Mike Naig rides the golf cart again to talk agriculture

[Yeager] Welcome into the MtoM podcast. I am Paul Yeager at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa Secretary of State Mike Naig, which I believe now you have earned designation, is the most frequent guest. I think I said that to you last year in your honor. we're at the fair. Last year, I dang near tried to. And both of us in front of the garbage truck. I apologize for that. Thank you for doing this again.

[Mike Naig] Well, you know, I mean, but you've given me assurances that given the remedial driving courses that you took this year. That's a joke, that you could be able to do it this year. I was it meant a lot to me that I made the blooper reel of the fair, you know, and that that just, you know, that that was that was really a highlight of my year.

[Yeager] I think that was somebody saw or heard that that video existed and just wanted to poke me a little bit.

[Naig] the garbage, the garbage truck and the fact that we were in the rain and in the sun and we had it was like we had all of Iowa weather that can occur during the Iowa State Fair. During the time that we were on the golf cart.

[Yeager] You at the state Fair, I asked you last year about, you know, rural, urban and rural. Okay. We're outside the dairy barn right now.

[Naig] I'm here a fair amount.

[Yeager] Well, exactly. But do you feel more comfortable if I go around the back side through the barns? Or do you feel comfortable enough going through all the people?

[Naig] Well, either way, honestly, I. I love to get. Of course I'm trying. I want to see all the cattle. And I wanted to see the kids and I love that. But, it's always entertaining to go through the people, you know.

[Yeager] It is. That's a word. That's a word we'll use. I think we're going to start and go behind the barbecue because,

[Naig] Well, let's see, you know what? You know what.

[Yeager] We're going to go into.

[Naig] There we go.

[Yeager] But we're not going to be in a day long.

[Naig] It's already started.

[Yeager] I told everyone that I there's no state patrol to guide us.

[Naig] So we're not we're not. There is no escort here. Yeah.

[Yeager] We talked in December and we were coming up on to a legislative session where China foreign land ownership was big. Then we had HpaI get into dairy cows. Then we had then we had yeah, all these things. What's been the biggest story of 24 in agriculture for Iowa farmers?

[Naig] Well, I mean, I think as you stand here today, as you sit here today and we're thinking about it's it's it's really about the, the softness that we're starting to see in the, in the ag economy. And of course of late you've got, yes, commodity prices, but then you've also got, you've also got you know, a situation where you're seeing some pretty high profile layoffs and, you know, I spent a lot of time talking to folks outside of the agriculture industry and saying, like, well, but when profitability is under pressure at the farm gate, that has implications on on other things. So I do think that that that overall state of our economy, what's happening with inflation, what's happening with real inflation and, and people's pocketbooks in the kitchen table. And then how is that playing out across egg. I think that has to be, one of the major storylines of the year. But I think high past avian influenza and the way it has affected the dairy industry this year really is something that's that was novel. We'd, of course, been dealing with High path and poultry for, for a couple of years. Yeah, but the fact that we had a spillover event into dairy, I think is something that, frankly, it's it's it's still something that we're going to have to come to terms with here throughout the rest of the year.

[Yeager] It's something I think I asked you, and it's still, I would imagine, holds true because when you have year to year, you have familiar things that you have learned. This works, this doesn't, this works. Then the dairy people come calling. Yeah. Which you're like, here, I don't even have to dust off that playbook. Unfortunately, it's been used so much.

[Naig] Yeah. You know, we say this all the time that we sort of tongue in cheek, but we wish we weren't good at dealing with it. But I have to say that it really was. And it reminds me, though, of going through, you know, 2015. It was when we first dealt with a massive outbreak. It was, it was the largest animal disease outbreak, in our history at that time. And the poultry industry had to go through this whole exercise of, they, you know, they thought they had good biosecurity, but then they had to learn the, you know, what were the ways that they could advance that. And we have then seen this dramatic improvement in what they've done. And investments that the poultry industry made. I see the dairy industry sort of having to come to terms with some of that themselves, which is how do animals move? How do you have biosecurity around feed ingredients on the farm, all those types of things. So in that way it's it's different, but it's sort of the same playbook. Maybe that was all the way back to 2015.

[Yeager] When Naomi Blohm comes on the TV show. She always gives us an update. Very good update on dairy, and we know that they've already seen lower herds culling of herds prior to the outbreak. but they had actually started to have some prices start to stabilize. Really.

[Naig] True.

[Yeager] And to have your dairy farmers, I mean, you think of the ones in northeast Iowa, and then northwest Iowa having to deal with this. How come we haven't? I think you were asked this in Iowa Press. Why are we not seeing it from northwest Iowa? Move over to.

[Naig] Northeast. You know, a couple things. One is, there there really hasn't been I wouldn't say there's it's not there. We haven't we haven't, ordered mandatory testing, you know, that that. So I think some of this is this has been wider spread, I would argue, or I would, I would, I suppose it's been wider spread across this country than just the, the states that have confirmed positive. Let me say it that way. Sure. but but it is true that in Iowa you've really got northwest Iowa and northeast Iowa are fairly distinct when it comes to the type of operations that we have. You tend to have larger operations in northwest and smaller, you know, you know, in the northeast and there aren't a lot of connections between those two systems.

And so I think it is logical that you could have a wall between those. but I do think we also saw we had some poultry cases, some positive poultry farms in northwest Iowa. And that sort of triggered the whole impetus to to look around those poultry sites, in order to, to, to determine what was going on in dairy. I mean, in Iowa, if we were just a dairy state, we would manage it like just a dairy issue.

[Yeager] I get it. Yeah.

[Naig] We are a beef, dairy, poultry, Turkey state. And we do all this in really close proximity to each other. So we don't have the luxury in Iowa of treating this like one species or another. We really do have to look at this across species, across our whole agriculture. And I think that's why you're seeing us do some things a little bit differently than maybe what you've seen in some other states.

[Yeager] I didn't know you were going to have security follow us. There's a black SUV right behind us. So is that what that was about? Is you were worried.

[Naig] Still, you know, we're just just. I think they've let us go now, you know? You.

[Yeager] Oh, okay. He knows.

[Naig] Right here.

[Yeager] So he's not putting them into traffic. low commodity prices. I'm going to guess you're going to hear how come corn starts with the three how campaigns are going to start with the nine. This is simple economics at work. Now we're really good at growing grain. We are we are going to have an oversupply. We have USDA that's trying to balance certain things in the eyes of the, the conspiracy theorists of what USDA is trying to do.

[Yeager] How do you balance the what can you do to help that producer who has seen freeze and nines in front of their big number?

[Naig] You know, I mean, look, first of all, we know that I would say I'm no economist, but the only thing I can tell you about the agriculture economy is that it's cyclical. Of course. How long are the cycles and how quickly do they cycle back? those are things that are people get paid a lot of money to, to have opinions about, but the fact is that we, we here we are. We've come off of four years of drought. We had some amazing crops during that time. And now we're seeing significant, you know, in some cases too much rainfall. But we've got rainfall. We've got a mountain of corn out here. What I look about in the big in the big picture. Right. this is why you need to have risk management tools for farmers. This is why farm bills are important. This is why getting a new farm bill across the line is important. but it is also why we have to continue to think about. I mean, I figure at the core of my job is the the the, the need to try to increase demand for our products, the things we grow here, but also an increase in the value of the things that we do. You know, for us, how can we use more corn and soybeans here? How about more crush capacity? how about for, for ethanol grind? you know, but if you're going to do those things, then you need policies that will allow us to increase, higher, higher blends of ethanol. What about sustainable aviation fuel? Those aren't near-term fixes by any means. You still have this.

[Yeager] Those are several administration miles.

[Naig] But you have to be thinking, of course, that's I would argue why you don't you don't lose your focus on those things. That's why you should be focusing on those things all the time. And so using more of what we grow here, adding value here, and then trade, we are going to continue to continue to promote and figure out how to do trade in a way that's fair and advantageous to us in this country.

[Yeager] You have an elected party. You were elected as a member of a party, but you do serve the whole state. There is a thought that the current administration is just worse, is tougher than the previous on tariffs, that if the one the former gets back into the current, we're going to see a continued. China has already said they're not super interested in US grain. How's that keep you up at night.

[Naig] Well so as it relates to you know this is this absolutely is part of a, national conversation. It should be on the election. Of course, the current administration, Biden administration is essentially continued the Trump administration policies when it comes to China and tariffs. I like I, we we do need we we grow more here than we consume. Yeah. The ability to export that, to find markets to, to help us drive value for these products is critically important. And it must be a key component, you know, going going forward now. But that's not to say that just every trade agreement is a good one all the way around. Right? You can write a really bad free trade agreement. We got to get what we shouldn't give up on the idea that we can write trade agreements that are, both, you know, that benefit both parties and that do allow us to move ag products, around the world. We need that tariffs. Most folks will tell you, in and of themselves, most people don't like them. They're, they're, they're, they're disruptive things that we, we we don't know that we don't think that they're the right way to go. However, if tariffs can be used as a tool as part of a larger strategy like we saw used during the Trump administration, around one, which was where there was this larger China policy that resulted in knocking down some of the non-tariff barriers. Phase one and phase two trade agreements go. I mean, it's got to be part of a larger. Sure, equation, not just a single, single usage. You know that. That's not the end all, be all.

[Yeager] Do you get the sense that you are going to hear. I mean, let's face it, those aren't who aren't on the farm might not recognize who you are and what. And welcome to the farm. Welcome to the farm. That is the story of our life here. I was going to pull off into the shade there, but we'll keep going. I might just get in front of another.

[Naig] Mike comes back around. Just get out of the way.

[Yeager] Do you get the sense that those who don't know necessarily, that you're the Secretary of Energy, are going to wonder and say to you, well, let's just grow less, we won't have as big of a supply. Yeah, let's put crp into the land. Yeah. Or let's take these cattle that are methane and but I had one market analyst tell me a couple of weeks ago, well, if you do that, if we had a question about CRP and he said if I, if I just to cede all of our, business to Brazil, that's what would happen.

[Naig] Yeah.

[Yeager] Is that fair?

[Naig] Look, we so I look in my role and I come from my farm. I come from rural Iowa. I traveled all across the state. agriculture drives our economy. Agriculture is at the heart of this country. our food and agriculture security, ag security, food security equals national security, economic security. You can't have any of those conversations until you have food security at its core. If we outsource our food production to somewhere else, you're seeing other parts of the world do this. You're Europe, Europe, watch what's happening. as they as they slide out, declare war on their agriculture, their productivity is going to decline. They're going to rely on other parts of the world to supply them with the things they need. And in the long run, those are terrible things from a national security standpoint. But they they hollow out communities, all across the country. And so to me, it's a nonstarter. We must remain productive. We can remain productive and then add markets, add add value and add value.

[Yeager] Value is always the part of it.

[Naig] So I've always said, look, we're we're you know, Iowa number one in corn production, number two in soybean production. But selling those crops at their commodity price is not what Add drives value to our to our economy. It is the fact that we feed it to livestock. We are the number one ethanol producing state. We think there's a huge upside for sustainable aviation fuel. Yeah. You know, the new ethanol is actually ethanol. you know, it's the way that we add value and then serve that agriculture. That's what really that's what really drives our economy.

[Yeager] Had a conversation with, a farmer who is a younger farmer who switched to organic. He has struggled here for a couple of years. do you anticipate that those who have gone that route might have better roads ahead because their product is different?

[Naig] Well, I just I think there's you know, it's interesting around organic versus just or an organic and local and specialty and all kinds of, you know, things that can be done to add value direct to consumer. folks are generally wanting to shop local. Yeah. that doesn't automatically translate into demand for organic specifically. But I do believe and, you know, we've launched a new brand here in Iowa, Choose Iowa. It's our branded program for Iowa grown Iowa made Iowa raised products. I think it's a huge opportunity. It's, consumers are looking for these things. farmers are looking for ways to diversify and add value, capture more margin. And I do think that there's a bright future for that in particular. And we all benefit from that. There's another additive here, by the way.

[Yeager] I'm going to give you this farmer's number. You can text him that he's going to need to hear it.

[Naig] Let's talk. And at the end, by the way, more people know more about where their food comes from. And that is a good thing.

[Yeager] As we close here at the fair, I mean, we open the fair, but as we close here, this conversation, you always you get to every corner, you see the farmers markets, you see, people excited. Yeah. You don't have quite the dairy that you did. Poultry isn't quite here like it has been. Yeah. It's still time to celebrate this year, right?

[Yeager] In 24?

[Naig] Oh it is and in fact, it's we've had some tough times this year. You know, you think of tornadoes and floods and a softening economy and but this is this is a time to have a look at the historical arc of all this. You know, next, next week, later in the week, next week, the second week of the fair, we will have the Century and Heritage Farm Awards. There's been, great markets and tough markets, world wars, pandemics, any combination of those things imaginable. And yet there's going to be 439 families that walk across the stage. Now, some of those families might have had the worst year in that. Record this year. And I was on a Century Farm, that was completely destroyed by, by a tornado earlier this summer. And the comment that stuck with me was, well, we're going to turn the page and start a new chapter in the story of that farm is Not over. It's a new chapter, to be sure. It'll look a lot different, but that's the kind of perspective that I think we need to have. So that's why you can still show up at the great Iowa State Fair and enjoy yourself. And and, you know, remember that bigger perspective on things and also dedicate ourselves to making sure that we are able to that people are able to sit here 100 years from now and have these kinds of conversations and, and that we'll be still driving strong here in the state of Iowa. That's that's what we need to be thinking about.

[Yeager] Really. You had to bring driving up as well.

[Naig] Yeah.

[Yeager] Come on. You have all the words. appreciate your time, Mike. Thank, Thank you. Have fun at the fair this week.

[Naig] You too.

[Yeager] We, the next couple of episodes are going to be live market to market podcast. We are going to be at the Iowa Pork Producers and the cattle. So by the time you see this, we have already been at the pork Producers. But the Cattlemen's will be there next Thursday. So if you are coming to the State Fair, enjoy. Mike Naig, thank you so much for watching or for listening, talking and surviving the she did it, we did it. We'll see you next time.