Lindsay's Lessons

Our traveling companions departed from Columbus, Dayton and Florida in the early morning hours as we all convened in Atlanta, Georgia. The group of 25, including our tour director Dave, was eager to get our Hawaiian AgVenture underway!

In Atlanta, Dave provided us with some light reading materials for the plane that explained a little about Hawaiian culture and history. It told the story of the Hawaiian alphabet, which only contained 12 letters (7 consonants and 5 vowels), which certainly explains the difficulty we have with some of the names and words we see because of the unusual combinations of letters. It also told the story of the original Hawaiian luau, which we will enjoy later in our trip.

Our flight from Atlanta departed late due to a mechanical failure, which amounted to a broken seat on board. We also faced a very tough headwind, so in total our flight exceeded 11 hours gate to gate. As you can imagine, everyone took turns getting up and moving about the cabin, visiting with one another throughout the flight.

Upon our arrival in Honolulu, we received a traditional lei greeting as everyone received beautiful leis made of fresh flowers. Later today we will visit Pearl Harbor, where we will cut our leis and place the flowers in the water in honor of our military.

Last night, Andy and I enjoyed dinner with six of our traveling companions as everyone had the opportunity to explore and dine on their own.

So far we are off to a terrific start with a wonderful group of ABN listeners and friends. We'll keep you posted on our journey!

As we continue to monitor reaction following the recently announced changes by USDA to the National Animal ID System, I wanted to share some thoughts with you from a local veterinarian. I had the opportunity to speak with one of Ohio's veterinarians whom I have tremendous respect for and asked him how effective he felt a state-driven approach to animal identification might be.

In response, he shared the story that right now he deals with at least six different radio frequency ID tags that are used by pet owners seeking to ensure their animals might be returned to them should they ever go missing. Not only are there six different tags, but they all scan on different frequencies. In sharing this, he made the point that veterinarians typically deal with companies that service their region, and the company that provides services in Florida may not do business in California.

So if we transfer that philosophy to animal identification, then what happens in a state-led system in the event of a disease outbreak that potentially impacts multiple states? Certainly it stands to reason that a lack of a uniform database with identical tracking systems might significantly slow the traceback ability. And, I would argue that the ability for traceback in the event of a potentially catastrophic disease outbreak was the primary impetus behind animal ID and premise registration in the first place.

Add to that concern a very unclear vision of how this new approach will be funded, coupled with the fact that our state Department of Agriculture (like many) has already faced significant staff-cutbacks due to ever-decreasing funding in state budgets, and I can't quite wrap my mind around how this new approach is going to work effectively.

It was hardly a shock on Friday morning when news broke that USDA has decided to scrap the National Animal ID system in favor of a new method of animal traceability. This new approach will shift the burden back to the states who will now be responsible for setting up their own systems.

I have long been in favor of animal ID, not because I enjoy government involvement in private enterprise or because I want Big Brother looking a little closer into my business. However, when I look at animal agriculture as a whole, it is very real to me that we are perhaps always just one devastating disease outbreak away from disaster. America's farmers do the absolute best job of caring for and protecting their livestock. And without question our confinement operations are superior in the protection of our herds against disease. Yet no matter how well we do our jobs, it can still happen. And should that day come, I want to know that we can respond immediately with no question of tracking and traceability.

My frustration with Friday's announcement is not that USDA is putting this back into the hands of state government. I find myself frustrated with the fact that it that it took millions of dollars of wasted money before they were able to realize that their initial approach wasn't working. Maybe it's because I tend to observe things through the lens of a small business owner, but when I invest money into something, you better believe that I'm keeping an eye on it to see if I'm getting any results. And if the results aren't there, I'd like to think that I'm going to figure that out long before millions of dollars have walked out the door.

In real world America, business owners don't have the luxury of staring at problems for a lengthy period of time. We must act decisively, and we must be held accountable for the resulting outcome whether good or bad.

To date, only 37 percent of premises across the country voluntarily registered for the National Animal ID program. In making the announcement about the decision to overhaul the program USDA cited that statistic in tandem with concerns shared by producers at recent listening sessions across the country. Those concerns included the cost of implementation on farms, the availability of technology and a general apprehension about a nationwide approach to animal tracking.

In my own experience of talking with producers across the country all of the above concerns are true. Yet they have been true since the very first day that the thought of a nationwide approach to animal identification first came to light. In other words, a few years and several million dollars later, nothing has changed.

So why is it that it took this long to change our approach? And more importantly, what happens next? USDA has promised that this new state mandate will not go unfunded. That would mean that more money from the national level is going to be transferred to states as they each begin their individualized effort of building a disease tracking system from the ground up. And, with the exception of a few certain standards, states will be given a great deal of flexibility in how they wish to establish their programs.

At the risk of sounding skeptical, I can't help but wonder if the potential establishment of 50 different animal disease tracking programs across the country is really an improvement. The little voice in the back of my head is telling me that while this has the potential to be a better approach, we may be looking at another incredibly flawed execution.

That being said, I wish our state leaders the best of luck in getting these programs in place because they are vital to the welfare of our animal agriculture industries. And, I hope that our future millions of dollars are used more wisely than those precious dollars already spent.

There is no doubt that one person I would not want to trade jobs with this week is the person who is responsible for public relations at Yellow Tail wines. Just one week ago it would have been easy to market Yellow Tail. After all, it's an appealing product that sells for a reasonable price and has found extreme success among American consumers.

One week later, the company's Facebook page is filled with entries by fans who joined merely to tell them they would no longer be consuming their products because earlier this week the company announced that they would be partnering with the anti-animal agriculture lobbying and activist group, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), on a special Tails for Tails campaign.

The idea was that by partnering with HSUS the makers of Yellow Tail could increase sales from consumers who might buy the wine knowing that their purchase would help fund a $100,000 donation by Yellow Tail to the HSUS in support of the group's highly proclaimed animal rescue programs.

What the company didn't take into consideration is that their product, like many, is derived from the hard work of farm families. Yes, the same farm families that HSUS has targeted and attacked in an attempt to rid the world of animal agriculture and encourage a vegan lifestyle. Whoops!

And agriculture has not taken the issue lightly, nor quietly. Already riled by recent announcements by HSUS to attempt ballot measures tied to animal welfare in Missouri, and in our Buckeye State, the farm community brought out the pitchforks and torches in an attempt to remind Yellow Tail of the importance of farmers to them as both producers and consumers of their products. A quick search of the internet will lead you to numerous blogs written by agricultural advocates looking to convince their peers to stay away from Yellow Tail products. On Facebook, a new page called Yellow Fail has emerged. Even on Twitter, everyone is chirping and tweeting about Yellow Tail's ill-advised move.

Yes. It's a tough day to be in public relations at Yellow Fail...I mean Tail. Perhaps the best news is that there should be plenty of bottles of wine in which to drown your sorrows as it looks like consumption is going to be down significantly this month.

And yes, I am proud of the ag community for standing up and saying enough is enough in an attempt to send both Yellow and HSUS home with their Tails between their legs.

I know you've all been waiting and wondering about my blog for awhile, so I'm going to make an attempt to get back in the action. For those of you who want to keep track of what I'm thinking on a more regular basis, I invite you to join me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

A lot of basketball has been played so far this season, and I've clearly been on my best behavior. However, while sitting in the arena yesterday watching the 1960 NCAA Championship basketball Buckeyes being honored, I was really struck by the difference we see in our team 50 years later.

Let me preface this by saying that I wasn't around 60 years ago, so I certainly can't speak first hand about Coach Taylor and his legendary players. However, in what may be a little known piece of trivia for some of you - Ed Johnson, the founder of ABN, was a walk-on at Ohio State and played under Fred Taylor. So, while I didn't get to see Coach Taylor in action, I do know the level of respect EJ had for him. And, given the respect I have for EJ, that's all I need to know to be certain that Coach Taylor was more than deserving of the banner they unveiled for him in Schott during yesterday's game.

You see yesterday I witnessed a level of integrity and respect among coaches and teammates that I don't notice in our current program. Those men weren't just good players, but they each went on to have very successful careers, whether in sports or in their chosen professions. Please understand that I'm not saying that our current players won't go on to be successful, nor am I saying that they aren't perfectly wonderful young men.

However, I do observe things when I attend these games that causes me to question if Coach Taylor would think we were running a tight program. For example, have you noticed that when the team emerges from the locker room they are never in matching warm-ups? Some come out wearing their full warm-up, some in their shooting shirts, others in uniform and still others in just a plain t-shirt. Call me old school, but I think when you hit the floor looking like a team, you mentally become more of a team.

Or what about the fact that Minnesota Coach Tubby Smith and his coaching staff came out on the floor with their players. They came in together, and they walked out together. After all, they are in this together. Yet each game, we see our Buckeyes emerge from the locker room without their head coach. Eventually our team of assistant coaches will trickle out onto the court. And yet Coach Matta practically avoids the warmup altogether and makes his own entrance just before game time. I can't help but question what message that sends to the team about the importance of the warmup. If your coach isn't right there with you, are you really getting mentally prepared like you should during that time?

Last but not least, and probably my biggest incentive for sitting down at the keyboard again for this blog, Coach Matta has been coming under a bit of heat lately for his lack of rotation among players. The starting five has become the only five, and with the exception of the last-minute of the ball game, the rest of the team has been noticeably absent unless one of the starters gets in foul trouble or in the case of Dallas Lauderdale, just absolutely has to have a break. And that was no more clearly evidenced than in yesterday's rather easy victory over Minnesota. With a 27-point lead, one might have expected some rotation off the bench, but it didn't happen.

Now I ask you, if you are that kid who comes to practice everyday and works just as hard as every other member of the team, what message does that send to you? Particularly if you are a young man like P.J. Hill who had the unenviable role of stepping up to replace Evan Turner early in the season, has been a solid performer, and has shown some defensive moments of greatness. If I'm P.J. Hill, what is my incentive to keep putting in the time and giving it my all if I know that no matter what I do, I'll never play unless Evan Turner is out. It would seem to me that if we could trust P.J. enough to start in place of Evan when he was out with injury, we could certainly put him in during a game when we're up by 27 points.

How do we expect those players to improve if they don't get those precious game minutes? Take it one step further, and if I'm a high school student being recruited, aren't I going to think twice about coming to play under Matta knowing that if I don't make the starting five, I'll probably never see anything more than a minute of action when the outcome of the game is already decided? I believe I might think twice about it.

In our business, we call this concept "carrot and stick". You've got to give the proper motivation and incentive if you expect to increase performance. And that motivation can't be accomplished solely by beating someone into doing better. There has to be something positive as a reward. Translate that to basketball and if playing time is the carrot, then riding the bench is the stick. And right now, we're giving the better part of the team a beating with no carrot as a reward.

I can't help but wonder whether even if we max out our physical prowess and ability each year, if we won't always come up a little short unless we tighten the screws on in other areas.

Last but not least, I do want to offer a note of thanks to Jon Diebler. Jon was kind enough to stop and autograph my OSU basketball poster when he came through our offices a couple of weeks ago. While I wasn't there to meet him myself, our Gary Jackson tackled him in my absence and made the request, and Gary shares that Jon was most gracious about it. Thank you Jon!