A group of North Dakota dairy and pork producers and others have united to try to save a law being referred to voters that would allow non-family corporations to own dairies and swine operations by relaxing an 83-year-old state law.
Secretary of State Al Jaeger announced Tuesday that petition sponsors led by the North Dakota Farmers Union, which opposes the law, gathered 19,354 valid signatures to put it on the June 2016 ballot. They needed 13,452 signatures and turned in more than 21,000 last month.
The referendum delays the law’s Aug. 1 effective date until after the June 14 vote.
“This is great news. The majority of North Dakotans believe that farmland ownership and agricultural production is best left in the hands of family farmers and ranchers, not corporations,” NDFU President Mark Watne said in an emailed statement.
The coalition supporting the law, Yes for Dairies and Pork Producers, consists of 25 to 30 people, mostly dairy and pork producers but also some industry groups including the North Dakota Corn Growers Association, said state Sen. Joe Miller, R-Park River, who co-sponsored Senate Bill 2351, nicknamed the “ham-and-cheese” bill.
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Miller said members will soon begin raising money for a campaign in support of the law, which would lift the current anti-corporate farming law approved by North Dakota voters in 1932 to allow a non-family corporation or limited liability company to own a dairy or swine facility with at least 50 cows or 500 swine on up to 640 acres.
“It’s a lot easier to cast doubt and get somebody to vote no than it will be to get them to vote yes,” Miller said. “It’s going to be tough and it’s going to be hard to raise money, but I think we’re up to the challenge.”
Supporters of the law passed in March say it will give the state’s dwindling dairy and swine industries access to much-needed capital to start new operations and expand existing ones.
“There’s few banks that want to deal with a dairy or swine operation,” Miller said. “You need to have some kind of partner that has money, or a group of partners or farmers.”
The number of dairy cows in North Dakota dropped from about 40,000 in 2002 to 16,000 last year, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. During that same time, neighboring South Dakota, which has allowed corporate dairy ownership since 2008, saw dairy cow numbers increase from 86,000 to 97,000 – though the NDFU has pointed out that the number of dairy farms in South Dakota has continued to decline.
Hog numbers in North Dakota shrank from 245,000 head in 1994 to 138,000 last year.
Miller said the law also would benefit grain farmers who could sell their feed grains directly to dairy and hog facilities without suffering discounts for quality and basis at the elevator.
He said he’s already heard rumors of interested investors holding off until after the vote. North Dakota is one of nine states with anti-corporate farming laws and the only one with no livestock exemptions.
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“Every day is just more dollars going out of the state because of the loss of jobs and the loss of revenue from the basis on our corn and soybean prices,” he said.
Coalition member Kenton Holle, a third-generation dairy farmer who runs the 650-head Northern Lights Dairy 14 miles south of Mandan, said the law will make North Dakota more attractive to dairies looking to relocate from other states and will make it easier to pass down operations to family members such as his son with four children. The current law allows for family corporations and LLCs, but only up to 15 related shareholders.
“I’m not suggesting that the whole thing is opened up for large corporate farms. That’s not the intent at all,” he said, while taking a break from packing silage.
The NDFU, the state’s largest farm organization with more than 40,900 family memberships, spent more than $41,000 on the referendum effort, disclosure reports show.
North Dakota voters have referred actions of the state Legislature 74 times since a constitutional amendment in 1914 established the process, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The most recent referendum was in June 2012, when 67 percent of voters approved legislative action allowing the University of North Dakota to drop its Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.
