Farmers Press Lawmakers on Farm Bill

With less than 20 days left on the legislative calendar, farmers and ranchers are anxious for lawmakers to finalize the farm bill before the start of the new year—and a new Congress. If the bill doesn’t get done, Congress, including a House with new leadership, will have to start from scratch.

 

“The leadership of both the House and Senate Agriculture committees have worked overtime this year to deliver a new farm bill, and now it’s time to get it across the finish line before the clock runs out. Farmers and ranchers cannot afford that kind of delay, especially with so many struggling to hang on and unable to make plans for the next season with a massive cloud of uncertainty hovering overhead,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in his recent Zipline column.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.