Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 256: The Ag Labor Crisis We Created and Now Can’t Ignore with Marty Ropp

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256: The Ag Labor Crisis We Created and Now Can’t Ignore with Marty Ropp · CattleUSA Daily

0:00
Today we are welcoming on Marty ROP once again to the Cattle USA
0:04
Daily podcast. Marty was on a couple months ago
0:07
and he came on to talk about a very different topic than what
0:10
we were talking about today. Previously he was here to talk
0:12
about genomics and genetics within the beef industry and
0:15
what that looks like. But another big passion of
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Marty's, and he actually even started a nonprofit about it is
0:21
labor in AG and the issues that we are seeing in labor in the
0:26
agricultural industry, in the beef industry in AG as a whole
0:29
and what that means. Marty and I get really deep into
0:32
our personal thoughts on what the issues are in labour and AG,
0:37
the root cause, and where we need to be going as a population
0:41
of producers and future employers within the
0:45
agricultural industry. If you're watching on YouTube,
0:47
make sure you take a second to hit that subscribe button.
0:49
And also like this episode, if you're watching on any of our
0:52
other podcast platforms, take a second to make sure you're
0:55
following the following the show and go right and review it as
0:58
well. Without further ado, so let's go
1:00
ahead and hear from Marty. Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily
1:07
podcast, your go to source for the latest livestock markets,
1:11
industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
1:14
today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
1:16
passionate advocate for agriculture here to keep you
1:19
informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
1:22
episode. Marty, welcome back to the
1:26
podcast once again. I am so excited to have you on
1:30
to chat about a different topic today.
1:33
Last time we talked about genomics and science and all the
1:36
other things. But today we're coming on to
1:38
talk about something a little bit more personal for you and
1:42
that is labor in AG. And you have set up a nonprofit
1:46
recently and have been doing some really great work when it
1:49
comes to labor in AG. So if you just want to take it
1:52
away and share with the audience a little bit about your story
1:55
with that, what you guys are kind of doing and we can go from
1:58
there. Yeah, No, I appreciate that
1:59
Lauren. I appreciate a chance to, to
2:01
visit about it. I, this is a project, it's been
2:04
something I've been thinking about for a while.
2:05
And we've started some youth support organizations in our
2:08
local community to try to help encourage kids to, to consider
2:13
a, a career in agriculture career.
2:15
Like so many of us have either started in your case or have
2:19
been in a long time, like in my case.
2:21
But we work on so many projects. We work on these science
2:24
projects and we do marketing and we do customer service pieces
2:27
and consult. We do all these things in our,
2:29
in our regular business. And too often, you know, we come
2:32
in or we business with someone and they said, we know, we, we
2:34
love all these things. We'd love to be, We want to take
2:37
20 years in the future. But right now our biggest issue
2:39
is we can't find help. And we're worried even in the
2:43
next generation, we're worried about can we be sustainable in
2:46
our operation based on the fact that we've always had access to
2:50
ample labor and now we don't. And so all these other things,
2:54
you know, all these other things that we work on them that are
2:56
fun and exciting and they don't, they're hard to employ If you
3:00
don't have someone that's actually that's actually doing
3:02
the work and making things happen at the production level.
3:04
And that doesn't matter if that's in the cattle business or
3:07
if you're growing Peaches, then it doesn't matter, you know,
3:10
catfish, everybody in agriculture, everybody in the
3:12
food production business is struggling with labor issues.
3:15
It's just, and so I don't know, I hear a couple years ago I
3:18
decided, can we, I decided, can we do something positive because
3:23
there are other businesses are doing well, Can we do pot
3:25
something positive in this, in this industry based on the fact
3:28
that I know a lot of people and I travel a lot and I see a lot
3:31
of people and even have experiences in different
3:33
industries besides just the beef business.
3:36
Can we come to some sort of consensus in agriculture that
3:39
this is all of our problems and not just a cattlemen's problem
3:43
or a pork producer or something like that?
3:45
So we come to some sort of consensus and therefore put
3:47
resources towards real long term answers and not just band aids.
3:53
We've kind of lately it's been, can I find somebody right now
3:56
and can I find them cheap? And all these things, instead of
3:59
developing, you know, a labor workforce like we did for
4:03
hundreds of years, we developed our own labor workforce.
4:06
It was a, it was a functional system and it involved lots of
4:09
farms, lots of families, larger families.
4:13
It involved young people, young people doing work on the farm
4:17
and understanding what it took to do things and to be in
4:19
production agriculture. We had, we had a training
4:22
program and that training program has largely disappeared,
4:26
or at least it's been cut significantly.
4:28
We're going to, I know we'll take care of some of those
4:30
issues with technology, but ultimately it's going to take
4:34
humans and trained humans and committed humans in order to
4:37
keep the food production system in this country what it's always
4:40
been and the best in the world. Yeah, absolutely.
4:43
Labor is such a pain point for so many people in agriculture
4:46
because I think we hear the soapbox story all the time and
4:50
it's from it's the same across the board.
4:53
I can't find any good help and whether that be a they genuinely
4:57
can't find the good help or maybe it's a them problem too.
5:00
I think we deal with both sometimes.
5:02
Responsibility for this, everybody.
5:05
Yes, absolutely. I think that there is some
5:07
responsibility that we need to take in some certain scenarios
5:11
of why we are in this standpoint and why we are here.
5:16
Do you want to talk on that a little bit of what what got us
5:19
to this point and what we kind of need to be doing to move
5:23
forward? And these are these are my
5:24
theories, but I think they prove out prove out fairly well.
5:28
As I mentioned before, we've always had this farm team, for
5:32
lack of a better word, large families, lots of farms.
5:36
So there were extra young people say that in a good way.
5:40
It was a good thing. And you know, when I was a kid
5:43
on this, on the section that I live on right now, there were I
5:46
think there were seven families on that Section. 5 of them were
5:50
involved in agriculture. And there were 14 or 15 young
5:53
people my age within five years of my age, 5 years older, five
5:57
years younger. And all of us could pound a
5:59
fence, poster, drive a tractor or take care of pigs.
6:03
All of us could have now we will help milk cows at the neighbors.
6:06
All of us had some we had pre training.
6:09
And so by the time we were 16 or 18 years old, some of us went to
6:11
college, some of us went to work.
6:13
People did all different things, but you didn't have to start
6:16
with someone from scratch. They already knew what to check
6:19
the oil in the tractor before they fired it up in the morning.
6:21
They already knew that. And so that pre trained
6:24
workforce was large and it was effective.
6:26
Even now you go to a ranch for a farm and and there's a 75 year
6:31
old gentleman working as the mechanic that takes care of all
6:35
the equipment and you talk, get to talk to him.
6:37
Yeah. I came here when I was 18.
6:39
I've been working ever since and I love this family and I love
6:42
this. What I do with, you know, can't
6:44
do it forever. But that is the story of AG
6:47
labor in the United States is that you went to a place that
6:50
you became part of the system and you worked hard and and
6:53
that's what you did, you know, your whole life.
6:55
Some of some people went on, moved on, did other things.
6:57
But that system replacing with young people coming from farm
7:01
communities, coming from an understanding of agriculture,
7:04
understanding of even biology, which we don't think about, but
7:07
we're pretty good biologists and we know how to keep things
7:09
alive, whether that's a plant or animal, but all that.
7:12
So if those folks, you know, the one ranch bought the next 6-1
7:16
farm, bought the next 6 farms in order to stay competitive
7:20
because you can't make a living on 300 acres like you could when
7:23
my grandparents and parents began to farm.
7:25
So the, the natural progression in order to, in order to keep
7:29
the cheap food policies in this country going was that you had
7:32
to get larger there. There was no option.
7:35
Otherwise everyone, no one would make a living.
7:37
Everyone would be better off working somewhere else.
7:39
And so when those farms got purchased, those young people
7:42
lost interest in those farms or left and moved to the city.
7:46
Particularly in the 80s when I was a Kidman, agriculture was in
7:48
such stress. So those, those I call them, I
7:51
always keep calling them a farm team.
7:52
But those pre trained labor potential people that could,
7:56
that could either work for you or manage the place, they just
7:59
become more and more scarce. And over the last 40 years,
8:02
they've come to a point where they're almost disappeared.
8:06
Our current farm and ranch families, some of them have,
8:08
some of them have larger families, but a lot of them is
8:10
just one or two children. If one decides to stay on the
8:12
farm, 2 decide to stay. So that's a wonderful situation
8:15
and they can go on to the next generation.
8:17
But there aren't six of them anymore and the neighbors don't
8:21
have 6. And So what used to be you could
8:24
call around and find someone to bail.
8:26
Hey, that morning, which I did when I was a kid, a lot of call
8:29
5 or 6 families. Yeah, we can gather up a couple
8:31
people go that that just doesn't exist anymore.
8:33
And so those labor pieces, again, someone's been taken over
8:36
by technology. But there you're going to have
8:39
to most folks are going to have to hire someone with little or
8:42
no experience. And that is really different
8:46
when that was never the case before.
8:47
And if you look in our small communities, because I believe
8:50
it's a rural development issue too, if you look in our small
8:52
communities, they're shrinking for the same reasons.
8:57
And the young people in the rural communities are not
8:59
looking at agriculture as their future.
9:02
And we need to find a way to to get them encouraged to do that
9:06
and bring people into those small communities so they can
9:09
grow and their schools can be viable and their businesses can
9:12
be viable. And those small communities
9:14
which have counted on agriculture forever can go back
9:17
to agriculture and count on it again so that they can grow and
9:20
be successful. I think for generations we have
9:24
seen AI mean. I experienced it myself.
9:27
Growing up on the ranch wasn't easy.
9:30
There were a lot of really hard times that we went through.
9:33
And when it came time to start considering college, what that
9:37
looked like, what my future looked like, my dad sat me down
9:40
and said, don't go somewhere else.
9:44
Like there, there is something better for you out there.
9:47
And I think that that comes from generations of him struggling
9:52
for years and years and years on the ranch and what that looked
9:55
like. And like, yes, we have a
9:56
successful ranching operation, but my dad kind of saw me and
9:59
he's like, I don't want this for you.
10:01
Like I don't want this life for you.
10:03
And so I think we saw a big shift in that over the past few
10:06
years. I mean, past when I say few
10:08
years, I mean 50 years, right, where we have had families
10:12
encouraging their kids to go to college, go get a degree and in
10:17
some instances come home. But in a lot of instances, hey,
10:20
go make a life for yourself. That's not this ranch because it
10:24
just was really discouraging for a really long time.
10:27
And so I think we saw a narrative that was like, get off
10:29
the ranch, go get a degree. We would love it if you came
10:32
back and those people that were like, go get a degree and come
10:35
back. Some of those kids went to
10:36
college and they didn't come back.
10:37
They they went to the big cities to get a better paying job.
10:40
And that's what we're still seeing, right, Especially when
10:42
we have the rural economic development discussion within
10:46
this of we are seeing a brain drain of people leaving these
10:50
rural communities going and get higher educated and then going
10:53
to other communities that aren't rural, they're going to the
10:57
bigger cities to get those higher paying jobs and things
10:59
like that. And so I think that it is a
11:01
whole just community of problems that have kind of all core, they
11:05
all correlate and have some causation to one another on how
11:10
we have that discussion. And not yes, you're absolute.
11:13
All those things are absolutely right.
11:15
Changing them is the issue. And and one of those things and
11:18
I like and what you said to we've we've allowed ourselves to
11:21
sound bad, to bleed out. We've let talented young people
11:25
and and people that could you know, they had a chance to be
11:27
leaders in our community and leaders in our in agriculture.
11:30
We've allowed them to leave some for some, what I mean for their
11:34
own good in some cases, like what you know, parents have told
11:37
their kids. But the ag industry suffered
11:40
from that, almost suffered mightily from that.
11:42
You can't let your best and brightest just go somewhere else
11:46
for 50 years and expect to have success in your industries.
11:49
And that's where we are today along the different levels of of
11:54
employment opportunities in this business.
11:55
But we've got to go somewhere. We're going to have to go
11:59
somewhere else and dip from different talent pools,
12:02
encourage them and welcome them into agriculture if we're going
12:05
to solve these problems. Otherwise, I guarantee 20 years
12:08
from now I'm not getting any younger.
12:10
I meant 20 years. We'll see, but I'm not getting
12:13
any younger and and the problem will be substantially worse.
12:16
And I think we need to embrace that.
12:18
Again, not just the beef industry which I'm in everyday,
12:20
but all AG production businesses need to embrace the situation
12:24
and try to come up with some sustainable efforts to recruit
12:27
new, to recruit new humans, recruit great talented young
12:30
people back into the communities, back into the
12:33
places where food's produced. Absolutely.
12:36
And you made a really good point early on and what you were just
12:39
saying about we need to be dipping into other communities
12:42
and other areas and welcoming people into agriculture, which I
12:46
think that we sometimes have a hard time doing in AG.
12:50
So we're, we're terrible with it.
12:51
If we're being completely honest, we're really, really bad
12:54
about welcoming new people into this industry.
12:56
But you made such a great point. In order for it to be viable in
12:59
the long term and for us to continue to see agriculture
13:03
thrive, we have to bring in a new population of people that
13:06
want to get involved that are excited about what we have to
13:10
offer. Cuz I mean, if you do the math,
13:12
we are seeing a really big decline in the amount of kids
13:15
that people are having. So let's say a family operation
13:18
has two kids, one of them decides to say, one of them
13:21
decides to leave and go get a job in the city.
13:23
Well, the one that stayed, he still need that person, still
13:26
needs help on that farming operation, on that ranching
13:28
operation. So they're going to, they don't
13:30
have any siblings, they don't have any cousins, anything like
13:32
that that's willing to help them anymore.
13:33
Mom and dad are old. They're not helping like so they
13:36
have a labor issue themselves. And so they either need to hire
13:39
people or they need to have other business partners that
13:42
come in. And if we're doing the math on
13:45
it, statistically, we do need to be bringing people in that have
13:48
never had AG experience, experience and really
13:51
cultivating that from a young age and showing people that,
13:55
hey, there are like, yes, being a nurse is great.
13:58
Being an electrician is awesome. Being like all of these things
14:01
going and getting your law degree, like all these things
14:03
are awesome. They're great choices.
14:05
But hey, have you ever thought about agriculture?
14:07
Have you ever thought about all of these things and getting in
14:09
our K through 12 schools and showing these kids that like,
14:11
hey, you have an option even if you've never stepped foot on a
14:14
ranching operation before, you have an option here.
14:17
But I think as a producer population and as an AG
14:20
population in general, we also need to be more welcoming to
14:22
that because otherwise we are going to dig our own grave.
14:25
We're. So bad.
14:27
It's just a little a little story, but I was speaking to a
14:29
local MFA chapter. It was about a year ago, a year
14:32
and a half ago, and there were 70, 75 kids in their high school
14:37
age young people. And I asked him, I said, how
14:40
many of you are interested in, you know, future in agriculture?
14:43
I live in, I live in one of the largest agriculture counties in
14:46
the United States. It's mostly corn and soy beans,
14:47
but this is it. McClain County is is a monster
14:51
for Purdue for egg production dollars.
14:54
And so I asked why? I said how many are interested.
14:56
Almost every hand went up. Maybe a couple people didn't
14:59
raise their hand. And I said, well, how many of
15:00
you, how many of you really think that that's what you'll
15:02
end up doing with your life, that you really be involved in
15:05
agriculture, production agriculture, some sort of part
15:08
of how many of you actually think that that's what you'll
15:10
do? And only about 5 hands went up.
15:12
Oh, maybe half a dozen, but not pretty many.
15:16
And I said, well, what's the, what's the difference?
15:17
What's the difference in what you want to do versus what you
15:21
think you're going to do? And some of them brought up
15:23
exactly what you say. Well, we didn't grow up in AG.
15:27
We didn't grow up at night. We don't have a pickup truck.
15:29
I don't, I don't dress right. I don't, I can't speak.
15:31
I can't speak the lingo and I can't talk about.
15:34
So you know, the difference between different kinds of
15:36
nitrogen fertilizer. I don't, I don't know the I
15:37
don't know those things. So I'm not not going to go and
15:39
act because I'm not welcome there.
15:41
And not so much in not so much in a whiny way, but just in a
15:45
pragmatic kind of a way that we're not part of that clique.
15:49
We got to do something about that.
15:51
And in this community I live in, there's, and I give this example
15:55
too, but more young people graduated high school in my
15:57
community than did in the eastern half of Montana last
16:01
year, just in this community. And so if you're going to go
16:05
looking for, no offense to those young people that graduate in
16:07
eastern Montana, they that's a great group of kids and there's
16:11
some, some true talent out there that need, we need to keep in
16:14
those communities. But if you're looking for young
16:16
people, they're here, they're not there.
16:19
And if you believe the statistics that were somewhere
16:21
around 1,000,000 young people short, a million employees short
16:25
across all segments of agriculture, we're going to have
16:28
to go where young people are and recruit them, make them feel
16:33
welcome, be willing to train them, be willing to put up with
16:36
the first time that they make a mistake, which is which, as you
16:40
know, growing up on the farm, that is not acceptable.
16:42
Making mistakes. You know better.
16:43
You should have known better than to leave the water on the
16:46
gate opener or whatever it was. But we're going to have to find
16:49
ways to embrace those, those younger people.
16:52
And I'm not even talking about high school kids necessarily.
16:54
I mean people that are 2535 years old, 40 years old that
16:59
just might have had enough of urban living in Minneapolis or
17:04
someplace that's like, you know, this isn't that good, This isn't
17:07
that good. I'd like to change the
17:09
trajectory of my life and change, you know, the people I
17:12
work with and change the, you know, the everything to change
17:16
everything and find something that's better and something
17:18
that's better for me inside, as well as as well as coming to
17:22
help service an industry that needs you badly.
17:25
And we, this is a really, really reach.
17:29
You know, we recruited, we our ancient ancestors recruited
17:33
people from other countries to come here and settle the land,
17:38
The government and the, and those states were like, you
17:41
know, we have to have farmers here in Kansas.
17:43
Where are we going to get them from?
17:45
So they recruited people from all over the world, including my
17:49
relatives. I say they recruited them to
17:50
come here, but recruited them to come here because they were
17:54
desperate for human resources in order to take advantage of the
17:58
agriculture potential in the United States.
18:00
And we're right to that point again.
18:02
We're to that point again. And some of those folks were
18:05
struggled when they first got here.
18:06
They weren't welcome in the communities.
18:08
Now I'm sure my ancestors were not welcome when they got here.
18:10
But after a couple 3 generations, they are the
18:13
community. And it's just a different way of
18:15
thinking about the AG employment issue.
18:18
And we have to find people that are willing to come here and
18:20
stay, not just come here and work, but come here and stay.
18:23
Otherwise, we will struggle with AG employment issues for next 50
18:28
years, 100 years, I don't know how long.
18:30
And, and it's a, it's a little bit of an attack on the
18:33
independent producer. They're the ones are going to
18:37
struggle the most. They don't have access to just
18:40
some of the things that, and if you want those folks, if you
18:42
want family farms and family ranches to survive, they're
18:45
going to have to find different ways to reach out than they than
18:49
they have in the past. Those are just charter things I
18:52
think are important. I've been involved with youth
18:54
programs since I was a youth and I've always felt like, like that
18:57
was a crucial piece that we have to give something back.
19:00
And the only question is, can we get all the, all the segments of
19:04
agriculture, not just, well, I'm a, you know, I, I do this, I'm a
19:08
corn farmer. That's what I do.
19:10
Not just that, but they have to find ways to, to mesh with
19:14
tomato farmers and whoever else and people that raise birds and,
19:18
and say we got a problem. How are we going to recruit more
19:21
young people to our communities or communities get better?
19:25
Absolutely. You made such a good point about
19:27
bringing people in to stay, not just to work, but to stay.
19:31
Because in order for our rural communities to thrive and to
19:34
continue to grow, we need those people that are going to stay in
19:37
those rural communities and build families and build their
19:40
livelihoods there and build businesses and really help with
19:43
that economic development. I don't, I don't remember what
19:47
the statistic is, but I am an amazing program here in Kansas
19:51
that really focus on, on rural AG leadership and economic
19:54
development and a bunch of other things.
19:56
And so we've traveled all over the state and learned about
19:58
these different rural communities and learned about
20:00
the play the AG has and all of those.
20:03
And in these rural communities in Kansas, if you don't have a
20:06
successful farmer or rancher or group of farmers and ranchers in
20:11
the area, you don't have a successful rural community.
20:14
And the tie that they have in together is so vital.
20:20
And so dramatic that we can't overlook it anymore.
20:24
We can't keep on letting this be something that we're like, yeah,
20:27
because here's the thing. We have a labor problem.
20:30
And I don't think if you talk to anyone in AG, they won't
20:33
acknowledge that in some way, face, facet, shape or form, we
20:36
have a labor issue in AG, whether it's on their operation
20:39
or not. I'm sure that they can agree we
20:41
need more labor in agriculture, but all of them will also say
20:47
that's someone else's problem. Yes, if you have enough help.
20:50
It's not my thing. If you have enough help, this is
20:52
not a problem for you until everybody looks around and says
20:55
we all don't have enough help and I think now is a better time
20:57
to look at that than then. But the rural communities,
21:00
again, I think about things differently sometimes.
21:02
But if you pay someone to work on your farm or on your ranch
21:07
and the money that they spend, they spend in the community and
21:10
the tax dollars stay in the community and the value of your
21:13
asset of your farm and ranch asset increases.
21:16
Every time the price of land goes up $10.00 an acre in
21:19
central Illinois where I live, it adds about $6,000,000 to the
21:22
wealth of McLean County every time it goes up 10 bucks.
21:26
So on farming and ranching is more successful.
21:28
The assets of the county increase.
21:30
The more dollars that they spend in the community, the more
21:33
successful the community is as those dollars turn over and over
21:36
and over again. And that's that is leveraging
21:39
those pieces versus outside ownership.
21:42
Outside ownership where you know, the dollars, the profit
21:45
dollars and and the asset dollars go somewhere besides
21:48
here. Every time it's another dumb, I
21:50
like dumb examples, but every time you use a credit card in
21:54
your local community, it's like a somewhere between a 2 and 3%
21:58
tax that goes to New York City. And those were dollars that you
22:03
generate, you know, that were generated in the community
22:06
through efforts and late, you know, leveraging assets,
22:08
whatever that was goes goes to New York City.
22:10
And those that kind of mindset, if you think about that from AG
22:14
standpoint, is invest. We can't, we will not solve
22:18
these problems without investing in our community.
22:19
And we need people like you said, that will stay, not people
22:22
necessarily that take their money and leave because those
22:26
dollars that were generated in the community leave the
22:28
community and the community is less successful because of it.
22:32
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that labor is an
22:35
issue that you and I, Marty could talk about all day because
22:37
we've got a labor issue at all levels in AG, right, as well,
22:41
because we've got a labor issue at the like bottom level of AG.
22:46
When we're talking about our unskilled and skilled labor, the
22:49
people that we need working in our packing plants, picking in
22:52
our fields, like doing all of these things in AG that if I'm
22:58
being completely frank, we look at as citizens of the United
23:02
States as less than or lower than us.
23:05
Or like I'm, I'm not going to go work in a packing plant.
23:10
I wasn't raised to go on that path or that mindset.
23:14
And so we have to bring in labor from other countries and people
23:18
that are willing to do that job because I'm not willing to go do
23:21
that job. My friends aren't willing to go
23:23
do those jobs. But then so we've got that.
23:25
We've got that level and we've got an issue there.
23:28
But then we've got an issue at the next level as well when
23:31
we're talking about, just like when we're talking about labor
23:35
here in the United States, like born and raised Americans here
23:37
in the United States not staying on family ranches and operations
23:41
And like the kids that didn't go to college, but they could have
23:43
stayed on the family ranch and done a really good job there.
23:45
We've got an issue there. And then we've got an issue of
23:48
our brain drain in our education aspect of we have kids going and
23:53
getting these education degrees and going and getting college
23:56
degrees and learning really, really high skilled, high value
24:00
jobs and not returning to their rural communities in order to
24:04
utilize those, whether it's an AG or not.
24:06
Like even just on a rural community standpoint, we don't
24:08
have enough doctors in rural communities.
24:10
We don't have enough people that are just willing to have
24:14
businesses in rural communities or things like that.
24:16
So we have a labor issue at every single tier within
24:20
agriculture and it's something that we have to talk about and
24:24
we need more discourse around in the industry because like I said
24:28
earlier, everyone agrees we have a labor problem, but no one is
24:30
actually doing anything to solve it or to move it forward.
24:34
Yeah. And our effort is fledgling and
24:36
our effort is a little bit might be right at the edge, which
24:38
probably didn't surprise you. Our only effort right now, which
24:42
is a place it's a small effort and was hoping that 10 effort we
24:44
can grow over time is can we reach out to communities outside
24:49
of our own and make them feel like there's opportunity, make
24:54
them feel like they're not only not only are they needed, but
24:56
they're wanted. You can live in you can you can
24:59
leave Hoboken and move to rural Pennsylvania or something and
25:03
all the way across the country. And if you were willing to work
25:05
and show up to work, work and learn, you are welcome and
25:09
you're welcome in our in our farms and ranches.
25:11
You're welcome in our communities.
25:13
And so don't worry about the the rest of it.
25:16
And we've got a lot of work to do.
25:17
We talked, we've edged on a little bit, but we talked, we've
25:20
got a lot of work to do within our AG production systems.
25:23
An AG boss, which is an independent AG boss can be a
25:27
handful. I mean, from an expectation
25:30
standpoint, these aren't your children, they're not your
25:32
indentured servants. They are employees that you need
25:36
to treat right and you need to encourage and you need to have
25:39
some patience with the train because there is there aren't
25:42
more of them. So find ways to find middle
25:45
ground with your employees for the best situations are when you
25:49
show up and it's Thanksgiving and the people that work there
25:53
and their families are having Thanksgiving with the with the
25:55
proprietors and everyone is part of a functional, maybe even a
25:59
more functional family than within the nuclear family
26:02
because there's more boundaries we could use.
26:05
And we've talked about that with people that do training
26:07
programs. I said, listen, you're not a
26:09
very good employer and you're going to have to be a better
26:12
employer if you want to keep people here to work here for 5
26:14
or 10 or 20 years and be willing to train someone and watch them
26:18
go somewhere else, be willing to that.
26:20
There's just a lot of a lot of pieces within on the soul of our
26:24
business and communities that have got to become more flexible
26:26
and better if we want to be sustainable.
26:29
Yeah, absolutely. You hit the nail on the head
26:31
there. And I have a nonprofit here in
26:33
the state of Kansas as well. And one of the things that we
26:35
focus on is our AG in the classroom efforts.
26:38
And it is so amazing because I have been to several classrooms
26:43
before I even started this nonprofit.
26:45
I have been to several classrooms, whether it be like
26:48
an high school FFA classes, talking to them about my career
26:51
in AG and like different things that I'm doing, or whether it be
26:54
a kindergarten class back in my hometown rural community where I
26:59
just go and I read a book to them about the beef industry
27:02
like I have. I've done it all.
27:03
But The thing is, is whether or not you're talking to people in
27:06
the inner city or in rural communities, kids find it
27:10
interesting. Like agriculture is interesting.
27:13
They love hearing about cows, they love hearing about all of
27:17
these things. So we need to capitalize on
27:19
that. We need to have people really
27:22
fostering those relationships from a young age with these
27:26
individuals because showing them at the age that they are in
27:30
kindergarten all the way through when they graduate, that hey, we
27:34
are a community that wants you here.
27:36
We are a community that is fun and has interesting topics.
27:39
Like hey, if you love science and you're really good at it,
27:42
like, hey, there's this like whole thing.
27:44
I know you're considering Human Genetics, but like there's also
27:47
like animal genetics. Have you thought about that and
27:49
what you can do there and all of those things and that like there
27:53
is opportunity for them. We just need to be an
27:55
encouraging producer population across the entire AG industry
28:01
because I think that that is 1 area that we have really failed
28:05
in over the past 3050, sixty years is being encouraging to
28:10
those that are already involved and want to stay and to those
28:13
that are new and want to come in.
28:15
We need to be encouraging and open arms welcoming.
28:19
I'm I'm so glad you're working with that in the classroom that
28:21
is. I'm going to get in trouble for
28:23
this, but in our county, we have a nice Hag in the classroom
28:26
program, but Farm Bureau spends millions of dollars on other
28:29
things and thousands of dollars on a really impactful programs.
28:34
Like in my opinion, like Hag in the classroom where we get a
28:37
spend millions of dollars with things within our own, within
28:40
our own sect. And we need to invest more in
28:43
those kind of communications with instantly, you know this,
28:45
but it's very hard to change older people's minds.
28:49
It's very hard to change my mind.
28:50
It's not quite as hard to change your mind over here.
28:52
The older you get started and other other interests know that.
28:58
That's why they advertise to young people.
29:00
They don't advertise to people my age.
29:01
They don't do commercials and things because they know I'm not
29:04
going to change in my buying habits.
29:05
But young people, those are the folks that are, that are growing
29:08
what they know and beginning to build a path for themselves.
29:11
And so many of them, so many of them are disappointed in what
29:14
they think they see for the future.
29:17
And we have a chance to show them something that is
29:19
encouraging. And you know, there's hope.
29:21
You don't have to do what you've what you've always done.
29:24
And again, those they get young people get pulled a lot of
29:26
different ways by by in some, in some cases by people that don't
29:30
even have their best interest at heart.
29:32
But that is when that's when to talk to people because you're
29:36
not going to change a 61 year old mind, but you sure could
29:39
encourage a 15 years old, 15 year old person or a 10 year old
29:42
person to go. You know, this agriculture thing
29:45
is kind of neat and you know, the world's going to need food
29:49
probably long after long after I'm done.
29:53
And it's a rewarding business to be in because of that.
29:57
Absolutely. And I'd love to hear your
29:58
thoughts on involvement of producers.
30:00
But my thoughts like everyone listening to this, I do not care
30:04
who you are or what you do in your community.
30:07
I guarantee you if you got in contact with your local school
30:10
system, they would love you to come for career day.
30:13
They would love it if you came to one of their K through 6
30:17
classrooms and read a book and came in and talked about what
30:22
you do. Or I know people that in our
30:25
school system they have brought like they were show cow people
30:28
and they brought cows to school one day like as a little show
30:32
and tell thing and to teach them about it.
30:34
And they did it in partnership with the young kindergarten
30:37
school teachers in a science unit.
30:39
And they were talking about the life cycle.
30:41
And so they brought a cow calf parent and the kids got to see a
30:44
bottle calf and like all of these things.
30:46
And it was just like the best experience for them.
30:48
So like it doesn't matter where you are, you can make a
30:52
difference and it doesn't have to be hard.
30:54
Like you can commit to doing this once a year.
30:56
Like once a year, I will spend half of my day going to my local
30:59
school system and I'm going to show up for career day.
31:01
And I'm, I might just think of myself as just a farmer or just
31:05
a rancher. But like you, you have a place
31:09
there and you can make a difference no matter what that
31:12
looks like. And it doesn't have to be
31:14
getting on this big board or starting a foundation or a
31:17
nonprofit or doing all of these things or going and speaking
31:19
that big public events and telling all of these adults how
31:22
wrong they are on things like you don't have to do that.
31:24
Like it can be as simple or as complex as you want.
31:27
And I think all of us need to have a role that we need to play
31:30
in it. Yeah, it's, it's it's think
31:32
that's great. And those kids will never forget
31:34
they're eight years old and when they're 28 years old, they'll
31:37
still remember the day that those people came in there.
31:39
And I think that outreach is, I mean that outreach is crucial,
31:42
man. We and agriculture there's, I
31:44
mean, there's things that they almost pick on us.
31:46
We work hard, like we work really, really hard.
31:49
And some people don't see that as being a virtue, but that one
31:51
how I was right. We work hard, but we like what
31:54
we do and we like the life that we have.
31:56
And we don't mind working hard. And you only don't like working
32:00
hard when you have a job that you don't like or you don't see
32:02
purpose in, then you grumble about working hard.
32:05
And it's just that's not the way this lifestyle is.
32:08
And telling that story is is neat.
32:10
The fact that you know, you could enjoy every day of what
32:13
you do, even when it's tough. And again, that, that is a story
32:17
that most young people are not, are not given a chance to, you
32:21
know, to, to be exposed to. And so we have to keep just
32:24
thinking about it from a tiered system.
32:25
The people that are in agriculture, the young people
32:27
that are talented want to stay. We need to keep them.
32:29
And so we have youth programs like that and our local youth
32:32
program that we support the livestock kids at the at the
32:34
County Fair to try to help them build relationships with the,
32:37
with the people in this community with each other.
32:40
So they'll stay. So they like it and they'll
32:42
stay. And at the next level,
32:44
outreaching to people who know a little bit about agriculture.
32:48
And again, in this community, I keep using this as an example,
32:50
but in this community, the, the young people here, they're
32:53
exposed to agriculture, at least physically.
32:55
All this, they watch a combine go by in the fall.
32:57
I mean, they know a little bit. So those folks are, are a very,
33:01
very important place to recruit from.
33:03
And then the third level is can we reach out into society, into
33:07
places we've never been before, and bring talented, committed
33:10
young people and embrace them, bring them into rural
33:13
communities and make them feel accepted and give them an
33:16
opportunity to have a career and a life in a rural community.
33:18
That is, in my opinion, in my selfish opinion, is better than
33:24
maybe where they were going to or what they were going to do
33:26
otherwise. I'm not, I don't.
33:28
I'm just a little selfish, but I believe that I wouldn't trade it
33:31
for the world. Yeah, absolutely.
33:33
I wouldn't trade it for the world either.
33:35
And I I think back to when I was young and looking forward to the
33:39
rest of my life. And I mean, I'm still young and
33:41
looks forward to the rest of my life.
33:42
But when I was when I was in high school and early college
33:47
and trying to figure out what I was doing with my life.
33:49
I look back on those times and I wish that I had someone like,
33:54
yes, my career is an AG again and I made my way back.
33:56
But having someone that was encouraging and encouraging me
34:00
to stay and to find find my place with an AG.
34:03
Because AG is so broad, you can go get a like 5 different pH DS
34:09
and still have a place in the AG community.
34:12
Like you can go and do. There's millions of career
34:17
options with an act like whatever your hobby and
34:20
specialty is, there is a niche for you to be able to exercise
34:24
that within this industry. And so really encouraging people
34:27
there and continuing to just everything that we talked about
34:31
today, Marty, of just bringing new people in, be encouraging
34:35
for those that want to stay and really start facing this problem
34:38
head on. And not saying that someone
34:41
else's problem because I think that it is every single one of
34:44
us. It is our problem and something
34:46
that we need to really start addressing.
34:49
As we wrap this up. Is there anything else that you
34:51
would like to say or leave with our audience today?
34:52
Marty, no, I thought you did. You did a nice job on that last
34:55
part for sure. There is, there is no end to
34:58
this. It's a continuing effort.
35:01
Like I said, even even the effort that we started, the
35:03
official effort we started it's, it is, it's not some people are
35:07
like, well, it looks so like a job board.
35:09
It was not a job board. It is only to show
35:11
opportunities. And it doesn't cost anything to
35:14
be part to, to play something on there doesn't cost anything to
35:17
look at it. But can we, can we bring a
35:20
million new people into rural America and make rural America
35:24
better and improve it by bringing in folks with different
35:27
ideas and still, still with the kind of core values that we've
35:32
always had about working hard and feeding the world and all
35:35
those things? Would some people consider
35:36
cliche and just don't? I don't consider cliche at all.
35:39
I think it's, it's what we do. So it's, it's a real development
35:41
issue. It's a human resources issue.
35:43
It's a small family farm issue. And I think if we could build
35:46
some consensus across all segments of agriculture, which
35:49
you just mentioned, I think we can, I think we can go ahead and
35:52
win this fight. I think we can make it happen.
35:55
Absolutely. I, I could not agree more,
35:57
Marty. And I just love your heart
35:58
behind this and what you guys are bringing and providing for
36:01
the industry. And it's a perfect example of it
36:04
might not be this massive organization yet or anything
36:07
that you're doing crazy, but it's one person, a few people
36:10
coming together and saying we can make a difference and we can
36:13
make just a little drop in the ocean and whatever that kind of
36:17
looks like in that community. So Marty, thank you for your
36:20
time today, as always for coming on to all of our listeners out
36:24
there. Anything Marty and I talked
36:26
about interest you guys, make sure you check out the show
36:28
notes down below. I'm going to have Marty's
36:29
nonprofit link down below where you guys can go and kind of
36:32
check out what he is doing or anything like that.
36:35
And if you have any questions on how to get involved in your
36:38
rural communities, Marty is a really great resource on how to
36:41
bring labor in, what that looks like, and just have an honest
36:44
discussion on what that needs to be on your operation.
36:48
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Cattle
36:50
USA Daily Podcast. We will see you all next time.