MFBF President Mike McCormick Testifies Before MS Senate Ag Committee, Gives 2025 Outlook

Testifying in front of the Mississippi Senate Agriculture Committee, Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation President Mike McCormick laid out a bleak picture for the 2025 crop season.

In many cases across Mississippi, row crop farmers are growing record yields, but still find their bottom line well below where it should be. President McCormick’s testimony reinforced the dire circumstances.

“All of these legislators are friends, and a lot of them have their own farming operations,” said McCormick, the 10th president of Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. “We don’t have to educate them on how hard things are in farm country right now, and we’re very appreciative of that. We’ve got a lot of elected leadership here in the state who understand farming and the importance to the state.”

Leaders from the Mississippi State University agricultural units and Delta Council also testified before the committee and its new chairman, Senator Neil Whaley from Potts Camp. All agree a new Federal Farm Bill is a priority, but on the state level taxes are top of mind.

“We’re always worried about our property taxes and how that impacts our profitability,” said McCormick. “

You can count on the MFBF policy team to also monitor bills as they are announced and analyze the impact they could have on Mississippi agriculture.

“There’s a lot of bills out there that possibly could cost us more money in production this year,” said McCormick. “I think the committee heard loud and clear that this is not the year to talk about something like that.”

President McCormick, however, believes the leadership in both the Mississippi House and Mississippi Senate are looking at way to help farmers and ranchers in 2025.

“We’ve got a lot of different avenues we can approach with this and a lot of friends in the legislature who want to help. So, it’s good to have time to be able to work through some of the thoughts that’s out there, to be able to help the farmers and hopefully come up with some answers that that will do some good,” McCormick adds.

“We’re going to be watchful and work to try to ensure nothing is added that will increase production costs.”