Dairy Resilient in the Face of Natural Disasters, H5N1

Dairy farmers are remaining resilient as they manage their way through H5N1 in dairy cattle and respond to natural disasters that have devastated farms, NMPF Chairman Randy Mooney said in remarks at the organization’s annual meeting.

“Farming is hard. I said that. We all know that. But when you get hit with weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, the list goes on and on, unexpected costs, that makes it even harder,” Mooney said in his remarks Oct. 22. “You get hit with things like bird flu that a year ago we didn't even know was a problem,” he continued. “And if you've been hit by one of these either weather event or something really unexpected, my heart goes out to you. These things are difficult. It puts strains on farms, put strains on families, put strains on financials.”

“Everything we do, the future is going to take a level of cooperation and coordination from all of us. And we’ve had that, but it’s going to take more than we’ve ever had,” said Mooney, a Dairy Farmers of America member-owner who farms near Rogersville, MO. “I continue to be inspired by all of you and the work that you’re doing. Amid great change and preparation for the future, we are still part of the greatest industry that there is.

Mooney also talks about the 2024 Farm Bill, efforts to modernize milk pricing, labor shortages and dairy’ need to promote exports. 

Transcript

Alan Bjerga: Hello, and welcome to the Dairy Defined podcast. Today’s episode features NMPF Chairman Randy Mooney’s remarks at the organization’s annual meeting in Phoenix on October 22. He is being introduced by Tammi Arender of RFD-TV. 

Tammi Arender: Please join me in welcoming first, Randy Mooney to the stage.

Randy Mooney: Well, thank you Tammi, and I appreciate the introduction. It was too kind really. I just want to say before we start, Josh and Justin, did great job in the prayer this morning and talking about Phoenix and welcome them to Phoenix. We appreciate that. And when Sergeant Singleton was up here singing the national anthem, there was one gentleman sitting over here saluting the flag and it actually touched me because if you think of everything that's going on in the world today, the veterans that are in this room is what has allowed us to have meetings like this. So let's give the veterans in the room a round of applause.

Thank you. Well, it's great to be in Phoenix today, being back with you talking about an industry that is probably the hardest industry in the world, but it's one that we're all passionate about and we all love. If we didn't, we wouldn't be here because it's just that hard. Getting ready for this meeting I was reflecting on, I've been Dairy all my life, been chairman of National Milk since 2008 and I was thinking about everything that's going on today. And we always talk about change at these meetings. There's change here, change here. I mean, it's always seems like it all runs together, but this year when I was thinking about it's almost like, how do you say change differently? And it's almost like it's seismic change. And I want to explain that a little bit as I go through this. I see more happening today than I ever have, more happening today that's going to affect our lives, dairy farmers' lives the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, than I see that's ever happening and it's going to happen probably in the next 12 months.

It's been happening for the last 24 leading up to this point, but there's a lot going on. I also have this picture up here because my anniversary was last Wednesday, 43rd anniversary. So I was at a DFA meeting, board meeting in Kansas City and we was talking the night before around the table, and I mentioned to one of the guys, I said, "It's my anniversary tomorrow." And he said, "Well, I hope you don't forget." And I said, "Well, I won't forget." And he said, "Well, let me put it in my phone, I'll remind you." So the meeting starts at eight o'clock. It's like 8:05. We're a little bit late. And the guy comes up to the desk and he says, "Did you wish your wife a happy anniversary?" I said, "No, I forgot." So I walk off the stage, I called Jan and I say, "Happy anniversary. I was the first to say it." She said, "I sent you a text an hour ago".

So anyway, I think that was the first anniversary we've had that I wasn't with her on her anniversary, but I just wanted to say thank you to my wife Jan, for helping me do everything that I do. I couldn't do this job without her. So thank you, Jan, I appreciate it. The other thing that Tammy even mentioned is reflecting on the diversity we have in this organization, in this industry, large, small, east, west, north, south, confinement, grazing. But that's not what makes it really as complicated as some others. The other complication you have is the farm itself is are you part of a farm that's a generational farm and you're looking to the sons and the grandsons and you're in this for the next three or four decades, or are you part of a farm that you know nobody's going to follow you so when you're done, the farm is over?

So that all comes into the equation when we're making decisions on everything we do. And it's complicated sometime to see where people's coming from, but that's the thing you always want to dig into. You want to try to understand that. You want to try to understand where people's coming from to help us get to a consensus. And while I don't want to dive into the past, I want to acknowledge the change we've been through, the change that almost always we've led. And last year at this time we were talking about not missing a moment. And we could have, we didn't, but we could have because sometimes when you change CEOs and Jim Mulhern sitting down here on the front row, sometimes when you change CEOs, you watch companies, they do miss a moment. There is a period of time where they step back, they bring in new people, they bring in their own people.

And one of the things that we emphasize to Gregg when he came in is we've got great people. And he said yesterday at the meeting that we had in the delegate session, he said, "You were right." He said, "We've got the best people that there is in Washington D.C.," and we do. But so my point is, during this change and the most important change in a business or an industry can go through is the change in CEO. And I will tell you, and I can report from the chairman's standpoint, we didn't miss a moment. So we're in good shape.

Also, we saw opportunities that are available, opportunities that are available in what I said earlier in a really hard industry. And it's in normal times, as you all know, this is a stressful industry. But when you... That's not the slide I thought was coming, let me see if it shows up later. What we're trying to do is capture more value and we're going to have a panel discussion tomorrow that talks about farms and how they capture more value. So don't be sure and don't miss that. We're capitalizing on dairy superior nutrition, the packages that we make. And when I look at what the cooperatives are doing and the people who are in the dairy industry, there's different products being put out there, there's different packaging. And it's really amazing what the dairy category is going through and meeting consumer demand around the world. And we all know how important... Today we've got 18% exports. We all know how important that is.

And this year we talked about being in the moment. We are in that moment and it's been a monumental year as the work we've done for the past year and beyond has been instrumental in setting us up for the continued success, the next 5 to 10 and 15 years. It's been a year, as I said, I'm calling seismic change and a seismic change because we haven't dove into the Federal Milk Marketing Order system to change it like we have this year for about 20 years. We spent a lot of time working on the Federal Milk Marketing Order and now we're still going through a process. We'll get a final decision. And I think that'll be a decision that we all like. We got a farm bill that's being talked about. We don't know when that's going to get done, but we need to know what our road map is. We need to know what the rules are so we can run our business. So we need that to happen as soon as we can.

Food safety, dietary guidelines, that's one that we've been concerned about because of some of the stuff that's came out of taking three a day out of the dietary guidelines. And everyone in this room has worked to move us forward, everyone, we've all worked together to do it. And I want to say thank you, a special thank you to our partners USDEC, DMI, NDB, UDIA. And when I think about Barb and Krista and Gregg and I think of their past, they're taking their knowledge from the past and what they've done in careers before they got here and they're putting their heart and soul into the dairy industry using their past experience. And it shows every day. You guys are amazing at what you do. You know the dairy industry very well and you're charting the course for us that needs to be charted.

And I had some people ask me over the last couple of days, "What about future leadership? Who's going to take some of these dairy farmer roles that are out there?" And I was in a meeting Monday, I think Sunday I guess it was where we had 90-something YCs in the room, biggest YC group that I think's ever been here. And I applaud the cooperatives for sending YCs to meetings like this to build that leadership. And when I look at Joanna and I look at Alex, the future's bright, the future's absolutely bright of people who want to take on these roles, to put their self out there, to set their self up for criticism, but know that they're always trying to do the right thing for those of us that are working on the farm.

Then for Maryland, Maryland, I appreciate everything you do. You are the leader of the U.S. dairy industry, not only here, but the way you put yourself out there in all the global meetings. I appreciate everything you do. It takes time, takes time away from the farm and you do a great job. And I know I really cherish those times when we have those phone calls that we can talk things over. So thank you Maryland. Let's give Maryland a round of applause.

Okay. I also want to thank the NMPF staff. This is a staff that Jim had put together and Gregg has kept them all and 29 of the most dedicated people that I know, specialized in their fields, always concerned about the farmer, always working to make things better. And the thing that I always am impressed with is in Washington D.C. sometimes you have to work on things that might be coming at us and things that people are going to do to us that they don't even know they're going to hurt the farmers. Some of them don't know that they're trying to hurt farmers. Some of them do know, but we've got people there that can watch this every day helping in the things that we know that we need help on, but also helping in making sure that we're not...the unintended consequences of Washington D.C. don't spill over on us.

And Gregg, I want to thank you for your leadership. It's been great me and you working together and it's been seamless in the transition and I want to thank you very much for your leadership. To the National Milk Board. We've got 56 people on the National Milk Board, and you've heard me say before that this is the who's who of the dairy industry. And I can say that with confidence because of how they get here, how they get to the board. You take all the cooperatives across the United States and they either appoint or elect people to come to the National Milk Board. So I can say with confidence, this is the who's who of the dairy industry, and I'm honored as a farmer to be able to lead this organization as chair.

And these are the co-ops. If you're one of these co-ops, I want to say thank you. Thank you for sending your leadership and thank you for your investment in National Milk. Challenges. It hasn't been without challenges as I said before. Here's the slide I was looking for. So farming is hard. I said that. We all know that. But when you get hit with weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, the list goes on and on, unexpected costs, that makes it even harder. You get hit with things like bird flu that a year ago we didn't even know was a problem here at this meeting. Didn't know probably until the end of February, early March. And if you've been hit by one of these either weather event or something really unexpected, my heart goes out to you. These things are difficult. It puts strains on farms, put strains on families, put strains on financials. So my heart goes out to you, but I know that all of you will hang in there.

Labor continues to be a challenge. We talk about immigration and I've talked to some people here from Arizona and other places that's close to the border. We still don't see people knocking our door down to want to work on our farms. Labor's still a problem. But through all of that, we've nevertheless rested on our laurels. We continue to push forward and work towards a better industry. And this year's theme could not be more appropriate. This is our time to make every drop count and reimagine dairy, reimagine who we could be and to reimagine how we capture more value for our farms for what we do. Federal Milk Marketing Order Modernization over 200 meetings. A lot of work has been done here by Jim Mulhern started leading this. Gregg's taken us through it. A lot of people, Pete Kappelman led the committee from a board standpoint to get us to this point.

And a lot of work has been done by your co-ops and we came out at a good spot. This could have been really, really bad. And I know we're not all in the same place. Geographically this will affect all of us differently. But the fact is we was going to have a hearing, so it was us up to National Milk to try to keep this from hurting our farmers adversely any more than it had to. And when you talk about make allowance, when you talk about make allowance in isolation, that can happen if you don't put more stuff into it and you work to limit that, make allowance, increase as much as you can.

Farm bill spoke about this earlier, DMC programs and other things that's in the farm bill. I don't think it's controversial. So I think if we ever get a farm bill, we'll get what we want in the farm bill. Then to reimagine how we capitalize on dairy's superior nutrition package. Dairy already maintains a large share of the plate. And some of you may have seen this. According to Circana, is that how you pronounce that? Dairy is now the largest category in the retail grocery with $76 billion sales. So we're there, as dairy farmers, we're there as part of the largest category and 92% of households have milk in the refrigerator. That's pretty phenomenal. There's more than just milk in U.S. households. There's 97% cheese, 82% yogurt, 82% ice cream, 79% frozen novelties. We are there. Some might say, "Well, this is a mature market." That's the downside to all this.

But when you look at the dietary guidelines for America, 90% of consumers still don't get enough dairy. So we're there. All we got to do is continue to innovate, continue to bring new products. We know that our consumer is willing to eat dairy and the work that DMI's done with health and wellness, working with the Mayo Clinic, working with the dietary guidelines. I know you'll hear more about that later, but that's going to put us in a really good spot. It has put us in a really good spot. And Barb, we thank you for your leadership there.

We're working to improve kids' experience with milk at schools. We fought to keep flavored milk in schools and we'll keep fighting to increase the fat levels. That's something that all of us are interested in. And to reimagine how we meet changing consumers demands around the world. We know this is important. One out of every seven days goes to exports. 18% of our milk goes to exports. So how do we protect that? Going back to that seismic change that I talked about, and I don't know if that's the right word or not, it's just how the hillbilly like me talks. But when you think about that, what's going on?

There's an article in the paper the other day about China. China is now their ag minister or whatever he's called, says they've got 300,000 too many cows. We would've never heard of a few years ago China producing too much milk. Now they're producing too much milk. Talking about needing to get rid of 300,000 cows or dump milk or start putting more milk on the world market through products. We never would've heard of that a few years ago. You've got Fonterra changing their business model. They're going to start doing things differently. All this is moving around and it's moving around while we got our foot in the door with 18%. But what's it going to be in the future? Right now we're looking at renewing CWT. Okay? CWT, the last three years has had its problems. We've had a legal settlement that we've been paying off that's now paid off.

And through that time period, we've still been able to export a billion pounds of milk equivalent for the last three years while it's been encumbered with us spending money somewhere else. What could happen to CWT if you take that out of it and you can spend all of it on product, movement product, things we can do in the world? We've spent the last six months looking at how we can re-reduce CWT from what it has been to what it could be. And we've come up with a really good new plan. We just need to get it implemented. And so what's the risk and reward? You got Nicholson's study said that we get a 16 to 1 return. Some people said, "Well, that's just ridiculous." Is it? Truthfully, is it? If you start losing, you go from 18% exports, go down to 15, because we are not prepared as dairy farmers to stand up and say, "No, we're going to do everything we can."

What's the risk reward? Well, we know the risk is foresence. What's the reward? It could be 16 to one. It could be more than that if exports go down to 15%. So I ask you farmers in the room today, find out where your co-op is at on this issue because we're not there yet. The majority of the people, the majority of the co-ops in National Milk want to continue. The majority of the milk in National Milk wants to continue. We just got to figure out what that path is and we got to have as much participation as we can get because I think this is a period of time when we need to be as strong as we can as the U.S. dairy industry when we're protecting these markets. So ask your leadership where you're at and have a voice in this, please.

And everything we do, the future is going to take a level of cooperation and coordination from all of us. And we've had that, but it's going to take more than we've ever had. And I continue to be inspired by all of you and the work that you're doing. Amid great change and preparation for the future we are still part of the greatest industry that there is. We feed people around the world providing nourishment to people who need it the most. And even when it feels like we're surrounded by challenges and issues in our world, we can be proud of being part of this industry. We are part of something bigger, bigger than our farms, bigger than our cooperatives, bigger than ourselves, and it's a time of seismic change. We get to be leaders in the best industry that there is.

We get to reimagine a responsibility. It's a responsibility that we don't take lightly and an opportunity we will capitalize on for dairy farmers today and those who will carry us into the future. I hope we have a great conference and I appreciate each and every one of you being here and what you mean to this industry. Thank you very much.

Alan Bjerga: That was NMPF Chairman Randy Mooney, a dairy farmer form Rogersville, Missouri, speaking at NMPF’s annual meeting in Phoenix. To hear more Dairy Defined podcasts, all you have to do is go to our website, or go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music and search under the podcast name “Dairy Defined”. Thank you for joining us.