News : Talking to a Farmer about Pricing and Processing

Heidi Lillibridge poses with one of the cows on the farm, "Say Cheese!"

Last week I took a little field trip, well, I was in the middle of several fields so it was probably my first REAL field trip. While the country is reeling with all of the closures from the COVID-19 pandemic, I began to see farmers becoming very concerned about the closures of the meat processing plants which led me to ask some questions.

I would bet that if you are like me, you were asking yourself why it's a big deal to close meat processing plants for "just a few weeks." Now I grew up in town, and have only visited farms. If you talk to a farmer, I've found that it's a lot like talking to a trucker. The stories that they can tell will leave you in stitches. At the same time, the knowledge that these guys and gals have about a kernel of grain is more than you've ever considered.

So I contacted a couple of farmers and one said, let's talk, just come out when it starts raining. As I worked I kept an ear open for the sound of rain. I found the farm and we sat in the shed to visit. Because of COVID we met there in case I might have some cooties that would put their family at risk. Lance and Heidi Lillibridge sat down with me for about an hour and half answering questions, and giving me a crash course in a variety of topics dealing with farming, ethanol, grain, labels, gmo, hormone free meat and so many other topics that writing this article left me scratching my head and asking myself where to start?

The first thing I learned is that the relationship between farming and the government is at best complicated. I used to think a bit like Michael Bloomberg Mayor of New York City when he said to a group of University of Oxford students in a 2016 video that recently surfaced, "Anybody, even people in this room can be a farmer. It's a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn." Bloomberg went on to compare farming to working during the industrial revolution, saying "neither require much thought."

Compared to running a planter through the field and figuring out the government involvement in running that planter Bloomberg was right, putting a seed in the ground is "easy."  Relying on people in government who in general have no idea how to drive a tractor to make good decisions for the farmer well that's probably the biggest headache for farmers. If the farmer is lucky when that seed grows the farmer can make a few cents for all the work that it took to plant that seed. And if you're lucky, the country doesn't shut down and leave the farmer pondering whether he should even plant the seed.

After seeing that farmers were euthanizing animals, and trying to sell off pigs that were ready to go to market, and in general panicking, I thought that perhaps someone needed to ask some questions. When I heard about the $50 pigs I asked, "Does the government set prices for farm products, grain, meat, eggs, etc?" 

That is a loaded question. "You have to think logically through this," said Lillibridge. "Prices are decided by the Board of Trade World Market and based on demand, speculation, and while things might be good here if something crazy goes on somewhere else in the world, it affects prices. While the government doesn't set the prices, they influence them." Then there is demand and supply and all kinds of variables that play into what a farmer does or does not get paid.

In all the talk about processing plants closing, I wondered about the need to keep them open, even at a lower capacity while people are out sick. It might sound stupid to a farmer to ask, for example, "Why can't you just keep the cows or pigs until the plant opens again?" I have to admit, I was impressed that not once did Lance or Heidi roll their eyes. It's simple really and Lance explained, "when you have sows having piglets, there is only so much room for the added pigs on the farm. When the building is full, it's full. For cattle, you only have so much time to sell the cattle that need to be harvested. If you keep the cattle around, it costs you money to keep feeding it." There is a certain time when cattle must be sold to have the best quality of meat as well, if you miss that window of time the meat isn't the best quality.

When the plants close down or are running short-staffed, the plant wouldn't take the products of small farmers. The demand for meat is still there driving the prices up because the supply is limited. 

Do you remember that commercial for Wendy's, "Where's the Beef?" It's not a joke anymore.

I asked about farmers that were killing off the piglets, and how that would affect the farmer and realized as soon as I said it, part of the obvious answer is income. Without the piglets, the next round of hogs is now eliminated, Not to mention the mental strain on a farmer who is not used to having to make the choice to eliminate his livestock when he's in the business of keeping them alive. 

While processing plants don't look for meat raised by the small-time farmers, the small farmer generally uses lockers to process their meat selling it to friends or relatives that would like the product. Because of the plants closing, meat lockers are now booked through sometime in January as of last week. Local farmers have set up a Save the Bacon Facebook page to connect consumers with pork but again the problem will be how to get it butchered unless you can do it yourself. 

Texas is going about "helping" ranchers to ease the excess beef by "helping to get the cattle homes," in exchange the farmer will have to agree to downsize. Think about that. Now the ranchers will be required to have fewer cattle because the processing plants have shut down.

The ripple effect of having to do this affects the grain farmers. Without livestock to feed, there isn't a need for the corn. With excess grain, there is no place for it to all go. 

The good news is that agriculture renews every year. "The bad thing is that financially I have no idea what's going to happen. I hate bailouts. But we've got a huge problem. We feed the world, if we pull the rug out from under that, it's just not going to work."

Lillibridge shared that he was telling someone he was tempted to put the tractor in the shed, and not plan any more corn and that's when he realized that he didn't have any hope. "All farmers have to have hope. I do have hope and every farmer does, that's why we continue farming," said Lillibridge.

So while I talked to the Lillibridges last week, things have changed so much already. Reports out now say that some national chains have already begun to ration the amount of meat that families can buy in the store. Among them are Hy-Vee, Costco and Baker's. Waterloo leaders were quick to get on the bandwagon of shutting down the meat processing plant, and it's still closed even though the President has ordered all meat processing plants to remain open. 

We also discussed several other topics and we discussed talking again. Let me know what you'd like me to ask about farming and we'll make another field trip to address any questions you have. 

We will later address the other topics like food labeling, GMO, organic, hormone-free, Certified Grassfed Beef and any other topics that you'd like to ask about, just leave a comment below!