If there’s one trait Kansas farmers share, it’s tenacity. For generations, they’ve turned adversity into opportunity.
Kansas State University’s announcement that it received the go-ahead from the state of Kansas to begin a $45 million renovation of its dairy research unit is one example. It’s been a long slog to get here, but Kansas dairy farmers finally have a win. It’s about time, too.
There’s no doubt that Kansas is becoming a dairy state. Large dairies and their support industries are relocating here. Our moderate-sized dairies are adopting new technology for efficiency. Some are turning to on-site value-added businesses, turning their milk into consumable products. Others are turning to a dairy-beef calf breeding program to capture more value from their calf crops.
Kansas dairy farmers have a strong need for research that can come from a new, more modern facility that closely resembles the real-world conditions they face every day.
On the surface, people may just see the rising dairy industry in our state as benefiting a few families whose names grace the farm gates. But KLA estimates that every Kansas dairy cow returns $8,661 to the local economy — and that number could be higher, according to K-State experts.
The direct impact of Kansas dairy cattle and the milk production sector is about $1 billion and a little over 1,300 jobs. When you add in the indirect and induced effects, the total impact of the sector on our state’s economy is a little over $2 billion and 5,000 jobs.
We talk a lot about making our rural communities attractive employers for our young people. Well, the dairy industry has good jobs. It just needs an employee base that’s trained for them.
It seems to me a $45 million investment in a university facility that will train those employees, and will facilitate research to benefit the industry, is a small investment in our collective future as rural Kansans.
And the project got its start more than a decade ago with a very determined set of Kansas dairy leaders who saw that the state was going to need a modern research unit to meet modern challenges.
This is just one example of being more tenacious and creative than ever in our problem-solving and advocacy to advance the agricultural sector in our state. We can’t afford to sit and rest on what has worked in the past. We need to actively seek opportunities to diversify and build resiliency into our agricultural sector with an eye toward the future.
The Kansas agricultural sector of tomorrow will play a role in so many new markets, from sustainable aviation fuel to the burgeoning pet food industry and biomanufacturing, just to name a few. I argue that the farmers who can look at their own operations and consider how they might adapt to meet those opportunities are going to be more sustainable in the long run.
Sometimes you’re lucky and opportunity knocks on your barn door. But maybe the wiser course of action is to follow Kansas dairy farmers’ lead and create your own opportunities.