‘Farmers are farmers everywhere’

HASTINGS, Minn. — A juxtaposition of international trade and modern farming methods was set against a background of rampant crop and livestock theft and rolling daily blackouts for Amanda Durow during her recent trip to South Africa.

“(I) really appreciated that farmers are farmers everywhere,” she said. “We all face very much some of the same hurdles and challenges of being exposed to commodity markets, managing the volatility of sale prices and input prices on our farms, wanting to leave a legacy for our families, (and) managing a team of consistent, reliable labor.”

Durow was on the trip learning about international agriculture, trade and labor as one of 10 members of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Partners in Advocacy Leadership class.

Durow and her husband, Brad, have a dairy farm near Hastings. The fifth-generation farmers milk 30 cows and farm 1,000 acres of crops. Durow works full time off the farm in the dairy industry as a lead relationship manager for CoBank. Her work revolves around financing dairy processing, dairy cooperatives and privately owned dairy companies.

“(I) want to make a positive impact on dairy farmers,” Durow said. “Dairy farmers need also broader U.S. agriculture. So, one reason I did (the class) was I wanted the broader U.S. agriculture (background) and really refined skills, to be the best advocate for them.”

Durow is one of 120 who have participated in the 12 class cohorts of the PAL program. The program teaches participants about trade, labor, government policy, media relations and storytelling, to name a few.

This class cohort had a special focus on labor. South Africa was chosen for the class trip in part because South Africa is the No. 2 country of origin for H-2A workers in the U.S.

During the trip in September, Durow and her class visited one of the largest citrus farms in South Africa, a diversified farm with potatoes, corn, soybeans, sheep and cattle, and an 800-cow dairy farm.

In regards to labor, Durow said they learned one of the biggest costs for South African farmers is security.

“Many are paying millions of dollars for security systems and fencing,” Durow said.

Crop farmers have to have night security details to protect their crops. Otherwise, acres of their crops will be stolen in the darkness and sold on the black market. The citrus farm they visited had an 800-acre fence around its crops. The diversified farm they visited was exiting the sheep market because theft was so high that they were losing money.

“They described it (as) ‘Well, a sheep can fit in the back of a car,’” Durow said.

Though the farms Durow visited were modernized, Durow said there is still great need for improvements in planning and infrastructure for the country.

“Farmers we met talked about rolling blackouts being an everyday thing,” she said. “You see these massive communities and mansions that have outhouses because they don’t have indoor plumbing. … Roads have potholes the size of buses.”

Yet in spite of these challenges, Durow said the large farms they visited operated similarly to the large farms in the U.S.

The dairy farm they toured utilized CowManager for their herd, bred A.I., was registered and genomic tested. They sold their milk to three processors, which surprised Durow since that is not possible in the U.S.

Some of the dairy’s upcoming projects and goals included building more on-farm milk storage and lowering feed costs. Durow said the milk price was $11-$13 per hundredweight with $7 per cwt. in feed costs. Minimum wage was about $17 per day.

Much of the liquid milk sold in South Africa is shelf stable. However, she said fresh, un-refrigerated milk was for sale in the farmers markets.

“In the heavy dairy regions, they have a fresh milk that is a cold gallon in the case,” Durow said. “But again, a country that has rolling blackouts, you can’t rely on a cold supply chain.”

The South Africa trip was only one piece of the PAL program. Over the course of the program, Durow attended three week-long trainings across the U.S. with homework in between.

“It felt like I was in business school again,” Durow said.

At the first training in New York, they learned about storytelling and media relationships, including meeting with staff from the Wall Street Journal.

“(We were) doing interviews from all types of TV personalities, radio personalities, left leaning, right leaning, curve balls thrown at us, studio recordings, just to do that as a practice versus real life,” Durow said.

Next, Durow and her class spent a week in Washington D.C. learning about government policy, doing practice testimony and making visits to legislators.

“It was just (about being) able to get the right sound bites across and really make an impact in those conversations,” Durow said. “You only get a few minutes with everyone, so how do you make the most of it?”

Finally, Durow spent a week in Chicago learning about stakeholder relationships and corporate, industry and trade partners.

“Think of all the people involved in an issue,” Durow said. “Sometimes it could be something small politically, but then (there are) all the ramifications of who has to get involved in between.”

During the Chicago week, Don Schindler from Dairy Management Inc. did a training on storytelling.

“It was about starting with your values, how you want your story told, and how you influence that story,” Durow said.

Through Schindler’s training, Durow learned how to tell her story.

“I really like leading with being a dairy farmer and being a mom,” Durow said. “I can tie to that modern ‘Millennial Mom’ that cares about what their kids are eating, but say, ‘Hey, I’m the dairy farmer producing your beef and your dairy products, and that’s why I feed my kids these things.’ That’s my shared value to drive to their shared value.”

Though the three trainings and the international trip are done, Durow still has more of the PAL program ahead of her, including building a farm website and presenting at the Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Leadership Conference next year in March. Though the PAL program has meant a lot of extra work for Durow, she is happy with her investment and what she has learned.

“(This program) it’s a great experience for anyone who has the chance,” she said.