February 13, 2020, as House Speaker Elijah Haahr and other GOP lawmakers look on (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The legislation from State Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Frankford, was the first bill sent by the House to the Senate earlier this year.

“This legislation is just to protect people’s personal property rights against a private company wanting to use eminent domain, and that’s the bottom line on what we’re working on,” Hansen says.

Grain Belt Express plans to construct and operate a high-voltage transmission line across eight northern Missouri counties: Buchanan, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Clinton, Randolph, Monroe and Ralls.

A Missouri Senate committee has approved legislation from State Sen. Justin Brown, R-Rolla, that bans private entities from using eminent domain to build above-ground merchant lines. Senator Brown’s bill is similar to Representative Hansen’s bill.

“I’ve requested my bill to be heard over there (Missouri Senate) in the committee here in the near future and then we’ll decide which bill we’ll maybe get on the floor in the Senate,” says Hansen.

Hansen and House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, briefed Capitol reporters Thursday in Jefferson City.

Haahr says his chamber is leading the fight to protect the property of Missouri’s farmers and ranchers. He also notes that last year’s Hansen bill wasn’t approved by the House until mid-April.

“Representative Hansen’s bill, we didn’t really start this process until after spring break of last year,” Speaker Haahr says. “This year it was the first bill out of the House, so I think that gives us a little bit more lead time.”

Last year’s bill died in the Missouri Senate in May.

The House approved Hansen’s bill in late January, on a bipartisan 118-42 vote. Five African-American House Democrats voted for the bill: State Reps. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, Michael Person, D-Ferguson, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, and Kevin Windham, D-Hillsdale.

The Grain Belt project does have support. Backers say it would generate $7 million annually in property taxes to Missouri political subdivisions.

Supporters also say it would save towns like northeast Missouri’s Hannibal about $1 million annually in electricity costs.

The Grain Belt project also cleared another legal hurdle in December, when the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District ruled in favor of multi-state power lines, rejecting the arguments of Missouri Farm Bureau and landowners.

Blunt pleased with USDA’s Kansas City relocation decision (AUDIO)

August 16, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

SEDALIA, Mo.- The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) decision to relocate two major facilities to the greater Kansas City area is being praised by Missouri’s senior senator.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R) flips steaks at the Missouri Beef House at the State Fair in Sedalia on August 15, 2019 (photo courtesy of Missouri Cattlemen’s Association Twitter page)

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R) spoke to Missourinet at the governor’s ham breakfast Thursday in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia.

“I think that’s one of the great things about the USDA deciding to move those ag research jobs from Washington D.C. to the Kansas City area with access to all our great land grant institutions in the middle of the country,” Blunt says.

USDA plans to relocate its Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agricultural Policy. U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, says the decision will draw more than 550 jobs to the Kansas City region, with average wages between $80,000 and $100,000.

Meantime, Senator Blunt is hopeful that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will manage the Missouri River differently.

“Since the 2004 (Corps) management plan, we’ve had moderate to high flooding every year but two, with the same rainfall we had in many years before that that didn’t produce that flooding,” says Blunt.

Blunt, Governor Parson and members of the state’s congressional delegation held a press conference on the flooding issue at Thursday’s fair. They were joined by Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst.

Parson says more than 80 Missouri levees have overtopped or breached in 2019.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full four-minute interview with U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R), which was recorded at the State Fair in Sedalia on August 15, 2019: