Director of Agriculture Fred Ferrill believes the future of agriculture in Missouri will be in good hands and predicts the state will continue to be a key player in agriculture for many years to come.
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That is just two of the topics Ferrill addressed when he spoke to the Grundy County Farm Bureau at its annual meeting on Thursday night in Trenton. Ferrill also visited earlier in the day with officers from area FFA chapters.
The Charleston native has been involved in agriculture nearly all his life, operating a cattle farm in south Missouri before becoming the state’s agriculture leader 18 months ago. As part of his job, he travels around the state promoting agriculture and getting input as to what it is that Missourians believe is most important in keeping agriculture a viable vocation.
One of those ways is visiting with the state’s young people, whom he said are the future of agriculture.
“They are anxiously awaiting their turn,” Ferrill said during an interview at the Republican-Times office on Thursday afternoon. “It is easy to see that they are the brightest and the best we have and to make sure we stay ahead of the curve, we want to make sure we don’t lose our most precious commodity, and that is those kids.”
He told the Farm Bureau that Missouri students have access to some of the best education available and that education, along with the technology now being used, will help assure that agriculture in Missouri will be successful for a long time.
“We all face challenges as we take our turn,” Ferrill said. “We learn from what has happened in the past and use that to jump start what we will do in the future. It’s like when a child learns to ride a bicycle. We have to help them learn how to pedal and prepare them so that when they fall, they will get right back on that bicycle. I have no doubt that we are doing that with our youth. They are very bright, very articulate and very challenging.”
Ferrill discussed with the Farm Bureau some of the programs that the Department of Agriculture has been doing while he has been in office as well as some programs being considered for implementation. The most important, Ferrill believes, is the QAS identification program, a voluntary program grown out of the state’s attempt to sell beef to the Japanese market.
“When we went to Japan (on a trade mission trip), one of the things we were told is that if we were to sell beef to them, we had to be able to verify its age and where it came from,” Ferrill said.
A meeting of ag officials and state beef producers resulted in development of the QAS program, in which animals are tagged and can then be identified by computer simply by scanning the tag. Ferrill noted the program was demonstrated to several Japanese officials when they visited Missouri and, as a result, state beef producers were able to contract with Japanese companies to export their meat.
“They couldn’t believe we could do it that easily,” he said, noting that the program should open up other markets for the state.
“And it is all about marketing,” Ferrill said. “If what we do does not have any market value to a program, then we don’t need it.”
Ferrill also talked about the National Animal Identification System, which he said the USDA has now said will be voluntary and not mandatory as first believed.
“It is my understanding that the original criteria is no longer what is to be done,” he said. “It is my understanding the program will be voluntary.”
He discussed the importance of Missouri being involved in the development of the new Farm Bill, noting that many legislators who work with the proposal in Washington do not understand agriculture.
“They will listen to us,” he said. “Missouri is so diverse that we play in every venue in production agriculture.”