Agricultural advocate Tara Vander Dussen takes us behind the scenes of modern dairy farming, revealing how traditional practices are evolving alongside innovative approaches like beef-on-dairy breeding programs. As a fifth-generation dairy farmer married to another fifth-generation producer, Tara brings a unique perspective that spans environmental science, hands-on farming, and global advocacy.
The conversation explores a fascinating transition happening in dairy operations nationwide. What was once considered unthinkable – breeding dairy cows to beef bulls – has become standard practice, creating economic opportunities for farmers while addressing market demands. Tara walks us through the practical considerations of this evolution, explaining how selective breeding optimizes both milk and meat production in an increasingly efficient food system.
Beyond production practices, we discover how New Mexico's unique climate and landscape have shaped a distinctive dairy industry with some of the nation's largest operations. The wide-open spaces and moderate weather create ideal conditions for open-lot dairies where cows stay outside year-round under shade structures – vastly different from the barn-housed operations common in other regions.
Perhaps most compelling is Tara's passion for combating food fear. Through her podcast "Discover Ag" and upcoming representation at the UN's Global Livestock Sustainability Committee, she works tirelessly to help consumers feel confident in their food choices. Her message resonates deeply: in a world of overwhelming options and contradictory information, understanding where your food comes from provides peace of mind at the grocery store.
Ready to learn more about the people behind your food? Follow Tara on social media or tune into her weekly podcast "Discover Ag" for entertaining, educational conversations that bridge the gap between farms and food lovers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of Behind the
Burger.
I am Carol Ann Romo, theexecutive director for the New
Mexico Beef Council, and I'mhere with Tara VanderDusen and I
didn't check with theenunciation of your name you
nailed it Okay, oh goodness.
There you go, there you go.
So, tara, will you introduceyourself?
(00:25):
I know for some there's nointroduction needed, but will
you introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
and your background.
Yeah, so I'm Tara VanderDusen.
I am a fifth-generation dairyfarmer.
I also married afifth-generation dairy farmer,
so lots of dairy in our familyhistory, family legacy.
And then I have never hadreally a traditional role on the
dairy.
I actually got my degree inenvironmental science and I
spent, oh, I would say, thefirst 10 or so years of my
(00:51):
professional career working asan environmental consultant for
dairy farms and farms throughoutNew Mexico and kind of the
greater Southwest area.
And then a few years ago Iactually made a huge pivot in my
career and went all in on, youknow, advocating for agriculture
through social media.
And then now I spend themajority of my time actually on
(01:13):
our podcast I co-host with acattle rancher from Nebraska
called Discover Ag.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Awesome.
Well, I think, I think what youdo is such an important part of
agriculture, right, the theadvocating, and that's even an
important part of our role asthe Beef Checkoff and the New
Mexico Beef Council right,somebody's got to do it, and
it's not always going to be therancher or the dairy producer,
because you know there's so manyfacets to it.
So I'm grateful for the workyou do for our industry.
(01:40):
Well, yeah, well, tell me alittle bit about your family
operation and maybe the historyof that.
So, five generations is a bigdeal.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, my grandparents actually came from the
Netherlands in like late 1940s,early 1950s you know, classic, I
guess, a story kind of of thatlike immigration from the
Netherlands into the UnitedStates.
They started out in Californiaand ultimately moved to New
Mexico in the early 80s and soI'm born and raised here in New
Mexico.
We ended up in Eastern NewMexico and while my dad no
(02:11):
longer dairy farms, I stillobviously am a part of the dairy
farming you know communitythrough my husband and our farm
with his family.
And so, yeah, we still dairyhere in Eastern New Mexico,
raising our two young daughterson our farm as well.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
What a great place to raise a kid.
That's really neat.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I know I do love.
I mean, obviously I'm biasedbecause that's how I grew up,
but I'm always like man, it'spretty fun growing up on, you
know, a farm, a dairy operationjust growing about in the
country.
So yeah, I think I would liketo think they like it.
They may tell you somethingdifferent on any given day, but
no, I mean obviously having adairy as your backyard is pretty
fun.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Even.
I always say I'm moreag-adjacent, right, but just
getting to be around it, Ibrought my daughter to a bull
sale recently and it was justthe most wonderful experience
for her that a day at work withmom was at a bull sale and and,
of course, my husband yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, myhusband taught her how to buy a
bull the night before, cause hethought he was funny.
Yeah, so it was.
It was a problem.
Luckily, the the ring ring manwas very sweet and could tell he
(03:19):
had kids and he was.
He played along with her, but Ididn't buy a bull.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I am very happy for you.
I feel like that could haveended badly instead.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
We do not need.
We do not need a bull.
The only cattle we own areroping steers.
So we those bulls were far tooexpensive and beautiful for us
to be roping.
Well, cool, well, what about?
So you've already kind oftalked about your advocacy and
the work you do, but can youmaybe go into that more, how
(03:50):
that's evolved and and, and,then even gosh?
I saw on social media you wererepresenting agriculture at the
United Nations.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I started sharing.
This is going to like reallydate me and I'm feeling old now,
but I started sharing I guessback in like 2015,.
I think that I started sharing.
This is going to like reallydate me and I'm feeling old now,
but I started sharing I guessback in like 2015, I think, and
I started with a blog.
So, yeah, I'm like right at 10years now.
I started with a blog.
So that really really dates me.
And then from the blogging, Igot into Instagram.
But this is the early days ofInstagram.
You know, there was nocarousels.
(04:24):
There was no carousels, therewas no stories, there was no
reels like.
It was just very basic.
And I think obviously thingshave evolved and continue to
evolve and what I've learnedover the years is you know a lot
of the social platforms.
Your the content was justgetting shorter and shorter and
shorter.
Our attention spans that weregetting smaller.
And while I still show up onthe social platforms like
(04:45):
Instagram and LinkedIn, where Ireally found, I think, like my
voice and my home, is on thepodcasting platform, and so my
co-host and I have a podcastcalled Discover Ag and we spend
each week essentially coveringthe top news articles in the ag
and food space, western culturespace, and we do it kind of with
a pop culture twist.
(05:05):
So it's maybe not yourtraditional like agriculture
podcast.
We're not going to be talkingto you about markets and
commodities and things like thatbut instead what's going on in
the news, what's going on withcurrent culture, pop culture and
how it's playing a role inagriculture and affects us, and
so we have a lot of fun overthere.
It's just it's fun to have along form content.
Obviously, starting out in theblog space it was a long form
(05:29):
form of content with written,and so in podcasting I feel like
it's very similar to that, thatyou can give a lot of
information, you can have a realconversation.
We interview people.
Actually have a potato farmerthat's coming on this week that
is going to debunk a reel aboutyou know potatoes that's going
viral.
That's coming on this week.
That is going to debunk a reelabout you know potatoes that's
going viral, and so we just kindof try to bring like factual
information in a fun way.
(05:49):
It's a good mix of likeentertainment and education on
the podcast and that's reallywhere I spend, I think, the
majority of my time now and thentaking that content and sharing
it on the social platforms aswell.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, it's fun to follow along and I think it's
such an important, importanttopic that you're doing, like I
think I already said, but I alsolove to see the evolution,
right.
It's.
It's interesting how, how weyou know how we get our media
and how we get our information.
Now that's why we started thepodcast with the New Mexico Beef
Council is we think a lot ofpeople are getting getting their
(06:21):
content in that, and and then alot of people are on the road,
they're traveling, they've gotto commute, they got to drive
somewhere, and so we hope peopleuh plug in, plug in uh our
podcast while they're in the caror or whatever they're doing,
so, uh, very neat.
Well, so now we've kind of goneback and forth, right, um, from
the, from the operation to theadvocacy.
But can we talk about theoperation?
(06:42):
Are you guys practicing theBeef on Dairy breeding program
and can we kind of go into that?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, so we are practicing Beef on Dairy.
I think obviously that is thebig trend right now in the dairy
industry.
It's funny because I canremember when I first got
married which we've been married14 years, I think this summer
we didn't have kids, I don'tthink yet.
So it was very early on inthose, those 14, you know, it's
probably 12 years ago, let's sayand, um, it was someone who
(07:10):
worked for like a semen salesman, took us all out to lunch and
he was like if you could justgive me one third of your
replacement heifers and breed tobeef.
And I just remember thedairyman at the table being like
what, no way.
Like that is not happening,like it's.
I just vividly, like it's sofunny what your brain remembers,
and I just very vividlyremember this.
I remember getting in the carwith some of the producers
(07:32):
afterwards and they were like,no, we're breeding to dairy cows
.
Like we are not, you know, beefpeople, like we are dairy
people.
And you know, fast forwardtalking about the evolution of
things.
This is obviously a hugeevolution now.
I mean, this is a huge part ofour dairy operation is now
breeding to beef cattle and thenwe can talk.
You know more about that.
But yeah, I mean it's a bigpiece of like it's.
(07:55):
It's not front and center inthe way the dairy cow is, but
it's a close second at thispoint.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, absolutely I.
I remember, gosh, maybe sevenor eight years ago a friend
who's an economist wrote a paperabout beef on dairy and how it
was a great way for the marketto change, or he was just
talking about the market impactof that and it was so new then
too, right.
And now you know, eight yearslater.
(08:20):
I was talking to dairyproducers recently and they said
at at least the majority oftheir cattle are are being bred
to to beef animals.
So, um well, just because ourour kind of goal of this podcast
is maybe non-ag listeners, Iguess maybe we can go into that.
Would you want to give anintroduction into what, what we
mean when we say beef on dairy?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, so, um, obviously, on dairy operations,
um, it's a little bit differentthan traditional beef, like your
cow-calf operation of what youthink of you know, the cowboy
out on horseback and with, likeyou know, cow-calf the dairy.
Obviously, we are milking ourcows, and so the cow has to get
pregnant and have a calf inorder for us to be able to milk
her, and traditionally, youobviously bred that cow to a
(09:02):
dairy cow.
We do not, though, need 100% ofour cows to be bred to dairy in
order to continue our herd atits like, normal size, not
necessarily trying to increaseor decrease, just like a steady
size, and so, essentially thoseI don't want to say excess, that
sounds bad but, like the cowsthat we don't need to be bred to
dairy, what we've done insteadis bred them to beef.
(09:24):
So we pick our cows that arethe top genetics for our dairy
herd, and we're going to breedthose just to dairy, and we're
also going to sex semen those tobe all female.
The rest of our cows, then,will be bred to the beef on
dairy.
So that cow is going to be across.
It's going to be half dairy cowfrom the mom's genetics and
half beef cow from the bull'sgenetics and, yeah, we end up
(09:48):
with, you know, differentvarieties and that is a.
It's a piece now of a biggerpiece of the beef market.
I mean, dairy has always been apiece of the beef market,
obviously, because I always, youknow kind of joke that our cows
change occupations at somepoint in their life to become
beef cows.
Um, but now it's a little bitmore, I think, like strategic
and thought out of like whatmakes sense for the operation on
(10:09):
the beef side of things.
So I hope I hope that wasconcise- no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, no, you did a great job.
Thank you for doing that.
And I think one thing we've hada lot of conversations on the
podcast about genetics and thatword kind of sounds intimidating
to some people and I justwanted to say when we talk beef
and we talk dairy, we're talkingbreeds of animal right, so
they're all beef, cow or they'reall bovine animals, I should
say, and we're just talkingmaybe a Holstein with an Angus
(10:37):
animal right, so those are justbreeds.
And then I compared it tobreeding dogs, to poodles, and
so then you have ahypoallergenic animal that can
live in the home, of course.
So the beef on dairy is justtalking about different breeds
of cattle bred together to bemore efficient or to have a.
(10:58):
You know, like you said, everyanimal has a significant purpose
moving forward.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, and I mean traditionally.
Obviously dairy cows were bredfor dairy, right, like they are
going to produce more milk.
They are a totally differentsize, shape, animal.
You know Natalie, my co-host,as I mentioned, she's a cow
rancher in Nebraska and she hadnever seen a dairy cow in real
life.
She moved from Montana toNebraska.
Dairy is not popular in eitherof those States, uh, and so when
(11:24):
she came to my farm it wasactually the first time she had
seen a dairy cow up close andshe was like, oh my gosh, they
are so tall and skinny.
She grew up on a, herfordregistered her for an operation
and I went up and visited andwas like they are so short and
fat.
And so you know, they're justvery different animals of how
they're bred, for differentreasons, obviously.
I will say also, dairy cows tendto not make the best mothers,
(11:45):
because those aren't traitswe've really picked in dairy
cows, whereas beef cows tend tobe much more protective, you
know, much more aggressive inthat way, and again, it's like
simply genetics very similar todog breeds.
You're going to have dog breeds, you know, like the golden
retriever that's going to be,you know, your best friend, your
fun friend, whereas you'regoing to have.
You know, you think of a Germanshepherd that's going to be
(12:06):
like the police dog, right, likejust very different bred for
things, and so that's the same.
You know, typically, listen,I've eaten a lot of Holstein
beef in my life and I think ittastes just fine, but
traditionally the beef is notwhat you would think of if
you're going to be having likean Angus or something that's a
more traditional beef breed?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yep, absolutely, and there's a multitude of breeds,
right, and I know we were tryingto explain to some high
schoolers and it was neat.
It was a class that was hard ofhearing or deaf and we had a
translator and I was trying toexplain how many breeds they
were and somebody asked me toname a bunch of them and I just
felt so bad for my translatorbecause she suddenly had to
spell all of these breedsbecause there's no word for
(12:47):
Holstein or there's no sign forHolstein.
Like this cow and yeah.
So I tried to spell them outfor her and limit it to like
five breeds, because I thoughtthis is just.
We're going to be here for daysas she's spelling letter by
letter.
But yes, a multitude of breedsof cattle and an interesting way
to use them.
So thanks for going into that.
Well, what about kind of bigpicture?
(13:07):
What is one of the biggestchallenges in the operation?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, so I guess was you know, sticking on the beef
topic.
You know, for us with Beef onDairy, it's been kind of trying
to figure out what it looks likeon our operation and how it
fits.
You know, obviously there's theoption to sell at day olds,
which is a, you know, popularoption right now.
Day old calves are going for afair like a record high amount
(13:32):
of money, so that's a reallygreat option.
But then there is the option to, you know, raise some of the
cattle ourselves and so tryingto figure out how that fits into
our operations, since that'snot traditionally what we've
done, I think that's been,that's been a piece of it Like,
do we add more pens, do we rate,you know what does it look like
to raise them ourselves andactually make that investment in
(13:52):
our you know facility, in ourpens and you know kind of the
grow yard and so, looking atthat, you know, and the
financial side of it, does itmake sense for us to grow them
ourselves or does it make senseto us to sell them to, you know,
a different ranch?
That that's their primary,primary thing they do is beef,
and so kind of working throughthat and like figuring that out
(14:14):
over the last few years andmaking changes and pivoting, as
been needed and with where themarket's at.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So Absolutely Well, and I think when we talk about
ranchers and ranchers or dairyproducers, the amount of
business knowledge and theamount of just variety of the
role as a you know, they mightsay, oh, I'm a dairy producer.
Well, they also have to be abusinessman, they also have to
be a land steward, they alsohave to be all of these things.
(14:41):
So, yeah, there's.
The challenges are, I'm sure,endless.
What about speaking of, maybe,challenges?
How do New Mexico's landscapesand climate shape your methods?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, new Mexico is such an interesting place to
dairy.
I feel like when you, you know,from consumer perspective or
even like countrywideperspective, when you think of
dairy, I don't know that NewMexico is what you think of.
You know, like Wisconsin andCalifornia might be higher, but
New Mexico for you know, thelast several decades has been a
very high top producer.
We have some counties that arein the top 5-10% of dairy
(15:12):
producing counties in the UnitedStates.
So dairy is a big piece of thatand you know it has a lot to do
with New Mexico's climate andyou know landscape.
We have a lot of wide openspaces.
You know we're not dealing with, like, say, urban sprawl in the
way that California has dealtwith in the past.
A lot of dairy families fromthat are in New Mexico,
originated from California, kindof getting pushed out by some
(15:33):
of the cities, and so New Mexicowith that large, you know
landscape and then our mildclimate.
We have a fairly mild climatehere on the high plains.
You know it can get hot in thesummer and cool in the winters,
but it's not like we're notdealing with blizzards and we're
not dealing with, you know, 115degrees or greater, as some of
(15:54):
the places are, and so we areknown for our open lot style
dairies, which is very differentthan, say, some of the other
places in the country.
If you're going to go to theMidwest, you're going to have
more cows in barns.
If you even just barely gonorth of us, you're going to
have a lot more free stall,which is the cows inside of
barns, whereas our open lotscows are outside 365 days a year
, with shade wind blocksobviously like proper
(16:15):
precautions for weather, butthat has created a certain style
of dairy.
New Mexico does have thelargest average herd size, so a
little bit larger dairies aretraditional in New Mexico.
We're seeing more of thatacross the country now, but I
would say that's something we'vebeen known for since like the
80s, early 90s.
Just because of the climatehere in New Mexico, it's more
(16:38):
ideal for that style of dairyfarming.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Absolutely.
I always tell people New Mexicois a place to move if you want
to move for moderate weather.
There's no extreme here.
It's a little cold and a littlewarm, but I don't think it's
extreme or not in comparison toother places.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Definitely not.
I feel like there's one thingthat having a co-host who grew
up in Montana and now lives inNebraska has taught me is that
when I say it's cold outside, itis not that cold outside.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yes, yes, we spent some time in the Midwest for
work and my husband's schoolingand the ice, storms and the snow
and all of that that in NewMexico usually you have a delay
start, not a full on snow day,right, right For schools and
stuff.
Yeah, I think we do have a veryunique climate, so I'm glad it
(17:28):
benefits the dairy industry.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, and a dry climate.
You know dairy cows don't lovea lot of humidity, a lot of, you
know, rain, and so that drierclimate, I think, plays a role
in that as well.
So, yeah, it is it really.
I mean, I think the biggestthing we deal with is wind,
which obviously, like that, isjust something you deal with in
the Midwest, I think, and we'rekind of when it comes to wind,
we're kind of a part of thatMidwest piece.
(17:51):
But otherwise, yeah, there's alot of really great benefits to
dairying in New Mexico as well,as you know, access to markets.
We've got a lot of cheeseplants here.
We obviously don't do a lot offluid milk in New Mexico.
We don't have the largestpopulation, but we're not far
from Dallas and you know Denverand those places, but yeah, a
lot of cheese comes out of NewMexico.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yep.
Well, what do you think is themost rewarding part of being in
the agriculture industry?
We've talked on the operationand advocacy, but what's the
most rewarding part for you?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Gosh, I mean I guess it probably goes back to the
conversation maybe about kids.
Like, I just still feel likeit's one of the last industries
where your family is such a partof it, you know, like it just
your kids are right.
Like your backyard is your farmstill and you know, I just
think in agriculture that's sucha unique experience that we get
to have.
Like there we're just don't seea lot of other places where it
(18:47):
is like you get to take your kidto the sale barn and you get to
just have them kind of grow upwith you.
Um, I homeschool, so I alsohave that you know layer of it,
um, that they really are homewith me all day on the farm, um,
and so I don't know, I mean Ithink there that there's just
something really rewarding onthat.
And then, from the consumerstandpoint, like there is
something really rewarding about, at the end of the day, knowing
(19:08):
you're providing like food forpeople.
Uh, my husband and I talk about, you know we always put our,
our dairy numbers in, like howmany gallons of milk you know
leave our farm and like how manypeople, like how many families,
is that impact?
And there is something reallyrewarding about that too.
You know I don't know if Ialways play into the whole like
farmers are feeding the world,like I feel like that's maybe
like too big for my brain tocomprehend, but like at the very
(19:31):
basic level.
Like United States, you know ourfood system is in the news a
lot for negative things and Ialways think about.
You know the positive thingsthat you can walk into.
You know any grocery store inthe United States and probably
pick up a gallon of milk andthat's pretty incredible.
And not even grocery stores Ithink about like the Dollar
Generals and and some of those.
(19:52):
You know food access pointsthat are maybe unconventional.
Even you know your conveniencestore a lot of times you can
still get a gallon of milk.
Even you know your conveniencestore a lot of times you can
still get a gallon of milk andthat's a high quality.
You know source of proteinthat's most likely from US.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
You know farmers right here, and so that's.
I think it's something to beproud of and I'm glad I get to
be a piece of that.
Absolutely, and it's a that's areally easy thing for everyone
to see, right?
We all see a gallon of milk inthe grocery store, right?
Yeah, what about?
You kind of mentioned somenegative press or negative
things and I hate to go toonegative, but is there, I know
(20:27):
sometimes you talk aboutmisconceptions.
So what do you want to talkabout?
Maybe your current favoritemyth to debunk, and specifically
maybe about beef.
It could be dairy too, butabout cattle.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, gosh, oh, my God, there's like I feel like
there's a lot, you know, um Ithere's lots of.
You could debunk like I think abig one for me actually, on the
beef side and this is somethingI have again come to appreciate
with my co-host being a cattlerancher is the, you know the
misconception of, like thefactory farm.
Uh, especially in beef.
You know we have the bigpackers, the big four, and there
can be a lot of heat on them.
There can be a lot of heat evenon the feedlots and I think the
(21:02):
piece that gets forgotten formost consumers that a large
percentage of our beef here inthe United States starts out on,
you know, cow-calf operations,just family operations, where it
may be just one, two people,you know very it's a family that
is raising the beef cow andthat even if that cow ends up in
a feedlot, if it ends up at oneof the big four packers, it
(21:28):
doesn't mean it didn't start ata family farm out on pasture and
spent the majority of its lifeprobably out on pasture.
And I think that gets sooverlooked when we start getting
into the labels and themarketing and the grass fed, the
grain finished or whatever it'slike at its core, a big portion
of our country um ranches are,are that just family operation
with the cow calf out on pasture.
And I think if more consumersknew that, um, they would just
(21:50):
like feel more I don't know moreconfidence, more comfortable
with.
You know that, I know I buy thecheapest beef on the shelf at
the grocery store, I buy thecheapest milk on the shelf, like
I'm just not like fearful of myfood system, just knowing what
I know about it, and I wish morepeople had that like level of
comfort in their, in their food.
And so I think that you couldbreak that down into a million
(22:12):
different misconceptions, but atits core it's like the beef the
majority of the beef in ourcountry is being supplied by
family familyches um acrossacross our country oh, what a
what a great story to tell.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And I agree, I, I tell people all the time I'm
buying my beef at the grocerystore.
Yeah, if there's, yeah, I, Imean, and we have a local beef
directory.
If someone's looking for buyingdirect from a, from a rancher,
we have that on our website as aresource.
But we also just I if you wantto support a rancher, you just
buy beef on our website as aresource.
But we also just if you want tosupport a rancher, you just buy
beef at the grocery store, youbuy beef at a restaurant.
(22:45):
That's how I support ourranchers a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, and like even today I was eating at a
steakhouse actually for lunchand you walked in and there was
actually a sign that said ourbeef comes from XYZ and it's a
local rancher.
Right Like it.
Just, it's not always difficultto support local ranchers and
farmers in the way people thinkit is.
You don't have to go to agrocery store or, sorry, go to a
farmer's market to support them.
(23:08):
I was actually interviewing apotato farmer today and I said,
well, where can we buy yourpotatoes?
And he was like like Walmart,you know, like I don't even know
where they go exactly, likethey're not like branded in
anything in particular, and itwas just a really great reminder
that the food at the grocerystore supports farmers and
ranchers.
We want to complicate it and,again, I love a good
(23:29):
direct-to-consumer business.
I love supporting that.
But sometimes you've just gotto go to the grocery store and
pick up what you need, and thatis just as important to our
family.
You know our family farms asthe direct to consumer as well.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yep, that's exactly the, exactly the conversation in
the story I want to tellbecause, yeah, there's options
and and we love, we love to goto the grocery store.
What is something exciting thatyou're working on right now or
something that maybe you'reproud of recently?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Oh my goodness.
Well, you did mention the UNand I never actually even
finished talking or didn't eventalk about that.
So I can, I do, have somethingfun coming up.
I'm actually so.
I have.
I guess three or four times nowI have gone to the Food and
Agriculture Organization throughthe UN, it's headquartered in
Rome, and I have representedagriculture on that platform Not
(24:20):
just dairy, but agriculture asa whole, and then also dairy
specifically, obviously.
But this coming at the end ofthis summer, I will be going
back and I'm actually going forthe Global Livestock
Sustainability Committee meetingand that'll be the first time
I've attended that and I'mreally excited actually to go
and go to a meeting that'sfocused on animal agriculture
(24:41):
and livestock, because you know,there's a lot to agriculture
and so when you go to the moretraditional meetings that are
just about agriculture or WorldFood Security is one, or like
women and equality andagriculture was another I've
been to, obviously you're witheverybody and that's important
too.
But I think livestock can faceunique challenges, especially at
the UN and the sustainabilityconversation, and so I'm excited
(25:05):
to like focus on that and seewhat it looks like from the beef
side, what it looks like fromthe dairy side as well, as
obviously, you know, worldwidelivestock looks very different
than just beef and dairy.
There's obviously a lot ofgoats, a lot of sheep and a lot
of poultry and dairy.
There's obviously a lot ofgoats, a lot of sheep and a lot
of poultry, and so comingtogether on that livestock side
is something I'm really excitedabout, excited to bring those
(25:26):
conversations back to ourpodcast, to the followers on
social media and see, yeah,what's being discussed out there
, because the UN, you know,historically, can be somewhat
critical of animal agricultureand so, yeah, really looking
forward to that.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
I can't wait to see how that goes and kind of follow
that.
I think it's a really importantthing for animal agriculture to
be having conversationstogether and supporting that.
Animal protein is a great placeto get your nutrients, so I
think that sounds like a greatevent to go to.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah, and I think you know we talked about the
misconceptions about, you know,beef.
I think we're in such anexciting time in our industry I
think more than ever people areturning to animal protein
sources.
I feel like we very much had,like, the vegan movement and I
feel like we've seen that peakand we're kind of seeing now the
swing in the opposite directionof the health benefits of,
(26:20):
obviously, these animal-basedproteins.
And so I think it's a reallyexciting time to be having these
conversations, that people areseeing the value in the products
that we offer and the value inbeef and dairy, and maybe it's
making them see sustainabilitythrough a little bit different
lens.
Like what is sustainability ifyou're getting a healthy diet
Like that has to be taken intoaccount too if you're getting a
protein, you know, rich diet, anutrient, dense diet with these
(26:42):
animal proteins, and so, yeah, Ithink that I would imagine this
meeting in this moment in timewould be very different than,
say, attending a meeting likethis 10 years ago, and so I'm, I
think, very hopeful that it's apositive conversation about
what are, you know, the foodsthat we offer through Reef and
Dairy, what they mean for youknow the world as a whole.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, well, we wish you the best with that and
thanks for representingagriculture and New Mexico.
That's always a really neat tosee someone from your home state
representing at such a globalevent.
Well, thank you I appreciatethat.
Yeah, what about?
So you're talking about this,right, You're going to go to
Italy.
You're going to you advocate onyour podcast.
What makes you keep going?
(27:24):
Why do you do what you do?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
You know, I feel like it's like the simple moments
actually that like the DMs LikeI don't know how many times I've
gotten a DM that is fromsomeone that said I didn't drink
milk because I saw something onsocial media and now I feel
comfortable doing it because ofwhat you've seen I had actually
my sister.
My sister lived in SanFrancisco for several years and
(27:47):
one of her coworkers was reallyfearful in the grocery store and
just would go in and be afraidof what she should buy and
afraid of what would be whatpoison toxin, all the buzzwords
that you see on social media.
And my sister encouraged her tolisten to our podcast and she
texted my.
And my sister encouraged her tolisten to our podcast and she
texted my sister.
My sister screenshot it to meand said I'm no longer afraid to
go into the grocery store, likebecause I share about not not
(28:08):
only do I buy the cheapest milkand beef on the shelf, I also
buy the cheapest eggs and like,I feel good about the choices
like that I'm making every timeI walk in and I pick whatever
apple looks good that day, ormaybe the one my kid likes the
color of.
Like I'm just not going in beingfearful of each of the choices,
and I think that makes it amore fun way to shop.
(28:28):
And so getting messages likethat I think are really powerful
, that, like you shouldn't haveto be afraid of your food
choices.
Like there, we have a grocerystore that has a plethora of
options.
We have a grocery store thathas a plethora of options and
you can pick whatever option isright for you, your budget, your
diet, your preferences, yourbeliefs.
You know if you are a vegan andthat's what you want to do.
(28:49):
Like those are options that areavailable to you, and so not
going in with the fear mongeringthat is so prevalent online.
And so I think for me, when Iget those messages, it's really
like what encourages me to keepsharing and know that we're on
the right path.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That gives me goosebumps.
Thinking of giving peopleconfidence in their food choices
, I think that's that's huge,and we do live in a in a country
and a time where you can havefood choice and we support food
choice but to have confidenceand not be fearful of what
you're eating or what you'reproviding for your family,
that's that's really special andreally important.
So, again, so do you want togive a plug?
(29:24):
I know you already talked aboutyour podcast, but maybe a plug
on your if you want to give yoursocial media, your website,
anything, anything will give youthat chance.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I mean, if you're listening to this, you're
probably a podcast person, sowe'd love to have you over on
Discover Ag.
You can find it anywherethere's podcasts.
We release an episode everyThursday.
We also have some great videosthat do a little go into more
detail.
We call it Discover More overon our YouTube so you can check
out Discover Ag podcast onYouTube as well.
Otherwise, you can find me onthe normal social channels, at
(29:53):
Tara Vaynerdusen, so I wouldlove to see you guys there.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Perfect, Thank you.
And then the last question iswhat's your favorite recipe or
favorite way to eat beef?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, that's easy.
I love a good medium rare filet.
It is just I.
I feel like if you have a goodcut of steak, cooking is easy.
You know a good filet with alittle butter and garlic, that's
it.
You know, like you reallycomplicated.
I actually the potato farmer Iinterviewed today.
I told him, gosh, all I wantnow is a steak and potato for
dinner tonight.
(30:23):
And you know just that classic,that there's just nothing more
classic than a good steak dinner.
So that's what I'll have to gowith.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Absolutely.
That's a great answer.
I think that I support the beefand potato industries regularly
because I do love.
I do love a steak medium rarewith a loaded baked potato.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, and you're supporting dairy too, and if
it's loaded you probably gotsome bacon on there too, so we
could just bring all the all theindustries going around.
No, but thank you so much forhaving me on today.
It was fun to chat all thingsbeef on dairy.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much for joiningme and wish you all the best.
And yeah, thanks again.
Behind the Burger is a podcastproduced by the New Mexico Beef
Council with the goal of tellingthe stories of the cattlemen
and cattlewomen of the NewMexico beef industry.
Thank you for joining us fortoday's episode.
If you'd like more information,please visit nmbeefcom.
(31:19):
Whether it be a burger, a steakor another beef dish, we hope
you're enjoying beef at yournext meal.
Welcome back to another episode of Behind the
Burger.
I am Carol Ann Romo, theexecutive director for the New
Mexico Beef Council, and I'mhere with Tara VanderDusen and I
didn't check with theenunciation of your name you
nailed it Okay, oh goodness.
There you go, there you go.
So, tara, will you introduceyourself?
(00:25):
I know for some there's nointroduction needed, but will
you introduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
and your background.
Yeah, so I'm Tara VanderDusen.
I am a fifth-generation dairyfarmer.
I also married afifth-generation dairy farmer,
so lots of dairy in our familyhistory, family legacy.
And then I have never hadreally a traditional role on the
dairy.
I actually got my degree inenvironmental science and I
spent, oh, I would say, thefirst 10 or so years of my
(00:51):
professional career working asan environmental consultant for
dairy farms and farms throughoutNew Mexico and kind of the
greater Southwest area.
And then a few years ago Iactually made a huge pivot in my
career and went all in on, youknow, advocating for agriculture
through social media.
And then now I spend themajority of my time actually on
(01:13):
our podcast I co-host with acattle rancher from Nebraska
called Discover Ag.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Awesome.
Well, I think, I think what youdo is such an important part of
agriculture, right, the theadvocating, and that's even an
important part of our role asthe Beef Checkoff and the New
Mexico Beef Council right,somebody's got to do it, and
it's not always going to be therancher or the dairy producer,
because you know there's so manyfacets to it.
So I'm grateful for the workyou do for our industry.
(01:40):
Well, yeah, well, tell me alittle bit about your family
operation and maybe the historyof that.
So, five generations is a bigdeal.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, my grandparents actually came from the
Netherlands in like late 1940s,early 1950s you know, classic, I
guess, a story kind of of thatlike immigration from the
Netherlands into the UnitedStates.
They started out in Californiaand ultimately moved to New
Mexico in the early 80s and soI'm born and raised here in New
Mexico.
We ended up in Eastern NewMexico and while my dad no
(02:11):
longer dairy farms, I stillobviously am a part of the dairy
farming you know communitythrough my husband and our farm
with his family.
And so, yeah, we still dairyhere in Eastern New Mexico,
raising our two young daughterson our farm as well.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
What a great place to raise a kid.
That's really neat.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I know I do love.
I mean, obviously I'm biasedbecause that's how I grew up,
but I'm always like man, it'spretty fun growing up on, you
know, a farm, a dairy operationjust growing about in the
country.
So yeah, I think I would liketo think they like it.
They may tell you somethingdifferent on any given day, but
no, I mean obviously having adairy as your backyard is pretty
fun.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Even.
I always say I'm moreag-adjacent, right, but just
getting to be around it, Ibrought my daughter to a bull
sale recently and it was justthe most wonderful experience
for her that a day at work withmom was at a bull sale and and,
of course, my husband yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, myhusband taught her how to buy a
bull the night before, cause hethought he was funny.
Yeah, so it was.
It was a problem.
Luckily, the the ring ring manwas very sweet and could tell he
(03:19):
had kids and he was.
He played along with her, but Ididn't buy a bull.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I am very happy for you.
I feel like that could haveended badly instead.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
We do not need.
We do not need a bull.
The only cattle we own areroping steers.
So we those bulls were far tooexpensive and beautiful for us
to be roping.
Well, cool, well, what about?
So you've already kind oftalked about your advocacy and
the work you do, but can youmaybe go into that more, how
(03:50):
that's evolved and and, and,then even gosh?
I saw on social media you wererepresenting agriculture at the
United Nations.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I started sharing.
This is going to like reallydate me and I'm feeling old now,
but I started sharing I guessback in like 2015,.
I think that I started sharing.
This is going to like reallydate me and I'm feeling old now,
but I started sharing I guessback in like 2015, I think, and
I started with a blog.
So, yeah, I'm like right at 10years now.
I started with a blog.
So that really really dates me.
And then from the blogging, Igot into Instagram.
But this is the early days ofInstagram.
You know, there was nocarousels.
(04:24):
There was no carousels, therewas no stories, there was no
reels like.
It was just very basic.
And I think obviously thingshave evolved and continue to
evolve and what I've learnedover the years is you know a lot
of the social platforms.
Your the content was justgetting shorter and shorter and
shorter.
Our attention spans that weregetting smaller.
And while I still show up onthe social platforms like
(04:45):
Instagram and LinkedIn, where Ireally found, I think, like my
voice and my home, is on thepodcasting platform, and so my
co-host and I have a podcastcalled Discover Ag and we spend
each week essentially coveringthe top news articles in the ag
and food space, western culturespace, and we do it kind of with
a pop culture twist.
(05:05):
So it's maybe not yourtraditional like agriculture
podcast.
We're not going to be talkingto you about markets and
commodities and things like thatbut instead what's going on in
the news, what's going on withcurrent culture, pop culture and
how it's playing a role inagriculture and affects us, and
so we have a lot of fun overthere.
It's just it's fun to have along form content.
Obviously, starting out in theblog space it was a long form
(05:29):
form of content with written,and so in podcasting I feel like
it's very similar to that, thatyou can give a lot of
information, you can have a realconversation.
We interview people.
Actually have a potato farmerthat's coming on this week that
is going to debunk a reel aboutyou know potatoes that's going
viral.
That's coming on this week.
That is going to debunk a reelabout you know potatoes that's
going viral, and so we just kindof try to bring like factual
information in a fun way.
(05:49):
It's a good mix of likeentertainment and education on
the podcast and that's reallywhere I spend, I think, the
majority of my time now and thentaking that content and sharing
it on the social platforms aswell.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, it's fun to follow along and I think it's
such an important, importanttopic that you're doing, like I
think I already said, but I alsolove to see the evolution,
right.
It's.
It's interesting how, how weyou know how we get our media
and how we get our information.
Now that's why we started thepodcast with the New Mexico Beef
Council is we think a lot ofpeople are getting getting their
(06:21):
content in that, and and then alot of people are on the road,
they're traveling, they've gotto commute, they got to drive
somewhere, and so we hope peopleuh plug in, plug in uh our
podcast while they're in the caror or whatever they're doing,
so, uh, very neat.
Well, so now we've kind of goneback and forth, right, um, from
the, from the operation to theadvocacy.
But can we talk about theoperation?
(06:42):
Are you guys practicing theBeef on Dairy breeding program
and can we kind of go into that?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, so we are practicing Beef on Dairy.
I think obviously that is thebig trend right now in the dairy
industry.
It's funny because I canremember when I first got
married which we've been married14 years, I think this summer
we didn't have kids, I don'tthink yet.
So it was very early on inthose, those 14, you know, it's
probably 12 years ago, let's sayand, um, it was someone who
(07:10):
worked for like a semen salesman, took us all out to lunch and
he was like if you could justgive me one third of your
replacement heifers and breed tobeef.
And I just remember thedairyman at the table being like
what, no way.
Like that is not happening,like it's.
I just vividly, like it's sofunny what your brain remembers,
and I just very vividlyremember this.
I remember getting in the carwith some of the producers
(07:32):
afterwards and they were like,no, we're breeding to dairy cows
.
Like we are not, you know, beefpeople, like we are dairy
people.
And you know, fast forwardtalking about the evolution of
things.
This is obviously a hugeevolution now.
I mean, this is a huge part ofour dairy operation is now
breeding to beef cattle and thenwe can talk.
You know more about that.
But yeah, I mean it's a bigpiece of like it's.
(07:55):
It's not front and center inthe way the dairy cow is, but
it's a close second at thispoint.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, absolutely I.
I remember, gosh, maybe sevenor eight years ago a friend
who's an economist wrote a paperabout beef on dairy and how it
was a great way for the marketto change, or he was just
talking about the market impactof that and it was so new then
too, right.
And now you know, eight yearslater.
(08:20):
I was talking to dairyproducers recently and they said
at at least the majority oftheir cattle are are being bred
to to beef animals.
So, um well, just because ourour kind of goal of this podcast
is maybe non-ag listeners, Iguess maybe we can go into that.
Would you want to give anintroduction into what, what we
mean when we say beef on dairy?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, so, um, obviously, on dairy operations,
um, it's a little bit differentthan traditional beef, like your
cow-calf operation of what youthink of you know, the cowboy
out on horseback and with, likeyou know, cow-calf the dairy.
Obviously, we are milking ourcows, and so the cow has to get
pregnant and have a calf inorder for us to be able to milk
her, and traditionally, youobviously bred that cow to a
(09:02):
dairy cow.
We do not, though, need 100% ofour cows to be bred to dairy in
order to continue our herd atits like, normal size, not
necessarily trying to increaseor decrease, just like a steady
size, and so, essentially thoseI don't want to say excess, that
sounds bad but, like the cowsthat we don't need to be bred to
dairy, what we've done insteadis bred them to beef.
(09:24):
So we pick our cows that arethe top genetics for our dairy
herd, and we're going to breedthose just to dairy, and we're
also going to sex semen those tobe all female.
The rest of our cows, then,will be bred to the beef on
dairy.
So that cow is going to be across.
It's going to be half dairy cowfrom the mom's genetics and
half beef cow from the bull'sgenetics and, yeah, we end up
(09:48):
with, you know, differentvarieties and that is a.
It's a piece now of a biggerpiece of the beef market.
I mean, dairy has always been apiece of the beef market,
obviously, because I always, youknow kind of joke that our cows
change occupations at somepoint in their life to become
beef cows.
Um, but now it's a little bitmore, I think, like strategic
and thought out of like whatmakes sense for the operation on
(10:09):
the beef side of things.
So I hope I hope that wasconcise- no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, no, you did a great job.
Thank you for doing that.
And I think one thing we've hada lot of conversations on the
podcast about genetics and thatword kind of sounds intimidating
to some people and I justwanted to say when we talk beef
and we talk dairy, we're talkingbreeds of animal right, so
they're all beef, cow or they'reall bovine animals, I should
say, and we're just talkingmaybe a Holstein with an Angus
(10:37):
animal right, so those are justbreeds.
And then I compared it tobreeding dogs, to poodles, and
so then you have ahypoallergenic animal that can
live in the home, of course.
So the beef on dairy is justtalking about different breeds
of cattle bred together to bemore efficient or to have a.
(10:58):
You know, like you said, everyanimal has a significant purpose
moving forward.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, and I mean traditionally.
Obviously dairy cows were bredfor dairy, right, like they are
going to produce more milk.
They are a totally differentsize, shape, animal.
You know Natalie, my co-host,as I mentioned, she's a cow
rancher in Nebraska and she hadnever seen a dairy cow in real
life.
She moved from Montana toNebraska.
Dairy is not popular in eitherof those States, uh, and so when
(11:24):
she came to my farm it wasactually the first time she had
seen a dairy cow up close andshe was like, oh my gosh, they
are so tall and skinny.
She grew up on a, herfordregistered her for an operation
and I went up and visited andwas like they are so short and
fat.
And so you know, they're justvery different animals of how
they're bred, for differentreasons, obviously.
I will say also, dairy cows tendto not make the best mothers,
(11:45):
because those aren't traitswe've really picked in dairy
cows, whereas beef cows tend tobe much more protective, you
know, much more aggressive inthat way, and again, it's like
simply genetics very similar todog breeds.
You're going to have dog breeds, you know, like the golden
retriever that's going to be,you know, your best friend, your
fun friend, whereas you'regoing to have.
You know, you think of a Germanshepherd that's going to be
(12:06):
like the police dog, right, likejust very different bred for
things, and so that's the same.
You know, typically, listen,I've eaten a lot of Holstein
beef in my life and I think ittastes just fine, but
traditionally the beef is notwhat you would think of if
you're going to be having likean Angus or something that's a
more traditional beef breed?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yep, absolutely, and there's a multitude of breeds,
right, and I know we were tryingto explain to some high
schoolers and it was neat.
It was a class that was hard ofhearing or deaf and we had a
translator and I was trying toexplain how many breeds they
were and somebody asked me toname a bunch of them and I just
felt so bad for my translatorbecause she suddenly had to
spell all of these breedsbecause there's no word for
(12:47):
Holstein or there's no sign forHolstein.
Like this cow and yeah.
So I tried to spell them outfor her and limit it to like
five breeds, because I thoughtthis is just.
We're going to be here for daysas she's spelling letter by
letter.
But yes, a multitude of breedsof cattle and an interesting way
to use them.
So thanks for going into that.
Well, what about kind of bigpicture?
(13:07):
What is one of the biggestchallenges in the operation?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, so I guess was you know, sticking on the beef
topic.
You know, for us with Beef onDairy, it's been kind of trying
to figure out what it looks likeon our operation and how it
fits.
You know, obviously there's theoption to sell at day olds,
which is a, you know, popularoption right now.
Day old calves are going for afair like a record high amount
(13:32):
of money, so that's a reallygreat option.
But then there is the option to, you know, raise some of the
cattle ourselves and so tryingto figure out how that fits into
our operations, since that'snot traditionally what we've
done, I think that's been,that's been a piece of it Like,
do we add more pens, do we rate,you know what does it look like
to raise them ourselves andactually make that investment in
(13:52):
our you know facility, in ourpens and you know kind of the
grow yard and so, looking atthat, you know, and the
financial side of it, does itmake sense for us to grow them
ourselves or does it make senseto us to sell them to, you know,
a different ranch?
That that's their primary,primary thing they do is beef,
and so kind of working throughthat and like figuring that out
(14:14):
over the last few years andmaking changes and pivoting, as
been needed and with where themarket's at.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So Absolutely Well, and I think when we talk about
ranchers and ranchers or dairyproducers, the amount of
business knowledge and theamount of just variety of the
role as a you know, they mightsay, oh, I'm a dairy producer.
Well, they also have to be abusinessman, they also have to
be a land steward, they alsohave to be all of these things.
(14:41):
So, yeah, there's.
The challenges are, I'm sure,endless.
What about speaking of, maybe,challenges?
How do New Mexico's landscapesand climate shape your methods?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, new Mexico is such an interesting place to
dairy.
I feel like when you, you know,from consumer perspective or
even like countrywideperspective, when you think of
dairy, I don't know that NewMexico is what you think of.
You know, like Wisconsin andCalifornia might be higher, but
New Mexico for you know, thelast several decades has been a
very high top producer.
We have some counties that arein the top 5-10% of dairy
(15:12):
producing counties in the UnitedStates.
So dairy is a big piece of thatand you know it has a lot to do
with New Mexico's climate andyou know landscape.
We have a lot of wide openspaces.
You know we're not dealing with, like, say, urban sprawl in the
way that California has dealtwith in the past.
A lot of dairy families fromthat are in New Mexico,
originated from California, kindof getting pushed out by some
(15:33):
of the cities, and so New Mexicowith that large, you know
landscape and then our mildclimate.
We have a fairly mild climatehere on the high plains.
You know it can get hot in thesummer and cool in the winters,
but it's not like we're notdealing with blizzards and we're
not dealing with, you know, 115degrees or greater, as some of
(15:54):
the places are, and so we areknown for our open lot style
dairies, which is very differentthan, say, some of the other
places in the country.
If you're going to go to theMidwest, you're going to have
more cows in barns.
If you even just barely gonorth of us, you're going to
have a lot more free stall,which is the cows inside of
barns, whereas our open lotscows are outside 365 days a year
, with shade wind blocksobviously like proper
(16:15):
precautions for weather, butthat has created a certain style
of dairy.
New Mexico does have thelargest average herd size, so a
little bit larger dairies aretraditional in New Mexico.
We're seeing more of thatacross the country now, but I
would say that's something we'vebeen known for since like the
80s, early 90s.
Just because of the climatehere in New Mexico, it's more
(16:38):
ideal for that style of dairyfarming.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Absolutely.
I always tell people New Mexicois a place to move if you want
to move for moderate weather.
There's no extreme here.
It's a little cold and a littlewarm, but I don't think it's
extreme or not in comparison toother places.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Definitely not.
I feel like there's one thingthat having a co-host who grew
up in Montana and now lives inNebraska has taught me is that
when I say it's cold outside, itis not that cold outside.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yes, yes, we spent some time in the Midwest for
work and my husband's schoolingand the ice, storms and the snow
and all of that that in NewMexico usually you have a delay
start, not a full on snow day,right, right For schools and
stuff.
Yeah, I think we do have a veryunique climate, so I'm glad it
(17:28):
benefits the dairy industry.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, and a dry climate.
You know dairy cows don't lovea lot of humidity, a lot of, you
know, rain, and so that drierclimate, I think, plays a role
in that as well.
So, yeah, it is it really.
I mean, I think the biggestthing we deal with is wind,
which obviously, like that, isjust something you deal with in
the Midwest, I think, and we'rekind of when it comes to wind,
we're kind of a part of thatMidwest piece.
(17:51):
But otherwise, yeah, there's alot of really great benefits to
dairying in New Mexico as well,as you know, access to markets.
We've got a lot of cheeseplants here.
We obviously don't do a lot offluid milk in New Mexico.
We don't have the largestpopulation, but we're not far
from Dallas and you know Denverand those places, but yeah, a
lot of cheese comes out of NewMexico.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yep.
Well, what do you think is themost rewarding part of being in
the agriculture industry?
We've talked on the operationand advocacy, but what's the
most rewarding part for you?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Gosh, I mean I guess it probably goes back to the
conversation maybe about kids.
Like, I just still feel likeit's one of the last industries
where your family is such a partof it, you know, like it just
your kids are right.
Like your backyard is your farmstill and you know, I just
think in agriculture that's sucha unique experience that we get
to have.
Like there we're just don't seea lot of other places where it
(18:47):
is like you get to take your kidto the sale barn and you get to
just have them kind of grow upwith you.
Um, I homeschool, so I alsohave that you know layer of it,
um, that they really are homewith me all day on the farm, um,
and so I don't know, I mean Ithink there that there's just
something really rewarding onthat.
And then, from the consumerstandpoint, like there is
something really rewarding about, at the end of the day, knowing
(19:08):
you're providing like food forpeople.
Uh, my husband and I talk about, you know we always put our,
our dairy numbers in, like howmany gallons of milk you know
leave our farm and like how manypeople, like how many families,
is that impact?
And there is something reallyrewarding about that too.
You know I don't know if Ialways play into the whole like
farmers are feeding the world,like I feel like that's maybe
like too big for my brain tocomprehend, but like at the very
(19:31):
basic level.
Like United States, you know ourfood system is in the news a
lot for negative things and Ialways think about.
You know the positive thingsthat you can walk into.
You know any grocery store inthe United States and probably
pick up a gallon of milk andthat's pretty incredible.
And not even grocery stores Ithink about like the Dollar
Generals and and some of those.
(19:52):
You know food access pointsthat are maybe unconventional.
Even you know your conveniencestore a lot of times you can
still get a gallon of milk.
Even you know your conveniencestore a lot of times you can
still get a gallon of milk andthat's a high quality.
You know source of proteinthat's most likely from US.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
You know farmers right here, and so that's.
I think it's something to beproud of and I'm glad I get to
be a piece of that.
Absolutely, and it's a that's areally easy thing for everyone
to see, right?
We all see a gallon of milk inthe grocery store, right?
Yeah, what about?
You kind of mentioned somenegative press or negative
things and I hate to go toonegative, but is there, I know
(20:27):
sometimes you talk aboutmisconceptions.
So what do you want to talkabout?
Maybe your current favoritemyth to debunk, and specifically
maybe about beef.
It could be dairy too, butabout cattle.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, gosh, oh, my God, there's like I feel like
there's a lot, you know, um Ithere's lots of.
You could debunk like I think abig one for me actually, on the
beef side and this is somethingI have again come to appreciate
with my co-host being a cattlerancher is the, you know the
misconception of, like thefactory farm.
Uh, especially in beef.
You know we have the bigpackers, the big four, and there
can be a lot of heat on them.
There can be a lot of heat evenon the feedlots and I think the
(21:02):
piece that gets forgotten formost consumers that a large
percentage of our beef here inthe United States starts out on,
you know, cow-calf operations,just family operations, where it
may be just one, two people,you know very it's a family that
is raising the beef cow andthat even if that cow ends up in
a feedlot, if it ends up at oneof the big four packers, it
(21:28):
doesn't mean it didn't start ata family farm out on pasture and
spent the majority of its lifeprobably out on pasture.
And I think that gets sooverlooked when we start getting
into the labels and themarketing and the grass fed, the
grain finished or whatever it'slike at its core, a big portion
of our country um ranches are,are that just family operation
with the cow calf out on pasture.
And I think if more consumersknew that, um, they would just
(21:50):
like feel more I don't know moreconfidence, more comfortable
with.
You know that, I know I buy thecheapest beef on the shelf at
the grocery store, I buy thecheapest milk on the shelf, like
I'm just not like fearful of myfood system, just knowing what
I know about it, and I wish morepeople had that like level of
comfort in their, in their food.
And so I think that you couldbreak that down into a million
(22:12):
different misconceptions, but atits core it's like the beef the
majority of the beef in ourcountry is being supplied by
family familyches um acrossacross our country oh, what a
what a great story to tell.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And I agree, I, I tell people all the time I'm
buying my beef at the grocerystore.
Yeah, if there's, yeah, I, Imean, and we have a local beef
directory.
If someone's looking for buyingdirect from a, from a rancher,
we have that on our website as aresource.
But we also just I if you wantto support a rancher, you just
buy beef on our website as aresource.
But we also just if you want tosupport a rancher, you just buy
beef at the grocery store, youbuy beef at a restaurant.
(22:45):
That's how I support ourranchers a lot of times.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, and like even today I was eating at a
steakhouse actually for lunchand you walked in and there was
actually a sign that said ourbeef comes from XYZ and it's a
local rancher.
Right Like it.
Just, it's not always difficultto support local ranchers and
farmers in the way people thinkit is.
You don't have to go to agrocery store or, sorry, go to a
farmer's market to support them.
(23:08):
I was actually interviewing apotato farmer today and I said,
well, where can we buy yourpotatoes?
And he was like like Walmart,you know, like I don't even know
where they go exactly, likethey're not like branded in
anything in particular, and itwas just a really great reminder
that the food at the grocerystore supports farmers and
ranchers.
We want to complicate it and,again, I love a good
(23:29):
direct-to-consumer business.
I love supporting that.
But sometimes you've just gotto go to the grocery store and
pick up what you need, and thatis just as important to our
family.
You know our family farms asthe direct to consumer as well.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yep, that's exactly the, exactly the conversation in
the story I want to tellbecause, yeah, there's options
and and we love, we love to goto the grocery store.
What is something exciting thatyou're working on right now or
something that maybe you'reproud of recently?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Oh my goodness.
Well, you did mention the UNand I never actually even
finished talking or didn't eventalk about that.
So I can, I do, have somethingfun coming up.
I'm actually so.
I have.
I guess three or four times nowI have gone to the Food and
Agriculture Organization throughthe UN, it's headquartered in
Rome, and I have representedagriculture on that platform Not
(24:20):
just dairy, but agriculture asa whole, and then also dairy
specifically, obviously.
But this coming at the end ofthis summer, I will be going
back and I'm actually going forthe Global Livestock
Sustainability Committee meetingand that'll be the first time
I've attended that and I'mreally excited actually to go
and go to a meeting that'sfocused on animal agriculture
(24:41):
and livestock, because you know,there's a lot to agriculture
and so when you go to the moretraditional meetings that are
just about agriculture or WorldFood Security is one, or like
women and equality andagriculture was another I've
been to, obviously you're witheverybody and that's important
too.
But I think livestock can faceunique challenges, especially at
the UN and the sustainabilityconversation, and so I'm excited
(25:05):
to like focus on that and seewhat it looks like from the beef
side, what it looks like fromthe dairy side as well, as
obviously, you know, worldwidelivestock looks very different
than just beef and dairy.
There's obviously a lot ofgoats, a lot of sheep and a lot
of poultry and dairy.
There's obviously a lot ofgoats, a lot of sheep and a lot
of poultry, and so comingtogether on that livestock side
is something I'm really excitedabout, excited to bring those
(25:26):
conversations back to ourpodcast, to the followers on
social media and see, yeah,what's being discussed out there
, because the UN, you know,historically, can be somewhat
critical of animal agricultureand so, yeah, really looking
forward to that.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
I can't wait to see how that goes and kind of follow
that.
I think it's a really importantthing for animal agriculture to
be having conversationstogether and supporting that.
Animal protein is a great placeto get your nutrients, so I
think that sounds like a greatevent to go to.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yeah, and I think you know we talked about the
misconceptions about, you know,beef.
I think we're in such anexciting time in our industry I
think more than ever people areturning to animal protein
sources.
I feel like we very much had,like, the vegan movement and I
feel like we've seen that peakand we're kind of seeing now the
swing in the opposite directionof the health benefits of,
(26:20):
obviously, these animal-basedproteins.
And so I think it's a reallyexciting time to be having these
conversations, that people areseeing the value in the products
that we offer and the value inbeef and dairy, and maybe it's
making them see sustainabilitythrough a little bit different
lens.
Like what is sustainability ifyou're getting a healthy diet
Like that has to be taken intoaccount too if you're getting a
protein, you know, rich diet, anutrient, dense diet with these
(26:42):
animal proteins, and so, yeah, Ithink that I would imagine this
meeting in this moment in timewould be very different than,
say, attending a meeting likethis 10 years ago, and so I'm, I
think, very hopeful that it's apositive conversation about
what are, you know, the foodsthat we offer through Reef and
Dairy, what they mean for youknow the world as a whole.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, well, we wish you the best with that and
thanks for representingagriculture and New Mexico.
That's always a really neat tosee someone from your home state
representing at such a globalevent.
Well, thank you I appreciatethat.
Yeah, what about?
So you're talking about this,right, You're going to go to
Italy.
You're going to you advocate onyour podcast.
What makes you keep going?
(27:24):
Why do you do what you do?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
You know, I feel like it's like the simple moments
actually that like the DMs LikeI don't know how many times I've
gotten a DM that is fromsomeone that said I didn't drink
milk because I saw something onsocial media and now I feel
comfortable doing it because ofwhat you've seen I had actually
my sister.
My sister lived in SanFrancisco for several years and
(27:47):
one of her coworkers was reallyfearful in the grocery store and
just would go in and be afraidof what she should buy and
afraid of what would be whatpoison toxin, all the buzzwords
that you see on social media.
And my sister encouraged her tolisten to our podcast and she
texted my.
And my sister encouraged her tolisten to our podcast and she
texted my sister.
My sister screenshot it to meand said I'm no longer afraid to
go into the grocery store, likebecause I share about not not
(28:08):
only do I buy the cheapest milkand beef on the shelf, I also
buy the cheapest eggs and like,I feel good about the choices
like that I'm making every timeI walk in and I pick whatever
apple looks good that day, ormaybe the one my kid likes the
color of.
Like I'm just not going in beingfearful of each of the choices,
and I think that makes it amore fun way to shop.
(28:28):
And so getting messages likethat I think are really powerful
, that, like you shouldn't haveto be afraid of your food
choices.
Like there, we have a grocerystore that has a plethora of
options.
We have a grocery store thathas a plethora of options and
you can pick whatever option isright for you, your budget, your
diet, your preferences, yourbeliefs.
You know if you are a vegan andthat's what you want to do.
(28:49):
Like those are options that areavailable to you, and so not
going in with the fear mongeringthat is so prevalent online.
And so I think for me, when Iget those messages, it's really
like what encourages me to keepsharing and know that we're on
the right path.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That gives me goosebumps.
Thinking of giving peopleconfidence in their food choices
, I think that's that's huge,and we do live in a in a country
and a time where you can havefood choice and we support food
choice but to have confidenceand not be fearful of what
you're eating or what you'reproviding for your family,
that's that's really special andreally important.
So, again, so do you want togive a plug?
(29:24):
I know you already talked aboutyour podcast, but maybe a plug
on your if you want to give yoursocial media, your website,
anything, anything will give youthat chance.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, I mean, if you're listening to this, you're
probably a podcast person, sowe'd love to have you over on
Discover Ag.
You can find it anywherethere's podcasts.
We release an episode everyThursday.
We also have some great videosthat do a little go into more
detail.
We call it Discover More overon our YouTube so you can check
out Discover Ag podcast onYouTube as well.
Otherwise, you can find me onthe normal social channels, at
(29:53):
Tara Vaynerdusen, so I wouldlove to see you guys there.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Perfect, Thank you.
And then the last question iswhat's your favorite recipe or
favorite way to eat beef?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, that's easy.
I love a good medium rare filet.
It is just I.
I feel like if you have a goodcut of steak, cooking is easy.
You know a good filet with alittle butter and garlic, that's
it.
You know, like you reallycomplicated.
I actually the potato farmer Iinterviewed today.
I told him, gosh, all I wantnow is a steak and potato for
dinner tonight.
(30:23):
And you know just that classic,that there's just nothing more
classic than a good steak dinner.
So that's what I'll have to gowith.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Absolutely.
That's a great answer.
I think that I support the beefand potato industries regularly
because I do love.
I do love a steak medium rarewith a loaded baked potato.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, and you're supporting dairy too, and if
it's loaded you probably gotsome bacon on there too, so we
could just bring all the all theindustries going around.
No, but thank you so much forhaving me on today.
It was fun to chat all thingsbeef on dairy.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much for joiningme and wish you all the best.
And yeah, thanks again.
Behind the Burger is a podcastproduced by the New Mexico Beef
Council with the goal of tellingthe stories of the cattlemen
and cattlewomen of the NewMexico beef industry.
Thank you for joining us fortoday's episode.
If you'd like more information,please visit nmbeefcom.
(31:19):
Whether it be a burger, a steakor another beef dish, we hope
you're enjoying beef at yournext meal.
Host
Carollann Romo
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