Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Thursday January 9th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailov here welcoming in the studio our good friend Matt Lippert UW
Madison extension Wood County's AG agent and educator Matt it is always good to have
with us. Thanks for being here. Thank you be with you James.
Appreciate the time. One of the start off right away Matt talking a little bit about sustainability
and how that is impacting our 2025.
Sure so we talk about sustainability quite a bit in our extension programming and we often
talk about a three-legged stool so there's different views on what sustainability is but
certainly a lot of people who are consumers of agriculture have a desire that agriculture
should be sustainable and I think that's why we see interest in things like organics perceived
to be maybe more sustainable concern about oh maybe greenhouse emissions from agriculture
not sustainable. Of course if you have life you're going to be emitting greenhouse gases
but also there's a circle there right so so agriculture is very integrally involved in
that relationship but I talked about the stool so we talk about like a farmer definitely needs
to survive in our kind of free market economy we need economic sustainability and then
it should not be at the expense of environmental sustainability and then the third one that
is challenges people is there a sense of social sustainability so I'll use a dairy industry because
I know it so well farms have gotten dairy farms have gotten significantly bigger and it's
in much of agriculture that's the case and so that means a social impact of that is if there's
bigger farms there's also fewer farms and so that means it affects rural communities
there get to be fewer farm families if a farmer can own large equipment and harvest thousands
of acres when just a generation before they were maybe not even managing 100 acres you lose families
by maybe a factor of 10 or more and so that affects rural school districts it affects rural retail
business and so and then I think another social aspect is a large dairy maybe not being harmful
environmentally but the neighbor still senses that it's affecting their quality of life
from noise or traffic or because it's a big business so there's those three aspects that I would
encourage everyone to look at and think about when they think about sustainability is that farmers
need it to be economically viable certainly for the long run in the future that needs to
definitely combine with environmental sustainability and then as I said social comment what people
feel about agriculture as well I got a chance to experience some of this I was with a group of
mainly Canadian dairy farmers in November we started out in Amsterdam but we spent the greatest
part of our trip in Germany and so we hear see a lot and we're visiting farms we were farmers so
we did some tourist things but we we visited farms and certainly the European Economic Union
has a lot of different regulations sensibilities things that they're looking for in agriculture that
are different than in North America with the Canadians and us in the US different still so that
was a very interesting aspect just a couple of follow-up questions on this so for one when it comes to
that three-legged approach certainly the ag industry is working hard on that and trying to go forward
with it are there things we as consumers we as people on the outside of this to want to support
the industry can do to help with that being informed I would imagine that's being addressed
right and so and that's not actually it can't be strictly the consumer's job you know so what are
you going to do you're going to get on the internet or you're going to go to your news media and
you're going to vote with your pocketbook when you make choices in the store but I do I spend a
fair amount of time on Facebook and these people that have thousands of followers that I I guess
are called influencers the influencers that I follow are fellow dairy farmers and it's interesting
to see some of them get right in your face challenging oh maybe some people that you describe as
an animal rights activist or someone who thinks that who doesn't really know because they're not
really on dairy farms they they still feel they know how per example dairy cattle are
cared for or maybe perceived as not cared for you know so I guess what I would ask consumers is
that you know you can't expect everyone to become an advocate for for my cause agriculture but
to just become more aware and if you're if you find something that you think that
milk has has antibiotics in it or there's an inhumane practice with poultry or or whatever it is
takes explore that a little more and find out well because the normal reaction of the dairy farmers
is a dairy farmer wants a cow to be very healthy and healthy is also mentally the cow has to be happy
so a very common one is that oh the calves are removed very quickly and so that that's not
natural you know so they do a pretty good job of explaining that that it's best for everybody
concerned so I guess that's that's all we can do is in the universities involved things like that
we have great information on animal husbandry and so forth if I could just piggyback on that
mat a little bit one I think that as somebody who grew up in a cause family with a lot of
passions and a lot of causes I get a very on my soap box about things from time to time but one of
the things I have learned as I've gotten older is I don't know everything none of us do nobody does
and and the more homework I do on something sometimes the less I feel like I know and I need to
actually talk to people in the industry and so I would I would definitely recommend that if you
have questions have things reach out to farmers reach out to ag industry members to get like straight
up answers no middleman just talking right to a source I think that is one thing and if I can add
also for one animals do not think and feel like we do and I am a gigantic animal lover I came
in the light with a latent life with animals didn't grow up with them but boy do I love dogs
we just had the main society and today and I'm still thinking about the dog that was in here
I'm trying to do my job of trying to focus on the conversation but I'm thinking of the dog
but the the the people that I know in the that truly do care about animals and and fight for
animal rights they'll be the first ones to tell you we put our feelings and thoughts on animals
way too much and for what you think an animal might be struggling for that animal that's day to day
life for them that they they're not feeling the emotions you do and stuff while they do feel and
it is important to care for our animals as you just touched on there with the milk and
exact that example I think that we oftentimes too much put on there it's no different than
guess what your dog probably doesn't like that Halloween costume that's for you that's for you
not the dog the dog didn't ask for the put that we do that too much with animals where we put
our wants and needs onto them way too often I there is a good balance there of caring about
animals while also understanding that we're putting that things on them that they don't really
feel or have and just real quick I appreciate what you said there about not people you know
caring about things just because you do but I would say that we are all impacted by the
ag industry and we're all oh we all depend on it right we all eat we definitely need to care
about this we also use other things from agriculture obviously like cotton and so forth and
and there's a lot of byproducts from animal agriculture that end up in the pharmaceuticals and
so yeah it's it's a we we cannot separate the fact that we exist on the earth
from this industry that we think is degrading the earth somehow because we all need to eat
and so we we want to do that efficiently right and efficiency might be scale right
it might be largeness but certainly efficiency is a aspect of sustainability when you were
talking about projecting human likes and desires and thinking of its January and my phone says
it's 18 degrees out now so this is not as classic a one as has some things but a lot of people get
concerned about livestock outside and certainly your dog you know I have a I have a dog I love my
dog she is a German shorthair pointer so she has very short hair and so she doesn't live she's
not a husky she's not going to be outside all winter very athletic but winter is not going to be
hours at a time outdoors but our horses are a whole steam cows that weigh 1500 pounds
their internal body temper they're like really happy on a morning like this when the sun is out
you you'll see them they'll position themselves in the lot so that they're getting the maximum
solar and they're chewing their cud they're not out there shivering wishing that someone went and
protected them they are so there's an example where you cannot project you as a human that maybe weighs
180 pounds or whatever you weigh you're more like my dog that isn't going to be an outdoor creature
versus some of these large livestock yeah it's a great example I learned a little of that from
my youngest my youngest daughter isabel her favorite animal is cows and she's taught me so
much about cows that was one of the things she talked to me about because I think like a lot of
people you wonder about that stuff it's a great one and I appreciate you mentioning that we're
speaking with Matt Lippert UW Madison Extension Wood County's Ag Agent Matt you mentioned that you
did some traveling recently you went out to Europe and that and you last time we talked you'd
mentioned that you've got a trip coming up to Italy once I got through all of my jealousy about
that I I did come across an article that I thought was really interesting and I've been hanging
on to there was a group of 20 Italian farmers that were in Wisconsin over a couple of weeks ago
on vacation visiting ag businesses the the tour guide kind of showed them some of the practices
and some of the things we do here and while they were doing this is just kind of for fun
they ended up taking away a lot of information that they felt could be very helpful for them over
there you mentioned that you did get to do a little bit of sightseeing but it sounds like that
was a big part of your going over to Europe and whether it was Germany or not or maybe even your
trip to Italy whether it's for fun or not I imagine that brain of yours doesn't turn off and
the idea of sharing information up and down the state here in Wisconsin was one of the early
things that you taught me the idea of how the soil is different up north to down south and how
farmers share this information I thought that was really interesting now we're extending that
even farther to across the pond if you will oh so we're very interconnected here in the world
I got to go back to my own farm which is a I think a pretty nice farm but it's not
an accept I mean there's not it's not like the only one of its type in the world and in the last
year we've had through the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture we had a group of people from
Indonesia visit our farm and as tourists basically and then we had we have had as a smaller group
is like people working on some technologies actually regarding methane emissions we've had
Israelis and we also had Italians so so this is a pretty common thing in agriculture that
there is a lot to be gained we in the US in general but also in agriculture travel abroad
less than perhaps like people from Australia New Zealand or Europe they they travel abroad more
and you know I'm not going to tell anyone how to spend their time and there's a lot to see in this
country and if that's your comfortable with that that's good but there is a lot to be gained
so yeah so on on my trip with to Germany it was actually largely with Canadians and so in the
dairy industry they have a quota system that they get better prices than we do for our and more
consistent prices for their milk but they have to invest in this quota it's a barrier to entering
the industry and and so you learn when you're on riding a bus for 10 days with these people you
learn how that affects them and then certainly in the EU there's which when I get to go to Italy
that will be again in the EU very much different regulatory environment more regulated but also more
government support than we get here in the US so the through the EU consumer concerns about
how much time and animal gets to go outside and do they actually get to graze is it a quality
grazing or there there's more of that in Europe than we have here but on they they actually pay
farmers to to in they incentivize them to do these practices so I don't know that we're anxious
to get more regulation can but control here in the US but it it's interesting to see how
government societies economics and a person trying to run a farm how all those things interplay
together had a friend in high school there was a exchange student from Scotland and I remember her
and I talking a lot about especially her being in the middle of Wisconsin here and just kind of
experiencing America until coming right here and she was blown away by not only how many farms she
saw and everything but also how it didn't seem like for her where she was from farmers were
considered very high on the you know community leadership board or something and how she didn't
see it as much here and the respect that was given it seems like and this was you know 20 years
ago and everything but it did seem like that there was an understanding there of something here that
we're we're trying to get across all the time and how important our ag industry is how important
it is the how it is the backbone of our country it feels like it's very common knowledge there where
here it's something that we're I don't want to say we're beating a drum and we're trying to get
through people's heads or anything I think there's a lot of people that do get that but there are
some that just don't seem to and it did seem like the empathy there was just a evident where here
where we're trying to recreate trying to create that a little bit more and and I've been near
Scotland I never been to Scotland itself but in Europe and I think this going a little bit away
because World War II is now 80 years ago right so but there was hunger in Europe after World War
II a lot of infrastructure was destroyed people were displaced and farms weren't working so at
least on the continent and maybe in Scotland obviously they they lucked out they weren't in
the front lines of World War II but there was a great appreciation of people that weren't directly
involved in agriculture that they needed farmers to eat right yeah yeah I didn't even thought of
that that's that's an amazing point yeah yeah um when we've talked a little bit about regulations
and some of the government effect of this when it comes to the other farmers out there people that
are in similar industries to you and that were there techniques were there things you could pick up
from that that were interesting to you and that you thought oh maybe I can do that on my farm or
maybe this will help my friend or another farm oh it was a very recurring theme with the trip to
Germany which I anticipated that we talked a little bit about robotics and dairy farms so we
use that term for machines that will milk your cows as a classic one and there's a couple of ways
to do that the cow and it's kind of a neat thing the cow is that her utter gets full she wants to
get milked and there you go some some people that are trying to fight the dairy industries will tell
you cows are forcibly milked well no they they want to get milked right yeah and so on a robotic
farm they will show up to the milker typically about three times a day and they're incentivized
also they get a little cow candy so they get a snack and they get milked but they have to cooperate
they have to stand there and let this robot use laser and sense where their teats are and apply
the milker so Europe is the main companies that build robotics are based in Germany Netherlands
and France and that it's it's probably what they get paid for their milk more or
shorter labor pool even though that is the lot of interest on that here in North America
the interest came on that stuff quicker in Europe and so we saw a lot of robotics well there
milking calf feeding assembling the ration for the cows and different tools that
so you know on my farm today there's a person that showed up at 5 30 in the morning and they're
going to be there until probably one and they're going to be feeding all these cattle so it's
pretty efficient because they're feeding hundreds animals but on a robotic farm it's even more
efficient because this machine does all of that and the farmer has to make sure the machine
keeps working or they may have to deliver some feed to an area for the machine to assemble and
then there's robotic you think about your rhumba that rhumba that cleans your floor well they can
do that with cow slurry and pens too so a lot of robotics as if you think about Europe kind of a
zero population growth here in North America too there is just not there's not as many people
that want to work outdoors on a day like today as there used to be and so a lot of interest in
robotics and leading us a little bit in that technology of things we got to see very interesting
and always an interesting conversation with you Matt I really do appreciate the time thank you
again for everything you shared with us I want to wish you safe travels safe trip and everything
looking forward to when you get back and I can live by carelessly through you and what it was
like to be in Italy and we want to remind you that you can find out more about our friends from
extension and all the amazing people that are working over there at extension dot whisk dot edu
that's extension dot whisk dot edu Matt thank you again for the time we'll talk again real soon thank
you James well a more midday magazine coming up for you right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WF HR we are
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