Ryan Vander Stelt of Dry Lake Dairy

The end is near in our June Dairy Month podcast series but we still have two great episodes left and two Northwest Dairy Association dairy farmers to speak with on Have You Herd.
 
This week, we put away our wheels and busted out the laptops to speak with Ryan Vander Stelt out in Nampa, Idaho about the rise of genomics in dairy farming, the role of government in dairying, free-time activities and much more. 
 
If you enjoyed the podcast, give a like and share and be sure to tune in next week for the Have You Herd finale!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hello, and welcome back to Have You Heard, a special five-part series brought to you by Dairy Gold and the Northwest Dairy Association to celebrate June Dairy Month. That's right, it is the greatest time of year for all of you. Cheese, milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. etc. lovers out there. And folks, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. All those delicious dairy products that you love, well, they don't just magically appear on the shelves. Those products happen to be the product of a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears from some hardworking folks that are living right in your communities. That is why this June Dairy Month, the Northwest Dairy Association and Dairy Gold decided to put a spotlight on the hardworking dairy producers. And that is why you are hearing my annoying voice speaking into your ear because this is Have You Heard? This is the Dairy Gold Podcast. And on this podcast, we speak to those very dairy producers. And this happens to be our fourth episode and also our second to last episode. It's been a lot of fun speaking to these dairy producers and delivering those conversations right to your ear holes. And today I am speaking with a dairy farmer out in Nampa, Idaho, which is about 20 minutes from the city of Boise. His name is Ryan Vanderstel and his farm, Dry Lake Dairy. Now, Idaho's pretty far away from the Dairy Gold headquarters, so this podcast was a little bit different than the other ones that we've done. We did this via Teams, but the conversation went smooth and was engaging nonetheless. I hope as you're listening, you really get a feel for how dairying is like in the Idaho region. In some of these past conversations, we focused a lot on the technology on dairy farms. This conversation with Ryan Vandersteel veered more into the science that goes into dairy farms, as we talked a lot about something that Ryan is particularly passionate about, which is genomics in dairy farming. It was a very interesting conversation, something that I didn't know a lot about, and something that I hope you will also find very intriguing. This is my conversation with Ryan Vandersteel of Dry Lake Dairy in Nampa, Idaho. Enjoy. I should say some of the producers. I'm not interviewing over 200 people for this podcast series, uh, where we take a look at some of the producers that Dairy Gold and the Northwest Dairy Association co-op represents. And today we are talking with someone from the great state of Idaho in the Nampa region. We are talking with Ryan Vandersteel. Ryan, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

I'm doing really well. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Awesome. And how how is the weather down there in Idaho? I'm actually we're recording this via Zoom, so it's gonna be a little different than the other three podcasts we have done. How's the weather up there?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, it's it's been pretty nice. I mean, we get windy springs and and sometimes some rainstorms here and there, which can make spring harvest a little bit difficult. But today, really nice. Nothing to complain about.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

It's kind of cow weather in the 70s, so and you're in the town, you're in the town of Nampa, which is not too far from Boise, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Right, yeah. So we're about 10 miles south of Nampa. Uh Nampa's, I don't even know how big, a couple hundred thousand people now. Um, and we're about 35 minutes from Boise. So uh yeah. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

So you are at Dry Lake Dairy, and could you give maybe a brief biopsy about yourself and about how Dry Lake Dairy came to be and how you are uh connected to Dry Lake Dairy?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah, sure. So like my family history is my grandpa started a dairy in Chino, California, and he was he took on um my dad and my uncle as partners. My dad ended up starting his own rental dairy, and in 2001, um, you know, development kind of forced a an exodus out of out of that area of of dairy farms. And so um my dad was looking in Central Valley Valley, California, like in the Hanford area, um, and then kind of pivoted. I had some other family up here in Idaho and found this spot. Um, there was already two other dairies on the street, and you know, there's some milk plants nearby. Dairy Gold is has a couple plants close. And so joined the co-op, started building that in 2001, and I was about 12 then. So all of a sudden we've been here 25 years. I came back in 2012 after I graduated from college. So I've been here about 14 years, and I have a younger brother who's 29. He's also here and a partner with us as well. Most of the daily decisions are made by myself and and him at this point.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

So and so uh you your introduction into the world of dairy happened when you were 12. So has dairy always been something that you you were interested in going into even when uh you were younger?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah, well, even before that. I mean, in in California, I grew up, we had a house on the dairy, and so I grew up, you know, bottle feeding calves a little bit and um pushing feed when I could drive a tractor. And so I I kind of say this it kind of chose me in a sense. It was always here. I would say, like growing up, there were times where I would look at it and be like, man, this is hard. I don't know if I want to do that. But the more I studied it, the more I got involved with it working on you know, during the summers of high school and college, there's some pretty cool stuff. So I started to get really fired up about it. So yeah, I mean, it it's it's a great opportunity. And I and the older I get, the more I see that it's a pretty amazing opportunity, honestly. There's not a lot of people that get get it, and so to kind of carry on a family legacy like that. So I I try not to take it for granted.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah. So you were pretty inter you were interested in dairy from a young age. Did you go to school uh for something dairy related?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah, I did. Uh at University of Idaho, I did ag business economics, and it was good. I kind of joke it was a four-year vacation from working because uh I did a lot of we'll call it networking and just meeting people, you know. Yeah, but uh had a lot of great professors, learned a lot of stuff there. But I mean, really the learning is on the dairy. You're surrounded by professionals all the time, whether it's nutritionists, veterinarians, you you know, my dad, I'll throw him in there, accountants, that stuff. So you kind of learn from those people along the way, too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Right, right. So you're a Vandal. I'm a I'm a coup, so you know I'll try to so if you if there's any t if any of the listeners feel any tension, just know it's because we're no, actually I loved uh Moscow, Idaho. I I probably went over there just as much as I would hang out in uh Pullman.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

So Yeah, that's a beautiful area.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, no, I I I love that part of Idaho.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

And the college town is is nice, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Um, yeah, Pullman in Iowa.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

It's not a college in a city, it's it's the college is the city.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Right, yeah, no, exactly. Yeah. Pullman and in Moscow are kind of the, for folks who don't know, they're the the towns for Washington State University and University of Idaho. And just imagine the quintessential college town where where during the summers half the population is gone because half the population are students. So yeah, it is a fun place to go to school at. Switching gears a little bit, we'll get to more of the sort of personal stuff about you and your path to dairy later, but I want to I want to talk a little bit more about dry lake dairy and specifically the region in which your dairy farm is at. Can you talk about some of the advantages to dairying in the Nampa-Boise region? For people who may not know, it's a little bit of a drier area, maybe not quite desert-like conditions, but certainly different than the northern part of Idaho and the western parts of the Pacific Northwest coast. Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, well, it's a high desert, you know. So, and that's why I think it it attracts, it's a it attracts cows. It's a nice place to have cows because you're not dealing with, you know, real wet conditions all the time. We average around nine inches of rain annually, which is kind of the same as eastern Washington. So, yeah, that that part's a a big benefit. The the weather doesn't isn't really extreme. I'm not saying we can't get extreme cold or extreme heat, but fairly mild. And so that's that's good for cows. And then um, we're about a mile from the snake river as the crow flies, and so you know that's the main artery of Idaho. So we irrigate most of the ground we have, we irrigate off the snake river, and so it's expensive to go get, but it's there, and so that's that's really positive.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

So, what are the some of the disadvantages to dairy? I imagine the heat is probably one of the major ones, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah, I I would say, well, it's always evolving, but um, we lift water from the snake river anywhere from four to five or you know, four to six hundred feet, say. And so the the cost to irrigate up here can be $250 to $350 an acre. And so that that's expensive in the scheme of things. Now, most of the fields are 125-acre fields that are under pivot. So we have farming efficiencies that we can kind of make up for for that, you know. But yeah, that I would say water cost is is kind of a disadvantage. And as this area grows, I mean, there's been residential growth, you know, exponentially around here, and and the farm ground is now all very expensive. And it it gets to the point where, you know, buying farms, you can grow corn on it for a hundred years and not farm the value out of it. But um, really you're just making, you know, long-term real estate plays. So the cost of the ag ground, I would say, is a little bit maybe a disadvantage. You know, I don't know what farm values are in Washington, but um, yeah, it's just something that's really took off here too.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Well, and so something unique about Dry Lake Dairy that is uh different from some of the other farms that I've gone and done these conversations at is your dairy really is pretty close to Idaho's biggest city, Boise. A lot of farm is usually, you know, especially in Washington, are like an hour, two hours, three hours away from like a major city. Does that change anything about the way you can dairy other than costs? Or is cost kind of the main uh you know, there's several dairies on our street.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Um, and between all of the dairies and a couple other big farmers out here, Simplot being one of them, big farms, and it's really insulated us from growth. Um, because you know, most of the guys out here are big players. Um, the closer you get towards town, you get chopped up farms more, which are slowly turning into houses. That's been a blessing, is is that everybody kind of owning that farm ground has kind of insulated everybody. It's insulated the cows from from pressure.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

You know, you talk about some of the other players in that region. Are you close? Is there kind of a a tight-knit community amongst dairy dairymen or agriculture folks in general in that area?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Oh, yeah. I mean, the dairy, the dairies here, I'm I'm close with all them, friendly. Some of them are with dairy gold, some not. But um, you know, we're all you know, a mile or two apart. I would say there's not a ton of competition really. It's all really friendly. And then, you know, the big farms that are out here, I I've gotten along well with them and been able to buy feed from them. So it's been really healthy from from our perspective.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Can you talk about the feed that you use down there in Boise, Idaho, in in the southern Idaho region? Is it different than feed that someone would use maybe in like northern Idaho or in in a more green area of the country?

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah, I mean, it's drier, so we have, you know, there's a lot of dry hay production here. So as far as like forages go, it's I like a lot of corn silage, and then we feed some in siled alfalfa, some ensiled triticale, and then some dry hay, you know. And then aside from that, the c I would assume the concentrates are pretty well similar, like the proteins, you know, canola, distillers, soybean meal, some cotton. So those feeds I would assume are pretty similar. You know, those are some of the things we do.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

So I want to talk a little bit about a topic that has come up a lot in some of the conversations I've been having has been technology and science's role within dairying. Are there any particular advancements that either maybe you use on your farm or something that you are interested in exploring in the future? Is there is there anything that like excites you in that regard?

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah, so um I would say probably my favorite that I get fired up about is genetics and IVF. I've had an IVF program on the dairy for eight plus years, probably. Um, probably about eight years. What we're able to do with cattle genetics is is pretty amazing to me. Um, we're able to genomic test them and with a high level of predictability what their traits will be, whether production or fertility or or actually what these cows will look like, other composite feet. And so, you know, I would select and get the best genetics I could, use the best bulls, and and use that to enhance at a at a really fast rate the genetics of the herd. It takes a while to come to fruition because I mean when you put one in, you gotta wait nine months for birth, and then you gotta wait two years for it to get to producing age, the the animal, and then you gotta wait a lactation or two to actually see the results. And so um it's been something that I've kept my foot on the throttle on, and I'm a huge believer in it. So that's that's one technology that I would say I've been using a while that that I continue to use. I guess the other one is solar. I have a solar project going on right now, supposed to be done in the next 12 to 18 months. Um supposed to power about 70 to 80 percent of the dairy, and so I'm excited to see where that goes. There's a lot of things that kind of have to fall into place, but they're they're working on it as we speak. Those are a couple of the technologies that I would say that we're doing. But I mean, some of the ones that get me fired up are some of the automatic milking machines that like uh Gia has one that they're putting into parallel parlors now that I think would fit our barn really well. You know, the rotary barns are are kind of king right now, but there's some pretty cool stuff with automated milking for large herds that I mean it's just it's not if it's when. And so I'm just staying tuned with that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah. I I want to go back a little bit about the the genome stuff, uh, because this is something that's very interesting to me. We were talking earlier about how I actually had visited your farm around 2022, and I remember that being a topic as well. So it seems like you are very passionate about this in particular. Does that come from anywhere? Is there any particular thing that that got you so interested in this aspect of farming?

SPEAKER_00 15:29

It's a huge advantage. Um I guess um there's a couple other dairymen that I had worked with getting into it, and then my veterinarians um are also uh involved in it. Um but but I would say I looked at it as you know, the the three big pillars of dairy farming, of running a dairy farm are are probably nutrition, management, and genetics. And and I'm not saying they're in any order, but like you can have the best management and you can have your nutrition right. Um but if you just have the best cows, then that's that's a great advantage. And I always was kind of like, well, I don't I don't I don't know if you can, you know, really um kind of quantify that, but but I know that you can now. And um so that was kind of my angle um from an ear from an early stage. And then I don't know exactly when the genomic test came out, but it was pretty early when I was coming out of college. And so um I kind of took that and I'm like, well, how can we just propel this at a faster rate, you know? So I've just tried to pull all the levers you can pull.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

I'll put this into context a little bit. A lot of the conversations I've had have also there's been a lot of talk of AI. Well, I guess what would you say? Would you say that that genomics, things like that, do you believe that has the potential to bring a greater impact on dairying than something like AI would they're one and the same.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

I mean, they're using genomics to identify the best bulls that we use for AI, right? So they're all kind of intertwined. They can tell early on if a bull or you know, a female um what their potential is for certain traits, you know. And I mentioned like production fertility. Well, if we can make you know 10, 20% more production out of a cow that you know that we're replacing, you know, that's just less resources that we have to use. And if if those cows are lasting longer in the herd or they're getting pregnant sooner, it's it's less animals in total that we actually have to produce make as well. So you could say from a carbon footprint, it's that's it's a massive impact, right? It's less in it's less resources, it's actually less cows that we have to do have to make the same amount of milk. And so um and I've seen some of that play out. Um so yeah, it can make a big difference.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

And so do do you think that the rapid expansion and ubiquitousness of technology, of that kind of technology in dairy, do you think ultimately that is a good thing? Do you see foresee any potential concerns of that, or do you think it's on the up and up?

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Oh, I I just I just think it's I think it's on the up and up. I really do. I mean, I I'm not saying that a guy has to pull all the levers to to compete in the industry, which is not the case, but um it's definitely an advantage. It's definitely an advantage the guys that play into it. And and the technology's been around long enough that it's proven. I mean, uh it's I don't think it's a question of whether it works or not, you know. Um it's just kind of what your palatability is to put it in because it um you know, you it's it's another thing to manage.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Right. When you talk about investment and expansion, if you were a dairy farmer and you were going to put more investment into your dairy farm, would it be that technology or would it be something else?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Well, I've chose to do it. I've chose to do it um because my dad has already built nice facilities. You know, we have almost all these cows in freestall barns, a lot like some cow cooling. I mean, I think those are important too. Environment and management, super important. You can make huge impacts there. Um our dairy is just not at the point where we have to build a new crossment barn or new freestall barns or whatever. So those are certainly noble investments. But when I've come at it, you know, I've come at it, well, like let's let's make more with the same amount that we have, right? So, you know, where these cows 10 years ago were giving 88 pounds, now they're giving 98 pounds, and they're getting pregnant at a much easier, you know, much easier. Um and so to me, it's like our herd size hasn't changed, but the production has gone up 20%. Right or less, you know. So to me, that's just doing more with what you have. Um and I think every dairy is uh, you know, expansions have to be carefully timed and planned. And so um I think uh that's different for every person, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

And I I'm glad you touched upon technology, letting dairy farmers do more without necessarily needing to expand. Do you feel that that is sort of essential as the price of land goes up? These areas where where dairy farms have been for a long time, see residential expansion. Do you think that dairy farmers are going to have to invest in just doing more with uh what they already have?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Oh, they've been doing that for 40 years or more. I mean, when you look at the milk per cow number uh over the years, it's it's just a straight up graph. It's just um that's just what it is. Um so like I said, it's just it's just um you guys go about it a bunch of different ways. Um that's just one technology I've used to do that, you know. So it's not yeah, they they they Derrimin have done that and they definitely will continue, I promise.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

And so speaking on that, something that I think a lot of people who are outside of uh the dairy industry and probably just agriculture in general is they have a perspective on the farm life and of farmers themselves. You know, maybe maybe their perception isn't necessarily the super old school like going out hand milking the cows, but I think a lot of people don't realize that these dairy farmers are. just as much businessmen as they are like laborers. And I think you speak really well on that when you talk about having to consider investing and having to figure out ways in which you can do more with what you have. That was just kind of an aside, but I I think it's I think that's why conversations like this are important for people outside the dairy industry to hear, because I think there's a lot of preconceived notions, which actually kind of brings me into my next topic I kind of want to talk about. Obviously you talked about being into dairy at a young age. Do you see there being any concerns with like future generations coming up having preconceived notions on being in agriculture and not wanting to pursue these kind of careers? Is that a cause for concern?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

It's not a cause I don't lose a lot of sleep about it, but I do think a lot about just making sure the opportunity is here for the next generation, whether that's for my son or my daughters or or whatever. And so but that's just a part of making a sustainable business right and and just making sure that you're trying to preserve the ground and improve the facilities and pursue improve the cows like along the way you know we're not just getting by. And so to me I I want to make it a a really attractive business that to kind of carry on the legacy. And then like it's like single digits that make it to the third and it's like almost nothing that makes it to the fourth. And so I think um it takes a lot of effort. I think it takes a lot of effort to kind of overcome odds like that. So yeah I I I think I think um like I said I don't have a lot of concern for it but I but I do put a lot of thought into it.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

So what do you think the split on that is the consolidation in dairying has come from economic pains?

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Do you believe like younger people not being as interested in this industry plays just as large of a role or is it pretty even well consolidation has happened for a lot like you know economics it certainly has a lot to do with it is you can drive costs down significantly um but um aside from that I think that you know you gotta you know smaller dairies they can keep up if everything's right you know um and and sometimes there's just um not as much want to try to pursue it you know if it's not if it's not big enough or scaled enough um and where you're having to do more things yourself. It's just different. I think the bigger these farms get the more ownership is you know looking at accounting and risk management and employees and this and and you're I'm not saying you don't work with your hands at all. There's certainly a lot of that um but um it's just it's different it's a different way to oversee the business I guess is what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Right. And you know like as we were talking about earlier when I went to your farm it was for a Girl Scout initiative that we were doing at the time so we had we had Girl Scouts come and visit your farm. That kind of community outreach do you feel that's important or is that kind of a fun thing to get people out on the farm I think it's good.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

I think that's why people like agri tourism has just like people love it you know one of my neighbors here she does like a farm camp and and people sign up and and people come to it you know and and I can't believe how many people sign up for it you know now to me I've just been around this stuff for so long that I I you know I see this stuff every day and then and then you have people come to the farm and they watch a cow a calf being born and they'll just sit there for an hour and a half and just be speechless you know and I see this all the time you know it's cool to see that I think it's important and certainly it's easy to get caught up in the everyday grind and and not put emphasis on that but I mean it's good to make an effort to keep your doors open. I think it's it it people like to see where their food comes from.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I'm glad you you said agrotourism that's that's a new word for me. I I have never heard that it feels like for younger folks it does seem like there's starting to be a a bit of a not a outright rejection but people are wanting to go outside the the kind of confines of their technologically induced worlds you know whether that be hiking or as you were talking about going out to a place like a dairy farm and getting to see what the products that they're consuming are actually coming from. Is that something that you've explored doing more of on your farm or is it something you you don't have time for?

SPEAKER_00 26:58

I haven't I don't know if I'm the best people person to be to be giving tours all the time but certainly there's been a lot of success with it and and and we have you know family friends that we brought out and showed around and it it's it's pretty awesome you know no yeah no I I think that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Okay so speaking on so we were we were talking earlier about the consolidation of dairy across I mean honestly probably across the country. And so let's talk a little bit about relationship of the dairy farm the dairy farmer and the co-op and then in dairy gold's case being the marketing arm of said co-op can you talk a little bit about why that relationship is important?

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Well dad's been in co-ops even before Dairygold and there's a lot of security in it because uh you know you know that your milk's gonna get picked up and you know it has a home so there's a lot of security in that and that uh just one person can't just make a decision on the the future of your farm right and so that there's some there is some value in that other than that you can make lots of products you know you kind of spread your risk out by making multiple products and and multiple plants so you have um different ways to shuffle milk around but I do think that's the primary you know duty of the co-op is is um you know to to get the milk picked up and handle it correctly and to make valuable products you know I I make it sound easy that I know that's not an easy thing. You know there's there's a lot of dairymen that it's like you know there's so much work that goes into making this milk it's like the second it gets picked up you're like oh man it's gone you know that I don't have to think about that anymore. Well there is so much that goes on on the other side of that right to getting it on the shelf.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

So that's the purpose of of the co-op so right and let's let's talk about the sort of tight rope all three of these uh aspects of this industry the the dairy farmer the co-op in the marketing have to walk do you think it's a it's a tight rope to walk when you have kind of the business side which sort of looks at modernization of processes or technology within something like plants while also making sure the dairy farmers are are getting paid a fair price for the dairy milk Hasco finally opened up last year. It caused a lot of financial hurt all the way to the opening of it. As you as a dairy farmer do you believe that the the hopefully temporary pain for things like that is worth it in the end?

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Well that's absolutely the hope you know it it's it's a lot of money to to throw out something um for it not to produce and so I I think um I think as far as the PASCO project goes it it sounds like everything's you know off to a a good start here and and unfortunately the market has has really played in in the co-op's favor. And so hopefully there's a lot of premium powder coming out of there um but but I think it's the goal is to for it to make money the company to make money right and to return that money to to the owners the the dairyman right um but but also investing in newer stuff like the the L E S L line and Boise you know like that I love that scent milk. That that stuff's awesome I I bring it to my kids baseball game I pass it out to the players like they love it. So I I think it's really important to to keep investing in that stuff. It's the same way how I'm talking about investing in you know um you know whether you're adding on a building out of dairy or you're doing uh you know a renewable energy product project or or whatever you're doing um you you have you have to be able to do both uh you have to be able to balance both you know sustainability in a co-op is super important but there's no sustainability without profitability. Yeah exactly so the company has to make money.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

And that's that's something I hear a lot of dairy farmers talk about when they speak on their own investments in things like sustainability where the hope is the economics of it work out. I think thinking about it in that way and again it's it's it goes back to people not realizing the complexities of the actual business of dairying having kind of an old fashioned perspective on it. That being said, do you think that the older generation of dairy farmers the majority of them have still sort of an old school mindset on things like technology or investment into sustainability practices?

SPEAKER_00 31:54

I don't know. I think it depends on where people are at in their career. If they're looking to get out of the business pretty soon then I would assume that they're not looking to invest in future you know projects like that. That being said um if a guy's been in the dairy business for a while and he's been around co-ops this is not new stuff. The scales keep getting bigger you know as dairies get bigger the plant the the plants get bigger the efficiencies of scale get bigger it everything so the risks continue to get larger. So I would say the concepts are the same it's just the numbers get bigger. So those are the two things I'd say about that. What do you believe is the government's role in the financial success of dairy uh there's been a few bills passed there was one in particular I'm thinking of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act which brings whole milk back into school lunchrooms do you think that government has an overly sized hand to play in the business of a a sector like dairy or I I I'm I'm a fan of a little more hands-off approach when it comes to government I I don't love when the government comes in and makes massive purchases of product that skew that can just tilt the market like crazy um we saw that during COVID when you're getting you know milk put in school lunches I'm a big fan of that one I'm a big fan of that one I I think that that's great for everybody I think that's I think that's a win-win I'm someone that participates in a lot of risk management and there's a lot of programs for crops cattle milk that are all subsidized under the farm bill and that just presents affordable opportunities for farmers to manage their risks it's not free money it's opportunities and I'm I'm a big fan of of that it's uh you know it's it's just insurance it's it's milk insurance dairy insurance milk insurance livestock insurance so I'm I'm a big fan of the risk management tools and I'm less of a fan of direct payments to farmers when the government makes massive purchases of product that can just skew the market in that and I'm not saying just dairy products they can make big purchases of any of commodities that we feed andor something like that and then all of a sudden our costs get out of whack and then how does a guy really manage risk when when that's going on so so that's my take on it.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

It was on my mind because the other conversations I've had have were in Oregon and Washington which uh of course have a very different governing style than Idaho does. And so I was curious to know if you being in Idaho gives you any you know advantages disadvantages over a dairy farm in like Washington or Oregon or if it's pretty neutral.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

I mean I I don't know what those guys go through on a daily basis to be honest with you but I think personally I think it's a huge advantage. There's not the the the crazy overtime rules and I think labor is a little bit easier over here. I think that when it comes to like uh nutrient management I'm not gonna say it's more it's not more relaxed but it is a little bit easier to in instances like we we uh pump all our wastewater through pivots and that's a massive advantage we can basically put that stuff on crops when we want and it makes it much easier to get more dry matter tons off of an acre so yeah so we can get more feeds and it's less costly to handle waste. So so those are some things that that are I think an advantage over here and and that's without milling the whole picture. I mean unless you live it every day then it's it's hard to say you know obviously life of the of a dairyman's 12 plus hour days and I'm sure you don't have a lot of time for uh extracurriculars but is there anything in particular you like doing when you you're not attached to the dairy farm oh yeah I like hunting my son likes fishing a lot you know we we s we a lot of those things I just listed we do them all I I don't have as much time for that you know I have three young kids now and so that that takes up you know most of my time aside from from the dairy here so but I but I still like to get out and enjoy some of those when I can you know golfing I like golfing too so yeah tons of stuff to do limited time speaking of your children are they are they of the age yeah where they can kind of help out around the uh farm yeah so my oldest is eight he loves to get out in the farm and do whatever I'm doing a lot of times I'm in the office doing stuff and that's pretty boring to him but we'll get him out on a tractor you know doing something working with his hands or just following people around and learning stuff. My daughters are six and two so um they like uh my six year old likes just riding her bike around a little bit in the evenings when it's quiet. There's always interesting stuff going on. So they want to check it out.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Right. And obviously they're young enough to where this probably isn't something you're necessarily thinking about but do you have any hopes that they take a enough of an interest into dairy that they they might want to do this as a career themselves or I think that's the hope is that the legacy continues and I think this location certainly has enough years on it that they can continue to kind of build on it and preserve it.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So yeah I I think the hope's there for that.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Oh yeah you're a busy man I won't take up too much of your time whether it's uh dairy itself or being a dairy farmer working on a dairy farm owning a dairy farm is is there anything else that you want to let the folks listening who majority probably don't know a whole lot about the industry is there anything important that you would like them to take away or impart on them?

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah I I think what I'll say is like what's really rewarding to me is you know you basically take you know you make something from nothing you you take all these ingredients water dirt McFeed and you make a wholesome product that's great for people probably you know one of the most nutritiously dense foods known to man and beef too. And so that's super rewarding. The lifestyle is I think owning your own business is nice. You can kind of make your own schedule I always have a saying is even when I'm not here I'm always here my mind's always turning and my phone's always on it doesn't really matter if it's you know two in the morning or two in the afternoon it's it's whatever. So I think that's kind of with any business dairy is just 247. So it's it's a little bit hard to shut it off sometimes in my head you know what I mean yeah physically it never shuts off.

unknown 38:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

So uh so yeah I mean uh but that's part of it but rewarding overall awesome well Ryan uh thanks so much for your time thanks for speaking with me about dairy farming I'm always learning a lot from these conversations so I hope the people listening learn a lot too great talking to you about your farm dry like dairy in Idaho and uh yeah thanks Dan yeah cool and that was our episode thanks again to Ryan Vandersteelt for taking time out of his day to speak with us here on Have You Heard? And folks our time together is almost finished next week will be our last episode in the special five part Gene Dairy Month series. We'll be speaking with Doug Camerman out in Montana. This was a unique conversation because Doug is one of only five dairy farmers out in Montana represented by the Northwest Dairy Association. Montana is the furthest region in which we represent but we'll save all of that for next week when we have our final episode of Have You Heard thanks for listening to this episode and we hope to see you back for our finale next week. Thank you