(upbeat music) - Welcome to "At Issue".

I'm H. Wayne Wilson.

Thank you as always for joining us for a conversation, this time about agriculture.

There are some 27 million acres of farmland in Illinois.

Most of that is for crops.

Some of it's for pasture.

But that's an awful lot of land, and the agriculture has a huge impact on the state of Illinois in many, many ways.

And to have a conversation about the impact of agriculture, we've invited Rich Guebert to be with us.

He is the president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, in your fifth term now?

- Yes, sir.

- [H] And also a member of the American Farm Bureau Board.

- Correct.

- [H] Thank you so much for being with us.

- Well my pleasure, H. Wayne.

- Good.

So before we get into the issues, real briefly, you farm near St. Louis.

- South of St. Louis in Randolph County.

I farm with my son, my wife, and we have two full-time employees.

And we raise corn, wheat, and soybeans.

And my son's got a small cow calf herd.

- And with that... And many of these issues will probably affect your farm as well.

But I wanna talk about nutrient loss reduction.

To the uninitiated, we think about soil running off of farms.

We think about nutrients going into a ravine, and then into a stream perhaps.

What kind of nutrient loss reduction programs exist with the Illinois Farm Bureau?

- We have quite a number of programs put in place.

If you go back about 15 years ago, the state legislature enacted what we call the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Act, which we participate in.

A dollar of every ton of crop nutrients that's sold here in the state of Illinois goes into a fund, and the nutrient loss reduction committee takes those dollars and...

Which is about $6 million to $7 million a year, and works with all the universities, Ag schools here in the state of Illinois, to look at research projects and programs and opportunity to see what we can do better than what we're doing on the farms today.

And over the years, we have... We have really gained a lot of knowledge of what we can do better.

We, for years, have always been stewards of the land.

And to pass on our farm to the next generation in a better state than what we received it from our parents, our grandparents, in years past.

Illinois Farm Bureau in particular has about $150,000 a year grants that we provide to 33 counties across the state of Illinois to work with the University of Illinois extension service and local saw and water districts within those respective states to put on programs, whether it's testing, cover crop programs, and to raise the awareness with consumers out in your local communities of the job that we are doing working on the nutrient loss reduction strategy to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous runoff in particular that goes out to the rivers and streams all across the state of Illinois and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico to improve the hypoxic zone there in the Gulf.

- You mentioned cover crops.

How are we doing right now with expanding cover crops?

I know, at one point, there was an interest in Pennycress.

There's other cover crops over the winter.

Is that a growing aspect of farming?

- It's growing leaps and bounds.

And if you go back four years ago, the Illinois Department of Agriculture provided assisted funding to farmers in planting and sowing cover crops.

The first year that that program was available was $300,000.

This past year, it's over $600,000.

And the grants are distributed, or you sign up for 'em, and they've exceeded their expectations within 24 hours of publishing those grants that are available.

So it is a very popular program out in the countryside, particularly in areas south of Springfield where we have more rolling hills in southern Illinois, sowing cereal rye grass, sowing radishes, winter pastures for those that have livestock, particularly those counties of Clinton, Bond, counties there along the I-70 corridor.

- And you mentioned radishes.

Daikon radishes, for instance?

- Absolutely.

- [H] There's a dual benefit.

- Well those radishes go to a foot, foot and a half down in the soil.

And it works in more than just providing feed for livestock.

It busts up the hardpan and aerates the soil over the winter and holds the soil in place 'til we can get a crop planted in the spring.

- And the cattle can eat it.

- Absolutely, they love it.

(H laughing) - I wanna talk about a series of issues that are somewhat outside of the farmer's control, primarily- - We have a few of those.

- [H] Like weather.

- Yes.

- With some of the changing patterns, where we're seeing we're not necessarily getting more rain in central Illinois, but we're getting it in select heavy downpours, and then mini droughts, and then another heavy downpour.

How do farmers cope with this?

- Number of ways.

First, our stress level goes up pretty high.

So we have provided mental health opportunities for farmers.

We have a hotline, 24/7 hotline, that your spouse, family members can call in if someone is experiencing some real challenges, that they can get some professional help on the farm.

Secondly, we provide cover crops over the winter to hold the soil in place as best we can.

We're practicing no till.

We're not plowing and deep ripping ground like we did when I started farming.

That has all changed.

And then we just deal with it.

And to get a crop in the ground, it's sometimes pretty challenging.

If we look back at 2019, was really a stressful year with a lot of rain in the spring.

We saw that to a degree in southern Illinois last year.

But we usually get the job done.

- Another issue that can cause stress is the shortage of farm workers.

And I mean, we've talked about the shortage of nurses, the shortage of teachers.

Even seasonal farm workers, for instance.

- It's been a real challenge, H. Wayne.

On our farm in particular, we lost an employee two years ago.

And we finally last September hired a full-time employee.

It's a lot different.

You know, we look back years ago when probably you and I joined the work force, we went and got a job, and we stayed there.

That was gonna be our career.

That's not the case today.

But it's tough to find skilled farm labor today.

Many of the livestock operations, especially growers, have gone and utilized the H2A program across America and here in Illinois.

- Mexico's a large importer of corn and other grains.

There is a...

There's a program in place, placed by Mexico, to stop the import of corn that has this GMO corn, genetically modified, starting January of 2024.

If I understand it correctly, that may be pushed to January of 2025 while some negotiations continue.

How serious of a concern is it that Mexico may stop importing GMO corn?

And what are your hopes for maybe eliminating that problem?

- It will have a serious impact on Illinois agriculture.

Probably 85% of the corn raised here in Illinois is GMO corn.

But I think where Mexico is coming out and putting these restrictions on corn, on GMO corn, is in the food grade type corn that is used for human consumption.

They're talking about maybe doing that down the road that would impact livestock.

And we are the... Illinois is... Mexico is Illinois's best customer in exporting corn to Mexico.

It would have a dramatic impact on what we do and how we do business.

And according to the USMCA, which is the trade agreement that we have with Canada and Mexico, that was not a part of the trade agreement several years ago.

And so we are pushing our legislators, congressional leadership, and USDA that they need to stick with the agreement that was written a number of years ago and follow the guidelines by USMCA.

And so there is a trade dispute filed.

If necessary, going forward, it needs to be based on science.

And from the way I understand it, this is just the emotional opinion of the president of Mexico that wants to change the rules in the middle of the game.

- Let's turn to the war in Ukraine, a big agricultural country.

- Absolutely.

- Any impact on Illinois farmers?

- The impact that we've seen in the past year has been on the importation of fertilizers and that coming in to Illinois agriculture.

Ukraine is the sixth largest producer of corn worldwide, seventh largest producer of wheat.

The impact, the greater impact, that the Ukraine market has is on India, north Africa, European countries where it's really close to get those products out of Ukraine, down through the Black Sea, and into those ports.

- What about the question of inflation?

And let me go to the price of an acre of farmland.

Here in central Illinois, that price is just going up just about every year, and not by the rate of inflation.

What's inflation doing to not just the cost of farmland, but to the operation of a farm?

- Our costs are really dramatically increased.

We look at what fuel costs are, what the cost of fertilizers and what they've been.

Fertilizer costs have come down.

Our inputs on crop protectants has come down a little bit.

But it's really had an impact.

Fertilizer, labor, and fuel, big cost to us, to our operation on a daily basis.

- Any issue with supply chain interruptions?

- They're getting a little bit better, but we're seeing some real challenges in replacement parts for some types of farm machinery, particularly when it comes to sensors or some types of bearings that are made overseas and trying to get here into the United States.

There's always been a truck driver shortage and a real challenge there.

And hopefully that can be fixed at some point in time.

- Another financial aspect of farming is that in November of 2021, there was the farm and food workers, the relief program, part of COVID.

That money is drying up.

Just like in any other business, is there a concern that that influx of money coming to an end may cause problems for at least some farmers?

- Absolutely, it does because that was a lifeline because those dollars kind of helped absorb the increased costs that we're having.

So if that goes away, we're still gonna have a real challenge of trying to meet... Pay our bills, you might say.

And when I look back at the outlook for 'em from USDA just a month ago, they're looking at farm net income to drop about 13.6% this coming year.

So it is gonna have a dramatic impact at the farm gate level.

- Let's turn to the Farm Bill.

The 2018 Farm Bill expires in September, the end of September of this year.

It's every five years.

So a new Farm Bill, which is already in negotiations in the Congress, a good portion of it, a huge portion of it is nutrition programs, SNAP and those kinds of things.

But it's still called the Farm Bill.

And a lot of that money goes to farmers.

I wanna get into some details, but overall, what is your major interest in making sure that this Farm Bill has... Betters the farmer's opportunity?

- Two things.

One, we need to keep the Farm Bill and the nutrition title together as we work on a Farm Bill to pass a Farm Bill.

When we looked at the 2018 Farm Bill, we had tremendous bipartisan support of that Farm Bill.

I'd like to see the same thing happen today.

With Illinois Farm Bureau, our members really feel that we need to have a risk management crop insurance be a part of that, as well as conservation programs going forward and that we have an opportunity to build on that.

Crop insurance has been an integral part of risk management in our toolbox to take care of the... You know, you talked about heavy rains and being able to replant, and when we have a drought, god forbid, like 2012, that we can pay some of our bills and farm again next year.

- So is the question that there isn't enough money for crop insurance, that some farmers can't take advantage of it?

- Everyone has an opportunity to take part in it.

You need to meet certain guidelines going forward.

But for the most part, every farmer can participate that grows corn, wheat, or soybeans, and some specialty crops, not all specialty crops.

- So let's talk about specialty crops.

That's a growing interest in Illinois, especially amongst small farms.

Some of those crops don't qualify for insurance?

- I think in the last Farm Bill, 33 specialty crops were added to provide an opportunity to have crop insurance.

We're looking into supporting to expand those programs to an additional 30 specialty type crops going forward.

And we're working with our other state presidents in the American Farm Bureau to raise the awareness, those in Michigan, which is a big specialty crop grower, Florida, California, Arizona, you name 'em.

- There is, I guess, at the core of the Farm Bill for farmers is the baseline.

Can you explain baseline and why we need to expand the baseline?

- Well, you look at... And particularly, let's take nutrition along with the commodity title.

In the 2018 Farm Bill, the baseline was around $800 billion.

As we look and prepare, and what congressmen have been looking at, to have the same type of programs with inflation and everything built in, with the commodity prices where they've increased and that, the new Farm Bill is projected it could cost as much as $1.2 trillion.

- [H] A 50% increase?

- 40% at least increase going forward.

So you know, you look at the national debt.

You look at the dollars that have been coming back to the farm gate or to consumers or the American public.

It's gonna be tough to get that kind of an increase going forward.

We hope we can get it.

And that's why Congressman Thompson, who is the chair of the House Ag Committee, has been working very diligently and working alongside of Senator Stabenow, who's the chair of the Senate Ag Committee, holding field hearings across the country of what is important to them and what we can do and what we need to have in a Farm Bill going forward.

- We've talked about this already, but there needs to be a change, climate change mitigation in the Farm Bill?

- There's gonna be a lot of conversation.

Has been for the last two years.

This administration is focused on climate and carbon sequestration and how can agriculture participate in sequestering carbon in the soils going forward.

There's a number of industry folks that put some programs together that farmers can participate in.

Some farmers are.

Some are not.

But it's to each their own, and that's why we're all farmers.

We're pretty independent of what we wanna do on our farms.

- Because you're a member of the American Farm Bureau board, do you have a sense yet early on of what may happen with this Farm Bill come this fall?

- We've had conversations with the chairmen of both the Senate and the House Ag Committees.

I think it's a little early to say.

We've been working with our Illinois delegation raising the awareness of what's important.

We have three new congress men and women that have been selected to serve on the House Ag Committee along with, you know, we've got Congressman Jackson, Congressman Sorensen from up north there.

- Quad cities area.

- From quad cities area.

Congresswoman Budzinski is a part of that, and then Mike Bost from my area.

- From your area, mm-hmm.

Let's turn to the growth of farms.

There was a commercial in the Super Bowl.

- Yes.

- [H] 96% of farms are family owned.

- Yes, sir.

- Let me check numbers for you.

Almost half of farm land is, in this family farm, 20% of farm production comes from those.

So these large corporate farms have a growing sway, so to speak.

What kind of concern do you have about this?

- Well farms are gonna get larger.

And the cost of farming is just expanded like you wouldn't believe.

For a young person today coming out of college or graduating from high school to get into farming on a commercial scale of corn, wheat, and soybeans or livestock, you need acres to farm.

Our farm, we raise corn, wheat, and soybeans, as I said.

We have two... Well, we have four employees: myself, my son, and two outside employees.

We support four families from our farming operation.

So it continues to grow and build.

Not everyone has that opportunity.

But you see specialty crops or specialty growers that are on smaller acreages and produce more, as much dollars or revenue per acre than what we do.

I just come back from Yuma, Arizona.

The lettuce bowl in the winter, you know, those crops out there generate $15,000, $20,000 an acre just from growing lettuce.

But their expenses are much larger as well.

- And what would a corn and bean farm generate?

- Probably about... We try to gross, or net, $200, between $100 and $200 an acre.

- That's a significant difference.

- [Rich] Quite a difference.

- So is there any concern...

When we talk about corporate farms, some of those are owned by foreign entities.

- Not so much here in Illinois.

- No, that's not a concern in Illinois?

- No, 96% of the land that's farmed here in the state of Illinois is family owned, family operated.

But our farm is a corporation.

And we do that for liability purposes and tax purposes.

But we're still a family-operated farm.

- This may apply to... You mentioned some of these specialty crop farms that maybe have 20, 30, 40 acres.

So this question may apply to them more so than a large corn and bean farm.

But the question of getting food to the food banks, to the pantries, etc., there seems to be more of an effort on the Illinois Farm Bureau's slate of interest to make sure that as much food as possible gets to the food pantry, whether that be through a food bank or directly.

Is that a growing...

I mean, is there a program in place?

- There is a program in place and a growing trend to get that done.

You know, we've worked with our urban legislators.

We've worked with the specialty growers to provide opportunities for farmers in particular that have an excessive, or a bumper crop, you might say to get that crop, their excess, into food pantries before it spoils.

It's much better to get it to the food pantry or shelter rather than just letting it go to waste and to rot in the field.

- You've made... You've alluded to the relationship between urban legislators and rural legislators.

It's not as difficult to get a rural legislator on board with your interests.

It might be a little bit more difficult with an urban legislator, except there's a growing urban agricultural interest in this state.

Has that helped to swing some of those legislators to say, "Oh, wait a minute."

- We've raised the awareness with our urban legislators.

We have an adopt a legislator program, where our urban legislators can visit a county and be their partner and come out to the farm when planning a harvest season to see really what goes on.

Yet at the same time, those county Farm Bureau folks take time to go to that urban legislator's district to understand what they're dealing with and the challenges they face.

So it is a good relationship, building relationships.

- And those urban legislators are looking more and more at urban agriculture.

- Urban agriculture is really growing.

We worked with Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton for the last two years and with specialty growers to find ways to increase farmer's markets here in the state of Illinois, not only in urban areas, but in rural areas as well because we're seeing some real challenges with food deserts in urban areas as well.

And that program has just grown leaps and bounds and a real interest by our urban legislators who participate in those programs.

- I'd like to get a clarification for my own purposes because we talked about cover crops, any number of different cover crops.

But you've, in the past, made references to interplanting.

Is that cover crops, or is that something else?

- No, that's cover crops as well.

And some farmers have chosen to interplant rye grass, radishes or whatever, and standing corn in late August, early September, to get a jump on getting that crop while the soil conditions are right in those warmer temperatures to germinate, to get a crop up.

And it doesn't hurt with the harvest and provides an opportunity to have cover on that soil for the wintertime when we get the heavy rains or the snows and the freezing or the thawing.

- And I assume that it would mean maybe fewer applications of herbicides because there's fewer weeds with that cover crop?

- That has been normally the case.

That's not all the time, but it does work.

We've sowed cereal rye on our farm and have had to use less herbicides in the spring because of the wheat pressure is suppressed with the cover crop.

- And Rich, our half hour has run out.

But we hope that our audience continues the conversation at home.

Let me say thank you to Rich Guebert, who is in his last, his fifth term as president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, and also on the American Farm Bureau board.

Thank you so much for being here with us on "At Issue".

- My pleasure, H. Wayne, my pleasure.

- Yep, thank you, Rich.

And we'll be back next time with another edition of "At Issue".

We're going to be talking... Let's check the schedule just for a moment here.

You know that we get a lot of misinformation and dis-information sometimes through the internet.

We're gonna talk about how to control misinformation on the next "At Issue".

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