WASHINGTON, D.C. – Testifying before Congress wasn’t new to Larry Hopkins when he appeared March 4 in front of the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry. After the appearance, Hopkins said he’s satisfied he was able to get his message across regarding the farm bill and the overall state of the livestock industry.

Hopkins, a Westfield, Ind.-area sheep farmer, is chairman of the American Sheep Industry Association’s (ASI) Legislative Action Council and serves on its executive board. He was asked to speak to the committee by ASI president Ben Lehfeldt.

The committee wanted to hear from livestock industry representatives and reached out to ASI to request someone from the sheep industry, Hopkins said. Also at the hearing were those representing the beef, pork and poultry industries.

Some of the key points he hoped to make to the committee concerned the farm bill passed out of the House Agriculture Committee in May 2024.

“(It) was a very good bill for farmers and the sheep industry specifically,” Hopkins told Farm World. “Unfortunately, the bill never made it to the floor for a final vote and the Senate did not produce a bill at all until after the fiscal year ended and also after the election due to partisan bickering.

“The previous farm bill, which is by now very out of date, had to be continued for the second year in a row through a Continuing Resolution known informally as a CR. So, I encouraged the committee to follow the blueprint of the previous draft that was approved by that committee last year when crafting the current version.”

Before testifying, Hopkins worked with ASI staff and the organization’s consultant – Cornerstone GA – to narrow his message to a few topics.

“With (their) help, I think I was well prepared and able to make the right comments that Congress needed to hear,” he said. “I did have a few members come up afterward and thank me for my comments and appearance, so I believe it was worth the effort to participate and would encourage other farmers to do so if given the opportunity.”

The topics he mentioned during his testimony included loan rates and trade wars.

“Loan rates for various commodities, including wool, are very low and out of date so two programs that the sheep industry relies on are the LDP (Loan Deficiency Payments) and MAL (Marketing Assistance Loan), those programs need to be updated,” Hopkins explained. “The trade wars during the first (President Donald) Trump term killed the USA’s largest market for wool in China and then the pandemic further eroded the market worldwide when the bottom fell out as demand for wool clothing dropped off as folks stopped going to the office and wearing suits and slacks. The wool market has never recovered from those two disasters.”

The bill also included programs that allow the sheep industry to develop new markets for its products and provide production research and support to sheep operations across the country through the National Sheep Improvement Center, he noted. An updated risk management program is also a priority, Hopkins added.

He previously testified before the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee in the 1990s while serving as town manager of Fishers, Ind. Hopkins has appeared many times before the Indiana General Assembly, where he said the process of testifying is similar to that of Congress.

“When someone testifies they usually present written and oral testimony, so when you prepare the written text, that gives you an opportunity to present the issues and specific points you want to convey in detail,” Hopkins pointed out. “By pulling together the written testimony, it familiarizes you with what you need to convey during the spoken portion of the hearing, which is usually shorter and limited to a specific amount of time.”

To prepare for the hearing, he said it’s important to stay current on the topics of the day affecting the sheep and greater livestock industry, which gives a pretty good idea of what questions might be asked. Most farmers have a good working knowledge of what issues are affecting their farming business interests, Hopkins said.

He said he wasn’t surprised by the questions asked by committee members. “Most of the questions related to farm bill programs, the potential effect of tariffs on the livestock industry and also how the HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) virus is affecting the poultry industry and potentially other livestock commodities.”

Hopkins is hopeful for a new farm bill by the end of the year.