6 OPINION www.hpj.com All Editions June 28, 2021

Opinion

EDITORIALS

The unity of unwritten rules

Whether the field is for work or play, crops or feed, square-shaped, or a diamond; there will always be unwritten rules that unify us. On the baseball field, inside the chalk, those rules are about respecting the game and oppos- ing players. Make a spectacu- lar play look routine, like you have done it 100 times before. Be humble when you hit it out of the park. And my favorite: Never cheat the game of effort or passion. It will always pay you back. These rules set a stan- dard that make us people before players and is why, as an agri- culture community, our connec- tion to common good will always be what makes our set of rules unlike any other industry. Sure, as agricultural produc- ers, we are competitive with our- selves, neighbors and commerce, but humility and acts of service are the unwritten rules we call rural values. When we have high yields or a record selling bull, we remain humble and know that each fence has two sides. We have been on both. Recently I visited with a grower about the need to invest in equipment. He could not do it alone, but with the help from a neighbor, they could do it togeth- er. Then, a couple days later, a cattle producer shared about how he often trades help during brand- ing and weaning time. These rural values pay us back when we least expect-even sometimes generations down the line. I will never forget a story about my grandpa. As you have undoubtedly experienced, com- bines can have a mind of their own and can be temperamental. When a neighbor needed help, my grandfather was there. Their wheat was ready and as my dad says, "when it's right, you gotta go get it quick." My grandpa took to their field like it was his own. Never asked and never expect- ed anything in return. He was their hero and saved their crop they worked so hard to sow. This neighbor and his family called me personally a handful of years ago and shared this story and count- less others. He made a lasting impression, and they wanted our family to farm their ground. It is beyond random acts of kindness. It is life. When cows are out, you help put them in or if they get mixed, you sort them. That's it. No hesitation. You rely on our common connection. It is an unwritten rule. A rural rule that unites us. You see it every day through your pickup win- dow when checking fields and cattle. The steering wheel finger wave from the fellow farmer and rancher doing the same thing you are. They have your back and you have theirs. It may be a simple sign, but it is one that High Plains Journal takes seriously. A wise colleague once told me, "Keep the farmer and rancher's best interests front of mind, no matter what business decisions come about, and you will always find yourself in a good spot." This is our unwritten rule. Zac Stuckey can be reached at 620-227-1833 or zstuckey@hpj.com.

Gambling with species extinction

It's a gambler's life to turn a losing proposition into a false sense of victory. Send one to the black- jack table with $1,000; they lose $900, win back $100, and declare they've won. Such it is with lesser prairie-chicken, the enduring, iconic wild grouse of the southern Great Plains prairies. Their populations have been reduced by 90% from as recently as the 1960s, and with a recent positive bump of maybe 5% after a couple years with improved rainfall we have some saying: "We're good!" We are not good, as the recent proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the chicken under the Endangered Species Act indicates. Go back further in time when Native American Tribal dances were inspired by the spectacular spring mating dance of the chickens, and there were likely millions of birds. From that rich and patient perspec- tive, there are only a tiny fraction remaining in scattered remnants today. Others remain inspired by chickens. Bird enthusiasts travel from around the world to watch the crazy, foot-stomping, feather- puffing mating rituals and fights of male chickens in April. But for how much longer? Having lost 90% of our prairie heritage, are we greedy or careless enough to keep going until the last 10% is gone? Or do we take this moment, when we're considering admitting the chicken to the wildlife emergency room full of other endangered species, to say, "no more"? Prairie ecosystems are the most threatened and least conserved in North America. Chickens survive today only because of generous private landowners who steward almost all of the remaining habitat. If Americans are to save the last fragments of prairies and chickens, those landowners deserve our support. And we know how to support them through farm bill programs, well-designed mitigation programs, and other voluntary efforts. In fact, the majority of chickens remaining occur among lands voluntarily enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program, providing more intact and contiguous native prairie habitat. Chickens are so tied to broad, unspoiled prairie landscapes that if we lose them, then we'll know we've lost our last wild prairies. With this loss, we would lose other grassland birds species which, as a group, have declined here more than in any other North American ecosystem. We would lose important pollinators, native grasses and flowers, good soil health, water quality and quantity, and even the opportunity to sequester carbon to help fight climate change. Too much is at stake to gamble away the last, best places for chick- ens and people who love prairies. The time to act is now. We know how to act. We have the tools available. All that is required is the collective will to support those who would want to conserve grouse as they have for generations. -Ted Koch is the executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership.

Drought in South Dakota has made it difficult for farmers, ranchers

South Dakota producers are some of the hardest working people I know. The life of a producer may not be easy to imagine for folks who've never woken with the sun, tilled the land, mended a fence, or prayed for a rainy forecast. And for many Americans the idea of farming and ranching may seem abstract and far away. But, in South Dakota, we see firsthand the important role our farmers and ranchers play in our economy and our way of life. We have more than 42 million acres of crop and pasture lands across our state. We also have-as we're sometimes teased about-more than four times as many cattle as people. I've always been proud to be from an agriculture state, and I've made it a priority in Congress to fight for our farmers and ranchers and the issues that are important to them. For quite a while now, our producers have faced significant hardships, and the last few years have been especially difficult for cattle producers in South Dakota and across the country. They have faced market uncer- tainty through the pandemic, disruptions in a highly concentrated meatpacking industry, and now a drought. This spring, South Dakota experienced higher than normal temperatures and a lack of significant rainfall. That may have been ideal for those who love to spend more time in the sun, but for our agriculture producers, it has meant rapidly deteriorating ground conditions. The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor indicates that nearly every acre of land in South Dakota is experiencing drought conditions. These dangerous conditions may quickly result in short hay supplies across the state. Without an adequate forage sup- ply, cattle producers could be forced to cut down their herds. This would be devastating to producers whose operations would likely take years to recover from forced downsizing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture can help provide some relief to producers through the Con- servation Reserve Program. As of March 2021, South Dakota had nearly 1.4 million acres enrolled in the program. In previous drought years, emer- gency haying and grazing of CRP acres has helped alleviate forage shortages for livestock producers. I fought for changes in the 2018 farm bill to give USDA more authority to allow emergency CRP hay- ing and grazing, and now I am pushing the USDA to use its authority to help our producers who are in desperate need. I recently urged USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and USDA Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh to release as many additional CRP acres as possible, as soon as possible. As I mentioned, the current drought is only the latest obstacle for our producers. They are still fac- ing challenges with the low price of livestock. It may come as a surprise to consumers who have seen the price of beef increase at the local grocery store, but the higher price on the shelf doesn't mean our cattle producers are seeing a fair cut of that profit. The sad truth is, while the cost of meat is going up, most of those profits are being captured by the meatpackers. The meatpacking industry is highly concen- trated-with only four companies controlling more than 80% of the U.S. beef processing capacity. That means that our cattle producers have very little power to negotiate a fair price for their cattle. I have a bill that would help reduce producers' reliance on the major meatpackers by providing resources to establish and expand small meat processing capacity. There have also been strong concerns from pro- ducers and agriculture experts about the possibility of purposeful market manipulation by meatpackers. I share these concerns and have twice asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the issue. I have also called on both the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee, of which I'm a member, to hold hearings and get to the bottom of this. Thankfully, the agriculture committee recently agreed to my request and announced it would hold a hearing this month. I look forward to questioning the witnesses and advocating for increased transparency for ranchers and consumers. I will also continue to press Justice Department and Judiciary Committee leaders to get the answers that our producers deserve. Our farmers and ranchers work early mornings and long days in the blistering heat and freezing cold to do their part to feed the world and keep South Dakota's economic engine running. I'm constantly impressed by their strong work ethic, and it inspires me to fight on their behalf in Washington. -Sen. John Thune is a South Dakota Republican and a member of the Senate Committee on Agricul- ture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Publisher

Zac Stuckey

Ted Koch. (Courtesy Photo.)