From the Dairy Farm to the Field Now Advocating for Agriculture

Announcer: Iowa Soybean Association is driven to deliver for Iowa's 40,000 soybean farmers. We're proud to provide objective agronomic research, a helping hand with soil and water stewardship, and timely industry news powered by the soybean checkoff. Learn more at IAsoybeans.com.

[Yeager] There's a topic that never goes out of importance in agriculture, and that is agriculture itself. But really health, physical and mental. We're going to talk about a couple of things here in the next two episodes. We've got a two parter here coming. Same guest but two parts. So much to discuss with Brigitte Readel from North Dakota. You've probably heard one of her podcasts or heard her on WDAY out of Fargo. She hosts a radio show, hosts a podcast. We'll get into The Rural Well in the second episode, but first, we need to learn a little bit more about this North Dakota dairy farmer growing up in that era of the 80s who went to college to be an ag teacher or extension, ended up in the field doing agronomy, did that first career. Now she's in the second career of telling stories, and that is what she is most passionate about right now. We're going to find out about what connects us, what new things are being thought of, especially with the generation that questions a lot of things they do not accept. That's the way we've always done it, and that's not the way we've always done every podcast here for the MToM. But I am Paul Yeager. We are production of Market to Market and the Iowa PBS TV show, so we hope you find some value here. Here is part one with Bridget. Bridget. Before we started recording, I had to talk about bison. What's your connection to Bison Nation?

[Bridgette Readel] I am a very proud alumni to NDSU, where I got my degrees and always thought that I was somehow going to be an ag teacher. Nope. Nope. Turns out you can teach adults and it's just as much fun, if not more.

[Yeager] And you, you can take whatever time you want on or off. And you're not guaranteed summer break though in that case.

[Readel] That's all right. I don't think I'm very good at sitting still and not doing something, so it worked out pretty well as far as adults are concerned, to do something around the calendar.

[Yeager] When I look at your resume, it clearly that that holds up. You haven't sat still very long. You, my understanding, grew up on a dairy farm in North Dakota. Where at?

[Readel] I am from south central North Dakota, behind the Iron Curtain, as it's referred to here, because in North Dakota there's a very large community of Germans from Russia who settled here in the late 1880s. And for me, as a former dairy farmer's daughter, apparently my folks were really bad at making decisions. So we not only had dairy, but we have beef cattle, a lot of feedlot. And then we also grew, grain crops. And my brothers continue that today less the dairy situation. We got out in the drought of 1988.

[Yeager] Did you have aspirations of staying home there on the farm?

[Readel] You know, in a lot of ways, I think today I would have loved to a farm, but it really wasn't a choice, only because I had younger brothers that I knew were going to farm. So I just innately knew that it was my option to go find a job somewhere, that the boys were going to take the farm. If I could have said that I wanted to farm, I don't think my dad would turn me down. But it just wasn't the right time frame. At that point, not a lot of women were coming home to take over their operations.

[Yeager] And I'm going to guess here, Bridget, we're darn close in age. So we're coming out of the 80s where there wasn't this. Yes, everybody come work on the farm. There'll be plenty of fields of opportunities for you all.

[Readel] Yeah, pretty accurate. In fact, I think that in some ways there was discouragement of coming back because folks weren't feeling very good about the economy. There are shades of that right now when you think about, we do have some higher interest rates. They're not as high as they were in the 80s. We don't have the drought situation that we did. We don't have the fight with governmental programing like FSA that we did at the time. But there are other pieces of this, especially as we think about soybean and corn prices overall and what that's how that's affecting us. Nonetheless, I do know that many of us that were getting out of college were looking in the early 90s for jobs, and we got a lot of rejection letters before somebody said, you know what? We will hire you.

[Yeager] And in that era, were you always looking for jobs in agriculture?

[Readel] I never was smart enough to think outside the box of agriculture. So I stayed and I, it just worked out that as a college student, there were internships available and time. What was -  Dow Agro Sciences was hiring because I knew nothing about it. I thought, I'm sure this can't go badly. And as a kid who struggled in chemistry, sure I can be a crop protection rep because that makes great sense. But cell chemistry, you know, honestly, nobody ever said you're a salesman until I was probably about ten years into my career, but it worked out great. Those couple of internships led to a full time position, and I chose that over going out and teaching high school agriculture.

[Yeager] So was that your major then in Fargo?

[Readel] Ag ed and extension. And I was that kid that never really thought outside the box of agriculture, but was pretty creative in it to the extent that I needed an internship as an extension major. So instead of working for a county agent, I marched myself down the hall to the wheat extension specialist at North Dakota State and said, how would you like an intern? He said, what would I do with you? I don't know, but we'll figure it out. And boy, was that a great learning moment. As I got ready to go to work full time for Dow, which I didn't expect, but eventually wound up doing well.

[Yeager] What did you learn in that internship?

[Readel] So for me, it was what farmers really think. What's practical versus what are we trying to market in the industry that may or may not be a good fit? Also, that teamwork and communications effort. I worked for someone who is still revered as probably the top weed scientist we had in the state for many years, and that was Doctor Rick Zollinger.

His replacement, Doctor Joe Ikley, is fantastic. Folks still remember Rich, and it got to the point that we spent so much time together when we were out doing field tours. On his last day on his last tour, he looked at me and said, I bet you can say this verbatim. And I did.

[Yeager] So you're a quick learner.

[Readel] I did. I got to absorb so many things. I learned that research is not my forte. I really didn't want to have to mix tiny bottles and jugs and run bicycle sprayers, but I did learn that I really liked being in the field and I really liked working with farmers, and it was a fun opportunity because that was at the time where we were still on the upward swing with ag chem right about the time that Roundup Ready was introduced into the market. And then that brought a whole new learning curve about how we could use all of our tools.

[Yeager] And we haven't really looked back from there. However, there could be a little roadblock in that, depending on which state's legislature you look at when it comes to chemicals.

[Readel] And at this point, you know, states are trying to figure things out for themselves because we already have FIFRA Federal Fungicide and Insecticide Rodenticide Act, and we follow Defra very closely. But there's other challenges that came along the way. Just recently, there was a motion in, federal court to vacate the label on Enlist one and Enlist duo for a Corteva. And I look at those things is happening as a hurdle that we as an industry have to overcome because if we don't look unitedly forward, we're not going to be able to keep those tools. What is happening is you have environmentalists and activists that are trying to pick off molecules one at a time, leaving us with very few things that are still working in our marketplace. And it's going to prohibit what happens to us in the future with positive reactions. And by that I mean, you have a company like Syngenta who's bringing forth a six way stack on six different modes of action. And if this label got vacated, that holds up their technology in the future. So we got to keep the ball moving forward and we have to follow the science. We can't just rely on what seems like a good idea.

[Yeager] And water is something that I think when you mention you say the word environmentalist there. That's really what this discussion is boiling down to, don't you think?

[Readel] I think some of it comes down to water. Some of it comes down to health, you know, and with current presidential administration, we have so much discussion about Make America Healthy Again, but everybody wants to be an expert on that. And I would rather that we pay attention to what happened with good science and making good decisions. Then your brothers, uncles, cousins, second wife on Facebook telling you what you think you should believe.

[Yeager] This is the point of the discussion where I decide which way do I want to go? And I think we'll just… She has a good opinion, though. I mean, it's very verified. And what she's saying right there. So I should absolutely believe what she says, which is, I would imagine, I guess. Bridget, let's just move into because we'll get to your role in the media, in the media in a minute. Sure. But let's go. You're in the field for a little while and that doesn't quite last. Or stick.

[Readel] I do, I do. And so I spent 25 years working for the combination of Dow Sciences and Corteva, and I was a sales rep as well as a technical agronomist for them. I covered at one point in time a variety of four different states the Dakotas, Montana, West central Minnesota. And my job was to look forward on product lines, to help evaluate them, to decide if this was what a farmer wanted for the field, or if it was not a good fit for them. I got to be the voice of the customer. I also had the opportunity to train new sales reps and interns. I am very proud of the fact that I had over 70 interns and trainees in my 25 year career with the company, had an opportunity to do recruiting, as well as lots of presentations where I was able to do that on teams that were bringing forward labels, but also training our internal staff. So that whole realm within Corteva taught me some skills that I'm surprised when others don't have them. I learned negotiation and I learned presentation skills, and it's amazing how many other folks don't get that from their corporate lives.

[Yeager] And you're back to teaching adults. Maybe not in the high school classroom, but it sounds like the teaching bug and strain of DNA has never really left you.

[Readel] It's never left. I was able to do that through the time at Corteva after my retirement. And I'm the worst retired person you've ever met. I now am a partner in the AgMafia, and our goal is to continue to train people in agriculture, whether it's young agronomists, whether it's those who have years of service and are looking to improve a specific skill set. But our jobs are to make sure as a team of craft consultants, that we are able to bring the best information forward that we see at a production level and share that with others who can say, this may or may not work on my farm.

[Yeager] You know, I hear people doing what you're doing, and I wonder, what's the pushback? Because so many times, I mean, we know it and all these other professions all continue with our back to education, continuing ed professional development. But I thought farmers knew everything. They didn't have any need to learn anything new.

[Readel] We've got new folks coming into the business that want to help sort out the noise. I often think that when you graduate from college and or you start your farm operation, you're agribusiness. That first year, you're trying to put all the pieces together. You try to decide what's most viable and what's not. And now moving forward, you're ready to sort that out. And sometimes having those who have had the hands on experience and a little, you know, a few years on, you write a little vintage that helps you make better decisions. Some of those old chemistries are coming back. How do we use them? Where are they most effective and that's an opportunity where I get to help. But I also get to talk about current chemistries, you know, cultural practices. Not every practice fits every farm nor every piece of land. And so if we can help talk through those and find the best solution for what's going on in that particular piece of ground, perfect.

[Yeager] Well, it sounds like you're a painter. Broad strokes, but yet you fine tune. Sure. Whether it's this field or that field or the other one across the road.

[Readel] You don't want to see how I painted the bathroom off. That was pretty tragic.

[Yeager] Hey, you know, you have to have a fault somewhere. And if that's, I'm not saying fault. Maybe not as strong of an area as we'd like to.

[Readel] I'll take fault. It's all right. I've got thick skin.

[Yeager] It's fair enough. I, trust me, you don't look at my lines. My sister-in-law always gets mad at me when I look at her lines like it's so straight. Anyway, when the role of a farmer today. How different is it from when you started?

[Readel] There are so many more reasons why we have to be better marketers. For a long time, it was easy to say, you know what? I'm going to combine. I'm going to sell all my wheat and soybeans right off, combine cash price. Everything will be fine. Maybe I'll burn a little bit. We can't do that anymore. We have to have plans and connections where it's going to go and how those operations have become so much larger as they are multi-generational, and you become very much more of a manager. We're still a relationship business that is not changed. You know, people still buy from people, but your spectrum of people has certainly changed. And you may grow, especially where I live in North Dakota, we might be going greater distances for some of those services and connections than we did 25 years ago.

[Yeager] And you make it sound like that. We need to advocate more for ourselves. Oh, absolutely. But we have these large commodity groups that we're supposed to be advocating for us. Can those two worlds still exist? On a greater good.

[Readel] And shouldn't.

[Yeager] They? Culture?

[Readel] I mean, it shouldn't be, because as taxpayers, homeowners, we advocate for ourselves, but we also rely on what our congressional leaders do. If you're in an HOA, whatever, you're looking to get the most impact. And to me, using those groups, those commodity groups helps you to get there. There's a lot of undiscovered markets we would never have had without the work of our soybean growers and soybean council. Right here in North Dakota and just the Tri-State region. Those folks have really helped us to bring new areas and growth for soybeans, pun intended.

[Yeager] Well, that's fine and that's it. We're filled with that in agriculture. Do you get the sense, though, that some of that work has been undone in some of those foreign markets? Here as of late? I mean, I have a relative that was on a commodity board in the 80s and 90s, and I know about the trips that he made and I see now some of those relationships are strained. How do you grit your teeth through this and know that hopefully there's better days coming.

[Readel] So if you think back, every generation has said, this next generation is going to fail us. But they didn't. So I have faith that we won't be failed, that something will turn around. Is it painful? Oh, yeah. It's really painful right now. I don't like the look on my brother's faces when we have to talk about these types of things at the farm, but the reality is we can get through this. And if we talk to farmers who were early in their careers in the 80s and 90s, they give good, wise advice. And they do help to those newer folks who are now there, turn on the commodity boards, etc. they are trying to give good wisdom. It's not going to be easy. It's certainly feeling some pain unless you're in the beef market. I just want to say congratulations to everybody who raises cattle. It is finally your time to shine. Good for you.

[Yeager] And it has been going on for months and months, and it looks to be no end in sight. But the moment you start talking about no end in sight is when the end comes. And then I get blamed and you get blamed and we're all in trouble, right? But do you get it? I enjoy the generation that questions lots of things, and I get the sense of the new farmer and the new, you know, anybody under 30, they don't believe a lot of the norms. And they want to know a lot more about why that's healthy. Right?

[Readel] I think it's really healthy. And I think that the best part of that is ask those reasons why, but don't just sit back and wait for someone to deliver the solution for you. Go find it and be a part of finding that solution. If you want to question why and you're pushing back on things like check offs and commodity groups, get involved and find out that background, because there's a reason why they are there, and you can probably improve it. Being on boards, you aren't always in favor of what's happening, right? There's always a vote. It might be a split. You might not always be on the winning side, but you learned. And the next time you were on the winning side, the involvement is so important to what people do. And I get it. You're running operations, you're trying to raise families. You got a side hustle where you're got a spray drone or a tail plow, but by all means, your involvement is good for your operation.

[Yeager] And I don't see how it's a bad thing when you're not involved in many aspects of your life and you have. I'll go back to something you said about your hands. I wanted to say, you know, you clearly have dirt. Listen to those who have dirt under their fingernails, who've been out there and, you know, like when you were the agronomist in the beginning, you know, you're rifling through, trying to figure out each individual thing. That's what I love about the American farmers. They're wanting to know everything that's going on.

[Readel] And if folks are finding challenges and finding that solution, fantastic. What a change in history that we can document as a momentous occasion. That's what's happening all around us every single day. It's just happening faster. I think that it is outstanding for people to get involved, to ask the questions and to do more. We don't have to just accept the norm. I'm alright with new things. I mean, good Lord, if I can figure out how to use AI. Anybody can write.

[Yeager]. Your face looks great with AI or that's mine. That's my face that I have done that with.

[Readel] Okay. Little, little Photoshop got better.

[Yeager] It helps. I use the soft filter. Now, that's how I get around the age. A moment ago. Yeah, you're doing it right now. You're taking it, a drink from the FFA Cup. What role did FFA play for you in your life?

[Readel] So I know that FFA and its impact on people's lives depends on your advisor, right? If you have a great advisor, you probably have a really great stories to tell. I have really great stories to tell. I had a high school advisor who never thought to tell me no, and that was really silly. On his part, but then I just kept doing it. Whether it was leadership, activities, speaking, whatever the case might be, we just got to run with it. That led to a state officer for North Dakota that allowed me to participate in national contests, and I still encourage kids today to pick up those skills from FFA, but also scholarships. If you're going to go to a tour for your school, why wouldn't you take every scholarship dollar you can get your hands on? Because why graduate with that? Go get it.

[Yeager] It's just out there, right? You just have to go achieve it.

[Readel] Apply yourself because.

[Yeager] I’m sorry.

[Readel] When you are when you are applying for those scholarships and looking for the exciting, you know, the exciting part of getting the check, etc., it's a little bit like when you're job hunting or you're working in your job for your bonus, etc. these are skills you're going to need throughout your whole life. Apply. Follow through. Be able to sell yourself. I mean, the greatest selling skill of all is when you got married, you were able to sell yourself to your spouse. They said yes, you're going to have to do that through your whole life. Whether we think we're salesmen or not, we are,

[Yeager] And I did not, I have not done a sales job. However, I think putting someone on television is still one of the greatest sales jobs that I have to do. When I was that young starting reporter knocking on farm to farm there, like go to a story about, you know, grain or whatever. And I'm like, okay. Convincing that farmer to put them on TV is probably one of the greatest sales jobs I've ever done and continue to do to convince people to do it.

[Readel] Has it gotten easier over the years? Are people less concerned about being on camera now that they all have their cell phones and Snapchat.

[Yeager] A little bit? There's always but we also have so many different platforms where you're not as known for local news or network news or your publication, whatever it is specific to your industry. We all have our silos of, oh, I've never heard of this podcast or I've never heard of this show. And so in that way, it's like, I you do have to do some sales, to convince like, what's your organization's angle? And I'm like, there's no angle. This is just a conversation. Whatever you say is what's going to be the angle, I guess.

[Readel] Absolutely. And I think that folks have so many interesting things to say. Probably one of the, the most fun parts of any job I've ever had is just when you get to kind of stand around after the trade show or after the meeting and listen to people tell stories, that's when the greatest stories come out. That's when the greatest knowledge and information happens. That's why the AgMafia decided to start hosting Agronomy on Ice, because all of that stuff that happened after the trade show was so much fun. We just now do it for a whole day long so you can talk farming, eat food, and go fishing on frozen Devil's Lake, North Dakota in February. That's enough to keep your attention.

[Yeager] And, something that the North Dakotan does differently than any of us. Winter, that is just it's not an inconvenience. It is just a way of life.

[Readel] I don't make you stand outside. I'll make sure you can get in a warm fish house.

[Yeager] You've mentioned AgMafia a couple of times. Tell me what that is.

[Readel] I have a partnership with two crop consultants here in North Dakota. Combined, we have well over 80 years of experience in the field, not only as crop consultants, but we've all had our previous jobs, whether it was working for Corteva. For myself, the guys were adjuvant experts for, US distributor, and they have the opportunity to talk about everything from when the seed goes in the ground, problems on the planter all the way up to weed control, and I get to fit in there with a variety of different topics as well. And we get to go out and speak to groups. We get to be a part of training sessions for agronomists and above all, we get to host agronomy on ice because we like to like talk about farming.

[Yeager] Who's your audience?

[Readel] For Agronomy on Ice? Farmers. We've got, the last couple of years we've had probably right around 400 people attending and farmers get a chance to come in. You know, when you go to a trade show, you always have that desk in between people. And it feels very like a very formalized. But when you do agronomy on ice and you stand around in your coveralls with a beer in your hand and you're in a fish house, you have a tendency to be a lot more honest about whatever product it is that you want to buy or you want to sell, and that's what farmers appreciate being able to do. That relaxed atmosphere.

[Yeager] You mentioned working heavily with farmers. What's the role with those off the farm either who still have a connection to it, but those who need to know what's going on.

[Readel] So after retirement, I was approached by a local radio media group to host a once a week, ten minute segment talking about farming, and I had been recommended by one of my Twitter followers, and they reached out. We started three weeks later. They asked me if I'd work for them, and now I do. And so I host a daily weekday radio show all about ag and weather called Weather and AG in Focus. But 50% of my audience is a non-farming consumer, so my job every day is to bring information to farmers that they can use in their operation, but make it simplistic so that the consumer listens, asks questions and isn't in fear. My greatest goal is to make sure that legislatively, when we need to do things in the state of North Dakota especially, folks are on board with us as farmers that they aren't concerned that we're trying to do something behind their back, etc. we want people working together.

[Yeager] But do you get the sense that someone's like, it's just the farm show? I'm not going to listen.

[Readel] Surprisingly, I don't, and I've tried to incorporate some very different things into that. I have some friends who are who've become friends. They were listeners initially, but they will send me questions such as, does it when you see a field sign advertising seed on a field, does that mean that the seed company owns the field? Consider them just asking me. I bring them on for a slightly irregular segment called why did Farmers Do That? And they get to ask those questions so that they understand. I have teachers who listen and say, well, I heard you talk about the Adopt a Cow program from the Dairy Alliance. How do I get signed up for that? Would you speak to my classroom? Could you join us at the Rotary Club and bring someone with you who understands tiling and conservation and water rights? And could we have a discussion? That's how my outreach has really affected not just the farming community, but those in the community as well.

[Yeager] And your show is based. It is at WDAY?

[Readel] WDAY in Fargo?

[Yeager] So it is in Fargo, which is the Metropolitan, the big metropolitan area for hundreds of miles. Right. So is your focus more those in Fargo, or is it those who are within 50 to 100 miles outside of town?

[Readel] To be honest with today's world and coverage, we live stream as well. So I don't really limited in that regard. You know, we also live streaming on social media platforms. We also are part of Acres TV, which is part of Ag Phd media, and that allows us to reach a broader audience across North America. And so I find myself with listeners all the way from New Jersey down to New Mexico, and some of them are farmers, some are not guests. A lot of times are from this region, but not always. The best part of, you know, this part of being able to book your own guest is you can choose anybody from anywhere, and they bring such interesting discussions. Did everybody know that most of our pumpkins in the US are raised in Illinois? Nope, not till I brought in a pumpkin farmer from Illinois. How can we have so many tomatoes in Indiana? Well, let's talk about that because it's all part of our food processing cycle in the US.

[Yeager] And Market to Market is on in North Dakota. And they didn't know that. We did a story about pumpkins in Illinois, in Texas, about getting ready to rerun it again. Because there's been an update to it. I that to me is so I talk often on this podcast about what a state fair does. The Iowa State Fair. That's a big thing that we do at Iowa PBS is we cover the Iowa State Fair. And, you know, and that's, you know, we do that, that is a million people coming through from urban and rural areas. And I always ask the Secretary of Agriculture, what's your message this year? Is it different? Why do you need to keep having it? Because he always talks about the water, the community, the food, the jobs. I just had a discussion with somebody about jobs in agriculture. And there's not enough people on the farm to do the jobs on the farm. Not just I'm not talking the labor issues. I'm talking all of the technology and science that goes along. So, yep, agriculture has to do a better job of marketing, recruiting off the farm now probably more than ever. Right?

[Readel] Well, we've got to recruit. That's number one. We need people to fill those positions, including you know, we're at a shortage of large animal vets. You know this very well. And we need not only need those vets who can show up in the middle of the night when you have a cow with a prolapse. But they can also be a part of Aphis inspections at the borders. But also when you're a community like Fargo, which is very heavy in manufacturing, you know, we have a CNH  plant here that builds Steigers. We have a horse just outside of town that builds tillage tools. When those companies start experiencing layoffs, what is the impact that has to Main Street? Many people that think that just happens in the town of 900 to 1000, and that's a big impact. But even in the Fargo metro area, and I use Metro loosely, considering, you know, Des Moines is a little bit bigger, but people don't understand what that does to all of the businesses. How that affects that layer can affect so many other places all around town. Me putting that information in front of them helps them refocus and think about the importance of AG in their everyday lives, even if they don't think they're involved in it.

[Yeager] We're going to continue that discussion about health next time on this podcast, we're going to discuss specifically mental health and a very big part of her life and job now is discussing the rural well. So listen to that. Listen to this. We'll be back next Tuesday with another installment of the MToM podcast.