Phoenix Feeds 20th Anniversary Documentary

I can remember sitting in Mrs. Blanchard's kindergarten class. They were asking us, "What are we going to be when we grow up?" And I said, "I'm going to be a dairy farmer."

I knew that then, and I know that now. Across the Northeast, generations of farmers rise before dawn, caring for the land, their animals, and the communities that depend on them. For 20 years, Phoenix Feeds and Nutrition has stood by their side, sharing in their challenges and helping to build a legacy that nourishes the future. The farms of the Northeast are more than businesses.

They're living legacies. Built by hands that have endured every season, these farms are monuments to the strength of the families and communities they sustain, passed down through generations. Farming is a very unique industry where you have multiple generations working alongside each other. So I wake up every morning with a certain level of anxiety and a certain level of excitement.

I love what I do. Want to do it as long as I can. I think my interest lays in the excitement of passing the farm on to the next generation, and whatever it takes to do that. Family businesses can be extremely challenging, but when I can sit in my office on a Monday morning and have my father sitting beside me, my brother beside me, my niece, and my son, that's pretty awesome.

And not a lot of people get to experience that. I think that Ag provides people of any age, any background, the opportunity to really feel that they are impactful and that they are doing good work and what they do is meaningful. I wish people to understand the sacrifice that they give. It's not financial sacrifice, it's not just personal sacrifice.

They are literally giving their all to the health of these animals, to the quality of the product going out, and making sure that we all have this healthy, nutritious product available to all of us at an appropriate cost. When you can show folks how food is grown, what it takes to grow it, the amount of work that goes into it, and they close their mind, they have no idea. Today's farmers face a delicate balancing act, juggling rising production costs, fluctuating market prices, and the unyielding demands of the land. From navigating inflation to enduring shifts in milk prices, they continue to adapt and persevere, not just for themselves, but for all of us.

I really think farmers are the face of resilience and perseverance because they always have to adapt and pivot based on the circumstances that they're not able to control. And us as farmers, we're price takers, we're not price makers, so things like milk prices are federally regulated. Farming at the end of the day is a business, you want it to be profitable. You know, you're up all hours of the night when you're drying grain to get this product perfect, but people don't see that.

With input costs continually rising, and feed bills generally being one of the higher bills that a farm receives, it's important that we keep those costs controlled as much as we can and pass those savings on to farms. They know that the feed that we're providing them ultimately improves their bottom line. Without this feed spec'd to exactly their needs, they wouldn't be producing as much milk to the quality that their customers are asking for. You know, we're under a lot more regulation than we were, you know, 10 years ago and certainly 20 years ago.

And all those things kind of have a cost to them and it can be pretty significant. We need to be looking at what is the break even cost to produce 100 pounds of milk that you need to get at, because that includes other sources of income not directly related to your milk check. You know, yes the cows produce milk that makes the milk check, but they've been looking for other sources, maybe that's selling beef, maybe that's selling, you know, food through a market stand, etc. Maybe that's implementing an agritourism business.

That's another way that farmers can rely on income that's not related to the milk check. And so we need to be looking at the break even a cost of producing 100 pounds of milk. The farmer is not getting that $3.65 that you see at the store.

They're getting a very small portion of that. Sustainability isn't just a goal, it's the key to survival. Farmers are redefining care for the land with renewable energy, rotational cropping, and diversification. By blending tradition with progress, they are creating a more resilient and sustainable future.

I would like to see us be able to have an industry that is increasingly easy on the environment. Environmental sustainability is something that dairy farmers and other farmers have always been doing without, you know, being at the front and center. And so it's funny that we talk about sustainability today. The cool thing about farming is that ecological sustainability and financial sustainability go hand in hand.

You know, an extra 20 gallons of diesel fuel to do something that doesn't make sense ecologically also doesn't make sense financially. You know, we're looking at dairy performance on a weekly basis. What's milk production like? What's all the, you know, the increase of running a dairy?

What's going on in that weekly basis? A penny here, a penny there, adds up. It's our duty that we are the stewards of the land and you can say that all you want, but you have to put that into practice every day to really make that a truthful state. We want to work with them on a common solution to the problem.

Being open to knowing that one side doesn't fit all is really important to us. And I think we're really personalized as well with our customer service and specifically our collections on the accounts receivable side. We want to make it work for the farmer. Farming's future isn't just about land.

It's about passing down resilience, innovation and hope. By nurturing these values, today's farmers ensure that the next generation inherits not only a farm, but a way of life grounded in strength and community. There's been four generations behind me that put everything they had in to keep everything rolling. And so my parents are definitely in that stage of their life where they're semi-retired.

So they're trying to move out and out of day-to-day operations and letting my brother and I, you know, move in. It's hard for an older guy like me to let go of the reins, but you know, we work really hard at it here every day and an operation this size, no one person can manage it all anyway. This business is going to be poised to be very successful into the future. 40 to 50 percent of the American agricultural equity, buildings, equipment, farmland, will change hands in the next 15 years.

So as a feed dealer to those farms, I think it's important for us and our sustainability as a business to figure out how we are going to change. As we all know, we're all family businesses at farm and as we all know, there's times when we wish everybody didn't know everything. And it takes a real effort when you work together and live together to make sure that you give everybody space. He was there with a gentle guiding hand, certainly saying, "When we had a new idea that he was nervous about, here's why I might do it the other way, but never said absolutely not."

We've definitely taken the farm to a different place than where my grandparents had it, and they definitely took it to a different place than where they're, where my grandfather had his grandfather had it. I see my niece, I see my nephew, I see my other nieces, I see my son, I see my daughter finding their way in pieces and parts of agriculture and dairy community and the dairy industry. And it just fills me with joy. They were born and raised on the farm, and really as a farmer, that's all I wanted was to give them the opportunity to choose.

Do you want to be a part of this? Great, let's make it happen. Do you want to find another space for you? Great, let's make it happen.

And working hard and having advantages and privilege made sure that we could give them those choices. We've all, pretty much every generation has fundamentally changed how we farm here and embraced the newest innovations and newest practices to keep improving the lives of our animals and the lives of the people that we sell milk to. Although some days it seems like that's, they're always here, you know, unfortunately someday they won't be. So how, you know, how do we set ourselves up for the future challenges with what they learned from yesterday?

For two decades Phoenix Feeds and Nutrition has been proud to support the farmers of the Northeast. To every farmer who rises early and never gives up, thank you. Together we look forward to the next 20 years of growth, innovation, and shared success. Farmers feed the world and we help them do it.