Ag Expo: Stories need sharing

Area agriculture officials and producers all agreed on Friday that local agriculture isn't producing in a major category - its own perspective.

New Mexico Department of Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte, along with New Mexico State University extension program officials, visited the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds Friday afternoon as part of the annual Ag Expo to hear from local producers about their concerns regarding the ag industry.

"I think we all realize because of the world we live in, there are going to be regulations and rules," said lifetime Roosevelt County resident and longtime ag producer Bill Rush. "It is really going to be important, and are they gonna be enforced by people who understand what we're going through? Or are they going to be enforced by bureaucrats from Washington D.C. that don't know which end of a cow gives milk?

"It is important that we share our realities with the world, and I think in agriculture, that's where we have fallen so far short is that we haven't told our story, and people don't realize what we're going through."

Witte agreed with Rush.

"I want discussions to happen at the Legislature with various groups and individuals. When you've got a cause, people get passionate and in agriculture, we're typically passionate about our family operation, but we really don't want to tell anyone about it," Witte said. "We're private people; we don't necessarily invite people out to see what it is we deal with on a day-to-day basis. We don't tell our story."

Rush pointed out that Witte and District 67 Rep. Dennis Roch of Logan, who was also present at the gathering, are dealing with representatives in Santa Fe "who don't know anything about the real world out here."

"We know, but we don't how, that we need to do a better job of telling our story. We need to know about opportunities. How do we do a better job of telling our story to those that need to hear it?" Rush asked.

Roch told the room of producers that the best way to share their stories with legislators is to be in the capitol during legislative session time.

"The presence of production folks that are actually in the capitol during the legislative session is huge," Roch said. "These folks, every time they come to the capitol, they're teaching people that these are real folks, these are real industries, these have a real impact in New Mexico, and that's huge,"

Roch said, "If you eat, you're involved in agriculture," after crediting it to District 58 Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell of Roswell.

"She reminds our colleagues all the time of that," Roch said. "We do a roundhouse feed at the end of the session; we do an Ag Fest during the session; we're always constantly trying to expose (legislators to agriculture). The more opportunities and the more information (the better the legislation). We feed them a little, because that helps too."

Witte told producers Roch understands their struggles, but that on the federal level producers that they couldn't be represented by a better person, because Roch "gets it."

Witte said when it comes to policy, he is competing against northern and southern states like Minnesota, Michigan and Louisiana where the average herd size is 150 head.

"They don't get it when I tell them our average herd size is 2,800," Witte said. "In the whole state of Louisiana, they have 10,000 head; that's not even one good dairy in our state. That's the kind of thing that I battle against. But we're making progress, and they're understanding that kind of stuff."

New Mexico State College of Agriculture Dean Rolando Flores echoed those sentiments.

"We need to be on the offensive," Flores said. "We really need to promote and say what agriculture is. And we want your input and opinion as well."