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Texas Agriculture Archive

January 3, 2003

A new year, a new president

Kenneth Dierschke elected to lead Texas Farm Bureau...

Newly elected Texas Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke says he will work hard to hold the trust of the Texas Farm Bureau membership. He also recalls the influence of former TFB President Donald Patman, whom he credits as a mentor for several years: "If I can do just half the good he's done, I'll think I'll have done a fair job."

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Kenneth Dierschke's love of agriculture boils down to the "smell" thing.

The strong, musky odor of sandy clay loam soil and its promise to grow food and fiber has kept this San Angelo producer motivated through the unpredictable ups and downs of full-time farming since 1974. Yes, the freedom and independence farming offers are important to Dierschke, who will turn 61 in March. But it's the aroma of agriculture that draws him back to the tractor seat at spring planting time year after year.

"The biggest reward is just the smell of freshly turned soil, and knowing there's going to be a new day," this cotton and grain farmer from Wall, east of San Angelo, says of the profession he loves.

A new day, too, has dawned for Texas Farm Bureau as Dierschke was elected president of the state's largest farm organization during its recent annual meeting in Corpus Christi.

Standing six foot, four inches tall, Dierschke's a big man who has big ideas as he assumes leadership of Texas Farm Bureau. It's a role he's been preparing for all of his life.

FB background

The importance of Farm Bureau to agriculture dawned on Dierschke when he was just 18. Fresh out of high school, young Dierschke attended a Farm Bureau membership meeting in Waco with his dad, Norman, who had been on the Tom Green County Farm Bureau Board for several years.

"I went to Waco and I think some of the things I heard then were very instrumental in my feeling about Farm Bureau," Dierschke says.

That was in the late spring of 1960. Forty-three years later, Dierschke recalls his father's influence in shaping his participation in the state's largest farm organization: "When I came back into farming, he said ,'You need to be involved in Farm Bureau. They're a very good tool. If you want somebody else to make your decisions for you, go farm and don't get involved. But if you want to influence anything that happens as far as your occupation, you better get involved with Farm Bureau, because they're the voice of agriculture.'"

It was advice that has been central to Dierschke's philosophy throughout his many years of Farm Bureau involvement. He first served on the Tom Green County Farm Bureau board in 1975 and was immediately elected president.

"Those were some very trying times," Dierschke says, recalling the clashes between philosophies of the American Ag Movement and Farm Bureau. "There was a movement out there to do some things and Farm Bureau was kind of on the opposite side of that. We had to get out and defend our position. And I think that made us stronger."

Dierschke was on the first TFB National Affairs trip to Washington in the 1970s where he found the importance of becoming politically active.

He was later called by former TFB President S.M. True to serve on the Blue Ribbon Goals Committee, where the organization was studied and a number of changes made.

"I was on the Blue Ribbon Goals Committee when AGFUND was established," Dierschke says of Farm Bureau's political action arm, noting the involvement of other Farm Bureau leaders including former TFB president and present American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman, current State Director Don Smith, and former State Directors, Bob Turner, Jimmy Ray Adams and Dan Pustejovsky. "We thought it was very important to become involved in the legislative process. We were getting an audience with legislators but we weren't being heard. Now I think we have a much better rapport with all the legislature."

Dierschke became state director for District 6 in 1996, when former state director Bill Tullos retired. He became vice president of Texas Farm Bureau in December, 2000.

Challenges, opportunities

Dierschke now is looking forward to addressing the challenges and opportunities for agriculture as leader of the organization that has been pivotal in his life.

First order of business for Farm Bureau will be protecting agriculture's needs as the state legislature meets later this month to address a ballooning state deficit.

"Sales tax exemptions for feed, seed and fertilizer are very important to agriculture," Dierschke says, noting that farmers and ranchers are mostly price takers and can't pass on their costs. "Ag use exemptions on our farmland is very important. That's another item. Without that, there's no way there would be any farmers and ranchers left."

Water, too, will be one of the many state issues facing the organization.

"We passed some resolutions at the state level this year that will probably become legislation," Dierschke says, noting the importance of water to both rural and urban areas. "The resolutions are well thought out and we'll be promoting them and try to get them into law."

Topping the agenda at the national level will be killing, once and for all, the federal estate tax, and the formation of a national energy program.

Through it all, Dierschke recognizes the challenges are great. But he urges producers to keep the faith.

"Just don't ever give up," he says. "I know it's difficult sometimes after you've had a four or five year drought."

And don't ever forget the smell and the promise of freshly-plowed earth, he urges: "There will always be a tomorrow. Just keep looking forward to tomorrow and do the best you can today."