Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Thursday, October 17th, 2024.
Have your host, James here with you and today we are joined by UW-Madison Extension
Wood Counties, Matt Lipper, Agricultural Educator, Matt, we've been doing this for years
and it's always good to talk with you, always learn from talking with you, appreciate the
time.
Thanks for being here.
Always a pleasure.
Matt, one of the things that I wanted to dive into among a number of topics with you
today is how farmers and how our ag industry prepares this time of year for the coming
colder months.
It's always interesting to me and I know we've touched on this topic before but there's
always so many layers to it that I, as a city boy, as I've told you before, it's always
fascinating to me.
I think our listeners enjoy some of this too, if anything, certainly gives them a little
bit more of understanding of what it is to be on the farm and be at this time of year.
Well, I think even those who aren't directly associated with agriculture probably imagine
the busy season of hope in the spring when you plant and hope the crop develops and
then now we're in that season of harvest.
So, I work a lot with dairy farmers and certainly they have more of not the crop farmers aren't
busy every day but there's more daily responsibility with cattle and when you're saying about getting
ready for the winter, it's been pretty mild.
I don't think there's been a huge amount of battening down the hatches yet at this point
but we've been busy on most of our livestock farms that corn silage is the main forage that
they do and it's a once a year harvest, it's not like our hay and halage that we try
some time maybe around Memorial Day we start and then we do four cuttings, five cuttings,
whatever, sometimes just one or two.
Corn silage is a big deal, a lot of resources and we're pretty much through that now but
it's very delayed.
If you remember the spring we just rained every day and the crops didn't get planted and
and so we have a great loss in the amount of corn I say silage, right so the main use of corn
even here in Wisconsin with all of our cattle is corn that gets run through a combine and is corn
for grain but we do grow oh I did a comparison once it's about the area of Marathon County in the
state, so 900,000 acres to a million acres a year that gets chopped made for corn silage so
it's a big deal, it's a big area and that crop was much later than normal, still some of it
happening you got to wait for the plant to get mature enough to dry down enough so that it's not
too wet and producers can do some things like grow shorter maturity corn at a compensate
for late planting but the frost we now had a pretty a couple relevant frost just two days ago
was a pretty hard frost, so that starts to dry down the plant as well but we're still in the
process of harvesting corn silage most the way through that, we're pretty well through soybeans
and the corn that is going to be grown for grain as we're still waiting for that to dry down some more.
Now the fall has been very helpful, I mean years ago and we talk about climate change
the September 20th was the date where half the years would freeze significantly before and half
the days after, so now it depends on which list you look at how many years ago back but
so we just had our really hard frost this last week, so that's about three weeks normal
later than what used to be considered normal and not only is it later but we had a really nice
warm fall and so the crop did develop fortunately more because it needed every day.
So what about when it comes to cover crops and some of that matters as some of what's
happening right now are going to be happening? Yeah so we're on the northern edge of we have a lot
fewer choices of cover crops to get planted this time a year that will survive the winter
than if you go even 200 miles south get to like the Illinois border or wherever they have more choices
but this late harvest on on everything also pushes us later for establishing cover crops
but like on our farm the grain drills been going pretty steady they're putting in winter cereals,
so at this point they're switching over to rye they were doing a plant called triticali or triticale
which is a hybrid between winter wheat and rye and earlier there was some winter wheat going in but
rye is very hardy and we plant those others because we think they'll make more abundant actually
will harvest them right in the spring where this date you might be harvesting the rye next year
if you need it but it's really is more about just the protecting soil recycling nutrients and
keeping life in soil so it's more strictly cover crop purpose than some of the other ones and we
can grow rye we can plant rye all through December through November into December people plant rye.
When it comes to the equipment this time of year is this is this time of year to kind of
be able to clean up things that you don't get a chance to into busier times of year or
just going over maybe upgrading equipment. So I was doing that little jab against crop farmers that
you know they don't have to work every day like the dairy farmers do so certainly a lot of those
people have shops and they have significant investment in equipment and they do a lot of the
maintenance on that themselves and so that's what keeps them busy in the off season so yeah they're
winterizing they're putting things back in sheds because you don't want to take the whole
winter off in next spring when it's time to go your equipment's not working and you know when we
had like the pandemic and we had supply chain issues you want to know what parts you need to replace
because they might not show up so yeah there's a lot of people working on getting everything in order
and shed and it's a marvel sometimes if you go on some of these farm sheds how densely the equipment
is packed in there and it's very unfortunate thing if the door is in the front here and what you
want is there's five other implements between it so there's a lot of thinking you should use
a computer optimizing program to figure out how to how to store all those things away.
It's just an interesting conversation I mean I always appreciate this. Now you mentioned a
weather a little bit there Matt and certainly every year it feels like we're we're always going
to be talking about the weather and how it affects our crops. How has this season's weather affected
what's coming? Yeah so I was already kind of complaining you know I've been talking with farmers
and in agriculture for over 40 years now and it seems like not every year but it seems like every
other year it's like this thing that's never happened before yeah right yeah it's like well that
that can't hardly be true but this year was a year for the records I think now we were significantly
dry in the second half of August up until today which on our heavier soils to the north and west
of here has been really a blessing. I mean now people would take a little moisture but we were
just so wet and so consistently wet and that resulted in if I talked to you about it first crop
should have gotten made around the first of June if not before and some of it got made after
the 4th of July so just couldn't physically carry equipment out in those muddy fields and so that
crop just gets old and mature and woody and less nutrient dense for for the animals and then you
need to cut the crop for it to grow again to get optimum yields and well you you get a big poor
quality crop but you've basically given up one entire cutting so that was a big problem
and then we had I think we talked a little bit about farmers and crop insurance and
they have a part of their insurance is called prevented planting if they didn't get their crop
planted by a certain date when is considered kind of the last day for soybeans or corn that they
get an indemnity they get a payment for a prevented planting and so definitely this with all the
livestock we have in this part of the state normally we should be producing most of our own grain
and this year there will be grain coming in because you were scanning the news and what to talk
to be about but the crop here in the US in total is expected to be record near record both for soybeans
we know there's a little more yield in a trend line every year but this in the corn belt so
two three-inter mile south of us from Ohio to Nebraska has put in pretty good year and probably
going to be a record soybean and corn for bushels per acre and that means that the prices that
people had dependent that for living is not going to be good because we had good years last
several years so there's surplus China hasn't been buying quite as much so there's talk of an
ag recession in the media that I read and it's like well livestock people aren't experiencing it
but the people that because there's basically two classes of farmers those are growing crops and
those are feeding livestock and the prices that farmers are getting for corn and soybeans and wheat
are pretty poor and so we're looking at hard times in the cash grain areas.
We've heard some recent stories including some here at Civic about the cranberries and
increase of them thank goodness we've have Thanksgiving right around the corner because we've
got a really big influx of cranberries right now it seems like well cranberries are harvested
in the fall right so it's a it's a great picture the blue skies autumn colors blue water and then
bright red fruit so if you go historically we start harvesting fairly early in September and we're
I'd say we're past peak now but there will be some fruit on some of the larger operations that
have many many acres to cover they'll still be harvesting for a while so and it is there is
seasonal demand there too right so like if you walk into your grocery store in May and you go and
look for bananas you're gonna find them but if you go look for fresh fresh cranberries you won't
find those there is seasonal item that is only offered September I'd say by the 1st of January
you're looking at the very last of that product so you you can buy those and take them home and
freeze them yourself but to buy fresh fruit that's a seasonal thing and so peak time is Thanksgiving day
growers have done a great job of extending demand throughout the year so it's not just in
cranberry relish or cranberry jello mold it's in the crazins the sweet and dried cranberries
generic term in the juices and in baked things and savory things we find them everywhere but
this is a season where most consumption happens. One of the ways that you can help your cranberry growers
out there with this because another thing that has happened for the the grower out there is an
increase in competition from the articles that I've been reading and some of that is coming from
Canada one of the ways whether it was some of the other things that Matt has been touching on or
just in general especially with all these products by Wisconsin made products support your local
farmers in your local ag industry any chance you get everybody especially again Thanksgiving
right around the corner you can have Thanksgiving without cranberries I'm pretty sure that's in the
bill of rights you I'll double check that but support local and support our Wisconsin ag industry
and always be looking for that made in Wisconsin label we're speaking with UW extensions Matt
Lippard our ag agent and Matt another thing that I wanted to touch on another big story that
it came up recently there was an abrupt closure of the purer prairie poultry processing plant
that was a tough one that has Wisconsin chicken farmers scrambling on this one and and there
the this story is noteworthy in part because of some of the recalls and some of these things that
happen the farmers from time to time and some of the concerns that come up of that one now this
I don't know if this is necessarily your wheelhouse or anything but I am curious about when this kind
of thing happens in general to a farm and and what that can be like for that that particular farm
or just the industry so I'm going to go back to dairy a little bit Wisconsin has laws if if
you sell your milk to a cheese maker a co-op or independent there are laws in Wisconsin that
there's a fund and also everybody that buys milk from farmers has to report to the state
their financial solvents and I shipped the largest cooperative in Wisconsin and they have to
send me a letter once a year let's say what what what would happen should we fail and actually
their message is pretty scary because it's like we are the largest if we would fail there wouldn't be
sufficient funds in the state fund to to take care of you yeah wow so there is but actually being
the dairy state we have more provisions to protect dairy farmers from that sort of thing
than even in Minnesota or other states so now and then you'll find that that you know either
they lose their markets suddenly or or they ship their milk and didn't get their check it's
really pretty rare thing but it does happen so I do know about this just marginally actually
social media has told me about these these chickens in western Wisconsin so that this involves
a bankruptcy a farmer has a barns with chickens in and that relationship in the whole poultry
industry is that is some have argued that the power is not entirely equal between the producer
and that some of these places this one not but some of them are very large some largest names
you can look them up in in the agriculture and they they process the poultry and they often also
provide the birds to the farmer and they provide the feed so the farmer has the investment in the
barn which is significant and they have to take care of those animals every day and if there's
if there's a problem storms or disease or or power outage on a hot day and they all get too hot
something like that the farmer often assumes quite a bit of that risk I mean the the contracts aren't
always entirely fair yeah yeah but in this case I'd say that's the thing is that the people had a
contract that's not being honored the chickens have to be fed and the chickens grow very fast they're
not very old when they're ready for broilers are ready for market it's not like two years on a
steer or sure it's weeks you know and so when they're ready to go if now so you know I'm saying
the story about this big powerful processor and the little guy farmer but the processor obviously
didn't do wasn't doing very well because they went bankrupt and so you know I don't actually
know what the insurance protections are for this grower but they have put on social media that
come and get these chickens and they are getting much larger than when they would normally be sold
they they there's a cell date when they're scheduled to be produced for but they are still getting
bigger yeah and so if you get on your social media and look they're still I'm guessing a day
ago I heard 20,000 or there's people going and we had the same thing when the pandemic started
a little bit if you remember the big slaughter plants those people were considered what was the
word essential yes yes essential and but they were in close proximity just their work and so
some of those places had to shut down because they had covid go through them and then that backed
up the whole chain that there were pigs ready to go to market that couldn't get processed so
this is this isn't covid but it's a similar thing it's very unfortunate and it it really taxes
the local resources as far as can I process them on my own well maybe I can really work hard and
I can do 20 birds you know and there's 20,000 of them out there right but people coming far
and wide collecting these birds Matt appreciate that I know that it's not necessarily you know
something that you knew inside and out so I appreciate the conflict and I did not know that
about chickens I again I always learn when I'm talking to you and stuff I didn't know that they
were that quickly going to be harvested if you will very fast I didn't realize that one of the
wrap on a positive and Wisconsin State Cranberry Grows Association announced the governor's
proclamation of cranberry grower appreciation week that is running right now until the 20th
celebrate cranberries in this area again you've got a perfect holiday to celebrate coming up
right around the corner and while you're supporting the cranberry industry support our ag
industry and always buy local support local everybody encourage you to do that and certainly
learn a little bit more about the ag industry any chance you get like you can in these interviews
where we when we have Matt join us always appreciate the time Matt thank you so much for joining us
today if people have follow up questions they want to know some more about some of these things
I may even reach out to you with some follow up questions as I just find this industry very
interesting how can they reach you yeah so the extension office is in the courthouse ground floor
and the number there is 4238 440 you can reach us if you google wood county extension
you'll find the whole UW system in every county office and and the connections there
so yeah you can find them the website extension dot whisk dot edu extension dot whisk dot edu go
there and you should be able to find all the information you're looking for Matt looking forward
to talking again real soon you take care thank you well a more midday magazine for you right here
at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM WF HR where we are locally grown radio
