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Fourteen years ago, Jonathan Schell was the youngest person ever
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elected to the Kentucky State House of Representatives. How about that,
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of course he's our agriculture commissioner now, Jonathan. Welcome back, Hey, Terry.
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Has it going.
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Life's good. We're all worked up about the state fair.
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Paul Miles just talking to a tobacco farmer as a
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head of the state fair. Did you do tobacco at
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your farm? You don't do that, right or did you?
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We don't now, but we've raised about two hundred acres
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of it. We've been out for about ten years now.
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I think I've told you before that's the hardest work
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I've ever done in my life working tobacco, especially the
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hanging part. You know, you go out there, you know
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the cutting, you put it on the stick, you put
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it on the wagon, they take it in. Then you've
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got to be the smart guy that climbs to the
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top of the of the barn so that you're pulling
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up instead of pushing up.
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Everybody always says that, but I'm a bottom rail guy.
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I like the bottom rail because you get the air
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flow up at the top there's no airflow, and it's
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right next to the ten of the barn. I think
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it's the worst on the barn.
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It's so bad, but all they wouldn't. But I love
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being up higher because, yeah, the little pieces would flicker
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down and go in your eyes and then your eyes
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would get swollen shut. So you gotta wear a sunglasses.
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Yeah, no, you definitely get your iceburn and get the
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tobacco juice center.
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All right, mister Agriculture Commissioner. Here we are on the
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cusp of the Kentucky State Fair. This is all about celebrating,
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really what your platform is, food, faith and family, right.
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Yes, sir, Yeah, we're just a couple of days away.
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It starts on Thursday, officially, kind of. The first official
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event is the Commodity Breakfast on that Thursday morning, which
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the community shows up for in full force. We have
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several hundred people that are there, myself. I think the
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governor will be there. We've got the new CEO, Mike Ferry,
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will be there, a lot of our board members, and
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a lot of the commodity groups, if not all all
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the commodity groups. But I always tell people, I kind
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of joke as if you've never had fish for breakfast,
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you can have it there. Fish for breakfast.
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Uh sadly, I have had that before on fishing trips
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and what you know, you do what you gotta do. Okay,
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let's talk about the health of Kentucky's farming communities. How
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are we how is Kentucky? As you know, different priorities
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shift market in national and global markets. Hol's Kentucky's health,
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you know there.
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I think that we've got a lot of optimism right now,
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especially in a row crop farmers that are out there.
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You know, we're going to see probably record yields in
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every portion of the state. In corn beans, we've had
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a record yield and wheat. And if you can't get
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the pricing you want, you better have the yields that
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you need. And so we I believe that we've also
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got some room for improvement on the pricing leading in
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the harvest as well. There's been some big purchases. We've
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had a good ethanol year, selling ethanol on the corn market,
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and then with the sustainable aviation fuel a turney of
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aviation fuel. You know, it's it's starting to ramp up
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a little bit more. So I'm hopeful that we'll have
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a little bit more demand for the products which we'll
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see hopefully a little bump in pricing, but we're gonna
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have great yields in Kentucky on both of those commodities.
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And then talking to our back of farmers, they're saying
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that it's the best crop they've had years. A lot
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of our vegetable farmers in the state right now, depending
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on where you are far west and farther east where
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they've had so much rain, it's been difficult because you
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have so much rot and disease pressure when you've got
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that much water. But kind of that south central part
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of the state has been really good on the vegetable side. Now,
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when we're talking cattle, up until about two weeks ago,
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I would have said, man, we're really rocking and rolling
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and everything's good. But we've had a little bit of
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a shake up in the marketplace on cattle right now
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because Tyson announced they were closing two facilities and selling
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another one, and so I think we still don't know
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what that's going to mean for the market. I do
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believe that it will stabilize pretty quickly, though. I think
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that because we don't have a large number of cattle
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in this country anymore, we just are at the lowest
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level in recorded history of cattle numbers, which is why
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you're seeing the prices you're seeing at the grocery store,
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which is why you're seeing the prices at the stockyards,
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because we just don't have it supplying demand. But I
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don't know what this is going to do just yet
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to the marketplace, but I think that it will stabilize
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over the next week or so and we'll kind of
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understand it a little bit better.
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Are those Tyson plants in Kentucky? Are you just talking
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about in general?
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Well, no, they're they're nationally so I think I think
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one of them was in Missouri, another one was in Illinois,
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I think, and another one in Texas. Uh, don't hold
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me to those specific locations. I didn't member.
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But what's happening is global demand for that product is
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getting tighter.
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Is that what it is? No, No, we're at We're
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at an all time record high for demand for beef.
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The problem is is that we just don't have enough
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farmers anymore, is one of the problems. The other problem
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is is because people are getting such a high price
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for slaughtered cattle, so you know, the cattle that are
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going to be terminal for market to eat they're not
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putting them back into their herd as much, so they're
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selling the heifers, and so the heifers are not becoming cows,
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which are not producing babies, and so that heifer retention
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is what we call it, has still not triggered in
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in this marketplace, and it ebbs and flows. We go
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in cycles. As of right now, this is probably a
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longer side for this than we've had in the previous past,
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but you know, there will be a rebound eventually. But
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the biggest indicator here, the biggest problem is just what
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we've talked about in the past, is just farmland transition,
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farmland preservation. You know, there's not enough older farmers are
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getting out and selling their herds, younger farmers are not
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getting in buying them, and so there's a lot of
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consolidation on the farming side. Plus, when you're talking about
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a halfer today at six hundred pounds is going to
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cost you twenty three twenty four hundred dollars if you
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buy it or sell it, as opposed to last year,
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those same weights were anywhere from fourteen to fifteen hundred.
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So you're talking about mentally a double in a year's time,
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and if you look back over about about a five
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year period, we're talking tripling the price at the market.
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And so if you're sitting on heifers and you're like,
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you know, do I put them back in my herd
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and wait two years to pay her off to get
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the calves off, or do I go ahead and sell
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her and get that money? Now? A lot of them
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decide to do that. Plus, if you're like me and
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you're buying heifers and background and on, either for bread
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heifers and or for you know, just sending the market that,
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then I'm sitting here going, well, it's gonna instead of
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it being let's just say a half a million dollars
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to buy what I need to buy, it's gonna be
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a million. Can I go to the bank and get it?
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And so there's a lot of those problems that are
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out there of capital, access of interest, rates of inflation,
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the cost of doing business that are just kind of
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strangling the American farmer right now on all sides. And
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so that's a lot of what we work on on
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a daily basis is how do we how do we
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manage through this and fix it? And how does the
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market meet the demand that we're at today.
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Yeah, I was shopping a week ago and I thought
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the stake prices were pretty good. So that you think
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they've changed significantly in just in the last week.
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No, I don't think so, but I mean compared to
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you know, a year ago or five years ago. You know,
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it's just it's got to go up in order to
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meet where we are at. And you know, even though
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beef prices are going up, the packers are still not
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able to make money because just as I know, this
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is a lot in the weeds, but it's interesting stuff.
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So you know, we we're producing a third more beef
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with a third less cattle in America of a day
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than we were fifty years ago.
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Please explain that.
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So we have larger we're finishing cattle at a better rate,
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so we've got better genetics, better practices, better feed and
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so we're instead of us processing animals at eleven or
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twelve hundred pounds, we're now processing them in a quicker
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fashion at fourteen and fifteen and sixteen hundred pounds. And
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so we're doing a third more with a third less cattle.
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And the problem at the packing side is the shackle space.
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So whenever they slaughter an animal and they put it
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in there to be able to take it through the system.
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They're at a percentage lower tremendously than they need to
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be at full capacity in order to make it profitable
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for them. That's one issue, and we've been filling it
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on the farm side for a long time. The packers
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are just now starting to fill it to where that
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they're having to make these decisions. Now. We don't know
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exactly what that's going to do to the marketplace, but
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as Commissioner of Agriculture, what I'm looking at is I'm
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seeing shutdowns in these packing plants across the country. It's
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not just Tyson, others have done it in other spaces.
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We've had port facilities shut down. We've had some more
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beef facilities with other major companies. And just to be clear,
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there's four major packers in America. It's a very monopolized
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system that's out there that we have to fight every day.
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So these local processing facilities in Kentucky are tremendous for
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our farmers to have a little bit of competition. But
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what I'm looking at is where they don't have water
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out west and the population's not there for the workforce
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and a lot of those things in traditional packing states,
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is that as they start to restructure this industry in
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the future, I'm hopeful that it is an economic development
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opportunity for Kentucky because we have the water, we have
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the grass, we have the cattle, and instead of us
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sending cattle three and four hours away to get processed
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and fatten, let's do that here. Let's try to attract
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one of those companies in the next five to ten
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years in a major way so that we can we
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can start to see that where we have that national
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population on the eastern coast not only for workforce but
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also consumption. So even though there's problems and there's uncertainties,
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those are kind of the optimistic things that I look
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for in situations like this.
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Okay, you use the word fattened. You talk about an
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animal that was eleven hundred pounds going to market now
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being fourteen hundred. What about the quality of the meat
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if you're bloating these animals.
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Yeah, so you're not bloating them, you're putting on real weight.
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That's where you're marbling comes into effect. That's where the
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flavor comes into effect. You know. Gordon Ramsay says fat flavor.
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So you and I are not fat terry, We are flavorful.
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But that is exactly what's happening. So we're putting on
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more muscle, more fat content. It is a higher quality
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product that we're putting on the shelves than we ever
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have in the past. We've got the best farmers doing
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the best practices with the best genetics, and a lot
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of that is due to a lot of the programs
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that we have at the department. Why they have increased
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that kind of quality. We have a bull program, have
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for program making sure that we're as efficient as possible
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with the animals and the livestock that we have and
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taking the best care of them that we can. The
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lowest stress that we've ever put on animals is right
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now today to where that whenever we can deliver it,
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it is the most ethical, the most flavorful, the most
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high quality product in the entire world comes out of
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Kentucky and out of America to feed our people.
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Well, hope everybody can ride through the little obstacles that
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pop up now and again. We always love seeing all
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the farmers at the Kentucky State there, proud of the
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hard work they do, and the products they produce.
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Yeah, and if you want to see something pretty neat,
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you know, the dairy show will be the first couple
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of days, and then on Monday next week we'll do
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the transition and then you got your pork and your
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your pigs, your lambs and your goats, and then the
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beef cattle will be there for the remaining part of
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the week. And so when you go in that west
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wing area over there where the barns are, you know,
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be sure to go in and be respectful to the family.
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You know, don't just go pet animals if you haven't asked,
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but ask and interact with them. And those farm families
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are amazing, those kids that are showing it. Truly is
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a great environment in the barns out there, and I encourage,
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you know, get off the midway, get out of the
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bazaar that's over there where you buy all the stuff,
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go over there to those barns and see those folks.
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I thought when you use the word bizarre, you meant
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be I z I never mind, because there is some bizarre,
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some bizarre things you could visit at the state here too,
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that's for sure.
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I mean, part of the part of the thing about
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the state, theirs is the people watch it right.
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Oh that's right, Jonathan. Great talking to you again. Make
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sure you visit next time you're through.
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Fourteen years ago, Jonathan Schell was the youngest person ever
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elected to the Kentucky State House of Representatives. How about that,
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of course he's our agriculture commissioner now, Jonathan. Welcome back, Hey, Terry.
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Has it going.
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Life's good. We're all worked up about the state fair.
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Paul Miles just talking to a tobacco farmer as a
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head of the state fair. Did you do tobacco at
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your farm? You don't do that, right or did you?
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We don't now, but we've raised about two hundred acres
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of it. We've been out for about ten years now.
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I think I've told you before that's the hardest work
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I've ever done in my life working tobacco, especially the
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hanging part. You know, you go out there, you know
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the cutting, you put it on the stick, you put
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it on the wagon, they take it in. Then you've
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got to be the smart guy that climbs to the
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top of the of the barn so that you're pulling
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up instead of pushing up.
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Everybody always says that, but I'm a bottom rail guy.
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I like the bottom rail because you get the air
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flow up at the top there's no airflow, and it's
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right next to the ten of the barn. I think
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it's the worst on the barn.
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It's so bad, but all they wouldn't. But I love
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being up higher because, yeah, the little pieces would flicker
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down and go in your eyes and then your eyes
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would get swollen shut. So you gotta wear a sunglasses.
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Yeah, no, you definitely get your iceburn and get the
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tobacco juice center.
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All right, mister Agriculture Commissioner. Here we are on the
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cusp of the Kentucky State Fair. This is all about celebrating,
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really what your platform is, food, faith and family, right.
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Yes, sir, Yeah, we're just a couple of days away.
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It starts on Thursday, officially, kind of. The first official
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event is the Commodity Breakfast on that Thursday morning, which
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the community shows up for in full force. We have
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several hundred people that are there, myself. I think the
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governor will be there. We've got the new CEO, Mike Ferry,
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will be there, a lot of our board members, and
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a lot of the commodity groups, if not all all
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the commodity groups. But I always tell people, I kind
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of joke as if you've never had fish for breakfast,
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you can have it there. Fish for breakfast.
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Uh sadly, I have had that before on fishing trips
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and what you know, you do what you gotta do. Okay,
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let's talk about the health of Kentucky's farming communities. How
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are we how is Kentucky? As you know, different priorities
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shift market in national and global markets. Hol's Kentucky's health,
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you know there.
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I think that we've got a lot of optimism right now,
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especially in a row crop farmers that are out there.
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You know, we're going to see probably record yields in
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every portion of the state. In corn beans, we've had
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a record yield and wheat. And if you can't get
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the pricing you want, you better have the yields that
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you need. And so we I believe that we've also
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got some room for improvement on the pricing leading in
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the harvest as well. There's been some big purchases. We've
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had a good ethanol year, selling ethanol on the corn market,
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and then with the sustainable aviation fuel a turney of
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aviation fuel. You know, it's it's starting to ramp up
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a little bit more. So I'm hopeful that we'll have
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a little bit more demand for the products which we'll
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see hopefully a little bump in pricing, but we're gonna
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have great yields in Kentucky on both of those commodities.
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And then talking to our back of farmers, they're saying
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that it's the best crop they've had years. A lot
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of our vegetable farmers in the state right now, depending
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on where you are far west and farther east where
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they've had so much rain, it's been difficult because you
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have so much rot and disease pressure when you've got
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that much water. But kind of that south central part
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of the state has been really good on the vegetable side. Now,
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when we're talking cattle, up until about two weeks ago,
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I would have said, man, we're really rocking and rolling
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and everything's good. But we've had a little bit of
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a shake up in the marketplace on cattle right now
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because Tyson announced they were closing two facilities and selling
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another one, and so I think we still don't know
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what that's going to mean for the market. I do
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believe that it will stabilize pretty quickly, though. I think
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that because we don't have a large number of cattle
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in this country anymore, we just are at the lowest
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level in recorded history of cattle numbers, which is why
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you're seeing the prices you're seeing at the grocery store,
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which is why you're seeing the prices at the stockyards,
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because we just don't have it supplying demand. But I
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don't know what this is going to do just yet
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to the marketplace, but I think that it will stabilize
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over the next week or so and we'll kind of
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understand it a little bit better.
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Are those Tyson plants in Kentucky? Are you just talking
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about in general?
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Well, no, they're they're nationally so I think I think
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one of them was in Missouri, another one was in Illinois,
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I think, and another one in Texas. Uh, don't hold
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me to those specific locations. I didn't member.
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But what's happening is global demand for that product is
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getting tighter.
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Is that what it is? No, No, we're at We're
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at an all time record high for demand for beef.
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The problem is is that we just don't have enough
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farmers anymore, is one of the problems. The other problem
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is is because people are getting such a high price
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for slaughtered cattle, so you know, the cattle that are
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going to be terminal for market to eat they're not
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putting them back into their herd as much, so they're
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selling the heifers, and so the heifers are not becoming cows,
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which are not producing babies, and so that heifer retention
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is what we call it, has still not triggered in
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in this marketplace, and it ebbs and flows. We go
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in cycles. As of right now, this is probably a
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longer side for this than we've had in the previous past,
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but you know, there will be a rebound eventually. But
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the biggest indicator here, the biggest problem is just what
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we've talked about in the past, is just farmland transition,
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farmland preservation. You know, there's not enough older farmers are
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getting out and selling their herds, younger farmers are not
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getting in buying them, and so there's a lot of
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consolidation on the farming side. Plus, when you're talking about
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a halfer today at six hundred pounds is going to
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cost you twenty three twenty four hundred dollars if you
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buy it or sell it, as opposed to last year,
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those same weights were anywhere from fourteen to fifteen hundred.
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So you're talking about mentally a double in a year's time,
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and if you look back over about about a five
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year period, we're talking tripling the price at the market.
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And so if you're sitting on heifers and you're like,
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you know, do I put them back in my herd
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and wait two years to pay her off to get
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the calves off, or do I go ahead and sell
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her and get that money? Now? A lot of them
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decide to do that. Plus, if you're like me and
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you're buying heifers and background and on, either for bread
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heifers and or for you know, just sending the market that,
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then I'm sitting here going, well, it's gonna instead of
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it being let's just say a half a million dollars
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to buy what I need to buy, it's gonna be
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a million. Can I go to the bank and get it?
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And so there's a lot of those problems that are
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out there of capital, access of interest, rates of inflation,
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the cost of doing business that are just kind of
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strangling the American farmer right now on all sides. And
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so that's a lot of what we work on on
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a daily basis is how do we how do we
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manage through this and fix it? And how does the
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market meet the demand that we're at today.
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Yeah, I was shopping a week ago and I thought
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the stake prices were pretty good. So that you think
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they've changed significantly in just in the last week.
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No, I don't think so, but I mean compared to
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you know, a year ago or five years ago. You know,
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it's just it's got to go up in order to
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meet where we are at. And you know, even though
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beef prices are going up, the packers are still not
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able to make money because just as I know, this
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is a lot in the weeds, but it's interesting stuff.
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So you know, we we're producing a third more beef
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with a third less cattle in America of a day
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than we were fifty years ago.
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Please explain that.
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So we have larger we're finishing cattle at a better rate,
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so we've got better genetics, better practices, better feed and
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so we're instead of us processing animals at eleven or
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twelve hundred pounds, we're now processing them in a quicker
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fashion at fourteen and fifteen and sixteen hundred pounds. And
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so we're doing a third more with a third less cattle.
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And the problem at the packing side is the shackle space.
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So whenever they slaughter an animal and they put it
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in there to be able to take it through the system.
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They're at a percentage lower tremendously than they need to
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be at full capacity in order to make it profitable
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for them. That's one issue, and we've been filling it
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on the farm side for a long time. The packers
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are just now starting to fill it to where that
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they're having to make these decisions. Now. We don't know
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exactly what that's going to do to the marketplace, but
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as Commissioner of Agriculture, what I'm looking at is I'm
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seeing shutdowns in these packing plants across the country. It's
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not just Tyson, others have done it in other spaces.
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We've had port facilities shut down. We've had some more
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beef facilities with other major companies. And just to be clear,
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there's four major packers in America. It's a very monopolized
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system that's out there that we have to fight every day.
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So these local processing facilities in Kentucky are tremendous for
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our farmers to have a little bit of competition. But
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what I'm looking at is where they don't have water
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out west and the population's not there for the workforce
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and a lot of those things in traditional packing states,
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is that as they start to restructure this industry in
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the future, I'm hopeful that it is an economic development
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opportunity for Kentucky because we have the water, we have
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the grass, we have the cattle, and instead of us
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sending cattle three and four hours away to get processed
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and fatten, let's do that here. Let's try to attract
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one of those companies in the next five to ten
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years in a major way so that we can we
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can start to see that where we have that national
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population on the eastern coast not only for workforce but
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also consumption. So even though there's problems and there's uncertainties,
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those are kind of the optimistic things that I look
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for in situations like this.
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Okay, you use the word fattened. You talk about an
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animal that was eleven hundred pounds going to market now
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being fourteen hundred. What about the quality of the meat
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if you're bloating these animals.
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Yeah, so you're not bloating them, you're putting on real weight.
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That's where you're marbling comes into effect. That's where the
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flavor comes into effect. You know. Gordon Ramsay says fat flavor.
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So you and I are not fat terry, We are flavorful.
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But that is exactly what's happening. So we're putting on
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more muscle, more fat content. It is a higher quality
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product that we're putting on the shelves than we ever
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have in the past. We've got the best farmers doing
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the best practices with the best genetics, and a lot
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of that is due to a lot of the programs
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that we have at the department. Why they have increased
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that kind of quality. We have a bull program, have
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for program making sure that we're as efficient as possible
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with the animals and the livestock that we have and
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taking the best care of them that we can. The
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lowest stress that we've ever put on animals is right
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now today to where that whenever we can deliver it,
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it is the most ethical, the most flavorful, the most
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high quality product in the entire world comes out of
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Kentucky and out of America to feed our people.
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Well, hope everybody can ride through the little obstacles that
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pop up now and again. We always love seeing all
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the farmers at the Kentucky State there, proud of the
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hard work they do, and the products they produce.
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Yeah, and if you want to see something pretty neat,
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you know, the dairy show will be the first couple
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of days, and then on Monday next week we'll do
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the transition and then you got your pork and your
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your pigs, your lambs and your goats, and then the
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beef cattle will be there for the remaining part of
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the week. And so when you go in that west
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wing area over there where the barns are, you know,
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be sure to go in and be respectful to the family.
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You know, don't just go pet animals if you haven't asked,
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but ask and interact with them. And those farm families
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are amazing, those kids that are showing it. Truly is
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a great environment in the barns out there, and I encourage,
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you know, get off the midway, get out of the
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bazaar that's over there where you buy all the stuff,
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go over there to those barns and see those folks.
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I thought when you use the word bizarre, you meant
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be I z I never mind, because there is some bizarre,
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some bizarre things you could visit at the state here too,
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that's for sure.
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I mean, part of the part of the thing about
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the state, theirs is the people watch it right.
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Oh that's right, Jonathan. Great talking to you again. Make
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sure you visit next time you're through.
