After repeated years of agricultural trade deficits, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall says it’s time to make developing agricultural trade a priority.

“This is now the third year in a row that exports have dropped while our imports continue to climb,” Duvall wrote in his most recent “Zipline”.  “And while the decline of commodity prices may explain part of the problem, the other issue is that the U.S. has been practically standing still on trade agreements while other countries have moved forward without us. Over the past decade, we have seen very few new trade deals, and our farmers continue to get priced out by countries that have fewer trade barriers.”

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo will be presenting his 2025 State of the State address in the Assembly Chambers of the Nevada Legislature on Wednesday evening (starts at 6 p.m.), January 15^th.  This traditional presentation comes normally a couple of weeks prior to the start of the Nevada Legislative Session, which will be starting February 3, 2025.

“I look forward to sharing the progress my administration has made since my inaugural address and I’m excited to outline by common-sense vision for our state ahead of the upcoming legislative session,” Governor Lombardo said.  “We’ve worked hard to keep taxes low, balance our state budget and make historic investments in our students and workforce.  As we look ahead, I’m eager to build on our progress in education, economic development, healthcare, housing and public safety.”

Please remember that the 2025 Nevada Cattlemen’s Update will be held at various locations across Nevada from Monday, January 13 through Friday, January 17.  Monday’s scheduled session (Jan. 13^th) will be held virtually and will begin at 10 a.m.  In order to participate in this virtual session you will need to register with The schedule meeting locations and times for the in-person sessions include:

Tuesday, Jan.14, 2025 - 5:30 p.m. Fallon Convention Center, Fallon, NV

Wednesday, Jan.15, 2025 - 5:30 p.m. Ely Convention Center, Ely, NV

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025 -12:30 p.m. Great Basin College Theater, Elko, NV

Friday, Jan. 17, 2025 -10 a.m. Humboldt County Extension Office, Winnemucca, NV

This new link provides a more complete outline for what will be covered in the face-to-face sessions around the state.  The cost for the workshop is $20 per ranch.

The Nevada Division of Water Resources have offered their report on regulations covering extensions of time for completion of work and beneficial use.  This report comes from the public comments that the agency received on their October 15, 2024 workshop.  The regulations of Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) 533.500 requires that the Division shall evaluate at least once every three years, the details of what is taking place with extensions of time.

An Urban Ag Conference is being planned for January 28-30, 2025 at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas.  The conference is geared to connect urban farmers together with fellow farmers, experts and agricultural enthusiasts for the purpose of discussing all things related to urban farming.  Another reason for getting urban farmers together is to collect those interested to consider objectives that the group need to pursue in future policy work.

This link provides the form to be used in getting registered.  The conference has a $75 registration fee which covers the pre-conference workshops and the entire schedule for the multiple-day sessions.

A February 20-22, 2025 Small Farm Conference is being planned to be held at the Sparks, Nugget.

We are excited to announce the Nevada Heritage Foundation has opened the Dave Fulstone and Trade School Scholarship applications. 

The Dave Fulstone scholarship award is open to any student graduating from a Nevada high school this year, who is furthering their education in a course of study pertaining to agriculture. The candidate must be from a Nevada Farm Bureau member family. Full Application can be found here.

The Trade School Scholarship is available to any student graduating from a Nevada high school and going into a trade to support agriculture or students already pursuing a trade to support agriculture. Full application can be found here.

Both applications must be postmarked by April 1, 2025, to be considered.