Rep. Smith includes Sikeston peanut farm on farm tour

SIKESTON, Mo. -- "When people ask, 'Should I care about agriculture?', I always give the response, 'Four out of four people eat,'" said U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, at Triple D Farms of Sikeston during his fourth annual farm tour.

"I come back and forth every weekend," said Smith. "I don't stay in Washington on the weekends, so it's always good to be home, but this has enabled me to be home for a couple weeks now, which is good."

Smith worked on his family farm in Zalma, Missouri, so he said there are two reasons he conducts farm tours.

One reason is to promote the importance of agriculture, which gives him the opportunity of "being on the ground and hearing directly from farmers, families and small-business owners of things that they struggle with throughout their operations."

"Some government regulation on farm and livestock is written by people who aren't familiar with what it's about," said Mark Deane of Triple D Farms.

Mark Deane operates the farm with his two sons, Matt and Hunter Deane, and his brother, Bill Deane, and Bill's son, Clay Deane.

"You look at Congress, out of 435 members of the House, there's less than 100 that's considered from a rural district," Smith said.

"That means you have to get 218 votes to pass anything, so you have to spend a lot of time with the information that you gathered ... to use as fuel to be able to communicate with these other members who are completely out of touch with agriculture," he said. "The numbers are stacked against us."

One of the bigger concerns for the Deanes is regulation in the farming industry, particularly when it comes to prices.

"Our farm has got over 200-bushel average for corn, but on our budget, the way we produce it, 200 bushel corn at four dollars (70 pounds in one bushel), we were losing money or breaking even," Mark said.

"Our marketing plan changed pretty drastically since last year," Matt Deane said. "We knew where our break-even price was. And if the price broke even or went over, we just pretty well started booking it all. It was kind of a survival mode," meaning they contract prices and commodities to market to different companies to ensure the business doesn't lose money.

Triple D Farms isn't the only farming industry with concerns about regulation.

Smith said one common theme he sees in almost every stop is "unnecessary government regulation."

Smith said there's been regulation preventing younger family members from working on their farms and livestock owners are concerned about the Veterinary Feed Directive, forcing producers to have prescriptive authority from a veterinarian to get common milk replacers they use to feed their bottle calves.

"You have the [Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Act] currently," said Smith, providing another example of regulation. "If you look at the language of it, it's so broad that farmers could be subject to permitting process through the EPA and [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers], which is just an encroachment of property rights, which is absolutely ridiculous. ... It's trying to create a solution for a problem that simply doesn't exist."

Free trade also has been a hot-button issue.

"A lot of row-crop farmers have been talking about trade in regards to opening markets in other countries and making sure we're getting a free and fair agreement, that Missouri farmers are not left out of the agreement," Smith said.

"We got to handle the price bar," Mark Deane said. "There's not too many industries that you can't command the price for your finished product."

Mark Deane said the reason Triple D Farms is experiencing depressed prices is because of "ending stocks, so other countries come into play now that they produce the same commodities we do. China is one of the bigger peanut/cotton producers."

Carryout estimates, also known as ending stocks, is the amount of product left after the demand has been satisfied. A high carryout will lead to low prices; a low carryout will lead to high prices.

Mark Deane said: "My dad was one that always said, 'We're about the only industry that buys retail and sells wholesale.' We take what the market gives us."

With surging farming competition from oversea countries, "we had about three to four really depressed years in agriculture because of low commodity prices, just ensuring they can continue to farm ... no other big company is hoping to break even. It'd be a failure, but if we are providing for our families. We are happy," he said.

Smith said taxation is something thats came up several times as well.

"We fixed Section 179 last December. It was an amendment that I put in the PATH (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes) Act, that affected a lot of farmers when they purchased new equipment."

The Section 179 revision allowed tax deductions on certain tangible purchases, such as combines and tractors.

The second reason for his farm tour is to demonstrate its uniqueness.

"We have the most diversified agriculture district outside the state of California," Smith said. "We grow everything in this district but citrus."

According to the congressman, he ventured to the Delta soils on the east side; he's visited the peanut, corn and soybean farms; a sweet-sorghum farm in Sikeston; he's traveled to rice mills and cotton gins; and drove to dairy and livestock farms.

"One of the largest hog operations I've ever been to was in Fredericktown, Missouri, with the most amazing scientific technologies that's being implemented," Smith said.

"We went to an exotic-animal farm that sells animals to zoos. That's just a different aspect. Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in the state of Missouri, and by far the No. 1 industry in our district. We have more dairy farmers in our congressional district than anywhere in the state," Smith said.

"It's not just about providing our food supply; it's also the economic driver for our congressional district," he said. "We are one of less than 100 rural congressional districts in the country, and so many jobs are tied to it, so many livelihoods are tied to it."

In response to the Democratic primary victor, Dave Cowell, Smith said, "I never met him. I know nothing about him. I look forward to meeting him someday."

He added, "I look at elections at being an evaluation of how well you're doing and I was very pleased with the results on Tuesday. It was one of the largest victories for a member of Congress in a long time. I appreciate that."

"People thought, 'Why aren't you campaigning on election day?' Well, I have a farm tour," Smith said, and added, "Sure, there was an election, but I was elected to do my job, and that's what I'm doing. I'm not going to do anything differently."

According to Smith, he's visited all 30 counties in the 8th District, putting almost 3,000 miles on his car in just under 50 stops.

"There's no better place than to be in southeast and south central Missouri. This is where my family's been for seven generations," Smith said.