Return to April 2023 Dairy Dispatch
Spring marks a busy time on the dairy and at the Texas Capitol
By Darren Turley, TAD Executive Director
This time of year always reminds me how it seemed like things got much busier around the dairy with spring’s arrival.
Growing up on my parents’ dairy, spring meant we were able to let the cows have fresh green grass by grazing wheat, oats or ryegrass. Later in life, we green-chopped the spring crops, just like mowing your yard, and fed the fresh cut greens to the cows. Then came the planting of summer crops and trying to capture the spring rains to get those crops off to a good start. Occasionally, this also included moving irrigation piping to supplement water for these crops when Mother Nature was slow to provide much needed moisture.
I may no longer run a dairy, but it still feels very much the same on the odd numbered years when the Texas Legislature is in session. When the session starts in January, it doesn’t move very fast, but all of the sudden it develops into the hectic pace at which we’re at now. Suddenly the adjournment date of May 29 seems right around the corner, with a lot of bills left to consider. Days at the Capitol are getting longer, with committee hearings running late into the night (or into the early morning hours), and your Texas Association of Dairymen governmental relations team is spending long hours and logging a lot of shoe leather under the dome.
Time is now finite for legislators’ issues of interest, and bill passage deadlines are looming on the calendar. First up: May 8 is the last day that House Committees can report out House bills. Those still in a House committee will either be dead, or legislators will scramble to attach them as amendments to other legislation in the hopes of keeping them alive – think of it as the irrigation I mentioned to keep crops alive.
Just like spring impacts the dairy, spring at the Capitol means the new crop of legislation is starting to sprout, and TAD’s governmental relations team is working diligently to nurture the good legislation through the system, or to weed out the “bad bills” so that they don’t mature into bad policy for the Texas dairy industry.
There always seems to be more to do than days to get things done in April at the state capitol. In just the first half of this month, TAD has participated in three committee hearings, cohosted and attended a legislative dinner, and watched several votes on two of our priority bills – see our April governmental relations report for more details.
Our TAD Board of Directors also visited Austin in early April – its second trip to the Capitol this legislative session. Our Board members are very engaged in policy discussions and activity at the Capitol, and they have used the trips to Austin to visit with legislators and sign up in support of TAD bills at committee hearings. This means time taken from the farm, but they are dedicated to making a difference for their fellow dairy producers. A massive thank you to our Board – you can find all their names here. If you know them, please tell them how much you appreciate their commitment.