WEBVTT 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:14.039 Creeping across the pasture land. Got dirt on 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:18.719 the boots and a working hand. From the milk house 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:24.000 home to the auction call. These are the folks 00:00:24.000 --> 00:01:00.810 standing strong and tall. Yeah, this is... Welcome 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:03.950 listeners back to the Bullvine Podcast. This 00:01:03.950 --> 00:01:06.849 is the place for real stories from the real people 00:01:06.849 --> 00:01:10.370 shaping the dairy industry. And today we have 00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:13.209 a story. We really do. We aren't just talking 00:01:13.209 --> 00:01:16.209 about, you know, cows or crops today. We're talking 00:01:16.209 --> 00:01:18.670 about a story that, and I'm being honest here, 00:01:18.849 --> 00:01:21.709 it really stopped us in our tracks when we were 00:01:21.709 --> 00:01:24.230 digging into it. Absolutely. It's a history lesson, 00:01:24.370 --> 00:01:26.670 sure, but it's one of those lessons that kind 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:29.540 of punches you right in the gut. Because it is 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:32.200 so, so relevant to exactly what's happening in 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:34.120 the milk market right now. You're right. And, 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:36.180 you know, this is the kind of conversation that 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:38.219 reminds you why you even got into dairy in the 00:01:38.219 --> 00:01:40.260 first place. Yeah. It just cuts through all the 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:42.640 noise, you know, the milk checks, the fluctuating 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.379 prices, the endless policy debates. It gets right 00:01:45.379 --> 00:01:48.280 down to the core of survival. It's about who 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:50.819 holds the power in this industry. And maybe more 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:53.060 importantly. Yeah, more importantly, who keeps 00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:55.439 the lights on. And when we say keeps the lights 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:57.640 on, we mean that literally and figuratively. 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:00.680 We're doing a deep dive today into a source called 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:04.260 Dairy Barn Lights, co -ops, genetics, and community 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:06.519 leverage. That's a great piece. It really is. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:08.300 And to kick things off, I just want to throw 00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:13.080 a number at you. $30 million. Now, that's a lot 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:16.129 of money today. Yeah. But we have to be so careful 00:02:16.129 --> 00:02:18.870 not to just gloss over that figure. We need to 00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:21.090 put this in context. Okay, set the scene. We're 00:02:21.090 --> 00:02:25.810 talking about 1973. Exactly. In 1973, a group 00:02:25.810 --> 00:02:29.449 of New England dairy farmers negotiated $30 million 00:02:29.449 --> 00:02:32.710 in premiums. And that was in less than two years. 00:02:32.830 --> 00:02:34.969 Just let that sink in for a second. $30 million. 00:02:35.110 --> 00:02:37.729 But, you know, help us picture this. Because 00:02:37.729 --> 00:02:40.389 1973 wasn't exactly a picnic for the rest of 00:02:40.389 --> 00:02:43.550 the economy, was it? Not a picnic is a... probably 00:02:43.550 --> 00:02:46.169 the understatement of the year. You have to remember 00:02:46.169 --> 00:02:48.210 what was happening, not just here, but globally. 00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:51.449 The Arab oil embargo kicks in. So energy prices 00:02:51.449 --> 00:02:53.610 are just... Through the roof. I mean, everything 00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:56.870 that runs on diesel, on gas, your costs just 00:02:56.870 --> 00:02:59.409 exploded overnight. On top of that, you have 00:02:59.409 --> 00:03:01.469 inflation starting to gallop. Towards double 00:03:01.469 --> 00:03:03.090 digits, yeah. Right, galloping towards double 00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:05.550 digits. Feed costs are becoming volatile in a 00:03:05.550 --> 00:03:08.009 way that, you know, the previous generation hadn't 00:03:08.009 --> 00:03:10.909 really seen before. And right in the middle of 00:03:10.909 --> 00:03:13.900 this... this economic firestorm, you have this 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:17.860 group of New England dairy farmers. Who are historically. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:22.000 Historically fragmented. Yeah. Stubborn. Famously 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:25.960 independent. And somehow they managed to pull 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:28.919 $30 million in premiums out of the market. And 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:31.340 we really need to be specific about what premium 00:03:31.340 --> 00:03:32.979 means here. We're not just talking about the 00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:36.219 federal order minimums, are we? No. And that 00:03:36.219 --> 00:03:39.020 is the absolute key to this whole story. The 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:41.800 federal order. sets the floor. It's the safety 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.360 net. It's the safety net, exactly. These farmers 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.460 negotiated for over -order premiums. This is 00:03:47.460 --> 00:03:49.500 money that the processor did not have to pay 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:52.060 by law. They weren't obligated at all. Not at 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:54.180 all. They paid it because they had to. Because 00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:56.599 these farmers, led by a man named Louis Longo, 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:00.080 had created a supply chirp point that gave them 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.000 actual real... market leverage. And that's what 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.379 the source calls the audacity of it. It is. Because 00:04:05.379 --> 00:04:08.319 usually when costs go up, the farmer just eats 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:10.659 it. It comes right out of your margin. Here, 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:13.439 they force the market to eat it. When you adjust 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:15.620 for inflation, you're looking at something like, 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:18.800 what, $180 to $200 million in today's purchasing 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.699 power. Wow. Going directly into the pockets of 00:04:21.699 --> 00:04:24.519 family farms in the Northeast. This wasn't a 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:26.939 subsidy. This was not a government program. This 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:30.560 is a pure transfer of power. Okay, so that leads 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:32.699 us to the central mystery that we really need 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:37.120 to unpack today. How? How did a disorganized 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:41.220 group of what economists call price takers just 00:04:41.220 --> 00:04:43.579 flip the script like that and become price makers? 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:45.540 And maybe the bigger question. The more important 00:04:45.540 --> 00:04:47.720 one, yeah. Why does this article suggest that 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:49.800 we're forgetting the very lesson that made that 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:52.279 $30 million possible in the first place? Because 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:54.040 if we forget that lesson, it's not just about 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:57.579 losing a premium, is it? No. It's about who actually 00:04:57.579 --> 00:05:00.740 keeps the lights on in the barn. The source material 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:03.319 makes a pretty heavy claim here. It says that 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:05.300 we're at risk of turning those lights off ourselves 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:08.120 if we don't understand the mechanics of leverage. 00:05:08.459 --> 00:05:11.180 So to understand how they got that money, we 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:14.819 have to go back, way before 1973. Way back. We 00:05:14.819 --> 00:05:17.139 have to go to a vocational agriculture classroom 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:20.379 in Connecticut, decades earlier. Picture this 00:05:20.379 --> 00:05:23.019 scene. It's the late 1940s. It's an old classroom, 00:05:23.139 --> 00:05:25.639 right? The air is thick with the smell of chalk 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.740 dust and, you know, oiled wood floors. Desks 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:30.860 that have probably been carved into by generations 00:05:30.860 --> 00:05:34.800 of bored kids. Exactly. And sitting there is 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.720 the protagonist of this part of our story. A 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:40.720 young Louis Longo. But he's not the industry 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:43.939 titan Louis Longo yet. He's just a kid. And the 00:05:43.939 --> 00:05:46.620 source paints this picture so vividly, it says 00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:49.360 he's a tired farm kid. I'm tired. He's been up 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:51.819 since way before dawn. And he's been milking 00:05:51.819 --> 00:05:54.439 by hand. Milking by hand. I mean, just stop and 00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:56.300 think about that. That's a level of physical 00:05:56.300 --> 00:05:59.019 exhaustion that most people today, we just can't 00:05:59.019 --> 00:06:00.939 even process it. No. You're not watching a robot 00:06:00.939 --> 00:06:03.759 arm attach itself. You are the machine. Your 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:05.860 hands, your back, your shoulders. So he's sitting 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:07.860 in this classroom smelling like the barn, probably 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.860 struggling to keep his eyes open. And the article 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.259 says he was working for vacuum and gutter chain 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:15.500 money that they didn't have yet. I love that 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:17.899 phrase. It's incredible, isn't it? Vacuum and 00:06:17.899 --> 00:06:20.360 gutter chain money. It just perfectly captures 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.420 that transitional era. You knew there was a better 00:06:23.420 --> 00:06:26.540 way. You knew the technology existed. Gutter 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:29.620 cleaners, vacuum milking machines, all of it. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:32.100 But you couldn't afford it. Not yet. You had 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:34.100 to break your back with a shovel and a bucket 00:06:34.100 --> 00:06:36.000 to earn enough money to buy the thing that would 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.300 stop breaking your back. It's the perfect description 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:40.680 of being the manual labor engine working toward 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:43.360 an automation you can't afford yet. So he's sitting 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.160 there, exhausted, and his teacher does something 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:48.639 that changes absolutely everything. That's a 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.300 pivotal moment. He slides a book across the desk. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:55.439 Not a breeding guide. Not a crop manual. An economics 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:57.860 book. And the quote from the teacher, it's just 00:06:57.860 --> 00:07:00.279 timeless. He tells him, make sure you read all 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.120 you can about economics, because there's only 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.600 one thing certain in the world, and that's change. 00:07:04.980 --> 00:07:08.680 That one moment, that one book, it's the catalyst. 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.839 It's the spark. Louis reads it and he has this 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:14.959 profound realization. He realizes that farmers 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.759 are, in his words, disorganized. That's the word 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:20.779 he used. He realizes the fundamental trap of 00:07:20.779 --> 00:07:24.199 the entire industry, that farmers are price takers. 00:07:24.459 --> 00:07:27.060 But I want to challenge this a bit because we 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:29.899 hear that term price taker all the time. Isn't 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:33.360 that just the free market? Why is dairy so special 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.759 here? It is the free market, but dairy is unique. 00:07:37.500 --> 00:07:40.079 It's unique because of two things, perishability 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:43.019 and fragmentation. Okay, break that down. Okay, 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:45.459 so if you make widgets, right, and the... price 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:47.800 for widgets drops. You can just put the widgets 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:49.620 in a warehouse and wait for the price to come 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:51.360 back up. Or you can just cut production tomorrow, 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:53.759 tell the factory to make fewer widgets. Exactly. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.060 A dairy farmer can't do that. You can't just 00:07:56.060 --> 00:07:58.120 walk out to the barn and tell a Holstein to stop 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:00.360 making milk because the price dropped on the 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:02.420 CME. No, she has to be milked. She has to be 00:08:02.420 --> 00:08:04.939 milked twice, maybe three times a day. And that 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:07.319 milk has to move. It has to get on a truck and 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:10.740 go to a plant within 48 hours or it spoils. So 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:13.800 you have absolutely zero bargaining power. You're 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:16.879 on a biological clock that never stops. Precisely. 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:20.100 You are holding what is essentially a distressed 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:23.980 asset every single day. And that is what makes 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:26.300 you a price taker. It's that feeling, isn't it? 00:08:26.300 --> 00:08:28.500 Of opening that milk check that someone else 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.540 wrote. And seeing all the deductions, the basis 00:08:30.540 --> 00:08:33.159 changes, things you never agreed to and realizing. 00:08:33.789 --> 00:08:36.110 You have zero recourse. You can work harder than 00:08:36.110 --> 00:08:38.490 anyone else. You can be the best herdsman, the 00:08:38.490 --> 00:08:40.789 best agronomist in the whole county. Doesn't 00:08:40.789 --> 00:08:43.429 matter. But you have no control over the revenue 00:08:43.429 --> 00:08:46.190 side of your ledger. None. It is the definition 00:08:46.190 --> 00:08:49.370 of powerlessness. That feeling of working harder 00:08:49.370 --> 00:08:51.509 and harder, but just staying in the same place 00:08:51.509 --> 00:08:54.799 or even falling behind. And Louis Longo, as a 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:57.279 kid in that classroom, he realized that the only 00:08:57.279 --> 00:08:59.419 way to change that, the only way to become a 00:08:59.419 --> 00:09:02.259 price maker was to get organized. He saw the 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.960 problem was structural, not individual. But before 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:07.139 we get into the mechanics of how he did that, 00:09:07.259 --> 00:09:10.100 we need to acknowledge the cost, the personal 00:09:10.100 --> 00:09:12.700 cost of that kind of leadership. Because Louis 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:14.480 didn't just wake up one day and decide to lead 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:17.379 a revolution. He also had to run a farm. Right. 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:18.980 And the source makes a very important point about 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:20.860 this. It talks about the family behind the person. 00:09:21.419 --> 00:09:25.000 Louis eventually builds his herd up to 350 cows. 00:09:25.259 --> 00:09:28.340 Which was massive for that time in that area. 00:09:28.460 --> 00:09:31.200 Huge. But he's spending his nights in meetings. 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:34.440 He's on the road, driving from farm to farm, 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:36.480 trying to convince these stubborn, independent 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:40.000 guys to work together. So who's running his farm? 00:09:40.429 --> 00:09:43.850 His family, he credits them explicitly in the 00:09:43.850 --> 00:09:46.750 source. He says, I was lucky that I had the family 00:09:46.750 --> 00:09:49.169 that would run the farm. His sons were home doing 00:09:49.169 --> 00:09:51.409 the milking. He had people running his other 00:09:51.409 --> 00:09:54.669 businesses, a gravel operation, a milk hauling 00:09:54.669 --> 00:09:57.070 business. It just creates this image of a hidden 00:09:57.070 --> 00:09:59.750 team, you know? You see this all the time in 00:09:59.750 --> 00:10:02.350 dairy, all the time. Whenever you see someone 00:10:02.350 --> 00:10:04.659 who is a quote unquote leader. The person who 00:10:04.659 --> 00:10:06.159 gets quoted in the magazines, the one on the 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:07.960 co -op board, the one speaking at the conference. 00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:11.000 There's someone back home. There is almost always 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.820 a spouse back home doing the evening milking. 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:16.879 There are kids feeding calves before they get 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:19.000 on the school bus. It's a family enterprise. 00:10:19.299 --> 00:10:21.600 The source even mentions the guilt that comes 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.200 with it. The guilt of the meeting. Yeah. That 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:26.279 feeling of driving away in the pickup truck while 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:28.279 everyone else is pulling their boots back on 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:30.259 to go out for another round of chores. That is 00:10:30.259 --> 00:10:32.799 a very, very real dynamic. And that is a form 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:35.120 of community, too. Yeah. It just happens inside 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.840 the four walls of the farmhouse. You simply cannot 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.559 have industry leadership without that kind of 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:43.179 domestic support. It just doesn't work. Okay, 00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:46.019 so Louie is in Connecticut planting the seeds, 00:10:46.059 --> 00:10:48.519 building this leverage. But I want to pivot now 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:51.000 to another story that the source material brings 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.919 up. It touches on the same idea of loyalty and 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:56.179 community, but from a totally different angle. 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:58.279 A very different angle. We're going from a Connecticut 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:02.039 barn to a candy company in Illinois. The Curtis 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:04.980 Candy Company. Makers of Baby Ruth and Butterfinger. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:07.639 Which I had no idea had this massive farm division. 00:11:07.940 --> 00:11:11.200 Oh, it was huge. In Cary, Illinois, they were 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:14.379 serious players. The source says they had grand 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:17.259 champion cattle in every single dairy breed one 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:20.120 year. And as part of that, they had an artificial 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:22.519 insemination in an AI division called Curtis 00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:25.480 Breeding. But then, as it so often happens, a 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:28.940 crisis hits. The founder dies. The company gets 00:11:28.940 --> 00:11:31.960 sold to a huge conglomerate, Standard Brands. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:34.679 And usually, when a big corporate merger like 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:37.190 that happens, what's the first thing to go? The 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:39.750 weird agricultural division. Exactly. It's a 00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:42.330 rounding error on the balance sheet to a massive 00:11:42.330 --> 00:11:44.870 company like Standard Brands. They wanted the 00:11:44.870 --> 00:11:47.070 candy bars, the distribution, the brand names. 00:11:47.429 --> 00:11:49.870 They did not want the cows. So usually the local 00:11:49.870 --> 00:11:52.230 history gets erased, the technicians get fired, 00:11:52.389 --> 00:11:55.350 the lab closes down. It's just asset liquidation. 00:11:55.409 --> 00:11:57.710 Box it up, sell it off, move on. But this time 00:11:57.710 --> 00:11:59.750 was different. There was a twist. And her name 00:11:59.750 --> 00:12:02.289 was Dorothy Schneering. The widow of the founder, 00:12:02.529 --> 00:12:05.129 Otto Schneering. And this is where the story 00:12:05.129 --> 00:12:08.320 gets really... Just incredible. I agree. When 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:10.960 the company was sold, she insisted on a clause, 00:12:11.179 --> 00:12:14.179 a specific legal clause in the sale agreement 00:12:14.179 --> 00:12:17.440 that gave her the option to buy back the AI center 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:19.980 within six months. Just imagine the pressure 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:22.039 in that moment. Immense. She could have just 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:23.580 taken the payout. She could have walked away 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:25.480 a very wealthy woman and just, you know, retired 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:28.259 to Florida. But she doesn't. She exercises the 00:12:28.259 --> 00:12:31.299 option. She buys it back. And she becomes the 00:12:31.299 --> 00:12:33.860 president of an AI company. We have to stop and 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:36.720 put this in the context of the era again. This 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:39.820 wasn't 2024. Not at all. Women in agribusiness 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:42.120 leadership were, for all intents and purposes, 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:45.139 invisible. They weren't just rare. They weren't 00:12:45.139 --> 00:12:46.460 in the headlines. They weren't on the boards. 00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:50.019 For her to step in as president, and not just 00:12:50.019 --> 00:12:53.080 as a figurehead, but as the person actively keeping 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:56.580 the doors open, that was a radical act. A radical 00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:59.000 act of loyalty. What do you think was going through 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:01.720 her head? I think she looked at the people. The 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.460 source specifically mentions the lab staff, the 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:06.919 technicians, the office team. These were people 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:10.440 from her community. Her people. Her people. If 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.620 she doesn't buy it back, their livelihood is 00:13:12.620 --> 00:13:15.120 gone. The institutional knowledge is gone. The 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.100 whole thing just disappears. She proved that 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:18.980 community isn't just a nice word you put on a 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:20.879 brochure. It's a business strategy. It's a business 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:22.899 strategy. She kept the talent together. She kept 00:13:22.899 --> 00:13:24.960 the lights on. And the source draws a direct 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:27.740 line from what Dorothy Schneering did then to 00:13:27.740 --> 00:13:32.200 a more modern parallel. Dr. David Faber and TransOva 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:35.860 in Sioux Center, Iowa. Right. Now we fast forward 00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:39.200 to 1980. Another crisis period. A terrible one. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:41.860 We're talking about high interest rates, 18 -20 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:45.159 % prime rate. The farm crisis is looming on the 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.039 horizon. Farms are starting to fail. And right 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:51.100 in the middle of this, here's Dr. Faber starting 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:54.200 an embryo transfer business. Which at the time 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:55.899 must have seemed like absolute science fiction 00:13:55.899 --> 00:13:59.080 to most farmers. It was weird science. It was 00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:01.440 a luxury. I mean, think about it. If you are 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.639 struggling just to pay the feed bill and the 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:06.340 interest on your operating note, why on earth 00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:09.100 would you pay for something like embryo transfer? 00:14:09.340 --> 00:14:11.740 It just feels like a massive risk. An incredible 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:15.100 risk. But the why behind their success wasn't 00:14:15.100 --> 00:14:17.539 just about the technology, was it? No, the source 00:14:17.539 --> 00:14:20.620 makes that very clear. It was about trust. The 00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:23.539 source emphasizes this over and over. Transoving 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:25.299 didn't grow just because they have the cool new 00:14:25.299 --> 00:14:28.299 tech. They grew because they started small. They 00:14:28.299 --> 00:14:30.179 were helping local farmers, their neighbors, 00:14:30.299 --> 00:14:32.980 multiply their best genetics. It required the 00:14:32.980 --> 00:14:35.460 community to trust them. To trust them with their 00:14:35.460 --> 00:14:38.620 very best, most valuable cows. Absolutely. And 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:41.200 on the flip side, it required the staff to stick 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.460 around when things didn't work. Because in the 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:46.299 early days of ET, or early AI for that matter, 00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:50.019 Things went wrong all the time. Constantly. Protocols 00:14:50.019 --> 00:14:52.519 fail. Cows don't settle. Embryos don't freeze 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:54.559 right. If you don't have a team that is willing 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:57.480 to grind through that failure day after day, 00:14:57.639 --> 00:15:00.000 you never get to the breakthrough. You never 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.659 get to the point where IVF is just a standard 00:15:02.659 --> 00:15:04.919 practice in the industry. Speaking of things 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:08.330 going wrong. This brings us to my absolute favorite 00:15:08.330 --> 00:15:11.009 part of the entire source material. I think I 00:15:11.009 --> 00:15:12.769 know where you're going with this. The sheer, 00:15:12.809 --> 00:15:16.129 unglamorous, logistical nightmare of early genetics. 00:15:16.570 --> 00:15:18.409 We're talking about parachutes. We are talking 00:15:18.409 --> 00:15:20.409 about parachutes. This is a story that, I mean, 00:15:20.409 --> 00:15:22.809 you almost can't believe it's true, but it is. 00:15:23.629 --> 00:15:25.950 Bob Boves, who was with Curtis Breeding back 00:15:25.950 --> 00:15:28.190 in the day, he tells this story. And to understand 00:15:28.190 --> 00:15:30.090 why they were literally throwing things out of 00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:31.690 airplanes, you have to understand the biology 00:15:31.690 --> 00:15:34.230 they were fighting against. Right. This is pre 00:15:34.230 --> 00:15:38.120 -liquid nitrogen. Pre -cryopreservation. So we're 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:41.360 talking about fresh liquid semen. Exactly. Back 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:44.139 in the 1940s and 50s, the extenders they were 00:15:44.139 --> 00:15:47.360 using, these egg yolk citrate buffers, they gave 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:49.759 them a viable window of maybe, if they were lucky, 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:53.980 24 to 36 hours. That's it. That's it. The moment 00:15:53.980 --> 00:15:56.159 that collection happens at the stud, the clock 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:58.879 is ticking on motility. The cells are dying. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:00.899 You don't have the luxury of a cryotank sitting 00:16:00.899 --> 00:16:02.840 in the corner of the barn for three weeks waiting 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:05.740 for a cow to come into heat. No. If you're a 00:16:05.740 --> 00:16:07.779 technician in rural Indiana and the bull you 00:16:07.779 --> 00:16:10.460 need is in Illinois, you need that sample now. 00:16:10.659 --> 00:16:13.320 And remember, there's no interstate highway system 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:15.580 yet. There is no FedEx overnight. There's no 00:16:15.580 --> 00:16:18.980 UPS. The infrastructure to move sensitive biological 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:22.440 material that fast simply did not exist. So the 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:25.120 parachute wasn't a marketing stunt. It was a 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:27.600 supply chain solution born of pure desperation. 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:30.259 Okay, describe the process. The source says Curtis 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:32.519 Breeding Service hired local pilots with little 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.659 planes like Piper Cubs. They'd fly a route, literally 00:16:35.659 --> 00:16:38.700 a milk run, but for genetics. And the technician 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:40.539 would be waiting in a field. How did the pilot 00:16:40.539 --> 00:16:43.139 know where to drop it? The technician was told 00:16:43.139 --> 00:16:46.639 to lay out a big white sheet in their front yard. 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:49.519 Yeah. That was the target. The pilot would fly 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:52.360 over, spot the white sheet, and just drop the 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:54.539 package attached to a small parachute. I can 00:16:54.539 --> 00:16:56.759 just imagine the margin for error there has to 00:16:56.759 --> 00:16:59.139 be huge. Well, the source tells the story of 00:16:59.139 --> 00:17:01.259 the mishap. Of course it does. The pilot is up 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:03.659 there looking for a white sheet. He sees a white 00:17:03.659 --> 00:17:06.920 rectangle in a yard down below. He circles, lines 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:10.059 it up, and drops the package. Bullseye. Perfect 00:17:10.059 --> 00:17:12.460 hit. Except... Except it wasn't the target sheet. 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:15.480 Oh, no. It was a housewife clothesline full of 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:17.819 her fresh, clean white laundry that she had just 00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:20.240 hung out on a Monday morning. No! So you have 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.640 this package of bull semen and, you know, whatever 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:24.740 farm -grade packaging they were using, probably 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:27.599 some manure on it. Smashing into pristine white 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:30.980 bedsheet. The sheer horror of that moment. But 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:32.920 you have to pause there and think about the real 00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.299 cost of that failure. It's not just a cleaning 00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:38.180 bill. No. That's misdeeds on multiple farms. 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.519 That's a genetic delay for an entire community 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:42.819 of herds that were counting on that delivery. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:46.779 That's real money lost. And yet they didn't stop. 00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:49.220 That's the point. They didn't shrug and say, 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:51.440 well, I guess AI is too hard. Let's just go back 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.059 to using the herd bull. No, they refined the 00:17:54.059 --> 00:17:56.680 drop. They mapped the routes better. They kept 00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:59.180 going. It just shows this relentless, almost 00:17:59.180 --> 00:18:02.740 stubborn drive to modernize. Even when the technology 00:18:02.740 --> 00:18:05.680 was. Barely ready for prime time. And if parachutes 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:08.039 weren't enough, they tried pigeons. The pigeons. 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:10.799 This one absolutely blew my mind. We're in Japan 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:14.279 now. Yes. The island of Hokkaido, the northern 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:17.160 island. They needed genetics from a stud in Tokyo. 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:19.079 But again, some problem, different continent. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:21.759 The clock is ticking. You can't get a truck or 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:24.880 a train there fast enough. So, homing pigeons. 00:18:25.549 --> 00:18:28.670 They strap tiny thermoses of semen to homing 00:18:28.670 --> 00:18:30.650 pigeons. You are kidding me. They strap thermoses 00:18:30.650 --> 00:18:33.890 to birds. Tiny thermoses. The pigeons flew the 00:18:33.890 --> 00:18:36.490 genetics from Tokyo hundreds of miles north to 00:18:36.490 --> 00:18:38.789 the island to beat the expiration clock. And 00:18:38.789 --> 00:18:41.130 did it work? The source says, and this is a direct 00:18:41.130 --> 00:18:44.529 quote, the conception rates were fair. Fair. 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:47.529 Considering the delivery method was a bird, fair 00:18:47.529 --> 00:18:50.289 is an absolute miracle. It's incredible. It just 00:18:50.289 --> 00:18:53.859 highlights the grit. We look at a modern semen 00:18:53.859 --> 00:18:57.480 tank or a sleek IVF lab today, and we just take 00:18:57.480 --> 00:18:59.920 it for granted. We forget that it all started 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:02.920 with guys throwing boxes out of rickety airplanes 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:06.079 and strapping tubes to birds. It shows that innovation 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:08.859 is messy. It's always messy. It's logistical 00:19:08.859 --> 00:19:12.079 nightmares. It's constant failure. But the community, 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:14.960 the technicians, the pilots, the lab staff, the 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:18.099 farmers, they refuse to accept. good enough. 00:19:18.259 --> 00:19:20.579 And that refusal, that is a form of power too. 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:23.140 So we have the grit of the genetics pioneers. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.440 We have the loyalty of Dorothy Schneering. Now 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:27.799 let's go back to Louis Longo and the hard economics 00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:29.799 of it all. Yes. Because all the grit in the world 00:19:29.799 --> 00:19:31.640 doesn't matter if you aren't getting paid a fair 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.420 price for your milk. Exactly. So Louis has done 00:19:34.420 --> 00:19:36.200 the hard work. He's organized the farmers, but 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:39.259 that organization needs a legal framework to 00:19:39.259 --> 00:19:41.000 operate with him. Right. You can't just be a 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:44.500 mob. No. And the tool he used was the Capra -Volstead 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:46.849 Act. We need to explain this because people hear 00:19:46.849 --> 00:19:49.369 co -op and they think of their local farm supply 00:19:49.369 --> 00:19:53.130 store or maybe an organic grocery. But the Capra 00:19:53.130 --> 00:19:56.890 -Volstead Act of 1922 is, I mean, it's essentially 00:19:56.890 --> 00:19:59.309 the Magna Carta for agricultural cooperatives 00:19:59.309 --> 00:20:01.509 in the United States. What does it actually do 00:20:01.509 --> 00:20:03.869 in simple terms? It gives farmers a limited, 00:20:04.029 --> 00:20:06.630 and I stress limited, exemption from antitrust 00:20:06.630 --> 00:20:09.829 laws. Basically, in any other industry in the 00:20:09.829 --> 00:20:13.519 U .S. If Ford, GM, and Chrysler all got together 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:16.859 in a room and said, hey, from now on, we're all 00:20:16.859 --> 00:20:19.240 going to sell cars for a minimum of $50 ,000, 00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:21.759 take it or leave it. They'd be arrested. They'd 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:23.799 be arrested for price fixing. That's illegal 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.220 collusion. But farmers, because of that perishability 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:28.500 and fragmentation we talked about, they need 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.960 to collude just to survive. Right. So Capra Volstead 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:35.299 says, in effect, if you are actual farmers, you 00:20:35.299 --> 00:20:37.519 are allowed to get together, market your product 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.769 jointly, and set a common price. without us arresting 00:20:40.769 --> 00:20:43.309 you for price fixing. There are rules, of course. 00:20:43.430 --> 00:20:45.589 It has to be democratically controlled, benefit 00:20:45.589 --> 00:20:48.569 the members. Correct. But it's the legal breathing 00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:51.390 room, as the source calls it, that makes a marketing 00:20:51.390 --> 00:20:55.049 co -op possible. So without Capra Volstead, Louis 00:20:55.049 --> 00:20:57.630 Longo would have been a criminal. Absolutely. 00:20:57.710 --> 00:21:01.170 With it, he was a negotiator. So he uses that 00:21:01.170 --> 00:21:04.359 tool. He organizes the Connecticut milk producers, 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.299 they merge with other groups, and they form a 00:21:07.299 --> 00:21:09.420 unified bargaining block. And then comes the 00:21:09.420 --> 00:21:13.259 payoff, 1973, the breakthrough. They go to the 00:21:13.259 --> 00:21:15.319 processors, and with the leverage of a unified 00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:17.859 supply, they negotiated premiums that amounted 00:21:17.859 --> 00:21:20.779 to $30 million. And again, let's be clear, this 00:21:20.779 --> 00:21:22.799 was money that went directly from the processor 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:25.819 to the farms. Yes, the source puts it into real 00:21:25.819 --> 00:21:28.980 -world perspective. That's money for fixing the 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:30.859 barn roof that's been leaking for five years. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.460 That's money for buying a new line of heifers 00:21:33.460 --> 00:21:35.700 to improve your genetics. That's money that keeps 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:37.799 the next generation on the farm because for the 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:40.079 first time, maybe they see a future in it. It's 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:42.759 not just numbers on a spreadsheet. It's viability. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:45.279 It's hope. And this is the big twist in the story. 00:21:45.380 --> 00:21:48.019 This is the warning. Louis Longo had a reflection 00:21:48.019 --> 00:21:51.220 later in his life. He said, we lost the premiums. 00:21:51.220 --> 00:21:53.940 And it's so important to understand why they 00:21:53.940 --> 00:21:56.500 lost them. Yeah. Did the government step in? 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.099 Did the processors find a loophole? Did consumers 00:21:59.099 --> 00:22:04.079 revolt over prices? No, none of that. He said, 00:22:04.220 --> 00:22:06.740 and this quote is just devastating. It is. We 00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:10.119 lost the premiums because farmers went out for 00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:12.720 nickels and gave up the idea of getting a dollar. 00:22:12.859 --> 00:22:14.660 Went out for nickels and gave up the idea of 00:22:14.660 --> 00:22:16.680 getting a dollar. That just hits hard. It's the 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:19.779 nickels versus dollars tradeoff. And for anyone 00:22:19.779 --> 00:22:22.420 listening to this today, this is the most critical 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:25.000 part of this entire deep dive. This is the core 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.000 intellectual argument of the whole piece. OK, 00:22:27.059 --> 00:22:28.660 let's break this down very carefully, because 00:22:28.660 --> 00:22:30.640 on the surface, if someone walks up to me and 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:33.240 offers me a nickel, I want the nickel. It sounds 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:35.599 rational. It sounds perfectly rational, but it's 00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:38.279 the classic prisoner's dilemma applied directly 00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:40.819 to milk pricing. Okay, walk us through the mechanics. 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:43.799 How does one farmer or a small group of farmers 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:47.019 taking a bonus check actually end up lowering 00:22:47.019 --> 00:22:49.140 the price for everyone else in the region? Because, 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:51.119 you know, on the surface, that can sound like 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:54.119 co -op propaganda. It can, but it's just cold, 00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:58.319 hard math. It's all about utilization rates and, 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:00.839 crucially, the cost of balancing the market. 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:03.000 Balancing the market. What do you mean by that? 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:06.319 A co -op's power, its entire reason for being. 00:23:06.839 --> 00:23:09.460 comes from its ability to handle all the milk 00:23:09.460 --> 00:23:12.019 all the time. The good and the bad. The good 00:23:12.019 --> 00:23:14.339 and the bad. It has to take the surplus milk 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:16.420 from a long holiday weekend that nobody wants 00:23:16.420 --> 00:23:19.079 and turn it into storable products like powder 00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:22.000 or butter. At the same time, it has to make sure 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:23.920 the fluid plants have exactly what they need 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:26.579 every single day. That balancing act costs a 00:23:26.579 --> 00:23:28.539 tremendous amount of money. It's the overhead. 00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:31.900 It's the stainless steel, the dryers, the staff, 00:23:32.259 --> 00:23:34.920 the logistics. Right. It's the cost of maintaining 00:23:34.920 --> 00:23:37.660 a stable market for everyone. Now, a private 00:23:37.660 --> 00:23:40.180 processor comes into that same region. They don't 00:23:40.180 --> 00:23:41.859 have that responsibility. They don't have to 00:23:41.859 --> 00:23:43.799 balance the whole region's supply. They just 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:46.799 want milk for their one plant. Exactly. They 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:48.799 just want enough high -quality, low -somatic 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:51.779 cell milk to run their cheese plant at 100 % 00:23:51.779 --> 00:23:55.259 capacity. They want the easy milk, so they cherry 00:23:55.259 --> 00:23:57.279 pick. And how do they do that? They go to the 00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:59.539 large, efficient farms located conveniently close 00:23:59.539 --> 00:24:01.440 to their plant, and they whisper in their ear, 00:24:01.480 --> 00:24:03.819 they say, hey. Leave the co -op. Ship directly 00:24:03.819 --> 00:24:07.079 to us. We'll pay you 20 cents, 50 cents, maybe 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:09.000 even a dollar per hundredweight over what the 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:10.859 co -op is paying you. And if I'm that farmer 00:24:10.859 --> 00:24:14.079 and I'm looking at a $200 ,000 feed bill and 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:17.319 a banknote that's due, that 50 cents isn't greed. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:20.039 No, it's survival. It looks like a lifeline. 00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:22.420 And you take it. You take the nickel. Well, here's 00:24:22.420 --> 00:24:25.519 the math. Here's the math. When you, the large, 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:28.920 efficient farmer, pull your high -volume, consistent, 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:32.759 easy -to -haul milk out of the co -op pool, what's 00:24:32.759 --> 00:24:35.160 left in that pool? The co -op is left with the 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:37.599 harder to market milk, the smaller farms, the 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.460 farms further away. Exactly. And it's still stuck 00:24:40.460 --> 00:24:42.779 with the full fixed cost of those balancing plants. 00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:45.579 So the co -ops per unit cost of handling milk 00:24:45.579 --> 00:24:47.960 just went way up. Way up. And more importantly, 00:24:48.140 --> 00:24:50.279 its bargaining leverage in the marketplace just 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:53.000 went way down. They can no longer walk into negotiations 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.579 with processors and say, We control 90 % of the 00:24:56.579 --> 00:24:58.920 milk in this region. You will pay us a premium. 00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:01.220 Because they don't control it anymore. They only 00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:03.700 control 60 % now. The processors know they're 00:25:03.700 --> 00:25:06.220 weak. They know the co -op is desperate. So the 00:25:06.220 --> 00:25:08.319 over -order premiums, the very ones that Louis 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:12.779 Longo fought for, they just vanish. So you, as 00:25:12.779 --> 00:25:15.119 an individual, you gained a 50 -cent bonus on 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:18.220 your milk check. But the base price for the entire 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:21.519 region, including your own, drops by a dollar 00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:23.920 because the collective leverage is gone. That's 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:26.220 the dollar you lost. That is the dollar. And 00:25:26.220 --> 00:25:28.619 Luis Longo watched this happen in real time in 00:25:28.619 --> 00:25:31.259 the 80s. He watched that solidarity. He built 00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:33.740 Fracture farmer by farmer. And he watched the 00:25:33.740 --> 00:25:37.539 premiums they fought so hard for just evaporate. 00:25:37.539 --> 00:25:40.470 He called it going out for nickels. It's such 00:25:40.470 --> 00:25:42.650 a harsh lesson. And the source ties this directly 00:25:42.650 --> 00:25:45.430 back to the idea of community. Because resisting 00:25:45.430 --> 00:25:47.950 that temptation, resisting that nickel, it requires 00:25:47.950 --> 00:25:50.390 a huge amount of trust. It's all trust. You have 00:25:50.390 --> 00:25:51.869 to trust that your neighbors are also resisting 00:25:51.869 --> 00:25:53.390 it. You have to trust that everyone is holding 00:25:53.390 --> 00:25:55.849 the line together. And trust is the currency. 00:25:56.230 --> 00:25:58.789 If I don't trust you to hold the line, then my 00:25:58.789 --> 00:26:01.369 most rational move is to grab what I can for 00:26:01.369 --> 00:26:04.269 myself before the whole thing collapses. It becomes 00:26:04.269 --> 00:26:06.509 race to the bottom and everybody loses in the 00:26:06.509 --> 00:26:09.160 end. This brings us to the final and maybe the 00:26:09.160 --> 00:26:11.559 most powerful section of the source material. 00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:14.640 It's where it reframes community, not just as 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:17.700 a tool for business leverage, but as literal 00:26:17.700 --> 00:26:20.940 survival. The section is called The Ripple Effect. 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:24.000 Yeah, this part of the piece really moved me. 00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:27.059 We talk about co -ops and contracts and premiums, 00:26:27.059 --> 00:26:29.519 and it can all get very dry and academic. But 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:31.759 community is also what happens when the lights 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:34.390 go out for real. The source uses this really 00:26:34.390 --> 00:26:37.109 haunting image to describe that feeling of isolation. 00:26:37.509 --> 00:26:40.509 It calls it the blue light at midnight. Can you 00:26:40.509 --> 00:26:42.589 describe that for us? It's a picture of, you 00:26:42.589 --> 00:26:44.769 know, a woman in agriculture. She's sitting in 00:26:44.769 --> 00:26:46.769 her dark kitchen. Everyone else in the house 00:26:46.769 --> 00:26:48.970 is asleep. The only light in the room is the 00:26:48.970 --> 00:26:51.170 blue glow of her phone or her computer screen. 00:26:51.369 --> 00:26:53.789 And she's just staring at it. She's staring at 00:26:53.789 --> 00:26:56.569 it. And she's typing a message into an online 00:26:56.569 --> 00:26:59.210 support group because she doesn't know if she 00:26:59.210 --> 00:27:01.500 can keep the farm going. She doesn't know who 00:27:01.500 --> 00:27:04.079 to talk to. She feels completely and utterly 00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:06.859 alone. I think we've all been there. Or we know 00:27:06.859 --> 00:27:10.400 someone who has. The isolation of dairy farming 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:13.900 can be absolutely crushing. But then the source 00:27:13.900 --> 00:27:17.000 talks about the response she gets. It's not her 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:19.619 family. It's not her banker. It's strangers. 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:22.359 Other farmers. Other farmers. Hundreds of miles 00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:24.640 away. Typing back at two in the morning saying, 00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:28.339 me too. Or have you try this. Or just hang in 00:27:28.339 --> 00:27:30.589 there. We see you. The source calls this the 00:27:30.589 --> 00:27:33.750 hidden team. The hidden team. It's all the soft 00:27:33.750 --> 00:27:36.089 stuff that actually determines the hard outcomes. 00:27:36.589 --> 00:27:39.849 Because when the barn burns down, and sadly barns 00:27:39.849 --> 00:27:42.250 do burn down, who shows up at three in the morning? 00:27:42.450 --> 00:27:44.549 It's not the private processor who is offering 00:27:44.549 --> 00:27:47.150 you that 50 cent premium. They're not driving 00:27:47.150 --> 00:27:48.930 the fire truck. They're not even calling to see 00:27:48.930 --> 00:27:51.470 if you're okay. No, it's your neighbor. It's 00:27:51.470 --> 00:27:52.990 the guy you might have argued with at the last 00:27:52.990 --> 00:27:55.250 co -op meeting, but he's there with a stock trailer 00:27:55.250 --> 00:27:59.460 to help you move your cows to safety. booked 00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:01.799 solid for two weeks, but says, I'll be there 00:28:01.799 --> 00:28:04.740 in an hour. It's the nutritionist who sits at 00:28:04.740 --> 00:28:07.200 your kitchen table with you and helps you rework 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:10.359 the entire ration because corn prices just spiked 00:28:10.359 --> 00:28:13.799 and you're broke. That right there, that's the 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:15.799 list of lights. The people who keep your actual 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:17.819 barn lights on when everything else has gone 00:28:17.819 --> 00:28:20.519 dark. And that is the ultimate argument the source 00:28:20.519 --> 00:28:23.920 is making. You cannot survive as a price taker 00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:26.660 in a silo. If you isolate yourself to chase a 00:28:26.660 --> 00:28:28.470 nickel, You might get the nickel for a while, 00:28:28.609 --> 00:28:30.769 but you might find yourself completely alone 00:28:30.769 --> 00:28:32.650 when you really need a dollar. Or when you need 00:28:32.650 --> 00:28:35.630 a fire truck. Or a shoulder to cry on. It's such 00:28:35.630 --> 00:28:38.329 a powerful reframing. We tend to think of business 00:28:38.329 --> 00:28:40.549 and community as two separate things. You know, 00:28:40.589 --> 00:28:42.509 business is the hard numbers and community is 00:28:42.509 --> 00:28:45.710 church and potlucks. Right. But in dairy, the 00:28:45.710 --> 00:28:47.970 source argues they are the exact same thing. 00:28:48.029 --> 00:28:50.690 Your leverage is your community. Your resilience 00:28:50.690 --> 00:28:53.250 is your community. So we've traveled from 1973 00:28:53.250 --> 00:28:56.299 New England. to clothesline mishaps in Indiana, 00:28:56.519 --> 00:28:59.420 to the high -tech labs of Iowa, and all the way 00:28:59.420 --> 00:29:01.519 back to that lonely kitchen table at midnight. 00:29:01.700 --> 00:29:04.000 It's a hell of a journey. It really is. All right. 00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:06.279 Someone is listening to this right now. They're 00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:08.660 on their tractor. Maybe they're in the skid -steer 00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:10.619 cleaning pens. They're thinking about their own 00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:12.839 contracts, their own co -op, their own neighbors. 00:29:13.339 --> 00:29:15.480 What do they sit with from all this? What's the 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:18.220 practical application? I think there are two 00:29:18.220 --> 00:29:20.759 very concrete things to take away from this source 00:29:20.759 --> 00:29:23.200 material. The first one is practical and it's 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:26.319 about contracts. From now on, every time you 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:29.480 look at a milk contract, any contract, you need 00:29:29.480 --> 00:29:32.759 to ask two questions, not just one. What are 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:35.000 they? Question one is the easy one. It's the 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:37.660 one we all ask. What does this do for my cash 00:29:37.660 --> 00:29:40.019 flow today? The nickel question. That's the nickel 00:29:40.019 --> 00:29:42.299 question. Yeah. But question two is the hard 00:29:42.299 --> 00:29:44.960 one. It's the one we often forget to ask. And 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:49.059 it is, what does this do to my community's bargaining 00:29:49.059 --> 00:29:52.369 power tomorrow? That requires a huge shift in 00:29:52.369 --> 00:29:54.589 mindset. That asks you to think about the dollar, 00:29:54.710 --> 00:29:57.309 not just your nickel. It does. It requires you 00:29:57.309 --> 00:30:00.089 to think beyond your own fence line. But if you 00:30:00.089 --> 00:30:02.869 only ever answer question one, you are living 00:30:02.869 --> 00:30:05.210 Louis Lando's nightmare. You are chasing the 00:30:05.210 --> 00:30:07.269 nickel and you will eventually lose the dollar. 00:30:07.470 --> 00:30:09.769 And the second takeaway. The second one is more 00:30:09.769 --> 00:30:12.150 personal. The source calls it the list of lights. 00:30:12.809 --> 00:30:15.170 It suggests you actually do this. Take out a 00:30:15.170 --> 00:30:17.450 piece of paper or open the notes app on your 00:30:17.450 --> 00:30:19.569 phone and write down the names of the people 00:30:19.569 --> 00:30:22.329 who would show up if disaster struck your farm 00:30:22.329 --> 00:30:24.230 at 2 in the morning. Your real community. Your 00:30:24.230 --> 00:30:27.509 real community. And then you look at that list 00:30:27.509 --> 00:30:31.430 and if that page is blank. Wow. If that page 00:30:31.430 --> 00:30:34.009 is blank, that is your immediate to -do list. 00:30:34.210 --> 00:30:37.109 That is more important than culling a cow or 00:30:37.109 --> 00:30:40.269 fixing a fence. You need to build that network. 00:30:40.759 --> 00:30:42.660 You need to go to the meeting you were going 00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:45.160 to skip. You need to check in on a neighbor you 00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:47.079 haven't talked to in a while. You need to become 00:30:47.079 --> 00:30:49.380 a light for someone else. Because you cannot 00:30:49.380 --> 00:30:51.859 survive this industry alone. You can't. It's 00:30:51.859 --> 00:30:54.819 impossible. That's incredibly powerful. It's 00:30:54.819 --> 00:30:57.019 not just about economics. It's about resilience. 00:30:57.460 --> 00:30:59.640 It's about building a web of support that can 00:30:59.640 --> 00:31:01.940 withstand the shocks that are inevitably coming. 00:31:02.220 --> 00:31:05.680 It is. The future of dairy. It belongs to the 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:08.170 people who show up for each other. Whether that's 00:31:08.170 --> 00:31:10.289 in a co -op meeting fighting for $30 million 00:31:10.289 --> 00:31:13.509 or in a neighbor's yard picking up ruined laundry 00:31:13.509 --> 00:31:15.890 after a failed parachute drop. It's the same 00:31:15.890 --> 00:31:18.289 spirit. It's the exact same spirit. I love that. 00:31:18.430 --> 00:31:20.750 The source had another great phrase, the cost 00:31:20.750 --> 00:31:24.289 of not shrugging. That refusal to just accept 00:31:24.289 --> 00:31:26.089 that this is the way things are. That refusal 00:31:26.089 --> 00:31:28.769 to believe that we're powerless. Exactly. We 00:31:28.769 --> 00:31:31.529 are only price takers if we choose to be. That's 00:31:31.529 --> 00:31:34.630 the lesson from 1973. That's another story from 00:31:34.630 --> 00:31:37.069 The Bullvine Podcast. These are the people building 00:31:37.069 --> 00:31:39.269 the future of dairy. And reminding us of the 00:31:39.269 --> 00:31:41.589 past that built us in the first place. You can 00:31:41.589 --> 00:31:45.509 find more stories just like this one at www .thebullvine 00:31:45.509 --> 00:31:48.009 .com. Next time, we're going to be teasing a 00:31:48.009 --> 00:31:50.730 profile on a breeder who is taking a very, very 00:31:50.730 --> 00:31:53.250 different approach to genomics. You won't want 00:31:53.250 --> 00:31:55.410 to miss it. It's a good one. So subscribe wherever 00:31:55.410 --> 00:31:57.710 you listen so you don't miss it. See you down 00:31:57.710 --> 00:31:59.089 the road. Stay safe out there.