CONNOQUENESSING TWP — On a 226 acre farm with 80 cattle, elected officials, agricultural industry representatives and farmers discussed policy and the industry’s present and future well being at the local, state and federal level on Friday, Aug. 15.

Local officials at the discussion included Butler County Commissioners Kim Geyer and Leslie Osche; state Sens. Elder Vogel, R-47th, and Scott Hutchinson, R-21st; and state Reps. Marci Mustello, R-11th, Aaron Bernstine, R-8th, Stephenie Scialabba, R-12th, and Emily Kinkead, D-20th. Also present were representatives for U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, and Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and members of the Butler County Farm Bureau leadership.

A big topic of discussion was prevailing wages, with multiple farm bureau members saying there should be an agriculture exemption.

Geyer said the state county commissioners association has spent several years now advocating to adjust the prevailing wage threshold using the Consumer Price Index on an annual basis.

Geyer also said conservation has been a big focus for the county commissioners. She said up to this point, the county’s farmland preservation board is now up to over 80 farms in the process of being preserved, including over 8,800 acres of farmland in Butler County.

“We’re pleased to have received a couple million dollars worth of agricultural conservation assistance program funding from the state that we’ve been pushing out through an application process to farmers for various projects, fencing, pastures, greenways, farm projects for dairy equipment operations,” Geyer said. “Our conservation staff has been very busy.

Farm Bureau leadership highlighted a series of proposed bills currently making their way through the Pennsylvania General Assembly the bureau would like to see legislators support and get passed.

Senate Bill 349 would create uniform statewide requirements for the decommissioning of large-scale solar energy facilities. The bill is awaiting a floor vote in the state House of Representatives.

Bill Duncan, a farm bureau board member, said the bureau is in favor of the decommissioning due to concerns over putting solar farms on prime farmland, and the affects it could have on that land, as opposed to putting solar farms on existing parking lots, former industrial sites or other locations.

Duncan said there’s concern with much of Pennsylvania’s farmland used for corn, soybeans and other crops that “don’t work well with solar panels.”

“The bill is designed to protect landowners and local governments to ensure that solar developers are responsible for the cost and process of removing equipment and restoring land when a facility is no longer used,” Duncan said.

Senate Bill 225 would change eminent domain in Pennsylvania by adding a provision that allows business owners, such as farmers, to be compensated for lost revenue if their property is taken away through eminent domain. The bill is still in committee in the state House of Representatives.

The bill would compensate farmers for any lost revenue regardless of what type of project, such as a road or other infrastructure, the taken land is used for.

Guy Daubenspeck, owner of the family farm the event was held at, said a proposed sewage system in Connoquenessing Township would cut through his land. He claimed to have gotten word it will be at least 10 years until it’s completed and the sewage line would cut diagonally through about 30 acres of cropland, disturbing farm ground that could create “yield drag” and take a long time to recover.

“What they’re thinking now is, and these are people who are engineers, not farmers, they don’t understand crop rotation. They want to cut across three producing fields with this line, which means they would disturb that field for several years to come,” Daubenspeck said.

House Bill 242, which passed the house and awaits consideration in state Senate Finance Committee, would increase a tax credit program for owners who sell agricultural property to beginning farmers up to 5%.

“This is one we are very supportive of. Someone like me could use this young farmer tax credit, it would be important for farmers my age that are probably going to get their farm handed down to them through generations,” farm bureau member William Thiele said.

Farm bureau leaders also said they were happy to see the Sunday Hunting Bill passed after working with the Game Commission to get it across the finish line.

The bureau addressed efforts at the federal level it believes will have a positive impact on the agriculture industry in Butler County and elsewhere.

Bureau members specifically thanked members of Congress who voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4. The bureau cited $66 billion in investment for farm programs, as well as retaining various provision from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that benefit the agricultural industry.

The bureau called on Congress to address a number of priorities that are covered by the existing farm bill and are set to expire on Sept. 30.

The bureau took time to speak out against policies promoted by the “MAHA” movement. MAHA, an abbreviation for Make America Healthy Again, has been promoted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. It has promoted views critical of the use of pesticides and herbicides. Farm bureau leadership said they were disappointed, but are hopeful public officials are backtracking.

Michael Guido, a constituent advocate for McCormick, said the Republican senator is continuing to work with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and other legislators to accomplish a number of policies supporting local agriculture.

“Even though the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed, and the senator considers that a bill that was very helpful to the agriculture community, he also realized there is still a lot more to do, and with the farm bill coming up here toward the end of September, there’s certain matters that’s going to continue to fight for as that bill comes up for consideration,” Guido said.