ADDRESS OF THE NAJ PRESIDENT
Navigating an Ever-Changing Industry Address of John Kokoski, NAJ President to the 62nd Annual Meeting of National All-Jersey Inc., June 26, 2020, Columbus, Ohio
W
elcome, my fellow Jersey breeders to our 62nd annual meeting in these unusual and challenging circumstances. If you are joining us virtually, thank you as well for making the effort to be part of the meeting. Although these meetings are an opportunity for us to work together and set the course, it’s also a chance to catch up with fellow dairymen and friends. We will be missing that aspect a lot this year, but hopefully everyone is staying safe and healthy and this will all be behind us soon. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly disrupted our lives in so many ways and our industry wasn’t spared. Although our dayto-day lives on the farm probably hasn’t changed, it has turned milk processing and distribution of dairy products upside down. Most large-scale processors cannot adjust their supply to market changes from one sector to another in a short period of time. I’d like to share with you my own experiences that happened when COVID-19 really hit in mid-March and sales went south ... fast.
Kokoski President District 3
Vice President District 5
Merriam ex-officio
Owens District 6
AUGUST 2020
Huffard
Our milk bottling business is very heavy in the food service industry with restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and institutions—the largest being the University of Massachusetts dining services that feeds 25,000 students every day. When the university decided not to come back from spring break and shut down the rest of the semester, you can imagine the impact that had on our business. Within a week we went from using all our own production plus some from Dutch Hollow Farm to dumping milk. But fortunately, it didn’t last long. Within a week and a half things changed. Our retail accounts increased their orders as families rushed to the grocery stores and we had several calls from new stores and two new start-up home delivery operations that deliver to roughly 1,200 homes. Eventually, sales began to recover. My point in my sharing my own example is, we were able to change our direction of marketing quickly and respond to the changing consumer demand. Flexibility and optimism is key in situations where you’re dealt a diff icult hand. Large processors unfortunately cannot respond as fast and this caused a back up and dumping of milk in some areas. Some co-ops imposed a reduction to
producers by up to 15% to reduce milk that they could not get to market. This situation could offer us an opportunity to non-Jersey dairy producers ... make less volume and yet get high prices from components. This is yet another example of Jerseys and Jersey milk being right for the markets in any situation. In this time of unusual and unprecedented challenges, we must seize opportunities to market Jerseys. We would not be in this industry if we shied away from hard work or didn’t have optimism or resiliency—cornerstones of dairy farmers. Jerseys have proven to be successful for us in the past, and now more than ever, will continue to be the cow of the future. NAJ has been busy all year and you will get to hear more about our activities and progress from Neal Smith, Erick Metgzer as well as our lobbyist in Washington D.C., Charlie Garrison who monitors issues related to our industry. I would like to thank our staff and the board for all the efforts and continued support marketing Jerseys and All-Jersey made products. Thank you again for everyone’s participation today. Everyone’s input and expertise is greatly appreciated and will continue to lead to success.
Cast District 1
Graber Finance Chair District 7
Herrera District 2
Marcoot District 4
Sawyer ex-officio
Taylor ex-officio
Steer District 8
Metzger General Manager
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