Shane Reed of Sunny Dene Ranch

On the debut episode of Have You Herd, we spoke with Shane Reed of Sunny Dene Ranch about transitioning from the corporate world into dairy farming, the importance of sustainability on the farm, how to get younger generations interested in agriculture and much more.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hello everyone, and happy June. Happy June Dairy Month to those who celebrate. My name is Mason Jordan, and I'm going to be your host of this special podcast series brought to you by the folks at Dairy Gold and the Northwest Dairy Association. Hey, have you ever wanted to learn more about dairy farms, dairy farmers, dairy farming, maybe dairy in general? Well, you're listening to the right podcast because you are listening to Have You Heard, which I set up front, is a special podcast series brought to you by Dairy Gold and the Northwest Dairy Association. We're making this podcast to celebrate June Dairy Month and all of the hardworking producers who make up our little Northwest Dairy Association co-op in the Northwest region of the United States, and who may just be in your communities as well. Have You Heard is a five-part podcast series featuring some of the farmer owners behind Dairy Gold and the connection between their farms and the food on your table. Now, I won't bore you with my droning too much longer because we have a great first episode for you. I think you're all gonna really like it. It's gonna spotlight Shane Reed of Sunny Dean Ranch in eastern Washington. On this episode, Shane talks to us about his journey from corporate America to dairy farming and how he's building for the future through sustainability, technology, and commitment to the next generation of farmers, which may include his own children. Shane was a fun dude to talk to. We had a great conversation, and I think that he is a shining example of some of the younger generation coming up into dairy, and best of all, he's a fellow Washington State cougar, go cougs. I think y'all are really gonna enjoy the episode and really enjoy Shane's story about how he came up into dairy. But just one more piece of housekeeping before we get to the conversation. We're gonna be releasing a new episode of this every week throughout June, so please be sure to keep an eye out for this if you want to hear more about dairy farming and you want to know more about the complex world of the dairy industry. But anyway, without further ado, let's get to my conversation with Shane Reed of Sunny Dean Ranch in Eastern Washington, and you're listening to Have You Heard. Hello everyone and welcome back. They said that we couldn't do it, they said that it wasn't possible, but here I am on the east side of our state in beautiful Mabton, Washington, located within the Yakima Valley. And I'm here talking with one of NDA's dairymen, Mr. Shane Reed. Shane, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Doing great. Thank you very much. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Awesome. And we are on Sunny Dean Ranch today. Shane, could you give yourself a bit of an intro to yourself, to the folks listening, and maybe a small little, I guess, biography on Sunny Dean Ranch itself?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah, so thank you for the introduction, Mason. Yeah, my name is Shane Reed and currently dairy farming here in Mapton, Washington. I am a somewhat local boy to the Lower Valley here in Yakima. I actually grew up in West Valley up in Yakima. Grew up within the agricultural sector, but never really had my sights on dairy as being, you know, something that I would make a career out of. I grew up, my dad was within or ancillary my whole life to the tree fruit industry uh and actually did a little time at community college and then decided to give it my own shot. So I was uh growing cherries. Did that for a while and decided it really wasn't my my thing. So decided to go back to uh Washington State University, go Koogs, and got my BS in agricultural economics there. In that time, I I met my now wife and she came from a dairy family and after graduation decided that it was a good idea for me to join the family business. Uh, but on the the cheese making side, so I joined my brother-in-law Daniel up in Ferndale, where uh we started a family creamery called Ferndale Farmstead. I was there for uh two and a half or three years and got my MBA while I was up there. My wife had her dream was to become a nurse, and she got into nursing school in Portland, Oregon. So we spent about four years in Portland, Oregon, for her to complete her nursing program. During that time, I got to venture into the corporate world a bit, uh, something that was new to me, but you know, was something that I desired to do after going through my MBA program and spending more time focusing on the business side of my career. Right after COVID hit, my first son was due, and my wife and I decided that the only place we wanted to raise children was back at home. Uh so we came back to the family farm, eventually made my way back here to Sunny Dean Ranch, and it's been a pleasure ever since to be in this industry, and it's just been one of the most rewarding and challenging things I've ever done.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Thank you for that. And we're definitely going to get back to a little bit more about your personal biography here in just a moment. But I think right now I would like to focus on Sunny Dean and I guess specifically farming within the Yakima Valley region. No one probably may know if you're listening to this. Dairy Gold, our co-op extends through several different regions, one of them being the east and the west part of Washington, as well as Oregon, Idaho, Montana. So this is one of many regions. And so I want to ask you a little bit about what farming, what dairy farming is like in this region, and if you're able to contrast that with other parts, maybe we'll do that. But I guess first question is can you talk to me a little bit about Mabton and the Yakima Valley and why this is a a great place to dairy? Everyone knows that obviously things like hops and grapes are sort of the main agriculture sector in here. So why why is this place such a good, uh a good place for agriculture? And is there like a connection to the the different forms of of ag?

SPEAKER_01 6:03

So I'll I'll start with the Sonny Dean side of things. Yeah, so Sonny Dean was first established in February 1990. Bill Wavren decided to make the jump from kind of the service sector within the dairy industry. He was a veterinarian, decided to make the jump over to the production side and bought retiring dairy gold members farm right here in Grand V, Washington. So he started the farm at that time with 140 cows and a couple outside partners. A couple years in, you know, he really enjoyed it. His family kind of saw what it was and enjoyed it too. So his brother and his mother both came and joined the farm, invested in the farm, and it became wholly family owned. And in that time, the the farm has grown from that 140 cows to now where we are milking 4,500 cows daily on this location. And we also have a second farm in Ferndale, Washington. Between the two farms, about 375,000 pounds of milk daily, which I believe is somewhere around 43,000 gallons of milk a day. The Yakima Valley here was settled on as a prime area to be a dairy farmer due to its climate and its proximity to land that is highly productive and the ability to irrigate that land through significant irrigation infrastructure that that exists in the area. So I mean the Yakima Valley, 300 days of sun a year. You know, we get quite wild swings in weather from morning to night or season to season. Um, we can get down into the teens single digits in the wintertime, but it's usually for short stints. And then we can get into the 90s, hundreds in the wintertime or summertime, but it is also for short stints. But the the the prime driver of attractiveness for the dairy industry here is the access to land. Simply, in this is my opinion, is the access to land and highly productive land where you can grow crops and control and produce the inputs that the cows need on a daily basis. So I can kind of contrast that a little bit to the western side of the state. I don't have a ton of experience across other regions within Dairy Gold's uh network, but we do also have a farm in western Washington, which makes us pretty unique. So I get to see both sides of the coin there. You know, the advantage on that side of the mountains is that the the climate is even more suitable to the cow itself. There's more mild, moderate temperatures. You know, the average temperature usually lies right within the thermal neutral zone for a cow, which is the the the temperature range where they utilize minimal to no calories or energy to just maintain their existence, right? And so that is just optimal. There are challenges with with the rain and the overall dampness over there, but I think from a cow perspective, the western Washington climate is definitely a very good climate to be in for raising cattle. However, you know, there there lies the challenges of the access to land and ability to produce high quality crops in a in a at a level that is needed to sustain for dairy cattle. So that's what makes this side of the mountain so attractive and really why we put our roots here and have expanded.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

So would you say that in general, I guess with all of that in mind, land costs, access to land, would you generally say it's probably easier to dairy on this side than it would be in western Washington?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Um, actually, no. I would never say any dairy farming is generally easier than the other because I mean it is a difficult task. You're gonna be subject to your advantages and disadvantages. They have certain advantages on the west side that through their operations, it just is very beneficial for them and their cost structure and the cow's welfare, right? But there's other advantages on this side of the mountain, but then there's disadvantages to with the the temperature swings and the highs and the lows to maintain the cow and keep them cool or keep them warm. There's always varying challenges that are gonna exist from one region to the the other. I I yeah, I wouldn't say either is easier, it's just a different management approach and and different way of doing business. I will say though, 50% or more of a dairy's cost structure is gonna be made up of feed cost. So if you look at something from a financial perspective, from a overall business viability perspective, access to land and feed are going to be highly impactful to the the long term long-term viability of a dairy. And it again, it doesn't make one better than the other, better or worse than the other, but it just changes the cost structure and how you manage the business.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

You talked a little bit about things like feed. Is there anything like feed or like processes that differ being in a dry kind of a drier climate as opposed to being on the west side?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty significant by being on the west side, especially where we're located. I mean, we can we definitely produce a lot of our own feed up there. However, we're generally gonna be growing crops like grasses. We we we tried to grow some corn silage up there. The corn silage is pretty much high yield grass silage. You're not gonna get the the product quality or the starch content or anything like you would on this side of the mountain. So, you know, there's there's differences in the crops that can be grown. A lot of it comes down to those degree days, the the amount of sun, the the growing season, and and what you can get done in a single year before um the seasons start turning and the crops have to come off, right? So we are pretty unique, in my opinion, within the dairy industry, because uh we tend to think that there's a lot of circularity to what we do between the crop side of things and the the cow side of things, right? So we are unique in the fact that we farm about one acre for every cow that adult cow that is on our farm. And with that, we can grow about 80% of all the feed the cows eat in a year. And the other 20%, it might be closer to 85% now, but the other percentage is simply things that we can are they're either byproducts, so they're byproducts of of other industries within within the United States or within the the Pacific Northwest, or they are things that we simply can't grow within this region that we have to import, but it is a very small percentage compared to the rest of the feed input. Here on our own farm here, we produce all of our own corn silage, all of our own earlage, all of our own hay. We do trinicale as a winter crop, which we're actually harvesting right now, and you can see the pile being stacked out the window. I would say a more, more diverse set of crops that we are able to grow here, and we're always playing with new ideas and different crop rotations and things that we can do to try and work into our system to provide higher quality, better feed for our cattle.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Okay, so in Dairy Gold News, it was recently confirmed that our sustainability goals were approved. So, speaking on sustainability, I know I watched a video that you did with Dairy Farmers of Washington, now Dairy West, about the sustainability investments that are happening on this farm. Um, can you talk a little bit about that and maybe if there's one specific one that you're excited about?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, I'll just start by saying is you know, for us, myself and and the Sunny Dean team, we believe that sustainability should not be ignored. Um, it is something that that we ought to pay attention to in order to protect our local ecosystem, the communities around us, the planet as a whole, and you know, ensure a better future for our children and their children, et cetera. However, you know, there's always this conundrum with sustainability when you know you want to do the right thing, but you also have to run a business and you can't run yourself out of business trying to do the right thing. Doesn't mean it should be ignored. So our experience over the last couple of years as or last few years as we've been focusing on more sustainable processes and you know, systems that could be put into place to make our dairy more sustainable, I will say it's it's been a little bit of a shocker to me. We've actually found that there are plenty of projects that we have implemented or in the process of implementing that actually have a net positive benefit to the farm, right? You you will incur costs. So everything costs something to implement. But if you look at it over a timeline and amortize it out, a lot of these things we are finding, you know, before the fact, we're we're we're discovering benefits that come back to the farm, whether whether it's monetary or otherwise. But also as we've implemented things, there's been been situations where there have been unrealized benefits that have come back to the farm. And they have been hugely impactful on the way we we see these things and we approach them. And if I was gonna say something about it, the one thing I would say is that you know, I would challenge all dairy farmers and and farmers within our network and across the the nation um to really consider these things and do their due diligence, do some testing, do some small implementations first and then larger later, because you you may be shocked at at the fact that it it does take work up front, it does take some cash on the table up front, but there are benefits that come to you later that make the project worthwhile from a business perspective, and then from the point that you know you're you're making a decision to do what you think is best for continuing, you know, the sustainability of the industry and the communities and the world around you. So the largest implementation that we've had to date is we powered our entire dairy farm, which consists of three different milking barns and all of the pumps, motors, everything. We powered everything with a one megawatt solar system. It was at first, it was a little bit of a a bite to chew off, right? It was not a small investment, it was a large investment. There have been challenges along the way with learning how to clean them and do it in a way that is labor efficient, but we have been able to basically produce the majority or all of the power that we consume on an annual basis on our farm through these panels. In the face of that, we've had them online for about a year and a half, two years now. And in that time, we saw last year like a 9% increase in power costs coming from the local utility districts, and this year an 18.5% increase. So we have been able to speed up our timeline for the actual payoff period, the the break-even point on the this project significantly because of just the overall inflation in the electricity industry.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

And so, you know, there's a huge benefit to the farm from that perspective, but also now, you know, we have essentially become independent with our with our panels out there and uh being able to provide the the the power needed to run our wow, and that's that's probably kind of another thing that uh you have the benefit of being out here as opposed to the west side where they don't get nearly as much you know sunlight per day or yeah per year.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

It's definitely gonna be, you know, the the effects of it or the viability of a project like that is gonna definitely vary based on the region that you're in. Like I said, here we we definitely benefit from 300 days of sun. You know, it's not always warm, but if the sun's out, those things are producing. So we're able to create the uh the the power we need. And in the summer, spring, uh early fall, we produce a lot and we can bank that and and use it throughout the wintertime.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Sort of on the topic of investment into the farm. Something that's been kind of a big thing for Dairy Gold in this last year is the Pasco plant opening. Now, obviously, your farm is closer to Sunnyside, and so I would imagine that's where the majority of the milk here comes from. Is that correct? Yeah, or goes to Sunnyside.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, the majority of our milk is shipped to Sunnyside from what I know, but you know, there's times where it goes to Pasco, and I'd hope I'd we'd we'd get a good balance of milk going to both plants.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Yeah, and so I was gonna ask, is there any difference since PASCO's been opening in the amount of milk volume that you can produce? Is there plans on potentially making expansions to increase milk volume?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

So this is actually near and dear here. It was probably around the timing of the PASCO plant construction starting, but we made a concerted decision as a as a group here to expand the farm, which we had about 15 years before that without expansion. So we decided to to it was time to to grow the farm and add more head and add more land base to our portfolio here. And it just so happened it kind of correlated to the timing of the PASCO plant being built. So I would say yes and no. Um, it the decision was made for our business, solely based on what we wanted to do with our business. But at the same time, the PASCO plant being built and commissioned greatly helped take the pressure off of us if we were to overproduce our base. If we were to ship more, we wouldn't receive financial penalties or anything for that because now we have plenty of demand for our milk. So as we expand, we know our milk has a home and that you know we will get full price dollars through the co-op for that.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

So and a lot of people might not, a lot of people who aren't familiar with the dairy industry probably think of it in pretty bar broad terms as actual product, the dairy being the most important thing. But from from what I've seen, like the actual feed and how the cows get fed and in cow care is just as equally important and probably at the top of most dairymen's mind. Would you say that's true?

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Yeah, 100%. I I kind of feel like when we think about crops and cattle, it's a chicken or the egg thing. Like the the two are not mutually exclusive. You can't have one without the other, right? So a large part of our strategy is being able to control our feed, grow it ourselves, understand the quality ourselves, and know what the cows are eating and make sure that it is the the feed that they are is best for them physically, dietarily, and also for milk production, right? So I would say it's similar to the human body too, right? Like our health is highly derived by one genetics, but two, the food that we put into our body every day. So if you feed poor quality feed or don't have discipline with your feeding program and and the ingredients within it and understanding what those ingredients are, the nutritional makeup, then you're gonna one, see increased disease in your cows, you're gonna see higher instances of morbidity in your cows, you're gonna see a lot of unhealthy aspects to the cow that one, it's not good for the cow, but two, it's very costly for your business. So um, by having a really firm understanding and solid program around feeding is probably one of the most important things you can do on the dairy.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

So now we're gonna let's you gave us a nice little Biography, how you kind of went moved from being on like a the corporate side to dairy. So I kind of want to talk a little bit more about that. As you said, you graduated from Wazoo Goku's uh with uh agriculture economics, and then you have a master's in business.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Is something specific within business or was uh it's just uh it's I have a generalized MBA master's of business administration, yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And then then you you would go on to work on like the sales side for a company for about six years or so. How do you go from that to getting into being a dairyman? Was that kind of always the was that always sort of the North Star? Or was it one of those things where you you got tired of being in an office and took the experience you already had in dairy and decided to make the move? Like how do you how do you make that move?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

I would say I'm I'm in a pretty unique situation, but I would hope and I think from kind of what I've been seeing across the industry that it's not quite as unique anymore. I feel like there's been more younger people, highly educated folks that are making their way back into agricultural agriculture, maybe not just the dairy industry, but other sectors of the agricultural industry. But yeah, again, it's a unique position for me. I'm married into a dairy family. So I wouldn't say this was ever really the North Star, but it was always kind of something that was on the table as a possibility. But one one way I like to think about this, because I I dealt with this a lot when I was actually leaving my corporate job to come back. A lot of people questioning, like, well, what you're gonna go back to farming? What are you gonna do? Are you just gonna drive a tractor or what like like what do you do? And it and I think there's a a common misunderstanding between the the historical way of thinking of agriculture to modern agriculture, and the way I think about it is that modern agriculture is just an intersection between science and business. So again, neither is mutually exclusive here. Um, in order to be good at farming and to be a good dairy farmer, you have to be very or or have members of your team that are highly educated in the the animal sciences, the crop sciences, the the nutrition, you know, all these science-based portions of the business. But in the end, we are still running a business here. And the fate of my family and all of the employees' family, and which for us is becoming a pretty significant net, is we have to stay in business and we have to make a profit to to support ourselves, but then also provide strong living wages so that not only us but our our employees can thrive and and and survive within the economy that is the United States. So for me, it it doesn't seem like it's that big of a move because you know, I I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but my primary role here on the farm, you know, if if I had to think of my main hat that I wear, because on a farm you never have a single hat that you wear. But my main job at this farm is to manage the financial viability of this farm and ensure that the company is set up for long-term success. And that can be accounting, that could be strategic planning, that could be tax uh, you know, managing tax uh burdens, that could be investment strategies, that you know, that that it's a lot of what happens in a corporate America, right? We we have to run our business just like they do. It may just be on a little bit smaller scale and at a point where we have more control over what we do and less people in the room. So at the end of the day, I'm actually utilizing more of the skills that I gained through my educational training here on the farm than I was in the corporate world. I felt like in the corporate world, I got siloed into this is your position, this is what you do. We have somebody else that does all these other things, right? And as I moved my way up through the company that broadened in this line of the world, you know, I I were I'm able to be involved or manage directly most portions of the business. And so I have to use skill sets across all different management areas within the business and basically ensure that everything that we do, as much as possible, everything that we do is financially a good decision that won't put negative pressure on our company for survival. And I will challenge anybody listening to this to ever find a dairyman who is bored. You will never have a lack of things to do, whether it's on the business side, the cow side, the crop side, the equipment side, every portion of this company, there's always something to do. And that's what makes it fun and you know, makes it worth getting up every day and doing this again, and not to mention the middle of the night calls when something goes haywire, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Yeah, so I'm glad you mentioned that because I I I know for me, I started at Dairy Gold about three and a half years ago. And I I come from the news world, so I originally I didn't really have any idea about agriculture dairying. And I wouldn't say that my ignorant perspective on it was they were still going like hand hand milking cows and turning butter. Obviously, I knew that that the the the dairy world was more high-tech than that. But I think what shocked me the most, and I think what would shock a lot of people is just the amount of like science and technology goes into a dairy farm. You know, I've I've been to several farms now, and and you know, often they will have totally different methods of dairying. I've seen large carousels that spin them around like a carousel. I've seen automatic ones where the cow walks in and it they use infrared to find the others. Like the the the thing that blew my mind was just the amount of like tech and like very like cutting edge tech in a lot of cases that that can end up on dairy farms. And so for me, that was really interesting. I I don't know if you had quite as big of a shot considering you had already you'd you'd already been in a dairy family and you had experience with that.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you over the last whatever 20, 30 years, there has been a lot more tech that has been integrated into the dairy farmer's day-to-day life. However, I'm a little bit shocked at the fact that that more technology hasn't implemented. And I think there's a general, maybe I don't know if resistance is the correct word, but there's a a general maybe like a uh cautious sort of old saying. There's a there's a lot of caution in the the the the agricultural industry to implement these things, but you know, we've made some pretty big technological upgrades around the farm. I think one of the things that can be a little bit misleading to farmers farmers or is there is so much available. There is a lot available available, a lot of technology, but not all of it actually provides, in my opinion, not all of it provides worthwhile data or or or process improvements back to the farmer that that uh justifies the investment, right? And so part of it is combing through all the technology that is available, figuring out which ones would be the most impactful for your business, and also not create so much of a data bank for yourself that you are overwhelmed and can't really analyze it to understand what is actually going on with the data. When implementing technology, that was probably one of the most important things is that if it's going to provide a benefit to us, we have to be able to utilize that benefit within the company, right? Um, there are certain things, whether it's something in the parlor that turns a manual process into an automated process, that's it can generally be analyzed pretty quickly. But when you talk about cow level data, feed level data, you know, that can provide a lot of benefits, but you have to be able to figure out how to get those insights out of the data to actually implement against.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Right. And to to go back a little bit, you know, you're you're a young guy. So obviously some some would would think that it makes sense that you would feel like there are technological opportunities for dairy. Would you say that the sort of cautiousness in the more forward-looking line you you feel that's split on like as a generational thing? Like, do you notice more younger farmers tend to be more uh have more want to to invest in like the technological side and that maybe older farmers are a little bit more want to stick with older ways and yeah?

SPEAKER_01 30:43

I mean, from my experience, which is uh pretty narrow experience, I would say yes to that. You know, the younger generations grew up in an era where technology was something that was just normal. And you know, we went through high school, college, everything using computers and software programs and stuff that maybe the older generation hadn't used before. So it's uh I feel like it's a little bit easier pill to swallow for the for the younger generation. However, I will say I've met and know a couple guys that are pretty forward-thinking and highly tech savvy that aren't within the the younger generation. So I think it kind of depends. Yeah, I I think it's it's already a big part of technology, it's already a big part of the industry. I think it's just gonna continue growing. You just need to sift through all of the opportunities on the table to find the ones that are best for you. Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

So and on the topic of younger generations in dairying, do you see that as a potential concern? Young the younger generation not wanting to take over family farms or having preconceived notions about farming in general and not wanting to look to pursue that. Is is there is there a go ongoing concern with not enough younger people getting into dairying?

SPEAKER_01 31:56

If you would have asked me two years ago, I would have said 100% yes. And I would say right now I'm more in the middle. Through my experience since I've been on here, I'm president for the the Dairy Gold Young Cooperators and had the opportunity to go to these meetings and meet with a lot of the younger generation. And I will say my bias before all of this was that, man, you know, dairy's gonna be a dying breed because it is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It is not an easy thing to just sign up for, right? So I thought, in you know, kind of seeing what you're talking about, some of the younger generations wanting to go their own direction versus staying on the farm and taking over the family farm. So yeah, I would have said that, but I have been consistently impressed by the talent that is around in not just uh the Pacific Northwest, the Dairy Gold Network, but also some of the further reaching industries across the the US or areas, regions across the US. Um, there's a quite a bit of young talent that is coming in and seems to me to be a lot larger group or a lot larger audience of people in the younger generations that are making their way into the dairy industry. That's veterinarians, that's service people, that's you know, even people working for the pharmaceutical companies, the, you know, like, but all related to the dairy industry. And within that, it seems like a lot of them are realizing that they can bring their skill set in and also pursue some sort of job in the management side, whether it's ownership or just strictly from dairy management side of things. And so I don't I'm I would say I I'm kind of in the middle on that. I think there very well could be in certain situations farms that don't have a secession plan don't have anybody waiting to take over as the next generation, but I think there's more people hungry and and looking for opportunity than there was 10 years ago, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

So and I guess speaking of younger folks in dairy, I understand you worked at Ferndale Farmstead for a little bit. I've done some content with Daniel Wavryn a few times. Great guy. I'll plug Daniel's artesian and Ferndale Farnstead cheese. I think I'm allowed to do that. Go ahead and get that cheese. It's good stuff. There are two parts to this. What was it like, assuming that that was kind of the your first foray into working on like a dairy farm? What was it like in that regard? And then what was it like working with the Wavrins and uh a family that seems to have been in dairy for quite a long time?

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Yeah, I I should have mentioned this before. It that wasn't my first dairy experience when I kind of helped put myself through college by working for the uh WSU dairy. So I I worked on the dairy and then I also was part of a uh student-led organization called CUDs that we had our own herd of dairy cattle that that we took care of 100% by ourselves. And in that, I also I did the financial management of the the herds, but I also uh did day-to-day chores and milking cows and all that. So I I and I did that on purpose because my wife's family was dairy. I was like, I there was an opportunity. I was like, Yeah, sure, I'll try it out. And I actually really enjoyed it. And some of the people that I worked with on those dairies are my best friends today and live near, and they're my community, right? So that's kind of what always led me back to wanting to do dairy was my experience there and just you know, the the the absolute respect I have for the the people that have been doing this and are doing this. So, but yeah, so in 2015, you know, it was a project with Bill, my father-in-law, and Daniel, uh, my brother-in-law, to start this creamery, and it was under construction and we had been talking, and I had graduated and I was actually working back in tree fruit here in the valley, and it's kind of like, yeah, you know, like the the the company was just gonna start getting off the ground, hadn't really made cheese yet. I was like, Yeah, like I'll come join the family business and and see how that goes, right? And it was awesome. Like, I the one thing I'll say is the processing side of things is not for me. I wasn't born to be a cheesemaker. Love that Daniel has the biggest heart for it, loves it, and that is his passion. It wasn't for me, and that's okay, right? It it it it was I was very happy to be a part of that business as we were we were starting it and getting off the ground. I learned a lot about the science of cheesemaking and learnings there of just trying to figure out, you know, we kind of just started and were trying to figure out what we're gonna do. How do we package these boxes? How do we pack the cheese and make sure it's shelf stable? How do we produce the cheese? You know, like there, there's there's all these questions, and it was an excellent experience for me. And it wasn't like a bad ending or anything, it just it was something that's like, okay, we're gonna go this direction for now, and we'll see what happens in the future. And sure enough, my wife and I are back here on the farm, and we live right here. We have two young kids that we are raising right here on the farm, and it's just it's kind of the the you know, the the old American dream.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Yeah, so are you gonna push them into getting into dairy or just kind of let them my wife and I's approach is you know, they're gonna be their own individuals, they're gonna be around it.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

And as you know, they're they're still young. I've got a four-year-old and a one-year-old, so it's a little bit early to tell, but as they get older, yeah, they're gonna have some chores to do. So they're gonna have some chores to do, but if they don't like it, I'm not gonna pressure anybody to to to be doing continue doing this. I will encourage it, but in the end, it has to be a decision that they make on their own, or else it's not gonna be good for anybody. Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Yeah, find their own way to it. Okay, so I'm gonna steer the conversation a little bit towards now the NDA dairy gold side. Do you have time? Are we good? Are we?

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Yeah, we're good.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Okay, cool. You're this farm, and obviously many farms are a part of the Northwest Dairy Association co-op. A lot of people might not understand that dairy gold is essentially the marketing. I'm gonna get this wrong, and I'm sure I'll they'll tell me to edit this out, but it's essentially kind of like a marketing arm of the Northwest Dairy Asgine Co-op, which is made up of over 200 different dairy farms across the region. So a lot of people probably don't realize that it's made up of all sorts of farms, all different sizes. Can you talk to me a little bit about what being a member in the NDA co-op kind of means for a farm and like how the farm side supports the business side, supports the farm side? How is how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 38:32

So without NDA and without dairy gold, there would be no dairy farms. Every farm has a product that we produce. The primary product is milk. And in order to have a business, you have to get paid for that milk, right? Like, like, and when you think about milk, it can be made into a plethora of different products. So you need somebody to process your milk, market your milk, and sell your milk. In the end, we get paid for it, but it all requires the NDA Dairy Gold team to do those three things process it, market it, and sell it. So this is a relationship that is very symbiotic. And you know, technically all Dairy Gold members are are owners in the co-op. So we are, and here at Sunny Dean, definitely, we take the health and success at Dairy Gold very importantly, because without that, we would not have a home for the primary product that we are producing on our farm. So yeah, I would say the NBA team uh specifically, I think about them as being the primary conduit between Dairygold's leadership and and overall operations and back to the farmers, right? So they ensure that the the milk that we are producing on our farms and providing to Dairygold is managed and processed and marketed and sold in a manner that is consistent with both the direction of the industry and the business, but also with the desires of the member owners, right? And so primarily the NDA team is going to be interacting with the board. Uh, we do have obviously interactions as well with our field managers, with the communications team, and the director McKenna, who communicates back to us on kind of how both Dairy Gold is doing and NDA is doing in their management of the relationship between the member owners and and Dairy Gold. So Dairy Gold is very important to us. I know uh the PASCO plant has been a very big project for Dairy Gold, and it has created some pain and hurt across the producer landscape. But in the end, there has to be a solution that is beneficial for both Dairy Gold and the NDA members, right? Because we all need this to work. They need it as much as I we do. If the dairy farms go away, they don't have supply of milk to market it, process, market, and sell. And if they go away, we don't have anybody to process, market, and sell our product. So yeah, it is a very important relationship that needs to be taken seriously. And we we just need to work together to ensure that we can have success and long-term viability of an NDA Dairy Gold Co-op and us as members on our farms.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

Right. That being said, do you have a favorite dairy gold product?

SPEAKER_01 41:30

Yeah, we have a little fridge in the garage and it's always stocked with the Costco Fit Milks, the chocolate milks, and the whole milks. My kids love the whole milks, but that's usually my go-to every morning when I walk out the door, is I grab one of those and breakfast bar or something, and that that's my breakfast. So yeah, uh you can't go wrong with good old fluid milk, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

No, I I am definitely 100% in agreement with you there. Okay, you're a busy man, as all dairy farmers are, so I won't take up too much more of your time. I guess last thing I want to ask is is there anything that maybe, and maybe this is an opportunity for you to talk directly to the people who will be listening, which will, I assume by and large, not know a whole lot about the intricacies of dairy farming. Is there anything else those people might not know that you would like them to understand or you wish there were more understanding of in general?

SPEAKER_01 42:23

Oh, there are many different roads we could go down right now. Yeah, I I I don't know if this is still the case, but I feel like growing up and you know, throughout my life, I've seen many scenarios where animal welfare has come into question and there's been blame on dairy farmers that we don't care about our animals, and that you know, there's mistreatment of animals within the dairy industry simply to drive a profit for the company. And I will say that is from my experience and all the dairies I've been to, and all the people I know, that is completely untrue. I've never met somebody who cares more about the animals than a dairy farmer. A dairy farmers get up at two in the morning to go take care of a cow who's having a hard calving to try and save her life and the calves' life, and they'll be up all night doing it, right? If somebody didn't like their animals, they're not doing that. And on our farm, pretty much any farm I've ever been on, cow welfare is probably the the most important topic. You know, we have the the responsibility of taking care of these animals the way they res they deserve to be taken care of, no doubt. But it is also said that we are running a business, and if we have unhealthy or mistreated cows, our business is going to suffer, right? So there's multiple layers to this, but in the end, dairy farmers make every effort to create the most comfortable and humane uh lifestyle for our cows as possible, right? I don't know if that's kind of a myth that rolls around, and I'm sure it will always roll around. If it does, but from my opinion, that is completely untrue. And I I would welcome people to come to our farm to see how the animals are treated and and the life that they they live here.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

So yeah, I mean that's certainly that's been my experience with every farm I've been to is cow comfort, cow care, it's pretty much the top of the list for most farmers concerned. And even if you want to look at it in the most cynical economic way possible, I mean, it doesn't really make economic sense for any cows to be to have anything but a healthy standard of living. No milks go through audits, tests, like there's anything wrong with any of the milk, you know, that's wasted money. So even if you want to be look at it in that cynical way, it doesn't even make sense. So I'm glad you touched upon that. Well, Shane Reed, appreciate you so much for taking time out of your busy day to uh speak with us. And uh thank you for educating the people at home about dairy farming.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Yeah, it's been a pleasure. And uh yeah, I welcome you mentioned more people getting out on the farms from Dairy Gold. Give me a call. Uh, happy to have people come out whenever. And we we try and usually when India or Dairy Gold are doing thing, we like we like to put our hats out there and we'll give you guys a tour and answer your questions.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Perfect. You hear that? Let's go. Let's get these, let's get these tours going. All right, Shane Reed, thank you so much. No problem. Thank you. That's gonna be the first episode of this series. I had a lot of fun talking with Shane Reed, and I hope you enjoyed listening to it. And I hope you're gonna join us next week when we talk with Galen Smith of Cold Stream Farms up in northern Washington, where much of the conversation was focused around AI and technology's involvement in the dairy industry. I think you're gonna really enjoy that. So I hope you'll tune in next week for Have You Heard? Thank you very much.