Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this July 11th, 2024.
Have your host, James here, and we're joined right now by a good friend, Matt Lippert,
Wood County Agricultural Agent, Matt.
Good to have you with us.
Good to be here.
I appreciate the time, how have you been?
Pretty well.
Good.
Good to hear.
Matt, we're going to get into a couple of things today.
Bird flu in dairy cattle, the unusual weather patterns that farmers have been experiencing.
I want to touch on both of those to start with the bird flu just, and we've talked about
this a little bit on Melissa's show, The Kitchen's Open, and the morning show a little.
But to catch everybody up in case you didn't hear, in an effort to prevent the spread of
highly pathological avian influenza in dairy cattle, the Wisconsin Department of Agricultural
Trade and Consumer Protection, is requiring influence a testing prior to movement of
lactating dairy cattle to fares or exhibitions, and this was effective last month.
Matt, what did I just say?
No, I'm kidding, but I have a professional here with me and somebody who's actually in the
industry, so I'm just speaking what I'm reading.
What are the, in between the lines there, what does that mean?
Okay, so there's, I don't know what the current number is, a dozen states that have, it's
HPAI that have had cows known to be positive with HPAI, started in the spring, in the
Panhandle of Texas, and HPAI, highly pathogenic, has been around for a few years, it's very
decimating to poultry units, turkeys, layers, and chickens, and so forth.
So we didn't know how it'd be in cattle, it's mutated enough, changed enough that it's
changed that it's infecting these dairy cattle.
So what we do know now, since it started, is currently, it's still mutating, it's got
virus, there's many opportunities to change, currently, it's hard on a dairy herd, is not
as hard as it is on the poultry.
It's very sudden, some of these really large herds in Texas have a bolus inside of the
cow's room, so they can monitor what the cow does, and she shuts down just like immediately,
it's just really abrupt.
And there are deaths, but not many, mainly these cows shut down, and over three weeks
they get better, quite a few of them get back to where they were, a lot of them may be
not quite, and so some of them might be called because of that.
And since then, since the New Mexico, which is right next, the Panhandle of Texas, it's
moved into the Midwest, and so we think they initially got it from migratory birds.
And some of these others also, and so the migration is July, there's not much migration
happening right now, but already in August, they start coming back the other way.
So we may have infected migratory birds coming over the U.S. this fall.
Our biggest dairy show is World Dairy Expo, is the first week of October.
So that may play out differently, but what's interesting is here we are, the second largest
dairy state, and no diagnosed herds in Wisconsin at this point.
But there are in Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan, so all around us, South Dakota, Wyoming,
Kansas, so it's around, it's increasing.
We also know that not only can it take the jump from birds to cattle, it can go from cattle
to humans, and it can go from, in Michigan, there is an area in that state where there's
a lot of chicken and turkey operations nearby dairy operations.
And probably the workers, maybe a household, maybe a house, and one person works the dairy
farm and another person works at the poultry unit, or the same person does both, or the
same person is in a service industry that goes to both, or whatever.
So it has gone from dairy back to poultry, and there we know that it's really knocks the
birds out.
So that is why we have, even though we don't have any of it in Wisconsin, we're anticipating
we probably will at some point.
And some of these larger shows cattle come from all across the US, and so that's why they're
requiring testing.
They're only, so what the farmers find interesting about it is you don't have to, if you have
a heifer, a young cow, not milking yet, which a lot of those are what 4-H kids show in
FFA youth show at fairs, they don't have to be tested.
It's the cows.
And if you take a beef cow, so same species, they don't have to be tested, because it's
been found only in dairy cattle, even though it hasn't been found in Wisconsin.
So it's a little pre-cautious, but, and there's some logistics at a fair.
The state is interested in monitoring this, so they're subsidizing the cost, but you
still have to have a veterinarian take it, so you'll probably have some expense, and
you have some timeliness issues from the, when you take the test to, when you exhibit
the animal, you have a week, so, and they only test three days a week, so there's some
logistics as far as actually getting a test.
So it's affected some counties have said we will not exhibit any dairy cattle, just
don't want to deal with it.
Let's say so far, it's more common that counties have to figure out how to, they have to
do another step, they have to be able to check some veterinary papers when these animals
come in.
I know, not to put you in the room, I know you weren't, and you, not to put you, ask
you to think what other people were thinking, but what do you think the decision on that was,
as far as not just doing cattle in general, but it being specifically with, you know,
it seems like it would, especially from hearing you talk about it, it seems like it would
have been a better idea to just cover the bases here, and all cattle need to be tested.
Well, so far in the country, there is not a single beef cow that's been shown to have it.
So it may be that beef cattle are not dealt with every daily, is intimately as a dairy cow,
so they're, they're, they're harder to deal with, you know.
So beef cattle get vaccinated, maybe dewormed, it's a big ordeal because these are little
closer to wild animals, and so it's a, it's a big event, and that may also be why it hasn't
been detected in beef cattle, but we have not had any evidence of herds being severely
impacted by beef cattle, and it would be much harder to do.
So I'd say that's why they've said, no, it's just dairy cows, so.
Given your position at UW and you being a farmer, what is the feedback you have heard from
the community about this?
Well, I, I think farmers understand the importance of epidemics and not minimalizing the consequences.
So I think we're very fortunate right now in Wisconsin that we haven't had it.
We're very fortunate right now that even though it's impactful and farmers are going to
lose automatic, they may lose a few animals, it's not typically doesn't result in death.
So it's not as bad as it could be, but again, as I said, it's, it's a virus, it's been
mutating.
This is the first time it's shown up in cattle.
Now we've seen some in humans, it's typically been pink eye and it's been mild, but it's
something that I think we understand the need that this can evolve and change and we want
to be on top of it.
Yeah, especially what we've been through in the last five, 10 years, the pandemic, not
the epidemic.
Right, right.
Yeah, we, so yeah, when it comes to, and again, I feel like I do this two way too often,
man, when it comes to these questions that I don't know how you answer, but you always
do.
You mentioned that Wisconsin hasn't been affected where our surrounding states have.
Do you think there's any rhyme or reason to that or a little bit?
So, so the initial infection and maybe some of the later ones have nearly certainly been
caused by wild animals, birds, migrating.
But the transmission from Texas, New Mexico to Michigan is very clearly identified with cows
physically being moved from Texas and Mexico to Michigan.
Well we are in the Wisconsin kind of by quite an extent an exporter of cows.
So not that cows don't come in from other states, but I think that's been in our favor
is that we send more cows out than come in.
So that would be my theory as to why we've been so fortunate so far.
Excellent.
Thank you for that.
What are your facts or details you think would be good for the audience to know about this?
Be vigilant.
It's interesting cats on farm cats typically drink milk.
That's the farmer has some waste milk or something and they put it out for the kiddies.
And actually that is, we know it's kind of unique thing.
When a virus is in a body, it can concentrate in certain tissues.
And this virus, we don't know why, shows up in the milk.
And we think that's pretty concentrated and the cows get abnormal milk.
So if you have cows that suddenly shut down kind of just really lethargic not eating and
they suddenly aren't milking and you got several of them and their milk is thick, not normal
milk.
Maybe you should talk to your vet and maybe we'll have our first case.
But if you, another canary in the coal mine thing would be cats die, farm cats die.
Or if you start having birds around wild birds, unusual amounts dying, those are some indicators.
If something like that happens, is there someone that you contact right away?
So the agent, and so we have to be careful in extension because we aren't a regulator.
So I don't want to give too many personal insights and it turns out to be misinformation
or artificial doctrine.
So it's that cap, the Department of Ag Trade and Consumer Protection, who made the ruling
about this testing that needs to be done.
And if we get further into epidemic and they change the rules, it'll be them.
And if you have incidents, you could consult your veterinarian nearly every farmer works
routinely with a veterinarian and they will talk to that cap or you would, you could do
that directly.
Excellent.
Thank you, Matt.
Appreciate that.
Very good information.
We're speaking of a Matt Lippert Agricultural agent with UW Madison Division of Extension.
Matt, you know, you don't have to spend much time in Wisconsin or the Midwest to understand
that the weather is going to change in the time we're talking.
We're talking.
We hope it changes.
We need some change.
Right.
Right.
We've had some really unusual weather and it's been affecting our farmers in our ag industry.
But how has it been affecting?
So one measure of this is the Marshall Yoldag Research Station is a weather reporting
station since I think it's inception.
So they've got records back to 1913.
And you know, you can, you can evolve the greatest one hour event, greatest one day event.
But the period April, May, June, which is what we kind of call spring, it was the fourth
wetest since 1913.
So not a record, except for we, those of us that have been experiencing this, April wasn't
that unusual.
April was actually, last year was extremely dry.
And people were still concerned about that pattern.
So it really happened in May and June that we got all this rain.
And they noticed it a little less in right here in Rapids or Portage County on the sand.
But we have, we have a county here in Wood County between here and Marshfield that doesn't
do well when we get a lot of rain.
We have a lot of, makes it marginal farm ground.
And so that's what happened this year is we have a lot of spring planning, you majority
that should happen in May.
Because we have wetter soil around here, we're familiar with going into beginning of June.
But we have in Wood County, and it's not just here, but we probably are one of the more
severe examples.
But all across the state of Wisconsin, there's a weekly report that comes out about what
percent of the soil is extremely drowsy, drowsy, normal, wet, extremely wet.
And we have, in the entire state, we have none of the two driest categories, no soil, and
that's very unusual.
But here in Wood County, if you drive, you will see, well, I guess if you're not a farmer,
maybe you won't notice as much, but we have a lot of fields that didn't get planted.
And we'll not get planted because it's too late to make, you can't go out today and
plant corn, and it turn into a corn grain crop.
You could still plant corn and chop it up for a silage, but it won't be ideal for that
either because it just won't get to the maturity it needs to get to by the time frost shuts
it down.
Same thing with soybeans.
The other one we got is we make a lot of hay in the county here, and you don't want to
get stuck with your farm equipment.
Have you ever heard the phrase make hay when the sun shines?
Yes.
Yes, I have.
Okay.
So, hey, it has to get dry.
You have to put it out, you rely on the sun to dry it down, and then you harvest the
hay.
Well, the other unique thing about this pattern of all this rain is it's been, you know,
you could have the same amount of rain and have the week, the first week of June, not
rain, and still have the same April-May June period.
And we would have had tremendously more acres in, but it's been just incredibly consistent
down to like, I heard some say, once every 18 hours, not a day and a half, so not more
than 18.
So it's been very consistent, and so that means that even if we had less rain than this,
there would be no variability in the soil moisture.
It would just be consistently wet.
And so, yeah, we have unplanted crops, we have unmade hay, hay gets, oh, well, now you
can make it.
Well, hay gets to be mature, there's a right time to make hay for it to be most beneficial
feed for cattle.
We're past that time, it's too mature, it becomes more like straw.
So we lost a lot of hay quality, we have a lot of unplanted crops.
If you go out and see some farmers snuck some corn in and you see that the population,
a lot of the corn didn't germinate or gave up at some point.
So you have low populations, empty spots and fields, you have yellow corn that rain leeches
the soil of its nitrogen, a lot of bad effects of this excessive rain.
And it seems, it certainly disrupted a farmer's routine.
It also sounds like it could be affected consumers.
Well, yeah, I mean, so far across the U.S., we are still predicting, it's kind of a Wisconsin
Minnesota thing.
So we're still expecting a pretty good corn crap in the U.S., some areas benefit for
more rain, some areas that were drowty last year are back to normal.
The Mississippi River was that couldn't float barges in the southern Mississippi and we've
solved that problem.
Actually we have a Mississippi around the northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin is an extreme
flood stage.
So it's not in the south because the other tributaries are not contributing as much.
So far, I don't think you're going to have to worry too bad about what happens in grocery
store.
And farmers are going to rely on things like, hopefully they have crop insurance that
they're insured against a disaster like this.
But a lot of farmers are knowing that it's going to be that even with insurance, which
they should have, that just physically how are they going to feed the cows.
So I've been giving a lot of advice to people on alternative crops that are not as good
as our corn or soybeans that they could plant that will come out of the ground quickly
respond to a lot of crops that we plant in May like the cooler spring so we don't have
any more.
We have July.
So are there crops that really like hot July weather and can respond in six weeks and
make some feed to make up some of the difference in some quality.
So we've been giving information on what to do with what you've been dealt.
Is that the main kind of question you've been receiving at UW?
Well, yeah.
I would say it is, it's like actually the identity that a farmer might get for prevented
planting of corn is substantial.
So there's a lot of rules to say, well, you ever had to stroke the government to paid
me not to farm because they did that and there is a time in history when we had surplus
and the government solution was pay you not to farm.
Well, crop insurance seems a little bit like that way is they're going to pay you for not
getting your corn crop in and across the fence somebody did well.
Really nobody did very well by it.
So it's very obvious.
So it was a very difficult year, but there is a little pattern that here's an OK corn
field and right next door is an unplanted field.
So they have pretty strict rules and crop insurance that if you're going to get this
significant check for failing to get your corn planted that you don't after the deadline
go in and plant corn.
That would be one of the suggestions we'd make is it's still going to give you a lot
of tonnage of feed, even though it's not grain, grain.
But for crop insurance, the current rule is that because they're policing that you're
going to have to find a different crop to plant.
When it comes to that, piggybacking what you say there, I don't know if there's many
people that are more adaptive than farmers and people in the ag industry.
How have they been adapting to this?
So we have a heavy livestock industry in this area.
So farmers are still going to try to plant something to feed their cattle.
But if you get in this area, you get some farmers that are not dairy farmers, they're just
called row crop farmers.
They grow corn and so I mean a lot of those people, this would happen in other areas too,
just won't plant.
So I'd say there's an example of adaptive is that we need to feed livestock and so rather
than say, well, we miss the window, it's a loss because usually insurance won't be
as good as if you could grow a good crop.
But people are feeding livestock are really struggling to figure out how to keep their
cattle fed.
Matt, I can't thank you enough for the conversation and the time.
Always a good time.
I always enjoy talking with you.
I learn when I talk with you too and I know our audience does.
We appreciate that.
If people have follow up questions, if they'd like to get a hold of you in some way or another,
how can they do that?
Well, the extension office is here at the courthouse right in the ground floor.
You can mail us.
You can go to our website, which if you just Google or do your search engine and do wood
county extension, we'll show up.
You can call us.
Yeah.
You can email us all that's on our website.
Morris code.
You can.
No, no.
There's lots of ways.
There's a lot of different ways.
And then we're out in the public.
You can find us somewhere sometimes, too.
Stop by the building or that you can go to extension.wisk.edu, extension.wisk.edu.
It's another great way to get a hold of Matt or anybody, the great people that join us
on this show from extension.
Take care, Matt.
We'll talk again real soon.
It will have more midday magazine for you coming up here at 975 FM 1320AMWFHR, locally
grown radio.
