16th District Florida Congressman Tom Rooney spent time in the state’s Panhandle Monday as Florida Farm Bureau organized the tour for him to be able to see not only various row crops grown in this part of the state, but talk with growers and those involved in the industry to help his knowledge of production agriculture in a part of the state he was not as familiar with. Rooney, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, spent the time in Jackson County as his first stop was to discuss timber production with Michael Dooner, who is President of Southern Forestry Consultants and serves on the Board of Directors for FFBF. I talked with Michael about his message to Rooney.
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The second stop was in a sunflower field owned by J&G Farms where Jeff Pittman, who also serves on the FFB Board of Directors, discussed biofuels, sunflower, peanut, and cotton production. I asked Jeff about the points he brought up with the Congressman.
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Then he spent some time in both peanut and cotton fields grown by Larry Ford of Ford Farms, who told me he enjoyed having the Congressman at his farm as he was able to discuss a variety of points with him.
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And the trip wrapped up with a stop at Southern Cattle Company where the Congressman was able to learn more about the cattle industry in the north part of the state. Afterwards, I talked with him about the experience.
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The tour also included stops at Malone Peanut and Cloverleaf Cotton Gin as I also caught up with FFB’s Adam Basford who explained the purpose of the tour.
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