NFO-12 (AV10421): Midwest Farm Report: NFO Leaders

[music] I believe that many farmers have never taken the time to really think about the problems that exist in American agriculture farmers many times just assume that the conditions that exist today in American agriculture just happened and have come about just as the end result of something that they can't explain how it really happened and so consequently I believe that farmers should stop and think that really the problems that we're faced with today is farmers are problems that came about because of inaction and because that farmers have never really met their marketing problems farmers have really never had though an opportunity to meet their marketing problems because there has never been an organization with the structure that was necessary for the organization to have in order for farmers to meet their problems and there's never been the leadership that has come forward from the agricultural field from the fields of our nation in order to lead the American farmers to meet the problems that they face now as we think about the problems that face the American farmers we readily have to accept the fact that the income for farmers has reached the lowest level for as parities concerns since 1939 at some 47 percent of the American farmers are now what you might consider in the poverty class because of the fact that when you recognize poverty in other classes of the economy or other groups in the economy you immediately find that if people are receiving three thousand dollars a year or less money to income they're considered in the poverty class and on this basis the American farmers find that 47 percent or a little over of the farmers in America then could be considered in the poverty class now why is this happened when the nation has gained great strides in economic growth and why is this happened when the American farmers have done the most efficient job of producing of any group of people or anybody in America these are the questions that farmers should ask for themselves and ask themselves and find the answers now we in the NFO believe that almost every farmer would join our organization if they understood the goals of our organization the progress we're making and why it's necessary for the NFO program to be carried out I have with me today many of the top staff people of our organization we're proud of the people that have come forward as leaders in American agriculture to give their time their efforts and their various talents to meeting the problem that has never been met for American farmers and by the American farmers so we with great pride today are going to visit with the department heads in our organization the people that have to do the technical jobs because many times it said well is there enough brains are there enough brains in American agriculture to meet the other businessmen and the other segments of our economy and so consequently we have developed a staff of people that are all farmers and that have come from the farm go back to the farms on the weekends and whenever they get the time to go back there they put in long hours of work and they have various backgrounds both from the point of education technical training that they have received when they were in their colleges also from the experience that they received in other fields but they're all farmers they all have their own farming operations and all actively farmed and also as we look at this this staff let us come forward and and is helping lead the NFO members and the leaders at the various levels forward toward our goals we find that we try to keep a good cross-section of those that have had this educational background the technical training and also those that have just had the good school of hard knocks I of course attended college at Northwestern Missouri State this is where I got my college training that I have and this is that Missouri mister Erhard Pfingsten are nice too vice president there it's been a great pleasure to work with and is known as a great agricultural leader received his college work at Winfield Kansas and then as we look at the various staff people in the organization starting on the back row going left to right Mr. Gordon Shafer of Kingsville Missouri is our chief negotiator Gordon's job is to bring the various departments together and to work in the meeting with the various processors in fact the people in the commodity departments are dairy meat and grain really match brains with the top corporation executives in America our Gordon graduated from the Central Missouri State College with a BS in education and with with a major in agriculture and he worked as an industrial engineer and we always kid him but I think it's very important and the work that he's doing now and that is that he was an efficiency expert you might say this was really his title his job when he worked as an industrial engineer but he is farmed continuously since World War Two and this is the type of background that he has brought to the bargaining field and then we have Herb Goodman who heads up the green commodity department and herb herb is farmers from Coin Iowa and herb as was a graduate of the Colorado schools of mind and he graduated there after having received a scholarship I believe and Berb brings a lot of experience and he is a farmer there coin Iowa Page County Iowa down in southwestern Iowa and then we have Albin Rust who is a dairy farmer from Wisconsin Albin has had a lot of experience in various fields he has done a tremendous job as head of the dairy commodity department meeting with the dairy processors throughout our nation and then we have Ken Stofferahn who is a member of the national board of directors Ken is a graduate of the South Dakota State University and as a graduate in agriculture and of course they have a fine farming operation there he and his brothers and all with all these other staff people have in their various communities and Ken is a member of the board of directors and we have about 26 people on our national board of directors they all have various backgrounds and have done a tremendous job in their various fields and of course every one of them farmers and then on the front row we have left to right is Mr. Butch Swain from Unionville Iowa he was a dairy farmer Butch is head of the promotional department had many years of sales experience but also has been on the farm for many many years we have in the next in the center here on the front row Gene Potter who has a degree in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois he is on a member as a member of the board of directors and many times they say well there's NFO top officials have any background in economics well gene of course has a degree from one of the top universities in the nation the University of Illinois we have here then Lloyd Fairbanks who is head of the organizational Department we always kid Lloyd a lot about the fact that he was already admitted to medical school when World War II came along he then of course went into the service was a pilot of during World War Two and when he came back from the service he decided to rather farm then go back to medical school and so consequently he started farming in an operation there in Kansas and we always kid him is that as he is taking a hold of the NFO work and worked very hard then maybe that was the biggest mistake that he ever made when he did not go on and finished his medical training but nevertheless he's been very fortunate as far as farmers are concerned to have his energy and his leadership helping to be used to organize farmers now I'm going to call on each of these to say a little about their various fields because we're proud of them because of this background I gave to you shows that they come from some of the top colleges with degrees from these colleges in the nation and we could go on and on with many of our more of our leaders with the backgrounds such as this all of them farmers that are active leaders because they cannot be members of the NFO unless they're actually farmers and certainly they all maintain their farming operations all of these top staff people now as we call on them I'm going to call on first Gordon Shafer as head of the chief negotiator to talk a little about bargaining and so Gordon at this time I'm going to go back to you there on the back row there and start from left to right again and calling on you to say something about bargaining no we don't have a lot of time for as many as we have on the program but we certainly want to take a little time for each of you to discuss some of the points that concern the NFO all right alright first I'd like to say that collective bargaining for price as attempted by the NFO on all major commodities is a comparatively new field actually there are very few people in the United States outside of the NFO that have had any experience at all in the bargaining field in relation to the type of a program which we are attempting bargaining is really not as difficult as a lot of people would lead you to believe the bargaining really consists of bringing together or a meeting you might say of economic forces in this case the organized farmers as one force and the processor as the other force or you might say the opposing force in the bargaining operation the groups come together to agree on price and other conditions of marketing actually when farmers bring together enough of their production enough volume of that production the processors have no other choice other than to bar with the farmer the processing plants are useless unless there are some farm commodities to process when farmers decide to join hands in this effort in sufficient numbers then really the bargaining is practically over of course bargaining must be done on all major commodities prices must be raised more or less simultaneously so that there will be no particular tendency to switch from one commodity to another which might cause overproduction of a single commodity if you tried to bargain for price on one commodity alone we in the NFO really farther along in our bargaining then is presently recognized by most people we are presently signing contracts with processors in all of the major commodities these contracts that we're signing can be activated when sufficient contracts have been signed and of course the NFO has sufficient production to fulfill the contracts these contracts will be activated when we have a minimum of 60% of the major commodities covered by like contracts Thank You Gordon next we're going to call on Herb Goodman who is head of the green commodity department Herb would you make this some remarks for us concerning the green commodity department the problems in grain bargaining and and some of the progress that is being made well Oren Lee in Grain we've got some problems that are similar to some of the other commodities such as meat for instance our bean producing area and our soybean processing plants are scattered throughout the producing area similar to those in the meat producing areas and the meat processors now it differs in respect to meat in particular also dairy in that we can store the grain commodities for a much longer period of time it's not unusual to hold these products a year two years and they can be kept in first-class shape we are bargaining with the grain processors we are also using as an intermediate step to the bargaining problem we're using the voluntary sales agreement we have found this to be an advantage in knowing how much grain that we have at our disposal and being able to rely on that source of grain in our sales now there is one thing that we have to realize in the grain production and that is that we harvest a year supply in a matter of some 30 to 45 days if this was to go on the market as it has in the past generations of farming then we would expect a depressed price at harvest time and then later on when no one had that commodity we'd expect a high price now for this reason the producer has to realize that the first and most important step in bargaining in Grain is to store that commodity on your farm if possible or to store it nearby where you can maintain control of it and after the available supply has been used by the processors then this this supply that we have in first hands will become an important factor the important factor in bargaining with the processors well thank you we're certainly glad to hear those comments next I'm going to call an Albin Rust the direct of the dairy commodity department Alvin would you say a few words about dairy bargaining the progress that you're making yes I will only dairy bargaining much as any other farm commodity is really a very simple thing when it comes to bargaining there is about a 50/50 split on dairy production so far as manufactured milk and a class-one milk or grade a milk the NFO at the present time has signed up many many contracts with dairy processors or dairy marketing groups whichever one you chose to turn in this respect these contracts are signed with cheese manufacturers powdered milk operations butter operations and bottled milk operations all three they're signed with some of the largest of the dairy industry at the present time dairy farmers it seems to me are more subject to this type of a marketing program than most other groups because dairy farmers have in the past more or less became accustomed to marketing in or with individual groups only they're being too small to accomplish an overall job the dairy processors at the present time have told me many of them that whenever the dairy farmers enough of them signed contracts with NFO that they would gladly sign the N NFO master contract for milk setting a price of 5 and $6.00 for class 1 and class 2 milk a processor in the Milwaukee area just yesterday told me this very thing that if enough farmers sign up with NFO there was no question in his mind but what he would sign the contract the price is in the contract had nothing to do with so far as signing he said he would gladly go along with it I think that the dairy groups by working closer together could accomplish this job in in a very short time if the farmer himself would simply move as farmer to Farmer pooling his production together again much as Mr. Goodman and Mr. Schaffer have stressed by pulling it together and having one salesman rather than 20 the dairy commodity department next I'm going to call on Ken Stofferahn but before I call on Ken I think maybe that I should mention the fact that tonight we're missing one of our commodity department directors and that is Bill Reisman who is director of the meat commodity department bill was a very capable man he's a graduate of the University- college in Illinois they served 14 years as a coach in one in the school he is a dynamic figure but today and this would really astonish a lot of people if we were free to say who he has been meeting with but he has been meeting with some of the largest processors in the nation today in fact two of the major meat processors and because of the fact that he was unable to make a plane schedule he was unable to get here as this program was being prepared he has done a tremendous job many marketing arrangements are being set up and his program has moved along very well under his direction in the meat commodity department but we are not free of course to say which processors he's meeting with because of the business pressure that does exert in the industry or can be exerted in the industry but Bill had planned to be here and we certainly did not want to forget and and then failed to mention the fact that he was the director of the meat commodity department so Ken I'm going to call on you Ken Stofferahn the director from South Dakota to make a few remarks concerning any phase of the NFO program that you'd like to speak on well I think probably one of the most important phases to speak about in the NFO program is probably one that's most commonly misunderstood and this is the holding action although most people become acquainted with our organization through the holding action it is a minor part of the entire program but nevertheless a very important one it's a method by which you bring the production together to in such a fashion as to make your bargaining power felt in an effort to enforce the signing of contracts now I think most everyone will agree that in food which is our primary purpose in pricing there lies a very vast and great amount of bargaining power because unlike other commodities are others goods and services food is something that people need three times a day they absolutely must have food three times a day and this is the thing that I think our industry or farmers themselves ought to really sit down and take a good look at because our program through an effort to get a fair and equitable return on our products through a holding action is offering the opportunity to all farmers in the entire nation to join and support our efforts and for the first time in the history of agriculture they have this opportunity if they will just take advantage of it and through a holding action hold their production in an effort to stabilize prices through the signing of master contracts this I think is something that all of us as farmers ought to take a good look at now one other point concerning a holding action and oftentimes here people say that it cannot and will not work for farmers the amusing thing about this is and of course being a farmer myself I hear these same people who make these statements are the people that the same method of pricing works very very successfully for so it's a matter in the minds of farmers themselves to consider who all we really listening to when we analyze the situation how are we going to take a good look at it and listen to the farmers themselves who have a sound program to follow or are we going to listen to those people who make their living off of us as farmers and maintaining low prices well thank you Ken certainly good to hear from you and now I want to call on W. W. Butch Swain who's the director of the promotional appointment but give us a few comments well my job as most of the people know out from the in their own territory Mr. Tilley is is together and distribute information about the NFO promote NFO in every way possible this television series is one of my projects we have these going throughout a vast area of over 50 stations when they're all on arranging all the way from the Magic Valley of Idaho to the Pennsylvania border and from the Canadian border on the North clear down to Bowling Green Kentucky reaching into Tennessee and we distribute and exchange information with the colleges throughout the United States land-grant colleges and the United States government this is where we get our facts thank you very much well next I want to call on Gene Potter who as I told you when I introduced him first a degree in economics so from the graduate from the University of Illinois Gene member the national board of directors like for you to make a few comments but I think very shortly Oren Lee that one thing we should bring to the forefront is that there has been a tremendous change in agriculture and then in the country as a whole that we need in our marketing structure to meet this change now we have in the past relied a great deal upon a mechanism in the narrow sense known as supply and demand which was to determine a fair price in agriculture now by very definition this mechanism cannot operate and determine a fair and equitable price as long as any one supplier or any one demand for a product such as Swift & Company or any given retail chain is large enough to affect the total demand for the product so I think this is something a lot of times when those of us who proposed this idea we seem to overlook I think that as we take a comprehensive and a deep look at the marketing program proposed by the national farmers organization we will find that it is economically sound and it does provide a mechanism for balancing the need or for balancing the forces in the economic conditions that we have in the country today well thank you next I want to call on a man that's very important in the NFO because the entire success at the bargaining the table depends upon the amount of organizational work that has been done in other words how many farmers have joined together for the purpose of bargaining together and marketing together Lloyd Fairbanks our national organizational director thank you Oren Lee the organizational plan this year is far ahead of schedule of any year that we have been organizing this year we have more qualified personnel now centered in areas of the individual areas and we have many more that are coming on and we'll be going into areas after the first of the year the progress that we've made has been illustrated here at our convention that we just concluded here in Minneapolis with the overwhelming number of delegates that we had larger delegation than we had a year ago and certainly the expansion that we made in the organization we're now in 23 states we expect to expand in more States and also continue to tie down the personnel the organization within the areas that we've already organized getting them into a structure here a tight knit structure that they'll be effective in the holding actions which we need to implement our bargaining power well thank you Lloyd and of course I know that our national vice-president Erhard Pfingsten who's here with me certainly is can be just as I am very proud of this great leadership that's come forward in American agriculture to make the team work in the NFO well certainly I share your pride in them as I'm sure do all our members and some of the impressions that people get from them after they've seen them in action I think pretty well bears out what a terrific force we have on one occasion I heard a gentleman who had the opportunity to sit in on one of the bargaining meetings talked to a group of farmers in that same week he was a master of ceremonies at this particular meeting he said that when he first joined the NFO he was very leery of the fact of the whether or not we have the manpower the brains to match those brains in industry he said used to concern him a lot until that week but after he had seen our bargaining heads or the heads of our commodity departments in action in that bargaining session he says you know those processors didn't even begin to be a match for our men he said in fact I felt truly sorry for those processors and that's just exactly the way I feel about our man well thank you Mr. Pfingsten I would just like to say that these men and all the other leaders throughout the NFO can only do the job that they're that they can do if they have the support the cooperation and the understanding of the farmers and this means actively working together as funders the strength of this organization does not lie in the leadership at the national level it does not lie in the leadership at the state level the district of the county level it lies in the cooperation at all levels with the support of the farmers and the members being the real strength of this organization the farmers of America are looking at the leadership that can help lead them and i'm talking about the staff people and all the other leadership throughout the NFO to victory at the bargaining table it's up to the farmers now in those let's say well NFO does not have the staff personnel NFO does not have the people with a technical background to meet the brings those executives that they have to meet in the other segments of the economy that represent the processing industry that we have to deal with if we're to price our products you can say to them you have seen them first handed and met them on the television program [music] The NFO members are calling on the rest of this nation's farmer to join win them to help solve our farm problem