By Charlie Elrod, NEAFA President
Wow, to say this is a challenging spring would be quite the understatement. One bright spot is that milk prices are trending upward, albeit slowly, over the year. On the negative side of the ledger though are the chaotic tariff situation and significant increases in the cost of electricity, fuel, fertilizer, freight, etc., many of which can be traced to the recently-erupted war in the Middle East. How and when that is resolved is anybody’s guess but will impact agricultural producers and consumers for many months to come. All that said, what we can do as agribusinesses is to stay focused on what each of us does best and continue to serve our customers as best we can.
Advocacy, Collaboration and Education are at the heart of everything that our alliance does. This focus has never been more valuable than it is in today’s turbulent environment. Next Tuesday, March 31st, I hope you will join us for the NEAFA Annual Business Meeting starting at 7:30 a.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in Syracuse, followed by the Herd Health and Nutrition Conference. If you haven’t registered for the Herd Health Conference, you can do so at the link provided. The Education Committee and Pro-Dairy staff have put together a great program that will improve your ability to meet the needs of your customers, whether that’s working with customers in automated milking systems, optimizing milk fat yields, or improving on forage production.
Our advocacy efforts continue to bear fruit as we actively collaborate with VDPA in Vermont to support their lobbying efforts with Shouldice and Associates. See Emma Shouldice’s article later in the newsletter. In NY State, our lobbying in collaboration with CAO, NEDPA and NYFB has resulted in a One House budget that has proposed significant increases from the Governor’s budget for many of the programs we value like Pro-Dairy, the Diagnostic Lab and others. Again, our collective efforts in supporting these programs are crucial to making sure our industry is getting the best research and education anywhere in the U.S. As Julie Suarez said in her article last month, our industry needs more science, not less.
Lastly, I want to thank Jeff Matuszczak and Mike Thresher as they wrap up their terms on the NEAFA Board of Directors. Both have made meaningful contributions to our deliberations throughout their tenure on the board. With Mike’s departure, we also needed to fill the role of Secretary, so we welcome Sarah LaCount to the Executive Committee in that role. We also want to thank Kevin Putnam whose other obligations necessitated his resignation from the board late last year. Sean Dieumegard has been appointed to fill Kevin’s seat at our upcoming board meeting next week. The nominating committee has put forward Jim Carter and Aurelio Henriques to fill Jeff and Sarah’s seats on the board. We will vote on these nominations at the business meeting next Tuesday morning. Again, thanks to both the retiring board members and those who are now stepping into these leadership positions. Our alliance only works if we have strong, committed directors and committee members to help guide the organization into the future.