GRIMES COUNTY, Texas (KRHD) — Following the midterm election, neighbors in the agriculture industry continue to have concerns about important issues that affect their way of life.
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Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller addressed some of the frustrations coming from the Texas agriculture community in the wake of the election.
"So they're tired of, of the political talk and no action, uh, they're tired of not being listened to," Miller said.
Miller pointed to several issues where he said leaders had gotten it wrong.
"So we were wrong on data centers, we were wrong on Flock cameras. We were wrong on the 765 transmission lines crossing private property needlessly," Miller said.
Greg Mock, a local agronomist, cattle producer and commissioner-elect for Precinct 4, told me that locally, pricing is the biggest issue.
"Being in agriculture my whole life, I've seen these ups and downs with different things. Um, the, the bigger challenges are the, the weak commodity prices. That's the biggest challenge we have now," Mock said.
Miller expects the Strait of Hormuz to be fully open soon, and he told me that will help lower costs.
"So that, that'll be a relief that'll help us more than anything to get diesel and fertilizer prices back in line," Miller said.
As for beef prices, Mock told me importing beef will help lower costs on some cuts.
"It's gonna be your, your cheaper cuts like ground beef, so the steaks and everything are gonna be high, but we also have to have good prices for our producers out there," Mock said.
The agriculture industry is also dealing with a spike in cases of the New World screwworm, but I'm told the number of cases will drop soon.
"We now have an epidemic outbreak in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Uh, this is, this is really serious now. I think it was underplayed up to the election," Miller said.
"You're gonna see these pop-up hot spots, but they're on it so fast that we can knock it on out," Mock said.
Both Miller and Mock believe the agriculture industry will recover and flourish — and they say that is good news for all Texans.
"I'm a consumer, and I'm a cowman, so we wanna make sure that, uh, both ends are being tended to," Mock said.
According to AAA, the average cost of gasoline in Texas has fallen 12 cents over the past week, as demand continues to fade with the cooler weather.
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