Thullner: What has happened?

In my lifetime of living on my parents’ farm, the weather pattern or climate change is becoming a true reality. It is noted by me that when the Missouri River bottom land was flooded in 1962 forming the Oahe Reservoir with five rolled earthen dams from Montana to the southern border of South Dakota those regular early afternoon and evening thunderstorms that approached from the northwest no longer happen. Just maybe, the tall, shrubbery and fruit trees that are now gone, I believe made up the Dakota “Rain Forest”.

As this area again is experiencing low rainfall and future commodity prices have rebounded and have surpassed the higher prices that were paid in 2015. The need to support landowners and producers in neighboring counties and across the border into North Dakota for a precedent fight to stop the eminent domain for the unforgiving ‘Summit’ CO2 pipeline.

We hear food consumers complaining about the higher cost for food staples. This country always campaigned and supported a cheap food policy with past recorded expenditures being spent of around 12 to 13 percent of the average U.S. disposable dollar income. Now that the long-time generational growers of the food known as the family farmer have disappeared from the countryside, which has led to the factory farm and corporate industrialization of production agriculture, being environmentally curtailed by the darkening of our churches, schools and main streets livelihood.

This cheap food policy worked because these family farms alone produced consumer food below the cost of production with the children who helped worked for a meager allowance just to keep them busy and out of intercity main street trouble. When the family farmers and ranchers who were forced from land and liquidated herds never to live in again-in-abandoned homestead homes that were once filled with hope, joy, love because of aging moms and pops decided to leave this way of life by selling or renting properties with some of the children going off to the colleges and universities for a new goal in life.

So, how did this big change in consumer food production come about? I believe had this country not adopted a cheap food policy for the hands-on-family farmers and ranchers who needed simply to be paid the cost of production plus a reasonable profit for all the generations like foreign countries who knew what it was like to experience famine.

The first nail in the fence was when the independent family grower of poultry industry gave into the corporate contract janitor-ships to raise poultry for the large companies for pennies on each bird.  Question:  When was the last time one had a large, deep-fried chicken for a Sunday dinner and not a small, “tasteless pigeon” as my dad would say?

The second nail in the post was the dairy ‘buy-out’ when the USDA could no longer support the Minnesota-Wisconsin Series pricing formula and the ever-growing dairy inventory products. So, the government implemented the dairy buy-out; thereby, giving producers a paid way out from this once very popular monthly or by-weekly family income check. The real dilemma for this catastrophe was that a past administration had an immediate untimely marketing plan for harvesting of all dairy herd growth frame sizes and ages nearly wiping out the beef cattle producer that lost shackle space and created a surplus of red meat that was in direct competition for the beef cattle producer to survive.

The third nail in door was when the independent swine producer received less for the total harvested hog in market value than what the consumer paid or a whole cured ham at the meat counter. The best tasting pork is that which is raised under the ‘open range’ practice. This small producer husbandry is still admired today, that commands a niche premium paid by local butcher shops and by the home family get together butchering and sausage making. The current pork that is produced by CAFOs and marketed through the chain and local meat counters and menu ordered at restaurants has a distinct fecal tasting odor that can be recognized by those of those very familiar with ‘open range’ harvested hogs. One’s children that do not know what good pork meat tastes like will soon accept their taste bud’s reality. This is what pork has always tasted like.

The fourth nail was a spike in the corral board, was when the concentration of the large corporate feed yards got control of 85 percent of the meat packing industry. The large corporate feed yards don’t have that personal family help, monetary resources to control the bred mother cow-calf operations from supervising grazing, forage production, feeding, birthing and healthcare. Headlined, by an educated family fact for that year-long Animal Scientist as caretaker of livestock equipment and repair mechanic and a needed concern for the timely financial resource for updating of all equipment. The one main issue to securely grow the independent beef industry is to support organizations that support the individual rancher from the cow-calf producer to the backgrounder to the cattle finisher.  The protection of our national beef herd health from any widespread herd deprivation that can be caused by comingling of infected foreign beef animals such as previously experienced with the case of Bovine Spongiform Encepthalopathy (BSE). This scientist must also have a super perspective to continue to grow market share for the beef industry and that is one is very knowledgeable in the selection of best suited seed stock for the various environments of the United States giving the consumer a higher-quality, end meat shelf cooler displayed product from those family owned proud grown and fed beef animals.

I must finish with my lifetime indelible experience, as a young cattle feeder backgrounder. I bought a load of feeder cattle that cost on average per head value of $288.00 weighing 400 pounds. I put on 400 pounds of gain and sold these 800 feeder cattle for a total value per head of $288.00.  This is basically what happened to all the cattle producers of this period when the National Farmers Organization (NFO) had been negotiating cost of production plus a profit contract with the smaller beef harvesting processors for this organization’s livestock producer’s memberships.  Then out came the crooked spike, president, who fell prey to larger beef cattle processors when his administration placed a freeze (ceiling) or limit that slaughter cattle beef prices could not go above this level as, this now historically disgraced administration, did not want the profits of the larger beef processors dwindling or the world consumers having to pay a little more for United States born, raised, and harvested US beef products.

By Robert Thullner a retired farmer and rancher from Herreid, South Dakota

Robert is the son of a 1923 Austrian immigrant who came through Ellis Island. His occupation was listed as a bridge builder.