Boening urges Farm Bureau leaders to concentrate on goals

(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas)—Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) President Russell Boening urged leaders gathered at the organization’s 88th annual meeting to concentrate on TFB’s mission to be the Voice of Texas Agriculture.

Boening, first elected as TFB president in 2014, delivered his president’s address on Saturday to about 1,000 Farm Bureau leaders meeting in Corpus Christi.

“If we’re going to advance agriculture’s agenda, if we want to ensure a prosperous agriculture, we’ve got to concentrate on our goals,” Boening said. “We do a lot of different things in Farm Bureau. But it all centers back to that one mission—being the Voice of Texas Agriculture. Everything we do must touch the mission. To be successful, we’ve got to concentrate.”

Boening grows feed grains, cotton, watermelons and wheat, as well as operates a 450-cow dairy with his brother and father, and a beef cattle operation near Floresville.

TFB leaders meet annually to discuss the latest agricultural issues, recognize successes from the year and evaluate the organization’s policies.

“We live in a very controversial time. Another reality is that Farm Bureau and agriculture can’t afford to be fractured now,” Boening said. “Winston Churchill reminded us that ‘You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw rocks at every dog that barks.’ We can’t go off in tangents. We must concentrate on what we need to be doing and what’s important to us.”

Boening said one important issue that continues to be a focus of TFB is the southern border crisis and the need to secure the border. He said the issue is critical to all Texas farmers and ranchers and not just those in the border region. 

He said Farm Bureau has been successful because it’s always been the calm, credible voice of reason. It must continue to have engaged leadership to achieve its mission.

“Leadership is not easy. Sometimes, you’re not going to be popular. It can be uncomfortable,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a specific issue or commodity that you are not directly involved in—the strength of our organization is that we get the entire organization behind an issue, and we speak with one voice.”

For more information about TFB’s 88th annual meeting, visit texasfarmbureau.org/annualmeeting.