Centennial Celebration

100 years supporting farmers and ranchers. The Nevada Farm Bureau is happy to have celebrated the 100^thAnnual Meeting at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino November 10^th through the 13^th.

The Centennial celebration included policy development sessions, a variety of breakout sessions, guest speaker American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall and a musical performance by Trinity Seely.

Policy development is an important part of the annual meeting. The policy development process includes amending, deleting and adding new policies to not only be used in lobbying efforts in our own state, but on the national level as well. 2020 Policy Books are now available please contact Brittney Money at brittney@nvfb.orgfor your copy of this year’s Policy Book.

 This year’s breakout sessions included a variety of hot topics featuring Value Added Agricultural Ventures, Nevada Water Law/ Policy, Federal Land Management in Nevada, Nevada’s Newest Agricultural Crop-Hemp and Legacy Planning.

Value Added Agricultural Ventures included a panel conversation featuring: Woody Worthington from Bently Ranch, Holly Gatzke Northern Area Director for Cooperative Extension, Kari and Jordan Brough from Brough Ranch and Cameron Andelin from Andelin Farms. This group of individuals have all been involved in start-up agriculture business outside the typical commodity-producers model.

Bently Ranch has expanded from a traditional ranch into the distillery business growing all their own wheat, rye barely, hops and oats used exclusively in their spirts. Kari and Jordan Brough are a direct to consumer wagyu beef operation. Both wagyu meat and meal delivery services are rapidly growing in today’s society. Andelin Farms does a variety of family fun activates including pumpkin patch, zombie paintball, scarecrow paintball, corn maze and baby animal days. The conversation focused on challenges and opportunities they all have faced as they try to grow and expand each of their businesses.

Another hot topic in Nevada is water. The next breakout session featured a panel discussion on the future of Nevada Water Law/ Policy. The panel included: Nevada Senator Pete Goicoechea, Nevada Assemblywomen Heidi Swank, Nevada Senator Melanie Scheible and Bradley Crowell of the Department of Conversation and Natural Resources.

All who were involved in the water policy panel are directly involved in shaping Nevada water law. This was a very informative discussion to help structure Nevada Farm Bureau water policy for the future.

Another great breakout session featured Jon Raby the Nevada State Director for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Raby’s speech focused on the 50 positions being added in the State of Nevada, because of the national BLM’s re-organization and relocation out of Washington D.C. Other points included fire and fuel management, livestock grazing and over-population of Wild Horses and Burros.

A growing industry in not only Nevada, but across the U.S. is the growing of Hemp. A breakout session including a panel of Nevada hemp producers. The panel featured: Ashley Jeppson Division Administrator for the Nevada Department of Agriculture Plant Industry, Joe Frey and his business partner Adrienne Snow who are involved with Western States Hemp, Rodney Mehring a Lincoln County producer and Elar Jenkins of Big Creek Gardens operation of hemp.

This breakout session included information to help members understand the ever-changing hemp regulations, while learning more from individuals who have ventured into the hemp growing business.

The final breakout session featured David Bindrup speaking about Legacy Planning. The legacy planning workshop included tips for passing agricultural assets on while you are still alive, ideas to help better protect your assets and how to properly write a will.

Zippy Duvall and Bevan Lister

One of the biggest highlights for the 100^th Annual Nevada Farm bureau meeting was having American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall speak at our opening dinner. Duvall also presented Nevada Farm Bureau President Bevan Lister a pin to acknowledge Nevada Farm Bureau’s gain in Farm Bureau membership in 2019.

We also had the pleasure of listening to Trinity Seely preform. Seely’s style of music is a blend of Western, Folk and traditional Country. The audience really enjoyed her musical performance and her stories as she played.

Each year Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) compete in the Discussion Meet and this year we had a total of eight competitors. The lucky winner of this year’s Discussion Meet was Lewis Mendive from Douglas/Carson City Farm Bureau.

Quilt Winner Carla Pomeroy

Women’s Leadership also held their annual Silent Auction raising a total of $1,341. This year’s Silent Auction pulled in $495 more dollars than last year. The annual quilt raffle was also a huge success bringing in a total of $1,100. Moving forward this year Women’s leadership hopes to participate in schools on Ag Day and other agriculture literacy programs.

The Nevada Farm Bureau President and Vice President are annually elected positions and we are happy to announce President Bevan Lister and Vice President Darrell Pursel won reelection.

Other board positions up for reelection included Women’s Leadership Committee Chair and Vice Chair. Marlene Shier is now the new Women’s Leadership Committee Chair and Vice Chair is now Wendelyn Muratore.

The new District 1 Director is now Katie Combs. Combs will be replacing Jim Hardy who previously held the District 1 Director position.

We look forward to the coming year and we thank you all for the support over the years.