Ag and Rural Caucus for March
Link to Better Practices Recording:
Better Practices
6:30 pm Thursday 6 March
Scott Forbes, CEO, Washington State Democratic Party
Follow the Money
Scott will walk us through how campaign money flows through the State Democratic Party.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86197176823?pwd=6BIWfzuGjNJvviW6YvgbeDeLHKF8FA.1
Policy Briefing
6:30 pm Thursday 20 March
Andrea Malmberg, UVE Hub
Tony Malmberg, co-founder, Savory Institute
Bane or Boon ? Cattle – Pastures, Cropland and Forests…How does it work?
We return to our roots – cattle. And we discover the talk around cattle has changed.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85907982157?pwd=MU4vV3E3VGZ5VU02dnhvZjg2b3hKZz09
Paste link into browser.
Link to recording
6:30 pm Thursday 27 March
Virtual Fencing: Using Technology
Joel Yelich, Vence, Merck Animal Health
Nathaniel Slinkert, Vence, Merck Animal Health
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85907982157?pwd=MU4vV3E3VGZ5VU02dnhvZjg2b3hK.Zz09
Click link or Paste link into browser.
A Change of Scenery
Last week we glimpsed regenerative grazing on bottom ground made lush by grazing management. This is part of the picture but take a look at this video. It takes part of the argument and applies it to cattle management in extensive pasture ground in Douglas and Okanogan counties. The argument shifts a bit away from pasture management to cattle management and wildlife.
Check it out and have fun.
Don
26 March 2025
Virtual Fencing – What’s in it for you?
The Ag and Rural Caucus takes up a bunch of different topics. You get to pick and choose what interests you, and I usually try to pique your interest where it might otherwise might not go. That’s case with virtual fencing, the second half of our livestock sessions.
Put Thursday evening on your calendar if…
You have fond memories of visiting your grandparents’ farm and petting the cows.
You like animals, and like to see them treated well.
You are an IT enthusiast, wondering how in the world you can harness IT to keep cattle penned.
You think regenerative ag is cool, the idea you can use cattle to recover soils.
You want to understand cattlemen a little but better so you can talk to them about Trump.
You want to show solidarity with the values of rural Washington, because they are your neighbors.
You are a cattleman whose fences have been destroyed by the latest fire and you can’t afford to rebuild.
You are a fish advocate and want to keep the damn cows out of the streams.
You are just curious.
You get the idea. Join us Thursday and add to the list.
Don
23 March 2025
Apology
I apologize. I first talked about Thursday as “gee whiz” about cows, and then I bury you with famer talk about supply chains, commodity crops and markets. Let’s go back. Thursday will give you a picture of cows on the ground not as villains but as heroes. Tune in and have fun. Enjoy this video in the meantime.
Don
18 May 2025
Livestock – what do wheat growers do with cows?
Our session on cattle is part of something called regenerative ag. Regenerative ag involves cover crops, diversity, and no tillage in addition to integrating livestock into soil restoration and commodity crop production. Having a crop on the ground and minimizing tillage are routine enough. It is the livestock role that is disruptive.
We will talk about fencing later. Water, too, is an issue. Don’t forget, though, about how to make money with cattle. It takes different marketing and supply chains. We no longer have a local livestock industry that can absorb feeder calves coming off a cow-calf operation, or can easily supply feeder stock to integrate into grazing a commodity crop at the right time, or local processing facilities to take grass-fattened stock to market. We fit into the cycle of Tyson Foods and accept their pricing or nothing. (I exaggerate: Check WSDA list of approved meat processors.)
The point is that grain growers harvest with combines. We are no longer set up for livestock. It is different.
Don
14 March 2025
More than just a Movement?
Allan Savory moved managed grazing into popular view in his 2013 TED talk on “how to green the desert.” With quiet passion, Savory argued from his experience in Africa that livestock grazing could reverse desertification. And even more, livestock could slow climate change. The secret in the sauce was rotational grazing and holistic management.
Savory was dismissed by some as passing commitment as science, by some as incorrectly generalizing from buffalo behavior to cattle, by some as arguing from an African experience that was unique.
It is handy, then, that we have on the ground evidence sourced a few miles south of Walla Walla. The Malmberg’s can show us. In black and white, and in color.
You decide.
Don
13 March 2025
Two sessions on Livestock Management
Special schedule for March Weeks 3 and 4…we have two gee-whiz presentations.
The first session on 20 March is the gee-whiz story of how cattle are transformed from methane-belching villains to partners turning deserts into green pastures, making farmland more productive, and managing wildfire risk, all through tuning how grazing is managed. This session is about gee-whiz nature in action.
The second session on 27 March is technical gee-whiz. You need at least water and fences to make the natural gee-whiz really work. We won’t be talking much about water, but fences are engineering and something we can figure out. Tune in to find out about watching “every step a cow makes.”
Don
10 March 2025
Cool Money, Hot Money
Why spend Democratic money in red districts? For the same reason we recruit the best candidates we can and then support them with blood and sweat, and most often tears…to build the party.
Democrats in rural Washington are in it for the long game. Moving the red-blue dial is very slow. Rural Democrats need to build organizations to move that dial. We need to build processes and structures to bridge over the especially bad times and to persist when charismatic leaders get tired and discouraged. Rural Democrats need stability of vision and message, especially when we are tossed back and forth by people, including our friends, presenting to speak for us.
Money is not created equally. Cool money is available on a sustained basis, applied to a plan, a local plan, and enough to make a difference over the longer term. Hot money late in a campaign to a candidate is, of course, nice, but it does not have staying power. (It does pay huge, though, if it produces a Democratic officeholder.)
Rural Democrats need cool money. Money that is early, predictable and recurring to build organizations that can eventually sustain themselves.
Scott Forbes will be able to describe for us the flows and constraints on hot money. This is important for us to know. It is equally important for us to send a message to our party leaders that the long-term health of the Democratic Party in Washington requires building local parties from Asotin to Neah Bay, Ilwaco to Newport.
Don
5 March 2025
Community Calendar: Courtesy of Dan Lambert and Jerry LeClaire
Where’s the Money?
Where’s the money that state Democrats keep talking about? Why don’t we see it in rural Washington? Why don’t our rural candidates get the support Puget Sound races get?
We rural Democrats talk about money a lot. Usually with a chip on our shoulder. We whine, play the victim.
So, what are the facts? It is time to sort out how the Democratic money flows. Maybe our resentment is justified. Maybe not quite so much.
Scott Forbes, State Party CEO, has the facts. And if he doesn’t, he will say so. Word on our gravel roads is that Scott is reliable, and capable.
Come listen to what he has to report, and ask your questions.
Don
4 March 2025
Our Better Practices roundtable is on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm.. Use the link above for 2025.
Our Policy Series is on the third Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm. Use the link above for 2025.
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Ag and Rural Caucus of State Democratic Central Committee
Our mailing address is: Ag and Rural Caucus 2921 Mud Creek Rd Waitsburg, WA 99361