Chester farmer testifies on 2012 Farm Bill

Several men with Montana roots, including an active Chester-area farmer, testified in Washington Tuesday during a hearing on the 2012 Farm Bill now being drafted.

U. S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, invited Montana farmers and ranchers to give him input on conservation programs during a hearing on the bill, and witnesses testifying included Chester farmer Carl Mattson of Mattson Farms.

Other witnesses included U. S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency Administrator Bruce Nelson, a fourth-generation Fort Benton farmer and former Montana FSA executive director, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief David White, a former state conservationist in Montana.

Baucus said having active farmers and ranchers testify helps make the bill work better for the people in the industry.

"Montana farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists. They know best how to work the land, and because they depend on the land, they have such a critical role in protecting our outdoor heritage and I am thankful that Carl was able to share a real boots on the ground perspective with the Committee today, " Baucus said in a release Tuesday. "As President Eisenhower once said, 'Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from a corn field. ' That's exactly why input from Montana farmers and ranchers is so critical in this process. I value their ideas and will keep looking to them to make the next farm bill as strong as it can be for good-paying agriculture jobs. "

Baucus highlighted during the hearing work NRCS and Montana ag producers have done to protect the sage grouse, a bird formerly native to 13 states and three Canadian provinces now found only in Alberta, Saskatchewan and 11 U. S. states including Montana.

Some groups have pushed to have the bird protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Sage Grouse Initiative is an effort to protect the bird's habitat without going that route.

Baucus asked Mattson about the grouse protection effort.

"My sense is that it is working and does make sense, but you're on the ground, you're the guy, " he asked. "Whatta ya think? "

Mattson testified that since the effort started in Montana, it has grown to 11 states with 400 ranchers participating and "the interest has been overwhelming. "

"In two short years we have improved conservation, " he said. "We've reduced bird deaths. We have improved beef production. We've improved grouse numbers. "

Mattson added that the program, which uses teamwork between NRCS and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a "landmark event" that provides the certainty farmers and ranchers need to participate in such a program.

"Now, what this does, what (the Sage Grouse Initiative) does, is turns a problem into an opportunity and encourages cooperation, " he said.

He also testified that his participation in the Conservation Security Program has benefited him and other local farmers and ranchers who have become interested in it.

Mattson was the first Montana farmer to be awarded a contract under the program.

He said his original motivation, after working through seven years of drought, was the "significant dollars" available through the program. Through the program, he expanded multiple processes he already was using, Mattson said.

"We further refined our till. We increased our wildlife habitat. We intensified our soil testing and expanded our recordkeeping, but most importantly, we continue to add (global positioning system) facilities to every field operation we have, " he testified. "But one of the greatest benefits in that program was my neighbor's transitioning to CSP. In that point in time, the whole idea of motivation worked. CSP rewarded me for what I was doing, but it motivated 30 or 50 other neighbors of mine to make the switches these sorts of things. "