NEWS RELEASE
Inaugural Gardner Wheat Tour Visits Weld, Washington, and Logan Counties
June 21, 2011, Fort Collins, Colo. – U.S. Congressman Cory Gardner joined Colorado Association of Wheat Growers (CAWG) and Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee (CWAC) officers and staff to tour wheat farms in Weld and Logan counties and visit the Central Great Plains Research Station in eastern Colorado on Saturday, June 18.
Gardner, whose 4th Congressional District accounted for 93 percent of Colorado’s total wheat production in 2010, valued at $565.4 million, visited Cooksey Farms near Roggen, Anderson Wheat Farms near Haxtun, and the Central Great Plains Research Station at Akron. About 75 area wheat producers joined the Congressman for lunch at Cooksey Farms, about 20 attended the briefing at the Research Station, and 20 attended the dinner in Haxtun.
During the farm visits, the program included brief remarks from CAWG President Chris Tallman, CWAC President Dan Anderson, and host Jerry Cooksey, followed by Congressman Gardner speaking to the crowd and taking questions. At the Research Station, Research Leader Merle Vigil briefed the Congressman on research done at the station to advance dryland cropping systems in eastern Colorado and the Great Plains.
Congressman Gardner spoke about the challenges ahead for agriculture in the federal budgeting process.
“We can’t try to balance our federal budget on the back of agriculture,” he said. “Our country can’t be successful if agriculture is not successful.”
Gardner is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and he emphasized the importance of that committee to agriculture.
“The Energy and Commerce Committee oversees the EPA, and while it is important to protect our environment, we need to use common sense when doing so. Congress is there to hold the EPA’s feet to the fire when it oversteps,” Gardner said.
CAWG officers presented their concerns to the Congressman, including cuts to funding of the 2008 Farm Bill, crop insurance, pending trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama, burdensome EPA regulations, transportation and the federal budget. CWAC officers also discussed trade issues and the need for continued congressional funding of wheat research at Colorado State University and the Central Great Plains Research Station with Congressman Gardner.
CAWG and CWAC are two distinctly separate organizations with different but complimentary purposes. CAWG is a voluntary membership association that lobbies on behalf of wheat growers at the state and national levels of government and provides special programs and benefits to dues paying members. CWAC is the producer-elected Board of Control for the Colorado Wheat Marketing Order whose purpose is to invest producer assessment funds to work in strategic areas of research, promotion and education activities.
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Congressman Cory Gardner (R.-4th, Colo.) visits Cooksey Farms near Roggen. From left to right, CAWG Vice President Randy Traxler, Otis, CAWG President Chris Tallman, Brandon, Congressman Gardner, and CAWG Past President Jerry Cooksey, Roggen.
Congressman Cory Gardner (R.-4th, Colo.) addresses the crowd at the Central Great Plains Research Station at Akron.
Congressman Cory Gardner (R.-4th, Colo.) visits Anderson Wheat Farms near Haxtun. From left to right, CWAC President Dan Anderson, Haxtun, Congressman Gardner, CAWG Director Dave Anderson, Haxtun, CAWG President Chris Tallman, Brandon, and CAWG Vice President Randy Traxler, Otis.
