A chaotic week for USDA employees

Efficiency — it’s a word we throw around a lot as a reason for making a change. Every time farm prices tank, the rally cry from many different sources is to “become more efficient.” I’m sure farmers and ranchers become sick of hearing it.

That said, it’s undeniable that food production has become more efficient over the years at every level. The gains in efficiency can be attributed to a lot of things, but they’ve mostly occurred because of discriminate decision-making and judicious adoption of new technologies.

That’s not what has occurred recently with the widespread personnel cuts — executed in the name of efficiency — at a number of government agencies. Here’s what has happened during the past seven days at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).

Early last week, more than 800 positions in USDA-ARS were terminated across the United States. Scientists with less than three years and other employees with less than one year of service were told they were no longer needed or wanted. The news came in the form of a letter that essentially stated, “Based on performance, you have not demonstrated that further employment is in the public interest.” This was the case even if the employee had stellar previous job reviews.

Nobody has an argument with an efficient government, but these cuts seemed to have nothing to do with efficiency, job performance, or even prioritized needs. In fact, the job terminations seemed to be executed without much planning or forethought. For example, some scientists and their staff working on eradicating the ravaging H5N1 bird flu virus and its variants were sent termination letters. After realizing their oversight, the government then needed to reverse course and track these people down, retracting their termination letters.

Forage research hit hard

Drilling down to one research center that has direct relevance to many of our readers, the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, which is based in Madison, Wis., was thought to have lost about 26% of its entire staff, including at least 30% (six) of its research scientists. Many of the advances in forage feeding, testing, storage, and production have come out of this unit during the last 30 years.

Another research unit impacted was the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., where at least 17 scientists and staff were terminated. This unit has long been one of the crown jewels of meat animal research in the United States.

So, for the bulk of last week, many previously employed USDA scientists and research workers were grappling with an unplanned life change, dusting off their résumés, and perhaps, calling the realtor. It was a sad situation for those suddenly out of work as well as those still employed at USDA-ARS. Of course, sad wasn’t always the only emotion being experienced or conveyed publicly.

But then . . .

For reasons unknown at the time of this writing (last night), the whole situation took a startling turn yesterday morning. USDA-ARS scientists received letters rescinding their termination letters as if a baseball challenge had been made to reverse an “out” call to “safe.”

Unfortunately, those employees who were not scientists did not have their USDA jobs reinstated. These include employees ranging from custodians to skilled research technicians. Make no mistake, the loss of such positions will still have a significant impact on how fast and if some research gets done. Further, previously granted funds for USDA-ARS contracts and agreements are still frozen, holding up progress on some projects. This hopefully will change soon.

More than science

The return of the previously terminated forage and livestock research scientists is welcomed news. Their work is critical to both food security and safety. USDA scientists have always been on the cutting edge of solving agricultural problems and bringing new technologies and practices to the farm gate, but that’s not all they bring to the table.

I have had the opportunity to work directly and indirectly with these individuals for most of my career. What always stood out to me was their desire and willingness to engage with farmers and ranchers as speakers at events ranging from county meetings to national conferences, even though outreach wasn’t always a primary role or expectation. As many of you know, USDA-ARS scientists have frequently graced the pages of Hay & Forage Grower with thoughtful and informative articles.

It's unclear who exactly has been making the employment decisions for USDA over the past week, but we can say that efficiency and thoughtful decision-making haven’t been part of the process.