By Betty Jo Gigot, Publisher

Just because they call it the Department of Agriculture doesn’t necessarily mean the people working there have much background with “real stuff” like corn, wheat and cattle.

That fact makes it refreshing that the current administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), Jim Link, wears a Stetson and comes from down country.

At the Pleasure of the President
Jim Link had no idea that his education and work experience would eventually lead him to receive a summons for service from the White House. Link was raised in Chase County, Kan., and has a bachelor’s degree in business with minors in economics and psychology from Emporia State University. He received his MBA and a Certificate of Ranch Management from Texas Christian University (TCU). “Back then, I was just a cowboy who was trying to figure out how to make a living,” he said.

Link managed trust and estate property for the El Paso National Bank before becoming assistant vice president and manager of the ranch management department at Oppenheimer Industries, Inc., in Kansas City, Mo. There he managed nine client-owned ranches located in six different states, encompassing over 1 million acres, 18,500 cows and several thousand stocker cattle.

He had been serving as director of the Ranch Management Program at TCU for almost 15 years when the White House called, asking if he would be interested in working for the USDA.“I had been involved in some of the ag forums back in Washington, D.C., dealing with BSE issues,” Link explained.

After a visit to the USDA, sending in a resume and inquiring about what kind of job might be in play, Link was given 45 days to get his affairs in order and get himself to Washington.

In kind of a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” moment, Link tells about arriving at the building, introducing himself and being escorted to his new office. “One of the first people I met asked me who I planned to lobby for when this appointment was over,” Link said. “He was surprised when I told him I would be going back to the ranch.”

Just a red-white-and-blue-flag-waving kind of guy
Now on weekdays, Link leaves his small basement apartment to drive up Route 66, across the Roosevelt Bridge and into the city. He says his heart still beats faster when that first glimpse of the Washington Monument comes into view. “I really am just a red-white-and-blue-flag-waving type of guy,” Link said.

“The post had been empty for a while and morale was very bad in the P&S part of GIPSA,” Link said of his early days.

His assignment was to do what he thought needed to be done so Link set about modernizing and establishing standard practices for the livestock sides of the program. He is proud of what he and his team have been able to accomplish, although he is aware that he will not see it all to completion. There are over 850 people in the department with 100 located at the Washington, D.C., headquarters and the rest stationed across the country, literally from coast to coast and boarder to boarder.

“The hardest thing to get used to was not being able to control my own calendar,” Link said. He has a personal secretary and a confidential assistant who put together his schedule.

“The first year, it was set up on half-hour increments. I had no idea how complicated and complex the job would be,” he said.

Some of his experiences have been a bit bizarre. He laughed about getting a phone call about a ship that couldn’t be unloaded in a country he had never even heard of. And finding that, during a trade meeting, a Mexican interpreter didn’t realize Link understood enough Spanish to know the interpreter was not accurately conveying what he was saying.

The grain side of the equation was reasonably new to Link, as was the realization of the vast amounts of money involved. “One load of soybeans going through a port can be 68,000 metric tons,” Link said. “Can you imagine 30 million dollars on one ship?”

One of the first situations he had to deal with after going to Washington was on genetically modified rice. It turned out to be a really big deal with almost every agency in the department involved, along with several other agencies. “I learned more about rice that I would have thought possible,” Link said.

He was amused by the reaction of auction barn owners across the Midwest when he did some on-site visits. When the administrator for the P&S steps in the door of a salebarn, everyone tends to get nervous, even if he’s just there to observe. Only the first salebarn on his tour was surprised, though. From then on, the barn operators called ahead to let the next barn know he was coming. Link was surprised with the number of finished cattle that go through the auction barns in that part of the country.

Meanwhile two years have gone by quickly for Link, and he knows that you can only do so much, but it has been a positive experience.

“I really have enjoyed the challenges and I like organizing projects, so that has worked well,” Link said. But when it comes to the dealing with lobbyists, he feels his country roots have come in handy. “You can’t fool an old fooler,” he said.