← New York Farm Bureau News Bytes
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- [00:12]
A
Hi, I'm Amanda Powers, Director of communications at New York Farm Bureau. And welcome to News Bites. In today's episode, we talk to Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Richard Ball about all things related to the New York budget. What lay ahead for farms large and small, how to make business thrive in a challenging time, how young people are becoming involved in agriculture and what that means for the future. And how to make food healthy, nutritious, and most of all, accessible for all New Yorkers. Let's jump in. Welcome.
- [00:43]
B
Great to be with you.
- [00:44]
A
Thank you. The budget, of course, is at the top of everybody's mind. Now that it's out, what can you tell us about how it affected agriculture and what programs are you incorporating to help farmers?
- [00:56]
B
Well, that's a long list. But we have a good budget for the Department of Agriculture. It's very strong. I was thinking back about the budget. I remember being on the Farm Bureau board of directors. I remember policy people coming in and saying, here's the aid to localities budget. We got about $7.9 million for agriculture. What can we work on? What do you want us to really push for? And we're looking at an aid to localities budget this year. That's about $60 million in total programming. So it's been beefed up over the years. There's a lot of good efforts in there, a lot of good commodity groups that have a presence in that budget. So that's really strong. That's a good thing for Agriculture. For us at the department, we have one of the best budgets we've had. It's strong. It allows us to do the things that we need to do. We went through a period of time of, you know, Covid era, when, you know, our fill level was down about 100 people. And I'm happy to say we're back to where we should have been then. And we're about 100 people more than that now. So a lot of this is in food safety and our divisions that work with our commodity groups, dairy, plant, animal. So we're in a good place. We can do what we need to do. I'm saying that having just come back from some meetings in Washington recently, some meetings with other departments of ag around the country, we talk pretty regularly. I gotta tell you, I stayed pretty quiet on the subject of our state's budget because a lot of states are seeing very significant cutbacks, reduction in force, less money than they had last year. And so. So I'm happy to say New York's in a very good place in that regard.
- [02:51]
A
Very good to hear and about the growth getting to in a relatively short amount of time after Covid to get back to that level of growth is impressive.
- [02:58]
B
It was pretty hard to hire people. I mean, private industry saw it. State government certainly saw the same challenges with finding people that wanted to be a part of it and were qualified to be a part of it.
- [03:10]
A
Great. So obviously we have planting season upon us. Now, aside from. I would like to throw in a quick plug for our Share the Road campaign. As you know, road safety is so important with farm vehicles, especially in rural areas. And I'm sure you have comments on that. But aside from that, what do you see ahead in planting season this year?
- [03:30]
B
Well, we're looking for a clear, clear weather forecast. I guess it's been a little bit of a roller coaster. I know in the Schoharie Valley and a lot of areas around the state, the western part of the state, we saw some flooding. We had just dramatic rainfalls and rainfalls at a huge volume in a short period of time. We're okay. I think most of the things that had been planted and then took on water are going to recover and be all right. But it was a little bit of a roller coaster there, A little bit of a late spring by our standards in Schoharie. But planting is going full speed ahead. A lot of corn in the ground, a lot of soybeans in the ground. A lot of vegetables are in the ground. So it's always a mixed bag. But I think we're in pretty good shape now.
- [04:19]
A
Great. You mentioned before that you are in constant communication with other agencies. What role does the department play in communicating with both state and federal government?
- [04:31]
B
Well, let me start at the federal side first for us in New York, at the department we deal with on a daily basis with the usda. So the transition going on there has made things different. We understand it's a transition. I've had the opportunity to be in the presence of Secretary Rawlings a number of times. We've got a number of incoming under secretaries that we know are coming in who are former department commissioners, secretaries or directors from across the country. People that we know that know us may have their cell phone number, that kind of thing. So that's encouraging to see that people in key positions there will be people that we know and have a relationship with. But there's so many people, as you know, they've laid off thousands of people at usda. So some of the programming people down in the divisions have left, taken those retirements. We'll have new people Coming in there, it will take time to build the relationships, get back to where we were in some cases. And as you know, a lot of programs were paused while they kind of look through them and think about whether or not that adheres to their mission. So we're kind of working our way through that. Every day we learn a little something more. The other main agency that we deal with on a daily basis is fda. As you know, FDA went through a rebuild just a couple years ago. They created a new deputy Commissioner for Human food to put all the human food in one place. The FDA is made up of different centers, and there was no one central food decision maker with those responsibilities. They did that and he resigned with the transition, got a new one. Now I was able to go to Washington and meet directly with him, Happy to say I think he understands where we're coming from as a state, the kind of things that the state does in partnership with the FDA. But again, he had 35 people taken out from under his capacity. So we'll see how that plays out. We're still very much in a transition phase at this moment. We'll see how long that takes, how long that goes on. But we're really in the relationship business in so many ways. So those people to call when you have a problem, when you have a question, when you need a program answer. So we're still in transitions, right?
- [07:10]
A
And then what about the state?
- [07:12]
B
On the state level, I don't think we've ever had a better relationship with other cabinet members that we deal with on a daily basis. Department of the Environment, certainly Department of Health, with all the HPAI work and dairy work going on. Commissioner of Health and I talk pretty often. New people at dec, we talk with all the time. I feel we've never probably had a better relationship there between Agan, Marcus and the other people that touch agriculture than we do today.
- [07:49]
A
Great. What about the pressures to change agriculture? We hear about this a lot. Whether it's new laws being instituted or banning certain practices or even just adopting new technology. How do you deal with that?
- [08:06]
B
Like everybody else, I sit down and take a deep breath. I think the potential for some changes around the viewpoint at fda, our health and human services, the potential for change there is pretty stark. The health and human services people are different. They've changed their staffing in a big way and their mindset is a little bit different. So I think the industry nationwide, I know other commissioners, secretaries and directors kind of anxious to see how that plays out because potentially that'll pose big changes for the way we do business in agriculture across the country, the interest in pesticide use and, you know, obviously vaccines is top of everybody's mind. But more importantly, the cultural things we do in agriculture and have done for years that have allowed us to have minimum tillage on our farms, et cetera. A lot of those practices are going to be called into questions I'm going to have to take. I think across the country, the departments together are saying we've got to make sure we use scientific data to evaluate the proposed changes that are coming at us and be honest about the answer. So that's going to be pretty big potentially, right?
- [09:35]
A
I mean, so given this challenging environment, how do you make businesses thrive?
- [09:41]
B
Well, we're going to do the best we can. I will say this. I told you, I spent a lot of time. Every week we're talking. All the commissioners across the country are talking on a regular basis. We have committees, and we dive a little deeper into the work there. I'll brag a little bit about the state departments of Agriculture as a collective block. Nasdaq, our organization, the leadership we have in Washington, we're nonpartisan, don't generally write a lot of op eds, don't look for trouble, but have become a trusted source in Washington for honest and accurate information about what's going on in the states. With agriculture in each one of the states, I feel really strong about that. It's one of the most positive things I can say about Washington, D.C. right now is that there's some very active CEOs of ag organizations working together. Certainly the state Departments of Ag is one of the strongest ones, one of the most trusted ones. Relationships with Secretary Rawlings and with other people at USDA is really high. So those are times when you can pick up the phone and talk to somebody and get an answer. So that's a bright spot, right?
- [11:03]
A
It's all about those relationships, like you said, having those relationships.
- [11:06]
B
No.
- [11:08]
A
Tell us how agriculture can play an important role. We always talk about sustainability and environmental management and even labor practices. Tell us about how agriculture can play a role in those.
- [11:21]
B
Well, I think we've always played a role in all those subject areas because that's kind of where the rubber meets the road. I think that post pandemic, there's a couple of lessons that we learned and that we have to remind New Yorkers and ourselves about. Number one, I think and foremost is that we better have a food system in New York State that's responsive and resilient. That is up to the challenge. We don't want to have to pendulum on another part of the world, another region for food supplies. We better have a food shed in New York State that can answer the rise up. So I think I feel really good about that because we did step up in a big way. The Nourish New York program, it was copied in Washington with lfpa, local food for local families and. But the nurse program has been added to in this year's budget. It's got another $5 million to work. And that connecting upstate farmers with downstate consumers, rural producers with urban users, has been really a great thing for New York State, something we can all feel pretty good about. So from that standpoint, I think agriculture learned some things and the consumers learned some things. And you know, we spent a couple of years here getting ready for the farm bill. We're now punted that farm bill down the road, which is unfortunate, something we need to keep pressure on, to grow on. But this farm bill promises to be the most relevant for New York farm bill in history. And I was asked after we did our hearings two years ago if I was surprised by anything. And I was having been around farm bills for a number of years, seen a number of farm bills that kind of reflect where agriculture is. But it was always the farmers on the commodity side of the fence saying, don't cut our commodity programs, cut the SNAP education pieces, the SNAP programs, etc. And vice versa. You know, people supporting the nutrition title would say, don't cut our programs, cut those farm programs. And I didn't hear any of that because I think post pandemic, and with all the things we've been doing to connect people who needed food, provide access to food, replumbing the food system. After the pandemic, I think farmers realized they had a customer that they didn't know that was their customer and that they were supplying a lot of food to people they didn't know, and vice versa. I think people on the, you know, the emergency food system and the SNAP benefits side of the fence saw we better have a strong agriculture because again, we need that food here in New York State. And I would just add one more component to it, and that is on the processing and food manufacturing side, we learned that we didn't just need food. We needed food that was in a form that was available to families. We didn't need to back up a trailer load of milk to New York City someplace and have people come out with gallon jugs to get it. We needed to be able to put our dairy products, our food products, whatever they were in a form that they could handle. And so over the last couple of years, we've seen a real increase in the growth of capacity, processing capacity in New York State, which is. That's how ag plays a big role there. You know, look at, you know, the Great Lakes cheese facility in Chautauqua county, the, you know, Fair Life facility going up in Webster, New York. Chobani, Rome, New York. And I've got eight more applications for processing opportunities in New York State on my desk right now. So there's an interest here in that processing component. You know, five, six years ago, I heard from the dairy community, for example, we don't have enough processing capacity here. We gotta do something about that. Well, we've done something about that to the point where surrounding states are like, what are you doing? You know, you're capturing all the big fun news. Sorry, you know, but we have good farmers here. They're capable of producing a top quality product for them. We have the capacity to supply them, and we've got the most amazing and diverse marketplace anywhere in the world at our doorstep. And we have partners at Empire State Development, an agency that we work extremely closely with on a regular basis. I bring ideas to them, they bring ideas to us, and together we look at how we can not just attract a business, but ensure their success. So I think that's a real strong suit, and I think that's how agriculture plays a part in moving our economy in New York forward.
- [16:23]
A
Right back to some of the accessibility issues there for a moment. Nourish New York again, was a great success. But free school lunches and also this 30% New York initiative I'm interested in too. Tell us about the importance of accessibility in New York, because I think a lot of people may not realize how accessibility is such an issue throughout the entire state, especially in rural areas.
- [16:47]
B
Sure, yeah. Well, that's a huge subject area right there. We put in a 30% initiative in our schools. As you know, we've been doing that for a number of years now. I've told the story too many times about how I was invited to be a part of an organization to look at childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes in our elementary schools. And I went to our local school in Schoharie, and it was the school my kids went to. And I remember going in there and first of all trying to figure out, is that a real problem in our youth? And yeah, it's a real problem in our youth. But then I looked in the cafeteria and I saw that there was absolutely nothing in the cafeteria that came from anywhere in New York, never mind from the Schoharie Valley, which was pretty famous for vegetable production, dairy production, et cetera. So I think that was a key beginning of our farm to school program and the 30% initiative there. Traditionally, almost 90, 100% of the funding for school lunch was coming from USDA and Department of Defense surplus. And schools were struggling trying to achieve any kind of a meal at a very cheap price. And I think the 30% initiative allowed our schools to say, hey, if we can get to buying 30% of our ingredients for the school lunch program from New York farmers, New York State will kick in some more funding for the school lunch program. I think we raised it from 4.9 cents a meal up to a quarter. Well, that's real money for each meal. We saw that as a great challenge. It was accepted. I think the school cafeteria nutrition people liked it a lot. We have some schools that are at 70% without using dairy, without counting dairy, which is just phenomenal. So that little bit of an incentive to start feeding our kids in a better way, in a more thoughtful way, not just so we're selling more food to New York schools, but so that we're connecting New York kids to that food system. That was the biggest thing that bothered me, frankly, was that young people would go to our schools and not know about agriculture, not know what was two miles down the road from their school, not know that there were opportunities in that food system for them. So that was a great success and a great beginning. The local food movement with our restaurants, great. They're like our billboards for what's great about local food. But when we went to the governor with this notion and said, hey, New York State, amongst all its agencies, buys a lot of food, somewhere around $1.5 billion a year across all the agencies. It buys in food for various reasons, whether it's supplying institutions, supplying the prisons, supplying any of our colleges. Well, let's take that same Trend. Executive Order 32. Let's set a goal of having New York State, when they purchase food, buy 30% of it from New York farmers. We estimate that'll add about a little over $400 million worth of purchasing from New York farms by the state. It seems intuitive, seems easy, seems natural. Obviously, when you get into details and contracts and purchasing and pricing, it gets more complicated. But I have to say that the procurement work group that we put together with the farm community, with the buyers and the sellers and with the agencies has been enormously satisfying in the first year we Had a goal of like 5% and we hit 15%. So the easy hard work was done. Now the hard hard work begins. But philosophically that's the right direction to go in. As a vegetable grower and for many years on the New York Vegetable Grower association board of directors, I remember looking at what Canada was importing here, what other states were sending to New York and I said, you know, Canada, all these other states, all these other countries, they know that New York is their customer. When is New York going to figure out that we're their customer? And so seeing those kinds of things start to happen in those relationships. Now the second largest produce show in the country in New York is sponsored by New York Grown and Certified. We're getting more of our growers there. Visiting with all the buyers from around the country, I'm kind of excited about that and I see that as a great way to connect the dots.
- [21:33]
A
It is a win win obviously because you're getting fresher, healthier food in the schools and you're getting more money in farmers pockets in New York.
- [21:40]
B
And you know, this is something in the beginning of it and we looked at the branding, what are we going to call this initiative? And this room is our kind of our branding room at the department. You can see the history of ideas about how to market New York products. But we take very seriously the Department of Agriculture and markets. And so we looked at that. Our brand for New York agricultural products is New York grown and certified. So the original participants in that was right wide range of people in the food industry, food writers, people who are passionate about food, myself and the commissioner of Health, he knew that if we were able to get people eating healthier, he would see better health outcomes or she would see better health outcomes. You know, five years, 10 years, 15 years down the road, we at the department saw that we would see better economics outcomes. And together we both realized that as our farm community prospered and people were eating better food in the schools and institutions and opportunities they had to eat food that we're going to see an awareness of where their food came from, why it's important to have good nutrition. So you know, the grown and certified brand, it's the only brand in the country I know of that isn't just local food, you know, hooray for our state because we're your state, but we have food safety embedded in that program and we have environmental stewardship embedded in that program. So it really, I think answers a question a consumer has, is sometimes local costs more or you know, Maybe I can't find local or why should I invest in local? Well, you can know it's a family farm from the state. You can know that, you know, the dollars stay in the state and help our economy. You can know that it's produced in an environmentally correct manner. And you can know that there's food safety so you don't have to worry about stainless steel and refrigeration being at the right temperature and workers washing their hands and being prepared. So it really has been a great boon. I see that as accelerating the ability for New York farmers to have access to that market that we know was there. We can capture a bigger piece of that market.
- [24:07]
A
Great. Well, I can't talk to you, Commissioner, without at least mentioning tariffs. So not so much percentages and whatnot. But most of our members, their biggest concern right now is just the uncertainty of day to day, whether that's planning on what supplies and feed to buy it and where to buy it from. What are your observations on this and what does the future look like with tariffs?
- [24:33]
B
I wish I knew. I'm anxious about it too. And certainly there's plenty of things to be uncertain about in the farm community. That's a big one. When we say trade with other countries, we're really talking about relationships with other countries. Farmers like to think they're in the corn business or the dairy business. We're really in the relationship business. And so having a relationship with, with other countries, export markets is critical. One of the things that I'm excited about being a part of is the conversations that we have once a year. It's called the Trinational accord and it was set up about the same time as the original NAFTA agreement for North America. The North American Free Trade Agreement was set up. So it's like the 32nd year of the trinational accord. The commissioners, secretaries and directors in the U.S. the ministers from the provinces in Canada, secretaries from all the states of Mexico. We meet face to face every year to talk about issues. Sometimes there are phytosanitary issues, there are disease issues, there are insect issues, there are trade irritants. And we try to hammer those things out between us. It's been such a valuable experience for me personally, but also for the country and for agriculture to be able to sit down with significant players, iron out the differences. It's really not something you take a sledgehammer to. So when tariffs are kind of scary for farmers in particular because they hit you coming and going, in many cases, they raise your input costs, cost of feed, cost of metals, cost of equipment, cost of supplies, and then they hit you on the way out the door because they're going to affect what you can sell your product for, who your buyer's going to be. And so I think it's something we need to be very thoughtful about, give some due consideration to think about the larger ramifications to that. So we're still in a negotiating phase right now. There's a lot of countries that have come to the table and want to talk more about this. But the reality for us in the Northeast, New York in particular, is that about 40% of what we produce leaves our country. Our two biggest trade partners are Canada and Mexico. They buy. I haven't looked at the recent percentages, but about 25% of our dairy exports go to Mexico. But they're our biggest partners and obviously they have an interest in selling product to us. They want to leverage their ability in the marketplace whenever they can. We get that. But we have to consider that relationship and the long term relationship there. When we lose that marketplace, it's hard to find another place to go because someone will take your place in that market, I'm sure. Who's it going to be? And once you've lost that relationship, the trust changes. How do you build that back? So it's something that it's ongoing, it's developing. Don't know all the answers yet. We're watching it very closely. But that particular meeting we rotate between the United States, Canada and Mexico. This year the meeting's scheduled to be in Mexico, but I've been at like 10 of those accords and have friends on the other side of the table and look forward to seeing what we can get done. And of course, we've been looking at the European Union, we've been looking at South America, we've been looking at other opportunities around the Pacific Rim. I think there's real opportunities for New York growers there. So we're still trying to figure out the landscape. There is a strong interest in Washington by this administration, frankly, to accelerate trade missions and visitations to other countries, both coming and going. State departments of Ag, very active in that space. Built relationships in the uk, South America, Indonesia. Those relationships seem pretty good. We're waiting for them to mature. And given the new circumstance, there will be money to do that kind of stuff in the new administration. I'm confident of that. So the Foreign AG Service has been a great partner. Traditionally, they have funding, they're not being cut, so that'll be part of the puzzle. As we put this all together.
- [29:21]
A
Okay, so pivoting here a little bit, we're told, at least from the studies we've seen, including surveys from your department, that the average size of a New York farm is still about 200 acres. But as you know, the number of farms has been decreasing over decades now to quite a substantial number of lost farms for so many reasons. Whether that's just the farmer doesn't want to continue or their family doesn't want it, or just the death of the family, whatever it may be. But how can we counteract this loss in the number of farms happening in New York?
- [29:58]
B
Right. Well, it's something I think about a lot. Me personally, I'm a first generation farmer. Technically, my grandparents sold the farm. I would have been the sixth generation there, but they retired before I was 12. Wasn't quite ready to confuse the banker yet. But it's something I think about a lot because the cost of getting into the farm business is getting pretty high and the scale is pretty challenging for new farmers, beginner farmers. Having said that, we have a beginner farmer work group. We've got the land preservation work groups that we're working with and the interest in urban agriculture, the interest in community gardens. They're not going to feed the world, they're not going to feed New York City, but they are going to plant seeds figuratively and literally in people's heads. So I get around the state quite a lot and I see what's happening on our college campuses, our ag schools, our land grant school, and the number of younger people who didn't come from a farm with an interest in the food system is pretty dramatic. That's a really strong thing. It's not just about the 1% who is actually in production agriculture, feeding everybody. It's about the whole system. The people that are involved in logistics and research and genetics and food safety and blockchain technology. And I think we've got a pretty concerted effort and a very positive one to help plant seeds in our young people's heads. For example, just we had this year the 100th anniversary of FFA convention started in New York 100 years ago at state fairgrounds. It's been 100 years. We challenged them as a department six years ago to double the number of ag teachers in the state and to add 100 chapters across the state. Well, they hit 104 this year. New chapters. There were over 3,000 young people in blue jackets at the annual convention this year. And the energy in that place was palpable. Important to note that one of the largest FFA chapters in the state is in Queens, New York City. And I think we added five charters in New York City in the boroughs this past year. So that connecting of agriculture with young people who will pursue careers in agriculture or become great leaders in the state or both is exciting and encouraging. We don't have enough workers on our farms, enough workers in our manufacturing facilities, dairy plants, but this is a step towards planting the seeds to have them germinate and grow. That the dairy world, I think, does a really good job at getting the next generation involved on farms, because, you know, someone can come in and work on the farm and begin to get equity in that farm. Buying a few cows, getting involved in the operation, that's really good. So we need to think through those things and provide those opportunities to people, because at some point, we might get old and we might need somebody to take our place, you know? But I think when I stood in front of those 3,000 blue jackets, I was pretty confident that the opportunities I saw when I was 18 were dwarfed by the opportunities that are in front of them.
- [33:45]
A
We find FFA just the most impressive organization. So you may know we just awarded some of our youth agriculture scholarships, two.
- [33:55]
B
Of our last year's state officers.
- [33:56]
A
Yeah, yes, yes. And then all the district awards as well. And just. I mean, just reading their bios, these kids are so impressive. They have such natural abilities, speaking skills. It's really incredible.
- [34:08]
B
Well, think about what agriculture, what New York Farm Bureau needs. They need leaders, young people who can articulate their concern, verbalize it, and not afraid to go talk to a legislator or a governor or commissioner, carry that idea forward, and then assume the responsibility of making it happen. It's amazing to watch them grow. And it's very exciting. I get to spend a lot of time with the state officers every year. And to see a lot of the state officers, now ag teachers with their own crop of young minds. And frankly, in my role in Washington with the state departments of ag, to be able to hire some New York FFA kids to work in Washington, D.C. and carry those policies forward is just. It's a beautiful thing to see.
- [35:02]
A
It's just amazing. Now, of course, on June being Dairy Month, you mentioned earlier, Chobani opening, I believe they just broke ground actually, a couple months ago on a facility in Rome. Obviously, dairy is a big player in agriculture in New York. How do you see that impacting the greater agricultural picture in New York?
- [35:26]
B
Well, dairy's clearly the biggest part of our ag community, but it's only a positive there's no other way to look at it. It's just very positive. So Great Lakes Cheese, Agrimark's Growth Hood's Growth, Fair Life, Chobani, these are legacy plants for New York State agriculture. These are plants that are going to exist for 50 or 100 years. The amount of milk they're looking at needing from New York State is, you know, it's a huge addition and it's going to be a huge draw for our agricultural economy in a big way. Chobani's looking at 1,000 employees in Rome, New York. The amount of milk that we'll need is impressive. You know, Great Lakes cheese, somewhere around a billion and a half pounds a year. Fair Life, they think they're going to exceed 2 billion pounds a year as soon as they open. Hamdi is looking at, with chobani, up to 4 billion pounds of milk a year. So it's not just the amount of milk that they're going to use that will create a. That rising tide is going to lift a lot of boats in the dairy world. But the jobs, any correlating jobs off the farm in manufacturing, in logistics and all the things that go with it, it's going to have an incredible impact on New York State's economy going forward. We have those resources, you know, with the land grant school of Cornell and our SUNY system for ag education is great. The water. Having access to water is increasingly an important check mark for New York State. We're not on fire. Having good farmers already, nationally recognized farmers already figuring in the national conversations in every way, and having the biggest and most diverse marketplace anywhere in the world at our doorstep. We're in a good place. We really are.
- [37:39]
A
And I would imagine that that is good for young people who are. We just talked about FFA who are maybe either entering college or starting on their family farm or starting a new farm of their own. To know that something like Chobani or Fairlife or Great Lakes Cheese is not too far from their door is gotta be a little bit encouraging given the number of employees that these companies are going to hire.
- [38:02]
B
Well, as I said earlier, you know, I was pretty excited when I was 18, you know, and I got a job working on the farm, got a paycheck, was able to buy a used car, was able to make my own way in the world and not need to be dependent on anybody else. It's a great feeling. But I'm more excited about this generation than I was about my own. Because the possibilities, I mean, when I was milking cows with My grandfather, a long time ago, you know, if you'd said to me, you know, so how many cows did your grandfather have? And I said, well, back then, you could handle milking 10 cows and taking care of them one person. So if it was a husband and a wife, he milked 10, she milked 10, and they had 10 dried off. That's the way it was. If they had a hired hand, they could take on another 10 or 20 cows. But I visited operations today in our state. I watched one worker milking 100 cows every eight minutes on a robotic rotary parlor. That's just incredible. With a laptop screen that measured the amount of milk that cow gave today, the amount they gave yesterday, and comparing it, looking at the somatic cell count. Oh, my gosh.
- [39:29]
A
Yeah. The advances in technology alone are very exciting.
- [39:33]
B
You know, I was at that 100th anniversary of FFA at their convention, and I thought about that a lot. It hit me pretty hard. You know, think about where we were in agriculture 100 years ago. Think about what it took to make a living in agriculture 100 years ago and the challenges that they had to face. And they were market challenges, and they were production challenges, and they were labor challenges, but they faced them and they stood up to it. The challenges we have today are there. They're real. We need to stand up to them and face them and handle them. I was reminded recently the year 1956, which a lot of people were born since 1956, but you can kind of see 1956, it's not that far away, but that was the first year in New York that there were more tractors on a farm than horses. It's not that long ago. And now we're looking at robotics in our dairy barns, and we're looking at, you know, amazing technology and GPS and all the things that happen, how much we know about nutrition. Cows exceeding 100 pounds per day in production, 200 bushel corn is like normal anymore. So what are we capable of? You know, I'm not sure, but I know it's going to be more and it's going to be better, and that's going to be good for our farmers.
- [41:07]
A
So exciting things ahead.
- [41:09]
B
Hang on to your seat.
- [41:11]
A
Hang on to your seat. Well, Commissioner, it's been a pleasure. We thank you so much. We thank you for your great relationship with Farm Bureau, which we treasure. And thanks for joining us today.
- [41:21]
B
Oh, gosh, it's a pleasure. The pleasure is mine. Thank you so much.
- [41:24]
A
Thank you.
- [41:24]
B
Appreciate the opportunity. Farmers, businesses, and rural communities are stronger together. Join New York Farm Bureau and be part of the voice that protects, protects and supports agriculture across the state. Get access to valuable benefits, advocate for policies that matter, and connect with a network of farmers just like you. Visit nyfb.org, reach out to your local county farm Bureau or call 1-800-342-4143 and press 0. That's 1-800-342-4443 and press 0 and join today.
- [42:01]
A
Sat.