Farm Business - General

3 Ways To Protect Your Ag Business from Cybersecurity Threats

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:59:14 GMT

Agriculture is in the bull’s-eye for threat actors trying to access business information. But as Chris Sherman says: “Our keys in the visor mentality” has many farmers trusting too much and putting too much at risk.

Sherman is the founder of Tech Support Farm, an IT and cybersecurity consulting business who works with farmers, co-ops, custom harvesters and more ag businesses to shore up their systems, lock down their sensitive information and stay attuned to emerging risks.

The FBI has listed agriculture as a critical infrastructure for cybersecurity.

So where do most farmers leave themselves vulnerable to hackers? Sherman shares these:

1. Email

Sherman points to email as the No. 1 priority for farmers on where to start in taking cybersecurity seriously.

“The amount of information and data we are sending via email leaves every farmer at risk — from our FSA staff, agronomists, banks and more,” he says. “Emails can be intercepted, all contents can be exposed, and no one is the wiser. It would be like a rural mail carrier, and when he drops the mail someone stands there opening it, reading it and closing the envelope and putting it back in the mailbox. Foolhardy to be using the free email services such as Gmail, Yahoo and others.”

Here are four steps to shore up your email:

Get a domain
Get a commercial email provider
Get a filtration software (which monitors what comes in)
Get a DMARC compliance service (which manages outbound emails, so no one spoofs you and encryption is done properly)

As an example of why this should be prioritized, Sherman tells the story of a farm business working on a land deal.

“A dad and son were just about ready to sign, and the dad got an email from the bank, at least it appeared to be from the bank, but it was a spoof encouraging them to e-sign,” he says. “And everyone signed, and it drained the bank accounts and blew up the deal.”

2. Be aware of your personal information shared, and embrace “herd immunity”

All to often, farmers don’t have passcodes on their phones.

“That’s like leaving your credit card at the bar,” Sherman says. “For some reason in agriculture we are running multimillion dollar businesses on residential-grade infrastructure.”

He says by the nature of the business, enrolling in government programs, immigration workforce programs (such as H-2A) and more, make your address, phone number and email readily accessible.

“It’s a wealth of opportunity for threat actors. We can’t leave our doors and windows open,” Sherman says. “So you have to protect yourself, and encourage your friends, neighbors and business partners to do the same. If we are all reducing our individual risk, we are reducing the overall risk.”

3. Use high-quality passwords

Sherman says good passwords are must-have on all your accounts, including your Wi-Fi.

“Too often, farmers have their password just be a duplicate of the network name. Or if a farmer’s favorite tractor is a John Deere 4450, 4450 is his pin for everything,” he says. “When we are on the internet, it’s like being in the big city, and you have to act accordingly.”

Could EPA Decision Signal The Beginning Of The End For DEF?

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 16:28:35 GMT

Mike Berdo has strong words to describe his ongoing experiences using machinery requiring DEF ( Diesel Exhaust Fluid ) on his southeast Iowa farm.

“It has been an absolute nightmare, at least for us. Mechanics make trip after trip to do little stuff that’s very expensive to fix,” said Berdo, who produces grain and beef cattle near Washington. “We had planting delays last spring … little stuff that came from it and just seemed like [an issue to deal with] day after day.”

The ongoing mechanical issues and costs are why Berdo said he is “all for” EPA rescinding the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. The Finding has enabled the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act and, in recent years, and launch requirements such as the use of DEF systems in diesel-powered engines.

EPA Draws A Line In The Sand
On Tuesday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin released a proposal to rescind the 2009 Finding.

If finalized, the proposal would remove all greenhouse gas standards for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and heavy-duty engines, EPA said in a follow-up press release .

The move would start with EPA’s first greenhouse gas standard set in 2010 for light-duty vehicles and those set in 2011 for medium-duty vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles and engines.

EPA said the proposal is expected to “save Americans $54 billion in costs annually through the repeal of all greenhouse gas standards, including the Biden EPA’s electric vehicle mandate, under conservative economic forecasts.”

Zeldin made the announcement to rescind the Finding in Indiana, alongside Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and called it the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.

What The Decision Could Mean To Farmers
Specific to U.S. farmers, the proposal could potentially result in DEF systems no longer being included on new tractors and other heavy equipment using diesel-powered engines, said Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk, during a Farmer Forum discussion on Wednesday.

South Dakota farmer Ryan Wagner told Flory he has a wait-and-see perspective on how or whether the EPA proposal goes into effect. He anticipates that reversing the Finding will take considerable time and effort for EPA to implement.

“It took a long time with the interim engines and things to get into full DEF in the first place,” Wagner said. “I don’t know how long it would take to unwind all that and how quickly manufacturing will just take those systems right off, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”

To Wagner’s point, here’s a brief look back at some timing showing when DEF rolled out in agriculture and nonroad equipment and became mandatory . The regulations were phased in over several years based on the type of equipment and engine size:

2008: DEF became required for all new diesel engines with engine sizes over 750 horsepower.

2011: the regulations expanded to include equipment with engine sizes between 175-750 horsepower.

By 2015, all new nonroad diesel engines were required to be Tier 4 compliant and utilize DEF, regardless of equipment type or engine size.

As Wagner considers DEF, he noted its use in diesel engines has provided him with one benefit: “On the plus side, I do like that they don’t make the walls of my shop black. That’s been nice,” he said. “You can run them inside for a short time and not not feel like you’re breathing in a bunch of soot and making everything black.”

Expect Legal Challenges To EPA Decision
A number of environmental groups have already blasted the move by EPA, saying it spells the end of the road for U.S. action against climate change, according to an online article by Reuters .

Legal challenges from various environmental groups, states and lawyers are likely ahead.

That fact wasn’t lost on Flory and the Farmer Forum participants during the AgriTalk discussion on Wednesday.

“If this proposal is finalized, it’s going to start a lot of conversations … and the dominoes are going to start to fall, something that we need to keep track of, no doubt,” Flory said. You can hear the complete Farmer Forum discussion on AgriTalk here:

EPA will initiate a public comment period to solicit input. Further information on the public comment process and instructions for participation will be published in the Federal Register and on the EPA website .

Your next read: Right To Repair Granted? John Deere Launches Digital Self-Repair Tool for $195 Per Tractor

The Best Time to Start Your Retirement Plan

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 21:07:56 GMT

Farmers historically have struggled to invest money in anything other than their farm operation. However, by investing in retirement plans including an IRA, a farmer can more easily save up for retirement and make the transfer to the next generation much easier.

The power of compounding is the financial seventh wonder of the world. Based on your annual investment return, you can determine how quickly your investment will double by dividing it into 72. For example, if you average 3% on your money, it will take 24 years to double. However, if you can earn 8%, then it only takes nine years.

The younger you start to invest, even small sums, the more money you will have at retirement. Let’s compare the results of placing $10,000 into a retirement account at either age 20 or 40.

The farmer who does this at age 40 and then pulls the money out at age 70 will have $100,627. However, the farmer who starts at age 20 will have $469,016, and if they can earn 10%, will have $1,173,909.

The cost of maintaining a solo 401k plan is very inexpensive and married couples can set aside at least $14,000 into an IRA each year. The fees on those accounts are minimal and you can make sure to invest in low-cost ETFs or mutual funds. High-cost funds could quickly reduce your returns substantially.

Most of the earnings will result in the last 10 years, so the sooner you get started, the more funds you will accumulate.

Risk Protection Benefits
There’s another big reason to make this investment. Funds in a retirement plan are fully exempt from bankruptcy, and we all know farming can be a very risky business. The full exemption does not apply to IRAs, but the amount that is exempt is fairly large.

This amount gets updated every three years. On April 1, 2025, the exemption amount was raised from $1,512,350 to $1,711.975 through March 31, 2028.

Most farmers have IRAs less than this amount, so it’s likely they will have a full exclusion if bankruptcy was to occur. Amounts rolled over from a 401k plan or other retirement account, including earnings associated on that account, are fully exempt.

In some states, IRAs are fully exempt or at least partially exempt.

The bottom line is to invest in an IRA or retirement plan. I hope you never need the protection, but it is a good insurance policy.

Chinese Scientist Accused Of Smuggling ‘Potential Agroterrorism Weapon’ Into the U.S.

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:39:56 GMT

Two Chinese nationals have been charged with trying to smuggle a fungus, Fusarium graminearum, into the United States.

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements and visa fraud.

The charges against the pair were unsealed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, on Tuesday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office references Fusarium graminearum online as a “dangerous biological pathogen … which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon.”

Fusarium graminearum causes significant diseases in a number of U.S.-grown food crops, including corn, wheat, barley, soybeans and rice.

Diseases caused include Fusarium head blight (scab) in wheat, and two corn diseases Gibberella ear rot and Gibberella stalk rot , which can lower yield and feed quality of silage corn, according to the Crop Protection Network, a partnership of land grant universities.

Toxins the fungus produces can cause vomiting, liver damage, reproductive defects and mycotoxin-induced immunosuppression in humans and livestock, including cattle, hogs, horses and poultry.

One Scientist Arrested, One Returned To China
The 25-page criminal complaint alleges Liu tried to smuggle the fungus through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DMA) in July 2024, so he could study it at a University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend, Yunqing Jian, worked at the time.

Jian had been living in the U.S. and working at the university laboratory since 2022.

The roots of the case involving Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, stretch back to March 2024. That is when Liu applied for a B2 tourist visa to enter the U.S.

(The Detroit News and Sanilac County Jail)

According to the criminal complaint, Jian and Liu had both previously conducted work on the fungus in China.

Officials further allege Jian received funding from the Chinese government for her research on the pathogen in China. They also claim she is a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

Jian, who was arrested by the FBI, remains in federal custody. On Thursday, her detention hearing was adjourned until 1 p.m. June 13 to allow time for a new defense attorney to get up to speed.

Liu was sent back to China last year after changing his story during an interrogation at the Detroit airport about red plant material discovered in a wad of tissues in his backpack, the FBI says.

The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with China, which makes Liu’s arrest unlikely unless he returns.

In a statement released on June 3, the University of Michigan said it condemns “any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission.”

“It is important to note that the university has received no funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals,” the university added. “We have and will continue to cooperate with federal law enforcement in its ongoing investigation and prosecution.”

In a statement released on June 3, the University of Michigan said it condemns “any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission.”

(Michigan News Source)

Boyfriend Spills Intentions To Investigators
An article in The Detroit News said Liu told investigators during an interrogation at the Detroit airport he planned to clone the different strains and make additional samples if the experiments on the reddish plant material failed, according to the government.

“Liu stated that he intentionally hid the samples in his backpack because he knew there were restrictions on the importation of the materials,” an FBI agent wrote. “Liu confirmed that he had intentionally put the samples in a wad of tissues so CBP officers would be less likely to find and confiscate them, and he could continue his research in the United States.”

Liu told investigators he planned on using UM’s Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction Laboratory to research the biological materials, the FBI agent wrote.

“Liu stated that, while he was in the United States, he would have free access to the laboratory at the University of Michigan on some days, and that other days his girlfriend would give him access to the laboratory to conduct his research,” The Detroit News article reported.

Before preventing Liu from entering the U.S. and sending him back to China, the investigators found messages between the couple that indicate Jian previously smuggled biological material into the U.S., the FBI agent wrote.

The messages are from August 2022 and discuss smuggling seeds into the U.S.

Lawmakers Respond To The Criminal Complaint
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that the Justice Department “has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors who would do us harm.”

“Thanks to the hard work of our excellent DOJ attorneys, this defendant — who clandestinely attempted to bring a destructive substance into the United States — will face years behind bars,” the attorney general says.

“I can confirm that the FBI arrested a Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a dangerous biological pathogen into the country,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday.

(FBI)

FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the arrest of Jian late Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

“This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences … putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.”

U.S. Custom and Border Protection, Director of Field Operations Marty C. Raybon says the criminal charges against Jian and Liu are indicative of CBP’s critical role in protecting the American people from biological threats that could devastate its agricultural economy and cause harm to humans.

“This was a complex investigation involving CBP offices from across the country, alongside our federal partners,” says Raybon in a prepared statement. “I’m grateful for their tireless efforts, ensuring our borders remain secure from all types of threats while safeguarding America’s national security interests.”

Your next read: Surveillance State: Game Wardens Sued for Secret Private Land Intrusions in Alabama

7 Health Insurance Solutions for the Self-Employed

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:50:40 GMT

If there is anything that could derail your business literally overnight, it’s a serious injury or illness in your family.

That’s why health insurance is an absolutely critical risk management tool, even though the cost of the insurance itself can also strain your business. While it probably won’t cover every medical expense for your family, it can protect you from the catastrophic effects of a major health event.

The majority of farm families agree with that sentiment, according to a 2017 study by HIREDnAG. The survey of nearly 1,000 farm families in 10 rural states found more than 75% of the respondents viewed health insurance as an essential risk management tool.

At the same time, however, many farm families still roll the dice by going without health insurance. The most recent USDA data on the subject shows more than 10% of U.S. farm households do not have health insurance, which is slightly higher than the general public. But even more telling is the type of farms that forgo it the most: dairy farms. They made up more than 40% of all farm households without health insurance, which is more than double any other type of farming enterprise.

Options to Cover Your Family

For those who are insured, many farm families rely on off-farm employment to secure health insurance — about 56% according to the USDA data. But what options are available for the rest of the families or individuals who wish to purchase their own coverage? Penn State University Extension’s Maureen Ittig, family well-being educator, and Ginger Fenton, dairy educator, recently presented a webinar where they shared the following suggestions:

Health Insurance Marketplace. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 created the federal Health Insurance Marketplace. Americans who do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance can secure coverage through the marketplace, which provides credits for factors like income and family size. A handy calculator to estimate credits and plan costs can be found here . All ACA-compliant plans must cover 10 categories of services that includes things like prescriptions, pediatric care and emergency room services. Open enrollment for ACA plans is usually in the fall, but special circumstances can allow for enrollment throughout the year.
Medicaid/CHIP plans. Lower-income families may qualify for Medicaid and/or Children’s Health Insurance Program plans. These plans vary by state. They typically are less costly to families and may provide additional services, like dental and vision coverage, compared to ACA plans.
Association-based plans. Farm organizations and cooperatives may offer group plans to farmer-members. These organizations also offer guidance to help farm families understand the “language” of health insurance and aid in decision making.
HSAs. Using a Health Savings Account (HSA) is a popular way for farmers to maximize their health insurance dollars. HSAs are actual bank accounts that families fund annually and can be used to cover qualified health expenses. Any dollars not used can remain in the account for expenses incurred later on and even invested into higher-yielding financial funds. To access an HSA, the insured must have a High Deductible Health Plan, which can be accessed via insurance brokers, association-based plans, or the Health Insurance Marketplace. HSAs offer the “triple-treat” tax advantages of pre-tax contributions, tax-free growth and no tax on qualified withdrawals.
Skinny and gap plans. Some states allow for skinny plans that have lower premiums, largely because they are not required to offer the ACA-required 10 categories of services, like allowing entry with pre-existing conditions or maternity coverage. They also may have lifetime payout limits. Gap plans offer short-term, emergency coverage in some states. After 180 days, the insured must enroll for new coverage. They also may have exclusions and lifetime limits.
Armed forces health insurance. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, about 9% of U.S farmers are veterans. They and their families are usually eligible for TRICARE or Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health insurance programs.
Healthcare sharing ministries. Several faith-based group health coverage ministries are available that share healthcare costs among their members. This is not health insurance, but many users find they are able to negotiate rates with providers similar to discounts offered to insurance companies. Enrollment may require specific belief systems and lifestyle choices (no tobacco or illegal drug use, for example). Users pay monthly fees similar to health insurance premiums. When they incur an expense, they pay their bills up front and then submit them for reimbursement.

The Penn State experts advised looking not only at costs, but also at the services your family might need, such as maternity and mental health coverage.

“The array of options available hopefully will allow you to pick an option that works best for you, your budget and your values,” Fenton notes.

Your Next Read:
A Promising Horizon for U.S. Dairy

Managing Heifer Inventories to Maintain Herd Size

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:15:45 GMT

Market costs for replacements are at an all-time high, ranging between $3,000 and $4,000 per head. Iowa State University Extension calculated heifer raising costs in 2024 to be just over $2,600 for 24 months. The difference in the expenses provides a financial opportunity for dairy farms that can raise their own replacements. Heifer inventories need to ensure that herd size is maintained. The amount of heifers needed on the dairy to maintain herd size is highly impacted by age at first calving and herd culling rates.

Age at First Calving

Heifers are unique to the farm in that they are the future of the dairy farm but do not provide income to the farm until they have their first calf. The optimal first calving age ranges between 22 and 24 months. According to Iowa State estimates, reducing the age at first calving by a month will save the dairy $93 per heifer. However, research has shown that calving too early (< 21 months) would hurt profitability in the long run because heifers would not reach their full milk production potential.

Proper growth rates are extremely important to reach optimal age at first calving. Body weight determines when heifers reach puberty, around 45 to 50% of mature weight. Too low of average daily gain can delay puberty, which then will have a snowball effect by delaying time to first breeding and age at first calving.

Delaying the age at first calving costs money and increases the heifer inventory needed to maintain herd size. A herd of 100 milking cows needs 5 to 6 more additional heifers for every two-month increase of age at first calving when their culling rate is 30%.

Culling Rate

To no surprise, the rate at which animals leave the herd has a significant impact on the replacement inventory. A herd of 100 milking cows with an age of first calving of 24 months needs an additional 4 to 5 heifers with every 2% increase in culling rate. Therefore, increasing the culling rate from 22% to 32% would require 22 additional heifers to keep the milking herd size at 100.

High market prices for heifers can significantly increase farm income for farms with excessive replacements. However, heifer inventories should be monitored closely. Small changes in culling rate and age at first calving significantly impact the number of replacements needed.

Your Next Read: The 5 Big Market Trends Dairy Farmers Need to Keep Their Eye on this Year

Successful CEOs Do These 4 Things

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 16:13:23 GMT

I’ve had the privilege to sit down with many incredible leaders, including the CEOs and high-level managers of dairy farms and dairy businesses. Each one is like a case study on success, an opportunity to listen in for the common threads of the characteristics, habits and mindsets of those who are leading operations that are both profitable and reputable.

So, what do these leaders have in common when it comes to developing both strong teams and strong balance sheets?

In a recent conversation with third-generation CEO of T.C. Jacoby & Company, Inc., Ted Jacoby III states so clearly what I’ve heard from many others as he highlighted these four keys to success as a CEO:

Step 1. Hire talented people.
“Don’t be afraid to hire the best people you possibly can,” Jacoby says.

That means hiring people whose aptitudes and skillsets surpass your own. Choose those who will make your business better.

Step 2. Communicate a clear picture of what success looks like for them.
As Jacoby describes, the clarity of that picture must be catered to the style of communication an employee best receives.

He said, “Some people are very detailed thinkers, and they have to build concepts in their own brain based on many details. Others are generalists … they don’t actually get into the weeds on the details.”

Step 3. Equip them with the skills and resources they need to achieve that success.
Whether it’s the right tools or the best training, employ the talent you bring to your team with what they need to make that picture of success a reality.

Step 4. GET OUT OF THEIR WAY.

“It sounds easy, but it’s not,” Jacoby said. If you’ve hired really good people, if you’ve trained them well, if they know what success looks like and if you provide them with all of the resources that they require to be successful, your most important job is to get out of their way.

These keys to success build upon each other within an organization:

The power is in the PEOPLE.
The ability to SUCCEED is rooted in the ability to LEAD.
And great LEADERS have the ability to LET GO in order to empower others to utilize their talents and make decisions - even when that means making mistakes.

To hear more from Ted Jacoby III, listen to this Uplevel Dairy Podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4iD8Qh6YqDvJajb7xGngJd?si=sLaT7-9FR1C9NqLW1CNf0A

Prevent Quitting: Keep Employees Top of Mind in 2024

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:57:14 GMT

As the calendar page flips to a new year, farmers are focusing on ways they can improve their operation in 2024. For many, labor – or lack thereof - sorted its way to the top of the ‘biggest headaches’ list. To help prevent this issue from reoccurring, Jorge Delgado, a training and talent development specialist at Alltech, says now is the perfect time to give your employee management plan a brief overhaul.

Before your best employee walks out the door, consider implementing the following steps to give retention and performance a needed boost.

Conduct Annual Reviews: “This is a concept many have of heard of but few people are using,” Delgado shares. However, he recommends treating annual reviews as a chance to sit down with each individual in your team to review expectations, goals, what needs to be improved and what needs to change.

“This is a good opportunity to hear feedback from your employees and share with them your appreciation in a very formal way,” he adds.

Go Over Mission Statement: Another important aspect to look over going into the new year is your farm’s mission statement. Delgado says if your operation doesn’t currently have a mission statement, this is the time to start creating one with your employees in mind.

“Let them be part of this process and include them in your mission statement,” he says.

Review and Update Protocols: Similar to looking over your farm’s mission statement, reviewing protocols is another important area to analyze.

“This is an area that often gets lost in time,” Delgado says. “People start deferring from original protocols and make decisions that may not be the best for your operation and/or animals. Get together with employees and/or your veterinarian to update information and procedures.”

Perform an Anonymous Survey: “An anonymous survey can help you find information to improve your internal culture and to discover areas of improvement,” Delgado says. “You will be surprised with the information generated from this kind of survey.”

Delgado suggests creating a questionnaire with simple questions that can help you finding opportunities about your organization.

Adjust Payroll: When was the last time you reviewed your employees’ salaries? According to Delgado, many workers might be due for a raise that was forgotten during the year.

“This is also a good time to adjust those numbers based on inflation and other costs,” he adds.

Terminate Bad Apples: While labor shortages continue to be one of the biggest issues facing agriculture, not every employee is cut out to work on our operations. Delgado agrees, adding, “There are some employees who just don’t fit in our culture or business mode. The new year can be a good time to start thinking about how to replace those individuals in our business.”

Calculate Annual Turnover Rate: Chances are you may have had a few employees leave your farm in 2023. Was this number higher than previous years? Lower? According to Delgado, it’s important to keep a pulse on your farm’s turnover rate.

“Find areas to improve on if this number is too high for your operation,” he adds.

Start Planning an Educational Calendar: As the chapter closes on 2023, Delgado says now is a good time to ask your employees what they would like to learn in 2024 and set up dates in your new calendar.

“Consider also reaching out to external resources to get them on your calendar” Delgado “They can offer free, professional training.”

Plan Social and Cultural Events for the Coming Year: Farming is a stressful occupation for both farm owners and employees. Therefore, it’s important to keep fun activities on the calendar to increase morale and engagement. Consider hosting a team dinner or

“Employees value the social aspect of any organization,” Delgado says. “This also helps with retention and motivation.”

Review Safety Guidelines: No matter the time of year, keeping employees safe should always be top of mind. Going into 2024, set intentions to review and update safety guidelines to ensure every position in your operation has a plan.

“If you don’t have a safety plan, you need one,” Delgado shares. “Review what went well and what went wrong this year. Use this information to increase safety around the farm.”

For more on labor, read:

Need A Veterinarian In Your Area? Then Support This Legislation Now

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 03:37:18 GMT

New legislation has been introduced to address the critical shortage of veterinarians practicing in rural America.

Specifically, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced bipartisan legislation this past week to address the problem, which continues to significantly impact rural communities and food animal producers most critically.

The Rural Veterinary Workforce Act S.2829 would provide tax benefits to veterinarians to encourage them to practice in rural communities, the senators said in a joint news release. This will not only increase the care available to livestock and poultry, but also address food safety and public health concerns in these communities, they said.

Benefits For Public Health, Too

“Increasing veterinary services in high-priority rural areas through the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act would help keep the nation’s livestock healthy and our food supply safe and secure, and protect public health,” said Dr. Rena Carlson, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), in the release.

“The AVMA has been a long-time champion of the proposed legislation,” Carlson added. “After the legislation received a historic level of support in the previous Congress, we look forward to working with the congressional champions to enact this bill and help rural communities across the country access the many essential services veterinarians provide.”

A report commissioned by Farm Journal Foundation in 2022 noted that more than 500 counties across the U.S. have shortages of food animal veterinarians.

Less Than 5% of New Graduates Choose Food Animal Practice

Today, only about 3% to 4% of new veterinary school graduates pursue livestock or other food-animal practice options, a stark decline from 40 years ago when about 40% of graduates specialized in this area, according to the report authored by Cornell University’s Dr. Clinton Neill.

The shortages stem from several factors, including high levels of education debt that have outpaced potential earnings, especially in the rural U.S. This is encouraging more veterinarians to pursue companion animal practices and work in urban and suburban areas where incomes are often higher.

“The decline in food animal veterinarians in rural areas heightens concerns for a number of risks, including food safety threats, animal disease outbreaks, the potential passing of animal diseases to human populations, and decreasing rural economic growth,” Dr. Neill said. “In essence, veterinarians protect the whole of the human and animal population, so it is critical that we have a strong pipeline of practitioners to work in rural areas.”

Twenty-Year Old Program Needs Update

In 2003, Congress established the The Rural Veterinary Workforce Act to address this shortage by assisting qualifying veterinarians with student loan repayment in exchange for a three-year commitment to practice in underserved communities.

However, the program is currently subject to a significant federal withholding tax, which limits available resources and the reach of its benefits. The Rural Veterinary Workforce Act provides an exemption from the federal income withholding tax for payments received under the program and similar state programs, helping give more veterinarians the opportunity to practice in small, rural communities where their services are needed most. This change would reflect similar exemptions provided to medical doctors and other human health practitioners.

A statement of support from over 100 stakeholder groups, which includes the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, can be found here .

The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by Senators King (D-Maine), Hyde-Smith (R- Miss.), Smith (D-Minn.), Murkowski (R-Alaska), Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Moran (R-Kan.), Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Boozman (R-Ark.), Collins (R-Maine), Murray (D-Wash.), and Risch (R-Idaho).

From a Mountain of Debt to a Molehill

What’s Top of Mind for Swine Veterinarians in 2023?

10 Ways to Kick the ‘Imposter Syndrome’ to the Curb

New Partnership Aims to Address Rural Veterinary Shortage

Top 10 Veterinary Colleges Announced

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 21:29:40 GMT

If you and friends enjoy bantering about which college of veterinary medicine is best, a new report will simply add more fuel to your conversational fire.

London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) announced its inaugural ranking of the world’s best veterinary colleges in March. At No. 1 globally is the University of California-Davis. Two additional U.S.-based schools round out the top 10, with the remaining seven located in Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (UK), respectively. See the complete listing below.

QS says the rankings are based on four factors: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations and H-index. The latter, QS says, “is a way of measuring both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar.”

QS bills itself as the “world’s leading provider of services, analytics and insight to the global higher education sector.” The rankings were announced in partnership with Elsevier, a Dutch publishing and analytics company. More information on the methodology is available at topuniversities.com.

Top 10 Veterinary Colleges
#1. University of California-Davis

#2. University of London-UK

#3. Cornell University

#4. Utrecht University-Netherlands

#5. University of Guelph-Canada

#6. University of Edinburgh-UK

#7. University of Cambridge-UK

#8. Michigan State University (tie)

#8. Vets Faculty-Switzerland (tie)

#10. University of Copenhagen-Denmark

Other U.S. schools QS says are of interest:

The Ohio State University
University of Minnesota
University of Pennsylvania
Colorado State University
North Carolina State University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Iowa State University

Texas Tech Adds Large-Animal Veterinarian To Staff

I Am A Drover — Utah Beef Producers

Fri, 24 May 2024 14:34:28 GMT

For nearly two years the beef industry has been buzzing about the prospects of new harvest capacity planned or under construction that might provide new markets for cattle. None of that attention, however, was focused on Utah, where Henry Barlow was busy planning and constructing a new beef packing plant that opened at the end of last month.

Barlow’s background is not in the packing business but that has not deterred him. A general contractor with 35 years of experience working in Utah, Barlow has owned several businesses, including Hybar Windows and Doors and Rocky Mountain Concrete, a construction and excavation business.

He’s also owned multiple ranches and said he watched fellow ranchers wait anywhere from six to nine months to obtain harvest dates for cattle in Utah. Such delays are crippling to ranchers and feeders who have clients to serve.

“All the ranchers I know think about it and talk about (a packing plant) for the last 25 years saying somebody ought to do something,” Barlow says. “So, I sold one of my ranches and decided to be that guy.”

Utah Beef Producers’ new facility is designed to harvest up to 500 head per day, and Barlow says that will include a mix of cows and fed cattle. Once fully operational, the plant will employ 100 people. UTB will offer custom harvesting for local ranchers and feeders, but Barlow is also set to launch a branded beef product of his own, Horizon Heritage Farms, which will offer premium, locally sourced beef with complete traceability from farm to fork.

“Over 500,000 cattle leave the state every year to be fed out or slaughtered outside the state of Utah,” Barlow says. “But if you roll the clock back 60 years, we finished cattle in Utah and we need to do that again.”

With about 323,000 beef cows, Utah ranks 27^th nationally, but Barlow believes the Richfield location is well-suited for the new plant with less shipping costs to the west coast than many of the major packers. Salt Lake City is 160 miles north and Las Vegas is 280 miles to the southwest.

“We’ll be able to satisfy so many Utah ranchers that have had to either sell their cows or send them off as calves and not do a finished operation because they did not have an option like this,” he says.

While Barlow plans the new plant to benefit producers, he’s also working with his community and utilizing state-of-the-art technology to minimize any environmental impacts. Utah Beef Producers’ focus is on sustainability, and the implementation of innovative waste management practices. That will include converting processing waste into biochar, a soil enhancer with the potential to reduce environmental footprint.

Barlow believes Utah Beef will be the first packing plant in the U.S. to make biochar onsite, which he says reduces methane gas in animals by up to 45% when used as a feed supplement additive. Additionally, an onsite wastewater treatment facility will help them recycle water and save an estimated 8 million gallons of water per year.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to be a powerful example for good,” Barlow says. “And one of the ways is sustainability.”

Phil Plourd: Not Easy Isn’t the Same as Not Optimistic

Wed, 22 May 2024 14:41:11 GMT

Editor’s Note: This is one article in a series that is included in the 2024 Farm Journal’s State of the Dairy Industry report. The full 16-page report will appear in the May/June issues of Dairy Herd Management and Milk Business Quarterly and will be published in this space over the next several weeks. To download the full report click here.

Here’s a decidedly unbold prediction: The basics of dairy farming won’t get markedly easier in the next three to five years. It’s always been a tough space, and it’s going to stay that way because of a long list of crazy variables that won’t change. I’m talking about animal biology, cows that insist on giving milk seven days a week, weather, perishability, price volatility, government regulation and fickle consumers.

Because it’s hard, we’ve seen consolidation continue at a breathtaking pace. USDA’s latest Census of Agriculture, covering 2022, offered another dose of sobering statistics. According to the report, we had 24,082 dairy operations with milk cows in 2022, down 39% from 2017 and down 51% when compared to 2012. Extrapolating the trend to 2027 takes us down to somewhere between 18,000 and 19,000 farms – another 20% to 25% reduction.

Maybe the trend slows some. But whether its accurate doesn’t change the reality that producers looking to be in the business in three to five years need to be battle ready.

Here are a few thoughts on what being prepared might involve from a farm or industry perspective:

Proactively deploying risk management tools. Dairy Revenue Protection insurance policies paid out more than $500 million in net indemnities in 2023. Producers maximizing Dairy Margin Coverage utilization received something close to $150,000. Make sure you don’t get caught naked in a corn market rally. Insurance products and other risk management tools won’t always pay, but the name of the game is making it through the margin droughts that inevitably materialize.
Maximizing productivity. Higher productivity means a better chance of profitability. I suspect producers seeking every leverage point will fare better than others.
Cashing in on as many climate opportunities as possible. No one really knows what will emerge in the months and years ahead, and some things won’t be possible for every operation. But we will likely see ways to get paid at least a little for participating in various programs, and maybe a lot from some.
Leverage data and technology. Farmers have increasing access to tools that help them better understand and manage their business. It’s one area where things are getting easier. Get into the numbers. Act on what they are suggesting.
Urging leaders to aggressively pursue trade opportunities. The U.S. dairy industry is in a great position to increase exports. New Zealand output isn’t likely to get much bigger. European farms will struggle to produce more in the face of ever tighter environmental restrictions. We will continue to see more middle-class consumers and Westernized diets around the globe — more people looking for good sources of protein like dairy. But U.S. agricultural interests must apply major and constant pressure on Washington to stay engaged on trade.
Championing investments in protein innovation. Dairy proteins have a bigger place to play domestically and internationally.

U.S. dairy producers have no fear when it comes to innovation, productivity, and sheer grit. The world will demand more dairy products. The U.S. is ready to deliver — even if it’s not easy.

Phil Plourd is president of Ever.Ag Insights. The risk of loss trading commodity futures and options can be substantial. Investors should carefully consider the inherent risks in light of their financial condition. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources to be reliable; however, no independent verification has been made. The information contained herein is strictly the opinion of its author and not necessarily of Ever.Ag Insights and is intended for informational purposes. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Fraud Alert: Don’t Fall Victim to These Common Schemes

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 20:38:10 GMT

Farmers routinely handle high-dollar transactions — and the nature of the payments, often through unsecure methods, leaves them susceptible to foul play.

Those unsecure methods include mailing personal checks and buying parts from an unknown online vendor. However, one of the biggest fraud trends Angela Lewis, deposit control manager at Southern Bank in Chillicothe, Mo., is seeing involves how many operations handle employee payroll.

“We see employees commit fraud, especially through written checks from employers,” Lewis says. “Employees will steal the account number and routing number off the bottom of checks and create fake checks.”

Mail fraud and check washing is another tactic that can quickly drain thousands of dollars from an account.

“If you have mailed a check that was paid, but the recipient never received it, you may have been a victim of check washing. In fact, check washing is the No. 1 form of fraud we are seeing with our business customers right now,” Lewis says.

Check washing typically involves a check being stolen from a mailbox and then a scammer “washes” the check in chemicals to remove the ink and/or uses a copier to print fake copies of the check. Other criminals can then purchase the fake checks and deposit them.

To protect your operation from scammers, Lewis shares these tips:

Use online banking. “As a business, you should enroll in and use online banking daily to review copies of all checks issued to ensure they were not altered,” she says. “Also make sure to review the backs of checks to verify the endorsement information matches your intended payee.”
Follow up. If you are going to mail checks, make it a habit to follow up with the people or businesses to make sure they receive it.
Switch to online payment options. Your financial institution likely offers e-checks, ACH automatic drafts or other online bill pay options.
Confirm the goods. When it comes to making purchases from an unknown source, such as on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, Lewis shares it’s a good idea to meet the seller in person and verify the goods prior to sending the money. “Newer scams we’re seeing involve the use of payment apps, such as Cash App, Paypal, Venmo and Zelle, and social engineering to convince people to send money for fraudulent goods or services or to send money to fraudulent accounts,” Lewis says. “Once the funds have been sent, they are difficult to recover.”

If you do fall victim to a scam, there are a number of organizations, in addition to your bank, available to help. For example, several states have a division within their department of agriculture dedicated to this type of crime.

According to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s public information officer Kim Doddridge, the organization’s agriculture crimes unit is responsible for tracking and investigating crimes in Tennessee related to agriculture, forestry and wildland arson, animal health and agribusinesses. While many of their cases are related to livestock cruelty, arson and equipment theft, Doddridge shares they have dealt with reports of cattle purchasing scams, cattle selling scams and email scams.

In addition, USDA’s Office of the Inspector General has a fraud hotline to report violations of laws and regulations in regard to USDA programs. These can be reported anonymously either online or by phone.

Dairy and Beef: A Merger of Many Merits

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:57:29 GMT

Beef-on-dairy breeding is a phenomenon that has boomed at a breathtaking pace in the United States, according to Dr. Zeb Gray, Technical Feedlot Specialist for Diamond V.

Gray, who has deep roots in beef production, from the cow-calf phase through post-harvest meat science, said the practice is changing the landscape of the U.S. beef industry – probably permanently.

Data from the National Association of Animal Breeders indicates beef genetics are being swapped for dairy semen at an impressive clip. From 2018-2022, beef semen sales in the United States rose by about 5 million doses, while sales of dairy semen dropped by nearly an identical number.

All the while, the size of the U.S. dairy cow herd remained steady at about 9 million head – an indication that the shift is due largely to the growing adoption of beef-on-dairy breeding.

Gray said that although there have been growing pains, the beef cross calves have been well received by both feedlots and packers. “Feedlots are like hotels,” he explained. “The only way they work financially is if their pens are full. The same is true for packers, whose profitability depends on their maximization of throughput every day.”

He noted the steady, year-round availability of beef cross calves is a game-changer in terms of animal procurement. “It’s always been a challenge for feedyards to keep full pens of consistent cattle year-around, and particularly now with our shrinking native beef herd,” stated Gray. “Calves born on dairies not only offer that consistency, but they are simply age- and source-verified and can provide a complete history of every animal, for which consumers are increasingly clamoring.”

Feedlots, packers, and branded beef programs see working with large dairies as an opportunity to build a reliable source of calves that check all the boxes. It proves to be much easier to work with a handful of large dairies to secure these calves in just a few transactions, versus dealing with a couple hundred ranches and having to buy in much smaller lots.

But for all of its merits, this rapidly evolving production path is not without some speed bumps. The new demand to procure beef cross calves has led to a common occurrence where freshly weaned, very young cattle weighing as little as 250 pounds enter commercial feedyards.

“When it comes to rumen development, there’s no replacement for time,” Gray stated. “Those calves are at a considerable disadvantage compared to their full-blood beef counterparts who are on a partial milk diet for up to 6 months and learn to eat forage gradually alongside their mothers.” He added feedstuff availability in cattle-feeding country and feedyard logistics are often not conducive to including optimal levels of roughage in young calves’ diets.

So, what can dairies and calf ranches do to boost the health and performance of beef cross calves before they graduate to the feedlot? Gray offered 3 suggestions:

Prioritize critical colostrum – Even if beef cross calves spend less than a day at their dairy of origin, nothing can replace the myriad benefits of colostrum that will carry through their entire productive lives. Setting every calf up for success with colostrum delivery within the first 4 hours of birth is the single most important measure in ensuring calf welfare and preventing morbidity and mortality.
Focus on nutrition -- There is a growing body of research-based evidence that feeding feedlot-bound calves higher volumes (example: 6 quarts per day) of higher-protein milk replacer (example: 25-27%) results in better-gaining, more robust calves at weaning and beyond. Work with a nutritionist who can help develop both liquid and solid ration formulations, as well as advise inclusion of proven feed additives to support calf health.
Consider retained ownership – Owning beef cross calves longer – possibly all the way to market – may help dairies expand profit centers beyond milk production, and reap the benefits of investments like feeding calves more nutrient-dense – but also more costly – preweaning rations. It also could allow for a potential backgrounding phase that might help calves transition more smoothly into the feedyard at higher ages and weights.

Gray said the meteoric growth of beef-on-dairy breeding has led to a lag in research that could eventually drive best practices for raising these unique animals. Namely, he said more work needs to be done to discover solutions to the critical issue of liver abscesses in beef cross cattle, along with better-defined nutritional and management approaches to optimize their health and performance.

“The dairy industry has driven this fundamental change thanks to precise reproductive strategies based on genomics, breeding efficiency, and sexed semen. Without them, we wouldn’t have these new opportunities on the beef side,” Gray declared. “I think there is a lot we can continue to learn from each other.”

Dairy Heifer Supply Tightens

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 22:58:07 GMT

The prevalent question being asked is just how it will be before milk prices increase significantly and move back up to 2022 levels. We did see record milk prices in 2022 and maybe matching those highs might not be feasible, but it would certainly be nice to see price quite a bit higher than they currently are. There are varying ideas as to what it will take to see significantly higher milk prices with most of them feasible to some degree.

Now if we think back to later 2021, culling increased substantially for a few months as low milk prices moved farmers into selling animals aggressively to boost income and reduce the expense of feeding cattle that were not top producers. The milk supply did not tighten to the extent that there was a shortage, but the perception of a shortage is what drove milk prices higher. Buyers of dairy products were concerned about the potential for a tighter supply and wanted to make sure they would have product to fill orders. Thus, a buying frensy took place for a few months which drove milk prices to record highs. The culling slowed down and eventually the concern subsided with cow number remaining below a year ago, but numbers increased from month to month. This took away the concern and milk prices have been lower ever since.

The level of culling has not increased as had been anticipated this time as farmers have been holding onto cows even though cull cow prices have been high. One reason may be due to most of the low producing cows having been culled and what is in the stalls are cows that are too good to cull. Another aspect could be that replacement numbers have tightened and are not as abundant as they had been and what is available is commanding high prices. This brings the industry into a very interesting position. As you can remember what happened after a period when sexed semen became available, it was embraced quickly as farmers always wanted more heifers for replacements. Over time, there was an abundance of heifers resulting in increased cow numbers and higher milk output.

Recently, there has been much interest in beef on dairy. Beef prices were escalating due to heavy culling of the beef head due to drought coupled with strong demand for beef. Dairy farmers found that breeding lower end cows to beef bulls netted huge price benefits for the calves. So, the popularity of beef on dairy grew and remains popular. However, the result is being felt due to tight heifer replacements which may be limiting the amount of culling activity and limiting the ability of some farms to expand. We are now seeing the substantial decline of beef cattle prices and a substantial increase of heifer replacement and cow prices. This will reduce the value of beef on dairy calves over time.

(Farm Journal)

However, it most likely will have an impact on milk prices as replacements will not be as available to take the place of culled cow and milk production will decline. The July Cattle Inventory report already showed the percentage of heifer to milk cows at 38.8% and the lowest ratio since July 1997. The January report may show an even tighter number in comparison to the previous years. This may eventually tighten milk supply resulting in higher milk prices. If, at the same time, demand improves, we could see record prices again as we experienced in 2022. The result of this would again be to breed for heifer calves as they could be worth more than beef calves as farmers want to build heifer inventory. The issue with all of this is that these cycles do not change overnight and will take a few years to turn. Over time, there could be some good milk prices as the market adjusts.

Robin Schmahl is a commodity broker with AgDairy, the dairy division of John Stewart & Associates Inc. (JSA). JSA is a full-service commodity brokerage firm based out of St. Joseph, MO. Robin’s office is located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Robin may be reached at 877-256-3253 or through the website www.agdairy.com .

The thoughts expressed and the basic data from which they are drawn are believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. Any opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain inherent limitations. Simulated results do not represent actual trading. Simulated trading programs are subject to the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. There is risk of loss in trading commodity futures and options on futures. It may not be suitable for everyone. This material has been prepared by an employee or agent of JSA and is in the nature of a solicitation. By accepting this communication, you acknowledge and agree that you are not, and will not rely solely on this communication for making trading decisions.

John Phipps: Is There Really a Shortage of Truck Drivers?

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 16:07:06 GMT

Cast your mind back to early 2022 and the headline-grabbing Trucker Shortage . My conclusion then was there wasn’t much hard data to substantiate that alarm. There has always been a need for truckers and perversely there seems to have always been ample qualified workers to fill it.

It didn’t take an economics degree to figure out the problem: truckers simply weren’t being compensated enough to entice and keep workers. Now a year and a half later the headline is the demise of one of America’s largest trucking companies – Yellow Trucking – and the end of 30,000 jobs they represent.

(Farm Journal)

Freight companies are struggling now with reduced demand, which threatens even more trucking jobs. At some point most of us begin to wonder about these alleged shortages. Adding to the muddled picture of jobs and pay is the historically low unemployment rate which emphatically illustrates how small the pool of potential employees is.

Related Story: Walmart Will Now Pay Starting Truck Drivers $110,000, Could It Backfire and Make the Nationwide Trucker Shortage Even Worse?

For trucking, which is often a career step up from entry wage employment, increases in the minimum wage by many states has helped low-wage employees keep up.

Since the pandemic, the surprising strength of low wage compensation compared to skilled or managerial wages removes some motivation for workers to consider a trucking job. Note the inversion after the pandemic of which income quintile is seeing greater wage increases.

Trucking companies have long dealt with astonishing turnover rates since the prospective employee pool was large and already qualified. New CDL licenses are issued to about half the current trucker numbers each year. Short-lived shortages are not limited to employees either.

Related Story: SHIP IT Act Could Save Truck Drivers Up to $10,000 and Cover CDL Costs

I started looking back at the numerous “shortages” and dire predictions of the last few years. At least some semiconductor chips, for example, are in now surplus, even a glut. We’ve discovered more new sources for lithium than anyone imagined. Ditto for copper, cobalt, and phosphates.

It appears markets can remedy shortages faster than we have imagined, and the few stubborn scarcities are sidestepped with alternative solutions. Not always, but certainly more than the hysterical headlines suggest.

There will always be warnings about trucker shortages, I suspect, but not from truckers.

7 Reasons Your Best Employees Quit

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 21:11:54 GMT

Learn how to avoid these frustrating and deal-breaking mistakes

Yes, recruiting members for your team is extremely difficult. But before you spend your time and energy on that challenge, focus first on your current team.

“Put retention in front of recruiting,” suggests Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics, a human resource consulting firm. “Become a place that people want to work, and then when people hear you have an opening, they come to you.”

How do you prioritize retention? Analyze why employees leave your farm. Many times, their departures fall into these categories.

1. Substandard Co-Workers: “The good employees aren’t paid enough to cover for or put up with the hiring mistakes,” Kleiman says. Don’t force your good employees to compensate for others who are lazy, indifferent or undependable.

2. Mind-Numbing Tasks: New employees are often handed boring and repetitive jobs. Even in downtimes, come up with meaningful work, suggests Erika Osmundson, director of marketing and communications for AgCareers.com. Find ways to make roles on your farm fun or challenging.

3. No Attention or Authority: “When a supervisor is so busy fighting the fires created by problem employees, he or she never has any time for his best people,” Kleiman says. Many times, this busy leader also fails to delegate authority to capable employees, leaving those employees frustrated.

4. No Training: Forgot that often-repeated phrase that training is not a good investment because “they’ll leave in three months anyway.” Establish an ongoing training plan, suggests Wesley Tucker, University of Missouri Extension agricultural business specialist. “Utilize multiple methods to ensure employees absorb and retain critical information,” he says. “Look for opportunities for both formal and spontaneous training.”

5. No Chance for Advancement: Do you share insights about future opportunities or positions? Recognize how advancements drive retention and job satisfaction. “A lot of times, we hire young people and think they are great,” says Dave Allen, president of Agri-Search, a placement firm for agricultural jobs. “So, you let them go do their thing. But, if you forget about them, they will be gone in two years.”

6. Lack of Respect: Employees need positive recognition, Kleiman says. “Praise in public and criticize in private,” he says. Many times, supervisors avoid positive feedback for fear the recipient might ask for a raise – this is the wrong approach.

7. Scheduling Conflicts: When an employer promises “flexible hours,” but it turns out “flexible hours” means having to work whenever and however long the manager wants them to, good employees look for the exit door. “Structure work schedules to allow for flexibility,” Osmundson suggests. “Maybe you can work shortened hours during certain parts of the year. Look for unique ways you can offer flexibility.”

Learn more tips on how to lead your team at the at the 2021 Top Producer Summit. Register now!

Read More

10 Tips for Finding Allstar Employees

Build A Talent Pipeline

‘Tis the Season for Appreciation

Pasture to Plate: A Culture-Driven Beef Business

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 17:09:52 GMT

The Ducheneaux family reconnects consumers with their food source

Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott sat on her front porch, stared out across rolling pastures and thought, “What the hell did I do?” She had just heaved box after box into freezers in the living room, kitchen and laundry room — carefully dispensing 1,700 lb. of ground beef.

Exhausted from the haul (and hoping the circuits wouldn’t blow due to strategically placed freezers) Ducheneaux-Scott couldn’t believe the sheer amount of work before her. How was she going to sell so much grass-fed burger in three months, before her next butcher appointment? Anxiety and stress seeped in during that cold March night in 2020. Little did she know how quickly that product would move.

“COVID hit and there was no beef in any of our stores,” Ducheneaux-Scott recalls. “We sold out of that 1,700 lb. in a matter of three weeks. People realized how easily local grocery stores can be disrupted here in rural South Dakota.”

(Farm Journal)

PASTURE TO PLATE

With a focus on feeding those around her, Ducheneaux-Scott is leading a transformation of her family’s operation. DX Ranch was established in the 1930s near Eagle Butte, S.D., on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation. It began with beef cattle and draft horses.

Today, Ducheneaux-Scott and her husband, Monte Scott, work alongside her family raising quarter horses and 280 head of cow-calf pairs in a regenerative production system.

“I am a fourth-generation rancher on DX Ranch, and I’m the 125th generation to steward this landscape,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “We’ve focused on ensuring we’re not just thinking about the livestock above ground but also thinking about the livestock below ground.”

(Farm Journal)

FATHER-DAUGHTER DUO

For her entire life, Ducheneaux-Scott has worked alongside her father, Zach Ducheneaux. That was until early 2021, when Ducheneaux was selected by the Biden administration to serve as the Farm Service Agency administrator (he received the call for the position while they were at the sale barn).

Luckily, Ducheneaux had prepared his daughter to be a leader on the ranch and in life. They are members of the Lakota tribe, which is a matriarchal society.

“My dad never let me think I couldn’t do something because I was a girl,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “He empowered me to believe I could do things better because I was a girl and had a different perspective.”

After college, Ducheneaux-Scott wanted to be a rancher and bought into the family’s cowherd in 2016.

“I was obsessive in watching those calves grow that year,” she says. “I might as well have had names and birth certificates for every calf.”

After selling that calf crop, Ducheneaux-Scott headed back to the ranch and pondered the future.

“I drove through two counties that face food insecurity,” she says. “I thought, golly, the system is so broken. We have up to 80,000 head of cattle grazing on 3.2 million acres here on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation, and there isn’t any local beef being packaged and made available for purchase. The beef grown here is phenomenal, but none of us get to actually eat it.”

At home, she scribbled down a bunch of ideas and started a business plan. That plan morphed into DX Beef , which has a simple mission: Provide nutritious and local beef that improves its communities.

The direct-to-consumer business featuring their 100% grass-fed beef has expanded in the past two years and is helping the family move away from the commodity market model.

“For the first 90 years of our existence, we’d largely been victim to the commodity markets just like everyone else,” Ducheneaux says. “Behind the effort of Kelsey, in 2020, for the first time, we sold more beef in the box than we did on the hoof. A tremendous advocate for buying, selling and serving

locally, she’s found a way to provide healthier, grass-finished beef to our fellow reservation residents at a price they can afford.”

In 2019, the family sold 12 head of cattle through their business. In 2020, they sold close to 80. This year the total will top 110.

All beef is processed and mostly sold through their online store. To meet local needs, it is sold by the pound or portion of the whole beef. They even do wholesale orders for nearby restaurants.

(Farm Journal)

CULTURE AND TRADITION

The hurdles of small-scale direct marketing are difficult to overcome. Yet Ducheneaux-Scott is seeing great success thanks to her marketing and organizational skills. Through storytelling, which is rooted in their Lakota culture, the family uses technology to share the story of their ranch and products.

“Family comes before the dollar in this operation,” Ducheneaux says. “We’re not solely about monetizing the value of that product, and we realize there are other values to our beef.”

(Farm Journal)

Their story is shaped by their love and respect for the 7,000 acres of tribal land they manage through a tribal lease.

“I’m a grass and soil nerd,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “Soil health is so critical to a resilient ecosystem. Our grazing system is focused on mimicking nature. This ecosystem evolved from having cloven-hoofed bison and other wildlife graze at a pace that allowed for a robust rest period, so we practice rotational grazing.”

The DX Ranch herd is an Angus base, influenced with breeds that will help the cattle handle the sometimes-brutal central South Dakota climate, Ducheneaux-Scott says. From changing their calving season to May to decrease cattle stress to steadily increasing soil health, the Ducheneaux family aims to work with Mother Nature.

“We have flexibility in our management so we can listen to what the landscape is telling us because she knows better than we do,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “We

are simply another biological species that’s a part of this greater ecosystem.”

Listen as Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott discusses her operation with Andrew McCrea on the “Farming the Countryside” podcast:

OTHERS BEFORE ONESELF

As a producer, business owner and member of her nation, Ducheneaux-Scott says she is driven by the opportunity and honor to feed others.

“I’ve come to appreciate having someone tell say your beef tasted good or how they brought their family together around our product,” she says. “Those are the experiences that make feeding cows in a blizzard, slopping through the mud to check calves and sleepless nights all worth it.”

(Farm Journal)

Snapshot of DX Ranch

Operation: DX Ranch includes quarter horses and 280 head of cow-calf pairs in a regenerative production system on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation near Eagle Butte, S.D. The ranch is also home to DX Beef, a direct-to-consumer business featuring their 100% grass-fed beef.

Family: Following in the footsteps of her father, Zach Ducheneaux, Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott is the fourth generation of her family to ranch. She and her husband, Monte Scott, work with several members of her family in the operation.

Leadership: Ducheneaux-Scott is the director of programs for the Intertribal Agriculture Council, which provides a voice for the Native American community on ag policy and programs. In 2021, Ducheneaux was selected to lead the Farm Service Agency, where he oversees 10,000 employees.

Travel to Gettysburg, S.D., and virtually visit DX Ranch.

How to Calculate Your Personal Inflation Rate

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 20:30:45 GMT

See how rising costs impact you and your family

Yes, inflation is at a 40-year high, but you might not be feeling its sharp bite. It all depends on where you spend your money.

The Consumer Price Index is a basket of thousands of goods and services. In March, it marked a nearly 8.5% jump from a year ago. Categories such as gasoline, food and housing are the biggest contributors to the increase.

To analyze inflation’s threat to your farm and family, calculate your personal inflation rate.

Determine your monthly expenses for the following categories: food and beverages, housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, recreation, education, communication and other goods and services. Include big-ticket items you pay once or twice a year, such as home insurance.
Subtract your monthly spending a year ago from your current monthly spending.
Divide that sum by your monthly spending from a year ago.

For instance, if your spending last month was $4,500, and a year ago it was $4,250, the difference is $250. Divide $250 by $4,250 and you land at a personal inflation rate of 5.9%.

MINIMIZE INFLATION IMPACTS

Inflation is a growing risk for your farm and family. “It is also largely out of your control,” says Brent Gloy, economist at Agriculture Economic Insights. “What you can do is recognize prices are heading up and plan for it.”

This inflation calculation can be an eye opener about your family living expenses. If tracking your expenses is intimidating, start small, encourages Alex White, farm and financial management instructor at Virginia Tech University. For one month, track all personal expenses on paper or with an electronic tool.

Once you have current data, he says, you can see if you need to reduce expenses or set some financial goals.

You Are What You Spend

Some products and services have seen dramatic jumps in price. Luckily, a 13% jump in cracker prices isn’t felt as sharply as the nearly 40% increase in gas prices. Here are inflation levels for a few categories.

(Farm Journal)

Read More

How to Anchor Your Farm’s Profits From Inflation’s Pull

John Phipps: The Inflation We Expect

3 Economic Forces to Watch that Will Impact Agriculture

Adios to the Ag Dollar: A Farmer’s Story on Inflation and Inputs

Is the Fed Behind the Curve in Battling Inflation?

Set Micro Goals to Accomplish Big Dreams in 2023

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:03:21 GMT

It’s the season for setting resolutions. Does this motivate or overwhelm you? For most, it’s the second.

Why? We set lofty goals that are challenging to meet.

Instead of writing down these big audacious goals, Jon Acuff, an entrepreneur, speaker and best-selling author, has better advice: Set micro goals.

“A micro goal is a small action that generates big results; a micro goal punches above its weight,” Acuff says.

10 MINUTES FOR 30 DAYS

As you set your goals in life (prioritizing your family, running a profitable farm, etc.), brainstorm little steps you can take to impact those goals. Acuff suggests micro goals take 10 to 15 minutes and you do them each day for one month. Yep, we’re talking less than 10 hours for the entire month.

Here are a few Acuff recommends:

Read 10 pages of a leadership or development book each day. Feel free to find something not related to farming (it can even be fiction).
Encourage one person. It doesn’t have to be a handwritten letter with a wax seal. Just once a day say one encouraging thing to one person.
Walk, bike or run one mile. Essentially every day you’re moving your body for a quarter of an hour. Acuff likes the mile approach because at the end of the time frame, you have traveled 30 miles in a month.
Write down one thing for which you’re grateful — on paper with a pen or pencil. Recognize big and small blessings.
Spend 10 minutes planning your day. This is one of my favorites. Look at your calendar, check your to-do list and make a plan to accomplish the big things.

You can pick one or 10 micro goals to do for one month. Regardless of the number, you’ll see the results. What if you miss the third day? No big deal.

“We’re not aiming for perfect,” Acuff says. “Even if you only do your habit for 50% of the month, that’s infinitely more than you were going to do if you didn’t set the goal. So don’t let perfectionism steal the joy of a micro goal.”

Want more inspiration to accomplish your goals? Watch Jon Acuff present at the 2021 Top Producer Summit .

Capturing the Farm: Preservation Project Safeguards Family Stories

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 17:14:50 GMT

Farm histories are at risk that once flowed at supper tables and porches at sundown. As hunger for yesteryear grows in the U.S., there is an increasing recognition of loss over time in blood, kin, and clan. Despite the erosion, American farms are flavored by every fiber and frailty known to mankind—and each tale needs protection.

Enter Vance Crowe and a unique preservation project.

“Farm families are particularly unique in possessing oral history,” he contends. “The only way they’re still on the farm is if they defined themselves as a family over generations—nobody farms alone or else the chain ends. When so many others gave up and went to the city, these agriculture families stayed. Those experiences, and the wisdom and heritage within, must be saved.”

Past is Present

Prone to relative seclusion by the nature of rural life and the physical boundaries of turnrows and tree lines, farm culture is often insular—inside looking out. Farm and family histories are an inseparable mix of triumph, loss, faith, passion, pain, diligence, and absurdity, i.e., the core elements of rich drama.

“Even in agriculture, specific knowledge about family history usually goes back no further than the 1920s, and those recollections often only include a vague sense of why their forbearers came to America or Canada,” insists Crowe, former director of Millennial Engagement at Monsanto. “But real details for most of those families have already gotten hazy in transmission. It’s almost like they’re recounting a dream that someone else told them.”

In October 2021, Crowe launched Legacy Interviews — a vehicle to set personal, family, and farm-related histories in stone. Professionally filmed and recorded in Crowe’s St. Louis-based private recording studio, the in-depth interviews, conducted by Crowe, capture the heart of farm life.

(Farm Journal)

“At least 60% of our clients are farmers—individuals and couples,” Crowe says. “We go for half-days and full-days, and delve into family history, childhood, marriage, parenting, farm career success and failure, acquired wisdom, and much more. Most people have never had anyone really listen to their story. They don’t yet understand the power of their own experiences in agriculture.”

“When someone has a chance to explain the things that they’ve done in their lives, there is a release of emotion like they’ve never experienced,” he adds. “Most of the farmers I interview don’t realize the remarkable things they’ve overcome in life and they aren’t aware of the valuable stories they possess. The interviews aren’t like jumping out of plane, but they’re just as exhilarating for many people. The stories pour out for the first time in many instances, and people leave with a sense of euphoria and punctuation.”

Once completed, the video interviews are presented to the guests, with some choosing to have the interviews transcribed in a book format—an autobiography written in a single day. “We give the finished package to the family on a 1,000-year-lifespan M-disc which doesn’t degrade like a DVD in 25 years or a USB in 20 years, and it isn’t subject to any crashes or breakdown in the cloud or Google,” Crowe explains. “We also use one of the last Bible-rebinding companies in the U.S. to print the interviews on archive-grade paper and bind them as a leather book. The M-disc is stored in a hidden compartment cut out of pages glued together at the back of the book.”

Crowe notes a repeat pattern with clients: Adult children, raised in farming households, want to connect grandparents with grandchildren via Legacy Interviews . “The adult children want to honor and give a gift to their mother and father by preserving family history before it’s lost. But in many ways, the gift is for the grandchildren, because they will utilize the stories in their own lives.”

The direct connection between health and human history is undeniable, Crowe says, both in scientific fact and anecdote. “So many studies show that kids who know their family history and heritage are dramatically less likely to suffer anxiety, depression, and drug addiction. It’s not complicated: Far better than their peers, those kids know who they are and where they came from. In the case of so many farm kids, they know their family history and they know the sacrifices their grandparents paid to stay on the land.”

Capturing History

Seven shades of gray color a single piece of barnwood, and seven stories line the front pocket of every farmer. Sometimes the stories die with a whimper—unnoticed until a life passes. The losses are unnecessary and avoidable, Crowe insists.

(Farm Journal)

“We once spent so much time together in extended families at dinner, church, in the field, traveling together into town, and in the home as a unit. We couldn’t escape the stories and we soaked them in. But modern society fractured the extended family into the nuclear family, and sometimes into smaller parts,” Crowe describes. “For most extended families, ‘together’ means a few hours during a holiday meal—at most. That’s part of why farm histories escape, get lost, or are forgotten, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Legacy Interviews is an opportunity for future generations to know their history.”

As cities continue a monochromatic march, Crowe believes the value of farming culture will increase in tandem, along with the importance of agriculture history. “Farm stories contain the most important values to society,” he concludes. “When we record those stories, we are preserving ideas from the past that we’ll need in the future.”

For more from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com 662-592-1106) see:

Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.

Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man

Young Farmer uses YouTube and Video Games to Buy $1.8M Land

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History

US Farming Loses the King of Combines

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming’s Greatest Show on Legs

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Farmer Nightmare: Government Floods Family Twice, Kills Herd and Refuses to Pay Damages

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 17:42:01 GMT

We break, you pay?

In a repeat nightmare, the government twice flooded Richie Devillier’s 900-acre farm and home under several feet of water, killed his cattle, ran his family through emotional hell—and insisted he foot the entire bill.

When a new highway flood wall trapped Devillier’s land within a figurative bathtub and erased several generations’ worth of toil in 2017 and 2019, state officials washed their hands of the Texas farmer and refused to pay damages. In 2020, Devillier sued for compensation under the Fifth Amendment, but was told he had no legal grounds to seek compensation from the state. Undaunted, Devillier is petitioning the Supreme Court.

The case is a stunner. No one in the courts or bureaucracy calls Devillier a liar or contests the basic facts of his claims. Instead, the state, backed by the Fifth Circuit, says citizens cannot seek compensation under the Fifth Amendment unless specifically allowed to do so by Congress—in direct defiance of decades of Supreme Court precedent.

The clock is running: Devillier’s operation will flood again when the next catastrophic deluge falls and his land will turn back into water world, directly attributable to the state’s action. “The government is goliath,” he says. “The government officials are untouchable, almost, but we’re about to touch them with the Bill of Rights.”

(Farm Journal)

“I want people to listen and learn about my story,” he adds. “It’s not about me because it doesn’t matter what state you live in. They can come for your land next.”

Bay of Hell

In 2017, weary to the bone after days spent in a surreal fight to keep the last scraps of his operation afloat, Richie Devillier walked through the foul debris of his sludge-filled farm home, and entered the master bedroom, only to encounter a site suited to fiction. Standing on his bed, a whitetail doe stared out a window at water to the horizon.

(Farm Journal)

Triggered by rising water, the bizarre deer incident captures the catastrophic absurdity of Devillier’s misfortune, but is sharply contrasted by recorded family history. Since 1920, the Devillier clan has farmed their high-ground land in southeast Texas’ Chambers County, outside Winnie, roughly 60 miles east of Houston. Across 100 years of rice cultivation and cattle production, there have been no floods on the Devillier property—until now.

Devillier, 59, is the fourth generation to work the land, growing bluestem hay and raising Hereford cattle sired by Brahman bulls. Alongside his wife, Wendy, Devillier also raises horses on a small scale, and his son, McCain, 22, will one day steer the family operation.

(Farm Journal)

Dotted with isolated knobs, Devillier’s 900 acres of pancake-flat ground rubs against I-10, an east-west federal highway connecting Houston and Beaumont. Beginning in the 1990s, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) updated I-10. The section adjacent to Devillier’s property was completed in the early 2000s. The renovation raised I-10 18” and erected a 32”-high concrete barrier in the median, ensuring the eastbound lanes remained navigable during floods. Translated: TxDOT built a dam in the middle of the highway and Deviller’s land is on the receptacle side.

(Citing ongoing litigation, TxDOT declined all Farm Journal questions related to the Devillier case.)

“When TxDOT got finished with the highway project, I didn’t think the drainage would be sufficient when things got bad, but they were supposed to be experts,” Devillier says. “Before their project, the freeway bridged over the bayous. Instead, they boxed in the bayous with square box culverts. I knew the barrier dam, combined with insufficient drainage, was not going to work.”

(Farm Journal)

“I grew up here and worked beside my grandfather, father, cousins, and family, and we’d been through monsoonal rains and weather events of every kind, but we’d never seen anything but normal drainage,” Devillier continues. “There were no floods and no flood history.”

“No TxDOT representative or government official ever came and warned me that when we got major water, my land and my neighbor’s land would turn into a bay,” he adds. “I wish they had.”

Never to Return

On Aug. 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas and its rains drowned a 20-mile stretch from Winnie to the Trinity River for 2 to 3 miles north of I-10. Devillier’s farm, along with the property of his neighbors, was swallowed, courtesy of the I-10 concrete barrier dam.

“Hurricanes and terrible storms are part of life here,” he describes, “but this flood was something different because the water had nowhere to go thanks to the highway barrier.”

(Farm Journal)

Devillier’s farmland went under 3’-6’ of water and his house filled with approximately 23” of water, but more pressing than his own dire circumstance, Devillier rushed a half-mile to his octogenarian parent’s home, rescuing Richard and Barbara from 3’ of water. Richard, born on the Devillier family farm, gathered a handful of mementos and exited the house and property for the final time of his life. He would never again set foot on the land of his legacy and birthplace.

Richard, along with Barbara, flew to Oregon to stay with a daughter and wait out the flood and rebuilding process. Worn and wiped out, Richard suffered a heart attack and died in Oregon, 2,000 miles distant from Winnie. Two years later, Barbara also passed away in Oregon.

Richard and Barbara returned to Chambers County—in an urn. “My dad’s heart couldn’t handle seeing our farm disappear,” Devillier says. “And none of it had to happen.”

The Sacrifice

Devillier floundered under total flood devastation. Overlooking his farm, the highway barrier dam was a line of demarcation—the edge of a vast wall of water. Days into the flood, standing at the concrete barrier on the dry, south side of I-10 and looking north, Devillier soaked in the reality of havoc stretching for miles.

(Farm Journal)

“It was incomprehensible,” he recalls. “I’d never seen or imagined anything like what was before me. We could drive down I-10 on lanes with no standing water, yet the concrete barrier had waves lapping over from water that covered my farm. You could stick your hand over the barrier into an ocean of water.”

Devillier’s family called a county judge, desperate for permission to pierce the highway dam and relieve the pressure off his acreage. “We begged him to let us knock down a portion of the barrier, but he wouldn’t make the call. Nobody wanted liability. We also knew if we knocked a hole in the dam, every person downstream would sue us.”

“The TxDOT engineers straight out said, ‘If we don’t have the barrier, then we can’t get our emergency vehicles back and forth.’ It was plainly evident: Myself and my neighbors were the sacrifice,” Devillier adds.

Water covered Devillier’s farmland over a week, either ruining his equipment and possessions or carrying them to parts unknown. One thousand hay bales bobbed in the wake, alongside the carcasses of bloated cows and horses floating across the property. His cattle, the centerpiece of the operation, fared the worst, congregating atop tiny knobs in relative shallows. Motoring in a Jon boat, Devillier and McCain tried in vain to save stranded livestock.

(Farm Journal)

“There were cattle hung up in barns and calves with their heads just above water, covered in fire ants. There were cattle standing in our garage and around the house. There were cows congregating on berms, and lost calves, and cows off by themselves. It was ghastly to watch them suffer.”

The cattle were living dead—shellshocked on their hooves. “Grabbing a cow in 4’ water from a 16’ aluminum boat powered by a 40-horsepower outboard and towing it to safety doesn’t work,” Devillier describes. “The cow is an anchor.”

Devillier watched his herd die. “After days in water, the cows slip their hair. They bloat and their skin sloughs off. It’s heartbreaking and sickening to watch. It’s a feeling of helplessness to see your cattle in such a state and to know the value of your real estate—what you’ve worked your entire life for—is crumbling.”

(Farm Journal)

After four days, the water around Devillier’s house (built on the property’s highest elevation) began receding. He entered his home to find a doe in the master bedroom. “The deer had pushed a door screen out, walked in, and found a high spot on the bed. We coaxed her out and she splayed across the floor, saw daylight coming through the door, and took off. It was just one more surreal detail in a scene I can’t adequately describe.”

The “scene” across Devillier’s home and farm was apocalyptic, his acres littered with dead cattle, lumber, personal effects, and flotsam of every stripe. For days, loading carcasses and trash with a tractor onto a gooseneck trailer, he steadily hauled everything 10 miles away and deposited the goods at the county dump—a lifetime of personal memories and rotting flesh into the same hole.

Bit by bit, step by step, despite no flood insurance, Devillier regained his bearings, rebuilding his home and agriculture operation—without a dime from the state.

Two years later—it happened again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Lump It or Leave It

Roughly 24 months after enduring the worst losses of his life, Devillier’s land again flooded at a catastrophic level courtesy of the highway barrier—his farm submerged and his house filled with 23” of water.

Tropical Storm Imelda put Devillier’s land under water for roughly seven days in September 2019. For the second time, his operation was devastated.

“Once again, this was no natural flood,” he emphasizes. “The government made me their retention pond.”

No apologies, explanation, or compensation from the state. Lump it or leave it.

(Farm Journal)

“Words can never express the strain on my wife and family,” Devillier says. “The first flood was numbing and took me out mentally, but the second flood spurred me to clarity. I knew my task. I had to solve this for my family and neighbors. We’ve been terribly wronged. After Harvey, the state said we experienced a once-in-a-thousand-years-flood. No sir. They never get to say that again. It’s going to happen over and over. Why? They built a dam.”

“I couldn’t sue the state for being incompetent, but they’re not allowed to take my property without paying. So says the Fifth Amendment.”

Backed by local legal representation, Devillier and his neighbors sued for damages in Texas court, supported by state and federal law. However, Texas state attorneys threw a curveball and removed the case to federal court, where the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out the case, claiming Congress has passed no laws allowing private citizens to sue states for takings of property.

Despite the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of “just compensation” embedded in the Constitution and decades of Supreme Court precedent affirming that guarantee, the federal court erased Devillier’s claim.

Enter the Institute for Justice (IJ), a national public-interest law firm and legal advocacy group. In 2023, IJ petitioned the Supreme Court to hear Devillier’s case.

(Farm Journal)

“Insanity,” says IJ attorney Robert McNamara. “You know it’s a crazy ruling when a court says state governments can build what they want and do to their citizens what was done to Richie Devillier. This is part of a growing refusal by courts to enforce the Constitution at all. The whole point of federal court is to protect your federal rights, but incredibly, they are often the place where the government runs to get those rights extinguished.”

Taking of private property without just compensation is an increasing concern in the U.S., McNamara insists. “Most of these cases don’t make national news, but if the state doesn’t feel like paying—it doesn’t, and often there is no accountability. That’s why Richie Devillier’s case is so important to every American. It’s a chance for the Supreme Court to step in and say, ‘No. Just compensation means just compensation.’ It’s not hard to understand or complicated: Pay people for what you take.”

Steadfast

Deviller is forced to reckon with time. Whether tomorrow, next year, or the following decade, floodwaters again will rise to the highway barrier’s lip and swallow his land.

“That’s what a dam with woefully inadequate drainage does,” he says.

The Supreme Court will reconvene in fall 2023: Devillier’s petition is on the docket, awaiting consideration.

“The public is shocked when they find out what the state was willing to do to its citizens and then pretend they are not responsible,” McNamara says. “What the state has put the Devillier family through is horrifying and their experience runs counter to the freedoms that define America.”

“Rest assured,” McNamara concludes, “if it floods again in 2023, the government will be certain the only thing Richie Devillier is entitled to is a pat on the head and no compensation.”

Devillier is steadfast.

(Farm Journal)

“We’ve been so blessed by the help of family, friends, and strangers, and we’ve got extreme confidence in our local attorneys and the Institute for Justice,” he emphasizes. “A lot of people in our area gave up, sold out, and left, but I won’t. These 900 acres are my life, the same ground worked for generations by my family in good faith that if we obeyed the law, our government would treat us accordingly. I won’t walk away and I’ll fight for every American.”

“They did this to me and they will come for you eventually,” Devillier adds. “If we can’t sue for the wrongs done by the state to our personal property, what is the point of having a Fifth Amendment or constitutional rights?”

For more from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com 662-592-1106) see:

Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.

Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man

Young Farmer uses YouTube and Video Games to Buy $1.8M Land

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History

US Farming Loses the King of Combines

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming’s Greatest Show on Legs

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Wood Milk—Calling Attention to What People Are Drinking

Wed, 03 May 2023 16:49:39 GMT

If you’ve scrolled through social media lately, then you might have seen the advertisement campaign for “Wood Milk.” This campaign is meant to call attention to plant-based milk alternatives while making some fun of broader food-brand claims of environmental and animal-friendly products.

The ad— funded through MilkPEP — features “White Lotus” actress, Aubrey Plaza, as the co-founder of Wood Milk in a parody of the iconic “Got milk” advertising campaign.

According to Yin Woon Rani, CEO of MilkPEP, the goal is that Wood Milk would cause people to pause and question what they are consuming and the nutritional value of their choices.

“Following the recent FDA guidance suggesting that plant-based alternatives can label themselves as ‘milk’ so long as any nutritional differences to real dairy milk are clearly identified, we wanted to create a standout, satirical piece that created conversation and shines a light on the fact that many people do not know the nutritional value of their beverages - or lack thereof. We recognize that the beverage market is continuing to grow and consumers are increasingly faced with more and more options,” she remarked.

At the start of the video, the actress, Plaza, who sports flannel, strolling in a woody setting, says, “Have you ever looked at a tree and thought, ‘Can I drink this?’”

Plaza then stares at a tree in an orchard and responds, “I did.”

She then introduces herself as the co-founder of Wood Milk, “The world’s first and only milk made from wood.”

The ad is revealed by the end to be a knock-off of the “Got Milk?” campaign.

“Is wood milk real? Absolutely not. Only real milk is real.” Plaza says in closing. “Then what did I invest in?!”

Rani shares that the campaign comes on the heels of the FDA’s recent guidance that recommends plant-based milk alternatives labeled “milk” that have a nutrient composition different from milk need to state that on the label.

“Our hope is that Wood Milk causes people to pause, to understand what they are consuming and the nutritional value of their choices. Dairy milk is a benchmark for essential nutrients for a reason,” Rani says, stating they created the fictitious Wood Milk, a made-up brand with zero nutritional value, in hopes to bring the power and goodness of real milk into the spotlight.

While this YouTube video has more than 4.4 million views, not all comments have been positive.

(158) Aubrey Plaza Launches New Product ? #drinkwoodmilk - YouTube

One person commented:

“I’m so heartbroken y’all. Aubrey Plaza out here doing ads for the dairy industry trying to make fun of plant milks by shilling “wood milk”.

The desperation,” another person tweeted , adding a sobbing emoji. “Aubrey how could you!”

Plaza has since turned off the comments on her Instagram post of the ad, although people are commenting on Plaza’s other, non-milk-related posts to express their dismay.

“We understand that everyone has their own opinion,” Rani noted. “However, we stand by our belief that real dairy milk is a nutritional powerhouse and a delicious addition to a healthy diet. We anticipated that Wood Milk wouldn’t be for everyone, but we wanted to start a conversation. While we expected backlash from the anti-dairy crowd, there is an entire community fired up - #WoodMilkNation - and our fictitious social handles are still continuing to grow with support. We are celebrating this community of support!”

Where’s the Beef: Con Artist Turns Texas Cattle Industry Into $100M Playground

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 14:51:45 GMT

Fraud is the son of greed. In the span of a few months in 2015, a Lone Star con-man pulled off a stunning livestock swindle, generating more dollar flow than some of the largest beef-producing companies in the United States. In a high-risk, anxiety-inducing shell game with almost $100 million on the table, Tony Lyon pulled the strings on an outrageously intoxicating check-kiting scam, and piled lies atop a teetering Jenga tower for the ages.

As businesses and banks ignored alarm bells, including bold warnings from the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), Lyon used a legitimate knowledge of agriculture and ranching, along with a good old boy personae and the familiarity of native status, to launch a scheme seeded with fake buyers, ghost cattle, false invoices, and empty handshakes. It was a hellfire ride to criminal infamy and doomed to failure out of the chute, but for several buck-wild months in 2015, the sticky-fingered Lyon turned the Texas cattle industry into his own playground.

Born to Grift

In 2011, 46-year-old Lyon was a player in the North Texas cattle industry, moving livestock at a steady pace as a representative of Nebraska-based Midwestern Cattle Marketing (MCM). Roughly three years later, emboldened and boosted by a seemingly remarkable ability to consistently turn a profit, Lyon approached the defining moment of an illicit career: He asked MCM for a checkbook and a signature stamp, the twin tools of larceny. With so much gravy for the taking, MCM acquiesced to Lyon’s request, and set the fuse on its own collapse.

And in the shining interim between the checkbook acquisition and MCM’s bankruptcy, Lyon was reborn as a golden boy of the U.S. cattle market, hauling in millions of dollars with a wink. However, an understanding of the enormity of his con requires a trip in time to 2000, back to a hustle that revealed Lyon’s massive propensity to deceive: Some men are born to grift.

Bigger and Badder

Raised in Jack County, Lyon tore up the backroads around the community of Perrin, roughly 100 miles northwest of Dallas, and looked the part of Texas cattleman: 6’1” in Ropers and Wranglers, easy laugh, relaxed demeanor, a shade leathered, junior college football stint, and a family man to boot. He put others at ease, shedding his skin according to audience. “Tony looked like he just walked out of a feed store and had a rancher-type appearance, and that added to his credibility. He knew a little about everything and could talk to anybody about anything, and would be whatever he thought you wanted him to be. If you didn’t know he was a crook, it’d be hard not to like him,” describes TSCRA Special Ranger John Bradshaw.

(Farm Journal)

TSCRA special rangers, an elite group of law enforcement officers, primarily investigate cattle theft and cattle-related agricultural crimes. The Association has 30 special rangers stationed throughout Texas and Oklahoma, either commissioned through the Texas Department of Public Safety or Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

In 2000, Lyon had a big hand in three livestock operations, all centered in Perrin, as owner of Lyon Cattle Co.; part owner of Cattlemen’s Enterprises; and part owner of D&L Cattle Co. “He genuinely knew cattle and farming, and could have made several hundred thousand dollars a year in legit income just doing things the right way, but he was only interested in being the biggest,” continues Bradshaw. “Just doing good was never enough for Tony. It’s like his moral compass is broke, and he’s not wired like most people.”

Lyon hatched a plan to turn loans obtained from Bank of America (BOA) in Amarillo into play money by wildly lying about cattle numbers. He gained a line of credit for each of his cattle companies, with the animals, feed inventory, and prepaid feed as collateral. In total, Lyon squeezed three loans out of BOA for $7.5 million, $1.3 million, and $600,000.

It was money for nothing, because the cattle didn’t exist—at least not in the quantities represented by Lyon. Each month, when filling out required borrowing base reports for BOA, he juiced the cattle numbers and kept the ruse rolling from June 13, 2000 to Jan. 20, 2001. In February 2001, BOA officials poked the numbers around Lyon’s loans, and caught scent of the rot. The Amarillo bank ordered Lyon to cease all sales and purchases, and began a top-to-bottom inspection, resulting in a jarring report: Lyon had cut a deep chasm between the true numbers and his monthly report claims.

According to a 2002 federal indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Lyon Cattle Co. didn’t have 17,186 head valued at $8,914,219, but rather 5,423 head valued at $2,896,342. Likewise, Cattlemen’s Enterprises didn’t have 2,873 head valued at $1,733,351, but 1,221 head valued at $769,036. And D&L Cattle Co. followed the same track, possessing 1,136 head at a total of $707,398, instead of 1,331 head at a total of $789,430.

(Farm Journal)

Nailed for making a false statement to a bank, Lyon copped a plea for a 37-month stay in the pen and $6,082,754.29 in restitution. For many criminals, the sting of prosecution and financial liability might have triggered a tempering effect, but for Lyon, lessons learned while fudging cattle numbers became a stepping stone to bigger and badder. The native son of Perrin, now an official graduate of the Texas school of charade, was about to turn a sideshow into a three-ring circus.

A Marriage Made in Hell

When his cell doors swung wide several years after the BOA theft, Lyon exited prison and made a beeline back to independent cattle marketing. In order to keep BOA’s fingers of restitution out of his honey pot, Lyon piggybacked on the checking account of parents, Owen and Monna Lyon, at Legend Bank in Decatur. According to a 2016 federal indictment of Lyon (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas): “When Lyon received a payment related to his cattle business, O.L. (Owen) would deposit it into the Legend account. When Lyon’s cattle business needed to make a payment, M.L. (Monna) would sign the check.”

(Farm Journal)

Lyon was back to criminal escapades in short time, describes Bradshaw. “It wasn’t long before he was up to business as usual, holding a single group of cattle for three separate owners. Banks would come out to inspect for the different owners, but Tony scheduled the banks at different times, and each bank didn’t know the others had already been out there. The numbers appeared to be right, but when you put all three together it was chaos, and that was just one case he was never prosecuted for that the FBI dropped. I didn’t get involved with him until 2011, and it became one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in my career.”

Indeed. At a sale barn in Graham, Texas, in 2011, Lyon crossed paths with Jason O’Connell, chief financial officer of aforementioned Midwestern Cattle Marketing (MCM), out of Sidney, Neb., and the pair shook on a business marriage made in hell. Still on the hook for roughly $6 million from his 2002 bust, Lyon was MCM’s new Texas point man to buy, transport, pasture, fatten and sell cattle.

Drop the Hammer

From Decatur to Breaking Ridge, and far beyond the Red River to Rattan, Okla., John Bradshaw covers 13 counties for TSCRA. With a personal background in agriculture and livestock, Bradshaw most often tackles common rustling or crimes of opportunity, i.e., a producer’s cattle stray to an adjacent property, but instead of calling the rightful owner, the neighbor shuttles the wandering cattle straight to the sale barn. Far less frequently, Bradshaw tracks white collar criminals crafting intricate schemes in the digital world, with almost no traditional paper trail to follow. However, the head-scratching Tony Lyon affair, packed with rabbit trails, was a category unto itself.

(Farm Journal)

As MCM rep, and despite being under a USDA ban from sale barn activity, Lyon’s legit role was to fill orders from ranchers for a given number of cattle. For example, MCM might call Lyon with a customer order to buy 200 steers. Lyon would enlist third-party buyers to enter sale barns, or buy from local ranchers, put the order together, and then ship the cattle to the buyer or a feed lot under the buyer’s name. All the while, Lyon used his parent’s account at Legend Bank.

As profit steadily rolled in, MCM’s confidence in Lyon’s competence grew in tandem. According to an affidavit from O’Connell, Lyon came clean about his past, detailing his BOA fraud and conviction. O’Connell, rose-colored lenses in place, expressed his willingness to give “second chances” and provided Lyon with continued latitude to conduct beef business.

O’Connell was warned about Lyon by TSCRA special rangers, and by USDA, according to Bradshaw—to no effect. “I contacted MCM and told them Tony already had a conviction, and that he was under investigation, and they said they’d fire him; they didn’t,” recalls Bradshaw. “They wouldn’t listen, and it was like watching a train wreck and not being able to stop it. In so many ways, we were forced to wait for Tony to drop the hammer.”

Money is Blindness

In late 2014, as Lyon gained traction at MCM, he claimed the system of mailing checks, invoices and approvals was a ball-and-chain time consumer, and that cattle purchases would be smoother if MCM bypassed the sale barns and dealt cattle directly through Lyon by providing a checkbook from MCM’s Point West Bank account. “Tony told them that if they’d give him a check book and a stamp, then there’d be no more time lost going back and forth,” Bradshaw describes. “MCM agreed and sent him a check book and a stamp to endorse. It was an incredible mistake by MCM and became the biggest moment of Tony’s criminal history.”

(Farm Journal)

A complaint filed by MCM in 2020 (Midwestern Cattle Marketing v. Legend Bank) provides more detail: “To accelerate the cattle transactions and transfer of funds, Tony Lyon (with authorization from the Lyons) and MCM provided each other with pre-authorized checks from their respective banks. MCM provided Tony Lyon with blank Points West checks and an MCM authorized signature stamp, and Tony Lyon (through Monna Lyon’s authorization) provided pre-signed Legend checks to MCM. This approach allowed Tony Lyon and MCM to send each other invoices for authorization to fill in the blank checks and deposit them in Points West or Legend (respectively). This arrangement essentially provided Tony Lyon with check-writing control to both accounts.”

Money is blindness, willful or not. After securing MCM’s trust, Lyon moved in for the kill, explains Bradshaw: “There’s no doubt in my mind this was a scam out of the gate. Tony saw all the angles going in, and he knew the process from start to finish...Tony had groomed MCM.”

Ping Pong over the Abyss

Brimming with confidence, Lyon was ready to go full throttle with the con. The final step was to tap a whale, and in late 2014, just when needed most, onto the scene waltzed the mysterious John George—a Texas titan of a cattle buyer from Fort Worth.

(Farm Journal)

George was the Daddy Warbucks sought by Lyon. George was the owner of George Cattle Company (GCC). George was the ultimate shaker and mover in the cattle industry. George had full trust in Tony Lyon. George had an insatiable appetite for cattle investment and wanted as many head as MCM could touch. George, despite ticking every box of business perfection, was also Lyon’s imaginary friend, and a complete fantasy masked by the glint of coin.

Even the GCC address listed in Lyon’s paperwork was counterfeit. “You literally couldn’t drive to the place because he pulled the address outta thin air,” Bradshaw says. “Tony listed GCC’s location as 4 Cherry Road or something to that effect, but the county addresses had already gone to a 911 system. If MCM or anyone would have shown the address to law enforcement, we could have spotted the fake instantly.”

Lyon’s rigged game finally had all the players in position: a big roller in George, an MCM checkbook, an MCM signature stamp, and the leverage provided by Owen and Monna Lyon’s bank account. Boiled down, Lyon blew the opening whistle on a never-ending game of robbing Peter to pay Paul—a grand check-kiting scheme between the MCM account at Points West and the Lyon family account at Legend Bank. Check-kiting takes multiple forms, but Lyon deployed it is a high-wire con where money shuffled between the two accounts to bleed the float—the gap in time from when a check is submitted as payment to when a bank moves the money from the account.

“Things went nuts from right there,” Bradshaw exclaims. “MCM was about to watch almost $100 million flying through their account in a few months, more money that what is generated by the biggest outfits. Crazy money. There were red flags everywhere, but MCM chose not to see them, even though they’d been warned.”

(Farm Journal)

In his reports to MCM, from Feb 4, 2015, to June 29, 2015, Lyon claimed 130-plus cattle purchases by George, but in plain fact, a fantasy cattle baron can only buy fantasy cattle. Lyon faxed fake, handwritten invoices to MCM from his parents’ home in Perrin. From the 2016 indictment: “Lyon made each MCM check payable to Owen Farms. Lyon told MCM that he would buy cattle on their behalf and resell them to GCC at a profit of a penny per pound. Lyon said he could speed up payments to MCM by sending them checks from Owen Farms’ Legend account, instead of having MCM wait for payment from GCC. Lyon said he’d get his money back when GCC paid.”

Lyon controlled all aspects of the cattle trade from pillar to post, including setting the sales prices and payment timing, and made sure each of the two bank accounts drank from the other. It was a total sleight-of-hand trick, and required Lyon to play ping pong over the abyss of the two accounts, navigating overdrafts and credits that ranged between $152,000 and $4.4 million, according to an MCM complaint. Each time he moved funds between the two bank accounts, Lyon dipped his fingers into each transaction—cash on the barrelhead.

A $5-Million Log

The manic cash-grab extended far past George and GCC. Lyon racked up inordinate amounts of money through side ventures, Bradshaw describes. “Tony would offer buyers lease land and wheat, totally separate from MCM, and cook the books. For example, he’d be getting money by transporting and managing 200 head that MCM had paid for four to five times—the exact same cattle. Sometimes he’d have to delay shipping because his numbers didn’t match. Maybe his customer A was supposed to ship out in June and customer B was scheduled to ship in September. That gave him several months to come up with the right amount of cattle in September, because all the numbers were make-believe.”

(Farm Journal)

MCM owned a herd of paper cattle with no backing except fraudulent invoices. “Tony was drinking through the fire hose, and he had to keep track of so many moving pieces and multiple stressors,” notes Bradshaw. “The juggling act of keeping those two bank accounts was unreal because he had to always make sure not to blow it. Most people would have been eaten up with anxiety, but he thrived. I don’t know how the sunuvabuck didn’t get an ulcer.”

Lyon was perpetually a single check from falling off the high-wire, but in a mere matter of months, he carried out at least $87 million in fake transactions centered on 50,000 head of cattle. It was a tremendously large stream of money, but the water would dam if a single log fell into the flow. In June 2015, that single log took the form of a $5 million check.

A Patterned Man

The check-kiting con required ever-increasing dollar amounts on each check to cover the heist, and when Lyon reached the $5 million mark, the numbers drew too much attention from the bank. On June 29, Points West (MCM’s account) held a $5 million check from Legend (the Lyon family account), and told MCM the cupboard was dry—no funds in the Legend account to cover the check. In sheer panic, MCM’s O’Connell burned highway all night to reach Texas, and heard the plain truth from Lyon: “There were no cattle, there was no George Cattle Company, and there was no money to turn over,” O’Connell testified. Finally, after months of hijinks, Lyon had stretched himself too thin, but in the process, he had single-handedly bankrupted MCM.

In short time, Bradshaw drove his TSCRA four-door, Ford F-150 to Lyon’s house, found Lyon standing in the driveway, and slapped on the cuffs. “He certainly had three to four accomplices, but there was never enough solid evidence to get them, and the feds chose not to file. As for Tony, I don’t know what his endgame was,” says Bradshaw. “Part of it was pure enjoyment and getting away with it. I know one thing for sure: He’d gotten in a narrow lane and the only way open was forward—no going back.”

In an echo of 2002, Lyon pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud and was sentenced to 120 months in prison and $5.1 million in restitution. Further, MCM sued Lyon and his parents (Owen and Monna) in 2017, and won a $23-plus million judgement. (Lyon still owes restitution from the 2002 case.)

Significantly, Bradshaw expects Lyon may be hit with additional penitentiary time, due to even more charges related to fraud. “He will repeat these crimes again and this affects the entire cattle industry across the country. What he’s done makes it so much harder for the next honest guy in the cattle business to get a loan.”

(Farm Journal)

And was there an accounting of all the stolen money? “Tony lived large and these kind of cases tend to move toward cash that can’t be tracked and is easy to hide, and that’s what happened here,” Bradshaw adds. “I think he might have made off with several million dollars in cash that wasn’t traced.”

Bradshaw’s sentiments regarding Lyon are roughly summarized by a time-honored maxim: Sometimes it’s easier to peek inside the mind of a liar than a person who stands by the truth. “Tony’s a patterned man, and these type of guys don’t change,” concludes Bradshaw. “If he hadn’t got caught, he would have put an even bigger dent in the cattle industry. There’s no remorse in him, and if he gets out, he’ll figure out how to do this again.”

For more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com), see:

The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

Truth, Lies, and Wild Pigs: Missouri Hunter Prosecuted on Presumption of Guilt?

US Farming Loses the King of Combines

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming’s Greatest Show on Legs

Misfit Tractors a Money Saver for Arkansas Farmer

Predator Tractor Unleashed on Farmland by Ag’s True Maverick

Government Cameras Hidden on Private Property? Welcome to Open Fields

Farmland Detective Finds Youngest Civil War Soldier’s Grave?

Descent Into Hell: Farmer Escapes Corn Tomb Death

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Grizzly Hell: USDA Worker Survives Epic Bear Attack

A Skeptical Farmer’s Monster Message on Profitability

Farmer Refuses to Roll, Rips Lid Off IRS Behavior

Killing Hogzilla: Hunting a Monster Wild Pig

Shattered Taboo: Death of a Farm and Resurrection of a Farmer

Frozen Dinosaur: Farmer Finds Huge Alligator Snapping Turtle Under Ice

Breaking Bad: Chasing the Wildest Con Artist in Farming History

In the Blood: Hunting Deer Antlers with a Legendary Shed Whisperer

Corn Maverick: Cracking the Mystery of 60-Inch Rows

Against All Odds: Farmer Survives Epic Ordeal

Agriculture’s Darkest Fraud Hidden Under Dirt and Lies

Land O’Lakes CEO Praises U.S. Farmers for Their Role in Food Security

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 16:19:17 GMT

The leader of one of America’s largest food and agriculture companies said Oct. 11 the country’s farmers should be celebrated for their crucial role in providing food security, even if their work is sometimes overlooked.

Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O’Lakes, Inc., was the featured guest for the Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems lecture series, held at Kansas State University’s McCain Auditorium. She spoke for nearly an hour in a chat moderated by Tyne Morgan, the executive producer of U.S. Farm Report.

Ford leads a company that recently launched a campaign that promotes the future of agriculture as being ‘rooted in tomorrow.’

“We were really thinking about how we can connect farmers and what they do on a daily basis with those who are not familiar with agriculture,” Ford said. “And right now, that’s most people because less than 1% of the world population is directly involved in agriculture. Folks don’t understand farming, they don’t understand the food supply and they don’t understand the hard work that goes into it every day.”

Ford likened food security to national security: “And I think of farmers as the original environmentalists, the original entrepreneurs; they’re constantly reinvesting in their land for all of us. And they need to be loud about that. We want folks to understand that farmers…solve big problems.”

Ford called the world population’s lack of of awareness about agriculture and the food supply “frightening, actually.”

In order to feed a world population estimated to grow to nearly 10 billion people, “we have to make more food by 2050 than the previous 5000 years combined. That is the challenge. This is meaningful work, important work, and it starts with the farmer.”

“When I say food security is national security, most people say, ‘oh yeah I agree with that.’ But I don’t know if people just think food just pops up on the retail shelf.”

Ford said her position with a leading agriculture company provides certain privileges to work on many of the greatest challenges facing agriculture.

One that is dear to her, she said, is the American Connection Project , a Land O’Lakes effort to bridge the digital divide common to many rural areas. More than 175 American companies and organizations – including the U.S. Department of Commerce and Microsoft – have worked together to provide free broadband and Wi-Fi in many rural American communities.

Ford said the group has successfully gained bipartisan support for legislation to bridge the digital divide, and $65 billion from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“We can not wait for years to have this occur,” she said. “That effort has been tremendously successfully, but we are going to be even more successful when we can get everything implemented across the country.”

Ford said three other issues are “top of my mind” as challenges for American agriculture:

“Number one,” she said, “it is unacceptable that we have stopped investing in agricultural research at the federal government level. I say this because China is out-stripping us 5-to-1; our country is at 1970s-level funding for ag research.”

“We need the best thinking and best technology in agriculture to meet this grand challenge of creating more than by 2050 than all the previous years combined.”

A second challenge: Immigration reform. “We have to have labor in this country,” Ford said. “We are 2.5 million workers short. When I’ve met with companies and senators…what makes me said is that nobody – from both sides of the (political) aisle) -- disagrees that we need labor. And yet here we sit. We are not making a change.”

“I get the conversation around border security. We need border security. But we need a solution because more than 6 million acres of American land were not planted last year because of a lack of labor. In the central valley of California, about one-third of hand-picked crops were not harvested last year because there is no labor. We have got to solve this problem and come up with a solution.”

Ford said water is a third challenge for American agriculture. “That’s a state-by-state challenge, and I’m concerned because there are federal implications. When there is a fight for water between rural and urban areas, most people don’t understand the needs in rural areas for agriculture and the food supply.”

“I would love to have a water policy; I’m not talking about water rights. I’m talking about investments in reservoirs, piping, desalination (and more)… We need to figure out what technology we can use to give ourselves an advantage over time and be resilient against our changing climate.”

“Those are the three things where I think we (Land O’Lakes) are investing additional time and making a push to saying we need to have this conversation. These are going to be profound issues for (Americans) if we don’t solve them.”

Ford has been president and CEO of Land O’Lakes – a Fortune 200 food production and agribusiness company – since 2018. Her 35-year career spans six industries at seven companies.

She has previously been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and Most Powerful Women, and named to Fast Company’s Best Leaders list. She was featured recently in the New York Times’ Corner Office column, and profiled in a 60 Minutes’ segment titled ‘The Farmers Advocate.’

Kansas State University established the Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems lecture series to provide science-based education about world food issues. The series allows students, faculty, staff and Kansas citizens to interact with U.S. and international food industry leaders on topics of current interest.

The lecture series is funded by the Gardiner family of Ashland, Kan. Henry C. Gardiner, who passed away just days before the first lecture in 2015, was known as a visionary leader who dedicated his career to improving the beef industry through science and technology.

A transcript and video of Ford’s chat with Morgan will be posted online, when available, on the website for K-State’s Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems lecture series .

Diesel Prices Jump 37% in 10 Weeks, Gas Prices Projected to Hit $6.20 by August

Tue, 24 May 2022 19:58:41 GMT

The White House is considering waiving U.S. gasoline environmental rules aimed at reducing summertime smog, hoping the waiver will combat rising pump prices, Reuters reported , citing three sources involved in the discussions.

Retailers are required to sell summer-blend gas from June 1 to Sept. 15. In the past, the U.S. government has waived those requirements regionally or nationally to deal with hurricanes or other supply issues. The Biden administration has already lifted the restriction on summer sales of E15. The waiver under consideration would apply to all grades of gasoline, the sources said.

The Reuters report indicates the blending items are things like butane and that such a move to waive the smog rules would apply to all grades of gasoline and does not signal any impact for ethanol. “These pollutants have severe impacts on public health and would likely exacerbate the inequity in air quality that BIPOC communities already bear,” activist green groups including Friends of the Earth, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, wrote to EPA Administrator Michael Regan on Monday. The “potential savings from this measure are limited, while the climate impacts are irreversible. Solutions to oil price hikes lie elsewhere.”

This comes as gas prices are at record highs — a dollar more than one year ago — and one J.P. Morgan analyst predicted prices could reach $6.20 per gallon by August.

Diesel Dilemma

U.S. average retail prices for ultra-low-sulfur diesel rose more than 37% in just 10 weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, setting a new nominal record of $5.62 a gallon in the week ended May 9, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

(Farm Journal)

The Biden administration is considering a release of diesel fuel from federal reserves to address surging prices and the threat of supply outages on the East Coast. Officials have drafted an emergency declaration as prices have soared to record highs in recent weeks, White House spokeswoman Emilie Simons said on Twitter on Monday. Such a declaration would allow for the quick release of some of the 1 million barrels of diesel in the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve “if necessary,” she said. While the reserve only contains about one day’s supply, and might not substantially reduce diesel prices, it could prevent spot outages of the fuel, an official said. Diesel has outpaced gasoline prices because of refinery closings and because Russia was such a big supplier of refined fuels into Europe, causing ripple effects world-wide.

Possibility of Pumping More Oil?

If gas prices are so high, why aren’t shale drillers pumping more oil? The Wall Street Journal notes one reason: Their executives are no longer paid to. After years of losses, investors demanded changes to how bonuses are formulated, pushing for more emphasis on profitability. Now, executives who were paid to pump are rewarded more for keeping costs down and returning cash to shareholders. The focus on profitability over growth helps explain drillers’ muted response to the highest prices for oil and natural gas in more than a decade.

Possible Rebate for High Gas Prices?

Democrats float $500 rebate to combat gas prices. Americans would receive a $500 cash rebate under legislation being introduced today by Democratic Reps. Sean Casten (Ill.), Don McEachin (Va.) and Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) that would be paid for by eliminating tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

The measure would eliminate 11 tax breaks for oil and gas companies, including for marginal wells and enhanced oil recovery. This bill comes after the House passed a bill last week that would give the Federal Trade Commission sharper teeth in preventing alleged gas price gouging by oil companies. The price gouging bill has hardly any chance of success in the Senate, where the Commerce Committee has a mark up on its own version of the price gouging bill Wednesday.

(Farm Journal)

Growing Less Dependent on Fossil Fuels

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency says governments around the world need to do more to spur faster growth in electric vehicles.

“Electric-car sales continue to break records, but mineral supply constraints are looming,” the IEA said in its latest EV outlook. “Much more needs to be done to support charging infrastructure and heavy-duty vehicles.”

The agency suggested officials ease bottlenecks for battery materials, enhance support for EV purchases and take action to kickstart the market for heavy-duty electric vehicles. Such efforts may help reach their goal of a 350 million global EV fleet. As it stands now, EVs aren’t selling fast enough for the world to have a realistic chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, the group said Monday.

Barnard: Learnings From a Rotisserie Fueled Flywheel

Tue, 10 May 2022 19:57:47 GMT

Janette Barnard is the author of Prime Future , a newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy. Read more by subscribing to her newsletter .

The only things certain in life are death, taxes, and the $4.99 Costco rotisserie chicken.

Inflation in the US hit 8.5% in March 2022, the highest since 1981. Food prices up, gas prices up, energy prices up.

But the Costco rotisserie chicken? $4.99 for evaaaah.

This is similar to the Costco founder’s now infamous conviction around the $1.50 hot dog. When new’ish CEO Craig Jelinek went to former CEO and Costco founder, Jim Sinegal, complaining that the hot dog price needed to increase because the company was losing money on it, the founder replied, “If you raise the hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.”

To figure it out, aka manage costs, this behemoth retailer built their own hot dog factory to supply the more than 100 million hot dogs sold per year. They also moved upstream into the chicken business, building out an entire poultry complex just to supply their need for more than 85 million rotisserie chickens per year.

Even amidst the highest inflation in 40 years, Costco still hasn’t raised prices on these two items. That is conviction.

That is conviction about a proven tactic in service of a larger strategy, one part of a system. The tendency of a Costco shopper is to do large infrequent trips so the rotisserie chicken is a bet on getting people in the door more often and when folks are in the door....well, you know how it goes at Costco. That $2-3 loss on the rotisserie chicken is more than made up for when the shopper walks out with a $100+ basket of other items.

This reminds me of the Amazon flywheel, a mega theme of the book ‘Amazon Unbound’. Bezos’ core conviction was that customers want lower prices and more selection, and that those two expectations would not change over time. So the Amazon flywheel goes like this:

Offer low prices to get customers.
Having customers allows Amazon to bring on more sellers.
More sellers provide more selection which brings more customers.
More customers brings more revenue which Amazon can invest into systems to lower prices.

And the flywheel spins faster and faster. (Sure Amazon sales dropped 3% this last quarter but let’s assume thats a blip as the pandemic impact winds down.)

Aside: I’ve read multiple books about Amazon the last couple of years because they are one of the most fascinating companies to study. I get it that not everyone loves Amazon, I’m working on finding other companies to use as examples though ?

Jim Collins developed the flywheel concept in Good to Great:

“Picture a huge, heavy flywheel—a massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about 30 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick, and weighing about 5,000 pounds. Now imagine that your task is to get the flywheel rotating on the axle as fast and long as possible. Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward, moving almost imperceptibly at first. You keep pushing and, after two or three hours of persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster, and with continued great effort, you move it around a second rotation. You keep pushing in a consistent direction. Three turns ... four ... five ... six ... the flywheel builds up speed ... seven ... eight ... you keep pushing ... nine ... ten ... it builds momentum ... eleven ... twelve ... moving faster with each turn ... twenty ... thirty ... fifty ... a hundred.

“Then, at some point—breakthrough! The momentum of the thing kicks in in your favor, hurling the flywheel forward, turn after turn ... whoosh! ... its own heavy weight working for you. You’re pushing no harder than during the first rotation, but the flywheel goes faster and faster. Each turn of the flywheel builds upon work done earlier, compounding your investment of effort. A thousand times faster, then ten thousand, then a hundred thousand. The huge heavy disk flies forward, with almost unstoppable momentum.”

All of this leads me to 3 takeaways:

(1) Enduring principles anchor dynamic systems.

It’s easy to look at these retail B2C businesses as something different than the B2B companies we find in production or processing. But every business is a system. Every business buys stuff to make stuff to sell stuff.

In production agriculture, the output is largely a commodity. But whether the output is commodity or differentiated, the system of how the output is produced matters as much as the output itself. The how determines the what.

Enduring principles about what will not change, like the conviction of both Costco & Amazon founders that consumers prefer lower prices. That’s why business model innovation gets so interesting.

So, what’s not going to change in livestock, meat & dairy?

We’re talking about living creatures in complex biological systems. We understand more about the biology than ever before but there’s still a lot we don’t know. And even what is understood can’t always be controlled. There’s genetics, nutrition, health, the role of weather in feed & health & mgmt, etc.
Price matters. Which means efficiency matters, which generally means scale matters.
Quality matters. The obvious dimension of quality is product quality that impacts the eating experience. What is changing is the definition of quality, not just what the customers buys but how it was produced….and many definitions of quality means many high quality sub-markets.

Love it or hate it, price a-n-d quality are what consumers expect.

(2) Dynamic systems spin flywheels.

An old school example of a flywheel was when JR Simplot started feeding potato waste to cattle. Eventually his company invented frozen french fries which increased demand for potatoes so there were more potatoes grown, and more available potato waste for cattle feed. Not just a flywheel, an upcycling flywheel…

A newer example is beef x dairy. Dairy adopts the use of genomics to identify high potential heifers, uses sexed semen to breed for replacement heifers, uses beef genetics for the rest of the herd. The beef x dairy calves are worth more when they hit the ground, and that value carries through to packer. Meanwhile the herd’s genetics improve faster, so all offspring are higher quality, so the dairy herd performs better and the beef x dairy offspring perform better….let that flywheel rolllll.

Dynamic systems spin flywheels creating outcomes like reduced costs, less waste, higher yield, higher value, lower risk, etc….whatever the system was optimized for, the flywheel will accelerate.

(3) Flywheels keep flying.

Each turn of the flywheel builds upon work done earlier, compounding your investment of effort. A thousand times faster, then ten thousand, then a hundred thousand. The huge heavy disk flies forward, with almost unstoppable momentum.

What is 1 flywheel in livestock, meat & dairy that you see?

Janette Barnard writes the Prime Future blog, with the goal of elevating the conversation about trends and opportunities for meaningful innovation in the animal protein value chain. She can be reached at https://primefuture.substack.com