(soft music) (upbeat country music) - Hello and welcome to "Farm Connections".

I'm your host Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode we sit down with the Senior Director of Beef Sustainability Research for the NCBA to discuss exactly what sustainability in beef looks like.

We have a conversation with Darcy Johnson of Conger Meats about the hog crisis that hit the country in the spring of 2020.

And the University of Minnesota Extension provides us with a new Best Practices segment.

All here today on "Farm Connections" (cheerful country music) - [Narrator] Welcome to "Farm Connections".

With your host Dan Hoffman.

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- Welcome to "Farm Connections".

We're delighted to have Myriah Johnson from the National Cattleman's Beef Association to talk about sustainability in raising beef.

Myriah welcome to "Farm Connections".

- Thank you Dan, happy to be here.

- Well what exactly do you do at the NCBA?

- I'm the Senior Director of Beef Sustainability Research.

So I lead our Checkoff Sustainability Research Program.

So and part of that is just to guide and direct that program but also to obviously do research as the title indicates, on the sustainability of the beef industry.

And to help us benchmark and set goals of where we might go.

Working with some great researchers around the country to focus on beef sustainability.

Kind of where we're at as an industry as well as some opportunities for potential improvement as well.

- Well certainly the consumers and beef producers alike must know and are asking for sustainability.

What does sustainability mean?

- If you ask 10 different people on the street you're probably gonna get 10 different answers.

But I think fundamentally when we listen to what people have to say all of their answers really encompass three main areas.

And I would say those are the three areas that are kind of definition-ally part of sustainability.

So focusing on the environmental components as well as economic and social.

And I think if we you know look across the landscape at media a lot of times, or even with our consumers it seems like environmental gets a lot of the focus.

But we know that those economic and those social components are just as important as well.

And it really takes all three together to truly be sustainable.

- Well Myriah after growing up on a beef producing farm the economic part became very important to us.

And we tried to be environmental.

But how do we balance the two, especially with consumers today who are more demanding than ever?

- Sure, and that's tough.

You know there's really we've seen in a lot of places in our research where if we can improve the environmental outcome that subsequently we also have improved economic outcomes as well.

Which sometimes it may not always feel like that, we may feel like if we're going to have to give up on our profit and being able to stay in business and to pass the operation on, just to be environmentally friendly.

But many of the things we've looked at, those things can actually go hand in hand.

So for instance if we have improvements in our water usage or efficiency that also helps us to improve our bottom line hopefully and bring more dollars back into our pockets as producers.

- Well certainly there is probably ample resources but there never seems to be enough to do all we wanna do.

So how do you decide what research is important and pertinent and what gets funded by the Checkoff dollars of beef producers?

- Sure (Myriah exhales) and that's you know a process we kind of just walked through recently and updating how we do that.

And so for many of the listeners that may be familiar with the beef long-range plan, which is an industry long-range plan that's put together once every five years.

And so I'd say that's kind of like our guiding star or document that we start with.

So every five years after that new long-range plan is published we look at that.

And we look at how our research program can help to fill the needs and the direction that is laid out by that long-range plan.

So we'll put together some drafts of a research roadmap.

After that that will guide us over five years.

But we also with that research roadmap take time to go out and solicit opinions from folks all throughout the industry.

So producers themselves.

As well as the folks in academia, extension, as well as our government partners NRCS, the Agriculture Research Service.

And even some of those non-government organizations.

So trying to get a wide array of feedback from all those stakeholders.

You know and further refine that.

And then ultimately bring it to our research advisory board which is a small group of about five or six people that's made up of both producers themselves from different segments of the industry as well as researchers with experience in each of these sustainability areas.

And so once we walk it through all of these steps and get all of this feedback then we finally have this document that is really a guiding document.

This research roadmap for us over the next five years that kinda helps us to say, this is where we're headed and this is the type of research we're going to do.

And so I've just mentioned that if anybody is curious to learn more about it they could visit our website, which is Beef Research dot org.

And it's posted on there.

- That's a very tall order to fill and a lot of balancing.

- Yes, it is.

(Myriah laughs) - You referenced NRCS, Natural Resource Conservation Service.

And also you talked a little bit earlier we did about beef producers and Checkoff.

Tell us about beef Checkoff and how that's funded and who directs it.

- So the Beef Checkoff was established back in the 80's and is a one dollar per head assessment every time a live animal beef animal is sold.

And so that dollar is collected and it is captured by that Cattleman's Beef Board.

So again, made up of folks, producers, farmers, ranchers from the beef industry.

And that Cattleman's Beef Board manages those dollars and they work with the contractors to the Checkoff.

And so every year we're putting forward proposals of what we can do as a research program.

Cattleman's Beef Board is our customer and we're here to serve and to do the research that is needed for the Checkoff program.

And so ultimately they allocate those dollars to the different programs and then we go and execute with that.

- Has sustainability always been part of the beef producers work?

- In some ways yes and no.

So I think as farmers and ranchers sustainability has been inherent in what we do every day right?

But from a Checkoff Research Program perspective it has not always been part of the program.

And so it's only been in about the past 10 years or so that we have had a formal research program regarding sustainability.

- Tremendous.

Give me some examples of sustainability research that's brought forth some great results?

- So probably the one, if you're familiar with any of the research from our program, probably one of the things that you have likely heard of or would have heard of would be what's called a life cycle assessment.

And so that would be focused on that environmental aspect of sustainability.

And so because that's where we, I would say face our challenges you know or detractors come in and say things about the beef industry, that's really where the program started was working on that environmental side.

And so doing that analysis with a life cycle assessment.

And so that you know can tell us a number of things.

So it might tell us you know how much water we use per pound of beef produced.

Or how much energy we consumed.

As well as you know how we're impacting the land and those resources.

And so it's kind of looking at how we impact the environment.

And so those are the major items that have come out of that and have also provided us with some ways in which we can try to improve and go forward.

- Well I've always admired the beef animal in that it's a rumen and it has four compartments to the stomach.

And has the tremendous ability to use forages and grasses.

Does some of your research revolve around that?

- It certainly does.

And we've had several research projects in which we've looked at that.

And so we like to call that, or to turn that up cycling.

So when cattle are taking these things that you and I Dan that (Myriah laughs) we can't eat.

I can't go out and graze that grass and do anything with it right?

But like you said, that cow's pretty impressive in that she can.

That she can consume that and she can turn that into a very high quality protein that is nutritious and tastes really great for you and I to eat.

And so we've had some research around that.

And in fact one of those studies was done just a couple of years ago.

It was done by doctors Tryon Wickersham and Jessica Baber-Gilreath from Texas A&M University.

In which they looked at you know how much protein are we putting into the beef animal?

And then subsequently how much beef are we getting out?

Or how much protein are we getting out of that beef animal?

And so in doing all that math and the conversions they found that we're getting out three times more protein than we're putting into that animal.

Which I think is really tremendous.

You know because when we think about some other proteins or some other food sources, that's a lot closer to a one to one type of relationship where whatever we're putting in we're getting out.

But that beef animal can really up cycle.

And you know too you know from that same research then that we can feed more children than we can if we just took say a bushel of corn and fed that directly to children.

And we're helping to better meet their amino acid requirements as well.

And so that's some pretty neat research that I think really tells us about how amazing that beef animal is.

- Well certainly the farmers are always about value added.

How do I take perhaps some land that isn't useful for corn or soybean or hay production and maybe have a cow calf operation on it.

And then later turn that beef calf over to a beef finisher or backgrounder.

So there's land out there that would probably be totally unproductive from agriculture standpoint without beef animals or rumens correct?

- Correct.

In the US we know that in total about 29 percent of the land in the US would be otherwise unusable, it's not arable.

We can't cultivate it, we can't farm on it.

And so that land would go idle.

And you know and would not produce value for the people who own it certainly and not offer them a return.

But it allows us to capture again those nutrients.

The grasses you and I can't eat.

And to turn that into pretty tasty protein for all the rest of us.

- Well said.

Thank you Myriah Johnson, National Cattleman's Beef Association, Research Director of Sustainability.

Appreciate your time here.

- Thank you Dan, I appreciate it.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections".

(upbeat country music) - [Male Announcer] "Farm Connections" Best Practices brought to you by.

- Hello I'm Bruce Potter.

Integrated Pest Management Specialist with the University of Minnesota Extension.

And today on Best Practices I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about a relatively new insect pest to Minnesota soy beans.

Not that we didn't have enough pests before.

But we picked up a new one.

We confirmed it in Minnesota in 2018.

One of the growers had mentioned that he'd seen the problem for several years previous.

In 2015 and through 2017 the insect was observed in Eastern South Dakota, Eastern Nebraska, Western Iowa.

But it was assumed to just be a secondary invader to soybean plants that were damaged by hail or disease.

In 2018 this thing blew up in the spring and we realized that this insect was capable of causing plant damage and death to soybeans all on its own.

The adult larvae over winter and pupate in the spring.

And the adults emerge in mid June.

They lay eggs at the base of the soybean plant.

If you're looking at the soybean field a lot of times you'll see the damage worse on the edge, and in fact always you'll see damage worse on the edge of soybeans adjacent to the previous year's soybean crops 'cause that's where the adults move out of.

To distinguish this from a disease look at that lower stem, you'll see a dark discoloration.

A lot of times there's kind of a black border between the green healthy tissue above and the damaged tissue below.

But if you peel back that outer layer of the stem the bark if you will, you'll start to see some white to orange larvae in the stems.

There's three larvae in stars and they start out white.

That lasting star turns orange and is pretty distinctive.

We've got a similar insect that feeds on white mold fungus.

But this insect is not associated with white mold.

It'll be on plants that are relatively disease free.

There's three flights of adults.

The over wintering flight, one in July, and another one in August.

When the larvae are mature they drop to the ground and pupate.

And that last generation in August the larvae are what over winters.

You'll start to see plants wilting in July.

And again damage is usually worse on the edge of the field.

And as the season progresses that damage affects more plants and moves further into the field.

So if you see damage like that on your soybeans adjacent to last year's crop, pay some attention.

Take a look at what's underneath a few surface of some of those stems.

We also have a scouting video available.

And there's a soybean gallmidge dot org website that has quite a bit of information on this insect.

Fact sheets, webinars, when we're monitoring adult flights.

So when those adults are out will be posted on that as well.

So thank you for listening.

This has been Best Practices.

And I'm Bruce Potter, University of Minnesota Extension.

(soft acoustic music) - With us today is Darcy Johnson of the Conger Meat Market.

Welcome Darcy.

- Hi Dan, welcome to Conger.

- Well it's a neat community.

Tell us about your business and the town.

- Well the Conger meat market has been here for quite a while.

It was established way back in 1935.

My husband and I have owned it for about 17 years now.

And we built a new USDA federal processing plant back in 2017.

And so we've been in the new location since then.

- Tell us about the employees or how many you have?

- We're up to 20 employees right now.

We are a live slaughter plant.

So we have a couple butchers and we're up to five, 10 people work in the processing of cutting, wrapping.

And we also have two retail locations.

So we're up to five people working retail.

- So how many people live in Conger?

- I'm gonna say right around 160 people I think from the last population.

Yeah.

- So with 20 employees you're probably one of the largest employers in town?

- We are the largest employer of Conger, yes, we got a lot of people that drive to Conger to work here.

- And recently we've had something called COVID-19.

How did that impact your business?

- Yes about this time last year when the large processing plants in the upper mid west started to shut down, my phone started to ring.

And it rang a lot, it rang about every three minutes.

It was not sustainable to call everyone back, or answer all the phone calls.

What I realized within a few days of the crisis, the hog crisis, is that all these market wait pigs that were already loaded on semis, in line, waiting that had were waiting to get processed in these large plants that were closed quite quickly didn't have anywhere to go.

Truck drivers.

Pork producers.

They were desperate.

They needed some place to take these animals.

- Certainly were desperate.

And of course if we think about pork production, the farmers that had emptied pens or barns and loaded them onto pigs were expecting those hogs, their paycheck so to speak to be delivered to the large processors.

Harvested and turned into a product that was sold, and that farmers were expecting a paycheck.

And of course if the pigs are not unloaded and if they're not harvested, no paycheck right?

- That's right.

And.

So of course we live in such a generous community.

A lot of people were going, how can we help?

What can we do?

They were willing to buy these hogs.

And.

Lot of times they were offering top dollar for these hogs 'cause they wanted to help that farmer out.

And they said, and they were willing to donate the meat to the food shelves there's a lot of food panty's that were closing at that time 'cause they couldn't find meat to fill the shelves.

So there was food pantry's empty, the store shelves were empty.

And there was people that were willing to help pay top dollar.

But again the processing, there was just no room for those hogs to get processed.

And so it was like I said, a real desperate situation for everyone.

- All the sudden, you were still going.

How did you keep going?

How did you keep your workers safe?

- Well that was a concern too.

You know it was early on in the pandemic.

And I think all of us owners business owners, were concerned for our employees health and safety too.

So as we're expecting them to pick up the pace and take on more processing it was very concerning.

We have a great team here, everybody stayed healthy.

We did what we could to help out as much as possible.

So we were very lucky and fortunate and blessed to stay healthy and to keep the store open.

We never closed.

So we were able to do what we could to keep our shelves full even though we did get low too.

'Cause a lot of the pork that we were processing at that time was already sold.

Going out to other people.

So it was hard to tell people we're doing what we can but our store shelves are still empty too.

So it was a very difficult time for a lot of people.

It was a hard time to be a business owner, 'cause you were concerned about your employees health.

Retail workers being out front with long lines of people coming in.

- Well you've certainly proven good leadership.

You've certainly proven resiliency.

But were there a moment or two during that time where you hit a lull?

- I think so.

I think with answering the phone.

'Cause I was in, talking directly to these people that were desperate.

You know I mean when people were calling me they didn't have a couple of hogs, they needed a place to go, we're talking hundreds.

And I could hear it in their voice when I talked to 'em on the phone.

And it did wear on us.

That.

Knowing I couldn't help everyone.

And saying sorry.

I think everyone that called me at that time with a story, they all had a story.

You know what do I do, the pigs are loaded, I can't bring them back to the farm.

They were just had nowhere to turn.

And I think hearing stories like that time after time it wore on me a little bit.

I did turn on an answering machine for a while.

(Darcy laughs) And just left a message saying we're no longer accepting hog appointments.

It was just a short time though, it was just a couple of days that that happened.

You know I talk to a lot of great people and there's I know there was a lot of people from areas that I'd never heard from before from the big cities that were calling down, how can we help.

And people really are so generous, and they wanted to help and do what they could.

I know we had a load of pork going up to the Burnsville area to a Burnsville area church.

And they donated all that meat to first responders.

And we were happy.

I mean it's stories like that that we're happy to help with that.

And that was really neat.

That like I said people were so generous to the farmers at that time to, they wanted to help in any way they could.

- Well what would you do differently if there was anything?

When you look back over 2020.

- Oh wow that's a million dollar question here.

What would I do differently?

And I've been asked that, if I could've foresee what was going to happen.

I think we did the best job we possibly could've for 2020.

I think we took on and I referred to it as the summer of hogs.

We took on as many hogs as we possibly could.

And that ramping up the processing two days of pork versus one.

I think we did everything we could.

And I don't all speak for my plant, I speak for every small meat processing plant out there, because I know they were all in the same situation as we were here in Conger.

And I think everybody did what we could to hep with the crisis that happened rather quickly.

We came out of it on the other end.

And I think we did manage to pick up a lot of new customers that maybe didn't visit a small meat processing plant before that thought wow, I can buy local.

And I think that is the whole take away from what happened in 2020.

- Darcy Johnson thanks for joining us on "Farm Connections" and telling your story.

- And thank you so much for having me on your program today.

(soft acoustic music) - Unforeseen challenges arise daily.

(cheerful country music) Preparedness and the ability to be flexible help to make sure we see ourselves through the difficult times and are able to help those around us.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thanks for joining us on "Farm Connections".

(soft music)