Joining us at the NAFB convention is Mike Seyfert from the National Grain and Feed Association.
Q: The running topic it feels like here at the convention this year is post-election. What do things look like now moving forward? Trump administration 2.0. Obviously, we need a new Farm Bill. Still, prospects in the lame duck is pretty slim. Let’s just start there. Fallout from the elections. Looking ahead here through the lame duck and into the new Congress. NGFA’s perspective, where do things stand right now?
MS: Well, you know, I think as we look at coming out of the elections we’ve had a good working relationship with the current administration, and we had a really good relationship with the first Trump administration. And I expect that we will have the same with this one.
And I think we’ve got a pretty good relationship with the Hill, particularly with the ag committees. Obviously, we had a good relationship over the years with Chairwoman Stabenow and I served as a staff director for Senator Roberts with her, but she’s retiring. But it looks like the rest of the leadership will be back. Chairman Thompson’s name has been mentioned for secretary, but assuming he’s back and ranking member Scott in the House and now Chairman Bozeman in the Senate, and we anticipate probably Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota.
So I think in terms of the relationships that we’ve had and that we’re going to have, I think we feel pretty good about that. And I think also all three of the nominees for leader or the candidates for leader in the Senate would have been great leaders. But obviously, Mr. Thune’s from South Dakota; he’s someone who’s been on the Senate Ag Committee for a number of years, House Ag before that. And I do think there’s a lot of excitement in the ag community that in a way, you know, folks kind of feel like, hey, it’s one of our guys that’s in there, someone we all know.
And so I think folks are pretty excited about having soon to be now leader Thune in that position from an ag perspective.
Q: I think about this with the Farm Bill, I know the prospects are slimming the lame duck. And so if we look at the next Congress to get a new Farm Bill done, those folks you mentioned. But I wonder too, is there maybe going to be some urgency, a lot of things to get done in the next two weeks? But could Senator Stabenow, for instance, want to try and get this Farm Bill over the finish line here before the new Congress takes effect? I mean, does it even seem possible at this point?
MS: I think it’s certainly possible that she could want to do that. You know, I will say as somebody who I think this is going to be my sixth or seventh Farm Bill I’ve worked on now, and worked on several on the Hill and on the committee, Farm bills are hard.
And just the timeline you’re talking about, trying to get this done doesn’t make it any easier. You know, if they want to get it done, I think they will. But it’s going to be really hard at this point.
And you’ve seen comments just in the last 24 hours or so. I’ve seen come out this morning, Chairman Thompson, I saw and I also saw ranking member Bozeman both say we want to get it done, but it looks like we’re heading towards an extension.
And I think part of that’s probably going to tie into the feeling that we seem to be getting. The sense we seem to be getting is that they’re looking at extending the government funding on out further into 25. We’re here in March or even for the full fiscal year. And the sense seems to be that they’re going to extend a lot of these things and probably not spend a lot of time legislatively, and that the new president coming in wants to kind of have their mark. And it’s not definite that that’s where we’re going, but that seems to be where the signals are pointing. And it has felt more to me, just the comments I’ve seen in the last 24 hours, that that’s it feels like that’s the direction that we’re heading.
Q: What about the talk of tariffs? Is there concern at NGFA that we could see some of this type of trade policy with the incoming administration?
MS: Obviously trade and open markets is a big part of our mission at NGFA and for moving commodities on behalf of our members and that producers are growing. And so obviously trade is important. And I think there’s questions regarding potential tariffs, what those are going to look like? I think also we’ve had a previous administration where we’ve dealt with them. A lot of the tariffs that were put in place didn’t come off in this administration.
Obviously we’re talking about the importance with the incoming administration of ag trade. But you know, there’s a couple things I think we’re suggesting. One would be, hey, let’s go back and dust off phase one. There’s still some things there that had been agreed to and that had been worked on that I think we could still have some success on and do that.
And you know what I’ve heard the incoming president talk about and a lot of folks who were either on his previous team or on his transition team have talked about, if there are tariffs, it’s going to be leverage. And so is it leverage to get some more action on that phase one agreement? Is it a way to address some of the issues we’ve had with Mexico on biotech corn, on some of the rail issues that we’ve had? Is it a way to address some of the issues with Europe from the EUDR perspective? And so I think obviously the incoming president has his views, has his position.
Rural America voted with him by about 75%. And so I think, is there some nervousness? Yes, but I think there’s also a lot of us who are trying to think about now. Okay, new approach, new president. So how do we work with them again to leverage to get maybe progress in some areas that we’ve been struggling with for a while with some of.
Q: Our foreign markets should wrap up with logistics, rail, rivers, trucks. I know we’ve had rail issues on both sides of the border of the U.S.. Mexico, Canada and here at home, too, with wait times and stuff in the past; and rivers have had issues with Mississippi. What’s your thoughts here? Logistics-wise, post-harvest, etc.
MS: Harvest, I think from a rail perspective, as you talk to our members, you always have pockets parts of the country where you have issues. I think if you went out and polled most of our members, they would tell you from a rail perspective, this has probably been one of the better harvests we’ve had in a couple of three years.
We had the Canadian rail issue that seems to be getting sorted out. The big challenge we’re still having is in Mexico and being able to, and not with the US carriers, but with the Mexican carrier, we have to transfer to, being able to get those slots to get them across the border and then get those trains back.
And I think the frustration that we have had and that our members have had is that it seems to be only US ag shipments that have been singled out for these embargoes. It’s not other sectors of the US not saying that we want others to have to deal with it either. And it’s not shipments coming out of Mexico. It’s only ag exports going into Mexico. And so that’s certainly something we’ve been talking with the Mexican railroad about.
FXE, which is the Mexican railroad, is going to be at our country elevator conference speaking in about four weeks. But it’s also something we’re talking about to the current administration, the transition team of the incoming administration and the Mexican government. Because we have seen it cause delays into the interior in terms of not being able to move trains, not causing some storage issues for some members or rippling through the system. And you can’t get a shuttle back from Mexico, so now you can’t get it out to the PNW. So we’re continuing to work on that.
Obviously, water issues. Water continues to be low. It continues to be a challenge. I guess if there’s any silver lining to it, it’s the third year our folks have had to deal with it. And so they’ve kind of figured out how to handle it, so to speak. Doesn’t mean they like it, doesn’t mean we don’t want it fixed, but what I think the continued water issues continue to show us is the importance of one of the other pieces of legislation that’s still held up. We still have some hope for in the lame duck is the Water Resources Development Act authorizations, lock and dam upgrades, river dredging. We think that continues to be important.
I’ll also be honest and say if there’s one area on the rivers where we’ve had disagreement with the current administration, it’s probably been their approach to the dams on the Columbia Snake River system and possibly setting the stage to take those out. We think that would be devastating for ag, not just in the PNW, but back into the US Interior. A lot of beans, a lot of corns, a lot of wheat go out through that area. And I would say that is one area that we’re hoping maybe with the new administration, maybe we can get them to take a new look at that as well.
Q: Country Elevator Conference, you mentioned it. Real quick, give us a plug, a few of the details there if you can.
MS: December 10-12 here in Kansas City. We usually have 500 to 600 folks at it. We’ll be taking a look at the economic outlook, a post-election analysis. We’ll have FXE there and we’ll also be taking a look at kind of some of the upcoming weather outlooks for the coming year.
And then we’re going to have breakout sessions on a number of issues related to labor, 45z, obviously something a lot in the industry are waiting for guidance on. And I think we got a great agenda. And like I said, we’re looking forward to being back here in KC in a little less than a month.
