Rural Route Opinion Column: Amy Eckelberg
When I saw the photo on social media my heart sank. The early-April news that dairy processors were dropping farmers made me uneasy and scared.
As reports of more and more farmers impacted by a letter sent from a processor came in, Farm Bureau staff came together to determine our first steps.
Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Jim Holte issued a statement on April 5 acknowledging our concern and commitment to the issue and encouraged those impacted to contact the Wisconsin Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection’s Farm Center. The only way this situation could be handled properly was by getting the farmers who needed help finding a processor connected to DATCP for assistance. WFBF used their social media channels and other communication tools to express the importance of what was happening and it helped.
Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Director of Governmental Relations Karen Gefvert, affected dairy farmers Mark and Beth Heinze and leaders of the Dairy Girl Network worked together to gather the impacted farmers in the same place so DATCP Secretary Ben Brancel could address and give guidance to those farmers. After that meeting on April 14 it was clear there was plenty of work to be done but there was now a list of farmers and contact information to keep them informed.
Around April 17, Mullin’s Cheese took on eight dairies who were impacted by the letter. Farm Bureau publicly thanked Mullin’s Cheese on social media and asked that other processors do the same.
The following weeks included phone calls to impacted farmers and collaboration with DATCP staff to see how many farmers were left and where they would go with their milk on May 1.
As the storm was winding down on the farm front, the media demand was increasing as the topic was news-worthy. In collaboration with the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association and Dairy Business Milk Marketing Cooperative, Wisconsin Farm Bureau hosted a media event on May 1. This was a joint-effort to have industry professionals talk about this situation at the same place at the same time. By allowing the media to have one place to visit for multiple interviews we hoped it would help them in covering the story but also provide a consistent message which is something this story so desperately needed. Farm Bureau members and impacted farmers Shane and Jennifer Sauer opened their farm for this event. More than 10 media outlets from Wisconsin and Canada attended.
Like we said in our statement on May 1, DATCP did an outstanding job in getting farmers the resources they needed while collaborating with other farm groups. There is still more work to do on this subject. You could say the work has just begun, but the immediate crisis was resolved which at the time was the most pressing challenge that needed addressing.
One of my colleagues likes to say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Many of our members don’t know what Farm Bureau does behind the scenes for our members, but hopefully this sheds some light.
WFBF has been part of the follow up discussions with other farms groups, the UW Dairy Summit and DATCP. Lessons learned include: farmers need to know if they have a contract in place with the processor and what the terms are, have frequent and open lines of communication between you, your processor and your lender, lastly, these lessons should be on the radar for ALL farms, large and small.
How do we position Wisconsin’s dairy farmers and dairy industry to be competitive in the future? To find a solid solution we will need dairy farmers of all sizes and styles with creative thoughts and ideas to put their heads together. It’s time to get to work and Farm Bureau is here for you.
Amy Eckelberg
Amy Eckelberg was raised on her family’s dairy farm near New London in Waupaca County. As an active member of the Sandy Knoll 4-H club, Eckelberg grew up showing hogs and dairy animals at the Waupaca County Fair and was a New London FFA member. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2012. Amy is the Executive Director of Public Relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and resides in DeForest with her husband.
Rob Klussendorf says
Right on Amy
First we need to let our members now what Farm Bureau has been doing for them to come up with a solution that this will not be a problem in the future.
Second Farm Bureau needs to be a leader in getting all parties to gether in finding was that farmer have a market for their product . It maybe some type of supply management may it be two tier pricing for a base amount of product and discount amount for the over supply.We need a way to control expansion of a already over produced product.