USDA Sets Public Hearing For Pecan Marketing Order In Tifton

Jun 18, 2015

Pecan growers and other industry stakeholders, including handlers and shellers, will have a chance in July to offer testimony regarding the proposed federal marketing order for pecans that the American Pecan Board is working to implement. The USDA has announced dates and locations for a series of public hearings to be held in each of the three U.S. pecan-growing regions - Eastern (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North and South Carolina), Central (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas) and Western (New Mexico, Arizona and California).

The Eastern Region hearings will be held July 27-29 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Tifton at 201 Boo Drive. A fourth day of testimony may be held July 30 if enough stakeholders express an interest in testifying. The hearings will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Witnesses are expected to testify regarding the costs, benefits and other potential impacts of the proposed marketing order. Individuals who wish to testify will register on the sign-up sheet on the day of their arrival and should be prepared to speak when the administrative law judge facilitating the hearing calls them. The proposed draft of the marketing order is available for review at www.pecanboard.com.

"I believe that a federal marketing order is needed for the pecan industry to have sustained profitability in the long-term," Garrett Ganas, chairman of the Georgia Farm Bureau Pecan Committee, said. "I'd encourage people who are interested in or concerned about the marketing order to attend one of the three days of hearings the USDA will hold in Tifton."

Hearings will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 20-21 for the Western Region and on July 23-24 in Dallas, Texas, for the Central Region.

According to the APB proposal, qualified growers would be defined as those producing a minimum of 50,000 pounds of inshell pecans during a representative period (average of four years) or owning a minimum of 30 pecan acres as recognized by the Farm Service Agency.

While qualified growers will be the only segment of the industry to cast votes to determine if they want to implement a marketing order, both qualified growers and shellers would serve on the council that would oversee the order.

If the referendum passes, qualified growers and shellers from each of the three growing regions would nominate their respective peers as potential council members. Small growers and shellers as well as large growers and shellers would be represented on the council. Each region will be represented by three growers and two shellers. After receiving the industry nominations, the Secretary of Agriculture would appoint the council members. The first council would be seated in 2017, and then that council would propose assessment rates.

Click here to see more...

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.