Aloha! In this mini-episode we will introduce you to Dr. Dillion Fuez, Head and Professor of Applied Economics Department at Utah State University. Dr. Fuez will be working on a project in Hawaii focusing on Production, Marketing and Finance Risk Education for Hawaii Beef Producers. We also have some new updates for in CTAHR. Tune in and learn more about Dr. Fuez project and what's changing for CTAHR.
Thanks for listening! Check out our other social media platforms!
Aloha! In this mini-episode we will introduce you to Dr. Dillion Fuez, Head and Professor of Applied Economics Department at Utah State University. Dr. Fuez will be working on a project in Hawaii focusing on Production, Marketing and Finance Risk Education for Hawaii Beef Producers. We also have some new updates for in CTAHR. Tune in and learn more about Dr. Fuez project and what's changing for CTAHR.
Thanks for listening! Check out our other social media platforms!
Today's episode is brought to you by the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical ag and human resources as well as the livestock extension group.
Unknown:Aloha welcome, everyone to the livestock Wala'au. A podcast aims to provide educational support, information, guidance and outreach to livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your host, Mele Oshiro and Shannon sand. Today, we're going to introduce you to Dr. Dillon Fuez, who will be talking to us about his upcoming projects in Hawaii. So thank you, Dylan, so much for joining us today. And we're very excited to be talking to you and introduce you to everyone, Dr. Dylan fuse, who will be coming over to Hawaii shortly very shortly. So he's here today to share a little bit about his upcoming projects in Hawaii.
Dr. Dillion Feuz:Yeah, yeah. So I'm enthused about it. I've been working on some projects in grants for really several months now, with Mellie and Shannon and Mark Thorne, trying to put together a project that I'm interested in and they were and that we thought would be of interest to Hawaii cattle producers.
Shannon Sand:Tell us a little about kind of how you came to, to your current position. And then how you ended up well, you're going to be coming over here. And we're all excited to see you so
Dr. Dillion Feuz:yeah, so it's cold and rainy here the last couple of days, which is good, because we've been drought. So I'm looking forward to some sun in Hawaii, but certainly will take the rain here. Because we hadn't been pretty severe drought. But anyway, I grew up on cattle ranches in Wyoming, Western Wyoming, a couple of different ones. And I always assumed I would go on and become a cattle rancher. I mean, I went to college and got a bachelor's in agribusiness thinking that that helped me be a better businessman. And that was in all the dating myself now, but that was in the late 70s, early 80s. And cattle ranching was pretty tough, then the economics weren't very good. And my father was ranching. And it appeared to be from what I've learned in college that I could either stay there and take equity away from him and barely get by, or I could go on and find something else to do. And he could continue ranching as long as you want. So that was a choice I made, went back for some more schooling, ended up getting a masters and a PhD in agriculture economics from Colorado State University. And basically then went to work. And I still remember my fear was, while I've got one good research idea, I want to do some stuff on raising versus buying replacement heifers and how you should raise him. So I did that work. And I'm not sure ever got the answer to that whole problem. But did that and then just started finding more topics and basically spent 16 years in South Dakota and Nebraska working with cow calf and feedlot operators, which the feedlot was. And the cattle harvesting industry was new to me growing up on a cow calf Ranch, I didn't know Yeah, at all. So that was fun and work with some great producers, small scale producers big producers worked with in Nebraska, certainly, big cattle country, had feedlots of over 100,000 head that were willing to work and share their information with me. So that was that was great work with two or three of the main meat slaughtering companies and did a lot of work there. And then we moved to Utah State University 15 years ago, and not as much cattle here still more than in Hawaii. And I would say it doesn't really matter how many because it's still important to the people that are raising, right, absolutely. But I got a little more diversity here in my programming, you know, not only worked with the alfalfa or the cattle producer, but with the alfalfa growers but a dairy and then for nine years last nine years, I took on an administrative role as a department head for our Applied Economics Department and basically decided I'd done all I could do their high enough damage or something or good. decided to get out of that, but I want On the look at restarting, I would be going back into an extension research teaching program. And I was thinking man, I'm kind of out of it, I need to rehome my skills and, and started looking I'm not for sure what first drew me to a why but started looking at man I, I've been to a Oahu Maui fly in the Big Island each one time and, and knew that there were cattle ranches there and, and started talking and and finally got put in touch with Mark Thorne. And we started talking about, you know, what has been done, what could be done? And that's kind of what, what piqued my interest was, hey, it looks like quite a few people have been doing some stuff on grazing, grass finished cattle on shifting on record keeping. But there hasn't been a lot of market analysis risk analysis done. And that's kind of my specialty. So got in touch with all of you. And and that's kind of what's led me to today. And then. I don't know,
Shannon Sand:I know, we're hoping to have you on for a full episode later on. When you actually get here in well, we'll have to see how all the in person stuff goes? Or if that's a possibility, or how bad?
Dr. Dillion Feuz:Yeah, in today's world climate, you never know. Yeah, I certainly hope that when I get there, I'm able to get out and, and do meetings in person, maybe get on some of the ranches, on the different islands and talk with those individuals. Because I have always felt like anybody that's surviving in production, agriculture is already doing a good job. So I'm not there to change their operation on there to understand what they are doing. And then look and say, Oh, can we tweak something just a little, can I help you with this just a little bit, give you another idea for marketing or another way to manage that risk, and then help you be better with what you're already doing? Right. And so I've tried to learn some of that from a distance. But obviously, still, not very up to speed on the whole Hawaii cattle industry. And looking forward to that.
Shannon Sand:I think Hawaii is one of those unique states. As someone who's worked in a couple of different ends and Melis worked in a couple of different countries at this point. That is one of those places you have to you are it is much easier to get a handle of what's going on when you're on the ground, and you're here and you get to meet the people and stuff. So I think that's definitely I think you'll be fine.
Melelani Oshiro:Yeah, yeah, I definitely. And I think it's important like for folks to be able to talk to people outside of in, in the in the same industries, but in a different, you know, states and country, like Shannon said, because some things are just handled differently, and what some something that might work outside me worked where we are not, you know, so it's good. I think that's very important. Keep your options open, and, you know, be willing to listen to different suggestions, and, you know, and share whatnot. And I think Shannon and I always kind of talked about that. And that's one of the things with our podcast is learning from your neighbors, right? Because some of us don't realize we face the same problems and we're right next to each other, but don't have that means of communication. So we're excited to see you know, the projects and what comes up and hope I really hope we can have some in person stuff and get back to a little bit more hands on and workshops and one that'd be really good.
Shannon Sand:Yeah, fingers crossed, right?
Dr. Dillion Feuz:Yes. Yeah, I know when I was, you know, young man working on my father's cattle ranch. You know, we were focused on cow calf and basically the feedlot industry and further upstream to the Meatpacker those were we viewed those almost as the enemy you know, they were people who were trying to steal our calves from us if you will. And then when I got specialties in Nebraska and started working a lot with the feedlot operators I realized they were the same as cow calf guys they were just family guys trying to make a living make money yeah and trying to feed cattle and and they were willing to work with with cow calf producers and share risk with them. I mean, obviously yeah, they're trying to make money everybody's trying to make money. And then I started working with you know, two or three of the big meatpacking companies as well got into you know, talk to upper management, talk to cattle buyers recognize the the challenges they face and realize, yeah, there's a there's a competition between feedlots and the Packers because the dogs want a higher price packers want to buy it for a cheaper price, but ultimately we're still moving cattle In the beef products into the consumer, and so you have to be somewhat team player. So that's, you know, that's one of the things I hope I can bring to the to the islands, and may not fully understand the Hawaiian cattle industry. But I think I have a pretty good understanding of the mainland cattle industry and for your cattle that gets shipped here, an understanding of how the stocker operations work, of feedlot operations work, and the risks that are involved in each of those, what marketing agreements can do for you, what they can't do for you, what you can do price wise, and what you can't in terms of you know, when prices are low prices are going to be low. But can we do something to protect that? Or can we at least always be on the upper end of prices? Whether they're in a high range or a low range? And yeah, I think there's some things that we can do. And hopefully I can share some of that with Produsen. And, and look at, look at that and understand the current agreements and see if there's ways to tweak those that incentivize both the cow calf producer to deliver a good product, as well as incentivize the stocker the feedlot to do a good job raising those calves that, you know, the white producers are proud to be sending them,
Melelani Oshiro:right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think another point or area of big interest would be to our grass finished market here in Hawaii, because you know, it's small, but there's still a lot of producers that want to do it and do do it. And addressing some of the risks for them, I think, based on maybe some of the other experiences that you've seen in the States, would be useful to them, I think, because some of them don't want to, you know, don't want to have the risk of raising grass finish because of the long term commitment to it. But then in the end, there is some demand still for it from the consumer side. So
Dr. Dillion Feuz:yeah, that's, I'm interested in doing that work. It seems like Dr. Thorne has done quite a little on that. The physical side of that, and how you can actually grass finished cattle and and why and the timeframe and the type of, of environment you need, but probably not as much done on the economics and the risk. And, and hopefully, you know, with sounds like there's some changes going on with some shipping rates, with some potential for some new or renovated packing facilities. And yeah, I'd be excited to try to work with producers and and say, okay, yeah, that's a big, big step from taking that quarter pound calf up to the 1000 pounds or whatever. And so how do you deal with that risk that you're going to be owning that animal for another year or something? I mean, obviously, when the markets trending higher, that's, that's a nice situation to be at, or the animal, it's getting more valuable, but stable or declining, then there's a lot of risk involved. And can we do stuff with contracts? Yeah. Can we, you know, do stuff with maintaining ownership, almost clear through the retail that would help out some labeling issues. And you know, I think, working with, with all of you and with the producers with why Kettlemans counsel, the Hawaii cooperative. I think there's lots of entities that can get involved in and help those. Yeah. How's those dreams come
Unknown:true? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, we're excited. And like I said, we're praying that we'll have an email, even if we ended up not being able to have in person stuff. I think our producers have, well adjusted your design online and stuff. So I think there's great opportunity shad and I have learned a lot more skills in live streaming things. So
Shannon Sand:we know, technology than either of us ever thought we talked about last year.
Unknown:Yeah, so yeah, we never
Shannon Sand:had audio and video than we ever thought we would.
Melelani Oshiro:But yeah, it's you know, technology. I think it's a savior in our in our positions, because otherwise we'd really be limited on how much outreach we can do you know, during the times that we can't be face to face so but thank you, Dylan, for you know, introducing your project and yourself and a little bit of your background. We're excited to get to see you in person. And when exactly so, I guess to give everybody a little bit of a timeline of the project and when you'll be here so they can kind of look forward to some dates.
Dr. Dillion Feuz:I will arrive on Conan airport September 1 about 1230 I think it is yeah. Yeah,
Shannon Sand:this episode goes live. Yeah, I
Dr. Dillion Feuz:have a home, rented up in Waimea. And I will be there. So yeah, I'm looking looking forward to it. Interesting as part of this gig, I'm also still going to be teaching a class via distance and zoom online back at Utah State University, which is a agriculture commodity marketing class. So I always try to stay even. And when I was department that I taught this course too, so it always kept me involved in the market. And I always enjoy teaching students, whether those students are 1820 year olds, in front of me or whether those are adult practitioners. I like working with the futures and options market and teaching about that. And always maintain that. Nobody needs to become a trader, but we can learn some stuff that can help us be better cattle marketers, so I'll be doing that. And that'll help make sure that I'm up to date. So when somebody calls me and says, what's going on in the cattle market? Hopefully I am. I will know that. Sounds looking forward to looking forward to being there. And I guess, two weeks from yesterday, we'll be there. And
Unknown:thanks for joining us.
Dr. Dillion Feuz:Yeah. Glad you had me on. So
Shannon Sand:yeah, thank you, Dylan. Alright, so
Unknown:just to give you a quick little update of CTAHR, things that may have changed since our last little update, many livestock update, their new state requirements for indoor outdoor gatherings has changed. So we're back to our 10 indoor and 25 outdoor.
Melelani Oshiro:And this may impact some programs and CTAHR workshops that were being conducted. So just be aware if things change. And I don't know, is there anything else?
Shannon Sand:Shannon? I think just you know, things are changing rapidly, depending on the day. You know, if you noticed some of our previous episodes, like we had to put notes in them, because we pre filmed a lot of those. And then things changed. And so what happens, I
Unknown:guess, we don't know what's gonna happen next. Life's exciting, if nothing else, and that's what I'm going to tell myself. Yep. Keeps us on us on our toes for sure. So that's why we are in our own offices recording and not in the studio. So yeah, anyways, just always call ahead to the offices, like we said before, if you're planning to come in, if you have samples or questions, give a call to the extension office.
Shannon Sand:He's heading in. All right. And of course, we're going to share with you folks the National Livestock days that occur in October. We're so excited. So October 11 is national sausage pizza day, right?
Melelani Oshiro:So go visit the local butcher shop. There's one here in Waimea get some locally made sausage, create a pizza for your family
Shannon Sand:or yourself. Or if there's a local pizza place that uses local ingredients. Also check them out because I know there's quite a few over where you live. So that's right as a couple over here in Hilo. So October 12, National Farmers day and gumbo day.
Melelani Oshiro:So appreciate your farmers match. That's
Shannon Sand:right, which is y'all. And ranchers. We're we're counting both together. That's right Tober 15th is national grouch day and shawarma Day,
Unknown:National Garage. Today I
Shannon Sand:got an excuse that day. So is that is that an excuse that you can be grouchy that day? I guess so. I was like, I just love shawarma so it was like a shawarma is if you don't know I believe it is a traditionally like lamb based meal and it's in a flatbread. So think of like a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean. I forget what you want. It is so I'm sorry. Taco basically, again, that's really really simplifying it. It's delicious. So good. October 90 is seafood bisque de and we have quite a few aquaculture producers here in the state. So it's right. So October 20. I am so excited about this one because I am from this area chicken and waffles day. I love chicken and waffles. It's the thing. They're delicious. Who doesn't love chicken and waffles. Oh, and then last but not least, October 24 is National Food Day. So well. It All right register sounds like a good excuse to like eat something really delicious that you want to eat. Yeah,
Melelani Oshiro:have something you haven't had in a long time.
Shannon Sand:For additional information about this topic, see the livestock Vala our website listed in the show notes of the podcast and the description box of our YouTube page. Thanks for listening to the livestock Walaau And before we go show some love for your favorite podcast. That's us by leaving us a review on Apple podcasts or anywhere you're listening to us.
Melelani Oshiro:Thanks again to our sponsors the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, the livestock extension group and CTAHR. Then stay tuned for our next topic where we will be talking to Caitlin McCullough, the director and senior economist for the Livestock Marketing Information Center. Marlo for tuning in. I'll talk to you next.
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