#AFBF Offers 2017 Crop Outlook

Kelly MarshallAFBF, Audio

Dr. Pat Westhoff of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri brought attendees of the American Farm Bureau Federation‘s Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show an outlook for the 2017-2018 crop demand.

Overall, he says, look for 2017 to follow a similar trend of 2016, with prices continuing to be below average. “Lots of pressure will be placed on labor markets where there hasn’t been in the last several years,” Westhoff said. “This a result of poor labor markets and a slowing rate of population growth.

“Most of the immediate population growth will occur in the age range of people who are not of working age in the U.S., adding to the stress on the labor market.”

With an emphasis on the patterns of growth in populations and the advancements already made in grains and oilseeds, Westhoff outlines how harvest has increased by 17 percent while the world per capita consumption is increasing at 16 percent yearly.

“China and biofuels accounted for all the growth in per capita consumption since 1980,” Westhoff said. “Ethanol production and an increase in Chinese consumption per capita has had the greatest effect on grains and oilseeds global markets. Remove those two factors and we have about the same per capita use of grains and oilseeds.”

You can listen to his predictions here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/afbf17-crop-outlook.mp3″ text=”AFBF Crop Outlook with Pat Westhoff”]

2017 AFBF annual meeting photos

Commodity Classic Features Wide Range of Topics

Kelly MarshallCommodity Classic

There will be plenty going on for those attending the 2017 Commodity Classic in San Antonio, Texas on March 2-4.  As the largest farmer-led, farmer-focused convention and trade show, the Classic features a wide variety of educational opportunities, and with the newly published schedule, now you can see exactly what’s being offered in the Learning Centers.

“Learning Center presentations are selected by farmers for farmers, so that means you can be assured that the content, presenters and information are relevant, current and essential to a farmer’s success,” said Kevin Ross, an Iowa farmer and co-chair of the 2017 Commodity Classic. “During these challenging times, it’s even more important for all of us to ‘farmer up’ and find ways to become even smarter, more efficient and more profitable.”

Learning Center Sessions include:

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#AFBF17 Addresses the Dirt on Sustainability

Kelly MarshallAFBF, Audio, sustainability

Rancher Josh Geigle, veterinarian Dr. Elizabeth Kohtz, and farmer Katie Heger talk sustainability

One of agriculture’s biggest frustrations is sustainability; not because we aren’t doing it, but because others are defining it for us, says Katie Heger, a farmer serving on American Farm Bureau Federation‘s Dirt on Sustainability panel.

“We have a market that is trying to define what [sustainability] means to us and how we’re supposed to respond to that. Sustainability, really, definitely, 100 percent is different from field to field and farm to farm,” Heger emphasizes.

Generally, agriculture has agreed on three key pillars that define sustainability, says veterinarian Dr. Elizabeth Kohtz.  It’s about finding the sweet spot between social, environmental, and economical.  Most importantly, are the solutions created scientifically based or the results of a Google search?  In her own field of dairy cattle, Kohtz says an internet search turned up a suggestion to find out if milk was produced from grazed cattle, but that isn’t sustainable in her location in southern Idaho where grass is scarce certain times of the year.

The answer, according to rancher Josh Geigle, is to be involved in your community.  Youth sports or local clubs can bring farmers in contact with people without other ties to the industry.  Those opportunities are valuable for the message of sustainability.  “We get to share our story of how we are being sustainable in our own way.  They’ll ask, is that really sustainable? And we have a chance to explain to them how it is sustainable for us and it might not be for the next guy.”

You can hear the full panel discussion here:[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/afbf17-sustainability.mp3″ text=”AFBF Dirt on Sustainability panel”]

2017 AFBF annual meeting photos

Farm Groups Stress Trade to Trump

Kelly MarshallAg Group, Government, trade

The American Soybean Association and 15 other farmer organizations joined together last week to make sure President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence understand the importance of agricultural trade to rural America.  The groups sent a letter asking the administration to protect and enhance trade, specifically in regard to China, Canada and Mexico.

“We know that securing positive benefits for American farmers, ranchers, and workers in trade will be a priority in your Administration,” the letter states.  “This includes enforcing existing agreements so that other countries abide by their commitments, as well as expanding market access for U.S. producers through new agreements. As the Trump Administration assembles its team and policies, U.S. agricultural trade interests must be maintained, not only in existing markets but by expanding access to new markets.  Existing markets include China, Canada, and Mexico— U.S. farmers’ first, second, and third largest foreign customers. U.S. agricultural exports in FY-2016 were nearly $27 billion to China, over $24 billion to Canada, and nearly $19 billion to Mexico. Disrupting U.S. agricultural exports to these nations would have devastating consequences for our farmers and the many American processing and transportation industries and workers supported by these exports.”

NCGA Releases 2016 Annual Report

Kelly MarshallAg Group, NCGA

You can now view the National Corn Growers Association 2016 annual fiscal report online. All active members will also relieve a printed copy of the report, which highlights the achievements of the group over the last year, as well as laying out their current financial information.

“As the saying goes, change is the one thing we can count on,” said NCGA Chairman Chip Bowling, a grower from Maryland. “Certainly, we’ve seen a lot of change in the last few years in terms of technology, production, pricing, sustainability, consumer expectations and market demand. This is why over the last two years we’ve worked diligently to examine every facet of your national membership organization to ensure we are in a position to continue to propel the corn industry forward to create a plan that matches our vision: Sustainably feed and fuel a growing world.

Themed “Focused on Sustainable Demand,” the 2016 report spotlights efforts made by NCGA throughout the year to reach long-term, strategic goals to improve the future of the industry by increasing demand. Including perspective from grower leaders, information about the activities of NCGA’s action teams and committees and updates on its major image programs, the report provides a comprehensive resource for anyone looking to delve further into what NCGA does on behalf of our nation’s farmers.

Indigo Cotton Offers Gains for Growers

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Cotton, sustainability, water

Last spring Indigo launched their first product dedicated to helping farmers grow food and fiber in a sustainable manner. Now the company is releasing preliminary data from Indigo Cotton, a seat treatment based on naturally occurring in-plant microbes. The product was developed to improve water efficiency while offering high yields during water stress. Grower data from West Texas and Texas A&M shows an 11 percent average increase in yield, despite severe water stress during the growing season– without increasing water or chemical use.

The data are consistent with the results of four years of controlled field trials. They inform Indigo’s 2017 product selection, as the company identifies the most effective combination of microbial treatment, seed variety, and other conditions.

“These results represent another promising step in what we hope will be the next significant innovation in agriculture,” says David Perry, CEO and Director of Indigo. “One of the advantages of Indigo’s unique partnership model with growers is that we can gather this type of data from commercial fields, which helps us to improve applications of the plant microbiome, in cotton and other crops, in years to come.”

Syngenta To Use NRGene Software for Crop Breeding

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Data, Syngenta, Traits

Syngenta has chosen genomics big data company NRGene to evaluate and accelerate trait discovery. Their cloud-based GenoMAGIC software package will make trait mapping more efficient, thanks to volumes of genomic data that allow researchers to identify brand sequence polymorphisms and holotypes.  The new process is faster and more cost effective, since breeders can easily relate genomic sequences with beneficial traits.

The Syngenta-NRGene two-year relationship has resulted in denovo assembly of multiple genomes across several crop species and creation of pangenomes that show strong potential to add value in breeding and genetic research. During 2016, Syngenta tested GenoMAGIC by incorporating its own genetic diversity and field data to evaluate the benefits gained by GenoMAGIC analysis. Moving forward, the sophisticated genome management and data mining process behind GenoMagic will be evaluated more comprehensively at larger scale for broader value gains across the breeding process.

“The relationship between Syngenta and NRGene has already borne significant fruit,” says Dr. Gil Ronen, NRGene’s CEO. “Syngenta’s broad and diverse data cataloged within GenoMAGIC will continue to make breeding much more productive and efficient.”

Buzz About Pollinators at #PotatoExpo

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Bayer CropScience, pollinators, Potato

Chuck Zimmerman found Becky Langer of Bayer‘s Feed a Bee program and M. Vincent Restucci from R.D. Offutt Company buzzing with excitement at the the 2017 Potato Expo in San Fransisco, California. The two forces have joined together on behalf of pollinators– and been quite successful too.

R.D. Offutt Company made a commitment to helping pollinators in 2015. They joined with Feed a Bee and many other organizations to partner on projects.

“We made the commitment to take a look out our dry corners and center pivots, the areas we don’t farm – so an underperforming asset or an underutilized asset– and we started creating biodiversity […],” says Restucci.  “So we’ve planted 150,000 trees in those dry corners. We’ve planted 1,200 moving to 1,500 acres of pollinator habitat, because even though potatoes don’t require bees or pollinators because the pollen is so deep in the potato flower it requires a deep pollination only a bumble bee can provide, but we realize how important pollinators are to the whole food production system, and so we’ve covered the corners or areas under powers lines or next to schools or hospitals. Anywhere we farm we’ve started this buffer zone that is very aesthetically pleasing, and it benefits all kinds of wildlife, as well as pollinators.”

Bayer, of course, is ecstatic to have such interest because it is these partnerships that have grown the Feed a Bee program.

“That allowed us to reach the 2 billion flower mark,” Langer states.  “We started with the simple goal of planting 50 million. We couldn’t have done that without the 900,000 or more individuals that have joined us, along with our 117 partners like R.D. Offset Company. The key to our partners is they are such a diversified audience of stakeholders who have interested in pollinators from all different aspects, but it’s bringing that one common interest together to really make a better environment and ecosystem for the pollinators.”

Hear more about future pollinator plans in this interview:[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/potato-expo-17-bayer-langer-restucci.mp3″ text=”Becky Langer, Bayer and M. Vincent Restucci, R.D. Offutt”]

2017 Potato Expo photos

Coverage of the Potato Expo is sponsored by Coverage of Potato Expo is sponsored by Nufarm

NCGA Welcomes 115th Congress

Kelly MarshallAg Group, Government, NCGA

The New Year has been rung in and the 115th Congress and the National Corn Growers Association have gotten right to work. President Wesley Spurlock, First Vice President Kevin Skunes and staff from the NCGA office in DC have already made their first set of rounds on Capitol Hill, making sure lawmakers know what’s important to corn farmers. It’s essential work, emphasizes Spurlock.

“The National Corn Growers Association welcomes the new Congress. We hope they are ready to roll up their sleeves and work with the incoming Administration to make government work better for us all,” said the Stratford, Texas farmer. “I was encouraged by the many productive conversations we had with new and returning lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans. We look forward to working with them to solve important policy and regulatory issues in the coming year.”

“NCGA and state staff are critical to giving farmers a voice on Capitol Hill. But this is no substitute for elected officials hearing directly from farmers. Making government work better starts with each of us, working alongside our elected officials on common-sense solutions that move agriculture and our country forward.”

DJI Introduces New Aerial Tech Products

Kelly MarshallAerial Imagery, Agribusiness, drone

This week’s CES event in Las Vegas was the perfect time for unmanned aerial technology company DJI to introduce two new products– an aerial mapping app and a limited edition Phantom 4 drone.  They also debuted a prototype for an ultra-bright monitor specifically designed for outdoor aerial imaging operations called the CrystalSky, and showcased the Phantom 4 Pro, Inspire 2 and Mavic Pro.

“DJI has developed some of the world’s best aerial platforms and camera technology and now, we bring to our customers a new range of product extensions and accessories to further expand their creative possibilities,” said Paul Pan, DJI’s Lead Engineer. “Whether it’s shooting your own music video with the Osmo Mobile Silver, giving professional operators more control and flexibility with the CrystalSky monitor, or having an easy-to-use application for an aerial mapping project, we want to empower creators with the tools they need to bring their ideas to life. We’re very excited to be here and give CES attendees a glimpse into the future of aerial and imaging technology.”