I used to wonder if there were really people out there that thought this way. This article was posted in a San Francisco newspaper and just this portion was sent to me in an email:

"To all you hunters that kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed."

It's amazing to me how quickly people forget about the food chain and the fact that animals exist to be a part of it. We still have a lot of educating ahead of us!

I was moving cattle the other day and my wife came with the truck and trailer to pick me up. She shared a quote with me from one of the weekly ag papers that we receive.

It said "Environmentalists are standing in the way of feeding humanity through their opposition to biotechnology, from chemicals, and nitrogen fertilizer... The fact is, we need both productivity and sustainability - and there is no reason we can't have both." This is a quote by Bill Gates at the World Food Prize Symposium in Iowa.

I thought this was a pretty valid quote. I got to thinking though, why is Bill Gates talking Agriculture? So I fired up the handy old computer and Googled the World Food Prize Symposium. To my surprise Bill and Melinda Gates have a foundation to increase farm production worldwide, particularly in Africa and South Asia. I was amazed at what this foundation is involved with. I didn't even know it existed.

It is worth checking out while surfing the internet to see what is happening around the world. It was an eye opener! You can even watch Bill's speech if you have about 20 minutes of spare time during this harvest and prepare for winter season!

In this time of crisis many farmer’s livelihoods are on the line. Everyday farmers are turning on the lights in their barns knowing that they may not be able pay their electric bill. The question of selling the farm pervades dinner conversations, and families are being ripped apart by the stress and anxiety that only seems to mount. Lending institutions are cutting off lines of credit as I write this blog, and some farm families, ironically, are looking into social programs as a means of putting food on their tables. Unfortunately, other farmers have had to make the hard decision to exit the dairy business all together.

It is within this context that dairy farmers are coming together to brainstorm ideas for how we should go about resolving the current dairy crisis. As you can imagine emotion tends to bleed into the conversation and discussion becomes heated at times. However, one thing that everyone seems to agree upon is that something needs to be done.

Over the last several months I have attended several local meetings in order to educate myself more on the challenges and opportunities that exist in this time of uncertainty. Many ideas were presented by dairy farmers and a lot of “how to’s” were discussed. Some farmers offered the suggestion that mandatory supply management was the way to go, as long as the government didn't intervene. Others thought that the market would rebound on it’s own and we should stay the course and see what happens. Still others thought we should revert back to some of the more traditional ways of managing dairy herds.

Other ideas were also presented including a tiered pricing system that would allow a dairy farmer to get a certain price for a predetermined quantity of milk. Once a threshold was met, the dairy farmer would get a lesser amount for any additional milk that they produced. Another interesting idea was that all farmers participating in the government MILC program should be required to sign up for Cooperatives Working Together (CWT). Yet other ideas focused on raising quality standards, reducing imports from other countries, adapting Canada’s quota system, and culling the national dairy herd.

In a recent U.S. Dairy Outlook Brief by Cameron Thraen (State Specialist of Dairy Markets and Policy at The Ohio State University) shrinking the size of the U.S. dairy herd by another 100 to 140 thousand animals seems to be a logical step to getting the dairy sector back on track. One of the biggest reasons for Thraen’s recommendation is because much of our export markets have dried up due to the larger, global economic crisis. People in other countries no longer have the disposable income to purchase milk and milk products from the United States, and as a result there is no outlet for the extra supply from our 9,126 million milk cows.

If interested, click on this link to read more.

I’m not sure if Thraen’s recommendation is the silver bullet to solving the problem, however, it is data that is needed for making the best decision for how to move forward. Right now however the dairy industry is kind of like two freight train engines that have collided on the track. One train is the status quo to keep milk production high. While the other train is the complicated milk pricing system. Until the mess is cleaned up, prices will continue to be volatile and milk production will seemingly follow its same trajectory as small farms become collateral damage and big farms look for more opportunities to grow.

Although I’m not an expert on the dairy industry, nor a dairy farmer, I am concerned about the implications of losing so many of our family farms across our nation. I’m also concerned about the quality of milk and milk products that are being imported from other countries, which often times have less regulations and minimal environmental standards. I’m concerned for our rural communities and the businesses that rely on the success of our farms. As more farms disappear from the countryside, we have less ability to produce food for our country, and ultimately less freedom as we become more dependent on other nations.

I’m currently working on an application for an Ag Promotion Grant from the Minnesota Farm Bureau Foundation. Our county Farm Bureau would like to host our 2nd Breakfast on the Farm in June 2010. We held our first in June 2008.

What started as early morning ramblings in our milking parlor in the fall of 2007, morphed into a perfect opportunity for us to “tell our story” by June 2008.

One of our goals was to communicate the economic value of animal agriculture. With that in mind, I asked for volunteer and monetary support from the business connections we had. I was pleasantly surprised by their reaction, it was usually “when is it?” or “how can I help?”. They were asked to attend wearing their work uniform, we wanted the public to see the people employed by animal agriculture. Our nutritionist, DHIA fieldman, and 2 AI company representatives lead the farm tours. The wife of our DHIA fieldman was the perfect person to run the information table. Our veterinarian wanted to set-up his own booth, and had video of the ultrasound we use to pregnancy check the cows. A local lamb and wool producer asked if she could set-up a booth.

Not only did the local agri-businesses volunteer, but we had the local 4-H clubs keeping the tables clean, and they set-up a petting zoo. The local FFA chapters ran our state’s Farm Bureau Safety Trailer. Our county Dairy Ambassadors made an appearance also. I originally asked them to be on hand to serve milk and cheese; they called me back and asked if they could also do some activities for the kids – wonderful! Our local Sheriff’s Reserve was on hand to assist with parking. We had other people who volunteered to do a shift serving the food. The list could go on and on.

On the big day, we had about 400 people attend. Due to the efforts of our many volunteers, it truly turned into a family event. I remember a lady made a point of coming up to me during the breakfast to thank me, she made a point of telling me that she brought her 2 grandkids from the metro area with her, this was the first time they had been on a farm. After talking with people who had lead tours, and other members of our farm, we had a lot of conversations that day that “told our story”.

Over a year later, I still have people that I have never met before ask me when we are having another Breakfast on the Farm (the last time was in the post office parking lot). We are hoping to add more to it this time by having a scheduled time that we can talk about our farm, the care we give our cows, and what we do to protect the environment. It is my hope that we can reach even more people this time, and “tell our story”.

In the October 25, 2009 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman, an article entitled “Every Dairy Must be a Shining Example” by Kirk Sattazahn caught my eye. As I read the article, I thought about how it applied to our dairy operation.

One quotation in particular made me sit up and take notice “Having a well-managed, sanitary dairy with well cared for animals is no longer the way to get ahead in the industry; it is the ticket that allows you to be in the industry.”

Wow, the more I thought about that, the more I realized how much truth there is to that concept. As an industry, we are starting to come under intense focus by the consumer, and groups who do not want us in business.

Like with anything else in agriculture we are only as strong as our weakest link. Every dairy, no matter its size, has its place. However, there can be no room for the dairies that do not have acceptable animal husbandry and environmental practices.

I believe this concept not only applies to dairy, but to all aspects of agriculture. What can you do to improve your farm or ranch best management practices? This is a question I constantly ask myself, especially after a new anti-agriculture video or article is released.

We need to unite to give consumers a clear message and tell them our stories. One of the strengths of the activist groups is their strong, clear, emotional message. We need to tell our story! We need to unite our voices, and do the same thing.