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 --> 00:01:00.350 standing strong and tall. Yeah, this is... Welcome 00:01:00.350 --> 00:01:02.670 back to the Bullvine Podcast, where we cut through 00:01:02.670 --> 00:01:05.030 dairy industry noise to get you the insights 00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:08.890 that actually matter for your operation. We aren't 00:01:08.890 --> 00:01:10.689 here to sugarcrete the market, and we certainly 00:01:10.689 --> 00:01:13.670 aren't here to waste your time with fluff. And 00:01:13.670 --> 00:01:15.510 today we're doing a deep dive into a feature 00:01:15.510 --> 00:01:18.870 piece about something that, well, usually makes 00:01:18.870 --> 00:01:20.870 most of us want to throw our phones directly 00:01:20.870 --> 00:01:24.040 into the lagoon. Social media. I can literally 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:27.959 hear the collective groan rising up from milking 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:29.879 parlors across the country right now. Oh, I'm 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:34.689 groaning too. I know. I know. You've got... Corn 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:37.950 to plant, cows to breed, machinery to fix. The 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:40.590 absolute last thing you want to hear is two people 00:01:40.590 --> 00:01:42.590 talking about building a brand or, you know, 00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:45.030 engagement metrics. It's the worst. Honestly, 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:47.129 when I see these influencer farmers popping up 00:01:47.129 --> 00:01:49.129 on my feed doing these dances in the alleyway 00:01:49.129 --> 00:01:51.650 or, you know, spending four hours editing a cinematic 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.290 video of a tractor driving into the sunset, I 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:56.230 just roll my eyes. I'm thinking, who actually 00:01:56.230 --> 00:01:58.859 has time for that? I've got a silage pile to 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:02.079 cover. I've got a fresh heifer down. Real farming 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:04.060 just isn't pretty, and it definitely doesn't 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:07.819 fit in a 15 -second clip set to pop music. And 00:02:07.819 --> 00:02:10.400 that is exactly the skepticism we need to address 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:12.580 today, because the article we're breaking down, 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:16.080 it's titled, Barnyard Brands Trading Polished 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:19.520 PR for Authentic Farmer Trust. It actually agrees 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:22.879 with you. Does it? It does. It argues that the 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:25.659 polished influencer stuff is, well, it's dying. 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:29.740 But, and here's the really big but before you 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:31.919 tune out. The numbers in this report regarding 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:34.800 social license and actual hard dollars might 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.099 just change your mind. Okay, I'm listening. We 00:02:37.099 --> 00:02:38.939 aren't talking about vanity metrics here. We're 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:41.020 talking about protecting your milk check. I'll 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:43.210 admit, when you first sent me the brief. for 00:02:43.210 --> 00:02:45.189 this deep dive. I was completely ready to tear 00:02:45.189 --> 00:02:47.069 it apart. I know you were. But then I looked 00:02:47.069 --> 00:02:48.849 at the financial data. We're going to talk about 00:02:48.849 --> 00:02:51.949 something called social license, which sounds 00:02:51.949 --> 00:02:53.990 like corporate jargon. Very corporate. But when 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:55.729 you actually break it down, it's basically the 00:02:55.729 --> 00:02:58.710 only thing standing between us and an absolute 00:02:58.710 --> 00:03:02.789 regulatory nightmare. Exactly. Context is everything 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:07.099 here. It is February 2026. Let's look at the 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:08.960 landscape we're operating in. It's rough out 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.340 there. We are dealing with an environment where 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:14.020 anti -dairy campaigns are better funded. They're 00:03:14.020 --> 00:03:17.139 more sophisticated and they are way more aggressive 00:03:17.139 --> 00:03:19.590 than they have ever been in history. Yeah. We're 00:03:19.590 --> 00:03:22.169 talking about nine -figure budgets targeting 00:03:22.169 --> 00:03:24.349 the consumer's mind. And they aren't just targeting 00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:27.310 the vegans anymore. They are targeting the moms 00:03:27.310 --> 00:03:30.349 buying yogurt and the teenagers buying lattes. 00:03:30.469 --> 00:03:32.629 That's the David versus Goliath dynamic this 00:03:32.629 --> 00:03:34.310 article really highlights. And it's the part 00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:36.650 that actually got me interested. On one side, 00:03:36.710 --> 00:03:39.689 you have these massive non -governmental organizations 00:03:39.689 --> 00:03:42.629 with tens of millions of dollars in the bank. 00:03:42.729 --> 00:03:44.930 Oh, easily. And on the other side, you have a 00:03:44.930 --> 00:03:47.449 guy in Wisconsin with a hoof knife and a flip 00:03:47.449 --> 00:03:49.719 phone. Literally a flip phone. A flip phone. 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:51.719 And the crazy part, the guy with the knife is 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.360 winning. It is absolutely incredible. But let's 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.060 set the stakes before we get into the how -to 00:03:56.060 --> 00:03:58.819 of it all. Why does this matter right now, today, 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.159 in 2026? Why should a farmer who is barely breaking 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:05.659 even on inputs care about a YouTube strategy? 00:04:06.099 --> 00:04:09.060 It matters because of market access. Yeah. Plain 00:04:09.060 --> 00:04:12.060 and simple. It's not about likes or hearts or 00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:14.379 becoming internet famous. Right. It's about ensuring 00:04:14.379 --> 00:04:16.360 you actually have a place to sell your milk. 00:04:17.069 --> 00:04:19.050 The article argues a very fundamental point. 00:04:19.829 --> 00:04:23.910 If farmers don't tell their story, someone else 00:04:23.910 --> 00:04:27.509 will. And spoiler alert. Yeah. Spoiler alert. 00:04:27.569 --> 00:04:29.990 The people telling your story right now, they 00:04:29.990 --> 00:04:31.889 don't know the difference between a steer and 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:33.910 a heifer. And they certainly don't care about 00:04:33.910 --> 00:04:36.389 your margins. They won't get it right. And that 00:04:36.389 --> 00:04:38.649 brings us to that concept of social license. 00:04:39.170 --> 00:04:40.949 I want to drill down on this because I think 00:04:40.949 --> 00:04:42.990 a lot of guys hear this phrase and immediately 00:04:42.990 --> 00:04:45.420 tune out. Oh, for sure. They think it's something 00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:48.600 for the processors to worry about, not the boots 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:50.339 on the ground. Yeah, it sounds like something 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:52.920 you hear at a conference in a stuffy hotel ballroom 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:55.720 while you're trying not to fall asleep. But think 00:04:55.720 --> 00:04:58.199 of it this way. Social license isn't a piece 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:00.779 of paper. No. It's not the permit you get from 00:05:00.779 --> 00:05:03.199 the county to build a new freestyle barn. It 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.920 is the informal permission the public gives you 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:08.740 to operate. That's a great way to put it. It's 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:10.939 the fact that your neighbors and the people buying 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:13.839 cheese. Don't actively vote for regulations that 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:15.939 put you out of business. Right. It's the buffer. 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:19.100 When you lose that social license, that is when 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:21.920 you get ballot initiatives banning AI. That's 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.439 when you get regulatory crackdowns on manure 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:27.620 spreading. That's when you get retail buyers, 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.120 the Walmarts and Costcos of the world, saying 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:32.339 we can't buy from you anymore because you are 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:34.939 a PR liability. And we're going to preview a 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:39.300 bit of a controversy here because, well. The 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:42.560 bullvine likes to stir the pot. Always. The industry 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:44.759 for the last 20 years has been completely obsessed 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:47.420 with clean marketing. You know what I mean? Red 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.579 barns, green grass, everything looking like a 00:05:49.579 --> 00:05:52.259 vintage postcard from 1950. Oh, absolutely. The 00:05:52.259 --> 00:05:54.459 whole happy cows narrative. Yeah. The Chekhov 00:05:54.459 --> 00:05:56.879 loves this stuff. Yeah. But this article suggests 00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:59.660 that the Fair Oaks style of polished transparency, 00:06:00.019 --> 00:06:02.079 where everything is behind glass and looks like 00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:05.079 Disney World, might actually be a liability in 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:08.199 2026. A huge liability. The public is smarter 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:10.699 than that now. They know farms have manure. They 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:13.149 know cows get sick. This is the part of the deep 00:06:13.149 --> 00:06:15.889 dive that really surprised me. The data actually 00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:19.529 suggests that showing pus, showing blood, showing 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:23.949 manure, the real visceral gross stuff, might 00:06:23.949 --> 00:06:27.149 actually build more trust than a sanitized guided 00:06:27.149 --> 00:06:29.790 tour. It's totally counterintuitive. We're going 00:06:29.790 --> 00:06:32.310 to talk about Nate the Hoof Guy and why showing 00:06:32.310 --> 00:06:35.490 a bloody abscess is actually good PR. It sounds 00:06:35.490 --> 00:06:38.589 completely backwards. It sounds insane. If you 00:06:38.589 --> 00:06:41.310 told my grandfather that showing a cow with a 00:06:41.310 --> 00:06:43.430 lesion on her foot to millions of people on the 00:06:43.430 --> 00:06:45.769 internet was a good idea, he would have chased 00:06:45.769 --> 00:06:47.730 you off the property with a pitchfork. I believe 00:06:47.730 --> 00:06:50.449 it. But the world has changed. So let's unpack 00:06:50.449 --> 00:06:52.410 this. We really need to start with the problem 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:55.430 identification. We call this the trust gap. Or 00:06:55.430 --> 00:06:58.040 as you like to call it. The wallet gap. It is 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:00.139 the exact same thing these days. Let's look at 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:02.759 the disparity in resources here. The source material 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:06.720 highlights two specific anti -dairy groups, PETA 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:09.160 and Mercy for Animals. Now, we all know they 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:11.759 have money, but I really don't think most farmers 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:14.100 realize just how much money. They really don't. 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:17.300 In a single year, fiscal year, ending July 2024 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:21.439 for PETA and December 2024 for Mercy for Animals, 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:24.500 do you know what their combined spending was? 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:26.579 I read the number of the report and I honestly 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:28.279 had to reread it. I thought it was a typo from 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:31.939 the researchers. It was not a typo. $102 .7 million. 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:36.160 That is a war chest. That is a massive amount 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.160 of capital deployed specifically to target the 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.240 consumer's mind and convince them that what we 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.740 do, what we literally wake up at four in the 00:07:44.740 --> 00:07:47.420 morning to do every single day is evil. Let's 00:07:47.420 --> 00:07:50.160 break that down just a bit more. PETA spent $77 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:55.259 .6 million. Mercy for Animals spent $25 .1 million. 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:57.740 Unbelievable. And that doesn't even count Humane 00:07:57.740 --> 00:07:59.839 World for Animals, which used to be the Humane 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:01.740 Society of the United States before their big 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:04.959 rebrand in 2025. They dwarf both of those other 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:07.300 groups combined. Think about that number. Over 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:10.720 $100 million. That is more than the GDP of some 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:13.819 small island nations. And they aren't spending 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:17.259 that on research to improve animal welfare. They 00:08:17.259 --> 00:08:19.519 aren't spending it on feed efficiency or better 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.319 genetics to reduce emissions. They're spending 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:26.180 it on ads, on lobbying, on lawsuits, and on undercover 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:28.860 operations designed specifically to destroy our 00:08:28.860 --> 00:08:30.939 reputations. So if you're a farmer sitting in 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:32.860 the cab of your tractor right now, listening 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:35.039 to this, looking at the milk price and worrying 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.279 about the cost of diesel, you're thinking, I 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:39.600 can't compete with that. You can't. I can't spend 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.220 $100 million to run ads during the Super Bowl. 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:44.740 I can't buy billboards in Times Square. If it 00:08:44.740 --> 00:08:48.000 is a spending war, we lose. Period. If it's a 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.159 dollar for dollar fight on traditional media, 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:52.320 we are dead in the water. We cannot outspend 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:55.370 them. But. And this is the crux of this entire 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:57.490 deep dive. That is the myth of the budget. Yes. 00:08:57.889 --> 00:09:00.669 The article counters this massive spending with 00:09:00.669 --> 00:09:02.929 a story of Nathan Ranallo, known to the entire 00:09:02.929 --> 00:09:05.710 Internet as Nate the Hoof Guy. This is such a 00:09:05.710 --> 00:09:08.029 great story. Nate is a guy from west central 00:09:08.029 --> 00:09:10.250 Wisconsin, a hoof trimmer. He has been doing 00:09:10.250 --> 00:09:12.429 it for two decades. Right. He's a veteran. This 00:09:12.429 --> 00:09:15.490 isn't some Gen Z kid who decided to play farmer 00:09:15.490 --> 00:09:17.710 for views. This is a guy who smells like hoof 00:09:17.710 --> 00:09:20.389 sink and manure at the end of every single day. 00:09:20.629 --> 00:09:23.889 Exactly. And in 2020, he was using a flip phone. 00:09:23.990 --> 00:09:26.909 He told Wisconsin Public Radio he had never edited 00:09:26.909 --> 00:09:29.509 a single piece of footage in his entire life. 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:32.639 He didn't know what Premiere Pro was. He didn't 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.080 know about three point lighting or camera angles. 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:37.320 He didn't hire a marketing agency. He didn't 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:39.340 have a focus group. He didn't even have a script. 00:09:39.500 --> 00:09:42.340 He just wanted to push back on viral clips that 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:45.019 made hoof trimming look like torture. He saw 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:46.860 these videos circulating online where activists 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:48.500 were saying, oh, my God, they're grinding the 00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:51.120 cow's foot. It must hurt so much. We've all seen 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:53.379 those videos. Yeah. Infuriating. Right. And he 00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:54.919 just thought, that's not right. I need to show 00:09:54.919 --> 00:09:56.679 the work. I need to show what I'm actually doing. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:09:59.259 So he just starts filming. Straight up filming 00:09:59.259 --> 00:10:02.799 the trim. And where is he now? The stats are 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:08.299 just wild. As of February 2026, he has a 1 .7 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:12.100 million YouTube subscribers. On TikTok, he's 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:15.240 at 2 million followers. Facebook, another 1 .6 00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:17.659 million. The scale is massive. But the number 00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:20.299 that really blows me away is the total views. 00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:24.659 His YouTube channel has passed 880 million total 00:10:24.659 --> 00:10:29.159 views. 880 million. That is nearly a billion 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:32.480 times that a human being has sat down and intentionally 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:34.879 watched a guy trim a cow's foot. Let's do the 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:37.919 math on that for a second. PETA spent $77 million 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:42.919 to reach people. Nate spent $0. Okay, maybe he 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.399 spent $20 on a phone mount for a shoot. Fair 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:48.559 enough. And he reached 880 million people. If 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:50.860 PETA paid for those views at standard digital 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.559 ad rates, that would have cost them tens of millions 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:56.899 of dollars. Nate got it for free. The lesson 00:10:56.899 --> 00:10:59.899 here is profound. You do not need a marketing 00:10:59.899 --> 00:11:02.320 team. You don't need the slick production. In 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.279 fact, the article argues that having a marketing 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:06.299 team might actually hurt you in today's climate. 00:11:06.500 --> 00:11:08.799 Why is that? Because I think a lot of farmers 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:10.860 assume, well, if I had the cash, I'd definitely 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.200 hire a professional videographer to make my farm 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.340 look good. Because authenticity is the currency 00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:18.159 now. People are so tired of being sold to, they 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:20.419 are tired of the corporate look. Yeah, the perfectly 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:23.320 manicured image. When they see a video that is 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:26.860 perfectly lit. With uplifting stock music and 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:29.860 a rehearsed script, they immediately think, who 00:11:29.860 --> 00:11:32.019 paid for this? What are they trying to hide? 00:11:32.139 --> 00:11:34.720 They put their guard up. Exactly. But when they 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:38.179 see a shaky video shot from a phone with wind 00:11:38.179 --> 00:11:40.179 noise hitting the microphone and a guy talking 00:11:40.179 --> 00:11:42.340 in dirty coveralls, they think, okay, this is 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:45.220 real life. This is the truth. It's anti -marketing 00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:48.259 marketing. And that leads us right into the industry 00:11:48.259 --> 00:11:51.240 reality check. Because for a long time, the dairy 00:11:51.240 --> 00:11:53.879 industry as a whole thought the answer to PETA 00:11:53.879 --> 00:11:57.139 was... polished transparency. We really thought 00:11:57.139 --> 00:11:59.820 the answer was agritourism on steroids. We have 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:02.000 to talk about Fair Oaks Farms here. This is the 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.460 case study that really serves as a massive warning 00:12:04.460 --> 00:12:07.000 for the entire industry. And I know this is a 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.100 sore subject for some people, but we have to 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:10.700 look at it objectively if we're going to learn 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:12.980 from it. We do. And look, Fair Oaks did an incredible 00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:14.840 job at the front of the house. It really was 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:17.200 the Disneyland of dairy. I've been there. It 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:19.519 was incredibly impressive. Huge operation. Glass 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:21.779 windows everywhere, birthing barns where you 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:23.700 could sit in stadium seating and watch calves 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:26.460 being born in a very controlled, clean environment. 00:12:26.899 --> 00:12:30.509 Gift shops, guided bus tours. They had 600 ,000 00:12:30.509 --> 00:12:33.169 visitors a year. It was the absolute gold standard 00:12:33.169 --> 00:12:35.870 for industry PR. Everyone pointed to them and 00:12:35.870 --> 00:12:38.029 said, this is how we do it. This is how we educate 00:12:38.029 --> 00:12:41.009 the public and win them over. But in June 2019, 00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:44.570 that all collapsed overnight. Why? Because undercover 00:12:44.570 --> 00:12:46.389 footage came out. And that footage destroyed 00:12:46.389 --> 00:12:48.750 their trust immediately. Now, we can sit here 00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:50.730 and debate the tactics of the activists, and 00:12:50.730 --> 00:12:52.549 they were absolutely deceptive. There's no doubt 00:12:52.549 --> 00:12:55.590 about that. But the public reaction wasn't just 00:12:55.590 --> 00:12:58.090 about the abuse shown in the video. It was about 00:12:58.090 --> 00:13:00.190 the betrayal. Explain that a bit more. What do 00:13:00.190 --> 00:13:02.309 you mean by betrayal in this context? It was 00:13:02.309 --> 00:13:04.909 the gap. The massive gap between the Disney version 00:13:04.909 --> 00:13:07.309 they sold to the public, the perfect, pristine, 00:13:07.309 --> 00:13:10.210 happy image, and the reality of the working barn 00:13:10.210 --> 00:13:13.309 that the undercover footage showed. The article 00:13:13.309 --> 00:13:15.429 makes this key insight, and I highlighted it 00:13:15.429 --> 00:13:18.269 because it's so true. A visitor's center shatters 00:13:18.269 --> 00:13:21.529 under scrutiny. A working barn weathers it. That 00:13:21.529 --> 00:13:24.190 is a really powerful line. A visitor's center 00:13:24.190 --> 00:13:27.029 shatters under scrutiny. Think about it. If you 00:13:27.029 --> 00:13:30.110 present yourself as perfect, as a flawless polished 00:13:30.110 --> 00:13:33.769 brand, any crack in that facade looks like a 00:13:33.769 --> 00:13:37.230 massive lie. Right. If you say, we are 100 % 00:13:37.230 --> 00:13:39.330 perfect and our cows are always happy and the 00:13:39.330 --> 00:13:41.389 floors are always clean, and then someone sees 00:13:41.389 --> 00:13:43.870 a cow with a dirty tail or a worker getting frustrated 00:13:43.870 --> 00:13:46.389 and yelling, the consumer says, you lied to me. 00:13:46.950 --> 00:13:49.850 The whole thing is a sham. But if you start from 00:13:49.850 --> 00:13:52.549 a place of reality. Exactly. If you show the 00:13:52.549 --> 00:13:54.700 barn. warts and all. If you show that sometimes 00:13:54.700 --> 00:13:56.899 cows get sick, sometimes equipment breaks down, 00:13:57.059 --> 00:13:59.860 sometimes it's muddy and miserable, then there 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:02.539 is no deception to uncover. The back of the barn 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:04.000 and the front of the house are the exact same 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:05.700 thing. Which brings us to the gross advantage. 00:14:06.139 --> 00:14:08.340 This is where the consumer psychology gets really 00:14:08.340 --> 00:14:10.879 interesting. Nate, the hoof guy, isn't showing 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:13.659 cows grazing in a pristine meadow with butterflies. 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:16.960 He is showing abscesses. He is showing hairy 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:19.960 heel warts and lesions. He is taking a grinder 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:22.840 and paring away overgrown claw. I actually asked 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:25.220 my wife about this because I can't watch that 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:27.299 stuff while I'm eating lunch. It turns my stomach 00:14:27.299 --> 00:14:29.539 a bit. And I do this for a living. It is pretty 00:14:29.539 --> 00:14:32.340 graphic. But apparently there is a whole genre 00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:34.840 of this on the internet. Pimple popping videos. 00:14:35.139 --> 00:14:37.620 It is oddly satisfying. Don't look at me like 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:40.700 that. Millions of people watch Dr. Pimple Popper. 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:43.460 It's the exact same psychology at play. You have 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:46.220 a highly visible problem. It looks painful or 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:48.960 uncomfortable. Then you have a methodical expert 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:52.340 coming in to fix it. And then... Release. It 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:55.980 is the resolution arc. Tension and release. But 00:14:55.980 --> 00:14:59.080 Nate adds the vital context. And this is the 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:02.000 critical part for farmers to understand. He doesn't 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:03.740 just chop the foot and leave the camera rolling. 00:15:04.019 --> 00:15:06.600 He explains what he is doing while he does it. 00:15:06.679 --> 00:15:10.120 He explains that hoof horn is dead tissue. He 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.159 uses that analogy. I loved this one in the article. 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:14.639 The rock in the boot. It is brilliant because 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:17.539 literally everyone can relate to it. He says 00:15:17.539 --> 00:15:19.919 the hard hoof part is like the thick rubber sole 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.419 of a work boot. If you take a sharp knife and 00:15:22.419 --> 00:15:24.059 dig a rock out of the sole of your boot, you 00:15:24.059 --> 00:15:26.379 don't feel the boot being cut. You feel the instant 00:15:26.379 --> 00:15:28.759 relief of the rock being gone. That one sentence 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:31.340 creates a massive bridge of empathy. Suddenly 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:33.279 the viewer understands the mechanics of it. And 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:35.639 then he shows the cow walking away. The viewer 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:38.299 sees the cow limping in the beginning and striding 00:15:38.299 --> 00:15:41.860 comfortably after. Suddenly, a guy with an angle 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:44.940 grinder and a sharp knife isn't torturing a cow. 00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:49.000 He is a caregiver. He is a healer. He is actively 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.340 relieving pain. It turns a scary -looking procedure 00:15:52.340 --> 00:15:55.580 into an act of profound care. And here is the 00:15:55.580 --> 00:15:58.720 kicker. Because it looks bloody or dirty sometimes, 00:15:59.059 --> 00:16:02.740 it feels undeniably real. Yeah. If he scrubbed 00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:05.019 it all clean and didn't show the pus or the blood, 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:06.720 people wouldn't believe it. They would think 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.320 he was hiding the bad stuff. By showing the bad 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:11.980 stuff, the act of infection, he proves his honesty. 00:16:12.340 --> 00:16:14.720 So the real takeaway for me there is that authentic 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:16.840 care, even if it's ugly, even if it involves 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:19.700 pus and blood and manure, builds way more trust 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:21.799 than a sanitized tour where everything is hidden 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:24.220 behind a pane of glass. 100%. If you hide the 00:16:24.220 --> 00:16:26.159 manure, people naturally wonder what else you're 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:28.679 hiding. If you show the manure, they trust you 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:30.860 when you say the milk in the tank is clean. Now... 00:16:31.100 --> 00:16:33.360 You're the numbers guy. You always tell me, show 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:36.000 me the money, so let's follow the money. Because 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.259 I know there is a farmer listening to this right 00:16:38.259 --> 00:16:40.820 now who says, that's great for Nate. He's got 00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:43.539 a million subscribers. But I'm running a business. 00:16:43.659 --> 00:16:46.220 I don't have time to be a YouTuber. Right. And 00:16:46.220 --> 00:16:49.039 I get that. I really, truly do. Time is our absolute 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:51.360 most scarce resource. There's never enough of 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:54.500 it. But let's do the barn math. The article breaks 00:16:54.500 --> 00:16:57.600 down the actual financial cost of silence. Walk 00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:59.820 us through the scenario they laid out. Okay, 00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:04.019 imagine a standard 300 -cow dairy. A decent -sized 00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:06.960 family operation. You are working tight margins, 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:09.599 like we all are. Let's say you get hit with a 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.579 PR crisis. Maybe an activist group targets you 00:17:12.579 --> 00:17:15.119 specifically. Or maybe the industry takes a broader 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:17.460 hit and your processor gets nervous about brand 00:17:17.460 --> 00:17:20.140 safety. A processor panic. Exactly. You lose 00:17:20.140 --> 00:17:22.539 your mill contract for 30 days. Just one month. 00:17:22.619 --> 00:17:24.859 A temporary suspension while they conduct an 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:27.920 investigation. Just 30 days. Now, let's be super 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.039 conservative with the numbers. Let's say milk 00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:32.579 is at $18 a hundredweight. And let's say your 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:35.140 herd is averaging 75 pounds per cow per day. 00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:37.480 Which is a bit low for high -performance herds. 00:17:37.480 --> 00:17:40.980 I know guys pushing 90 or 100 easily. But let's 00:17:40.980 --> 00:17:43.500 stick with a conservative number so nobody accuses 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:46.099 us of inflating the stats to make a point. Fair. 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:49.299 At those highly conservative numbers, a 30 -day 00:17:49.299 --> 00:17:54.960 suspension is a $121 ,500 loss. Ouch! That is 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.539 a massive, crippling hit to cash flow. That's 00:17:57.539 --> 00:18:00.099 payroll. That's the feed bill. That is the banknote. 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:03.400 And it is just gone. Now, if we look at 2025 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:06.920 USDA prices, which were hovering closer to $21 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:10.900 a hundredweight, you're looking at over $141 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:14.720 ,000 gone in a single month. That's devastating. 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:16.779 And that is assuming you can even get picked 00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:19.319 up again by a processor after 30 days. If you 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:21.099 can't, you're done. You're selling the cows. 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:23.980 So the argument the article makes is that spending 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:26.400 20 minutes a week filming a raw video on your 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:28.920 phone is basically an insurance premium. Exactly. 00:18:28.920 --> 00:18:32.480 It is insurance against that $141 ,000 catastrophic 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:35.680 loss. Think of it this way. You pay for fire 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.339 insurance on the milking parlor, right? You pay 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:40.519 for liability insurance on your feed trucks. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:43.819 Why wouldn't you pay in time, not even cash, 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:46.220 but just time for reputation insurance? Because 00:18:46.220 --> 00:18:48.640 if you have a community, if you have established 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:51.519 that social license, the processor knows you 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:54.160 have real people who trust you. You aren't just 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:57.319 an easy faceless target. Right. If PETA comes 00:18:57.319 --> 00:19:00.099 after Nate the Hoof Guy today, what happens? 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:03.299 His 2 million followers swarm the comments and 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.359 say, you're wrong. We know Nate. We watch his 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:08.859 videos every week. We know exactly how he treats 00:19:08.859 --> 00:19:10.500 those animals. You're tactically untouchable. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:13.680 He is inoculated against the attack. But if you 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.980 are a faceless barn at the end of a dirt road 00:19:15.980 --> 00:19:17.880 that nobody knows anything about, you are the 00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:20.000 easiest contract in the world to cut to save 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.920 face. The processor sacrifices you instantly 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:25.819 to make the public noise go away. Now, there 00:19:25.819 --> 00:19:27.740 is a revenue upside discussed here, but I really 00:19:27.740 --> 00:19:29.220 want to be careful with this part. The article 00:19:29.220 --> 00:19:31.839 explicitly warns us not to count on it. Yeah, 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:34.359 let's definitely not get gold fever here. I don't 00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:36.660 want people quitting their day jobs or neglecting 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:38.480 the herd to try and become full -time influencers. 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:42.369 Nate is an extreme outlier in this space. The 00:19:42.369 --> 00:19:44.829 article cites vidIQ estimates for his YouTube 00:19:44.829 --> 00:19:48.289 ad revenue at somewhere between $8 ,000 and $24 00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:51.769 ,000 per month. Which is a very, very nice side 00:19:51.769 --> 00:19:53.970 hustle. That pays for a lot of skid steer parts. 00:19:54.210 --> 00:19:56.230 It's more than a side hustle. That is a legitimate 00:19:56.230 --> 00:19:58.609 second income stream that's a new tractor every 00:19:58.609 --> 00:20:01.609 couple of years. But look at the hours he puts 00:20:01.609 --> 00:20:04.970 in. The guy puts in 30 to 50 hours a week just 00:20:04.970 --> 00:20:07.430 on content creation and community management. 00:20:07.730 --> 00:20:10.349 Oh, wow. That's a second full -time job. When 00:20:10.349 --> 00:20:13.269 you break it down... to an hourly rate, it's 00:20:13.269 --> 00:20:17.109 like $62 to $111 an hour for the digital work. 00:20:17.329 --> 00:20:20.069 That is good money, but it is not retire on a 00:20:20.069 --> 00:20:23.250 beach in the Bahamas money. Exactly. And most 00:20:23.250 --> 00:20:26.069 farmers will never see those numbers. Most farmers 00:20:26.069 --> 00:20:28.829 will make $0 directly from the social platforms. 00:20:29.089 --> 00:20:31.549 If you go into this thinking, I'm going to get 00:20:31.549 --> 00:20:33.910 rich off TikTok ad revenue, you're going to be 00:20:33.910 --> 00:20:36.809 severely disappointed. But the ROI, the return 00:20:36.809 --> 00:20:39.210 on investment, isn't the monthly ad check from 00:20:39.210 --> 00:20:42.500 Google. No. Absolutely not. The ROI is keeping 00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:44.839 the market open. It is making sure that when 00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:47.900 an activist group drops a heavily edited video 00:20:47.900 --> 00:20:51.000 in your county, your neighbors and your local 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.019 politicians say, nah, I know that farm. I watch 00:20:54.019 --> 00:20:55.859 their videos. That's not how they operate. It's 00:20:55.859 --> 00:20:57.779 community defense. It is about community defense 00:20:57.779 --> 00:21:00.019 at a grassroots level. It's the trust shield. 00:21:00.909 --> 00:21:02.869 Let's look at some case studies of how different 00:21:02.869 --> 00:21:05.490 farms are actively building this shield, because 00:21:05.490 --> 00:21:07.509 it's definitely not a one -size -fits -all approach. 00:21:07.609 --> 00:21:09.950 You don't have to be a hoof trimmer slicing open 00:21:09.950 --> 00:21:12.509 abscesses to make this work. Let's start with 00:21:12.509 --> 00:21:15.549 the big guys, because the common narrative in 00:21:15.549 --> 00:21:17.970 the public, and honestly, the narrative pushed 00:21:17.970 --> 00:21:20.890 by a lot of mainstream media, is that big equals 00:21:20.890 --> 00:21:23.150 cruel. It's all factory farming myth. Right. 00:21:23.470 --> 00:21:25.589 The assumption is if you have 4 ,000 cows, you 00:21:25.589 --> 00:21:28.470 must be a heartless factory, and factories are 00:21:28.470 --> 00:21:31.609 inherently bad for animals. Enter MVP Dairy in 00:21:31.609 --> 00:21:36.029 Ohio. 4 ,500 cows. That is a very large operation 00:21:36.029 --> 00:21:38.809 by any metric. It's owned by the McCarty and 00:21:38.809 --> 00:21:41.970 Van Tilburg families. Now, typically, a farm 00:21:41.970 --> 00:21:44.740 of this sheer scale stays very quiet. They put 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:47.099 up a tall fence, plant some trees to block the 00:21:47.099 --> 00:21:49.880 view, and put up no trespassing signs. But MVP 00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:52.059 went the complete opposite direction. They are 00:21:52.059 --> 00:21:54.799 tackling the big is bad myth head on. They are 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.119 a certified B Corp. Do you know how incredibly 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.740 hard it is for an agricultural business to get 00:21:59.740 --> 00:22:02.700 B Corp certification? It is notoriously difficult. 00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:05.559 The auditing process is grueling. It really is. 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:08.240 You need a score of 80 to pass. And it covers 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:10.500 everything. It covers environmental impact, worker 00:22:10.500 --> 00:22:13.359 treatment, community engagement, and animal welfare. 00:22:14.019 --> 00:22:17.559 MVP scored a 102 .7. They are also dairy care 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:19.619 certified. They have the receipts, as the kids 00:22:19.619 --> 00:22:21.640 say today. But receipts are fundamentally boring. 00:22:21.779 --> 00:22:24.759 Nobody is curling up to read a 70 -page B Corp 00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.420 audit report on a Friday night. Right. And that 00:22:27.420 --> 00:22:29.619 is exactly where the social media strategy comes 00:22:29.619 --> 00:22:31.880 in. They don't just rely on the framed certificates 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:34.750 in the office lobby. They use TikTok. And this 00:22:34.750 --> 00:22:36.690 is the absolute genius of their approach. You 00:22:36.690 --> 00:22:38.609 have this massive facility, state of the art, 00:22:38.690 --> 00:22:41.269 millions of dollars of concrete and steel and 00:22:41.269 --> 00:22:43.630 technology. But the TikTok feed is just a guy 00:22:43.630 --> 00:22:46.170 in coveralls talking to the camera. It's pampering 00:22:46.170 --> 00:22:48.970 the girls. It's daily chores. It's highly personal 00:22:48.970 --> 00:22:51.410 and low production value. It makes a massive 00:22:51.410 --> 00:22:54.089 mega dairy feel exactly like a relatable family 00:22:54.089 --> 00:22:56.809 farm. Because, well, it is a family farm just 00:22:56.809 --> 00:22:59.170 operating at scale. They show that even with 00:22:59.170 --> 00:23:02.589 4 ,500 cows, there are still individual humans 00:23:02.589 --> 00:23:05.430 who care deeply about individual animals. An 00:23:05.430 --> 00:23:07.910 audit score north of 100 paired with a human 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:10.250 face makes the farm feel like a place you could 00:23:10.250 --> 00:23:13.049 just walk right into. It removes all the mystery 00:23:13.049 --> 00:23:16.619 and the menace of the scale. MVP also has a learning 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:19.019 center where people can actually physically go 00:23:19.019 --> 00:23:22.559 and see the rotary carousel in action. They effectively 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:25.200 combine the physical openness with the digital 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:27.559 openness. Let's jump to the complete opposite 00:23:27.559 --> 00:23:29.160 end of the spectrum for a minute. Let's go to 00:23:29.160 --> 00:23:32.200 New Zealand. Chloe Payne. Oh, cows of New Zealand. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.640 She's managing 600 cows, but she really focuses 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:37.440 her content on the ones she owns personally. 00:23:37.700 --> 00:23:41.200 And she names them. Popcorn, Barbie, brown sugar. 00:23:41.769 --> 00:23:44.150 Now, I know a lot of old school dairymen who 00:23:44.150 --> 00:23:48.170 would say, do not name the cows. It's a business, 00:23:48.250 --> 00:23:50.390 not a petting zoo. You can't get emotionally 00:23:50.390 --> 00:23:52.970 attached to inventory. But that exact attitude 00:23:52.970 --> 00:23:55.309 is what kills us with the general public. The 00:23:55.309 --> 00:23:57.029 public desperately needs to know that you see 00:23:57.029 --> 00:23:59.509 these animals as individuals. They need to know 00:23:59.509 --> 00:24:02.170 you aren't just a cold calculating robot. There 00:24:02.170 --> 00:24:04.150 was a really powerful moment mentioned in the 00:24:04.150 --> 00:24:06.829 Deep Dive article about a calf named Gingerbread. 00:24:07.029 --> 00:24:09.390 Yeah, that was Brown Sugar's daughter. This part 00:24:09.390 --> 00:24:11.490 actually made me tear up a bit when I was prepping 00:24:11.490 --> 00:24:14.690 for the show. When Gingerbread died, Chloe didn't 00:24:14.690 --> 00:24:16.529 hide it. She didn't pretend it didn't happen 00:24:16.529 --> 00:24:19.170 to keep the feed happy. She posted a raw tribute 00:24:19.170 --> 00:24:21.890 video. And it wasn't just a sad post for engagement. 00:24:22.069 --> 00:24:24.569 It proved to her audience that the death actually 00:24:24.569 --> 00:24:26.529 mattered to her. It proved that these animals 00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:28.750 aren't just spreadsheet numbers to her operation. 00:24:29.029 --> 00:24:32.210 It showed genuine grief. And that single post 00:24:32.210 --> 00:24:38.069 reached 325 ,000 followers. Even Khloe Kardashian 00:24:38.069 --> 00:24:41.289 shared a photo of one of her calves. That is 00:24:41.289 --> 00:24:44.289 organic reach you literally cannot buy. You can't 00:24:44.289 --> 00:24:46.509 pay a Kardashian to post about your dairy farm 00:24:46.509 --> 00:24:49.210 unless you have tens of millions of dollars in 00:24:49.210 --> 00:24:51.609 a marketing budget. Khloe got it just by being 00:24:51.609 --> 00:24:54.289 real. And it fundamentally changes the public 00:24:54.289 --> 00:24:57.069 conversation. It shifts it from the activist 00:24:57.069 --> 00:25:00.029 talking point of farmers exploit animals for 00:25:00.029 --> 00:25:03.119 profit to the reality of farmers. love their 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:05.559 animals and sometimes animals tragically die 00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:08.140 and it breaks the farmer's heart too that is 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:11.099 a shared human experience yes that grief is universal 00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:14.000 profit margins are not now there's a third angle 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:15.900 here that i think is incredibly important and 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:18.220 honestly it's often overlooked when we talk about 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:20.059 this stuff we talk about pr we talk about saving 00:25:20.059 --> 00:25:22.460 the milk check we talk about the processors but 00:25:22.460 --> 00:25:24.539 what about the farmer themselves you're talking 00:25:24.539 --> 00:25:26.579 about the mental health angle big farmer andy 00:25:26.940 --> 00:25:30.019 From Australia. This is such a great story because 00:25:30.019 --> 00:25:32.880 it started completely by accident. He wasn't 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:34.980 trying to save the dairy industry or build a 00:25:34.980 --> 00:25:37.859 brand. He had no surgery, was stuck inside the 00:25:37.859 --> 00:25:39.920 house for two weeks recovering, and just started 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:42.700 posting old videos out of sheer boredom. And 00:25:42.700 --> 00:25:45.309 now he has nearly half a million followers. He 00:25:45.309 --> 00:25:48.670 uses a lot of humor. His bio is actually a full 00:25:48.670 --> 00:25:51.109 -time farmer, part -time washed -up TikToker, 00:25:51.289 --> 00:25:54.210 but he gets really serious about the isolation 00:25:54.210 --> 00:25:57.470 of the job. Farming is incredibly lonely. We 00:25:57.470 --> 00:25:59.130 really don't talk about that enough in this industry. 00:25:59.190 --> 00:26:01.890 You spend 12, 14 hours a day alone in a tractor 00:26:01.890 --> 00:26:04.150 cab or in the parlor. You might not see another 00:26:04.150 --> 00:26:07.650 actual human being all day long. And he talks 00:26:07.650 --> 00:26:10.079 openly about suicide in agriculture. He talks 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:12.140 about the intense mental pressure. And the article 00:26:12.140 --> 00:26:14.160 points out that this is the hidden benefit of 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:16.079 social media for the farmer. It's a lifeline. 00:26:16.200 --> 00:26:18.059 It connects you directly to the outside world. 00:26:18.299 --> 00:26:20.599 If you are milking cows at four in the morning 00:26:20.599 --> 00:26:22.599 and you haven't spoken to another human being 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.400 in 12 hours, having a community online, even 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:26.980 if they're total strangers living in different 00:26:26.980 --> 00:26:30.259 time zones, can massively reduce that suffocating 00:26:30.259 --> 00:26:33.180 sense of isolation. It turns out social media 00:26:33.180 --> 00:26:36.619 isn't just PR for the milk processor. It is legitimate 00:26:36.619 --> 00:26:38.819 mental health support for the operator. That 00:26:38.819 --> 00:26:41.279 is profound. It really makes you realize that 00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:43.799 connection isn't just a corporate buzzword. Okay, 00:26:43.859 --> 00:26:46.539 let's get into the contrarian take segment. This 00:26:46.539 --> 00:26:49.259 is the bullvine, after all. We like to zig when 00:26:49.259 --> 00:26:51.599 the industry tells everyone to zag. And the absolute 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:53.960 biggest contrarian take in this entire report 00:26:53.960 --> 00:26:57.700 is this. Show the slurry. Show the slurry. We 00:26:57.700 --> 00:26:59.700 mentioned Tom Pemberton in the UK earlier. He 00:26:59.700 --> 00:27:02.099 is the absolute king of this strategy. Tom runs 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:04.700 a mixed dairy and beef operation. He has over 00:27:04.700 --> 00:27:07.500 half a million subscribers on YouTube. And he 00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:09.960 intentionally shows the bad days. He shows the 00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:11.599 equipment breaking down in the middle of a critical 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:14.700 job. He shows the slurry pit overflowing. He 00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:17.460 shows the deep, miserable mud. Why does that 00:27:17.460 --> 00:27:19.599 actually work? Because conventional marketing 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:22.579 wisdom says you hide the mess. Every ad agency 00:27:22.579 --> 00:27:24.799 in the world would tell you to power wash the 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:28.400 tractor before you dare film it. Because in 2026, 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:32.180 perfection looks like a lie. Think about where 00:27:32.180 --> 00:27:34.839 we are with AI right now. Think about deep fakes. 00:27:35.180 --> 00:27:37.839 People are becoming hyper suspicious of anything 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:40.579 that looks a little too good. If you only post 00:27:40.579 --> 00:27:42.579 when the sun is shining, the grass is perfectly 00:27:42.579 --> 00:27:45.279 green and the cows are spotless, people automatically 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:47.640 think you are staging it. I think it's just corporate 00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:50.670 propaganda. Exactly. But if you show a quarter 00:27:50.670 --> 00:27:53.269 million dollar tractor hopelessly stuck up to 00:27:53.269 --> 00:27:55.609 its axles in the mud, you're covered in manure 00:27:55.609 --> 00:27:57.750 and maybe swearing a little bit at the situation. 00:27:58.269 --> 00:28:00.789 That looks like real life. Nobody fakes getting 00:28:00.789 --> 00:28:03.369 stuck in a slurry pit for views. The public trusts 00:28:03.369 --> 00:28:05.750 struggle way more than they trust perfection. 00:28:06.089 --> 00:28:08.210 They relate to the struggle. Everyone has bad 00:28:08.210 --> 00:28:11.009 days at work. They don't relate to a perfect, 00:28:11.069 --> 00:28:14.990 sanitized, frictionless image. A breakdown looks 00:28:14.990 --> 00:28:17.529 like honest, hard work. It instantly makes you 00:28:17.529 --> 00:28:19.950 the relatable underdog. The second contrarian 00:28:19.950 --> 00:28:22.170 point is what the article calls PETA -proofing. 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:24.589 And this involves a story about a New York dairy 00:28:24.589 --> 00:28:27.529 that I think every single farmer listening needs 00:28:27.529 --> 00:28:30.410 to memorize. This is such a great story. An AP 00:28:30.410 --> 00:28:33.309 Reporter Associated Press, so we're talking big 00:28:33.309 --> 00:28:37.089 time, national syndicate, contacted a dairy farm 00:28:37.089 --> 00:28:40.069 in New York. She had a story pitched directly 00:28:40.069 --> 00:28:42.829 to her by PETA. PETA gave her all the supposed 00:28:42.829 --> 00:28:45.809 dirt. She was locked and loaded, ready to do 00:28:45.809 --> 00:28:48.509 a massive expose on this farm. This is the literal 00:28:48.509 --> 00:28:51.069 nightmare call. Hi, this is the Associated Press. 00:28:51.130 --> 00:28:53.450 We have serious allegations of animal abuse at 00:28:53.450 --> 00:28:56.009 your facility. Most farmers would just hang up 00:28:56.009 --> 00:28:58.369 in a panic and call their lawyer. And panic is 00:28:58.369 --> 00:29:01.210 the worst reaction. But the owner of this farm 00:29:01.210 --> 00:29:03.970 didn't hide. The owner actually invited the AP 00:29:03.970 --> 00:29:05.910 reporter to come out to the farm that day and 00:29:05.910 --> 00:29:08.269 see for herself. But here's the crazy part of 00:29:08.269 --> 00:29:11.309 the story. The reporter didn't even go. Why not? 00:29:11.430 --> 00:29:13.470 She had the scoop. Because she did her basic 00:29:13.470 --> 00:29:16.109 research first. She looked up the farm online. 00:29:16.230 --> 00:29:18.430 She found they had a long documented history 00:29:18.430 --> 00:29:21.230 of verification. They had NYS CHAP certification. 00:29:21.970 --> 00:29:25.029 She called Cornell's Pro Dairy Program, and the 00:29:25.029 --> 00:29:27.390 experts there personally vouched for the farm's 00:29:27.390 --> 00:29:29.869 management. She looked at their digital footprint 00:29:29.869 --> 00:29:33.349 and saw years of transparent operation. So the 00:29:33.349 --> 00:29:35.869 foundation of trust existed long before the crisis 00:29:35.869 --> 00:29:38.490 ever hit. That is the entire key to this. You 00:29:38.490 --> 00:29:40.869 cannot build trust during a crisis. It's impossible. 00:29:41.190 --> 00:29:43.490 If you wait until the activist camera crew is 00:29:43.490 --> 00:29:45.369 literally standing in your driveway to start 00:29:45.369 --> 00:29:48.369 being transparent, it is way too late. You just 00:29:48.369 --> 00:29:50.869 look defensive and guilty. But if you have years 00:29:50.869 --> 00:29:53.450 of openness, third party audits, and a steady 00:29:53.450 --> 00:29:56.170 digital presence, that becomes your shield. The 00:29:56.170 --> 00:29:58.410 reporter looks at the wild PETA claims, looks 00:29:58.410 --> 00:30:00.569 at your boring, consistent history of good management, 00:30:00.670 --> 00:30:03.720 and says, These two things don't match, and the 00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:05.920 hit piece dies on the desk. That's incredibly 00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:08.279 powerful. It is the definition of being proactive 00:30:08.279 --> 00:30:11.299 versus reactive. Now, looking at the future implications, 00:30:11.660 --> 00:30:14.200 the digital landscape is changing so fast, it's 00:30:14.200 --> 00:30:16.680 hard to keep up. Platform volatility is a very 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:18.940 real risk here. We saw this play out with TikTok. 00:30:19.420 --> 00:30:22.559 In 2025, it faced serious threats of divestiture 00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:25.380 or outright banning. It was ultimately saved 00:30:25.380 --> 00:30:28.680 by a joint venture in January 2026. But for a 00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:30.500 while there, it looked like the whole platform 00:30:30.500 --> 00:30:32.660 was going dark in the U .S. The lesson there 00:30:32.660 --> 00:30:35.160 is clear. Don't build your house on rented land. 00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:37.700 Tom Pemberton, the guy who shows the slurry, 00:30:37.819 --> 00:30:41.079 he focuses heavily on YouTube. Why? Because it's 00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:43.099 searchable. Its long -form video is a much more 00:30:43.099 --> 00:30:45.799 stable platform. TikTok is fantastic for explosive 00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:49.240 viral reach, but it is highly volatile. Building 00:30:49.240 --> 00:30:51.799 entirely on TikTok is like relying on spot market 00:30:51.799 --> 00:30:54.900 prices for your entire annual income. You absolutely 00:30:54.900 --> 00:30:57.900 need to diversify. And the other big future trend 00:30:57.900 --> 00:31:00.960 they identify is verification stacking. The future 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:02.940 isn't just making fun videos. It's providing 00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:05.299 the receipts. It is no longer enough to just 00:31:05.299 --> 00:31:07.460 get on camera and say, I treat my cows well. 00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:09.700 Anyone can say that. You need the video showing 00:31:09.700 --> 00:31:11.779 the daily care. And you need the farm program 00:31:11.779 --> 00:31:14.359 audit and the B Corp score and the dairy care 00:31:14.359 --> 00:31:16.500 certificate backing it up. It's the synthesis, 00:31:16.819 --> 00:31:19.160 the combination of the accessible digital presence 00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:21.980 and the rigorous third -party audit. Exactly. 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:24.859 The video provides the emotional connection. 00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:28.720 The audit provides the empirical proof. Together, 00:31:28.940 --> 00:31:31.940 they are basically bulletproof. The video touches 00:31:31.940 --> 00:31:34.660 the consumer's heart. The audit satisfies their 00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:38.359 brain. All right, let's get extremely practical 00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:40.940 here. We have covered a lot of high -level theory 00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:42.839 today. We've covered the consumer psychology, 00:31:43.299 --> 00:31:46.390 the hard economics, the case studies. But a farmer 00:31:46.390 --> 00:31:49.089 just finished the morning milking. They are driving 00:31:49.089 --> 00:31:51.430 their truck to the feed store and they are thinking, 00:31:51.549 --> 00:31:54.029 OK, all of this sounds good in theory, but what 00:31:54.029 --> 00:31:57.130 do I actually do today? I do not have a camera 00:31:57.130 --> 00:31:58.730 crew. Right. We need to break this down into 00:31:58.730 --> 00:32:01.029 actionable bite sized chunks so it isn't overwhelming. 00:32:01.309 --> 00:32:03.849 I want three specific takeaways. Immediate action, 00:32:04.029 --> 00:32:06.630 medium term strategy and long term positioning. 00:32:06.670 --> 00:32:09.029 OK, let's start with takeaway one. The quick 00:32:09.029 --> 00:32:11.690 start. This is for this week. If you take nothing 00:32:11.690 --> 00:32:14.220 else away from this deep dive. Do this. What's 00:32:14.220 --> 00:32:17.519 the specific action? The Path 130 day test. I 00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:19.140 want you to pull out your phone and film three 00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:21.779 videos this week. Just three short videos. What 00:32:21.779 --> 00:32:23.619 kind of production value are we talking about 00:32:23.619 --> 00:32:26.259 here? Absolutely none. Zero production value. 00:32:26.579 --> 00:32:29.759 Use your phone only. Shoot it vertical. No editing 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:32.180 whatsoever. Do not even download an editing app. 00:32:32.420 --> 00:32:35.039 What exactly are they filming though? Jan Kielstra 00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:38.000 from up in Saskatchewan gives the best advice 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:40.500 on this. He says just show what you do. Literally. 00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:44.029 Film the feed push -up. With a skid steer. Film 00:32:44.029 --> 00:32:46.509 the newborn calves getting their colostrum. Film 00:32:46.509 --> 00:32:48.829 yourself checking the flow rate on a water trough. 00:32:48.910 --> 00:32:50.990 And the goal isn't to go viral with the iceberg. 00:32:51.150 --> 00:32:53.109 No, not at all. The goal is simply to get over 00:32:53.109 --> 00:32:55.470 the mental hurdle and the fear of hitting record. 00:32:56.009 --> 00:32:58.329 The goal is to see what regular people actually 00:32:58.329 --> 00:33:00.819 find interesting. You will be shocked. You think 00:33:00.819 --> 00:33:02.960 pushing up feeds the most boring, repetitive 00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:05.900 chore on the farm. To a guy sitting in a cubicle 00:33:05.900 --> 00:33:07.920 in Chicago who has never been within 50 miles 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:10.319 of a tractor, it is fascinating to watch. Just 00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:12.519 post it. See what happens. Okay, I love that. 00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:15.319 Takeaway two, the rhythm. This is the three to 00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:17.519 six month plan once you've dipped your toe in 00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:21.420 the water and survived. This is path two. You 00:33:21.420 --> 00:33:23.849 need to make a commitment. Pick one platform, 00:33:24.029 --> 00:33:26.670 just one. Do not try to be an expert on TikTok, 00:33:26.930 --> 00:33:29.609 Instagram, YouTube, and X all at the same exact 00:33:29.609 --> 00:33:32.210 time. You will burn out in a week. How often 00:33:32.210 --> 00:33:34.250 should they be posting? Once or twice a week. 00:33:34.849 --> 00:33:38.529 But make it consistent. And here is the absolutely 00:33:38.529 --> 00:33:41.369 crucial part of the medium -term strategy. You 00:33:41.369 --> 00:33:43.869 have to engage with every single comment. Even 00:33:43.869 --> 00:33:46.309 the dumb ones. Even the trolls asking if brown 00:33:46.309 --> 00:33:48.690 cows give chocolate milk. Especially the curious 00:33:48.690 --> 00:33:51.359 ones. If someone asks a seemingly dumb question 00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:54.019 like, why are the calves separated from the mothers 00:33:54.019 --> 00:33:56.759 in those hutches? Do not get defensive. Do not 00:33:56.759 --> 00:33:58.900 block them. Explain it calmly, just like Nate 00:33:58.900 --> 00:34:00.940 explains the hoof horn. Say, it's for their health. 00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:03.400 It's so we can monitor their exact milk intake. 00:34:03.619 --> 00:34:06.019 It's to keep their immune system safe from mature 00:34:06.019 --> 00:34:09.300 cow germs. Be the patient teacher, not the defensive 00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:12.219 fighter. Find your oddly satisfying moment. Yeah, 00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:14.460 exactly. Maybe your moment is scraping the return 00:34:14.460 --> 00:34:16.679 alley. Maybe it's the visual of the milk flowing 00:34:16.679 --> 00:34:19.320 cleanly into the bulk tank. Find the one thing 00:34:19.320 --> 00:34:21.219 that looks visually cool on your farm and lean 00:34:21.219 --> 00:34:23.739 into it. Build the habit of documenting it. And 00:34:23.739 --> 00:34:27.579 finally, takeaway three, the fortress. This is 00:34:27.579 --> 00:34:30.000 the one to two year strategy. This is path three. 00:34:30.510 --> 00:34:32.550 This is primarily for the larger operations, 00:34:32.769 --> 00:34:35.409 the ones who rightfully feel like they are prime 00:34:35.409 --> 00:34:37.710 targets for activist groups. This is the receipt 00:34:37.710 --> 00:34:40.420 stacking we talked about. Yes. You need to systematically 00:34:40.420 --> 00:34:44.440 pair your raw content with formal, rigorous audits. 00:34:44.500 --> 00:34:46.820 Start looking seriously at B Corp certification. 00:34:47.239 --> 00:34:49.920 Look at maximizing your farm program score to 00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:52.679 the highest tier. Look at dairy care. You need 00:34:52.679 --> 00:34:55.420 to make absolutely sure that if a Fair Oaks -style 00:34:55.420 --> 00:34:57.840 moment tries to happen to your operation, your 00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.139 local community and your processor already know 00:35:00.139 --> 00:35:02.239 the undeniable truth. You want to fundamentally 00:35:02.239 --> 00:35:05.820 turn your size into an asset instead of a liability. 00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:08.889 Exactly. The message becomes, we are big. which 00:35:08.889 --> 00:35:11.010 means we have the financial resources to have 00:35:11.010 --> 00:35:13.570 the absolute best technology, the highest animal 00:35:13.570 --> 00:35:15.829 welfare standards, and the strictest independent 00:35:15.829 --> 00:35:18.570 audits in the business. Prove it. Don't hide 00:35:18.570 --> 00:35:21.250 behind defense. Transparency is quite literally 00:35:21.250 --> 00:35:23.769 the only defense that actually works in 2026. 00:35:24.349 --> 00:35:27.469 It really all comes down to this. If a hook trimmer 00:35:27.469 --> 00:35:30.789 in Wisconsin with a flip phone can get 880 million 00:35:30.789 --> 00:35:33.250 views just by being honest, there is absolutely 00:35:33.250 --> 00:35:35.670 no excuse for the rest of us to remain invisible 00:35:35.670 --> 00:35:38.550 and let activists tell our story. That's the 00:35:38.550 --> 00:35:40.789 bottom line. We cannot sit in the coffee shop 00:35:40.789 --> 00:35:42.349 and complain that the public doesn't understand 00:35:42.349 --> 00:35:44.829 dairy farming if we flat out refuse to talk to 00:35:44.829 --> 00:35:47.510 them. The microphone to reach the world is sitting 00:35:47.510 --> 00:35:50.349 in your pocket right now. Use it. And on that 00:35:50.349 --> 00:35:52.210 powerful note, we are going to wrap it up for 00:35:52.210 --> 00:35:55.070 today. This has been a really fascinating deep 00:35:55.070 --> 00:35:58.230 dive into the rapidly changing world of dairy 00:35:58.230 --> 00:36:00.630 reputation and social license. This has been 00:36:00.630 --> 00:36:03.289 another Bullvine podcast from the Bullvine podcast. 00:36:03.650 --> 00:36:05.469 For more straight talking industry analysis. 00:36:06.030 --> 00:36:08.250 and maybe slightly fewer TikTok dances, head 00:36:08.250 --> 00:36:12.570 over to www .thebullvine .com. Subscribe wherever 00:36:12.570 --> 00:36:15.130 you get your podcasts. We are out with new deep 00:36:15.130 --> 00:36:18.230 dives every single day. Upcoming topics include 00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:21.320 Well, next week, we are going to completely tackle 00:36:21.320 --> 00:36:24.420 genomic bulls. Hype or holy grail? That should 00:36:24.420 --> 00:36:26.980 be a pretty spicy conversation. Oh, I have some 00:36:26.980 --> 00:36:29.760 very strong opinions on that one already. I think 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:32.219 we are heavily over -indexing on spreadsheet 00:36:32.219 --> 00:36:34.619 numbers and completely forgetting how to look 00:36:34.619 --> 00:36:37.219 at the actual cow. I bet you do. We will save 00:36:37.219 --> 00:36:39.500 that fight for tomorrow's recording. Until then, 00:36:39.659 --> 00:36:41.980 keep it real and keep the cameras rolling. See 00:36:41.980 --> 00:36:42.280 you later.