ND Department of Agriculture Comments, Speeches and Testimony
Testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
Written Testimony of Roger Johnson, Commissioner of Agriculture
North Dakota Department of Agriculture
March 14, 1997
Chairman Skeen and members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. My name is Roger Johnson, and I serve as the North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture. I request that the budget for the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) located in Mandan, North Dakota, be reinstated for the following reasons:
NGPRL research has substantial financial impact in North Dakota and surrounding states; and NGPRL research helps provide a safe food supply.
1. NGPRL research has a substantial financial impact in North Dakota and surrounding states.
NGPRL has an overwhelming impact on agriculture in North Dakota and surrounding states. Estimations made by NGPRL staff show that the economic benefit to renewable natural resource conservation relating to research conducted at NGPRL is estimated between $50 and $210 million annually; implementation of NGPRL research has the potential to increase farm income by $200 to $360 million annually. Examples of NGPRL research programs that have great potential economic applications to North Dakota and surrounding states include: (1) conservation and tillage programs, (2) grass research and the Conservation Reserve Program, and (3) tree improvement research.
Potential Economic Application - Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems Research conducted at NGPRL has played a major role in producers changing from crop-fallow to a continuous cropping system of farming, reducing soil loss through erosion. In central and western North Dakota, summerfallow acres decreased 1,540,000 acres from 1991 to 1995, thus increasing the acreage of continuous cropping. Studies by NGPRL staff indicate about a $10.70 per acre advantage with conventional-tillage to an $18.80 per acre advantage with minimum tillage for continuous cropping over that of a spring wheat-fallow system. The direct economic benefit is approximately $16.5 to $29 million per year increase in North Dakota farm income alone.
Also, as a result of research conducted by NGPRL, 67 percent of the winter wheat produced in 1995 was in a continuous cropping production system using reduced tillage systems. The 12-year advantage of minimum-till and no-till winter wheat over conventional-till winter wheat has been 2.5 and 3.3 bushels per acre. At $3.50 per bushel, the gross economic advantage using reduced tillage systems would be $8 to $11 per acre or on 26,900 acres a gross advantage of $215,000 to $296,000 per year in North Dakota.
Potential Economic Implication - Conservation Reserve Program
Recently, Congress reauthorized the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Research at NGPRL has developed techniques that reduce grass stand failures. Just a 5 percent reduction in stand failures for cool-season grasses can yield savings of $3.9 million for North Dakota and $38.9 million nationally when considering just the acres seeded in CRP. A 9 percent reduction in reseeding for native grasses in CRP can yield a savings of $82.6 million.
Potential Economic Application - Tree Improvement Research
For the first time in North Dakota history, the entire state has been declared a disaster area due to the severe winter storms suffered in 1997. Currently, the Fifty-fifth Legislative Assembly of North Dakota is considering a bill that would provide $5.1 million in relief to counties for snow-removal. Until being cut from the budget last year, NGPRL was involved in important research studying the use of trees as windbreaks. Tree improvement research at NGPRL was evaluating over 200 seed sources of junipers and cedars that could be utilized as living snow fences, which are 62 times cheaper than slat fences.
NGPRL played a leading role in evaluating and developing tree varieties and windbreak designs that currently protect 2.5 million acres of North Dakota cropland that NGPRL staff estimate result in yield increases totaling $8.75 million annually.
Genetic tree improvement research at NGPRL, which is duplicated nowhere else in the country, has resulted in tree variety releases that grow faster, live longer, and are more resistant to diseases, all which improve the negative effects of ozone depletion and formation of greenhouse gases.
Windbreaks serve as an excellent measure to protect homes, livestock, roadways, and wildlife habitat. As North Dakota digs out important roadways blocked from continual blizzard snow, the importance of windbreaks and continued development of Testimony of Roger Johnson, Commissioner of Agriculture North Dakota Department of Agriculture research in this area is necessary and will be needed in the future.
Potential Economic Applications - Other Research Projects
Other research conducted at NGPRL includes studies into water management and irrigation, protecting the environment from contamination and reducing the amount of water used for irrigation; forage breeding and genetics, improving the quality of feed for cattle operations; and many other research projects that are necessary for protecting the environment and for providing a safe food supply in the future.
All of these research projects are part of promoting a system that looks into the emerging needs of agriculture, provides information transfer to the producers that utilize the research in everyday practices, and provides a more economical approach to producing the safe food supply that is important to everyone.
2. NGPRL provides a safe food supply.
Providing a safe food supply and studies in nutrition have become high priorities in the Agriculture Research Service. The first step in providing a safe food supply begins with research in farm production. We must continue to provide agricultural producers with a method of technology transfer so improvements can be made in the way the food supply is being raised. Efficiencies in production systems provide more resources for agricultural producers to expand operations to meet increased demands for food as the population grows. Research efforts not only help expand the food supply being raised, but also provide a safer food supply by developing systems that require less use of farm chemicals, lessening the risk to the producer, consumer, and environment.
It is my belief that the continued research at NGPRL will encourage the increased production of a safe food supply that the Midwest has always provided for this country. NGPRL serves as a clearinghouse of information for producers throughout the Midwest that are dedicated to keeping this growing nation supplied with a continued and safe food supply.
Reinstatement of the budget.
Finally, I request that the budget be reinstated for NGPRL in Mandan, North Dakota.
I am aware that the United State Department of Agriculture administration will establish a commission to evaluate all the USDA ARS sites across the country to determine need in the future. I believe NGPRL should be reinstated at a minimum to continue operation at least until the appointed commission has a chance to evaluate the facility and the research programs conducted there. I am confident that the commission will find that NGPRL is an important part of the Agriculture Research Service that should be continued in the future.
Chairman Skeen and members of the committee, as I have outlined in this testimony, NGPRL has a great economic impact based on the technology transfer from research to field implementation of farming practices developed to provide an increase in agricultural production that is safe for the consumer. As the public demand for clean air, pesticide free crops and water resources, roads without snow, and better conditions for wildlife increases, so to do the need for crop, forage, and tree research to meet these needs. NGPRL is the facility that is positioned well to continue to develop research and programs that will fill those needs not only in North Dakota but throughout the Midwest and across the entire nation.
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