Listen: North Dakota Farm Bureau President Val Wagner’s conversation with Steve Hallstrom
NORTH DAKOTA – In November, Val Wagner was elected president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau.
She and her husband, Mark, have a red angus livestock ranch near Monango in Dickey County.
On The Flag, Wagner said keeping young people involved in agriculture was the reason they got involved in the Farm Bureau decades ago. She believes the only way to make sure they have opportunities in the profession is for those in agriculture to speak out and build relationships with those who aren’t closely tied with agriculture or are a generation removed from the farm.
“Their decisions that they make, whether it be at the voting box or if they’re directly involved in Bismarck, the decisions that they make directly impact what we do day-to-day,” Wagner said on “The Steve Hallstrom Show”.
Wagner added issues preventing people from farming and ranching include a misunderstanding of what’s happening at the farm, how much work goes into it and what the responsibilities look like.
“We have to know the ins and outs of businesses and of tax code and all sorts of different things. The typical picture of a farmer or rancher isn’t what we have today,” Wagner explained.
