Industry Ag News 2/16

Carrie Muehling

  • New agriculture census data released by USDA shows the number of farms operating in the United States and the number of farm acres have both fallen significantly. The 2022 Census of Agriculture reports 141,733 fewer farms in 2022 than in 2017. The number of farm acres fell to 880,100,848, a loss of more than 20 million acres from just five years earlier. Read the full 2022 Census of Agriculture here.
  • Submissions are now open for the Top Agri-food Pioneers (TAP) List, a new initiative by the World Food Prize Foundation. The list will feature 38 leading innovators from across the world working to transform food systems, in honor of the organization’s 38th anniversary this year.
  • This month, FFA members across the country, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands will celebrate agriculture and FFA. It’s all part of National FFA Week. National FFA Week is a time for FFA members to raise awareness about the National FFA Organization‘s role in developing future leaders in agriculture and the importance of agricultural education.
  • It’s not too late to enter the IFAJ/Alltech Young Leaders program — the deadline has been extended to February 25, 2024. Click here for details on the program. Click here for a nomination form.
  • The National AgrAbility Project (NAP), headquartered at Purdue University, invites farmers, ranchers and agriculture professionals to the 2024 AgrAbility National Training Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia, to address issues of disability in agriculture. The conference will take place March 25-28 at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead. Early bird pricing ends Feb. 23, with conference registration ending March 18. The complete conference schedule, pricing details and hotel information are available online.
  • National Farmers Union (NFU) will host the organization’s 122nd Anniversary Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona, from March 10 through March 12. Review the full agenda at nfu.org/convention.
  • World Ag Expo and E.M. Tharp, Inc. have teamed up again for the 17th annual “We Believe in Growing” scholarship, supporting area high school students who will be attending four-year universities to major in an agricultural field. This year’s winners, Kendra Ward of Hanford, CA and Reed DeBoer of Porterville, CA, will each receive $2,500 scholarships to be renewed up to four years, totaling $10,000 per student.
  • Join the Livestock Publications Council for the February Coffee and Collaboration on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 10 a.m. CT! This session is titled “Being Prepared is for More Than Just Boy Scouts” with Cindy Cunningham and LeAnne Peters of Woodruff. Join us for a discussion on reputation management. This free monthly webinar is moderated by Jennifer Shike and Angie Stump Denton. No registration necessary! It’s open to members and non-members.
  • Holly Spangler, senior editor of Prairie Farmer magazine and executive editor for Farm Progress Publications, was presented the Service to Agriculture award by the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers during the group’s annual meeting on February 8 in Champaign, IL. Presenting the honor was Michael Lauher, AFM, vice president of the organization. It is the Chapter’s highest honor to a non-member and has been awarded annually since 1940.
  • Brownfield welcomes Jared White to the team as Anchor/Reporter based in Clinton, Illinois.
  • Tracy Zink, who farms in Indianola, Nebraska, joins the Nebraska Ethanol Board (NEB) as the sorghum representative. She was appointed by Gov. Jim Pillen on Nov. 20, 2023, and confirmed by the State of Nebraska Legislature in early 2024.
  • Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) announced the construction of a pea protein isolate production plant dedicated to its Plant Proteins business, at the site of its existing industrial complex in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada.
  • The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) awarded Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15) with its 2023 Wheat Leader of the Year Award for his work as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee. NAWG President and Oregon wheat farmer, Brent Cheyne, presented the award to Chairman Thompson during a recent visit to Washington, D.C.
  • Elite Octane — a leader in the biofuel industry, producing 150 million gallons of bioethanol annually — joined the nation’s leading biofuel trade associations, the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy.
    • Zimfo Bytes

    EmGenisys Announces EmVision™ Enrollment for Cattle

    Cindy Zimmerman

    EmGenisys, Inc., an animal health company improving success rates of embryo transfer (ET) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) for cattle producers, announces open enrollment for EmVision™.

    EmVision™ analyzes the viability and health of embryos at the microscope, giving producers and embryologists objective data to make strategic decisions on transferring embryos. The software will identify the 5-20% of embryos that are already dead or dying to help improve pregnancy rates.

    “We can help producers manage their breeding strategy by showing them which embryos are alive and healthy,” said Dr. Cara Wells, founder and CEO. “It’s also helping IVF labs because they can make sure their embryos are growing at the right rate and use it to boost the production of all the embryos that they make.”

    EmGenisys is currently enrolling users for EmVision™ in a limited time special offer for a 30-day subscription. This allows the users to have access to the software and work with EmGenisys team members to implement the procedures easily into their embryo transfer workflow.

    Enroll now by contacting Dr. Wells, at cara@emgenisys.com and become a part of ‘Breeding Something Epic.’

    Listen or download an interview with Cara Wells about EmGenisys.
    Interview with Cara Wells, EmGenisys 6:11

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    Alltech Researcher on Breeding Cattle for Sustainability

    Cindy Zimmerman

    With sustainability and carbon reduction the main focus of food production right now, there was discussion at the recent CattleCon about breeding cattle to be more sustainable.

    Dr. Emily Stackhouse is a research manager in livestock and environment at Alltech and she shared a Cattlemen’s College panel around sending beef x dairy calves into beef production, how the carbon of these calves is allocated across the two industries and how they can actually help increase beef output while decreasing carbon emissions.

    “Because when those calves from the dairy enter our beef system, they come in with lower embedded emissions than our purebred beef calves,” said Stackhouse.

    Learn more in this interview from CattleCon.

    Interview with Emily Stackhouse, Alltech 3:22

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    Precision Ag News 2/14

    Carrie Muehling

  • U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small made her inaugural visit to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to see firsthand the ways the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) is using the federal agency’s funding to advance programs, research and scholarships. She also came to announce that USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will invest nearly $1 million in a new A&T project to help advance environmental justice in agriculture through its Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
  • The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) is providing a $998,784 Seeding Solutions grant to Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) to quantify how adopting soil health practices can reduce the need for nitrogen inputs without sacrificing yield. Growers Edge, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Meridian Institute, Midwest Row Crop Collaborative and PFI are matching the grant with $1,428,849 for a total project investment of $2,427,633.
  • Memphis-based AgLaunch Initiative has selected 10 game-changing agtech startups to participate in AgLaunch365, a leading accelerator program aimed at tackling contemporary challenges in farm and food production and promoting sustainability.
  • The non-profit Soil Health Academy recently announced that Kim Barmann has been appointed president of the regenerative agriculture education organization. Barmann, who previously served as vice president, is a managing partner at CS Ranch in Colfax County, New Mexico. She replaces Dawn Breitkreutz who recently stepped down as president of SHA after serving for two years in that position.
  • AgGateway announced that Stephen Christian has joined the organization as Member Serices Analyst. Stephen fills a staff role that was vacated by the departmental promotions of Chris Crutchfield and Nikki Marshall late last year.
  • National Farm Machinery Show is the site for several next-level announcements from Case IH, continuing to drive purposeful solutions for producers. Building on the legacy of Axial-Flow and Steiger, Case IH is not only showcasing the recently unveiled AF11 and the next generation corn head, designed to match its capacity, but also introducing the Quadtrac Heavy Duty Suspension for Steigers that ups the ante in track technology. For farmers looking to cover more acres in less time, the AF11, which Case IH announced earlier this month, sets the bar in maximizing time in field. To maximize capacity of the AF11, Case IH is introducing the C516 corn head, offering improved performance with a swift, clean harvesting solution.
  • LG Seeds successfully completed a series of experimental corn test plots in a wide geographical area of the Western Corn Belt, expanding the company’s knowledge base and enhancing its product portfolio.
  • Farmers Business Network, Inc. (FBN), the global AgTech platform and farmer-to-farmer network, announced updates to its Gradable platform, its sustainability partnerships & supply chain programs, and regenerative financing offers for farmers for 2024, all of which aim to increase the profitability of growers while enhancing sustainability.
  • February is National Pesticide Safety Education Month and a time to review pesticide safety practices at your home or business, announces the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA). WSSA, The American Phytopathological Society (APS), and the Entomological Society of America (ESA) are among the many organizations in public and private sectors that promote pesticide safety awareness during February and throughout the year.
  • Surtain herbicide, the first solid encapsulated premix formulated product on the market, has received registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is now approved for use, subject to state approvals. Surtain herbicide’s innovative technology offers growers a wide application window ranging from pre-plant through early post-emergence with control or suppression of 79 key broadleaf and grass weeds.
    • AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture

    USDA Releases 2022 Census of Agriculture Data

    Cindy Zimmerman

    USDA officials release 2022 Census of Agriculture

    USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) on Tuesday released results of the 2022 Census of Agriculture, which includes more than 6 million data points about America’s farms and ranches and the people who operate them down to the county level.

    The information collected directly from producers shows a continued decline in the total number of U.S. farms. However, the data also show a rise in the number of new and beginning (operating 10 or fewer years on any farm) as well as young (under the age of 35) producers. The full Census of Agriculture report as well as publication dates for additional ag census data products can be found at nass.usda.gov/AgCensus. Ag census data can also be found in NASS’s searchable online database, Quick Stats.

    Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack joined NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer and USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economic Chavonda Jacobs-Young to present the report, which showed a decline since 2017 in the number of U.S. farms and ranches and amount of acres in farmland.

    “This survey is a wake up call…Are we okay with losing that many farms? Are we okay with losing that much farmland? Or is there a better way,” said Vilsack. “I hope we take this information very seriously and understand that it need not be that every five years we report fewer farmers and less farm land, it doesn’t have to be.”

    There were 1.9 million farms and ranches (down 7% from 2017) with an average size of 463 acres (up 5%) on 880 million acres of farmland (down 2%). That is 39% of all U.S. land.
    Family-owned and operated farms accounted for 95% of all U.S. farms and operated 84% of land in farms.
    U.S. farms and ranches produced $543 billion in agricultural products, up from $389 billion in 2017. With farm production expenses of $424 billion, U.S. farms had net cash income of $152 billion. Average farm income rose to $79,790. A total of 43% of farms had positive net cash farm income in 2022.

    Secretary Vilsack - 2022 Census of Agriculture 16:50

    Audio, USDA

    BQA Honors Best in Beef Quality Awards

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Each year, the National Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Awards, funded in part by the Beef Checkoff program and sponsored by Cargill, recognize outstanding beef and dairy producers, marketers and educators who demonstrate high-quality animal care and handling principles, as well as express a strong desire to continually improve their operations through BQA.

    The 2024 honorees include Cow-Calf Award winner VanWinkle Ranch, Colorado; Dairy FARM Award recipient Dotterer Dairy, Pennsylvania; Feedyard Award winner Adams Land & Cattle, Nebraska; Educator Award recipient Dr. John Wenzel, New Mexico; and the Marketer Award presented to Power Genetics, Nebraska.

    The BQA program continues to grow in importance and numbers. “We have 46 states that have BQA programs,” says Emma Mulvaney, BQA Associate Director. “It’s more important than ever to be BQA certified and stay BQA certified.”

    Mulvaney says re-certification now provides even more education. “If you are becoming re-certified, you can do continuing education on-line or in person,” she said. In addition, BQA is developing its educational resources in Spanish.

    Learn more in this interview from CattleCon.

    Interview with Emma Mulvaney 7:09

    2024 CattleCon Photo Album

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    CIRB Honors Ron Rutledge for Industry Service

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Ron Rutledge retired at the end of 2021 after a successful 40-year career at Farmers Mutual Hail, and this year as he officially goes off the board, the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) had a chance to properly honor him for his years of service to the industry with the Chairman’s Award.

    Outgoing CIRB Chairman Brian Young, Great American Insurance Group, presented the award. “It’s not too much to say that Ron, like his family before him, has been an institution in the crop insurance industry,” said Young. Ron is the fifth member of the Rutledge family to be honored with the CIRB Chairman’s award since it was implemented in 1984.

    Farmers Mutual Hail has been run by the same family for over 130 years and as Ron rides off into the sunset in his golf cart, his nephew Shannon Rutledge carries on the family tradition of service to the industry. “CIRB is vital to the success of the crop insurance industry and we just want to do what we can to support it,” Ron said.

    Award presentation and interview with Ron Rutledge, Farmers Mutual 4:32

    2024 CIRB Annual Meeting Photo Album

    Audio, CIRB, Insurance

    ZimmCast 725 – NCBA Leaders

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCastHello and welcome to the ZimmCast.

    The last two weeks have been hectic for the ZimmComm Team. I was in Orlando for CattleCon and I’m going to share some interviews from there in this episode. Then I was off to Ft. Worth for the Clean Fuels Conference while Cindy went to Scottsdale for the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting. You can find virtual newsrooms for all of them on AgNewsWire.com. They contain links to the photo albums, interviews and selected session audio. We’ve got a break this week but a lot more on the schedule in the next couple months.

    So, let’s get on with CattleCon. I’m going to share interviews with Todd Wilkinson, Past NCBA President; Mark Eisele, NCBA President; Buck Wehrbein, NCBA President-Elect and Colin Woodall, CEO, NCBA.

    Besides these CattleCon interviews there are many more that are separated as officers, staff, trade show and other interviews. Besides looking them up online you can also easily get them by subscribing to the ZimmComm Golden Mic Audio Podcast with your favorite platform.

    Listen to the episode here:ZimmCast 725 - NCBA Leaders (41:47)

    That’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for listening.

    Subscribe to the ZimmCast in:

    Audio, Beef, NCBA, ZimmCast

    Animal Ag News 2/12

    Carrie Muehling

  • A sharp decline in the number of dairy heifers available to replace older cows exiting the U.S. dairy herd could limit any meaningful growth in domestic milk production over the next few years. The number of dairy replacement heifers has fallen almost 15 percent over the last six years to reach a 20-year low, according to data from the USDA’s most recent Cattle report. While the global demand outlook for U.S. dairy products remains murky due to export market uncertainties, any potential growth opportunities may be stymied by an inability to expand U.S. milk production. According to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, the rising cost of rearing dairy heifer calves has far outpaced increases in heifer values over the last several years.
  • Registration is now open for the fourth California Dairy Sustainability Summit, taking place on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at the UC Davis Conference Center in Davis, California, with an option to participate in person for virtually.
  • For 12 years, students in U.S. public schools have not been able to access the milk options that they prefer and consume at home: whole and reduced-fat (2%) milk. As the U.S. Senate considers the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023—bipartisan legislation to reinstate these nutritious milk options in school meals—a new Morning Consult poll of parents with children in public shows near unanimous support for the bill. Large majorities of parents surveyed in the Morning Consult national tracking poll commissioned by the International Dairy Foods Association want to see whole and 2% milks back in school meals.
  • To ensure the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) continues to meet its mission, the board of directors adopted the NIAA 2024 – 2026 Strategic Plan during their January 24, 2024, meeting. Adoption of the strategic plan culminates the work of NIAA elected leaders, members, partners, and staff who began work on the latest strategic plan in November 2023.
  • America’s families might soon see record-high beef prices at the grocery store, thanks to the lowest cattle inventory in more than 70 years. American Farm Bureau Federation economists analyzed the USDA inventory report in the latest Market Intel. There were 87.2 million cattle and calves in the United States as of Jan. 2, 2024, 2 percent lower than the same time in 2023. It’s the lowest inventory since 1951. Just four years ago, there were almost 95 million cattle in the U.S.
  • Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the oldest and largest livestock association in the Southwest, today announced it will hold its first-ever Giving Day Feb. 15. The 24-hour fundraising effort is scheduled in conjunction with the association’s founding date and will raise funds to support the Special Ranger Foundation and the newly established Leadership Development Foundation.
  • dsm-firmenich, the leading innovator in nutrition, health and beauty, received market authorization for Bovaer in Canada for use with dairy and beef cattle. Bovaer is a feed ingredient which immediately and effectively reduces methane emissions from cattle. This feed ingredient is an important tool for the nearly 10,000 dairy farmers in Canada, and will enable them to make a substantial step forward towards their net zero ambitions. Bovaer reduces methane emissions by 30 percent on average for dairy cows, and thereby lowers the overall greenhouse gas footprint per liter of milk by 10-15 percent.
  • The 2024 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) recognized three exhibitors with the New Product Showcase “Best of the Best” award. The award acknowledges outstanding exhibitors that have distinguished themselves by developing an innovative technology in products, services or operating techniques that will advance the industry.
  • The American Feed Industry Association’s (AFIA) Production Compliance Committee hosted its annual Feed Education Program Jan. 31 during the 2024 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE), covering what the animal food industry can expect from U.S. federal regulators in 2024. In addition, in partnership with Feedstuffs, the AFIA also named MFA Incorporated’s Aurora Mill plant as its 2023 Commercial Dry Feed Facility of the Year.
  • U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) presented the organization’s annual Lamplighter Award to five individuals at the International Poultry Expo, part of the 2024 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE). The award pays tribute to individuals for “sustained and exemplary service” to the poultry and egg industry.
  • The International Coalition of Fisheries Associations (ICFA) has launched its first website fishcoalition.org. ICFA is a collective of national fish and seafood industry associations from the world’s major fishing nations formed in 1988. The group provides decision makers with a unified voice on global issues.
    • AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Animal Bites

    Federal Clean Fuels Policy Update

    Cindy Zimmerman

    At the Clean Fuels Conference in Fort Wort last week, Kurt Kovarik, who serves as Vice President, Federal Affairs for Clean Fuels, provided an update on federal policies and described the work Clean Fuels does on the Hill. A significant part of it is education and persistence.

    Kovarik leads members in advocating federal policies that support the industry’s growth. Kovarik has helped the industry secure a long-term extension of the biodiesel tax incentive; preserve important protections against unfair international trade; ensure the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard program; and organize the industry’s advocacy for equitable tax, infrastructure, and environmental policies.

    You can listen to his remarks here:
    Kurt Kovarik Remarks 8:52

    2024 Clean Fuels Conference Photo Album

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