May 2022 - 19

AG LABOR REVIEW
Courage during difficult times often contagious
MICHAEL MARSH
President & CEO
National Council of
Agricultural Employers
Michael@ncaeonline.org
that part of the quote I shared earlier -
" Real character is carved in terrible and
tumultuous times. "
My dairy families were doing
I read something this morning that
seems particularly poignant given the
volatility and turmoil occurring around
the globe. Because the quote says so
much, in so few words, it made me
think about the shared values of
people who had the good fortune to
live, or to have been raised, in farm and
ranch country.
" Anyone can be - or do - good when
it's easy. Real character is carved in
terrible or tumultuous times. "
This quote obviously spoke to me and
reminded me of the unabashed courage
so often reflected in the everyday goings
on in rural America.
In 2006, I was working with dairy
farmers in California. That July, we had
planned for one of our regular fly-ins
to Washington, D.C., to meet with our
members of Congress. It was hot over
the weekend, and the forecast was for
more heat the following week. We had
heard from some of our members that
they were getting anxious over how to
keep their cattle cool in the heat that
was withering.
Humans have a body temperature
of 98.6˚ F. Dairy cows have a body
temperature of around 101.5˚ F.
However, unlike you or me, cattle
do not perspire so their bodies can
cool down.
As we headed north to Sacramento to
catch our early Monday morning flight
back east, it was hot! It was already
104˚ F at 6 a.m. That's when my phone
started ringing.
I received calls from our field staff.
First a call from one. Then a call from
another. Followed by a call from a third
member of our team. All were raising
concerns over what they were hearing
from our members regarding the heat
the Central Valley was experiencing. All
were alarmed.
Our team had been receiving reports
that our members were not having
much luck getting their cattle to cool
down. Temperatures from Friday and
through the weekend were over 110˚ F
during the day and never falling below
100˚F at night. PG&E was calling it a
" heat storm " and were cautioning about
the possibility of rolling blackouts. The
possibility of blackouts was not what
was stressing our members.
When cattle are unable to cool
themselves, their behavior changes.
They will drink some water. But the
reports we were getting was that the
cattle had stopped eating. The cattle
were doing what they could to cool
themselves down but the effort it took
for them to eat was only making their
predicament more dire.
Our plane took off and left the toasty,
hazy, Central Valley behind. When
we changed planes in Denver a couple
of hours later, I checked in with our
team. Staff informed me they were
now getting reports of cattle dying in
the free stalls. And, to top off that bad
news, the rendering company had a fire
and was forced to shut down.
In my mind's eye, I now had the
graphic vision of cattle perishing and
their quickly bloating carcasses waiting
in the heat, for the rendering plant
SEE VIDEOS OF SPRAYERS IN ACTION ON UPDATED WEBSITE!
NEW HYDRAULIC FOLD SPRAYER FEATURES
AIRBAG BOOM SUSPENSION!
truck that now would not arrive.
When we got to the hotel in
Washington, D.C., I checked in again.
My team let me know that temperatures
were over 114˚ F in some places with
115˚ F forecast the next day and
113˚ F the day after that. They also told
me that nighttime temperatures were
not expected to drop below 100˚ F until
Thursday at the earliest.
I started calling some of my members
to check in with them, and that's when
I heard their stories of what they were
doing to keep their cattle alive. And
their stories are what made me think of
everything they could to cool their
cattle down and save them. At night,
all night, Dad and Mom and all the
children were jumping in to spray cool
water on their livestock. Grandma
and Grandpa showed up, too. And,
when the families were bone-tired and
worn out, suffering heat exhaustion
themselves, the neighbors drove over
and pitched in because they had seen
the lights on.
Sadly, we lost about 20,000 cattle that
week. However, a lot of that real, rural
America character was carved that week
as well. And, if you work with farm and
ranch families as I do, you realize that
kind of character is commonplace.
There are solid life lessons we
can learn in the face of significant
challenges, and we see much of
that in the middle of the tumult we
are witnessing today. In adversity,
we dig deep into places we did not
know existed to find a better, more
courageous version of ourselves.
And interestingly, courage can be
contagious. VGN
Need Solutions to
Help Get Your Products
to Consumers?
FROM RAW TO READY
From farm to table raw to ready, getting the
information you need for a successful and safe
operation is important. Produce Processing
is a valuable resource offering you in-depth
information from food safety to packaging,
and innovations to marketing.
Don't miss out on the latest products
and cutting edge technology to stay
ahead in the industry.
Sprayer
Models
* 200 Gallon Manual Fold
* 300 Gallon Manual Fold
* 400 Gallon Manual Fold
* 400 Gallon Hydraulic Fold
PENNS CREEK MFG.
1340 Broadway Rd., Winfield, PA 17889
570-837-1197 * www.pennscreekwelding.com
Builders of dependaBle ecnomical VegetaBle sprayers
Sign up today at:
ProduceProcessing.net/Subscribe
VGN | MAY 2022 | 19
http://www.ProduceProcessing.net/Subscribe http://www.pennscreekwelding.com
May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2022
