Improved human, animal and environmental health is the goal of a $12-million, University of Guelph-led international genomics project expected to revolutionize breeding in Canada’s multibillion-dollar dairy farming industry.

The four-year project will be the first large-scale project integrating novel genetic traits for fertility, health and feed efficiency into a national database to help farmers and breeders, said University of Guelph animal biosciences professor Christine Baes, who is leading the project.

Genome Canada will provide $4 million toward the project, and $3 million will come from regional genome centres: Ontario Genomics (including the Ontario Research Fund), Genome Alberta, Genome Quebec and Genome British Columbia.

“Ontario Genomics is grateful for the Ontario government’s support for this important genomics dairy farming project,” said Bettina Hamelin, president and CEO of Ontario Genomics. “Genomics tools and technologies are revolutionizing how we breed healthier and more resilient livestock, which is great news both for farmers and consumers. By investing in Ontario’s prominent and leading genomics research and innovation, we are making certain that Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food sectors thrive while contributing to a healthier planet and healthier people.”

Mike Harris, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, said this provincial investment will lead to a sustainable, more competitive Canadian dairy industry.

“This innovative project will help build a stronger agricultural sector and food system in our province.”

The project will also receive funding support from Lactanet Canada – a partnership launched in 2019 by Quebec-based Valacta along with CanWest DHI and the Canadian Dairy Network, both based in Guelph – as well as companies and organizations in dairy genetics and production, including Growsafe, Allflex, Afimilk, NEDAP and Illumina. The project also involves collaborators in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Australia.

The project builds upon the world-class platform created for dairy research at University of Guelph through its partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, said Malcolm Campbell, vice-president (research).

“The generous support from government and industry partners across Canada will enable U of G researchers to collaborate nationally and globally on projects that will benefit dairy farmers and dairy consumers alike, with phenomenal environmental and economic benefits,” he said.

“This initiative is yet another example of how University of Guelph researchers connect many disciplines to find solutions that promote healthy populations, healthy ecosystems and a healthy economy that collectively improve life.”

Project members aim to identify novel genetic traits for a new selection index for dairy cattle resilience. Baes said the group will develop traits that help animals adapt to changing environmental conditions while maintaining milk productivity, dairy herd health and cow fertility – all in a way that feeds people and protects the environment.

The results will directly benefit farmers and cattle breeders, helping them to identify superior livestock for breeding, said Baes. She said the system will ultimately help farmers save some $200 million in costs associated with poor cow fertility and disease, as well as animal feed that makes up the largest expense in milk production.

The new project is intended to satisfy growing consumer demands and ensure the competitiveness of Canada’s dairy industry. It’s also meant to help address increasing concerns about human health, animal health and welfare, and the environmental impacts of greenhouse-warming methane emissions as well as water, energy and land use.

“This project can address key challenges that the industry is facing, enhance sustainability of dairying and provide a long-term competitive advantage for Canada’s dairy industry,” said Baes, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Livestock Genomics.

Baes leads the initiative along with co-principal investigators at the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta and Université Laval. Other Canadian partners include researchers at the University of Prince Edward Island and at companies and industry organizations across the country.

About 40 University of Guelph researchers, including eight faculty members and numerous staff and student researchers from the Ontario Agricultural College and the Ontario Veterinary College, will take part.

University of Guelph researchers include population medicine professor David Kelton, holder of the Dairy Farmers of Ontario Chair in Dairy Cattle Health, and Prof. Flavio Schenkel, director of the Centre for the Genetic Improvement of Livestock in the Department of Animal Biosciences.

The University of Guelph researchers will work with the dairy herd at the state-of-the-art Ontario Dairy Research Centre in Elora, which is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and was established in partnership with OMAFRA, U of G and Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO).

The research team will also work with cattle at more than a dozen area farms to gather health and feed efficiency data for the national project.

Project partners will use that information along with fertility data from other members and centres across Canada and partner countries to develop and refine a national evaluation system for individual animals. The system will be run by Lactanet Canada.

“Building on previous work, this is the first time that traits for calf health, fertility and feed efficiency will be collectively implemented into a genetic evaluation program for dairy cattle,” said Baes. “This will definitely improve how we breed cattle in Canada.”

That information will be shared with evaluation centres around the world, she added.

Besides improving animal health, the project is intended to make milk production more environmentally sustainable.

Researchers will study genetic traits for feed efficiency, or how efficiently a cow turns feed into milk or weight gain. By improving feed efficiency, Baes said farmers can help limit livestock emissions of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. She said this research may also help reduce the environmental impact of dairy farming by limiting the amount of cropland needed to produce cattle feed.

As one of Canada’s most important agri-food sectors, the dairy industry contributes nearly $20 billion a year to the country’s gross domestic product. Canadian dairy genetics exports are worth another $150 million a year.

Baes said University of Guelph is a natural base for the project. She points to the University’s long-standing agri-food and dairy expertise and its proximity to genetics and dairy organizations in southern Ontario, from Guelph-based livestock genetics company Semex to DFO in Mississauga.

“We have a lot of expertise in quantitative genetics, and we have excellent ties with the industry here in Guelph,” she said. “The University of Guelph holds a very strong position in dairy research not only in Canada but also globally. We’re working closely with partners across Canada and around the world. There’s no better place to run this research than in Guelph.”

Referring to the project’s country-wide academic and industry partners, Baes said, “This collaboration among researchers in very different fields will be a great opportunity to tie in all those different avenues of research and get the most out of the research dollars being spent. This project will help ensure that Canada has a safe, affordable and ethically sustainable food system.”

Source: thecattlesite.com

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order (EO) that increases food assistance for families missing meals due to school closures and gives additional funding for SNAP.

The executive orders are designed to address a dramatic rise in hunger across the United States. IN addition to making up for missed meals from schools, the EO boosts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for the lowest-income households. 

Throughout the pandemic, National Farmers Union (NFU) has expressed concern about elevated rates of food insecurity in both urban and rural communities; by some estimates, one in six adults and one in four children have experienced food insecurity during the pandemic – rates that are about 50 percent higher than the United States was seeing just a year ago.

Though SNAP and other food assistance programs have provided a crucial safety net for millions of Americans, it hasn’t been enough to offset the surge of job losses and resulting financial stress. Even after the most recent stimulus package boosted SNAP benefits by 15 percent, the average recipient is still approximately $100 short of covering the costs of a month of low-cost groceries.

Because the effects of hunger are immediate and long-lasting, these statistics are alarming, to say the least. As such, NFU is relieved that the Biden administration has prioritised food security in its first days, as the organization’s president Rob Larew noted in a statement:

“One of the most worrying side effects of the pandemic has been a dramatic rise in hunger. For months, National Farmers Union has been urging lawmakers to address this crisis ­– and we are extremely encouraged by and supportive of President Biden’s prompt action. By both increasing SNAP benefits for the lowest-income recipients as well as offering additional support to families who ordinarily depend on free school meals, this executive order will offer hungry Americans greater certainty about where their next meal will come from during these trying times.

“In doing so, it will not only improve physical health outcomes and mental wellbeing, but it will stimulate much-needed economic growth: every dollar spent on SNAP adds $1.70 to the economy, and every billion dollars spent on the program creates 13,500 new jobs. While we recover from the pandemic, this is really the kind of smart, efficient, and compassionate policy making we need.

“However, as the administration itself noted, this is only part of the solution; moving forward, we ask that legislative and executive branches expand on the order to negotiate additional aid for unemployed Americans, struggling businesses, and rural communities.”

TheCattleSite News Desk

The Wisconsin Holstein Association and the Junior Activities Committee has made the difficult decision to cancel the Wisconsin Junior Holstein Convention that had been re-scheduled for March 27-28, 2021. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the group believed it was in the best interest of our membership to no longer host this event that traditionally has a large attendance of youth from across Wisconsin. 
 
To find ways to keep juniors involved and recognize their accomplishments, the Junior Activities Committee and the WHA staff are working on a series of smaller, regional events for junior members later in the spring. Event details will be shared on the WHA Facebook page as well as at www.wisholsteins.com once finalized. 
 
For more information, contact Laura Wackershauser at 800-223-4269 ext. 1 or lauraw@wisholsteins.com.

In one of his first acts in office, President Joe Biden requested federal agencies to extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums for millions of Americans. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced an extension of eviction and foreclosure moratoriums on USDA Single Family Housing Direct and Guaranteed loans (SFHDLP and SFHGLP) through March 31, 2021. The actions announced today will bring relief to residents in rural America who have housing loans through USDA.

USDA recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an almost unprecedented housing affordability crisis in the United States. Today, 1 in 10 homeowners with a mortgage are behind on payments. In addition to the actions taken, the Biden Administration looks forward to working with Congress to take more robust and aggressive actions to bring additional relief to American families and individuals impacted by the pandemic.

Visit www.rd.usda.gov/coronavirus for additional information on USDA’s Rural Development COVID-19 relief efforts application deadline extensions and more. USDA Rural Development will keep our customers, partners and stakeholders continuously updated as additional actions are taken to bring relief and development to rural America.

Foreclosure Moratorium Extension:

The actions announced today make it possible for the foreclosure and eviction moratorium announced by USDA, Single Family Housing Direct Loan Program (SFHGLP) and the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) on August 28, 2020, to be extended until March 31, 2021. The moratorium does not apply in cases where USDA or the servicing lender has documented the property is vacant or abandoned.

Forbearance Requirements:

Lenders should continue to provide impacted borrowers relief in accordance with the CARES Act by offering forbearance of the borrower guaranteed loan payment for up to 180 days. In addition, the initial forbearance period may be extended up to an additional 180 days at the borrower’s request. Lenders should outline potential solutions that may be available at the end of the forbearance payment and explain to borrowers that a lump sum payment of the arrearage will not be required.

During the forbearance options outlined above, no accrual of fees, penalties or interest may be charged to the borrower beyond the amounts calculated as if the borrower had made all contractual payments in a timely fashion.

Lenders may approve the initial 180-day COVID-19 Forbearance no later than the earlier of the termination date of the national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020 or March 31, 2021.

Post Forbearance Options:

Upon completion of the forbearance, the lender shall work with the borrower to determine if they can resume making regular payments and, if so, either offer an affordable repayment plan or term extension to defer any missed payments to the end of the loan. If the borrower is unable to resume making regular payments, the lender should evaluate the borrower for all available loss mitigation options outlined in HB-1-3555. The special relief measured that are outlined in Chapter 18 Section 5 “Assistance in Natural Disasters” will apply. These options include Term Extensions, Capitalization and Term Extensions, and a Mortgage Recovery Advance.

Questions regarding program policy and this announcement may be directed to the National Office Division at sfhglpServicing@usda.gov or (202) 720-1452.

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.

Days after a tornado ripped through their dairy farm, tearing the tops off four grain silos and nearly destroying six buildings, the Nigon family gathered at the kitchen table.

Marty and Kathy Nigon, along with their six adult children, had to make some hard decisions on that last Sunday in September 2019.

The family meeting lasted nearly three hours. Tears were shed as raw emotion from the devastation converged with a lifetime of good memories on the Clark County dairy farm.

“Everybody got to express their opinion,” Marty Nigon recalled. “And we all agreed we should build everything back.”

It was a testament to the resilience of dairy farmers slammed by natural disasters, years of low milk prices, runaway expenses and the pandemic.

“There are two things that will keep you farming,” Marty Nigon said his father told him when he was a boy. “One, you’ve got to really like it. And, two, you’ve always got to think next year will be better.”

Thousands of family farms like Nigon View Dairy are weighing their future, questioning whether they should keep going when the next round of hard times, which never seems far away, could force them out of business.

The collapse of small farms has been changing the landscape of Wisconsin — literally and figuratively — for years. Many have been losing money or are barely hanging on. Since 2011, the number of dairy farms in the state has fallen more than 43%, a reminder of the harm that low milk prices, intense competition and an oversupplied marketplace can inflict on farm families. In 2020, the state lost about 360 dairy farms, and for the first time, now has fewer than 7,000 of them.

No one wants to be the generation that loses the farm, says Chris Rueth, whose family has a 250-cow dairy operation in the Town of Loyal in Clark County.

“It’s in our blood,” he says.

Robots milk and feed the cows

How farmers plan for the years ahead varies widely, depending on their circumstances and whether the next generation even wants to someday take over the family business.

When the Rueths consider a major upgrade costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s for 10 years, not two.

They’re also mindful of not getting too far ahead of themselves in a business where sinking milk prices, poor weather for crops, even a trade war with China, wipe out profits.

Long-term planning has to be tempered with the current reality.

“Basically, you make it through fall harvest,” Rueth said. “Then you look back on what you did that year and see what you need to improve on.”

One thing seems certain. The small dairy farm from 10 years ago won’t be around in another decade if it doesn’t keep evolving. Many farms milking between 50 and 100 cows are at risk of shutting down because they don’t benefit from economies of scale or they can’t find hired help.

WATCH: America’s Dairyland: The Next Generation

“When you look at the dairy industry, I don’t think small farmers have a lot of hope,” said Max Malm, whose family has a 120-cow operation in Loyal.

The big farms “just keep getting bigger and bigger,” he says.

Still, technology and innovation may help keep small and midsize operations afloat, even when other trends are against them.

Malm’s Rolling Acres has invested in robots that milk the cows whenever they feel like being milked, 24 hours a day, reducing labor costs and freeing up family members for other tasks.

One at a time, the cows stroll up to the milking station, nudge open the gate and step inside. A robotic arm swings down, sanitizes each teat and then attaches laser-guided suction cups to extract the milk. The cow munches on a snack dispensed by the machine as an incentive to cooperate.

If something goes wrong, Malm gets an alert on his smartphone that identifies the problem. Then he can decide whether it’s worth dropping what he’s doing and heading to the barn.

The barn has a robot that cruises down the feed lane, dispensing rations with laser-guided precision. The robot’s sensors communicate with a set of doors that open and allow it to enter a “kitchen” where a computer system measures and mixes the meals.

All this technology comes at a steep price, easily costing a million dollars for the milking robots and the barn that houses the system.

“You have to believe in it and want to do this the rest of your life,” Malm said. “I think I’m lucky my dad and my grandpa embrace it as well.”

Small farms can survive, futurist says

Towns like Loyal and Greenwood are spokes in a wheel where agriculture is the hub. In fact, Clark County has more dairy farms than any other county in Wisconsin. It has 67,000 dairy cows, nearly twice as many cows as people.

There are 16 processing plants in the area that make cheese, butter and other dairy products sold around the world. Hundreds of millions of dollars pour into the local economy from more than 700 dairy farms.

“I think if all the small farms go away, our rural communities will go away as well,” Malm said.

That doesn’t have to happen, says Jack Uldrich, a futurist from Minneapolis who says some of the changes occurring in agriculture, including a locally produced food movement, favor small farms.

“This is a huge opportunity for dairy farmers because consumers want to know where their food is coming from. They want to know how you’re treating your animals, how you’re a steward of the land, how you’re supporting local communities,” Uldrich said while on a visit to Clark County.

“Everyone thinks technology is taking over, but what they’re missing is that people are craving human connections, and they want to support small farmers,” Uldrich said.

He urges folks to embrace a childlike curiosity about the world and notions that may seem crazy to seasoned adults.

Crunchy cheese? Solid milk? “A lot of traditional farmers would say that’s ridiculous. But I think kids would say, ‘Hey, tell me more about it,’” Uldrich said.

Not long ago, some farmers probably dismissed “Greek yogurt” as barely a blip in yogurt sales. Now it represents about 50% of that business. In the brewing industry, some predicted a takeover by huge corporate interests. Then came an explosion in growth of craft and microbreweries.

“Keep an open mind, stay curious, keep asking questions. And if you can’t do it, ask your kids to do it,” Uldrich said. “If you want to survive in the future, you need to have a beginner’s mind.”

Small dairies will probably survive if their operating costs are low enough or they have a unique product that fetches a higher price. They’ll likely boost their income with alternative crops, like hazelnuts, and will use the sun and the wind to generate electricity.

Driverless tractors, drones and satellites looking down on every field are going to be routine on farms of the future.

Some may even create a future out of thin air with industrial-scale photosynthesis that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and with sunlight converts it into ethanol for fuel and ethylene used to make plastics.

Trade wars and diminished natural resources could favor farming on a local scale.

“We are going to return to small and medium-size farms that are distributed throughout the world,” Uldrich said.

In July 2022, Roehl Acres, a Clark County dairy farm run by Dennis and Suzie Roehl, will host Farm Technology Days, one of the largest agricultural shows in the nation.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Dennis Roehl says, adding that he first went to the show with his father, Lowell, in 1983.

The Roehls have considered installing robots on their farm that has a century-old barn.

“Everything’s always evolving,” Dennis says. “As long as we embrace the technology and bend with the times, I think there’s a future here.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering, in 1991 he chose to return to the farm started by his parents rather than pursue a job in the city.

“I love everything about it,” he says. “I love the smell of fresh-tilled dirt. If you’ve never smelled it, come out in the spring and you’ll know what I mean. And then you watch the plants popping out of the ground. It’s a big feeling of accomplishment.”

The tornado that galvanized a community

Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, was unusually hot and muggy. Marty and Kathy Nigon were driving home from La Crosse that evening when they got the call that left them shaken.

Their son, Luke, lives in Greenwood. He had heard that a tornado hit the farm, so he rushed out there to survey the damage.

It was really bad. The tops of the concrete grain silos, not just the metal domes, were torn off. Six buildings were heavily damaged.

Luke called his parents and tried to prepare them for what they’d soon see that night. “He was emotionally devastated, and when we got there, I understood why,” Marty said.

“As we were coming over the hill to the farm, it was dark, so we couldn’t see anything. But I said to my wife, ‘Are you ready for this?’ Our farm is not going to look the same.”

It was Kathy’s 55th birthday.

One of the silos had collapsed on the barn, killing three cows. Four heifers were injured in a shed that was torn in half. Every building was damaged, trees were uprooted and powerlines were down.

Then, neighbors and other farmers started showing up to help. They used trailers to move the livestock to another farm a mile down the road.

“We got the cows out of this barn around midnight,” Marty said. It was the first time in 41 years his animals had to be housed on someone else’s property.

The next four days galvanized the community where the Nigons are well known in the Future Farmers of America chapter, the schools and by folks who buy pumpkins, sweet corn, maple syrup and mulch from them.

“I think we had close to seven Mennonite churches here to help,” Marty said, as 40 to 50 people a day converged on the farm to assist in the cleanup.

Someone the Nigons didn’t know, from the southern part of the state, sent the family a check for $150. Their farm had been hit by a tornado a year earlier.

The Nigons thanked as many people as they could, in person, but it wasn’t easy to reach everyone.

“Whether you helped physically — picking up debris, building structures — or emotionally with kind words and acts of kindness such as monetary gifts or dropping off food, we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. … We are proud to be a part of this community of friends, family and neighbors,” the family said on their Facebook page.

Marty has been milking cows since he was 15 and is now 61. His hips and knees are still in good shape, which is amazing considering the toll that working around livestock takes on a farmer’s body.

“As long as I have my health, which I do, I’m OK,” he says. “I still have the drive to keep doing this.”

He and Kathy have no intention of ever selling the farm.

“If one of our kids doesn’t want it, somehow I’d like to keep it in our family for the grandchildren,” Marty says. “Once these farms are sold, you can’t afford to get them back. They’re way too expensive.”

Their daughter Kristyn, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls last year with a bachelor’s degree in dairy science, may take over the farm someday, but right now she’s working for an equipment company in Durand.

Kristyn enjoys the cows, working outdoors and living in the country, but she’s not ready to take on the full responsibility of the family business.

“Especially with the cows, they tie you down every weekend. They’re like kids, but you can’t take them with you,” she said.

Still, she loves the farm and cherishes the memories of growing up there. Even during the years when milk prices sank or the crops were poor, she didn’t feel the strain her parents must have been feeling.

“Through the hard times, my mom and dad never showed it,” she said. “I mean, they stayed strong.”

Source:pbs.org

Youth looking for support to purchase their first Brown Swiss should consider applying for the Nelson McCammon Youth Heifer Program offered by the Wisconsin Brown Swiss Association. The organization is accepting applications between now and February 10, 2021.

“The Nelson McCammon Youth Heifer Program helps youth interested in working with dairy cattle gain hands-on experience with high-quality Registered Brown Swiss, explains Wisconsin Brown Swiss President Josh Hushon. “By working with Brown Swiss through this program, our hope is that they will learn to appreciate the many outstanding qualities the Brown Swiss breed offers as the well as the camaraderie of those who own them.”

Award recipients will receive a grant for 50% (up to a $1,000 total) towards the purchase price of a Registered Brown Swiss female of any age. The program is intended to run for two years with the applicants being between the ages of 9 and 18 for cows and 9 to19 for heifers as of January 1, 2021. Applicants must be residents of Wisconsin and become members of the Wisconsin Junior and the National Junior Brown Swiss Associations.

Since the project started in 2013, 23 youth have purchased Registered Brown Swiss heifers thanks to the generosity of long-time Brown Swiss breeder and youth supporter Nelson McCammon, who generously donated the funding for the program via his estate when he passed. Mr. McCammon was a mentor to many, and a past winner of the Klussendorf Trophy.

Winners will be presented at the Wisconsin Brown Swiss Annual Meeting, March 6, 2021, at the Cranberry Country Lodge, Tomah, Wi.

Applications and more information about this and other programs can be found at the Wisconsin Brown Swiss Association website at www.wibrownswiss.com or by contacting Josh Hushon at josh2632@yahoo.com or 920-342-0611.

The new Holstein master breeders are EDISONS, JUNGO, MAC, MOLLANGES and MONTY.  These breeders will receive the highest award that is given annually by the Holstein Switzerland cooperative. The master breeder title is awarded to breeding herds that show exceptional results over a long period of time. The breeders were selected on the basis of the herd accomplishments. During a 16-year period (from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2017) they had to register at least 80 female animals and at least three female calves per year in the herd book. The points are only awarded to animals that bear the herd name and show high performance for production and conformation as well as a very good service life. The master breeder title rewards excellent results that have been achieved with the best possible longevity, which fully corresponds to the current breeding goals and is the culmination of an entire breeding career. The five new Holstein master breeders are:

Reto Büsser in 9203 Niederwil (SG), with the herd name EDISONS;
Alain and Severin Jungo in 1734 Tentlingen (FR), with the herd name JUNGO;
Patrick Marchand in 2905 Courtedoux (JU), with the herd name MAC;
Pascal Henchoz and Yves Collet in 1417 Essertines-sur-Yverdon (VD), with the herd name MOLLANGES;
Pierre Brodard in 1733 Treyvaux (FR), with the herd name MONTY.

Holstein Switzerland warmly congratulates the five new master breeders. They planned suitable matings and preferred outstanding cow families and are therefore ideal ambassadors for the Holstein breed. The five master breeders in 2021 will be presented in a souvenir brochure and will be duly honored at the next Holstein Awards on July 3, 2021 in Estavannens (FR).

Just a few years ago, Nestlé found itself under fire from Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point, which pushed it to “become sharper in articulating its strategy, bolder in re‐shaping its portfolio, and faster in overhauling its organization.” Since then, Nestlé has jettisoned segments of its business like its U.S. candy and ice cream operations while expanding its reach into better-for-you brands and products that focus more on personalized health.

Now, Danone is facing its own battle with an investor who is looking for change at the maker of Activia yogurt, Horizon organic milk and plant-based options like So Delicious and Silk. 

“The underperformance of Danone’s share price has been driven, in our view, by a combination of poor operational track record and questionable capital allocation choices,” Bluebell wrote in the letter cited by MarketWatch. The letter went on to note how since Faber took over in 2014, Danone has delivered total shareholder returns of 21% compared with 56% for the Stoxx Europe 600 Food & Beverage, 97% for Nestlé and 101% for Unilever. Bluebell said this “fails to reflect the quality of the group assets.”

Danone is a multibillion dollar food giant with a deep bench of yogurt and milk options. It also has a huge presence in plant-based offerings, which it doubled down on with its $12.5 billion purchase of WhiteWave in 2017. 

While Danone has a dominant position in these segments, competition is growing from General Mills’ Yoplait, Greek yogurt maker Chobani, Lactalis’ Siggi’s and Stonyfield lines, as well as countless startups. Danone also has a large presence in water, but it’s an ultra-competitive category with scores of big-name and private-label brands. After a prolonged period of underperformance, Nestlé announced last summer it was considering the sale of the majority of the North American Nestlé Waters business unit.

To be sure, Danone has an enviable roster of brands that populate large swaths of the dairy aisle. But its stagnant stock price has attracted the attention of an activist intent on putting it on a pathway to faster growth. Past involvement by activists have proven fruitful for the targeted companies. Nestlé‘s stock price has surged since Loeb first got involved. Campbell Soup, which also was a target of Loeb in 2018, and Hain Celestial have sold off parts of their businesses and seen their shares rise since the activist came on the scene. 

In a statement sent to Food Dive, Danone said it doesn’t comment on rumors but noted that it values “constructive dialogue with all our shareholders.” The statement noted a series of steps the company has undertaken recently to reshape the business while noting that between 2014 and 2019 Danone posted organic growth averaging 3.1%. “The leadership team of Danone is highly focused on delivering long-term sustainable value for our shareholders,” the French company said.

Danone has shown in recent months that it is aware of its challenges. In November, for example, it announced it was cutting as many as 2,000 jobs and planned to return the company to profitable growth in less than 12 months. The dairy giant said it aimed to generate about €1 billion ($1.2 billion) in savings by 2023 that will be partly reinvested in supporting growth and improving margins. Danone also is conducting a strategic review of its portfolio of brands, SKUs and assets to allow it to achieve its 3% to 5% revenue growth target.

But so far these and other executive moves don’t appear to be quick enough for Bluebell, putting the pressure on Danone to act fast or face even more unwanted pressure by outside investors.

Source: fooddive.com

The three-month trial project spearheaded by dairy cooperative Arla Foodsdemonstrates how smaller dairy farms can work collaboratively to manage their manure, generate renewable energy and reduce their carbon emissions.  

“Horse power is yesterday, cow power is the future,” jokes Graham Wilkinson, Arla Foods’ Global Senior Director, in an interview with the Daily Churn. 

To implement the poo-powered truck concept, the farmers are collecting manure slurry from two neighboring dairy farms in Buckinghamshire, a county northwest of London.

The farms then truck that manure to a nearby anaerobic waste digester that captures the methane produced from manure (and other locally-derived waste products) and converts it into climate-friendly renewable gas. 

Arla Foods — a U.K. and European-based dairy cooperative with more than 9,000 dairy farm members — then invested in two biogas-converted milk delivery trucks that collect milk from the participating farms. The trucks are powered by biogas derived, in part, from manure produced by the same cows that gave the milk.

The milk trucks are powered by manure from some of the same cows producing the milk. Photo credit: James Robinson | Arla Foods

Renewable natural gas

Wilkinson says their “poo” powered milk truck project, a trial involving two dairy farmers and 500 cows, is expected to reduce the participating farm’s carbon impact by 80 tons and generate about 60,000 lbs of renewable natural gas (RNG). 

RNG, or biogas, is produced by capturing methane emissions in anaerobic digesters from the decomposition of organic waste, including food, sewage and manure. 

Refined into natural gas and injected into natural gas pipelines, RNG can power vehicles, heat homes and generate electricity, according to a fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI).

Arla Foods has invested in their RNG project as part of their pledge to reduce the cooperative’s total carbon emissions by 30 percent between 2015 and 2030, reaching carbon net-zero by 2050.

Globally, according to Our World In Data, livestock production adds 5.8% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. 

Beef and dairy cattle contribute the lion’s share (65%) of global livestock’s emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, primarily through production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, via their burps and manure.

But renewable energy proponents say there is a growing commitment from the transportation sector — which contributes 11.0 percent of the 50 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year, according to Our World in Data — to reduce their carbon impact by replacing greenhouse-emitting, carbon-based fuels with manure-based renewable energy, according to renewable energy proponents. 

Chevron USA announced last October a joint venture project with Brightmark LLC to invest in infrastructure that supports dairy biomethane projects in multiple U.S. states. The company committed to purchasing the RNG produced from the projects for use in vehicles. 

The poo-powered milk truck pilot project aims to optimize use of what is otherwise considered a waste product — while improving their environmental impact. Photo credit: James Robinson | Arla Foods

New income stream for dairy farmers

This growing interest from transportation companies has created a win-win opportunity for dairy farms and other livestock sectors to pursue biomethane digesters as an affordable and eco-friendly way to manage their manure, says Daniel Bresette, Executive Director of EESI, a D.C.-based bipartisan group of Congressional members working to advance science-based solutions for climate change, energy and environmental challenges.

Most of the interest to date in the U.S.-based biomethane digesters has been focused on larger farm operations, Bresette says, making the Arla Foods example using small farms an interesting model. 

One of the participating farms is only milking 150 cows, according to Wilkinson, and on average Arla Foods’ farm members are small, milking between 96 and 250 cows.

In the U.S., around 248 farms are currently running anaerobic digesters, according to the EPA AgSTAR program (a joint collaboration between the EPA and USDA). 

The Daily Churn reported on one new biomethane digester at a 5000-cow dairy farm in Central Washington state. 

That project is expected to convert 150,000 gallons of daily dairy manure into about 160,000 million Btu’s of RNG for vehicles — the equivalent of about 1.4 million gallons of gasoline a year. 

And there’s evidence we’ll see more of these. The EPA estimates that biogas recovery systems are technically feasible at an additional 8,000 large-scale dairy and hog operations across the country. 

Back in the U.K., Wilkinson says Arla Foods’ farmers are eager to try out new ideas that improve their sustainability and business models.

“When we say, ‘We’ve got this crazy idea, would you mind helping us?’, he says “(the farms) are more than happy to help us out.” 

Though the three-month trial is preliminary, and the biogas-converted milk trucks were, admittedly, expensive, Arla Foods is hopeful the model can be expanded.

Renewable natural gas (RNG) made from manure is considered a less harmful alternative to diesel and other transportation fuels. Photo credit: James Robinson | Arla Foods

Helping smaller dairy producers

They are banking on the relatively close proximity of many of their member dairy farms to a growing network of U.K.-based anaerobic waste digesters, according to Wilkinson, as well as public and private partnerships to expand the opportunity to more of their members. 

“The opportunity to scale up is definitely there,” he says, noting they have 2400 dairy members in the U.K. “We’ve got farms from Scotland all the way down to Cornwall.”

Geography provides more of a challenge for implementing a similar-style operation in the U.S., Bresette says, but if more digesters are built there could be regional opportunities similar to what Arla Foods is experimenting with—a potential boon for small dairy farms and regional economies. 

“Economics for small dairy operations are really difficult to pencil out,” he says. “If there was a biogas economy providing another source of revenue, maybe it can help (small dairy farms) operate more sustainably.” 

EESI also sees a biogas economy as a potential way to add U.S.-based jobs, especially in rural communities where large-scale, biomethane anaerobic digesters linked into natural gas pipelines would be likely to be built. 

An expanded investment in up to 13,500 U.S.-based biogas facilities could be a boost for rural economies, according to an EESI release. This would add $40 billion in capital investment, 335,000 short-term construction jobs and 23,000 permanent jobs.

The incoming Biden administration — which has pledged to invest $400 billion in clean energy and innovation —  offers a chance for a “fresh start with some of these (renewable energy) policy proposals,” says Bressette, who hopes that will include investments in biogas facilities. 

As for Arla Foods farmers, the manure-fueled truck project not only reduces their environmental impact, but also offers a fun way to communicate their commitment to planet-friendly dairy farming. 

Each truck is wrapped with bold proclamations. On the side, a black and white Holstein cow is featured next to the words, “A Cow Poo Powered Milk Tank. Not To Be Sniffed At.” And drivers following the tankers are warned, “This tanker is powered by cow poo – KEEP YOUR DISTANCE.”

“It’s a little bit quirky, ‘trucks powered by poo,’” Wilkinson admits, “but you capture the imagination of consumers in the right way and you can present farming and farmers in a very positive light.”

Source: DairyGold

Pennsylvania’s largest farms claimed the lion’s share of agricultural product sales and net farm income between 2012 and 2017, but the state’s many small farms made significant contributions beyond their economic impact, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Recognizing the diversity of Pennsylvania agriculture is crucial to understanding its value to the state, noted agricultural economists in the college’s Center for Economic and Community Development. Their new report, “Understanding Pennsylvania Agriculture,” is synthesized largely from data contained in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2017 Census of Agriculture. The ag census is compiled every five years, and the 2017 census was released in spring 2019.

Using maps and figures, “Understanding Pennsylvania Agriculture” provides a visual update on the number of farms, land in farms, agricultural product sales, farm incomes and information on farm operators by county as of 2017.

“The bottom line is that the larger farms have the most sales and produce the most net cash income,” said Theodore Alter, professor of agricultural, environmental and regional economics, who is co-director of the Center for Economic and Community Development. “Those large operations are located primarily in the southeast quadrant of the state. But Pennsylvania agriculture is very diverse in terms of the types of enterprises and the size, the distribution and the nature of farms across the state.”

In 2017, Pennsylvania had 53,157 farms — defined as operations producing or selling $1,000 or more in agricultural products in a year. Lancaster County was home to the most farms with 5,108, followed by neighboring York County with 2,067. Cameron County, with 37, and Forest County, with 36, had the fewest number of farms.

Half of the state’s farms generated less than $10,000 per year in sales, the report indicates, and about 7% of Pennsylvania’s total agricultural product sales were generated by farms with less than $100,000 in annual sales. Meanwhile, 67% of the total market value of agricultural products sold came from the roughly 6% of farms that had annual sales of $500,000 and above.

Counties with the highest total sales were Lancaster with $1.5 billion and Chester with $712.5 million. The counties with the lowest values were Cameron, at $523,000, and Philadelphia, at $327,000.

In terms of net cash farm income — defined as total income minus expenses — the approximately 3,100 farms with sales above $500,000 had total net cash income of nearly $1.7 billion, making up 75% of the total net cash income for all farms in Pennsylvania. On the other hand, the more than 26,000 farms with agricultural product sales between $0 and $9,999 were collectively in the red, incurring a total loss in net cash farm income of $229.2 million.

“The tremendous number of smaller farms in the state suggests that there are many people involved in Pennsylvania agriculture for whom farming is not their main source of income,” said Timothy Kelsey, co-director of the Center for Economic and Community Development. In fact, the report shows that in more than half of the state’s counties, at least one-third of producers annually work 200 days or more off the farm.

“For many of them, farming is a lifestyle choice, a hobby or a way to supplement income earned off the farm,” Kelsey, a professor of agricultural economics, said. “These smaller farms are important for enhancing the richness of agriculture in the state.”

The report also provides a brief overview of a few demographic aspects of Pennsylvania agriculture. For example, a map of the state reveals that female producers made up between 30% and 40% of producers in most counties at the time of the census. Philadelphia County had the highest percentage of female producers, with more than 76%, and neighboring Delaware County had nearly 54%. In addition, nearly half of producers in Pike County were female.

Although the ag census suggests that the U.S. producers who are female grew from 31% to 36% between 2012 and 2017, changes to data collection after 2012 make identifying trends difficult, explained report co-author Siena Baker, undergraduate research associate in the Center for Economic and Community Development.

“The definition of agricultural producers expanded, counting up to four people who were making decisions on the farm, when previously it was three,” Baker said. “I think that indicates that women probably have been in these decision-making roles for a long time but now were included in the census to a greater degree.”

Cameron, McKean and Luzerne counties had the highest average age of producers in 2017 at 60.6 years old. Counties with the youngest producers, on average, were Philadelphia (42.5 years) and Lancaster (46.6 years).

Overall, Pennsylvania agriculture holds its own nationally, the researchers said, ranking 14th among states in the number of farms, 14th in the number of producers (90,461) and 19th in the market value of agricultural product sales (nearly $7.8 billion). By these measures, Pennsylvania is the top agricultural state in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions.

“I think you could argue that that’s a very strong position, given the diversity and nature of agriculture in the state and its proximity to major East Coast markets,” Alter said.

Center for Economic and Community Development personnel who also contributed to the report were Max Bryla, research assistant, Theodore Fuller, development economist, and Alyssa Gurklis, program and project coordinator. This and other center publications can be found online at https://aese.psu.edu/research/centers/cecd/publications.

“Understanding Pennsylvania Agriculture” is part of a series of upcoming reports from the Center for Economic and Community Development analyzing Pennsylvania data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture. Other publications in the series will include “Male and Female Farm Producers in 2017: A Comparison Across Pennsylvania,” “Where the Soybeans Grow: An Exploration of Agricultural Land Use in Pennsylvania, 2017” and “Old and Young MacDonald Both Have Farms: Farm Producers by Age in Pennsylvania, 2017.”

Penn State Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture partially supported this work.

It was Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. David Fischer had just arrived for work at his dairy farm in Rio, Wisconsin. A slight breeze punctuated the freezing, grey morning.

His drive to work is just 2 minutes. From where he parked his pickup truck on the farm’s gravel driveway, he could see his house on the top of a hill.

Fischer, who owns the roughly 350-cow dairy farm with his wife, Amy, was ready for another day of work alongside his twin sons, 33-year-old Kevin and Brian, and a handful of other employees.

Like most days, the lifelong dairy farmer had plenty to do. He didn’t expect anything different from his usual 12- or 13-hour work day on his farm about 50 minutes north of Madison.

Fischer set off toward the north end of the dairy farm. He walked past the dozen-or-so buildings to chop wood that would heat water in the milking barn and warm Kevin’s house on the property.

Fischer soon realized that Brian hadn’t shown up for work. He couldn’t shake a feeling that something was wrong.

Was Brian sick? He would have called or texted. Did he take off unannounced to go snowmobiling? That wasn’t like Brian either.

Around midday, while taking a short break for lunch, Fischer and his son Kevin set off to Brian’s house to drop off a feed wagon and check on him. What they found confirmed Fischer’s nagging fears: Brian’s body. He had died by suicide.

Brian’s death blindsided the Fischers. And four years later, they still ask themselves the same question over and over again: “Why?”

“I had someone ask me the other day, ‘Does it get any easier?’ ” Amy said, tears forming in her eyes. “I said, ‘It gets easier to cover it.’ ”

“It don’t go away,” Fischer said about the heartache he feels. “He should be here.”

Financial pressures, long hours, labor shortages, harsh weather — these are all conditions that farmers and their advocates say are escalating stress and depression among Wisconsin’s dairy farmers. And nationally, people who run farms are much more likely to take their own lives than in many other professions. In response, the state of Wisconsin and farmers themselves have launched a series of programs to help them cope.

Stress, alcohol, overwork piled up

The events leading to Brian’s death were complicated. The Fischers said Brian had a drinking problem and had just gone through a bitter breakup that ended a decade-long relationship.

The family had also invested heavily in expanding the farm, aiming to make it financially viable for the two brothers in the future. As Fischer describes it: “You have to grow. If you don’t grow, you’re getting behind,” echoing a common expression among dairy farmers in recent years.

With the expansion in mind, Amy said Brian was giving farming “100%.” Said Amy: “He (Brian) could be in the tractor for 60 hours straight.”

The stress from work, the drinking problem and serious relationship woes frustrated Brian, the couple said. Brian had a “short fuse” before his death, Fischer said, but the couple never imagined he would take his own life.

“Nobody saw it,” the couple agreed. “Nobody saw it.”

Survey: 1 in 10 farmers struggling

Conversations with 10 current and former family dairy farmers in Wisconsin revealed that work days, which often start before the sun rises and end well after it sets, are jam packed with stressors that make coping difficult.

Stress “absolutely” winds into every aspect of life on a dairy farm, said Linda Ceylor, a  66-year-old organic dairy farmer in Catawba.

The stressors are almost too many to count, ranging from often grueling daily chores to equipment breakdowns, sick animals, uncooperative weather, unreliable staff and, perhaps the heaviest stressor of them all: low and fluctuating milk prices.

Dairy farmers statewide share these concerns, according to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection’s 2020 dairy producer survey.

Among the 2,871 dairy farmers the agency surveyed, extreme weather was the top challenge. Other major concerns were managing day-to-day expenses, regulations, aging facilities, managing long-term debt and difficulty finding labor.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further stressed farmers. A new national survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation found 65% of farmers report the pandemic has impacted their mental health a lot or some.

Daily concerns, coupled with a half-decade of serious financial woes, leave Wisconsin dairy farmers in the middle of a mental health crisis, according to the farmers and dairy experts.

In the DATCP survey, 9% of respondents said they felt a need to access mental health services in the past year due to farming challenges, with 6% of respondents actually seeking out help. That suggests that hundreds, if not thousands, of Wisconsin farmers are feeling the crisis.

Data from the Wisconsin Farm Center — which is a part of DATCP and provides social and business-related resources to farm families — indicates the crisis is worsening. The center runs a 24-hour hotline (888-901-2558) for farmers struggling with suicidal thoughts, depression or anxiety.

Funding for help available

In recent years, Wisconsin state government and private organizations have funneled more money into farmers’ mental health. In his first budget, Gov. Tony Evers included $200,000 for farmer mental health initiatives. The  Wisconsin Farm Center used that money to expand its voucher program and develop other initiatives aimed at alleviating farmer stress.

The voucher program covers counseling costs with select providers for dairy farmers seeking mental health care services. Up to three vouchers, good for one hour of counseling each, can be used to purchase services from licensed counselors. Additional vouchers are available upon request.

The state has issued more than 1,500 vouchers to Wisconsin farmers since 2005.

The center issued 252 vouchers in 2020. That’s a 38.5% increase compared to 2019 — and a seven-fold increase compared to 2016, when only 31 vouchers were issued. During the 2020 fiscal year — from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 — the voucher program cost $7,700, according to Farm Center estimates. That number is expected to tick up to $10,200 for 2021.

These figures only represent one, state-funded avenue to counseling sessions. They do not account for counseling that dairy farmers may have sought out and paid for using their private insurance or paid for out of pocket. Oftentimes, at least one member of a farm family works off the farm to bring employer-backed health insurance back to their family.

Other organizations have also started offering Question, Persuade and Refer training. QPR training teaches people to identify the warning signs of suicide and refer someone to help.

The Farmer Angel Network, for example, has partnered with the Sauk County Health Department to train  farmers and other dairy industry members how to identify and help people experiencing a mental health crisis.

Suicides up statewide

Wisconsin is seeing more suicides statewide, according to the most recent data from the state Department of Health Services. Between 2010 and 2017, an average of 815 Wisconsinites died by suicide each year, with the numbers trending up since 2015.

In 2016, the year Brian died, 862 people in Wisconsin died by suicide. And while DHS does not track the occupations of people who have died — medical examiners and coroners in Wisconsin are not required to list the occupation of people who die — one dairy farmer interviewed for this story said he “knows many (farmers) who have actually (died by) suicide.”

Suicide deaths are rising nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2017, nearly 38,000 working age Americans died by suicide, a suicide rate increase of almost 40% compared to the year 2000.

The suicide rate among male farmers is 43.2 per 100,000, the data show — 58% higher than the national rate among men of 27.4 per 100,000.

Several dairy farmers interviewed for this story said they are seeing the crisis in their own rural communities.

Ceylor said farmers are proud people who often won’t reach out for help, so she watches for subtle behavioral changes in her fellow farmers to see when someone is struggling.

She knows of three farmers who halted their operations last year for financial reasons, and all of them struggled for months to adjust to life after farming. Ceylor would sometimes ask them to work on her own farm so they could maintain a “farming connection.”

Randy Roecker, a 56-year-old dairy farmer and mental health advocate, has also encountered  numerous Wisconsin farmers struggling with their mental health.

Roecker, who experienced a deep, financially driven depression sparked by the 2008 financial crisis, founded the Farmer Angel Network, a peer-to-peer support group aimed at getting farmers through tough times.

The farmer from Loganville, Wisconsin — located roughly 50 miles northwest of Madison — said “farmers don’t know where to turn” when they’re struggling with their mental health, and the group’s monthly meetings provided a space for people to get together and talk.

“We had farmers that were driving two or three hours to come up (the meetings) because … they’re embarrassed because they don’t want their neighbors to see them,” Roecker said.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic set in, the group, many of them regular attendees, hasn’t met. And online meetings sometimes aren’t feasible because many farmers lack access to adequate internet. For those who do have online access, the Farm Center has launched a new series of virtual counseling sessions starting in February for farmers and farm couples.

Financial hardships fuel crisis

Thirteen of the people interviewed for this story said the financial devastation many farmers have faced in recent years is fueling the mental health crisis.

Small Wisconsin dairy farms face a particularly dire outlook. Since 2004, the state has lost more than half of its registered dairy herds, according to data from DATCP. That’s nearly 9,000 fewer herds, with 15,904 registered herds at the start of 2004 dropping to just 6,949 as of December 2020.

For the thousands of small dairy farms that continue to operate, the stressful fight for survival continues.

Financial struggles are “almost always” the underpinnings of mental health struggles for dairy farmers, said Florence Becot, an associate research scientist at the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

“I think it’s hard to now talk about farm stress and depression without talking about the economy,” Becot said. “When you talk about (farm) stress and depression, so much of it … is connected to the way that farming is structured. You might not be losing money, but you might be afraid of losing money.”

Jayne Krull, director of the Wisconsin Farm Center, pointed to the volatility of milk prices — and the short- and long-term uncertainty rooted in that volatility — as a weight carried by the state’s dairy farmers.

“It’s really hard to make a plan for your farm when you don’t know what you’re going to be getting paid,” Krull said. “Add to that you’ve got the high feed prices, and it’s hard to make ends meet.”

The last five years have crushed family dairy farmers in America’s Dairyland. The price for milk, a commodity, has varied widely on a month-to-month or even day-to-day basis, leaving dairy farmers financially unstable. In 2020 alone the average price farmers in Wisconsin received per 100 pounds of milk varied from a low of $13.60 in May to a high of $22.30 in July, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.

The drop in prices paves a difficult path forward for small family dairy farms, current and former dairy farmers said. As Roecker describes it: “Our investment keeps going up and up and up, and our return goes down and down and down, and there’s just no profit in it.”

Hard work but little gain

Mark Stephenson, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Profitability, attributes milk’s wavering price to the fact that it is bought and sold as a commodity.

Stephenson said the dairy industry today consists of 30,000 individual dairy farmers, and when the price farmers are getting for milk is high, they often respond by producing more milk.

Accordingly, Stephenson said, when they all produce more milk, they can overshoot the actual demand for their product, causing the price of milk to drop dramatically.

Unlike other products, the milk has a short shelf-life and can’t be stored for long periods of the time when there is a surplus, forcing farmers to take whatever price they can get for it before it goes bad, Stephenson said.

Like many of his peers, Jerry Volenec, a dairy farmer in Grant County, has seen the financial burden of dairy farming only worsen throughout his career.

After he finished college, Volenec started dairy farming full time, initially milking 70 cows. He grew his herd over time, following — but not enjoying — the mantra of “get bigger to survive,” and today milks 300 cows three times per day.

Even still, he’s struggling to get by. Volenec said he has never been “terribly comfortable” financially and only breaks even through “great personal sacrifice.”

“Right now I’m running with the fewest number of people that I’ve ever run, and I’m running the most land and the most cattle that I’ve ever run,” he continued. “Do the math on that.”

As Volenec has scaled up his operation, something that was supposed to lead to greater financial stability, he’s pinching pennies and taking on more of the day-to-day work — and stress — himself. He said the increased workload has harmed his family life and his marriage, but he’s not sure what else he can do.

“The happiness and joy has been sucked out of me,” Volenec said. “I don’t want to be this guy.”

Source: channel3000.com