By Garrett Hawkings, president Missouri Farm Bureau Every time I come back from the Missouri Farm Bureau (MOFB) annual meeting at Margaritaville Lake Resort, I reflect on the experience of what it is like when we all come together. While some things like themes, key topics and policy points change each year, a few standard activities provide a nice routine. From the annual pancake breakfast and silent auction, that benefit the MOFB Foundation for Agriculture, to the smiling faces of our staff at the registration tables, it’s nice to be in a familiar place, with familiar faces and have certain things where you expect them to be each year. One of the longstanding traditions of the annual meeting is the collection of responses to our Farmometer survey. If you’ve never completed the survey, it covers the same four questions to help track any year-over-year trends in the agriculture industry. It’s not scientific by any means, but this year, more than 15% of our annual meeting attendees completed the 2024 Farmometer survey. For starters, we saw one of the most uniform ranges of responses to the first, very simple question: How would you describe your farming operation? Given a range from “exclusively crops” to “exclusively livestock,” the 5-point scale saw the lowest response at 15% and the highest at 27.5%. Three other numbers in between showcased the diversity of Missouri agriculture operations. I’ll come back to question No. 2, as both it, along with question No. 4 are my two favorites to track. However, the third question gives insight into whether farmers and ranchers are feeling stressed mentally, financially, physically, or all three. We ask participants to rank a list of challenges they face from 1 (smallest challenge) to 10 (biggest challenge). This year, input costs once again ranked as the top challenge facing Missouri agriculture. However, commodity/livestock prices and government regulations inched higher, to project a clear top-three. The other two questions are about as personal as they can get, as we ask how they generally feel about their farming operation compared to last year and whether they would recommend that their children follow in their footsteps. Last year, just shy of 40% of respondents said they were feeling “more optimistic” than the year before. This year, that number is 54%. That’s a significant increase. Last year, a tick over 90% of respondents said they would recommend that their child(ren) enter the agriculture profession – a really high mark! This year, that number came up just short of last year’s mark of 91%. Holding steady. I couldn’t be prouder of the work our farmers and ranchers put in every day to ensure that Missourians, Americans and those around the world have the food, fiber and fuel needed to survive daily life. But to see the tide turning and the optimism rising for both the current and future of the industry truly feels like reaching the peak of a mountain climb. We have much to look forward to in 2025, and I’m ready to dig in and tackle those challenges right alongside. -Author Garrett Hawkins is the 15th President of Missouri Farm Bureau. He is the third generation in his family to own and operate a farm in St. Clair County. | 