An Update From Our President

2008 is just beginning to dawn and 2007 has been put in the history books.  The 2007 crop year had its challenges with lack of moisture and heat during the growing season.  It felt like fall would never arrive when we even hit 90+ degrees in the early part of October!  We survived the season and the crops turned out to be fairly decent in most cases given the weather we had.  We certainly could have been in worse shape, the farmers in the Southeast U.S. would probably trade places with us in a heartbeat.

We will long remember the last year and a half as the time when “Bio Fuels” and world wide demand drove the Ag Economy to a new level.  That new level has brought with it prices that were only visited on brief moments throughout the previous 3 decades.  The question everyone wants to know is, “How long will this ride last”?  One thing is for certain, corn, soybean and wheat prices are not the only prices on the rise.  Have you checked the prices for 2008 crop inputs?  Fertilizer prices have gone up anywhere from 25% to 50% and that’s if you can get it booked and pay for it now.  Fuel prices are running 10% to 30% higher than last year and let’s not forget that seed is going up as well.  The prices of our crops have gone up a lot in the last couple of years but so has the cost of putting a crop in the ground.  The past 5 years have seen total input prices go up nearly two-fold!  Hopefully crop prices will remain high to compensate for at least the foreseeable future.

The Indiana General Assembly is getting started and the top areas to be covered this session are Property taxes, Property Taxes and of course PROPERTY TAXES.  Yes, your Indiana Farm Bureau did offer a property tax plan that has gotten fairly good exposure.  We hope that it will get a fair shake with the other tax plans out there.  Farm Bureau as a whole is not any too happy with the Governor’s plan.  I don’t think it’s fair to discriminate between property types as to the level of taxation levied.  We need “Real property tax reform not just property tax relief!”  Repeat that simple sentence every single time you get a chance to speak to a law maker during the next couple of months.  The more they hear it from you the more likely we are to get something substantial done on property taxes.

Our Tippecanoe County Farm Bureau was well represented on organization day of the Indiana General Assembly November 20^th.  Five of our members were there to talk to our Representatives and Senators.  We did get a chance to speak with all of them from the County.  We will be going on January 28, 2008 to visit in Indianapolis again.  If you’re interested in going please let Larry Underwood our Legislative Affairs Chair know.  Please call, write, e-mail or visit your State Representative and Senator and let them know you are for Property Tax Reform!  There is plenty of information about the Farm Bureau Property Tax Reform plan at www.infarmbureau.org.  Get information and contact your State Representative and Senator.

I hope that you all have had a Very Merry Christmas that was filled with all the Love, Joy and Hope that Christ’s birth brings into our lives.  I wish you all goodness and blessings in 2008!  May the hope and excitement that is offered in our market place be dim in comparison to the hope and excitement that is offered from Faith, Family and Friends at this time of the New Year!

Kevin Underwood
President
Tippecanoe County Farm Bureau, Inc.