NFO-179 (AV10678): Progress of NFO

US farm report a public information program brought to you in the interest of agriculture real business and the well-being of our nation by members of the national farmers organization in this area and others interested in having American agriculture receive cost of production plus a reasonable profit the American farmers and ranchers are building a brighter future for agriculture through the national farmers organization the organization not a woke America and represents the leadership of Agriculture u.s. farm report presents progress of NFO with special guest Oren Lee Staley president of the national farmers organization here now is president Staley the NFO has been making progress is gaining and is winning the battle that we have been waging the last several weeks to get farmers a fair price for their products at the marketplace there's one that needs to be understood and it's important even better recognized by farmers themselves we have been involved in a holding action in recent weeks and during this holding action we have changed our strategy several times only the members of the NFO that attend our county meetings in each county really understand how this strategy has been used and why it has been changed of course farmers have to realize first the collective bargaining does mean farmers bargaining together and selling together we started our last holding action for the purpose of gaining two objectives the first objective was to get contracts with processors that would give us stability in our prices and to be able to tie down the necessary gains through collective bargaining the other goal and of a holding action was to block our production together for nationwide block bargaining in all commodities this doesn't mean just livestock they're just grain or just dairy but it goes to the real heart of what it takes in collective bargaining and that is farmers bargaining together and selling together now what progress have we made of course the first key to progress is to continue to strengthen the organization and this comes about only through a better realization on the part of farmers that they cannot meet their problems in this modern-day economy by themselves and then it takes more than just a realization it takes them actively joining the NFO and becoming a part of the total effort on this point we have spread our organization now into 41 states this has been a tremendous growth for the NFO in the last few months the biggest growth that the organization has ever experienced since the inception of its collective bargaining program this is due I think largely to two factors the first factor is the acceptance of collective bargaining their realization on almost everyone's part the collective bargaining is necessary and that NFO does have the answer that can give farmers equity in fairness at the market place the second factor is one that really points to the fact that NFO is fighting the economic battle that farmers must have fought in other words we can all talk about the problem and everyone knows that there's a tremendous problem that does exist because the price of everything we have to buy continues to go up but the prices on the products that we receive there we sell have continued to remain at low levels over a period of years and this has caught farmers in the cost price squeeze and it's gotten so bad that almost all the farmers realize that they cannot meet their problems as individuals the youth has left agriculture to a great degree the average age of farmers 57 years of age or thereabouts meaning that there has to be a change there has to be a meaning of the problems because without average age of farmers and the youth not staying in agriculture it does mean that our industry the agricultural industry has serious problems therefore we call the holding action to give farmers the opportunity to join the NFO to become a member and also to use their production to make collective bargaining work it is so foolish for farmers to go to the marketplace and say what will you give me and then go across the street and pay the prices on the price tag for every commodity they have to buy and so we offered farmers the opportunity and are continuing to offer farmers the opportunity to wage this economic battle together to be able to say that we have the strength that we're using to say to the buyers these are our products and we're going to put our price tag on them and so as a result of a holding action we have made considerable progress in the signing of contracts with processors processors are just like anyone else they're going to buy just as cheap as they can buy as long as they can do that and also there as long as they can get the production that's necessary for their plants then they're going to buy at that cheap figure or is cheaper figures they can possibly buy the production so we use a holding action at intervals to show the processors that more production has been brought together that this is production that they cannot get but then this holding action we have used considerably different strategy than we've used in the past actions and this strategy has changed because of the increased strength of the organization and our ability through the experience we've had to be able to better understand how we can use our production by holding it on the farm and then the additional step of instead of dropping that production that's been held on the farm in one large amount do you be able to feed it on the market in such a manner as it keeps the processors hungry for production and this we have used by naming it distress sales this meant only moving that production that had to be moved at a certain time the distressed production of course was moved to processors that had signed contracts or had indicated their willingness to sign contracts this means that you have another tremendous advantage in collective bargaining by using your production in this manner because then you're able to begin to approach a position where you can turn the production on and off just like you would turn the water off at the faucet in your home and so this means that we're moving together using our production together bargaining and selling together now some definite results that are not generally known have to go back and be pinpointed to the fact that as the large commercial feed locks on cattle move their production into the plants this meant that they were using that production and I say they either the commercial feedlots or the processors to really kill our efforts in many cases many of the commercial feedlots however do represent membership in the NFO but nevertheless that production that moved out of those lots then immediately coupled with the fact that processors were killing seven and eight hundred pound steers this meant that it shortened the supply to mend ously in the future and now and therefore it was offsetting the supply that was building so you've counteracted those two and it brought about a very quick upturn in the price of seven three hundred pound feeders in stock it also brought the price up on the cows and such because the shift and the emphasis to trying to get whatever they could in the plants to process and then of course as this is developed and then when we started moving our cattle through distressed sales we move them committed ahead at a price that was advantageous to our members therefore we were able to build the price stair step at somewhat and all this together has built additional progress in the NFO collective bargaining program now let us take a look at what's happened as far as hogs is concerned as a holding action progressed it was evident the fact that we were gathering the facts that we had before the action started there's going to be a considerable heavier supply of hogs during the month February March therefore it meant whether the price was going to drop drastically even down to maybe fourteen cents or whether we were able to keep this production blocked together at the same time using it to get contracts but to maintain a price level that would be much better than it would have been and so when some of the farm publications came out for the fact that there were a million head of hogs that have not come to market as we started moving distressed hogs to marketing but the story those that had gotten up to market weight or to very heavy weights we started moving the heavier weights just as a market would absorb them thereby maintaining a price level much higher than it would have been now how did we do this we did it through our communication structure through our marketing area chief structure which is now a permanent structure that is based on a Super County bargaining structure made up of approximately 40 members in each county they keep up to date the amount of production that our members have that's getting ready for market and then moving that production together and keeping the processing plants in a position of being hungry for supply this is establishment of collective bargaining and the gains that are being made while we're in a holding action as we put together a permanent structure that all pinpoints and bases back that collective bargaining means farmers bargaining together and selling together so that when a processor needs 3,000 hogs in this plan in an area 2,000 and another plant or 5,000 scattered all over the country that we're able to make a commitment for a certain number of hogs on a certain day and through this bargaining process we're now able to move in a much different manner than we've ever been able to do before before there would be a holding action we would hold as long as possible make what gains we could make and then call the action off this time however because of the great strength of the organization the communication we're able to adjust our strategy to meet the various problems and a further collective-bargaining of course it's very evident or should be evident to almost every farmer in fact every farmer I think on this point that the only reason that farmers are receiving the present low prices is because enough of them are willing to sell at those low prices then we can put our price tag on our products just the same as a man puts the price tag on this coat any day that the farmers themselves make up their minds they're going to sell only when they sell together after bargaining has been carried out by the use of this strategy and by the use of this strength we're able to continue to improve bargaining position as far as our efforts are concerned but the improvement of that bargaining position continues to be dependent on up a better on upon a better understanding the collective bargaining does mean farmers bargaining together and as we announced at the beginning of the holding actions that was one of our objectives was to block together our production for nationwide block bargaining this we're doing in Grain through our imposition grain sales program in our grain bank and as far as dairy is concern through our dairy authorizations far as dairy is concerned I think the record is very apparent very easy to understand if farmers are only will only take a look at we initiated a dairy holding action a little over a year ago without that dairy holding action very few people would have ever recognized that there was even a problem in fact I think hardly anyone only the individual farmers themselves but individual farmers by themselves recognizing the Thursday problem does do anything about correcting that problem therefore is a result of the milk action you see many things happen you've seen an increase in price you've seen merged seen groups merge into stronger groups you've seen price supports raise to ninety percent of parity the only commodity that this has happened on although several other others commodities could have this happen the law is there but it happened in dairy because of this concerted and coordinated effort and so as we look over the record without NFO making the battle no one would even recognize as a problem as far as low farm prices is concerned and without NFO fighting who would be fighting your battles no one so for this reason it means that farmers should support our efforts and the only way they can support our efforts is to become members of the NFO but even more than that the most important thing after they become members is for them to realize that collective bargaining means farmers bargaining together and selling together and so as we continue the battle and we didn't start in this battle to just start and then stop but rather to keep building the strength and keep building the battle to achieve the goals that we must achieve and so every time that a farmer is upset because his prices are lower than they should be and because that the increased cost of the products he has to buy are continuing to rise although his products stay at the same level then he should say to himself these are problems I cannot do anything about as an individual because he can't and he should immediately upon recognition of this fact say I'm going to join the NFO and become a part of this effort now farmers have an alternative as they always have had there's no way that we can make you join the NFO we're not trying to make you join the NFO Collective Bargaining cannot be imposed upon anyone farmers have to have the desire the will and the determination to meet their own problems nobody else is going to do it for them they never have and so it's hard for farmers many times even though they've been able to make the changes in production far as methods and increased efficiency is concerned at the same time not realizing that changes have to be made in marketing so that there can not be just marketing but that there has to be a bargaining procedure that bargaining procedure has to be carried out through a structure that makes it possible for them to have coordinated efforts to work together and their production is what counts and so that's the whole heart of the NFO collective bargaining program it means bargaining together and selling together now farmers have the alternative doing nothing about it this is what they've done through the years they've gone about saying we are rugged individuals we don't need anybody's help but everyone else got organized business labor the schoolteachers the garbage workers the truckers everyone else and everyone else has made gains and so I had more and more farmers join the NFO we're making more and more gains it comes down to the real point of decision collective bargaining means farmers bargaining together and selling together and this is what the NFO is doing this is what we're not only giving farmers the opportunity to do but what we're carrying out also the alternatives that farmers have to look at are really only to drifting on as they have been which means corporation agriculture taking over a few years ago when we started talking about corporation farming in the NFO people thought we were just trying to scare someone but it was so inevitable so natural a course to follow that it had to come about unless farmers realized that they could not meet their problems by themselves as individuals why the average age 57 years of farmers it means as the farmers brought their farms together into larger units that unless sufficient prices were there to give a fair return on their investment that the youth was not going to stay in agriculture and as a youth left and with a larger and larger investment the only way that the owner of that land land their ownership of that land could be transferred would be to a capital corporate structure because that would be the only way that enough capital could be brought in to take over the capital structures that had been brought together but the thing about it that we realized and is now happening is that as these corporate structures moved in they were not interested to just in a small tract of land they were talking about a mechanized type of agriculture the only way that they could establish this the only way it is being established is to get to land together in large tracts and the only way they can get that done it's for the prices to be low enough that enough farmers either become discouraged and are willing to sell or are forced out or the fact that the youth is not there to take over the land and operate it in almost every community if you'll take a close look you'll find that there are only about eight to ten farmers under forty years of age in any Township if I were a businessman in a small town in rural America I would be just as deeply concerned as if I were a farmer because this means his potential customers are not even going to be out there in a very short time and every place at a corporation farm that has moved in then I know up with investment capital has not used a local bank or the local feed dealer the local machinery dealer they have their own credit they have put up their own feed mill affiliate feed mills and they buy their machinery from another corporation at the wholesale level price and so this means that it's not only a corporate structure that's being built but it goes even farther than that many times it's an integrated setup an integrated setup that's part of another company maybe a processing company getting enough production there that will be available to dominate the pricing structure so the battle that we're talking about is that battle to determine what type of agriculture we're going to have and that's the reason the NFO is waging this battle with all the strength that it can muster and I'm going to be very blunt and very frank many times farmers do not understand what this battle is really all about and many times they do not understand what's really happening so instead of blocking their production together or instead of holding it they listen to a commission man or a buyer who tells them today's a time to sell they keep working on them to convince them that instead of blocking their production together they should continue the sale with individuals and sometimes even farmers take up the challenge or make it a challenge to keep the NFO from working by fighting their own neighbors efforts when they should realize that the efforts their neighbors are making the NFO members it's not just for the NFO members but it's for all of agriculture and that this strength that we're building together and molding into collective bargaining does give farmers the only hope the only way they can meet their problems and anytime that the farmers decide at this point in history that they're not going to sell their products until they get their price they'll get it and so we've been able to get enough farmers that would do that to become members of NFO and hold together a bargain and sell together that we've been able to make this continuous progress progress from a time when there was no acceptance of the idea of collective bargaining until today almost everyone says it's a necessity but being a necessity is not enough it has to work that means cooperation among farmers helping each other bargaining together and selling together so the issues are very clear do you want to go ahead as an individual farmer and say I'm big enough to compete with a processor that has 30 plants in 20 States that I can do it or do you want to be proud of the fact that you can say together the farmers can put a price tag on their products there's no question in anyone's mind but what the job can be done and it is being done but how fast it continues to be done is dependent upon the farms and that dependence is upon how fast they each and every one of them decide that they are tired of going to the marketplace and saying what will you give me and then paying everyone else's price tag they have to make up their minds they are going to be business men and women and put their price tag on their product I can assure you that we in the NFO now in 41 states with a great communication structure the ability to bargain successfully with the largest companies in this nation are going to keep the fight going we're going to change strategy because that's part of collective bargaining you can't do the same thing tomorrow that you did today you're bringing about changing and bringing about change you have to be changing and so we'll learn through our efforts and by the increased strength we're going to put our price tag on our products therefore we call on all farmers that are not know members of NFO to become members immediately so we can bargain together and sell together and get enough more contract to add to the contracts we already have to put our price tag on our products today's program has featured progress of NFO with Oren Lee Staley president of the national farmers organization as special guests members of the National Farmers Organization invite you to tune in again next week at the same time for more facts on agriculture and rural America which is a gear wheel in our economy that produces the majority of our nation's new wealth the farm income pattern sets the nation's prosperity and the national farmers organization represents new thinking and a new generation of agricultural producers