Animal Ag News 9/19

Carrie Muehling

  • The Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) will invest approximately $38.5 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2023, subject to USDA approval.
  • As part of its ongoing effort to dispel common misconceptions about modern pig farming, the National Pork Board is teaming up with country music superstar and five-time Entertainer of the Year winner, Luke Bryan. Drawing on his childhood upbringing on a Georgia farm, Bryan understands and appreciates the hard work more than 60,000 pig farmers across the United States put in every day.
  • The International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) is accepting applications for the 11th annual IPPE Young Leaders Under 30 Program. The Young Leaders Under 30 program targets young professionals who work for companies directly involved in the production and processing of poultry and meat or in the production of animal food who normally would not have the opportunity to attend IPPE.
  • The White House announced an Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy. It outlines a “a whole-of-government approach to advance biotechnology and biomanufacturing towards innovative solutions in health, climate change, energy, food security, agriculture, supply chain resilience, and national and economic security.”
  • Nonprofit regional dairy council Dairy MAX, which represents more than 900 dairy farmers in eight states, is pleased to announce that Todd Green has been tapped as vice president of industry image and relations.
  • The 12th Annual Antibiotic Symposium is planned for November 1-3 in Alexandria, Virginia. This year’s theme for Symposium is Exploring Stewardship Sustainability and Collaboration.
AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Animal Bites

Syngenta’s DuracadeViptera Is Most Comprehensive Solution for Pest Control

Chuck Zimmerman

Tim O'Brien, SyngentaSyngenta Corn Traits has simplified its corn trait product names and is now using trait brand names already known and trusted in the marketplace. Syngenta’s DuracadeVipteraTM is the industry’s most comprehensive solution for pest control, simplicity and choice–controlling 16 yield damaging above- and below-ground pests, more than any other competitive trait stack on the market.

“DuracadeViptera is our lead stack in our portfolio,” said Tim O’Brien, Traits Product Manager with Syngenta. “It offers protection for 16 above and below ground insects. That’s the most in the industry for a trait stack, so we’re very proud of that stack and excited to offer it to growers.”

O’Brien used Western Bean Cutworm as an example of an insect that is causing much more widespread pressure across the Corn Belt in recent years. While it’s fairly difficult to scout for and time the treatments properly, having a technology like Viptera available helps growers minimize scouting and spraying for that pest.

Tim O’Brien, Traits Product Manager, Syngenta
FPS22 Interview with Tim O'Brien, Syngenta (4:25)

2022 Farm Progress Show Photo Album


Agribusiness, Audio, Corn, Farm Progress Show, Seed, Syngenta, Video

Industry Ag News 9/16

Carrie Muehling

  • Corn, soybean, and cotton production is down from 2021, according to the Crop Production report issued by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Corn production is down 8% from last year, forecast at 13.9 billion bushels; soybean growers are expected to decrease their production 1% from 2021, forecast at 4.38 billion bushels; cotton production is down 21% from 2021 at 13.8 million 480-pound bales.
  • Customers seeking cutting-edge biological seed treatment solutions will benefit from a global commercial and R&D collaboration announced between Syngenta Crop Protection’s Seedcare business and Bioceres Crop Solutions, a leader in biological crop productivity solutions.
  • This week over 250 National Farmers Union members from across the country arrived in Washington, DC to advocate for family farmers. Over the course of the week, Farmers Union members attended hundreds of Congressional meetings, met with over a dozen federal agencies, and directly participated in discussions with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Rostin Behnam, among other leaders.
  • The Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council signed a Letter of Intent Thursday with the Taiwan Vegetable Oil Manufacturers Association, an agreement worth approximately $2 billion that will benefit the state’s nearly 28,000 soybean farmers.
  • Mid America CropLife Association President Rodney Schmidt presented the Association’s most coveted award, the Dean Roy Achievement Award, to Doug Mertens, FMC, during its recent annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.
  • Former House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson will be joining the lineup for the Ag Outlook Forum for a discussion with Blake Hurst, former Missouri Farm Bureau President, on the 2023 Farm Bill. Presented by the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City and Agri-Pulse, the Ag Outlook Forum is scheduled for September 26 from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm CDT at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown.
  • FAPRI-MU’s 2022 Baseline Update for U.S. Agricultural Markets is now available on the FAPRI-MU website. This report provides an update of the 2022 FAPRI-MU long-term baseline to reflect information available in mid-August 2022.
  • Kent Schescke, Executive Vice President and CEO of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), has announced his plans to retire in 2023 after almost 50 years of service to the agriculture, education, and scientific communities.
  • The theme for the 2023 GROWMARK Essay Contest is: “How can ag cooperatives stay relevant to future generations?” The contest is open to all high school FFA members in the United States. Essays should be submitted online at www.bit.ly/GMKEssay2023. The deadline for all submissions is midnight Central time on October 28, 2022. Additional program details have been sent to agriculture teachers and are online at www.growmark.com.
Zimfo Bytes

Some Climate-Smart Commodities Partnerships

Cindy Zimmerman

There’s something for almost every commodity in the $2.8 billion dollars in Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities announced this week by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“Of the 70 proposals, five involve timber and forests, 13 involve livestock, 12 corn and soybean projects, six cotton, peanut and nuts projects; nine dairy projects, 13 projects involving fruits, vegetables and specialty crops; three involving hay, grass and energy crops; two hemp projects, four rice projects, and three wheat and other grain projects,” said Vilsack. The projects are anticipated to involved 50,000 farms and 20 million acres in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Here are just a few of the project awards:
Trust In Food™, the sustainability division of Farm Journal, received a $40-million partnership to support different approaches to testing and evaluating climate-smart data and information in all segments of agriculture in ways that add increased value and support to producers. Program participation will equip farmers and ranchers with the information they need to be competitive in a climate-smart marketplace, including access to personalized support services, coaching and direct payments for eligible participants.

The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), through its national partnership, project partners and network of 3,000 conservation districts, received funding that will provide up to $90 million over 3 years for technical, financial, and marketing assistance.

Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative will receive up to $50 million for a multi-partner project aimed at expanding climate-smart markets and establishing dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities.

The International Fresh Produce Association has received up to $15 million for a pilot project titled “A Vibrant Future” to incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production in order to establish a consumer-driven, climate-smart market for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices.

A partnership of 14 public and private entities led by Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) was awarded $80 million to be used in a five year pilot project in Iowa and Missouri called ‘Horizon II’ to demonstrate a “Climate-Smart Future for Corn, Soybean, Livestock, and Renewable Natural Gas Production.”

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) today applauded up to $95 million in funding to help farmers accelerate cover crop adoption. The funding will support Farmers for Soil Health, which works to advance conservation practices to improve soil health across the U.S. The collaborative is comprised of commodity groups, including the National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, the National Pork Board, and the United Soybean Board.

The US Beet Sugar Association (USBSA) and American Sugarbeet Growers Associations (ASGA) received a $50 million multi-partner award to establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, enhancing business practices, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards.

American Farmland Trust and partner organizations were awarded a $30 million grant to spearhead an effort to transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to carbon neutral. The eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks and early adopter mentors, while also providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration.

Sustainability, USDA

Syngenta Seeds Investment Announced 5 Years Ago Pays Off

Chuck Zimmerman

GW Fuhr, SyngentaThe 2022 Farm Progress Show saw a long-term investment paying off for Syngenta as the company continued showcasing new technology including corn hybrids, soybean varieties, biotech traits and digital advancements that will help farmers.

“Five years ago at this very show, we talked about our investment in U.S. seeds. We talked about a $400 million investment to really rebuild our pipeline in seeds,” said G.W. Fuhr, head of Golden Harvest’s U.S. Sales Team. “That investment is benefiting us today with great products. We’ve doubled the number of plant breeders in this organization, we’ve doubled our product testing, we’ve made key infrastructure investments.”

Fuhr said the company’s number on value is passion for the customer, which is the farmer.

GW Fuhr, Head of U.S. Sales, Golden Harvest
FPS22 Interview with GW Fuhr, Golden Harvest (3:51)

2022 Farm Progress Show Photo Album


Agribusiness, Audio, Farm Progress Show, Seed, Syngenta

Land O’Lakes Project Receives USDA Climate-Smart Funding

Cindy Zimmerman

Truterra, LLC, the sustainability business of Land O’Lakes, Inc., and American Farmland Trust (AFT), along with other partners, have received funding from USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities forf a project aimed at scaling production and addressing equity.

Truterra and AFT’s Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation) pilot project intends to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by approximately 7.2 million metric tons of CO2e over the course of five years. The project seeks to engage up to 20,000 farmers and dairy producers and impact more than 7 million acres, with a focus on reaching historically underserved farmers.

Ag retailers will play a central role in the pilot project, working with grant partners to incent farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices, including helping match farmers with incentives, agronomic advice, peer-to-peer networks, data entry support and more to support improved soil health systems. Grant partners will deploy existing digital infrastructure, including the Truterra sustainability tool, to aid in measuring impact and supporting validation and quantification processes.

The pilot project will use initial funding from USDA and matching funds from grant partners to help incentivize practice changes. Over time, the partners intend for the project to become self-funding through the sale of climate-smart commodities and ecosystem credits to downstream buyers, some of which will be, in turn, reinvested in delivering technical assistance to farmers to support additional practice changes.

Additional partners and supporters include: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Ag, Natural Res. & Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, ButcherBox, Campbell Soup Company, Green Plains, The Hershey Company, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestlé Purina Pet Care, Purina Animal Nutrition, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Perennial, Colorado State Univ., SustainCERT and 50 ag retail cooperatives.

carbon, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybean, Sustainability

Agronomy in Action 2022 Research Review Explained

Chuck Zimmerman

Bruce Battles, Golden HarvestGolden Harvest is working to help growers better understand how specific hybrids respond to different management practices. After surveying 100 random Midwest growers, the company learned that 84 percent believe having access to hybrid specific information is extremely important. But, only slightly more than half said they were not managing their hybrids down to that level.

Golden Harvest has an answer for helping those growers to get the hybrid specific information they need with the annual Agronomy in Action Research Review.

“We’re trying to give them a starting point,” said Bruce Battles, technical agronomy manager. “We realize there is still room and a need to experiment on their own farm, but we’re giving them a starting point around basic things like fungicide response, seeding rate response, fertilizer placement and response to that versus a broadcast application.”

The research is available as a hard copy or online, or by contacting a local Golden Harvest seed advisor.

You can find their release on this from earlier this year here: https://www.syngenta-us.com/newsroom/news_release_detail.aspx?id=223108

Bruce Battles, Technical Agronomy Manager, Golden Harvest
FPS22 Interview with Bruce Battles, Golden Harvest (4:50)

2022 Farm Progress Show Photo Album


Agribusiness, Agronomy, Audio, Farm Progress Show, Syngenta, Video

Precision Ag News 9/14

Carrie Muehling

  • The Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA) commends USDA for its consideration and selection of pilot projects through its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.
  • CLAAS announces three new products to its North American baler and hay tool lineup – the VARIANT 500 series round baler, the QUADRANT 5300 EVOLUTION series square baler, and the DISCO 9300 TREND disc mower. These products provide growers with new technology and options to increase output and maximize efficiency.
  • National Cotton Council Chairman Ted Schneider said the U.S. cotton industry applauds USDA for promoting sustainable farming practices through its Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities — including the new Climate Smart Cotton Program led by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol.
  • The American Farm Bureau Federation, in partnership with Farm Credit, continues its focus on advancing agricultural innovation by supporting start-up business from across the nation. AFBF and Farm Credit announced the 10 semi-finalist teams in the 2023 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge.
  • The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) held its annual business meeting this week in St. Louis, Missouri, and elected officers and several board of director positions for 2022-2023. New officers are President Joe Olson, Helena Agri-Enterprises, LLC; Vice President Jaime Yanes, Albaugh, LLC; and Secretary/Treasurer is Michael Lehman, AMVAC. Rodney Schmidt, Bayer CropScience will serve as immediate past president.
  • Combine harvester sales grew for August in both the U.S. and Canada, while total tractors fell in the U.S., but grew in Canada according to the latest data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). Total U.S. ag equipment unit sales rose above the 5-year average for the first time since April 2022. U.S. total farm tractor sales fell 11.7 percent for the month of August compared to 2021, while U.S. self- propelled combine sales for the month grew 25.8 percent to 790 units sold, making for a three-month growth streak for that segment.
  • Summit Nutrients, LLC, a precision-based manufacturer and marketer of bio-nutritional and fertilizer products, announced that it has acquired AGVNT, LLC., an R&D company known for pioneering the industry’s most recognized technology platform of nutrient efficiency innovations.
  • Biodel Ag, Inc., an ag-tech company, announced the launch of Sequester®, a soil reclamation product, used to restore the soils’ ability to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and help reverse climate change. Sequester enables farmers to transition to regenerative agriculture practices and earn carbon credits.
  • ThorSport Racing has partnered with Kubota Tractor Corporation to serve as the Official Tractor Company of ThorSport Racing in multiple NASCAR Truck Series events starting this weekend in Kansas with Ben Rhodes’ No. 99 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.
  • Meristem announced the commercial launch of two patent-pending biological delivery systems – BIO-CAPSULE™ and MICROBILIZE™ – building on their effort to bring real productivity gains to farmers.
  • With the introduction of the 2150S Early Riser front-fold trailing planter in February 2022, Case IH gave producers a high-performance split-row configuration option to increase planting productivity. Now the latest updates include greater liquid capacity for the 2150 Early Riser front-fold planter, a dealer-installed 48th row option for the 2160 Early Riser large front-fold planter, and planter software updates for the AFS Pro 1200 display.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture

USDA Announces Climate Smart Commodities Project Funding

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the first wave of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity, with more projects to be announced later this year.

More than 450 proposals were submitted for the funding opportunity and the strength of the projects identified led USDA to increase its investment from the initial $1 billion to more than $3 billion. “Through today’s announcement of initial selections for the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, USDA is delivering on our promise to build and expand these market opportunities for American agriculture and be global leaders in climate-smart agricultural production. This effort will increase the competitive advantage of U.S. agriculture both domestically and internationally, build wealth that stays in rural communities and support a diverse range of producers and operation types,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Sec. Vilsack discussed the announcement with reporters Tuesday afternoon and made the official announcement this morning.
Vilsack Climate Smart Partnership press call 32:26

Vilsack Climate Smart Partnership announcement 12:50

Audio, USDA

DWFI Podcast 17 – Karina Schoengold, UNL Agricultural Economics

Cindy Zimmerman

DWFI Faculty Fellow Karina Schoengold is leading a $6 million, 4-year project to reduce the use of plastics, herbicides and associated environmental impacts in agricultural production. The use of plastics has been growing in agriculture over recent years to help increase productivity by limiting weeds, protecting growth and extending growing seasons. The team aims to create a bio-based material called BioWRAP — Bioplastics with Regenerative Agricultural Properties — which can be sprayed onto the fields. The material will then break down and add to the nutrients of the soil as a bio-based fertilizer. Once the technology is created, the team will measure the effectiveness under different conditions, as well as soil impacts such as runoff, sedimentation, erosion, water filtration and any water quality impacts that would occur from using it.

In this episode, Arianna Elnes, DWFI communications specialist, interviews Karina about the goals of the project, the economic and social impacts of the technology and its future potential for agriculture and the environment.

Listen here or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform:
DWFI Podcast 17 - Karina Schoengold, UNL Agricultural Economics 12:09

The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI) at the University of Nebraska was founded with the mission to have a lasting and significant impact on achieving more food security with less pressure on scarce water resources by conducting scientific and policy research, using the research results to inform policy makers, and sharing knowledge through education and communication.

How to subscribe:

Audio, Farming, Podcasts, Water, Water for Food