1990 Farm Bill Forum 



Proceedings 



Clayton Marlow 



Professor of Range Science 

 Montana State University 



Montana's Range Resources 



Nearly 70 percent of Montana is rangeland or 

 grazable woodland. A review of natural re- 

 sources and conservation indicated that 59 

 percent of the rangeland and grazable wood- 

 land is in good to excellent condition. 



Federal land management agencies can be 

 given some of the credit for the accomplish- 

 ment, but 65 p)ercent of Montana's rangeland is 

 privately owned and much of the improvement 

 in range condition has been brought about 

 through the efforts of ranchers and farmers. 

 Since federal legislation affects Montana's 

 livestock producers and grain farmers, it 

 ultimately affects Montana's rangeland. 



Until the mid-80s, total acreage of rangeland in 

 the United States was steadily declining. This 

 trend has been halted due to the CRP program 

 and increased irrigation costs due to the deple- 

 tion of groundwater reserves in some midwest- 

 em and western states. These "new" rangelands 

 add to a growing rangeland proble — weeds. 



Weed control on private and public rangelands 

 is a major need that could be addressed in the 

 1990 Farm Bill. Not only is adequate annual 

 funding necessary, but each of the federal land 

 management agencies should be required to 

 appoint a "weed coordinator" to supervise that 

 agency's efforts to control weeds. Allocation of 

 weed control monies to a single federal agency 

 would be less effective than providing line item 

 allocations to agency weed programs and 

 creating a weed control grants program for 

 state agencies and local conservation districts. 



Demands for rangeland products, other than 

 meat and fiber, are increasing rapidly. The 1987 

 Clean Water Act is one such example. The 

 nation is demanding a higher quality water 

 from rangeland states such as Montana. Al- 

 though there are some Sfxxific research needs 

 for improving management options for range- 

 land operators, there is an adequate informa- 

 tion base to begin to meet the criteria set forth 

 in the 1987 act. To implement these initial 



efforts private landowners will need technical 

 assistance from agencies such as the Soil Con- 

 scr\'ation Service. Consequently, the 1990 Farm 

 Bill should contain funding authorization for 

 personnel and travel that will allow these 

 agencies to meet this growing need. 



Jon Doggett 



Agriculture Representative 

 Rep. Ron Marlenee 



Washington, D. C. Update 



I'm a fourth generation Montanan and my 

 family's been involved in the livestock industry 

 for five generations in the state. 



One of the big workloads we're looking for- 

 ward to is the debate over the 1990 Farm Bill. 

 It's going to be a long and involved process, 

 and as a senior member of the House Commit- 

 tee on Agriculture, Congressman Marlenee is 

 going to be heavily involved in the legislation. 



Ron has attended field hearings in various parts 

 of the country. He has been in Pueblo, Colo- 

 rado, and Pendleton, Oregon, for similar 

 hearings. He's asked other members of the 

 House Agriculture Committee to join him for 

 afield hearing here in Montana. 



There are a lot of different views on how the 

 United States should conduct its farm pro- 

 grams. It's complicated because we have so 

 many different commodities and programs — 

 the sugar program, and the wool program, and 

 the various grain programs. It's a difficult bill to 

 put together. 



Kenny Noland, Cliff Humphrey, and myself are 

 available for discussions with you. I know that 

 I've talked to a lot of you folks and you have 

 some opinions about what you'd like to see in 

 the bill or what you would not like to see in the 

 bill. The staff passes these comments on to Ron. 

 He reads all his constituent mail and he's 

 especially interested in any constituent mail 

 regarding farm programs. He's a farmer himself 

 and realizes the importance of the issue to the 

 state. He's committed to having a good farm 

 bill and he welcomes your comments, so I'm 

 glad to be here today to listen to what you folks 

 have to say. 



10 



Montani Chapter, Soil and Water Conservation Society 



August 29, 1888 



