As president of Kansas Farm Bureau, Rich Felts is supposed to be a cheerleader of sorts.
But that can be a challenge when agriculture is in a world of hurt, especially when economic indicators for the country as a whole are robust.
“Our biggest challenge in agriculture is economic survival,” said Felts, not one to sugar-coat. Felts was in Iola Friday afternoon as part of a media tour of southeast Kansas.
“I don’t know why anybody wants to plant any wheat this fall,” his said. “There’s too much wheat in the country.”
Corn is close on its heels.
The only sure thing are soybeans.
“There’s still so much world demand for soybeans,” he said. If it weren’t necessary to rotate crops, there’d be nothing but beans.
A farmer and rancher from the Independence/Coffeyville area, Felts knows the challenges of farming in today’s world.
“It’s all about being able to adapt,” he said.
But to do so, Washington, D.C. needs to cooperate.
“I have some concern about President Trump’s talk on trade,” Felts said, noting the importance of international trade for Kansas farmers. “If we don’t let these trade discussions get out of hand, what with NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and all,” then there’s hope.
Felts noted farmers have a friend in Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture.
“Initially Trump was talking about KO-ing NAFTA and the TPP, (Trans-Pacific Partnership). But ever since Sonny Perdue came on board, that talk has dissipated. Things have taken on a different tone,” he said. “Still, we don’t have enough people appointed to positions to do what we need to be doing.”
China, he noted, is the state’s biggest trading partner. “By far.”
Recently in the nation’s capitol to discuss farm issues, Felts said the KFB has joined with the Farmers for Free Trade group, spearheaded by former U.S. Senators Max Baucus, D-Montana, and Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, to promote agricultural interests.
“We need to join together so we don’t let the administration stifle what we need to do in the ag community,” Felts said of the cooperative effort.
THE KANSAS landscape is changing in terms of farmers.
Though we may call southeast Kansas rural, less than 1 percent of the population earns their living by farming, so our children don’t necessarily link rural with farming.
Even so, “a majority of the jobs still relate to ag in one form or another,” Felts said.
It’s not so much that farming doesn’t pay well — at times, handsomely — but the initial capital investment is daunting.
“Let’s face the reality: You don’t get into farming unless you have a connection,” he said. “A big Deere with a platform and corn-picker will set you back more than $500,000.”
Even so, in his mind, everything else pales to the practice.
“Kids today will see what it’s like on the ‘other side,’ but then want to come back to the land,” he said, with the optimism seemingly baked into a farmer’s DNA.
