Thursday, March 14, 2013

Key Leaders Roundtable (KLR) Subcommittee Meeting

Key Leaders Roundtable (KLR)  Subcommittee Meeting
Group 3: Water, Natural Resources, Energy
Minutes of 02/14/13

Members Present: Angela Ehlers, Jeff Zimprich, Mark Tubbs, Marlee Cordell, Michael Schmidt, Peter Bauman, Richard Vasgaard, Paula Gregg.

Members Absent: Courtney De La Rosa, David Niemi , Duane Schneider, Jim Faulstich, Kathy Zander, Laron Krause, Mike Traxinger,  Myron Williams, Silvia Christensen, Wayne Smith.

1.         Angela Ehlers, Chair, called the meeting to order at 3:00 pm. CST. There was a roll call of the members present.

It was discussed to send future email attachments as a word or excel file so the text is easier to read.  Committee members may provide a mailing address to SDDA to have the minutes, needs assessment, and action work plan USPS mailed to them.

2.         Committee members were asked for discussion on the minutes, needs assessment, and action work plans. Do they reflect the committee’s action, direction, and discussion? These are working papers meant to capture the flow of our work and what we want to present at the Governor’s Ag Summit and Key Leaders’ Roundtable in June 2013. Members are encouraged to chat via email with the group regarding any of the objective topics.

It was discussed to revise Objective 5 sub point to clarify “Loss of native sod and wetlands” by adding language “due to conversion to row crop agriculture.”

3.         Angela Ehlers will provide a written report summarizing the status of House and Senate bills that she is tracking through the Legislative process for SDACD. As of the meeting date, there were no specific bills that committee members wanted to discuss. If any bills come up in the closing weeks of Session that any committee member feels we should discuss, members are asked to send an email to the group to begin a conversation.

4.         Angela Ehlers will arrange with DENR to present water right laws and monitoring at the next meeting.

5.         Pete Bauman reported that he received positive feedback from SDSU Extension Services that they can and could serve as a clearinghouse of information for land owners, especially regarding invasive species. The topic of surface use agreements may be a little outside their arena of expertise. They currently do not have an extension specialist on energy. They may add a conservation topic tab to the IGROW.org website.  At an upcoming meeting, Pete will demonstrate SDSU Extension’s website IGROW.ORG and the committee can give feedback about how IGROW can be used to accomplish the objective.

SDSU Extension Services would like more vision and detail from committee as to what information should be included or needed for a land surface use clearinghouse. It would be helpful if any committee members could write a paragraph explaining, from the ag producer’s perspective, what is the issue and why it is a concern.

Mark Tubbs offered to provide Pete with some information specific on this subject.

Marlee Cordell told about her personal experience, as a land owner in Harding County, of how difficult it was to get information about surface use agreements.  The companies leasing the ground have the experience and legal knowledge to negotiate different leases with each landowner. Many of the lease provisions are protected by confidentiality, thereby making it difficult for neighboring landowners to share information. It is up to each land owner to research what is the best way to handle their lease. However, the landowner often lacks the time, knowledge, and the expertise to negotiate lease conditions to best protect their land and interest. Marlee said it required hours and hours of personally visiting with other people who have been through it.  At no time were they ever referred to a government agency where they could ask questions and gain information. The landowner needs a feasible way to research and obtain information.

The committee discussed whether this is a needed function of SDSU extension or a lack of a service provided by a State government office. We need to find out whether someplace in state government (ie. AG Consumer Protection, PUC, NRCS,DENR, LRC) already is a resource for landowners to ask questions relating to land use and surface agreements. Angela will contact the LRC Summer Study and Paula will contact AG Consumer Protection and PUC about what service they may provide.

6.         No report on subsurface agreements.

7.         The committee discussed whether SDSU Extension should have an energy field specialist. The idea to add this as an action step under Objective 1 will be further discussed at the next meeting.

8.         No other business was discussed.

9.         The next meeting will be a Video Teleconference (VTC) and will include a presentation by DENR. The NRCS has 4 VTC sites located in Brookings, Huron, Pierre, and Rapid City. Tentative dates are March 11-13 or March 18-20.

10.       Meeting Adjourned at 3:37 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Paula Gregg, Finance Program Specialist, SDDA.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Livestock Development Meeting

inutes of 03/01/2013 KLR Group 2: Livestock Development
Members Present:  Roger Scheibe, Jodi Anderson, Ron Fredrick, Jerry Vogeler, Lowell Mesman (via phone), Warren Rushe, Gary Deering, JD Ryen, TW Schalesky, Kent Woodmansey, Jeanne Goodman, Mark Snedeker, Sarah Caslin, and Jodi Bechard.
Sarah started by giving a first half update for The Next Generation of Livestock Production (NGLP) meetings. That summary is attached.  She also mentioned Ag Stars and the Ag Committee tour. She reminded that if you are interested in what the other groups are talking about, the Department of Agriculture has a blog. That can be seen at http://sddepartmentofag.blogspot.com/ . She said that it had been mentioned to her that the department should have a directory of producers around the state. The group discussed that this would require constant update and that maybe we should start with a feedlot directory. Sarah also passed around “Livestock Development in SD” a publication from 2004. It would be a great thing to update after these meetings and bring to the Key Leader Round Table.
Dairy presented their presentation. This is attached.  Roger Scheibe presented to the group. There are 296 total dairies in SD and there are 5 total milk processors with one under construction in Brookings this year. To summaries the limiting factors for building more dairies in SD would be these would not be in any specific order.  We have also attached an electronic copy of the Dairy Drive 2012 information again.
·        Zoning and Neighbors.
·        There are worries out there that if we get too many dairies in to SD than the milk price will go down.
·        Infrastructure of I-29
·        Transportations cost
·        Financing for local South Dakotans

There was a suggestion to start a bucket list. Here is the start of the list:
·        Diversify – ie: Robot milker with raising beef cattle
·        Young Farmer/Rancher Investor Program

Received an email from Jeanne Goodman, There will be FDA Antimicrobial Meetings Across the US. There will be one in Pierre. Please follow the link to check out the schedule. http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/03/06/fda-to-hold-antimicrobial-strategy-meetings/

Next meeting will be Monday, March 25th from 1-4pm in Pierre, at the South Dakota Cattleman’s Association Building. Beef will be making their presentation.  
Meeting Adjourned