NFO-229 (AV10729) Home and Farm Report

hi everybody and welcome to us farm report a portion of today's program is originating from the beautiful state of Oregon in fact one of the scenic beauties of this northwestern state is in the background Mount Hood rising to excess of 11,000 feet snow covered and cloud shrouded but nevertheless a most beautiful sight we are near the town of Prineville in Cook County Oregon where we're looking into the agricultural situation by visiting with two fine NFO members in that area I'm talking about George and Doug burnback whose ranch is located some six miles from Prineville [music] hi everybody and welcome to us farm report seen on this station each week at this time I am delighted today to welcome to u.s. farm report to members of the board of directors of the National farmers organization on my right is mr. Glenn Utley a fourth branch Indiana and on my left is Willis Row of Edgewood Iowa Glenn Willis very nice to have you with us today real nice to be here too bill you know I'm afraid to mention the fact that Glenn is the oldest member of the board of directors that's not quite right as if the Willis no I don't think it is maybe we should say Glenn but in terms of longevity and point of service that you have served longer than any of the other board members how long have you served how about you [unclear] I've been on the board since 19 and 56. 1956. have you been a member I came on the board of directors in the December of 1964 1964 im serving my fourth time well you're sort of a junior compared to this fellow over here aren't you and I recognize that too Glenn through the years you've seen a great number of transitional changes in the organization tell us about it well bill I think to start with just talk about the first convention that I ever attended at St. Joe Missouri it was about 250 to 300 delegates there and we thought that that time we had pretty big conventions but as we built on and scattered into more states organizing and we've built the organization today across the 48 states which is phenomenal as far as I'm concerned and I'm sure proud to have a part of from that attendance of 250 to 300 delegates in the convention in 19 what 56 the organization has grown to ooh an attendance of what 12,000 that last year's convention is right well I think that indicates and beat the growth that's right well now in the practices of NFO and its philosophical structure Glenn what changes have you seen take place well when we started them to collect the of bargaining bill in in nineteen and fifty eight which was altogether a different story than horse laws when we started in the 56 we practically started the organization over and of course as we built on got into newer states we had to pick up more help as we got into those states to carry them on and this is how we built our organization a lot of it was with volunteer help and there's no end to the praise that you can give those people out there that worked for nothing to do this job for agriculture I honestly felt wrong to get bigger then it come to commodity departments the first department that we ever set up in a commodity was me mr. Pfingsten headed that up at that time and he was going around talking to processors and then as we got bigger we added the grain department we've added the dairy department we've added a specialty department we've added the feeder calf division and this was all took people to staff not only the boys to head the departments but the staff around them and I'm proud of these departments I've seen a lot of these boys start at the bottom of this organization in organizing and work their way up through to where they're at at this time and have built a good staff around them and they're doing a wonderful job I'm proud of it well now Willis you're an Iowan and this is the birthplace of NFO hey so you've been close to national headquarters and I would presume that you will corroborate what Glen has just said about the development of leadership here at the national level definitely well this is one of the great sources of pride of the entire NFO organization we are so proud that we've been able to attract the good young vigorous leadership that it takes and thank that we're headed for the best group of leadership that the American agriculture has ever seen we feel we're close to the goal now though we keep striving to improve yeah we need so many of these young fellows have come back to agriculture I think you know that they have grown up on the farms they've become educated they went out into other industry but now NFO is giving them an opportunity to come back to what they love best and that's agriculture right it's sort of stemming the tide that prevail for a while of these young people on the farms leaving the farms and now we're getting them back into agriculture which i think is highly important 23 highly important well Glenn you really pioneered collective bargaining in your home state of Indiana did you not this is right well how did it go back in those days well I'll tell you those first meetings that were held were really something the people come into those meetings and I'd say probably half of them didn't think collective bargaining would work your a business people down the street were against us yeah and they were kind of rough you had a pretty hard time I'll tell you when you're owning some of them but this is all behind this now be always we have meetings now these business people are beginning to realize what it means to have a price agriculture hook means to them and farmers are realizing use NFO in all of the counties of Indiana we like about three counties yet bail and they don't have very much production I know I'm gonna have to send you home and put you to work yep yep this is right, this is what theyre gonna tell me upstate well since 1959 Willis I'm sure you've seen a tremendous amount of progress for NFO in your state of Iowa tell us about it it's almost hard to believe bill what we've seen in the state of Iowa handful of members in many of the counties in Iowa having all of the counties chartered a substantial membership in all counties now we have 35 collection points just to market the homes equal to our marketing programs five plants that we deliver directly to with hogs and then fire packing plants that we deliver directly to with our beef how many counties are there in Iowa there are 99 and you have 99 we have many nine charters and a part of our program what what do you feel philosophically NFO means to the average American farmer as he NFO is offering the family farmers support that there is a way that they can economically compete with the well-organized buyers of farm products if there is a way these things can be done and farmers are realizing that no matter what the problem is there is an answer that you must work at it you must have a program and then work to the goal is there any other organization farm organization you know of that is dedicated as NFO is to getting the farmer a price for his product no and there certainly doesn't seem to be any unknown any of the horizon no matter which way you love the NFO seems to stand alone for collective bargaining and fair prices for farmers mm-hmm then would you agree that the prosperity of the farmer and the prosperity of the small town or rural businessman are hand in glove beginning to be understood out there to bill my back a few years ago I'd say in a lot of cases as late as a year ago there was a lot of the business people didn't realize the importance of Agriculture to them on Main Street you mentioned maybe a corporate farm to him or something it didn't didn't stick but today they're beginning to realize that that dollar in agriculture returns seven you know yes and their case registers not ringing quite as good as it has been past and they're beginning to understand you just said corporate farms let's talk about that a minute this is something that's very much with us these days the large corporate structures moving into the rural areas buying farmland and oftentimes if not most of the time buying it that it's loan value which is what normally half the the actual value of the land something like that I think to really explain bail the corporate farm means and means to a community I'm gonna use an example back home pretty close to where I live there is a corporate farm and I know this place know the operation of it and you know our business people in that county seat town which is a small town about eight 10,000 seemed to think it was a real good place because they'll hold their meetings out there once in a while and I have headlines in the paper and looking at the cattle wonderful place it is well there's some time back I spoke to that group of business people on the importance of Agriculture and the family farm so I knew the most of them and I just told them I said you seem to think quite a bit for this corporate farm out here and you don't seem to be too interested in the family farm no I said I just pointed them out I know I'm I said to the gasoline man sitting there i said how much the gasoline they use on that farm out there do they buy from you he shook his head not I said no they have their own refining the fertilized man he had to shake his head no I said no they have their own fertilizer company so the machinery dealer that was sitting there I said how much of that machinery out there do they buy from you nah they get it directly from the company so I said at this point I said I never owned a business in town I don't know much about it but I said I believe one without any customers wouldn't be good and you sit here and admitted to me that they don't buy anything from me and I think this is the best explanation I don't have a corporate farm and what it does to these small communities these small towns are going to disappear well us what about Iowa is the corporate farm being felled in Iowa is a developing this kind of trend we have some spots where its developing bill it's not anything that's out in the open so far that that everybody is completely aware of it but certainly the seeds are there the nucleus is there and they are developing we have to feel the impact of them because of their methods of operation bypassing the local businessman to get their supplies bypassing the local market the seller supplies all of things these things have a direct effect and everyone in the community and in the state US farm report the gentleman recently made a field trip through the states of Texas California Oregon Washington and Idaho our purpose was to film and report the agricultural scene in those areas we happen to be in an area around a small community called Prineville Oregon where we visited on the farm of two fine NFO members a father-son operation George and Doug Fernback among other things that we discussed about agriculture we did talk that day about this problem that we've been talking about the corporate farm and what it has done to their particular area let's listen and watch that interview at this time Doug as I understand that your farming operation here near Prineville is a father-son partnership right right right anymore Fernbackers in this family no no that would just the two of it he's a he's alright any George for an only son there they're supposed to be a little troublesome and I think he's doing okay I'm glad he's here I'll tell you the truth I bet you are yeah how many acres do you farm here we farm roughly a thousand with our what we own and what we rent and what is your production on the thousand acres you mean for crop ah yes well we produce about roughly 1800 ton of potatoes and we run about all roughly 1500 head of cattle and then the rest of it goes into feed for these cows let's get back to your potato production here you're highly mechanized I suppose to try to achieve some efficiency in this potato crop correct and what is this done for you price-wise in this area well the price has gone down considerably when we moved to this area in '49 my dad received $3 a sack for potatoes and at that time we had much more expensive operation because it was all you know hand labor uh-huh and now 20 years later the price today is two dollars and ten cents a hundredweight and we have cut our cost for an harvesting down some but our cost for fertilizer and our land values and everything have gone up so the price is way out of line with what we've actually saved by knowing mechanization well fellas wherever we go across the country gleaning the agricultural story for us farm report the story remains pretty much the same George I'm sure you've been through it for years efficiency is going up production costs are going up but what's happening to the prices prices going down there you are there you are yeah we just got a tax statement yesterday in for our operation here it went up over 700 dollars from last year well what about the fellows in this area in the potato business have you have you plowed some under oh yes yes we plowed 4% of our our crop under this year what are you gonna do about price George do you have any idea about what to do about it yes just as soon as the the good members in this area get their potatoes on the storage we're going to go to fighting and we're going to get this price up or they're not going to get him this is one of the one of the really great advantages of organizing of getting together working together and blocking together isn't it under an arrow just like I talked to a man in Jefferson County last night and he talked to the people in Falmouth and the communication in this thing is the most wonderful thing I've ever got into before the buyers they used to tell us one thing we had to believe it now all we got to do is pick up a telephone we know what's going on back east middle west and any place you want to know it's a greatest group I've ever got into I think the communication probably is the greatest factor in solving so many of these problems it used to be that you guys had to believe just about anything that anybody wanted to tell you and if you really had no authoritative source for information but now indeed you do have right oh this is wonderful you bet we can get the answers in a matter of minutes mm-hmm you bet let's talk about your cattle operation here how many cattle do you run bud well we start out buying in the fall and depending on how good a summer we had for feed we normally buy between 1500 and 2500 mm and we do some custom feeding and then we start as they get up to oh say 750 pounds we start putting them in the feedlot and then those that we don't put in the feedlot in the winter we go to pasture with and what kind of pasture is that is it grasp on irrigated pasture yeah it's a mix of legume and grass alone and then in the summer as once again we go through about all once every 30 to 60 days and we cut out the big ones and put them on a finishing feet also hmm now what's your cattle market it's it was real good and now it's slipping very fast we we have a problem out here that we don't have enough of the feeders NFO yet and so consequently in this area a lot of us are backing up and selling feeders instead of selling finished animals and dad and I are seriously considering doing this with what we have left this year well now with with your fat cattle can't you block them elsewhere in the country and get a price under NFO this is we're trying to work out a deal now we have a little problem with transportation of course doing this and but we've got one packer over in the Willamette Valley that's working with us hundred-percent and he takes our n temple beef and he's paying us more than market but he can only do so much when the big boys keep undercutting it mm-hmm and well dislike dad and I sold a load of heifers yesterday weighing about 900 pounds all choice for 25 50 and this is not a break-even deal George you made some comments to me a little while ago that I found to be very interesting about the rural businessman in the small community now for example in Prineville which i guess is your community our mailing address the support that you feel is coming from the businessman who is realizing that the strength of your economy out on the farm is indeed the strength of his economy in the town this is right know if if they let corporations take over here our little town of Prineville will be a ghost town because we spend our money here Prineville is a going community I think a real going what's the population they're about seventy seventy two hundred I believe yeah it looks prosperous it has a good look about it right there's a lot of the lumber industry in in the Prineville area too isn't there yes lumber what is it it isn't I think agriculture still leads in finds them yeah I don't know the percentage but we have already explained to our audience that this is a sportsman's paradise this guy he's made I suppose you guys do find a little time to pursue that hobby yeah we we get to do our share of deer hunting bird hunting right now you're raising grain barley and wheat right you've had no market on that either terrible terrible yeah which are you raising how many acres of your land is in grain are you storing about a third? about 350 acres are you storing george we're storing then feed to our fat cattle no price today it's about 40 bucks a ton of way blue our cause well now although NFO in this area numerically isn't exactly as strong as we would like right it's coming isn't it coming fast yes and you've been doing a lot of hard work as I understand it we tried half of the organization is the influence of NFO felt to a point where you're able to as an individual make some some contracts or gentlemen's agreements with people - yes to your advantage would you explain that well yes it's increased well like on cattle we're getting about a half a cent more than the other are and potatoes they're willing to talk to us for a little better price grain hasn't been yet but we feel that it's coming mm-hmm it's gonna take time tell him about last year when we got the $3 and they didn't believe us and taking a 1.85$ 25 miles from us yeah what about that well yeah that the boys here said they wasn't gonna potatoes go less than $3 100 weight to the grower and the boys 20 25 miles away from us they laughed at it that it can't be done well these boys here are good strong NFOers and they just set on them there wasn't a spud left the Prineville Valley under $3 100 net to the grower well an fo is being felt here about advantageously as as I see it although there are no existing contracts at this time you're you're looking for the right and they're going to happen aren't they you bet upon our arrival here we looked up to see Doug and his dad gorge on horses coming up to greet us and they were accompanied by what looked like a herd of dogs now that isn't so strange to have dogs on a ranch but I am intrigued by the fact that you have two St. Bernards and another dog that is a really rare breed as far as I'm concerned I've never seen this breed of dog before how come St. Bernard Doug I've always been in love with him since I was a little tiny kid and I built a trailer for a fella that raises them and he gave me one and then he gave dad one and then we started raising and I understand it's not a bad crop a lot better thing than any other thing we can raise that I don't know I don't know whether we can do anything about raising prices on St. Bernard's through NFO but I guess we could give her a try couldn't we george you bet we'll give her joy now this other dog that I was talking about what breed of dog is this he's a Norwegian elk calendar and they came from Norway they were used both as a work animal and also to hunt game mm-hmm is he pretty tough animal he he's a fairly small dog for a sled dog right they're a muscular animal dad's border collie thinks he's an awful tough animal yeah well Doug and George it's been a real pleasure talking with you all and I want to wish you well lots of good luck and certainly we're hoping that NFO grows as we're anticipating it will grow through this part of Oregon thanks say one more thing this is one thing that I have learned and met the nicest people who NFO people that all over the world the United States I should say and well they're people you like to be with we have I think concluded on this particular field trip during which time we have covered the states of Texas California Oregon Washington Idaho Colorado that number one progressive farmers the long than half of and number two and even perhaps more importantly that NFO farmers are the greatest people in the world just from the standpoint of being nice folks being hospitable cooperative and helpful and you to people certainly fall into that category and we thank you and it's been a pleasure having you on u.s. farm report now there gentlemen are two fine people bargaining collectively the same as I am here absolutely right and they were just delightful and most hospitable to us they had us in for lunch and we should have had a missus bearing back on because she is a right good cook but I don't think she wanted to face the candied well now both of you are farmers right where's your farm Willis my fireman said Edgewood Iowa about six miles north of the little town of hmm how big a place do you have 400 acres and what do you grow there we grow corn we grow hay we grow past year we grow Black Angus cattle yeah that's the sounds all right it's about lunchtime for me and I wouldn't mind having one of those of good marbled Angus steaks about it's a bet so they are very great how about you Glen well I farm about 400 acres pork back Indiana then down in the southwest corner of Indiana mostly grain at this time I used to produce quite a bit of livestock but I go on the road [unclear] so I took the livestock out want to thank both of you for being my guest today on the US farm report this has been most interesting and I've really enjoyed having thank you Willis hope you've come back again and be on our show at a later date thank you our guests have been mr. Glenn Utley on my right from Fort Branch Indiana and mr. Willis Row on my left of the state of Iowa is placed near Edgewood these gentlemen are members of the board of directors of the National Farmers Organization u.s. farm report is seen on this station each week at this same time until we meet again so long everybody [music]