Annual Dairy Convention Treated to Variety of Speakers

Annual Dairy Convention Attendees Treated to A Variety of Informative Speakers

This year’s convention, held at the Landing Hotel at Rivers Casino in Schenectady New York, in August, was a big success with several wonderful speakers. The seven presentations were very informative, covering a broad array of current topics that were valuable to this year’s attendees. Here is a recap of the information these speakers shared.

CAROL C. HARDBARGER, PH.D.

Hardbarger is the current secretary of the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board and writes regularly in several weekly dairy publications. Many of these are included in our online Dairy Newsroom newsletter. Hardbarger holds a doctorate in agricultural and extension education. She was on the faculty of Cornell’s Education Department with over 40 refenced publications, research reports and public speaking appearances. Hardbarger’s presentation left little doubt about her love for agriculture and the Pennsylvania dairy industry. Highlights from her speech included: • “Milk output per cow in Pennsylvania is 12% below the national average. Milkfat production is 13% below the national average. We have lots of Amish dairy farmers that don’t take advantage of mechanical and feed efficiencies. Many are 30 cow operations.

This is a wonderful way of life, and we value that in

Pennsylvania.” • “The state over order premium (OOP) was first designed at a time when 70% of milk produced in Pennsylvania stayed in Pennsylvania. We are currently at 20-30%.” • “Dealers are required to pay all of the required OOP, not so for coops.” • “Agricultural illiteracy exists among policy makers. There are philosophical differences at the top of the food chain.

It is a four-legged stool: producers, processors, retailers, and consumers.” • “We must have meaningful support at the state level.

Organizations like yours could have quick response teams to address issues.” • “We must recognize our cultural heritage and the culture of our small farms. Unless we protect our small farms and their heritage, organizations like this will be meaningless.”

KIMBERLY BUKOWSKI AND ANIKA GIANFORTE

Kimberly Bukowski is with the Cornell Dairy Food Science Extension team and is deeply involved with their Dairy Foods Certificate Program. She has an extensive background in dairy education and plant operations. Bukowski has managed Borden’s ice cream plant, Kimberly’s Ice Cream, and Cornell’s dairy plant.

Anika Gianforte is a dairy processing specialist with Cornell University’s Dairy Foods Extension Program. Gianforte work focuses on dairy foods processing and workforce development activities for the dairy processing sector. She is an instructor for Dairy Foods Certificate Program courses, including HACCP, PCQI, and product-specific courses. She regularly works with dairy plants and partner organizations to develop programs to help alleviate the pressing issue of recruiting qualified individuals to careers in dairy processing.

At the convention, Bukowski and Gianforte gave a very stimulating presentation on their recent efforts introducing high school students to career options available in dairy processing and manufacturing. Highlights from their presentation included:

• “The Cornell processing boot camp program came suddenly and was in response to a shortage of labor in the

Western NY area. Originally, we wanted 40 kids, but in the end we had only 12 due to plant tour size constraints.” • “We were surprised that the kids involved were very engaged. Western NY dairy companies got involved and very engaged by sending representatives from their

Human Resources Departments to speak to the students.” • “If we want to convince these kids of a future career in the dairy industry, we had to get the people from these companies to come and describe their own careers in dairy.” • “The program was only three days. We wish that we had a week.” • “How do we get this program into more areas of the state?

How can our team support the workload? Resources and funding for the program per region will need to be determined at some point.”

HOPE KNIGHT

Knight is the president, CEO and commissioner of Empire State Development, New York state’s key economic development agency. She was nominated by New York’s Gov. Kathy Hochul and was confirmed by the State Senate in May 2022. As commissioner, Knight is committed to programs that support sustainable economic growth in New York. Knight helped create the Office of Strategic Workforce Development to focus on aligning the needs and priorities of the states’ employers. She has also been instrumental in support for small business and minority-owned business assuring they have access to resources necessary to succeed. Some of her highlights included: • “Empire State Development is all about expanding opportunity.” • “The ag and food industry is important to New York

State. New York produces one-quarter of the nations’ cottage cheese as well as significant amounts of sour cream, yogurt, and other dairy products.” • “Dairy production and manufacturing are vital to the

New York economy.” • “Grant funds and performance-based tax credits have been awarded to several New York State dairy manufacturers to help grow their facilities and workforce.” • “Ultimately, our goal is to help businesses grow and thrive in New York State.”

RICHARD A. BALL

As New York’s commissioner of agriculture, Ball oversees all aspects in the relationship between the state and its broad agribusiness community. He was nominated to the post in January 2014. Ball has an extensive background in agriculture that began as a youngster on his parents’ dairy farm. Later in life, his career took a path that led to vegetable farming. Ball’s farm, near the Capital District, remains a family run business that is successful and beautiful. Throughout his career, he has held numerous positions in the agricultural community at the local, state, and national level. Ball is the current president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, as well as president of Food Exports Northeast. Here is a summary of some of his comments to the convention audience: • “It’s kind of fun for me to be here. I grew up on a dairy farm that was sold when I was 10. I looked up to my parents and wanted to be like them.” • “The family farm transitioned form dairy to vegetables and that’s how I learned to be a farmer. My vegetable farm now has three generations of our family working on it. I can connect the dots now. Connecting people that grow food with people that need food.” • “Dairy plants today still smell the same, but their work is very different. The plants themselves are different.

They are awesome and we need to deal with the future employees of these plants.” • “The average age of the farm worker is now 57 in New

York, and 23 percent do not have a next generation on the farm. How do we connect the dots?” • “The northeast corridor has the largest, most diverse, marketplace in the world. We don’t ever want to be in jeopardy with our food supply. We learned a lot during the pandemic.” • “At the end of the day, we have much to worry about.

Looking around the room, I like our chances in New

York. Thank you so much for what you do for us in

New York.”

JOHN CHRISMAN

Chrisman serves as the current CEO of the American Dairy Association North East, the regional promotion group representing 9,000 northeast dairy farmers. In his role as CEO, Chrisman is the primary liaison between his farmers and government leaders to encourage dairy sales. The American Dairy Association North East was instrumental in linking critical dairy products with distributors and consumers during the pandemic. Prior to assuming his role as CEO in 2022, Chrisman held other senior leadership positions in retail marketing, producer relations, school sales, processor affairs and foodbank/hunger relief. Here are some of the points highlighted in his speech:

“Our goal is to keep kids as lifetime customers.”

“Milk is the #1 most requested item by food banks.”

“The Dairy Research and Promotion Program, also known as the Dairy Checkoff Program, was started by farmers in 1983 and is funded by a 15 cent per hundredweight assessment on their milk. This funds everything we do in our marketing.”

“We have established national partnerships with companies where we actually have our own food scientists working with their organizations.” • “Eighty percent of milk, 70% of yogurt, and 33% of cheese is old at retail locations. We must be in these stores to help upgrade them. We call it Dairy Aisle Reinvention.” • “We do a lot of cross-merchandising to lift sales in 2,800 stores across a six-state region. Cross merchandising and marketing have proven to give a 7% boost in sales.” • “We focus on temperature, hygiene, stock conditions, and rotation. We work with school districts to make sure milk is served cold at 35 degrees.” • “We work with credible dairy advocates like our NFL player-partners and dietitians. We also work with our 9,000 dairy farmers with promotions. No one tells the story about dairy better than our farmers. A big success has been the adopt a cow program.” • “Sixty percent of kids drink milk in schools. Our refuel with chocolate milk program has been a success. Our chocolate milk is now the official beverage of the state championships where we have a designated area called the refuel zone.” ROBERTO CAMACHO

Camacho is a mechanical engineer who has worked for the Volvo Group for 18 years. At Volvo, Camacho has led various innovation projects that include the hybrid bus and full electric bus. He also served as Volvo’s distribution development account manager. Currently, Camacho is the e-mobility regional sales manager for the North East Region. His convention presentation was very educational and generated many questions from the attending audience. Some of his comments included: • “Our goal at Volvo is to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030, 100% by 2040.” • “This is all very difficult, but we think that it is achievable.” • “Developing the truck is the easy part, but we must work very hard to develop the infrastructure. We have the trucks and batteries, but the infrastructure is the biggest challenge.” • “If you don’t start doing it, it will never happen.” • “Our batteries are made in Germany and are good for 10,000 cycles or approximately 8-9 years. We can recycle these batteries. So, they will get more than one life.” • “We are not ready for a 24-hour operation. The industry must change, or we must come up with a battery that can keep up. Right now, we are geared more for 16-hour operation.” • “A faster charger will reduce charge time but place more stress on the battery. These batteries weigh more than 8,000 lbs. and are not easily swapped out like a forklift battery.” • “One of our constraining elements is the charger. A partial charge will not shorten battery life. What will shorten battery life is a fast charge. Again, we estimate an 8-9 year battery life.” • “The cost of the electric truck is 2.5 times more than your diesel, but the cost to operate the electric is less.

We estimate the cost offset to be 3.5-4 years. A typical $600 trip with a diesel, will cost $80 for the electric.

There are federal grants money to help offset the cost of conversions.”

MAUREEN LEDDY

Leddy is the director of the New York State DEC Office of Climate Change. She leads the development of programs and policies to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to assist New York adapt to climate change. Leddy leads DEC implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). She has experience working in carbon finance, quantifying the greenhouse gas reduction potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Leddy touched upon several areas where her agency can be of benefit to the agricultural community. Here is a summary of her comments: • “The goal of the Climate Leadership and Community

Protection Act (CLCPA) is to achieve 100% zero emissions by year 2040. This is very ambitious. It is a challenging law, but we are making progress.” • “Driven by the climate act, the draft scoping plan is multi-sectional, holistic and grounded in scenario modeling.” • “It’s tough for farmers to adjust to these target emissions.

Agriculture was 6% of total emissions in 2018. Livestock is 82% of this and forestry is 9%.” • “We are managing manure using anaerobic digesters.

This gas could charge a fuel cell for the tractor.” • “Electrifying farm equipment is challenging. How do you make it attractive and affordable for farmers to do it? How do you manage livestock and reduce emissions?

Cornell is now involved to help answer these questions.” • “New York helps fund many projects through the New

York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Department of Ag and Markets.

There’s a lot of financial support for farmers to get involved and reduce emissions.”