COVID Deal Includes Previously Excluded Ag Sectors

Cindy Zimmerman

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) says the latest COVID relief deal moving through Congress this week has new provisions to provide help for food and agriculture sectors impacted by the pandemic restrictions.

In addition to a 15 percent increase in benefits for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for six months, Peterson pointed specifically to the inclusion of important support for those who were left out earlier assistance, including contract livestock and poultry growers, ethanol producers that saw a drop in demand, and livestock and poultry producers who had to depopulate herds and flocks as a result of supply chain disruptions. The bill also contains much-needed help for dairy farmers, funding for small and mid-sized livestock processors to attain federal inspection in order to accommodate increased demand, as well as animal health work and grants to state departments for ongoing farm stress programs.

Read the full breakdown of the food and agriculture provisions in the bill.

Agribusiness, AgWired Animal, Farming, Food

Cattle Industry Sets 2021 Reboot for February

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2021 Cattle Industry Annual Convention and NCBA Trade Show has been rescheduled as a live event for August in Nashville, but there are still business meetings to be held and members to be updated. To take care of that, a brand new virtual 2021 Cattle Industry Winter Reboot will be held February 23-24 featuring education, industry updates, market outlook and a virtual market place with some of the top companies in the industry.

Sessions will include an update from Washington D.C. and what to expect with the new administration, as well as ten educational sessions covering topics such as sustainability and an introduction to tech tools. The program will conclude with a preview of the 2021 Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show happening August 10-12 in Music City, Nashville, Tennessee.

Registration will open on January 6. Find out more here.

Beef, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

Merry Christmas from the Pork Checkoff

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s a message from CEO Bill Even about how the Pork Checkoff is taking lessons learned in 2020 to prepare the industry for the future.


While 2020 has been far from what any of us could have imagined, as we begin the holiday season we are optimistic about what is in store for 2021. We will continue to leverage all that 2020 has taught us as we pave a path forward for the pork industry. 

I know the holidays will look different this year, but I hope you find time to rest, restore and connect with family and friends.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bill Even
CEO

Ag Groups, Pork Checkoff, Video

Time to Consider 2021 Weed Management Strategy

Carrie Muehling

As growers look back on 2020, they saw another year where low commodity prices meant more bushels were the best path forward. Syngenta‘s Dane Bowers pointed to Acuron corn herbicide as a great weed resistance management tool.

“Certainly, understanding the value that a herbicide product brings is really important. I think what I would like growers to think about is not just saving money, but thinking about what is the return on the money that I spend on my herbicide?” said Bowers, who serves as the Technical Product Lead on Syngenta’s Herbicide Team.

Acuron contains four active ingredients and three different sites of action, and has shown a 5-15 bushel yield increase in multiple trials. Bowers said that’s in part due to a unique active ingredient called bicyclopyrone, which sets Acuron apart from many other corn herbicides on the market

“I know resistance just continues to grow in the marketplace so it’s really important for growers to make sure that the herbicides they choose have multiple, effective sites of action that will control the target weeds, the weeds that are really giving them fits,” said Bowers, who participated in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting virtual Trade Talk event.

He said growers need to plan on using two-pass programs, as well.
2020 NAFB Interview with Dane Bowers, Syngenta herbicides lead 6:05

Audio, Syngenta, weed management

Industry Ag News 12/18

Carrie Muehling

  • Kentucky Venues announced the 56th annual National Farm Machinery Show and 53rd annual Championship Tractor Pull would shift the scheduled 2021 dates from February to March 31-April 3.
  • KEY Apparel, NY Farm Girls, and American Agri-Women have joined together to bring awareness to the ‘Face of a Female Farmer’. KEY apparel will donate $4 to AAW for every #FaceofaFemaleFarmer item sold. By using #FaceofaFemaleFarmer, you will access all their stories and photographs.
  • Doug Catt, vice president, crops division for Farm Journal, announced his pending retirement from the company. A long-time and valued member of the Farm Journal sales and publishing teams, Catt will continue to work into the new year, retiring Feb. 28, 2021.
  • The 2021 Kansas Soybean Expo, which was scheduled for Jan. 6, is cancelled. The Kansas Soybean Association Expo committee has been closely monitoring event guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to cancel the event in the best interest of attendees.
  • In advancing its mission to fight global climate threats, Heliae announced the addition of two more global leaders to its growing team. Each brings the expertise and commitment necessary to help the organization create sustainable impact. Barbara Freund joins as Chief Financial Officer bringing more than 30 years of extensive financial and leadership experience. Heliae gains a seasoned Human Resources Director with Stephanie Schwartz.
  • U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Chief Economist, Robert Johansson, will be leaving USDA to become Associate Director of Economics and Policy Analysis for the American Sugar Alliance at the end of January. Additionally, the Secretary announced Dr. Seth Meyer will return to USDA to be the new Chief Economist.
  • Nominate a deserving individual for the Livestock Publications Council Hall of Fame or Headliner Award before January 11, 2021. Applications for the Don Norton Professional Development Scholarship are also being accepted. If you are interested in attaining some professional development in 2021 and could benefit from financial assistance, apply today! Up to three $1000 scholarships will be given for utilization during the 2021 year.
  • Truterra, LLC, the sustainability business at Land O’Lakes, Inc., has announced a new collaboration with Cotton Incorporated, a not-for-profit research and marketing company representing Upland cotton, to advance the adoption of sustainable farming practices across 50,000 acres of cotton in the Mid-South sourcing region. The new initiative will tap the Truterra™ Stewardship platform and Truterra™ retailer member GreenPoint Ag to help connect consumer brands to verified sources of more sustainable cotton in their supply chains.
  • Syngenta Seeds and the Analytics Society of INFORMS have announced the prize committee for the 2021 Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics, a competition in which students and professionals in the fields of statistics, data analytics and mathematics develop data-driven models to address some of the most pressing issues in agriculture.
  • The Packer’s Global Organic Produce Expo has been reinvented for 2021, offering organic fresh produce buyers and suppliers two chances to engage in this increasingly important segment of the industry. GOPEX will maintain its late-January presence with an online event, GOPEX Home. A second, in-person event, GOPEX Go, will be held in August 2021, with dates and location to be announced soon.
Zimfo Bytes

Congrats to Two Industry Retirees

Cindy Zimmerman

Two long-time agribusiness industry communicators are retiring from the business the next month.

One of the best farm broadcasters in the business is retiring from Brownfield Ag News. After a 43-year career in agriculture, anchor/reporter Ken Anderson will sign off for the last time on December 30. Ken has received many awards over the years, including NAFB Farm Broadcaster of the Year Award in 2014 and the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) 2018 Media Excellence award (pictured, with Ken’s wife Ardella).

Ken and Ardella have four children and ten grandchildren. “I love what I do and working for Brownfield for the past 12 years has been a wonderful experience,” Anderson says. “But I am looking forward to a slightly slower pace, spending more time with my wife Ardella, seeing more of our kids and grandkids, and doing some traveling as well.”

Mark Lambert is also looking forward to spending more time with the grandkids in his retirement, but his 33 years of work on behalf of corn growers, first in Illinois and then nationwide, will never be forgotten.

In his Facebook announcement, Mark says, “I have spent 44 years, first as a journalist and then a Communications Director, working with the nation’s family farmers. In an era when we are all so distant from the land, the farmers who care for it, and the hand that feeds us, it seemed a noble task to try to close the gap and build understanding.”

Mark’s retirement will be official January 15, 2021.

Congratulations to both of you – wish we were there!

Media, NCGA

NCBA Plan to Voluntarily Increase Price Discovery

Carrie Muehling

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) hopes to voluntarily increase price discovery in the cattle industry with its new “75% Plan.”

A shortage of price discovery, particularly in the fed cattle market, has existed because people are using alternative market agreements instead of negotiated trade in many cases, said Tanner Beymer, NCBA Director of Government Affairs and Market Regulatory Policy.

“That decline in negotiated trade is problematic because that direct buyer/seller interaction between cattle feeders and packers is what sets the tone for the whole market. It gives everybody an idea of where the market is at any given time,” said Beymer.

Producers need access to good data and true price discovery to make informed marketing decisions, which is why industry leaders began to look for solutions at the organization’s summer business meeting in Denver. The member-developed approach lays out a framework to increase negotiated fed cattle trade and incentive each of the major packers’ participation in such cash trade. The plan provides benchmarks for the industry to strive toward, beginning at 75 percent with hopes of increasing that number over time.

2020 NAFB Interview with Tanner Beymer, NCBA 9:24

AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Audio, Beef, Markets, NCBA

Field Notes from Koch Agronomic Services – Episode 9

Chuck Zimmerman

The Field Notes podcast series from Koch Agronomic Services (Koch) breaks down the science and technology behind agronomy to help growers do more with less.

The experts we’ve heard from on our previous episodes have covered topics ranging from how different crops use nitrogen to the 4R’s of Nutrient Stewardship and how growers and retailers work together to choose the best input for an operation. If you haven’t checked out the previous prior six episodes, you can find them on your favorite podcast platform.

Koch Agronomic Services & Koch Fertilizer

In this episode, we discuss the relationship between Koch Agronomic Services and Koch Fertilizer. You’ll hear from Tim Laatsch, director of agronomy for North America for Koch Agronomic Services, and Scott Boyd, director of sales for Koch Fertilizer in the western U.S. They’ll explain how the two businesses work together to bring innovative products to market to help growers protect their nitrogen investment and touch on what the fertilizer industry anticipates for spring.

You can listen to the program here: Koch Agronomic Services & Koch Fertilizer

And to make sure you don’t miss an episode, choose an option to subscribe

For Spotify on your computer download the desktop app.

Agribusiness, Audio, Koch Agronomic Services, Podcasts, Soil

#ASTACSS Explores Hybrid Wheat

Cindy Zimmerman

The CSS in ASTA CSS & Seed Expo stands for corn, soybeans and sorghum, but in recent years a little wheat has crept into the rotation.

“Hybrid Wheat – What is Different This Time?” was the title of the last session at the 2020 Seed Expo, featuring a panel of experts from the world of wheat. One of them was Jessie Alt, Global Wheat Lead for Corteva Agriscience. You might remember Dr. Alt from a few years ago when she starred in a video on plant breeders for the American Seed Trade Association.

In this interview, Alt discusses the role of newer breeding techniques and genomic knowledge enabling and complementing hybrid wheat breeding.

ASTA Interview with Jessie Alt, Corteva Agriscience (8:20)

If you want to see the entire wheat session, it is still available on-demand for registrants of the 2020 CSS & Seed Expo. Just click here.

Interviews and other media content from the event is available in the 2020 ASTA CSS AgNewsWire virtual newsroom.

ASTA, Audio, Wheat