Agriculture in Arizona

I am in the airport, on the way home from the the AFBF Young Farmer & Rancher Annual Leadership Conference, which was held in Phoenix, AZ over the last three days. If you ever get the chance to attend this event, I cannot recommend it enough. I've been two years in a row, and it has been one of my all-time favorites each time.
We had roughly two and a half days of meetings, speakers, networking meals and the collegiate discussion meet to keep us occupied. There will be more coverage of that in the publications I write for, and hopefully on here as well in upcoming weeks.
On the last day, we toured local agriculture operations. On my tour we went to a dairy that has 28,000 animals, 8,000-9,000 of which are milking cows (the rest are the calves and yearlings that aren't milking age yet). We also went to the place that provides places like Hobby Lobby and Pottery Barn with much of their plant based home decor items, like wheat wreathes. Our last stop was a college ag research center, where we saw a cotton gin built in the 1930's process cotton. Very cool!

Here is a quick rundown of some other things I learned about agriculture production and issues in AZ:

- They get 8-10 cuttings of alfalfa a year! Their major markets are local dairies, like the one I visited.

- One man said if he pulls out of his field and gets mud on the highway, there is a first-time fine of $10,000, and after that it goes to $20,000 per fine.

- Dust regulation is also a big deal, and when the wind blows the sand around (it is a desert...) they call the farmers to let them know they're creating too much dust based on what their daily allotments are.

- It costs $50 per acre foot of water, if you have a water right. People either have water rights or don't, depending on whether they farmed during specific years in the 1970's, or not.

- The area around Phoenix gets 8 inches of moisture a year, in about two storms most of the time. If you raise a crop, you irrigate it.

- Irrigation water comes from captured snow pack runoff and from collecting water during the major storms bringing the land it's annual precipitation.

- The first single row cotton picker could pick 9,000 lbs. of cotton a day. The best human worker could pick between 400 and 450 lbs.

- If you see illegal aliens in southern Arizona, and they're in a row walking along, that's called a mule pack. If they have little backpacks, they're probably alright. But, if they have big backpacks, they're likely each full of 100 pounds of marijuana or cocaine, and there will be people at the front and back with machine guns that will kill you.

- Our local Arizonan on our tour bus said these illegals coming through have completely destroyed the landscape in very southern Arizona, littering it with trash and making ranching dangerous and nearly impossible.

- One major reason for not putting up a more permanent fence (our local said its old, three-wire barbwire with no border markings in most rural areas) between us and Mexico is because a few herds of antelope and elk travel back and forth, and the government doesn't want to eliminate their connectivity. This also results in cattle between the two countries mixing regularly.

- On nights will full moons, cattle pots of illegals will be dropped at the border, and walking across. Don't go hunting or cow gathering when there's a full moon.

- If you get caught in Mexico with a gun, it's so many years in prison for each bullet in your gun. And their prisons are known for their "great hospitality." Hello America....

YF&R Washington D.C. trip

 I did end up going to D.C. for a quick couple days of meetings and tours with the Wyoming Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers. This was my fourth time going to the nation's capital. This round included meeting with the Department of the Interior, where I asked why the BLM does not maintain the same grazing standards they require of their permittees, especially in areas grazed with wild horses. We also talked about wolves, sage grouse and the Endangered Species Act, trailing permits across public lands, and the issue of disease transmission between domestic and Bighorn sheep.
The Brazilian Embassy was an interesting stop where we learned a lot about agriculture in the Brazil. Specific topics included Foot and Mouth Disease, their ethanol industry and international trade. Their ethanol industry, which uses sugar, was started out with government subsidization. Today it is not government subsidized, and the price of sugar on the open market is higher than the ethanol price, so people rarely use it because of the cost compared to regular gasoline.
Touring the American Farm Bureau Federation Office was also very fun, and we got briefed on several topics of interest/concern within the Farm Bureau organization at present, and see the rooftop view of the Capital.
My last stop was with our Senator, John Barrasso. We're very fortunate in Wyoming to have a great Congressional Delegation, so it was more a thank-you/what's new on issues meeting. From there I flew home to continue on with sorting and shipping while the rest of my group spent a couple days touring our nation's capital.
Here are a few photos from the trip:

The U.S. Capital at night.

 American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman's office, and the great view!

 The Air and Space Museum, exhibit on the race to the moon between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Check out the newspaper articles (writer's plug, lol)

 The super cool, super big camera America launched into to space to spy on the Soviet Union in the late 1960's or early 1970's to see if they were planning and making nuclear weapons (I think). Within a couple years, we perfected this camera from only being able to see items over 40 feet in length, to being able to see a line of people on the street. Very interesting, loved this museum!

 Real airplanes hang from the rafters in the Air and Space Museum.

 Another angle on the Capital.

 Here I am....I'm really not that orange : )

 View from the Capital Steps

 Sitting on the Capital Steps, listening to the Navy Band play, at sunset.

Enjoying the Navy Band.

Here is the whole group that went. We had a great time!

Grassroots Organizations

This week I am at the Wyoming Annual Farm Bureau Convention, held in Cheyenne. Since my work is no longer a conflict of interest with being personally affiliated with select organizations, I have enjoyed increasing my involvement in Wyoming Farm Bureau through running and being elected to the Wyoming Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee.
My personal belief is it's a necessary act of community service to serve on boards, committees, in public office, etc... It's through personal involvement that you see your community become what you want, how you create positive change that you believe in, and is critical to the future of communities. It's also how you make others aware of issues pertinent and relevant to you and your lifestyle. My family has a long standing history of involvement for these reasons, and I'm excited to increase mine in upcoming months and years.
The thoughts I just mentioned are relevant at the local, county, state, regional, national or international level. That's the beauty of being involved. I am also a very strong believer in grassroots organizations, which are those where local members make policy, and pass it locally, then present it at the district, state, and national meetings, should it pass at each previous step. Grassroots organizations are how local people get local issues heard at a national level by government and other entities through a large and unified voice. This is the opposite of the federal government creating an idea, then passing it down to the local communities they know nothing about. Grassroots is how things should happen.
The American Farm Bureau Federation is the largest farmer and rancher based grassroots organization in the U.S. today, and as I type this, policy is being passed at the state level that has already been voted on at the local and district meetings. These are the ideas, concerns, changes and improvements Wyoming people want to see happen on more issues than you can count. Through creating policy, the people involved lobbying for Farm Bureau at the state or national level have a resource they can refer to on any number of issues to see just what the people back home think on a subject. Then they can use that policy to accurately represent member needs. 
For example, policy was passed today that states Wyoming Farm Bureau supports population control of wild horses through various means including sterilization, humane euthanization, etc... (those aren't the exact words, which in policy exact words are very important, but that gives you the general idea).
With that policy in place, the Farm Bureau lobbyists can refer to it any time there is legislation that encompasses the wild horse, and speak from the point of the organization supporting population control. If there wasn't policy, the lobbyists wouldn't know what the majority of members thought on some issues, and may not represent accurately.
The other side is, having a huge organization with members from every state in the union gets a lot more attention at state or national legislatures than one farmer, or rancher, with a concern or idea.
Savvy?
It's all quite fascinating, and so very important to the future of our country. I encourage anyone who has ever said, "they should do that, or do it that way," to go join the organization you were referring to, and become a part of making it the way you want and believe it should be.