When a Johnson County farm advisor stood up to tell more than 300 Missouri farmers about controlling hog cholera through anti-hog cholera campaigns, he probably wasn't aware the same convention would be repeated annually for a century.
The first meeting of the Missouri Association of County Farm Bureaus - changed to the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation three years later - opened March 24-25, 1915, in Slater with delegates from 10 of the state's then 13 county farm bureaus to address "the need for a complete and far-reaching organization ... that the greatest good may be done," according to its first policies.
Missouri Farm Bureau (MFB), headquartered in Jefferson City, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of that first meeting Wednesday and commemorated the marker with a centennial luncheon last week.
"Missouri Farm Bureau is justifiably proud of our 100-year history," said current MFB President Blake Hurst in a column he penned for the occasion. "Our history is a wonderful story of neighbors working together to make their communities and industry better."
The organization has worked to help and unite farmers through efforts like insurance, legislative lobbying and support of the University of Missouri Extension service over those 100 years.
Now the largest insurance provider for farmers and ranchers in the state, MFB has helped members obtain automobile, health and life insurance since the 1920s. The organization created its own Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company of Missouri in 1946 and, later, its own health insurance brokerage company.
"Farm Bureau was organized as a part of the "County Agent Movement,' an endeavor to help farmers be better at their craft. A century later, we are still focused on helping farmers in their challenging profession," Hurst said. "Delegates to that 1915 meeting not only supported growth of what we know now as the Extension Service, but also adopted policy on farm credit. If you look at our Missouri Farm Bureau policy book today, you will see sections covering farm credit and the University of Missouri Extension Service."
County farm bureaus allowed the Extension Service to disseminate information from land-grant universities - like improved farm production methods and nutrition - to the people who could benefit from it, according to MFB information. MFB also successfully lobbied Missouri's General Assembly to provide more funding to the Extension Service, as well as providing financial support to county Extension programs through 1955.
That type of legislative presence has been a constant for MFB from the beginning - with an employee covering legislative issues at the Capitol just three years after MFB formed. The first major legislative move was to support a successful $60 million transportation bond to improve rural roads in 1921. The FARM-PAC formed in 1976, allowing MFB to officially endorse candidates who agreed with the organization's policies. Most recently, MFB backed the Right to Farm Amendment No. 1, which passed in 2014.
Missouri Farm Bureau contributed information to this article.