Kansas and Missouri Departments of Agriculture Assess Current Issues

(Left to Right: Missouri Director of Agriculture Chris Chinn and Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Mike Beam)

Kansas and Missouri Departments of Agriculture Assess Current Issues

At June’s Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City luncheon, Chris Chinn, Director, and Mike Beam, Secretary, of the Missouri and Kansas Departments of Agriculture, respectively, displayed the cooperation and collegiality that exists between the two neighboring states. Chinn said, “Getting Missouri and Kansas together is a good thing.” Together, Missouri and Kansas account for almost 9% of total U.S. agricultural production, which puts them second in overall production behind the nation’s leader, California (11.8%). 

As a point of pride, the Kansas Department of Agriculture boasts that it is the nation’s first state department of agriculture. It advocates for and promotes the agriculture industry, “while helping to ensure a safe food supply, protecting public health and safety.” There are about 58,569 farms in Kansas, and 85% of these farms are family-owned. The average size of a Kansas farm is 804 acres. Nearly 88% of the land is used for agriculture, which is over 45,700,000 acres. Of this, 21 million acres are used for crops and over 14 million acres are used for grazing animals. 

Missouri’s Department of Agriculture promotes and protects the state’s agriculture industry. With nearly 90,000 farms on 27 million acres of farmland, the MDA works to connect farmers with consumers. Nearly 90% of Missouri’s farms are family owned, and family farms are committed to producing a safe and secure food supply for customers locally and globally. Additionally, more than one in every ten Missouri jobs is in agriculture and forestry. 

Aside from the usual anxiety over drought, flooding, herd health, tariffs, farm income and such, Secretary Beam expressed concern that the state’s weights and measurements systems and protocols were outdated and in need of review and possible overhaul. He also noted that increasing the number of federal field veterinarians was a priority. Director Chinn said that Missouri also has lost a number of key federal field veterinary inspectors, and her state’s federal matching funds for field veterinarians had been slashed by 50%.

Both state ag leaders have been challenged by the specter of a New World Screwworm outbreak. The possibility of NWS spreading from Mexico could pose a dire threat to U.S. livestock. A screwworm surge in the U.S. could devastate the livestock industry, particularly in Kansas and Missouri, which are prominent beef producers.

While NWS in Mexico is a concern, it turned into a macabre event for Director Chinn and Missouri agriculture. On May 27, a false press release was sent to a northwest Missouri radio station stating that NWS had been found in Missouri livestock. The information was quickly discovered to be false, but not before setting off a frenzy of animal health concerns and market scares. The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Rural Crimes Investigative Unit (RCIU) and the Livestock and Farm Protection Task Force continue to investigate the false statement, along with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. But Director Chinn was adamant: “There are no screwworms in Missouri.” 

Director Chinn and Secretary Beam were on the same page as they closed their comments, saying agriculture needs to get non-ag people involved in the ag industry. Beam added that his department will be working with other Kansas agencies as a team. “It is not enough to bring businesses to the state; we have to support them.”