Co-ops Build Farm Sustainability, Maryland-Virginia’s Reames Says

With Earth Day placing a spotlight on environmental stewardship, dairy cooperatives are a critical link in ensuring dairy-farmer leadership in meeting ambitious sustainability goals, said Lindsay Reames, executive vice president of sustainability and external relations for Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association. 

“Sustainability does have a number of different meanings, and I think the most important thing that we can do as a dairy co-op is understand what it means on each of our individual farms,” said Reames. “The way we approach sustainability with our member owners is by finding ways where we can add value to their operation and improve the environmental outcomes from their farm. 

“So, any investments that we make through our partnerships and through our sustainability programs have to align with that farm's business model to bring them real value back to their operation. And we found that a number of new technologies, best management practices not only improve the environmental outputs on that operation, but also improve the overall economic wellbeing of the farm, which is a really important component of sustainability.”

Transcript

Alan Bjerga: Hello, and welcome to Dairy Defined. Happy Earth Week. Earth Day 2023 is tomorrow and its theme is invest in our planet. And to learn more about dairy's considerable contributions in that area, we are joined by Lindsay Reames, executive vice president of sustainability and external relations for Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association. Lindsay leads the development and execution of Maryland and Virginia's sustainability, marketing, and communications initiatives, adding value to customer relationships through a sustainability model that allows the entire dairy supply chain to reach its sustainability goals together. Lindsay is far from new to this area. Before joining Maryland and Virginia in 2016, she served as the assistant secretary of agriculture and forestry for the Commonwealth of Virginia, focusing on new crop development, environmental challenges, and economic incentives. And most importantly of all, the Virginia native is among the 10th generation to grow up on her family's dairy farm in Loudoun County. Thanks for joining us, Lindsay.

Lindsay Reames: Thanks, Alan. Glad to be here.

Alan Bjerga: Tell us a little more about your cooperative, how long you've been around, where do your members farm, and what their milk becomes.

Lindsay Reames: Maryland and Virginia, we are a regional milk marketing cooperative. We operate with dairy farms in over 11 states from New York down to South Carolina, as far west as Ohio and Tennessee. We have just over 950 family farmers that are our member owners. The majority of our milk goes into the fluid milk market. We have five processing plants, two of them ingredients and three of them focused on consumer products. We have been operating in this region for over 103 years.

Alan Bjerga: That sounds like a sustainable cooperative.

Lindsay Reames: Yes. And many of the families that are our member owners have been with us for 103 years. When we celebrated our 100-year anniversary, we had a couple families that had been passed down through multiple generations and were proud Maryland and Virginia members.

Alan Bjerga: So let's talk a little more about sustainability. It's something you hear tossed around constantly, but it means different things to different people. What does sustainability mean for Maryland and Virginia and its members? And how do you advance that at the co-op level?

Lindsay Reames: Sustainability does have a number of different meanings, and I think the most important thing that we can do as a dairy co-op is understand what it means on each of our individual farms. And the way we approach sustainability with our member owners is by finding ways where we can add value to their operation and improve the environmental outcomes from their farm. So any investments that we make through our partnerships and through our sustainability programs have to align with that farm's business model to bring them real value back to their operation. And we found that a number of new technologies, best management practices not only improve the environmental outputs on that operation, but also improve the overall economic wellbeing of the farm, which is a really important component of sustainability.

Alan Bjerga: Give us an example.

Lindsay Reames: So an example of that, a number of our best management practices that we've been able to fund through our sustainability programs go back to support animal health. An example of this is a new heifer facility. We're able to get those animals up under cover and put them in a facility with a concrete floor that we're able to scrape out. So it improves the overall care for their animals, the animals' hygiene, the worker welfare when they're able to easily get in and out of the facility, and the outcomes. The animals are going to grow better when they have better ventilation and newer facilities for them to be in every day.

Alan Bjerga: Now the dairy community as a whole has some pretty ambitious environmental stewardship goals. Tell us about some of these goals and the role you would see for Maryland and Virginia and your members in contributing to that goal. Because the challenge here is always to take it from the farm level and turn it into these grand things that people talk about, but sometimes seem kind of hard to put your arms around.

Lindsay Reames: I think one way to really hone it down is, how can dairy be part of the solution? And one of the industry messages that has resonated well with Maryland and Virginia and with our membership is that dairy can be and is an environmental solution. And when you allow our members access to resources, support investments that they want to make at the farm level, they're able to demonstrate those results and help move the needle towards the industry reaching their goals for the environment for 2050.

Alan Bjerga: What do we need to get us to these goals?

Lindsay Reames: In order to get to these goals, we need partnerships and we need collaboration across the entire industry. Maryland and Virginia, we've worked to develop partnerships with our customers, with our end consumers, with environmental nonprofits, and others. And through these partnerships, we've been able to bring and been awarded over $46 million to support the implementation of best management practices at the farm level. And we're able to support the investment of these practices, but also bring in the technical expertise through our partnerships with environmental nonprofits and technical service providers to ensure that the practices we're putting in place are meeting the expectations that we have in place for them. So a big part of it is the dairy farms are ready, they're willing to put practices in place. We actually have a waiting list of over 200 practices that we just need investment in order to put those practices on the ground and demonstrate that dairy is an environmental solution. So the way we're going to get there is by partnering with our customers, consumers, and those outside of the industry that have the shared goal of improving the environment.

Alan Bjerga: If you have a waiting list of 200, sounds like you could use a lot more of it.

Lindsay Reames: We can, yes. And we're currently in process of putting a couple of these projects on the ground. We were awarded a Climate Smart Commodities grant in partnership with Ecosystems Marketplace and i2 Capital. And those are two groups that are outside of the dairy sector, but saw the work that we were doing and really saw the results that we were able to achieve through the acceleration of the adoption of conservation practices. And so they asked us if they could join us in order to get more dollars on the ground and really help accelerate our model.

Alan Bjerga: You were talking about 2050 as a timeframe, which does seem far off, although at this point it's really just a generation. Take us to 2030. How can we advance in the short to medium-term in ways that will make the longer-term goal more manageable?

Lindsay Reames: 2030 is achievable. I know as a cooperative, my sustainability team, I have a group under the leadership of Janae Klingler that they go out and meet with our members and try to assess what their needs are. And by 2030, I would love to have been able to make an impact on all of our farms by then. And it can start with a conservation plan. You really need to have a good plan in place before you start implementing practices. So if we're able to support all of our member farms with fully understanding what their needs are, we're going to position them to succeed in the future and position ourselves as a co-op to stand out as a leader in conservation.

Alan Bjerga: All of this starts at the farm level. Agriculture comes down to the farmer. How does the co-op model apply itself towards finding some of these solutions that aren't just about the planet sustainability, they're about a farm sustainability as well?

Lindsay Reames: That's one thing we have focused all of our efforts on is really ensuring everything that we're doing at the co-op level is relevant to our member owners and is valuable to them on the farm. And the way we start that conversation with our member owners is through the FARM program. My sustainability team goes out and completes either the FARM ES or the FARM animal care evaluation. And during that evaluation, they're able to better understand where there's room for improvement on that operation, and also what the goals are for that farm. So if you can have both generations, maybe if it's a mother-daughter, father-son running the operation, you're able to have that conversation and understand, okay, in five years you're looking to expand. In order to do that, you're going to need an updated certified nutrient management plan and you're going to need additional manure storage. We can help you achieve both of those. And knowing that you have those goals, you're going to grow and you're going to continue to grow with our cooperative so we can continue to grow to meet our customers' needs.

Alan Bjerga: So you have the FARM program working on the farm, you have the cooperative providing support. On the policy horizon, what improvements or enhancements do you think could be made to Farm Bill programs in a way that would be meaningful for your members?

Lindsay Reames: Yes. First, would like to thank Congress for all the support that we have received. There's been a lot of, I would say attention placed on, how can we leverage agriculture to be an environmental solution and ensure farmers can continue to farm? So ensuring that any programs that we have in place keep that front of mind. But as we have delved deeper into some of the current Farm Bill programs such as EQUIP and RCPP and others, it gets complicated quick. So anything that we can do to reduce the complexity, allow for more flexibility, and encourage public-private partnerships, that is going to help get these dollars on the ground.

I know one of the biggest challenges we have at the federal level and the state level is technical assistance. They simply don't have the staff at the federal and state and county level to get these programs out on the ground. But if you partner with a cooperative that already has the relationship with the farmers or an environmental nonprofit that's focused on getting conservation dollars on the ground, we can achieve those goals together. So flexibility is really key to these programs and thinking about who you can bring to the table to help get these dollars on the ground to accelerate the adoption of conservation practices.

Alan Bjerga: We've been speaking with Lindsay Reames, executive vice president of sustainability and external relations for Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association. Lindsay, anything you'd like to add?

Lindsay Reames: Right now, we really have a huge opportunity in the dairy industry with the amount of attention and dollars that are out there that want to support sustainable dairy. And so I would encourage any dairy farmer that's interested in adopting a new practice, trying a new technology, to raise your hand and try it out. There's a number of new technologies out there that we're trying to test to see, could this be a solution that could work on a farm? So really appreciate those of you that are willing to step up, try something new, and work with us to ensure that dairy can be the most sustainable choice for protein in the country.

Alan Bjerga: For more about Maryland and Virginia's sustainability efforts, the co-op has an entire web section on it. You can visit mdvamilk.com/sustainability. And for more of the Dairy Defined Podcast, you can find and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music under the podcast name Dairy Defined. Thank you for joining us, and have an impactful Earth Day.