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Louisiana Farm Bureau is constantly working protect and promote Louisiana's farmers, ranchers, and rural residents. This podcast exists to share stories of those farmers with interviews about their farms and issues important to them. Here, we will also share about the work Farm Bureau is doing on their behalf on issues related to public policy from the parish level all the way to the halls of Congress in D.C.
"Hey, everybody, welcome to the Louisiana Farm Bureau podcast. I'm your host, Karl Wiggers. And today I've got with me a friend from Beauregard Parish. He's the parish president of that farm bureau, the farmer and he's a friend.
Mr. David Smith, thank you for joining me."
You're welcome. Glad to be Here.
You said you listened and you watched some of these podcasts do. Now you're on here. So welcome.
Thank you. First one ever.
You are a parish president, correct? Beauregard parish. You're a farmer. I said this already. But tell me what you farm and kind of where where you're at in Beauregard Parish.
We have a family farm. It's my brother and brother in law and myself, and my son's coming on now. We're just west of De Ridder. I'm going to say about five miles west of town on highway 190. So we farm a corn, soybeans, wheat, and some Milo and a couple of vegetable crops.
You're an oddball in. And I mean this in the most loving way, crop wise. Those don't go down there like you're one of the few, right? Like they grow in some of those.
We are one of the very few. There's a couple more around, but on small, very small acres and sometimes they may not even grow anything. Right? Just depends on how the wind blows. But yeah, we're pretty much it in that area. The closest form that does what we do. Probably two hour drive.
Wow. Yeah. Whenever I went out there, I was out there with you in August. And I was like, man, these days I feel like I'm in. I might as well be in tinsel parish with all this crop mix, and it's just very different down that part of the state. We see rice, we see crawfish, we see sugarcane, a lot of trees.
A lot Of trees.
And then. And then there's oh wait, there's this corn Milo and soybean farm also.
And that would be us. I tell people, if you drive out the if it's a field more than five acres, it's ours. Yeah.
About how many acres do y'all farming? I know you got some cat. Your brother's got some. Yeah.
Croplands, about 1900 acres with the family. My brother does one about 300 head of cattle on about 500 acres.
"A pretty significant size. Family farm there. Yes. What do you, I guess let's let's get into Farm Bureau. So we had this series we're doing called Road to Leadership, and we're we're interviewing folks that are involved in Farm Bureau. You are involved in farm. You have been for a few years now, a lot of years.
Tell me how you got, plugged in the Farm Bureau. How how did that journey for you begin?"
Well, it started I'm, say 1991. I got a call from a fella is retired now, Brian, bro. He was our area field man. And he started talking about Young Foreman ranchers and Achievement award and, you know, on the board.
And were you a parish member yet? I mean, were you you were a member.
"I'm not even sure if I was a member at the time. Really honest with you. I'm, I don't think I was a member, but I was probably 24 years old. I remember Farm Bureau from my parents whenever they went to a convention a couple of times in the 70s. And we always got the t shirt. You know, my mom and dad went to New Orleans.
All I got this stinking t shirt. I remember getting that. But anyway, we talked for a while, and, just, you know, one that's like, okay, why not? Let's try it. And, he had me sign up. I went to the meetings. I signed up the the achievement award, for my first time. Filled out all that, turned it in.
They put me on the board, which was a."
The parish board.
"Parish board. Correct. And, not knowing anything, didn't know what I was supposed to do. Just sat there and listened a lot. And I'm one that's going to listen a whole lot before I say anything. And especially if I don't know anything, I'm not. I'll just make you think I don't know anything. I'll let you know that I don't know anything but open my mouth.
But I just listen. And then I realize who the board members were. Because there was agency managers there. They were part of the board. Everything. I'm just. I'm taking this all in and I'm just listening."
That was a, heck of a way to get involved in the Farm Bureau in in the 90s. What were y'all? We all still had the same crop.
"Same crop, except we had rice also. Okay, we did do rice. You know, my dad came from the Oberlin area and got rice and beans with them, and we always good rice from the 70s, 80s until 90s until they say the farm bill said, grow what you want. We jumped from rice. We got out and didn't look back.
Yeah."
So you're growing a similar crop mix back in the 90s when when Brian approached you and got you plugged in to Farm Bureau, how long did it take you to kind of realize, like, oh, wait, that's an agency manager, that's a board member. These are all these are all my peers. These are farmers. How how long did it take you to come?
"It didn't take long, but there was a learning curve. And I realized even though there was an agency manager there, and I realized, okay, he's got agency manager, let's deal. And that was never told anything about know he's not part of the board. He's there as agency manager to run the agency. Not that took probably within a year to, to learn that.
But it was, like a learning curve but on joyed. It enjoyed my time. I enjoyed, going to the state convention and meeting the people there. That was the key for me, meeting a lot of new and different friends."
I was going to ask you what in the those early years, what was it that I guess kept your interest piqued, I guess, and kept you involved in coming back to those meetings? When you're sitting there listening, trying to figure out who's who.
"Learning things that I may not have known or taken a while to learn. And it's the networking. It's meeting. You know, the farmers, you know that that's how I met Richard, the young former ranchers. You know, Chad Harrington, our good friend, three young farm and ranchers. That's right. And we're still good friends every that just has played along with all the process of where we've gotten to today.
And I've really enjoyed that opportunity to get to know those people. Yeah. It's a lifelong friendships."
That's that's a very common theme that I hear whenever I talk to farmers talk to I mean whether it's you or I mean you name it, any, any farmer I've almost ever come across that's in that Farm Bureau circle. That's almost the sole answer. Like the that's the top answer for sure.
"And for me. And then just go back to where you when you drove to Director out in the middle of nowhere. I'm the only one. So to who do I have that coffee shop talk with? Nobody. It's me. You know, there's no. I can't go down to local coffee shop or dine or eat lunch with them and have coffee.
What's new? What's going on? So Farm Bureau was a way. That was my coffee shop. And to meet the different people, different people throughout the state, the same commodity, like, okay, I grow corn too, you know, it's not just over there in Bogor Parish, which, you know, now I can talk to these people. How are you doing things?
You know, I've learned a lot that meeting people through Farm Bureau."
"That's really a great, testimony, honestly, because that's one of the things when you talk in young farmers and ranchers and you're trying to help sell that and like, hey, man, get plugged in. This is you have a network of other young folks that are trying to raise two year olds and, you know, learn how to farm and run that business.
It gives that that common ground. And you found that also in Farm Bureau and you're not even talking about, you know, the family part of it, but you talk about how do I make my business better and that's that's money back in your pocket. Like, that's that's a huge value. So clearly you've seen value in Farm Bureau.
What? I guess aside from that network and whatnot. What? Where have you seen value come back to your farm or come back to your, your business as a as a farmer?"
"Well, at the, like, Farm Bureau, it's a grass roots organization. And let's go back to last year when I came out to the farm and we had our Speaker Johnson staff, and they listen, they listened to what we were saying. They may not know. You know, they some of them might mean the first time they were on a farm or, you know, in our area, I should say, because, but the his staff, Mr..
No, that came out, you know, he was grew up on the farm. They listened attentively to what we had to say. Myself, my brother, and took it all in. It felt like we were being heard that that moment for me was was a good moment. Because, like I said, we're out where we are.
That's not where they're going to spend their time.
They want to spend their time where all the forms are and talk to those, the group of farmers. And there they were with the individual former out there mom self. Listen to what he had to say."
"Yeah. Let's let's talk about that for a second. So we've mentioned a couple of times, but in August you hosted, some of Mike Johnson's staff, state staff, and even one of the a couple of his folks from DC came down. We had, like, a whole farm tour that day. We started at your farm. We ended up on Richard Fontana's farm.
Got to see some. I mean, your crops. You were getting. I think you were between corn and being harvest, I think. Well done with corn."
Well, we had we had, soybeans in the field still, that's we went to that field with them already. Just showing them how the process was and just pulling back plants and showing them what, what stage they were at. Yeah. And, Yeah.
So that was a really great day for me too, because you said you just said it again. You said the, the phrase and on camera and I used it and I will use it forever until I retire
Farm Bureau, is grassroots. And this the tip of the spear of going in legislatively to get things done. They're slicing through getting everything out the way. Here's what we need to do. Here's what I'd like to see done. And we want to work with you to get it done with our legislators. The Farm Bureau, to me, is the this is so much value for me personally, I feel like I'm being heard.
yes, you are. That's what makes Farm Bureau powerful is you being heard. And I think that's what's really cool about Farm Bureau is we connect a David Smith and Oregon Parrish to these staffers that are policymakers. They're moving and shaking things for us.
And they and that's the key for me. Looks at it, grassroots are getting more grassroots. And they're at my farm. You know you know and then it just works its way up the ladder. And I really enjoy that day. And I told y'all yeah we want to come back. Send them back out again.
We'll be back. We'll be back. What you talking about from the grassroots climbing up. Let's kind of pull out a little bit. So you're you've seen that value for a Farm Bureau value on your farm. And in like regards to the network that you've gotten where you can call other corn farmers or, folks like, hey, how are you marketing your wheat? Like, what what what's going on with this? But furthermore, your parish, how is your parish benefited from being part of that grassroots network? I mean, if you've you've been president for a little while now, right? Like, how have you seen that part parish farm bureau grow and benefit from the work of Farm Bureau?
Yeah. Well, the parish, I mean, just legislative was a lot, you know, just go back to the grassroots. We have our voice out there. The voter voice that was very just started with Andy talking about that. That was very instinctive for us to do that. And we made sure our board members had that to get their voice out. I think our parish has grown quite a bit, just basically go back to the beginning, stepping up and doing what we had to do. To make things better, basically taking control of operation and and go from there.
Yeah. What. I guess I want to finish with this David and I don't I'm not trying to fly through this, but I think this I want to spend some time on this. You were once recruited. You can say that Brian Breaux came to you and said, hey, you're a young farmer. Like, we've got opportunities for you in Farm Bureau to another David Smith who's early in their farming career or maybe advanced in their farming career, and looking at Farm Bureau, saying, why would I get involved in that? Or are already a member but are sitting on the sidelines? What would you say to them? Like what would you how would you sell Farm Bureau to them? How do you.
That's well, that's it. You know, you talked about Brian Breaux came out to me, which was good. I think that we have a very good staff, and our staff is a very good at what they do and complement them all the time. We couldn't do without y'all. But it's up to the me, the member, the farmer who's on the board to reach out to those young people because we're getting to where our board is getting up in age and we need, you know, time. We're going to have to start replacing, you know, whenever they decide to step down or something were to happen. We need to find young ones. But it's up to myself, the young, to get young farmers and ranchers, the board members to go out and reach out and talk to them and say, this is what it has done for us. You know, you have an opportunity to have your voice heard through Farm Bureau. You know, you can you can talk all you want, but Farm Bureau will give you that voice. They will listen to you and you bring what you have a concern about what's on your farm. You seem that may need a change in policy and that come from you. It’s not top down. It's, I hate to say bottom up, but it starts at, you know, with us.
The grassroots organization. That's what makes it, I think so for me, rewarding to work because I know it's not us handing down a bunch of stuff. It's what we're receiving from our farmer members.
That's correct.
It's makes that message, even for me, even easier to go and, like, shout it from the rooftops or get on a podcast or get on Twila and talk about because you, who are affected, who are the one doing the work.
Work, you can do as much as you can, but you have to hear from the members and you have to hear from us at the local level. And sometimes we drop the ball and not do that. But there's other times we stepped up to the occasion and have come through. So that's that's what we have. We have to have that energy to keep going and to push through, and we need to find those younger members, because I think the average age of the farmer we talked about this is 59 and that's my age.
And so I'm like, okay, unless somebody has Challenges here, I'll be challenge the challenges here. And we have to rise up to the occasion, I guess.
How would you sell it? How would you sell it to that? You come across that 30 year old, that 27 year old, that 45 year old. How do you sell getting plugged in the Farm Bureau?
Well, if you're not a member, you know, they should be. And that's what we're going to get out and talk to them. But it is your go back to the voice. Your voice will be heard. You can come through to leadership. There's opportunities at the state level, even local level, that you can be a leader in this organization and you can come through and deliver that and you will it will give you a confidence to keep going. That's what it gave me when I was younger. I said I was didn't know anything. I got the confidence and once I got that a little bit of confidence it's like okay, keep going, keep going, keep going. And to sell it to someone like that, especially someone that's kind of shy or not, I got I was the same way. I was kind of shy, you know, I will talk to you and have my conversations. But I was kind of a wallflower, for lack of a better term. But, you know, you can rise up. It will give you confidence to, to be a leader at any level at the Farm Bureau organization.
That's really great. Well, I'm thankful for leaders like you because you said it. We can do all we want, but until we hear from the grassroots and our farmers and our members, y'all make it easy. And coming out to your farm that day with the those staffers, Mike Johnson's office was it was one of the one of those days. Whenever I come home and I'll call my wife on the way home and I'm like, babe, it was so great, or I get back to the office and I'm fired up. It motivates me. It encourages me to see folks like you and just frankly, like a little corner of the state that, you know, it's quieter, right? There's not a I mean, there's a lot of trees.
A lot of trees.
So it's not as much going on, it feels like. But whenever you see that, like there are, there is stuff going on and we hear that and we see that and we get to tell those stories. It's like, yes, yes. And hearing you like, talk about that is very encouraging to me because we need we need y'all. We need parish offices. We need those grassroots to be strong.
And that's what they say the younger people may not involved need to know I was in your position one day, I was there. I never thought I was going to have a you know, we don't talk to congressmen like this. And and I am. And if I can, if I can do it, it's got some director Louisiana can do it. Anybody can do it, I promise you that. Yeah. It's it's a it's been a whirlwind opportunity for myself. I've enjoyed every minute of it. And I said it's it's open to everybody. Yeah.
Well David thank you so much. That was this is I love this this is fascinating.
I hope you enjoyed it and hope everybody else enjoyed it. And, I enjoyed doing this.
Thank you so much, David. If you want to learn more about that story that we're talking about, where he had some staff out on his farm, I'll link that in the show notes from my story on This Week on Louisiana Agriculture. I'll also link an opportunity, a link that you can go and become a member, and you can click Beauregard Parish if that's where you live and you want to get plugged in and you can become a member in Bernard Parish, and you can get them plugged in. And I'll even put David's cell phone number in the show notes, and you can call him or call him up right now. You sure.
Can do.
That. I'm not going to do that. But we can get you plugged up and get you plugged in. Mr. David. And get that parish, and get wherever you're at. We have people in every parish that are ready to get you plugged in to Farm Bureau and help you to become a better leader. So with all that, thank you, David. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. We'll see you again right here. Next time on the Louisiana Farm Bureau podcast.