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Mike Howell (00:08):
The Dirt, with me, Mike Howell, an economics podcast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by eKonomics.com, farming’s go-to informational resource, I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, use and issues, helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in.
(00:41):
Well, hello again everyone. Welcome back to The Dirt. Glad you’re joining in with us today. It’s getting into fall and we can’t turn the television on these days. We can’t turn the radio on, can’t pick up a newspaper, or even pick up our phones without seeing something going on about politics and Washington, DC, and we really don’t understand or I don’t understand everything that’s going on. I thought it would be good if we could dig into this a little more today and help figure things out a little bit. So my guest today is Connor Hamburg. Connor is the manager of Government & Industry Affairs with Nutrien. He’s been with the company a little over three years. Previously, he’s worked as a lobbyist for the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association and as an advisor to members of Congress.
(01:25):
Considering how many opinions people have about government, I’m excited to help pull back the curtain a little bit, so to speak and hear from someone who really knows what’s going on in Washington, DC.
(01:37):
Connor, welcome to The Dirt, and how are you today?
Connor Hamburg (01:39):
I’m doing well, Mike. I’m excited to be on here. Don’t check the math on this, but I believe we’re about 87 days away from the November election, so we’re starting to get really close. Right now, you’re right, if you’re sitting in one of those battleground states, you’re going to be flooded with advertisements. It’s probably going to be every other commercial that you’re going to see, so it’s going to be at the forefront of the national conversation. Right now, ironically, I’m sitting here in the Washington, DC office, and Washington, for those of you who don’t follow the ebbs and flows of the daily cycle in Washington, DC August is relatively pretty quiet right now. Most members of Congress are back home and campaigning. They’re going to be at the conventions shaking hands, and so for us, for the folks that are still in Washington, it’s relatively pretty quiet. It’s a great time to be on a podcast and maybe talk a little bit about what I’m seeing on the ground here.
Mike Howell (02:33):
Connor, I’m thrilled to have you on the show today because you truly are the ultimate insider in Washington, DC. Everybody’s got their own opinion about Washington and the government. Some people even have two or three opinions if you talk to them long enough, but very few people really know it as well as you do. You’re involved intimately in the daily activities that are going on there. I think it would be fascinating for our listeners to hear some of your stories and insights. And given your extensive experience in this field, I think it’d be great to hear some of this from you. Let’s start off and, if you will, just give us an overview of what Government & Industries Affairs is and what you do in your current role.
Connor Hamburg (03:10):
That’s a great question, Mike. Let me first just try to drill down what exactly is government industry affairs. Folks, first they hear the word government in my job title, and they might think I work for the government. That is absolutely not true. I’m employed by Nutrien. The best way I can describe our function within the company, there’s a few of us out there or basically where the laws are made, whether it’s in state capital, whether it’s in Brazil or whether it’s in Australia or in Canada and Ottawa, there’s a few of us there. We’re basically the eyes and ears for the business.
(03:41):
I’ll talk a little bit more about what I do in Washington. You’ve got 10,000 bills plus that are introduced every two years, so you have a lot of legislation that’s introduced and you’ve got 535 members of Congress that are introducing bills and you’ve got regulatory bodies here, USDA, EPA, Department of Transportation, et cetera, And so you’ve got a lot of noise in Washington. You got a lot of press releases. So it’s my job, it’s my duty to really cut through that noise, and I’ll use DC parlance, really find out what exactly has legs, what bills could move, how they could impact our company, in effect, potentially even shape them.
(04:21):
In effect, I’m a registered lobbyist, and so there’s certainly a negative connotation to the term lobbyist. If I were to run for office myself, there’s negative campaign ads would certainly write themselves. I know there’s a negative connotation, but I really want to dispel that notion because I think what we do is really important. I liken it to two ways, and the first is that I think we’re in the education business. And then second, I think we’re in sales. What I really mean by that is there’s certainly a trajectory here in the US. On 1800s, we were predominantly an agrarian society, so most of our policymakers or lawmakers had some sort of connection to agriculture. Even a hundred and some years ago, we had about 50% of the population that was still living on a farm. Now it’s less than 2%.
(05:08):
And so you get these members of Congress now that are two, three, even four generations removed from agriculture, and so they really don’t know what our industry does. So they are being tasked on a day-to-day basis with voting on major pieces of legislation that can affect the way our business operates and more importantly how our customers do their business, the farmer customer.
(05:30):
I’d like to use an example. Imagine just putting yourself in your shoes. You’re 40 years old, you just were elected to Congress and your background is maybe let’s just use this, an example, your healthcare profession. It’s your first or second day in office and it’s 10:00 AM in the morning and all of a sudden you’re voting on a major defense bill, how the Pentagon sets its policy. Well, you might not have that background. All of a sudden you’re expected to be an expert on China policy, Russia policy or procurement policy, and you’re making a major decision at 10 AM and then at 2:00 PM, you’re going to potentially be voting on a bill that would set how our rail policy is enacted in the US, and all of a sudden you’re expected to be an expert on rail. What a lobbyist’s job or roles to do is to go in and have those conversations with those lawmakers and inform them about your industry.
(06:21):
Everyone has the right to petition the government, that’s in the First Amendment. And so when there’s major bills or legislation that could impact agriculture, I have a background in agriculture, this is sort of what my profession has led me to do and I work for a company that is a major agriculture company within the US, and so we have a unique role to play and so a perspective on how legislation could impact us, and so we’re going in and having those conversations.
Mike Howell (06:46):
Connor, I couldn’t agree more. Everything y’all are doing up there is vitally important to not only our business but the business of our customers. There’s so many things that are tied to agriculture either directly or indirectly. You mentioned the railroads, and that’s how we move a lot of our products from place to place. And if we have some legislation that affects the railroads, that’s ultimately going to affect us and affect our growers and how we can deliver product to them.
(07:10):
Connor, would you give us a little brief overview of your background and how you got to Washington and some of the interest you’re working on in ag policy?
Connor Hamburg (07:17):
Yeah, Mike, what’s interesting is, as you get older, you look back at some of those moments in your life that really had a profound impact on your career trajectory. And for me, my family has been farming for generations. I’m from Delaware. We grow corn bean and wheat. For those of you who don’t know Delaware, it is a major ag producing state. It’s our largest industry, so we do have a lot of farms in the state.
(07:43):
My grandfather, I’ll never forget, I was at the Delaware State Fair, I had to have been 10, 11 years old, and my grandfather was talking to a certain senator at the time and came over to me after the conversation. My grandfather looked at me and he said, “Connor, you never want to be the politician. You always want to be the person in their ear.” And that stuck with me. And so that was sort of my north star and what I wanted to do. I’ve always had an interest in agriculture, my family’s involved in agriculture, but I was more so interested in the politics, the commodity markets more so than it was on the farm operations.
(08:18):
I went to school, studied economics and political science with the goal of ending up in Washington, DC. With a little bit of luck too as well, I got a chance to work for a few members of Congress being their ag advisors and then parlayed that experience working for the National Corn Growers Association as one of their lobbyists in Washington, DC, representing the interest of corn growers, which had a really special effect on me since I got to feel like I was representing my family farm as well.
(08:43):
And then after that I worked for the Renewable Fuels Association, so I lobbied on ethanol issues for three years. You can ask any ethanol lobbyist in DC, it’s really true. One year in ethanol policy is about seven years anywhere else, so that’s where I started to get my gray hairs, and then ended up getting the great opportunity to work for Nutrien. I’ve been here for over three years now. I might be one of those few people that can say this, but I really do enjoy getting up and going to work every day. I think what I do is really interesting and it’s exciting and every day is different.
Mike Howell (09:12):
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(09:35):
Connor, you mentioned that you’re the manager of Government & Industry Affairs. Tell us a little bit about your responsibilities and what you do every day as a lobbyist.
Connor Hamburg (09:43):
Yeah. So every day is entirely different, and I think that’s what makes this job thrilling. I will say if there is a routine, what I do every day is the first thing you do and I tell anyone who has an interest in doing what I do, is you really have to stay on top of the news. That news cycle changes drastically from the time I go to bed, from the time I wake up in the morning. So come 5:00 or 6:00 AM, the first thing I’m doing is I’m checking my emails and I’m reading the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times or any of the major publications, Bloomberg, just seeing what happened last night, what happened yesterday, and then what’s expected to happen today. And so your day can really change by the hour here. So I could spend the first morning of my day talking to lawmakers, talking to members on Capitol Hill and their staff. And then later on in the day I could be at USDA talking to a regulatory body.
(10:33):
The other part of my job that I do also want to have a chance to talk about is it’s just not government. It’s also industry affairs, which is vitally important. When you’re a farmer in the US, you’re represented in Washington, DC as well. So you have multiple organizations. You have the American Farm Bureau Federation, you’ve got the National Corn Growers Association, you’ve got the American Soybean Association, you’ve got the Wheat Growers, you’ve got the Western Growers, you’ve got American Cotton Council, Rice. I think you see where I’m going with this, is that there’s representation for every major plant in the US. Part of our job too is knowing what our customers, what they want and what they’re working on in DC and what they’re asking their representation in DC. For example, I sit on the National Corn Growers Association’s, Ag Industry Affairs Council, and next week I’ll be with them and get to learn a little bit more about their priorities and have those conversations as well. So every day is different, and that’s the beauty of this job.
Mike Howell (11:26):
Connor, let’s get a little deeper in and talk a little bit about some of the policies and legislation that’s out there. I travel around the country a lot and visit with a lot of farmers. Everywhere I go, somebody is talking about the farm bill. We know it’s been set to renew several times and it just keeps getting pushed down the tracks a little further. Give us some insight on the farm bill. I guess give us the basics of the farm bill and exactly what it is and what we need to know about the farm bill.
Connor Hamburg (11:52):
Mike, this is one of favorite things to talk about because it’s a vitally important legislation. There’s outside of maybe rural America, not too many people know about the farm bill. It’s about $1.5 trillion right now. And to put that in perspective, there’s very few bills by Congress that are that large.
(12:11):
So in Congress, bills are scored. So what a score means is how much that piece of legislation would spend over a certain period of time. DC scores bills in a 10-year timeframe. So the foreign bill is expected to, in the next time it’s passed, spend about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. So it’s a major, major piece of legislation.
(12:31):
And I really break it down into two components here. Agriculture is really governed in two ways. It’s governed through USDA, which is really the promoter of agriculture. They run programs such as crop insurance, commodity support programs, research and development. And then on the other side, we’re regulated via EPA. So EPA promulgates regulations that could impact how you’re able to put a crop in the ground and harvest that crop.
(13:00):
So this farm bill is basically the sole bill that gives USDA its authority, and it’s broken down into 12 titles. About 80% of it right now is for that SNAP, Nutrition Title, and the rest of it is geared towards agriculture. So horticulture type title, miscellaneous title, you’ve got conservation sustainability title, you’ve got a crop insurance title, you’ve got a commodity support title. And so it’s a major, major piece of bill and it does impact all 50 states in the US.
Mike Howell (13:29):
Connor, I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about the farm bill and you got into it with all the titles there. We have a lot of people listening that don’t do anything with production agriculture, and they seem to think that the farm bill is just there to benefit the farmers. But there’s a lot more pieces of that farm bill that really affects everybody in the United States.
(13:47):
Connor, whenever there’s a significant piece of legislation like this, many people pin their hopes and dreams on it for changes to the programs and the way the government operates. Your team has been leading the company’s advocacy efforts behind the scenes seeking policy changes in the farm bill. What are the legislative goals that the company is aiming to achieve in the farm bill?
Connor Hamburg (14:07):
I didn’t touch on this in the previous question, but I do now. The farm bill is not taken up every year. It’s supposed to be taken up every five years. Congress did this on purpose. They said, “|Okay, we’re going to pass a major piece of bill that’s going to impact all of agriculture, then we’re going to wait five years, let it be implemented and then see how it works. And if it’s working well, then great. We don’t need to make too many changes to this. If it isn’t working well, well let’s make some changes.”
(14:32):
What members of Congress do typically is they go on listening sessions, tours back home in the district. They know that they don’t have all the answers in Washington, and so they want to go back to the district or their states and have those conversations with their producers, with agribusiness and find out what’s working and what isn’t.
(14:48):
For us as a company, being a major ag company with connectivity and nexus to our grower customers, and if they’re not doing well, our company’s not going to do well. So we took a hard look over the past few years at the previous farm bill, which was passed in 2018, and we said, “What are some changes that could be made in this legislation that could not only benefit us but our grower customers? That folks aren’t looking at and that we might have a unique perspective on?
(15:12):
So our company pulled from within the corners of our company, all aspects, the retail and wholesale sides. We convened a group of folks who are experts and we said, “Okay, let’s take a holistic look at this legislation and let’s come up with some ideas on how we can improve this next farm bill so that we can go to lawmakers” because they’re talking to us too. We convened those meetings that happened over a couple months and we came up with three policy priorities that we would like to see changed. And so I’ll talk a little bit more about those in a second, but when lawmakers are coming to us and asking us what they want to see changed in the farm bill, we’ve got some ideas for them.
Mike Howell (15:45):
Connor, who all do you talk to when you’re trying to figure out what kind of policy we need to change? I mean, obviously you’d be talking to the commodity groups and members of Congress, probably USDA, probably some non-government organizations as well. But who exactly are you talking to and how do you blend all of these different opinions into one common policy that you can lobby for?
Connor Hamburg (16:05):
First, you need to get alignment, right? And you’ve got to have folks that are supportive of this outside of your company. And I really look at, there’s three ways that you can lobby. You can lobby via just yourself. If you’ve got a company specific issue, you can go in and talk to a lawmaker. Yeah, that works. We’re a large company, we’re in 45 states, so doors are opened up for us. But when you’re going in as a sort of solo lobbying, it’s probably the least effective way.
(16:33):
The second way you can lobby is through a trade association. We belong to a few trade associations, Fertilizer Institute, which represents the fertilizer industry, Ag Retailers Association, which represents ag retailers, the Chamber of Commerce, which represents all US businesses. So you can go in as a representative of a trade association. If you’ve got a sector issue that needs to be discussed, high tide can lift all boats, you can go in as a trade association and lobby that way.
(16:59):
And the third, which I think is the most effective way at lobbying, is through coalitions. Again, I go back to that industry affairs portion of my title. We’ve got really, really good relationship with all the commodity organizations in DC. Before I go in and talk to a lawmaker, I want to know what the corn growers are saying about an issue, whether they like it in an idea or not, or what American Farm Bureau thinks about this issue. So we go in and have those conversations first with those groups, talk to them about these issues, see if we’re in alignment. And if we are, we can go in to a lawmaker’s office with some of those commodity organizations, not just us. So when these lawmakers are hearing about the issue, they’re not going, “Oh, this is just agribusiness that cares about this issue. This could actually benefit the farmer, which they care about.”
(17:40):
Farmers have this rare effect in DC, I call it the halo effect, which over 80 to 90% of the US population thinks what they’re doing is good. I can’t think of another sector in the economy where the general public feels that way. So when a farmer or grower comes in to talk to a lawmaker, the lawmaker is going to listen more so than probably any other portion of our economy. So when you go in and you have those conversations, you really, really have a better chance of enacting change because when you’re pitching a lawmaker an idea or you’re trying to influence a piece of legislation and they know that the farmer cares about it and they want it, you have a greater chance of getting that passed.
Mike Howell (18:19):
Connor, I have a little bit of personal experience with that, not in Washington, but in the state legislature. Back when I was working with Extension, we had a group of farmers that were trying to get a commodity organization established in the state and had to do that through the legislature. We had a bunch of meetings and had everything planned out and knew we had to go to the capitol. I was with the group of farmers when they went. We had some meetings lined up, but we went to the chairman of the ag committee’s office and his secretary immediately walked in his office and told him he had a group of farmers there. His office was full of other legislators, and he just sent them out right then. He said, “Give me my office.” And he sat down for an hour and talked to those farmers. So that’s exactly right, they want to hear from the farmers.
Connor Hamburg (19:00):
Yeah, that’s a great story, Mike. And I think it really nails it in the head with what I was trying to get out there with an example.
Mike Howell (19:06):
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(19:29):
So Connor, we know you’re advocating for a lot of things. Can you give us a couple of examples of things that you’re working on right now?
Connor Hamburg (19:34):
As I mentioned earlier, we’re working on sort of three policy priorities, and I’ll go into those a little bit more in depth here. The first is more so on the wholesale side, but it’s to get potash and phosphate on the US critical mineral list. I know Mark Tully was on here a few weeks back and gave a market overview of what happened in the fertilizer markets, but in Washington, DC we got a lot of interest from lawmakers when farmers and growers, producers were coming into lawmakers offices and talking about input prices and how they were going up and asking for lawmakers to think through with some of those policy challenges and what could be done to maybe soften some of those prices.
(20:13):
And so naturally, being the world’s largest fertilizer manufacturer, we had a lot of lawmakers come to us and ask us. One of the things that we’ve been working on is, what can we do to, first, send a positive market signal that the US cares about the domestic fertilizer industry and expanding that market and making it easier for producers in the US to reduce those essential Nutriens? But second, what could be done to help on the permitting side? On average, if you want to build out a new wholesale fertilizer manufacturing facility in the US. It takes years and years to build out those permits and to get permits.
(20:48):
What would help with that is all the rage right now, all the discussions is about critical minerals. They’re mostly geared towards defense or electric batteries or semiconductors, but as it turns out, two of those minerals are ag minerals, and that’s potash and a phosphate. And they’re not on the US critical mineral list. And so what we’re trying to do right now is try to pressure the Biden administration, especially through legislation in Congress to get potash and phosphate added to the US critical mineral list. So we have a bipartisan bill not only introduced in the Senate but also in the House Representatives that would do such.
(21:20):
And so we’re trying to look at what are some legislative vehicles that we could add this to. Clearly, the farm bill, what I talked about is certainly an opportunity there, although the farm bill has not been moving. Did see action in that House just out of committee though, but we haven’t seen any floor action on the Senate and the House.
(21:37):
And then the other potential opportunity is through the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets defense policy in the US. That’s coming up. So we’re having some discussions with the committees of jurisdiction on the Armed Services Committee and the House of Senate about getting a potential amendment there. So I have potentially more to share on that front.
(21:54):
And then our two other priorities are we call the TSP Access Act and the Plant Biostimulants Act. The Plant Biostimulants Act, again, bipartisan bill, we feel really good about its chances in the farm bill. And what it would do is, plant biostimulants are sort of all the rage right now. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a market that is really expected to grow in the years to come. But the last thing I think we want is for that marketplace to not have regulatory certainty. And so this bill would provide that regulatory certainty for rural to ever be enacted in the law and it really would help that industry grow by providing that regulatory certainty.
(22:28):
And then the third is the TSP Access Act. And so if you take a step back a few years ago, there was a major bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided about $20 billion to conservation programs over at USDA. USDA just doesn’t have the personnel right now to get that money out through the door through their technical service providers, which help producers and growers sign up for USDA conservation programs. And so what we’re saying is, “Hey, we’re a company that has over 4,000 CCA, certified crop advisors, that have that background and that training that could also be able to service technical service providers as well and be able to be paid via those USDA dollars. And so if this bill passes, it would make it a little bit easier. USDA would stand up a program to make it a little bit easier for CCAs to be able to be certified as TSBs and be able to help get set that conservation money out the door.
Mike Howell (23:18):
Okay. Connor, it sounds like you’ve definitely got a lot of stuff going on. Let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about a different aspect of policy, and that’s politics. This is something that’s important in every state, but are there electoral politics involved in the farm bill?
Connor Hamburg (23:33):
There are, Mike. And I alluded to this earlier, the farm bill touches on all 50 states, whether that’s through that nutrition title or the farm programs, chances are you’re likely going to be affected by that. If you’re a member of Congress and the foreign bill comes up for a vote, you’ve got to make that decision. Are you going to vote yes for that or are you going to vote no for that? There’s a lot of calculation involved that a member has to decide and think through, but when a bill touches on all 50 states, there are certainly electoral consequences.
(24:04):
And then stepping outside of that, you got to think there’s really six battleground states at the presidential level, and you kind of run through them. It’s Michigan, it’s Wisconsin, it’s Pennsylvania, it’s Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. I’m looking at those six states that are being discussed right now, sort of those states that could go either way in the presidential election. And you look at those four states, four out of those six states, I think agriculture is the number one industry in those states. So these lawmakers and the candidates that are visiting those states are certainly going to hear about the importance of the farm bill, especially right now as it’s likely to be considered sometime this year, they’re going to be getting the air full on this. So there will certainly be pressure for lawmakers to vote a certain way depending on who their audience is.
Mike Howell (24:50):
Connor, we talked a lot about the farm bill, and that’s probably one of the biggest ones that you spend a lot of your time working on. Something else I hear a lot about these days is the Endangered Species Act. Now that’s not something new, it’s been around for a long time, but apparently there was some miscommunication or somebody didn’t dot all the Is and cross the Ts when we got a lot of our pesticide products registered over the years. The way I understand this, we could actually lose a lot of our pesticides that these farmers are relying on to produce these crops when they come back up for re-registration. Is that something that you’re focused on? Can you enlighten us a little more on this?
Connor Hamburg (25:26):
Yeah, absolutely. And we have those conversations with EPA and our commodity friends as well. This is something that’s very much at the top of their policy agenda and something that they’re watching as well. You got to take a step back and there was a law that was passed in the early 1970s, and you’re right, it’s the Endangered Species Act. Basically, what this law does is that anytime that there’s some sort of government action, you’ve got to take into account whether that’s going to have in effect on an endangered species. Unfortunately, EPA previously did not do that, and so they were taken to court. Some sort of an agreement between the courts and EPA.
(26:05):
EPA is being required via the courts to take a look at how some of these products might impact the endangered species. You go through all the states where these products are applied, there’s a chance that there is an endangered species there. And so EPA is working to address that. Right now they’ve been submitting herbicide and pesticide and insecticide plans and allowing comments for that. And by now some of the commodity groups have been commenting on that.
(26:31):
EPA really is working through to see what are some mitigation measures because I don’t think the EPA wants to be in the position that they’re going to have to remove these products, although they are being pressured by some environmental groups to. So what they think they’re doing is they’re trying to make sure stakeholders such as ourselves have a chance to weigh in and see if there’s a way to maybe get EPA in agreement with the courts. Because if they don’t, if they skew too far one way or the other, EPA is likely to get sued on this. This is certainly a sensitive topic, not only between agriculture but also the environmental community who certainly doesn’t see things the way we do.
Mike Howell (27:05):
So Connor, I know there’s a lot of stuff going on. Is there anything else that will directly affect production agriculture that our listeners need to be aware of?
Connor Hamburg (27:13):
Yeah, Mike, there’s certainly something I’d like our listeners to be aware of that might not be getting as much attention as it probably should. And that’s really, you’ve got to look back at what are some policies or laws that fundamentally helps agriculture over the years. There’s one big one that was enacted in 2005 and then expanded in 2007, and that was a renewable fuel standard. That required a certain amount of biofuels to be blended in to our liquid transportation fuel. And if you think what that did to corn and bean prices, you’ve got over 200 ethanol or biofuels plants throughout the US. Those are good paying manufacturing jobs that are in Iowa, that are in Nebraska, that are in the heartland. We really haven’t seen laws that have really changed agriculture like that since 2007.
(27:59):
While there is a potential new tax credits called the 45Z tax credit, that was signed in the law in 2022. What that law would do is if you are selling a fuel that is under a 50% greenhouse gas emissions threshold compared to regular petroleum fuel, you’ll get a credit for that. So you think about some of the fuels that could potentially get that money, what could be ethanol or biofuels. And so we’re seeing this program likely to be stood up by next year. And so we’ve been submitting comments through USDA, and the Treasury ultimately is going to be the agency responsible for implementing this. But if you start adding potentially a dollar per gallon of ethanol. For a tax credit, when you think of how much gallons of ethanol the country produces, I think it’s around 17 billion. We are talking about potentially a lot of money that could be received at the ethanol plan and ultimately potentially wind its way down to the farmer.
(28:56):
So you’re talking a lot of money, potential huge demand driver there. So hopefully we’ll have some more news to share on that. But farmers throughout the supply chain will be required to verify, measure how they get those GHG reductions into Treasury, and it’s really all the way from the farm gate to the combustion of that fuel. When you think about that supply chain, Nutriens are part of that supply chain, so we’ll potentially be heavily involved in that tax credit.
Mike Howell (29:20):
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(29:36):
Connor, you mentioned that most of our officials are back in their districts now. They’re taking a break during the month of August, but they’ll be coming back shortly. Is there anything else that they’re going to be voting on between now and the election? Anything else we need to keep our eyes open for?
Connor Hamburg (29:49):
Well, Mike, first they will be campaigning or they’ll be taking official visits. The unique part of our company is that I think we’re in 45 states from accurate there. And so the chances are, with 1,200 locations throughout the US, we’re likely going to have a facility and a member of Congress’s district. So this August is a great opportunity for members of Congress to visit our facilities. They like doing so and they like touring our facilities.
(30:13):
I will be spending a little bit of time this month and some of my colleagues within our function giving members of Congress tours on our facilities, going out and hearing what’s their concern, what they’re working on. I know in two weeks time I’ll be out in Texas giving a member of Congress a tour, and I know a member of Congress is going to be visiting one of our facilities in Georgia, so great opportunity there. So August might slow down for the rest of folks in Washington. It certainly doesn’t slow down for us because it gives us a chance to travel to the business and not only hear what the lawmakers are hearing, but also what our business is concerned about as well.
(30:45):
So that dovetails nicely into what’s likely going to happen until the election. You really only have a few weeks of congressional business, and that’s mainly going to be in September. I think the main thing that they’re likely going to be focused on, and I know American public is tired of hearing of this because it seems like if you look down at your phone, every other week and there’s another government shutdown, funding deadline, and lawmakers are scrambling to keep the lights on in the government, we’re going to come up on that at the end of September, so this is certainly going to take up a lot and lot of the government’s time.
(31:14):
And then after that really, you’re going to have lawmakers not wanting to make too much of a big decision because you’re going to want to see where your chips lie after November. And so I think you’re going to see some members and both parties right now feel very optimistic about their chances. So you’re going to have some members wanting really to kick the can on for those later harder issues to see if it’s gotten easier for them or they’ve gained seats to make it easier for them to pass legislation.
(31:38):
For your listeners, I’d mainly be focused right now on see what happens with government funding. I don’t have a crystal ball, but they’ve typically have waited till the last second and then have had to make a decision. Congress likes to operate on self-imposed deadlines.
Mike Howell (31:51):
Connor, you said you didn’t have a crystal ball, but you’re there every day. You see what’s going on. You can probably tell who’s worried and who’s excited. If you had to make a projection, what do you see with the House and the Senate? Are they going to flip during this election cycle or are they going to stay the same?
Connor Hamburg (32:06):
So I’ll break it down. In the Senate, it’s likely going to flip to Republicans, and that’s really just because of the seats that the Democrats are defending versus the Republicans. Senators serve six-year terms, that means about 1/3 of the Senate is up every two years. And so for the Senate, you really got to get lucky to depend on what seats you’re going to be defending or not. And so unfortunately for the Democrats, at least in their eyes, they’re feeling a little bit unlucky at the way that the seats that they got to defend. You break it down through the seats they’re defending, they’ve got to defend West Virginia, which is likely going to go to Republicans, so that’s a seat right there the Republicans could pick up. And then you’re at a 50/50 Senate.
(32:50):
And then you go across the map, they’re defending in Montana, which has voted for President Trump twice now. So they’ve got a democratic comment, Jon Tester there who’s defending that seat. And then you go to Ohio, you’ve got Sherrod Brown. Ohio now has really gone over to Republicans over the past election cycles, and so that’s another tough seat for the Democrats to defend. And then you’ve got Nevada, which is a battleground seat, and then you’ve got Arizona, which is another battleground seat. And so really the seats that the Democrats are on, the defensive in those seats, and really the only pickup opportunities. I can’t even really say they’re pickup opportunities, I just don’t see a world where the Republicans lose these seats. The easiest seats they’ll have are Texas and Florida for them to defend, so it’s likely looking like it’s going to be a Republican majority.
(33:35):
In terms of how big, now I can’t get into that. You’re going to have to go through state by state there. And depending on how good the incumbents are and how they’re able to differ themselves from the National Party, that remains to be seen. Then the House is a little bit different. The Republicans currently control a few seats more than the Democrats, which skips them the majority. How it shakes down in the US is most of these districts now are gerrymandered to really, you got to look for the primary, which could take you out, not the general election. You really only have about 20, maybe 30 seats that could flip in a given election cycle. And so it’s really hard to make a prediction in the House. It could go either way in my opinion.
(34:18):
And then on the presidential election, I’ve been asked this question a few times now and I liken election forecasting to forecasting the weather or forecasting economics, or macroeconomics. It’s very, very, very tough to do. If I could do it accurately, I would not be on this podcast right now. I’d actually be in Vegas putting all my chips right now or my life savings and potentially getting rich off of that, and that’s certainly something I’m not going to do because I can’t give an accurate answer there.
Mike Howell (34:47):
Connor, that’s fair enough. I want to go back to one thing you mentioned at the very beginning. You mentioned that every American has a First Amendment right to petition the government. That’s easily said, but a lot of people wouldn’t know what to do if they had an issue they wanted to talk to a legislature about. How would they go about getting in touch with their senator or representative?
Connor Hamburg (35:05):
That’s a great question. I would go about it this way. Most of our listeners, if I’m correct, Mike, are probably either working for an agribusiness or working in agriculture or producer themselves or a grower. Chances are, you belong to or you’re looking to belong to one of those commodity organizations. I would definitely encourage folks who are not already members of any of those commodity organizations to become members. By doing so, you’re really giving a larger voice to the issue. It’s really tough. You think about a member of Congress’s time, they’re scheduled in 15-minute increment, so their day could be, it’s votes here, attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony here, then it’s five-hour committee hearing. And so they’re heavily scheduled and it’s really tough for them to talk to folks individually. If you do, you only only get five or 15 minutes, and that’s why I think it’s vitally important to belong to someone of those organizations because chances are it’s a little bit easier to get a meeting when one of those organizations comes in and says, “Hey, we’re representing all the corn growers. We’re representing all the soybean growers” instead of that individual conversation.
(36:10):
So you really can probably affect change within organization that you’re a member of more so likely than being able to just be a sort of a lone voice on that issue. Members of Congress, when they’re thinking about an issue and how it could change production agriculture, they’re going to reach out to those organizations first and say, “Hey, what could this do to your livelihood?” They’re not going to just reach out to some sort of individual back home. They’re going to check in with those organizations because those organizations are likely going to have that expertise. They might have an economist on their staff, they might have some detail, some sort of policy officials in their staff that are experts in those areas that they’re being considered. So I think looking back on that, that’s probably the easiest way for someone to get involved in politics and making their voice heard.
Mike Howell (36:56):
Well, Connor, we really appreciate you taking time to visit with us today. I know we went through a lot of information here in just a short time, but is there anything else you think we need to cover before we sign off today?
Connor Hamburg (37:05):
No, Mike. I think we hit on every topic imaginable. We got 87 days left, and stay tuned, buckle your seatbelts.
Mike Howell (37:13):
All right. Well, Connor, we really appreciate it. Listeners, we thank you for tuning in this week and want to invite you to hang around for just a couple of minutes as we get into segment two.
(37:24):
Hey listeners, this is Mike Howell, and I just wanted to say thank you for your support of The Dirt as we approach our 100th episode. Whether you’re just tuning in for the first time or you’ve been with us since day one, we couldn’t do this without you. I also want to invite everyone to come by booth 460 at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa on August the 27th at 11:00 AM. We’re going to be recording our 100th episode live on location that day. We’ve got some great guests lined up for this 100th episode that you don’t want to miss. We can’t wait to see you there.
(38:00):
Listeners, we’re glad you came back for segment two. And as you know, we’re traveling around North America highlighting as many of these research farms that’s benefiting production agriculture as possible. Today we’re joined by Brianna Elliott with Olds College.
(38:13):
Brianna, if you will, introduce yourself to our listeners and tell them what you do there at Olds College.
Brianna Elliot (38:18):
Yes. I’m Brianna Elliott, the project lead with the Technology Access Center for Livestock Production here at Olds College, which is a part of the Olds College Center for Innovation. We are the livestock production sector of that, but we’ve also got a crops production and a smart agriculture area.
Mike Howell (38:34):
Brianna, tell us a little bit about the farm. What types of research are going on there?
Brianna Elliot (38:38):
Old College Smart Farm is 3,600 acres of land of crops and forage production. We’ve got about 1,100 acres right on campus, 400 or so acres across the highway from us, 300 acres down at our satellite station near Carstairs, another 300 acres down by our Steckler farm at Didsbury that is focused on field crop production, 600 acres with the Field Crop Development Center, and 800 acres that was donated out in Saskatchewan as well.
(39:04):
So the Smart Farm maintains a cow herd about 140 commercial breeding females. We use a three-way cross of Galbi, Simmental, and Angus. In addition to the commercial herd, we also have a small herd of pure-bred red Angus that we plan on continuing to expand over the coming years. The Technology Access Centre evaluates over a thousand animals every year within our feed lot with custom feed-in trials, residual feed intake, and other research initiatives on beef-for-service and cost recovery basis.
(39:31):
The Smart Farm also includes about 150 breeding ewes as well that are utilized in learning and research. So all the animals are involved in both those aspects. Our focus is to implement world-class digital agricultural technologies, improve farming operations through these smart technologies, and then utilize them for educational demonstration and applied research.
Mike Howell (39:50):
And I understand you also have some crop production as well on the farm, is that right?
Brianna Elliot (39:54):
We do, yeah. So we’ve got primarily canola, barley and wheat and some peas.
Mike Howell (39:59):
Brianna, tell our listeners a little bit about why the farm is so important to the producers in that region.
Brianna Elliot (40:04):
So the Olds College is a vital asset to the regional producers do its role in innovation and knowledge transfer. The practical solutions, educational trading, and our collaboration opportunities, it serves as a hub for the latest research and technology research, providing farmers to access to these cutting knowledge practices. They can come and see it hands-on and also through our sharing of knowledge through different platforms.
(40:25):
So our educational programs and hands-on training for students as well. So they are integrated into some of our research projects as well as their in-class stuff. They can get out there, and for example, our beef production classes can go out and have cattle on the farm as well as be involved in some of the farming practice. Our school year is a little bit restricting on some of the field crop stuff, but they definitely get out into the field and can utilize some of these new farming solutions.
Mike Howell (40:49):
Brianna, one of the things you mentioned was the feedlot operation and that you evaluate a thousand animals a year on that. Talk a little bit more about that feedlot and what type of work’s going on in the feedlot.
Brianna Elliot (41:00):
Yeah, so we utilize a number of different technologies within our feedlot. So we do feed-for-service testing with residual feed intake for our Vytelle feed bunks, as well as the Vytelle waterers so we can measure their efficiency through that. We also have some AI cameras that we’re utilizing on campus to look at the different animal health. We can see if those animals are getting sick beforehand, as well as utilizing those GrowSafe bunks to see if their intake is reduced. We’re also looking at different infrared cameras to identify health issues when the animals come onto campus. Other technologies come and go that we’re utilizing. We have a green feed unit that can measure the methane emissions on cattle, so we’ve done some testing of feed additives of different types. All that equipment is utilized in different aspects of different projects.
Mike Howell (41:46):
Brianna, we understand that all of these farms are valuable to our producers. That’s how we accomplish this knowledge transfer. We do the research there on the farms and get this information out to the producers to help make them more productive on their farms. We also know that agriculture is constantly changing. We’ve got a lot of new technology and you’ve mentioned some of this new technology that y’all are working with today, but we also have challenges from urban sprawl and our neighbors moving in and more and more people coming in closer to these farms. We know that these farms are going to have to change over the course of time to continue to be a benefit to these producers. How do you see the farm changing in the next 50 years to keep up with the changing pace of agriculture?
Brianna Elliot (42:26):
I think to remain a valuable asset, the Smart Farm needs to adopt advanced technologies that we’ve been doing. Focusing on that sustainability, engaging with the community is a huge one. Expanding our educational programs, enhancing the data analytics, being able to use the data that we’re collecting and make informed decisions on it is the only way to move forward really, and continuously integrating these new technologies such as AI and machine learning, blockchain and enhancing the efficiency and traceability. I think that’s going to be at the forefront of what we’re focusing on.
(42:53):
Prioritizing, like I said, the sustainable practice and the research will help the growing demand for environmental federal league practices as well as balancing with the increasing cost of everything. So that sustainability piece we have to make the most bang for our buck on whether it’s that acre of land or that pound of beef, it needs to be raised in the most sustainable way, I guess, for us to be able to even make money on it because I think they go hand-in-hand.
Mike Howell (43:14):
Brianna, can you give us a website? I know you post a lot of your research results on a website. Where can somebody go to find out more about what’s going on at the farm?
Brianna Elliot (43:22):
They can go to oldcollege.ca under the Smart Farm tab, as well as our research tab with the Technology Access Centre for Livestock production and the other areas under Smart Ag, as well as the crops production areas. Those areas, you can find out about the small plot, variety trials that the crops team is doing, as well as some of the other field crops technologies that the Smart Ag department is working on.
Mike Howell (43:42):
Brianna, we really appreciate you taking time to share this information about the research farm there at Olds College. I want to encourage our listeners to visit that website and check it out. If you need more information on anything we’ve talked about today, always remind you that you can visit our website, that’s nutrien-eKonomics, with a K, .com. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt.
