Focused on the Growth and Economic Performance of the Feed, Seed, Grain and Farm Supply Industries of Wisconsin

Text Box: The main function that WASA performs is legislative and regulatory leadership and representation. This work involves a lot of time and effort to build and develop relationships of trust that extend both ways between WASA staff and legislators and regulatory staff. We believe we have that on the state level. WASA staff is the “go to” industry voice on a wide variety of agribusiness topics. Just in the past year, WASA staff has been involved in the drafting and writing of new state laws regulating the seed industry. Our goal, along with our industry members, was the development of a simplified compliance system while providing a level regulatory playing field for the industry and one that would also maintain protections for the seed-buying public. We, along with our seed industry members that worked with us, believe we achieved that. Our efforts will be presented to the Legislature next session. As was the case with the rewrite of the seed law, WASA policy is driven by the membership. Members of the various industry committees discuss issues and present their opinions to the Board of Directors, which then decides on a course of action for the staff to execute and implement. This is not one member or one faction directing policy, but the membership as a whole as represented by the committees and the Board. One of those member initiatives and a major legislative success this past year was the passage of a calendar-based harvest overweight truck bill. Instead of the system in the past of the Ag secretary having to declare an emergency and then have the Transportation secretary allow for the harvest exemption, WASA brought the idea to the forefront and along with a handful of producer groups we worked to get it passed and signed. That wasn’t done in a day and WASA staff worked with members of both houses of the legislature and the Governor’s office to get the bill past. Today, the harvest overweight exemption is automatic every September 1, because WASA first brought the idea forward. Today, we are working with the DNR and DATCP on the development of a new invasive species rule. While you may think the only invasive species are zebra mussels and lake weeds, there are invasive weeds that if they get started in our state could have a devastating impact on our agricultural economy. WASA and the landscape and nursery association are the only two ag groups proactively working on this issue to protect Wisconsin ag lands, while maintaining access to legitimate forage crops. Much work is done primarily on the state-level, but a fair amount of time is also done on federal issues that will impact Wisconsin agribusinesses’ operations and profitability. To this end, WASA staff was the first association to be represented on the Board of Directors of the National Grain & Feed Association (in their 106-year history) and is currently the only association represented on the American Feed Industry Association Board of Directors. In both of these positions, WASA is involved in national policy issues that impact your business. In addition, WASA was the only Wisconsin ag business association to be involved in both the recent Congressional bill passage of the upper Mississippi River lock and dam revitalization bill (and recognized as so in the Congressional Record) and the recent railroad rate and service hearings conducted by DATCP and the Public Service Commission. While many members consider the legislative and regulatory representation the most important activity of WASA, that isn’t all we do by far. A second activity that is probably the most visible to the membership is our member services. These are the services such as the educational and industry networking opportunities, as well as our nationally recognized safety program. WASA provides grain grading and grain merchandising instruction opportunities for your employees that are recognized as the best in the state. Your association works with the University of Wisconsin –Madison, as well as other regional land grant universities, to present among the highest quality academic feed and nutrition conferences in the country. In just the past year, WASA, along with these universities produced the dairy beef conference and the dairy nutrition conferences. In the coming year, we will again present the dairy nutrition conference, as well as a dairy forage conference. A member service of which we are particularly proud is our Loss Control program. This OSHA compliance and safety program came about by requests from the membership for real hands-on help in this area. The program was designed to provide management an affordable, turn-key solution to this vitally important issue. It was decided early on, we would not go in the direction of simply providing forms for you to fill out and leaving you to your best efforts. Instead, we went with an in-house safety professional that would help every member in the program develop and maintain a working, viable and correct program. The inquiries we receive from other states’ associations asking, “How did you folks do it?” is proof enough ours is the model others are copying. Lastly, where the areas of legislative/regulatory expertise and member services come together are the confidential, individual discussions WASA staff has with membership on a daily basis. This is the area in which we spend the majority of our time; that is, simply helping members. Everyday we speak with members calling the office, asking questions, seeking clarification on something ranging from grain accounting to where they might purchase a mechanical part for their facility and everything in between. If we don’t know the answer, we find out from a reputable authority and get back ASAP. Outside of operational questions, we receive calls from members wanting to know what’s happening with the industry in the state; lately those questions tend to focus on the ethanol industry. The two “Ethanol Updates” that appeared earlier this year in the newsletter were in direct response to member inquiries about what the impact would be on our industry, which the individual members upon receiving the information felt the membership in general should also see. For many members this service provides the only trusted and knowledgeable “sounding board” they have with which to share and discuss ideas or make plans for their business. In addition, WASA staff has spoken innumerable times at the request of facility management to boards or senior management teams regarding regulatory environment and business planning to aid in the decision making process. As the November election draws near, most political analysts believe which ever party wins the majority in Washington, deadlock will ensue at the national level. As the old joke goes, that would be a good thing. However, the serious implication of that deadlocked situation is that many issues (and the regulation of them) will either be shifted back to the states or aggressively taken by the states. Either way, agribusiness needs to be “at the table” presenting our case. Now, more than ever, you need effective and respected representation before the legislature and regulators. And that voice is WASA. Your dues provide: a subscription to News & Views, one of the top agricultural newsletters in the country, which includes the Action Ads, a newsletter insert to list items for sale, job postings, and other miscellaneous advertisements (to place an advertising order, print the order form by clicking on this link) representation in Madison on legislative and regulatory issues,

For on-line registration for the 4-State Dairy Conference, please follow this link.

 

For general information regarding the 4-State Dairy Conference, please follow this link.

 

We are now preparing our WASA annual directory.  If you are interested in placing an ad for your company, please submit the Directory Advertising form to the WASA office.   WASA believes that your advertising in our directory is a cost effective way to get your company's information out to a large agribusiness audience.