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MO Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe talks ag issues

Brownfield caught up with Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe at the Missouri Cattlemen’s Convention. The conversation happened as the state legislative session was beginning in January.

Kehoe tells Brownfield the future of Missouri agriculture is bright and to keep it that way, he will be supportive of protecting property rights and eminent domain this session.

“I’m a first-generation farmer and it almost brings a tear to my eye when I talk to a third, fourth or fifth generation farmer who is going through an issue on a century farm, losing their rights to an eminent domain case that shouldn’t have gone that far,” says Kehoe. “We want to make sure we can protect our family farms.”

Kehoe says Missouri cattle producers want limited government.

“They’re pretty smart and know what to do, but just trying to limit the size, scale and scope of government that can interfere with what they can do is important.”

But he says that will require a balance in dealing with other issues, including foreign ag land ownership.

“We want to make sure we don’t limit what we have available, but we also want to make sure we don’t make available, for instance, ground if there’s a country that doesn’t allow us to buy ground there, I’m not sure we should allow them to buy ground in our state. We need to go through this in a commonsense way that farmers and ranchers can live with and allows family farms to continue for generations.”

The drought impacts are lingering for cattle producers across the state.

“Down in Phelps and Pulaski Counties we had two droughts. We had one basically in mid-June to August. Then, in late August through October,” explains Kehoe. “It’s been horrible for us. It’s been a rough year, but that’s what farming is all about. Farmers figure things out. They live through floods, they live through drought and all kinds of different weather-related issues that we just go on, become resilient and keep working through it.”

Hear our full interview with the Lt. Governor below.