Barn Talk - Mike Naig on Advancing Agriculture: Conservation, Trade, Meat Processing and Local Foods

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Starting point is 00:01:32 What happens at the barn? Stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. is going to be a short and sweet guest episode. We had the pleasure to get a pretty important person in the state of Iowa to come down here and chat with us a little bit today. So we're going to get into that here very shortly. But before we do, you guys know the drill. Share the show with who you know. It's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. The more that you do that, the more that the show grows, the better guests we can get on,

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Starting point is 00:02:37 Okay, you got it. You're full of one-liners, but... You got an announcement. Yeah, so we've been a little late to the ball game on this, guys. I do apologize. It's just been crazy, and just how the episodes have laid out as far as the guests we've gotten and when we've gotten them.

Starting point is 00:02:52 It's kind of made everything a little bit confusing, but we are announcing the winner of the meatbox raffle that we were having in January, and we're announcing a little late here in February. But the first person that won, a free meatbox is Brad Thompson. He is somebody that was listening. And he said, I love your episodes, especially when they throw in politics, makes me feel better knowing that others agree that Biden has oatmeal for brains. Thought that was pretty funny. Well play. I had to throw that in there.

Starting point is 00:03:22 So that's the audio winner. And then the YouTube winner is Nate Jast, 1971. So we're going to send some meat boxes to you guys. I need to get your guys' email. information or shipping information. So email us at BarnTalk Show at gmail.com if you're listening or watching because I can't reach out to you via YouTube comments or Spotify. So you got to email us or get in contact us with us somehow so I can get you guys your boxes. So those are the two winners. We're still running a raffle in February. The way that you can enter in to win a free box of meat this month for February is all you got to do is go to farmererad.com and sign up for our email list. It should pop up right when you get to the website

Starting point is 00:04:07 or if you go all the way to the bottom of the screen, there's somewhere you can sign up for the email list there. That's all you got to do, and we'll pick a winner at the end of the month, hopefully, and we'll send it out to you. So that's all I got. That's awesome. We're sending more pigs to Milo Locker to get done for Farmer Grade.

Starting point is 00:04:25 So the freezer's getting pretty dry, but we're going to get everything replenish for grilling season is right around the corner. Yep. We're completely out of beef. right now actually but yeah it's uh new things are coming new improvements are coming new cuts are coming so be looking out i think people are going to like it you're not going to replace me are you not quite there yet you want to be replaced though let's be honest i get nervous when you say

Starting point is 00:04:51 improvements are coming because i'm always afraid that you know i'm the weak link well you're definitely not the guy i want to put have in charge of putting ship labels on or anything like that yeah just don't get me anything important yeah yeah you're the little things uh snack and beverage. Yep. Like to be a snack and beverage guy. That works. All right. We are, our guest is in route. And so we're trying to get, we're going to try to get all our ducks in the row so we're not wasting time once he walks up the stairs. So a hot and fast market update, courtesy of cats grain in Washington, Iowa. More of the same. Nothing to be excited about. Corn's down right now. 433, local, 431 at the river. And sorry, 433 on the board.

Starting point is 00:05:35 Local 431, you can get 442 still at the river. Beans 1193, this side of the river, 1180, Quincy Side 1211, beanmeal, $347 a ton. Hogs 73,67, cattle $183, feeder cattle on fire, $246. Oil, $76, 16. It's moved up a little bit. People might, I don't know what's happening, but it's working its way towards. $80. Bitcoin $47,200. Ethereum 2485, Tesla, $190 and gold is $2,036. And I almost forgot. I want to give a shout out to

Starting point is 00:06:20 soon to be local legend around our neck of the woods. The new president of the Iowa pork producers is Matt Jen. So kudos to you. Mr. President, I always like running into him at any restaurant and say hello mr president how are you so anyway without further ado let's get into it mike nagg secretary of agriculture for this great state of iowa welcome to barn talk i am thrilled to be here i i'm we're all we're telling stories immediately about memories of being in a barn i couldn't this is such a great set you guys have done a wonderful job here but happy to be able to join you well thank you thanks for making the trip uh for anyone that doesn't know what the secretary of ag does for state fill them in. What do you do for the great state of Iowa?

Starting point is 00:07:07 Well, you bet. Well, you know, first of all, well, actually, just last year, it was the 100th anniversary of the creation of the position of secretary. So I'm the 15th Secretary of Ag here in the state of Iowa. And we're a little bit unique here in the Midwest. I'm an elected position. There's only 12 elected secretaries or commissioners of agriculture in the country. It's really predominantly in the southeast. And then Iowa and North Dakota, other directors. commissioners or secretaries of ag are appointed by governors typically. And so we're a little bit unique in that in the state. But really what I like to kind of say is you elect or hire your Secretary of Ag in Iowa to do a couple things. One is to run the department. And we've got a

Starting point is 00:07:53 responsibility in code for consumer protection. So things like weights and measures, you'll see our sticker on a gas pump. And what that means is when you buy a gallon of gas, you get a gallon of gas and scales measuring correctly. You think about the, think of the commerce that's done in the state of Iowa, both in the ag space and just the retail space done by weight. If that's off slightly, what that can mean. So things like that.

Starting point is 00:08:20 Industry relations like we register pesticides, we, you know, fertilizers, those types of things. And then food safety. meat, locker inspections, dairy inspections. And then about roughly, I'd say, 60% of our budget and about 60% of our people are focused on land stewardship and conservation, soil conservation, water quality. And so that's the day job. That's what you hire me to do, be the CEO of that organization. And then, of course, it's the other pieces around being a promoter of our state, whether that's through trade missions or

Starting point is 00:08:58 developing our new local branded program, Choose Iowa. And then there's the advocacy piece too, which is, you know, I was just in Washington, D.C. this week with colleagues from across the state, you know, visited our congressional delegation. We're forming policy around a farm bill. So, you know, there's an, and I do that in Des Moines, I do that in Washington. And then, you know, so just being the, what I like to say, the chief advocate, if I can be for, for Iowa, Iowa agriculture. So those are kind of the components of the job. And then I get to travel and come see people like you guys. Learn about our state.

Starting point is 00:09:33 And, of course, that's just maybe one of the perks of the job. Yeah, absolutely. You aren't running out. You're not necessarily looking for more, are you? My predecessor would say I'm going to run out of hours before I run out of things to do. And I think he nailed it in the sense of, but that's, I love that. I'll sometimes get asked, what's a typical day? well, there isn't one.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Yep. But I think that's, I think that's what I like so much about it. I'm a, I'll come from a farm background. I farm with my dad and my uncle. Very few days on a farm are the same too. And so I just,

Starting point is 00:10:08 I kind of think about that in this role as well. Keeps things fun and interesting for sure. Fun and interesting. You know, yeah, mostly I can get along with that, but there's also the day where it's not a train wreck. A train wreck, whatever you want. Yeah, but that's reality, right? and that's life. And certainly that's a big part of the egg world, right? You don't always get to

Starting point is 00:10:31 just, you don't know, you don't always know what your day is going to consist of when you start, do you? Yeah. So a question that we had that's kind of close and near and dear to our heart is we just started a direct-to-consumer meat business about eight months ago. And for us, we look at that as a way for us to market our own product. And when you look at the landscape of agriculture, you know, it seems like it's get big or try to create your own market. And so what are you trying, what are you doing for, for Iowans or people, farmers, and ranchers looking to get into direct to consumer and, you know, any tips you have on that are just kind of what the landscape of direct to consumer looks like. I think you've, you've laid that out really well. So I, I've been

Starting point is 00:11:16 thinking a lot about this. So the last couple of years, right, you've got to, maybe what I would say the convergence of a few trend lines. You know, there's surveys that will show you that, you know, three out of four Americans want to consider local in their food purchasing decisions. And local means different things to different people. Three of us could each give a definition of local. It'd be slightly different, and that would be fine. The point is that a consumer is thinking about it.

Starting point is 00:11:46 If I've got, you know, 30 barbecue sauce bottles in front, of me on a grocery store shelf, I'm, all things being equal, I might pick one that's, that's from Iowa or that I know something about. So, you know, okay, that's one trend line. And then, of course, you've got the historic disruption to our food and ag supply chain that occurred during COVID. Something happened that many of us had never experienced in our lifetime, and that's that there were, there were limitations on what you could buy at the store, or maybe just something wasn't there. And that hadn't happened for decades. And so you've got this convergence of, gee, we need to shorten the supply chain, more resilient food and egg supply chain,

Starting point is 00:12:30 a desire for consumers to shop local. And then where you just went, which is and the need to and the opportunity to diversify our market, go-to-market strategies. So I like to think of it this way, which is, yes, if you can capture more margin at home right here in your operation, try to control your own destiny more than you were before. I've heard too many people, especially on the beef side, saying it's not even that I don't like the bid that I've gotten for cattle, it's that I can't get one. Right.

Starting point is 00:13:04 And, you know, I've been on dairy farms where you've got 50, 60, 120 cows, and you say, if I could just capture some more margin and you say, gosh, there's an opportunity here. And so coming out of COVID, we had started with some, the Governor Reynolds actually allocated some of the CARES Act, some of that response money to the department to stand up a grant program for meat lockers. And the whole point was, let's try to increase the capacity of meat processing.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Well, that worked really well. And it was in high demand. And I continue to visit lockers that bought equipment and expanded and all kinds of good things happening there. Well, what next? we looked at launching Choose Iowa, which is our state-branded program for Iowa-grown, Iowa-made, Iowa-raised products. In this case, I have to confess that I like to usually say Iowa is out in front on things, and we did not have a program when many states, most states do. So we went to work.

Starting point is 00:14:04 We studied what everybody else was doing. And this past year at the Iowa State Fair, we launched Choose Iowa. and we're in the process of signing up members and creating directories. And then right now, actually, in fact, we're in the middle of a grant offering for on-farm dairy processing and labor-saving technology for dairy farms. So here you're talking about bringing a pasteurizer, make cheese, yogurts, frozen yogurt, packaging lines, but also we know labor is a huge issue. So what can you put maybe robotic milkers or feed systems in to help?

Starting point is 00:14:39 So, I mean, that's kind of the splash across the last couple of years of things that we're trying to do. And I have to say, I'm impressed with the creativity that we're seeing. We wanted to keep it with Chew's Iowa, we wanted to be big. Everything from cut flowers to direct to consumer meat, to dairy, to, you name it. I don't care. I mean, it's wide open. And that's what I love to see. A lot of entrepreneurial folks out there, a lot of great ideas.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Yeah, it's awesome. And, I mean, we, the CIS program, you know, the locker, we, work with. They're on that and that's been huge for them and like huge for me because when I went down the road of, you know, looking for processors, I was right in that time of just the CIS program just starting. And if I wouldn't, if that wouldn't have started, I would have probably not gotten an opportunity to have some federal inspected meat. So it's awesome that you guys are doing more of that because we need more of it. I have to say that. CIS, cooperative interstate shipping. You know what? It It worked like governments, like it's supposed to work with a public-private partnership, right?

Starting point is 00:15:43 So we had, this was back in 2019, I wish I could say that I had had the vision to see this coming so much so that but timing's everything, right? 2019, we were approached by the leadership, some of the leaders in the meat processing industry in Iowa, and they said, hey, we're aware of this CIS program. Would you guys look at it? And yes, we absolutely look at this. What it means is you can be a state-inspected meat locker, go through. through the, become a CIS participant, and it basically allows you to do what a federal inspected

Starting point is 00:16:14 locker plant does. We launched that program the spring of 2020. It took, you know, it took a while to get that done. And it just happened, it, timing's everything. It arrived at the right moment, and we've been, again, encouraged by it. Now, some lockers have become CIS and then went ahead and became federally inspected. That's fine. Others, and others have kind of moved in and taken their places. And so we've kind of got this just ongoing effort folks looking at it. But if you're going to get into this retail space, you have to have, you really do have to have that CIS or that ability to put that USDA mark so you can get across state lines. We can talk a little more maybe about some of the improvements that need to be made in that whole process. But I think it's a good news.

Starting point is 00:16:59 Yeah. Well, what do you want to talk about the improvements? Well, I do because, you know, Go ahead. This is one of those things where we say, gosh, the federal government's putting grants out for meat lockers, the state of Iowa is putting grants out. And then it's like we can't get out of our own way on some things. I think what we're really looking at is can we make it so that if you are a state inspected official locker that you could sell a product across state lines? I mean, we need to streamline some of these things. the state of Iowa, a state inspected meat locker under the Iowa Department of Agriculture has to live up to, they have to be the same as a federal inspected locker.

Starting point is 00:17:41 The laws are the same. The standards are the same. It is simply a technical difference between you are state inspected or you are a federal inspected. And to me, that just seems maybe that made sense at the time that it was constructed. Today, it's a new world. we want more of this kind of activity. Let's adjust. And so there is some legislation that's circulating at the federal level.

Starting point is 00:18:07 Farm bill might be a vehicle for that. Unfortunately, a farm bill is probably not happening anytime soon. So when it occurs, I don't know. But we're just visiting. I was in D.C. this week. We had a chance to visit with our delegation and actually some Ag Committee staff as well about this. And so I think there's some folks very receptive to try and to move it. Yeah. I mean, I just, the positives of it, farmers and ranchers are going to benefit from it.

Starting point is 00:18:33 And I feel like the American consumer, they want more of that, you know. Absolutely. If you talk to most Americans, I feel like they don't like the idea of big packing plants owning a large portion of the market. The whole thing. They want more local, like you said. And the upside of this is of getting that pass, that legislation pass. I mean, there's a lot of upside for the farmer, rancher, and the consumer. So I'm a, my wife and I have three boys, 17, 15 and just turned, our youngest just turned 10. Two eat like teenagers and the third one, well, on his way. Two are teenagers. The other one eats like a teenager, you know, so we always say, gosh, we are very aware of the impact of inflation on food prices. So yes, I want the ability to go into my fairway store, go to the

Starting point is 00:19:24 meat counter and buy something that's reasonably priced that comes through our great food distribution system that we have in this great country, right? I can get bananas, tomatoes, tomatoes, pork, bacon, ham, you name it, whatever I want. And the American agriculture system can respond to that. I also like to have that beef processed from my uncle's farm at a locker, get it cut exactly like I want and in my in my freezer. I want the ability to buy that special treat, those brots that I love from a particular plant. Or those meat sticks that I want.

Starting point is 00:20:05 And I think you're spot on. People want this. Consumers are benefiting from this. Great quality, local. And what's the compelling interest on the part of the state of Iowa? we get to retain more of that value right here. You can have a scenario right here where the corn and soybeans are raised to feed out an animal that produce high quality protein, processed local, and sell local, it can consume local.

Starting point is 00:20:33 It never left in this county. And the value, all the value created was captured here. I mean, that's happening and we can have more of it. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we like to say. say around here that we do all kinds of things, but raising pigs is still what pays the bills. And we custom feed hogs for a large integrator here in Washington County. And that has always been

Starting point is 00:20:58 one of the best stories, I think, in ag, is the fact that our local economy, I mean, we're a corn deficit county because we feed more corn than what we grow. We employ a bunch of people. We raise a bunch of pigs. The one part that we don't have much of is those pigs go somewhere else to be processed. But I think it's a great opportunity for the state and for people that are of a certain size of their operation. And they don't want dairy especially is this way. But even in the hog business, I mean, I grew up. We had 160 sows, fair to finish. My parents raised three boys, bought all of us cars. Sometimes they bought us two because some of us. weren't very good drivers. I'm not going to name names, Trent. But anyway, and Trent's not here

Starting point is 00:21:50 to do it. Yeah, he can't bring himself. But, you know, raised a family on 160,000. Well, you can't do that today. We all had to grow in the economics. But we're getting to the point where there are people out there that they want to, they love what they do. They have the passion for it. But they don't have that desire. Like, they have the desire to actually do the work. They don't want to be an HR. In other words, they don't want to grow their operation to the point that they're relying on hired labor and they've become a CEO and an HR person instead of doing what they love to do. And that's where value added, I think, has so much opportunity. I totally agree. I love that way you kind of set that up, right? I mean, that's what they want to do. And then there's, there's,

Starting point is 00:22:37 there's just real reality sets in of this is how that can work or how big that can be. The other thing that, you know, and then you start to think about, well, what about certain traits or characteristics or quality or how do you specialize? How do you create something unique? And again, that's not something that the big system can provide, but it's an opportunity for niche markets to do that. And, again, the other thing that weighs on my mind is that, you know, historically, if you want to do, get into an operation. It's never been easy to start farming. And it's never been easy to start farming even if you had a family farm and you were just the next generation coming in. That's not easy. Transitions are incredibly difficult. But the pathway for many young farmers has been through

Starting point is 00:23:29 livestock. You borrow money, you put up a building, you generate cash flow. It's kind of like an off-farm job in one sense. It creates some cash flow. It lets you get started. The cost of capital and the cost of building materials today and the marketplace for pork, unfortunately, is such that you can't, that's not a viable option. Well, what are some opportunities then to either use smaller facilities or smaller acreage, you know, and get started with a higher value? Those are ways that folks can enter. And maybe it is through that, you know, selling direct to consumer.

Starting point is 00:24:06 Maybe it's through a food product that you can actually do that. that weighs on me pretty heavily because you've got to make sure that there's pathways for people the next generation to get into farming. And it's never been easy. Many times throughout history, people have had to work off the farm to do that. That's not new. But how can that farm be viable? And what are the things that, what are the investments that we can make to try to help assist with that? So that's been some of the thinking, too, that I've brought to this is there's a reason to want to do this from that beginning farmer standpoint as well. Yeah, absolutely. And a, consumers win. Consumers win. They get what they want. They, they, and by the way, it gives us an unique opportunity

Starting point is 00:24:53 too to say, imagine you've got a chef that's serving one of your products, and it's local, and they start to tell your story. And we're also then, it gives us an opportunity to educate consumers about agriculture in ways that we haven't really been able to, at least for the past few years. So there's many, many layers to this that are good things. We just, we just need more of it. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing agriculture today? I'm not just in the state of Iowa, but overall, what do you think? Well, there's, I mean, there's probably, there's kind of three groups of things that I'll sort of look at. It's, you know, unfortunately, and I think this is really true in the livestock world in particular,

Starting point is 00:25:40 is just flat out freedom to operate type issues, right? You've got everything from Proposition 12 and Massachusetts Question 3, and unfortunately, those are not going away. Whatever complexity, those handful of things are bringing to the marketplace today, it'll be multiples of that, unfortunately, very soon, in ways that reach beyond food and ag, meaning why, what will stop, there's nothing that will stop states now from imposing all kinds of restrictions on, on other states. And then that's going to be problematic for many products, not just, not just food neck. Tools that we need,

Starting point is 00:26:23 you know, crop protection, right? We just had a ruling out of Arizona, daicamba, a label has been vacated. Now, you can be a fan of diCamba or not. The point would be the court vacations. The court vacated that label based on a process, an assessment of the process by which it was registered, glyphosate's under attack. I mean, there are fewer and fewer tools at our disposal, and you need freedom to operate. You need freedom to use those tools. The marketplace, right, we've got a disrupted marketplace globally. So what about the demand side of the equation, internationally or domestically? of course, you can call it workforce, you can call it labor. Let's just say it is the people side of the business, right? Everything from a beginning farmer like we just talked about to who's

Starting point is 00:27:14 going to run the meat lockers in the next generation to the welding shop that I was at earlier today. So that workforce component, as it relates, especially to rural America, I think are some of those freedom to operate people and then the market side of the equation. I think those are the big pieces that will be things we need to work on could be challenges for us. So a good question that since we have, since we have the time, how did you get started in your journey to get involved in government? Well, it's not something that I set out to say, I'm going to do that. In fact, I'm heavy on my heart this week and on my mind all week has been the recent and sudden passing of Bill Northy and my predecessor.

Starting point is 00:28:04 I both give credit to or blame Bill for getting into this. A dear friend and somebody I just, I miss dearly and is a mentor and a friend of mine. But it truly was the fact that Bill asked me to become the deputy secretary 10 years ago. And when I started, I thought, well, this will be really interesting, intellectually interesting. It's stuff I'm passionate about. I very much was aligned with Bill and loved how he did the job and just thought, this is somebody I can really work for. And as I got into it and you saw, learn more about the mission and understood what we could do and saw the progress being made on, you know, the nutrient reduction strategy and the work that needed to be done around foreign animal disease response, you know, I just fell in love with the team that we have, the importance of the mission that we have.

Starting point is 00:29:05 And I realized that this is something I could do. This was something that I could get very passionate about and that was in my skill set, in my wheelhouse. And so when the opportunity to succeed Bill came and then to run, it was that passion and just that knowledge that I could do this and I could have the impact that I believed needed to be to be had. But I guess I had always been interested in love ag. You know, I tried to not do ag, right? I mean, I'm a, I'm 45, soon to be 46 years old. I'm a child of the 80s farm crisis. We raised hogs of 300 sow pharaoh to finish operation, which was pretty darn big at the time.

Starting point is 00:29:47 And had parents who, you know, said to each one of us, my siblings and I, that you're all going to go to college because we want you to at least have the opportunity to do something other than than ag. If you're going to farm, it's going to be because you want to, not because you have to, that kind of a thing. And so really tried to push us out like many parents did. I don't blame them one bit. They were doing what they thought was best. But I was just drawn right back in and have been able to have been very fortunate that while I've worked in off farm jobs, my whole career, I have had a foot on the farm with my family, with my dad, with my uncle. And so the passion for ag and for farming has always been there.

Starting point is 00:30:29 But I have had this other foot in the camp of policy. And the reality that everything that we do on the farm, again, whether it's that freedom to operate or the market side of things, does have a tie back to policy. So I encourage young people in particular, if I'm speaking to a FFA or one of the great, group's got their young farmer folks and it said, you know, you'd better, you'd better get up to speed on what's happening with policy, right? Does not having a new five-year farm bill

Starting point is 00:31:03 grind us to a halt? Absolutely not. Life goes on. But does understanding the policy framework and just fighting for the things that we need and the risk management tools that we need to help us in agriculture? Yeah, it does. And so I just have kind of been in that world, my whole. life, but in terms of actually serving as the secretary and running for office, really I give all credit to and thank Secretary Northy for giving me the opportunity to try it. And I've loved every minute of it. Being able to, being able to have that experience on farm, I know Mitchell Hor is a neighbor of ours, and we've had him on here, and we've talked to him many times. But, you know, he has really gotten pulled into a lot of policy groups and thank tanks and things like that.

Starting point is 00:31:53 And one of the things that he often talks about is the fact that he's actually still a farmer, gives him so much credit with people that otherwise might not listen to him because it's really good. There are a lot of people out there that head departments that manage things within this country that don't, actually do anything with that. Yeah. And don't you feel like that's probably a real strength that you have that one foot back on the farm sometimes? I'm not saying it can't be done, but boy, it's a heck of a lot easier to do it when you can have the mentality of I, you try to view things through the lens of what would this actually mean on a farm. And you're right, by the way. And that could apply to any other category across government. Is it sure would be nice

Starting point is 00:32:42 if you had people that had actual experience. Yeah, I was just going to say that. Doing those things in their, in their professional life or their personal life when they, when they come to office and try to govern. So it has certainly been important, you know, and, you know, by the way, then, you know, Mitchell does a great job of this. It's another, you know, responsibility that I have is sometimes you have to translate ag into non-ag for people.

Starting point is 00:33:07 And there is a credibility that comes with when we do this or my own, experience with this. The other thing I like to say about having that farm background is I've still got two farmers in one in each year, my dad and my uncle who don't mind telling me what they think about what I'm doing or what I should be doing. I say lovingly, you know, but it's like, in all reality, there's lots of times I'm driving home from the office where I'll call dad and say, I need a gut check on this and we talk it through. What would it mean? And just the ability to do that, or as I travel, I'm visiting with you. I love. to ask, what does this actually mean on your farm? And you've got to have some mentality or some

Starting point is 00:33:47 lens to view things that way. So it has certainly been an important part, I think, to how we've done things at the department here the last couple of years anyway. You spoke of the farm bill and how the hold up of the farm bill is not, not anything unusual. We've been running, we've been running without a budget for maybe 12 years, I think. I don't know, something like that. But what is the hardest part at a state level of not having that certainty? Well, that's, you just said the word, certainty. So here we're, we're, I think the word that you, there's probably two words that you'd use the last couple of years in Iowa to describe kind of, you'd say drought or weather. And, and certain uncertainty.

Starting point is 00:34:35 And so you, okay, we all get it. There's, there's broadly two groups of things that on each farm, right? there's things you can control and things you can't control. You work hard to manage. You can gain knowledge. You can work harder. You can manage those things that you can control. But for the things you can't, you have to have, you have to manage the risk around that if you can.

Starting point is 00:34:57 That's where a farm bill and certainty around a farm bill, whether it's the crop insurance or, you know, commodity programs or how conservation is going to be done or trade promotion policy. You know, those are things that can help bring some certainty. Now, when you're running without that, then, of course, you're the opposite. Now, the fact that we went into extra innings on this farm bill is not, it's not even unusual. Right. Because, you know, getting a farm bill done on time is actually would be sort of unique, wouldn't it? But so that doesn't bother me in the sense that I would much rather have a farm bill that's right than fast. Right.

Starting point is 00:35:37 And so that's maybe the thing that we really should be focused on right now, is. is let's make sure that we're getting it done correctly. And, you know, there's just so many other things that are impacting what's getting done in Congress in Washington right now that, you know, it's hard to imagine that a farm bill gets done anytime soon. But that doesn't mean that we're going to stop working on it. I was with our congressional delegation this week. They're all got their shoulder to it squarely. It's just a function of when will, when will it get done?

Starting point is 00:36:09 But it will get done. We will have a new farm bill. It's just a function of win. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero?

Starting point is 00:36:37 More like habanier, yes. Save the Everyday with Amazon. So what's your next priority as where you're in your position? What's your next priority that you're looking to do? You know, as I look at 24, almost uniformly, what I would say is the next thing is next level. As in everything that we're doing, again, water quality soil conservation, I would like to set another record this year.

Starting point is 00:37:09 Next level, right? new, you know, innovative approaches, new partners, just flat out getting more done. And while that may sound like we're just going to continue doing what we're doing, what it means is we have to find new ways. So it really is something that's different because we have to advance and we've got that mentality. So next level on water quality, next level on foreign animal disease. So we've been in the, you know, two years now of responding to high path avian influenza, which now ranks is the largest foreign animal disease in U.S. history. And there are lessons that we can learn about that.

Starting point is 00:37:44 We're always trying to improve specifically to Hypath. But those things that we're learning and the way that we handle high path has a direct linkage to how we would respond to African swine fever. They are different species, obviously, but the nuts and bolts are very much the same. So what we need is, though, a pretty dramatic step change this year on ASF preparedness because there are some hard, there are some gaps in the planning. There are some gaps in understanding how this would all work out. And frankly, just to deal with ASF at the scale that we would need to.

Starting point is 00:38:17 So that's a step change that's needed. And then Choose Iowa is a clear focus for us. And it's everything from how do we kind of debug and streamline some of these systems like meat processing is one of those that's really heavily on my mind. So, I mean, those are really three of the big cat, that we just want to see, we want to see improvement on in a major way. If you're a, if you're a producer or somebody that is looking to expand or get into that value added direct consumer, what, where do you go? Like, where's the best way to start as far

Starting point is 00:38:56 as the state of Iowa's concerned? So, great question. And what we envision is that choose Iowa will be a, it can be an umbrella sort of place for, for all kinds of information. Now, not everybody's going to want to be or need to be a member of Choose Iowa. If you want to use the logo, you're going to have to be a member. You're going to have to apply, follow the rules for that. But what we want to be able to do is say, even if you don't choose to be a part of the branded program, that you can find avenues to apply for grants. Or we've been working very closely with Iowa State Extension, by the way, on all of this,

Starting point is 00:39:30 because you do need some expertise or some, frankly, some consulting, you know, that can be done to help steer folks in the right direction. Here's what you should think about before you get started. Have you considered this? You know, and so extension is going to play more and more, I believe, a role. Jason Henderson, new vice president of extension, very interested in these types of things. So we want choose Iowa, choose Iowa.com to be a clearinghouse, if you will, for that, an access point for all kinds of good things. Look, there's a lot of this activity going on in the state, but, you know, you, but we want to see more of it.

Starting point is 00:40:12 And so getting plugged into those networks is really important. And what I'm finding is folks are really willing to share their experiences. And that's probably the best way to do it, right, is to get connected with somebody else who's doing it and say, what should I? Yep. what should I not do? Yep. Or what would you,

Starting point is 00:40:30 what do you wish you had done? And that's a pretty effective way to get started. I've always said in the conservation space, farmer to farmer is one of the most valuable ways to, to share information and to really move us to where we need to go. So how do we get more farmers talking to other farmers? Well, gosh, dang, we're getting close to the end of our time here. We could have been going, hell, we could have done a two-hour conversation.

Starting point is 00:40:54 We're just on fire right now, I feel like. I think I have to come back is all that. You do, and we got to have you come back in the evening so we can maybe get into the bourbon and whiskey a little bit. Well, now that I know where you are, you might just find me up here someday. A couple bottles are just gone. I feel like I could really settle in and kind of be here for a while. You can. Once you get up here, you can't.

Starting point is 00:41:14 We don't have any clocks up here for a reason. You know, I noticed that, and I think that's a good idea. Yeah. So two questions real quick, real quick, we'll just fire them off. Favorite Iowa State Fair Food? Oh, well, now wait a minute. That's like asking me to pick my favorite child. We all know I have a favorite child. I'm just not telling you. In all seriousness, it's, I love a lot of things, but there is one thing that I will have nearly every day of the fair, and that is ice cream. Okay. I will have ice cream every day, let's be honest. And that's a must do. And the other thing I like to say is it's a dark. It's a dark. darn good thing that it's the fair, that I'm there at the fair every single day because there's a lot of things that I have to check off my list of, yep, got that, got that, got that. So I like a lot of things. Ice cream is my... Super Bowl pick. Who you got in the Super Bowl coming up here. Oh, gosh. How do you not love what's happening with Brock Purdy and the 49ers? Though I have to say that I'm probably by, maybe by default, the Chiefs fan. So I'm a little conflict.

Starting point is 00:42:25 I'm going for anybody that's got an Iowa connection and there's quite a few in the there. How about how about that for you? There you go. That's a good. It's a win-win either way. Side step on your question. Yeah. And then I'm just the Brock Purdy story is something. It's phenomenal. It's a great kid. Great guy. It's hard to not root for them. Yeah. How do people follow what you're up to? How's the best way? Yeah. And I appreciate that. Well, you know, Iowa Department of Ag website, Iowaagriculture.gov has got all the connection points for our, you know, you can follow us on X, I guess I say now, X. And Facebook and choose Iowa.com is the other great place. But love to see people when I'm out and about, but we definitely encourage folks to follow along on our social media and the websites.

Starting point is 00:43:13 All right, Mike. Well, we appreciate you coming on the show. We'll have to have you again. You guys, if you got any value from the show, share it out with who you know. leave review on Spotify or Apple, and we'll see you guys back here next week for another episode.

Barn Talk - Mike Naig on Advancing Agriculture: Conservation, Trade, Meat Processing and Local Foods

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