VIRGINIA FAUS: ...our daily lives. Two presenters this afternoon. Susan Craine from Wisconsin who is a dairy farmer and myself, Virginia Faus, I'm a pig producer in Australia.

In the past, people had a really good relationship with the land. They either had an auntie or an uncle or a cousin who was on the farm. And kids would go and visit those people for their holidays. And you can remember some of those really amazing stories that they would bring back to you. You've got headless chalks running around farms and muck everywhere, but they could actually relate the food process back to what ended up on their plate. Unfortunately, the pace of life has picked up. And as that pace of life has picked up we've seen the movement from agriculture into more organized areas. Consequently, we don't have that direct link that we have had in the past. And it's this lack of first hand information that allows the consumer to be swayed by inaccurate information, spread by both the media and interest groups to the detriment of agriculture. Over the years, we've seen a move towards on-stop-shopping. Big ritzy plazas, big enormous supermarkets, where people can get everything. Not only can they get everything, it's presented in plastic, it's presented on styrofoam, it's under subdued colored lighting, again, the cannot make the link between what is real, what you and what I do to produce that food to the food that they buy and they pick up. It's become a real push to have food available in one place. And that is possibly why, especially here in American, you will see such a trend towards farm space. Because consumers really do want to know their food, but they don't know how to know or where to go and get some of that information. But not only that, we've been led to believe over the years a lot of myths. One of the myths that we've been led to believe is this one; that agriculture is, has been bad. What women has to do as agriculturists, though, is remind people that agriculture is not bad, it is part of their human sustainability. And everyone of us here who is a producer has a part to play in that role. If you think you can leave it to other people to educate the consumer, you're only going to let yourself continually fall into that trap. We have to reeducate consumers to understand the current agriculturists are more aware of the environment, show them how we work with the environment, and to show them how we develop sustainable agricultural practices to bring their food to their table. One important thing that we sometimes forget as producers, is that we, too, are consumers. To me this move, to a large degree, the buck stops here. And that we must take a portion of the blame for not educating consumers about food and fiber and how they are produced. With the most of the direct relationship to rural communities, the current levels of disinformation. We cannot perhaps expect consumers to truly appreciate where their food and fiber comes from. To alleviate this, we need to reeducate the greater community, and we need to educate them about the importance of agriculture in their daily lives. The best and most effective way to do this is by being truthful. We need to communicate the truth and the reality of agriculture. We need to both be entertaining and informative when we do that. And it means getting across to the consumers the way things are produced. We've got to let them know the value chain. We have to let them know from farm gate to their supermarket, to how they cook. Because if we fall into the trap of forgetting, that once they've got their produce in their hands, and they don't know how to use it properly, then they've got to come back and buy our products. And, that doesn't matter what it is, it can be both fruit and fiber. But in educating them with the truth, and showing them the truthful message, it also doesn't mean taking a three year old into an abitwa and scaring the living daylights out of them. And unfortunately, that's been known to happen. So, what I'd like to introduce later in this are some of the concepts that are in place now to educate people. And immediately, I can think of three. And that is barn territory in the United States, where they go through the livestock sheds and the various shows. And there is farm tools that you can see, and they're both here in America and every country will run a farm show. And the pigs and people display in Australia. And I'll go on to talk about pigs and people in a little while, a bit later. To get your message across, you must have your individual industries behind you, it's a collective effort. It's not just saying I can do this, because unless you have that impetus, that strength of industry behind every one of you when you go out to produce and promote your industry, you're going to be a lone voice in the woods. And while one lone person in the woods is better than no lone voices, the collected voice with the collective fame is one of the most powerful tools you will ever come across. So get that industry support. It's real hard to do it, you must got to come up with ways and means and ideas. When you do that out to promote your product and send your products to consumers, don't necessarily think media, don't think print media, don't necessarily also think radio. What we want is some realistic realism. Some hands on, let's see what they do stuff. And that's where the trends got to be. That's the best advantage. But when you take that and you can show them the realism, and you can sell to them. If there is no food and fiber produced by you and by me, you wouldn't have a lifestyle. And they sit there, and they look at you, and they stop, they think, they then nod their head. You know you're getting your message through. It's not an easy message to get through, but you can get that message through. One way that you would need to get that message through is to make the consumers aware of the production chains that are needed to produce those groups. Now, all foods and all fibers have production chains. These are really simple ones. They don't cover everything, by an stretch of the imagination, what I've got up there in front of you. But producers need to know their production chains so they can then go out and promote there product. That's a really simple grain one. Now, the grain girls in here will probably say, I've looked at a million and one spots, I have - umph - I'm sure I have and I created that. These are by no means the be all and end all. For what you need is something simple, something quick, something rally, so that you producers when you go out to promote you can get this concepts in your mind, so that you can follow down what you're going on with.

Now, we can show them how the inputs all depend on all other inputs, and get those links. They then start to see where they fit into the big picture. Okay, right now you've got a consumer at the very end of the line. And they don't think, they don't think about these other things. They don't think that the money that they pay for the goods, somewhere along the line, and it might be as much as we all want, but some of it comes back along that line so that we can be sustainable agriculturalists. And therefore, when you're sustainable, they're sustainable. There's the link. The sustainability link.

There are some concepts at the moment in agricultural production - organic, environmentally friendly, green, ............. . The concept of green pork I will admit scares me, only because of the picture it conjures up in my mind. That's pretty scary kinds of stuff. But the consumers have picked up on these things. But they've not necessarily picked up on the good points. They've picked up on some of the bad points. So what we need to do is educate them about the good points. .... are good points. We all know people who have fed lot cattle and done it very successfully and do it very sustainably. We've all heard of dairy farmers ........ done it very sustainably. But the consumer will only pick up on one thing and in the dairy industry that isn't the one we want them to pick up or even in the dairy industry. Effluent. Ok. They won't pick up on anything else. They pick up the bad point all the time and we've got to get them away from that. Not only have we got to get them away from some of those things, we've also got to get them away from some of the fads and the fallacies that are being promoted out there. I mean, how many young women do you know who have given up eating red meat? Because they are absolutely scared they are going to put weight on. Yet we all know that things like red meat are essential for hemoglobin production. How many women have stopped drinking milk because they think it contains so much fat. The average glass of milk has 4% fat. Explain to them that they are not drinking the average glass of milk only ....... of dairy food now. When they are older it is going to lead to an osteoporosis problem. Then you might get, you know, some thought patterns going on up here. We can hope. Hope springs eternal in agriculture. You can go on and on and on. But the main thing is, you producers have to promote the sox off your individual industries. It's also fair to say that people are concerned about .... issues. Now in my industry, the pig industry, the farrowing crate is the favorite thing to have a go about. In other industries there are other things. When you try to educate the consumer about those things and they come up to you and they say that really bad. For example, in Sydney, in March I had a couple come up to me and say "Oh the farrowing crates, they're terrible, they're terrible." In facts known to them. If you can think of a piglet and a sow as an elephant and a mouse you can see why the farrowing crate is important to the survival of that little piglet. Because, mom's so big and I'm so little I want something to protect me. Think of your own industry. Think of things where people take you on about and want to have a go at you about and produce some form of analogy that they can relate to. Because its another thing we sometime forget as agriculturists. We get really caught up in all this jargon and stuff. Its really great if you re talking to another agriculturist. But when you are basically trying to sell your product out there, you are not going to be able to do it. You've got to be "real world". And what more real world can there be than using agricultural events to get your message across. Now how many agricultural events do we have? We've got local shows. We've got local fairs. We've got state fairs. In the UK you've got Smithfield, the Royal Show. In Australia we've got lots and lots of Royal Shows and agricultural events. And they are the most, one of the most marvelous ways that you can get your industries to promote the sox off you industries. Where else can you get an audience that big, apart from setting ..... up. But really, you are looking at the ability to influence millions of people in an area and to promote what you want. But not only to promote what you want but to promote it in way that they understand the food source and the food chain. Ok. One good thing about agriculture events, is that not only can you get you message across, but you can get the true message of agriculture across. And that true message is really important, because that's what's lacking in the world today. The true message. And for every industry that true message is a little bit different than it's story. And the true message is that stuff doesn't come in plastic and stuff styrofoam. And you people are the most unique and excellently important people in the world because you have the true message. Without your ability, without your input, they haven't got a thing. And do you know the beauty about this true message stuff? They can come up to you and they can look at you and they can say "You're wearing a man-made fiber. Ooh that's not good ........". And do you know what you can say? Yeah I am wearing a man made fiber. But where did some of those dyes come from? Ok. Where did some of the by products come from to produce that? They weren't going to be there unless there was ...... in the production chain. So can you see how we can explain to the consumer, the real importance and the importance of the production chain? It's really .......................... Agricultural events are great because on many occasions they've got lots and lots and lots of room for you to use. At the moment there is a really strong trend that agricultural event organizers are seeing their importance in the roll of education. Especially in the roll of agricultural education. And they are looking for the real stuff, the moving stuff, the stuff that looks great. For example, Sydney Royal Easter Show. They have placed in a working dairy. That working dairy .... two good points. Point number one. We can show the kids that their milk does not come in cartons or bottles or in little plastic things. Point number two. If you are, if you take your dairy cattle to that show to be shown and exhibited by some of the milkers. Now, I think point number two is really kind of more important than point number one, if you're an exhibiter. It's pretty awful that other job. So with a little sponsorship, a heap of imagination, we can make great use of agricultural events to educate consumers. But not only can you educate them, we as agriculturists can communicate with them. This means we can break down the myths, especially the myth of faceless agriculture. We can show that agriculture is interactive. And that even economic rationalism and corporatization that has taken a hold in agriculture is not the be all and end all. There are still people called family farmers out there. And that is something that consumers also need to know. In other words, we are not all homogenized and pasteurized and presented. We are real. We make real products to get out to real consumers, and we want them to know the real message. There are two levels of approach when you're dealing with educating consumers. And one is the development of educational things. You need to develop how much you're going to tell them, and be mindful of the fact when you go out to tell lots of information, that they've probably been fed a lot of false stuff, too. And when you work out what you want to tell them, you now then find that you need to bring in an educationalist to give you a hand to set that program up. When you do pick that educationalist if you need to only to guide them. Make sure you have some producers there with them because there is a high probability that while they're extremely good educationalist, they don't have the hands on knowledge that you do. And no one can ever replace that. For many years promotional ..... thank these producers. I don't know why, ............... And it's been a really short sided move because it's the producers who understand the uniqueness of there products. And it is the producer who can get the true message across. Exactly how producers become promoters of many. And most important is that producers must be positive about there particular industries. If consumers say that you are proud of what you produce, they are likely to listen to you. Alright, that's fine, but how do we do it? What are the campaign strategies? Let's get down to the nitty gritty. These are some of the ways that we can, as producers, get our message over to consumers. One thing we've got to do, though, before we ever look that far, is agriculturists need to improve their image. Now, I don't mean, that mean, that means that we need to go to Saks on Fifth Avenue, that doesn't mean going to David Jones back in Australia and getting fitted out in great stuff. It means that we have to be proud of who we are, admit that there have been mistakes made in the past, some of those mistakes that have been made in the past, have been, haven't been mistakes at the time that they were created. We don't have to go out there and accept all the palaver that goes on when people say, oh, ....... and degradation and all this. Because remember, when all of that stuff happened when our forefathers farmed, they were farming with the best technology that they had at their time. So in a hundred years time, who's to say\say that what we are doing now is going to be viewed as the best stuff. Ok? Our forefathers did what they thought was right when they were farming. It's only been in the last 20 or 30 years that all the things have come up and we've now seen that maybe some of the practices were ........... But you can't necessarily take that on. We acknowledge but we can't necessarily take the full blame. And I, and I feel that that's something nowadays unfortunately that we as agriculturalists are made to do. And I think that especially for our young people who are coming through that's a really big ask. We need to explain, as I said, we need to explain, this process and we need to look at campaign strategies. To educate consumers successfully we require strategies that are logical, flexible, and dynamic. Ok so, logical, flexible and dynamic. They require us to tell the truth to the consumer without losing sight of the big picture. They should be time framed, you see up there I've got time framed. Because, we change our production methods so quickly and so often that if we go in there and we've decided that this program will last 10 years, when it gets down to year 10 what we are telling these people in regards to that production chain is out of date. So it needs to be time framed within a reasonably portion of time and always re-looked at. We need to give the whole production scenario without confusing them or sending them mixed messages and need to do it in a way that reaches their level. So for example, in pigs and people in Sydney I talked from .... I'm talking about two and three year olds right up through grandma and grandpa and great grandma. So the way that I have to communicate my ideas across will be different from if you're going into a specific target audience. Notice I've got media education up there, too. I don't think that there would be anybody who would doubt that the media is our worst enemy when we're trying to get our message across to the consumers. They tend to get a things a little bit confused. So we educate them. And if that reeducation means taking a whole bunch of journalists out to your farms to see what you're doing, do it. They'll frustrate you, it'll frustrate the heck out of you, but do it, because we're the only ones who are going to be able to tell them the true message.

Okay. So. How do we want to get our message across. We've got to decide something and if anyone here's every done any writing they would have heard of the five W's and the H question. So simply, who do we want to get our message to. We want to get our message to consumers. After 30 end years of bad products, and products that we are all very proud to produce, I would say there isn't a person in this room who isn't proud of what they produce. What do we want to get across to them? We want to get across to them how the products produced, how the product is used, how they can use the product. When? When do we want to get -- when we have the opportunity to educate consumers. And doing this, realize the importance of using agricultural events as a means of doing that. Then we can get out, our message across. Okay. Agricultural events. Now, I'm talking agricultural events, Susan's going to talk about it, I don't think like individual farm experiences. Why do we want to our message, or why do we want to get our message to consumers? It's pretty obvious they don't know what we do. They don't know where their food comes from. They don't know what you do to produce their food. And I would say, by the numbers that are here, that's what you want them to know about, isn't it? And you really want them to know what you do and where your ..... comes from, because you're proud. You're proud to produce that product. So you could get up there and you tell them how proud you are about your products. And the other thing is how we get that message across. And that can be a multitude of ways. That can be the farm tools, the agricultural events, it can be through displays. But it's got to be interactive. It's got to be exciting. If you can make it as hands on as possible make it as hands on. So remember the touch. They remember touching that product or seeing that product made. They're very important concepts.

It's been quite unfortunate over the years that agricultures got a bit of a tough name. People tend to think of agriculture as being a bit of a who do. We agriculturists, agriculturists they do nasty things. Do you do nasty things as agriculturists? No, exactly, you don't. Why don't you do nasty things as agriculturists because as it was pointed out to me by that lady today, I'm with the cows. That's where my kids get their milk from, to drink, on my table. You're not going to go do anything bad to your own flesh and blood.

Agriculture communities don't have to be viewed as housings of destruction and chemical dumps. It should be seen as the survival centers of our nations. That's part of the message. Only to get through to consumers, because for too long consumers have been given the bad stuff. And they haven't been given the truth. And it is the truthful message of production that we need to get through.

I'm going to show you a series of slides on a thing called Pigs and People. And I'm really proud of Pigs and People. It's a concept that was developed in Australia by the Australian pig industry. It was developed by pig producers, veterinarians, government researchers, and the idea of Pigs and People is to get across to the consumer how pigs are produced. The message as to the pig industry that we want to get across. And it's great fun.

So if you can just ..... for a couple seconds while I switch the equipment around and get the slides up. I'd like to then introduce you to Pigs and People.

Okay. This slides show Pigs and People from two different shows. This is the year it was launched. Pigs and People was launched in 1994 at the Murbin Show. This was the entrance into that display. That's fuzzy, huh? Okay. This is just the entrance into Pigs and People. Now it was a really funny out hall that they gave us. This little girl, you can't see it, it's actually not a very clear slide, was petting a pig in what we call the Pet-a-Pig Race. We have a little area, there are some young pigs are in the pen, and then they can come up, and people can pet them. Now, many people who do consumer education and work with animals, don't necessarily like that hands on contact. That, we were trying to reinforce the concept of how pigs really respond to people, both with them and touching them. This is our inslate, it's the only place in the showroom that pigs get their own little bathroom. Why do have an inslate for pigs, can anybody tell me why they might have one? Okay, we have an inslate for pigs because pigs don't sweat. So do to help keep the temperatures of pigs cooler, they bring them up in small groups, and they put them through inslate. And they have a lovely time in the their inslate. And then they actually disgrace themselves, but they have a great time, and we hose them down and they get cooler and people just think it's wonderful. This is just a small slide of representing the sort of crowds we get. And we get everybody. And what they're actually watching is a role play presentation which is in one of the other slides here. There it is. We will bring up the pigs and show the various breeds of pigs, so people could relate to them. And very few people would know what a alesics satterback or a hampshire looks like now days, because in commercial people like ......... so we bring up the individual pigs, and we describe each individual breed. There you can see them all sitting up there quite happily, being spoken about and introduced. And they would just love to hear that, they just race in and they sit down. They're amazed because they don't they don't have that contact. The most contact they've got with pigs is the bacon package in the morning, or whatever. Here they are having their cool down, for those of you who might have noticed, they also had the ............ so they don't get out of it. They had better living conditions than the staff at the show. These are just some slides of crowds going through the exhibit. Since you can see, it attracts quite a number of people, so it means that you can get your message across. Now what we normally staff this display with are our pig producers and researchers, anybody who's involved with the pig industry, that can talk to people. And some of the questions we get asked, everything, from how does he feed his piglets to why are there so many, why are they different colors, how long does it take for a sow to gestate her piglets, how does the farm look, where do the cuts of meat come from. It gives the consumer the chance to ask the questions that they want to ask. Here we have two rather strange people up there talking about these pigs, once again. And the pigs obviously not really wishing to be there. But, I mean, this is what's about. It's all interactive. You bring those pigs out. People see them. They can relate to the pigs. This is mothers, this is the part I like the most. I really this pig. Because what you're doing is, shall we say the guy in the overalls down in this corner is ...... the other guy's an extension officer. And sows are just the best educators, because what it allows you to do is not only talk about the prices of how man looks but it allows you to have some fun with the kids. And, that in itself is great because you're educating the future consumers. Now a sow looks, like in this slide, as an industry they needs to get the message across, we've called that the big milkshake. And we explain, we explain to people the whole technique of how when the piglets ....... how it releases the exitose and how the exitose goes through the bloodstream, how ....... comes down. And at this, at this part every mother in that audience loves is when they're told that a sow only milks for 20 seconds at a time. They think that's great. It's unfortunate when you tell them that they do it every hour on the hour. They think that's not so great. And here you can see, we, when time permits it in valuable increments we allowed the kids to come in and pet the piglets. Okay, we're now moving on to another pigs and piglet display. And this was this years Royal Easter Show at Sydney. The Sydney Royal Easter Show this year was on the new Olympic site, so maybe you're going to see some of you down here for the Olympics in the year 2000. My booth for 1999 is to take this display to its next level. And it's next level will include much more post-farm gate and also commercial application. So, next year there will be a whole, this whole area here will change. I'm going to be putting in more commercial type theaters, commercial drinking systems. Now this comes back to that idea of when you are educating your consumer you don't necessarily hit them with everything all at once. So, we've had 5 years of this livestock. So next year we start to bring in a little bit more commercialism, and a little bit more of what we would see on a normal farm. Now obviously, I'm not going to go, obviously, you're not going to go the full length here. That they can see things like feeders that are used on farms, drinkers that are used on farms. That fact that it's going to be two story and have a kids playpen in there, which isn't a coehesial, but pigs like play. So with this I've got to think of the animal welfare aspects here. So we're doing something so we let the pigs have a good time. But you still get that message across. This is Daisy. I named the two sows I had this year Daisy and Hazel. Daisy's a little dang, she did everything that, sort of out of sink, so it became really fun to try and work with her. These are the little guys. This is actually our padded pig area. Over this side here, you can see a roast, I don't know if you can just see the beginning of a roast there. And what would happen is these little guys would go up and sit in the roast during the day and they could be patted by kids, or go, strange they would, they know the game. She had a horrible habit. She didn't want, she didn't conceal her emotions because you'd put a great big thing of water down in front her and two seconds later she'd put her nose under one of it and that up ended. So you can see here they show that, we give them fair idea of the need for creep lights. And a creeper in the water area. But the education aspect comes from talking to the public, explaining the processes of how we go along raising pigs. More pigs are, what they can do, what you can do with the pig, and go through and say that not only are they used for meat production, but how, you use mouths as a byproduct. Now this is Hyacinths. And if you do watch that particular show Hyacinths was exactly her. A very, a very strong is Hyacinth. My other kids up on the rise. So that's one way that you can use agricultural events to educate consumers. I'm going to, hand over to Susan. And Susan is going to talk to you about another way of educating consumers. And a way which has been very successful also.

Thanks.

SUSAN CRAINE: Before I get started really talking, and I'll talk fast, I promise. I want to tell you what I'd like you to take away today. On the back table is coloring book, there's some dairy data information about the state of Wisconsin. I'm not particularly pushing the state of Wisconsin, although I dearly love my state, but it's a way you can see how there's a lot of information, very quickly, very easily to give out to people. And it could pertain to anything, any industry, that any of you ladies are doing. It's also very economical. All of us work under small funds. We work with no money. A lot of times it's our own money that we do. So the better job we can doing using this, as little money as possible is good. I have some cow erasers and some cheese head erasers that I'd like you to take with, just take these, take more than one if somebody else is at a different, then take some for them. Then I don't have to take them home. I also have a few of these, and if some of you are interested, take these, too. I don't have probably enough for everybody, although I have close to enough. These are the six breeds of dairy cattle in North America. I use it when, yeah? Oh, you want one. I use it when I do my presentations because I think that we see just some beautiful udders under these cows. And that brings me to the beginning of what I want to talk to you about. It starts with the word udder, because all of us, no matter what country we come from, have a whole different language. All have a fresh heifer and she's right over there with my springing heifer. For someone who isn't in our business, isn't a dairy farmer, would look at me and say, are you speaking English. Oh, yes, I am. And that brings me to the beginning ...........(tape ended)

... so when you're tired and when you really don't want to this and somebody does pull off at your place, just remember it takes people like us, too. And I know a lot of you do a lot of promoting yourself. And we're going to talk about that. We're going to, I'll go through my little, my little talk, and then let's talk among each other on great things that have worked for you.

The first thing, I, my tips are make it simple, make it short, make it fun, and have them remember you. And make yourself accessible. Well, if you don't understand what I said, just call me. You know, I think that makes a difference. Because then you've really given yourself. And it's, it's our business, it's all right, it's all I ever will be, it is agriculture. And you want them to leave thinking that someone is that dedicated, there has to be something in it. I have some great stories about things that happened that could have been a disaster, and ended up positive. I had two women call me, they were honest about who they were. They said we're Animal Rights people, we'd like to come to your farm. Oh. I said, come. Anytime at all. Don't call ahead. Well, what a way to hit them head on, huh? You know, give me two weeks so I'll get everything clean for you. No way. Come and don't even tell me. Just show up, I'm ready for you. And they came. And they were from Chicago, they drove an hour and a half up here to my farm. They'd never been on a farm before, and I just told them what I did. We walked through the barns, they petted a cow, I squirted milk into their hands, they felt that warm milk in their hands. I told them about the feed. I told them, just normal things that we take for granted on the farm. I let them see the baby calf. They said, do you take your calves away from your cows. I said, yes, I do. I take them away the first day. Oh, that's terrible. I said, let me tell you about my cows. Like average of my farm, my cows give somewhere between 70 and 80 pounds a day. An average calf drinks 8 pounds of milk a day. Do you understand why I take my calf away from my cows? This one, kind of large woman, said, oh, do I ever. So you just tell them, and it makes sense. Well, they spent the whole afternoon there. They had a wonderful time. When they left, I gave them each a pound of butter and a couple pounds of cheese. And they each hugged me, and they said, we'll spread your word. It wasn't that we were against you. It was that we didn't know you. And I really believe that's the truth. There's nothing out there that we can't beat if we get a chance to teach them. And that's it. We have to do our teaching. Sometimes people start with very young kindergartners. What do you do with a kindergarten class? Make it short. Half an hour on your farm is enough. There's no point of keeping them longer. There attention span isn't that long. Well, what do I show them? Well, you walk them by the cows and you walk them by calves, but children like hands on. So you feel ice cream pails with all the different things, the feeds. And you let them smell it and you tell them that this is for cows to eat. Not for you to eat. But smell these different smells of the farm. Everyone who's ever done a tour, we've had a few girls in pink tennis shoes, going ugh. And what do I say to them? My farm smells, does your farm smell? Most of our farms do smell. I'll say there is no good smell or bad smell, there's just different smells. So don't think of it as a bad smell but as a different smell. The city has different smells, too, that I might not be used to as a farmer. But they're not bad or good, they're just not what I'm used to. We had one little boy come one time, and my husband was standing and he had his barn shoes on, my husband's barn shoes never look too good. And this little boy said, hey, mister, how come you don't buy yourself some new cowboy boots? And Bob said, well these aren't really cowboy boots, these are my barn boots and they always look like that. And the boy smiled, and he had a good time and he probably learned something. So go right to where they're at and help them enjoy your time. When you get to grade school, I have found that fourth grade is a wonderful age. They're young enough where they will listen to anything you say. They're old enough where they can comprehend almost everything that you're telling them. It's a wonderful age. And so bring visuals, bring things to pass around. One of the best things on a dairy farm is just to bring a milking machine. If they're lucky enough to come to your farm, split there fingers, turn that milking machine on, and let them stick their fingers in there and feel that suction, that vacuum. They enjoy it. If you're a grain farmer, bring what you do. Sit there and say, now how can we use these products. What comes from these products? You'll be amazed at what kids come up with. If you're a dairy farmer say, what is milk. What is made from milk? Almost always, you get eggs. Because eggs, they hook with the dairy part of the pyramid. So even very intelligent children kind of slip up, because it's kind of what they've been told. I'll tell you, one of the best people to educate on farm tours, or when you go into classroom presentations are the teachers. Because they do not have a chance to probably learn too much before they start passing this information onto their students. And that brings me to another great opportunity if you're looking for places to go. Go to your local colleges and universities and ask if you can speak to the graduating elementary education teachers. Get them in about May where they think they're going to change the world, and you're going to give them something to help do it. Bring lots of tools. Bring just what I brought today. Anything your county extension agent, or anything you can bring together to take with them. Because those teachers are going into schools that are always looking for supplies. And give them as much information and then give them your phone number. And say, at some point, wherever you are, if you need, if you don't understand something or you need more information, please call me. I will be there for you. That's a great opportunity. And I think it's one that very few people ever think about. School systems in America want, are becoming very strict on who can come into the schools and speak. And that's a challenge many people have as they try to get in to schools to talk. And one way you can do it is by making your presentation fit in to the different studies. Make it applicable to math. Make it applicable to history, talk about the history of farming. Make it applicable to geography, talk about where different regions produce different things. Make it fit into what they're doing. That will really help you get an entrance into schools. I can almost guarantee you, if you go there once, on a yearly basis you will be called back. And they'll say can you come year? Another way that you can get into all sorts of places, is bring something with you. I tend to bring a cow with me, a lot of times when I go places. And I have had cows all different places. One of my greatest heights was, this is a really good story, I was asked to bring a cow into an art institute for the afternoon, up the elevator, across the marble floor into the gallery. My husband said, Susie, you can't do that. I said, Bob, I can do this. He said, I want to see this one. Well, I'll tell you the story of how we did it. Our cows name is Belle and her name, very appropriately fits her. She just is a little pre-Madonna about 1500 pounds of little pre-Madonna. Well, Belle washed and Belle was clipped and she had clear polish on her toe nails and she was ready for her trip to the city. She got there with a bedspread around her shoulders so she wouldn't get dirty in the trailer as went up there. She went up the wheelchair ramp, across the marble the floor into the elevator, up to where she was going to be. And onto carpeting for the day. She did good for about the first two hours. Then she kind of got tired. She lay down. Anybody who has cattle knows when a cattle's been laying down and they stand up, but I was prepared. I had a 5 gallon pail with a top and inside that was baby wipes. That cow stood up, I took that pail, shoved it under tail, she went to the bathroom, I took a baby wipe, wiped her, put the top back in and on it. And guess what? That is the pail the people at the art institute sat on to have their picture taken with the cow. Little did they know what was inside that little pail. So, there's opportunities all over there, if you just kind of look for them. If you're not a speaker, and a lot of us aren't, if you're not real comfortable going in front of people and speaking, what can you do. There are things you can do and you never really have to do a lot of speaking. One thing you can do is if you do have a trailer and you do want to bring either hogs or sheep or pigs or any animal, just bring them on a Friday afternoon and let the children draw them. They'll learn a huge amount about that animal, just by drawing it. Buy a couple t-shirts that are related to the dairy industry and have the principal pick out the two best or three best drawings that look most like the animal and they'll get a t-shirt related back to agriculture. And they'll wear it with pride. Every time that you push something, either a t-shirt or a hat or something, that person becomes a walking billboard for our industry. At the dairy breakfast we sold many t-shirts, and we sold them at just about cost. But each one of those that leaves there then promotes our industry. And that's really important. I'll tell you probably the hardest group that you ever will meet is high school students. Not only are you an idiot, but they think they know it all. And so to be asked to speak in front of a group of high school, is a real challenge. And last year I was asked to do that challenge. And there were about 35 in this high school class, and they had no interest in what I had to say. And I had a bad day before I was going there which really did not probably help too much. And I went in there and I had what I was going to talk about, but I stood there and I said, you know, I'm really mad. Well, they didn't expect me to start like that. I said, I am just really sick of people not knowing about farming. Well, by then about half the heads were looking at me, which is great for high school. And I said I'll tell you why I'm so mad. My son was combining yesterday, he pulled that combine out, he started down the road, and almost hit a woman, because the woman would not move off the road to let this combine go by. I said he was done, my son's 20 years old at the time, and that he was done for the day. He was coming home and almost in the same spot, the same thing happened again. I said you should listen to what I have to say because maybe it'll save your life and maybe it'll save my families life. And maybe you'll eat a little better. And by then, everyone was watching me. I thought, whoa, this will never happen again in high school. And then we talked about machinery. I hadn't planned on it, but I talked about going up and down the road. And I said, so if you get out of here at 3:00 o'clock and you drive too fast and you hope the police don't catch you. If you see that slow moving vehicle sign, it means it's slow. It doesn't mean to slow down to 55. It means slow. It means slow. It means maybe 3 miles an hour. And then I had there attention. And then I could start talking to them about other things. And how I did that, was I had a steel pail that probably wasn't quite as clean as it should be because I was running late and I just pulled it right from the milk house. And I threw in that pail all the byproducts of cattle. So, I had some brake fluid and I had some upholstery fabric and I had some make-up and on and on, of all things that come from cattle, because 98% of cattle are used somewhere else. And you know what? They listened to the whole thing. I wasn't there long. Twenty-five minutes I was done. They didn't need me for any longer than that. But maybe a little bit of what I said sunk in. And if not, it was sure a nice diversion from the regular teacher who would have made them do something else. So opportunities are out there. Another group that nobody ever thinks of is senior citizens. many ladies have lost their spouse. And they no longer eat the way the used to. How many of you have heard a woman say, you know it's just no fun cooking for one. I mean it's very common. To me, when someone says that, it's an opportunity. And so sometimes I go to senior citizen centers and talk about how to eat well for one. And included in that are things like dairy products. I -- a half of cottage cheese gives you 28% of a days protein, and ladies need protein. And the half a cup of cottage cheese takes no preparation, and no cooking, and it's easy, and if you put 2 slices of peaches with it, it even looks festive. And you know, they need to hear that. They need to make their life enjoyable, too. They listen. It's an audience that will listen to you. It's an audience that will relate to you. It's probably your only audience that at the end will say, I remember that, I grew up there, my father did this. And so at the end leave some time to share stories because you will have made their day if you let them talk about how they remember it. And it's, it's so enjoyable. So, it's not what you really thought of consumer education. But maybe that's the best consumer education of all -- is going where nobody else is bothering going. Farm tours are wonderful. No school asks for more field trips than they ask for farm tours. They love them. They also love the fact that they're free because schools operate on tight budgets. Bring them in. Show them around. Make sure that you have enough chaperones so that they are safe. And send them home with things that the teachers can follow up on. I have stopped doing hayrides when they come because I worry somewhat about liability, as all of us do. You worry if one of those children should be hurt. So I don't do hayrides anymore. We walk around, we explain the highlight of what they do is crawling on top of the tractor and pretending they're driving. Such a simple thing as pulling out of -- pulling a tractor out of a shed, propping it there and letting them sit on top of it and drive. And you can bring it right to their level. Because you know what, they all love corn on the cob. Corn on the cob is a great thing. Kids can eat it with their hands and they get -- and you'll say take this one corn of cob, and how did it get to be here. And it's a way that Virginia talked about the process, the food link, the chain. But I don't think of those terms. I think of just tell me what that farmer had to do to get this cob of corn. And you can hit plowing, you can hit planting, you can hit fertilizing, you can hit cultivating, you can hit harvesting, you can even talk about the seasons if they're too little say in the winter the ground sleeps, because we all need sleep before we work hard in the spring. You can make it just so exciting for them that I really believe they'll remember it their whole life. It's a real challenge. I have not doubt that this big challenge should go right to the shoulders that it's going to go on, and that's the farm women. Before I open this up and ask for your great stories about what you've done that is successful, I have one more request, and it's probably the most important request and the reason that I came to Washington. And that is please, don't just educate others about agriculture. Please go one step beyond and plant that seed of agriculture in children's minds to become part of our industry. Because, you know what, no matter how much you tell consumers about what we do, if you're not encouraging others to join us and to take our profession when we're tired and when we're ready to end it, we're going to have problems. No doubt about it. I have seen a woman at a farm conference a couple years ago, she sat behind me, and I overheard her say, ugh, my children are not going to be farmers. I am so sick of this, my son's left, they're not going to farm. I really wanted to turn around, because sometimes I don't always hold back, and like to say it's no wonder they left, with that attitude. We're not the richest people in the world. We're not probably the most famous people in the world. But I picked this occupation and I'm glad I picked farming. And I would be proud if I had a son that was, or a daughter, that was a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist, but oh, to have them be farmers. That's really something. And if they don't see farmers feel that way, there's no doubt about it, they will become the doctors and the lawyers and the other things. So show those children, whether they're your own or they're neighbor children or they're school children, show them what you do in such a way, that when they're making their life choices, they'll think back to you, and they will pick agriculture. And it isn't necessarily just what we do in production agriculture. It's those great minds that go into science for genetics. It's those great minds that go into breeding, it's those great minds that go to the universities and go on to extension to help us. Because if I'm standing here as a successful farmer, there is a whole lot of shadows back there that have made me stand here. And I need every one of those shadows to be successful, too. So the challenge is teach people what you do, and then teach them want to become what we are. Thank you for your time. And I want to open it up and I want to hear some of things that you have done that have worked in your industry whether its grain or dairy or hogs or whatever. What have you done that has worked? Because we'll take it home and we'll use it. We'll feed off of each other. So, let's hear it, ladies.

PARTICIPANT: We tried a, it was new to me, had some senior citizens to make ice cream in a bag. I mean you in the dairy. That's neat with kids. And then they can eat it. You put some milk and vanilla and sugar in a bag, a small baggie, and you put it then in a bigger baggie that has ice and salt in it and just knead it gently, or you'll have holes in the bag, and in about 5 minutes, ready to eat it.

SUSAN CRAINE: Now, butter is the same. You can make butter. That's really a fun project.

PARTICIPANT: We link city and country schools together and they speak every two weeks for several minutes to other people in remote areas of Australia. Inner city children, remote children.

SUSAN CRAINE: Oh, that's a great idea. To hook schools so that once you've cooked it, they kind of go on. That would be very good. Wouldn't it be exciting to it from Australia to Wisconsin and back. Send postcards back and forth. And the e-mail.

PARTICIPANT: I have a daughter that is teacher in kindergarten and with her letters that she's them and all, I thought, I'd love to go to school if I had somebody that's interesting. But then she's tough when she comes with her tests. But the sh sounds comes when she has a farming week. And so she takes her little horse trailer with her sheep, lamb down there, Lambkin, who's well over grown now. And has her father come down, he used to sheer sheep when we were young and he was starting out. So grandfather, 67 years old, goes and sheers sheep. So they get a piece of the wool to know about the wool, the lanolin and the sheep. And then I do honey bees, just for fun, so I have to come and show my farm and give everybody some honey. But, it really does seem to go over well, anything in agriculture.

SUSAN CRAINE: And it's just what we talked about how hooking with what their teachers doing, she fed right into them. So, it's just perfect.

I know some of you ladies in the back, come up here and tell me what you've done.

PARTICIPANT: We've done a number of things on our farm. I guess that we really believe in farming and we have our three sons that are all farming now, and so, some of the things that we've done through the years. In ordering political campaigns, I don't care which party you're with, there are people that are just waiting to get out and act like they're at home on the farm. And so we always have a couple of big political rallies. We clear out our machine shed and we put the machines around and put some prices on them, so that people have ideas of what investment you have there. And then we set up stage and sometimes we have our children perform, sometimes we have some of the neighbor kids with their guitars, and this year we had one of our politicians from Washington, D.C. come out with his band, bluegrass band. And we have just a mob of people that come. And we usually get the old black kettle out and fill it with water and do corn, because it's usually in the fall of the year, you know. So we have corn on the cob and so that kind of a thing. And it really is effective and I think it's a good way for people to see the farm. We've also had school groups come out, ways, starting back in the kindergarten, I was a teacher, so we always had lower grades come out ..... and all the things that they see on the farm that day. And they do climb the machinery and things as you said. But we had the funniest stories come back about our big black hole. The kids are all intrigued with that, so you never know what they're going to see or what they're going to learn. But they're just a couple of ideas.

PARTICIPANT: Thank you. I'm from Canada, and from the Providence of British Columbia. And I'm in a rural area called Avetsford that's becoming more urban all the time. And I'm, was in the dairy industry. We have recently sold dour farm. But we used to do a lot of farm tours for the last 20 years we have done farm tours. And the one thing that we started out doing, and I was born and raised in the city, and I did not come to the farm until I was married, so I didn't know anything about farming and I learned quickly. But the one thing that -- I said to my husband, you know the city people don't understand where their food comes from. So we started doing farm tours when our two girls were young. And what we started out doing is that we started saying to the kids just that they had to send one adult or one teacher for every 4 children. And of course they used to think that was to make the kids behave. And it was never to make the kids behave, because they always behaved, and that it was to educate the adults. So there were other teachers or there were other -- the parents or whatever would come up. And then we used to get some really good questions. The one question that we always used to get from the women was when did these cows start milking. And so we'd just look at them and, well, when do you start milking. In that attempt to be able to relate in that. And we used to worry about our insurance go crazy about the liability insurance with the hayrides that we used to do, but with having that many chaperones for the kids, we really never had much problem with the kids in that they all sat down and behaved. But I think it's, we, um, I run the agriculture in the classroom program in my province. And that along with some other, some staff people, and a major fund raiser. But we did a thing this year that was really quite exciting, it's the first time anybody's ever done it. We took the farm to the school. And we had a school right down, almost downtown Vancouver, and that most of those kids have never seen a cow other than in a picture, on TV, or whatever. And we took cows, we took pigs, we took goats, we took a tractor and everything, and we went parading on into Vancouver and showed these kids what these farm animals were all about. And since then we've had calls from just about every school in Vancouver that wants the same thing. It doesn't take the word long to get around when you've done something good. Teachers spread it around really quick. So, I think, you know, doing farm tours is, has really been exciting and I know when we first started, and my husband though I was out of my mind, and why do you want to do this. And it ended up where we could have been doing tours 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. And that, so the people out there want to know, the kids wants to know, the have such inquiring minds and that. And we've had kids that didn't really believe that their milk came from a cow -- it came from a carton, it was in the back of the store. And, so it's really fascinating to watch them, and that, understand where milk comes from. To help feed the calves. To see what the cows eat. And, you know, you can just see their little minds going. And we almost had, the kids used to write letter and little stories and send them back to us. And I had a big office, and all the walls were just wallpapered with all these stories and pictures and thank you notes that we got back from the kids. So it was really an exciting thing. And I'm sorry I'm not doing it. But one of these days I'm going to do something else in agriculture, and I'm going to be doing the same thing.

SUSAN CRAINE: Thank you.

PARTICIPANT: I wonder if I could just ask a question for information. Stroking animals and that. We are befallen with difficulties about washing of hands at lambing time particularly, when they come to visit the farms. The children want to hold the lambs, you see. And the health and safety man, course knows this, because we advertise, and sometimes they come around and we have difficulty. Do you have that here?

SUSAN CRAINE: It's a good question. And I guess it is a question that really hits the urban and the country because they want to use them as a path, kind of, to pet them. And there are production. I think as you do tours, and as you bring people to your farm, it's important that you set the rules that you are comfortable with. And if the lambs can't be held, you explain why they can't be held. And make them understand that it's for the protection of the lamb. And they will respect that because these are our livelihood and for safety reasons we don't pass a new born baby around a room of women, although we'd all love to it. We don't for the infants sake, and the lambs are just the same.

PARTICIPANT: Inaudible.

SUSAN CRAINE: Oh, so it's not the lamb you're worried about. They're worried about the kids. You can tell I have 7 kids that don't have very clean hands. Oh, they were worried about the children. Oh, I would worry about the animals.

PARTICIPANT: Inaudible.

PARTICIPANT: I'm from Canada, too, and we have agriculture in the classroom, where we take the tours in, the children get to the machinery and what not. And the purpose is to teach farm safety. And that farm animals, even though it's fun to pet them, there is a danger. So we find this works out very well. We also have, around February, we get to use the mall, and it's called Farmer's Week. And Saturday is dedicated to the family. And all the different commodities are there and the children get their plastic bag. First thing they want is chocolate milk, they want to try the cherries, and they get all their little goodies. And on Saturday we have a session of petting animals. And so the children get to pet the animals on Saturday. Also, I find, that if I take these foolish whatnot to rural churches, because now there's no dairy in our area. There are no hogs, there's no chickens. And the country kids really don't see anything unless they go to a petting zoo or a to a zoo in the city. So this is something else that we do. Church -- the mall -- what else did I have. Oh the college. They allow us to use it once a month out there. And we have about 125 children coming and as farm women we take groups of them around the agricultural college, there we teach again farm safety. And they're allowed to pet the animals. We also teach them the danger of chemicals, look alikes, and we have look alikes there and they try to guess whether this is apple juice or gasoline or whatnot. At the end of the day they're given a t-shirt and a hat. And we've decided if we can keep doing this every year, by the time you're old enough to drive, you're going to teach farm safety, and they're also going to teach their parents because we found it's impossible to get men to come out to learn. And when the women come out and go home, they don't want to hear a thing we have to say, but they really listen to the children. So we're sorting of pushing farm safety along with farming.

PARTICIPANT: That concept that was just mentioned about the bags, we have, back in Australia, the shows, something called the Yellow Brick Road. And what we do is through all of the pavilions, we paint a yellow brick road, and they get a little bag. And when they go up to, say the last growers coop, is a great big display on how rice is made. But, here's the trick, before they can get their little sample, they've actually got to go past that, look at it, and then get their sample. So it's not just, and then they've got to get it stamped once they've all that stuff. And what you can do then, is you can form alliances amongst industry so you get the dairy people to put the milk in, you get the dried fruit industry to come up with raisins, your fruit juice people to come up with the fruit juice. We can have all these different industries having lots and lots of stuff. It's a really fun way of doing it.

PARTICIPANT: I'm Angela Ridden from Colorado, and I'm State Women's Chairman, and I have a women's committee that does a lot of ag in the classroom presentations throughout the year. They do a lot of farm safety programs, go into the schools with it. But we have one program that I'm very proud of that is different than most people have. We have one we call the Senior Field Study Students. And in April each year, we have approximately 35 students from a high school in Denver. We bring them out to the farm. They go all over the state and they stay with a host family for 10 days. And this is part of their senior last semester, part of their education, they get credit for this, as well as several other programs they do. But, these kids come out and they live with us for those 10 days, they get up when we do, they eat what we do, they go out and do the chores. They become part of our family for that many days. It's amazing some of the children that have been total environmentalist that felt we were mean to the animals, we were destroying the land, they've gone away with a whole different outlook and said that they would carry our message for us, and that we had changed their lives. And before they voted or did anything they would stop and think about what we really do. So this is something real special and we're not only educating those 35 students, we're educating the teachers, their parents, their grandparents, all of the their friends. Just a lot of people in the schools, in the big schools. So we're very proud of this program.

SUSAN CRAINE: Because this is an international conference, I think we have to talk a little bit internationally. And one thing that we have done is we've opened our farm up to anyone who wants to stay, can stay with us, pretty much. And we've been lucky enough in the last 6 or 7 years to have people from Tania, Zambia, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and you know, every time they come, and they leave I always feel that I was that received and I was the one that was educated. And I always think I didn't do a good enough job, because how could I feel like I learned so much and they probably didn't. And, again, someone will say to me, ugh, why would you have all these people there. And my method is simple. You look at someone differently once you've lived with them. And so if all of us have lived with everybody, we will have solved most of the problems in the world over our kitchen table. And I think that's a pretty good way to start, is just open your doors and live with someone who's a little different. So--

PARTICIPANT: I'm also from Canada. My name is Juanita Laster. I'm from a little island out in the Atlantic called Newfoundland. I would like to give my experience. We have what we call a food and livestock show in September. And we have school kids that, they start like, the show goes from Thursday to Sunday. And Thursday morning from 9:30 to 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon, we spend that time with the school kids and their teachers. And we invite them to come in and all the exhibits at the fair, we, there's somebody there from the agriculture industry and I don't be bureaucrats, I mean somebody that can tell what it's all about. And no offense to bureaucrats, but sometimes, you know, they just don't give the direct input on what we are doing to try and feed them. Feed the people of the world. But they come in and they go around ask questions and they're given the little glass of milk, and what have you, and different things, a taste of cheese and things like that. And then they go home and the teachers, we have a, during that time, we have what we call a milking contest for teachers. And the teachers are given this cow, this mother cow's brought in and it's not a, you know a frisky one, it's a cow that probably is on her last days. But any way, she's brought in and the teacher, it's a, sort of a test for the teacher, to see, ask, the kids ask how much does that cow give and all that. And it's amusing to hear the teachers, you know, saying, oh, 20 gallons a day. So then they're given the information on a sheet how much milk that cow produces, how many lactations she's after having, and all those things. And then, I, before I go I would like to explain to you about sheep. We have a sheep sheering contest there, too. And we have, there's a lady with sheers to sheer the sheep, then there's another lady there with cards, what we call cards, to get the wool all organized. And the we have a spinner there. And then there's a another lady there knitting. And have, keep going for the day, and by the time, by the end of the day, she's has maybe a pair of socks or mittens or a hat knit. So they get, even the adults come for that, and see that because it was a tradition years ago that used to be well, well we never bought wool, it was dyed and used for our use. But now, it's coming back again. And we're really proud of that.

MEDIATOR: This question after Nola, I think we're going to have to wrap up proceedings that you can get a little bit of a break and move on to the next.

SUSAN CRAINE: Aren't we good? Don't we do a good job at what we do. I think the ag industry is in good hands knowing that we care for it and will nurture it and continue to nurture it. So, I'm really proud of all of you. Thank you for coming.

PARTICIPANT: Just to mention on someone who's been involved as a farmer in marketing and promotion for a number of years. At the Australia stand you'll find the series of books done by the Condenum Work Group. Now, if you want things to take into your classroom, there a series of books on weight, on wool, on dairy, on sheep, there's one coming out on honey. They come with the teacher's resource kit so the teacher can actually follow this up in the classroom, with in class and out of class activities. So, there's a linkage there that if you want to subscribe to these books, and there will be a series coming out over a period of time. And the Condenum Group in our state is about education and information for farmers. So, if you want to link into that, agriculture is agriculture no matter where it is. So, there's some opportunities there for you. Just stop by the Australia stand and have a look. I've also got a pamphlet at the back from the Australian Dairy Corporation of items that are available in Australia relating to agriculture, things like this moving cow watch that I'm wearing and a whole range of other things. So if anybody's interested in any of the promotional merchandise that's available from Australia, please give me a yell sometime during the conference. I'd be happy to help you.

VIRGINIA FAUS: On behalf of Susan and I, we would really like to thank you for your attendance here this afternoon. There is a heck of a lot of stuff to see and to hear in this wonderful conference. Thank you for being part of our lives, for just a short period of time. Let's upkeep this network going. Ag education. Let's make sure the consumers know who we are, what we are. And always, let's be proud of what we do. Thank you.