Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig met with Henry County farmers Thursday during a roundtable at the Henry County Farm Bureau office in Mount Pleasant.
The closed-door discussion covered federal agricultural policy, the farm bill, year-round access to E15, conservation and water quality. Naig told KILJ Radio that cattle production and access to pasture emerged as concerns with particular significance in southeast Iowa.
Farmers participating in the discussion expressed interest in expanding their cattle operations but identified limited pasture availability as a challenge. Naig said the conversation included how land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, affects access to pasture—especially for younger producers.
Naig said those concerns are not necessarily being raised everywhere he travels.
“I would say that this part of the state, as it relates to cattle in particular, there’s a desire to grow and expand, but the need to find additional pasture,” Naig said.
Crop conditions were also discussed. Naig acknowledged that portions of southeast Iowa have received too much rain at times this growing season.
Looking beyond local growing conditions, Naig said weak profitability remains one of the largest challenges facing agriculture. He said improving the farm economy will require several approaches, including reducing input costs, expanding markets and providing greater certainty in state and federal agricultural policy.
“We’re in a situation where profitability is not where we want it to be in agriculture,” Naig said. “There’s no one solution for that.”
The Mount Pleasant roundtable was part of Naig’s annual effort to visit each of Iowa’s 99 counties and hear directly from farmers about the conditions and challenges affecting their operations.