LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Farm Bureau’s (KFB) 87th Annual Meeting, Nov. 29-Dec. 2, included the election of officers and visits by notable dignitaries such as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and USDA Secretary Mike Johanns.

The event featured conferences on an array of topics from forage to the upcoming farm bill, a host of awards ceremonies, a commodity luncheon, a trade show and a business session.

Farm Bureau’s voting delegates adopted dozens of pages of policy statements during the closing session and the KFB Board of Directors approved condensed lists of priority issues for the year ahead. Some of those policy decisions included the organization seeking full funding for improvements to the state’s livestock disease diagnostic centers and press for better treatment of small businesses during the 2007 session of the General Assembly.

The group will also ask lawmakers to grant full state income tax deductibility for health savings accounts, to match federal provisions, and support establishing a producer-funded boll weevil eradication program to help cotton producers in Western Kentucky.

At the state level, KFB Public Affairs Director Laura Knoth said planned upgrades to diagnostic labs in Lexington and Hopkinsville are important not only in terms of the animal agriculture industry but for public safety and homeland security impacts as well. “Caseloads at both the facilities have really increased over the past several years, and with such threats as BSE and avian flu out there we expect that use of the labs will continue to expand,” said Knoth.

On the national front, KFB will ask the state’s Congressional delegation to support maintaining the structure of current commodity and natural resource programs as new farm bill legislation is debated next year and voiced strong support for further development of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel and for new technology which allows the use of coal in the production of nitrogen-based fertilizers.

Federally speaking, the farm bill rewrite is the primary focus for the ag industry in 2007. Johanns expects Congress will enact new legislation giving agriculture a leg up in the areas of foreign trade, conservation and energy, and he acknowledged the federal budget is tighter now than in 2002, when the current farm bill was enacted. But he said deficit reduction is ahead of the Bush Administration’s established timetable, and those improvements work well for the ag industry.

McConnell, who recently was elected Republican Leader of the Senate, is optimistic about farmers’ prospects in Congress for the next two years. He said he will work with Farm Bureau through his seat on the Senate Agriculture Committee as the farm bill is crafted. Marshall Coyle, a Bath County farmer and long-time leader in Farm Bureau and state and national tobacco organizations, was re-elected president of Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation.

Coyle raises beef cattle and tobacco on a 700-acre operation near Owingsville and has served on Farm Bureau’s Board of Directors since 1976. Mark Haney from Nancy was re-elected first vice president, and John C. Hendricks of Winchester was re-elected second vice president.

Haney joined KFB’s board as a director in 1993, and operates an orchard and beef farm along with his brother.

Hendricks produces beef cattle, hay and vegetables on a 640-acre family farm near Winchester.

Five new members were elected to the 32-member KFB board including Paul Hornback, Shelbyville; Scott Travis, Taylorsville; Terry Rowlett, Campbells-burg; Daniel Gaston, Russellville; and Dr. Scott Smith, Lexington.

This farm news was published in the Dec. 6, 2006 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.