Mike Seyfert Interview: NGFA President/CEO Says Land Use, Conservation, Infrastructure Remain Priorities

Mike Seyfert, the new president and CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), presided over his first annual convention June 2-4, the association’s 125th, in Colorado Springs, CO.

Grain Journal sat down with him for a relatively brief but exclusive interview June 3. Here are some of his remarks.

First Impressions

I’ve learned a lot since joining the NGFA. We’re an association whose member-companies are proud of the representation we give to them. We have a tremendous amount of support from our industry. We have over 300 industry volunteers on our committees, board of directors, and executive committee.

Even before then, I’d come to know the staff and their true dedication to the industry. I saw their performance and how, on a variety of issues, they’ve knocked it out of the park.

Background

I’m a fourth-generation farm kid. One of my earliest memories is riding in my grandfather’s 1949 pickup hauling 300 bushels of corn to an elevator in Ada, KS.

I had experience on Capitol Hill, where I learned to understand the issues of importance to NGFA members. I learned that how you packaged and communicated things makes a difference to your outcome.

I also have a corporate background. I learned that having corporate members in an association like NGFA is a privilege. If they see value to their ROI from membership, they’ll remain members.

Subscribe to Grain E-News delivered to your inbox every Thursday. 📧

Mentors

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS, retired) was a great mentor for me. He taught me a lot about working in ag, about working with members across the aisle. He taught me that if you work hard you don’t have to be the smartest guy or gal in the room.

There was Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh at Kansas State University. He taught me to look carefully at issues and separate the wheat from the chaff.

My dad and my grandpa taught me the importance of hard work. My dad was an Extension agent, and that taught me the importance of service to my community. My grandpa served in the Korean War, and that was a different though no less important form of service.

Change of Administrations

I’ve worked with five different White House administrations now. The last two administrations (Trump and Biden) showed as stark a difference as any I’ve seen, though that’s not across the board.

USDA has remained a real advocate for agriculture. (Former Secretary of Agriculture) Sonny Perdue stepped up to the White House in agriculture’s defense on more than one occasion. Sonny brought a lot of agribusiness experience, including as a member of this association’s board of directors.

(Current Secretary of Agriculture) Tom Vilsack has done much of the same thing. He already spent eight years as USDA secretary during the Obama administration, so this time he was able to hit the ground running.

Grain Talk Podcast (March 23): Get to Know New NGFA President and CEO Mike Seyfert 🎙️

Major Issues

The things that producers and the businesses that supply them haven’t changed. They want order and predictability.

Overall, they stand against land idling and acreage set-asides. As an association, we have made clear our real concerns with simply taking land out of production. That’s a signal to producers in Brazil and elsewhere to start clearing out rain forests to claim that share of the market.

We prefer a more conservation-oriented approach to protecting farmland such as CSP (Conservation Stewardship Program) and EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program), paying farmers to institute sustainable conservation practices to maintain their soil.

We’re working with Congress to maintain the funding for these programs, which we think is a much more effective approach to conservation. Rather than idling productive farmland, it’s better to idle marginal ground as grass waterways or buffer strips.

Infrastructure

Maintaining the nation’s infrastructure has always been an important issue for the NGFA. What’s moving it up to the next level right now is the chance that we could see a bipartisan agreement on an infrastructure bill. Whatever differences there are, no one is opposed to highways, bridges, and ports.

We’re working to get full funding for the NESP (Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program) on the Upper Mississippi River. Producers need to know that they’re going to continue to have a stable means of transporting their goods to their customers. We need to maintain our competitiveness on the world stage.

Association Activities

As we’re coming out of the pandemic, we’re seeing things return to something more normal. Our staff has stepped up, and after our convention was canceled in California, we put this meeting (2021 convention) together in seven weeks.

Right now we have 400 people in-person in Colorado Springs and another 100 attending virtually. We’ll need to find ways to continue a virtual option at future meetings. We’re also finding new ways to stay in touch with the industry, whether that’s videos or social media.

One of our major goals as an association is how to bring more diversity in the organization and get them into leadership roles. That’s why we’re supporting efforts such as MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences).

What I told the Executive Committee is that before I go in and change a bunch of things, it’s important to experience what we have, see what works, experience what doesn’t. Only then is it time to try to improve things.

There’s a lot of excitement in the association right now with the return to in-person gatherings. After this, we have the CONVEY conference coming up in the summer, then the Country Elevator Conference in December. It’s great to be back in person.

Related Articles:

See What Everyone Was Tweeting at NGFA's 125th Annual Convention #ngfa125

NGFA Celebrates 125th Anniversary With Themes For Future

NGFA Outlines Issues With OSHA’s ‘Combustible Dust’ Proposal