NFO-236 (AV10736): US Farm Report: Budget and Young Farmers

[music] hi everybody and welcome to us farm report I will be introducing my special guest the president of the National Farmers Organization mr. Oren Lee Staley a little bit later in our show this week as many of you regular viewers to our show are aware US farm report cameras were turned on a number of states in the northwestern part of the United States recently where our crew went to get the agricultural story through the states of California Washington Oregon and Idaho in the state of Washington we had the pleasure of visiting on the farm of Maury Fink Maury Fink is a young Washington farmer married to a lovely girl who in the interview you will notice is a city-bred girl her name is Helene they are having trouble farming staying on the farm because of economic pressures because of low prices but these young people want a farm and they're doing something about it let's watch this interview at this time how large a farm Maury do you have here we have 1200 acres of cultivated soil and thousand acres of pasture grazing land what are you raising on your cultivated land wheat and some alfalfa this is what the second-largest wheat producing county in the country isn't it yes it is second only to what county or what state do you know I believe it's Kansas glad you just said that every time you mentioned my home state like that it makes me feel real good good enough I think that these two young people are typical of the progressive NFO farmer they're young they're enthusiastic about agriculture they're doing all they can to keep the family farm going and that's about what yours is isn't it everybody pitches in and helps yes it is and you have how many children Helene two children and their ages a boy nine and a girl six where did they go to school here in Davenport how far are we from Davenport Washington seven miles seven miles are you a farm girl no I'm from Seattle this is entirely new for me I see how did you two get together Maury I met her while going to college I see you went to school where Pacific Lutheran University and what kind of a degree did you get a degree in teaching science well I think something happened along the way Oh I taught for seven years and I decided to go back farming and I might have to go back teaching again but if things don't improve they better start well I'll tell you this it's good to have some humor about it although it really isn't a very funny subject everywhere we go across the country we're running into the same problems the farmers are not getting price and I guess this is your problem here isn't it yes it is when did you join NFO Maury a year ago this month what attracted you to the National Farmers Organization well it seemed to me that it was a good way of doing business I was operating your farm or in a business operation going through contract rather than trying to take a commodity in and say what will you give me so we feel just sound more like a business arrangement uh-huh have you sold anything under contract in this area we're starting this week the cattle are being looked at they were looked at yesterday and I believe this by beginning the next week why they'll be shipped out how many head of cattle do you run here I run 50 cows presently and I got the calves from them right now you have some good-looking Charolais bulls tell us about these animals well five years I started buying Charolais stock and I real satisfied with the results and I have a bull from Missouri one of them and one from Montana right now well how does a city girl like yourself Helene fit into the farm life Oh real fine I mean it's a lot of more work than I'm used to a lot more cooking but I really would hate to go back to the city I feel privileged to be here well that's a wonderful attitude and I think we would all agree that there's no finer place in the world no finer environment in which to raise our children no definitely not you were born in Seattle and went all through school there born in Chicago but raised in Seattle you're a big city girl all the way aren't you you sure are by the way we noticed as we drove into your place some very attractive horses what what breed of horse is this there galicenos they were new to me also we bought them they're small for the children yet adults can ride them we haven't felt we made a mistake well they're very attractive thank you very attractive and and I presume a bit rare in this country at least I don't remember having seen this breed before are they I think so we've only encountered just a very few in the Spokane County well Maury let's talk a little bit about your place here and this area in general now the wheat production here is predominantly dryland but there is some irrigation in the flatland isn't there it's predominantly dryland Here I am one of the few farmers that are irrigating uh-huh I think that you can probably see in the background that we have terrain here that's rolling and this of course necessitates the use of certain kinds of tractors for example well most of them are crawlers yet and there are a few wheel traction but I the wheel tractor man stand right back here this area here or there's some awfully steep hills and also very wet conditions that still predominantly track layer Titan now as we look off toward the horizon a lot of this uncultivated land is pretty heavily covered with Mesquite is this land difficult clear it's quite an expense to clear it we cleared some but I think it's most of it that is not cleared now the best adapted to native grass for pasture you know is the grass good real good and we were quite lucky here to have fairly good pasture grass we have taken a look at an innovation of yours but I would like for you to describe to our viewers what do you call this haystack arrangement I hate to call out after my name the stacker after I've now that it's completed I've noticed that it isn't new that other people have tried the same thing and it's working out real good to chop your hay and farm into the stack that'll weather real good in the winter and make it a little easier for less hand labor and feeding in the winter time Maury yeah your wheat harvest occurred what about 30 days ago yes now what do you do with this land at this time of year well right after harvest I rotary chop it chop the stubble because it's most of it's irrigated then right now I'm shanking it other words cultivating it at 8 10 inches to hold the moisture and kill weeds and break up the stubble some more well next growing season what will grow on this land that has been in wheat this will be wheat again you're going to plant wheat again on the same land do you do much crop rotation through here not right here only in down south done by Odessa where it's more there's more irrigation huh you have a fine hired gentleman Helene John what is his last name John Weiland and John is 77 years old ladies and gentlemen and is agile and youthful to a point where you would guess him at 50 he's retired but has decided to come back to work for you all how long has he been here oh he's been here as long as we have yeah five years I suppose these all was like one of the family he really is he's good to the kids and he's a good example for us he always has a smile and sometimes that's kind of hard to come by isn't it you need him, you need him, most of the time, i should say so leaving the Fink farm our crew had the pleasure of talking to another young farmer in the Davenport Washington area Loren Rux Loren there's quite a contrast in colors from this high vantage point on your farm here on the one hand the color is predominantly gold and on the other green what causes that well the gold is from stubble from the wheat that we harvested this year and the green is what we've planted that'll be next year's crop it's winter wheat how many acres do you farm here nine hundred and eighty seven and what do you do do you rotate your crops here yeah we plant theoretically half in wheat and then half we let rest called summer fall and this is what results this contrast in color we've already mentioned yeah this is a high point is this the highest point on your property yes it is and the view from here is truly outstanding it's just beautiful this is Eastern Washington Lincoln County the ranchers of Lincoln County Washington are second in the nation and wheat production and this of course is your main crop let's talk a little bit about you Lauren now you were raised right here on this farm were you not that's right you went to high school at Davenport nearby and where did you go to college well I ended up in San Francisco at the shield Engineering College and what did you major in there what kind of a degree did you that's a mechanical engineering and from there what did you do well I went to work right after I got out of college for a year and then I got drafted how much time did you spend in the military about two years did you spend some of it around the Bay Area yeah the whole time you know one of your avocations I guess you would call it as a music you're a trumpet player and you played and in the military did you not yeah I did and what do you what do you what do you prefer musically do you prefer the more legitimate music or or the jazz scene yeah the jazz I think that was a big kick when I was there and if you weren't going to farm anymore perhaps you might pursue that I'd try yeah well where did you where did you work after you came out of the service I worked at in Redwood City California at national seal they manufacture oil seals and what did you do there what was your work I was a dye designer I was a- called me a manufacturing engineer uh-huh did you enjoy it I enjoyed the work but I didn't enjoy the life and is that what brought you back to ranching that's what brought me and my wife both yeah what's the old saying you can take the boy out of the farm but not the farm out of the boy yeah I guess this is your case isn't it well when did you return to the home place here about two years ago almost exactly now of course you farm in partnerships with your father is he active well he's semi-retired yeah I can call him here is a case ladies and gentlemen we're the farm economy forces this young man to seek employment other places in order to stay on the farm which I find to be rather interesting and at the same time somewhat appalling really Loren what's the farm economy through this part of Eastern Washington well it varies in my opinion that if you have your land paid for and your equipment then you can do okay still you can still make living but no and what like in my case and in a lot of the case of a lot of the younger farmers here they're still buying land or buying equipment and it's almost impossible to make it I a year ago this spring I bought a tractor brand-new and cost over $18,000 now my income well it takes half of my income to make payments on this tractor and if a person was to buy everything new like well to farm a place like this well it's impossible with the income you get well the thing that you're having to do is take jobs outside of farming in order to stay in farming yeah that's right I have to take outside work to pay for this tractor I bought and I understand too that your wife works yeah she's a nurse well what do you think is the answer to all of this well I think the answer is farmers have to quit selling their stuff like farmers what a monster you there I don't think there's a farm around here that's a good business man he couldn't be and be getting what he's doing or what he's getting well now you belong to NFO how long almost a year now about ten months was your father a member of NFO before that no but then you and your father are rather new in the National Farmers Organization yeah of course NFO is rather new to this part of eastern Washington isn't it that's right Loren is NFO growing through this part of Eastern Washington yes it is you feel optimistic about your membership yeah definitely yeah any problems the only problem is people don't understand the NFO as soon as they find out what it's all about and that it's a straightforward grassroots kind of organization they'll join could you give me sort of a composite picture of the typical NFO member in this part of the country yeah I think usually he's a little better educated and been away from the farm a little bit I found this and well I think that that has a lot to do with it whether or not they've lived somewhere else what about age well actually well at first of course the younger people just the net you don't have any problem getting younger members to join but the older fellows it takes them a while because they don't want to change what's all we've always been well would you agree with what we continue to say and that is that the progressive farmer belongs to NFO oh definitely yeah let me ask you about the way you farm this rolling terrain do you you use crawlers oh we used to but this new tractor I bought's a wheel tractor and you you you're able to do it with only I swear by it does it get a little spooky once in a while no it's a lot more stable than a crawler was is it really oh yeah do you feel that it's more efficient yeah oh yeah and and probably faster isn't it yeah quite a bit faster do your neighbors agree with you well the ones that have been on it but you know it's it's kind of a funny thing that it's something like this everybody will tell you a wheel tractor is no good but they won't come out try to prove it to you but you prove that it does okay yeah that's okay for me you know I would imagine that in the wintertime and you do get snow up here and lots of it this must be a sight yeah it's beautiful it really is and I understand that you do a lot of snowmobiling yeah in these hills and that has to be an experience for the uninitiated yeah it is you get hooked on it it's like skiing I guess I've never skied but they say that it's you just something you get hooked on it's a very nice pleasure to come up here and visit with you Loren and thank you for having us you've been most hospitable well thank you for coming I am glad for the opportunity to help now ladies and gentlemen we welcome to our show mr. Oren Lee Staley the president of NFO only you've watched these young people talking about their problems are the problems of the young farmers today similar to the problems for example that you faced when you started farming no they're different bill first the matter of amount of investment you have to take am i starting farming into two different categories one when I started as a boy about 12 or 13 years old when we were farming with horses you could borrow 500 dollars from the bank and put in the crop and even had your own seed corn and then after World War two when I came back as a naval veteran and after having gone to college it was a completely different situation tractors of course were then predominantly in use there were still some horses around but then the investment in agriculture started up but the most important thing is the fixed expenses not only the total investment but the fixed expenses are so much higher today and it's not a situation where you can cut back but it's a situation where you have to keep spending more and more money to be a more efficient producer in a very technical and very complicated business of agriculture now that's farming as you have said only production costs are up and the investment is up it costs money to be more efficient in order to survive today but let's talk about price when you were a beginning farmer a young farmer what kind of prices were you getting for some of your commodities compared to the prices that the Finks and the Rux's are getting out in Washington State well bail in 1947 in 1949 1950 week $2 and a half a bushel hogs 25 cents a pound up to 30 cents a pound fat cattle from 35 to 38 cents a pound corn an hour and 16 hour and 70 cents a bushel and I remember one time over two dollars a bushel this this course compares with an hour 2/4 wheat now and until the NFO became really effective for hogs in the neighborhood of 15 to 18 cents and fat cattle in 26 to 28 center bracket and corn around the dollar a bushel now all the only way farmers have been able to survive in this type of an economic climate is simply just tighten their belts lower their standard of living which means that the youth in most cases are not going to do it and we can't blame them they're going to go to the field of opportunity where people have organized or have build economic strength to get a fair profit or a fair wage mm-hmm and this is a situation that is developed or 'only once again we're down to the basic fact that in farming price indeed is the name of the game it's the name of the game in any business I think that if we wanted to make a parallel and a comparison to what the situation is an agriculture compared to what it was 20 years ago now we very well could use a comparison of what happened to the family privately owned independent grocery store those grocery stores at that point right after World War 2 decided they could make it on their own and they did not organize to buy together on a volume basis so the large chain store started developing and they would lower their price in a given area until this independent grocery was run out of business and then the price went up to the consumer now what happened was it was too late when the independent privately owned grocery store started buying together as a group into what they called the large volume buying centered groups that were developed so they could buy on a volume basis so consequently if now the Justice Department should decide that there was monopoly collusion where four or five large chain stores practically operate in a manner where they retail almost ninety percent of the gross the food that the consumers eat and they said those groceries chains are monopolistic and the court said yes that's right what would happen the independent privately-owned grocery is already gone now they could have continued to operate if they had have organized quick enough now this is the situation in agriculture the the privately owned the family type farm the independent farm cannot survive today if they think that they can compete as individuals against these giant buying powers at the retail level were four or five large chain stores retail eighty ninety percent of the food in this country neither can they compete with the big volume buyers of processors that buy in all areas the United States they cannot compete as individuals so what it means is that unless they organize now and group their production together and bargain for the sale of that production then they will be replaced by a corporate structure because their price level will be so low as independent privately owned family type farms that they could not compete and the only way they can compete in today's economy is through the NFO only in your opinion what is the future for the Finks and the Rux's the young farmers of America well the future is only what they make it they cannot do it as individuals but together through the NFO they can what does NFO doing about it well the first thing we're doing and that is the most essential thing is that we're already raising farm prices how are we doing it I think everybody would want to know when you make that statement I think the facts are in in the year of 1969 we had many unexpected price increases and NFO was the only new factor involved and why we why were do I say we were a new factor we've been organizing for 10 years on our collective bargaining program but for the first time we were in all 48 states of the continental United States this meant we either had the bargaining capability or were actually bargaining with processors and all all agricultural producing areas so this is the first time that we had a total impact the second thing is that in the second point that is we have learned that low price areas destroy high price areas high price areas do not raise low price areas and therefore since we were in all areas we were able to move production and adjust the movement of production in the new marketing patterns that prevented the low price areas from developing or if they did develop they were a short duration thirdly this is the key point that we were able to get contracts with many of the large companies in this country these were supply contracts with pricing formulas and these contracts with pricing formulas meant that our members because of the volume involved in these contracts were able to increase their prices now this comes to the fourth point which farmers have to understand and they have to realize which is a key every time that our members move production under contract at a little higher price then every buyer every company that's not getting that production there's one thing that's what I do and that is they try to beat the price the NFO members are receiving now this is where the members have to understand that when you bargain out a contract at a little higher price everyone tries to beat that price so you stair-step the price and instead of stepping the price there's only one thing that the companies can do to destroy our efforts and that is to try to buy out that block of production that has been brought together with an extra penny a bush or an extra two bits a hundredweight but if the block stays together and that's what the NFL members have been doing then they can see that they can stair-step the price now they cannot be satisfied with the prices that they have they always have to keep looking forward to improving those until they get a fair relationship and price with every other thing that we have to buy and every other segment of this economy and then you keep the youth on the farm because then it offers them an equal opportunity and the next point that is so important that what we've been doing is that collective bargaining means farmers blocking their production together now what happens if the farmers block their production together so that the buyers can not buy from farmers as individuals then they have to come to the block then instead of going to the marketplace as individuals and saying what will you give me the farmers at this point say you contact the representatives we have elected in our area and they will make the sale for us they will bargain with you and the representatives of the NFO members can at this point instead of saying what will you give me they can say this is our price the same manner and procedure that used and I bought this coat bill they didn't let me go in and no they didn't to me and I go in and they didn't say to me what will you give me they said this is a price tag and I either paid the price or I didn't get the coat and that's what we're talking about and with that with that there's only two things they have to do and I don't see how any young farmer being a businessman business lady that they have to be can not take the first essential step in their business join the NFO but just joining is not enough block their production together so that not a hit a livestock a bush or grain or a pound of milk or any other commodity goes to market until it goes through the NFO collective bargaining program and then they will have a future and that future can be built with the youth coming into the NFO that still remains in agriculture their leadership their production and then we can compete as business people in an organized business economy Oren Lee thank you very much for being my guest again today I appreciate the opportunity Bill our guest on US farm report has been the president of NFO mr. Oren Lee Staley US farm report is seen on this station each week at this time until we meet again so long everybody [music]