News – Hoosier Ag Today: Recent Episodes
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[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/14192413/suderman-on-soybean-market-wrap.mp3"]Soybean futures moved lower again on Thursday with many factors pressuring the market. One is fear over what happens when President-Elect Trump takes office and what he does with China. Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist with StoneX, says their folks on the ground in China tell him one of three things will happen here in about 60 days. Option 1 sounds promising.
“One is that we actually get a trade agreement whereby China would buy more corn and soybeans from us than what they have been in exchange for maybe Trump giving on some of the tariffs against consumer goods coming into the United States from China or something like that.”
The next two options aren’t as promising. Option 2 would be things continue as they have been.
“Where they continue to buy more and more soybeans and corn from Brazil and Argentina and less and less from the United States. Option three would be if things deteriorate rapidly to where they cut off the United States at a much quicker path, probably tied to that might be some type of conflict over Taiwan that might stimulate that as well.”
The China fear would be enough, but Suderman says you also have a lack of certainty around biofuels programs.
“The lack of a 45Z program and California’s proposition that limits soy oil to 20% of the feedstock, all those things, it’s just hard to build a case. So, the funds say, well, we’ll just short soybeans against everything else. And that’s the trend we’re seeing right now.”
January beans finished below $10 Thursday at $9.87 ½.
The American Farm Bureau has voted to terminate the Illinois Farm Bureau’s membership effective on December 20. The vote took place on November 12 from the AFBF board of directors after unsuccessful mediation with IFB leadership.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” said Terri Moore, vice president of communications for the American Farm Bureau, “but we’re the largest general farm organization in the country, and from time to time, there are disagreements, and it’s unfortunate, and we hope to have a better resolution on the other side.”
AFB President Zippy Duvall says the action was based on Illinois Farm Bureau’s decision to allow its controlled affiliate company, Country Financial, to eliminate the Farm Bureau membership eligibility requirement for non-farm insurance policyholders in Illinois. Moore said it’s all about making sure farmers control the Farm Bureau.
“It comes down to, for our board of directors, which is made up of 30-some state presidents from across the country, the big thing that they want to protect is farmer control of Farm Bureau. We’re an organization that was created by farmers for the benefit of farmers and controlled by farmers for 105 years. The concern is that it was not farmers deciding to change the membership requirements in Illinois. So, that’s why President Duvall has said, ‘My concern is, I just want to know that this is farmer-led.” So that’s the conversation that’s happening now.”
She says AFB tried to work out the disagreement with IFB, and this is the last thing the national organization wanted.
“The Executive Committee of the American Farm Bureau board reached out and had hoped for a farmer-to-farmer meeting, in the end, which was a mediation meeting, and the mediation was not successful, so that is what led to the board deciding to implement membership.”
Moore added, “But we remain hopeful that, before long, there will be a resolution.”
Purdue student Marnie Schwartzkopf, who is originally from Hope, Indiana, is a member of the Purdue Ag Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) Club and is in Kansas City at the NAFB Convention to connect with ag leaders and ag broadcasters. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Joining the Hoosier Ag Today team this week in Kansas City at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Convention is a group of students from the Purdue University Ag Communicators of Tomorrow club. I had the chance to chat with ONE of those students.
“This is what I’m really interested in doing and really passionate about, so I’m really, really excited to learn from other professionals.”
That’s Marnie Schwartzkopf from Bartholomew County. She’s also a senior at Purdue with a focus on ag marketing.
“I really want to see myself in an ag marketing and communications role where I get to work with people but also get to be creative. Those are my two passions,” she says. “I had an internship this past summer with BASF where I got to learn the nitty gritty, but I was at a desk a lot for the summer. But I love people and love talking. So, I’m really excited to find a career where I’m really passionate about advocating for the agriculture industry, but I’m also getting to use my skills, communication, and creativity and I can foster that gap between producer and consumer.”
She says she’s become very curious with the work we do here at Hoosier Ag Today.
“I’m kind of just really interested to learn about farm broadcasting as a whole,” she says. “I switched into ag communications after two years after taking ag education classes, so I’m kind of a sponge right now soaking up what all the ag communications and marketing has to offer. I’m just trying to figure out exactly what path I’m going to go down, so I’m really just excited to soak it all up and put it towards my career.”
With Marnie’s passion for agriculture and talent for communication, I asked her if she was here to try and steal my job away from me?
“I am not, although that would be nice,” Marnie said with a laugh and smile.
CLICK BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news story with Purdue student Marnie Swartzkopf of Hope, Indiana, from the NAFB Convention in Kansas City.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/13234958/cj-wrap-hat-marnie-schwartzkopf-111324.mp3"]Purdue student Marnie Schwartzkopf (at left) with her parents Jeff and Mary Schwartzkopf of Hope, Indiana (at right) at the NAFB Convention in Kansas City. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Beck’s, the largest family-owned retail seed company in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Indiana, Wednesday announced the groundbreaking of its new soybean processing facility in New Madrid, Missouri. The state-of-the-art facility will help meet the growing demand for soybeans in the Mid-South region, expanding opportunities for local farmers and strengthening Beck’s commitment to serving the agricultural community.
“We’re proud to welcome Beck’s to the Show-Me State as it announces this exciting new facility in New Madrid,” said Governor Mike Parson. “As a business owner and third-generation farmer, I’m thrilled to see an agricultural leader like Beck’s making such a significant investment in our state. This company’s presence in New Madrid will support the area’s economy, benefit local farmers, and further strengthen Missouri agriculture as a whole.”
Situated on 105.5 acres, the facility will cover 60,000 square feet and will have a processing capacity of 3 million units of soybeans per year. The facility will also feature additional warehouse space, and seed storage ensuring that Beck’s can effectively meet the needs of farmers in the area. Construction will be completed in phases, with the first phase expected to be finished by December 2024. The facility is projected to be fully operational by fall 2026. In its first year, it will create 17 new jobs, bringing a welcome boost to the local economy.
“We are thrilled to expand our presence in the Mid-South and put down roots in the New Madrid community,” said Scott Beck, president of Beck’s. “This new facility represents our ongoing commitment to serving farmers by providing them with high-quality soybean products and elite customer service. We look forward to building strong partnerships in the area and supporting the growth of the agricultural industry for years to come.”
This facility marks another significant step in Beck’s mission to provide innovative solutions and service to farmers across the United States. As demand for soybeans continues to rise, Beck’s continues to invest in the infrastructure needed to support the future of farming.
Beck’s is proud to partner with Missouri Partnership, the city of New Madrid, New Madrid County Commission, Liberty Utilities, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and the state of Missouri to bring this new facility to New Madrid. This collaboration will enhance Beck’s ability to attract investment and create jobs in the New Madrid community, further contributing to the region’s agricultural development and economic vitality.
“This exciting investment of millions of dollars not only brings new jobs to our community but also highlights our commitment to fostering a vibrant business environment. New Madrid is open for business, and together with Beck’s, we are planting the seeds for a prosperous future,” said Mayor Nick White.
“Working with Beck’s has been and continues to be an absolute pleasure,” said Aaron Griffin, New Madrid city administrator. “They are a family-owned and operated organization that adheres to family values. They promote agriculture in innovative ways. New Madrid prides itself on having family values and agriculture as a part of its backbone. We humbly welcome them to our beautiful community.”
“Beck’s decision to establish a footprint in New Madrid, bringing with it jobs and investment, creates excitement and new opportunities for Missourians to prosper,” said Michelle Hataway, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development. “Team DED is proud to support Beck’s, and we are incredibly grateful that they chose southeast Missouri for their new location.”
“Missouri’s deep-rooted history in soybean production, paired with our robust infrastructure and skilled workforce, makes it the perfect location for Beck’s to grow and succeed,” said Subash Alias, CEO of Missouri Partnership. “This investment highlights our state’s leadership in the industry and reinforces Missouri’s role as a critical hub for feeding and fueling the world.”
The Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center announced Wednesday a new chapter in its rich history with the naming rights partnership for the iconic Fairgrounds Coliseum. Effective with the announcement, it will be named the Corteva Coliseum, in partnership with Indianapolis-based Corteva Agriscience, a global leader in innovation and technology solutions.
For over a century, the State Fairgrounds has been a cherished gathering place for Hoosiers, hosting a wide range of events that celebrate the spirit of Indiana. The Coliseum, with its grandeur and historic significance, has been a symbol of the community and entertainment for generations. This new naming rights agreement replaces the previous Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
Corteva is the only major U.S. based agricultural technology company and its commitment to excellence and innovation aligns perfectly with the vision for the future of the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center. This partnership represents an exciting opportunity to elevate the Coliseum experience, ensuring that it remains a premier destination for generations to come.
“Indianapolis is our home and our ties to the Hoosier state and the Indiana State Fairgrounds run deep,” said Chuck Magro, CEO of Corteva. “The Corteva Coliseum reflects an important commitment to our community and we’re grateful to be a part of such an iconic venue that means so much to our employees, friends and neighbors.”
“Ushering in this new era for our beloved Coliseum with our long-term partners at Corteva Agriscience is beyond exciting. We are so grateful for their commitment to our State, our Fairgrounds and our community. Together, we will continue to create memories and traditions for generations to come!” said Cindy Hoye, Indiana State Fair Commission Executive Director.
The Indiana State Fairgrounds and Corteva are eager to unveil exciting plans that lie ahead for the newly named Corteva Coliseum. For more information on the Corteva Coliseum, please visit CortevaColiseum.com.
About Corteva
Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry-leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and a technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to maximizing productivity for farmers, while working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.
About the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center
The Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center is a modern public event facility that annually hosts more than 400 meetings, shows, sports and agricultural events, including the Indiana State Fair. The year-round management of the Fairgrounds is overseen by the Indiana State Fair Commission which is a quasi-governmental agency that was established in 1992, with the mission to preserve and enhance the Indiana State Fairgrounds and the annual Indiana State Fair for the benefit of all citizens of Indiana. For more information visit www.indianastatefair.com.
Republicans will be in charge of the White House, the Senate, and we’re still waiting for sure, but it sure looks like the House too. We discussed the impact that would have on agriculture with some special guests on the latest edition of the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, including former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner from Benton County, Indiana.
If the House should fall to the Republicans as well, Conner, president & CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, says that the implications would be dramatic.
“Extending our current tax policy, which is pretty favorable policy for estates, for farms, for LLCs, corporations, pretty favorable. With Trump, and now control of the House and the Senate being Republicans, it’s almost certain that those tax provisions, that all expire next year, are going to get extended. And I think generally, most people would say that’s pretty good news for American agriculture and for agribusiness.”
Conner believes a major win for farmers under Republican leadership relates to regulatory issues.
“My phone rings off the hook every day from people complaining about regulatory overreach, whether that’s Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Labor, it just seems like there’s a constant onslaught. I think you can safely say that when Trump takes office, regulatory overreach is going to stop- period.”
One area of great concern that might be more difficult to tackle is farm labor.
“We’ve been working on that for a very, very long time, unsuccessfully. I think our chances of solving some of those labor problems in a Republican controlled body gets a little bit more challenging, because it does interact with all of our border control issues and the like, and that’s just going to be a lot stickier probably with the Republicans in charge than had it been a different set of circumstances.”
Hear more from Benton County native Chuck Conner on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast below or wherever you listen to podcasts. And congratulations to Chuck on his retirement! He just announced he’ll be retiring from the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives effective at the end of the year.
Photo courtesy of Purdue Extension.The U.S. wine industry is grappling with challenges stemming from international tariffs and complex distribution laws, both of which impact the market for domestic and imported wines.
Ben Aneff, President of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, explains that the unique U.S. “three-tier” distribution system, a structure stemming from Prohibition’s end, mandates that wine is sold through separate importers, distributors, and retailers. This setup restricts direct international sales, ensuring that most profits from imported wine benefit American companies.
Unlike other industries where companies can directly import and sell goods, wine sellers cannot bypass this chain. The three-tier system aims to prevent monopolies and ensure regulatory oversight, but it also adds layers of complexity and cost to the wine trade. For instance, a restaurant or retailer in the U.S. must purchase wine from a licensed distributor rather than directly from international wineries, restricting access and driving up prices. This structure keeps most profits from imported wine sales within U.S. businesses, but some argue that it limits flexibility and increases vulnerability to tariffs, ultimately affecting the availability and pricing of wine for American consumers.
Aneff also highlights the impact of tariffs on the U.S. wine industry, particularly focusing on policies enacted in 2019. Tariffs on imported wine present significant challenges for the U.S. wine industry, impacting both international and domestic players. The 2019 tariffs on European wines, introduced by then-President Trump as part of a trade dispute over Airbus subsidies, added a 25% duty to many imported wines, straining American distributors who rely on these products. These tariffs make it harder for businesses like restaurants and wine shops to afford European wines, which are essential to their beverage programs and profit margins. Moreover, because domestic wineries depend on the same distribution networks, financial pressures on distributors can reduce access to markets for smaller U.S. wine producers.
“During the last round of tariffs in 2019, we saw 25% duties put on most still wines from Europe, which was a huge scare for U.S. businesses that rely on these products. These wines aren’t interchangeable—you can’t just swap them out. If you’re an Italian restaurant, you depend on Italian wine. If you’re a French restaurant, you depend on French wine,” Aneff said. “Moreover, our domestic producers actually need healthy distributors to access markets. So, tariffs that hit distributors hard end up hurting American wineries as well. We’re all part of an ecosystem here: when it’s healthy, everyone flourishes, and when it’s not, everyone suffers for it.”
Industry leaders warn that tariffs disrupt the “ecosystem” of the wine trade, where healthy partnerships between domestic and imported brands benefit all. Tariffs can also limit consumer choice, as higher prices discourage imports, reducing the selection of wines available to American buyers.
Many in the wine industry, including organizations like Wine America, oppose tariffs on imported wine, fearing they harm both domestic and international producers. Aneff encouraged consumers to support local wine stores and restaurants while also suggesting they contact their representatives to express support for tariff-free wine trade.
As farmers struggle with low crop prices, relatively high interest rates and increased input costs, fewer are making big-ticket purchases like tractors, combines and farm implements, resulting in a backlog of inventory across the globe. Machinery manufacturer AGCO has about four months of orders with its dealers in North America and is looking to bring that number down to three, Eric Hansotia, AGCO’s president and CEO, said in an investor call last week. In general, manufacturers want to optimize their coverage to avoid extra costs and storage fees. “We will continue to focus on under-producing retail demand, coupled with retail market share execution to bring dealer inventories in line with our targeted range,” according to Hansotia. Competitors Deere & Co. and CNH have also slowed their production and reduced their workforce numbers throughout the year to account for the down market. While tractor and combine sales wane, manufacturers are expecting precision agriculture sales to grow as farmers look to boost yields and lower day-to-day costs.
U.S. food and ag sales to Mexico surged by 7% during the 2024 fiscal year, making the North American neighbor the No. 1 ag export customer, according to Census Bureau data tracked by the USDA. China fell to third place behind Canada in export purchases.
Shipments to Mexico totaled $30 billion, an increase of $2 billion from 2023, with purchases that included a record 24.5 million metric tons of corn, 40% of all U.S. corn exports for the year. Canada bought $29 billion and China $25.7 billion of American-grown food and ag products.
Together, Mexico and Canada accounted for one-third of U.S. food and ag exports of $173 billion for the year. And they were forecast to repeat as the top two markets in fiscal 2025, with China again in third place. Brazil has gained a larger share of the ag import market in China.
With the 2024 harvest largely in the books, farmers and agronomists alike are looking back on the season and reflecting on what went well, what could have gone better, what they would have changed, etc.
“I think we missed an opportunity this year by not planting early. And by early, I mean in March, when you don’t normally plant,” says Pioneer agronomist Lance Shepherd. “Conditions were fit. Soil temps were pretty decent. However, it’s always that concern of, does the frost come in and bite you in the rear end. And we actually never received those.”
Shepherd covers Northeast Indiana for Pioneer. The caveat, of course, is the field must be fit for planting and the forecast is promising. Shepherd recommends to go ahead with planting in March if the same situation presents itself in ‘25.
“No need to rush it if we’re going to call it a sidewall compaction, or any sort of compaction, or compromise the roots in any manner. But if weather is favorable, and there’s a weather trend in the next 48 hours that is still good, most definitely plant when you can. Definitely big yield advantages to doing so.”
Shepherd knows every farmer is sharpening that pencil this fall and winter, but there are some places where he says it makes sense to spend to see that ROI. He discusses what those are and much more in the full HAT interview below.
Get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
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Dr. Jim Donahue, CEO and Co-founder of ReproHealth Technologies, based in Rensselaaer, Indiana. Donahue was a human fertility doctor who is now working to produce IVF devices for cattle reproduction. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.In vitro fertilization (IVF) has been used in cattle for more than 40 years, but one doctor has developed new technology that could bring about major changes to the way that cattle are reproduced on the farm.
“We’re making devices to improve assisted reproduction in cattle. We’re basically improving in vitro fertilization as well as artificial insemination are we’re making the devices that improves sperm processing,” says Dr. Jim Donahue, Co-founder and CEO of ReproHealth Technologies. The company is based in Rensselaer in northwestern Indiana.
Hoosier Ag Today spoke with Donahue at the most recent QUADRANT event hosted by AgriNovus Indiana.
Donahue shared that he had previously worked as a human fertility doctor. In 2017, he was part of a team that performed Indiana’s first intravaginal embryo culture with an FDA-approved device that allowed embryos to grow in the device inside the patient rather than in an incubator in a lab.
“We did this device, and [the woman] made two beautiful embryos,” he says. “We put them in, and she had twins the following summer. I really thought, ‘Wow, what did we really do here?’ because we made a new type of incubator.”
That’s when Donahue teamed up with Dr. Michael Whitt, an Associate Professor of BioMedical Engineering with California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and veterinarian Dave Dixon to see if the new technology could work in cattle. The three came together to start ReproHealth Technologies.
The device, which is approximately 3 inches by 1.5 inches, which is attached to the Controlled Intravaginal Drug Released (CIDR) insert, which controls the cycle of the cow that secretes progesterone. The device piggybacks on the CIDR. The embryos are then grown inside the device while attached to the CIDR.
“I really think it’s all about genetics,” he says. “Producers know the best genetics and how can we get those better genetics because this technology allows you to make multiple offspring of the best cows, and so it’s really utilizing your best bull’s semen, which can be really expensive for some, as well as the embryos from your best milking cows.”
He says this technology is far better for bovine embryos because they don’t grow as well inside an incubator, simply because those are typically set at the same temperature between the time the embryos are created and they are inserted inside the animal.
“The device is at that cow’s temperature, which actually changes throughout the day. That’s why the process is more natural than creating the embryos in a lab,” says Donahue.
Learn more about Indiana-based ReproHealth Technologies at ReproHealthTech.com.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s radio news story featuring Dr. Jim Donahue, CEO and Co-founder of ReproHealth Technologies.
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Speculation has already begun on who the next Secretary of Agriculture will be when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January. Successful Farming says Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller, former ambassador Kip Tom, and Ted McKinney of NASDA are among a handful of people viewed as potential nominees to run the Department of Agriculture.
Incoming presidents typically try to announce their nominees before the year-end holidays, although Trump didn’t announce Sonny Perdue to lead USDA until two days before his inauguration.
Miller was initially mentioned for USDA after Trump won his first term. Tom was the U.S. ambassador to the UN agencies for food and agriculture in Rome during the first term. McKinney, the undersecretary for trade in the first administration, is now the CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has also been mentioned because his term expires in December.
A proposal to phase out large livestock operations in a major California agricultural county failed. California voters in the major agricultural region of Sonoma County overwhelmingly voted down a controversial ballot proposal to phase out large farms in a win for the meat industry.
The ballot initiative, Measure J, which about 85% of the voters opposed, would have banned large livestock farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations.
Proponents said the measure would protect animal welfare as well as provide a national model to transform food systems away from large-scale agriculture. Around two dozen CAFOs operate in Sonoma County, including four owned by poultry giant Perdue Farms. However, the majority of the state’s CAFOs are in California’s Central Valley.
The ballot measure in the rural county spurred broad pushback from farmers, who expressed concern that the loss of large farms could have ripple effects throughout the agricultural economy.
[audio mp3="https://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/saltro-for-rcr-wrap.mp3"]Soybean Cyst Nematode and Sudden Death Syndrome have been two of the leading causes of soybean yield loss for years. But how does Red Crown Rot, a newer and rising disease threat, relate to SCN and SDS?
“Sudden Death Syndrome is a disease that gets in your soybean crop early in the season,” says Matt Geiger, an agronomic service representative with Syngenta. “You don’t often see expressions of the disease until the late reproductive stages, even though the infection happened months and months ago and that causes a sudden death. You see this leaf scorch late in the season, and it can wipe the plants out pretty rapidly because it makes them shut down. Once you see this foliar leaf scorch late in the season, the pods won’t fill all the way. You might abort some pods toward the top of the plant as well. So, Red Crown Rot, being what I would call its nastier cousin, is very similar to this in that it also gets in the plant early in the season and doesn’t express itself until late as well with this foliar leaf scorch. You get the question, ‘Oh, can I spray a fungicide to help me with this?’ And you know, unfortunately, it’s too late for both of those pathogens. You need to control both of those with a seed treatment. You want to prevent them from getting in the plants when they’re young.”
The challenge is distinguishing between Red Crown Rot and SDS because the symptoms are similar.
“It seems, at least in the geography that I cover in Southern Illinois towards Central Illinois, is Red Crown Rot is more of a predictable disease, and what I mean by that is it doesn’t seem like the conditions need to be as specific as they do with SDS. It seems like it can show up, almost no matter what, in fields where you have a high inoculum load. So, they’re diseases to be on the watch out for. They look a lot alike. You need to look at the roots late-season, if you want to try and identify between the two, because, at face value, you think you just have SDS because the foliar scorch looks very similar.”
“This is a disease that’s definitely on the rise,” says Dr. Carl Bradley from the University of Kentucky. “It’s causing some severe yield losses to farmers. I’ve walked fields that look terrible because of Red Crown Rot, but Soybean Cyst Nematode does interact with this disease, and so what’s been shown in work at LSU many years ago is when you’ve got both pathogens together, the Red Crown Rot symptoms are much worse compared to if it was only the Red Crown Rot pathogen that was present. If you just have some soil-borne pathogens by themselves, they’re going to cause yield loss. But if you have Soybean Cyst Nematode in that field as well, that yield loss and symptoms of the other disease is going to be magnified.”
Growers have a solid option to protect against SCN, SDS, and RCR.
“We’ve got a product that’s done all in one, and it’s called Saltro® Fungicide seed treatment,” Geiger explains. “It’ll give you protection for SDS, SCN, and RCR. So, it’s a very good product, and it’s also very safe on the soybeans. It has some plant-health benefits as well, so you can see bigger roots with this product as well, and so that’s kind of the all-in-one product that we recommend. We have a Two Double-E label for Red Crown Rot for a few states. So, what you can do is run a higher rate, and you can get suppression of Red Crown Rot. It’s not labeled for full control, but it will suppress the disease, so based on what that means, it will delay the leaf scorch symptoms.”
To learn more about Saltro, visit WhySaltro.com. Always read and follow label instructions.
Source: NAFB News Service
This month’s 2024/2025 U.S. corn outlook is for lower production and ending stocks, according to the November WASDE report from USDA.
Corn production is forecast at 15.1 billion bushels, down 60 million from last month on a 0.7-bushel reduction in yield to 183.1 bushels per acre. Harvested area for grain is unchanged at 82.7 million acres. Total use is unchanged at 15 billion bushels. With supply falling and no change to use, corn ending stocks are down to 1.9 billion bushels.
U.S. soybean supply and use changes for 2024/2025 include lower production, exports, crush, and ending stocks. Soybean production is forecast at 4.5 billion bushels, down 121 million on reduced yields. The largest production changes are for Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. Exports are lowered 25 million bushels to 1.8 billion on lower supplies and sales to date.
Crush is lowered 15 million bushels to 2.4 billion, reflecting lower soybean meal domestic disappearance and exports. Soybean ending stocks are lowered 80 million bushels to 470 million bushels.
CLICK BELOW to hear further analysis from Brian Basting with Advance Trading, Inc. of the USDA’s WASDE report for November:
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The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and U.S. Soy have a prominent role in the Kitchen Arena of the 2024 World Food Championships (WFC), the largest food sport competition focused on everyday cooking categories, Nov. 8-12 at the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center.
High oleic soybean oil will be provided to WFC competitors through a partnership with the event. The high oleic soybean oil will serve as the “official Cooking Oil” for the competition, and it will be made available to all of the contestants via the WFC’s Kitchen Arena pantry.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the Indiana Soybean Alliance to elevate soy as an ingredient on one of the world’s preeminent stages for food competition,” said WFC Founder Mike McCloud. “Soy is such a versatile ingredient with so many uses, it is often underutilized in Western cuisine.”
High oleic soybean oil delivers enhanced functional benefits within food service operations such as superior high heat stability. Exclusively a U.S. product, it extends product shelf life and offers the longest fry life of any edible oil. High oleic soybean oil lasts longer than standard vegetable oils in high-temperature and extended-use applications because of its heat and oxidative stability. In addition, the oil’s neutral flavor profile allows it to blend well in a variety of foods and lets the true and natural flavors of the ingredients stand out.
Many venues around Indiana are already using high oleic soybean oil including the Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium, the Indiana Pacers’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Purdue University’s Ross-Ade Stadium and Mackey Arena, and Indiana University’s Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium – among others.
“Just like the many venues around that state that are already using high oleic soybean oil, the World Food Championships is another great opportunity to showcase this cooking oil,” said ISA Chair Kevin Cox, a farmer from Brazil, Ind. “High oleic soybean oil is soybean checkoff program success story, and I am very excited about this product’s future.”
The 2024 World Food Championships, Nov. 8-12 at the Indiana State Fairground, has hosted many qualifying events throughout the year. The Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion will be the heart of the action, with competitions, live demonstrations and unique fan experiences spread throughout the venue.
For more detailed event information and ticket purchases, go online to the WFC website at https://worldfoodchampionships.com/tickets.
Source: Indiana Soybean Alliance
Joe Ricker, the founder of At Ease Orchard. Photo courtesy of At Ease Orchard.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/07222013/cj-wrap-hat-joe-ricker-afbf-veteran-farmer-award-110824.mp3"]Retired Army Col. Joe Ricker, who operates At Ease Orchard near Wilkinson, Indiana in Hancock County, is the first recipient of the Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence presented by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) with support from Farm Credit.
The newly establishedaward recognizes veterans or service members for excellence in farming or agriculture and positively impacting local communities.
Ricker served 30 years in the Army before retiring from a logistics post at the Pentagon in 2022. His service also included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since leaving the Army, his commitment to excellence in farming and enriching the lives of veterans has blossomed in a myriad of ways in both his local community of Wilkinson, Indiana, and across the country.
Ricker started At Ease Orchard, a nonprofit that introduces veterans, first responders and their family members to beekeeping and other farm activities. Ricker says he trains veterans to become beekeepers and start their own honey production.
He says beekeeping and working on a farm can be therapeutic for many veterans—not only for those who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, but also those veterans who may return home with a physical disability.
“I think it helps veterans. It gives them a mission and gives them a reason to wake up because beekeeping and farming, in general, is a little bit like the military—there’s always danger in it.”
He says he also understands the struggles that many veterans face and uses to farm to help connect with them.
“We’ve been in different environments that most people who aren’t veterans sometimes don’t understand. But it’s a difficult environment to try to adjust to when you return home from serving. With that said, being among other veterans helps you open up a little more. You can say, ‘Hey do you remember this?’ You kind of have that camaraderie where people understand what you’re going through,” says Ricker.
He also founded Veterans IN Farming, which provides veterans in Indiana with training and support to succeed in farming. He’s involved with Heroes to Hives through Michigan Food & Farming Systems, which uses beekeeping to help veterans achieve financial and personal wellness. For the last several years, he has served as veteran outreach coordinator for the National AgrAbility Project, which helps farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers with disabilities remain in the workforce.
Veterans who are being trained to become beekeepers at At Ease Orchard in Hancock County. Photo courtesy of At Ease Orchard.“We’re proud to elevate and celebrate Col. Joe Ricker for his past service to our country and current involvement in agriculture and local communities,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “We greatly appreciate the sacrifices of veterans and active service members so we can enjoy the freedoms we have in our country, and I’m delighted to highlight their contributions to agriculture, too.”
Ability to assess risk, aptitude for planning and patience are among the skills gained from military service that Ricker has found transition well to agriculture. Through the training classes he conducts in beekeeping and other types of agriculture for veterans, he offers an ear and more formally, referrals for mental health support and resources.
“I feel successful and worth my time if I save one [person] from hurting themselves,” Ricker said. He’s excited about using the $10,000 cash prize for the award to train additional veterans in beekeeping and also improve outreach and national networking.
AFBF will present Ricker with the Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence at the organization’s 2025 Convention in January, in San Antonio.
To learn more about At Ease Orchard and how Ricker and his team how are helping veterans in need, visit AtEaseOrchard.com.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s interview with Joe Ricker from November 2023, as he talked with C.J. Miller about the goal of helping veterans with At Ease Orchard.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2023/11/09133905/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-JOE-RICKER-AT-EASE-ORCHARD-110923.mp3"]Joe Ricker (center), along with his wife Annette (left) and son Grant (right) from At Ease Orchard near Wilkinson in Hancock County, Indiana. It’s a non-profit orchard and beekeeping businesses that helps veterans in need. Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center.Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
President Donald Trump with Kip Tom, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. Tom is also an Indiana farmer based near Leesburg. He also served as co-chair of “Farmers and Ranchers for Trump ’47”. Photo courtesy of Ambassador Kip Tom.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/07165330/cj-wrap-hat-kip-tom-on-trump-ag-policies-110724.mp3"]Now that Donald Trump is returning to the White House to serve as President, one of Indiana’s top ag leaders says that Trump’s agriculture policies will greatly benefit Indiana’s farmers and rural Americans.
“I think Trump is a world-class negotiator, and I’m confident that he’ll support the U.S. agriculture economy,” says Kip Tom, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture during President Trump’s first term. He is also a farmer based in Kosciusko County in northern Indiana and served as co-chair of the “Farmers and Ranchers for Trump 47” Committee.
Tom says that Trump will look at taking President Biden’s current ag policies in a completely different direction.
“When we talk about trade—we went from nearly $37 billion surplus in the early days of Trump’s administration. Now, we’re projecting a $42 billion deficit in our food and ag trade,” according to Tom. “We also know that farmers’ incomes are off nearly 40 percent from 2022 to 2024. We know that regulations have grown by almost $1.67 trillion—and that’s highly inflationary because when those regulations or new taxes all come into place, that all gets handed back to the consumers or those of us in a space where we take the prices that we’re given for our products, so I think those are three key areas that we’ve got to get under control and I think Trump is going to focus on those.”
Even though many farmers and ag professionals have expressed their concern about the impact of tariffs and ag trade with Trump back in office, Tom says that Trump will won’t push for tariffs or trade deals unless they benefit America’s farmers.
“I know that [Trump] understands the ag economy,” says Tom. “He understands that 75 percent of the people that he would impact if he puts strict tariffs on imports are going to be impacted negatively. Now, as we look at those tariffs, let’s take the example of China. We’re importing nearly $500 billion worth of goods and products from China. But they’re only buying $350 billion from us. What’s fair about that? I believe we really need to work hard to make sure that we have more of a balanced trade with countries like China. If they want to keep up their $500 billion in sales to us, then they need to be buying more of our ag commodities.”
President Trump delivering his victory speech on the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 6 after winning the 2024 Presidential election.Tom adds that Trump would not have been reelected, if it wasn’t for the support he received from rural Americans.
“Nearly 75 percent of rural America—farmers, ranchers, those involved in our food systems, and those living in our rural communities—supported Donald J. Trump as President of the United States in 2024. He knows that. We continue to remind him of that, and I feel strongly that President Trump wants to see and support a strong ag economy and rural America,” added Tom.
The 119th United States Congress will be sworn in on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. Meanwhile, Trump will be sworn in as our nation’s 47th President on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. He will become only the second U.S. President, in addition to Grover Cleveland, to be elected as President to two non-consecutive terms.
CLICK BELOW to hear Ambassador Kip Tom’s full conversation with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller, as they also discuss the status of the Farm Bill in Congress, as well as the push by ag leaders to preserve the 2017 tax reforms beyond 2025.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/07222042/cj-interview-kip-tom-trump-ag-policies-110724.mp3"]
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/07221832/sabrina-wrap-mat-ncba-on-farm-bill-110724.mp3"]While the election is now behind us, the future of the long-awaited Farm Bill remains in question. Farmers and ranchers have been waiting for the reauthorization of the bill for more than a year, since the last bill expired in September 2023.
While there is a ready, bipartisan-supported version released by Congressman Glenn GT Thompson (R-PA-15), who also serves as House Agriculture Committee Chair, it remains unknown if it will pass before the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2025.
Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), acknowledged the strength of the bill.
“GT Thompson has done a phenomenal job. He has crafted a really popular farm bill that was voted out of the House Ag Committee on a bipartisan basis,” said Lane, who noted that this bill is well-supported within farming and ranching communities, adding, “There’s a good bill out there. It’s ready to move… We just need to move the bill.”
However, the timing of the bill’s passage remains a significant factor. Lane explained, “Whether that happens in lame duck, because we have a newly open to compromise Democratic conference up on Capitol Hill… or whether that’s something that’s taken up quickly in the new Congress,” the Farm Bill has support and could potentially move forward in either scenario.
Lane also emphasized that this version of the bill addresses key issues facing producers, with Thompson doing “more legwork than any chairman we’ve ever seen in talking to producers and figuring out how to thread that needle.”
Whether the current political landscape either helps or hinders the Farm Bill’s progression remains to be seen. With the Senate expected to shift under new Republican voices, and the House potentially remaining under Republican control, the bill stands a good chance of moving forward quickly in the new Congress. However, there is also the risk that competing legislative priorities in the new administration could delay it.
As the farming community awaits action, Lane emphasized the urgency of the situation, reiterating that “the bill is there. It’s just time to move it.” Whether Congress can accomplish this in the lame-duck period or early next year remains to be seen, but for many in agriculture, timely action on the Farm Bill is a pressing priority.
Major natural disasters, like Hurricanes Helene and Milton, caused severe economic and environmental damage in the southeastern region of the U.S. this fall. Although the coast is at the greatest risk for damage from hurricanes, researchers in the UK have found that they are reaching higher latitudes which can lead to more impact in the Corn Belt, said Laura Bowling, department head and professor of agronomy at Purdue University.
Bowling explained that these storms are getting stronger due to climate change. Higher ocean temperatures cause greater evaporation, leading to more intense storms that can travel further inland. The resulting heavy precipitation and high wind speeds present an immediate danger to people and agricultural systems. Potential lodging or waterlogging from wind, rain or flooding, for example, can cause low crop yields or even complete loss.
To prepare for these weather events, small agribusinesses can adopt several key mitigation strategies, according to Maria Marshall, who holds the Jim & Lois Ackerman Endowed Chair in the department of agricultural economics at Purdue and serves as the director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. Marshall is also an expert in disaster resilience for small businesses, defined as companies with less than 200 employees.
“Having insurance in place and understanding the policies of your insurance coverage is a big deal,” Marshall said. “So is having your important documents in the cloud or backed up somewhere else
In the wake of disaster, Marshall emphasized, “The infrastructure around small businesses is going to be the most important to help them get back up and running so they can support their customers.” She said that the time between when they get hit by a major weather event and when their insurance pays for the damages can vary. In the meantime, she encourages individuals to reach out to federal, state and local disaster relief resources, such as applying for a Small Business Administration disaster loan.
Farmers also need to prepare for natural disasters. “Most farms take out crop insurance,” said Michael Langemeier, professor of agricultural economics and associate director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture. “While it’s not targeted for natural disasters, it can help. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency in 2023 show that 90% of corn and soybean acres in Indiana are protected by crop insurance.”
Langemeier said that yield drop due to weather events is the most relevant danger. “In 2012, when Indiana had a major drought, crop insurance covered some of the losses related to the huge drop in yield.” Revenue protection insurance similarly provides a buffer in case of low yield due to widespread events like drought or flooding.
He said, “With changing weather patterns, people need to think about what precautions to take, like changing crops, when they plant crops and seed variety.” He also suggested putting in tile drainage, which can be helpful in case of heavy rainfall, adding pivots to assist with irrigation and reducing tillage to preserve moisture.
“Think about contingency plans,” Langemeier said. “You can’t plan for everything, but you can plan for how to weather the storm.”
Written by: Ashvini Malshe, Purdue Agricultural Communications
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/06202206/cj-wrap-hat-karl-setzer-trump-reaction-110624.mp3"]Now that Donald Trump has been elected to another non-consecutive term as President, Karl Setzer with Consus Ag Consulting says the commodity and equity markets both had mixed reactions to the news on Wednesday.
“The initial reaction was that President Trump historically does have a strong tendency to favor business and is pro-business,” said Setzer. “That caused the U.S. dollar to surge a full two points. The equity markets all put in new contracts highs, so that side took off to the upside.”
However, he says that some traders still have their concerns about Trump’s trade policies once he returns to the White House.
“At the same time, President Trump also has a very strong tendency to place tariffs on trade partners when he doesn’t see that we’re seeing equal trade,” he says. “That caused sharp losses in the commodity complex overnight—especially on soybeans because of the potential fallout with China, our leading buyer.”
By mid-morning on Wednesday, trade in the grain markets as the session progressed and much of the early losses in commodities were erased while the outside markets remained firm. At close, November soybeans ended three-quarters of a penny higher, while January soybeans were two cents higher.
Overall, Setzer adds that the markets Wednesday simply had a “knee-jerk” reaction to Trump’s election win. By midday on Wednesday, the commodity markets were already focusing on positioning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates on Thursday afternoon and the release of the USDA’s WASDE report on Friday afternoon.
“Now, we will just sit back and watch everything and see what policies will change between now and when President Trump takes over,” says Setzer. “We have to remember that even though he’s President-elect, we have eight weeks before he takes office. We will find out if China is really concerned with these tariffs or not by how much you trade we see with them and how much they can get bought before he’s actually sworn in.”
President Trump will take office on Monday, January 20, 2025.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/06210450/election-long.mp3"]The outcome of the 2024 General Election is set to bring significant changes to the agricultural landscape, according to at least one ag expert.
With Donald Trump returning to the presidency, new dynamics will unfold, especially in the U.S. Senate, where pivotal shifts are already affecting the agriculture sector. That, according to Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, who emphasized the importance of these changes.
“The margin in the popular vote total is going to be incredibly impactful,” Lane said, highlighting that a Republican sweep could have widespread implications. In particular, the defeat of key Democratic senators like John Tester in Montana signals a change in direction. This shift is likely to bring fresh Republican perspectives to agricultural policy, aligning more closely with rural and cattle industry interests.
One pressing area is regulatory overreach. Lane mentioned how federal agencies have traditionally had considerable freedom in their interpretations of congressional intent. He pointed to a recent case, the Loper Bright decision, which has limited the leeway these agencies have.
“That is going to really hang like a cloud over this new administration as it comes in and starts to contemplate,” he explained. This could mean that federal agencies face more restrictions when enforcing environmental regulations, such as those under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Tax relief for farmers and ranchers is another priority. Lane emphasized the importance of preserving the 2017 tax reforms, which are set to expire in 2025. “We’re an industry that is land rich and cash poor,” he noted, stressing that maintaining these tax benefits is crucial for farm transitions and financial stability.
With the farm bill still unresolved, agricultural stakeholders are watching closely. Lane expressed optimism about the farm bill, emphasizing that it has strong bipartisan support and is ready to move forward. He praised House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson for his extensive work and urged that the bill be passed, whether during the current lame-duck session or early in the new administration.
The House and Senate Agriculture Committees will see changes to membership during the 2025 legislative session. Farm Policy News says two incumbent members, New York Representative Marcus Molinaro (R) and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D), were not re-elected. This in addition to Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow (D), chair of the Senate Ag Committee, not seeking re-election.
Representative Molinaro had served on the committee since his election in 2022 and lost his race to Democrat Josh Riley.
On the Senate Ag Committee side, incumbent Brown lost his race to Republican challenger Bernie Moreno.
There were several incumbents who won re-election, including Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Republican who held on to her Senate seat, besting challenger Dan Osborn. Iowa Republican Zach Nunn held onto his House seat in Iowa’s Third Congressional District.
Democratic Illinois Representative Eric Sorenson is returning for a second term, as is Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat. Democrats Gabe Vasquez and Jahana Hayes each won re-election to the U.S. House representing New Mexico and Connecticut respectively.
September U.S. pork and beef exports were higher year-over-year. That’s according to data from USDA compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Pork exports are well-positioned to set annual volume and value records in 2024. September pork exports totaled 238,047 metric tons, up eight percent from last year, while value climbed six percent to $685 million.
Pork exports through September were on a record pace to Mexico, as are shipments to Central America, Colombia, and several Caribbean Markets.
Through the first three quarters of this year, pork exports were five percent above last year’s pace at 2.3 million metric tons, with the value seven percent higher at $6.36 billion.
U.S. beef exports reached 103,980 metric tons in September, up five percent year-over-year, while export value rose six percent to $843.8 million. January-September exports increased five percent in value to $7.82 billion despite volume dropping by two percent to 960,814 metric tons.
At left: Indiana Governor-elect Mike Braun. At right: U.S. Senator-elect Jim Banks.Indiana’s Republicans came out on top on Election Night 2024 as Mike Braun defeated Democrat opponent Jennifer McCormick to win the race for Indiana Governor.
Braun, who has chosen to serve only one term in the U.S. Senate, will be handing over his seat to Jim Banks, a Republican Congressman who serves in Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District in northwestern Indiana. Banks comfortably defeated his Democrat opponent Valerie McCray.
Both Braun and Banks were projected early in the evening on Election Night by the Associated Press as having won their respective races.
Braun’s victory also means a victory for Micah Beckwith, who was the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Braun had chosen first term State Rep. Julie McGuire as his running mate in May, but Beckwith secured more than 50 percent of the support from GOP delegates during the Indiana Republican Convention in July to become Braun’s running mate instead. By state statute, Beckwith will also serve as Secretary of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and will oversee the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA).
Before Braun is sworn in as Indiana’s next governor in early January, he will finish out his term in the U.S. Senate, where he currently sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Congress has not passed a new Farm Bill, and lawmakers will decide whether to attempt to pass the legislation during the upcoming “lame duck” session before the end of this year.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/05213443/bird-flu-in-pigs-in-wrap.mp3"]USDA recently confirmed the first case of H5N1 bird flu in a pig. Dr. Megan Niederwerder, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, says after the virus jumped from poultry to the beef herd, they knew there was a possibility of it moving into pork as well.
“We certainly knew it was a risk. I think one of the aspects of this introduction and the first detection in swine is thinking about what type of herd it was detected in and the fact that animals of different species were housed together. So, this was a backyard, small farm operation in Oregon that had mixed species that were housed together. They shared water sources and shared equipment across poultry, swine, sheep, and goats.”
The pigs were tested after the poultry began showing clinical signs of infection.
“The impetus of the investigation was the poultry had clinical signs on the farm. They had 70 birds on the farm. They were showing clinical signs of illness. They were tested for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and found positive. They tested the animals on-site out of an abundance of caution. The swine on-site were not clinical. They displayed no clinical signs. But one of those pigs – there were five pigs on site – was positive for the virus, and they euthanized those hogs to perform additional diagnostic analysis because this was the first detection in any hog.”
Biosecurity must be top of mind for all producers no matter where they are located.
What are the biosecurity risks? How can we prevent exposure to wild birds? But also think about operational connections to poultry and dairy farms, reducing the risk of feral swine exposure, and protecting the health of our US swine industry.”
For more information on keeping the U.S. swine herd healthy, go to swinehealth.org.
Every month, Purdue’s ag economists survey 400 farmers across the U.S. asking how they feel about the future of the ag economy. However, this month’s results came as a surprise for those who conducted the survey.
“One of the things that I think might be going on here is people are a little more optimistic about 2025 than they are 2024,” said Dr. Michael Langemeier, Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
For their monthly Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey, just 23 percent of producers expect their farm’s financial condition to get worse over the next 12 months. That’s a sharply lower response this month compared to last month’s response of 38 percent who were expecting their farm finances to get worse in 2025.
“I have to admit that the people that responded to this survey this month are seeing something different than I’m seeing because I’m not as I’m not as optimistic—I’m not pessimistic, but not I’m not as optimistic,” says Langemeier.
He expressed his lack of optimism for an improved ag economy because input prices remain on the higher side while grain prices continue to be on the lower side.
“[The farmers we surveyed] view the downturn that we’ve seen here in 2024 as being transitory and actually think maybe we’re going to see a rebound of sorts in 2025,” says Dr. Jim Mintert, Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
“It was a surprisingly optimistic survey this month. The one thing that might have influenced this a little bit was the fact that we have heard so many very positive yield reports this year, and that would maybe provide a little bit of a boost,” Mintert said.
The survey was conducted Oct. 14-18, three weeks before Election Day. Both Mintert and Langemeier also believe that the survey for next month, which will occur after Election Day, may have strikingly different results depending upon the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.
CLICK HERE to find the full results of the Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey.
CLICK BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news report for Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/05193405/cj-wrap-hat-purdue-ag-econ-barometer-110524.mp3"]
Photo courtesy of Ivy Tech Community College.Ivy Tech Terre Haute recently hosted an Agriculture and Engineering Challenge, bringing together more than 500 local high school students to explore opportunities in these dynamic fields. The event was made possible by a generous $10,000 gift from Duke Energy.
Special guest Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), opened the event with a Community Agriculture Leaders Breakfast, welcoming local agriculture professionals and setting the stage for an exciting day of competition.
The event, hosted by Ivy Tech’s School of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering, and Applied Science, aims to raise awareness of Ivy Tech’s programs and highlight the career opportunities available in West Central Indiana. Students had the opportunity to explore the College’s cutting-edge facilities and engage with knowledgeable staff and faculty. The day included a series of competitions designed to test students’ skills in areas such as agriculture sales, horticulture, biotechnology, drones, livestock management, coding, and more.
“This event gives students a hands-on experience in agriculture and engineering, sparking curiosity and potential career paths in these fields,” said David Will, Dean of the School of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering, and Applied Science. “We are thrilled to provide this opportunity for students and are grateful for Duke Energy’s commitment to supporting education and workforce development.”
Other sponsors include: Novelis, CenterPoint Energy, Bane-Welker Equipment, ZF, Keystone Cooperative, Terre Haute Regional Airport, Farm Credit, Elanco, The Equity, WorkOne Western Indiana, IBEW Local 725, Corteva Agriscience, Steel Dynamics, Inc., and Beck’s Hybrids.
Contest winners:
Balancing Act – Sullivan High School
Balloon Powered Car – Shakamak Jr/Sr High School
Battery Design – Shakamak Jr/Sr High School
Bridge Construction – Wabash River CTE
Coding Challenge – Dugger Union High School
Engineering Nightmare – Clay City Jr/Sr High School
Powertool Drag Race – Clay City Jr/Sr High School
Robo Challenge – Wabash River CTE
Rocket Stages – Shakamak Jr/Sr High School
Short Circuit – Clay City Jr/Sr High School
Agriculture Sales – Bloomfield Jr/Sr High School
Biotechnology – South Putnam High School
Crop Consulting – Clay City Jr/Sr High School
Drones – Bloomfield Jr/Sr High School
Forage Evaluation – Clay City Jr/Sr High School
Horticulutre – North Vermillion High School
Livestock Judging – Terre Haute South High School
Livestock Management – Parke Heritage High School
Precision Agriculture – Terre Haute South High School
Soil Judging – North Central High School
Travel Efficiency – Dugger Union High School
Whatever Floats Your Boat – Bloomfield Jr/Sr High School
Quiz Bowl – Clay City Jr/Sr High School
Source: Ivy Tech Community College
From left to right: Shelby County farmer and United Soybean Board Director Jim Douglas; Mayasari Tempeh owner Mayasari Effendi; Decatur County farmer and S&G Seeds owner-partner Nick Stewart; Effendi’s husband and co-owner of Mayasari Indonesian Grill, Richard Mays; and Indiana Soybean Alliance Board Member Mark Legan. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/05000219/cj-wrap-hat-mayasari-tempeh-indiana-soybeans-110424.mp3"]It truly is an All-American story.
Mayasari Effendi, who was born in Indonesia, immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 to attend Purdue University. Less than a decade later, she and her husband Richard Mays opened a restaurant in Greensburg, Indiana called Mayasari Indonesian Grill. Thanks to a collaboration with Indiana soybean producers, she has recently expanded her business operation by opening Mayasari Tempeh, a production facility that makes a traditional Indonesian food product called Tempeh from local soybeans.
Her rise as an Indiana business leader started thanks to a young man who lived nearby and had the resources she needed from his family’s farm.
“When Mayasari first came to town, her daughter and I went to school together. One day she asked me about soybeans,” says Nick Stewart, talking about his collaboration with Mayasari. Stewart is a Decatur County farmer and owner-partner of S&G Seeds.
When she first moved to Greensburg and opened her restaurant, she sought out Stewart to help bring her soybeans for Tempeh, which is a fermented soybean product which is very popular in Indonesia and has gained popularity worldwide for its nutritional benefits and versatility in cooking.
“She calls me up and says, ‘Hey, I want to start making tempeh here, so I need soybeans!’ I said, ‘Okay, what kind of soybeans do you need?’ She goes, ‘I don’t know, I just need soybeans.’ So, from there, it just kind of kept expanding,” he says.
At first, Stewart says he would bring Mayasari a five-gallon bucket filled with soybeans harvested from his family’s farm. She started using those soybeans to manufacture tempeh chips, which she now packages under the brand name Maya Soya, which are being sold at Fresh Thyme stores across Indiana and the Midwest.
However, Mayasari’s passion for growing her business didn’t stop there.
“The next thing I know, she’s buying a bean splitter, and we have that installed at our plant. Then she goes, ‘I think I need a special type of soybean here. I’m looking for someone with high protein that’s non-GMO with a clear hilum.’ I said, ‘That is some that we can find,” says Stewart, whose family has long been a seed supplier serving Decatur County and southeastern Indiana through Stewart Seeds, Inc.
Now, with the help of Stewart and other local farmers, they’re providing Mayasari with soybeans to mass-produce tempeh and tempeh chips to ship back to Indonesia and around the world.
Thanks to a revolving loan from the local Economic Development Corporation in Greensburg and Decatur County, Maya was able to purchase a new Tempeh Chip Processor that sharply increases their output from 200 bags a week to an 5,500. During a ribbon cutting event to commemorate the recent expansion, Mayasari says she is donating five cents from every bag of Maya Soya tempeh chips sold to support children’s education in Indonesia.
Stewart says the collaboration is a win-win for both her company and local soybean growers.
“The end goal for us is to leave my family’s farm to my kids that they can farm,” he says. “Realistically, that comes down to developing local markets for our product. If all of a sudden, we start losing out on trade [to competitors in South America], we’re losing money. So, we have to figure out additional ways to backfill those dollars here locally, and this is a huge step forward in doing that.”
The collaboration between Nick Stewart and Mayasari Effendi inspired her husband, Richard Mays, to write a book entitled, Nick and Mayasari Make Tempeh, which is available at Amazon.com.
The ribbon cutting ceremony for Mayasari Tempeh in Greensburg held on Friday, Nov. 1 and hosted by Greensburg Mayor Joshua Marsh and the Greensburg-Decatur County Chamber of Commerce. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.In February, the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) led a 10-person delegation to the capital city of Jakarta and other points in Indonesia to increase Indiana’s share of that export to their country. Not only were Nick Stewart and Mayasari Effendi on that trip, the delegation included Shelby County farmer and United Soybean Board (USB) director Jim Douglas, Greensburg mayor Josh Marsh, and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) International Trade Director Andrew Sherman.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country with more than 280 million people. Even though the soybean industry is vital to Indonesia, the country’s climate is not friendly for growing or storing an adequate supply, which makes that market very attractive to Indiana soybean producers.
Mayasari Tempeh, which produces Indonesia’s traditional food item in the heart of Indiana, will certainly go a long way in growing that relationship between Indiana and our neighbors in Indonesia nearly 10,000 miles away.
CLICK HERE for more information about Mayasari Tempeh.
From left to right: Richard Mays, Mayasari Effendi, and Ganjar Pranowo, former Governor of Central Java, which is a province in Indonesia. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Some farmers are rapidly approaching the finish line while others are already taking their victory lap on this year’s harvest. Tar spot was found in all 92 Indiana counties this year and had varying yield impacts.
“I would say, in my geography on the eastern side of the state of Indiana, anything south of State Road 26 was impacted quite substantially,” says Pioneer agronomist Brian Shrader. “As we got later planting windows north of State Road 26 because of the early rains, it wasn’t as bad. It did come in, but it came in late. But for those folks that were affected in those early planting windows, it’s not uncommon, even with fungicide applications, especially if the timing was a bit off, to hear of 40–50-bushel yield reductions because of tar spot.”
Shrader says farmers also reported very poor stalk quality on the eastern side of the state.
“Now, again, with tar spot that was related. But because we ended up with such a significant level of drought stress late, the corn hybrid had to go to the stalk to try to fill the ear because conditions were so good early when we set ears, and so we had a lot of stalk cannibalization late just trying to get those ears filled. And even with the drought stress, I’m amazed at some of the yield numbers that I’m hearing in these areas that were so severely drought stressed.”
Given all the challenges from this year, Shrader credits farmer management and modern genetics for the better than anticipated yields. Hear my full interview with Shrader below.
Get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
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The Indiana Forage Council and Purdue University Extension will host “Hey There, Hay Here,” a virtual seminar on forage quality and testing from 6 to 8 p.m. EST Nov. 12. The event is free to the public.
“Forage testing is more than receiving numbers and potentially having bragging rights that you’ve made top-quality hay. With the help of a trained nutritionist, the values from a forage analysis will permit the development of a ration, keeping livestock in excellent body condition regardless of where they are at in their life cycle,” said Keith Johnson, professor of agronomy at Purdue.
Those who are interested but unable to access the seminar livestream from home can attend one of the many viewing locations offered across Indiana. More details on these locations can be found on the Extension website.
Jason Tower, superintendent of the Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center, added that a hay analysis will help producers meet cows’ nutritional needs “by knowing the amount of supplementation needed to make up the nutritional shortfall in the hay.”
No registration is required for the seminar. For questions and/or accommodations, contact Johnson at johnsonk@purdue.edu or 765-494-4800.
Veterans, active service people, and their present family members will receive a free milkshake at the State Fair Dairy Bar Friday, Nov. 8, from 10am-2pm. Guests not connected to the military can also purchase a milkshake for $5 to support the work and programs of the American Legion Indiana.
The American Dairy Association Indiana represents Indiana dairy farm families and will be offering your choice of chocolate or vanilla milkshakes while the Christmas Gift & Hobby Show will take place across from the Dairy Bar at the Indiana State Fairground.
The Indiana State Fairground is offering free admission for Veterans active military on Friday as well.
Some farmers are looking to get nitrogen in ahead of corn this fall with an anhydrous application, but is it really the best move?
“I don’t like fall anhydrous,” says Purdue Extension’s Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn. “We don’t recommend fall anhydrous.”
Quinn tells us how he really feels in the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, available now wherever you listen to podcasts.
“Nitrogen is so environmentally driven, and even something like anhydrous that is the most stable form of nitrogen, and you can get away with it in a lot of years where you have the right moisture conditions and the soil temperature is cooling, but it just sits out there, right? And you’re exposing it to a long period of time with environmental conditions. And we see the environment, right? It warms up and it cools off and warms up, and you’re just leaving it out there to get lost.”
He was particularly concerned when he was driving around the state and saw some anhydrous applications last week.
“It was dry as can be. It was 83 degrees out. So, I understand why certain farmers do it from a logistics standpoint, and you’re getting it out there, you’re getting your nitrogen there. You’re having it for next year. But just think about how dry it is, how much we are losing, you know the soil temps are not 50 degrees and decreasing. So, how much are we going to end up losing if we do end up getting a lot of moisture?”
While Quinn doesn’t recommend a fall anhydrous application at all, he certainly doesn’t recommend it for any farm south of Indianapolis.
Hear more from Quinn and Purdue Extension’s ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel in the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, available now below or in the Hoosier Ag Today mobile app. Just search Hoosier Ag Today in your app store.
Photo courtesy of Purdue University.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/04001543/sabrina-wrap-mat-solar-powered-irrigation-system-103024.mp3"]A new project spearheaded by researchers at Purdue University and Michigan State University is harnessing solar power to make irrigation more efficient and cost-effective for farmers.
By integrating solar energy with IoT (Internet of Things) technology, the project aims to help farmers in rural areas manage energy demands, cut costs, and gain better control over irrigation practices.
The initiative, supported by a grant from the USDA, is a collaboration between Dr. Younsuk Dong, assistant professor and extension specialist at Michigan State University, and Dr. Woongkul Matt Lee, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. Their goal is to make irrigation more accessible and environmentally sustainable.
Dong highlighted the issues faced by many rural farmers, who rely on grid-connected irrigation systems that often experience power instability.
“In rural communities, electrical systems can be unstable depending on the location, which can be a challenge for utility companies and farmers alike,” he explained. Current irrigation systems, which usually operate on three-phase power, can trigger high electricity demand charges, especially at peak times. To address this, the team is focusing on a solar-powered microinverter that reduces these peak demands and softens the initial energy surge when pumps start up.
The project involves two key components: solar-powered technology and IoT sensors. Solar energy will be used to power irrigation pumps and support “peak shaving” — reducing the strain on power grids during high-demand periods. In addition, IoT sensors in the field will allow farmers to monitor soil moisture, energy use, and other critical data in real-time through cloud storage.
“This will be a great opportunity for farmers to understand their power usage per irrigation application and adjust accordingly to maximize efficiency and reduce costs,” Dong said. The data gathered will help farmers make informed decisions, like whether to irrigate based on soil dryness, which could be especially beneficial in regions prone to drought.
The project’s adaptability is another highlight. Dong emphasized that one of the project’s objectives is to create a decision-support tool for farms of different sizes and irrigation needs. The solar-powered microinverter is designed to fit various existing irrigation systems, making it a versatile solution for diverse agricultural settings. While the technology is currently being tested on farms in Michigan and Indiana, the team hopes to make it scalable for other regions.
Besides cost savings, Dong pointed out additional environmental benefits of the project. Farmers will be able to avoid over-irrigation, conserve water, and potentially reduce crop disease with better data on field conditions. Furthermore, the project seeks to incorporate findings from plant pathology research, providing farmers with recommendations for optimal irrigation timing to reduce plant stress and disease.
In October, both Dong and Lee have received a $394,600 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service to further develop the solar-powered irrigation project.
Though in its early stages, is positioned to address several pressing issues in agriculture: rising energy costs, water conservation, and sustainable farming practices. By offering a tool that supports renewable energy and real-time monitoring, Michigan State University and Purdue University hope to equip farmers with resources to manage their operations more efficiently and sustainably.
Dong is an expert in accessible irrigation technology development, having already created and field tested the Low-Cost Monitoring System (LOCOMOS). LOCOMOS significantly lowers the initial cost of in-field irrigation sensors and is usable with a smartphone app.
The sensors collect data on soil moisture, leaf wetness and other environmental conditions, which is then analyzed by software that sends growers precise irrigation recommendations.
Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).USDA will begin bulk testing milk supplies starting in states where dairy cattle tested positive last spring for the H5N1 bird flu virus. Bird flu is an increasing concern for USDA, amid H5N1 infections in not just poultry, but dairy cattle and, most recently for the first time, in a pig at a private farm in Oregon.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says the agency will start testing milk in affected areas in an effort to isolate outbreaks.
“We will first test silos. We will go to processors who have accumulated significant amounts of milk product. We’ll test that milk. So, testing will give us an opportunity to get maybe, ahead, if you will,” says Vilsack.
Bird flu has infected dairy cattle in several states since March 2024, including Michigan, Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, Idaho and California. Vilsack says those will be the focus of initial testing.
“[We’ll] get a clear idea of where in the states that currently have the virus, whether it’s expanded or whether there are areas of the state that we need to address, in terms of biosecurity,” he said.
And if the virus shows up in new testing?
“If it turns out that there’s virus, we’ll then begin the process of going to more specific testing, bulk tank testing on farms, so that we can identify exactly where the virus might be,” added Vilsack.
The latest bird flu virus find in a pig in Oregon has raised even more concern, with pigs one of the few animals in which a bird virus can replicate to become more like a human virus. Livestock and poultry on that now-quarantined backyard farm shared water sources, housing and equipment, which USDA says could enable virus spread between species into other states.
Source: NAFB News Service
Ron Noll, who has been an ag educator at Prairie Heights High School in LaGrange County since 2002, was named the Indiana FFA Golden Owl Award winner for Indiana Ag Educator of the Year during the Indiana FFA State Convention in June 2024. Indiana FFA are now seeking nominations for the Golden Owl Award for 2024-25. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.During the Indiana FFA State Convention last June, Ron Noll, an ag educator and FFA advisor at Prairie Heights High School in LaGrange County since 2002, was named Indiana FFA’s Golden Owl Award winner for Indiana Ag Educator of the Year.
“I was very, very humbled. The other finalists are very, very good ag teachers and friends of mine for a long time and their talents impress me, so I was not expecting this at all,” said Noll after accepting the award.
Indiana FFA is now looking to honor another outstanding ag educator with the Golden Owl Award for 2024-25. Nominations are now being accepted through December 31, 2024 and can be submitted HERE.
After the nomination period closes on December 31st, a selection committee will evaluate nominations and select eight finalists in Indiana. These finalists will be recognized in front of their peers and students, receiving a personalized plaque and $500 award. One finalist will then be chosen as the grand prize winner, earning the 2024-2025 Ag Educator of the Year title for Indiana, along with the coveted Golden Owl Award trophy and an additional $3,000 to help fund future educational efforts.
The 2023-2024 Golden Owl Award recognized 79 exceptional agricultural teachers, including 11 Ag Educators of the Year. This year, the award program will recognize leading agricultural teachers across 13 states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.
Nationwide is committed to supporting the future of the ag community through meaningful sponsorships of national and local organizations. In conjunction with the Golden Owl Award, Nationwide is donating $5,000 to each participating state’s FFA, including the Indiana FFA, to further support the personal and professional growth of students, teachers and advisors alike.
The owl, a symbol of knowledge and wisdom, is one of the five symbols in the FFA emblem. It inspired the name of the Golden Owl Award program, reflecting the dedication and investment agriculture teachers make to empower their students.
Since its inception in 2018, the Golden Owl Award has awarded nearly half a million dollars to support teachers, students, school agricultural programs and FFAs. Last year, there were over 3,500 nominations across 11 participating states. Due to its positive impact and popularity, the award is expanding this year to include Kentucky and Maryland.
“Agricultural educators are so much more than teachers; they’re community servants who are shaping the leaders of tomorrow,” said Brad Liggett, president of Agribusiness at Nationwide. “Together with our partners, we encourage students, parents, fellow teachers and other community members to nominate their agricultural teachers to acknowledge their hard work.”
To learn more about the Golden Owl Award, visit GoldenOwlAward.com.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/02014049/hatthisweek2.mp3"]In our final Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast for 2024, we are starting to see more precipitation work into the pattern. We have two systems in the next 10 days to work around, but a mostly dry 11-16 day forecast window to make up for it. Temps are pulling back, but we do not see any significant “colder than normal” pattern setting in anytime soon. However, I do think we finally see a good “end of growing season” frost in many areas in the next two weeks. Many folks have reported having frost, but also seeing plenty of vegetation still growing, even some garden vegetables.
Nearby, we are dry to start the weekend as high pressure sits over the Great Lakes. As we transition onto the backside of this high Saturday afternoon and evening. We should see more southwest flow developing, and temps Saturday should be warmer than what we saw Friday.
Clouds build overnight Saturday night and Sunday morning, with rain arriving in western MI Sunday late morning to midday, and then into NW IN late Sunday afternoon. However, most of Indiana stays precipitation free Sunday, with the best activity developing in IL, IA, MN and WI, crossing Lake Michigan into MI. Overnight Sunday night rains ramp up, and then we see scattered showers for Monday and Tuesday. Combined rain totals will be .25”-1.5” over 100% of MI and IN.
Action may linger into late Tuesday evening in far south and southeast IN and perhaps the far eastern Thumb area of MI, but we clear out before sunrise Wednesday morning. The map below shows the potential for moisture out of this complete system.
The rest of the week should be mostly dry. Clouds mix with sunshine Wednesday through Sunday. We will be cool for Thursday and Friday as Canadian air moves south across the Great Lakes. But we start to see moderating temps again for the weekend. Sunday, we have another system building in the central and western corn belt, and it may bring showers back to the Hoosier state as soon as Sunday afternoon or evening. Regardless of when the action starts, we look for rains to linger into Monday the 11th.
Extended Period:
The extended forecast window for next week starts dry I all areas Tuesday through Thursday. Overnight Thursday night through Friday we have a system pushing through MI that can bring .25”-1” with coverage at 80% or more. However, IN stays dry Friday into Saturday. All areas see moisture for next Sunday the 17th as a cool front sags through the region. However, moisture will be generally half an inch or less. With 75% coverage. Drier weather makes run back into the region for the start of the week of the 18th.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Temps stay well above normal for weeks three and four. However, we are transitioning to near and even a bit above normal as we move through the last half of the month of November.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Photo courtesy of Tom Jones of Star City, Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
Eric Pfeiffer (left) will become President of Hoosier Ag Today LLC effective Jan. 1, 2025. Company founder and current President Gary Truitt (right) will assume the position of Chairman of the Board. Photo collage by C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The board of directors of Hoosier Ag Today LLC has appointed Eric Pfeiffer as President effective January 1, 2025. This is part of an ongoing management realignment that will position the company for future growth and sustainability. Company founder and current President Gary Truitt will assume the position of Chairman of the Board.
Pfeiffer, who has been with the firm since 2018, will assume management responsibility for all aspects of company operation for Hoosier Ag Today, Michigan Ag Today, as well as the various web portals, mobile apps, and social media platforms.
“I’m both thrilled and blessed for the opportunity to lead a tremendous group of talented individuals who care so deeply about our farmers in Indiana, Michigan, and around the country,” Pfeiffer said. “While management is changing, our core values won’t be. We’re still here to provide timely, relevant, and credible information to our farmer listeners and those who support them just as Gary intended when he created HAT in 2006.”
Pfeiffer will be assisted by Molly Nichols as Director of Sales and Manager of Station Relations along with C.J. Miller, who will serve as Assistant News Director. Andy Eubank will continue in his role as farm broadcaster in addition to providing technical and operational support.
As Chairman, Truitt will provide strategic oversight and guidance, as well as maintaining majority ownership.
“I am truly excited about the new management team that will provide outstanding leadership for the company. Their passion for agriculture and outstanding talent will build on the successes the company has made over the past 18 years,” said Truitt.
Effective January of 2025, the company headquarters will move from Zionsville to West Lafayette, Indiana. J.L. Farmakis will continue to be the National Sales representative for both Hoosier Ag Today and Michigan Ag Today.
About Hoosier Ag Today/Michigan Ag Today
Hoosier Ag Today was founded in 2006 for the specific purpose of serving the informational needs of the Hoosier agricultural community. HAT currently has 75 radio stations broadcasting its programs. In addition, HAT operates a multi-media website, mobile app, multiple social media platforms, and publishes a daily e-mail newsletter. In 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022, Hoosier Ag Today was rated the most listened to farm radio network in Indiana by Ag Media Research. In 2019, Hoosier Ag Today purchased Michigan Ag Today, a 33-station farm network serving the Michigan farm community. MAT also has a website: MichiganAgToday.com, and a mobile app.
Hoosier Ag Today and Michigan Ag Today are represented nationally by J. L. Farmakis, Inc.
Dr. Bret Marsh, who becomes the new Dean and CEO of Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital. He had been Indiana State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health for 30 years. Photo: Eric Pfeifer / Hoosier Ag Today.After 30 years on the job as Indiana State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, Dr. Bret Marsh is leaving that role and taking up a new leadership position at Purdue University.
“I’m excited about the opportunities and ready to get started,” says Dr. Marsh, who becomes the new Dean and CEO of Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital on Monday, Nov. 4.
Dr. Marsh shared with Hoosier Ag Today why he wanted to serve in this new role with Purdue.
“Certainly [Purdue] is my alma mater. It’s my home,” says Dr. Marsh. “I was the first generation of college student to go to Purdue. I entered the College of Agriculture as an Animal Sciences student, and then later matriculated into the College of Veterinary Medicine, so it’s been a part of me all along.”
“I’m really excited and encouraged to be engaged in this new role,” he says. “To transition from my Indiana State Veterinarian role, I’m hopeful that I can bring some of those skills and talents and into the role as Dean.”
Dr. Marsh is also one of the country’s leading researchers on foreign animal diseases—namely those impacting the livestock and poultry industries. He says he plans to continue to build on the state’s preparedness plan in case a disease—such as African Swine Fever—is ever diagnosed among Indiana’s swine herds.
“The college will be an important continuing contributor in that preparedness planning,” says Dr. Marsh. “Certainly Purdue’s Reed Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratories (ADDL) are absolutely critical for our state. That laboratory is a member of the national Animal Health Laboratory Network, so it is a laboratory that’s recognized by the USDA to do initial testing of suspect samples coming from animals that may have a foreign animal disease here in Indiana. Bringing these parties even closer together, I think, is going to be essential for us to be successful in the long term.”
CLICK BELOW to hear Dr. Bret Marsh’s full conversation with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller, as he talks further about his new role as Dean and CEO of Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/11/01003436/hatthisweek4.mp3"]Dr. Bret Marsh, who becomes the new Dean and CEO of Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital on Nov. 4. He had been Indiana State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health for 30 years. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.
Photo courtesy of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).USDA has confirmed the first detection of H5N1 avian influenza in swine in the United States.
Oregon state veterinary officials say that there were positive cases of H5N1 in a backyard farming operation in Oregon that has a mix of poultry and livestock, including swine. The USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed that one of the farm’s five pigs was infected with H5N1.
Officials say the livestock and poultry on this farm shared water sources, housing, and equipment, and that this combination may have enabled transmission between species.
Although the swine did not display signs of illness, the Oregon Department of Health and USDA tested the five swine for H5N1 out of an abundance of caution and because of the presence of H5N1 in other animals on the premises. The swine were euthanized to facilitate additional diagnostic analysis. Test results were negative for two of the pigs, and test results are still pending for two others.
This farm is a non-commercial operation, and the animals were not intended for the commercial food supply. USDA says there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply as a result of this finding.
In addition, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has issued a statement confirming there are no food safety concerns about the nation’s pork supply after the detection of H5N1 influenza in swine on a small backyard farm in Oregon.
“The confirmed case in Oregon poses no threat to consumer health or food safety; properly handled and cooked pork products remain safe for consumption,” said Bryan Humphreys, NPPC CEO. “The entire pork industry remains committed to safeguarding food safety and human and animal health.”
With rigorous on-farm biosecurity programs in place, the pork industry has worked alongside APHIS since 2009 to carry out the swine influenza surveillance program to identify influenza viruses circulating in swine, proactively detect reassortment viruses that could impact public health, and gain knowledge to contribute to improved animal health diagnostics and vaccines.
“Pork producers have always been proactive and diligent about implementing biosecurity plans as part of their daily production practices to assure animals wellbeing and food safety,” said Lori Stevermer, NPPC president and Minnesota pork producer. “This detection serves as a reminder for producers of all sizes to understand and address influenza virus risks.”
Sources: USDA, National Pork Producers Council
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/31222915/harvest-wx-wrap-110124.mp3"]After a rainy Halloween, Friday and Saturday are dry in Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin’s Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast.
“Temperatures will be cooler, a lot cooler than what we saw earlier this week when we were in the 80s statewide, but I want to point out that we are not cold by any stretch of the imagination. Early November temperatures are a lot cooler than this normally here in Indiana.”
Martin is calling for moisture to return late this weekend and to continue through early next week.
“Sunday morning to midday, showers start in western Indiana spreading across the rest of the state, and we have on again, off again, moisture through Monday and through Tuesday. I’m going to put combined three-day rain totals at half to two inches with coverage at 100% of the Hoosier State. I will stress though that the only way we get into that one-to-two-inch part of the range is with thunderstorms. I think there will be some thunderstorm activity, but not widespread. So, we’ll just have to see how everything works out, but moisture is coming.”
We do dry down again for the second part of next week.
“Wednesday through Sunday we see high pressure nosing in out of the north, taking control. So, since it’s Canadian high pressure, it’s going to be cooler initially, particularly for that Thursday, Friday timeframe, but not cold, not compared to normal for early November. And so, I’m looking for us to see some good drying. I do think we get another round of moisture probably somewhere in that week of the 11th. A system is developing out in the western part of the plains, but it’s going to have to have this high-pressure dome move out of the way first before it can head our way.”
Find Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast details from Ryan Martin later today at HoosierAgToday.com.
Indiana’s statewide 77 percent complete corn harvest and 87 percent complete soybean harvest are also about the rate of progress in the Fort Wayne area.
“You get to my southern area and everybody’s pretty well wrapped up, and then you get to Fort Wayne and north and we’re on the home stretch, and then Northwest Ohio is about the same.”
In the final Channel Seed harvest update this season, Luke Hesterman, Field Sales Representative with Channel Seed says it is the most variable crop of corn and soybeans he has ever experienced.
“It’s a mixed bag,” he explained. “There’s good corn that was planted in April, and you go 5 miles a week later and there’s a significant difference right there. There was some disease pressure in certain areas, tar spot and crown rot. We really saw fungicide applications paid this year, two pass programs at tassel and then 25 days later. We’re seeing 15 to 20 bushel (yield bump) and standability is just incredible.”
As Hesterman describes how little rain his part of the state received, it is easy to understand how some crops fell short of the norm.
“We went from July all the way through September to October, I don’t think if you looked at FieldView we’ve gotten more than an inch of rain over two and a half months’ time period. So, all things considered, as dry as it has been we are probably pretty fortunate the crop is as good as what it has been,” Hesterman said. “I would just say, soybeans you could just follow maturities. You get up to about a 2.8, pretty decent beans and then they started going south, and then where they picked up some rains and got into the little bit later group 3 beans, they start to pick up yield there.”
He said properly timed fungicide applications successfully mitigated the tar spot risk this year. That should help corn yields in his area get to about the average overall. Soybean yields might end up 15-20 percent below average.
Hesterman is based out of Ft. Wayne and works with farmers in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. Hear much more in the full HAT and Channel Seed update here:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/30153335/luke-hesterman-channel-update-for-10-30-24.mp3"]
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/30195941/farm-stress-ffa-wrap.mp3"]“Stigma lies. You’re not alone.” That was in big, bold letters in the Expo Hall at last week’s National FFA Convention at the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team booth for thousands of FFA students to see. Abby Heidenreich, Purdue Extension Educator and member of the Farm Stress Team, spoke with us last week about their goals at the FFA Convention.
“We want to talk to as many kids as we can and just open up that conversation about their mental health, what their family life looks like, either on the farm or in a rural community, and what kind of things they could do to make a difference in their community, in their family, and in the world.”
Something new this year for the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team was new material for FFA advisors. Heidenreich says they’ve developed a lesson that can be taught in ag classrooms that specifically speaks to youth in agriculture.
“A lot of times, the school wide mental health programming may not speak to everybody in the ag classroom. So, what we want to do is really target that and bring in some of those niche examples that will help them understand their mental health.”
Heidenreich says the conversations around mental health are getting easier in some cases, but some people are still a bit hesitant to open up.
“I always like to say in the programs that I do, I’m not asking you to sit in a circle and sing ‘Kumbaya’. I just want you to recognize that we all struggle from time to time. I’m not asking you to raise your hand. I’m just asking you to point out that some people have issues, and I may be some people. Even if you come to a program and you don’t think that you need the mental health information or the resources that we present, you may know someone, we all know someone, who could benefit from those resources.”
You can find mental health resources at extension.purdue.edu/farmstress.
Indiana Grown has announced the contents of the 2024 Indiana Grown Holiday Box, the perfect gift for your friends and family this holiday season. This year’s gift box will showcase a variety of products from Indiana Grown members located across the state including coffees, sweet treats and body care items. Indiana Grown is a statewide initiative housed within the Indiana State Department of Agriculture to highlight local products and artisan goods.
“The Indiana Grown Holiday Box is a great way to support local businesses and share a taste of the Hoosier State with your loved ones during the season of giving,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Inside this box, there is certainty something for everyone.”
Each box includes:
- Coffee Samplers – JavAroma Roasters – Mitchell, IN
- Blueberry Lemon Granola – Perkins’ Good Earth Farm – DeMotte, IN
- Snack Sticks – Pig’s Tale Charcuterie – Indianapolis, IN
- Hoosier Style Popcorn – Poptique – Columbia City, IN
- Honey Lotion Bar – Sweet Melissa Honey & Hive – Fishers, IN
- Pretzels – Tell City Pretzels – Jasper, IN
- Cinnamon Sugar Pecans – Simply Jill’s – Lebanon, IN
- Spice Mixes – SPICEKICK- Carmel, IN
- Travel Sized Holiday Scented Lotions – The Lotion Company – Muncie, IN
“We are honored to be highlighting these small businesses through the second annual Indiana Grown Holiday Box” said Caroline Patrick, director of Indiana Grown. “The opportunity to continue highlighting local products throughout Indiana especially during the holiday season is an honor.”
The 2024 Indiana Grown Holiday Box is limited to 390 boxes. Click here to place your order.
Learn more about Indiana Grown at indianagrown.org.
Dr. Kyle Shipman, Interim State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. Photo courtesy of Dr. Kyle Shipman.The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) has announced that Kyle Shipman, DVM will serve as interim Indiana State Veterinarian. The designation was made following Dr. Bret Marsh’s hire as the new Dean of the Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Shipman will fulfill the day-to-day operations of the Indiana State Veterinarian as the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) begins its search for a permanent state veterinarian.
Dr. Marsh will finish his 30-year tenure as Indiana State Veterinarian on Nov. 1 before leaving for his new role at Purdue. He began his career with the state in 1984 as a supervisor and training officer for the state meat and poultry inspection program, which was part of the Indiana State Department of Health. He joined BOAH in 1986 as Swine Division Director before becoming State Veterinarian. During his tenure, Dr. Marsh oversaw the establishment of the Indiana Center for Animal Policy, which co-located the Indiana Board of Veterinary Medicine with BOAH.
Dr. Shipman currently serves as director of BOAH’s Animal Programs Division. He is a graduate of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Agriculture (Animal Sciences). Shortly after joining BOAH, Dr. Shipman played a significant role in the agency’s response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza event in Dubois County in 2016. He has also helped lead the extended response to bovine tuberculosis in cattle in Southeastern Indiana.
Dr. Shipman continues to expand his knowledge about responding to diseases of high consequence. In early 2020, he traveled to Uganda to participate in an international, hands-on training course to learn first-hand how to diagnose and respond to cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). He is a USDA-certified and trained Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostician. In 2020 he completed Indiana Agri Institute’s two-year Agricultural Leadership Program as part of Class 18.
A nationwide search is underway to fill the agency head position permanently. Qualified candidates are welcome to apply online at the state of Indiana’s job portal: https://workforindiana.in.gov , then search for job posting 451468. More information about the position is available on the BOAH website at: www.in.gov/boah/current-information/career-opportunities/ .
Source: Indiana State Board of Animal Health
Hannah Kramer, a Wildlife Major at Purdue University, serves as one of the Purdue Ambassadors for the College of Agriculture during the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.During the National FFA Convention last week in Indianapolis, FFA members had the chance to meet with representatives from more than 300 colleges and ag businesses. One of the universities that may have attracted the most attention throughout the event was Purdue.
“A lot of people think [Purdue] is just about farming or teaching about crops, but then they realize we have so much more,” says Hannah Kramer, who’s not only a Wildlife major at Purdue—she’s also a Purdue Ag Ambassador. So, when FFA members stopped by the Purdue area at the expo, Hannah was there to share why Purdue may be a good fit for them.
“Our biggest talking point is we are the Number three ranked College of Agriculture in the country and the Number five ranked College of Agriculture in the world,” she says. “With that recognition naturally comes a lot of connections. There are a lot of big companies that come in and want to work with our students—like Corteva Agriscience and Caterpillar—those are name brand companies who offer big connections for our students.”
She adds that Purdue Agriculture is more than just a college—it’s a community.
“We have about 3,000 undergraduate students, so we still have that nice close tight knit community,” she says. “Our students aren’t falling between the cracks because a lot of our departments have pretty small student-to-faculty ratios, so you can easily make connections with professors. It’s easy to reach out to them. There are just so many reasons why Purdue University goes above and beyond—especially with our College of Agriculture.”
Even though Hannah is from the Columbus, Ohio area and has a major university in her backyard, she shared why she chose to become a student at Purdue instead.
“Purdue is known for being a STEM school, so that was something that was very important to me. Even though I didn’t know exactly which major I wanted coming into Purdue, I did know I wanted something that was science-focused, so that was something that definitely drew me in.”
“Also, Purdue being a Big Ten school, has that exciting sports culture. It also had that familiarity in those comforts of home. I’ve been able to spread my wings, try something new, and go to a new state while still being able to go after a major that I really enjoy and have a lot of those Midwestern comforts as well,” she says.
Of all the “ambassadors” representing Purdue University, Hannah says the biggest one this past year has been former Purdue Men’s Basketball star Zach Edey, who lead the Boilermakers not only to the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 44 years, but to the National Championship game.
“I’ve actually quite a few students coming up during the National FFA Convention asking about Purdue basketball and about Zach Edey,” she says. “A lot of people are wondering if I’ve met him personally, which I have not, but I think it’s really good because it’s a topic to break the ice. It brings students into our booth, so I’m grateful to our sports teams for bringing some national attention to Purdue because it lets us start those conversations, and then we can start to ask them about their interests and help them realize majors and opportunities that they might not even known that we had.”
To learn more about Purdue’s College of Agriculture, visit their website—Ag.Purdue.edu.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hannah Kramer share her passion for Purdue University’s College of Agriculture with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/29185746/cj-wrap-hat-full-purdue-ag-ambassador-hannah-kramer-102924.mp3"]Hannah Kramer (center), a Purdue College of Agriculture Ambassador, poses with Dr. Christine Wilson (right) and Andrea Lutz (left) with Purdue University’s College of Agriculture during the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/29213432/trade-programs-halted-wrap.mp3"]Many are still holding out hope for a new farm bill in the lame duck session. That might all depend on how the election turns out next week. With the September 30 expiration of the current farm bill, many important agriculture programs are on hold, including several trade promotion programs.
“Title III is often called the trade title, and it accounts for less than half a percentage of overall farm bill spending,” says Farm Bureau economist Betty Resnick. “Half of that goes to an aid program called Food for Peace, which uses U.S. commodities to do capacity building, and the other half goes to export market development. These export market development programs have major bang for their buck, and a 2022 study found for every dollar spent on these programs, an additional $24.50 of agricultural exports resulted.”
Resnick says that Title III programs promote a wide range of commodities.
“These programs benefit all of agriculture. That’s one of my favorite parts about them. Over 70 organizations representing different products were awarded grant funding in 2024. This hugely diverse mix ranges from big commodities like corn and soy to smaller ones like hops, ginseng and cranberries. As cranberries are really only grown in North America, export development dollars are used to educate consumers on how to incorporate them into their diet in culturally relevant ways and on their many, many benefits.”
Resnick explains that ag trade isn’t just important to those of us in agriculture, it’s essential to the overall economy.
“About 20 percent of all U.S. ag production is exported overseas and there’s also $2 of domestic economic activity created for every dollar of ag exports. So, ag trade is important both for our sector and the economy at large.”
For more information, go to fb.org/marketintel.
Source: NAFB News Service
A soybean field and farm in Johnson County, Indiana east of Greenwood and Whiteland. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
The American Soybean Association (ASA) is expressing concern after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposed additional restrictions on farmers—a move that seems to have followed adverse comments from environmental groups.
A new registration for glufosinate-P was announced October 18; however, EPA lagged in releasing the final label for that registration. The label is finally available, and with its public posting, additional, unwarranted restrictions are evident.
Alan Meadows, an American Soybean Association director who grows soybeans in Tennessee, responded, “EPA seems to have relented to pressure from environmental groups and decided to impose additional Endangered Species Act restrictions on farmers.”
In their glufosinate-P draft registration comments, environmental groups claimed the number of runoff points and the size of the spray drift buffers currently required by EPA are insufficient. In response to the comments, EPA expressed confidence in its own findings that the registration would not jeopardize species or their habitats. Further, the agency said the draft registration was informed by the Herbicide Strategy. However, in the final label, additional restrictions were included.
“Somewhere between the draft and final registration, EPA without explanation tripled the number of ESA runoff points required and imposed a new 10-foot mandatory ground spray drift buffer farmers must adopt to use the new glufosinate-P herbicide. Growers should be worried about the precedent this will set,” said Meadows.
According to EPA, the Herbicide Strategy and other ESA strategies are simply frameworks. ASA is concerned that with this decision, EPA has demonstrated it is willing to deviate from its own strategies to set more restrictive requirements for individual registrations. In this, the first new herbicide registration following the Herbicide Strategy being finalized, EPA has imposed additional restrictions above and beyond its previous safety findings.
In a similar move after finalizing the Vulnerable Species Action Plan in September, EPA signaled to the public that it would not impose new restrictions for VSAP species until the overly broad pesticide use limitation area maps for those species were refined. However, the final glufosinate-P registration contains restrictions for two of these species prior to map revisions, one of which, the Whorled Sunflower, was added last minute to the registration—and following the draft. Neither EPA nor commenters raised any concerns specific to the Whorled Sunflower, and yet the agency inexplicably opted to impose a strict VSAP avoidance area in this range, preventing farmers in this area from any use of glufosinate-P.
“The agricultural community should be very concerned,” Meadows concluded. “If this registration is any indication, the Herbicide Strategy could serve as only a base layer of restrictions on which EPA can then tack additional restrictions, including in response to pressure from environmental groups. This is not how the agency should implement a science-based regulatory system, as Congress intended.”
The new label for glufosinate-P can be viewed here.
Source: American Soybean Association
About 40 percent of U.S. farmers worked 200 or more days off the farm in 2022 according to the USDA’s Census of Agriculture.
The majority, 93 percent, of the 3,078 U.S. counties for which data was reported had at least 30 percent of producers working 200 or more days off the farm. Further, 83 counties (2.7 percent) had at least 50 percent of producers working off-farm for 200 days or more.
For farms with at least two producers, 41 percent of those worked off-farm for 200 days or more. In comparison, 35 percent of producers on farms with only one producer did so.
Off-farm work is a significant source of income for most farm households and can additionally provide health and retirement benefits. Agricultural Resource Management Survey data says over half of family farms weren’t profitable in 2022, and 84 percent of farms earned at least half their income off the farm.
Some rain later this week might put a pause on harvest progress, but those in West Central Indiana might be done by then.
“I think we’re probably 95% wrapped up on both corn and soybeans,” says Pioneer agronomist Ben Jacob. He adds that it’s time to start thinking about replacing nutrients after another year of solid yields. There are some tough decisions ahead, and those decisions start with soil sampling.
“My big thing with soil samples is when we take them, we want to try and keep everything we can consistent from previous samples we’ve taken. There are not many falls that have been this dry, or not many wrap-ups to a season that have been this dry, so that’s pretty difficult. And so, what that does is it changes the rate of nutrient recycling from the fodder, and it also potentially changes the amount of uptake and removal that we had regardless of yield level.”
With some farmers coming in with record or near-record yields for three, four, even five years in a row now, how often should you soil sample?
“In an ideal world, I would say you would do it at least every other year. Now, I know that that’s not always in the budget or in the management plan, but at least every four years. And really, again, take a hard look at some of the yields you’ve pulled off versus what you’ve been fertilizing for. And even if it’s not been four years yet, it may not be a bad idea to check back in, just to really dial in. I think you could save some money on your fertilizer plan by dialing it in a little bit with soil sampling.”
Jacob dives deeper into that saving money part in the full HAT interview below. Get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/28211202/ben-jacob-pioneer-102824.mp3"]
Hoosier Ag Today founders, Gary Truitt and Kathleen Stubbe Truitt, presented two Indiana 4-H Foundation Achievement Scholarships at the foundation luncheon on October 26. At the event, 43 Hoosier 4-H members were awarded a total of $47,000.
Truitt Communications and Consulting awarded Anneke Dunker of Vigo County a Communication scholarship. A junior at Terre Haute South High School, Anneke has excelled in creative writing and in public speaking and demonstration. She won the first Indiana State Fair Creative Writing Sweepstakes in 2022. Her future plans include becoming a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Coast Guard and eventually a career in journalism.
The Stubbe Truitt 4-H Scholarship Endowment for Leadership was awarded to Isaac Pohl of Vanderburgh County. A graduate of Gibson Southern High School, Isaac is currently attending Murray State University pursuing a degree in agriculture and computer science. While in 4-H, he held a number of leadership positions including president of his club and vice president of Junior Leaders.
The Truitts are strong believers in the value of the 4-H program which prepares young people to shape the future of agriculture and to serve their communities. Kathleen Stubbe Truitt is a 25 year 4-H volunteer. The Truitts founded Truitt Communications and Consulting in 2003 and Hoosier Ag Today in 2006.
Gary Truitt (left) and his wife Kathleen Stubbe Truitt (right), the founders of Hoosier Ag Today and benefactors of two scholarships for the Indiana 4-H Foundation. Photo courtesy of the Truitt family.
Photo courtesy of Linsie Middlesworth from Marion / Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).To quote the late Cincinnati Reds pitcher and long-time broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, Indiana’s farmers are “rounding third and heading for home” when it comes to this year’s harvest.
77 percent of Indiana’s corn for grain and 87 percent of the state’s soybeans have been harvested according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report.
The harvest percentages represent a substantial jump from last week, which was 61 percent for corn and 75 percent for soybeans. The state’s corn and soybean harvests are also significantly ahead of the five-year average of 58 percent and 75 percent respectfully.
Across the entire U.S., the percentages are ahead of Indiana—with 81 percent of corn and 89 percent of soybeans harvested.
Indiana’s winter wheat is now 72 percent planted and 40 percent has emerged. However, USDA says that the lack of recent rainfall continues to have a negative impact on germination.
Source: USDA
The Solix Sprayer Robot developed by Solinftec, which is based in West Lafayette, Indiana. Solinftec was one of many companies whose ag robotics and automation were featured during the FIRA USA 2024 Conference near Sacramento, California. Photo courtesy of FIRA USA.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/28194254/sabrina-wrap-hat-robotics-in-ag-fira-conference-102824.mp3"]Robotics and automation are the future of farming, which is why the FIRA USA Conference was held last week near Sacramento, California.
The three-day event brought together experts, growers, and tech innovators to explore the latest advancements in ag tech. The event also highlighted solutions designed to improve efficiency and sustainability, particularly for specialty crop production.
Paul Welbig, Director of Precision Technology for New Holland North America, highlighted the growing role of automation and autonomy in agriculture. Welbig moderated a panel focused on how these technologies can support orchard and vineyard growers by streamlining operations.
In an interview after, he explained that automation extends beyond driverless tractors, with applications in spraying, mowing, weeding, and harvesting.
“Maybe not so obvious is automation of the different applications that might go on in a farming operation, such as spraying, mowing weeding, harvesting, those types of things. And so, a lot of the machinery that’s being utilized for that can be fairly sophisticated and have a high degree of capabilities as well. The skilled labor necessary to make all that work properly is becoming more challenging,” he explained. “So therefore, trying to automate as much of that functionality as possible because you may be able to put a less experienced operator into the seat of that tractor and then along the way potentially remove the necessity for somebody in the seat of that tractor.”
Addressing concerns that automation could eliminate jobs, Welbig emphasized that it fills existing labor gaps rather than creating them. He noted that the shift toward automation allows workers to take on higher-paying roles with more responsibility, reshaping the agricultural workforce rather than reducing it.
Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Micah Beckwith joins the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast with Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer ahead of the 2024 election. Photo: Dave Blower/ Indiana Soybean Alliance[audio mp3="https://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/beckwith-ag-pod-wrap.mp3"]Republican candidate for Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith won the nomination for LG at the Republican Convention back in June, and since then, many have called him “polarizing” for some of his views and opinions.
“Yeah, I’m labeled as polarizing. I don’t think I am. That’s not who I am. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ll give you the shirt off my back, I build consensus, I don’t care where you are in the ideological spectrum. If we can work together, we’re going to find a way to do that. Now, the media will label me this because I don’t put up with some of the nonsense of today’s culture.”
He dives much deeper into that in the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now wherever you listen to podcasts.
Beckwith believes a big reason he was able to win over the delegates at the convention was his stance on property taxes and he knows farmers are facing significant increases again. He believes they’re unconstitutional.
“I also know that we’ve created this problem over about 100 years and we can’t just fix it overnight. So, I’m not saying that we just pull the rug out because it would destroy rural communities, but my heart will always be to get it back to what it was more intended to be. And so, with me, and I know with Mike (Braun, Republican candidate for governor), we are going to be fighting tooth and nail for those property taxes to come down big time, because we cannot sustain this type of egregious overreach by government. If this goes on much longer, our farmers are going to die.”
He also promises farmers that a Braun/Beckwith administration will push back against the federal government when necessary. He points to the summertime waiver of E15 sales that the industry needs to seek each year instead of the EPA following science and allowing it year-round.
“To me, that is insane. It’s like, why is the government stepping in and making it so hard to do business? Let the market do what the market does. So, I think, first and foremost, from the Braun/Beckwith team you’re going to get somebody that will fight the federal regulations that keep farmers from being able to do what we know is best for our own families, our own crops, and our own businesses.”
We take a deep dive into many other ag policy topics with Beckwith on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast. Take a listen now below or in the new Hoosier Ag Today mobile app.
Indiana native Ted McKinney, who serves as CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), speaks before state and provincial ag leaders from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada during the 33rd Tri-National Agricultural Accord in Arlington, Virginia. Photo courtesy of NAS[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/27232153/cj-wrap-hat-ted-mckinney-tri-national-accord-102524.mp3"]Foreign animal diseases and ag trade were among the topics during the Tri-National Agriculture Accord hosted last week by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) in Arlington, Virginia. The meeting also served to increase communication and build trust among ag leaders across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
“What we’re after is a quest to make certain we have that trust and understanding of what we’re going to do and is importantly what we’re not going to do,” said Ted McKinney, CEO of NASDA. He’s also a native of Tipton County, Indiana and had previously served as Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs from 2017-2021.
McKinney says one of the main goals was for ag leaders throughout the states and provinces across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to put together a plan to coordinate their efforts in the event of containing the spread of a foreign animal disease—such as African Swine Fever.
“African Swine Fever (ASF) is in the Dominican Republic, which is not too far offshore from Mexico,” he said. “Mexico is worried that they don’t want it and we, of course, don’t want it. Canada, too, could find it. So, if we’re able to find the funding, we’re going to do a very significant table-top exercise that includes all three countries and work through to make sure that we identify what gaps need to be filled, where are there inadequacies, and what more can we all do on that fateful day if it ever does hit one of our countries.”
Even though Mexico’s import ban on biotech corn was put into place by their previous president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, McKinney hopes that having discussions with the ag leaders of the different Mexican states can help move the needle to overturn their country’s ban with their current president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
“We still have some things to resolve the major point being in November when the dispute settlement committee of USMCA will rule on whether Mexico is right or if they’ve been wrong, and I hope the new president will abide by that. She’s a PhD scientist, so if you’re going to believe in the science, here’s the great example of the leader that should be believing and following that,” said McKinney.
Indiana native Ted McKinney, who serves as CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), speaks before state and provincial ag leaders from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada during the 33rd Tri-National Agricultural Accord in Arlington, Virginia. Photo courtesy of NASDA.He adds that this year’s meeting also included the chance for state and provincial ag leaders to meet face-to-face with many of the leaders from within the ag industry.
“Industry from Canada, industry from the U.S., and Industry from Mexico were all there and that was quite the hit,” said McKinney. “It was civil. It was diplomatic. It was respectful. [Industry leaders] highlighted things that some of the state government leaders did not know, and so we’re going to continue to build on that because it’s the industry—and at some level of the farmers—who are on the cutting edge of all this. They’re the ones who see what’s working, what’s not working, what’s threatening them, and what’s keeping them awake at night.”
In addition to the joint communiqué, a statement from tri-lateral meetings and statement from the U.S.-Canada bilateral meeting were published at the accord. Mexico will host the 34th Tri-National Agricultural Accord in 2025.
The National FFA elects its new Officer Team for 2024-25. From left to right: Thaddeus Bergschneider of Illinois was elected national president. Luke Jennings of Ohio was elected national secretary. Caroline Groth of Kentucky was elected eastern region vice president. Abigale Jacobsen of California was elected western region vice president. Mary Schrieber of Wisconsin was elected central region vice president. Jack Lingenfelter of Georgia was elected southern region vice president. Photo courtesy of the National FFA Organization.The National FFA Organization has announced their Officer Team for 2024-25 during the final session of the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.
Students from Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, California, Georgia and Wisconsin were elected by National FFA Delegates to serve as 2024-25 National FFA Officers. They will lead the organization for the next year.
These members were selected from 37 candidates vying for the honor. Candidates participated in an extensive interview process with the National FFA Officer Nominating Committee before the selection.
- Thaddeus Bergschneider of Illinois was elected national president. He is a former member of the Franklin FFA Chapter.
- Luke Jennings of Ohio was elected national secretary. He is a former member of the Felicity-Franklin FFA Chapter.
- Caroline Groth of Kentucky was elected eastern region vice president. She is a former member of the Locust Trace FFA Chapter.
- Abigale Jacobsen of California was elected western region vice president. She is a former member of the Elk Grove FFA Chapter.
- Jack Lingenfelter of Georgia was elected southern region vice president. He is a former member of the Coffee High FFA Chapter.
- Mary Schrieber of Wisconsin was elected central region vice president. She is a former member of the East Troy FFA Chapter.
Each year, during the National FFA Convention & Expo, six student members are elected by delegates to represent the organization as national officers. Delegates elect a president, secretary and vice presidents representing the country’s central, southern, eastern and western regions.
Throughout their year of service to the National FFA Organization, the officers will interact with business and industry leaders; thousands of FFA members and teachers; corporate partners; government and education officials; state FFA leaders; the general public; and more. The team will lead personal growth and leadership training conferences for FFA members throughout the country and help set policies to guide the future of FFA and the next generation of leaders.
The National FFA Organization has more than one million student members as part of 9,163 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Source: National FFA Organization
Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer with Maddox Gunn, Haedyn Keith, and Jayden O’Neal with Eastern Hancock FFA. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.While walking around the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo this past week at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer spotted three members of the Eastern Hancock FFA Chapter from Charlottesville and asked them to talk about their experiences throughout the convention.
CLICK BELOW to watch Maddox Gunn, Haedyn Keith, and Jayden O’Neal as they share why decided to become members of FFA. They also talk about their career plans and how FFA is shaping their paths toward the future.Hoosier Ag Today’s coverage this week from the National FFA Convention & Expo is brought to you by Keystone Cooperative! Keystone believes in the power of National Blue and Corn Gold and salutes our local Indiana FFA members during the National FFA Convention and beyond!
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/25232001/hatthisweek2.mp3"]As harvest is getting close to wrapping up for 2024, we finally are getting what some would call a more “normal” Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast—you know, one that has some moisture and requires us to work around delays and showers that work through the Great Lakes and Eastern Corn Belt.
After October ends as one of the driest months on record, we get a rather damp start to November. But still, we only really have this one “good” threat of moisture over the next 10 days, which comes on Halloween.
This weekend will be cool and dry. After the minor scattered showers and storms that came through parts of the region early Friday morning into Friday midday, we are looking at cool, Canadian air settling southward over the Great Lakes and eastern corn belt. High pressure will dominate, so that means full sunshine and good drying. Once we get on the backside of that high, likely Monday morning, we expect strong southwest flow to take over, giving significant warming.
We will be breezy for the Monday through Wednesday period, quite windy for Tuesday. The pattern will allow for very warm air to be here on Tuesday, as temps can easily run into the upper 70s and low 80s. The exceptional warmth may trigger a few scattered showers in MI Tuesday, but farther south and east we are going to remain dry. Monday and Wednesday everybody is precipitation free.
A strong cold front works into the forecast for Thursday (Halloween). This front will bring potential for showers and thunderstorms. But the better threat of thunderstorms seems to set up farther west initially. We will pencil in .25”-1” rain totals from the Halloween frontal passage with 100% coverage. We take a break for Friday, Nov. 1 and the start of the weekend, but then a second system really gathers strength in the plains and western corn belt Saturday midday, kicking out to the east Saturday afternoon through Sunday early morning. That second system can bring another .25”-1.5” to 100% of our region.
So, if you’re keeping score at home…that is 8 weeks of basically nothing, and then – BAM – 2 strong systems in 3.5 days. Ain’t mother nature grand! The map below shows combined rain totals for IN and MI from next Thursday through Sunday midday (Oct. 31 to Nov. 3).
We swing back to a drier pattern behind that last system for Sunday afternoon and into the start of the week of Nov. 4, but are watching a system developing in the northern Rockies to start that week that likely makes an appearance in our extended outlook.
Extended Period:
Oure extended 11-16 day period looks cooler. Canadian air seems to want to take more controls through the entirety of the period. What we are seeing with this outlook is a bit more active on precipitation as well, as the jet stream digs out a trough over the eastern part of the US. That should allow for a bit of moisture later from the 6th into the 7th, and then more clouds and lake effect precipitation behind that system. To be clear, we are not looking at bitter cold, but we should see temps back a lot closer to normal, and more of a damp feel, or at least slower dry down times.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Precipitation still looks to hold near normal for the week three and week four periods, even sneaking a bit above normal in parts of northern Indiana in week four. Temps are remaining warmer than normal, but seeing the levels drop weekly, which really backs up our thought that cooler Canadian air is going to start winning out more in the weeks ahead.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Dr. Bret Marsh has been named by Purdue University as their new Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. Marsh, who is the State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH), was part of a panel discussion on Ag Emergency Preparedness during the NASDA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis in September. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Purdue University has announced that Dr. Bret Marsh, State Veterinarian and the state’s top-ranking animal health leader with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, will join Purdue to serve as its next dean and hospital CEO of the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Marsh will step into his Purdue role on Nov. 4 as dean and clinical professor of veterinary medicine, with a focus on Purdue’s One Health initiative. He succeeds distinguished veterinary pathologist and campus leader Willie Reed, who served 17 years as dean and for whom the Reed Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory on campus is named.
Marsh, a first-generation college student from rural Indiana who earned his bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from Purdue’s College of Agriculture and his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the college he will now lead, has held several national leadership roles throughout his tenure with the state of Indiana. Among these, he served as special detail to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s homeland security staff following 9/11 and has held leadership roles with the United States Animal Health Association, serving as president and as a member of its board of directors.
He has also assisted the American Veterinary Medical Association — the primary accrediting body for colleges of veterinary medicine worldwide — as the state’s delegate and later as a six-term treasurer, and the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association as its president and board chair.
“My career in veterinary medicine has been built on safeguarding animal health through innovation and partnerships, with a passion for public service to the people of Indiana. I look forward to continuing those efforts as dean,” Marsh said. “As Indiana state veterinarian, I saw how animal health is inextricably linked to environmental and human health — from food safety to farms to pets in our homes. I want to ensure Purdue is leading the way in One Health through research and preparing the next generation of veterinarians.”
“I couldn’t be more pleased to have recruited someone of Dr. Marsh’s caliber to take our cherished college to new heights,” said Purdue University Provost Patrick Wolfe. “There is much work to do in advancing our land-grant mission, both by better serving our state and by advancing us to the top rank of colleges nationally.”
The priorities for Marsh as the college’s next leader are clear: enhance and expand its research profile, take a leading role in the university’s One Health strategic priority and concomitant design of a new Life Sciences Research Building, and create net “veterinarian brain gain” for Indiana.
Over the course of his career, Marsh has:
- Led a legislative effort to establish the Indiana Center for Animal Policy to explore creative solutions to the challenges of delivering high-quality veterinary medicine to citizens throughout the state.
- Established multiple programs focusing on animal health as well as public health.
- Established multiple collaborations with Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine, including coordination and interactions with the Willie M. Reed Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Purdue Veterinary Alumni Association, Boiler Vet Camp, Canine Care Certified program, classroom interaction and instruction, and internships/externships for veterinary students.
- Established a historic initiative for a disaster preparedness plan for animals.
- Established an information network to alert veterinarians and animal owners to the threat of foreign animal diseases and emerging domestic diseases.
- Established an advanced Animal Disease Traceability system for the state, including requirement for premises registration for livestock, electronic tag distribution and advanced training for veterinarians statewide in the use of electronic certificates of veterinary inspection, improving speed and efficiency for disease investigations.
Source: Purdue University
Keaton Brown, a member of Eastside FFA and a freshman at Eastside Jr./Sr. High School in DeKalb County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.If you walk through the Indiana Convention Center during the National FFA Convention & Expo, it’s easy to come across a group of students wearing blue corduroy jackets with INDIANA emblazoned in gold across the back. That’s how Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller came across Eastside FFA from the DeKalb County Eastern Consolidated School District, which is north of Fort Wayne.
Keaton Brown, a freshman at Eastside Junior/Senior High School in Butler, Indiana, shared why he became involved with FFA.
“I became a member because Miss Lauren Hook, my FFA advisor, was actually my babysitter, so I’ve always been good friends with her. My sisters have always been in FFA and it looked fun, so I decided to join,” he says.
Brown adds that after graduating from high school, he plans to work on his family’s farm in DeKalb County.
“My dad, mom, uncle, and aunt are all owners of the farm,” says Brown. “We farm about 1,600 acres and have about 300 head of beef cattle and on the side, we like to make maple syrup.”
He says that the FFA projects that he has been involved with will help him on his path to become a full-time farmer with his family’s farm.
“Last year, me and my good friend Memphis did a demonstration about plant and soil science, and it has helped me learn more about improving our soils to help get better yields on our farm,” says Brown.
CLICK BELOW to hear the full conversation with Keaton Brown of Eastside FFA in DeKalb County during the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in downtown Indianapolis.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/24224852/cj-wrap-hat-keaton-brown-eastside-ffa-dekalb-co-102424.mp3"]Members of the Eastside FFA Chapter from Eastside Jr./Sr. High School in DeKalb County during the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Hoosier Ag Today’s coverage this week from the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo is brought to you by Keystone Cooperative! Keystone believes in the power of National Blue and Corn Gold and salutes our local Indiana FFA members during the National FFA Convention and beyond!
For the third year in a row, we are experiencing an unwelcome three-peat with low water levels along the Mississippi River system during harvest season.
“We experienced low water in both 2022 and 2023 and now, once again, in 2024 when we need our supply chain to be operating at full throttle,” says Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition.
The below charts from the U.S. Geological Survey compare water levels in St. Louis and Memphis in 2023 and 2024. Precipitation and water levels were quite robust during the spring and early summer. However, since mid-July, precipitation has declined significantly, which caused a steady and dramatic decrease in water levels.
There had been a short-lived 15-plus foot spike in water levels at Memphis due to Hurricane Helene. However, once that surge of water passed through the system, water levels at Memphis quickly returned to where they were earlier.
“For each foot of draft reduction on the river, an individual barge is loaded with 7,000 fewer bushels (200 tons) of soybeans,” according to Steenhoek. “In certain areas of the river, we are seeing several feet of draft restrictions due to low water. In addition, the lack of water will narrow the shipping channel, which limits the number of barges that can be attached together to form one single flotilla or tow. Depending on the location in the river, tow sizes are being reduced from 10-15% at minimum and upwards of 30-40%.”
Barge transportation has been economical because of the ability to load individual barges with significant volumes of freight while attaching many barges together to form a flotilla or tow. Unfortunately, low water conditions on the river attack both of these features.
“At a time in which soybean exports are confronted with numerous challenges, it is our hope that our supply chain can encourage profitability, rather than be one further impediment. Unfortunately, we continue to experience numerous supply chain challenges. Low water on the Mississippi River is one compelling example of this,” adds Steenhoek.
Source: Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/24200052"]Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin has some minor moisture moving through Friday in his Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast. He’s looking for a few hundredths to a few tenths, maybe half an inch on the top end in central and southern parts of Indiana, with coverage around 70% of the state.
“We follow that up with strong, high pressure for the weekend, though. So, any delay in field work for Friday is going to be gone for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday we’re looking at sunny, dry weather conditions. It’ll be a little bit on the cool side.”
Martin says next week starts with a big surge in temperatures and, “It’s going to be windy here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, particularly Tuesday. I think we do not see any precipitation all the way through that stretch. I’m pushing our next frontal boundary off just a little bit. So, very fast drying Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You need to keep your foot on the gas and harvest, because we are going to be seeing a major pattern change once we get done with Wednesday evening.”
Halloween next week will not only be spooky, but it will also be rainy.
“I’m looking for next Thursday to pick up anywhere from a quarter to maybe one and a half inches of rain. The higher end of the rain range is all dependent on thunderstorms. So, if the thunderstorms rain themselves out a little bit farther west and north, which I think is possible, we’ll be to the low end of the rain range. But I think 80% to 90% of Indiana sees rain next Thursday.”
Martin is calling for a resurgence of rain to come overnight Friday night through Saturday, the 1st into the 2nd.
“Another slug of moisture is coming up out of Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. I think we can pick up another quarter to one inch of rain with 100% coverage there. So, we have significant moisture coming as we finish out next week.”
Martin will have those forecast details available in written form later Friday at hoosieragtoday.com presented by Seed Genetics Direct.
Keystone Cooperative’s Lindsay Sankey addresses FFA students from Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan about their SEED program at the Keystone HQ in Indianapolis. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer/ Hoosier Ag Today[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/23183416/keystone-seed-program-wrap.mp3"]With the National FFA Convention in town this week, Keystone Cooperative took the opportunity to corral students from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio chapters at their Indy headquarters to discuss career pathways within the organization.
Lindsay Sankey, director of Public Relations for Keystone, says they’re looking for senior FFA students who have decided they want to enter the workforce after graduation instead of attending college to apply for their SEED program, which is an acronym for Securing Experience + Employee Development.
“We hope that they hire on with Keystone and retire with us in 40 years,” Sankey explains. “It is a two-year employment commitment where they rotate through our agronomy business, our energy business, grain, and then also swine and animal nutrition. They’ll also spend some time in our corporate office learning business acumen- HR, marketing, IT even- all the different things that go on at Keystone.”
At the end of those two years, the employee will then meet with the SEED program coordinator to figure out which area was the best fit and where they should continue their career with Keystone. Throughout the two years, Keystone will also take care of the necessary accreditations, which would be quite costly to do individually.
“We’re paying for their CDLs, their applicators license, Pork Quality Assurance training, propane safety training. They essentially start earning money the first day that they show up in the SEED program, and we take care of all that financial burden.”
If you’re an interested FFA senior, Sankey encourages you to visit keystonecoop.com/careers. The deadline to apply is January 31st! This is a paid position with benefits.
Brooklyn Ortman (center), a sophomore at South Decatur High School and a member of South Decatur FFA, poses with her advisors Abbey Knowlton (left) and Brooke Sides (right) during the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.During a busy first day of the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in downtown Indianapolis, Hoosier Ag Today caught up with the South Decatur FFA Chapter and spoke with Brooklyn Ortman, a sophomore at South Decatur High School south of Greensburg.
She shared that she initially became a member of FFA because of her family’s legacy and connection with the organization.
“My dad, my grandpa, and my uncles were all a part of FFA, and so it’s just a family thing,” says Brooklyn. “I just thought it would really be a fun opportunity, and I found out that I really liked it.”
She says this is her first time to the National FFA Convention FFA & Expo, and she described what it was like seeing 70,000 other FFA members from across the U.S. as they poured into the Indiana Convention Center.
“I just thought it was a really beautiful thing—seeing everybody coming together for one thing and that’s their love of farming.”
Brooklyn Ortman, a sophomore at South Decatur High School and a member of South Decatur FFA. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Brooklyn says she plans to attend Indiana University and become a Nursing major. She says her experience in FFA has already helped her grow as a student and has helped sharpen her leadership skills, which are required of those in the nursing field.
“FFA has given me great communication skills,” says Brooklyn. “I’ve also learned through the Career Development Events (CDEs) that I do to work under pressure. I participate in soil judging and parliamentary procedure, and so those have been really good opportunities for me.”
CLICK BELOW to hear the full conversation with Brooklyn Ortman of South Decatur FFA during the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in downtown Indianapolis.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/24034535/brooklyn-ortman-south-decatur-ffa.mp3"]Members of the South Decatur FFA on Day One of the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in downtown Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Hoosier Ag Today’s coverage this week from the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo is brought to you by Keystone Cooperative! Keystone believes in the power of National Blue and Corn Gold and salutes our local Indiana FFA members during the National FFA Convention and beyond!
In the latest government update, Indiana corn harvest is 61 percent complete and soybean harvest is 75 percent. In a Channel Seed harvest update from North Central Indiana, field sales representative Daniel Stauffer estimates progress now mid-week a little better than the state numbers.
“I think North Central Indiana, most of my geography, we’re somewhere around 90 percent complete on soybean harvest,” he told HAT. “You’ve got some double crop fields and you have some maybe later-planted fields, or guys that focused on corn earlier, on getting some stuff out of the fields, but then a little tougher to say on corn. They’re going to continue to make quick progress without any rain, but I would say somewhere around that 60 to 70 percent complete on corn.”
Although very dry conditions have allowed for continual harvest this fall, the lack of moisture is showing up on the yield monitors and creating “extreme variability even within relative to one field,” he said. “But you talk about the 8 to 10 counties that I move across, just extreme differences within a county or across those 10 where some places guys are getting field records on yields. Corn upwards of 240 to 270 in some areas and I’ve got some guys that’ll be averaging somewhere around that 225 to 240 range.”
But others may end up with averages in the 140-160 bushel range. Bean yields are also wide-ranging.
“Where the rain or disease affected them worse off, seeing somewhere in that 30 to 45 bushel on the low end. For field averages on the high end there’s plenty of folks in that 60 to 65 range on the high end.”
HAT asked Stauffer how this season is affecting farmers in the combine. Hear about it in the full HAT and Channel Seed growing season update:
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Earlier this week, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, tasked with delivering recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the agencies craft the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, reviewed and discussed the scientific findings and draft advice it plans to include in its Scientific Report. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association slammed the recommendations, calling them unhinged.
“The preview meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee this week stands out as one of the most out-of-touch, impractical, and elitist conversations in the history of this process,” said NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane. “After 22 months of public discussion and lip service to transparency, we are disappointed by the number of chaotic new directions that were proposed at the literal last minute. We would laugh at the suggestion that beans, peas, and lentils are going to replace lean red meat and fill all the nutrient gaps Americans are facing if it weren’t such a dangerous and deceptive idea.”
“We’ve had more than four decades of Dietary Guidelines advice, and during that time red meat consumption has declined, yet obesity and chronic disease is on the rise. 70% of the calories in the U.S. diet are plant based. Now, the committee wants to reduce red meat intake even further, marginalizing the 80% of the population who identify themselves as meat eaters,” said NCBA Executive Director of Nutrition Science and Registered Dietitian Dr. Shalene McNeill. “These recommendations put some of the most vulnerable at risk for nutrient gaps, especially older Americans, adolescent girls, and women of child-bearing age. Beef contributes only 5% of the calories in the American diet, but more than 5% of essential nutrients like potassium, phosphorous, iron, B6, niacin, protein, zinc, choline, and B12. It’s baffling that we are trying to get Americans to cut out red meat when the evidence indicates nutrient deficiencies and chronic disease are increasing as red meat consumption declines. As a registered dietitian and nutrition scientist, I am concerned that basing guidelines on highly academic exercises, hypothetical modeling, and weak science on red meat will not produce relevant or practical guidelines and will not help us achieve healthier diets.”
Source: NCBA
The National FFA Convention kicks off Wednesday in downtown Indianapolis. Indiana FFA President Ethan Wolheter was already hard at work Tuesday in Indy as blue jackets started to invade the Indiana Convention Center.
Indianapolis will host the National FFA Convention through at least 2033, something Wolheter says is great for Indiana FFA.
“It’s huge that it’s in Indiana. It’s just wonderful that we have such a good host city here. And it being in Indiana provides an opportunity for those that maybe would not travel far to a state across the country. It being out our back door provides opportunities for so many, especially younger members, to experience national convention as that is one thing that is huge in getting involvement. When they see that at the national level, they know they’re a part of something huge.”
Ahead of the convention kicking off, Wolheter was already digging in on issues important to FFA members.
“I am a delegate representing Indiana, and we start off working on our committees. There are six different committees that are made up of delegates from across the country, working together to put forth recommendations for National FFA. My specific committee works with helping create opportunities for younger members, specifically fifth through eighth graders, and making sure we have their representation at the national level.”
And what might that representation look like?
“That may be conferences or contests, some sort of idea that they can have representation and equity when it comes to FFA, and they can get those opportunities in agriculture and leadership sooner.”
We’ll have coverage throughout the week from the National FFA Convention brought to you by Keystone Cooperative. Keystone believes in the power of National Blue and Corn Gold and salutes our local FFA members during the National FFA Convention and beyond.
Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/22200333/cj-wrap-hat-isda-ports-of-indiana-mou-102224.mp3"]Expanding ag trade and creating more container shipping opportunities are the goals behind the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that has been signed recently between the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and the Ports of Indiana.
“We have three ports in Indiana—and sometimes that’s surprising to others considering our geography—but the one thing we don’t have is a container loading system and building that will help us with shipping our ag products,” says Don Lamb, Director of ISDA.
He says the critical part of the agreement is that both ISDA and Ports of Indiana are looking to develop new container loading and shipping facilities.
“The key to us sending out products [here in Indiana] is our ability to bring in products as well, because it doesn’t work unless it’s a two-way system,” says Lamb.
“When you say we’re going to do that, we’re going to have to bring in products from other countries in a containerized environment. What we also need to have is border control and security to make sure what we’re bringing in is safe. So, there’s a lot more to it than just being able to send things out. It’s a little bit more of a complicated process than one might think, but it’s super important and I think it’s going to be a great step for Indiana farmers,” he says.
A shipping port for the Ports of Indiana along the Ohio River in southern Indiana. Photo courtesy of Ports of Indiana.Once those new container shipping facilities are up and running, Lamb says it will be that much easier to make those ag trade agreements directly with international buyers—which in turn, will increase the value of the ag products that are grown, raised, and produced in Indiana.
“Indiana is the seventh largest ag export state in the country. When you consider we’re the 38th largest in terms of our size, I think that’s a great testament to our farmers, says Lamb.
“I’ve also learned that trade is a contact sport. You cannot make international trade arrangements without making those one-on-one personal connections. That’s why our team at ISDA and state ag leaders have done so much traveling—and we’re going to continue to do that because when you make those personal connections and meet your trade partners in person, that’s really what allows trade to happen, so we’re going to keep building and building on that success,” he says.
Each year, four million tons of ag products are shipped out among Indiana’s three ports located on the Ohio River and Lake Michigan. Overall, Indiana ranks 13th in the nation for waterborne shipping, generating $29.9 billion in annual economic impact.
In addition, the Ports of Indiana received federal approval to create Indiana’s first international sea cargo terminal on Lake Michigan. This was part of an agreement with the Belgium government to create a direct shipping pipeline between Ports of Indiana and Europe’s second largest port. Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
CLICK HERE to view the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ISDA and the Ports of Indiana.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building, also known as the Jamie L. Whitten Building, houses the administrative offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. as the Washington Monument stands in the distance. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it will begin issuing more than $2.14 billion in payments to eligible agricultural producers, and landowners—providing much needed support through key conservation and safety-net programs.
Producers should soon receive payments from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) for their participation in these programs aimed to conserve natural resources and keep family farms economically viable.
Specifically, program participants are expected to receive more than $1.7 billion through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and CRP Transition Incentive Program (CRP TIP) and more than $447 million through the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Prices Loss Coverage (ARC/PLC) programs. Additionally, FSA is announcing an investment of $21 million for projects to better measure the effectiveness of CRP.
“Conservation and safety net program payments are significant investments in preserving and protecting our valuable and vulnerable natural resources and they provide protection for producers impacted by market volatilities,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “These programs support voluntary land stewardship and provide agricultural producers with risk protection and production stability, keeping them in business and feeding the world.”
Conservation Reserve Program Payments
FSA is issuing more than $1.7 billion in annual rental payments to agricultural producers and private landowners through the Conservation Reserve Program and CRP Transition Incentive Program. These annual rental payments are made to eligible farmers and ranchers throughout the country who establish long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, to control soil erosion, improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat on cropland taken out of production. The duration of CRP contracts is between 10 and 15 years.
FSA accepted offers for more than 2.2 million acres through this year’s Grassland, General, and Continuous CRP signups, bringing current enrollment to nearly 26 million acres.
These conservation-minded producers help provide invaluable benefits to the nation’s environment and economy.
Investments in CRP Monitoring, Assessment, and Evaluation
FSA invested $21 million in projects to further the monitoring, assessment, and evaluation of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Projects funded this year include the adoption of emerging technology to increase knowledge on subjects such as the benefits of wetland restoration to mitigate flooding, contributions of CRP to wildlife habitat, and role CRP plays in strengthening the resiliency of agricultural operations.
FSA originally committed $10 million to the Notice of Funding Opportunity in May, but due to the quality of project proposals submitted FSA awarded more than $20 million. Since 2021, FSA has invested over $70 million into monitoring, assessment, and evaluation efforts.
The monitoring, assessment, and evaluation projects are designed to produce information that enables USDA to better target CRP toward conservation outcomes by improving data, models, and planning tools while supporting USDA’s goal of putting American agriculture and forestry at the center of climate-smart solutions. The land currently enrolled in the program improve water quality, protect soil resources, provide critical wildlife habitat and aid to climate resiliency within agricultural systems. Further quantifying program benefits allows the USDA to better target CRP to achieve continued conservation wins across environmentally sensitive lands while strengthening the program’s modeling and conservation planning resources for all producers.
Signed into law in 1985, CRP is one of the largest voluntary private-lands conservation programs in the United States. It was originally intended to primarily control soil erosion and potentially stabilize commodity prices by taking marginal lands out of production. The program has evolved over the years, providing many conservation and economic benefits.
Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage Programs
USDA has started to issue payments to producers of 2023 crops that are estimated at more than $447 million through the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs. ARC and PLC provide financial protections to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices or revenue and are vital economic safety nets for most American farms. ARC and PLC program and crop specific data is available online and through your local FSA county office.
Authorized by the 2014 farm bill they can provide a cushion for farmers during tough economic conditions and fluctuating market prices.
More Information
For more information on available FSA programs, contact your local USDA Service Center.
Source: USDA Farm Service Agency
Nicholas Neuman from Rushville at KRAN in West Lafayette, Ind. on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. Neuman is the first Purdue student to receive a Voyager Scholarship, the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service, which provides up to $50,000 in financial aid and funding for a summer work-travel experience. Photo courtesy of Joshua Clark / Purdue Agricultural Communications.Nicholas Neuman, a junior at Purdue University, graduate of Rushville Consolidated High School, and former Indiana FFA State Officer, has been awarded the Voyager Scholarship.
Neuman, a double major in agricultural economics and political science, is the first Purdue student to receive this highly competitive award.
The scholarship honors students with a strong commitment to public service, a proven track record of helping others and a broad vision of what public action can achieve.
The Voyager Scholarship“The Voyager Scholarship has 100 scholars every year, this year being only the third cohort,” explains Neuman. “It’s a two-year program, providing last dollar financial aid to cover any final financial costs associated with college. It also promises funding dollars to pursue any topic in public service over the summer between junior and senior year.”
The scholarship emphasizes professional development and training, helping students plan their summer voyage and connecting them with mentors from previous cohorts who share similar interests. Neuman’s mentor will have a shared focus on international development.
“When it comes to the Voyager Scholarship and academics, the international component is something I’m very interested in. I’m a dual major with liberal arts, international relations focus, but it’s different learning something in the classroom than experiencing it in real life. Being able to talk to individuals who have that experience, who are professionals in their field is very valuable,” says Neuman.
This year’s cohort has a diverse range of interests, with some students focusing on development, while others are dedicated to human rights and environmental mitigation strategies. With only two scholars from Indiana, the cohort draws talent from across the United States. The Voyager Scholarship also incentivizes travel. Scholars receive support from Airbnb for future travel endeavors for up to 10 years post-graduation.
A course set for public serviceThe competitive nature of the scholarship underscores Neuman’s achievement.
“My experiences at Purdue have given me a unique background, which is needed in the international relations and development communities. “This focus area is more niche and often overlooked compared to other areas pursued by agricultural economics students,” says Neuman.
Neuman’s impressive resume includes several government roles, starting as the state secretary for the Indiana Department of Agriculture during high school with the National FFA Organization. After completing his year with Indiana FFA, he worked as a communications and special projects intern for the City of Rushville, where he played a pivotal role in organizing events for the city’s bicentennial celebration.
In summer 2023, after finishing his freshman year of Purdue, Neuman worked as a legislative intern for the City of Indianapolis, supporting the Department of Metropolitan Development. In this role, he contributed to economic development initiatives and quality of life programs, achieving successes such as developing the City of Indianapolis Youth Strategy Plan and cataloging over 90 Brownfields Program projects for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Phase I grant. This past summer, he interned with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in Washington, D.C., focusing on international economic policy and agricultural projects.
Currently, Neuman serves as a College of Agriculture Ambassador, risk mitigation officer for the Sigma Nu Fraternity, secretary for the Lilly Scholars Network and parliamentarian for Purdue Student Government. He is also an economic development intern at HWC Engineering, where he co-authored the Indiana Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) 2.0 application for Accelerate Rural Indiana, securing $30 million in state funding.
Navigating Neuman’s futureHis undergraduate research in agricultural economics, conducted through the Purdue Center for Regional Development, examines the economic impacts of the READI 1.0 initiative. In future, Neuman plans to apply his findings on an international scale, particularly in Europe.
Next semester, Neuman will study abroad in Vienna, Austria. The opportunity to remain in Europe through the summer could allow him to further his research in international development.
Written by: Devyn Raver, Purdue Agricultural Communications. Photo by Joshua Clark.
Nicholas Neuman (second from right) with his fellow Indiana FFA State Officers in June 2022 before the Indiana FFA State Convention. Left to Right: Madisen Carns, Sentinel; Jordyn Wickard, Treasurer; Abby Stuckwisch, Southern Region VP; Tyler Kilmer, Northern Region VP; Nicholas Neuman, Secretary; Kourtney Otte, President. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Weather has remained cooperative, and, for many, harvest is either complete or rapidly approaching the finish line. North Central Indiana Pioneer agronomist Brian Early says it’s time to start prioritizing fall fertilization and fall applied herbicides.
Early believes there’s not a lot of dry fertilizer going on this year with the economics being what they are, but he’s encouraging you to consider a fall potash application.
“There’s been some work by North Dakota State, and Purdue as well, showing the difference between fall fertilization of potash and spring. Because potash is potassium chloride, when those separate in the soil, our crops don’t need the chloride. Chloride’s not something we want in the soil, so getting that on in the fall makes a pretty good buffer between blending in the spring has unlocked some bushels. So, where people might not be thinking about putting on some fertilizer on some ground that you know is going to soybeans next year, I would probably think pretty hard about getting some potash on in the fall.”
Weeds are always every farmer’s battle. Early says that this year, like previous years, really showed the value of getting something on in the fall.
“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to knock out those winter annuals. Those winter annuals are a bridge that keeps this nematode going well into the season when it’s warm like this, and then they just keep the soil wet and moist and cold in the spring. So, by knocking them out, you get nice warm soils. The other thing is a lot of the programs, the fall programs, there’s a little bit of residual in some of those products. So, you can keep some of your weeds at bay and it’ll give you some pretty nice flexibility getting into even the post applications on corn or beans next year when you get into late May or early June.”
Hear the full HAT interview with Early at hoosieragtoday.com. You can get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
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[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/21214155/corp-transparency-act-wrap.mp3"]Over 230,000 farms face a January 1 deadline to submit documents to the Treasury Department under the Corporate Transparency Act.
“The Corporate Transparency Act was passed in 2021 to combat illegal activities going through shell businesses, so money laundering, organized crime funding, things of that nature.”
That’s Samantha Ayoub, an associate economist with Farm Bureau. She says the Act applies to many types of small businesses.
“The Corporate Transparency Act covers all small, registered businesses, so under 20 employees or $5 million in cash receipts, and then, if you file an incorporating document with your state business authority, so LLCs, Limited Partnerships, or corporations.”
It’s not just farmers and ranchers that have to worry about the deadline. Many feed and supply stores, crop marketers like grain elevators, and the greater rural business community are also likely required to file their Beneficial Owner Information.
“If you’re unsure whether you fall under the authority of the Act and all that, check with your accountants and your attorneys and just make sure that you’re in compliance, that you’re filing correctly.”
The penalties for not filing by the deadline are steep, including potential prison time. Ayoub says owners can be anyone with a significant role in an organization.
“It qualifies other beneficial ownership information, which covers more than just legal owners. It also includes anyone with managerial control over day-to-day operations. It could be family members if they have control over the company and are on the registration documents, or it could be non-family members. It covers a wide variety of owners.”
For more information, go to the Market Intel Page at fb.org.
Indiana’s corn and soybean harvest pace remains well ahead of the five-year average as Mother Nature remains cooperative. According to USDA’s weekly Crop Progress report, another dry week pushed Indiana farmers to 75% harvest completion for soybeans and 61% completion of corn. You can compare that to the five-year average of 62% for soybeans and 45% for corn.
Nationally, USDA says 81% of soybean harvest is complete while 65% of U.S. corn is harvested.
According to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA NASS Indiana Field Office, cool, dry weather aided operators across the state as they continued harvest activities. However, pastures were not recovering well and planted cover crops and winter wheat were struggling to germinate due to the persistent dry conditions. Winter wheat planting remained on schedule with 59% planted. Fall calving was underway, with some livestock requiring alternate watering sources. Fourth cuttings of alfalfa hay were nearing completion. Other activities included hauling grain, planting cover crops, and harvest equipment maintenance.
Amanda Deering, associate professor of fresh food produce safety, and Adriana Vanegas, graduate student researcher, both in Purdue’s Department of Food Science, select samples of cantaloupe to test for salmonella. Photo credit: Purdue Agricultural Communications / Tom CampbellPurdue University and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have embarked on a multiyear study of salmonella prevalence and persistence focused on the cantaloupe-growing region of southwest Indiana. Growers in the region are assisting with the statewide study to extend their decades-long focus on food safety.
The study also includes a farm in central Indiana, four Purdue-operated farms in northwest Indiana’s Tippecanoe County, and the Southwest Purdue Ag Center near Vincennes. Researchers are sampling air, soil, water and animal scat while also taking weather data to better understand what environmental conditions may encourage the survival, growth and spread of pathogens. They are even considering the possible role of bee pollination in the process.
In recent years, similar studies have been conducted following outbreaks linked to produce in Arizona, California and Florida and earlier outbreaks traced to the Delmarva Peninsula of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
Indiana’s cantaloupe production ranked sixth in U.S. as of 2018, according to the most recently available data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That year, Indiana growers planted 1,800 acres of cantaloupe with a production value of $8.6 million.
“The growers want to participate in this study because of their commitment to do everything they can to keep their produce as safe as possible,” said Amanda Deering, associate professor of fresh food produce safety. Deering leads Purdue’s part in the study with Scott Monroe, Purdue Extension food safety educator at the Purdue Extension Food Safety Training Hub near Vincennes. Purdue’s Food Entrepreneurship and Manufacturing Institute students are also helping with the research at Purdue’s Animal Sciences Research and Education Center, Student Farm and the Throckmorton Purdue Agricultural Center, which includes Meigs Farm.
The new study focuses on how pathogens move in the environment and may contaminate produce before harvest. Contamination can also arise during transportation or at the retail outlet. Most people handle several cantaloupes before making their selection, transferring whatever was on their hands to the produce, Deering noted. “Do you ever take the first cantaloupe you touch out of the bin? Probably not,” she said.
Indiana cantaloupe growers have a history of tapping the expertise of Deering, Monroe and other specialists from the Safe Produce Indiana team in Purdue Extension, who work closely with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the Indiana Department of Health to address food safety issues in Indiana.
Last year Deering’s team tested various cantaloupe sanitizers in her lab with human pathogens. Indiana growers wash their produce in sanitizer before sending it to a packing house. Deering’s team found that a combination of sanitizers worked better than what the growers had been using
“I gave them the data, and they all switched to the new sanitizer treatment,” she said. “It’s their livelihood, so they take it seriously.”
Amara Jackson, the 2023-24 National FFA President. Amara was previously a Michigan FFA President and represents Corunna FFA in central Michigan. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/20215331/cj-wrap-hat-amara-jackson-ffa-convention-preview-101824.mp3"]More than 70,000 students wearing blue corduroy jackets will soon be making their way to downtown Indianapolis for the 97th National FFA Convention and Expo.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity—and it almost feels like a family reunion,” says Amara Jackson from Corunna, Michigan, who is serving out her final week as President of National FFA for 2023-24.
This year, the event starts on Wednesday, Oct. 23 and wraps up with the final session on Saturday, Oct. 26.
The theme of this year’s convention and expo is “Engage.”
“It’s our hope that our members and guests that attend National FFA Convention feel a deeper calling to become engaged with the people around them and with the experiences around them,” she says. “When we’re truly engaged, we can give back to our local communities. When we’re truly engaged, we equip ourselves with knowledge and experiences that prepare us for life in-and-out of this blue jacket. When we engage, that that is when we build those skills and those experiences that ensure that we’re becoming the leaders that FFA upholds us to be.”
Students from Batesville Community High School and Batesville FFA during the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo in Nov. 2023 in downtown Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.She says one of the highlights of the event is the Expo at the Indiana Convention Center, which features more than 300 exhibitors. Those include some of the nation’s top ag colleges—including Purdue University and Michigan State University. Exhibitors also include some of the country’s top ag businesses such as Corteva Agriscience and Case IH.
“That Expo is a great chance for students who maybe aren’t sure of their next step after high school to figure out and have conversations in the agriculture industry of what could be that next step for them,” she says. “That is the best place to walk around and have conversations with like-minded people to ensure your future success.”
Meanwhile, inside Lucas Oil Stadium, which is literally across the street from the Expo, the sessions are underway for the National FFA Convention.
“The sessions are one of my favorite things to go to at National FFA Convention,” says Jackson. “During that time, students are getting awarded for different leadership and career development events—including Agriscience Fair projects and Proficiency Awards,” says Jackson. “It’s a great time to learn what kind of project or contest you’d like to be involved in next year while watching other students get recognized at a national level.”
Students from Connersville High School and Connersville FFA during the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo in 2023 in downtown Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.What’s Amara’s advice for those coming to the National FFA Convention and Expo?
“I encourage you to do as much as possible. Soak up each and every experience. Find some time to go to the Expo. Find some time to go to multiple sessions. Find some time to explore and to meet people. There’s no reason we can’t walk away with more friends than what we came with. I encourage you to just be present—even when your feet might hurt from walking—and continue to find ways to get involved and engaged,” she says.
Hoosier Ag Today will have full coverage throughout the 97th National FFA Convention and Expo in downtown Indianapolis all this week at HoosierAgToday.com—and the Hoosier Ag Today mobile app.
For additional information, visit Convention.FFA.org.
CLICK BELOW to hear the full conversation with National FFA President Amara Jackson from Michigan as she previews the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo from Oct. 23-26 in Indianapolis.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/20214725/amara-jackson-2024-convention-raw-audio-101424.mp3"]The 2023-24 National FFA Officers hold the gavel for the first time during the final session of the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo in Nov. 2023 in Lucas Oil Stadium. From left to right: 2022-23 President Andrew Seibel of Virginia, 2023-34, President Amara Jackson of Michigan, Secretary Grant Horfleet of Missouri, Southern Vice President Carter Howell of Florida, Central Vice President Kanyon Huntington of Iowa, Eastern Vice President Morgan Anderson of Ohio, and Western Vice President Emily Gossett of New Mexico. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Terry Goodin shares his vision of Indiana agriculture on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast with Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer. Photo: Molly Nichols/ Hoosier Ag Today“It’s time to give agriculture a seat at the table again. I’m going to tell you this right now, if Terry Goodin gets elected as lieutenant governor, agriculture is going to get its voice back in Indiana.”
Terry Goodin shared that with us on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast last week. Goodin is the Lieutenant Governor candidate on the Democrat ticket. You’ll find his name on the ballot with his running mate, Jennifer McCormick.
We discussed a number of ag related topics on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now wherever you listen to podcasts.
The Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance are supporting a bill this legislative session that would incentivize retailers to install infrastructure to sell higher blends of ethanol to consumers.
Goodin says, not only would he support the bill, “I’m going to see whatever you folks bring to the table, you say, ‘here’s what we would like to have’, and I’m going to double it. I’m going to say, okay, let’s look bigger than that. Let’s look at a bigger picture. And I think in Indiana, in the past, what the legislature has done is they’ve tried to do things on the cheap. Okay, you can’t do things on the cheap, because if you do it on the cheap, you always have to come back and redo it. Right? If agriculture does good in Indiana, that means our small communities do good. When our small communities do good in Indiana, that means our bigger communities do good, and that means the state of Indiana does good.”
Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron joined us on the podcast and asked Goodin about farmland property taxes. Here is part of his response.
“Here’s what I don’t understand. We will go out and recruit factories that will come in and pay people $12-$13 an hour and give them thousands and thousands of dollars of tax abatements. How come we’re not treating our farmers the same way? Because that field is a factory for that farmer, just like that building that’s sitting downtown employing so many folks or making the hubcaps, right? So, how come farmers aren’t treated equally when it comes to taxation as we move forward? So, that’s going to be a huge part of it. But let’s be clear here- our opponents are not serious about the property tax issue and the property tax crisis, because they created it.”
We are still working to align schedules with Goodin’s opponents on the Republican side to have them on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast as well. You can hear the podcast in its entirety below. Election day is November 5- get out and vote.
For sports fans in Indiana, October is a special time of year. The Indianapolis Colts are tackling the middle of their NFL season at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Indiana Pacers tip-off their NBA schedule with home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Those who prefer college sports will cheer at both football and basketball games in Purdue University’s Ross-Ade Stadium and Mackey Arena, and Indiana University’s Memorial Stadium and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. October is also the start of professional hockey season, and the Indy Fuel will start its 2024-25 season in the brand new Fishers Event Center.
Each of these sports and teams feature special athletes who are a cut above the rest. These are star players who are able to boost the performance of their teammates to achieve greater success.
In addition, each of these teams share something else in common – each of their home venues will offer concessions cooked in high oleic soybean oil.
Just as star athletes gifted with special skills separate themselves from others, high oleic soybean oil is creating a preference with those who cook with hot oil for many hours. The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA), the state’s soybean checkoff program, promotes the benefits of high oleic soybean oil and believes working with venues such as Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Ross-Ade Stadium, Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and is an excellent way to build demand for our state’s soybeans.
“This is a great opportunity to showcase a product grown here in Indiana,” said ISA Chair Kevin Cox, a farmer from Brazil, Ind. “High oleic soybean oil is a healthy and nutritious alternative to traditional vegetable oils. I couldn’t be more proud, as an Indiana farmer, to promote this success story and to show the state’s soybean farmers the value their checkoff brings.”
High oleic soybean oil is a new vegetable oil that lasts longer for food preparation at restaurants – making it more economical. Michael Lake, senior sales director of corporate partnerships for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, said both customers and vendors are pleased with the oil. “The performance is great,” he said. “We have noticed that the oil lasts longer than other oils. This oil leaves a great color and helps to enhance the food flavors.”
For more than a year, the Pacers and its concessions supplier, Levy Restaurants, have agreed to use high oleic soybean oil in food preparation for events at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
More high oleic soybeans are grown in Indiana than anywhere else on Earth. ISA is committed to expanding use of this oil, in part, because farmers receive a premium for the crop. In 2023, Indiana farmers planted approximately 850,000 acres of high oleic soybeans resulting in more than $100 million in premiums being paid back to farmers.
Sodexo, the company that produces the concessions at Lucas Oil Stadium, will use approximately 3,000 pounds of high oleic soybean oil for each Colts game, while Gainbridge will use 21,000 pounds of oil during the Indiana Pacer’s NBA season. But Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse and these other venues will also sell concessions during additional events such as concerts and conventions.
“This is our first season using high oleic soybean oil, and we’ve been impressed with its taste and performance,” said Dave Marguth, General Manager of Sodexo. “We’re proud to use a locally sourced product and support Indiana’s farmers. Plus, we’re providing fans with a heart-healthy option – which makes it even better.”
Purdue University Athletics has also been using the oil for the past year. “If you don’t have a good oil, you’re just burning your oil out,” said Josh Timmons, executive chef for Levy at Purdue University athletic events. “We could go for a football game and have oil fresh to start and be totally shot by the end of the day just from the volume we do. With the new oil, we can filter and generally get about two games out of it depending on the volume.”
High oleic soybeans produce an oil with a modified fat profile comprised of approximately 75 percent oleic acid, 8 percent linoleic acid, 2 percent alpha-linolenic acid and 12 percent saturated fats. High oleic soybean oil delivers enhanced functional benefits within food service operations such as superior high heat stability. Exclusively a U.S. product, high oleic soybean oil extends product shelf life and offers the longest fry life of any edible oil, meaning it performs longer than standard vegetable oils in high-temperature and extended-use applications because of the heat and the oxidative stability of the oil. In addition, its neutral flavor profile allows it to blend well in a variety of foods and lets the true and natural flavors of the ingredients used with it stand out.
A 2015 review concluded that replacing oils high in saturated fats with high oleic soybean oil may reduce coronary heart disease risk. The Food and Drug Administration in 2020 authorized heart health claims for both conventional (commodity) soybean oil and high oleic soybean oil. The food manufacturing industry places a high value on these soy oil health claims.
At each of the venues, ISA has informational signage about the benefits of high oleic soybean oil and the farmers who grow it.
“We take great pride in our partnership with Indiana’s soybean farmers,” said Colts Vice President of Corporate Partnerships Ryan Lobsiger. “By using high oleic soybean oil in Lucas Oil Stadium, we are providing healthier, great-tasting products to our fans. Plus, we’re supporting farming, which has always been a pillar of our state’s economy.”
To learn more about high oleic soybean oil, visit incornandsoy.org/higholeic.
Building demand for high oleic soybean oil is just one example of how the checkoff works to support Indiana farmers. The checkoff also actively works to create new opportunities for soy-based biofuels, exporting soybeans to overseas markets, researching more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to grow a crop – among many other projects.
Visit incornandsoy.org to learn more about the state’s soybean checkoff program.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/18233532/hatthisweek2.mp3"]More dry air is on the way over the next 10 days in my Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast.
Strong high pressure is setting up over the SE US for this weekend and will not dissipate until next Tuesday. Strong southwest flow will take temps up through the next few days, allowing all of Indiana and Michigan to turn out warmer with full sunshine. Evaporation rates will stay at near maximum levels, while humidity is very low. This pattern holds through Monday.
A system will be putting down rains through the weekend and next Monday in the intermountain West, central plains and into the 4 corners region. This system will finally kick out to the east next Tuesday and can allow for some clouds to develop in the eastern corn belt. However, this system runs out of available moisture quite quickly crossing Iowa and moving into the upper Midwest, so our threats of rain back here are minor.
We won’t rule out a few spits and sprinkles Wednesday, but only about 25% coverage with totals at a few hundredths to a few tenths. The bigger issue will be a change in airmass again, as Canadian air pushes southward across the Great Lakes in the way of that system. We are much cooler for Wednesday night along with Thursday and Friday of next week. However, we should see good sunshine and strong drying again.
Temperatures climb to finish the 10-day forecast window next weekend into Monday the 28th. We can be a good 15-20 degrees above normal. That leads to a very dry set up again, allowing harvest to progress full bore. The map below shows combined 10-day moisture potential for the entire region as we are seeing it currently.
Extended Period:
The extended forecast period shows a strong cold frontal passage for late Tuesday the 29th through Wednesday the 30th. Rain and thunderstorms are likely as there will be very warm air ahead of the front. Rain totals can be from .25”-1.5” with coverage at nearly 100% of IN and a80% of MI. Behind the front we turn cooler to finish the week and start November but still are likely a bit warmer than normal.
Dry weather will be seen for Halloween and Friday the 1st. But another frontal passage is likely for Nov 2 into Nov 3, which can bring another half to 1.5”.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Temperatures remain above normal for weeks 3 and 4, averaging 5-6 degrees above normal in week three, and 3-5 degrees above normal for week 4. Precipitation gets closer to normal for both weeks, and a bit of a wetter pattern is trying to take shape just to our west.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
John Deere says they plan to lay off an additional 287 workers. However, the company insists that those jobs are not being moved to Mexico, according to the Des Moines Register.
“It is important to note these layoffs are due to reduced demand for the products produced at these facilities. They are not related to production moves,” the company wrote in a statement to KWQC-TV. “As we have repeatedly stated, layoffs this fiscal year are due to the weakening farm economy and a reduction in customer orders for our equipment.”
John Deere had already announced the layoffs of more than 600 employees at three production plants in Illinois and Iowa, as well as an unannounced number of salaried employees at its corporate level. The company also said it plans to move the manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from its Dubuque, Iowa facility to Mexico by the end of 2026.
John Deere says their sales have declined by 20 percent over the past year. Meanwhile, the stock price for Deere & Company is down 16 percent since last year.
In spite of the layoffs and reports of declining sales, John Deere generated nearly $10.2 billion in profits in 2023, while the company’s CEO, John May, received $26.7 million in total compensation in 2023 according to the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). May’s compensation in 2022 was listed at $20.3 million.
In early July, John Deere purchased 234 acres in northwestern Indiana with plans to build a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility near Lowell in Lake County. John Deere has spent $7 million on the site, with plans for the facility to be longer on its side than the Willis Tower—formerly Sears Tower—a 110-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper in Chicago. It is estimated that the project will create approximately 1,200 union construction jobs and 400-500 permanent positions upon completion.
In September, former President Donald Trump said that if he is reelected, he will impose a 200-percent tariff on John Deere’s imports if the company follows through with its plan to move some of its production to Mexico.
We’ve made tremendous harvest progress so far. Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says this harvest window will stay open in his Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast.
He has no precipitation whatsoever in that forecast from now through Tuesday afternoon across Indiana.
“We have high pressure sitting over the southeastern United States for the finish of this week, for the weekend and early next week. Flow around that high comes from the southwest. It’s going to be warm. We have full sunshine, excellent evaporation as we move through this weekend and through the first part of next week. I think clouds will start to increase on Tuesday morning.”
Martin is watching the remains of a weather system from the Four Corners region and Central Plains this weekend kick out across the Corn Belt next week.
“I think that’s going to be where the clouds come from Tuesday afternoon to Tuesday evening. I won’t rule out some spits and sprinkles, anywhere from a few hundredths to maybe 2-4 tenths or so, mostly from I-70 north in Indiana. That is going to be gone by the time we get to sunrise on Wednesday morning. In my mind, that’s the only threat of rain.”
Martin says we’ll finish next week dry but cooler air will prevail Wednesday and Thursday.
“That cool air running into the warmer air that has been here for the week prior is likely going to give us some cloud cover, especially over Southern Indiana. I’m leaving precipitation out at this point. The air moderates very quickly then. By the time we get to Friday the 25th, we’re back to well above normal temperatures and we stay sunny, warm and dry through the 26th, 27th, and into the week of the 28th.
Catch the full forecast details later Friday at hoosieragtoday.com presented by Seed Genetics Direct.
Members of the United Soybean Board (USB) present a check for $2 million to help fund a project to dredge the lower Mississippi River system. Once the project is complete, USB says it will add $461 million in annual realized value for U.S. soybean farmers. Photo courtesy of the United Soybean Board.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/18011516/cj-wrap-hat-soy-checkoff-investing-in-mississippi-river-project-101724.mp3"]For the third-straight year, low water levels along the Mississippi River system are having a negative impact on the movement of grain freight—especially during the busy harvest season. That’s why the Soy Checkoff is investing in several infrastructure projects to help farmers ship their grains more efficiently.
“The one that we like to hang our hat on is the Port of New Orleans and trying to get that dredge down to a 50-foot depth because it just improves our basis all the way along the Mississippi River,” says Rob Ewoldt, Director of the United Soybean Board (USB). He’s also a farmer based in Iowa.
He says one of the improvement projects the Soy Checkoff is helping to fund is along the lower Mississippi River.
“USB was able to fund $2 million to get that project going with a private and national program funding mechanism. That’s always improving our transportation costs, and then trying to improve the bottom line for the farmer,” he says. “We’re also engaged in and have some money set aside for Lock and Dam 25 on the Mississippi, which would improve efficiencies and improving the bottom line for the farmer.”
Once the project to dredge the lower Mississippi River is complete, USB says it will save 13 cents per bushel of freight while increasing the load by 500,000 bushels per ocean vessel and bring an additional $461 million in revenue to U.S. soybean farmers.
Edwoldt adds that another important infrastructure project that USB is helping to improve is the Port of Grays Harbor in Washington State.
“We were able to go out and present a check for about $1.3 million that the farmers invested in for studies in the Port of Grays Harbor. This is a big thing for soybean farmers in the Midwest and Upper Midwest regions because of the soybean meal export market. We’re crushing more and more soybeans here in the Upper Midwest, and we have a lot of soybean meal to get moved out, and realizing that is a choke point, we needed to do everything we can to try to improve our efficiencies in moving that product,” says Ewoldt.
In regards to the project to dredge the lower Mississippi River, USB adds that nearly 60% of exported U.S. soybeans head to market via the Mississippi Gulf region.
Sources: United Soybean Board, NAFB News Service
Graphic courtesy of U.S. Drought Monitor.Last week’s statewide average precipitation of 0.04 inches—according to USDA—has caused drought conditions to greatly expand and worsen across Indiana.
While over 96 percent of the state is abnormally dry, this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor says that nearly 44 percent of Indiana is under a moderate drought. In addition, a wide area across northeastern Indiana—including the entirety of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne—are now considered to be under a severe drought. That area represents 10.52 percent of the state.
Drought conditions remain far worse in Ohio where 37 percent of the state is under a severe drought, 20 percent is facing an extreme drought, and 8 percent of Ohio—namely in the southeastern area of the state—is under an exceptional drought.
Graphic courtesy of U.S. Drought Monitor.Hoosier Ag Today Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says above normal temperatures are in store for this coming weekend and early next week. He says the next chance to see moisture “sneak” across the northern portion of the state is Tuesday afternoon and evening, however he calls it a “minor wave” of activity.
CLICK BELOW to hear Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin’s Indiana Farm Forecast for Friday, Oct. 18:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/17222334/hat-am-podcast-1.mp3"]
Photo courtesy of Indiana Grown and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.Indiana Grown is offering $25,000 in grant funding for Indiana Grown members who are interested in exhibiting at tradeshows. Grants will be awarded to businesses with commercially ready products who want to expand.
Tradeshows offer vital exposure to unique customers and business-to-business clients, but barriers for members include the booth fee, travel expenses, set up costs and more. This grant was designed to alleviate some of those costs to ensure Hoosier businesses are highlighted and Indiana-made products can be enjoyed across the U.S. and globe.
“These tradeshow grants are vital for small and large Indiana Grown businesses to compete on a national, or even global level,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Indiana Grown members and their exceptional products are able to enter new markets thanks to some of the costs saved by these tradeshow grants.”
Indiana Grown members could be awarded grants in the sum of $1,000, $3,000 or $5,000. This is a reimbursement grant, no up-front costs will be paid.
Eligible Expenses
- Booth space rental
- Booth design, build, shipping, material handling, installation and other trade show related fees
- Trade show auxiliary service fees (trash, sampling, electrical, etc.)
Eligibility
- Must be an Indiana Grown Member
- Must not be using any other grant or cost sharing program for this trade show, including Branded Program and IN-STEP
- Must have a commercially ready product with existing sales
- Must use funds to exhibit at trade show (must identify which trade show in application)
- Must be a small business – according to the U.S. Small Business Administration
“Multiple Indiana Grown members were able to attend tradeshows across the country last year and expand their business opportunities,” said Caroline Patrick, Indiana Grown Director. “We hope to continue showcasing and supporting Indiana Grown businesses across the country and globe through offering this grant program.”
Indiana Grown members interested in applying for this grant, viewing scoring criteria and post-award requirements can find more information here. Any questions can be directed to indianagrown@isda.in.gov.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Blake Russell, Technical Agronomist with Channel Seed.Indiana farmers have been charging hard through harvest for weeks now with minimal interruptions, and in West Central Indiana that remains the case even after some widespread rains this week.
“We had a couple rain showers here just on and off this week,” Blake Russell explained, “very low impact. Maybe guys had to be done early for the day, but very minimal impact. We were able to get right in the next day in most places.”
Russell is a Technical Agronomist in West Central Indiana for Channel Seed. Corn and soybean harvest progress is still well ahead of the five-year average pace, at 44 percent complete on corn and 57 percent on soybeans.
In Russell’s Benton, Boone, Clinton, Hendricks, Montgomery, Warren, and Fountain County area, harvest might be better than the state numbers.
“I think for soybeans we may be just a little farther along than that. We’ve got a lot of guys that’ll probably finish up our soybeans this week if they’re not already, but yeah, I think for an overall perspective corn and soybeans are right on pace or maybe just a little bit ahead.”
He said farmers should be very happy with what the yield monitors are showing.
“Yeah, yields have been very good. We’ve had some great yields depending on locations. A couple of places had a little bit of drought or a little bit of stress from different diseases, but overall yields in both corn and soybeans have been very good and our growers have met or exceeded expectations for this year.”
Tar spot has been talked about at length this season, and Russell said it was indeed widespread in his area. But how did the corn crop handle the disease?
“It just kind of depends on the management and the situation. We have a lot of guys that are very proactive and spray fungicide at least once and we’re seeing that have a good impact. We’re seeing anything from over 20 to 40 bushels difference from guys that did spray versus those who did not. It did have a huge impact in our area, and also we’re dealing with some crown rot and stalk rot and anthracnose, so it’s definitely been a year where it’s been challenging from a disease standpoint. But being able to manage those appropriately, we’ve tried our best and we’re learning about that as we continue on for this season and next year.”
Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seed growing season update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/16160204/blake-russell-10-16-24-update.mp3"]
Scott Downey (at left), Director of the Purdue University Center for Food and Agricultural Business, is joined by Aissa Good, Associate Director for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business, and Business Development Manager for the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture. Photo: Sabrina Halvorson / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/16200744/scottt-long.mp3"]Scott Downey, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University and Director of the Purdue University Center for Food and Agricultural Business, shared his sales expertise at the recent California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA) conference in Anaheim, California. With roots in the Golden State as a Cal Poly grad, Downey dove into what makes a great salesperson, offering insights on how technical professionals can sharpen their sales skills and become more effective in the field.
Downey’s presentation emphasized the importance of understanding customers on a deeper level. “Those people who know their customers the best tend to be the best salespeople,” he explained.
He noted that while many salespeople believe they understand their clients, there is often a disconnect between what salespeople think and what growers actually need. He said building strong relationships and truly understanding customer challenges are key components of successful sales strategies.
Downey also discussed how California’s unique agricultural landscape, with its diverse crops and complex regulatory environment, offers valuable lessons for the broader agricultural community. As he pointed out, issues such as labor and water challenges in California are becoming more common across the nation, making the state’s experience a model for other regions.
With a foot in both the Midwest and California agricultural sectors, Downey is in a unique position to bridge the gap between the two, bringing strategies from Purdue to help West Coast professionals succeed in a rapidly evolving industry.
Members of the Rushville FFA Chapter pose at the FFA sign during the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis in 2023. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Over 100 Indiana FFA members from across the state will be competing at the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in a variety of Career and Leadership Development Events, the Agriscience Fair and Agricultural Proficiency Awards.
“I am always impressed with the talent, leadership and work ethic of Indiana FFA members,” said Lt. Gov. Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Best of luck to each Indiana FFA member competing on the national stage at the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo right here in Indianapolis.”
Students will be competing in career development events such as Environment and Natural Resources, Forestry, Agronomy, Livestock Evaluation and Parliamentary Procedure. Others will be competing in leadership development events such as Extemporaneous Public Speaking, Agricultural Issues Forum and Creed Speaking.
The National FFA Agriscience Fair is an additional key competition that is part of the annual National FFA Convention & Expo. Individuals or teams conduct scientific research projects pertaining to the agriculture industry in their state in one of six categories: animal systems, environmental services/natural resource systems, food products and processing systems, plant systems, power, structural and technical systems or social science.
“Hats off to all of the Indiana FFA members who have qualified to compete at the National FFA Convention & Expo. The level of dedication and commitment to make it to such a high level is no doubt also thanks to the FFA advisors, parents and community supporting these young leaders and ag professionals,” said Don Lamb, Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director. “Each student has certainly already made their home state proud, and we look forward to celebrating them next week.”
Indiana FFA members will also compete nationally with their Agricultural Proficiencies, which honor FFA members who, through supervised agricultural experiences, have developed specialized skills that they can apply toward their future careers.
The following students will be competing at the 97th National FFA Convention:
Argos FFA
Cailey Markley, Specialty Crop Production Proficiency
Benton Central FFA
Joe Widmer, Diversified Crop Production Entrepreneurship Proficiency
Cascade FFA
Whitney Smith, Vegetable Production Proficiency
Caston FFA
Braden Rush, Parliamentary Procedure
Mason Prenatt, Parliamentary Procedure
Madisyn Douglass, Parliamentary Procedure
Ashley Fred, Parliamentary Procedure
Alexander Ault, Parliamentary Procedure
Myli Rude, Parliamentary Procedure
Josiah Helt, Parliamentary Procedure
Central Noble FFA
Grant Lake, Agriculture Mechanics Repair and Maintenance Entrepreneurship Proficiency
Churubusco FFAKenna Alexander, Environment & Natural Resources
Merisa Bogard, Environment & Natural Resources
Samuel Troendly, Environment & Natural Resources
Wyatt Overdeer, Environment & Natural Resources
Columbia City FFA
Carly Linnemeier, Agricultural Sales
Caden Poling, Agricultural Sales
Kyle Porter, Agricultural Sales
Karaline Schuman, Agricultural Sales
Lillianne Patterson, Veterinary Science
Kaytlynn Bryant, Veterinary Science
Logan Good, Veterinary Science
Jessalyn Hoskins, Veterinary Science
Kyle Porter, Agriculture Mechanics Repair and Maintenance Placement Proficiency
Connersville FFA
Cora Nobbe, Agriscience Food Systems Division 1
Culver FFA
Isaac Schaller, Agriculture Services Proficiency
DeKalb FFA
Cord Akey, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems
Matthew Beckman, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems
Will Engelberth, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems
Zach Harris, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems
Olivia Rigby, Agriscience Research Plants Systems Proficiency
Logen Brand, Agriscience Animal Systems Division 6
C. Issac Schweitzer, Agriscience Animal Systems Division 6
Isaac Hefty, Agriscience Plant Systems Division 1
Eastern Central FFA
Wyatt Smith, Nursery/Landscape
Evan Kramer, Nursery/Landscape
Jasmin Keith, Nursery/Landscape
Riley Shumate, Nursery/Landscape
Eastern Hancock FFA
Emily Grant, Agriculture Communications Proficiency
Hamilton Southeastern FFA
Henry Dupree, Agricultural Communications
Ellie Taylor, Agricultural Communications
Lizzie Dekker, Agricultural Communications
Liam Kenyon, Agricultural Communications
Heritage FFA
Erica Sorg, Farm & Agribusiness Management
Maggie Minnich, Farm & Agribusiness Management
Arizona Bramers, Farm & Agribusiness Management
Addison Werts, Farm & Agribusiness Management
Alex Zelt, Meats Evaluation & Technology
Alden Bowers, Meats Evaluation & Technology
Elizabeth Buuck, Meats Evaluation & Technology
Brock Taylor, Meats Evaluation & Technology
Indian Creek FFA
Lyla Kephart, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Hannah Shanafelt, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Riah Alexander, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Blake Legan, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Reagan Ferris, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Lola Peddycord, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Brooke Setser, Conduct of Chapter Meetings
Rebekah Legan, Horse Evaluation
Faryn Parr, Horse Evaluation
Luke Zimmerman, Horse Evaluation
Grace Runnebohm, Horse Evaluation
Lebanon FFA
Lauren Argotte, Agriscience Social Systems Division 5
Manchester FFA
Clark Showalter, Forestry
Thane Metzger, Forestry
Grace Hall, Forestry
Layne Showalter, Forestry
North Decatur FFA
Blaine Wagner, Agriscience Research Integrated Systems Proficiency
Jessa Wagner, Agriscience Animal Systems Division 3
North Miami FFA
Jesus Santana, Poultry Evaluation
Ryan Meredith, Poultry Evaluation
Ben Hoover, Poultry Evaluation
Alison Smith, Poultry Evaluation
Rensselaer FFA
Brock Hurley, Employment Skills
Rossville FFA
Leif Eiler, Agronomy
Colton Crum, Agronomy
Natalee Richey, Agronomy
Madison Skiles, Agronomy
Garrett Miller, Turf Grass Management Proficiency
Rushville FFA
Emma Tressler, Dairy Cattle Evaluation & Management
Cate Neuman, Dairy Cattle Evaluation & Management
Jocelyn Cain, Dairy Cattle Evaluation & Management
Maggie Wicker, Dairy Cattle Evaluation & Management
Jenna Lawler, Extemporaneous Public Speaking & Agriscience Food Systems Division 5
Chance Keeton, Agriscience Environmental Systems Division 3
Makaylah Phillips, Agriscience Social Systems Division 4
Ashley Hubbard, Agriscience Social Systems Division 4
Shenandoah FFA
Landon Barr, Agricultural Issues Forum
Madelyn Shelton, Agricultural Issues Forum
Case Morehouse, Agricultural Issues Forum
Audree Farmer, Agricultural Issues Forum
Kimberlee Farmer, Agricultural Issues Forum
Jacob Wattenbarger, Diversified Crop Production Placement Proficiency
South Putnam FFA
Joslyn Bumgardner, Agriscience Plant Systems Division 6
Nevaeh Ellis, Agriscience Plant Systems Division 6
Southmont FFA
Cole Rhaods, Floriculture
Natalie Rhoads, Floriculture
Amarah Shannon, Floriculture
Kelsey Thompson, Floriculture
Terre Haute South FFA
Cale Williams, Swine Production Entrepreneurship Proficiency
Tri Central FFA
Kaitlyn Maruszweski, Prepared Public Speaking
Tri-County FFA
Evelyn Gretencord, Food Science & Technology
Gardenia Del Real, Food Science & Technology
Lyla Alberts, Food Science & Technology
Kinley Dahlenburg, Food Science & Technology
Westfield FFA
Ava Lee, Marketing Plan
Ella Carlson, Marketing Plan
Benjamin Wiggins, Marketing Plan
Whiteland FFA
Jack Kelsay, Creed Speaking
Josie Kelsay, Dairy Handlers Activity
Leorah Morris, Milk Quality & Products
Lillian Nick, Milk Quality & Products
Brody Polesol, Milk Quality & Products
Garrett Rice, Milk Quality & Products
Cian Cribbs, Agriculture Education Proficiency
Whitko FFA
Kohen Schipper, Livestock Evaluation
Anna Sickafoose, Livestock Evaluation
Lillie Sickafoose, Livestock Evaluation
Carle Sroufe, Livestock Evaluation
Tony Wesner, the new Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rose Acre Farms, which is headquartered in Seymour, Indiana. Photo courtesy of Rose Acre Farms.Rose Acre Farms, which is headquartered in Seymour, Indiana, has named Tony Wesner as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Wesner, who had previously served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer, succeeds Marcus Rust, who has chosen to transition into an advisory role as the company’s new Chief Visionary Officer.
“I’m proud to be handing the executive reins of our great egg company to a great man, and a great leader,” Rust said. “Tony has been a part of our team for 40+ years, and I know he will continue to help guide Rose Acre Farms to a great future.”
Wesner started at Rose Acre Farms in 1981, and was elevated to Chief Operating
Officer in 2011.
“I’m grateful for the trust that the Rust family has placed in me, from my mentor Marcus Rust to the current generation who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing grow up and now working with,” Wesner said. “We have one of the greatest jobs in the world, producing eggs — God’s perfect food — providing food for families, and I’m glad to continue that noble pursuit in this new role,” he continued.
The new role will allow Wesner to continue his long-term industry relationships while also taking on more of the company’s vision and strategy for the future.
Terry Anderson will become the Chief Operating Officer. Anderson currently serves as Vice President of Operations and has been with the company since 1991.
Rose Acre Farms is the second largest egg producer in the United States and is located in seven states. The company offers shell eggs (including commodity and cage-free), liquid eggs, dried eggs and more.
For more information on Rose Acre Farms, visit www.GoodEgg.com.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/16005250/fb-convention-in-wrap.mp3"]The 2025 American Farm Bureau Convention is right around the corner and this year they’re headed deep in the heart of Texas. San Antonio to be exact, January 24th through the 29th. Niki Jones of IDEAg says there’s a lot to see and do at the convention.
“We have several workshops and general sessions, and with the opening of general registration, we are talking about Eric Boles. He is our keynote speaker. And Eric Boles is the CEO and founder of The Game Changers, Inc., a leadership training and development company, but he might better be known for his role as a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets. So, he’s got a lot to say. We also have our lineup of workshops with all manner of topics.”
Jones says it’s more than just workshops and general sessions. There’s something for everyone.
“On our Cultivation Center Stage, we have our TED-style talks, where you’re going to hear from different speakers on different ag-related topics, but we also have the YF&R Discussion Meet Final Four on that stage, as well as programming. During the trade show, we’re going to have all manner of agribusiness companies there, and they’re going to have their experts there as well as their top innovations, and they’re ready to talk with folks.”
There are a couple of ways to reserve your spot in San Antonio.
“To register, you can go directly through your state Farm Bureau, or you can go to annualconvention.fb.org and hit the Register Now button.”
The Indiana Farm Bureau State Convention is coming up as well, December 12-14 at the French Lick Resort in French Lick. You can get registered for that here.
Source: fb.org
Bob Joehl, Seed Protection and Equipment Specialist with Direct Enterprises. Photo courtesy of Bob Joehl via X—formally known as Twitter.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/16005255/cj-wrap-hat-direct-enterprises-red-crown-rot-products-101524.mp3"]There’s a fungal disease that’s only been found in Indiana’s soybean fields here within the past few years—but it’s already spreading quickly and robbing yields wherever it appears.
“Red Crown Rot is a disease that needs to be reckoned with,” says Bob Joehl, Seed Protection and Equipment Specialist with Direct Enterprises. “It can take as much as 70 percent of your [soybean] crop! So, it’s a little bit of a bugaboo for everybody. We’ve seen it in our research plots, and we’ve seen it in our customers’ fields.”
He says that Red Crown Rot is carried through the soil and is very similar to several others soybean diseases.
“It looks like Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS). It also looks like Brown Stem Rot, so it’s easy to confuse,” he says.
An example of Red Crown Rot found in soybeans. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.That’s why Joehl recommends that you take a look at the biological products that are offered by Direct Enterprises—starting with Reclaim for application this fall and late winter, followed by Germate Plus, Spectra, and Ceramax®.
“You can start with Reclaim—or you start with Reclaim and Germate Plus—or you can add the other two steps into your system and you’ll be further ahead,” he says.
Joehl adds that you can also use their biological products and biostimulants in tandem with chemical fungicidal products.
“It’s a combination of these two methods of batting against plant disease that we can improve overall production,” he says. “So, I’m really impressed that we have natural products and we have man-made chemistry to work against pathogens that are taking yield away and profitability from the American farmer.”
For more information about Reclaim, Germate Plus, Spectra, and Ceramax®, and the additional biological products available from Direct Enterprises, visit DirectEnterprises.com.
CLICK BELOW to hear the full conversation with Bob Joehl with Direct Enterprises, as he discusses Red Crown Rot disease in soybeans–as well as several biological products that you may consider to tackle the disease.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/16005155/bob-joehl-yale-red-crown-rot-biostimulant-products-raw-audio-101524.mp3"]
With the busy harvest season underway and grain needing to be shipped to its export destinations, drought conditions along the Mississippi River continue to get worse.
The low water levels are stalling barges moving up and down the channel, especially along the Lower Mississippi River. That means barge drafts and tow sizes have been cut, according to Farm Policy News.
Typically, a draft would 12 feet at 1,500 tons–which is the distance between the waterline and the deepest points of the boat. On the Illinois River, barges are loaded to about a nine-foot draft at 900 tons. Each reduction in the draft means a barge’s cargo is cut by 200 tons. That will cost shippers more money as they’re paying for the same amount of money but shipping less freight than normal. That also means that it is taking more barges to pick up the slack. These costs are typically get passed on to the farmers who haul grain to river terminals.
This is the third year in a row that drought conditions along the Mississippi River system have impacted the movement of grain freight.
Sources: Farm Policy News, NAFB News Service
A second straight week of warm, dry conditions have helped push harvest progress along in Indiana at a rapid rate.
44 percent of Indiana’s corn for grain and 57 percent of the state’s soybeans have been harvested according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report.
The harvest percentages represent a significant jump from last week, which was 29 percent for corn and 36 percent for soybeans. The state’s corn and soybean harvests are well ahead of the five-year average of 33 percent and 45 percent respectfully.
95 percent of Indiana’s corn has been harvested for sileage.
Across the entire U.S., the percentages are ahead of Indiana—with 47 percent of corn and 67 percent of soybeans harvested.
Indiana’s corn is rated at 62 percent good-to-excellent, while the state’s soybeans are 61 percent good-to-excellent.
In addition, 96 percent of corn is mature.
For soybeans, 96 percent are dropping leaves.
Indiana’s winter wheat is now 40 percent planted and 12 percent has emerged, however USDA says that the lack of recent rainfall has negatively affected germination.
Source: USDA
The theme this harvest season has been solid yields for earlier planted corn and soybeans while later planted crops have taken a bit of a hit, especially soybeans. Pioneer agronomist Jason Geis says that’s true of his territory in Southeast Indiana as well.
“The yields have been very, very good on both corn and soybeans. Certainly, late last week, we started to dive into more of the later May crop and I would say that I’ve heard that yields are starting to maybe dip off a little bit from that early planting window, but growers are still very pleased. But yeah, certainly beans, we just didn’t have much rain at all there in August, we did not have the moisture to fill those pods out like we would have hoped. So, the later planted beans are maybe dipping off a little bit more. And then as we get into fuller maturity, beans, like the group 4s, they’re starting to dip off a little bit more than some of the mid group 3s.”
While we’re still in the thick of this year’s harvest, Geis knows you’re already thinking about next year. He encourages you to reflect on your weed control program. Were you happy with it or do you need to make some adjustments, like introducing different modes of action to battle waterhemp?
He also encourages you to think about your P and K.
“I hear from growers, ‘Boy, I did not expect these yields. This is way more than what I expected.’ Are we matching our fertility program to replace those nutrients? If we go two to three years where I feel like growers have had above expectations on yield, are we replacing the P and K that we’ve been taking out of those fields with these bigger yields than what we expected?”
Hear the full HAT interview with Geis below. You can get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
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Carson Rudd, who was an Indiana FFA State Officer and served as Reporter from 2023-24 is now aiming to become a member of the National FFA Officer Team for 2024-25 during the 97th National FFA Convention and Expo. Photo courtesy of Carson Rudd.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/14225802/cj-wrap-hat-carson-rudd-for-national-ffa-officer-101424.mp3"]Becoming a member of the National FFA officer team for 2024-25 is the goal for a young man who just finished spending a year as an Indiana FFA State Officer.
“I hope if I’m elected as a national officer, I can encourage more members to take full advantage of opportunities and really strive and build goals for their FFA journeys,” says Carson Rudd of Carroll County. He is currently a student at Kansas State University studying agricultural education.
Last year, Rudd served as Reporter for the Indiana FFA officer team. He says being a full-time officer has prepared him to become a National FFA Officer.
“[Indiana] is one of about five or six states that allow their FFA state officers to take a gap year from school in order to better serve our members,” according to Rudd. “I think that experience alone—being able to say I was basically a nine-to-five employee of our state FFA—has prepared me with those skills of engaging with members during Chapter visits, going to Chapter banquets and hosting conferences at the Indiana FFA Leadership Center. That reflects a lot onto what National FFA office will look like.”
Carson says he had the chance to travel all across Indiana as an FFA state officer. He says if he’s chosen as a National FFA officer, he’s ready for the commitment—and the travel that comes with the job.
“It’s not uncommon that you go weeks or even a month before seeing some of your teammates as National FFA officers because you’re in different states at different times and you might come together for industry visit or training for the growth and development of the team, so yeah it would be a little bit different not seeing your teammates every single day like I was able to Indiana FFA State officer,” he says.
Rudd adds that he wouldn’t have the leadership abilities—nor would he have the confidence to become a National FFA Officer—if it weren’t for the skills he’s learned from the organization over the past seven years.
“If you would have told me in seventh grade that I would be traveling the state giving workshops or going to chapter banquets in parts of the state that I’ve never been to giving a 15 minute speech, I would have called you crazy,” he says. “But because of the experiences that FFA gives it students, it really helps push you to always strive for that next level of development in your journey by helping you sharpen those skills, like leadership and communication.”
The new National FFA Officer Team for 2024-25 will be announced during the final session of the 97th National FFA Convention and Expo on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis.
The 2023-2024 Indiana FFA State Officer Team working in the FFA Pavilion during the 2023 Indiana State Fair. From left to right: Blaine Wagner, Southern Region Vice President; Caden Sixberry, Treasurer; Conner Keeslar, Northern Region Vice President; Kelby Roberts, President; Madalyn Denton, Secretary; Carson Rudd, Reporter; Tanner Weakley, Sentinel. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Indiana Farm Bureau recently awarded the inaugural Ag Literacy Challenge Grants, providing funding to 10 Indiana FFA Chapters and 4-H clubs for new or enhanced ag literacy programs in their communities.
Ag literacy programs must take place between October 2024 and August 2025. Programs must have fallen under one of the following categories to apply:
- An event that would help consumers become better informed about Indiana agriculture.
- A collaborative program that would foster networking opportunities, positive relationships, and/or education between youth and adults in agriculture.
- An event to promote agricultural practices and policies or education efforts that stimulate action in the ag community.
The 2024 Ag Literacy Challenge Grant winners are:
- DeKalb High School FFA – Garden Bed Service Project. The Ag Powers and Fabrication class will help build garden beds to teach agriculture and science to elementary students, allowing high school students an opportunity to gain woodworking skills in the process. The garden beds will be installed at four local elementary schools. Plant science students will educate the elementary schoolers about garden beds and the basics of taking care of plants.
- Elkhart County 4-H – Elementary Ag Literacy & Farmers Markets. Students in grades three through six will develop a garden from seedlings using raised beds and containers. This program will specifically focus on bilingual students. Students will also learn business and entrepreneurial skills by selling garden produce and eggs at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds and the Elkhart City Farmers Market.
- Franklin County 4-H – POULT Program. This program educates youth on turkey production from farm to fork. Participating classrooms will hatch their own poults to get hands-on experience, increasing awareness and understanding of the turkey industry.
- Tippecanoe County 4-H and McCutcheon High School FFA – ABCs of Ag. This collaborative event is geared towards helping third and fourth graders learn more about the various aspects of the agricultural industry, including different agriculture majors, livestock species, commodities and businesses. In the evening, the event is open to the general public and families.
- Madison Consolidated High School FFA – Color Your Way Through Agriculture. Ag-focused coloring books and art supplies will be distributed to fourth grade classes. The coloring book will cover a wide range of agricultural topics, from plant growth cycles to farm animal care, making it a versatile educational tool. FFA students will visit classrooms over a two-month period to review and discuss the coloring books with students.
- Crawford County 4-H – Ag Day. This event will expose fourth grade students to diverse areas of agriculture including interactive learning stations, an agriculture career fair and networking opportunities with agriculture experts, community partners and volunteers to create positive relationships in agriculture.
- Whiteland Community High School FFA – Teach the Teacher. With recent turnover in teachers, many are unfamiliar with the school’s ag program. The goal of this project is to educate teachers about the importance of agriculture and FFA within the community. Students will create packets that include agricultural products and an info sheet connecting each product to agriculture. The packets will be distributed to teachers during FFA Week.
- Beech Grove High School FFA – Career Connect. Middle school students will attend the Career Expo at the National FFA Convention to help them make more informed career choices as they enter high school. Participation in this project also improves the chances students will enroll in high school agricultural education classes, which opens additional opportunities for career exploration through participation in FFA leadership and career development.
- Sullivan High School FFA – Christmas at the Barn. This event will give children in the community the opportunity to experience ag production and ag literacy in a Christmas setting. They will learn about livestock and Christmas tree production, take a wagon ride and receive an ag story book.
- Adams County 4-H – Books in the Barn. The goal of this program is to inform consumers about Indiana agriculture, foster collaboration between youth and adults and advocate for the importance of agriculture. The event will take place during the county fair, providing an agricultural immersion experience to over 50 youth with opportunities to interact with an animal, complete a craft, enjoy a local agriculture snack and take home a new book to share with their family.
“Congratulations to our Ag Literacy Challenge Grant winners,” said INFB President Randy Kron. “FFA and 4-H are integral to ag education and providing our youth with leadership development opportunities. I look forward to seeing these programs thrive. They showcase Indiana agriculture and spread awareness of the importance of our industry.”
Indiana FFA chapters and 4-H clubs could apply for grants of up to $1,000 during the grant cycle. Grant recipients are required to submit a report to INFB after their ag literacy program is complete in addition to presenting their program to their local county Farm Bureau.
The Ag Literacy Challenge Grant is just one of the many ways INFB supports youth in agriculture throughout the year. There also are scholarships for graduating seniors and college students; Collegiate Farm Bureau chapters at Purdue, Huntington and Vincennes universities; FFA advocacy days and trainings; and leadership development events, competitions, awards and conferences.
To learn more, visit infb.org/YFAP/ag-literacy-challenge.
Friday’s USDA Crop Production Report showed corn production is forecast at 15.2 billion bushels, up less than one percent from the previous forecast, but down one percent from last year. Soybean growers are expected to increase their production by ten percent from 2023, with the forecast at 4.58 billion bushels.
Based on conditions as of October 1, corn yields are expected to average 183.8 bushels per harvested acre, up 0.2 bushels from the previous forecast and 6.5 bushels higher than last year. Soybean yields are predicted to average 53.1 bushels an acre, down fractionally from the previous forecast but up 2.5 bushels from 2023.
The report also included a production forecast for U.S. cotton. The all-cotton production is forecast at 14.2 million 480-pound bales, down two percent from the previous forecast, but up 18 percent from 2023. Yields are expected to average 789 pounds per harvested acre, 18 pounds below September.
The October World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report was also released on Friday. It says the 2024-2025 corn outlook is for smaller supplies, larger exports, and reduced ending stocks. With supply falling and use rising, ending stocks are cut 58 million bushels to two billion. The season-average corn price received by producers is unchanged at $4.10 a bushel.
U.S. soybean production is forecast at 134.4 million tons, down 0.3 million from last month. With lower soybean production partly offset by slightly higher beginning stocks, supplies are lowered by 2 million bushels to 4.9 billion. The season-average soybean price is unchanged at $10.80 a bushel.
The outlook for U.S. wheat calls for reduced supplies, larger domestic use, unchanged exports, and lower ending stocks. Projected ending stocks are lowered by 16 million bushels to 812 million, still up 17 percent from the previous year. The season-average farm price for wheat is unchanged at $5.70 a bushel.
Katy Rogers (center), Director of Operations with Teter Retreat and Organic Farm in Hamilton County, with volunteers in front of the farm’s organic vegetable field and greenhouses. Photo courtesy of Teter Retreat and Organic Farm.Helping to feed more than 32,000 food-insecure people in Hamilton County is the goal of a non-profit organization and its farm called the Teter Retreat and Organic Farm near Noblesville.
“This year, we will donate 50,000 servings to the Hamilton County Harvest Food Bank, area meal programs, and families in need—with a goal of targeting 100,000 donations a year,” says Katy Rogers, Director of Operations at Teter Retreat and Organic Farm.
She says the 117-acre farm, which is located at 10980 E. 221st Street near Noblesville, has a very unique story.
“The property was given to Noblesville First United Methodist Church by Ruth Teter in 1981,” says Rogers. “In 2016, after developing out a retreat center, one of the pastors at the church went to the Pacific Northwest on a trip. He went to some not-for-profit farms that were growing food to feed the hungry in their community. He came back inspired and got people on board, so they decided to start an organic farm that would donate food and take care of our neighbors.”
She says one of the three main goals of the farm is to produce organically-grown vegetables, fruits, eggs and honey to provide nutritious food to those in need.
Rogers says that the farm is very diverse in its production.
“We have 42 varieties of vegetables that we grow. We also have a mixed-species orchard of 280 tree—apples, peaches, pears, and plums. In addition, we have a cut flower field and 30 beehives so it’s a lot!” she says.
Katy Rogers, Director of Operations with Teter Retreat and Organic Farm near Noblesville in Hamilton County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.All of the food that is planted and harvested is through the help of more than a hundred volunteers, which is the second goal of the organization—to provide a sense of community for volunteers to combat the loneliness epidemic and give people purpose and an opportunity to build personal relationships and friendships with fellow volunteers.
The third goal of Teter Retreat and Organic Farm is to serve as an example of environmental stewardship, which is why they solely use organic methods to produce food for those in need.
“We feel a sense of responsibility when it comes to our riverfront area—in particular, we have over a mile along the White River,” says Rogers. “The river has had some pollution issues in the past and we feel it’s very important that we steward that riparian space to mitigate flood waters for the folks who need their houses spared downriver from us and to slow that pollution that accumulates in that river so people can enjoy fishing and recreation there. We felt that getting certified organic would help set up a baseline for our management practices on the property and spur some really important conversations.”
She hopes the story of Ruth Teter’s generous gift to her community serves as inspiration to others.
“Not-for-profit organizations, churches, and large land holders often can use just a small portion of what they have to create a significant impact in their community,” says Rogers. “I want to encourage people to investigate that. Tithing part of your land into a land trust, to new farmers, or to an organization that’s going to do something to have a legacy impact in your community.”
Katy says that Teter Retreat and Organic Farm may also serve as both a model and a resource to start other non-profit farms to help feed those in need throughout many different communities all across Indiana.
“We would love to show you around our farm, have conversations with you about what’s possible in your space, and share our own experiences,” she says. “We’re not the only ones—maybe have a conversation with your local USDA Farm Service Agency, have conversations with your Extension office, with those representing local college campuses in the area, and figure out what your priorities are for your land use. Then we can all pull together in that direction.”
CLICK HERE to read more about Teter Retreat and Organic Farm.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s interview with Katy Rogers, Director of Operations at Teter Retreat and Organic Farm near Noblesville in Hamilton County.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/14004056/cj-wrap-hat-teter-retreat-organic-farm-101124.mp3"]CLICK BELOW to watch a video produced by Teter Retreat and Organic Farm about their farm and organization.
From left to right: Janis Highley, INFB 2nd Vice President; Randy Kron, INFB President; Kendell Culp, INFB Vice President. Photo: Andy Eubank / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana Farm Bureau (INFB) has announced its priorities for the 2025 legislative session. This year, the main priorities focus on protecting Indiana farms and rural communities by digging deep into issues, such as property taxes and water rights, which will have a lasting impact on Hoosier farmers’ ability to farm and protect food security.
“This legislative session is very important to agriculture, an essential industry that contributes an estimated $35.1 billion to the state’s economy,” said INFB President Randy Kron. “When the General Assembly considers policies this year, it will be important for them to think through what will keep agriculture prospering. Food security is national security — our priorities protect farms and rural communities to ultimately ensure safe, affordable food not just for Hoosiers but for people all over the world.”
The priorities identified by INFB include the following two general topics:
Taxation
The consistent increase of farmland tax burdens directly impacts producers’ bottom lines. Last session, INFB had conversations with legislators about farmland taxes, which will continue into this session to safeguard a manageable and predictable tax system. This includes a modernization of farmland taxation, realigning tax burdens based on the demand for services and ability to pay, and reducing the reliance on property tax with effective controls and income taxes.
Farmland property taxes have been escalating rapidly over the last few years. In 2023, the base rate rose 17%, followed by another jump in 2024 of 26.4% and a projected jump of 20% next year, according to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. The United States Department of Agriculture also predicts net farm income is set to decline nearly 25% in two years, with substantial losses in crop receipts and continued pressure from rising costs, making it difficult for farmers just to break even.
Water Rights
INFB will work to ensure the accessibility of water, a crucial resource in producing the food, fuel and fiber our nation relies upon, by advocating for expanded groundwater protection rights to proactively safeguard agriculture operations and farmers’ investments in producing food. This includes adding language that protects agriculture from potential negative impacts from water withdrawals by other industries. Additionally, INFB will advocate for the implementation of a statewide, dedicated groundwater well monitoring network to inventory the current groundwater supply in the state.
“We are advocating for an increased protection of agriculture’s right to water resources, not just farmers’ rights, which broadens protection beyond just irrigation to livestock, food processing industries and others.” said Andy Tauer, INFB executive director of public policy. “Farmers are more efficient and effective on fewer acres than ever before. Water accessibility is critical to protect investments made by production agriculture and ag/food manufacturing to continue to fuel the future of our state.”
INFB’s policy priorities are created from the ground up, beginning with each county Farm Bureau. All counties have the opportunity to make policy suggestions for the upcoming year. Then the recommendations are brought before a resolutions committee to be considered before they reach the INFB delegate session, which was held on Aug. 17 and consisted of 233 member representatives. After the delegate session, the INFB board of directors identified the key issues INFB members and staff will focus on at the Statehouse.
Additionally, to enhance the outcomes for agriculture in emerging policy discussions and legislative debates, INFB created internal task forces for both tax and water issues last year.
“Neither of these policy priorities is new to INFB or Hoosier farmers,” continued Tauer. “INFB formed tax and water task forces with members and subject matter experts who dug deeper into these specific issues that farmers are dealing with daily. Those discussions helped inform the priorities we will be advocating for at the Indiana Statehouse.”
INFB leaders and staff will meet with legislators to discuss the organization’s policy priorities for the upcoming 2025 legislative session at their annual Organization Day Breakfast held at the Statehouse on Tuesday, Nov. 19. When the 2025 session of the Indiana General Assembly begins in January, INFB members will also visit with their legislators to advocate for this year’s policy positions.
For more information on INFB’s legislative priorities, visit infb.org/statepriorities.
CLICK BELOW to hear Indiana Farm Bureau Vice President Kendell Culp and Executive Director of Public Policy Andy Tauer discuss property taxes during the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast hosted by Eric Pfeiffer.
Source: Indiana Farm Bureau
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/13110837/sabrina-wrap-hat-vilsack-hurricane-relief-101124.mp3"]In response to the two recent Hurricanes—Helene and Milton—that have devastated parts of Florida and the southeastern U.S., USDA is mobilizing to support those farmers and ranchers in need.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke with Hoosier Ag Today’s Sabrina Halvorson about the USDA’s efforts.
“Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are extended to all those who have been devastated by the destruction of these storms. It’s just been heartbreaking,” said Secretary Vilsack as he described his experience visiting storm-affected areas with President Biden. He explained that the USDA is collaborating with FEMA to address immediate needs, such as providing food and shelter, while preparing to help farmers recover from agricultural losses.
A critical part of the USDA’s response involves creating flexibility within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for those who lost their food assistance cards. The agency is also working with schools to ensure children continue to receive meals, even if schools remain closed. For farmers, ranchers, and producers, the focus is on getting disaster assistance processed as quickly as possible.
“We have literally eight or nine different programs designed to provide assistance for farmers, from crop insurance to the livestock indemnity program to emergency conservation assistance,” Secretary Vilsack explained, stressing the importance of making sure applications are processed swiftly. The USDA is also deploying “surge teams” from unaffected states to help local offices handle the increased workload.
Vilsack acknowledged the significant challenges facing the agricultural community but emphasized that help is on the way. He assured those impacted that the USDA will remain involved throughout the recovery process, from initial aid to long-term rebuilding efforts.
“Americans are at their best in the worst of times, and obviously the folks in the southeast part of our country have gone through the worst of times,” he said. He added that there are thousands of people in the USDA and other government agencies dedicated to the hurricane efforts. “This is not a ‘we’ll be there at the beginning and then leave after a week or two.’ The President has been very clear: we are there until the job is done.”
As recovery continues, the USDA is offering various forms of assistance, including disaster loans, housing support, and crop insurance flexibility. Vilsack urged farmers to document their losses as thoroughly as possible and seek help through USDA offices or online disaster assistance tools.
With the USDA coordinating its efforts with other federal agencies, Secretary Vilsack expressed confidence that the agricultural sector will rebound, though he acknowledged the road ahead will be long.
CLICK BELOW to watch Sabrina Halvorson’s full conversation with U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Ear rot in corn. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.As corn producers tackle harvest across Indiana, it is important to start monitoring and managing for the presence of ear rots—which can reduce corn yields, reduce kernel quality, and produce mycotoxins which are harmful to livestock and humans.
Corn that may appear healthy and even has high yields at harvest can be impacted economically through dockages or load rejections due to the presence of mycotoxins. Many areas of Indiana experienced these issues in 2023 (e.g., Northern and Northeastern part of the state), largely due to cooler growing season temperatures, reduced heat unit accumulation, delayed plant maturity, poor grain dry down and delayed harvest.
In Indiana, five ear rots can lead to mycotoxin production in corn. They include Aspergillus ear rot, Gibberella ear rot (Figure 1), Fusarium ear rot, and Penicillium ear rot. Whereas, other ear rots like Diplodia (Figure 2) do not produce mycotoxins. They can cause the production of five different mycotoxins in association with the different ear rot: Aflatoxin (Aspergillus), Deoxynivalenol or as also called DON/vomitoxin and Zearalenone (Gibberella); Fumonisins (Fusarium), and Ochratoxin (Penicillium and sometimes Aspergillus).
The crop protection network has a very good resource for distinguishing the different ear rots and understanding their causes.
Figure 1. Gibberella ear rot present on the tip of the corn ear prior to corn harvest in Whitley County, Indiana 2022.
Figure 2. Diplodia ear rot forming at the base of the ear prior to corn harvest in Randolph County, Indiana 2022.
To minimize both the yield and economic impacts of ear rot development in corn it is important to first assess field prior to harvest. This pre-assessment can 1) alert you to the potential severity of ear rot within various fields, 2) help with harvest and storage planning to prevent the problem from getting worse, and 3) provide any insights if certain hybrids are more impacted than others.
Scouting fields can involve sampling multiple ears from multiple areas from the field, pulling back the husks, and examining the entire ear for the presence of ear rot symptoms. In addition, if you suspect high levels of ear rot, having harvested grain samples tested from a commercial lab prior to storage can be helpful. Potential problem areas my include fields damaged by insects or hail, fields with too much rain fall or significant drought stress, and fields in a continuous corn rotation.
As for managing ear rots, there is several methods available which apply to most ear rots. The first management method is hybrid selection. Selecting hybrids with reduced susceptibility to ear rots, improved insect resistance, and reduced “husk tightness” can assist in the management of ear rots. Harvest timing and combine settings are also useful management practices for reducing the impacts of ear rots. If ear rots are suspected, make sure to prioritize those fields for harvest and harvest those with the highest pressures first. When disease infected grain is left in the field and harvest is delayed, this will increase the risk of mycotoxin contamination.
In addition, lightweight and damaged kernels likely contain higher levels of mold and mycotoxins, so adjusting combine settings to discard these kernels or using specialized equipment to sieve and clean the grain prior to storage or delivery can help. Grain drying and storage conditions are also important to consider when dealing with ear rots. Grain that is dried quickly to a moisture less than 13% and is stored in cool (~30⁰F) conditions can limit fungal growth and mycotoxin accumulation. Lastly, fungicide use can also be a helpful with reducing ear rots in corn, however, many products labeled to control foliar diseases can have minimal to no control on ear rots. In addition, fungicide application must be made at the R1 growth stage (silk emergence) when “green silks” are present.
Written by: Dan Quinn, Purdue Extension Corn Specialist, and Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor of Crop Pathology, Purdue University College of Agriculture.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/11234439/hatthisweek2.mp3"]A pattern change is on the way to the eastern corn belt in the Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast.
After several weeks of warm weather, we will have cold air on the move. The result will be some moisture for the weekend potentially in the northern third of Indiana and most of Michigan, and then near to a bit below normal temps for 3 days to start next week. However, we bounce back quickly and will be above normal but the second half of next week and for the extended period.
Saturday features increasing clouds in the north. Scattered showers can break out in the afternoon and evening over the northern third of Indiana, and in lower MI south of I-96. Rain totals can be all over the place, with potential for just a few hundredths up to 0.75” if conditions are ripe for thunderstorms. The cold air is not here yet, and this moisture is just a bit of a front-running disturbance. Central and southern IN should stay dry along with central and northern MI.
Overnight Saturday night, clouds build into more of MI and the main body of the low pressure system kicks out to the east. Showers are likely over all of MI Sunday, while IN just sees clouds in the north and perhaps a few sprinkles. The father south you go, the better potential for sunshine on Sunday.
The heart of the cold air arrives overnight Sunday night into Monday. We expect strong north winds through Monday, such that lake effect clouds and precipitation is likely in northern and especially NW IN, along with the far western side of MI. Moisture is not big…just spits and sprinkles. We also anticipate frost and freeze conditions. Drying should be “ok” during the stretch, but not quite as high of evaporation rates due to the cooler temps.
We get on the backside of Canadian high pressure for the second half of the week and should be sunny, warm, and dry for Thursday through the weekend. Temps are back to above normal, drying fast. We are watching a front develop for the plains next weekend, but we stay rain free through early next Monday morning.
Extended Period:
The extended forecast window features a bit of scattered shower action later Monday afternoon with rain totals up to half an inch but coverage only 60%. The front in the plains falls apart as it moves eastward. The rest of the week and following weekend should remain mostly dry, with temps near normal.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Very warm for week three, compared to normal, and a bit above normal for week 4. Precipitation is below normal for week 3 but will start to sneak back to near normal as we move into the first half of November.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
There are some changes to that wide-open harvest window that we’ve been talking about recently, at least for Northern Indiana. Meteorologist Ryan Martin’s Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast has Canadian cold air moving in this weekend and with it the chance of some moisture. He says the threat isn’t huge, maybe some hit and miss scattered showers Saturday and Sunday, particularly in Northeast Indiana.
“We transition into just some spit and sprinkle activity later Sunday through Monday and into early Tuesday. Most of the spit and sprinkle action is due to stronger cold air flow across very warm Great Lakes regions in Northeast Indiana. I’m going to say watch for anywhere from a few hundredths to a few tenths, and that could spread about over 30% of the northern part of the state. That’s all. The rest of us are going to stay dry.”
The other part of the equation is that cold air.
“We are looking at frost and freeze conditions on three separate periods: overnight Sunday night into Monday morning, Monday night into Tuesday morning, and Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. So, that’s where we can see frost and freeze statewide. The cold air dives all the way down through the Ohio Valley.”
Martin’s forecast does call for a significant warmup late next week Thursday through Saturday.
“We’re putting together a dry period there as well. I don’t see any significant rain until we get into early parts of the week of the 21st. So, I think that we’re going to be seeing dry windows of opportunity, good for running corn here. Beans should be done soon anyway. The cool temperatures for next week early on may slow the drying right out of the gate in the morning, but we’re still looking at a pretty nice setup for harvest all things considered.”
Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast details can be in your inbox Saturday morning. Just sign up to receive the Hoosier Ag Today e-newsletter below.
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Josh Linville, Vice President of Fertilizer with StoneX. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.With 62 percent of the ammonium phosphate produced in the U.S. coming from Florida, there is no doubt that a storm the strength of Hurricane Milton would have an impact on production.
“Unlike most hurricanes that generally sideswipe the Tampa region, Milton took a direct shot going an ‘unnatural’ west to east path,” says Josh Linville, Vice President of Fertilizer with StoneX Group. “[The hurricane] came ashore as a Category 4 with storm surge expected to be 10 – 15’. This was as bad as it gets for the Tampa region and local phosphate production facilities. Fortunately for the phosphate market, a last-minute shift south appears to have saved the worst. Obviously terrible for those in the new direct path, but from a fertilizer perspective, good news.”
Even though Linville doesn’t know the extent of damage, he says they were built by engineers who knew storm capabilities in the region and were backed by well-funded companies.
“These facilities were built well. However, that is what they can control on their grounds. What they need to be concerned with is electricity and water returning to normal. We also must wonder how long until workers return. At the end of the day, helping friends and family trumps work so a certain amount of downtime will occur and will draw down expected supplies just before the start of widespread fall application,” he says.
Linville added that it doesn’t appear that the storm caused the worst-case impact on the market as could have happened, the phosphate market is still tightly supplied due to global issues.
“China, historically the world’s largest DAP/MAP exporter, continues to see export volumes falling behind normal. India, historically the world’s largest importer of phosphate, continues to work to rebuild stockpiles for domestic use. So, the world’s biggest supplier is scaling back while the biggest demand is catching up. Continue to help support price ideas, which in our opinion, is still a bigger situation that Hurricane Milton,” says Linville.
Graphic courtesy of StoneX Group, Inc.Graphic courtesy of StoneX Group, Inc.
$30.5 billion is the projected ag trade deficit forecasted by USDA, which means the U.S. continues to purchase and import far more ag products than what is being sold and shipped to other countries.
USDA is forecasting agricultural exports at $173.5 billion and imports at a record $204 billion for fiscal year 2024—which started Oct. 1, 2023 and ended Sept. 30, 2024.
The ag sector has recorded monthly deficits in 10 out of 11 months throughout fiscal year 2024. Three months during this time have seen deficits of $4 billion or more and eight months with a deficit of $1 billion or more.
U.S. agricultural exports were at $13.01 billion in August, essentially unchanged from July, against imports of $17.19 billion, which were down 2% from July, resulting in a monthly trade deficit of $4.18 billion.
AgWeb reports that exports so far this fiscal year total $161.3 billion compared to imports of $188.82 billion, creating a cumulative deficit of $27.52 billion. These numbers do not include the data from September, which has not yet been announced by USDA for the final month of the fiscal year.
In fiscal year 2023, the trade gap was $17.1 billion. Based on the fiscal year 2024 forecasts and cumulative trade data, agricultural exports in September would need to reach $12.2 billion to meet the USDA forecast, while imports would need to be $15.18 billion.
Source: NAFB News Service
Graphic courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor.Even though the remnants of Hurricane Helene two weeks ago brought a statewide average of 2.62 inches of rainfall, a near lack of rainfall since—0.09 inches was the statewide average last week across Indiana according to USDA—have pushed the state’s drought percentages higher.
The U.S. Drought Monitor says that nearly 30 percent of Indiana is under a moderate drought, while 92 percent of the state is abnormally dry. In addition, the southeastern portion of DeKalb County and the northeastern portion of Allen County in northeastern Indiana are considered to be under a severe drought. That pocket of severe drought represents 0.11 percent of the state.
Drought conditions remain far worse in Ohio where 32 percent of the state is under a severe drought, 20 percent is facing an extreme drought, and 8 percent of Ohio—namely in the southeastern area of the state—is under an exceptional drought.
Graphic courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor.Hoosier Ag Today Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says Canadian cold air comes into Indiana this weekend, with the possibility of moisture for northern Indiana—mainly in the form of “spits and sprinkles”.
Martin adds the colder air brings the likelihood of our first frost and freeze conditions of the fall season throughout the state beginning Sunday evening. However, he says Indiana stays dry with a warm-up returning on Thursday of next week.
Kate Gorski, Field Sales Representative for Channel Seed representing Northwestern Indiana.The 2024 harvest is moving along rapidly and in Indiana the most recent progress update has 29% of the corn acres harvested and 36% of soybeans completed. Both numbers exceed the five-year averages.
In a Channel Seed harvest update, Kate Gorski, Field Sales Representative for Channel in Northwest Indiana, says there has been even more progress in the days since the Monday USDA update.
“Yes, harvest was definitely off to a slower start,” she said, “but now we are moving and we’re moving fast. I would say honestly soybeans are up to about 45 to 50% in Northwest Indiana. The past 10 days have been excellent conditions for running, and we didn’t get much of the rain from the last hurricane, so we were not out of the fields longer like some of the other folks in Northern Indiana. So, I would say we are off to a good start and definitely ahead of time. Corn is around 30% I would say in the area too. Some guys are getting done with soybean harvest and switching over to corn pretty quickly.”
Every year yield is dependent on planting dates, conditions, and rainfall throughout the season. Variable conditions this year have led to varying harvest results.
“We didn’t have great planting conditions as many of you know this year, and that shows in some of the crop. Corn is starting to show a really good top end and then gets into the variables depending on rainfall in the area that you’re located. Same with soybeans, good top end yields and pleased with the crop that’s coming out with the limited rainfall in August and September that was going to be able to finish that grain fill out.”
Gorski confirms this 2024 crop in Northwest Indiana has dried quickly.
“A lot of things are way more dry than you ever would expect,” she told HAT. “A lot of guys have been getting into some beans that are 9%. Corn is also, depending on where you’re located, if you sprayed fungicide, if you have tar spot, corn is drier than many of the years past.”
Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seed growing season update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/09154547/kate-gorski-10-9-24-update.mp3"]
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/10011508/sabrina-wrap-hat-full-ncba-calls-white-house-event-misguided-101024.mp3"]The White House hosted an event Wednesday morning called “Farmers and Ranchers in Action. While some ag groups took the opportunity to discuss some of the difficulties farmers are facing, others called the meeting “misguided”.
Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says, “Real cattle producers have faced two hurricanes in two weeks and months of devastating wildfires across the West, and instead of addressing these immediate problems hurting farmers and ranchers, the Biden-Harris administration hosted a pep rally to prop up their failing Bidenomics agenda at the White House, with animal rights activists front and center. Had we been invited, we could have discussed more pressing issues like much-needed disaster relief, regulatory overreach, and USDA’s questionable approval of South American beef imports.”
He went on to say that, “This event makes clear what cattle producers have known for quite some time: when it comes to agriculture, this administration has prioritized politics over policy that supports cattle producers.”
New National Corn Growers Association president Kenneth Hartman, Jr. from Illinois was invited to the meeting at the White House.
“On behalf of my fellow growers, I spoke about the need to make it possible for producers to access tax credits for sustainable aviation fuels,” Hartman says. “The tax credit would help us expand the ethanol market, which is important for growers while boosting the airline industry’s efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions.”
He touched on a number of other priorities that growers hope Congress will tackle and asked administration officials to help in any way they can with pending legislation, including the long-awaited farm bill.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/09214107/kildee-long.mp3"]U.S. Representative Dan Kildee (D-MI 8) is calling for a swift resolution to the ongoing dispute over Mexico’s ban on genetically modified (GMO) corn imports. The issue stems from actions taken by former Mexican President López Obrador, who restricted U.S. corn imports, citing non-scientific reasons. Kildee has been vocal in asserting that this ban violates the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and has urged Mexican officials to honor the trade deal.
“This issue has dragged on long enough,” Kildee said. “We can’t negotiate an agreement and then suddenly block a product that U.S. markets have enjoyed the opportunity to sell into Mexican markets.” He explained that the USMCA was designed to ensure trade is based on science, not cultural or protectionist motives, which he believes is the real reason behind Mexico’s ban.
Kildee and other lawmakers, including Congressman Randy Feenstra, have sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, urging them to press Mexico on the issue. The congressman hopes the new Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, will take a more reasonable approach and lift the ban, but there has been no clear indication of change yet.
Former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador banned U.S. genetically modified (GMO) corn imports primarily for cultural and environmental reasons. López Obrador has long supported policies that promote traditional farming methods in Mexico and aimed to protect local farmers from what he saw as the negative impacts of industrial agriculture, including the use of GMO crops.
López Obrador argued that GMO corn posed a threat to Mexico’s indigenous corn varieties and farming heritage. He wanted to safeguard Mexico’s food sovereignty and ensure that the country’s traditional agricultural practices were preserved. While the ban was framed around cultural and environmental protection, U.S. officials like Congressman Dan Kildee have criticized it for lacking scientific justification, asserting that the science shows no significant differences between U.S. GMO corn and other varieties.
Kildee and others believe that López Obrador’s move to ban GMO corn was more about protectionism, aimed at shielding Mexican farmers from foreign competition, rather than legitimate environmental or health concerns. This action violated the USMCA, which requires trade decisions to be based on scientific evidence.
For American farmers, this dispute brings uncertainty. Mexico is a significant market for U.S. corn, and any prolonged trade restrictions could hurt U.S. agriculture. “We don’t want to be in a situation where we’re providing access to our markets and they’re denying access to theirs,” Kildee stressed.
As the USMCA comes up for review in 2026, Kildee believes it is crucial to resolve this issue now rather than later. He emphasized that the dispute resolution process must be enforced, ensuring U.S. farmers have access to Mexican markets and preventing further damage to the agricultural sector.
McDonald’s has filed a lawsuit against Tyson Foods, JBS, and other major meat packing companies. The fast food chain is accusing the packers of colluding for years to limit beef supplies.
The suit says that the collusion allowed the companies to boost their profits while forcing McDonald’s to pay inflated prices for their meat supplies. McDonald’s says the companies conspired to reduce production levels beginning on January 1, 2024, which would artificially drive up market prices. The companies have significant control over the cattle and beef industry, so they could manipulate prices “at their will.”
In the suit, McDonald’s says, “Only colluding meatpackers would expect to benefit by reducing their prices and purchases of slaughtered cattle, fully aware that their conspiracy would shield them from the pressures of a competitive market.”
In 2018, the “Big Four” beef companies controlled 80 percent of fresh and frozen beef sold in the U.S.
The Case 7120 that belonged to Orange County farmer C.J. Fleenor. He was harvesting soybeans with his four-year-old daughter in the cab, when the combine started smoking and burst into flames moments later. Photo courtesy of C.J. Fleenor.Orange flames and black smoke filled the warm, dry air over Orange County, Indiana recently as a combine caught fire during harvest just as a farmer and his young daughter had been inside the cab moments before it started.
“You’re never prepared necessarily for an event like this to happen and it can happen quite unexpectedly,” says C.J. Fleenor, who farms near the town of Orleans in southern Indiana.
Just a few weeks ago, he was in his combine harvesting soybeans with his four-year-old daughter Caroline in the cab by his side.
“I smelled something that smelled different. However, it was not smoke. It actually was a sweet smell,” said Fleenor. “I didn’t think anything of it. In fact, I looked at my daughter and said, ‘Caroline, did you just open a snack?’ I thought maybe she had opened something to eat, and she said no. So, we kept going and the smell was still there lingering in the air.”
“We were near the end of the row at that point, so I went ahead and told her calmly to put her shoes on and I thought we probably going to need to make a stop here and check things out,” he said.
Luckily, Fleenor’s intuition told him to get out of the cab and his daughter away from the combine.
“I looked around the back of the combine and saw a little bit of smoke. It didn’t look very bad and didn’t think anything of it, so I grabbed the fire extinguisher coming down the ladder. My dad, who helps me running the auger cart, ran over and saw the smoke and put the fire out and some smoldering embers on top of the hydraulic pump. Then we saw smoke underneath the intake so we used the fire extinguisher in that area. We opened the side door and at that point, the top of the fuel tank was already melted and the fuel tank was on fire.”
It wasn’t but a matter of moments later that the combine was completely engulfed in flames while C.J., his daughter, and his dad were far enough away and at a safe distance.
The Case 7120 that belonged to Orange County farmer C.J. Fleenor. He was harvesting soybeans with his four-year-old daughter in the cab, when the combine started smoking and burst into flames moments later. Photo courtesy of C.J. Fleenor.Fleenor contacted his insurance agent and was able to purchase a new combine within a matter of days and is already busy and back to harvest.
Even though that sweet smell he noticed, which could have been either burning copper or burning cooling fluid, served as a warning for Fleenor, he says that farmers should always stop their combines at the first sign that something just isn’t right.
“If you hear something, if you think you see something, and if you smell something, don’t be afraid to stop,” he says. “I’m guilty of that at times. You want to move ahead, and you want to get those acres done. You know you’ve got to go for the day, but don’t be afraid to take a couple of minutes just to get out and double check something because a couple of minutes later certainly would have made a difference with me and my daughter making it both out alive!”
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s full conversation with Orange County farmer C.J. Fleenor, who shares the story of how he and his young daughter safely escaped a combine fire during harvest.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/08224547/cj-full-interview-cj-fleenor-combine-fire-100824.mp3"]C.J. Fleenor, his wife Caitlin, and their children Caroline and Christian in 2023. Photo courtesy of C.J. Fleenor.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/08194658/ffa-1-mil-wrap-for-web.mp3"]If it feels like you see more blue-corduroy jackets around these days, you’re right. The National FFA Organization is celebrating a milestone this year as they’ve now reached over one million members. The total is now 1,027,273, an 8.6 percent year-over-year increase.
“We think that our FFA members across the country and our students realize how important Ag is, and it’s around them every day, right? As you and your listeners know, it’s from the food we eat to the clothes we wear to the fuel we put in our cars,” says Kristy Meyer, communications manager with FFA, on why they believe they’ve hit the one-million mark.
“But we also see that our students are realizing there’s an opportunity for many careers in agriculture. So, as they’re taking their high school classes, they’re looking into what their future might hold in a role in agriculture.”
Meyer says hitting one million members is a reason to be happy and excited, but there’s no reason to be content.
“I also think it’s imperative that we reach all those students who are taking these agriculture education classes and let them know that along with that Ag class is the opportunity to become a member of FFA and explore agriculture a little more. I don’t think we’re done by any stretch of the imagination. I think we have leaps and bounds to go.”
The 97th National FFA Convention and Expo will hit downtown Indianapolis in just a few weeks, October 23rd-26th, and we’ll be there to bring you the action.
Source: NAFB News Service
Dr. Darcy Telenko (at far right), associate professor of plant pathology and Extension specialist at Purdue University, with young students at a research plot for corn and soybeans. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.Through grant funding provided by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, several research scientists with the Purdue University College of Agriculture are focusing on limiting the negative impact that fungal diseases are having on corn yields.
Specific fungi can produce mycotoxins that can harm corn. The fungi are usually present in the Northern Corn Belt region and cause diseases such as Gibberella ear rot.
Darcy Telenko, associate professor of plant pathology and Extension specialist at Purdue University, explained that mycotoxin contamination of grain is not new. “It’s something that can happen any year depending on the weather. Gibberella ear rot has been causing problems for over 100 years in Indiana.”
Gibberella ear rot is caused by a fungus called Gibberella zeae and appears as a red to pink mold on an ear of corn. Telenko explained, “In general, we see epidemics every four to five years, and when this occurs, high levels of mycotoxins can be produced in the grain, resulting in crop byproducts that can’t be used.”
Recently, Telenko has observed an alarmingly consistent uptick in reports of mycotoxins in regional corn crops. From 2021 to 2023, Indiana alone experienced a total monetary loss of roughly $50 million, almost triple the historical average of $16 million per year, due to disease. Infected corn grain being rejected during the inspection process leads to a reduction in crop yield and quality and economic loss for farmers and agribusinesses.
Telenko and Dan Quinn, assistant professor agronomy and Purdue Extension corn specialist, are working to mitigate these effects and help farmers recover losses and predict future ones.
The pair will research various types of ear rot data to help build prediction models using Indiana grain samples that they will collect later this and next year. They have already begun small-scale research trials, supported by previous funding.
The research project will also investigate similar issues in soybeans, drawing on the expertise of Shaun Casteel, associate professor of agronomy and Extension soybean specialist.
Telenko and Quinn’s goal is to expand their existing research and partner with farmers to assess risk, better identify fungal diseases and make effective management recommendations. Their field research will expand to utilize Extension’s Purdue on the Farm Program, which is designed to help farmers adopt practical, research-based applications to address farm management challenges.
Telenko said, “This is why Extension is important. We’re able to share our research and engage with people in the field to understand their needs and adapt our research programs to target problems impacting their farms.”
Written by: Ashvini Malshe, Purdue Agricultural Communications
Corn and soybean harvest is moving along at a rapid pace and will likely continue to do so with this friendly forecast.
“We’ve seen great results so far, especially on the corn side,” says West Central Indiana agronomist Nick Hedden in this Pioneer Seeds harvest update.
“We’ve seen some really high yield levels so far this year, more so than last year,” Hedden continued. “So, really exciting to see some of these new products really pump out the bushels.”
Hedden adds that growers are very pleased with their early planted soybeans as well. But later planted beans have been good, not great, due to the dry stretch in August.
“They probably just didn’t have enough moisture to quite finish the seeds filling the pods. And like I say, they’re not bad, but they maybe weren’t quite as much as they were hoping to get seeing some of the early soybean yields that we’ve witnessed so far.”
Coming into the season, the big news from Pioneer was their new Z Series soybeans improving on their already stellar A Series brand. Hedden says with results now coming in, they’re as advertised, consistently 2-4 bushels per acre higher than the A Series.
“But it’s not only the yield. We’ve got increased agronomics with more soybean cyst nematode resistance and Peking, better disease scores as far as Sudden Death Syndrome and white mold. So just overall, these beans, they’ve lived up to expectations.”
Hedden knows the forecast is friendly and everyone wants to put the hammer down and get harvest done quickly, but he also wants to make sure you’re staying safe.
“We really appreciate Hoosier Ag Today providing agronomy updates and insights from Pioneer, but safety has always got to be the number one focus before anything else. The low humidity that we’re seeing and not a lot of rain in the forecast is great for harvest to get a lot done. But we’ve also got to keep in mind some of those fire risks with that low humidity.”
Here at Hoosier Ag Today, we’ve heard of several combine fires around the state, so please be careful.
You can get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
Hear the full HAT interview with Hedden below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/07210440/nick-hedden-100724-pioneer.mp3"]
Josh Trenary, Executive Director of Indiana Pork. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/07224859/cj-wrap-hat-trenary-on-capos-lawsuit-100724.mp3"]A legal victory for the U.S. livestock industry after more than a dozen environmental activist groups had challenged the EPA to put tighter restrictions on large livestock and poultry farms when it comes to the storage and disposal of animal waste.
“This case was one of those interesting situations where the industry groups agreed with the EPA that we don’t need to open up this rule again. EPA got a win and we’re glad,” says Josh Trenary, Executive Director of Indiana Pork.
Back in 2017, those activist groups petitioned the EPA to revise the Clean Water Act regulations on how Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations—or CAFO’s for short—store and get rid of their manure. Those activists claim that the manure from many livestock and poultry farms are finding their ways into our waterways.
“EPA had initially denied those petitions, but they didn’t take no action, so they did agree to put together an advisory committee to look at the issue and to consider what revisions might make sense for Effluent Limitation Guidelines for CAFO’s,” says Trenary. “So, they weren’t doing the full-on review that the activist groups wanted but they were doing something. That committee process is ongoing and we’re certainly in favor of that type of review too, but the activist groups weren’t.”
Last year the groups decided to sue the EPA claiming that the agency wasn’t doing enough in its capacity. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week ruled against the activists—and said the EPA did the right thing by setting up an advisory committee first to take its time and study the issue before making any decisions on changing the Clean Water Act regulations.
The court issued the following statement in its decision against the environmental activist groups:
“EPA has broad discretion to choose how best to marshal its limited resources and personnel to carry out its delegated responsibilities and significant latitude as to the manner, timing, content, and coordination of its regulations with those of other agencies. Here, EPA has deemed it prudent to first seek information about how best to tackle the problem before directing resources toward a new rulemaking. Those justifications are reasonable and hardly at odds with the Clean Water Act’s requirements.”
Even though Indiana has its own regulations regarding CAFO’s and the storage and removal of animal waste, Trenary says these activist groups are simply trying to harm the pork industry—and other livestock and poultry sectors—by creating burdensome regulations.
“The CAFO rule requires permitting if you discharge. Well, in Indiana, our barns are designed not to discharge. We don’t discharge anything from the production site. We contain that manure until we can move it off-site and land apply that at an agronomic rate. Well, the activist groups don’t even like you applying at an agronomic rate either,” he says.
That’s why Trenary says that Indiana Pork and the National Pork Producers Council are working to keep environmental activist groups from succeeding in forcing producers out of business by lobbying for overbearing regulations.
“We work directly with producers on a lot of policy and environmental issues,” says Trenary. “We have a good rapport with the other Indiana agriculture commodity groups—plus, we have good national partners as well.”
“Roughly two-thirds of Indiana’s pork producers invest voluntarily in the policy arm of this organization, so we take that really seriously and try to provide a level of service that helps our members navigate these things,” he says.
CLICK HERE to read the full decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals against the environmental activist groups’ lawsuit against the EPA in forcing a change to the Clean Water Act regarding animal waste on large livestock farms.
Farmdoc from the University of Illinois says the ag sector is closely watching the fertilizer markets this week because of the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Following months of tight supplies, global nitrogen values started rising last week. The story of the week was Iran’s attack on Israel. The Middle East is an important area for fertilizer production in general, but it’s especially important for nitrogen.
“When you look at the attack on Israel, Iran didn’t impact any shipping lanes, it didn’t have any impact on fertilizer production, yet prices moved higher,” says Josh Linville of StoneX.
He also says the attack on Israel may have forced the market to finally admit that supplies are tight, and it’s manifesting in higher prices.
Urea prices are one example of moving higher, up 10 percent as of last week.
Linville advises farmers to contact their fertilizer retailers as soon as possible.
A soybean field being harvested in Shelby County along State Road 44 between Franklin and Shelbyville. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.A return to dry, warm conditions has allowed for outstanding harvest conditions across Indiana.
29 percent of Indiana’s corn for grain and 36 percent of the state’s soybeans have been harvested according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report.
The harvest percentages represent a jump from last week, which was at 20 percent for corn and 23 percent for soybeans. The state’s corn and soybean harvests are well ahead of the five-year average of 22 percent and 28 percent respectfully.
91 percent of Indiana’s corn has been harvested for sileage.
Across the entire U.S., the percentages are ahead of Indiana—with 30 percent of corn and 47 percent of soybeans harvested.
Indiana’s corn is rated at 61 percent good-to-excellent, while the state’s soybeans are 62 percent good-to-excellent.
In addition, 91 percent of corn is mature.
For soybeans, 92 percent are dropping leaves.
Indiana’s pastures are rated at 31 percent good-to-excellent, a gain from 29 percent last week.
Source: USDA
Marshall and Berdine Martin have made a generous donation to Purdue University’s College of Agriculture to endow two new faculty chairs: the Berdine Martin Food Economics Early Career Professorship in Agricultural Economics; and the Marshall Martin Agricultural Science and Technology Policy Early Career Professorship in Agricultural Economics. Photo courtesy of Joshua Clark / Purdue Agricultural Communications.A couple of years ago, Marshall and Berdine Martin were asked to speak to students at the Illinois high school he graduated from more than 60 years ago. Each gave a brief overview of their distinguished careers. ”Our message was, ‘We’re a couple of kids that came from farm families in this rural area. We’ve had a wonderful life. This is where we were nurtured by teachers, by parents, by pastors, by the community.’”
Purdue, too, is key in their story. The Martins came to West Lafayette as married graduate students and stayed as influential members of the faculty and staff.
Now these longtime supporters of the College of Agriculture are continuing their legacy with two new faculty chairs: the Berdine Martin Food Economics Early Career Professorship in Agricultural Economics; and the Marshall Martin Agricultural Science and Technology Policy Early Career Professorship in Agricultural Economics.
The endowed chairs are the first in the college designated for early to mid-career faculty. The Martins hope they will help retain young, high-quality faculty and support activities to ensure their success at Purdue.
Marshall and Berdine Martin. Photo courtesy of Joshua Clark / Purdue Agricultural Communications.The couple grew up about 30 minutes apart on Illinois farms. They met through the Methodist campus ministry at Iowa State University, where Marshall earned his undergraduate degree in agricultural economics, and Berdine graduated in home economics with a focus on nutrition.
They shared values that would be the foundation for 58 years of marriage (so far). “We grew up in families that concentrated on helping other people,” Berdine says. “We were both active in our churches.”
After marrying in 1966, both were eager to follow the example of Berdine’s relatives who had served as missionaries. Marshall had applied to the still-new Peace Corps, but volunteers were required to be single. The Methodist Church offered a novel opportunity for the married couple to go overseas together. In the late fall of their senior year at Iowa State, they were notified of a need for an agriculturalist and a nutritionist in Bolivia.
“And so in May 1966 we finished our undergraduate work, I helped my father get the corn crop planted, the next weekend we got married, we went into overseas training for a month, and we left the country for almost five years,” Marshall says.
They went first to Costa Rica for intensive Spanish language training. At a Methodist school in rural eastern Bolivia, Marshall taught vocational agriculture and was director of a K-12 school of 400 students. Berdine developed a vocational home economics program to address severe child malnutrition in the area.
She recalls that early in their assignment, a little boy in a poor rural village crawled into her lap. “He was very small, and his arms were like sticks,” she says. “I thought he was about 2. It turned out he was between 5 and 6. The moment I held him, I knew I had to focus the rest of my career on nutrition.”
“All they wanted to do was help us,” she adds, recalling the generosity of the villagers. “And I’m thinking, we have to incorporate any education and assistance that we can to help this village survive — to focus on agriculture and food and the economic stress that they were under.”
“We realized as we reached our final year, we wanted a graduate education,” Marshall says of their experience in Bolivia. “While undergraduate education was important, there was more we wanted to know to help farmers and rural people.”
While they were exploring graduate programs, Marshall received a friendly, persuasive letter from the head of agricultural economics at Purdue. “He clearly sent a message, ‘We want you here,’” Marshall recalls. He would remember and apply that personal approach in his own interactions with students.
The Martins began graduate studies at Purdue University in 1971. Both completed master’s and doctoral degrees: Marshall in agricultural economics, in 1972 and 1976; and Berdine in foods and nutrition, in 1972 and 1986, after a break from academia when the Martins’ two children were young.
“That was a challenge,” Marshall says of Berdine’s return to Purdue to complete her PhD. “But she had that can-do attitude that ‘I’m going to make this work,’ and at a time when there weren’t that many women PhD students.”
Marshall’s doctoral research took the couple to Brazil in South America for 18 months. He then joined Purdue’s agricultural economics faculty in 1976.
He taught agricultural policy, price analysis and agricultural business courses; conducted research on agricultural technology adoption; and led Extension efforts focused on agricultural, trade and biotechnology policy. From 2000 until he retired in 2020, he was the senior associate director of agricultural research and graduate education and assistant dean.
His work has taken him around the world to teach at universities, speak at conferences, guide agricultural delegations and conduct research in more than 25 countries. During his career, he compiled a long list of service to the college and professional organizations and awards that reflect his dedication to the three pillars of the land-grant mission.
Examples include the Hovde Award for Service to Rural Indiana, Special Boilermaker Award from the Purdue Alumni Association, Certificate of Distinction from the Purdue Ag Alumni Association, Book of Great Teachers, and an Honorary Master Farmer from the Indiana Prairie Farmer and College of Agriculture.
Berdine joined the laboratory of Connie Weaver, distinguished professor emerita in nutrition science, in 1986 as a senior research scientist and lab director. There she used a broad array of laboratory research skills and tools in her work on calcium bioavailability, metabolism and bone health. Her research was the basis for over 200 publications and research abstracts and many invited lectures. Research in this lab is the basis for USDA calcium dietary recommendations. Upon her retirement in 2019 Berdine was inducted into the Purdue Department of Nutrition Science Hall of Fame.
Through their professional pursuits and the community around them, “Purdue just became home,” Marshall says.
The Martins previously endowed undergraduate scholarships in their respective departments. Other gifts have strengthened experiential learning such as study abroad and undergraduate research in the college, and they are avid supporters of the Purdue University Jazz Band and Convocations. They have established a Murchison Scholarship between the College of Agriculture and Black Hawk College in Galva, Illinois which is located on the farm where Marshall’s paternal grandmother was born and raised.
They also have contributed to nonprofit and community organizations. Marshall summarizes their philanthropic themes using the acronym FARM — family, agriculture, religion and music.
The Martins decided to stay close to their Purdue “home” in retirement. Marshall served as general contractor for the timber-frame, energy-efficient house they built on their blueberry farm just north of West Lafayette. There they frequently welcome guests and groups, allowing Berdine to practice her culinary skills.
Marshall is president of the Purdue University Retirees Association, chairs the board of Ag Alumni Seed and is on the executive committee of the Indiana Crop Improvement Association. Berdine continues to be involved in various community and regional efforts focusing on food security, nutrition and child health. Both are leaders in their church, and they enjoy swing music and dancing.
The couple has two children and four grandchildren. Their daughter Melanie Dodd is associate dean for clinical affairs and professor at the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy and recently elected President of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists with over 60,000 members. She is a Purdue pharmacy graduate who met her husband in the jazz band. Their son Matthew Martin holds a Purdue MBA and is chief marketing officer for the Harris Teeter 260-store grocery chain owned by Kroger and located in the Carolinas and Virginia.
Thinking about the future recipients of their endowed chairs inspires optimism in Marshall and Berdine Martin.
“We hope that they understand the importance of agricultural and food economics for the survival of the world population. We hope they are creative, and academically prepared to take a risk with new programs and technological discoveries in agricultural and food economics.”
– Marshall Martin
“We hope both chairs break down the silos of academia, bringing faculty from different departments to work together. Increasingly the challenges in our world are multidisciplinary and complex.”
“Hopefully we’ve planted a seed,” he adds. “We hope this is the beginning of a journey for the college.”
Written by: Nancy Alexander / Purdue Agricultural Communications.
As the strike among the East and Gulf Coast port workers has now been temporarily suspended until January 15, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) says the threat of another strike is another reason why producers need a new Farm Bill for 2025.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) ordered its members back to work after their three-day work stoppage while negotiations continue on outstanding issues like port automation.
Even before ILA members agreed to a partial deal on wages, there are reports that the current port backlog would take over a week to clear, with dozens of ships carrying hundreds of thousands of containers at anchor.
“We are worried that even if [the workers] go back to work, are they going to work hard? So that’s something that we’re looking at, in the longer term, as well,” says Danny Munch, AFBF Economist.
With many areas throughout the southeastern U.S. damaged or destroyed by the impact of Hurricane Helene in late September and in need of supplies, President Biden and his administration pressed both sides to suspend the strike.
Many producers may be worried that a combination of backlogged ag exports and sharply lower commodity prices may cause more harm to the ag economy.
“It’s another pressure and another disruption that our farmers are going to have to deal with, without a good safety net in place,” says Munch. “There are already carriers who have announced surcharges on containers to start in mid-October. Now, to export ag products, they could be facing a $3,000 per container surcharge, and that’s not something foreign markets are going to want to purchase.”
The 36 affected ports along the East and Gulf Coasts handle tens of millions a week worth of produce, poultry, dairy, soybeans, meat, corn ethanol, and farm machinery. The suspended port strike and the August Canadian rail strike, plus Hurricane Helene, are just the latest examples of why U.S. farmers need the protection of a modernized Farm Bill according to AFBF.
The historic McDonald’s sign at the corner of County Line Road and Emerson Avenue in Greenwood, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.McDonald’s of Greater Indiana is saluting all past, future and present farmers across the Hoosier State during National 4-H Week, Oct. 7 – 12.
“The reason why we sponsor 4-H is because—yes, we do know that they’re the future [of agriculture], but we want to make sure that we’re also helping to guide them,” says Alison Kosanovich, a McDonald’s owner-operator in north-central Indiana. She and her husband Blake own seven McDonald’s locations throughout Marion, Hamilton, Tipton, Howard, and Henry counties.
McDonald’s of Greater Indiana is taking the time during National 4-H Week to thank Indiana’s farmers.
This past summer, Kosanovich and her team members traveled to Beer Dairy Farms in Kosciusko County on behalf of American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI) to learn more about the importance of Indiana’s farmers and the value that their local dairy suppliers bring.
“We learned that working at a dairy farm is such an extremely backbreaking job, but it was just such a great experience, and I was in awe of how [the dairy operation] was so well-oiled,” she says.
In addition to buying more than 8 million gallons of milk from Indiana’s dairy farmers, the McDonald’s system also purchases nearly 13 million pounds of pork, 12.4 million pounds of sugar and nearly two million pounds of soybean oil each year from Indiana’s farmers and suppliers.
In addition, the McDonald’s system also buys millions of eggs, as well as millions of pounds of flour from Indiana suppliers.
“Indiana’s farmers and suppliers, as well as the McDonald’s corporation, are working together to provide the best quality and best experience as much as possible,” says Kosanovich. “At the end of the day, if we don’t succeed, they don’t succeed. We really just want to make sure that we’re providing and feeding our communities to the best of our abilities.”
So, the next time you take a bite into a McRib or a Sausage Egg McMuffin, remember those Indiana farmers who work hard every day to supply their products to McDonald’s.
CLICK BELOW to watch McDonald’s owner-operator Alison Kosanovich and her team tour Beer Dairy Farm in Kosciusko County, thanks to American Dairy Association Indiana.
What is test weight?
Although yield is always at the forefront of many corn farmers and agronomists’ minds during harvest, another important discussion topic each fall is that of grain test weight.
Although grain test weight is often discussed (or debated) when determining how well someone’s corn did, this number can often be confusing when understanding its importance, especially in relation to corn grain yield. Grain test weight is used as a grain quality measurement and is identified as the volumetric weight of grain (pounds per bushel). Test weight is based on the official volumetric bushel measurement of 1.244 cubic feet.
In addition, the USDA defines the minimum allowable test weight as 56 lbs/bu and 54 lbs/bu for No. 1 yellow corn and No. 2 yellow corn, respectively. Corn grain in the U.S. is marketed specific to a 56-lb bushel regardless of test weight. Furthermore, since test weight is dependent on grain moisture, grain buyers will pay based on “dry” bushels (15 – 15.5% grain moisture).
Corn farmers are often concerned with low test weight because that means local grain buyers may have to discount the market grain prices paid. In addition, if you were to deliver a semi-load of low test weight grain (e.g., 52 lbs/bu) then this specific load would contain less “56-lb bushels” and you would be paid less for the load on a per volume basis. Whereas, if you were to deliver a semi-load of high test weight grain (e.g., 58 lbs/bu) then that load would contain more “56-lb bushels” and you would be paid more for the load on a per volume basis.
This concern amongst farmers regarding test weight often drives the question of “if my corn yielded well, shouldn’t I also have high test weight?” And the short answer to that question is no, not always, as there is very little evidence that high corn yield equates to high test weight.
Does high test weight equal high corn yield?
Examples of the lack of relationship between grain test weight and corn yield are presented in the figures below (Figures 1 and 2). The data was collected from multiple corn research trials from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN and Wanatah, IN in 2023.
In Figure 1, there seems to be a slight positive relationship between grain test weight and yield for trial 1 and a slight negative relationship between test weight and yield for trial 2. In Figure 2, there seems to be a negative positive relationship between grain test weight and yield. In addition, both graphs produce trend lines with low R2 values (0.06, 0.02, and 0.07, respectively) which indicates that the trend line does not do a good job in explaining the variability of the data. In other words, both graphs highlight both the variability and overall lack of relationship between grain test weight and yield.
In addition, the test weight data pulled was from trials containing large differences in nitrogen fertilizer rates and different hybrids. Therefore, this data showcases that similar test weight values can exist across a wide range of hybrid genetics, fertility levels, and locations. In addition, low yielding corn with smaller kernels can sometimes result in a higher test weight than higher yielding corn with larger kernels (e.g., smaller kernels can result in more kernels “fitting” within the volumetric measurement of a bushel). Therefore, just because your corn may have yielded poorly, does not necessarily mean that test weight is also low.
Long DescriptionFigure 1. Comparison of corn grain test weight (lbs/bu) in comparison to corn grain yield (bu/ac). Data obtained from Purdue University corn research trials in West Lafayette, IN. 2023.
Long DescriptionFigure 2. Comparison of corn grain test weight (lbs/bu) in comparison to corn grain yield (bu/ac). Data obtained from Purdue University corn research trials in Wanatah, IN. 2023.
Factors affecting test weight
Specific factors that can influence grain test weight in corn include hybrid type, kernel physical characteristics, grain moisture, and stress incurred during the grain fill period. First and foremost, an important factor to remember is that corn grain test weight and grain moisture are inversely related. Therefore, the higher the grain moisture, the lower the test weight at that specific point in time.
As grain begins to dry, test weight is increased due to kernel volume shrinkage and increased grain “slickness”, thus allowing a greater number of kernels to occupy a volume bushel. In addition, other factors that can impact final test weight include plant stresses such as plant foliar disease, insect damage, nutrient deficiencies, and environmental conditions (e.g., early frost, hail damage, drought).
Plant stresses that can cause significant reductions in plant photosynthetic processes or even premature plant death may result in premature plant maturation (e.g., black layer), thus resulting in sub-optimal starch deposition into the kernels resulting in low test weight.
Overall, when asking “is test weight important?”, the answer is yes, especially from an economic standpoint. However, it is important to understand that high test weight does not always mean high grain yield and vice versa.
Written by: Dan Quinn, Purdue Extension Corn Specialist
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/04222245/hatthisweek2-100524.mp3"]We have about as close to ideal of a harvest forecast for the region as we could hope for in early October in my Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast. The only areas that we see having a hiccup will be in Michigan this Sunday, and even there we do foresee long term issues.
The pattern is dry for Indiana all the way through the 10-day forecast window. Saturday turns out sunny and dry in all areas with clouds increasing in Michigan Saturday evening. A weather system moves from Wisconsin into Michigan for Sunday, but will likely be done by midday to early afternoon. Rains will mostly stay north of I-96, but we won’t rule out a renegade shower farther south. Clouds will be in over Southern Michigan for Sunday morning and midday, as well as in northern Indiana. However, Indiana remains precipitation free.
Next week we are rain-free over the entire region from Monday through Sunday. We will be cool to start thanks to the Canadian air following this weekends northern disturbance. However, by Wednesday, we are back to warm days with fast drying. In fact, even while its cool, we see low humidity and fast drying. There will be no major issues all of next week.
Colder, Canadian air will be trying to break loose again later this coming weekend, which will set us up for a chilly finish to the weekend and start to next week. However, other than clouds, we do not expect any other consequence of the cooler air surge.
The map below shows 10-day rain totals for the region.
Extended Period:
The extended 11-16 day period continues the mostly dry pattern. As far as frontal passages go, we can throw out the potential of a minor front for the 18th, but it does not have any significant moisture with it so far and will likely just act more as a wind shift, with clouds and some cooler air. Otherwise, we are still quite dry through the 21st.
Even with a few more pushes of cooler air, we are looking to average above normal for the extended period (remember, it’s that time of year, cooler air is the norm, so we can have colder air push in and still be above where we should be at this time of year.)
Weeks 3 & 4:
No change in the pattern of above normal temps for either week three or four. WE stay below normal in precipitation in week three but may sneak a little more moisture in as we head into early November, enough to get back closer to normal. But by then we could be mostly done with harvest.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Photo courtesy of Barbara Hatton.
Some years we worry about harvest stretching all the way to Thanksgiving or even into December. We’ll knock on wood, but it doesn’t seem like this year is going to be one of those years.
We should be able to make a lot of progress in a short period of time because Hoosier Ag Today Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin has a wide-open harvest window in his Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast this time around.
“We are sunny, warm, and dry from right now all the way through next weekend. We’re seeing good evaporation through that period, and I think there’s going to be no impact to harvest at all. The only thing we may have to watch for is a few clouds as we move from Saturday into early Sunday in northern tier counties of Indiana as rain moves by to our north.”
Martin’s extended 11 to 16-day forecast shows the potential for a little bit of rain, but even then, it might be a long shot.
“We’re watching very closely a disturbance in the central Rockies to Four Corners region. And that’s going to be next to Sunday, the 13th, that it’s trying to form there. If that system holds together and can kick out of the Rockies into the Great Plains, and if it’s able to tap into some kind of moisture source out of the Western gulf, that would be the recipe for getting some moisture into our neck of the woods sometime midweek the week of the 14th. But if either of those two things fail- if the system can’t get out, or if there’s not a moisture source for it to tap into- I still think that we have no significant threat of rain. Our dry forecast pattern likely continues through a large chunk of October.”
Martin has Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast details in written form later Friday at HoosierAgToday.com.
At the World Dairy Expo, dairy farmers and industry representatives gathered to discuss innovations in dairy, with a focus on increasing the use of dairy products in everyday items. Randy Roecker, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and member of the Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) board, spoke about recent efforts to boost dairy consumption through strategic partnerships and innovation.
Roecker highlighted DMI’s partnership with Domino’s Pizza, which continues to be a major success. “Domino’s is hungry for more pizza sales, which means more cheese sales for dairy farmers,” he said.
Another exciting partnership is with Taco Bell, which has introduced a grilled cheese burrito featuring a dairy-based shell.
Beyond fast food, DMI is exploring new frontiers in dairy-based products. “We can’t think of it as just milk, cheese, yogurt, and sour cream,” Roecker noted.
He explained that modern innovation is looking at the components of milk, such as lactoferrin, and their potential uses in new products. These efforts were showcased at Expo West, the nation’s largest natural products show. According to Roecker, this event was a major success, drawing attention to innovative uses of dairy in products like sports drinks and healthcare items.
Roecker also discussed new ideas for utilizing whey, a byproduct of cheese production. “It’s these creative ideas that are game changers for the industry,” he said.
DMI continues to explore ways to increase dairy sales through partnerships and new product development. “We need to be creative to help dairy sales,” Roecker said.
World Dairy Expo continues through Friday in Madison, Wisconsin.
Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene swamped the Southern United States, with virtually every commodity impacted. Farm Policy News says cotton, pecans, poultry, and timber were hit the hardest by the hurricane.
It brought chicken processing plants to a halt, and caused severe damage to some flocks, while also downing pecan trees and flattening crops.
A USDA official said hurricane damage to crops could trigger $7 billion in insurance payouts.
Moody’s Analytics says it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damages.
Georgia and North Carolina are among the largest chicken-producing states and suffered severe damage.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said in a press conference that 107 poultry facilities had been damaged or destroyed by the storm. The Georgia Department of Ag reported that 100 poultry farms in Coffee County were affected by the storm.
A table egg producer in Pierce County, Georgia, had 17 poultry houses knocked down by Helene.
Registration is now open for the 2025 American Farm Bureau Convention. The convention will be held Jan. 24-29, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas.
“Step Up, Drive Forward” is the theme of the 106th consecutive American Farm Bureau Convention, a “can’t miss” event that offers attendees unique insights on the policies and perspectives that will affect farms, ranches and agribusinesses in 2025 and beyond.
“Farmers and ranchers are always looking to the future, whether that’s finding ways we can be more innovative and efficient or building up our local communities,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “The 2025 American Farm Bureau Convention will showcase that spirit across agriculture and the Farm Bureau family as we step up and drive forward together. I look forward to seeing you in January in San Antonio as we gather together to kick off another year of feeding, clothing and fueling our great nation.”
Duvall will give his annual address to Farm Bureau members during the convention’s opening general session on Sunday morning, Jan. 26. Eric Boles, a global expert in talent development, change management and cultural transformation, will address attendees as closing general session keynote speaker on Monday, Jan. 27. Boles is founder and CEO of The Game Changers Inc., a leadership training and development company headquartered in Lakewood, Washington. He learned principles of peak performance, team dynamics and leadership from his experience as a wide receiver with the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers and New York Jets.
A full lineup of engaging workshops will be available at convention. Workshops will be offered in four tracks – public policy, rural development, member engagement and consumer engagement. Topics will include the farm bill, hot topics in public policy, the 2024 election, farmer mental health, farm transition planning and engaging the next generation of agriculturists.
A vibrant trade show with exhibitors showcasing cutting edge innovations in agricultural technology, tools and services is also sure to capture the attention of attendees.
In addition, numerous optional farm- and ag-related day tours are available for attendees who wish to explore the Lone Star State. These include working farms and ranches, a beef cattle feedyard, a greenhouse, a turfgrass operation, vineyards, a cotton gin and the historic town of Luckenbach. Attendees can also sign up to explore a buggy barn, the Chisholm Trail Museum, the National Museum of the Pacific War and more. Details about additional tours will be posted when available.
View the high-level American Farm Bureau Convention agenda here. Members may register for the convention and tours through their state Farm Bureau office. Registration is also available through AFBF. The official event hashtag is #AFBF25 and the event website is https://annualconvention.fb.org/.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/01202458/australia-in-indy-wrap.mp3"]Matthew Worrell, Minister Council for Agriculture based at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (right) speaks with Kent Chism (left) about his farm in Howard County. Photo credit: Eric Pfeiffer/ Hoosier Ag TodayAs we reported previously, over 20 foreign diplomats made their way to Chism Farms just outside of Kokomo, Indiana last week as part of their tour of Indiana. Matthew Worrell, Minister Council for Agriculture based at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., spoke with me about the opportunity to tour the farm.
“I’m from Australia, and obviously agriculture, farming is an important part of our economy. Most of our agriculture is owned and operated by family farms, which I understand is the case here in the U.S. So, it’s always interesting to get a better feel for another country’s ag sector, and how that compares to some of the issues that are facing Australian farmers, which are a lot in common.”
Worrell says there are more commonalities than differences between Australian and U.S. agriculture, and that’s probably why we’ve had such a strong ag relationship over the years.
“It’s true to say that U.S. and Australia, we view farming as a commercial enterprise. You know, very much keen for sustainable productivity growth and the profitability of the sector. So, it’s a commercial business. And I think that’s something that we have in common. At a national government level, we work really well together because of that in some of the key global decision-making forums that sort of set the international trade standards that impact on agriculture.”
While we don’t think of Australia as one of our strongest trading partners, Worrell says the partnership is there and it’s a valued one.
“Our geographical separation poses a bit of a challenge, but at the same time, the U.S. is a major supplier of farming inputs, and also one of the major, if not the largest, investor in Australian ag land as well. So, there’s quite strong connection commercially there, as well as at a government level.”
In addition to touring the farm, the group of ag attachés also joined the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture meeting being held in Indianapolis and toured ag facilities at Purdue University. They also got to spend an evening with National FFA officers near the FFA headquarters in Indy.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/10/01202216/suderman-port-strike-wrap.mp3"]Port workers walked off the job Tuesday from Maine to Texas after the International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance could not come to terms on a new agreement.
“45,000 port workers walked off of the job demanding a 77% pay raise over the next six years, as well as a halt to the automation process, which would eliminate some jobs,” says Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist at StoneX.
The strike will now back up the movement of consumer goods and containerized commodities. What will be the impact to agriculture?
“Most corn, soybeans and wheat, the major commodities, are shipped in bulk and are not impacted. This is primarily container shipments. There are some grain and oil seeds that are specialized, either identity preserved with certain traits or whatever that will be impacted significantly. If you like your morning coffee, a lot of our coffee shipments come in through these ports.”
Suderman says the bigger impact will be to the larger U.S. economy. Even a short strike is expected to have a big impact, costing as much as $5 billion per day.
President Biden can call for a 60-day cooling off period, but as Suderman noted in his daily email commentary days ago, he risks angering the union vote ahead of the election if he does so.
Biden released a statement confirming his support of the union Tuesday saying, “Collective bargaining is the best way for workers to get the pay and benefits they deserve. I have urged USMX, which represents a group of foreign-owned carriers, to come to the table and present a fair offer to the workers of the International Longshoremen’s Association that ensures they are paid appropriately in line with their invaluable contributions. Ocean carriers have made record profits since the pandemic and in some cases profits grew in excess of 800 percent compared to their profits prior to the pandemic. Executive compensation has grown in line with those profits and profits have been returned to shareholders at record rates. It’s only fair that workers, who put themselves at risk during the pandemic to keep ports open, see a meaningful increase in their wages as well.
As our nation climbs out of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, dockworkers will play an essential role in getting communities the resources they need. Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits. My Administration will be monitoring for any price gouging activity that benefits foreign ocean carriers, including those on the USMX board.
It is time for USMX to negotiate a fair contract with the longshoremen that reflects the substantial contribution they’ve been making to our economic comeback.”
Declining income expectations helped to push farmer sentiment down again in September as the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer Index fell 12 points to 88. Both of the barometer’s sub-indices, the Index of Current Conditions and the Index of Future Expectations, declined as well. The Current Conditions Index fell 7 points to 76, and the Future Expectations Index dropped 14 points to 94. These were the weakest barometer and future expectations readings since March 2016, when the farm economy was in the throes of an economic downturn.
The current conditions assessment very nearly matched that of April 2020, when COVID concerns were top of mind for U.S. farmers. Weak output prices combined with high input costs were key problems cited by survey respondents in September. The September survey took place from September 9-13, 2024.
Figure 1. Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, October 2015-September 2024.Figure 2. Indices of Current Conditions and Future Expectations, October 2015-September 2024.Farmers are concerned about commodity prices, input costs, the future of agricultural trade and how the upcoming election could affect their farm operations. When asked specifically about their biggest concerns for the upcoming year, low commodity prices and high input costs were locked in a virtual dead heat in September as the top 2 concerns for the upcoming year. Thirty-four percent of farmers in the survey chose input prices as a top concern, while 33% chose lower output prices as their biggest concern. Trailing output and input prices as a key concern among producers was interest rates, selected by 17% of respondents. Producers’ concerns about commodity prices was backed up by their lack of confidence in the future of U.S. agricultural exports. This month, just 26% of respondents reported that they expect U.S. agricultural exports to rise over the next five years. Dating back to 2019, when this question was first posed, this was the least optimistic perspective offered by farmers regarding agricultural exports in a barometer survey. In a related question, 78% of producers in this month’s survey also said they are concerned that following the fall 2024 elections, there will be government policy changes that affect their farms.
Figure 3. Biggest Concerns for Your Farming Operation, June 2023-September 2024.The Farm Financial Performance Index declined for the third month in a row, dipping to 68 in September, down from 72 in August. Farmers’s financial expectations are markedly weaker than a year ago at this time as the index in September 2023 stood at 86, 18 points higher than this month. Although this month’s Farm Capital Investment Index rose 4 points compared to August, the index at 35 remains in very weak territory as a large majority of producers continue to view this as a poor time to make sizable investments.
Figure 4. Farm Financial Performance Index, January 2021-September 2024.Figure 5. Farm Capital Investment Index, October 2015-September 2024.The Short-Term Farmland Value Index declined 10 points to a reading of 95. The fact that the index dipped below 100 signifies that for the first time since 2020, more farmers said they expect farmland values to weaken in the year ahead than expect values to rise. This month’s shift from a positive to a weaker outlook was attributable to a sharp drop in the percentage of producers who expect values to rise and a concomitant increase among those who expect values to simply hold steady. Unlike the short-term index, the Long-Term Farmland Values Index remained positive in September, rising to 147, 5 points higher than in August.
Figure 6. Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index, January 2018-September 2024.The September survey marked the fourth year in a row that the barometer survey has included several questions focused on cover crop usage among corn and soybean producers. Consistent with prior year’s surveys, over half of respondents reported that they currently plant cover crops on part of their farm, and one in five respondents said they had planted cover crops in the past. Among farmers who reported that they currently plant cover crops, the proportion of their farm’s acreage devoted to cover crops has been rising. In 2021, 41% of cover crop users said they planted cover crops on more than 25% of their crop acreage. By 2023, that percentage had increased to 50%, and in this year’s survey, 68% of cover crop users reported planting cover crops on more than one-fourth of their farms’ acreage.
Figure 7. Proportion of Your Farm Planted to Cover Crops, September 2021-September 2024.Wrapping Up
Concerns about low commodity prices coupled with high input costs leading to poor financial performance expectations weakened farmer sentiment for the second month in a row. This month’s sentiment decline pushed the Ag Economy Barometer index below 100, indicating farmer sentiment is lower than during the barometer’s base period of late 2015-early 2016 when farm incomes were very weak. Producers expect markedly worse financial performance for their farms in the upcoming year compared to their expectations at this time last year. Weak farm income expectations combined with lingering interest rate concerns and a pessimistic agricultural export outlook helped push the Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index below 100 for the first time since 2020.
CLICK BELOW to watch the Purdue AgCast with Dr. Jim Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier as they discuss the results of the latest survey from the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture:
Source: Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.Even though several days of wind and rain brought a delay to Indiana’s harvest progress last weekend, the state is still well ahead of its five-year average pace.
20 percent of Indiana’s corn for grain and 23 percent of the state’s soybeans have been harvested according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report. 87 percent of Indiana’s corn has been harvested for sileage.
This week’s harvest percentages represent a jump from 12 percent for corn and 16 percent for soybeans. The state’s corn and soybean harvests are well ahead of the five-year average of 13 percent and 14 percent respectfully.
Across the entire U.S., the percentages are slightly ahead of Indiana—with 21 percent of corn and 26 percent of soybeans harvested.
Indiana’s corn is rated at 62 percent good-to-excellent, while the state’s soybeans are 61 percent good-to-excellent.
In addition, 81 percent of corn is mature.
For soybeans, 86 percent are dropping leaves.
Indiana’s pastures are rated at 29 percent good-to-excellent, a gain from 27 percent last week.
Source: USDA
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/30193720/chism-ag-attaches-wrap.mp3"]We’ve talked more and more in recent years about how agriculture is becoming a global enterprise. That was truly on display last week on a North Central Indiana farm.
“We had 22 countries represented here looking at the way we farm, talking to our family, getting to know what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and building a relationship,” says Isabella Chism from Chism Farms in Howard County who hosted agricultural attaches from countries like Australia, Chile, Hungary, Mexico, Spain, the Philippines, South Korea, and others last week.
These ag attachés are based in their respective countries’ embassies in D.C. and are not farmers. They largely focus on trade issues. They were excited to learn about the farm but also about some of the cultural differences.
“Anything from us sharing traditional foods of persimmon pudding and they never had heard of it. Cornbread, they had never heard of it or tasted it before. And it’s corn from our farm, persimmon from a tree in our yard. It’s those type of things. The Cass County Pork Producers provided the pork, it was the best pork chop they’ve ever had they said. Well, when you let the experts cook the meat that they grow, then you end up with a quality product.
“It’s also the opportunity,” Chism continued. “I was just invited to several of the embassies to share what I do, or to learn more about what they do, or to bring the committee, to bring any of our members to their embassies.”
As Chair of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee, Chism encourages opening your farm to groups like this to build relationships. It doesn’t have to be a group of international ag attaches; it can be just a group of folks in your community.
“If we’re transparent, then they will respect us first, and then they begin to trust us as we build them into our conversations and into our farm. And when they understand how we feel and what we do and why we do it, then they begin to accept things. They begin to become our advocates. So, on the Women’s Leadership Committee, we’re building programming for advocacy and leadership for women in Farm Bureau. And then if we do the same thing on our farm for our communities, we end up building stronger communities across our country and a safer food supply.”
The ag attaches were most interested in seeing (and riding in!) the equipment and learning about new technology on the farm. Overall, the visit was a tremendous success, and Chism knows the message of American agriculture got through from this interaction she had.
“One gentleman came up to me with tears welled up in his eyes, shook my hand and held onto it and said, ‘You know, I am learning more and more that farmers are the same everywhere. Their heart is the same. Their heart is for community. Their heart is for growth and for understanding, and that’s what I see in you and your family and throughout agriculture.’ That’s the message. That we’re all people, and we all care about each other, and here on the farm we want to do what’s right, not only for us, but for our community, because without our community we couldn’t survive either. And so now we’re just enlarging our community.”
We’ll have more tomorrow from one of the ag attaches that visited the farm on what they gleaned from their trip to Indiana.
The one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill has expired and with it, key conservation, export, and animal health programs, with more lapses to come if Congress fails to act by year’s end.
Congress has had another year to write a new farm bill—it hasn’t. Nor has it passed another extension.
Ending immediately: new sign-ups for CRP, EQIP projects, Grassland Conservation, MAP and FMD trade promotion, Food for Progress, animal health, bioenergy, specialty crop grants, organic certification, and the beginning farmer programs.
Without a new farm bill or another extension by January 1st, American Farm Bureau Chief Economist Roger Cryan says things could get worse when permanent law kicks in.
“As of January 1st, the federal government has authority to buy milk products at the equivalent of 49 dollars per hundredweight, and they’re authorized to buy honey at $4.75 a pound. And then, over the course of the year, the price supports for some of the traditional price support crops go high, like 15 dollars a bushel for wheat and 7.45 a bushel for corn.”
AFB President Zippy Duvall has warned for months that Congress needed to act.
“The farm bill can’t continue like it has. It has to be modernized. It has to come up and reflect the true reality of what’s happening on the farm, and what it costs us to produce it.”
Duvall says farmers now find themselves “in the lurch.” He urges lawmakers to “put politics aside and pass a new, modernized farm bill.” Cryan says farmers and their bankers are depending on it.
“A good farm bill gives a lot of certainty, and one of the things that makes uncertainty even worse for the farmer is when the banker is uncertain about how next year is going to go, and the year after that, and they’re not willing to lend or they lend too little or not at the best terms.”
Adding to farmers’ problems, losses from Hurricane Helene and a longshoreman’s strike at East Coast ports could threaten farm exports and foreign demand.
The 2024 Hoosier Beef Congress (HBC) will take place December 6-8, 2024 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Entries for HBC will open on October 1, 2024. Entries are due November 1st. Late entries will be accepted until November 30th for an additional fee.
The HBC is one of the of the largest single state junior cattle shows in the U.S. and will showcase around 1200 animals from close to 900 youth exhibitors from across the state. Indianabeef.org contains event information and links for online registration for the Junior Show through the Showman.app website.
The HBC includes many events such as the Junior Show, the HBC Sale, Showmanship Contest, Judging Contest, Team Fitting Contest and more. Individual breed rules, the full schedule of events and more can be found on the website.
The HBC Sale continues to be an opportunity for Indiana Beef Producers to gain access to new buyers and for beef exhibitors from across the state to find next year’s projects. This year, the HBC Sale Show will take place Friday afternoon and will be immediately followed by the HBC live sale on Friday evening.
One of the highlights of the HBC is the expansive Trade Show that takes place as part of the event. A wide variety of businesses participate in the annual trade show to share information about their business and provide shopping opportunities. THE HBC Trade Show becomes a great place to do some early Christmas shopping as well. If you are interested in having a booth space at the tradeshow, reach out to hgee@indianabeef.org.
The Indiana Beef Cattle Association is an affiliate of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and is the state’s member group and issues manager for all segments of the beef cattle industry including cattle breeders, producers, and feeders. It is the grass roots policy development organization for the beef business. For more information, visit indianabeef.org or call 317-293-2333.
Source: Indiana Beef Cattle Association
USDA released its September 1 Grain Stocks Report, which showed old crop corn stocks in all positions totaled 1.76 billion bushels, up 29 percent from September 1, 2023. Of the total stocks, 780 million bushels are stored on farms, 29 percent higher than last year. Off-farm stocks, at 980 million bushels, were up 30 percent from a year ago.
Old crop soybeans stored in all positions on September 1, 2024, totaled 342 million bushels, up 29 percent from September 1, 2023. Soybean stocks on-farm totaled 111 million bushels, 54 percent higher than in 2023. Off-farm stocks are 20 percent above last year.
All wheat stored in all positions on September 1 totaled 1.99 billion bushels, up 12 percent from a year ago. On-farm stocks are 42 percent higher than last year at 664 million bushels. Off-farm stocks, at 1.32 billion bushels, are 13 percent higher than a year earlier.
In Indiana, corn stocks totaled 116 million bushels, 44 percent above a year earlier according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office. About 35 percent of the corn was stored on farms. The fourth quarter disappearance was 223 million bushels, compared with 212 million bushels a year earlier. The carryover stocks were about 10 percent of supply.
Soybean stocks on September 1, 2024, were 26.4 million bushels. That was 56 percent higher than stocks a year earlier. Farm stocks of soybeans were 3.60 million bushels. The fourth quarter indicated disappearance was 47.3 million bushels, compared with 57.9 million bushels the same period a year ago. The carryover stocks were about 8 percent of supply.
Wheat stocks on September 1, 2024, were 32.6 million bushels, 7 percent below a year ago. About 94 percent of wheat stocks were in commercial storage.
Veterinarian shortages are not new. Anyone who ever needed a vet in the middle of the night will tell you that. And any rural vet called in the middle of the night will agree. What is new is the realization that it is about to get worse.
“If our veterinary workforce is not adequately staffed and prepared, in the event of an animal health emergency, there could be catastrophic consequences for the United States and the global food system,” said Dr. Erin Luley, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
According to Jody Kull, professor from Penn State University, about 50% of rural veterinarians currently in practice are within five years of retirement. Only 5% of practicing veterinarians in the United States are food animal veterinarians working on food, fiber or /milk-producing animals.
Nationally, only about 3% to 4% of graduating veterinarians enter livestock practice.
Lenny Farlee, Purdue Extension Forester, gives a presentation about Indiana woodlands. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA).[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/29174219/cj-wrap-hat-ifwoa-indiana-woodland-owners-conference-092724.mp3"]If you’re an Indiana woodland owner, there’s an event that’s coming up in northern Indiana that you’ll want to attend.
“We’d like to invite anyone who owns a woods or is interested in forestry to come join us for this wonderful conference in November,” says Liz Jackson, Executive Director of the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA)—talking about the upcoming Indiana Woodland Owner Conference. The event is set for November 1st and 2nd in Wabash.
“We’ll have opportunities to network with other landowners,” she says. “You can also share solutions, get new ideas, and learn from wildlife and forestry professionals.”
The conference starts on Friday, Nov. 1st with a busy field day.
“On Friday morning, we’re going to have some forestry field tours including a visit to Salamonie River State Forest near Wabash. It’s run by the Indiana DNR and we’re going to look at a recent timber harvest and talk about the impacts and results of that,” says Jackson. “Later Friday afternoon, we’re going to go to a family-owned forest near Silver Lake. We’re going to talk about the family’s efforts to improve their woods for forestry and wildlife.”
Members of the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association meet during the 2023 Indiana Woodland Owner Conference at Dave and Carol Jean Niehaus’ farm in DuBois County on Nov. 3, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Let the Sun Shine In – Indiana Facebook page.Then, on Saturday, Nov. 2nd, the conference continues with an indoor program at the Honeywell Center in Wabash.
“We’ll have natural resource experts talk about things like the safe and effective use of herbicides, a hardwood industry update, programs for wildlife, and the invasive Spotted Lanternfly that has recently come to Indiana.”
Jackson adds that one of the state’s leading foresters, Lenny Farlee with Purdue Extension, is among the many experts who will be at the conference.
“He’s going to be talking about the invasive Tree of Heaven that many properties have. That’s an invasive tree we want to get rid of. It’s also a host for the Spotted Lanternfly, so it’s something we’re looking out for. It’s not the easiest tree to control, so we want to make sure that people understand how to manage it.”
The conference is sponsored by the Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA), Indiana Forestry Educational Foundation, and Indiana Tree Farm Committee with support from Purdue University Forestry & Natural Resources Extension, and Indiana Association of Consulting Foresters. This conference is also funded in part by the Renewable Resources Extension Act (RREA).
CLICK HERE for the complete schedule, as well as registration and hotel information for the upcoming Indiana Woodland Owner Conference in Wabash.
Lenny Farlee, Purdue Extension Forester, gives a presentation about Indiana woodlands. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA).
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/27235622/hatthisweek2.mp3"]Helene is upsetting the apple cart of harvest just a bit this weekend in my Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast.
The post tropical cyclone will spend Saturday and Sunday wobbling between Evansville, IN, Paducah, KY and Cape Girardeau, MO. The storm was very moisture laden. While it is not picking up any more moisture off of the gulf, she will spend the next two-three days raining out all the moisture that was a part of the storm over the eastern corn belt and OH valley, sending bands of clouds and moisture through Indiana. The heavy moisture is done. However, we will be able to pick up anywhere from a few hundredths to another 0.75” of an inch of pesky light shower and drizzle action all the way through Monday. Coverage will be 70% daily, and nearly 100% for the combined 3-day period.
Clouds likely hold into Tuesday before breaking up. Then we should be sunny, dry and pleasant for the rest of the week, the weekend and into next week. This will be where we see the best chance of harvest returning. Drying will be fast. In northern areas of the state where moisture was not over the top from Helene, we should get back to harvest relatively quickly. In southern parts of the state where moisture turns out to be more significant, it will take a lot longer. However we expect evaporation to reach a max of 0.25”-0.33” of moisture per day. We will have to watch Friday closely. A minor disturbance in MI and WI may throw a few more clouds into northern IN, and there is a minor threat of moisture. But, right now we are keeping our forecast dry.
Closer to the 8th, we expect a minor front to sweep through. The bulk of the moisture with the system stays north over MI and into Canada, but the frontal passage may trigger .1”-.5” over 60% of the state.
Extended Period:
Colder air will try to dive in behind that early week system for the state. While not super cold, it will be much closer to normal than where we spent most of September. However, we are also looking at a dry finish to the week and start to the following weekend, meaning we have another opportunity for harvest to pick right back up over most of the state.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Mostly dry and still rather warm for most of weeks three and four. We see slightly better precipitation potential in week four but are not overwhelmed with moisture. Temps are not as warm relative to normal as weeks prior, but still above normal in general right on into late October.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Dr. Bret Marsh, State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH). Marsh was part of a panel discussion on Ag Emergency Preparedness during the recent NASDA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/26171421/cj-wrap-hat-bret-marsh-on-foreign-animal-diseases-092624.mp3"]Keeping African Swine Fever and other diseases out of the U.S. is the goal of our many animal health organizations. That’s why Indiana’s top animal health official is leading the way when it comes to preparing the ag industry for the next emergency.
“We talk about A.D.R.’s—things that ‘Ain’t Doin’ Right’—which is kind of silly, but people remember it,” says Dr. Bret Marsh, State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.
He was part of a panel discussion earlier this week in Indianapolis during the NASDA Annual Meeting—hosted by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture—about biosecurity and best practices when it comes to keeping a foreign animal disease from spreading and having a crippling effect on the livestock sector.
“These viruses know no boundaries and they’ll move across state lines very easily,” says Marsh, “So it’s important we continue that communication—not only among the state veterinarians, but other state partners with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) or Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). We also have partners at the federal level with USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We talked on the panel about making sure you know those individuals and those entities before an emergency event so you’re not introducing yourself once something goes wrong.”
Much like the spread of HPAI in dairy cattle this year, he recommends that producers alert health officials immediately if they find that their poultry or livestock are also A.D.R.—or, “Ain’t Doin’ Right”.
Once it enters a state, like HPAI has in California most recently, the disease in found in two or three animals. The next thing you know, it’s six, ten, etc.,” he says. “It moves within those populations so we’re trying to learn how this virus is moving, and it appears that it’s people and hands and feet and cattle movements, and so we have to be aware that this virus is clearly on the move.”
Marsh credits the teamwork between federal and state animal health officials for keeping foreign animal diseases at bay.
“We’ve been fortunate with a number of measures that have been put in place. I’m proud of what USDA has done with Customs Border Protection. Also, the Department of Homeland Security to keep agricultural products out. These measures have been in place for a very long time and fortunately, a disease like Hoof-and-Mouth has not been diagnosed in the country in nearly a century. These measures have made a difference for us and have contributed to our productivity all through the agricultural sector,” says Marsh.
CLICK HERE for the Disaster Preparedness Overview site from the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.
A panel discussion held during the NASDA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis called, “Preparing Agriculture for our Next Emergency.” From left-to-right, Moderator: Joe Guthrie, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services; Dr. Bret Marsh, State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH); and Drew Daily, Deputy Fire Management Chief with the Oklahoma Forestry Service. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
A coalition of 55 agriculture groups—including the Agribusiness Council of Indiana and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives—have sent President Biden a letter urging his administration to step in to avert a potential strike that could occur at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports beginning on Tuesday October 1.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) says it will begin its strike if a new labor contract isn’t agreed upon with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) by Monday, Sept. 30. The main areas of dispute in the negotiations relate to wages, the use of automation, health care, and container royalties.
A strike by the ILA, which represents as many as 85,000 longshoremen who work on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes, and major U.S. rivers, could have a significant impact on the flow of ag exports set to leave the U.S. for foreign destinations—especially during the U.S. harvest season.
“Approximately 40% of U.S. containerized agricultural exports move through East and Gulf Coast ports, and we believe the time has come for the U.S. government to intervene and ensure port operations do not stop,” the groups said in its letter, which was also addressed to Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of the Department of Transportation; Julie Su, Acting Secretary of the Department of Labor; Gina Raimondo, Secretary of the Department of Commerce; and Tom Vilsack, USDA Secretary.
$1.4 billion in weekly ag trade could be at risk during the strike, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance employer group appear to be deadlocked on pay as the current contract expires at midnight on Monday, Sept. 30.
The Biden administration says it doesn’t intend to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act to prevent a strike.
To provide some perspective on the impact the strike could have on ag exports, the Mississippi Gulf Region near New Orleans is the number one export region for soybeans, exporting 27 million metric tons from the region in 2023.
In addition to having a negative impact on exports of soybeans, soybean meal, and other ag products that are exported via container, an ILA strike also would have a significant impact on chilled or frozen meat, eggs, etc. that are exported from the U.S.
A walkout would be the first East Coast dock strike since 1977.
CLICK HERE to read the full letter.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/26214559/hat-harvest-wx-092624-wrap.mp3"]Hurricane Helene will hinder harvest progress this weekend. Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin explains in his Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast that the remains from Helene will reach us and keep combines out of fields.
“So, the initial surge of rain that we see on Friday could be strong, upwards of two inches in central and southern parts of Indiana, but the lingering moisture through Saturday, Sunday, and even into early Monday, that’s what’s really going to be a royal pain here with regard to harvest. We’re not going to dry at all over the course of the weekend or early next week.”
The good news is that after this Helene mess clears out on Monday, Martin is calling for dry conditions Tuesday through Sunday, the 6th.
“No rain at all here. Temperatures are going to be warm. It probably will be a little humid at times, especially in the wake of Helene right away. We’re going to try and evaporate a lot of that moisture out very, very quickly, but I do think we have a nice, dry window. Question is, how soon can we get into the fields, especially in areas that saw the heavier rain, central and southern Indiana? It’ll be a bit. In Northern Indiana, where the amounts were a little bit smaller, I think it’s going to be sooner because evaporation should be at nearly a maximum every day.”
Martin thinks the dry conditions could extend into the week of the 7th as well.
“I’m seeing the next weather system trying to come together in the Northern Rockies, but it doesn’t have necessarily a good moisture source to draw on right away,” Martin says. “Tropical moisture coming through the Western Gulf means that front can probably bring us some moisture as we get toward the middle of the week of the 7th. So, maybe Wednesday, the 9th, Thursday, the 10th, may have to be our next round of moisture to watch for.”
Find more Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Forecast Details later Friday at hoosieragtoday.com.
According to the latest report from USDA, 12 percent of Indiana’s corn and 16 percent of the state’s soybeans are already harvested.
Kyle Colbert, Field Sales Representative for Channel Seed, says that those harvest percentages match up with the farmers in his territory across East-Central Indiana. However, he says that harvest progress has lagged a little further behind near his home in the central part of the state.
“In Tipton County, the majority of guys have not hit the fields yet,” according to Colbert. “Now, if you do go in my territory around the New Castle-area, those percentages would be quite a bit more accurate. But as far as my specific county goes, 10 percent would be pushing it. You’ll see harvest percentages [closer to those from USDA] as you go a little bit more south and to the east.”
Colbert also shares how corn and soybean yields have looked across East-Central Indiana. Click BELOW to hear more as part of the Channel Seed Harvest Update.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/26001433/cj-wrap-hat-channel-seed-update-092524.mp3"]CLICK HERE for more information about Channel Seed.
A potential strike at three dozen U.S. ports could upend supply chains and raise prices weeks before election day.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) says it will have 85,000 members walk off the job if the union doesn’t come to a new agreement with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents carriers and marine terminal operators along the East and Gulf Coasts, before their contract ends on Monday, Sept. 30.
A coalition of 177 trade groups says those ports handle 41 percent of the country’s containerized port volume, and their closure would have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy.
Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist at StoneX, says in his daily email commentary, “This is something that the Biden Administration did not want to see happen just ahead of the U.S. presidential election. President Biden can call for a 60-day cooling off period, but he risks angering the union vote ahead of the election if he does so. However, not intervening could hit the economy hard right ahead of the election. In the end, the assumption is that he will call for a cooling off period soon after the strike starts.”
The contract covers all ports between Maine and Texas, including New York, Savannah, Houston, Miami, and New Orleans.
While bulk grain exports would largely be unaffected, the strike would impact containerized agricultural exports like soybeans, soybean meal, and other agricultural products exported via containers would be affected, forcing farmers to move shipments to new ports.
Source: NAFB News Service
Legislation was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate Tuesday that would extend a new sustainable aviation tax credit for biofuels for ten years and prevent foreign producers from accessing the credits.
The Senate bill was introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and the House bill was introduced by Reps. Tracey Mann (R-Kansas) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).
The National Corn Growers Association praised the development.
“Corn growers are making every effort to help the airline industry lower its greenhouse gas emissions through the use of corn ethanol,” said Minnesota farmer and NCGA president Harold Wolle. “We are deeply appreciative of these leaders for introducing legislation that establishes requirements for the tax credit that will level the playing field for America’s corn growers.”
The tax credit, referred to as 45Z, is part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in 2022. The law provides tax incentives to refineries that produce biofuels that can be used in commercial aircraft and is part of the Biden administration’s ambitious effort to address climate change.
The administration is still hashing out specifics about the credit, including who receives it. Many U.S. biofuel producers are concerned about foreign shipments of biofuels, which in some cases lack proper carbon accounting.
Growers have also voiced concerns about the requirements for acquiring the tax credits.
In May, the U.S. Department of Treasury released its guidance on eligibility for the credits, which has been met with continued concern by growers troubled that they would be required to implement environmental practices that are impractical in certain climates.
Corn grower leaders continue to work with Congress and administration officials to hammer out practical approaches that will help growers access the tax credits.
Source: National Corn Growers Association
USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service says Mexico will import less corn as its domestic production increases in the 2024-2025 marketing year.
A report from the FAS Mexico City Office says corn exports to Mexico will fall two percent to 23 million metric tons. Production is forecast to jump six percent to 25 million metric tons during the 2024-2025 marketing year.
“The forecast is based on higher-than-average precipitation and gradual recovery of their reservoirs during the summer of 2024 following severe and exceptional drought conditions in the previous market year,” the department said.
Mexico bought $5.39 billion worth of U.S. corn in 2023, making it by far the largest importer. Japan was second at $2.07 billion, and China was third at $1.63 billion.
Harvested area in the current marketing year is expected to rise five percent to 15.8 million acres.
From January 1 through August 11, precipitation was three percent higher than the 30-year average.
Former President Donald Trump during a roundtable with farmers held in Smithton, Pennsylvania on Monday. Trump says he will impose a 200-percent tariff on John Deere’s imports if the company follows through with its plans to move some of its production to Mexico. Photo courtesy of C-SPAN.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/25002036/eric-wrap-hat-trump-vows-john-deere-tariffs-092524.mp3"]Former President Donald Trump says that if he is reelected, he will impose a 200-percent tariff on John Deere’s imports if the company follows through with its plan to move some of its production to Mexico.
“I know a lot about John Deere—I love the company. As you know, they’ve announced a few days ago that they are going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico,” Trump said at a roundtable Monday with farmers held in Smithton, Pennsylvania.
“I am just notifying John Deere right now that if you do that, we are putting a 200-percent tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States,” said Trump.
John Deere says it is laying off more than 600 employees at three production plants in Illinois and Iowa, as well as an unannounced number of salaried employees at its corporate level. The company also said it plans to move the manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from its Dubuque, Iowa facility to Mexico by the end of 2026.
In spite of the layoffs, John Deere generated nearly $10.2 billion in profits in 2023, while the company’s CEO, John May, received $26.7 million in total compensation in 2023 according to the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). May’s compensation in 2022 was listed at $20.3 million.
CLICK BELOW to watch Trump’s comments about John Deere beginning at the 59:11 mark:
Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), welcoming guests to the NASDA Annual Meeting at the Westin in downtown Indianapolis. Photo courtesy of NASDA.The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) is hosting its Annual Meeting this week at the Westin in downtown Indianapolis.
The event brings together the commissioners, secretaries, and directors of the departments of agriculture in all fifty states and four U.S. territories to discuss ag policies that impact the U.S. ag industry.
This year’s event is co-hosted by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). The event has also served as a de facto “homecoming” for NASDA CEO Ted McKinney, who is a native of Tipton County, Indiana.
Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller caught up with ISDA Director Don Lamb, who is also a board member of NASDA. Lamb shared some of the ag policy discussions that have taken place among the ag leaders representing the different departments of agriculture across the U.S. during the meeting in Indy.
Lamb also talks about the importance of networking and building professional relationships with his counterparts—not just in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky—but in every state, in order to collaborate and find solutions for the most challenging issues impacting the U.S. ag sector.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s conversation with ISDA Director Don Lamb during the NASDA Annual Meeting held at the Westin in downtown Indianapolis:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/24223434/cj-wrap-hat-long-for-web-don-lamb-nasda-annual-meeting-092424.mp3"]ISDA Director Don Lamb (at right) with Dr. Tim Boring (at left), Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) during the 2024 NASDA Annual Meeting in downtown Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Congressmen Derrick Van Orden (R-WI-03) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA-14) have introduced a bill that would require that milk be provided to military personnel as part of their dining options at military installations.
The Strengthening Our Servicemembers with Milk Act directs the U.S. Secretary of Defense to provide fluid or powdered milk to members of the Armed Forces at dining facilities on military installations.
“The milk produced by our hardworking dairy farmers is a vital source of nutrients, playing a critical role in supporting the health and strength of our servicemembers,” said Van Orden. “By mandating milk on military installations, we are ensuring our men and women in uniform have access to healthy food options while serving our country.”
“Milk plays an important role in America’s success — providing vital nutrients to the American people with the help of our dairy farmers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and across our nation,” said Reschenthaler. “I am proud to introduce this legislation with my fellow Navy veteran to ensure our servicemembers have access to a variety of milk options while also supporting our dairy farmers.”
Both Rep. Van Orden and Rep. Reschenthaler are veterans of the U.S. Navy.
To read the full bill text, click here.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/23211933/mckinney-farm-bill-24-wrap.mp3"]Rhetoric about the farm bill getting completed in 2024 has ramped up recently with ag lawmakers feeling the pressure to get something done. But why now?
“I’m pleased that we’re seeing a goal of maybe getting this thing done and getting it done independently,” says Indiana native and former USDA Undersecretary Ted McKinney. “I’m excited about the possibilities. Not the certainty, but the possibilities.”
Now the CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, McKinney is hearing the same buzz in D.C. as many others. He believes it’s for a couple of reasons.
“First, there have been some very good studies, including those from USDA’s own analysis, that suggest the economy on the farm is bad and getting worse, or at least it doesn’t look very good going into next year.”
One of those reports from USDA forecasts a 23% drop in farm income from 2022. Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall put it bluntly to this reporter last week when he asked, “how would you be doing if your paycheck was cut by 23%?” I imagine your response would be similar to mine- “Not great.”
The other reason McKinney believes the pressure is on lawmakers to get a farm bill through in a lame duck session focuses on nutrition, which is around 85% of the farm bill.
“Hunger, in many sectors, continues to rise. It’s surprising because we’re out of COVID. You’d think we’re back to it. I think it has to be this rate of inflation and the stingy rate of food inflation that has stayed there, that combines to say, ‘Whoa, we’ve got to do something.’”
McKinney has more to say about this and other topics like food security, labor, and trade in the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast. Find it now wherever you listen to podcasts or on the HAT mobile app.
Mike Jacob, Founder of TerraForce, which is an agtech company based in Vincennes, Indiana that uses AI and robotics to harvest watermelons and pumpkins. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.You’ve been hearing a lot lately about AI and how the technology can be used to advance the ag industry. But there’s a new ag company that’s based in Vincennes called TerraForce that’s already using AI to harvest watermelons and pumpkins.
“Without AI this wouldn’t really be possible,” says Mike Jacob, Founder of TerraForce, who spoke with Hoosier Ag Today during the recent AgriNovus Indiana QUADRANT event at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis.
Jacob’s company has developed a robotic harvester that uses AI to identify whether watermelons and pumpkins are ripe and ready for harvesting. Then, the AI technology is used to carefully pick the fruits with very little human oversight.
“We’re solving farmers’ most severe problem in melon production and that’s labor,” he says. “Labor is hard to get, plus labor is expensive. It was conversations with growers—before this company even existed—that really brought it into existence and got it off the ground.”
Jacob says the robotic AI harvesters can also be used for more than just harvesting.
“The other cool thing we can do with the machine in its current configuration is we can conceivably plant the live plants at the beginning of the season,” he says. “Right now, that’s pretty labor-intensive because it’s done by hand. But, we can use these same robotic arms with different end effectors to grasp the plants and plants them into the ground.”
Plus, without the embedded costs of having to use large farm labor teams, Jacob says that Terra Force could have a significant impact on the U.S. watermelon and pumpkin industries.
“[Our company and technology] are going to make U.S. fruit more competitive with import fruit,” says Jacob. “If you look at the import trends for melons over the past 10-20 years, all the growth has been captured by imports. Domestic production is flat to slightly down. That’s because we couldn’t compete on price until now.”
Terra Force says they can reduce labor expenses by $690 an acre
He adds that Terra Force is also working on using AI to develop harvesters for other specialty crops—such as tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers.
“Some of the recent developments that have enabled this are that the use of Deployable AI, or Edge AI, that we can have out in the field without an internet connection determining, ‘What is a watermelon? What’s not a watermelon? What’s ripe? What’s not ripe?’ and how the robot should travel to get to the melon and get it back up into the machine.”
To learn more about Indiana-based TerraForce, visit TerraForce.ai.
CLICK BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news report on TerraForce for Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/23224300/cj-wrap-hat-terra-force-092324.mp3"]
A hot, dry stretch of weather has helped push Indiana’s harvest schedule ahead. 12 percent of Indiana’s corn for grain and 16 percent of the state’s soybeans have been harvested according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report. 78 percent of Indiana’s corn has been harvested for sileage.
This week’s harvest percentages represent a jump from five percent for corn and six percent for soybeans. The state’s corn and soybean harvests are well ahead of their respective five-year averages of six percent and five percent.
The national average is 14 percent of U.S. corn and 13 percent of the country’s soybeans are harvested.
Indiana’s corn and soybean crops are both rated at 61 percent good-to-excellent.
In addition, 95 percent of Indiana’s corn is now dented and 67 percent is mature.
For soybeans, 72 percent are dropping leaves.
Indiana’s pastures are rated at 27 percent good-to-excellent, a drop from 31 percent last week.
Source: USDA
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and partners throughout the state have worked with the Gulf Hypoxia Program (GHP) to develop a no-cost program with a focus on increasing the knowledge and use of soil sampling as a nutrient management practice to benefit farm operations. The program, called Indiana’s Mississippi River Basin Soil Sampling Program, is open now through Nov. 1.
ISDA promotes the importance of nutrient management and the principle of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship framework. The 4R framework incorporates using the “Right Source, Right Rate, Right Time, and Right Place” to achieve cropping system goals. The program focuses on soil sampling and testing because it is a key component, and first step, of developing a plan for nutrient management.
Soil sampling provides an assessment of the soil’s fertility which can be used for making fertilizer application recommendations, assessing available nutrients over time, increase farmer profitability and enhance environmental protection by reducing the risk of nutrient loss. This project was developed to help further Indiana’s State Nutrient Reduction Strategy efforts.
This program includes row crop, pasture, hay and specialty crop fields located within Indiana’s portion of the Mississippi River Basin. Eligible landowners will be prioritized by acreage enrolled (i.e., 100 acres or less), fields that have never been soil sampled and fields that haven’t been sampled regularly (i.e., within the last 4 years). Further prioritization may be implemented based on ISDA’s workload capacity. This program excludes hobby gardens and private lawns. Interested farmers can sign-up online at ISDA’s website or by reaching out to soilsampling@isda.in.gov.
“Soil health is incredibly important, and our farmers remain diligent in protecting and enhancing their farms’ soil properties,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “One way to enhance soil health is to identify nutrient levels via soil sampling. Unfortunately, this can be another expense farmers cannot afford, so we are thankful that with the help of our partners, farmers can sign up to have their soil sampled and tested at no cost.”
“Farmers bottom lines are tighter than ever, so this free program will be welcomed again with open arms,” said ISDA Director Don Lamb. “Last year’s free soil sampling program was so successful we had to close program sign-ups sooner than anticipated to ensure we had enough available resources, so we are beyond excited to bring this program back to Hoosier farmers this fall.”
Sign-ups begin Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, and ISDA is accepting registrations until Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. To sign up, or if you have any questions, please contact Ophelia Davis at 317-232-0305 or soilsampling@isda.in.gov.
This program is meant to demonstrate the importance of soil sampling and the valuable information it can provide. This program is not meant to act or replace an operation’s existing soil testing schedule. This program was made possible thanks to ISDA, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Agriculture Nutrient Alliance (IANA), Indiana Conservation Partnership (ICP) members, farmers and crop advisors.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall visits with county Farm Bureau presidents from around Indiana at Beck’s Hybrids. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer/ Hoosier Ag Today[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/22203922/fb-county-pres-wrap.mp3"]As we reported previously, American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall was in Indiana this past week touring ag facilities with Indiana Farm Bureau leadership. He learned about carbon sequestration at Cardinal Ethanol in Union City, visited a veal farm for the very first time in North Manchester, and then finished his day meeting with county Farm Bureau presidents at Beck’s Hybrids in Atlanta.
“As leader of this national organization, the largest general farm organization in the country, I just evaluated what was the most important position in our organization. And I determined, through my experience and all my life in Farm Bureau, that the most important position is County Farm Bureau President.”
And that’s why Duvall has dubbed this year as the year of the Farm Bureau County President for the organization.
“Because he’s the one that can activate his membership. Whether it be on a legislative issue, or whether it be on reacting to a storm going through a county and be there for their neighbor, or whether it be just supporting FFA, 4-H, or maybe a booster club. And that makes the brand of Farm Bureau valuable to everyone that lives in our rural communities.”
Duvall heard from several county presidents who stopped harvest to come meet with him to discuss issues important to them like water quantity issues in Tippecanoe County, farmland preservation, and others. One of the most important questions Duvall received was, “What more can we do?”
“What else can we do in our county to make it even more successful? And that’s exactly the question I wanted. I want them to strive to make their county Farm Bureau the most significant organization in the county, because we have a lot of organizations in our county- from Rotary Club to Booster Club to all kinds of clubs in our county- but we want people to look at Farm Bureau as being there for the county, the people that live in that county, and we’re here to serve them in whatever way that we can to help our county and our community grow and thrive in the future.”
Duvall says county Farm Bureau presidents are the ones that made Farm Bureau strong and have helped amplify that one united voice for American farmers. For that, he says thank you.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/22201756/sabrina-wrap-hat-value-of-deferred-market-contracts-092024.mp3"]If you’re a corn and soybean producer, you want to get the most for your grain. But, what should you be looking at when it comes to storage plans and the grain markets following harvest?
Tanner Ehmke, lead economist for grains and oilseeds with CoBank, said a bullish marketing opportunity may present itself to producers—if they look at deferred contracts on the futures board.
“Obviously, the weather in the other export hubs like South America and the Black Sea region are key. That’s going to be a huge driver going forward—if those droughts continue into October, November, then the market is absolutely going to be building back in some risk premium into the market, and so that might provide some marketing opportunities,” he said.
Ehmke said those who don’t want to gamble on the weather can look at deferred prices.
“You have to look at this those December contracts or the March contracts. What is the market paying you to store?”
Looking long term into the next five to ten years, Ehmke said supply issues will likely play a larger role in market direction compared to demand issues.
“Just because we’re seeing some slowdown in major economies like China and their demographical issues, the aging population, they’ve got a huge amount of toxic real estate debt,” he said.
He pointed out that China is the world’s second-biggest economy.
“With the second biggest economy having trouble economically, I’m concerned there. I’m wondering what the opportunities are with India. Can we shift focus over to the to India as the next export opportunity? What’s going to happen with Brazil? They still have a fair amount of acreage there they can tap into if they want to.”
However, he pointed out that unexpected weather issues around the world could always change things.
Karen Plaut, Purdue executive vice president for research [right], shakes hands with Robert Reiter, Bayer head of crop science research and development, after signing an agreement Sept. 19, 2024, in St. Louis creating the Coalition for Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture. Photo courtesy of Bayer.Purdue University and Bayer have announced the creation of the Coalition for Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture, a public-private partnership designed to help improve the soil health of farmland while also increasing food production for a growing population.The coalition’s mission is to generate robust, real-world data in support of regenerative agriculture practices to help farmers restore soil health and biomass, increase biodiversity, and improve the resiliency of ecosystems over time. The coalition’s new framework will also support education and outreach programs to enhance sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
The coalition will be administered through Bayer at Convergence, the company’s innovation center at Discovery Park District at Purdue.
“America’s farmers are already global leaders in providing food worldwide, supplying a substantial amount of grain, meat and other agricultural products,” said Karen Plaut, Purdue’s executive vice president for research. “But with population projections of 9 billion people in the coming years, it’s critical to provide the tools necessary to support those farmers who are called upon to produce even more while also serving as stewards of the land. As a land-grant institution, Purdue is proud to partner with Bayer to find innovative solutions to improve agronomic practices.”
The coalition’s goal is to accelerate the adoption of agricultural systems that restore soil, water and wildlife while making farms healthier and more resilient. The partners say there is a growing need for innovative solutions at scale to address environmental concerns and to create positive, measurable impact to incentivize producers.
“I couldn’t be more excited to see us working alongside like-minded partners — such as Purdue University — who are committed to helping scale regenerative ag practices,” said Bob Reiter, head of research and development at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “Through our suite of technologies, we are able to leverage these innovations and help facilitate regenerative ag practice adoption that boosts farmer productivity and creates maximum impact for the environment.”
The coalition aims to deliver science-based recommendations and standardized metrics, tailored by crop type, region and climate, in conjunction with digital tools and robust validation systems.
To achieve this vision, the coalition will focus on several key areas:
- Climate-smart agriculture: Integrate technology to adapt to changing weather patterns, improve water management and optimize resource use.
- Regenerative practices: Develop more robust practices that capture and store carbon in the soil. Promote techniques that improve soil health and biodiversity and enhance long-term productivity.
- Farmer empowerment: Provide farmers with the tools, knowledge and resources they need to adopt sustainable practices and access premium markets for their products.
- Profitability and policy advocacy: Provide additional scientific research that supports or incentivizes sustainable practices for farmers and landowners.
The coalition will leverage previous investments in digital phenotyping capabilities at Purdue Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE) and at the Purdue Agricultural Centers (PACs) and will utilize dynamic and relevant Extension programs, strength in collaborative research across colleges, and support for related projects that are underway. It will build on these existing strengths to create test beds for sustainable and regenerative agriculture technologies that provide demonstrations for a wide variety of agricultural production systems and technologies — regardless of farm scale or end product.
This public-private partnership is expected to evolve and expand to other partners from the agricultural sector, allowing for an even larger network of field sites to test and collect data on this more holistic approach to farming.
The newly signed agreement is the latest in an ever-expanding partnership. Following an announcement in June 2020, Bayer opened an innovation and collaboration space at the Convergence Center. It serves as the physical hub of the new coalition.
“I am thrilled to see Bayer and Purdue taking the ongoing partnership to a new level and enabling the creation of a world-class research hub focused on regenerative agriculture,” said Susana Diaz, innovation manager and head of Bayer’s innovation center at Purdue. “This initiative will help farmers produce more and unlock downstream value, while actively restoring nature.”
The announcement was made in conjunction with Bayer’s Climate Innovation Day, a two-day summit of leaders and stakeholders in agricultural innovation, climate issues and food sustainability initiatives.
Written by: Wes Mills, Senior Strategic Communicator at Purdue University
Indianapolis-based Corteva Agriscience has announced a collaboration with Pairwise, a food and ag technology company based in Durham, North Carolina, to share gene-editing research to improve plant breeding of crops, including corn and soybeans.
Gene editing uses a plant’s own DNA to make precise improvements, providing growers with another critical tool to keep pace with the challenges facing food production.
Anchoring the collaboration is Corteva’s $25 million equity investment in Pairwise, made under the umbrella of Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform focused on accessing agricultural innovation to drive value creation. The investment aims to help expand the reach and benefits of gene editing to a wide variety of staple and specialty crops.
In addition, Corteva and Pairwise have formed a joint venture to accelerate and expand the delivery of advanced gene edited technologies aimed at increasing crop yield for food, fuel and fiber production.
The joint venture, which spans five years, will leverage both companies’ advanced gene editing capabilities to accelerate the delivery of gene edited products by generating and evaluating unique gene edits across multiple traits in a range of crops. Building on Corteva’s longstanding leadership in plant breeding and genetics, the companies will collaborate on the development and deployment of gene edited products that are more resilient to extreme weather events.
“Gene editing is a transformational technology for agriculture that will advance climate resilience in farming and drive the increased farm productivity needed to feed and fuel the world’s growing population,” said Sam Eathington, Corteva’s chief technology and digital officer. “As a gene editing technology leader ourselves, we are proud to work with Pairwise to accelerate the benefits of gene editing not only to farmers, but ultimately to those who rely on the availability of sustainably grown and affordable food – and that’s all of us.”
“Gene editing is poised to revolutionize agriculture, enabling the cultivation of crops that are more adaptive to climate change, are more nutritious and convenient for consumers, and deliver greater economics for growers,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise CEO and co-founder. “Through our Fulcrum Platform, we’re proud to be at the helm of applying this transformative technology in agriculture and, alongside partners like Corteva, accelerate the realization of these benefits across global stakeholders.”
Pairwise is a leader in using gene editing to make differentiated crops. Last year, the company launched the first CRISPR food in North America, and has multiple products in development across significant crops, including corn, soy, wheat, canola, blackberries, and more. The Pairwise Fulcrum Platform includes proprietary gene editing tools that provide the ability to not only turn a characteristic on or off but also, with base editing and related technologies, “tune” it to find it’s sweet spot for highest performance. Pairwise’s novel editing tools allow scientists to precisely tailor a wide range of genetic variation to develop new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than through conventional breeding alone.
This is the first joint venture and major equity investment in gene editing made by Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform. The investment reflects Corteva’s nearly century-long track record (through its Pioneer brand) of championing innovation through partnerships, including with the global scientific community.
CLICK HERE for more information about Pairwise.
Sources: Corteva Agriscience and Pairwise.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/20222639/hatthisweek2.mp3"]Moisture makes an appearance in our Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast for the first time this season. A significant weather system develops through the weekend to our west, and by Sunday morning, we will be seeing rain stretch all the way from western Colorado to western Indiana. Through the day Sunday rain spreads east and north, getting into all of Indiana and spreading into Michigan.
Rain continues off and on over the entire eastern corn belt through Tuesday. Rain totals will end up at 0.5”-2” over 90% of the region. The map below shows our expectations.
There are several periods where we can see thunderstorms. Right now we are not talking up a severe storm threat, but heavier rains can happen in those thunderstorm areas. That will put us in the upper end of the range and even have potential to exceed precipitation target on a hyper-local level.
Behind the system, we will try and go dry for the rest of the week. However, more clouds hold on in the wake of the moisture. We expect a mix of clouds and sun Wednesday through the weekend. Some data points toward low pressure stalling over eastern Ontario and Quebec, and so several rounds of wrap around moisture cycling back through MI and northern IN. However, we are not fully in that camp. While we may see increased clouds in those areas, we are promoting more of a rain free window, especially in Indiana, Wednesday through Sunday.
Near the end of the 10 day forecast window, we are seeing another system developing in the Northern Rockies, moving into the Northern and Central Plains. That likely will try and throw another round of mositure this direction for late the 30th into the 1st, but timing still is subject to change, as track gets solidified. That system likely does draw down some cooler air behind it.
Extended Period:
The rest of the extended period is dry through the end of the first week of October. Our next significant frontal boundary brings rain showers for the overnight of the 4th into the 5th. Rain totals can be 0.25”-0.75” with 80% coverage. We swing back dry for the end of the 16 day period overnight the 5th into the 6th and follow that pattern into the week of the 7th.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Temperatures stay very elevated through weeks 3 and 4, with well above normal day time highs and nighttime lows. Precipitation should remain below normal for week three, but for the middle of October in week 4, we may sneak back closer to normal. However, there is no overabundance of rain in the pattern at least into the 3rd week of October.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
A pink mold on the ear is a sign of the fungus that causes Gibberella ear rot. Photo courtesy of Purdue Extension.It is now time to evaluate fields for any stalk or ear rot symptoms. This will aid in making assessments about field harvest order and if there is a risk of mycotoxin contamination.
There are many factors that can contribute to stalk decline. There are both plant pathogenic causes and abiotic stress factors that can play a role in reduced stalk integrity, such as drought and flooding. Either way, as stalk tissue becomes compromised below the main ear, the stalk may become brittle or weak and be prone to lodging.
As the corn plant loses photosynthetic leaf area due to different stresses such as foliar disease and hot and dry conditions, the amount of carbohydrates available for dry matter deposition into the kernels is also decreased. Therefore, plants respond by remobilizing non-structural carbohydrates from the lower portion of the stalk to supply the demand required by the developing kernels on the ear.
This response causes stalk strength and integrity to decrease, and increases a corn plant’s risk of lodging and infection from pathogens that cause stalk rot. Fields with large ear sizes and strong kernel set, which have a high kernel fill demand, may also be at the greatest risk.
Examples of ear and stalk rot in corn. Photos courtesy of Purdue Extension.Stalk rots
There are a number of plant pathogens that can cause stalk rot including, Anthracnose, Bacteria, Charcoal, Diplodia, Fusarium, Gibberella, and Pythium. Some of these stalk rots have very characteristic symptoms that can help identify the specific problem, while others may require laboratory diagnosis (Table 1).
The Purdue Extension Publication Corn Diseases: Stalk Rot has good images to help identify the major stalk rot diseases we see in Indiana (https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-89-W.pdf ).
It is time to check stalk integrity – check field by using the Push or Pinch Test by evaluating 20 plants in at least five random areas in a field.
- Pinch Test – grab the stalk somewhere between the lowest two internodes and pinch between your fingers to see if the stalk is strong enough to handle the force – if the stalk collapses, it fails.
- Push Test – push the stalk to a 30-degree angle – if it pops back up when released, it passes the test, if not it fails.
Threshold: 10% or more of the stalks fail then consider field for early harvesting to avoid risk for lodging.
What can you do in the future – management options will depend on the specific disease (see table 1). Production practices that promote good plant health including balanced fertilization, appropriate plant populations, and good water management can reduce stresses that might predispose corn to stalk rot. In addition, these key management tools can help mitigate future stalk rot issues.
- Properly diagnosis the stalk rot pathogen. (Samples can be submitted to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab)
- Select hybrids with resistance if available.
- Crop Rotation – rotating to non-host crop will help reduce stalk rot potential in a field. Note that Charcoal rot and Gibberella stalk rot can infect other rotational crops in Indiana
- Tillage – burying infected crop residue will encourage more rapid desiccation and help reduces risk of overwintering in crop residue.
- Good soil drainage and reduced compaction.
- Foliar Fungicides – applying foliar fungicides can help protect crop from foliar diseases that could predispose plant to stalk rot when present, but devoid of foliar disease pressure fungicides applications have not consistently been found to help reduce stalk rot.
Written by: Dr. Darcy Telenko and Dr. Dan Quinn, Purdue University.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/19213027/hat-harvest-wx-091924-wrap.mp3"]Indiana is staying mostly dry to start the weekend, but that could change the deeper into it we get. That’s the word from Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin in our Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast.
Martin says there’s a frontal boundary trying to push through into the Great Lakes region today but it’s looking to stay north or east of us here in Indiana.
“I think we’re dry through Saturday, with temperatures still above normal for this time of year. Right away on Sunday, though, clouds will start to increase because we’re finally going to bring an end to this dry pattern that we seem to have been in for quite a while.”
And that’s good news for many. Martin’s watching a massive weather system to our west building in the Great Plains.
“That’s going to start to push moisture into Indiana, the western part, right away Sunday morning and then spread across the rest of the state through Sunday midday and afternoon. It’s likely going to focus more on the north than the south, but I’m not going to rule it out anywhere. Rain continues Monday before the final frontal boundary comes through Monday night into early Tuesday. Right now, I’m looking at combined rain totals for this system anywhere from a half to two inches in spots with coverage at 100% of the Hoosier State. The heavier rains are more likely in the north than the south.”
After the front comes through Monday night, Martin says we’re going to dry down rapidly with sunshine coming back quickly on Tuesday and low humidity values next week.
“Even if you get the upper end of the rain range on the soil conditions that we have right now, it’s going to soak in very, very quickly. So, I think we get back to harvest quickly, and we have a several wide-open days for harvest. Maybe the best thing about this rain is, it might allow crops to pick up a little moisture. We’re harvesting at a very, very, very low moisture rate, especially on soybeans, right now. These rains may help with that.”
More details from the Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast will be available later Friday at HoosierAgToday.com or the HAT mobile app.
Purdue University is among the members of the AI Institute for Climate-Land Interactions, Mitigation, Adaptation, Tradeoffs and Economy (AI-CLIMATE) that is using AI to help absorb and store carbon in the agriculture and forestry industries. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/19220817/cj-wrap-hat-using-ai-to-help-the-ag-industry-091924.mp3"]You’ve been hearing a lot lately about Artificial Intelligence—or AI—but many within the ag industry are looking at how to use it to improve and expand production—and save farmers and ag companies millions, if not billions of dollars.
“How we choose and select hybrids is definitely part of that, as well deciding if, where, and when to make a herbicide or insecticide application,” says Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation with Beck’s Hybrids, talking about just a few ways that AI solves farmers’ most critical challenges.
On Wednesday, Fruth was part of a panel discussion hosted by AgriNovus Indiana during their QUADRANT event at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis. The topic of the discussion was the integration of AI with the agbioscience sector.
“The use of artificial intelligence in agriculture is really going to be motivated by driving net farm income and productivity at the farm gate,” says Fruth. “While tools like Chat GPT are fun to play with, what’s really going to impact the farm gate are these tools that are going to be embedded into the hardware and the applications that farmers use every single day.”
As the world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, and more farmland acres are taken out of production to be converted into new homes or businesses, farmers are being tasked with producing more with fewer resources and acreage. That’s why Fruth believes that artificial intelligence will likely be a huge part of the innovation that’s being created for the ag industry. That also means that more students and researchers will be encouraged to use AI to help solve many of the problems that exist for today’s farmers.
“The talent pool is very rich here in Indiana,” he says. “While we’re really good at teaching agronomy and how to breed plants, these AI skills are now going to be embedded and there’s going to be a whole new generation of students who are going to come back into agribusiness who are going to further enhance the industry. There are a lot of great resources for students who are motivated and want to work hard, and there are tons of opportunities for them to work all across the ag value chain.”
One such example of AI being introduced into the ag industry is from Terra Force, which is a new agtech company based in Vincennes, Indiana. The company has developed a robotic harvester which uses AI to determine the locations of watermelons and pumpkins in a field, pick them up, and harvests them. Mike Jacob, the Founder and CEO of Terra Force, says AI was used as part of the technology in order to solve the labor challenges facing watermelon and pumpkin producers.
However, Fruth warns farmers of companies that may be trying to sell the idea of AI simply because it’s the latest and flashiest new “buzz word” without much overall benefit for your farm operation.
“Anybody that’s trying to sell you just raw AI is normally trying to sell you ‘Smoke Juice’ or ‘Bugs in a Jug,” says Fruth.
Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation with Beck’s Hybrids, chats with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller about the integration of AI into the agbioscience sector during the AgriNovus Indiana QUADRANT event in Indianapolis on Sept. 18. Photo: Molly Nichols / Hoosier Ag Today.
Graphic courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor.So far, it has been a very hot and dry fall, as six percent of Indiana is now under a “severe drought” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The entirety of the state is categorized as “abnormally dry”—while 73 percent is shown to be under a “moderate drought.”
Drought conditions are far worse in Ohio, as southern and southeastern portions of the state are facing an “extreme drought” or “exceptional drought.” The U.S. Drought Monitor says 30 percent of the Buckeye State is under an extreme drought, while 9.5 percent is experiencing an exceptional drought.
Hoosier Ag Today’s Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says it will remain dry through Saturday with temperatures still above normal. However, he says that we could see our first batch of precipitation in quite some time starting on Sunday.
“Right away on Sunday, clouds will start to increase because we’re finally going to bring an end to this dry pattern that we seem to have been in for quite a while and that’s good news,” says Martin, who says that combined rain totals Sunday and Monday range from a one-half to two inches in spots with coverage at 100 percent of the Hoosier State, with heavier rains more likely in the north than the southern part of Indiana.
In addition to the drought conditions across Indiana, Ohio, and the Midwest, low-water concerns extend into the lower Mississippi Valley, largely due to the lack of runoff in recent weeks from the Ohio Valley.
Photo courtesy of the Coffee Creek Farmers Market Facebook page.Indiana Grown and the Indiana Farmers Market Community of Practice (INFMP) announced the winner of Indiana’s Ultimate Farmers Market Challenge as Chesterton’s Coffee Creek Farmers Market in Porter County.
This was the second year for this contest and was a chance for customers across the state to vote for their favorite hometown farmers market to encourage local engagement and statewide recognition.
Coffee Creek Farmers Market is a weekday farmers market (Wednesdays from 3 to 7 p.m.). Its mission is to promote and develop a local sustainable food system.
“What’s great about this challenge is that the farmers markets are nominated and then voted on by their community, and its wonderful to see so much community engagement,” said Christina Ferroli, INFMP Program Coordinator. “We cannot thank community supporters enough for their votes and for supporting the farmers and food grown in their local communities.”
Indiana Grown Director Caroline Patrick is excited for the Chesterton community.
“Coffee Creek is a wonderful farmers market and this recognition is well deserved,” said Patrick. “Farmers markets are an integral part of Indiana communities’ economies. We were thrilled to have so many great nominations for farmers markets and it is great to see consumers supporting them.”
Coffee Creek Farmers Markets are Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m. Market season runs to Oct. 30, 2024. The market is located at 2300 Village Point Chesterton, IN 46304.
To learn more, visit CoffeeCreekFarmersMarket.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/18190036/duvall-farm-bill-wrap.mp3"]The number of legislative working days for this Congress is dwindling, but there’s at least one man who isn’t giving up hope on getting a farm bill across the finish line this year.
“We need to put that pressure on,” says American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. “We need to tell them we need a farm bill now. It needs to happen in ’24, not ’25.”
Duvall was in Northern Indiana Tuesday touring ag facilities with Indiana Farm Bureau leadership. He says the grassroots efforts of Farm Bureau members have made a difference in D.C. and the pressure to get a farm bill done is mounting.
“I’ve had the opportunity to visit with the Chair of the Senate Ag Committee, Ms. Stabenow, and told her that we needed a farm bill today, and we need it now. It needs to happen this year. And I could tell that she’s feeling the pressure. So, if you’re out there and you’ve been helping us, don’t let up now. We need to continue to do that.”
Duvall says that in the last 10 days, the four corners of agriculture, meaning the chairs of the House and Senate Ag committees and the ranking members, have been communicating about a way forward for the farm bill in this upcoming lame duck session.
“That is new news, and I’m encouraged. So, continue to put the pressure on. Don’t let them back off, let them continue to work and try to get some legislative text out of the Senate, which we haven’t gotten yet, and be able to have something to go to conference with.”
Duvall mentions the Senate there but encourages you to not let the House off the hook either. They’ve put their version of the farm bill through committee but not the full House. He’s asking everyone to contact their members of Congress to put the pressure on and get this farm bill done.
“Every American benefits from a good, sound farm bill. Whether it be to help get a farmer through to the next year or whether it be through the nutrition program, which is 85% of the expenditures in the farm bill goes to nutrition programs that feed children and families that are in need. And what American would be against that?”
We’ll have more in the coming days from Duvall’s trip to Indiana.
The signed agreement to expand USDA’s CREP program into all of Indiana’s 92 counties. From left to right: Don Lamb, ISDA Director; Julie Harrold, Program Manager for Indiana CREP with ISDA; the Zolman Family of Kosciusko County; Zach Ducheneaux, USDA FSA Administrator; Julia Wickard, Indiana Executive Director of USDA FSA; and Jared Thomas, USDA Conservation and Compliance Program Chief. Photo courtesy of Julia Wickard.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/19023658/cj-wrap-hat-julia-wickard-on-indiana-crep-expansion-091824.mp3"]USDA is expanding a national conservation program so that Indiana farmers across all 92 counties can participate.
“First of all, in Indiana we do conservation right,” says Julia Wickard, Indiana’s Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA).
Both USDA and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) are teaming up to promote enrollment into the Indiana Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program—or CREP—to producers throughout the entire state.
To celebrate the expansion of CREP in Indiana, a ceremonial signing of the expansion was held at Zolman Farms near Pierceton in Kosciusko County on Wednesday afternoon with Wickard, along with Zach Ducheneaux, USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator, and Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
“Back in 2010, we had a revision of our CREP agreement. At that time, we went to 65 counties [in Indiana] and we always thought that wasn’t enough and that we needed to get to all counties in Indiana,” she says. “We’re excited that we’re able to do that, and we’re going to be authorized to enroll in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program beginning Oct. 1.”
In exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and setting up a permanent resource conserving plant species, producers who voluntarily sign up are paid an annual rental rate along with other federal and non-federal incentives as part of their CREP agreement.
“It’s a true economic driver, when we think about wildlife habitat, when we think about water quality improvements, when we talk about leveraging state and federal and local resources together to ultimately move the needle to accomplish those things, we do it right in our state,” says Wickard.
“Water quality, soil health, species diversity—all of those things are going to help us in the long run continue to be able to fully produce on the lands that should be in production, while giving producers an alternative for some of the land that they may have been struggling to produce on,” says Zach Ducheneaux, USDA FSA Administrator.
Currently, CREP has 40 projects in 26 states. In total, more than 678,000 acres are enrolled in CREP.
The Indiana CREP, currently encompassing more than 22,400 acres, is part of USDA’s broader effort to leverage CREP as an important tool to expand conservation efforts throughout the state.
How can Indiana farmers learn more about the program through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency?
“I would encourage producers who are interested in the program to visit their county’s FSA office, and we will be glad to work alongside them to get conservation on their land and on their farm,” she says.
You may also e-mail Nathalie Nemitz, Central Regional Specialist, for more information about partnering with USDA for CREP at nathalie.nemitz@usda.gov.
CLICK HERE for more information about the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program through the USDA Farm Service Agency.
Zach Ducheneaux, USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator; and Julia Wickard, Indiana Executive Director of USDA Farm Service Agency, at Zolman Farms near Pierceton, for the signing of the USDA CREP expansion, which will become available in all of Indiana’s 92 counties beginning Oct. 1. Photo courtesy of Julia Wickard.
Efforts to keep AM radio in the dashboards of U.S. vehicles have taken a step forward in the House. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 45-2 to send the proposed AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act to the full House for a vote.
“It’s been a stalwart of American prosperity and information sharing,” says Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC). “Having AM radio available is important to my constituents, especially during emergencies.”
If passed by the full House, the proposed Act would require the Secretary of Transportation to issue a rule requiring access to AM broadcast stations in motor vehicles. If they don’t, automakers would get fined.
The role of AM during natural disasters was cited by several lawmakers as they spoke during the bill’s markup, noting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent millions solidifying the Emergency Alert System with AM radio as the backbone of the EAS.
In addition to serving as the backbone of the Emergency Alert System, AM radio remains a critical tool in delivering farm news and information to farmers across rural America.
Farm broadcaster and Vice President of Hoosier Ag Today and Michigan Ag Today Eric Pfeiffer says, “If AM radio gets removed from vehicles, it wouldn’t be long before vehicle manufacturers remove FM radio or attempt to charge consumers for it. Hoosier Ag Today and Michigan Ag Today support free over the air radio for all consumers, especially farmers, and we encourage you to contact your members of Congress to ask for their support of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.”
Source: NAFB News Service
A judge in Missouri dismissed a lawsuit accusing agricultural giants like Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta, and others of price fixing. The suit accused the companies of conspiring with wholesalers and retail outlets to fix prices for seeds and crop protection chemicals, forcing farmers to pay higher prices.
A St. Louis-based judge says that the farmers and other plaintiffs failed to present sufficient allegations that the companies had violated U.S. antitrust laws. The plaintiffs said the companies schemed to collectively boycott electronic “crop inputs” platforms, depriving farmers and other purchasers of the ability to make effective cost comparisons for key agricultural materials.
The judge said the plaintiffs’ accusations did not rebut the companies’ claims that their practices served legitimate business purposes. She faulted the plaintiffs for advancing “mere generalizations” in their lawsuit.
Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta, and BASF all welcomed the court’s ruling in separate statements. All of the defendants denied any wrongdoing.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/17224820/cj-wrap-hat-ncga-frustrated-over-24-d-tariff-proposal-091724.mp3"]Tariffs on imports of the herbicide 2,4-D have been recommended by the U.S. Commerce Department. However, some ag leaders are concerned that those tariffs would hurt America’s corn and soybean farmers.
“If it would be finalized, these rates could definitely impact the availability and could also impact the cost down the road,” says Nancy Martinez, Director of Public Policy, Trade, and Biotechnology for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). Martinez is originally from Marion County, graduated from Indiana University, and had previously worked for Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) before joining NCGA.
She says the duties imposed on imports of 2,4-D would make the herbicide too expensive—and limit supplies altogether.
“When Commerce released these preliminary duty rates, some of them were in the three-to-five percent range, and there was one that was 27 percent, so we understand that that would cover a substantial amount of the imports coming in. The higher the rate, the more the impact. As we know for something like 2,4-D herbicide, it’s one of the tools that farmers use to control weeds, and so if you don’t apply it at the right time, if there’s an availability issue, that can impact farmers’ ability to be successful.”
The decision comes at the request of Indiana-based Corteva Agriscience, which is the U.S. producer of 2,4-D. The company filed a petition earlier this year calling for countervailing duties on imports of 2,4-D from foreign suppliers to push herbicides that are produced here in the U.S. However, Martinez says Corteva’s petition creates a problem for farmers because Corteva is one of the few U.S. companies that produces herbicide 2,4-D.
“Farmers can’t get all of the 2,4-4D they need through our one domestic supplier, so they have to turn to foreign sources.”
She recommends that farmers reach out to their lawmakers in Congress to overturn the tariff proposal.
“As farmers are concerned about impacts on the input that they use on a day-to-day basis, there’s always an opportunity to weigh in with Congress, with their delegation, and let them know that they’re going to make a difference as agencies review these rates.”
The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to announce final duty rates at some point next year. But, the International Trade Commission, which also has the power to dismiss this case, will make its final determination next year as well.
Haley Oliver, Professor of Food Science at Purdue University. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.Haley Oliver, Professor of Food Science in Purdue University’s College of Agriculture, has been awarded $10 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for a five-year extension of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL).
Since the lab’s founding in 2019, Oliver — who also serves as the FSIL director and the university’s interim vice provost for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars — and the FSIL management team at Purdue and Cornell universities have guided more than a dozen food safety research projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria and Senegal. Research has focused on strengthening the safety of nutritious, perishable foods including dairy, produce, fish and poultry.
Oliver, a 150th Anniversary Professor, said the lab’s overall goal is to support data-driven policies and practices to prevent illnesses caused by microbial foodborne pathogens.
“Globally, foodborne illness has a public health impact comparable to better-known threats such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis,” Oliver said. “However, producers, consumers and governments are often less aware of the risk posed by microbial pathogens, which have a significant impact on cycles of disease, malnutrition and food insecurity.”
FSIL’s initial phase addressed critical food safety gaps, including identifying key pathogens and assessing the current food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of consumers and small-scale producers, processors, and vendors in the six target countries. Several projects used food safety economics to understand market-level dynamics, such as consumers’ willingness to pay more for safer food to offset higher production costs. Phase two will target research to facilitate food safety behavior change and policy development in Cambodia, Nepal and Kenya.
“These three countries have food policy landscapes well positioned for food safety progress but face gaps in consumer awareness of food safety risks coupled with limited food safety training for producers and vendors,” Oliver said. “There is less recognition of food safety as a public health priority and a clear need to strengthen food safety surveillance and enforcement infrastructure.”
The lab recently launched a new poultry food safety project in Kenya and has commissioned a team of Purdue researchers to conduct food safety surveys in the three focus countries. The survey project is led by Valerie Kilders, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics; with collaborators Nicole Olynk Widmar, interim head and professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics; and Paul Ebner, interim head and professor in the Department of Animal Sciences. The surveys will capture consumer perspectives on food safety including their attitudes towards risk, potential food safety policies and initiatives, and the demand and willingness to pay for safer foods.
Additional projects will be funded through a competitive Request for Applications process to be launched later this year. The research will address three areas: increasing consumer awareness of, and demand for, safer food; empowering governments to generate and use meaningful food safety data; and motivating private-sector adoption of safe food production practices.
“Our goal is to identify actionable consumer, government and private-sector strategies that will influence the demand for safer food and food safety regulations,” Oliver said. “Partnering across these three sectors is crucial to reducing the global burden of foodborne disease.”
Written by: Amanda Garris, Purdue Agricultural Communications
Josh Linville, Vice President of Fertilizer with StoneX. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.As commodity prices have fallen over the course of the past year, input costs still remain on the high side.
Josh Linville, Vice President of Fertilizer for StoneX, says buying inputs has been a challenge for farmers.
“Farmers, of course, are struggling with low grain prices. That has been the single biggest conversation out there, which is that fertilizer prices are high, but the manufacturer is like, ‘It was high before, and they bought it.’ Well, that’s right, but corn was four, five, six, dollars a bushel, and today we’re looking at something with a three in front of it, so the cash flow is significantly different, which is going to change how the farmer moves to the marketplace,” says Linville.
“You know, when you look at what we expect for next year, we’re still forecasting 91-and-a-half million acres of corn for 2025. That begets a certain amount of phosphate, potash, and nitrogen, but that does not mean they have to step in early, so that is changing things.”
Linville says there are geopolitical situations that could have a significant impact on the availability and price of fertilizer in the future.
“Globally, there are some things that still spook us. I know things are bad today, but they can certainly get worse now. When you start to think about the Israel-Iran situation, the Russia-Ukraine situation, the China-Taiwan situation and then you start to look at the fertilizers that are produced around these regions. I hope that this the worst it gets, but I’m not going to make any guarantees on it.”
Linville recommends what farmers may want to keep in mind as they think ahead to 2025.
“A lot of people have got the mindset I am going to wait. I’m going to wait to see if prices go down, I’m going to see if grains go up. I’m going to wait to see if something jumps out as the crop would produce next year. But if I lock in stuff now, I’m locked in. I can’t get away from that. So everybody is going to think this wait mentality, and that’s okay. It’s the first half of August, it’s slow. It’s quiet. We’re a very long way from spring,” he says.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/17230939/sabrina-wrap-hat-sare-grants-091724.mp3"]Grant funding is available for farmers and others in the North Central region to improve sustainable agricultural practices here. The North Central Region-Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) program currently has four open grant programs to fund research and education projects that advance sustainable agricultural.
These grant programs are for farmers, ranchers, scientists, educators, institutions, organizations, and others exploring sustainable agriculture in the 12 states in the North Central region (Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Illinois, and Wisconsin).
“I think a great place to start is to go to projects.sare.org, and look at what projects have been funded in the past by SARE,” advised Associate Director, North Central Region SARE, Betsy Wieland. “We look for projects that have farmers and ranchers involved in the process, from designing to implementing and sharing the results of their projects.”
NCR-SARE’s Current Open Grant Programs
- Research and Education Grant Program – a competitive grant program for researchers and educators. Preproposals for this program must be received October 10, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET.
- Partnership Grant Program – a competitive grant program for cooperative projects between agriculture professionals and small groups of farmers and ranchers. Proposals for this grant program must be received by October 17, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET.
- Youth Educator Grant Program – a competitive grant program for youth educators to encourage youth to try sustainable practices. Proposals must be received by November 7, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET. NCR-SARE will host a webinar about this grant program on October 2, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET. Register for this webinar now.
- Farmer Rancher Grant Program – a competitive grants program for farmers and ranchers. Proposals must be received by December 5, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET. NCR-SARE will host a webinar about this grant program on Oct. 3 at 5 p.m. ET.
Funding considerations are based on how well the applicant presents the problem being addressed, its relevance to sustainable agriculture in the 12-state North Central region, and how well it aligns with NCR-SARE’s goals.
“We look for projects that are addressing one of the three aspects of sustainability and agriculture. That’s helping agriculture be more environmentally sound, more socially fair, and also more economically viable for farming operations and their communities,” Wieland said. “Another great spot to learn more about our programs is our website, which is northcentral.sare.org. We’ve got tons of information checking out the call for proposals for each of the programs. There’s a ton of information on what’s eligible. We’ve got all the details there.”
NCR-SARE has awarded more than $100 million worth of competitive grants to farmers and ranchers, researchers, educators, public and private institutions, nonprofit groups, and others exploring sustainable agriculture in 12 states. Project abstracts and reports can be found by searching the SARE project database.
CLICK HERE for more information about Indiana SARE.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/16183313/ag-safety-week-wrap-hat.mp3"]This week is National Farm Safety and Health Week. This year’s theme is “Don’t Learn Safety by Accident”.
Dan Neenan of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety, notes the word “accident”, though, is a bit of a misnomer.
“Because ‘accident’ in most people’s mind means that there’s nothing that could have been done to prevent it. So, we’re trying to get the words across of ‘preventable incident’.”
Neenan explains the daily themes for National Farm Safety and Health Week.
“Monday is equipment and rural roadway safety. Tuesday is health and wellness. Wednesday is generations- talking farming from kids to grandparents. Thursday is confined spaces- grain bins, manure pits, and Friday is actually reporting ag injuries.”
Speaking of confined spaces, Purdue just recently released their annual report of U.S. Agricultural Confined Space-related Injuries and Fatalities. It showed no fewer than 55 cases in 2023 across the US, including 29 fatal and 26 non-fatal cases.
Neenan says they’ve partnered with the Agrisafe Network on a series of safety webinars this week with two per day.
The latest recorded annual numbers for farm fatalities, 417 in 2022, is the motivation for Neenan and others in the farm safety space.
“I first started doing this in the year 2000 and we were averaging 730 fatalities per year. So, getting down to 417 is a good stride, but we’re never going to get down to zero during my working lifetime.”
Kent Yeager, President of the Indiana Barn Foundation, stands at the back of the Rudicel-Montgomery Polygonal Barn near Waldron in Shelby County. The 12-side barn built in 1910 was one of the featured barns during the organization’s Historic Barn Tour on Saturday, Sept. 14. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/16155420/cj-wrap-hat-indiana-barn-foundation-091624.mp3"]Indiana has about 20,000 historic wooden barns scattered around the state, but many of them are quickly falling into disrepair. That’s why the Indiana Barn Foundation is bringing awareness to the efforts to save these cultural landmarks.
“Let’s give these old barns a chance because they tell us a lot about our agricultural history, and a lot of cases they tell us a lot about our family and community history too,” says Kent Yeager, President of the Indiana Barn Foundation. The organization was founded in 2014 by the late Mauri Williamson, a retired Purdue ag professor who sought to preserve Indiana’s farm history and heritage.
Last weekend, the organization hosted an historic barn tour in Shelby County that featured one unique polygonal barn called the Rudicel-Montgomery Barn, which is owned by the Montgomery family and built near Waldron in 1910.
The Rudicel-Montgomery Barn near Waldron in Shelby County is a unique 12-sided barn that was built in 1910. It was part of the Indiana Barn Foundation’s Barn Tour on Saturday, Sept. 14. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.“This barn has 12 sides, which I believe in Indiana there were fewer than 20 of these that ever existed,” according to Yeager. “This particular form of barn is just a very rare thing, and so we wanted to highlight it for the historic value of it—if nothing else, I hope [the Montgomery family] can find a way to use it. It’s got significant historic value to the state, to agriculture, and that’s what a lot of this work is about with these old barns.”One effort that’s been made to keep more of these barns around is that significant property tax deductions are available for barns built before 1950.
“We didn’t want people to have a reason to say, ‘I’m going to let that barn go,’ or ‘I’m going to tear it down so I don’t have to pay property taxes on it.’ At least we eliminated that reason. It’s a small thing in the context of the value of a lot of these barns, but it is important and hopefully people will take advantage of it.”
This historic photo of the Rudicel-Montgomery Barn was used as a postcard and taken shortly after the barn was constructed in 1910. The photo shared by the grandchildren of George Rudicel. Their father, Lowell, is the little boy on the horse. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Barn Foundation.Yeager says the ultimate goal is to restore as many of these historic barns and create value for them once again. He adds that many barns have already been repurposed into wedding venues, wineries, retail shops and restaurants.
“One of the things that happened is that farm machinery outsized a lot of these barns,” he says. Even people with livestock became very specialized, and so we lost the purpose that some of these barns were originally built, so the more people can do to find another purpose—that is the best thing to maintain them.”
Learn more about the Indiana Barn Foundation at IndianaBarns.org.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller chat with Randy Miles, board member and assessor of heritage barns with the Indiana Barn Foundation.
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Indiana harvest progress is ahead of the five-year average pace for both corn and soybeans. Corn harvested for grain is 5% complete compared to the five-year average of 2% while soybeans are at 6%, well ahead of the 1% usual pace.
Corn harvested for silage is also ahead of schedule at 55% complete compared to the five-year average of 48%.
Nationally, corn harvest is 9% complete and soybean harvest is 6% done.
Though precipitation received last week was minimal or nonexistent, crop conditions remained stable, according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office. Topsoil moisture levels decreased from the previous week, with 22 percent rated adequate or surplus.
Corn maturity and soybeans dropping leaves progress both remained ahead of their respective five-year average paces. Corn for silage harvest was in full swing. Fourth cuttings of hay were reported by some farmers to be negatively impacted by the dry conditions. Pastures were struggling with the lack of rainfall, resulting in a seven-point drop in pastures rated in good to excellent condition compared to the previous week. As a result, producers continued supplementing livestock with hay. Other activities included harvesting apples and sweet corn as well as preparing equipment for harvest.
Source: USDA NASS Indiana Field Office
While the 2024 Farm Bill has been stalled for multiple months, the legislative logjam is showing a few signs of breaking after key ag groups took to Capitol Hill last week to share the economic reality facing farmers and ranchers.
In a letter last week to House Ag Committee Democrats, Ranking Member David Scott (D-GA) said, “We all know that Congress needs pressure to act. That’s why Chairman Thompson, Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman, and I agree that we are better off without another extension at this point.”
After he met with farmers, Scott said if it looks like Congress won’t be able to pass a farm bill, they asked him if Congress would consider doing a two-year ad hoc package that would bolster the safety net for the 2024 and 2025 crop years.
“Farmers need the certainty and support, and we need to step up to this challenge,” Scott added.
Tuesday, October 1 is the date set by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) to begin its strike if a new labor contract isn’t agreed upon with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). The main areas of dispute in the negotiations relate to wages, the use of automation, health care, and container royalties.
A strike by the ILA, which represents as many as 85,000 longshoremen who work on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes, and major U.S. rivers, could have a significant impact on the flow of ag exports set to leave the U.S. for foreign destinations—especially during the U.S. harvest season.
“Bulk exports of soybeans and other agricultural products would not be directly impacted by any potential strike or lockout if an agreement is not achieved by the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance. However, containerized exports of soybeans and other agricultural products would be impacted,” according to Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition.
To provide some perspective, the Mississippi Gulf Region near New Orleans is the number one export region for soybeans, exporting 27 million metric tons from the region in 2023.
In addition to having a negative impact on exports of soybeans, soybean meal, and other ag products that are exported via container, an ILA strike also would have a significant impact on chilled or frozen meat, eggs, etc. that are exported from the U.S.
“We are starting to see agricultural exporters explore other routes like the West Coast, which will most likely mean at a higher cost and longer transit times,” says Steenhoek. “This will be one more cost intrusion into the supply chain.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/15200513/fb-pres-questions-wrap.mp3"]For more than 40 years, the American Farm Bureau Federation has asked every presidential candidate for their stance on agricultural issues. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have provided their answers to the questionnaire, and Farm Bureau executive vice president Joby Young says the survey is a key tool for rural Americans.
“The Presidential election is an opportunity for every American to cast their vote and voice their opinion on the direction they hope the country goes, and for more than 40 years, AFBF has asked every presidential candidate in the general election to provide responses on issues that are likely to impact farmers and ranchers in rural communities. We receive responses, and we share those responses unedited, so that our members and any interested voter can decide for themselves what they think about the answers that they hear from the presidential candidates.”
The survey contains 14 questions and covers a broad array of topics.
“Everything from crop insurance to taxes to agricultural labor to sustainability. We also asked questions about regulatory reform, food system resiliency, energy, biotechnology. We got responses from both the Harris and Trump campaigns, and we’ve taken their answers and we’ve made them available to view.”
Young says Farm Bureau is in a unique position to present this type of information.
“For our members, we know what’s important to them, the issues that affect rural communities and that affect farm and ranch families. So, we formulate those issues into specific questions, these 14 questions that cover those issues, like I mentioned, crop insurance, taxes, labor sustainability, and this gives us an opportunity to present those directly to the candidates and the candidates to hear those questions and understand what our members and folks across rural America and the farming and ranching community care about and respond in their own words.”
To see the questions and answers from the candidates, visit the Farm Bureau website.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/15162627/cj-wrap-hat-falling-fuel-prices-091324.mp3"]You’re paying about 33 cents less per gallon to fill up your gas tank in Indiana than you were a month ago, according to AAA. One gas analyst believes you could be paying even less in the coming months.
“When it comes to gas prices, it’s all good news for now. Gasoline prices are likely to continue dropping here as we get into the Fall, that is through October, November,” says Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis with GasBuddy.com.
“Oil prices are the primary culprit. Oil prices have been trading below the $70 barrel mark. That’s because of economic concerns, not only in the U.S., as our economy slows down, but overseas in China, where their economy has been faltering. So, it’s a sign of a little bit of economic distress. It’s not all bad news, but that, combined with an increase in U.S. oil production over the last couple of years, has pushed gas prices back closer to where they normally would be,” he says.
Even though people often say that gas prices get lower during an election season, De Haan says that’s not the case.
“This has nothing to do with the election and everything to do with other events that happen every year. That is, the weather gets colder. Americans don’t drive as much in the fall. Gas prices fall in the Fall every year, regardless of whether there’s an election or not, just as how gas prices go up in the spring. So, I suppose if you wanted to change the narrative, if the election moved in the spring, well, then you’d always see gas prices going up because of the seasonality. Americans start to drive more in the warmer weather,” says De Haan.
“We also switch blends of gasoline. That is helping us right now, as we’ve already made the change in Wisconsin back to a cheaper type of gasoline that’s in use during the winter months. As I mentioned, as air temperatures are cooling off, Americans aren’t driving as much, and that decrease in demand is why gas prices progressively fall through the autumn. So, all of this has nothing to do with the election and everything to do with something just as simple as this season’s changing,” says De Haan.
He adds that gas and diesel prices often go in opposite directions based on the time of year.
“When it comes to gasoline and diesel, there is a bit of a disconnect because traditionally, gasoline prices are higher in the summer. They fall off in the winter. As I mentioned, diesel prices have been declining, but as we get closer to the start of winter, I do expect diesel will start modestly inching up. That’s because diesel and heating oil are essentially the same product, and as you get into colder weather, heating oil demand goes up, so that will eventually cause diesel to go up.”
The average price for diesel fuel across Indiana is $3.70 a gallon, a drop of 15 cents since last month according to AAA.
Sources: GasBuddy.com, AAA, NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/13222839/hatthisweek2-091424.mp3"]We have a wide open start to our 2024 harvest season underway for all of Indiana in our Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast. The only pause we have had to deal with so far is the remains of Francine, which largely stayed farther south and was not as impressive as it could have been. We now embark on a 7-8 day dry stretch statewide.
Sunshine dominates in most areas Saturday, with only a few lingering showers in far SW IN. From Sunday through next Saturday we see plenty of sun and very warm temps. However, we also will see higher humidity levels, leading to lower comfort. Evaporation will be at nearly maximum each day, but we don’t have any moisture to really evaporation left in the soil profile.
Late this week we see a more active pattern holding over the central and western corn belt. We will see plenty of moisture with a pair of systems out that direction. However, right now we see that moisture running into this very dry airmass we have over the eastern belt and sucking moisture potential away. At this point, we are hopeful that we see some precipitation overcome that as the frontal boundary moves east early next week, for Monday the 23rd. However, we are not confident that we see any more than 50% coverage of precipitation next Monday with rain potential up to .5”
The map below shows rainfall vs normal for the next 10 days. This points toward very little moisture through the period.
Extended Period:
The extended period is mostly dry as well. If we do NOT see any rain on the 23rd, we will not see any west to east moving frontal passage that can trigger rain until closer to the 27th. However, one thing to watch will be some moisture potential lifting into areas of OH toward the middle of next week, coming off the SE US coast. However, that same kind of storm moisture movement was projected previously for midweek this week, and it quickly dissipated. So, we will just watch that with a keen eye for now.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Very warm and staying dry through the bulk of the week 3 and week 4 period.
Week 3
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Week 4
Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)
Temperatures (blue: below normal, orange: above)
Mike Braun, the Republican candidate for Indiana governor, chats with Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer during the Indiana State Fair. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Mike Braun, Indiana’s Republican candidate for governor, has issued an agriculture policy agenda for Indiana’s farmers and rural Hoosiers as part of his campaign on Friday.
Braun’s campaign has proposed the following ag policy agenda items if he is elected as Indiana’s next governor:
- Improve Customer Service for Farmers – Establish a one-stop online portal to simplify access to funding, market opportunities, technical support, and regulatory updates—ensuring Hoosier farmers get the help they need quickly and efficiently.
- Tax Relief that Protects Family Farms – Provide historic property tax relief by capping annual increases, fixing the referendum process, and modernizing how farmland is valued to reflect the realities of today’s farm economy.
- Target Economic Development to Rural Communities – Ensure economic development dollars flow to rural communities with full transparency and accountability, so that small towns can grow and thrive.
- Build Out Reliable Connectivity – Introduce a matching grant program for broadband expansion to ensure every Hoosier, no matter where they live, has access to high-speed internet—a necessity for both families and modern agriculture.
- Protect Hoosier Farmland – Protect Indiana’s farmland from foreign adversaries by enforcing divestment rules, increasing transparency, and working with the General Assembly to monitor emerging threats.
“Hoosier family farms feed the world with millions of acres of crops, livestock, and poultry, and as governor, I will protect our farms while giving rural communities the tools they need to grow and thrive,” said Braun in a statement.
The Braun campaign says it has partnered with HOPE, Inc (Hoosiers for Opportunity, Prosperity & Enterprise, Inc.), a non-profit policy organization based in Terre Haute, to develop their ag policy agency.
A formal ag policy agenda has not been formally released by either Indiana’s Democrat candidate for governor, Jennifer McCormick, or the Libertarian candidate for governor, Donald Rainwater.
CLICK HERE for the official list of ag policy agenda items from the Braun campaign.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/13012003/hat001-091324.mp3"]Harvest should get off to a good start in Northern Indiana this weekend for fields that are ready to go. Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin kicks off our weekly Seed Genetics Direct Harvest Weather Forecast campaign today. He says to expect sunshine and blue skies from I-70 north this weekend.
“We are also looking at humidity values creeping up just a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to be too much, so not many problems in Northern Indiana. Now, the remains of Francine hold on through Friday and into early Saturday in Southern Indiana, especially Southwest Indiana. We might even see another round of moisture pop up in southern tier counties on Sunday as Francine dies down and goes away.”
Next week looks to be very warm and very humid statewide.
“I’m looking for us mostly to be rain free across the Hoosier State Monday through Friday,” Martin explains. “We are watching a little bit of tropical moisture come through the Carolinas and making a run at Ohio later in the midweek timeframe. I don’t think that throws anything more than a few clouds our direction here. So, I’m looking still at a wide-open harvest window Monday through Friday of next week.”
In Martin’s extended forecast, he’s watching a big cluster of showers and thunderstorms to our west over Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois.
“This is a multi-day cluster of shower and thunderstorm activity that’s coming together, and I think it will try and move eastward, but likely not until later the 22nd and maybe into early the start of the week of the 23rd. So, we’re going to be watching that when it comes. I think it has potential to bring us anywhere from half to maybe two inches of rain, but it’s just lurking to the west right now. It’s not an imminent threat.”
Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/12181241/cj-wrap-hat-langemeier-on-farmland-values-survey-091224.mp3"]Indiana farmland prices have continued the trend of record highs in 2024, according to the latest Purdue Farmland Value and Cash Rents Survey results.
The survey is conducted out of the Purdue University Department of Agricultural Economics and produced through the cooperation of numerous professionals knowledgeable about Indiana’s farmland market. These professionals provide an estimate of the market value for bare poor-, average- and top-quality farmland in December 2023, June 2024 and a forecast for December 2024.
The average price of top-quality farmland reached $14,392 per acre, a 4.8% increase from June 2023. Average- and poor-quality farmland also saw gains, with prices increasing 3.7% and 4.4% to $11,630 and $9,071 per acre, respectively.
“While farmland prices increased between 2023 and 2024, survey respondents noted that much of the growth appears to have taken place in the latter half of 2023,” said Todd Kuethe, the Schrader Endowed Chair in Farmland Economics at Purdue and the survey’s author. “A number of forces, such as high interest rates and lower farm incomes, are placing downward pressure on prices, but the limited supply of land is keeping prices firm.”
The change in farmland prices varied significantly across regions and quality grades. The southwest region experienced exceptionally high appreciation rates, especially for top- and average-quality land, while the southeast region saw the most pronounced declines across all quality grades. Top-quality land in the southwest now surpasses the central region in price per acre. However, the central region continues to hold the highest values for average- and poor-quality land.
Kuethe also noted that respondents expect a modest decline in farmland prices through the rest of 2024, though prices are anticipated to remain slightly above those from June 2023. Additionally, land transitioning out of agricultural production surged in value by 21.6%, driven by large-scale development projects, while recreational land prices dipped slightly. Statewide cash rents saw minimal changes, with some variation across regions, reflecting broader trends in land values.
The Department of Agricultural Economics conducts the Purdue Farmland Value and Cash Rents Survey each June and it is published in the quarterly publication Purdue Agricultural Economics Report.
CLICK HERE to read the full report.
CLICK BELOW to watch the Purdue AgCast—as Purdue ag economists Todd Kuethe, Michael Langemeier and James Mintert discuss Indiana farmland values and review the 2024 Purdue Farmland Values and Cash Rental Rates Survey results.
Source: Purdue Agricultural Communications
Corn production is down, while soybean production will be higher than in 2023. That’s according to the USDA Crop Production Report, which was released on Thursday.
USDA says corn production is one percent below last year, forecast at 15.2 billion bushels. The average corn yield is predicted to be 183.6 bushels an acre, up 0.5 percent from last month and 6.3 bushels over last year.
Soybean production will be 10 percent above 2023 with a forecast of 4.59 billion bushels. Soybean yields are expected to be 53.2 bushels an acre, unchanged from last month, and 2.6 bushels above 2023.
The total planted area for corn is estimated at 90.7 million acres, while soybeans are estimated at 87.1 million acres.
Meanwhile, the USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report for September says that this month’s 2024-2025 corn outlook is for smaller supplies and a modest decline in ending stocks. Projected beginning stocks are 55 million bushels lower based on increases in exports and corn used for ethanol for 2023-2024. The season-average corn price received by producers was lowered ten cents to $4.10 per bushel.
U.S. soybean supply and use changes for 2024-2025 include lower beginning stocks, production, and ending stocks. Lower beginning stocks reflect a slight increase in crush during the prior marketing year. Ending stocks are predicted to be at 550 million bushels, down 10 million from last month. The U.S. season-average price for soybeans is unchanged from the previous forecast at $10.80 per bushel.
The 2024-2025 U.S. wheat outlook is quiet relative to last month. The projected season-average farm price for wheat remains steady at $5.70 a bushel.
CLICK BELOW to hear Mike Silver with Kokomo Grain review the USDA’s Crop Progress Report and World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report for September during Hoosier Ag Today’s Farm Market Review.
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Harvest season is officially underway for Indiana’s 94,000 farmers, which means more slow-moving farm equipment will be on Indiana’s rural roads and highways. To keep Hoosiers safe this year, state agencies are asking motorists to be alert and patient, as they share the road with farm equipment this fall.
“The fall is an exciting time for all Hoosiers as the temperatures cool and the leaves turn colors. And Hoosier farmers share that excitement as they prepare to begin harvest,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “While traveling rural roads and highways this fall, remember to watch for large farm equipment moving between fields as they work to harvest the crops, and be sure to know the proper steps to safely navigate around.”
In 2022 four vehicles were involved in crashes with farm equipment in Indiana which resulted in one death, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“Moving farm equipment can be one of the most dangerous parts of a farmers job,” said Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. “When motorists know how to safely navigate around farm equipment, our roads are safer. By working together, farmers and everyday Hoosiers can ensure they arrive safely to their destination.”
Farm equipment during harvest season could include tractors, combines, grain carts, grain wagons and large trucks hauling agricultural products. These vehicles are wide, sometimes taking up most of the road, and often travel at speeds no greater than 25 mph.
The following list includes several safety tips for motorists approaching large farm equipment:
- Farmers will pull over when they are able to let motorists pass, but it may take time for them to get to a safe place to do so.
- Be alert. Farm equipment is wide, sometimes taking up most of the road.
- Be careful when passing. Do not pass in a designated “No Passing Zone” or within 100 feet of any intersection, railroad grade crossing, bridge, elevation structure or tunnel.
- Do not try to pass a slow-moving vehicle on the left without ensuring that the vehicle is not planning a left turn. It may appear that the driver is pulling over for you to pass when it is actually preparing to turn. You will drive right into its path, endangering yourself and the farmer.
- Avoid tailgating, as some farm equipment might have to make sudden stops along the road.
- Allow plenty of time to get to a destination, be aware of alternate routes and avoid distractions.
“When you see farmers out working and moving from field to field, please be patient as they work to harvest their crops which are needed to help feed our communities and the world,” said Doug Carter, Indiana State Police Superintendent. “Let’s all work together to help ensure everyone’s safety on our roadways.”
For a list of safety tips, click here or visit isda.in.gov.
The House of Representatives passed the “Protecting U.S. Farmland from Foreign Adversaries Act” on Wednesday.
The legislation would increase scrutiny of foreign bids to purchase U.S. farmland, particularly from adversaries like China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran.
“This is about our country’s national security in ensuring that adversaries—like China, like Russia, like North Korea or Iran—do not gain a foothold on American soil,” says Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04), who introduced the bill.
It would add the Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and include the secretary on future transactions involving agricultural land, biotech, product transportation, storage, and processing. It would authorize the Secretary to report agricultural land transactions involving foreign persons from China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran.
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Braun (R-IN) introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
“Chinese ownership of American farmland increased more than 20-fold in the past decade,” Braun says. The amount of American soil in the hands of adversaries will only rise if we don’t implement these restrictions and oversight.”
Fourteen other senators also signed on to the legislation, including Indiana’s Todd Young.
CLICK HERE to read the full text of the House bill.
CLICK HERE to read the full text of the Senate bill.
Sales of four-wheel-drive tractors increased 4.8 percent in August 2024 compared to the same month last year. New data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers says U.S. sales also increased 5.2 percent year-to-date.
Total U.S. ag tractor sales decreased 19.4 percent compared to 2023, while combine sales dipped 19.6 percent.
“While the increase in four-wheel-drive tractors is modest, it’s indicative of the industry’s resilience and the ongoing need for agricultural equipment,” says AEM Senior Vice President Curt Blades. “The decline in the overall tractor market highlights the urgent need for Congress to pass a robust farm bill to support rural America and our agricultural community.”
Canadian sales of four-wheel-drive tractors increased 29.4 percent in August compared to last year and are up 18.1 percent year-to-date. Total Canadian ag tractor sales fell 26 percent compared to last year, while total combine sales dropped 36.5 percent.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/11221338/sabrina-wrap-mat-prop-12-future-091124.mp3"]Pork producers around the nation continue to decide if they’ll conform to California’s new animal housing requirements or opt not to sell their pork in that state.
California voters passed Proposition 12 in November 2018, and the final stages of implementation went through earlier this year.
National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Lori Stevermer of Minnesota says the NPPC continues to look to congress to force a change to California’s law.
“The Supreme Court said that Congress has the authority to assert its interstate commerce power. That’s what we’re asking as a federal preemption. So, one state does not tell another state how to raise their pigs, but handles the matters within their own state, which that’s what we do in Minnesota. We watch out for ourselves,” she said. “We certainly appreciate, once again, all the work that [House Agriculture Committee] Chairman Thompson has done to that effect and like we’ve said before, we’re really hoping that we can get that federal solution through the farm bill.”
“I think that California has the right to designate whatever happens with whatever kind of meat they want to sell in California. And I think with what you see out of GT Thompson, what’s in the farm bill, is the fact that it makes it to where you can have a regulation within your own state, but you cannot force that type of regulation out onto producers in another state,” said NPPC president-elect Duane Stateler, a pork producer in Ohio. “If I’m growing pigs in Ohio, I ought to be able to market them in Ohio or Indiana or anywhere else where I meet their qualifications. But to set different qualifications to force a producer in another state to have to meet a regulation just to market in this market, that’s fine, but you need a free market enterprise.”
Consumers around the nation have been paying more for pork this year, due in part to increased demand and a strong export market. However, pork prices have gone up far more in California than in the rest of the nation, due to the costs incurred by the pork industry because of Prop 12.
From left to right: Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN). Photos courtesy of the U.S. Senate.Reporting those attempts being made by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea to purchase farmland across the United States is the goal of legislation introduced Tuesday by U.S. Senators Mike Braun (R-IN) and Todd Young (R-IN).
The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 would:
- Permanently include the Secretary of Agriculture as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) with respect to covered transactions involving agricultural land, agricultural biotech, or the transportation, storage, and processing of agricultural products.
- Authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to report both agricultural land transactions that involve foreign persons of China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran, and transactions that require AFIDA reporting to CFIUS.
According to the USDA, over 43.4 million acres of U.S. agricultural land is foreign-owned.
Last week, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04) introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. The House Rules Committee met about this bill on Monday, Sept. 9 and the House is expected to move on this legislation this week.
“Chinese ownership of American farmland increased more than 20-fold in the past decade. The amount of American soil in the hands of our foreign adversaries will only go up if we do not implement restrictions and oversight, especially on nations that compromise our national security and agricultural supply chains. I’m proud to lead this effort to protect American farms and food security,” said Sen. Mike Braun.
“Nearly two-thirds of land in Indiana – and more than half of all land in the United States – is farmland. Recent efforts by China and other adversaries to buy agricultural land across the country could present a national security threat. Indiana is a leader in restricting these purchases, but Congress must act to ensure permanent safeguards are in place in all fifty states,” said Sen. Todd Young.
In addition to Senators Young and Braun, Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), John Tester (D-Mont.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) also joined the legislation.
Earlier this year, lawmakers in the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill that prevents China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other adversarial countries from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana. That bill was introduced by State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer), signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb, and took effect on July 1.
Indiana’s law also prevents citizens from those specific counties from buying real estate within 10 miles of all military installations across the state.
The Senate bill is sponsored by Indiana Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau, Indiana Soybean Alliance, and the Indiana Corn Growers Association.
CLICK HERE to read the full text of the Senate bill.
CLICK HERE to read the full text of the House bill.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/10203514/suicide-prevention-hat-wrap.mp3"]September is World Suicide Prevention Month and Tuesday the 10th was World Suicide Prevention Day. As those in the agricultural industry know all too well, farming is one of the most stressful jobs out there.
“The farm is who we are,” says Dr. Remington Rice, Health & Farm Stress Educator for Michigan State Extension. “That’s part of our identity, and anything that threatens that identity can be really stressful.”
Changing weather, changing commodity prices, broken equipment, everyday life- this can all bring about undue stress for farmers.
Occasionally, you’ll see a picture of one of those situations on social media with a caption that says, “Go check on your farmer friends- they’re not ok,” and it’s meant to be some kind of joke. The reality is it isn’t a joke. You probably should go check on them. Rice gives some things you should look out for in your farmer friends.
“If someone doesn’t really talk about death or dying and suddenly, they do, that could be a warning sign. Giving away prized possessions- if Farmer John comes to me and says, ‘I want you to have my prize hunting rifle. I don’t need it anymore,’ that could be a warning sign. Feeling hopeless, empty, withdrawn. If you have that Monday morning coffee chat and someone stops showing up, that could be a sign. Part of this, it’s just kind of like a gut feeling.”
He also adds you should be asking them open-ended questions about how they’re doing. So, instead of asking “how are you doing?”, it should be something like, “what’s going well for you?”
Farmers- if you’re struggling with your mental health or contemplating suicide, call 988. Visit extension.purdue.edu/farmstress for more resources.
The Rudicel-Montgomery Barn near Waldron in Shelby County is a unique 12-sided barn that was built in 1910. There are plans for the building to be completely rehabilitated for historic purposes as a reminder of Indiana’s farm heritage. It is part of the Indiana Barn Foundation’s Barn Tour on Saturday, Sept. 14. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The Indiana Barn Foundation is hosting a Historic Barn Tour in Shelby County on Saturday, September 14th that includes a 12-sided barn built in 1910 that is being restored by the foundation.
The self-guided driving tour will feature the Rudicel-Montgomery Polygonal Barn at County Road 700 South at 400 East near Waldron, the site of this year’s Learning Lab. You’ll be able to learn the results of the recently completed assessment and laser scanning by Trillum Dell/Firmitas and better understand what it will take to save this community landmark.
This unique barn is currently listed on the Indiana Landmarks “Ten Most Endangered” list of buildings on the brink of extinction and too important to lose.
This historic photo of the Rudicel-Montgomery Barn was taken shortly after the barn was constructed in 1910 and was shared by the grandchildren of George Rudicel. Their father, Lowell, is the little boy on the horse. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Barn Foundation.The Rudicel-Montgomery was borne out of the interest of farmers building octagonal barns in the late nineteenth century, boosted by arguments that they were sturdier and more cost-effective to build than rectangular barns and that their layout was more efficient for feeding livestock. The interest spread to more multi-sided forms, and between 1850 and 1936, 67 polygonal barns were built in Indiana, though round barns eventually outpaced them in popularity.In 1910, Shelby County farmer George Rudicel worked with local carpenters Roy and Earl Henderson to build his polygonal barn, using the lower level to house livestock and the upper level to store hay and straw.
A 1990’s survey of the state’s round and polygonal barns for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places found that only 10 of 18 known 12-sided barns still stood, including the Rudicel-Montgomery Barn.
In 2024 the barn is mostly vacant, in need of much needed repairs. Indiana Barn Foundation and Indiana Landmarks funded a study to assess its condition and rehabilitation needs. As the number of historic barns in Indiana shrinks, the Rudicel-Montgomery Polygonal Barn’s unusual design and heritage make it a rural landmark worth saving.
The Rudicel-Montgomery Barn featured in the Shelbyville News on March 15, 1973. The newspaper incorrectly describes the barn as “round” instead of polygonal. The barn is also described as having been “painted recently and is in a fine state of repair.” Photo courtesy of the Shelbyville News.The tour will also include several barns at the Meltzer Farm, including their English barn, sawmill barn, log buildings, 1875 brick schoolhouse, and additional historic farm buildings.
Six additional privately-owned barns will include a flower farm, a cattle farm, and two former dairy farms.
Food trucks will dot the route and you’ll find additional fun things to see and do including shopping for barn quilts and barn calendar postcards, a U-Pick pumpkin patch at Meltzer Farm and an invitation to stop by Harker Orchard for cider and other goodies.
The tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14. Advance tickets are $15 for Indiana Barn Foundation members or $20 for non-members. Children 16 and under are free. Tickets may be purchased online until 5 p.m. on September 13th at the member/non-member price. Tickets the day of the tour will be $20 for all and available in-person at Lewis Creek Baptist Church, 1400 E 600 S, Waldron, IN, which will serve as the day-of tour headquarters. Those who pre-register should stop by the church on the day of the event to pick up a tour map and receive their wrist bands.
For more information and to register, visit IndianaBarns.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/10225858/cj-wrap-hat-farm-bill-not-in-stopgap-funding-bill-091024.mp3"]House Republicans have introduced a stopgap funding bill to keep the government funded after Sept. 30th—but, it lacks a one-year Farm Bill extension.
The ‘must-pass’ continuing budget resolution extends government funding through next March—including funding for USDA, farm credit insurance, rural housing, and livestock mandatory reporting.
But the stopgap, which is likely to be voted upon this week, does not include a one-year Farm Bill extension—but it may give lawmakers more time this Congress to nail down a new Farm Bill.
Joe Gilson with American Farm Bureau says it’s possible that any action regarding the Farm Bill may be ironed out during the “lame-duck” session of Congress after the Nov. 5th election.
“And that could come, in terms of, if they want to just kick it to the next Congress, an extension, or if there’s strong support for a five-year farm bill, there’s about a month-and-a-half to get something done in the lame-duck,” he says.
Gilson had expected lawmakers to hold out on another extension until the lame duck, given that Congress will likely work to avoid a government shutdown altogether.
“I know they want to get the appropriations done with so that we’re not at risk of a shutdown at the end of September,” says Gilson.
Earlier this week, over 300 ag groups have signed a letter that was sent to House and Senate leaders pushing for a new Farm Bill to be passed in 2024. The letter sites “the enormous challenges facing production agriculture – including a farm economy that has taken a downward spiral.”
The ag groups ask lawmakers to for a bill “that strengthens the safety net as many producers are facing multiple years of not being profitable and this is causing their overall financial situation to deteriorate.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Congress have been deadlocked for months over funding for SNAP, higher crop subsidy spending, and climate mitigation.
Photos courtesy of Purdue University.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/09232638/cj-wrap-hat-telenko-on-late-season-tar-spot-090924.mp3"]As Indiana’s farmers get set for harvest in the coming weeks, one concern may come from Tar Spot—which has now reached all corners of the state.
“For this season we do have new areas where Tar Spot is causing a bigger problem than it had previously,” says Dr. Darcy Telenko, Field Crop Plant Pathologist and Associate Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University.
She says Randolph County and pockets of east-central Indiana are showing the biggest signs of impact this growing season because of this year’s weather conditions.
“With Tar Spot—initially those spores need a lot of leaf wetness to infect and cause the disease, so in some areas we’ve seen that where we’ve had the right moisture that turned on the disease. Then, the dryness [later in the summer] also made it fluctuate a bit,” she says.
Even though she and her team haven’t confirmed Tar Spot in all 92 of Indiana’s countries, she believes the disease is probably found somewhere in each county.
“We’ve confirmed it in 87 of our 92 Indiana counties because it’s been confirmed in previous years,” she says. “The disease survives year-after-year, so 87 the counties I know have had a previous history of Tar Spot. There are still five that we probably have to get into and find it. I suspect it’s there, but in order for me to turn a county ‘active’ in-season, a good sample or image sent to us at the Purdue Plant Pest and Diagnostic Laboratory (PPDL) can help me confirm it to the county.”
Telenko says that Tar Spot could create a major problem during harvest.
“If Tar Spot has moved in and it’s gotten severe enough, I’d be keeping an eye on some of those fields and making decisions on what fields need to be harvested first as we have seen issues where if there wasn’t a fungicide applied and Tar Spot is very severe, it could increase the risk for lodging.”
“Growers should be getting out now and making an assessment of what the crop looks like, what the canopy looks like, and see if there is risk for lodging to see which fields may need to go first,” she says.
Telenko offers these management tools to mitigate future stalk rot issues:
- Properly diagnosis the stalk rot pathogen. (Samples can be submitted to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab (CLICK HERE for a more detailed description of each stalk rot.)
- Select hybrids with resistance if available.
- Crop Rotation – rotating to non-host crop will help reduce stalk rot potential in a field. Note that Charcoal rot and Gibberella stalk rot can infect other rotational crops in Indiana.
- Tillage – burying infected crop residue will encourage more rapid desiccation and help reduces risk of overwintering in crop residue.
- Good soil drainage and reduced compaction.
- Foliar Fungicides – applying foliar fungicides can help protect crop from foliar diseases that could predispose plant to stalk rot when present, but devoid of foliar disease pressure fungicides applications have not consistently been found to help reduce stalk rot.
For the 2024 Tar Spot Distribution Map, visit IndianaCropPathology.com.
Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor and Field Crop Plant Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University. Photo: Purdue Agricultural Communications / Tom Campbell.
Back in drought-stricken 2022 and 2023, you heard Hoosier Ag Today report on low water levels on the Mississippi negatively impacting barge traffic and keeping your grain from where it needed to go. Things have been really quiet on that front this year until now, and it comes at a bad time right near harvest.
“Certainly, continuing to dredge would be helpful in the Lower Mississippi River,” says Jason Selking with Consolidated Grain and Barge in Southern Indiana. “There were recently some groundings that had occurred.”
According to Mike Steenhoek with the Soy Transportation Coalition, barge companies are responding to low water levels by announcing limits on draft and tow-size limitations. This will continue until more precipitation comes that way. Barge rates are higher as well.
That’s a shorter-term problem. Longer-term, Selking says farmers need to be chatting with lawmakers about infrastructure improvements.
“Maintaining the wonderful lock and dam system that we have. It’s been long-standing and has been doing a wonderful job for us since the 1960s, but at some point, we have to continue to maintain those locks so that they can be tried and true, as they have been, to provide us that known efficient and economical means of transportation.”
Selking says it’s important to have those crucial conversations with legislators to explain that the supply chain shouldn’t be an obstacle to profitability, but instead help facilitate it.
“Just emphasize their ability to have a sure movement of commodities. Whether that’s rail- we recently heard and witnessed some things that we were about to have with strikes in Canada- just to make sure that we continue to have a free and movable set of commodities throughout the U.S. from production to destination.”
USDA’s Monday Crop Progress Report showed Indiana corn and soybean harvest has begun, though only 1% complete. 2% of the Indiana winter wheat crop has been planted.
Nationally, 5% of the U.S. corn crop has been harvested.
Indiana corn and soybeans are rated 68% good-to-excellent.
According to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office, though dry conditions caused streams to dry and ponds to be down, the condition of the corn and soybean crops remained stable. However, some farmers were concerned that a continued lack of rainfall may adversely impact late-planted crops. Corn and soybean progress continued ahead of their respective five-year average paces. Silage harvest was underway as seed corn harvest commenced. Pastures, browning from lack of rain, had their regrowth stalled, and livestock were supplemented with added hay feedings. Other activities included manure applications, mowing roadsides, hauling grain to market, and preparing harvest equipment.
Drawing attention to the worsening economic conditions impacting the nation’s food growers, over 300 national and state groups have sent a letter to congressional leaders stressing the significant need for a new Farm Bill before the end of 2024.
“It’s critical that Congress pass a new farm bill that strengthens the safety net as many producers are facing multiple years of not being profitable, and this is causing their overall financial situation to deteriorate,” the letter says. “Some will have challenges as they seek operating credit for the 2025 crop year.”
The Indiana-based ag groups who have signed the letter include:
- Indiana Corn Growers Association
- Indiana Soybean Alliance
- Indiana Dairy Producers
As the farm bill delays continued, producers across the country have faced headwinds ranging from extreme weather to high input costs and uncertain global demand to supply chain disruptions. Farmers and their allies say these challenges exposed areas of the farm bill that need to be strengthened.
CLICK HERE to read the full letter.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building, also known as the Jamie L. Whitten Building, houses the administrative offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/08235258/hat001.mp3"]Farmers will see a seven percent drop in their net farm incomes this year compared to last year—and a 23 percent drop compared to just two years ago. That’s according to the USDA’s latest Net Farm Income Report.
However, the USDA’s latest projections for 2024 are far improved now than earlier this year. The agency in February had projected that farm income would tumble this year by 25.5 percent.
Even though the USDA’s report still paints a concerning picture for the farm economy, Spiro Stafanou, Administrator of USDA’s Economic Research Service, says the financial health of the farm sector is still strong.
“It comes to the balance sheet for the ag sector. Overall, equity is increasing about two-point-seven percent. This is driven by farmland values and building values. And those farmland and buildings account for about eighty percent of farm assets. Debt has also increased, but at a slower rate at about one-point-six percent,” he said. “So, on balance we see the debt-to-equity ratio falling, which is an improvement and so is the debt-to-asset ratio that’s falling.”
He said prices that farmers are getting for many of their crops continued to fall. USDA protecting a 12% drop in crop receipts. But he points out that it’s offset a little by a 1% drop in production expenses. He also says direct government payments to farmers will be lower in 2024 than last year.
“Government payments from farm programs are expected to fall about fifteen percent in 2024, to just over ten billion dollars, about ten-point-four billion dollars. So, this decrease primarily reflects just lower anticipated dairy margin coverage, program payments and direct payments from these supplemental and ad hoc disaster assistance payments that we saw in 2023,” he said. “Since 2020, supplemental and ad hoc disaster assistance has represented the largest category of direct government payments. So, as those programs get wound down, the impact of direct government payments is to be moderated.”
However, Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15), who serves as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, has a different take on the USDA’s Net Farm Income Report.
“USDA’s September update to the farm financial outlook continues to present a bleak picture. Declining commodity prices, record farm production costs driven by the reckless spending of the Biden-Harris Administration, the largest agricultural trade deficit on record, and an outdated farm safety net threaten to wipe out family farms across the country,” he said in an emailed news release. “These numbers are more than data points on spreadsheets. They tell a story of struggling American farmers desperate for relief, certainty, and stability. The bipartisan Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 is the legislative remedy our rural communities so desperately need.
Thompson said, “It’s time to put partisan bickering and red lines aside and pass a Farm Bill.”
CLICK HERE for the USDA’s Net Farm Income Report.
Zippy Duvall, President of American Farm Bureau Federation. Photo courtesy of Indiana Farm Bureau.The latest USDA Net Farm Income Report shows a 23 percent drop in net farm income compared to 2022.
“I’d like to ask, ‘How many people, how many households, could withstand losing a quarter of their income in two years?'” says Zippy Duvall, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
He says it isn’t economically sustainable for America’s farmers to lose a quarter of their income.
“It isn’t just an economic hiccup for our farms, it’s evidence of an agricultural downturn. I’ve heard from all our farmers and ranchers across the country that they are struggling. The latest census showed that we lost more than 140,000 farms in the last five years,” he says.
Duvall points to a number of factors contributing to the downturn.
“Farmers and ranchers are facing inflation just like every other American family, but we’ve also got a great deal of severe weather around plummeting crop prices, and constant changes in regulatory requirements. Our labor, interest expense, and property taxes are at a record level. On top of all that, our farm safety net that was designed to help our farms manage risk is so outdated that in many cases, it won’t even trigger to help family farms face the drop in income.
He adds that the USDA’s Net Farm Income Report emphasizes the urgency for Congress to pass a new Farm Bill.
“Congress has been kicking the can down the road when it comes to farm bill, but our farmers need help, and they need it now. It’s been more than 100 days since the House Agriculture Committee passed out a good bipartisan farm bill and yet there hasn’t been any additional action in either chamber. We need Congress to do their job, put politics aside as they have in the past, and get the work done. We need a new modernized Farm Bill,” he says.
Click HERE for the USDA’s Net Farm Income Report for 2024.
The Jackson County Fair has been named the winner of the 2024 “Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer” food drive challenge—presented by Farm Credit Mid-America and Rural 1st.
Of the 38 Indiana county fairs who participated in the challenge during the 2024 county fair season, Jackson County collected the most food by weight—16,300 pounds! They will receive the top cash prize of $5,000.
Jackson County is also a two-time winner, having receiving first place in 2022.
The remaining top five participating fairs for 2024 are:
- Second place: Lake County Fair raised 9,140 pounds of food and received $4,000.
- Third place: Miami County Fair raised 7,580 pounds of food and received $3,000.
- Fourth place: LaPorte County Fair raised 7,060 pounds of food and received $2,000.
- Fifth place: Vanderburgh County Fair raised 6,126 pounds of food and received $1,000.
This summer, all 38 county fairs across the state collected 108,593 pounds of food for more than 50 local food banks. This donation sets a new record, surpassing 100,000 pounds for the first time in the competition’s three-year history.
“We’re committed to giving back to rural communities and supporting local agriculture. This is one of the ways we’re honored to do it,” said Steve Witges, Farm Credit Mid-America’s senior vice president of agricultural lending in Indiana. “There are more than 700,000 people in Indiana facing food insecurity. It’s inspiring to see the youth across our state discover new and innovative ways to increase donations for their local food banks.”
Every participating county fair received a donation to support activities that build future agriculture leaders. Additional prize dollars were given to the top five participating fairs. In total, Farm Credit Mid-America donated more than $30,000 to 4-H county fairs.
To learn more about Farm Credit Mid-America and its commitment to supporting local communities, please visit www.fcma.com.
LOOKING BACK TO 2023: Click below for Hoosier Ag Today’s video congratulating the Wabash County 4-H for winning the 2023 “Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer” food drive challenge.
LOOKING BACK TO 2022: Click below for Hoosier Ag Today’s video congratulating the Jackson County 4-H for winning the 2022 “Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer” food drive challenge.
U.S. beef exports continued building momentum throughout the summer. USDA data says July beef exports totaled 110,419 metric tons, up seven percent from a year ago and the second largest of 2024.
Export value rose 12 percent to $910.0 million, also the second-highest this year. July growth was fueled by higher demand in Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, and the Middle East and ASEAN regions. From January through July, value increased six percent from last year despite a two percent drop in volume.
Pork exports were well above a year-ago levels in July, led by a record value for shipments to Mexico. Pork exports reached 24,210 metric tons in July, ten percent higher than last year.
Export value rose 13 percent to $710.5 million, fueled by a record $244.5 million for leading market Mexico.
Through the first seven months of 2024, exports were four percent above 2023 and export value rose six percent.
Source: NAFB News Service
An example of Red Crown Rot found in soybeans. Photo: Purdue Agricultural Communications.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/05204529/cj-wrap-hat-darcy-telenko-red-crown-rot-090524.mp3"]A fungal disease called Red Crown Rot has been found in Indiana’s soybean fields—and one of the nation’s leading crop pathologists wants farmers to know about it.
“Red Crown Rot is caused by a soil-borne fungus. As the name suggests, it affects the roots in the crown of the soybean,” according to Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor and Field Crop Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University.
The disease has been common in southern states for decades, but its appearance in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and other Midwest states is new.
She says Red Crown Rot was first found in Indiana just two years ago—but as of two weeks ago, it’s now been confirmed in five Indiana counties: Adams, Bartholomew, Decatur, Rush, and Spencer.
Telenko says the disease is a major yield robber.
“This pathogen pretty much eats up the root system, so we’ve seen up to 50-percent yield loss of those plants,” says Telenko. “The pods aren’t going to develop, there’s no root system to feed that plant, so some of those pockets where it’s found in a field will be severely hit with yield loss. It may not be widely spread through a field—maybe only 10-to-15 percent of those pockets have the disease.”
Telenko says that Red Crown Rot mimics a couple of other diseases that also impact soybeans.
“Your symptoms can mimic those of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), and then it also may mimic Brown Stem Rot as well, so it’s important for the growers to go out and look at the crown and see what’s really causing those early symptoms of where you have patches of yellowing soybeans going on in the field,” says Telenko.
Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor and Field Crop Plant Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University. Photo: Purdue Agricultural Communications / Tom Campbell.Like those diseases, Red Crown Rot can cause yellow speckling on leaves and interveinal necrosis and chlorosis, where the veins remain green and the tissue between veins yellows or browns.
Red Crown Rot differs from Sudden Death Syndrome because the leaves may stay attached instead of dropping. As the name implies, the disease also causes the crown, or area of stem near the soil line, to turn red. Fungal structures may appear on the red tissue, but they do not always appear.
Unlike Tar Spot in corn, she says the fungus that causes Red Crown Rot is spread through the soil.
“The fungus is only going to move when we move contaminated soil that are infected with the disease or infected debris, so it’s not going to move like we’ve seen Tar Spot move, which has aerial spores,” she says.
Unfortunately this late in the growing season, Telenko says there isn’t much that can be done to stop the issue if you find it in your soybean fields.
“What’s important now is to understand if they have the disease in their field so that they can make disease management decisions in the future,” she says.
Telenko wants to track the disease across the state, which is why she’s asking farmers to send along any suspected Red Crown Rot samples of soybeans to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory (PPDL).
“It’s important not only for [farmers] to confirm what disease is there, but also it’ll help us track how widespread this problem is really in Indiana,” she says.
Farmers can submit suspected Red Crown Rot samples of soybeans to the following address below at no charge.
Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory
Purdue University
915 Mitch Daniels Blvd., LSPS 116
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054
Farmers should ship samples early in the week with proper labeling. Each sample label should include the collection date, soybean variety, field zip code or county, and previous crop at that location.
If you have questions, contact the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory at ppdl-samples@purdue.edu or 765-494-7071.
Click HERE for IndianaCropPathology.com.
Close analysis reveals the fungal structures that many plants infected with Red Crown Rot develop.Red Crown Rot has many symptoms, including the formation of fungal structures near the roots.
U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/05230838/cj-wrap-hat-congressional-foreign-ownership-bill-090524.mp3"]Earlier this year, your state lawmakers in the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill that prevents China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other adversarial countries from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana. That bill was introduced by State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer), signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb, and took effect on July 1.
One lawmaker on Capitol Hill now wants to take Indiana’s law and turn it into a nationwide ban.
“This is about our country’s national security in ensuring that adversaries—like China, like Russia, like North Korea or Iran—do not gain a foothold on American soil,” says Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04). He introduced the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act on Aug. 30.
Newhouse says China’s ownership of U.S. farmland poses the greatest threat.
“The People’s Republic of China is only interested in reaping every possible benefit from U.S. land, without giving back or considering our future to sustain an independent energy and food production. The U.S. cannot become dependent on our adversaries for our domestic food supply,” says Newhouse.
Newhouse’s bill would add the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and to take necessary actions to prohibit the purchase of U.S. agricultural land or transactions by foreign adversaries—including land, biotechnology, transportation, storage, and processing. It also requires the Ag Secretary to report any transaction that can be considered a threat to national security.
Congressman John Moolenaar (R-MI-02) says he’s concerned about one company in particular, called Gotion.
“Gotion is a Chinese-based company that is buying farmland. It is a hundred miles from a National Guard location where a lot of training is done,” says Moolenaar.
Indiana’s law, which bans China and other adversarial countries from owning farmland, also prevents citizens from those specific counties from buying real estate within 10 miles of all military installations across the state.
House Republicans may try to attach several bills—including Newhouse’s bill—to a must-pass funding measure needed by the end of September to avert a government shutdown.
Last year, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) introduced similar legislation into the U.S. Senate called Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act. (S. 926).
Click HERE to read more about the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act.
Photo courtesy of Stewart Select Angus in Greensburg, Indiana.The Indiana Beef Cattle Association (IBCA), in partnership with Indiana Bull Evaluation Program (IBEP), are hosting the 2024 IBCA Field Day on Saturday. September 21 at 2 p.m. at Stewart Select Angus, located at 1601 N 200 E, Greensburg in Decatur County.
The IBCA Field Day is an afternoon event where beef producers can come together for fellowship, producer education and a farm tour.
Following the tour, Justin Sexten, Precision Animal Health at Zoetis will discuss genomics and the application to the commercial cattle industry.
Additionally, there will be a panel discussion on marketing featuring the following:
- Gordon Lowry, Marketing Report Specialist – Indiana State Department of Agriculture
- Danny Orr, Sulfur Creek Cattle Company
- Cody Gardner, Superior Livestock
- Adam Blessinger, Fischer Farms
All Indiana beef producers, and industry supporters are invited and encouraged to attend this free event. A dinner will be provided for attendees. Please RSVP to ewilson@indianabeef.org by Friday, Sept. 13 if you plan to attend.
The Indiana Beef Cattle Association is not-for-profit membership organization for Indiana beef producers and has a long and storied history of representing beef producers’ interests at the legislative and regulatory tables, in sharing industry information with those producers and in providing member services and support. The IBCA is committed to helping beef producers increase their profitability, develop a stronger beef operation and keep up to date with information critical to beef production.
For more information visit the Indiana Beef Cattle Association website at IndianaBeef.org.
Source: Indiana Beef Cattle Association
Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). Conner is also a native of Benton County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/04223139/cj-wrap-hat-chuck-conner-090424.mp3"]A federal judge in Georgia has blocked the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from enforcing a rule in Indiana and 16 other states that would prevent agricultural employers from retaliating against migrant workers with H-2A visas for joining labor unions.
The decision was made by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, who found the rule unconstitutional because it conflicted with the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by granting collective bargaining rights to farmworkers, a right that Congress has not legislated for under the H-2A program.
Agricultural laborers are explicitly excluded from the law’s definition of “employee” and are not entitled to collective bargaining rights, according to Wood.
“By implementing the final rule, the DOL has exceeded the general authority constitutionally afforded to agencies,” Wood wrote in the 38-page decision.
“We are thankful that the judge in Georgia has ‘tapped the brakes’ on this issue,” says Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). He is also a native of Benton County, Indiana.
“The biggest problem is Indiana is one of 17 states where it has been halted. We would like to see the judge’s ruling applied to all 50 states,” says Conner.
“We’ve got a lot of other states that are facing tremendous uncertainty here in terms of, ‘Is DOL enforcing it? Do I have to comply now? Do I not?’ There’s just a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the farm labor marketplace right now over the state of this rule.”
Conner said he had been pushing for farm labor reform, but he disagrees with how the Biden administration has been handling the issue.
“That’s what really makes it kind of frustrating because we have a bipartisan bill in Congress—the Farm Workforce Moderation Act of 2023 (H.R. 4319)—that has been there for so long that solves all of these problems in a way that has been supported by both the farmers as well as the farm worker labor unions, and we just can’t get Congress to [pass] it. All of this DOL action and the regulations they are putting in a place would be a non-issue really if Congress would just do its job.”
The Labor Department’s 600-page rule, officially called “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States,” was issued by the DOL in April but did not go into effect until June. That rule is still in effect in 33 other states—including each of Indiana’s surrounding states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois.
“Whatever is done needs to apply across the country,” he says. “It wouldn’t be fair to have one farmer with one set of rules—and when you cross over a state line, another farmer has a totally different set of rules, so we’re looking for uniformity, but we’re also looking for the right action as well.”
Conner says the DOL’s ruling only creates more financial burdens for farmers at a time when the Biden administration, the U.S. Labor Department, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be focusing on helping America’s farmers.
“We have seen a very sharp downturn based upon dropping commodity prices, and so anything that happened earlier this spring, you can multiply that by 10 times just given the state of play in terms of prices and economic outlook on the farm today versus what may have been the case earlier in the year,” says Conner.
CLICK HERE to read the 38-page decision written by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/04145816/make-congress-uncomfortable-wrap.mp3"]“Congress, I can tell you, they will do nothing if they’re not pushed,” says Ryan Yates, managing director of government affairs with the American Farm Bureau. “The only way to get Congress to do anything is to make them uncomfortable.”
Yates is encouraging you and other farmers to reach out and make them uncomfortable as they head back to D.C. next week with a lot on their plate and few work weeks left this year.
“The first issue is government funding. So, the fiscal year ends September 30th. Congress will need to either kick the can to the lame duck session after the election, or they could kick the can until early in the new year. Congress is late to the game when it comes to completing a farm bill. They’ve already kicked the can once. They failed to get it done last year and continue to fail in finding a path forward.”
He says farmers can’t afford for Congress to wait to solve these issues.
“Appropriations, federal funding, it’s a must do. Everybody knows it has to be done. Continuing to kick the can is a sad state of affairs. When it comes to the farm bill, the world looks a whole lot different in 2024 than it does in 2018. If you look at the state of the economy, the rural economy is in distress.”
Yates says farmers are typically good storytellers, and now is the time to tell that story to elected officials.
“One of the things that farmers and ranchers can continue to do is reach out, talk to their members of Congress, get to know their staff. Be heard.”
Source: NAFB News Service
AgriNovus Indiana is taking a deeper dive into the connection between artificial intelligence (AI) and agbiosciences at their upcoming QUADRANT event on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis.
When it comes to agbioscience, AI’s potential to unlock innovation has just begun. AgriNovus Indiana invites you to join them as they discuss our journey to the future, one where AI solves farmers’ most critical challenges.
Hear from the following leaders innovating in the space, emerging trends and technologies and its potential to transform agbioscience:
- Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation with Beck’s Hybrids
- Kristen Owen, Executive Director, Equity Research, Sustainable Growth + Resource Optimization with Oppenheimer + Co.
- Aaron Schact, CEO of BiomEdit
The event will be held at:
VisionLoft Stutz
1060 North Capitol Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Registration is from 3:30 – 4:00 p.m., the Program is 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., and the Networking Event is from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
The event is also presented by Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Insperity, and Keystone Cooperative.
RSVP: https://agrinovusindiana.formstack.com/forms/september182024
Click HERE for more information.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/03203110/short-corn-24-wrap.mp3"]It’ll certainly make corn mazes less fun, but research continues on short corn hybrids. Short-stature corn hybrids are commercially available from some suppliers now, but there are still some obstacles to overcome.
“From what I’ve seen in a lot of the stuff that we’ve done, the short corn hybrids just aren’t quite yet there when it comes to yield,” says Aaron Carmer, PFR Location Lead for Beck’s Hybrids at their Atlanta, Indiana headquarters. “But, as with anything, we’ll get a little bit closer as time goes on.”
Carmer discusses the research they’re doing to improve yield and profitability.
“We’re looking at it in different row widths and populations. We’re looking at how much nitrogen do we need on short corn? Do we need more or less than we do on conventional corn? We’re also looking at fungicide applications. That’s a big thing with the short corn. Everybody’s looking at the short corn, because if we can get across it with some of our low clearance sprayers, not everybody’s got a Hagie or a newer John Deere, right? So, these shorter hybrids, we can get across them a lot easier with older sprayers or lower sprayers, and that’s the big thing.”
Carmer believes we’ll start to see more short-stature corn sooner rather than later- certainly within the decade. He does throw out one piece of caution.
“We talk about weather and short corn being really good for some of these windstorms. Just this year, in June, we had some pretty wicked wind come through here and do a little bit of damage to our corn. But also, here in Indiana specifically, and as we move east a little bit, we think about sometimes we deal some of these clay knobs where ear height might already be an issue. So, the current short corn hybrids, our ears are pretty daggone low. So, I’m leery to move some of this stuff as we go east, just when we get onto some of those clay knobs and things like that where we’re dealing with height issues already. Again, I think that’ll come back to some of the advancements where we can maybe get the ear a little bit higher on the plant.”
That’s why he thinks it won’t necessarily be next year or the year after before we see widespread adoption. Learn more about Beck’s and their PFR (Practical Farm Research) at beckshybrids.com.
Farmers are feeling less optimistic about the future of the ag economy, according to the latest survey from Purdue University.
“More people are pointing to lower crop and livestock prices as their top concern this month. That was chosen by 30 percent of the people in the survey,” says Dr. Jim Mintert, Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
That was ranked as the Number Two concern overall for the 400 U.S. farmers who took part in the monthly Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey, which was taken between Aug. 12-16, 2024.
He says that higher input costs remain as the Number One overall concern for farmers.
“But that really hasn’t changed over time. It was chosen by 33 percent. The relationship between ‘Lower Crop and Livestock Prices’ and ‘Higher Input Costs’ is the narrowest that gap has been since we have been collecting data,” according to Mintert.
“For example, a year ago, only 20 percent of the people in the survey chose ‘Lower Crop and Livestock Prices’ as their top concern. This month, it’s up to 30 percent—almost eclipsing that higher input cost,” he says.
Mintert adds that the drop in farm incomes will likely lead to fewer farmers deciding to spend money on their farm—such as building new barns or buying new equipment.
“Clearly, as we progress through 2024, more and more farmers are worried about farm profitability. That’s one of the reasons they’re thinking about holding back on investments,” says Mintert.
Dr. Michael Langemeier, Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, points out that not all producers are feeling the squeeze from lower commodity prices, which is likely why ‘Higher Grain and Livestock Prices’ isn’t the Number One overall concern in their latest survey.
“Approximately 20 percent of the survey is cattle producers,” according to Langemeier. “They’re looking at some fairly good times right now, and so there is a group that are surveyed that are looking at fairly strong returns compared to the other 80 percent, and that’s pretty sobering.”
CLICK HERE to read the latest survey results.
CLICK BELOW to watch Dr. Jim Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier discuss the results of the latest Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/02182731/purdue-ag-alum-ag-day-wrap.mp3"]There was much to celebrate at Purdue’s Ross-Ade Stadium Saturday afternoon. In addition to the Boilermakers kicking off the season with a 49-0 win over Indiana State with an impressive performance by quarterback Hudson Card who tied the all-time FBS record for completion percentage completing 24-25 passes (that’s 96% for those doubting my math skills) for 273 yards and 4 TDs, it was also Purdue Ag Day!
The Purdue Ag Alumni Association held their annual tailgate before the game.
“We are thrilled! We have almost doubled the registration from the last two years,” says Danica Kirkpatrick, Executive Director of the Purdue Ag Alumni Association. “So, we’re so excited to have almost 400 people here today.”
Kirkpatrick credits their sponsors for the increase in attendance this year- Keystone Cooperative, Indiana Farm Bureau, and Farm Credit Mid-America.
She says the tailgate is a great billboard for the association and it brings alumni back to campus so they can remind them about all the other things the association does throughout the year.
“We can remind them that we do homecoming later in September, and we also have the annual Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry, and then there’s all kinds of other ways to work with us. So, we’re actually planning a trip to New Zealand in March and we have an open opportunity for our alumni to join us on that. And we have regional events throughout the year all the time, down in Indianapolis or on campus.”
If you’re a graduate of the Purdue College of Agriculture and you want to get more involved, Kirkpatrick says you can check out their website or find them on social media.
“We’re on LinkedIn. We’re on X. We’re on Facebook, and we’re on Instagram. A lot of our activities and programs and highlights of our grants and student programs are also on there. So, if you are on social media, you should definitely follow us.”
Producers are invited to attend Stockmanship with Curt Pate this September. The dual-session event will highlight the increased economic benefits of handling livestock correctly. Purdue University Extension, the Indiana Forage Council, the Indiana Sheep Association and the Indiana Beef Cattle Association will host the event.
Pate, a nationally renowned stockman, will discuss his decades-long experiences incorporating effective stockmanship principles that support a for-profit mindset. He will consider growing public scrutiny surrounding livestock production as he addresses the impact that correct livestock-handling practices have on the sustainability of the cattle and small ruminant industries.
Sessions offered at the Southern Indiana Purdue Agriculture Center (SIPAC), near Dubois, include:
- Beef-focused program | Sept. 27, 2024, 1-7 p.m. ET.
- Sheep- and goat-focused program | Sept. 28, 2024, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.
Jason Tower, SIPAC superintendent, says, “This will be a very hands-on event. Mr. Pate will demonstrate proper livestock-handling techniques outside, allowing producers to observe and understand how and why animals react the way they do to our movements and positioning.”
Keith Johnson, professor of agronomy and Extension forage specialist, says, “Learning proper techniques to work with livestock is a lifelong skill. Low-stress handling of livestock results in less stress and anxiety to the livestock owner. Proper livestock handling also reduces the possibility of injuries to the livestock and producer.”
The deadline to register is Sept. 21. Payment is required for attendance. Contact Tower at towerj@purdue.edu or 812-678-4427 with questions or requests for special accommodations.
The Panama Canal is lifting restrictions that caused a global shipping bottleneck as water levels get back to near normal after a severe drought.
Farm Policy News says the Panama Canal Authority increased the draft in the waterway to a maximum of 50 feet and will allow 36 vessels a day to cross after recent rains lifted water levels at an artificial lake that forms part of the canal system. The Authority is also expecting rains to continue through November, further lifting water levels.
About 30 to 32 vessels are currently traveling through the waterway, and that’s still below pre-drought capacity. The canal had restricted daily transits to as few as 24 while the drought was ongoing, and it will likely take five to six months for shippers to return in full.
Rainfall is expected to lift water levels to 88 feet by November from current levels of around 85.8 feet of water.
Ryan Skaar, co-founder and COO of NanoBio Designs. He spoke with Hoosier Ag Today during the AgriNovus Indiana QUADRANT event on July 17. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.A new ag company based in Indiana is working to make things much easier for grain elevators, export terminals and food processors.
“So, we like to say that we want to make genetic detection ‘No Big Deal’ for harvested grain distributors and seed suppliers across the U.S. and globally,” says Ryan Skaar, co-founder and COO of NanoBio Designs.
He and his team have developed a new DNA test for grain buyers to use on harvested corn and soybeans to check for different traits.
“How do we track those traits across as a supply chain—so whether that’s GMO or non-GMO. It could be soybeans or corn grown for ethanol purposes or pharmaceutical purposes,” he says. “Some of the technology used to track those traits across the supply chain are a little bit inefficient. You have to take samples, send them off to a lab, and wait three or four days. Meanwhile, you just had 50 trucks roll into an elevator and if you’re a farmer, you’re waiting for your grain to get approved, or if you’re an elevator, you’re waiting to get that grain marketed and on to the next spot.”
He says NanoBio Designs has developed a device that can be used on-site to speed up the process.
“We’re trying to put a genetic detection device in a cartridge system at every single elevator so that they can validate the traits that are moving across their supply chains and market those effectively so that they’re validated across the supply chain,” he says.
According to Skaar, their on-site grain DNA detection tests could save the ag industry billions of dollars.
“A while back, China had ejected a large load of StarLink corn. That can lead to a $2 billion economic loss. Because that grain was rejected, where do you send that grain? If we can actively track our traits across the supply chain and provide that information, we can reduce risks of cross-contamination of different varieties—as well as make sure that they’re getting into their intended purposes to provide that value that that farmer grew it for and what that elevator is marketing that grain towards.”
Read more about the new technology from Indiana-based NanoBio Designs at NanoBioDesigns.com.
CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s news story on NanoBio Designs.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/01232247/cj-wrap-hat-nanobio-designs-083024.mp3"]CLICK BELOW to learn more about the story of NanoBio Designs.
https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/01232924/nanobio_designs_v2_adobeexpress_133.mp4
Global demand for U.S. soybeans has fallen sharply as international buyers remain discouraged by the strong dollar, slowing economic growth, and uncertainty over the direction of U.S. trade policy in an election year.
Export sales of new-crop soybeans are historically low as the 2024-2025 marketing year begins on Sunday, Sept. 1.
A new report says tailwinds could emerge to rejuvenate demand for U.S. soybeans in the upcoming marketing year.
CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange issued a brief saying the pace of early season soybean export sales historically has a low correlation with the final marketing year export numbers.
With a record U.S. soybean harvest expected this fall, continued weakness in prices will likely attract new export demand.
Factors that could increase soybean exports could include a smaller-than-expected South American soybean harvest, a bump in EU demand for soybeans from non-forested acreage, falling U.S. interest rates, and a Chinese economic recovery that could fuel higher demand.
CLICK BELOW to hear Brian Basting with Advance Trading discuss soybean exports as harvest season is set to begin within the next several weeks.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/09/01120624/hat010-083024.mp3"]Source: NAFB News Service
The seventh annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day will take place at Purdue University’s Meigs Horticulture Research Farm in Lafayette, Ind., on Wednesday, Sept. 11 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The event is sponsored by Purdue University Extension, Glacial Drift Enterprises and The Land Connection. Regional farmers are invited to hear from national experts on weeding tools and techniques for vegetables and row crops.
Attendees will be able to network with farmers across the country and Canada. Other events include the opportunity to see weeding tools of all scales, like two-wheel tractors and 12-row camera-guided cultivators, watch field demonstrations of weeding machines, hear from company representatives, and connect with companies and suppliers at the trade show.
The trade show and educational sessions will take place in the morning and field demos will take place in the afternoon.
Ashley Adair, Extension organic agriculture specialist, says, “This field day provides growers with a rare opportunity to see so many kinds of equipment in action on a working farm. It’s also a great way to meet like-minded folks in the ag community — whether you’re organic, organic-curious or simply looking down a different path for weed control.”
The deadline to register and guarantee lunch is Wednesday (Sept. 4). On-site registration is also available. The cost to attend is $75 per person. For questions, contact Adair at 765-496-6362, or Sam Oschwald Tilton, Glacial Drift Enterprises owner, at 414-213-5337.
Source: Purdue Agricultural Communications
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/29215745/ag-trade-deficit-record-wrap.mp3"]“A lot of this is tied to falling commodity prices.”
That’s how USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer explains why USDA is projecting a record trade deficit next year. It’s not just sharply declining commodity prices. Other factors include, “a slower Chinese economy, continued strength of the U.S. dollar, China diversifying its sources for trade, perhaps a little bit weaker on export competitiveness for ourselves.”
All this is leading to a bigger trade deficit despite rising exports.
“$4 billion to $169 billion for exports, an increase of $8 billion on imports, to a total of $212 billion for fiscal year ’25, which means a rising trade deficit of $42.5 billion forecast for fiscal year ’25.”
This USDA forecast comes amid declining economic conditions in farm country, compounded by the lack of a farm bill.
It also follows an intense policy debate over the value of free trade deals that the administration’s moved away from, but both parties’ lawmakers argue are a must to open export markets.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/30031921/sabrina-wrap-hat-improving-us-ag-trade-082924.mp3"]As the USDA is projecting a $42.5 billion U.S. ag trade deficit for fiscal year 2025, a new congressional caucus is working to improve U.S. ag trade and trade-related policies.
The bipartisan Congressional Agricultural Trade Caucus was launched earlier this year by four members of the U.S. House—two are Republican and two are Democrat.
The lawmakers say their goal in creating the caucus is to solidify support for trade policies that benefit all those along the food and agricultural supply chains.
Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE-03), who serves as co-chair, highlights work of the Caucus.
“We have been promoting the aspects of why trade is important. I think sometimes U.S. agriculture is taken for granted in terms of the overall trade agenda,” Smith said. “We want to make sure that stakeholders hear from us and that we have good interaction, good conversations of saying, ‘OK, here what a particular trade policy means’ ultimately to producers and to consumers.”
Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE-03).The Caucus recently sent a letter to the Ambassador of Colombia to the United States expressing concerns regarding investigation into U.S. exports of powdered milk products.
“We export about fifteen percent of our dairy. We have very efficient production. I think we want to look at opportunities to increase that number. Other countries get very protective,” he said. “Canada is a prime example that they get very protective of their own dairy production. So, we’re going to have to engage more though to explain to other countries that opening this up is good for their consumers, good for their industry and we can benefit from that as well.”
Smith is one of four founders and co-chairs of the caucus. The others are Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19), Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA-21), and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD-At-Large).
The caucus may have a lot of work ahead to correct the projected U.S. ag trade deficit for fiscal year 2025. According to USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer, sharply declining commodity prices, as well as a slower Chinese economy, continued strength of the U.S. dollar, and China diversifying its sources for trade are among the top factors that have led to the recent ag trade deficit.
Photo courtesy of Vincennes University.Vincennes University has recognized five distinguished faculty with inaugural Ro and Shorty Whittington Professorships to support agricultural education.
The endowed faculty positions are the first in VU history and the professorships will help VU stay competitive in attracting and keeping the best faculty.
The professorships were created in April with a gift of $750,000 from Ro and Shorty Whittington of Columbus, Indiana.
Ro and Charles “Shorty” Whittington of Columbus, Indiana, who have made a $750,000 donation to Vincennes University to create new faculty positions to support ag education. Photo provided by Vincennes University.Shorty Whittington founded Grammer Logistics, an Indiana-based trucking company that serves as an over-the-road transporter of grain and crop protection products serving the agricultural industry.
The Whittingtons are long-time philanthropists and have supported 4-H youth through scholarships for several decades. Their recent gift continues their legacy of giving.
“My wife and I have a real desire to build up kids to get them where they need to be,” said Shorty Whittington. “Our objective is to invest in Vincennes University faculty and help them make things better. We want to make things available for young people to help them grow and help get them jump-started. I farmed for a long time, and if you plant a seed and you take care of that seed it grows.”
Their generous donation will bolster VU’s expertise in agriculture innovation and support the University’s partnerships with industry leaders such as John Deere and Columbus-based Cummins.
“Professorships, such as these, are a tremendous asset in VU’s ability to maintain academic excellence. Ro and Shorty Whittington’s tremendous support also plays a vital role in ensuring the long-term success of our students,” says VU Provost Dr. Laura Treanor.
The first individuals appointed to Ro and Shorty Whittington Professorships are the following VU faculty members:
- Larry Bland, Ro and Shorty Whittington Professor and Instructor of Diesel Technology (John Deere)
- Chad Hill, Ro and Shorty Whittington Professor and Instructor of Diesel Technology (John Deere)
- Jeramy Smith, Ro and Shorty Whittington Professor and Instructor of Diesel Technology (Cummins)
- Jennifer Steffy, Ro and Shorty Whittington Professor, Assistant Professor of Agribusiness, and Chair of Agribusiness and Horticulture
- Larry Stremming, Ro and Shorty Whittington Professor, Instructor of Diesel Technology, and Program Director (John Deere and Cummins)
More about Ro and Shorty Whittington Professorship recipients:
Larry Bland
Bland graduated from the first VU John Deere Tech Program in 1995. After graduation, he continued working for his sponsoring dealership for 14 years, during which he attended many John Deere training seminars, furthering his education and becoming a John Deere master mechanic. He later worked for a local farmer as an agricultural mechanic and diesel equipment operator. Bland returned to VU as a diesel instructor in 2010 as an adjunct for the Diesel Technology Program. He was promoted to a full-time instructor in 2011. In 2021, Bland was promoted again to the John Deere program director role as well as an instructor.
Chad Hill
Hill is a dedicated professional with a rich and varied background. A U.S. Air Force and Indiana Air National Guard veteran with 12 years of service, Chad transitioned to civilian life with the same commitment and work ethic. Hill’s diverse industry experience, from his time as an aviation ground support technician to his roles as a highway maintainer, support mechanic, and finally, an airport manager, has provided him with a strong foundation for his current role as a Diesel Technology instructor at VU. Since joining VU in 2022, Hill has focused on training the next generation of technicians in the John Deere Technician Program, drawing on his extensive background to be an effective and inspiring educator. His love for learning is reflected in his interest in the latest advancements in agricultural technology and equipment.
Jeramy Smith
As an instructor in the Diesel Technology program, Smith is deeply committed to fostering student success through an engaging and supportive learning environment. His teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that every student can excel when equipped with the right tools and opportunities, which is why he employs various instructional methods, including audiovisual aids, hands-on experiences, and real-world applications, to accommodate diverse learning styles. His dedication to continuous improvement is evident in his regular pursuit of feedback and professional development, ensuring that his teaching methods remain current and effective. His background as a technical sergeant in the U.S. Air Force has profoundly influenced his approach, instilling his values of discipline, integrity, and service, which he brings to the classroom to promote an inclusive, diverse, and academically rigorous environment.
Jennifer Steffy
As the Agribusiness and Horticulture Department chair since 2021, the VU alumnus has been instrumental in shaping the curriculum, developing course structures and advising students from certificate to bachelor’s levels. Steffy’s role also involves recruiting, organizing departmental events, and overseeing class schedules for instructors. She also manages grant applications to secure necessary equipment and materials, and actively participates in the Presidential Advisory Committee, Faculty Advisory Board and Budget and Finance Committee. She advises and sponsors two student organizations, the Collegiate Farm Bureau and the VU Livestock Team. Her professional background is further enriched by her involvement in various agricultural and educational organizations, including her current role as the NBHA District IN 05 director, and previous roles such as Knox County 4-H Beef Barn superintendent and Purdue Extension Board member. Her academic foundation includes an associate degree in General Agriculture from VU, a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from Purdue University and a master’s degree in Agricultural Science from Auburn University.
Larry Stremming
Stremming is in his 15th year in VU’s Diesel Technology Department. He possesses a background in the agricultural environment, having started his career in 1980 as a John Deere technician. He later transitioned to a service management position. Stremming began teaching at VU in 2010. He holds training certificates with Freightliner, Cummins-Meritor and Cummins Engines. On the Cummins Engines and Power Generation, he holds the QTQ (Qualify the Qualifier) status in Diesel, Gas, and Gaseous (Natural and Propane) Engines. Within Power Generation, he holds the same QTQ status in their NFPA 70E Electrical Safety, Basic Power Generation, and Planned and Preventive Maintenance/Load Banking courses.
Source: Vincennes University
Following the launch of Pioneer® brand Z-Series soybeans earlier this year, Alex Harrell of Leesburg, Georgia, set a new world record of 218.2856 bu/A with Z-Series variety P49Z02E. Verified by the University of Georgia extension, Harrell broke his previous world record of 206 bu/A set in 2023.
“Congratulations to Alex on this milestone soybean yield achievement,” said Luke Davies, Pioneer U.S. Marketing Lead. “We’re excited to see these results with our new class of soybeans. Alex is proving that Z-Series soybeans represent the next performance step forward for soybean farmers, with a generational leap in yield and agronomics.”
When Harrell learned about the new genetics and yield potential with Z-Series soybeans, he decided to give the new soybeans a try for the 2024 growing season. Last year, Pioneer® brand A-Series soybeans performed well so he was eager to see if Z-Series soybeans could unlock even better results.
“We planted five fields with Z-Series varieties and right when they emerged, I knew they were special beans,” Harrell said. “Emergence was perfect – we had a picket fence stand all the way across the field and I knew from that point on that these beans had potential.”
Harrell kept a close eye on his Z-Series soybean fields all season long and saw overall improved plant health and clean rows.
“From an agronomic standpoint, we noticed that the beans were staying healthier longer and greener later. We had extreme heat this year, but they never really got stressed – the beans kept blooming and the pods kept growing,” Harrell said. “These varieties have the Enlist E3 soybean trait and we used the Enlist system to control weeds and we had nothing but clean fields. Overall, we were very impressed with these bean fields all season long.”
When selecting next year’s varieties, Harrell encourages farmers not to be afraid of trying this new class of soybeans.
“If you’re considering planting Z-Series soybeans next year, I’d say, go for it. It’s amazing to see how much bigger the actual beans are compared to other varieties – even without intense management,” Harrell noted. “I even noticed improved yields in my standard production fields with Z-Series soybeans.”
Pioneer launched Z-Series soybeans with limited availability for the 2024 planting season and will have greater quantities available for 2025. Z-Series soybean varieties range from relative maturity 00.3 to relative maturity 6.4 – providing farmers across North America access to varieties that fit their needs.
To learn more about Pioneer brand Z-Series soybeans, talk with your local Pioneer sales representative or visit Pioneer.com/ZSeries.
Source: Corteva Press Release
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/28161559/west-central-indiana-harvest-getting-close.mp3"]West Central Indiana crops continue to look very good, and with another round of rain it could be a perfect ending to the season. In a Channel Seeds growing season update, Eric Wornhoff, a field sales representative at Channel Seeds covering West Central Indiana, says early Wednesday morning storms didn’t produce that inch of rain he would have liked.
“No, according to my Climate Fieldview, I’ve got fields mapped from Lafayette towards Attica all the way down towards Veedersburg and Danville, Indiana and a couple tenths is all I saw just west and then maybe a little bit around the Lafayette area,” he said. “But, points south it was very sporadic, more of a fireworks show of some lightning through the middle of the night and not much precipitation from that.”
The crops look pretty good in Wornhoff’s territory. But late tar spot that has come in, even after fields were sprayed after tassel, could be a concern.
“The fortunate thing for us, I think we’re far enough ahead in most cases, we’re close enough to black layer where this disease is going to maybe limit standability, but it’s not going to be a detriment to a big yield loss. Now some of the areas that sprayed too early where tar spot is coming in, you know a half milk line or so, those are some fields that are at risk, and I think a lot of those growers need to be paying attention to those fields.”
(Pictured is low tar spot on Boone County corn treated with Delaro Complete. Picture courtesy of Eric Wornhoff, Channel Seeds)
He says the soybean crop looks “really, really” good.
“Pod set has been good,” he explained. “A lot of high management fields where there were fungicide and insecticide treatments at R1, R2 and R3 range are looking good, podding well. I think the bean crop can be pretty stable, but you do start to see a little bit of sudden death.”
Wornhoff’s number one message going into harvest is stay safe. Hear more of those timely thoughts in the full HAT and Channel Seeds growing season update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/28161528/eric-wornhoff-8-28-24-update.mp3"]
Sean Yokomizo of Davis, CA-based InnerPlant demonstrates the technology during a field day at Peterson Farms Seed in Southeastern North Dakota. Photo: Sabrina Halvorson / Hoosier Ag Today.It sounds like the kind of agbioscience technology that you would find in a science fiction movie!
An agtech company called InnerPlant has developed new technology that allows corn and soybean plants to give off signals that can be picked up by satellites and drones to let farmers know about plant stresses weeks before those you can actually see those stresses on the plant!
The company—which is based in Davis, California, near Sacramento—says that their new crop technology emits specific optical signals when they’re under stress from pathogen attacks, such as fungal infections.
Sean Yokomizo, Vice President of Communications for InnerPlant, says those signals are visible from satellites weeks before the stress is visible to the human eye at field level.
He explained that plants have an immune response just like humans and when they’re stressed, they react at the molecular level. InnerPlant tracks those molecular sites and inserts another piece of DNA so that when the plant is reacting to a specific stress, it creates a fluorescent protein. That florescence is detectable from space.
Sean Yokomizo of Davis, CA-based InnerPlant demonstrates the technology during a field day at Peterson Farms Seed in Southeastern North Dakota. Photo: Sabrina Halvorson / Hoosier Ag Today.“The cool thing about that is [the stress is detected] very early because it’s tied to the plant’s immune response. So, within 24 hours of infection or stress, it begins to emit the signal and that is four to six weeks before it would be detectable in the field,” Yokomizo said.
Agronomists can use that data to treat the individual plant that’s under stress, which means only treating plants that need it, catching problems very early, and using less chemicals in precise treatments. Yokomizo says the technology can collect a lot of data, but the farmer won’t have to weed through a lot of unneeded information to get the data they need.
“We’ve designed this system to be very straightforward. It’s contained in the seed and farmers know how to work seeds. They plant them, they grow them, and then we provide the recommendation based on the signal,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of data going on behind the scenes, but we’re providing the farmer with a usable, simple tool that’s indicative of early action.”
Yokomizo said that early action is a crucial component.
“Knowing your house is on fire is a great thing to know, but wouldn’t it be better to know like, hey, there’s smoke coming from your kitchen, you should do something about it now? And that’s the that’s the loop that we’re trying to close for farmers, to give them actionable information that’s early enough so they can take that action and preserve their yields before they’re impacted.”
For more information, visit InnerPlant.com.
USDA is forecasting the agricultural trade deficit to increase sharply to a record $42.5 billion in the coming fiscal year. That compares to $30.5 billion this fiscal year, which ends September 30.
The widening trade gap, a source of frustration for many farmers and ag-state lawmakers, reflects an expected $8 billion increase in agricultural imports in fiscal year 2025 to $212 billion and a $4 billion drop in exports to $169.5 billion.
The decline is primarily driven by lower corn, soybean, and cotton prices, as well as lower volumes of beef.
Horticultural exports are projected to rise by $1.2 billion to a record $41.5 billion due to higher exports across all categories. Ethanol exports are forecast at $4.3 billion, unchanged from the revised FY 2024 projection.
Agricultural exports to Mexico are forecast at $29.2 billion, $100 million below the prior fiscal year. Exports to Canada are unchanged at $28.9 billion.
The USDA announced the availability of updated guidelines that make recommendations to strengthen the documentation that supports animal-raising or environment-related claims on meat or poultry product labels. The action builds on the work USDA has already undertaken to protect consumers from false and misleading labels.
“These updates will help level the playing field for businesses who are truthfully using these claims and ensure that people can trust the labels when they buy meat and poultry products,” says Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Animal-raising claims like “Raised Without Antibiotics” or “Grass-Fed” and environmental claims like “Raised Using Regenerative Agriculture Practices” are voluntary marketing claims detailing certain aspects of how the animals are raised or how the producers maintain and improve the environment.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service reviews the evidence to support these claims that can only be included on meat and poultry labels once they’ve been approved by the agency.
A federal judge in Georgia has blocked the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from enforcing a rule in Indiana and 16 other states that would prevent agricultural employers from retaliating against migrant workers with H-2A visas for joining labor unions.
The decision was made by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, who found the rule unconstitutional because it conflicted with the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by granting collective bargaining rights to farmworkers, a right that Congress has not legislated for under the H-2A program.
Agricultural laborers are explicitly excluded from the law’s definition of “employee” and are not entitled to collective bargaining rights, according to Wood.
“By implementing the final rule, the DOL has exceeded the general authority constitutionally afforded to agencies,” Wood wrote in the 38-page decision.
Quoting a line from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2001 opinion in Alexander v. Sandoval, Wood wrote, “’Agencies may play the sorcerer’s apprentice but not the sorcerer himself.’ The final rule is an attempt by the DOL to play the sorcerer. The DOL may assist Congress, but may not become Congress.”
The 600-page rule, officially called “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States,” was issued by the DOL in April but did not go into effect until June.
When the rule was introduced by the DOL in April, Hoosier Ag Today spoke with Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC), who called the rule “problematic”.
“Pitting individual farmers out there against Union organizers and basically anybody else that [farm workers] would like to bring on our farms and ranches to oversee these farm operations is just not the direction we should be going at this point,” said Conner. “Our farmers do not need any burden placed upon them in these kind of times.”
In April, Conner said he had been pushing for farm labor reform, but disagreed completely with how the Biden administration was handling the issue.
“Our hope and our goal for labor reform is to increase access to workers for American agriculture. It’s not to go down the path of these proposed Biden rules that are now going final, which is basically to give workers unprecedented rights to disrupt farm production on these farms and ranches,” said Conner. “Our goal is quite the opposite. We want these farms and ranchers to have full access to as much labor as they need to keep food production in this country and not overseas somewhere.”
In addition to Indiana, the other 16 states that had sued the DOL over the initial rule were: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
CLICK HERE to read the 38-page decision written by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood.
Beck’s Hybrids held their annual Becknology Days over the weekend and had record attendance on days 1 and 2. Always on display at Becknology Days is their PFR- Practical Farm Research.
This year, Beck’s Director of Research, Agronomy, and PFR, Jim Schwartz, showed us their Root Reveal Research that’s working to classify the root structure and volume of each of their corn hybrids.
“If I could understand how root architecture might impact three things- populations, stress tolerance, and then my nitrogen placement- could I derisk some of this for the farmer? In other words, we’ve had so many times over the years where we’ll sell a hybrid to a farmer and it doesn’t work. We’re like, ‘Well, why didn’t it work? What happened?’ And we believe we might learn a little bit more from the architecture, studying the architecture, of the plant and its roots.”
Schwartz says that studies from the University of Illinois have shown that root volume impacts corn yield by as much as 50 bushels per acre depending on the soil fertility systems. Penn State University has done a lot of research in this area as well.
“They believe that more vertical roots will perform better in stressful environments, low-moisture environments, and maybe even low-nitrogen environments, and our data tends to support that. So, if I’m under moisture stress, and the architecture of my hybrid is such that it grows more horizontally across the top of the soil, it’s not following the moisture line as it moves down through the soil as well as a vertically rooted hybrid. And so yeah, we believe that understanding how the hybrids are growing underground could unlock some of the mysteries that we’ve not really understood up to this point.”
Schwartz emphasizes that there are no bad roots. The roots just need to match your farm and your farming practices. Watch the video of the Root Reveal below captured over the weekend from Becknology Days and also listen to the full interview with Schwartz.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/27145301/jim-schwartz-becks-root-reveal.mp3"]
The Asian Longhorned Beetle. Photo courtesy of the UC Riverside Center for Invasive Species Research.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/27153034/cj-wrap-hat-ifwoa-asian-longhorn-beetle-082724.mp3"]If you’re an Indiana woodland owner, you should be on the lookout for an invasive insect called the Asian Longhorned Beetle that could cause major damage to your trees.
“This is one of those insects that we kind of wish didn’t exist, so we very tightly control and act on them as soon as we find them,” according to Bob Bruner, Exotic Forest Pest Educator with Purdue University’s Department of Entomology.
“The damage that it does is so intense that it’s actually fatal to most trees,” he says. “What they do is they bore into the tree and they go past the bark deep into the wood where they’ll consume a lot of the tissue. Unfortunately, trees just can’t survive the level of damage they do. Eventually you’ll see the limbs die back, the leaves fall off, and the tree will eventually become brittle and won’t stay standing very well, so the trees themselves become dangerous too.”
Unlike the Emerald Ash Borer that killed millions of ash trees across Indiana and the Midwest, the Asian Longhorned Beetle can cause widespread damage to many different species of trees.
“Ones that we would be looking out for here in Indiana include Ash as well, but you’ll also be looking at Birch, Elm, Hackberry, Chestnut, Maple, and I believe Poplar and Willow are also on that list,” says Bruner.
“Many of these trees are planted for timber purposes, so you can see that there’s a lot of potential for damage to areas where people have a lot of investment.”
The Asian Longhorned Beetle. Photo courtesy of Purdue Extension.Bruner says the pests are easy to identify.
“You’re going to be looking for a large beetle that’s going to be shiny black with white dots on its body,” he says. “There are a couple of beetles that look like that—one of them is called a Pine Sawyer Beetle—but what you’re looking for here is a beetle that’s going to be so shiny black, that it will almost have a blue sheen to it. It will also have very long antenna that stretch much farther past the length of its body.
“You can also look in the trees that it’s around and if you can find a circular hole in the tree that’s about big enough to put a number two pencil in, that’s going to be a sign that Asian Longhorned Beetle has emerged from that tree and it’s a good time to start looking closer for the bug itself,” says Bruner.
One reason for the spread of the insect is through the purchase and movement of untreated firewood. When traveling, leave firewood at home and purchase what you need locally or choose certified, heat-treated firewood to help prevent the spread of invasive insects.
Bruner adds if you see the Asian Longhorned Beetle in your woodlands, call the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) right away at 1-866-NO-EXOTIC. You’re also asked to photograph the beetle or tree damage. If you can, capture the beetle in a durable container and freeze it. This helps preserve the insect for identification.
“This is one of the most tightly regulated insects amongst tree pests. You can actually look up on the USDA’s website for them and they map out areas where infestations are known and what they’re doing about those infestations.”
You can also report invasive insect pests—as well as invasive plants and animals—at ReportInvasive.com.
Click BELOW to hear the full conversation with Bob Bruner, Exotic Forest Pest Educator with Purdue University, as he also discusses the negative impact of the Spotted Lanternfly.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/27153301/bob-bruner-exotic-forest-pests-raw-audio-082724.mp3"]For more information about the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association, visit IFWOA.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/26194012/blake-agrinovus-wrap.mp3"]Blake Talbert graduated from Franklin College recently with a degree in computer science and data science. He knew that degree would be beneficial in today’s computer and data-driven world, but he didn’t know it would drive him toward agriculture, not until he made the connection with AgriNovus Indiana through their Field Atlas program that helps build awareness of the agbioscience industry and connects college students with careers and on-farm experiences.
Blake connected with AgriNovus during his sophomore year, and he’s learned a lot since then about how he could contribute to the ag industry.
Blake Talbert, Franklin College“I think, as a data scientist, more analysis needs to be done and more technology can be implemented with farming to improve efficiency, especially moving towards sustainability. I think technology and data science will play a huge role.”
Blake tells Hoosier Ag Today that a lot of the data gathered now goes to companies. He’d like to get more of that data in the hands of farmers and help them learn what do with it to really unleash their potential of data-driven decision making.
He says without this connection to AgriNovus and the Field Atlas platform, he likely never would have thought about the ag industry as a potential career opportunity.
“It not only made the difference and made me consider it- I think that was huge- but it also gave me a step in. I’m currently interning at a farm consultancy, and if I didn’t have that experience with AgriNovus where I could say, ‘Hey, I’m a data scientist. I’m not from a traditional agriculture background, but I can do these projects in agriculture, and I can understand the field.’ I think it both gave me confidence and it gave my employer confidence that I had that skill.”
Help spread the word- learn more about the Field Atlas program at the AgriNovus Indiana website.
Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana’s corn and soybean crops are both rated at 71 percent good-to-excellent, according to the USDA’s Weekly Crop Progress Report.
Last week, corn was rated at 73 percent, while the state’s soybean crop ratings were at 72 percent good-to-excellent.
Across the U.S., 65 percent of the nation’s corn and 67 percent of soybean crops are rated in good-to-excellent condition.
84 percent of Indiana’s corn is in the dough stage, 43 percent is dented, and four percent is now mature—all of which are well above their respective five-year averages.
Meanwhile, 90 percent of Indiana’s soybeans are setting pods and seven percent are dropping leaves, which are also both above their five-year averages.
Source: USDA
Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodity Economist with StoneX. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/26160107/cj-wrap-hat-suderman-on-interest-rate-cuts-082624.mp3"]Interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve may be on the way.
“The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last Friday.
However, Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist with StoneX, believes that rate cuts may not be as sharp—or should happen as often—as some are expecting.
“Right now, the market is pricing in expectations for a 25 basis-point rate cut in the September meeting, and I do think that will happen. I’m not necessarily in agreement with it,” says Suderman.
He believes that any rate cuts that happen this month will likely be made to appease the market.
“I think the Fed clearly knows what the market expects, and at the last meeting and the recent comments that have been made in public, it has done nothing to dispel that thinking of a rate cut in September.”
He also says a 50 basis-point rate cut for this month—which is half a percentage point—is unrealistic.
“Right now, I think the market would interpret that as, ‘Oh my, the economy must be in trouble’ if they did a 50 basis-point rate cut. Frankly, the data doesn’t support that, and the Fed continues to talk about being data-dependent.”
Suderman adds that the markets are pricing in larger rate cuts than that going forward.
“The market is pricing in a full 100 basis-point rate cut by the end of the year. So, that would be a full percentage reduction in the benchmark interest rate by the December meeting—and 200 basis points by next summer, by the July meeting, and I think that’s just frankly ridiculous.”
The Federal Reserve has been holding interest rates at 5.3 percent—the highest level in more than two decades. Officials will make their decision on cutting interest rates at their next meeting on Sept. 17 and 18.
Photo courtesy of the National Pork Producers Council.The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has unveiled a new Strategic Investment Program called “Young Pork Advocates,” for those who are 18-22.
The NPPC says this initiative aims to empower young advocates within the pork industry.
For an annual investment of $50, member benefits include:
- Regular communications on critical pork industry policy and regulatory issues
- Investor alerts, updates, webinars, and opportunities to apply for scholarships
- Communications and advocacy training
- Eligibility to attend NPPC Legislative Action Conferences in Washington, DC
- Complimentary registration and parking at the World Pork Expo
- NPPC-branded gear
At the 2024 World Pork Expo, NPPC hosted the inaugural Young Pork Advocates Issues Meet contest, which fostered lively discussions on key industry topics. Emma Kuhns of Illinois emerged as the winner of the meet, underscoring the program’s role in promoting active participation among young advocates.
“The top reason students should get involved is because of the invaluable network connections being made that are a launch pad for a successful career,” Kuhns said. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet with fellow students and industry professionals who share my passion for the pork industry and for making a difference.”
“Leveraging the passion and potential of our youth is crucial for the future of the pork industry,” said Lori Stevermer, President of NPPC and pork producer from Easton, MN. “The Young Pork Advocates Strategic Investment Program underscores NPPC’s dedication to equipping young leaders with the skills and connections needed to drive positive change within our industry.”
For more information, visit nppc.org/youngporkadvocates.
Source: National Pork Producers Council
[audio mp3="https://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/soy-tires-wrap.mp3"]Hey- you might have some soybeans in your tires there. I don’t mean that you might have accidentally driven over some and got them stuck in the tread. I mean you might literally have soybeans in your tires- it’s the soybean checkoff at work! Indiana Soybean Alliance board member Mark Legan explains one of the projects their partnership with the United Soybean Board has helped bring to fruition.
“Goodyear Tires has come out with a tire that basically replaces 60% of the petroleum oil with soybean oil. And there are some attributes that make it a better tire. The Indiana Soybean Alliance board thought it was important to try and help promote this. One of the things we looked at doing was offer up to four different first responders across the state.”
And so, Legan nominated the Putnam County Sheriff Department. Sheriff Jerrod Baugh tells Hoosier Ag Today they had to do some research, and after doing that research, they were certainly intrigued by these soy tires.
“Being in a cold weather state, a cold weather county, you start to read into it about the traction being better, more pliable in colder weather. And I’m like, well, now, this is starting to make a little bit of sense. They surely aren’t high performance tires like we require on police package of pursuit rated vehicles. And they’re like, ‘They sure are!’”
Baugh says this is a win-win for the department and for community relations in their rural Indiana community.
“We live in a rural area. We’ve got a beautiful carpet of soybeans right now. You know, in Putnam County, I didn’t think they were going to make it past the cover crop for a while, and then the good Lord put some rain on it. We’ve got tire material!”
Legan says this just goes to show how incredible and versatile soybeans truly are.
“Virtually anything that we manufacture using petroleum-based oil, we can make out of soybean oil too. And, oh, by the way, it’s a sustainable product.”
To be eligible to receive the donation, a farmer needed to nominate a public institution or a charity. The other recipients of free Goodyear tires include: Cultivate Food Rescue in St. Joseph County, nominated by Joe Stoller of Bremen, Ind.; Noble Transit Service in Noble County, nominated by Tom Griffiths of Kendallville, Ind.; and Hamilton Fire Department in Jackson County, nominated by Kevin Burbrink of Seymour, Ind.
Goodyear exceeded its goal of a 25 percent increase in soybean oil consumption by 2020, and it is making noteworthy progress on its target of fully replacing all its petroleum-driven oils with soybean oil by 2040.
The 167th Indiana State Fair wrapped up Sunday following 15 days full of summertime fun, competition, education, and entertainment. Hoosiers from all corners of the state enjoyed fairgoer favorites, including the traditions of food, animals, exhibits and rides. Many popular new attractions were also unveiled this year, including the new splash pad, outdoor basketball court, ARTSCAPE exhibit, outdoor Illuminate lantern display, Art & Nature themed attractions, daily free concerts, Dock Dogs and so much more!
“We are thrilled with the overwhelming success of this year’s Indiana State Fair,” said Cindy Hoye, Executive Director, Indiana State Fair Commission. “The fair is an annual testament to the hard work and dedication of our leadership, staff, youth competitors, partners, volunteers, and all participants. We are grateful to all our fairgoers who came out this year to celebrate this iconic summertime tradition.”
Highlights of the 167th Indiana State Fair:
- Despite navigating heat opening weekend, the 2024 Indiana State Fair attendance reached 854,236. (increase over 2023 attendance 840,414)
- Final figures show an annual increase of fairgoers staying longer during each visit, with many vendors and partners reporting record sales.
- The return of $2 Tuesday welcomed large crowds, proving Hoosiers love this iconic promotion.
- 10,000+ exhibitors & youth competitors showed or displayed a combined 52,000+ animal and non-animal projects.
Hosted the 8th Annual Harvest Dinner, featuring The Art of Leadership with Four Gubernatorial Hoosiers: Governor Eric Holcomb, Vice President Mike Pence, Governor Mitch Daniels and Senator Evan Bayh.
The Stars also came out for this year’s Fair for special occasions, including Indiana Fever All-Star Caitlyn Clark, Movie Star Keanu Reeves performed on the Hoosier Lottery Free Stage, and social media star Jackson Farmer attended his first Indiana State Fair, where he fell in love with antique tractors and Pioneer Village.
“This year was special in many ways. Each year has its own memories, and the 2024 Indiana State Fair was one of our best! The Art & Nature of Fun theme, with our partners at Newfields, brought incredible new exhibits & immersive experiences for our guests.” said Hoye.
Source: Indiana State Fair
Looking for someone or something to blame for these high prices we’re seeing for eggs?
USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam says egg production is down from last year. Supplies are tight, and the reason for that is avian influenza, which has resulted in the loss of millions of egg-laying hens.
The flock, as of this July, sits at 305 million birds, “Compared to the previous year, when they were about 313 million,” says Shagam. “So, a smaller number of birds. As a result, we’re getting a smaller amount of table egg production.”
Shagam expects that in 2025, the size of the laying flock will increase, bringing on higher egg production, and with it, “we would expect to see egg prices decline as we move into 2025 with the increased production.”
That’s assuming there are no more bird flu outbreaks.
Source: USDA Radio
Farm Credit System institutions made almost 133,000 loans to young, beginning, or small U.S. producers in 2023, delivering on their critical mission to support rural communities and agriculture.
A new Farm Credit Administration Report underscores Farm Credit’s commitment to the next generation of agricultural producers through strategic lending and support initiatives.
“Supporting young, beginning, and small farmers is central to Farm Credit’s mission and vital for the future of American agriculture,” says Todd Van Hoose, President and CEO of the Farm Credit Council. “As the farm economy became even more difficult in 2023, Farm Credit had nearly $113 billion in new loans to young, beginning, or small U.S. producers.”
For example, in 2023, the Farm Credit institutions made over 47,000 loans totaling $11.7 billion to young producers who are 35 or younger. Almost 66,000 loans were made to producers with ten years or less of experience, totaling nearly $18.1 billion.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/22154127/work-on-in-property-taxes-continues.mp3"]At the recent Indiana Farm Bureau delegate session, water, rural broadband and property taxes were again top policy priorities. The property tax issue is on the mind of many Hoosiers, and for farmers it can be summed up quite simply.
As Andy Tauer, INFB executive director of public policy says, taxes keep going higher, but farm income is not.
“Farmland property taxes continue to rise, 17% in 2023 and a half percent or so here in 2024 and really estimating another 20% increase in 2025,” he explained. “That’s all occurring as the farm gate economy continues to head the other direction. I think USDA put out a report of 25% reduction in net Farm Revenue for this current year, and that really just adds to the strain for our members.”
He told HAT, INFB is looking for ways to modernize the farmland formula and create relief. But farmers know the proper balance must be struck so local communities aren’t hurt in the process.
“There’s gives and takes because there’s the other side of that ledger, you know local community services because property taxes, those go to local government, they don’t go to the state general fund. So, we’ve got to be cautious and find that right balance between being able to find some relief for our farmers and then not shift the burden elsewhere or be forced to reduce the services that our members see and have delivered to them in the rural communities.”
Getting high-speed broadband to all rural pockets of Indiana remains a priority as the expansion of on-farm technology opportunities grows.
“This is a priority the organization has been working on for several years now and we’ll continue to focus on it,” Tauer said. “We have been blessed here in Indiana with the general assembly allocating some funds, I think even back in the 2020 budget or maybe 2022 budget to expand access to broadband, and so we’re starting to see those dollars make it out to rural communities, but we still have some pockets. And so, we need to be able to kind of fill in those gaps because as our members and rural communities continue to utilize ever advancing technology, having that high-speed access to reliable broadband is critical.”
As broadband expands, there was also support among the 233 delegates for a standard height when constructing overhead communication cables which would allow better movement of farm equipment.
“One of the things that was interesting that came up on the delegate floor as those dollars and that connectivity is starting to make its way out into the rural communities, one of the unintended consequences that we’ve started to hear from our members is when they hang those fiber lines on the existing telephone poles, at times those line heights aren’t being placed at a high enough level to then continue to have access to be able to get farm equipment into the field. Again, an unintended consequence of being able to expand broadband and that connectivity, but we did have some discussion on the delegate floor about that.”
Tauer added, “We will continue to work with our partners at the Indiana Broadband Office as well as the general assembly and try to advocate to make sure that those resources for expanding broadband in rural Indiana continues in the next general assembly.”
(Delegate session photo courtesy of INFB)
More From Indiana Farm Bureau release:
(Indianapolis) – Aug. 20, 2024 – Indiana Farm Bureau member delegates gathered at the Hendricks County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Aug. 17 to determine the policy positions of the organization for 2025.
The delegate body consisted of 233 farmers and agribusiness professionals from across the state. The members discussed several issues including water rights, property taxes, renewable energy, land use, rural broadband and more.
“INFB’s annual delegate session provides the opportunity for our members to create policy positions for issues directly impacting agriculture and rural communities,” said Randy Kron, INFB president. “It is the foundation of our grassroots policy process and vital to the advocacy work INFB will be doing during the upcoming legislative session.”
INFB’s policy development process begins at the local level. Each year, all counties can make policy suggestions or edits. Then, those suggestions are debated by a resolutions committee before being brought to the full delegate session. The grassroots structure is vital to ensuring that INFB members can voice their opinions.
During this year’s event, the delegates proposed increased protection of agriculture’s right to water resources, not just farmers’ rights, which broadens protection beyond irrigation to livestock, food processing industries and others. The delegates also proposed establishing a transparent regulatory framework for large ground water withdrawal facilities to ensure proper monitoring occurs.
The delegates supported the prioritization of reducing property tax rather than income tax, the use of property tax caps on farmland as a buffer against rapidly rising farmland values and a modernization to the farmland formula.
“Water and taxes continue to remain our top policy priorities here at INFB, and that was evident by the discussions we heard from the delegates,” said Andy Tauer, INFB executive director of public policy. “There were conversations about a statewide water plan and the need for a better understanding for what we have in terms of the resource, as well as dialogue around a comprehensive review of farmers’ tax burden, modification to the tax code and where tax dollars are being spent.
“Farmland property taxes rose dramatically due to changes in the base rate of 17% in 2023, 26.4% in 2024, with another 20% increase estimated in 2025. With net farm income predictions to be lower this year while the costs of inputs remain high, farmers can’t take more tax increases.”
Other discussions focused on the support of renewable energy, while striking a balance regarding land use and farmland preservation. Additionally, there was conversation among members around expanded rural broadband access and support for a standard height when constructing overhead communication cables to allow for farm equipment. Delegates continue to support improving access to high-speed internet access to the last acre.
During the session, delegates also voted on members who would represent INFB at the 2025 American Farm Bureau Federation Convention. The AFBF Convention will be held in San Antonio, Texas in January. The INFB delegates chosen will discuss policy positions for the national organization with representatives from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Five county Farm Bureau presidents were elected as delegates for the AFBF Convention:
Mike Beale, Carroll County; Josh Boxell, Howard County; Sarah Delbecq, DeKalb County; John Feutz, Gibson County; Nick Wenning, Decatur County
Over the next few weeks, the INFB board of directors will determine the priorities for the 2025 state legislative session. Federal priorities are set at the AFBF level based on input from all state Farm Bureaus. Now, the INFB public policy team will work with regional managers, district directors and county Farm Bureau members to decide which priorities will set the stage for the organization’s efforts at the Statehouse and in Washington, D.C.
Canada’s two major railways shut down Thursday in a contract dispute with their union, forcing a halt to cross-border shipments and posing a significant threat to U.S. farmers, but the shutdown will be short-lived.
Canada’s biggest railways locked out 9,300 workers after the lines and Teamsters Canada failed to meet a Thursday contract deadline, putting in jeopardy billions in U.S. farm exports. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government initially refused to intervene, but the Associated Press is now reporting that they have ordered the parties into binding arbitration.
“Corn, barley, oats, things like that, a lot of those products move on rail into Canada,” says American Farm Bureau economist Danny Munch. “So, just for context, Canada was the fifth-largest destination for cereal grains, receiving 1.1 billion dollars in U.S. exports.”
Munch says the strike and lockout at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway would have crippled shipments of food grains, beans, potash, coal, and timber from Canada and farm and energy imports from the U.S.
“Canada is the fourth-largest destination for soybean meal and rice and the fifth-largest destination for corn. When you talk about ethanol and barley, they’re number one. So, 44 percent of our ethanol, 76 percent of our barley exports go to Canada.”
Canada is a critical source of fertilizers for US farmers. Truckers carry most goods across the border, but $100 billion a year goes by rail, and $28 billion in U.S. farm exports by rail and truck. Some of it is later exported globally.
Source: NAFB News Service and the Associated Press
Beck’s employees stand with ASTA leadership. (left to right) Clarissa Cauthorn, Jim Herr, Andy Lavigne, Scott Beck, Jim Zimmer, Tom Foreman. (Photo provided)Scott Beck, president of Beck’s Hybrids based in Atlanta, Indiana, was recently elected as central regional vice president of the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA). He’ll represent Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin during his three-year term.
“This role offers an incredible opportunity to represent and advocate for the interests of our industry,” said Beck. “I am excited to work closely with our members, share their insights with ASTA leadership, and help drive initiatives that will strengthen the seed industry’s future.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Scott Beck as our new central regional vice president,” said Andy LaVigne, president and CEO of ASTA. “His extensive knowledge and commitment to the industry will be invaluable as we continue to address the challenges and opportunities facing our members and the broader agricultural community.”
To learn more about ASTA, visit www.betterseed.org.
AgriNovus Indiana, an initiative to grow the agbioscience economy, launched the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge – a nine-week accelerator to create tech-enabled businesses that manage on-farm labor shortages while also saving farmers time and money.
In partnership with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge creates an opportunity for companies, entrepreneurs, students and innovators to compete for a $25,000 grand prize by developing technology that reduces labor needs without facing the strategic decision between investment risk and labor uncertainty.
“Farmers continue to face critical headwinds when it comes to securing adequate on-farm labor,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus. “The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge creates an opportunity for tech innovators to develop solutions that reduce administrative burden and drives value on the farm.”
The 2024 Producer-Led Innovation Challenge will largely focus on digital innovation in at least one of the following areas:
- Data Management – developing a unified solution that consolidates financial, agronomic and credit program data to enable seamless access and management in real time;
- Government Program Compliance – creating tools to streamline government compliance processes for incentive and risk management programs, reducing the farmer’s time on tasks;
- Labor Management – automating and optimizing labor scheduling, tracking time and task assignment based on real time operational needs and worker availability;
- Labor Resource Access – designing a platform that simplifies the navigation of labor programs like H2-A, helping producers connect with available labor resources more efficiently despite bureaucratic hurdles; and
- Robotics and Automation – integrating robotics and automation to supplement human labor, addressing worker shortages while minimizing the financial and logistical burden on producers.
Given the critical nature of administration and labor management in agriculture, the Challenge encourages teams to innovate for current inefficiencies while also enhancing overall management and productivity of on-farm processes, ensuring sustainable and profitable outcomes for producers.
“While running a farm is much like running any other business, there are some unique challenges that farmers face that deserve attention,” said Ben Forsythe, sustainability and value creation director for the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and the Indiana Soybean Alliance. “Technology development and adoption is key to tackling those challenges and Indiana’s corn and soybean checkoffs are excited to be a part of this program. There has been a long history of success with the companies involved in the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge, and we are looking forward to seeing what great innovation comes out of this year’s competition.”
A study completed by Aimpoint Research informed the scope of this year’s Challenge and outlined three areas of opportunity to innovate for farmers, including labor shortages and management, administrative burden and technological adoption. Read the study here.
The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge has served as a springboard for entrepreneurial companies to thrive. Since its launch, every company that has won the Challenge has either received follow-on funding or has been acquired. FiberX, winner of the 2024 Challenge, most recently closed on an additional round of funding that included investment from Purdue Innovates.
Companies, individuals and entrepreneurs who want to participate in the Challenge can access technical information, Challenge objectives, rules and register to participate here. The deadline to register is September 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Source: AgriNovus Indiana
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/21183457/late-planting-hurt-nw-in-corn.mp3"]A corn yield of 207 bushels per acre is what USDA is projecting for Indiana this year. Northwest Indiana is going to struggle to hit that mark.
“Time will tell,” says Jeff Lakin, technical agronomist for Channel Seeds. “We still got about five or six weeks here before we get to harvest and a lot of the corn is just starting to dent, so we can still put a lot of test weight, a lot of grain fill in, and a lot to be told yet, but I think the 207 for Northwest Indiana is going to be pretty tough.”
In a Channel Seeds growing season update he tells HAT the problems with the crop north of Rensselaer started with later planting dates.
“We planted a lot of corn in late May and early June even,” he explained. “We had some stand issues in some places, and we had a big rain early in July, about 6 to 12 inches across part of my territory the first two weeks of July, and then it shut off. We were really getting dry there at the end of July, the first part of August. We really started to see a lot of heat stress and drought stress across some of Northern Jasper and Newton counties and into Lake and Porter counties somewhat. Really it was starting to take a toll on that crop. For the most part, a lot of my territory the corn looks really good. You get south of Rensselaer and go east and the crop looks fantastic.”
Lakin says the northern Indiana soybean crop is as good as advertised, but there were also problems in July.
“You move into some of these pockets up here north of me at Rensselaer where we had that heavy rain, the beans took a toll in July. We had a lot of yellowing in the beans, some ponding. We got some holes in some of the beans, but they’re coming along now and they really do look pretty good for the most part. I think there will be some variability in them as well, but we have a lot of time on the soybeans yet. We’ve got a long way to go on some of these.”
He does want farmers to continue scouting with soybean aphids and tar spot prevalent. In late planted corn fields, some farmers are still considering a late season fungicide application.
Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seeds growing season update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/21183455/jeff-lakin-august-2024-channel-update.mp3"]
The Crop Tour rolled through Indiana earlier this week. Soybeans, as expected, looked fantastic. Corn, though, didn’t exactly impress. Pro Farmer pegged their Indiana corn estimate at 187.5 bushels, around 3% more than a year ago, but well below what many around here might project. That includes Purdue Extension corn specialist Dan Quinn.
Pro Farmer said they spotted tar spot and other corn diseases as they entered Indiana. Quinn says he’s seen tar spot in many fields, including his own research plots. He’s still anticipating record yields here in Indiana this season.
“A lot of that corn is at a point where even though we have it, it’s really not going to impact it. So, it really comes back to when that tar spot comes in. So, if you’re doing yield estimates now, and you’re finding tar spot in the lower canopy and maybe pushing towards the middle canopy, but that corn is dented or just beginning to dent, we probably don’t expect much of a yield reduction at all from that tar spot.”
Quinn isn’t concerned with the Crop Tour number. In fact, he’s encouraged by the 3% bump from a year ago.
“Last year, I think they were in the low 180s for their estimate for the state, and then it was 203 last year. So, they’re actually ahead in terms of their yield average for the state comparison to last year, which was the state record yield.”
As Quinn does his own informal “crop tour” of the Hoosier State, he’s confident that we’re in good shape for another year of strong yields barring anything crazy happening.
“Just looking at the data, I’d say the eastern part of the state has had some disease issues. They’ve been a little bit more challenged in terms of the overall rainfall and the weather conditions that they’ve had than the western part of the state. But you look at Southwest Indiana- just outstanding crop conditions down there. Central Indiana- outstanding crop conditions.”
Check out my full interview with Quinn below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/21165010/dan-quinn-pro-farmer.mp3"]
Jayden Simpson of Putnam County, Isaac and Kyla Schroeder of Perry County and Cory and Emily Studebaker of Whitley County are the winners of Indiana Farm Bureau’s top awards for Young Farmers & Ag Professionals — the Rising Star, the Excellence in Agriculture and the Achievement awards.
All three awards recognize young farmers and ag professionals in terms of leadership and involvement with their state or local Farm Bureau, in addition to their commitment to strengthening agriculture across Indiana. A panel of judges evaluated this year’s participants.
Jayden Simpson, Putnam County, won the Rising Star Award, which honors outstanding members who are active in Farm Bureau, their county, their community, Collegiate Farm Bureau and/or YF&AP programs, and who display personal and professional growth by participating in those activities. Simpson will receive a $2,000 cash prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to Denver, Colorado, for the 2025 Farm Bureau FUSION Conference in March.
Isaac and Kyla Schroeder, Perry County, are the winners of the Excellence in Agriculture Award. The award honors Farm Bureau members who have not in the past three years derived the majority of their income from a farming operation but who actively contribute and grow their involvement in Farm Bureau, the agriculture industry and other community organizations. The Schroeders will receive an $8,000 cash prize courtesy of Farm Credit Mid-America, a $3,000 cash prize courtesy of Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance and an all-expenses-paid trip to San Antonio, Texas, to compete at the 2025 American Farm Bureau convention in January.
Cory and Emily Studebaker, Whitley County, won the Achievement Award, which recognizes and rewards outstanding young Farm Bureau members whose farm management techniques and commitment to their communities set a positive example for others involved in agriculture. Applicants must derive the majority of their income from a farming operation and are judged on their leadership involvement and farm management techniques. The Studebakers will receive a $6,000 cash prize courtesy of Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of additional sponsors and an all-expenses-paid trip to compete at the 2025 American Farm Bureau convention in San Antonio, Texas, in January. The Studebakers also will be awarded the David L. Leising Memorial Award.
Winners and finalists will be formally recognized during the INFB state convention in December. Learn more about this year’s winners below.
Jayden Simpson, Putnam County
Jayden Simpson grew up on his family’s fourth-generation Hereford show cattle operation, where they raise and show Hereford cattle across the country.
“Growing up on the cattle operation, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the agriculture industry and with the people in it,” said Simpson.
Simpson is a rising junior at Purdue University majoring in agricultural economics with a concentration in policy and pre-law. While at Purdue, Simpson served as the INFB public policy intern during the 2023 Indiana legislative session, as well as policy and coalitions intern with The Envoy Group, a small agricultural consulting firm focusing on sustainability and climate policy within agriculture.
Simpson is also involved in Purdue Collegiate Farm Bureau where he currently serves as chapter president. He also acted as the collegiate representative for the INFB state resolutions committee, helping to review policy recommendations submitted by county Farm Bureaus. Additionally, Simpson serves as a 4-H Dog Club leader in Putnam and Montgomery counties, assisting 4-H members excel in dog showmanship at the county and state level.
Post-graduation, Simpson plans to go to law school or join the workforce as a lobbyist, promoting the importance of the agriculture industry.
“Being able to tell ag stories to legislators and help them understand what agriculturists and rural communities go through on a daily basis is extremely important to get policies passed that are in favor of agriculture here in Indiana,” noted Simpson.
“Receiving the Rising Star Award is very humbling to me as I continue to grow in the agriculture industry. It goes to show how great of a support system I have at my family farm.”
Isaac and Kyla Schroeder, Perry County
As owners and operators of a registered Angus cattle farm, the Schroeders divide their time and energy between their farm, which also includes a hay operation, and full-time jobs in the community. Isaac grew up helping friends and family with their beef cattle, swine and hay farms where his passion for agriculture started. Kyla’s love of agriculture quickly grew through her involvement in FFA during high school.
The Schroeders attended Western Kentucky University where they each earned bachelor’s degrees in agriculture – Issac in agronomy and Kyla in agriculture business. Isaac is a division agronomist for Superior Ag where he works with the sales team to implement trainings and conducts grower consultations, as well as field research and agronomy problem analysis. Kyla works for Tempo Global Resources, an aluminum supply chain, where she assists with managing purchase and sales contracts for a large aluminum coil customer base. Kyla also recently obtained her master’s degree in business administration from University of Southern Indiana.
The Schroeders are leaders not just within their county Farm Bureau, but on the state and national level as well. They started as the YF&AP representatives for Perry County Farm Bureau and then as the District 9 representatives on the YF&AP state committee. While serving on the state committee, Kyla had the opportunity to act as the chair and sit on the INFB state board of directors.
“We drastically expanded our outreach in Farm Bureau,” said Isaac. “We have traveled to the Indiana Statehouse and Washington, D.C., to advocate for agriculture with INFB. We also traveled to several American Farm Bureau events where we had the opportunity to network with Farm Bureau members across the United States, which has been a great experience.”
In addition to their involvement in Farm Bureau, the Schroeders are members of the American Angus Association and the Perry County Cattleman’s Association, with Isaac serving as a board member. Kyla also serves as secretary on the Perry County 4-H Fairgrounds committee.
The Schroeders plan to expand their operation and hope to purchase another farm in the future, as well as expand their hay sales. They also want to continue to network with individuals in the industry.
“The Excellence in Ag award is a great opportunity because it showcases your involvement in not only Farm Bureau, but in agriculture as a whole,” said Kyla.
“It is a good way to grow, reflect on what you are currently involved with and become more involved in the community and on the state level as well.”
Cory and Emily Studebaker, Whitley County
Cory and Emily Studebaker took different paths to find their love of agriculture. Cory was raised on a dairy and grain farm where he grew up with a passion for the land. While working on his certification in diesel and agricultural mechanics from University of Northwestern Ohio, he met Emily, who was completing her associate degree in dental laboratory technology from Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne and did not come from a farming background. However, she was eager to learn and her appreciation for agriculture grew.
Not long after they married, the Studebakers purchased their own farm, which includes a 24,000-head commercial laying hen operation contracted through Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch, an egg production company based in Michigan. Emily handles the day-to-day tasks with this operation, gathering the eggs and ensuring that the birds’ stay healthy.
“We didn’t foresee us having chickens, but it is what God gave us,” said Emily. “We saw it as our opportunity to get into farming and make ourselves better agriculturalists. I’ve really enjoyed taking over that side of the operation and getting into agriculture myself.”
Additionally, they raise row crops and dairy cows with Cory’s father. Cory feeds the cows on the farm, completes shop work, assists with planting and spraying, installs drainage tiling, and runs the chopper and combine during harvest. Over the last 10 years, the Studebakers have diversified their operation by expanding their dairy herd from 80 cows to 220, utilizing robotics.
The Studebakers serve on the Whitley County Farm Bureau board as township representatives and on the county YF&AP committee. Emily also serves as secretary and treasurer, as well as chair of the local affairs and government relations committees. Additionally, Cory is a member of the local Soil and Water Conservation District board.
The couple has goals of succession planning for Cory’s father’s farm, adding more acreage to their current farm and Cory taking on more custom drainage tiling jobs. They also plan to continue improving their hen operation to ensure they are always producing safe and healthy eggs.
“Receiving the Achievement in Ag award is very humbling and rewarding to know that we are being recognized for what we do on an everyday basis,” said Cory.
“Looking back from where we started to where we are today, when we bought our farm it was essentially a failing operation. We put a lot of time and hard work into upgrading and getting it to the operation it is today.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/20182119/infb-reacts-to-10-year-water-study.mp3"]A ten-year study of the Indiana water supply was just completed, and the results were unveiled Monday by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce which commissioned the study. In short, the findings are that water is plentiful, but the distribution of that water is not even.
Andy Tauer, Indiana Farm Bureau executive director of public policy, says they agree with that finding of what’s called Water Policy and Planning: A 10-Year Update.
“It does seem that yes, we are blessed here in Indiana with plentiful water, but the distribution of that water is where the challenge comes, and really it’s kind of the northern two thirds of the state of Indiana where we’re really blessed with water,” he said. “But as we get to especially that lower third, that is where water distribution and water supply becomes a major challenge and here in the central part of the state there’s water there but there’s definitely some pockets of some challenges.”
Tauer says INFB was pleased with recommendations that were outlined to address water distribution, including “need for a statewide plan, we need some additional monitoring to really assess and verify the volume of water, the volume of resource that we do have here in Indiana. And so a lot of that aligns with what we’ve heard from our members and ultimately our internal water task force here at Indiana Farm Bureau.”
Indiana Farm Bureau does question a number mentioned in average daily use of Indiana groundwater. Ag irrigation operations were tagged at 23 percent of the daily average.
“And I think that’s where we scratch our heads a little bit, because we know irrigation wells are seasonal and in that seasonality only maybe 30 to 45 days of operation. Those numbers are something we’ll continue to have conversation about with the folks who put the report together and folks at DNR who track the high volume, high capacity wells and see if we can start to pull that that information apart. So that’s where we’ve got a little bit of concern.”
Tauer says next steps are to wait on remaining studies being done which should provide clarity on future direction. He expects much of that to be on the table during the 2025 Indiana General Assembly.
Though the global COVID pandemic officially ended more than a year ago, many of the issues we saw during that time remain, especially when it comes to agricultural shipping. Supply chain issues have persisted since COVID, and Tiffany Comprés, a partner at Pierson Ferdinand law firm with experience in agricultural shipping, believes the next few months will be tight.
“But a big question, at least in my mind, is having seen what happened during COVID, are the ocean carriers going to take a little bit of responsibility this time for upholding their end of the business bargain? And my answer, at least tentatively, is, I doubt it,” she said. “They had record profits even though they were saying, ‘Oh my God, things are so hard’. Every excuse to add a new fee. They took advantage of each one of those congestion charges and all kinds of things. Even people that had steady shipping contracts saw their prices soar.”
She says that’s just not how the system is supposed to work.
“And then there’s the other side, which is about avoiding dealing with issues when they do arise, and I’m hoping that all parties learned from COVID and prepared for this possibility in their contracts. First of all, that they have contacts because many of them didn’t, and that those that did added terms to deal with these potential issues instead of just letting it up to chance,” she said.
Overall, she said there were many lessons learned during COVID, but if the information sticks remains to be seen.
With the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s final Endangered Species Act Herbicide Strategy comes ongoing concerns for soy growers worried about feasibility of implementation and its impacts.
Josh Gackle, president of the American Soybean Association and a soybean farmer from North Dakota, said of the final ESA Herbicide Strategy, “While there are clear improvements to the final Herbicide Strategy over what was first proposed, we are disappointed EPA chose to leave so many opportunities on the table to make this strategy workable for U.S. agriculture. We remain concerned with the complexity of this framework and whether growers and applicators will be able to clearly understand how to implement it. Likewise, we continue to have concerns as to the type and affordability of runoff mitigations EPA has provided, the potential distance of spray drift buffers, the number of mitigations farmers will need to adopt, and whether these requirements are supported by the best available science, as the law requires. As finalized, the Herbicide Strategy is likely to cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars to implement and could result in significant new hurdles to farmers accessing and using herbicides in the future.”
Another significant improvement EPA largely has not addressed is how the agency evaluates whether pesticides pose a genuine risk to endangered species. As ASA and over 300 other groups noted in a letter to EPA several weeks ago, the agency’s current process is unduly conservative, greatly overestimates risks, and demands farmers adopt far more restrictions than are truly necessary to protect species. Disappointingly, the final Herbicide Strategy does little to address these concerns. As requested in our letter, we hope EPA will take us up on our invitation to discuss this central piece of its ESA regulations in the days ahead.
Gackle concluded, “While we appreciate the Herbicide Strategy restrictions will not take effect immediately and that EPA plans to implement them in individual pesticide registration decisions moving forward, ASA will carefully observe how closely EPA adheres to its strategy in those proposed decisions. While we support EPA becoming compliant with the Endangered Species Act, it is essential that the agency’s approach meets its legal obligations and is workable for agriculture. The final Herbicide Strategy does not satisfy these needs. We look forward to continuing to work with EPA to do better in the next phase of implementation.”
Source: American Soybean Association
Groups like the National Corn Growers Association urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resolve a dispute between Canada’s railway executives and union leaders that could lead to a strike. A work stoppage there could interrupt rail service into the U.S.
“If a strike shuts down rail service from Canada into the U.S., it will adversely impact America’s farmers who rely on rail to ship goods between the two countries,” says Harold Wolle, NCGA President. “We strongly encourage Prime Minister Trudeau, the Teamsters, and Canadian rail workers to do everything possible to avoid such a strike.”
Canada is the third-largest destination for U.S. ag exports and the second-largest source of agricultural imports.
The biggest concern for corn growers is a strike that could interrupt shipments of fertilizer imports and exports of ethanol, corn, and byproducts used as animal feed.
Canadian law says officials can order all parties into binding arbitration.
[audio mp3="//cdn1.itmwpb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/lgs-on-ethanol-wrap.mp3"]The Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance will be championing a bill in the upcoming legislative session that will provide tax incentives to retailers who install pumps to offer higher blends of ethanol. Lieutenant Governor candidates Micah Beckwith (R) and Terry Goodin (D) both shared their support of ethanol in Indiana during last week’s debate at the Indiana State Fair.
Beckwith told the crowd, “When it comes to ethanol, one of the things right now, people are being limited by the handcuffs government’s putting on. So, even just jumping from 87 to 88. It’s a government roadblock. And so, if we get the government out of the way, that will increase so much more ethanol production in the state of Indiana.”
Beckwith also touched on sustainable aviation fuel and the roadblock the federal government is putting up there preventing American farmers from participating in that market.
“We’ve got biodiesels that could really go a long way when it comes to aviation fuel, and Indiana could be a leader in that. But it’s going to have to take the state fighting the federal government. Say, ‘Get out of the way. Let us be innovative and let us go down that path.’ And so that’s what we’ll do. I’ll do that as lieutenant governor. Mike Braun will do that as well.”
Goodin said that, for him, it all comes down to education.
“My dream is, and what my hope is, is we don’t just have 10% ethanol. What I would love to be able to see is for our scientists to continue to push where all of the fuel can be made from corn and soybeans. And that’s what I’m talking about- growth on the family farm. So, as we work forward in Indiana, as we move forward in Indiana. We have to figure out those ways, okay, how do we incentivize folks to study this?”
He told the crowd that it was hard for him to say as an IU grad, but Purdue produces some of the best farming scientists in the world. He hopes their studies on ethanol continues.
Watch the debate in its entirety below. It was hosted by AgrIInstitute, livestreamed by Hoosier Ag Today, and sponsored by Ice Miller, Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Growers Association, and CountryMark.
The U.S. beef cow inventory has fallen to its lowest level in more than 60 years. With no significant changes on the horizon that would quickly reverse the trend, rebuilding the U.S. beef cow herd to historical norms is shaping up to be a years-long undertaking.
According to a new research brief from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, current market conditions are incentivizing cow-calf producers to sell heifer calves rather than retain them for future breeding purposes.
From a financial standpoint, the benefit of selling calves for immediate gain far outweighs the risks of investing in those calves to become part of their reproductive cow herd.
CoBank researcher Abbi Prins says, “Given the route calf prices have gone, it’s a become a no-brainer decision for some cow-calf operators to sell new crop calves for immediate cash flow.”
Ultimately, calf prices will be the determining factor when it comes to whether the U.S. beef cow herd retracts further or begins to grow.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/19162406/boozman-long.mp3"]A recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimated the House Ag Committee’s farm bill proposal is $33 billion over budget. However, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.) says CBO didn’t give enough consideration to the House bill’s use of USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds.
“Well, what they’re trying to do in the House is use some of the CCC dollars. And if you look at what’s being spent on just kind of peripheral things, you know the CCC to me is for farmers. It should be spent on agriculture. There’s been a lot of things, the big climate initiative of Secretary Vilsack was a couple billion dollars, that again is peripherally attached to agriculture,” he said. “But I think that there’s a lot of money floating out of there that that could be used in in better ways. And so that’s what they’re saying is let’s use some of those dollars for the ag safety net, which desperately needs to be improved. It just simply doesn’t work.”
CCC funds are used to implement specific programs established by Congress as well as to carry out activities under the authorities of the CCC Charter Act. Boozman says the CCC wording in the previous farm bill worked at the time, but things have changed.
“The 2018 Farm Bill was a great bill for 2018 and 2019. And then the pandemic came and the 2018 Farm Bill, which was based on 2012 data, simply doesn’t work. And so, we’ve got to get it in business. So, what they’re trying to use is some of those CCC dollars,” he said. “If you look at the last six or seven years, how much of this funding was used for things that were kind of gray as to whether or not it had anything to do with agriculture, there’s a lot of money there. And so that’s what they were trying to capture. CBO refused to give them any credit for that.”
Boozman says lawmakers would still like to complete a new bill this year.
USDA NASS State Statistician Nathanial Warenski says in the Monday USDA Crop Update that scattered rainfall and cooler temperatures helped to maintain soil moisture levels and bolster crop conditions. Conditions for both corn and soybeans improved slightly from the previous week, with 73 and 72 percent rated in good to excellent condition, respectively.
Nationally, corn is rated 67% good to excellent while soybeans are at 68%. In Indiana, both crops continue to progress ahead of schedule. See the image below for details. Third cuttings of hay remained on pace from previous years.
Farmers also spent last week applying fungicide applications, hauling grain, and preparing for harvest.
Source: USDA NASS
It’s no secret- we have a demand problem right now for both corn and soybeans. With new crop corn prices hovering around the $4 mark and new crop soybeans under $10, farmers are having to make tough decisions in order to be profitable.
Assistant Professor of Ag Finance at Purdue, Chad Fiechter, joined us on the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast with ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel and Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn to discuss the current situation. He says some farmers might choose to plant more soybeans next year because losses on beans will be less than on corn, much like they were this year.
“But I’m always thinking about that idea that as you’re sitting traffic and the lane beside you is going really fast, and the lane that you’re in is going really slow, and then everybody switches to the fast lane, and everybody switches back, and then you basically just do this back and forth. And oftentimes you’re just better off staying in the lane. Sometimes I wonder about that with crop plans.”
Fiechter continues, saying, “You know, you might have some short-term switching, but as a farmer, having that long-term view is important. Unfortunately, if you’re farming, you might only have 50-60 crops that you’re going to grow. Trying to stay consistent, don’t panic, try to make sound decisions, knowing that you can’t control the markets, hopefully get some joy out of the fact you grew a big crop, and live to live to fight again another day.”
Fiechter calls himself a “recovering farmer” after farming for 10 years in northeast Indiana before returning to graduate school and then to Purdue for his PhD. Hear more from him in the Purdue Crop Chat below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
U.S. Census data says American producers saw moderate improvement in internet access from 2017 to 2022. Across rural America, the percentage of farm operations or operator residences with internet access increased from 75.4 percent in 2017 to 78.7 percent in 2022.
While many of the southeastern states still lag behind the U.S. average, most of them had significant increases in producers’ internet access over that period. There are still a surprising number of producers, at 21.3 percent, who don’t have access to the internet.
This is important for government agencies and universities to understand and make sure that the information they provide is available to all producers.
Many of the available options for internet access aren’t adequate for accessing precision agriculture in rural America.
An FCC task force recommends a minimum performance of 100 megabits per second for downloading and 20 megabits per second for uploading to support precision agriculture.
Officials from Corteva, Scannell Properties and Southshore are joined by Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick, Jr. at the opening of Corteva’s new distribution center in Anderson. Photo courtesy of the City of Anderson.Corteva Agriscience has officially opened its new regional seed distribution facility in Anderson, Indiana.
Officials with the Indianapolis-based company cut the ribbon Thursday on the 300,000-square-foot facility, which is at 4210 West 67th Street, near exit 226 of I-69 on the south side of Anderson.
The property, which was built by Scannell Properties, LLC for a reported $30 million, includes 100,000 square feet of climate-controlled space. Corteva says it will lease the building from Scannell for 10 years.
The new facility, with Southshore as its service provider, is expected to create more than 40 new jobs in the Anderson area.
The City of Anderson says that Corteva will produce $4.3 million in new tax revenue for the city and Madison County over the next ten years.
The facility will receive and distribute primarily corn and soybean seeds from the company’s global flagship Pioneer® seed brand for delivery to seed agencies and, ultimately, to farmers in Indiana and Southern Ohio.
A view from inside Corteva’s new 300,000 seed distribution facility in Anderson. Photo courtesy of the City of Anderson.“We’re happy to play a part in creating new economic opportunity for the Anderson community with what is now our largest seed distribution center in North America,” said Matt Kurtz, Corteva’s senior director, North America seed production & supply chain. “We value the collaboration with Scannell Properties, Southshore Companies and the City of Anderson in helping us achieve this milestone to more efficiently serve our customers in Indiana and Southern Ohio.”
“Anderson is proud to welcome Corteva and the positive impact this investment will have on our region for many years,” said Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick, Jr. “Scannell Properties has also been a great partner in helping diversify and grow our local economy through its investments in this project.”
During its ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony, Corteva announced contributions to two community organizations: $2,500 to the Second Harvest Food Bank (Madison County) and $2,500 to the nearby Lapel, Indiana, FFA chapter.
Corteva’s portfolio includes Pioneer®, Dairyland®, Brevant® and AgVenture, Inc. seed brands, and Corteva Agriscience Crop Protection products.
CLICK HERE to learn about career opportunities at Corteva’s new Anderson seed distribution facility.
CLICK HERE for more information about Corteva Agriscience.
Officials from Corteva, Scannell Properties and Southshore are joined by Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick, Jr. at the opening of Corteva’s new distribution center in Anderson. Photo courtesy of the City of Anderson.
Vincent “Zippy” Duvall, a Georgia farmer and President of the American Farm Bureau Federation since 2016. Photo courtesy of the American Farm Bureau Federation.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/16230455/cj-wrap-hat-afbf-pushing-tax-cut-extensions-081624.mp3"]As Hoosier ag leaders are pushing Indiana’s state lawmakers to address the state’s property tax issue in 2025, ag leaders from across the country are pushing Congress to tackle federal tax issues.
“Our family farms are already burdened by inflation, increased supply costs, and much, much more,” says Zippy Duvall, President of American Farm Bureau Federation.
Many provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire at the end of 2025. Duvall says that lawmakers must extent those provisions.
“These new tax burdens could put even more pressure on our farmers and ranchers and may even force them out of business. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2017 contains many temporary provisions that relieve some of the burdens faced by farmers and ranchers. Several of these provisions are set to expire at the end of next year, including a key estate tax exemption,” says Duvall.
That estate tax provision is what allows farmers to transfer their farm operation to the next generation without heavy tax burdens. When the new Congress is sworn in early next January, Duvall and American Farm Bureau want lawmakers to begin focusing on tax reform.
“It’s important that we work with lawmakers now so that they understand how current tax provisions enables our farmers to remain in business and protect their farms, so that they can afford to pass them on to the next generation,” he says.
Duvall is urging farmers from across the U.S. to speak one-on-one with their lawmakers in D.C. to let them know that allowing these tax provisions to expire could have a negative impact on your farm operation.
“As a farmer, their voice is the most powerful advocacy tool that we have,” he says. “Reach out to your elected official and tell them how the tax provisions like the estate tax exemptions have helped you plan for the future of your farm and see if you can meet with them one on one in person. Lawmakers must understand that there are real consequences to not renewing important provisions like the estate tax exemption.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/15192839/holmes-hoosier-homestead-wrap.mp3"]Over 100 families were honored Wednesday at the State Fair for their longstanding commitment to agriculture at the Hoosier Homestead Award Ceremony by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years.
“It means a legacy, and it also means responsibility to keep the legacy going,” says J.W. Holmes. He received the Bicentennial Award for 200 years of continuous ownership of his family’s farm in Tippecanoe County.
“We try to manage the place for the next generation. That’s how we think of it. We don’t really think of it as the current generation’s as much as the next, and making sure that it’s in a place where it can continue moving forward.”
J.W. is the 7th generation on the family farm. He gave Hoosier Ag Today some of the history.
“The farm itself started in 1824. My great-great-great-great-granddad came after buying land in Virginia and settled in Tippecanoe County about five years before it was Tippecanoe County. He was still dealing with the natives after the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was a land surveyor. So, he surveyed a lot of the land that people see around Tippecanoe County. He was the first one to do a lot of that.”
J.W. told me he really wished that more of his family was still alive to see this fete. They would certainly be proud.
See the full list of Hoosier Homestead Award winners below. Congratulations to all!
| County | Award Name | Award Year | Award Type | | Adams | Bohnke | 1897 | Centennial | | Adams | Girod | 1906 | Centennial | | Adams | Kent L. Steiner | 1890 | Centennial | | Allen | Dafforn | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Bartholomew | Schroer | 1886 | Centennial | | Benton | Pitts | 1880 | Centennial | | Benton | Pitts | 1911 | Centennial | | Blackford | Schwarzkopf | 1872 | Sesquicentennial | | Blackford | Albert LeRoy Stallsmith | 1904 | Centennial | | Carroll | Boyer-Garrigues | 1923 | Centennial | | Carroll | George & Lois Wallace | 1914 | Centennial | | Cass | Geroge E. Ferguson | 1858 | Sesquicentennial | | Cass | VerBryck | 1895 | Centennial | | Clay | Hofmann (Modesitt) | 1881 | Centennial | | Clay | Hofmann (Unger) | 1865 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Clinton | Dean Walker | 1846 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Daviess | David L. Brown | 1896 | Centennial | | Daviess | Joseph L. Disser | 1919 | Centennial | | Daviess | Fuhrman | 1918 | Centennial | | Dearborn | Murtaugh | 1855 | Sesquicentennial | | Decatur | Manlief | 1873 | Sesquicentennial | | Decatur | Charles & Mary Torline | 1874 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Delaware | Abshire | 1864 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Delaware | C Clifford Green | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Dubois | Bartelt-Peters | 1913 | Centennial | | Dubois | Bockting | 1839 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Dubois | Meyer | 1920 | Centennial | | Fayette | Thornburg-Caldwell-Slack | 1824 | Sesquicentennial & Bicentennial | | Franklin | Kuntz | 1916 | Centennial | | Franklin | Miles Homestead Farms LLc | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Franklin | Wessel | 1858 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Fulton | Applegate-Crippen-Rock | 1911 | Centennial | | Fulton | Heater | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Fulton | Shewman | 1918 | Centennial | | Grant | Grindle | 1852 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Greene | Roudebush | 1918 | Centennial | | Hamilton | Honnold-Muir | 1902 | Centennial | | Henry | Kirklin | 1874 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Howard | Duncan Farm Legacy LLC | 1864 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Howard | J & B Family Farms LLC (53 acre) | 1899 | Centennial | | Howard | J & B Family Farms LLC (80 acre) | 1849 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Huntington | Philip Shafer | 1923 | Centennial | | Jackson | Bell-Alwes-Mellencamp | 1918 | Centennial | | Jackson | Claycamp | 1869 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Jackson | Shoemaker | 1924 | Centennial | | Jasper | Gilmore-Brandenburg | 1895 | Centennial | | Jasper | Wilma Jean Lehe | 1922 | Centennial | | Jasper | Walter | 1873 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Knox | Borgmeier | 1904 | Centennial | | Kosciusko | Messmore-Werstler | 1923 | Centennial | | Kosciusko | Shock | 1866 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | LaGrange | Koon-Barroquillo | 1918 | Centennial | | Madison | Haines-Wood | 1854 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Madison | Sears | 1924 | Centennial | | Madison | Thomas A. Tooley | 1913 | Centennial | | Marshall | Stuntz / Bollenbacher | 1869 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Berglan | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Peter Fisher-John H. Balsbaugh-Raymond E. Mussleman | 1837 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Gahs | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Patricia Hardwick & Shirley Kerns | 1855 | Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Kranz | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Shewman | 1869 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Montgomery | Cowan | 1834 | Sesquicentennial | | Morgan | Harmon & Nancy Crone | 1836 | Sesquicentennial | | Morgan | Haase | 1905 | Centennial | | Morgan | Hodges (1840) | 1840 | Sesquicentennial | | Morgan | Hodges (1822) | 1822 | Bicentennial | | Newton | Romine | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Noble | Harvey and Simon | 1862 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Noble | Zimmerman | 1919 | Centennial | | Posey | Papenmeier | 1923 | Centennial | | Pulaski | Bergdolt | 1899 | Centennial | | Pulaski | Heater | 1872 | Sesquicentennial | | Putnam | Bridges-Royer | 1823 | Bicentennial | | Ripley | Drockelman | 1860 | Sesquicentennial | | Ripley | Miller | 1910 | Centennial | | Ripley | Shorten-Volz-Miller | 1917 | Centennial | | Ripley | Smith | 1868 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Ripley | Wilson | 1923 | Centennial | | Rush | Gray-Eakin | 1835 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Rush | Dale & Donna Hartwell and Ricky W. Hartwell | 1821 | Sesquicentennial & Bicentennial | | Shelby | Bass-Rhodes | 1823 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial & Bicentennial | | Shelby | Kolkmeier | 1905 | Centennial | | Steuben | Libey | 1920 | Centennial | | Steuben | Levi Pocock | 1868 | Sesquicentennial | | St Joseph | Michalski | 1887 | Centennial | | Sullivan | Shields | 1894 | Centennial | | Tippecanoe | James W. Holmes, Jeffrey W. Holmes, Jason M. Davidson (Davidson) | 1824 | Bicentennial | | Tippecanoe | Inskeep-McDole; Gilbert-Dilley; Tishler-Diem | 1877 | Centennial | | Tipton | Meyncke | 1924 | Centennial | | Union | Greenmeadow Farm Inc-Caldwell | 1923 | Centennial | | Vanderburgh | Friedrich Schaefer | 1869 | Sesquicentennial | | Vigo | Chickadaunce | 1913 | Centennial | | Wabash | Daihl | 1873 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Wabash | Kirtlan | 1924 | Centennial | | Wabash | Schuler | 1920 | Centennial | | Warren | George K Kerner | 1872 | Sesquicentennial | | Warrick | Zint | 1902 | Centennial | | Wayne | F. Park Ammerman | 1919 | Centennial | | Wells | Price | 1919 | Centennial | | White | Diemer | 1895 | Centennial | | White | George B. Kilmer | 1916 | Centennial | | White | Otto Vieregge | 1915 | Centennial |
Julia Wickard (center) with her husband, Chris (at left) and mom (at right) during the Celebration of Ag ceremony hosted by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture inside the Normandy Barn during the 167th Indiana State Fair. Photo courtesy of Julia Wickard.It’s an amazing achievement to be recognized by your peers with an award. But, for one Indiana ag leader, she’s received two different awards in the course of just the past two weeks!
“My love is just serving people and I’m very blessed to have been part of this my entire career,” says Julia Wickard, State Executive Director of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Indiana.
During the first week of the Indiana State Fair, she received the 2024 Women in Agriculture Leadership Award from Purdue Extension.
Then during the second week of the fair, Wickard was also honored by her team at FSA by receiving the Administrator’s Award for Service to Agriculture.
“When I think about awards, I think about the people that I’ve served and served with over my career—whether it’s now with the Indiana USDA Farm Service Agency or the numerous commodity organizations and farm groups in this state,” says Wickard. “It’s about getting the work done, doing it for farmers, doing it for our stakeholders and our partners, and ultimately making a difference.”
Wickard says her connection with Indiana’s farm community goes far beyond serving in a leadership role with FSA. She and her husband Chris own and operate a cattle farm near Greenfield in Hancock County.
“I get up everyday, I go to the barn, feed the animals, go to work in it everyday and I come home to it every night. I do it because I love agriculture, I love this state, and I love serving the American Farmer. That’s why I do what I do.”
She adds that the advice that she gives to others is the same advice that was given to her early in her career.
“Never say ‘Never’ to an opportunity,” she says. “Walk through the door and see what’s on the other side. You may not think that that job or internship is something that you find interesting, but probably what you’ll find is that you’re going to learn something from that experience and you’re going to take something from it that’s going to make you a more well-rounded, better person. Take advantage of every opportunity that’s in front of you.”
Click BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s news report on Julia Wickard’s awards presented to her during the Indiana State Fair by Purdue Extension, as well as her team with the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/15192758/cj-wrap-hat-mixdown-julia-wickard-wins-two-ag-awards-081524.mp3"]Julia Wickard during the Celebration of Ag ceremony, hosted by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, inside the Normandy Barn during the 167th Indiana State Fair. Photo courtesy of Julia Wickard.
From left to right: Republican Micah Beckwith, Libertarian Tonya Hudson, and Democrat Terry Goodin. All three are candidates for Indiana Lieutenant Governor in 2024. Photos: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/14180142/hat001.mp3"]The three candidates for Indiana Lieutenant Governor met for a debate Tuesday at the Indiana State Fair to discuss ag policies and issues impacting rural Hoosiers. But, one of the top issues discussed during the debate is Indiana’s property taxes.
Hoosier Ag Today’s Vice President Eric Pfeiffer, who served as one of the panelists for the debate, posed the following question for the candidates:
“Property taxes will be the number one issue that farm organizations like Indiana Farm Bureau, the Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance take into the 2025 legislative session. One, do you believe farmers are unfairly treated under the current property tax formula because their profession simply requires more land? And what do you see as a potential solution? Can you give us some details on your property tax plan?” asked Pfeiffer.
Micah Beckwith, the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor, responded by saying that farmers are being unfairly treated by Indiana’s property tax system.
“Farmers have seen an increase from last year to this year of 26.2 percent in property taxes. That’s insane. That’s absolutely out of control and farmers need the relief,” said Beckwith. “The Braun/Beckwith plan is going to bring that relief to farmers. We’re going to make sure that they have never again will you ever be able to outpace economic growth of an area,”
Beckwith laid out the property tax plan from Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun.
“Three percent is going to be the cap. It can’t grow 26 percent in a year,” said Beckwith. “We’re going to grow with economic stability. We’re going to make sure that farmers are not seeing these wide swaths of just huge jumps in their property taxes.”
Terry Goodin, who is the Democrat candidate for Lieutenant Governor, said the solution for Indiana’s property taxes isn’t just a quick fix.
“It’s easy for us for State politicians to sit up and say, ‘Well, we’re going to cut your property taxes and we’re going to lower your property taxes.’ Guess what? Property taxes are 100-percent local. It’s easy for those folks to say that,” said Goodin. “What they need to say is, ‘We’re going to quit making cuts of property taxes until we find out what we can do to lower your property taxes and that is through growth.”
Although Goodin didn’t give any specifics, he said he and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick would put together a plan to tackle the property tax issue.
“We’re going to present opportunities in rural communities where they can grow and they can grow themselves out of these property tax crises that we’re in. We’ve got crises after crises here that’s been created by one-party rule in the last 20 years.”
Meanwhile, Tonya Hudson, the Libertarian candidate for Lieutenant Governor, said her party’s plan is to abolish Indiana’s property taxes altogether.
“You should not be paying property taxes on a home that you already own—whether you’re a farmer or a senior citizen living on Social Security and barely making ends meet,” said Hudson. “[If] your property taxes go up and you can’t pay them, then we have this Mafia-style tactic where through a Sheriff’s sale or whatever, if you can’t pay your property taxes, you get kicked out of the home that you own. We should not be doing that.”
Hudson described how Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater’s plan would make up that lost revenue.
“Instead of property taxes, when you buy a home, you pay a seven-percent sales tax. If you can’t afford the seven percent at closing, you can pay one percent a year for seven years,” says Hudson. “The local communities get together and work out the budget to pay our fire and police and they figure out a way to have the fees to cover those costs without burdening the homeowners with unfair property taxes.”
CLICK BELOW to watch the entire Indiana Lieutenant Governor Debate—Hosted by AgriInstitute—at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024.
CLICK ABOVE to watch the candidates for Indiana Lieutenant Governor square off in a debate hosted by AgrIInstitute from the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center on Tuesday, August 13, 2024.
The three candidates for Indiana Lt. Governor are:
- Terry Goodin, Democrat
- Tonya Hudson, Libertarian
- Micah Beckwith, Republican
With Indiana’s next Lt. Governor overseeing the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the focus of this debate was ag policies and issues impacting rural Hoosiers.
The debate was moderated by Inside INdiana Business host Gerry Dick. Each of the candidates were asked questions from a panel representing farmers, farm organizations, and the farm media. The panel included Eric Pfeiffer, Vice President of Hoosier Ag Today; John Ketzenberger, Director Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy; Allison Lund, Editor at Indiana Prairie Farmer; and David Hardin, owner of Hardin Farms in Hendricks County.
Sponsorship of the 2024 Indiana Lieutenant Governor Debate was provided by Ice Miller, along with Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Corn Growers Association, Indiana Soybean Alliance, and CountryMark.
USDA confirmed on Monday what many across the state already knew- Indiana corn and soybeans have a good chance at another record-breaking year.
“This crop looks outstanding,” says Purdue Extension’s ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel. “We’ve got a forecast of 62 bushels per acre at the state level, and that breaks last year’s record of 61. The crop itself, we’ve got reports statewide of 68% good to excellent, and as you drive the state, they look tremendous.”
Casteel was at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Tuesday for a live recording of the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast. He was joined by Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn and Purdue Ag Economist Chad Fiechter to discuss the August USDA reports. You can see that video below.
Casteel says this might be the most advanced soybean crop he’s ever seen in Indiana.
“You get out, you look at the canopy, you pull it back, they’re podded up well. We had a lot of beans that were planted in April and May and those are just tremendous. They’re podded well, they’ve got good node counts. I was out in a field last week and had 23 nodes, which is outstanding. We’ve got good branching. So, we’re looking forward to good crop.”
For more on this year’s crop production forecasts from USDA, click here.
Sen. Mike Braun, who serves on the Senate Ag Committee. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) is among 14 U.S. Senators who have written a bipartisan letter pushing the USDA to improve its process for foreign-owned farmland disclosures.
The letter, signed by ten Republicans and four Democrats, follows alleged inaccuracies posted online by the Farm Service Agency under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act.
“It’s essential for the USDA to ensure that the information published on its website is accurate and reliable,” the senators say. “Inaccurate information can have significant implications for various stakeholders and erodes public trust in the integrity of the reporting process.”
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says the current practice of manual entry, including the re-typing of paper-filed reports into FSA systems, can lead to the publication of problematic and inaccurate information.
“We’re told there have been instances where energy developers have been incorrectly identified as having ownership interest from sanctioned nations when, in reality, the investment behind the company originates from U.S. allies,” says Vilsack.
Additional cosigners of the letter include Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), as well as Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
CLICK HERE to read the full letter.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/13231922"]If you’re a farmer, you certainly understand how stressful it is with lower commodity prices, high input costs, and making sure everything is set for harvest! But, no matter how suffocating your stress may make you feel, you’re not alone.
“There’s no shame in reaching out for help and even just to talk to a trusted family member or someone around you,” says Abby Heidenreich, a Purdue Extension educator based out of Gibson County. She’s also a member of the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team.
They’re working to “break the stigma” when it comes to keeping your stress bottled up within yourself and not managing it properly—because it could negatively impact your family, your friends, and your health!
“When everything starts to hit all at once, it’s important just to remember to slow down, take a breath, and remember that it’s going to be okay and know that you’re not alone,” she says. “We have resources to help. Remember that you can always call or text 988 if you’re experiencing a mental health crisis or if things are just feeling a little bit overwhelming.”
Abby Heindenreich, a Purdue Extension Educator based out of Gibson County and a member of the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Not only is the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team working to help farmers manage their stress—they’re also working to help ag students and kids in rural communities.
“We see a lot of mental health focused curriculums coming to the schools, but not all of them are as relevant to kids and youth who are living and working on farms or in an agricultural community,” according to Heidenreich. “That’s why we’re working on a curriculum that’s going to address some of the specifics of how youth on the farm or in agricultural rural communities can deal with their stress in healthy ways and how they can cope with generational stress and different things that they experience that not everybody in their school may experience in the same way.”
For more information about the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team, visit Extension.Purdue.edu/FarmStress.
If you or someone you know is currently experiencing thoughts of suicide, or a mental health or substance use crisis, please call 988 to reach Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and speak with a trained crisis specialist 24/7.
Many, including this farm broadcaster, have been down about the prospects of getting a farm bill completed this calendar year. Indiana Congressman Jim Baird, a Republican on the House Ag Committee, is still holding out hope.
“I hope the Senate will have a change of heart, and maybe an election and politics might have a factor in that, and in so doing they will present their version of the farm bill, and then we can reconcile that and get something done.”
Baird joined Hoosier Ag Today on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now wherever you listen to podcasts. He reminds us the existing farm bill expires at the end of next month, so something will need to be done.
An area of passion for Baird is research. The longer it takes to get a new farm bill done, the longer it will take for new dollars to make it to land-grant universities like Purdue to get those research dollars that are in it to make improvements for ag research.
“You know, some of these facilities, the laboratories and so on, were built back in the 60s. So, we want to make sure we can upgrade those facilities that the young researchers that we can attract to the land grants, and Purdue University is a major one, but if we can attract those young people by having the right kind of facilities and the instruments they need to conduct the very sophisticated research that they want to do now, then I think that’s a real asset.”
Baird recorded the podcast after receiving the Friend of Farmer Award from the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance at their Shop Talk event in White County Friday. He says he’s proud to represent agriculture on the House Ag Committee and he loves coming home to visit farmers.
Indiana Corn Growers Association President Chris Cherry (left) and Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy Chairman Joe Stoller (right) present Rep. Jim Baird with the Friend of Farmer Award. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer/ Hoosier Ag Today“I think it’s important to stay positive and take confidence in what agriculture is doing and the kind of foundation they provide for this country. And so, take pride in that. I’m very proud of American agriculture, and I think those that are involved in it, and especially those from Indiana, should feel the same.”
The USDA’s Crop Production Report forecasted corn production to be down from 2023 and soybean production up from last year.
The corn production forecast is for 15.1 billion bushels, down one percent from last year. The average corn yield forecast is a record high of 183.1 billion bushels an acre, up 5.8 bushels from 2023.
In Indiana, farmers are anticipating record high corn yields this year. USDA NASS State Statistician Nathanial Warenski says Indiana’s average corn yield is forecast at 207 bushels per acre, up 4 bushels from last year. Total production is forecast at 1.05 billion bushels, down 3% from last year on fewer acres planted. Hoosier farmers anticipate harvesting 5.06 million acres this year, down 250,00 acres from 2023.
US soybean growers are expected to increase their production by ten percent compared to 2023, with a record-high forecast of 4.59 billion bushels. Soybean yields are expected to average a record high of 53.2 bushels per acre, up 2.6 bushels from 2023.
Indiana’s soybean yield is forecast at 62 bushels per acre, up 1 bushel from 2023. Total production is forecast at 358 million bushels, up 7 percent from last year on more acres planted and a higher anticipated yield. Hoosier farmers anticipate harvesting 5.78 million acres of soybeans, up 300,000 acres from 2023.
The all wheat production is forecast to be 1.98 billion bushels, nine percent higher than last year.
Indiana’s winter wheat yield is estimated at 88 bushels per acre, up 1 from the previous forecast but 4 bushels below last year. Winter wheat production is forecast at 22 million bushels, down 29 percent from last year due to a smaller yield and fewer acres planted.
Monday’s report also included the first cotton forecast of the season. The all-cotton forecast is for 15.1 million 480-pound bales, up 25 percent from last year. Yield is expected to average 840 pounds per acre, 59 pounds under 2023.
Sources: NAFB News Service and USDA NASS
Turning cheese into art! That was the goal of Sarah “The Cheese Lady” Kaufmann and Nancy Baker as they took 1,400 pounds of cheese from Pace Dairy in Crawfordsville and turned it into the 2024 Giant Cheese Sculpture—Presented by American Dairy Association Indiana at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center!Taking their cue from this year’s fair theme (The Art & Nature of Fun, presented by Newfields), Sarah and Nancy created their sculpture as a special tribute to two classic pieces of art – American Gothic and the Mona Lisa – while incorporating a fun dairy twist to the sculpture. Indiana Dairy’s popular mascot Buttercup is also depicted in the sculpture.
The cheese sculpture is on display in the brand new cooler located in the Ag/Hort Building. At the fair’s conclusion, the cheese joins other biological matter from the event destined for a North Central Indiana digester, where it will be churned & turned into “green energy.”
The sculpture is sponsored for the 18th consecutive year by American Dairy Association Indiana, the statewide organization that represents Indiana’s nearly 700 dairy farm families.
CLICK ABOVE to see the cheese sculpture and hear from Kaufmann as she and Baker spent more than 250 hours creating this one-of-a-kind artwork that you can see on display now at the Ag/Hort Building through the remainder of the 2024 Indiana State Fair!
Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.Five Indiana 4-H members claimed the six Supreme Champion categories during the 2024 4-H Supreme Drive—sponsored by Indiana Farm Bureau Sunday night at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.
The 4-H Supreme Drive specifically highlighted female breeding animals such as gilts, ewes, heifers, and cows – all representing the finest breeding stock Indiana has to offer.
The Supreme Drive winners in the 4-H category will receive well-deserved recognition at the esteemed Celebration of Champions event. This special occasion takes place in September at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, where the outstanding achievements, scholarship, and dedication of these talented 4-H exhibitors are commemorated and celebrated. If you are interested in supporting these exceptional young individuals through donation opportunities, please visit www.IndianaStateFairFoundation.com, the official website of the Indiana State Fair Foundation.
Supreme Champions awarded during the 4-H Supreme Drive:
- Supreme Champion Gilt: Mya Holderly, Crossbred, White County
- Supreme Champion Ewe: Cortney Hockemeyer, Blackface Cross, Allen County
- Supreme Champion Percentage Doe: Tegan Walker, Junior Division, Clinton County
- Supreme Champion Full Blood Doe: Tegan Walker, Junior Division, Clinton County
- Supreme Champion Dairy Heifer: Dani Mosser, Jersey, Adams County
- Supreme Champion Dairy Cow: Ayden Tusing, Holstein, Kosciusko County
Reserve Supreme Champions awarded during the 4-H Supreme Drive:
- Reserve Champion Gilt: Hudson Yoder, Crossbred, Elkhart County
- Reserve Champion Ewe: Kendall Peyton, Blackface Cross, Hamilton County
- Reserve Champion Percentage Doe: Piper Unger, Yearling Division, Sullivan County
- Reserve Champion Full Blood Doe: Isaac Cruz Redden, Senior Division, Monroe County
- Reserve Champion Dairy Heifer: Breanne Freeman, Ayrshire, St. Joseph County
- Reserve Champion Dairy Cow: Abigail Gordon, Jersey, Elkhart County
Source: Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/12200947/archer-lg-debate-wrap.mp3"]Candidates for Lieutenant Governor will square off in a debate revolving around agriculture and rural issues at the Indiana State Fair Tuesday at 3pm in the Purdue Extension Building. The debate is hosted by AgrIInstitute.
“The Lieutenant Governor is the highest elected agricultural official in the state of Indiana,” says AgrIInstitute Executive Director Beth Archer. “And that’s critically important to the future of our industry on so many fronts including trade development, including any kind of influence that we have on regulatory policies, or any of those sorts of things that impact the agricultural industry.”
Archer encourages folks to join in person at the fairgrounds or tune in to the livestream at hoosieragtoday.com, on our YouTube channel, or on our Facebook page to catch the debate at 3pm.
This is the sixth Lieutenant Governor debate that AgrIInstitute has hosted.
“We do not get engaged in any kind of political activism or get involved in any kind of policy advocacy,” Archer explains. “Our role, really, is to provide a platform for people to become better informed decision makers, and we can serve the entire industry by being that neutral space for these kinds of discussions and this kind of information to be shared.”
Republican Micah Beckwith, Democrat Terry Goodin, and Libertarian Tonya Hudson will take questions from panelists that will focus on agriculture and rural issues. The candidates don’t know what those questions will be, just the topics.
Archer says the topics will include “environmental concerns, market development, concerns related to energy as that impacts the agricultural land. I anticipate that we will hear lots of topics that impact the various aspects from the agronomic side to the animal side of agriculture.”
The panel asking questions represents farmers, farm organizations, and the farm media. That panel includes Eric Pfeiffer, Vice President of Hoosier Ag Today; David Hardin, Hardin Farms; Allison Lund, Editor at Indiana Prairie Farmer; and John Ketzenberger, Director Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy.
Tar Spot Distribution Map as of Aug. 12, 2024, courtesy of the Purdue Field Crop Pathology Telenko Lab.There are currently 41 counties in Indiana with a positive confirmation of tar spot. As we are learning this season when we have had favorable environmental conditions, there may be pockets of tar spot even in areas that have not seen the significant yield impacts previously. In the map above, all gray counties indicate that tar spot was found in the county in previous seasons.
While tar spot continues to be documented across the state, Southern corn rust has now been confirmed in four counties (Knox, Dubois, Warrick, and Shelby) last week in Indiana. I suggest if you have not gotten out and looked for these diseases now is the time. Even if your corn is approaching black layer it will be important to document tar spot in your fields for the future disease management decisions.
Southern Rust Distribution Map of Indiana as of Aug. 12, 2024, courtesy of the Purdue Field Crop Pathology Telenko Lab.I have been getting many questions on if a late season fungicide 4 or 2nd fungicide application should be applied. Here are my thoughts on what to consider to make that decision:
- What growth stage is the corn? If at dent (R5) or beyond I would not recommend an application.
- What has been the history of tar spot in your field? How much disease do you see currently? Where is the disease in the canopy? Just lower leaves or has it moved up to the ear leaf?
- When was a fungicide applied? If more than 3 weeks then the effective period for many of our fungicides has run out.
- Has the environment be favorable for tar spot development – there’s an app you can use to check your field risk.
- If you do decide to make a fungicide application at this point in the season, leave check strips to determine if the fungicide gave you a return on your investment.
We are still documenting tar spot and southern rust as it is important to understand the disease distribution and severity across Indiana. It is extremely important to know if this disease is present in your fields for future risk assessments and to implement disease management tools if necessary.
If you observe tar spot in a county that has not reported this season or would like to share what you have been seeing on your farm, then please send a sample to the Purdue Plant Pest Diagnostic Lab (PPDL): https://ag.purdue.edu/btny/ppdl/Pages/Submit-A-Sample.aspx or
email me a photo of the leaf at: dtelenko@purdue.edu.
CLICK HERE for the updated Indiana county-by-county maps for tar spot and Southern Corn Rust from the Purdue Field Crop Pathology Telenko Lab.
Written by: Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor and Field Crop Plant Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University.
Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor and Field Crop Plant Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University. Photo: Purdue Agricultural Communications / Tom Campbell.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/09231916/cj-wrap-hat-john-deere-layoffs-080924.mp3"]Earlier this summer, John Deere said it was laying off more than 600 employees at three production plants in Illinois and Iowa, as well as an unannounced number of salaried employees at its corporate level. The company also said it plans to move the manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from its Dubuque, Iowa facility to Mexico by the end of 2026.
That’s why Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL-17), who represents the Congressional district where John Deere’s corporate headquarters are located, says he’s disappointed with the company’s recent decisions.
Congressman Eric Sorensen (D-IL-17).“I’m really frustrated because I don’t believe that Deere and Company is being forthcoming about their plans for the future,” he says.
The company is eliminating around 280 positions from a plant in East Moline, Illinois, while another 230 employees are being let go at a factory in Davenport, Iowa. About 100 production positions at the company’s Dubuque, Iowa, plant will also be eliminated.
The company claimed the layoffs were necessary because there has been a reduction in demand for products produced at some of its facilities in Iowa and Illinois.
In spite of the layoffs, Sorensen points to the fact that John Deere generated nearly $10.2 billion in profits in 2023, while the company’s CEO, John May, received $26.7 million in total compensation in 2023 according to the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). May’s compensation in 2022 was listed at $20.3 million.
“There are challenges in the ag economy, but John Deere has been effective in making a profit for its shareholders,” says Sorensen. “Looking forward, we have to understand that it is a profitable company, and John Deere and Company is not going out of business. That’s the thing that’s concerning for me because I don’t believe that we’re at the end of the Deere and Company’s layoff period.”
Most of all, Sorensen says he’s concerned that if John Deere were to continue to lay off more of its employees and send those manufacturing jobs to Mexico, that could have a crippling effect on the U.S. ag economy.
“We need to know where the future of Deere and Company is going and we need to know that the future of agriculture in our country has an American-made John Deere being a part of that,” says Sorensen.
In early July, John Deere purchased 234 acres in northwestern Indiana with plans to build a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility near Lowell in Lake County. John Deere has spent $7 million on the site, with plans for the facility to be longer on its side than the Willis Tower—formerly Sears Tower—a 110-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper in Chicago. It is estimated that the project will create approximately 1,200 union construction jobs and 400-500 permanent positions upon completion.
Source: NAFB News Service
The winners of the 2024 Indiana Agriculture Photo Contest have been announced by Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. The winning photographs will be displayed in the lieutenant governor’s Family of Business offices in Indianapolis throughout the next year.
The winning photos were chosen from hundreds of entries in the following four categories: Agritourism, Conservation, Faces of Agriculture and On the Farm. Two winners were selected from each category, along with two winners overall.
To be considered, the photo had to be taken in the state by an Indiana resident. The photos were evaluated by a panel of independent judges based on creativity, composition and category representation.
“This year we received nearly 400 photo submissions in the Indiana Agriculture Photo Contest,” said Don Lamb, Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director. “Each of the submissions received captured the essence of Indiana agriculture and we look forward to sharing the images with you throughout the year.”
The following list includes the photo contest winners for 2024:
Agritourism Category
- “Rising Above” by Bethany Hudspeth from McCordsville
- “Sunset Fair Fun” by Andrew Forrester from Madison
Conservation Category
- “Mallard Missile” by Sara Day from Muncie
- “The Proud Mother” by Richard Bennett from Indianapolis
Faces of Agriculture Category
- “An Evening Walk” by Linsie Middlesworth from Marion
- “Mini….Faces of Ag” by Jadin Wolf from Marengo
On the Farm Category
- “Buddy Seat Rider” by Marie Kohlhagen from Rensselaer
- “Focusing on Warmer Weather” by Zakery Helms-Judkins from Pendleton
Overall Category
- “Electric Pivot” by Tom Jones from Star City
- “Like Father, Like Daughter” by Jadin Wolf from Marengo
“Indiana has so many gifted photographers that truly know how to showcase Indiana agriculture through their talents,” said Lt. Gov. Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “This year’s winning photos perfectly captured the Hoosier spirit and farming tradition to the highest degree.”
To view the winning photos, click here or visit isda.in.gov. To view photos of the photographers from the award presentation, click here.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
The Purdue Crop Chat Podcast features Shaun Casteel (left) and Dan Quinn (right) with Purdue Extension and is hosted by Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer. The Podcast will be on the road from the Indiana State Fair for a livestreamed event on Tuesday, Aug. 13 beginning at 12 p.m. inside the Purdue Extension Building (formerly the Indiana Farm Bureau Building).The Purdue Crop Chat Podcast is one of the most popular agronomy podcasts in the Midwest. On Tuesday, August 13, the Purdue Crop Chat will go live from the Indiana State Fair at 12 p.m. EDT via the Hoosier Ag Today Video Livestream channels. This program comes just one day after the USDA August Crop report, the first official estimate of the size of the U.S. corn and soybean crops. The Livestream can be accessed on the Hoosier Ag Today YouTube channel, website, mobile app, and Facebook page.
The program, sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Marketing Council, will feature Purdue Extension’s Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn & ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel. In addition, Purdue Ag Economist Chad Fiechter will join the program which will be hosted by Hoosier Ag Today farm broadcaster Eric Pfeiffer.
The discussion, originating from the Purdue Extension Building on the north side of the fairgrounds, will focus on the USDA estimates of the 2024 corn and soybean crops and the yield projections for Indiana and U.S. crops. Historically, the August crop report has been a major market mover, and Fiechter will analyze the impact the report will have on the prices Indiana farmers will receive for the crops they are now growing.
Fiechter’s perspective is unique. Before pursuing an advanced Ag Econ degree, he farmed for 10 years on his family farm near Ossian, just south of Fort Wayne. His analysis will be a unique combination of economics and firsthand farm experience. He joined the Purdue faculty in 2023.
The Purdue Crop Chat Livestream podcast will occur just prior to the Lt. Governor Debate on Agriculture which will begin at 3 p.m. EDT. The debate will feature candidates for Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith, Republican; Terry Goodin, Democrat; and Tonya Hudson, Libertarian. This livestream will also be available on HoosierAgToday.com, the Hoosier Ag Today mobile app, the Hoosier Ag Today YouTube channel, and the Hoosier Ag Today Facebook page. The debate is presented by the AgrIInstitute.
Ed Ebert (second from left), Senior Director of Market Development with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance—as well as John Baugh (second from right), Director of Agricultural Services and Regulations with Purdue Agriculture, were both recognized with the 2024 AgriVision Award, which is the state’s highest agricultural honor from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). They are joined by Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch (at left) and ISDA Director Don Lamb (at right). Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) has presented John Baugh, Director of Agricultural Services and Regulations at Purdue University, and Ed Ebert, Senior Director of Market Development for the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, with the state’s highest agricultural honor, the AgriVision Award.
Now in its 18th year, the award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the agriculture industry and their communities.
John Baugh has been a tireless advocate for Indiana agriculture for decades. A steady presence at the Indiana Statehouse for the last 35 years, his impact can be seen on legislation that directly impacts agriculture and rural communities. He has, and continues to work closely with state agencies, including the ISDA, State Board of Animal Health, Office of the State Chemist, and many others, to ensure the laws, rules and regulations passed by the Indiana Legislature are based on both science and common sense.
Baugh is a tireless advocate for Purdue University, Purdue Agriculture and agricultural education throughout the state. Through his efforts, Vincennes and Purdue created joint facilities located adjacent to the Purdue Southwest Agricultural Center in Knox County. Those facilities have enhanced Purdue’s impact on agriculture in the region and strengthened the long-standing relationship between the two institutions. Additionally, he played a key role in assisting the college’s efforts to secure legislative support for the new veterinary hospital. Over the years, Baugh has been the lead for lobbying to secure funding to support the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) in West Lafayette and the Heeke Diagnostic Laboratory located at the Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center (SIPAC) in Dubois County.
Throughout Baugh’s career, he has served as a tireless advocate on behalf of Indiana rural communities. When considering his exhaustive contributions to forming the Indiana Corn Checkoff Law, Indiana Grain Indemnity Fund, rural broadband efforts, chemical applicator licensing issues affecting producers and citizens alike, livestock challenges and agronomic sustainability opportunities, to name a few, Mr. Baugh has proven a reliable source of information for his fellow board members over the years.
“The strength of Indiana’s agricultural industry comes from the dedication, ingenuity and perseverance of Hoosiers and visionaries like John and Ed,” said Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. “Both awardees have dedicated their careers to moving the industry forward, and it was a privilege to honor them today.”
Ed Ebert goes many, many miles to serve the soybean and corn farmers of Indiana. He is always seeking new markets to move tons of Hoosier-grown soybeans and corn to customers both nearby and around the globe. Ebert’s duties are aimed at helping to increase farmer’s bottom line. To accomplish those goals, he goes the extra mile – in a big way. Ebert has buyers interested in Indiana’s corn and soy crops and related products on six continents, and he has traveled the circumference of the Earth more times than he can count.
In a typical month, you might find Ebert working on a deal with large scale venues to use high oleic soybean oil in their concessions, promoting food-grade soybeans in Indonesia, promoting soybean oil to the food industry in Korea, educating chefs in Vietnam about U.S. Poultry and Pork, promoting U.S. soy in aquaculture diets in China, promoting chicken, duck and turkey in Colombia, talking container export opportunities with the Ports of Indiana, leveraging contacts to coordinate international trade team visits to Indiana farms, promoting the benefits or ethanol and biodiesel or advising the ISA and ICMC CEO Courtney Kingery about crop yields and bushel prices.
Ebert represents Indiana producers well on a statewide and global stage. In fact, in 2023, he and the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council engaged with 31 countries representing 57% of the world’s population and 36% of gross domestic product to work on projects to move the pile. He has been an invaluable source of knowledge on international commodity markets and is an asset to all Indiana corn and soybean farmers.
“It was an honor to present John and Ed with the AgriVision Award,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Their vision has guided the foundation of this great industry, and not just statewide, but nationally. We would not be where we are today without their leadership and commitment to supporting agriculture.”
For more information about the AgriVision Award, please click here or visit www.isda.in.gov.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
Canadian-based Dairy Distillery, which got its start distilling a milk byproduct into spirits and a large cooperative owned by Great Lakes dairy farmers, broke ground on a new plant in southern Michigan that will unite their businesses to make ethanol.
While most U.S. ethanol is corn-based, Dairy Distillery from Ontario and the Michigan Milk Producers Association have a different idea. They’re building a new facility near Constantine, Michigan in St. Joseph County just north of the border from Indiana. The plant will repurpose milk permeate, a byproduct of dairy goods production, into biofuel.
“Utilizing milk permeate to produce low-carbon ethanol is an innovative solution to reduce our carbon footprint and provide dairy farmers with more value for their milk,” says Omid McDonald, Dairy Distillery CEO.
The $41 million plant will go online in 2025 and take 14,000 tons of the dairy byproduct, using it to produce 2.2 million gallons of ethanol.
“This marks a significant step forward in sustainability,” says MMPA President and CEO Joe Diglio.
Source: NAFB News Service
Photo courtesy of Dairy Distillery.
Helping farmers to access credit more easily is one of the goals for USDA, which is why they say they’re changing their loan programs through its Farm Service Agency.
“It’s really signals a new day in ag finance, for FSA is going to position itself as the leader in the example for how our friends in the lending community might consider doing this,” says Zach Ducheneuax, Administrator for USDA’s Farm Service Agency.
He says the three big changes they’re making to their loan programs are:
- Providing more flexible repayment terms.
- Adding more flexible servicing options.
- Lowering their collateral requirements.
“With this rule, we’re announcing that not more than 125 percent security will be taken in any loans that we make,” he says. USDA’s collateral requirement was previously as much as 150 percent of the loan amount.
They’re also removing the requirement that those who borrow pledge their primary residence as additional collateral.
“In some of our visits around the country, that’s been the biggest stresser for producers,” he says. “Many of them took a run at things and they just didn’t work out and they’re not going to be able to be in ag production. They’re thinking, “Boy, I sure hate that I have to lose Grandma’s house.” We’re taking that off the table with this rule, which is really a fundamental change the way we do business.
The FSA’s new changes to their farm loan program begin Sept. 25.
For more information, go to fsa.usda.gov.
Click BELOW to hear the radio news report from Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/08002508/cj-wrap-hat-usda-updates-farm-loan-programs-080824.mp3"]
The entrance to the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/08001746/cj-wrap-hat-randy-kron-on-infb-building-ag-policy-080724.mp3"]The reviews are in and they’re glowing for the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion, which also serves as the Swine Barn at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center.
“It has been a great facility. We’re glad to have our name on it, and I think it represents agriculture very well,” says Randy Kron, President of Indiana Farm Bureau.
This is the second year that the new pavilion has been open during the Indiana State Fair. Kron says the decision for Indiana Farm Bureau to become the naming rights’ sponsor has been a “win-win” for everyone involved.
“Our expectations were high, and you see the drawings and you think this is going to be great, but then when we opened it last year, it exceeded all our expectations,” says Kron. “Talking with the ones showing livestock in there, they were all excited because there is now air conditioning, which I think was a great hit, but just the facilities are the state of the art.”
In addition to sponsoring many different events at the Indiana State Fair, Kron says that Indiana Farm Bureau has also been keeping an eye on ag policy decisions being made on Capitol Hill.
“Naturally, it’s trying to get a new Farm Bill passed, which you know there’s a lot of politics involved. We’ve been able to keep the politics out of the past several Farm Bills, but this year it seems to be bleeding in there, so that’s a tough one.”
Kron adds that he and his team are also meeting with Indiana lawmakers about policies that impact Indiana farmers and rural Hoosiers.
“We’re talking about property taxes and we’re talking about water—the movement of water [to the LEAP District]. We’ve talked about water quality for a lot of years, but now we’re talking water quantity and how do we ensure that everybody has enough and we don’t have losers so we don’t move water and then all of a sudden, agriculture turns the switch on and no water comes out.”
Click BELOW to hear Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron and his full conversation with Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer from the 2024 Indiana State Fair.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/08000207/eric-full-interview-randy-kron-from-indiana-state-fair-080224.mp3"]Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron (at left) poses with fellow Indiana ag leaders Courtney Kingery (middle), CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance; and Don Lamb (at right), Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. All three were part of the kickoff festivities for the 167th Indiana State Fair. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/07211434/cj-wrap-hat-purdue-ag-econ-barometer-080624.mp3"]Farmers across the U.S. are feeling better about the state of the ag economy. That’s according to the latest Ag Economy Barometer survey from Purdue University.
Dr. Michael Langemeier, Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, says he was surprised that more farmers have an improved outlook on the ag economy given the significant drop in commodity prices over the past year.
“When you look at corn and soybeans, for example, and you project net returns for corn and soybeans in 2024, I think this could be one of the worst years in terms of net return since 2007,” according to Langemeier. “And about 55% of the people surveyed are primarily corn and soybean producers, and so I was surprised.”
Dr. Jim Mintert, the Director of Purdue’s Center Commercial Agriculture, believes the timing of when they conducted the survey may have played a factor with the results.
“The political environment might have had an influence on sentiment. The survey was July 15 through July 19—which coincided with the Republican National Convention that took place in Milwaukee,” says Mintert. “We’ve seen this in the past in 2016 following that general election when Trump was elected when we saw a big jump in sentiment. However, in 2020 when Trump lost, we saw things move the opposite direction.”
Mintert lays out the top concerns that are currently on the minds of U.S. farmers.
“The number one issue continues to be high input costs, which was chosen by 34 percent of the people in the survey,” according to Mintert. “The number two issue is lower crop and livestock prices. That was chosen by 29 percent of the people we surveyed as their top concern.
“The third issue—which has changed—is concerns about rising interest rates. That did decline this month. It was chosen by 17 percent of the people in the July survey. Compared to this time last year, concerns over rising interest rates was chosen by roughly one out of four or 24 percent of the farmers we surveyed,” says Mintert.
Click HERE to read the FULL results of the latest Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey from the Purdue University Center for Commerical Agriculture.
Click BELOW to hear the Purdue Commercial AgCast—hosted by Dr. Jim Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier—as they review the results of the latest Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey.
Indiana Farm Bureau is now accepting applications for its inaugural Ag Literacy Challenge Grant, which provides funding to Indiana FFA chapters or 4-H clubs seeking monetary support for a new or enhanced ag literacy program in their community.
Ag literacy programs should fall under one of the following categories to apply:
- An event that will help consumers become better informed about Indiana agriculture.
- A collaborative program that will foster networking opportunities, positive relationships, and/or education between youth and adults in agriculture.
- An event to promote agricultural practices and policies, or their education efforts that stimulate action in the ag community.
Indiana FFA chapters and 4-H clubs may apply for a grant of up to $1,000 during the grant cycle. A total of $10,000 will be awarded by INFB to selected chapters and clubs. Applications should include a summary of why the project is important, budget outline, goals and a program description. Grant recipients are asked to submit a report to INFB after the ag literacy program is complete in addition to presenting their program to their local county Farm Bureau.
The Ag Literacy Challenge Grant is just one of the many ways INFB supports youth in agriculture throughout the year. There also are scholarships for graduating seniors and college students; Collegiate Farm Bureau chapters at Purdue, Huntington and Vincennes universities; FFA advocacy days and trainings; and leadership development events, competitions, awards and conferences.
The submission deadline for the Ag Literacy Challenge Grant is Sept. 15, 2024. To be eligible for the grant, ag literacy programs must take place between Oct. 1, 2024 and Aug. 1, 2025. To apply for the grant or learn more about the requirements, visit infb.org/YFAP/ag-literacy-challenge.
It’s the moment that many Indiana 4-H members dream about! This year, six 4-H’ers took home the Grand Champion prize for their livestock during the Indiana State Fair’s 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America.
This year’s winners are:
- Grand Champion Meat Goat Wether: Piper Unger, Sullivan County (Middleweight)
- Grand Champion Beef Steer: Remington Brumbaugh, DeKalb County (Crossbred)
- Grand Champion Meat Goat Wether Dam: Colton Kephart, Johnson County (Heavyweight)
- Grand Champion Market Lamb: Zachary Tressler, Rush County (Blackface Cross)
- Grand Champion Market Barrow: Kennedy Rodibaugh, Jasper County (Crossbred)
- Supreme Champion Beef Heifer: Hadley Hendrickson, Randolph County (Sim Solution) Click BELOW to hear Eric Pfeiffer’s report for Hoosier Ag Today on the Indiana State Fair’s 4-H Grand Drive–Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America:[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/06174027/eric-wrap-hat-4-h-grand-drive-080624.mp3"]Kennedy Rodibaugh of Jasper County was the winner of the Grand Champion Market Barrow Drive during the Indiana State Fair’s 2024 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America!Hadley Hendrickson of Randolph County was the winner of the Supreme Champion Beef Heifer Drive during the Indiana State Fair’s 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America!
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/05205707/braun-farm-bill-unlikely-wrap.mp3"]There aren’t very many working days left for Congress to get a farm bill across the finish line this year. Indiana’s Mike Braun sits on the Senate Ag Committee and says he and his Republican colleagues are trying to get more farm in the farm bill, which is why he doesn’t think it’ll happen until he’s out of the Senate in 2025 as he seeks the Indiana governorship.
“If we do try to get it done, I don’t think we’re going to get as much in it as what we should. So, of course, it’ll be kicked down the road. It’ll be the current farm bill that extends itself. And I think as hot as things are politically, I think we could be in better shape if we maybe wait until next year.”
While the House Ag Committee has passed their version of the farm bill, Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow has yet to put hers forward for a vote. The Michigan Democrat is retiring at the end of this Congress. She has previously said that she would rather continue kicking this farm bill discussion down the road than strike a deal with Republicans that would limit climate funding and social safety net programs.
“The current farm bill, I know we need to get it updated, addressing issues that are current,” Braun says, “but if we do it just for the sake of getting it done, I’m afraid we may not be happy with it. And yes, I know Debbie well. She’s got things that she wants to make sure that live on in terms of a legacy. But I don’t know that that’s going to be what we want in the farming community.”
Just last week, Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall wrote, “If Congress fails to pass a new and improved farm bill, they will be responsible for leaving farmers in a lurch at a time when we’ve lost more than 140,000 family farms in just five years.”
He continued, saying that “Congress must not put farmers, ranchers and America’s families on the back burner. The House Agriculture Committee has done its part so far. It’s now time for the Senate Agriculture Committee to move this process forward.”
National FFA Organization, a nationally-recognized school-based student leadership development organization based in Indiana, announced Monday that it reached a record-breaking milestone of having more than one million FFA members: 1,027,273. States that have shown the largest membership percentage growth this past year are Utah, Florida and Alaska.
“It’s exciting to watch this generation continue to find their place in agricultural education and FFA,” said National FFA CEO Scott Stump. “We know there are many opportunities in the field of agriculture – from being a leader in your community to filling the need in the talent pipeline in one of the more than 350 careers in agriculture. We believe our members are also seeing these opportunities and welcome all to the table.”
FFA Membership Stats, 2023-2024:
- Student Membership: 1,027,273 (+8.6% from last year)
- Student Chapters: 9,235
- Alumni Membership: 760,152
- Alumni Chapters: 2,033
Top states with highest membership numbers:
- Texas (177,401)
- California (104,450)
- Georgia (81,963)
- Florida (60,817)
- North Carolina (48,241)
Top states for % membership increase compared to last year:
- Utah (+172.7% from last year)
- Florida (+116.9 % from last year)
- Alaska (+74.9% from last year)
FFA, formerly known as “Future Farmers of America,” was founded in 1928 and has since evolved into a youth organization that extends past the traditional farmer. Today, FFA reaches middle and high school students in both rural and urban communities and encourages diversity in membership. For example, as of 2023, 42.4% of FFA members were female and FFA chapters are currently in 23 of the 25 largest cities in the U.S., reaching more students in suburban areas. The wider range of student participation sheds light on the value of both traditional and urban farming.
“Alaska’s rich natural resources are a cornerstone of our new FFA chapter,” said Maureen Cronin, Bettye Davis East High FFA co-advisor based in Anchorage. “In just one year, we are proud to have become the third largest chapter in the state and already have plans to expand for year two. We provide our students with unique hands-on experiences – from our environmental, natural sciences and marine science programs to emerging environmental public health pathway and more. Our school is on the traditional lands of the Dena’ina people, so through interagency cooperation our FFA members are gaining skills in sustainable indigenous agriculture practices, and traditional ecological knowledge. Our members can gain invaluable insights into sustainable practices and resource management with what we have in our backyard.”
The importance of agricultural education continues to become more apparent, with companies in the agriculture industry seeking employees with skills such as problem-solving and decision-making, teamwork, verbal communication, technical knowledge, and more. To meet this need, FFA actively works to maintain successful chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and regularly provides educational opportunities outside the school setting for students to connect and learn from students across the country. The success of a chapter largely depends on the support from a local community, including teachers, school administrators and parents/guardians.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the remarkable growth we’ve seen in our chapter and across the state,” said Austin Courson, JM Tate High School FFA Advisor and Assistant Principal based in Florida. “Watching our students embrace leadership roles, develop practical and technical skills, and work together has been incredibly rewarding. Their dedication to agriculture and the community is inspiring and we look forward to another great year of learning and growing together. As an advisor, it’s truly an honor to support each FFA member on this journey.”
The announcement of the milestone of reaching more than one million FFA members comes ahead of the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo, which is set to take place October 23-26 in Indianapolis. In 2023, the Convention had a record-breaking attendance of nearly 72,954, comprised of members, advisors, and guests, and the organization anticipates to see that number grow this year.
To learn more about the National FFA Organization, visit www.ffa.org, and to learn how to become a member of FFA, visit ffa.org/how-to-join.
Source: FFA Press Release
Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) announced today that Indiana food banks will receive a combined total of $2 million to support their efforts in feeding Hoosiers in need.
“Food insecure Hoosiers are some of our most vulnerable and I appreciate the general assembly’s support of these individuals and families,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “This funding will go a long way in supporting 11 food banks that provide the necessary nutrition to food pantries and soup kitchens across our state.”
According to Feeding Indiana’s Hungry (FIH), more than 950,000 Hoosiers, including 1 in 5 children, experienced food insecurity in 2022, the most recent data available. This new data represents a 30% increase in food insecurity over 2021.
“As we have said for nearly four years, our member food banks continue to serve record numbers of Hoosier families. Too many of our neighbors continue to face difficult choices between paying bills and buying groceries. For any Hoosier to be unsure from where their next meal will come is unacceptable,” said Emily Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry. “We’re grateful for the support of the Indiana General Assembly, Lt. Gov. Crouch and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture for providing additional and much needed support to our members to help them serve our Hoosier neighbors and our communities.”
Indiana food pantries and soup kitchens are a subsect of food banks. There are 11 food banks which supply pantries and soup kitchens across the state. Each food bank received part of the $2 million in funding, which supplies community food pantries, kitchens, churches and more. This funding will allow food pantries, soup kitchens and other food distribution centers to receive additional food products from the food bank that serves their location.
ISDA Director Don Lamb is proud to help assist our food banks and pantries that feed Hoosiers.
“Indiana farmers are skilled at growing an abundance of safe, reliable food and food banks and pantries have the necessary resources and skills to distribute large amounts of food to help community members in need,” said Lamb. “We are so thankful for the work food banks, pantries, soup kitchens and others do for their communities in helping food insecure Hoosiers.”
The funding was provided by the Indiana General Assembly, as part of its biennial budget. The distribution amounts were determined using The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TFAP) fair share percentages for Indiana, which captures poverty and unemployment levels in each county.
Carmen Cumberland, Executive Director and CEO of Community Harvest Food Bank in Fort Wayne, is excited to be able to support more families.
“Community Harvest Food Bank is humbled and thrilled to receive this bountiful grant of $197,800 from the General Assembly and Indiana State Department of Agriculture. This funding comes when our friends and neighbors struggle to afford rent, car payments and basic needs. Inflation’s impact on daily living has left some families choosing between keeping their car or their house, let alone, figuring out how to get food on their tables. These are people with jobs, families, support networks, and resources who the cost of living has simply outpaced,” said Cumberland. “Last week, our Saturday Helping Hands distribution reached a record high of 1,622 families seeking food assistance. Food insecurity is not going anywhere soon, and that’s why these funds are greatly significant in lifting those we love and care about in our community.”
The following list includes the food banks are receiving funding for fiscal year 2025:
- Community Harvest Food Bank – $197,800
- Dare to Care Food Bank – $75,200
- Food Bank of Northern Indiana – $233,600
- Food Bank of Northwest Indiana – $198,800
- Food Finders Food Bank, Inc. – $195,800
- FreeStore Foodbank– $16,000
- Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc. – $693,200
- Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Inc. – $80,000
- Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central IN, Inc. – $155,200
- Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank, Inc. – $89,200
- Tri-State Food Bank, Inc. – $119,200
Visit isda.in.gov to learn more about the Indiana State Department of Agriculture Department. Visit feedingindianashungry.org to learn more about Feeding Indiana’s Hungry.
The 2024-25 Indiana FFA State Officer Team working in the FFA Pavilion during the 2024 Indiana State Fair. Front row: Northern Region Vice President, Stephanie Breenda; Reporter, Sienna Alexander; Secretary, Christina Caldwell; Treasurer, Kyatalin Baker. Back row: Vice President, Cale Williams; Sentinel, Garrett Bolin; President, Ethan Wolheter. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.If you’re heading out to the Indiana State Fair, be sure to take the kids and grandkids to the Indiana FFA Pavilion for an experience with the family that combines ag education with fun.
Indiana FFA President Ethan Wolheter of LaGrange County says there is something for everyone—especially the kids!
“Our main attraction is our Putt-Putt Golf Course, where kids and adults are able to play a round of 18 holes of Putt-Putt golf,” says Wolheter. “We also have an area where kids can explore ‘Farm-to-Table’ and the how to grow your own food. We also have a petting zoo where you can also learn more facts about the different animals that are there. Overall, it’s a great place to do some fun things and learn more about FFA and agriculture.”
The best part about all of the activities inside the Indiana FFA Pavilion is that they are free!
“We do take donations, but it’s really just an opportunity for everybody to be able to relax and have some fun while they’re here at the Indiana State Fair.”
Wolheter also recommends that you stop and shop inside their Country Market, which is another showcase for Indiana’s ag products—including Hoosier-made jams, honey, and maple syrup.
“All the proceeds from our Country Market go to help the Indiana FFA Foundation, which in turn, sponsors lots of kids throughout the state and all the events that Indiana FFA sponsor for our chapters and members,” he says.
The Indiana FFA Pavilion is sponsored by Corteva Agriscience and is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays during the 2023 Indiana State Fair until Aug. 18. The Indiana State Fair is closed on Mondays.
Click BELOW to hear Indiana FFA President Ethan Wolheter chat with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller about the Indiana FFA Pavilion on the north side of the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/05173743/cj-wrap-hat-mixdown-2-ffa-pavilion-080524.mp3"]Indiana FFA President Ethan Wolheter of LaGrange County chats with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller inside the Indiana FFA Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.
Hadley Hendrickson of Randolph County was the winner of the Supreme Champion Beef Heifer Drive during the Indiana State Fair’s 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America! Congratulations to all of the winners of the Indiana State Fair’s 2024 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America!• GRAND CHAMPION MARKET BARROW DRIVEKennedy Rodibaugh of Jasper County (Crossbred)• GRAND CHAMPION MARKET LAMB DRIVEZachary Tressler of Rush County (Blackface Cross)• GRAND CHAMPION MEAT GOAT WETHER DRIVEPiper Unger of Sullivan County (Middleweight)• GRAND CHAMPION MEAT GOAT WETHER DAM DRIVEColton Kepart of Johnson County (Heavyweight)• SUPREME CHAMPION BEEF HEIFER DRIVEHadley Hendrickson of Randolph County (Sim Solution)• GRAND CHAMPION BEEF STEER DRIVERemingtin Brumbaugh of DeKalb County (Crossbred)We’ll have full coverage of the Indiana State Fair’s 2024 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America—in the coming days at HoosierAgToday.com—and the Hoosier Ag Today mobile app!Kennedy Rodibaugh of Jasper County was the winner of the Grand Champion Market Barrow Drive during the Indiana State Fair’s 2024 4-H Grand Drive—Presented by Farm Credit Mid-America!
The Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Glass Barn, which is located on the north side of the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.On your next visit to the Indiana State Fair, make sure the Indiana Soybean Alliance‘s Glass Barn on the northside of the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center is on your list.
Unveiled by Indiana’s soybean farmers during the 2013 Indiana State Fair, the Glass Barn is the premier destination for educating Hoosiers about Indiana’s soybean farms–as well as Indiana’s soybean farmers.
The Glass Barn program is funded through Indiana’s soybean checkoff.
Using engaging displays, games and programs, it allows visitors during the Indiana State Fair to learn about farming, farmers’ connections with the land and the technology they use to work it.
Among the educational tools you’ll find inside the Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Glass Barn:
Combine Simulator
Climb aboard a life-sized combine harvester and virtually harvest soybeans in their Glass Barn Combine Simulator!
Soy you think you can farm?
The video game, “Soy You Think You Can Farm,” teaches visitors about agriculture from planting to harvest.
Photo Booths
Get a fantastic snapshot with an awesome backdrop to cherish forever.
Live Farmer Chats
Farmer chats will take place each day during the State Fair at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Come talk with real farmers, ask them questions and win! A $25 grocery gift card and Dairy Bar milkshake coupons will be awarded at each chat.
The Glass Barn is open every day throughout the Indiana State Fair from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Indiana State Fair runs through Sunday, Aug. 18 and is closed on Mondays.
Click below to hear Kevin Cox, Chair of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, as he chats with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller about the educational opportunities that your kids and grandkids can find inside the Glass Barn during the Indiana State Fair!
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/04235338/cj-interview-kevin-cox-glass-barn-hat-this-week-080424.mp3"]Kevin Cox, Clay County farmer and board chairman of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, chats with Hoosier Ag Today inside the Glass Barn during the Indiana State Fair. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/04141606/lamb-at-the-fair-wrap-long.mp3"]The Indiana State Fair kicked off on Friday. The Indiana State Department of Agriculture will keep plenty busy during the fair and so will its director Don Lamb. Next Wednesday, August 14, ISDA and Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch will award longstanding Indiana farming families with Hoosier Homestead Awards for 100, 150 or 200 years of ownership. Being a farmer himself, Lamb says this is a prestigious honor.
“I’ve done the math; I’m going to be 105 when my farm gets to that point. So, I’m trying to eat well, exercise. I’m trying to get there, but my kids are going to be in their 70s, you know? So, I’ve got this this perspective of thinking- Wow! Having a farm in the family for that long really is an honor, and it’s something somebody has worked hard to keep it that way.”
Open throughout the fair, The Indiana Grown Marketplace will offer fairgoers the opportunity to shop from over 400 products representing over 90 Hoosier businesses in one location in The Mercantile building.
“Our Indiana Grown team is really good,” says Lamb,” and they put together all sorts of products that are produced, packaged, and processed in Indiana. And you’ve got a wide variety of things from honey to meats and everything in between that are grown here in the state.”
When asked what his favorite part of the fair is, Lamb says, “Well, I immediately went to the Dairy Barn. I don’t know why exactly. It probably has something to do with ice cream and shakes, but the Dairy Barn is just a cool, iconic spot. When I think about the fairgrounds, I think about that Dairy Barn, and I think about getting that milkshake and appreciate the people at the American Dairy Association of Indiana and the Indiana dairy producers, and just all they do for agriculture in general, not just the dairy industry.”
The fair runs now through the 18th but is closed on Mondays.
Mike Schulte of Schulte’s Produce LLC of Pandora, Ohio, with ISDA Resource Specialist, Dave Lefforge. Schulte was the winner of the 2024 Red Gold Stewardship Award presented by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and Red Gold, Inc. Photo courtesy of ISDA.The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and Red Gold recently announced the winners of the 2024 Red Gold Stewardship award. Schulte’s Produce LLC of Pandora, Ohio was selected as the first-place winner, and Lievens Bros. Farms Inc. of Petersburg, Michigan received second place.
This presentation, now in its 16th year, is a partnership between Red Gold and the ISDA. The award is presented to Red Gold tomato growers who value improving soil health and water quality on their operations.
Located in northeast Ohio, the Schultes family has been growing tomatoes since 1975. In addition to tomatoes, they grow squash, cabbage, peppers, corn, soybeans and wheat. They also raise tomato starts for 15 other area farmers. Schulte’s Produce LLC has implemented a multitude of conservation practices to promote soil health and water quality on their farm, like cover crops, regular soil testing and reduced tillage, among many others.
When asked why Schulte’s Produce LLC values implemented conservation efforts on its operation, Mike Schulte said, “treat your ground right and it will reward you.”
Second place winner, Lievens Bros. Farms Inc., is located in southeastern Michigan. The Lievens family grows tomatoes as well as traditional row crops. On their operation they have implemented a wide variety of stewardship and conservation practices, such as grassed waterways and filter strips, variable rate nutrient application and cover crops, to name a few.
The Midwest is a leader in soil health efforts. Specifically in the Hoosier state, farmers planted more than 1.7 million acres of cover crops in 2023.
Brent Leivens of Lievens Bros. Farms Inc. of Petersburg, Michigan, with ISDA Resource Specialist, Dave Lefforge. Lievens finished in second place in the 2024 Red Gold Stewardship Awards. Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.“Red Gold continues to be proud of the tomato growers participating in this formal program, partnered with ISDA, reflecting growers’ continuous good efforts with soil and water conservation practices. We have had 100% participation in this program for several years,” said Curt Utterback, Director of Agriculture at Red Gold. “Our growers are committed to providing healthy, nutritious food for an ever-growing population, while never losing sight of properly taking care of the land. Many of the Red Gold growers are multi-generational operations, and working toward sustainability is a priority to ensure future opportunities for themselves and others. It is an honor to formally recognize this year’s winners Schulte’s Produce, LLC and Lievens Bros. Farms, Inc.”
“The Red Gold Stewardship Award recognizes tomato growers who are committed to soil conservation practices and the benefits they provide,” said ISDA Director Don Lamb. “Soil health and water quality continue to be top of mind for Indiana and Midwestern producers, and it is a privilege to recognize Schulte’s Produce LLC and Lievens Bros. Farms Inc. for their efforts.”
As the top winner, Schulte’s Produce LLC received a $1,000 scholarship and the option to ship an extra truckload of tomatoes per day during harvest season. Lievens Bros. Farms Inc. was awarded a $500 scholarship and the opportunity to ship an extra half truckload of tomatoes per day during harvest.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
The Indiana State Fair sign on top of the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The 167th Indiana State Fair is now underway featuring 15 action-packed days full of summertime fun, competition, education, and entertainment. Hoosiers from all corners of the state will gather together once again to celebrate the best of Indiana agriculture—as well as enjoy the traditions of the food, animals, exhibits and rides. This year’s Indiana State Fair runs through Sunday, Aug. 18 and is closed on Mondays.
This year’s theme is The Art & Nature of Fun featuring unique art displays inside the Harvest Pavilion and throughout the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center.
Also new this year is the State Fair Splash Pad at the MHS Family Fun Park, the State Fair Outdoor Basketball Court located just outside Gate 12, and an all-day celebration of the Beatles and their music on Saturday, Aug. 3 in honor of their historic concert at the Indiana State Fair in 1964.
Hoosier Ag Today is your home for full coverage of this year’s Indiana State Fair—including the 4H Grand Drive Presented by Farm Credit-Mid America on Sunday evening, Aug. 4 at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. You can find our exclusive reports throughout the Indiana State Fair at HoosierAgToday.com and the Hoosier Ag Today mobile app.
Click BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today on-the-air from the Indiana State Fair for Hoosier Ag This Week!
Andy Tauer (left) and Kendell Culp (right) from Indiana Farm Bureau sit down with Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer for a recording of the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast. Photo credit: Heidi Gant/ Indiana Farm BureauFarmers are facing many headwinds right now with challenging markets and decreased demand for products. Unfortunately, while all that unfolds, Indiana farmers are also looking at huge property tax bills this year.
“We’ve seen increases anywhere from 20% to we’ve heard some as high as 70%,” says Andy Tauer, Executive Director of Policy for Indiana Farm Bureau. He was a guest on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast from Hoosier Ag Today to discuss the property tax issue that will be the top issue for all ag groups at the statehouse when the General Assembly convenes in January.
Tauer is calling on not just Farm Bureau members, but the entire ag community, the “barnyard” as he likes to refer to it, to come together on this important issue.
“I think what we’re going to need is those farmers, those members in the rural communities, not only at the Statehouse, but between now and January, talking to your elected officials, talking to those candidates that are up for election, letting them know the pressure that the increase in property taxes are putting on you, on your livelihood, on your properties, but also talking about some potential solutions.”
Indiana Farm Bureau Vice President Kendell Culp also joined us on the podcast. He says whatever solution they come up with, he hopes it’s a permanent one.
“Anytime there are tweaks or there’s relief given, it’s at the cost of another taxpayer, it’s at the expense of another taxpayer. And so nine years ago, we had a big effort. We got property tax relief. Senator (Brandt) Hershman then carried that legislation and it lowered Farm Bureau’s property tax burden. But we knew it was going to build back, and that’s exactly what’s happened. Here we are, it’s going to be 10 years later, now we’ve built back way above where it was before. You’ve got that perfect storm with low commodity prices, increasing property taxes, and it’s kind of like, well, that doesn’t affect the ability to pay. Farm Bureau is looking for permanent and lasting relief.”
The Indiana Ag Policy Podcast presented by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance is available now below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Growers Association, led a panel discussion about expanding ag exports through container shipping. Included on the panel were Jody Peacock, CEO of the Ports of Indiana; Aaron Kuhn, Regional Marketing Manager for POET; Paul Pence, Founder and CEO of Pence Group in Lafayette. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Soybean Alliance.Keeping an eye on regulations that may affect Hoosier farmers, looking for opportunities to expand farm exports and decoding potential farm bill proposals were among the topics covered during the 2024 Indiana Ag Policy Summit on Wednesday at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Noblesville.
The Summit is an annual policy-focused program presented by the Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Membership and Policy Committee (M&P) and the Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA). M&P Chair Joe Stoller, a farmer from Bremen, Ind., and ICGA President Chris Cherry, a farmer from New Palestine, Ind., welcomed approximately 130 farmers, industry stakeholders and the staff of state and federal lawmakers to the annual event.
“I want you to know our policy organizations have been very busy this year advancing issues important to soybean and corn farmers,” Stoller explained. “We had a productive presence in the General Assembly testifying on behalf of the Biofuels Tax Credit this year, and we are already planning out next year’s Session. Just a couple weeks ago, directors and staff were in Washington, D.C. for American Soybean Association (ASA) meetings and meetings with federal legislative staff, where we highlighted many priority issues for the soybean industry.”
Among the important topics discussed while on Capitol Hill was the overdue farm bill. Former USDA Secretary Mike Johanns gave the Summit’s keynote address about farm bill delays and the prospects of getting one adopted by Congress this year.
Johanns led USDA from 2005-2007 in President George W. Bush’s cabinet. He served as the governor of Nebraska from 1999-2005, then served one term in the U.S. Senate from 2009-2015. These days, Johanns is the Chairman of Agriculture for alliantgroup, which is an agricultural consulting firm focused on tax credits and incentives to support American farmers. In addition, alliantgroup was the Premier sponsor of this year’s Summit.
The biggest challenge to getting a farm bill passed this year, Johanns said, is the combination of few remaining legislative days and election year politics. He said that Republican leadership in the House Ag Committee has passed a farm bill with details that Democratic Party lawmakers dislike. Similarly, Democrat leaders in the Senate Ag Committee have discussed a farm bill plan with elements that Republicans cannot support. He added that the Senate committee has not yet formerly written any legislative text and a farm bill mockup has not been written.
“We will come back after the election, and then there will be a lame duck period from November to January,” Johanns said. “A farm bill will get done, but the election will likely influence it.”
He suggested that if either party wins the White House and takes control of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, then that will probably bring swift passage to a farm bill.
Former USDA Secretary Mike Johanns gave the Indiana Ag Policy Summit’s keynote address about farm bill delays and the prospects of getting one adopted by Congress this year. Johanns led USDA from 2005-2007 in President George W. Bush’s cabinet. He served as the governor of Nebraska from 1999-2005, then served one term in the U.S. Senate from 2009-2015. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Soybean Alliance.Baird named Friend of Farmer
Among the key members of the House Ag Committee’s farm bill debate is U.S. Rep. Jim Baird (R-Dist. 4). ICGA and M&P announced during the Summit that Baird has been honored with the organization’s Friend of Farmer award for 2024. Baird was unable to attend Wednesday’s Ag Policy Summit, but the policy groups plan to present him with the award during a Shop Talk on Friday, Aug. 9 in White County.
Go online to incornandsoy.org/events to register for this Shop Talk and to see a schedule for other upcoming Shop Talk events in August.
Baird is a lifelong resident of west-central Indiana. The Fourth Congressional District covers 16 of the counties in that region of the state. Prior to being elected to Congress in 2018, Baird was a state representative to the Indiana General Assembly for eight years. He is a Purdue University graduate with degrees in animal science, and he earned a doctorate in monogastric nutrition from the University of Kentucky. Baird is also a decorated Vietnam veteran in the U.S. Army.
Throughout his legislative career, both at the state and federal levels, Baird has served on committees that cover rural and agricultural issues. Cherry and Stoller said Hoosier farmers are well represented by Baird in Congress.
“Congressman Baird has been a longtime friend and ally to our commodity groups and Hoosier farmers,” Cherry said. “He has always been there for ISA and ICGA issues, including an early co-sponsor of the Next Generations Fuels Act. Through his work on the House Agriculture Committee, a farm bill proposal was developed and passed out of committee that includes many of our priorities.”
Monitoring EPA’s herbicide strategy
The Ag Policy Summit covered a variety of issues that M&P and ICGA are watching closely in the coming months – including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) herbicide strategy to comply with the Endangered Species Act. ASA Director of Government Affairs Kyle Kunkler said EPA is caught between ongoing pressure from environmental advocacy groups and farmers who fear the loss of important tools to control weeds.
“EPA must follow certain rules when implementing policy in the registration process,” Kunkler said. “Right now, the lawsuits are playing out faster than the registration process. EPA has a nearly impossible problem to solve, and they have less time to solve it.”
He added that EPA has only released a draft version of its herbicide strategy, so far. Kunkler said the official policy must be announced by Aug. 30. “The official policy isn’t here, yet, but it’s on our doorstep,” he said. “We will have an opportunity to respond to the official policy.”
Go online to ASA’s website at https://soygrowers.com/news_release_category/economists-angle/ to read more on this subject.
Container shipping expansion
ICGA and ISA CEO Courtney Kingery led a panel discussion about expanding ag exports through container shipping. The panel featured:
- Jody Peacock, CEO of the Ports of Indiana
- Aaron Kuhn, Regional Marketing Manager for POET
- Paul Pence, Founder and CEO of Pence Group in Lafayette, Ind.
Because Indiana is a major warehouse and distribution center, many shipping containers enter the state. However, too many containers leave the state empty. Kuhn said the containers are available to be filled, if Indiana agricultural businesses can coordinate the logistics. Peacock said Indiana’s three ports – one on Lake Michigan and two on the Ohio River – can help move agricultural products in containers to export markets around the world.
Pence said the advantage of container shipping is getting smaller quantities of products to places that can’t manage larger shipments. “Our little company in Lafayette, Ind., isn’t going to move the needle much in exports,” he said. “What we can do is prove to Indiana farmers and to importers around the world that we can ship quality products in shipping containers.”
Gauck earns ASA/BASF scholarship
Addie Gauck, a recent high school graduate from Greensburg, Ind., is the recipient of the 2024-25 Soy Scholarship award, sponsored by ASA and BASF. Monrovia, Ind., farmer Keevin Lemenager, who serves on both the ISA and ASA boards, presented Gauck with a certificate for her scholarship during the Summit.
“ASA and BASF are proud to offer this opportunity to invest in future industry leaders,” Lemenager said. “As a farmer director for both ASA and ISA, I am excited to present this $7,000 scholarship to a fellow Hoosier – Addie Gauck. Addie is a 2024 graduate of North Decatur High School and plans to study agriculture systems management at Purdue University. Her impressive agricultural involvement includes numerous awards and leadership roles in 4-H and FFA. Addie also owns Addie’s Fresh Pork and Pasture Raised Chicken, a business she started at age 11.”
Gauck said her father taught her that it is important to maintain her business and agriculture connections. She sees the value in keeping these relationships as she plans her future career. Gauck said her goal is to bring together all the skills she’s learned to improve the agriculture industry and her community.
Sponsorship and membership
The policy organization leaders emphasized that their work relies upon the investment and involvement of industry partners and their farmer members.
“Along with Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership & Policy Committee, ICGA works closely with our allied industries, recognizing the roles that food, livestock, industry, trade and fuel markets respectively play in building one, cohesive farm economy supporting our rural communities,” Cherry said. “As many of you know, we are membership organizations that serve as the policy voice of Indiana’s soybean and corn farmers. Our policy work is not funded by checkoff dollars. That means we must rely on membership dollars and corporate contributions to ensure farmer voices are heard and to address issues at all levels of government that directly affect Hoosier crop producers.”
ICGA and M&P hosted a Membership Appreciation Dinner, a members-only event, to recognize their contribution to the farm advocacy efforts. Several farmers who have signed up to be Lifetime Members of M&P and ICGA were honored during the dinner. Anyone interested in more information about Lifetime Membership should contact Khyla Goodman, Industry Affairs Outreach Manager for ICGA and M&P, at kgoodman@indianasoybean.com.
Stoller and Cherry thanked the sponsors for this year’s Ag Policy Summit. Those sponsors included alliantgroup, Pioneer, Farm Credit Mid-America, Bane-Welker Equipment, Insta-Pro International, Conexus Indiana, Beck’s Hybrids, StoneX and FMC. Corteva Agriscience and First Farmers Bank and Trust sponsored the Membership Appreciation Night.
Lastly, the Summit featured its first Technology Showcase, which was designed to feature the latest farm technology to event attendees. New technology in equipment, seed development and more were highlighted. The Showcase vendors included alliantgroup, Verdant Robotics, Solinftec, Bane-Welker Equipment, Swarm Farm Robotic Agriculture, Insignum AgTech, Apache Sprayers and Insta-Pro International.
Source: Indiana Soybean Alliance
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/08/01220018/sabrina-wrap-hat-prop-12-impact-080124.mp3"]It’s been eight months since California’s Prop 12 took effect, and pork producers around the U.S. are feeling the effects.
Holly Cook, Economist with the National Pork Producers Council, says it has been a costly transition for producers.
“So, from a production standpoint, we know that Prop 12 can be very expensive for producers to undertake. There’s been a few studies done with data collected from those in the building industry and those that have decided to make adjustments on their farms, which shows that new construction for Prop 12 can be anywhere from $3,600 to $4,000 per sow,” she said. “There’s ways also to convert existing operations, but then we run into maybe losing production having to reduce the number of animals and so no matter kind of what way we slice it, it looks to be very expensive.”
She said that expense ends up costing consumers.
“There’s been data that’s come out of the retail channels in California. USDA economists recently compiled it and put out a report showing that retail prices are up twenty to forty percent for covered pork products in California,” Cook explained.
Cook said some pork producers won’t be able to make the changes at all.
“For this to make economic sense, producers generally need a pretty large premium to offset those added costs. And some of these costs can be ongoing if they’re production related and we’re losing efficiencies with some of the management of this style of farming. So as far as how long this will last, it’s really uncertain,” she said.
She pointed out the industry may have more changes ahead.
“What we do know is that we’re in a bit of a vulnerable state here. We have uncertainty. If other states choose to adopt some similar regulations or even different regulations that are going to require more from producers or maybe conflict with the current standards set by California for their market, that could be even more expensive and challenging.”
Shelby County farmer David Lawson (at left) with his son Kellen Lawson (at right). Photo courtesy of David and Anne Lawson.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/31200157/cj-wrap-hat-full-david-lawson-crop-update-073124.mp3"]According to the latest USDA Crop Progress Update, 70 percent of Indiana’s corn and 69 of the state’s soybeans are rated in good-to-excellent condition.
David Lawson, who farms just south of Shelbyville in Shelby County, tells Hoosier Ag Today that he agrees with the USDA’s ratings.
“I think our crops had the advantage of good weather most of the time,” he says. “We haven’t gotten too much rain and haven’t had too many dry stints, so from what I’ve seen in the surrounding counties they look pretty good
Even with the heat and moisture this summer, he says there’s been no sign of Tar Spot on his farm or any of his neighbor’s farms.
“There have been some people talking about how they’ve seen [Tar Spot] but a very limited amount, and I think nothing that’s been the threshold that warrants spraying—nothing in my area that everybody’s talking about.”
Even though he hasn’t seen Tar Spot, Lawson says he is still seeing disease pressure.
“We definitely have some Gray Leaf Spot—and we have that every year it seems like in one degree or another,” says Lawson. “There’s also some Southern Rust that has moved into the southern part of Shelby County, so we’ve tried to keep an eye on that. We have some later-planted corn due to a couple tiling projects, so we still have some fungicide to put on those two fields, but other than that, I think it’s really random. The pressure seems to be commensurate with the amount of rain we’ve had in some areas and in our county, we’ve had really varying amounts of rainfall throughout the summer so far, so you really see a lot of different circumstances.”
Looking ahead to harvest, Lawson says the continued drop in grain prices are a concern.
“If we have great yields, where are all those bushels going to go? During years like this, it’s very difficult. I feel like that’s one of the toughest jobs we have is trying to market this grain,” says Lawson.
Photo: Adobe Stock.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/31191745/sabrina-wrap-hat-lack-of-food-protein-at-paris-olympics-073124.mp3"]Have you been watching the Summer Olympics this past week? There’s been no shortage of amazing competitions—especially in swimming and gymnastics. But the one thing there is a shortage of for the athletes in Paris is food—especially animal-based proteins.
According to reports from the BBC and French news outlets, athletes are saying there isn’t enough food available in the food courts, specifically eggs and meats.
According to Kent Bacus, Executive Director of Government Affairs with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the problems started when Olympic organizers attempted to have a more “climate friendly” event in Paris.
“The Olympic organizers have been pushing greater consumption of plant-based proteins, in addition to their cardboard beds and lack of air conditioning. So as the media has started to report, this has led to a shortage of animal-based proteins and some of the athletes are notably upset and started voicing concerns,” Bacus said. “Unfortunately, the organizers underestimated the consumption of proteins by these world-class athletes and the need for just animal-based proteins to fuel these high-performance athletes.”
Olympic Village will serve approximately 13 million meals during the Olympic and Paralympic games, feeding more than 15,000 international athletes from 208 territories and nations over two 15-day periods.
“But they’re also feeding all their support teams, the officials, and the volunteers. And so, when the Olympic organizers looked at all this, they looked at London in 2012 and they said we want to do better than the British. We want to half the climate impact of this and the carbon footprint from the meals. And so, they decided, arbitrarily, that they were going to push a lot of the plant-based proteins, that they were going to reduce the animal-based proteins,” Bacus said. “They’re doing that thinking that animal-based proteins are a bigger contributor to climate change and other things like that. But a lot of the decision making was not really founded on science.”
Adding to the challenges—protein products such as meat, milk, and eggs are all being sourced locally from France as part of the attempt to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the Paris Olympic Games. A third of the food served at the Olympic Village is also plant-based, and 20% is certified organic.
“So obviously they underestimated how much these athletes really eat and consume. And you’re talking about the massive protein intake that these athletes need, not only to fuel their bodies, but to recover. So, they’ve started to receive a lot of blowback,” he said. “Now it seems that Sodexo Live, the official catering partner for the Olympic Village, has confirmed that the very high demand means that they’re going to have to increase the volumes of protein that they’re sourcing to satisfy those needs of the athletes.”
Food has been a point of contention at past Olympics, too. Concerned over food safety, some teams brought their own supplies to Beijing in 2008. During the 2016 Olympics in Rio, athletes were upset about long lines at food courts. And in Tokyo in 2021, organizers apologized for 175 tons of food that went to waste.
Bacus shared his thoughts during the NCBA’s Beltway Beef Podcast.
By: Kris Reynolds, Midwest Regional Director, American Farmland Trust
In 2020, American Farmland Trust (AFT) began a multiyear effort to map farmland loss nationwide through our Farms Under Threat research. In Indiana, the data painted a stark picture. We found that between 2001 and 2016, more than 17,000 acres of Hoosier farmland were converted each year to non-agricultural uses.
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture’s recently released inventory of lost farmland demonstrates that conversion is accelerating – with 345,000 acres of Indiana’s agricultural land lost between 2010 and 2022. This loss is cause for concern, and the increasing rate of farmland loss is cause for action.
How fast is Indiana losing farmland?
Faster than we imagined. In 2022, AFT published new research, Farms Under Threat 2040: Choosing an Abundant Future. We developed three potential scenarios and modeled farmland loss through 2040 based on historical trends of farmland conversion. Our three models are Business as Usual, Runaway Sprawl, and Better Built Cities. Under the Runaway Sprawl model, development continues to become even less efficient than Business as Usual – farmers are displaced, rural economies are disrupted, and irreplaceable resources are permanently lost.
Figure 1: Three Scenarios for the future of Indiana’s farmland.
ISDA’s report shows that development conversion in Indiana is not Business as Usual, nor is it Runaway Sprawl. Farmland loss is happening faster – nearly 15 percent faster than our most alarming projections. Under the Business as Usual model we estimated Indiana losing a little over 18,000 acres of agricultural land annually. In the Runaway Sprawl model, we projected Indiana losing 25,000 acres annually. ISDA found that Indiana lost just shy of 29,0000 acres per year during the study period.
Food Security and Sustainable Economic Development
American Farmland Trust’s Productivity, Versatility and Resiliency Analysis of the nation’s agricultural lands substantiates what many Hoosiers already know: Indiana is home to a disproportionate amount of the best farmland in the country. At AFT, we call this Nationally Significant agricultural land. This land is best suited to long-term, intensive crop production within the contiguous United States.
This is the farmland we need for long-term food production and security. This is the farmland that provides a competitive advantage to Indiana’s farmers. And this is the farmland that is being converted. Our research shows that nearly 71 percent of permanent conversion of Hoosier farmland happens on this irreplaceable Nationally Significant farmland.
At AFT, we encourage sustainable economic development. We understand the need for affordable housing, renewable energy development, and strong industries that support community well-being. As an agricultural organization, we understand the need for profitable farms, vibrant rural economies, and a bright future for the farm communities that provide food, fiber, and fuel for our country. Indiana’s farmland is the factory floor for an industry that generates $35 billion in annual revenue for the state. It is the backbone of essential an essential rural workforce. It is necessary for farm viability, long-term food security and sustainable economic development. And it is quickly shrinking.
Better Built Cities and Planning for Agriculture
Our Better Built Cities model imagines a future where policymakers and land use planners embrace strategies that guide sustainable economic development and plan for an abundant agricultural future. It is not just about saving farmland and protecting farmers. Our principles encourage growth that improves people’s daily lives – where businesses thrive on walkable main streets, neighborhoods have a variety of housing types and price ranges, where there are parks and greenways for recreation, and abundant rural lands provide for strong farm economies and sustainable rural economic development.
State and local decision-makers have several tools at their disposal, but achieving the goals of Better Built Cities requires sustained and coordinated efforts. Indiana must build on its long conversations about farmland preservation and proactively plan for agriculture. To do so, we encourage officials to:
- Plan: Coordinate identification of priority agricultural resources and local comprehensive planning with statewide farmland preservation goals;
- Protect: Accelerate efforts to protect and improve the business environment for Indiana farmers through agricultural districts and voluntary, locally-led- farmland protection programs;
- Guide: Incentivize solar development on the built environment, previously disturbed, and marginal agricultural land; disincentivize solar that displaces farming from the best agricultural land; and,
- Support: Support farmland affordability for a new, diverse generation of farmers by establishing transition incentives, availing municipal and county-owned lands for agriculture and investing in robust local food systems.
Which future will Indiana choose?
In 1997, the Hoosier Farmland Preservation Task Force found the levels of farmland loss in Indiana were unsustainable and actions were taken to slow conversion. Five years later, in a followup to AFT’s original Farming on the Edge report, we found that rates were unfortunately increasing. And now, 25 years later, as the ISDA report confirms, the rate of farmland loss in Indiana continues at unsustainable levels well beyond the Runaway Sprawl model.
If Indiana chooses an abundant agricultural future and does the difficult work of bringing together stakeholders across industries and political divides, it can protect farmers and slow the increasing loss of farmland in the state. Indiana can tailor support through agricultural districts to improve the business environment for Hoosier farms, offer options through agricultural conservation easements for farmers to conserve their land while tapping into its equity for reinvestment in the farm or for retirement, and ensure a bright future for new generations of farmers ready to build local economies. It is difficult to create new approaches to development, but Hoosiers have come together in the past to address these issues and we believe they can do so again. We think ISDA’s report is good cause to pick up the tools that are available and get to work.
Kris Reynolds is a fifth-generation farmer and the Midwest Regional Director of American Farmland Trust. He is a certified crop advisor with the American Society of Agronomy and holds a specialty certification from ASA as a 4R Nutrient Management Specialist.
At the urging of the National Pork Producers Council, a newly published USDA study found zero Trichinella positives in more than 3.2 million U.S. pork samples. NPPC says that demonstrates to domestic and global consumers how safe the U.S. pork supply is for consumption.
“USDA scientists have confirmed that U.S. pork producers’ rigorous biosecurity efforts to keep pigs healthy and working,” says NPPC President Lori Stevermer. “Because of decades of pork industry research and hard work on the farm, consumers can continue to be confident that the pork on their dinner is safe to eat.”
Trading partners have long restricted access for U.S. pork because of Trichinella concerns, as the U.S. didn’t have surveillance data to prove there was a negligible risk for it in the domestic swine herd. As a result of NPPC’s persistence over the past ten years, this USDA study validates the safety of U.S. pork.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/30214032/cj-wrap-hat-500-ag-groups-push-for-new-farm-bill-073024.mp3"]More than 500 ag organizations—including Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance—have recently sent a letter to lawmakers in Congress pushing them to pass a new Farm Bill this year.
“If we do not pass a new Farm Bill and push it to the next Congress there are significant legislative and administrative duties in a new Congress, and it’s just going to be pushed down the road even further,” says Joe Gilson, Director of Congressional Relations for American Farm Bureau Federation.
He says the large number of different ag groups who have all signed on to the letter should stress to lawmakers the importance of new Farm Bill.
“I think it tells Congress that there is still a need to pass a bill this year, and I know that this whole Congress, people have been telling them that. And I think we just wanted to make the point that we haven’t given up yet. We still think, with the right leadership, they can advance this bill and get something done.”
Additional ag groups from Indiana who have signed the letter include:
- Agribusiness Council of Indiana
- Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
- Indiana Dairy Producers
- Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association
- Indiana Pork Producers Association
- Indiana Sportsmens Roundtable
- Indiana Wildlife Federation
Gilson adds that the Farm Bill impacts not just farmers—but every American.
“There are so many parts of the farm bill that touch Americans, from growing food to making sure we have the resources to properly take care of the environment. So, it’s a really important bill to a lot of Americans, and it was great to see so many organizations sign on to the letter.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation recently published a list of five areas that would be negatively impacted if Congressional lawmakers fail to pass a new Farm Bill this year:
- Farmer Safety Net: The safety net for farmers includes support when prices fall to unsustainable levels. This helps farmers get through the bad years so they can continue producing the food, fuel and fiber that America – and the world – relies on. There are many multi-generational farms and many rural communities that have thrived through the years thanks to an occasional assist from USDA.
One part of this safety net is the crop insurance program, which is a permanent program that wouldn’t go away without a new farm bill, but which needs some improvements to make it more affordable to all farmers.
Unfortunately, a big part of the farmer safety net is tied to the renewal of the farm bill and, more unfortunately, depends on a set of relatively fixed “reference prices” for key crops.
The Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs provide so-called “shallow loss coverage” for farmers’ losses not covered by crop insurance. Reference prices are important in both programs, but are the key trigger for PLC.
Fundamentally, the fixed “statutory reference prices,” which were set in 2014, do not account for unforeseen market forces, such as the exceptional inflation in recent years. The inflation of the last few years has raised costs and market prices but left this safety net so close to the ground that it provides little or no protection for many farmers. Adjusting these prices, or the formulas that use them, is necessary just to make these programs do what they were intended to do a decade ago.
A price escalator was added in the 2018 farm bill based on recent years’ market prices; but the resulting effective reference prices (ERP’s) have not kept up with crop and input price increases, cannot be expected to keep up with long-term trends, and are ultimately capped at 115% of the statutory reference prices. In fact, by 2023 the escalator had only successfully raised the effective reference price for eight of the 23 eligible crops, the largest of which is temperate japonica rice, which only accounts for 343,227 acres in 2024 (0.1% of enrolled base acres). It is evident that the price escalator has not worked as intended, at least not quickly enough to keep up with the massive farm cost inflation of recent years.
The following table shows the percent change in the cost of production of the eight largest commodities by base acre enrollment between 2019, the first year the price escalator went into effect, and 2024, when the price escalator finally kicked in for three major crops (corn, soybeans and sorghum).
The graphs below illustrate the failure of the current outdated reference prices to address farmers’ financial pain in a down year. They show the ERP’s for 2024, USDA’s projected market year average price, and a break-even price derived from USDA’s cost-of-production forecasts. Of the eight largest covered commodities shown above, all are facing losses this year ranging from -$201.27 per acre for rice to -$3.31 for barley. At current ERP levels among the top eight crops, the PLC program will only trigger for peanuts and seed cotton, the crops facing the second- and third-largest losses per acre, respectively.
(ARC-County is triggered by county-level crop revenues calculated in formulas less tied to reference prices, and may be activated for various county-crop combinations across the country in 2024.)
This year is shaping up as a painful demonstration of the need for higher reference prices. While input prices have eased slightly since post-pandemic highs, commodity prices have been falling at a much faster rate. With sinking commodity prices and stubbornly high input prices, farmers are taking a hit while they wait for Congress to act.
- Help for Dairy Farmers: When markets turn against them, dairy farmers also rely on occasional help through the Dairy Margin Coverage program, which they help pay for. Anticipated improvements in this program include opportunities to buy coverage for a higher nominal milk-over-feed-cost margin that would cover some (but not all) of the inflation of the last six years.
In 2018, the average farm produced about 5 million pounds of milk, while today the average farm produces over 8 million. So dairy farmers are also hoping to increase the amount of a farm’s annual production that gets extra risk coverage from 5 million to something closer to their average size today.
USDA recently proposed giving a large share of the value of milk priced in the federal milk marketing orders over to processors, based on a questionable voluntary processing cost survey. This would reduce farm milk prices by about 5%. Dairy farmers are counting on the farm bill to direct USDA to make an audited and mandatory survey of milk processing costs, to ensure the fairness of milk price formulas used to price most milk in the U.S.
By delaying the farm bill another year, Congress would be delaying help that could slow the rate of dairy farm consolidation.
- Agricultural Sustainability: Most farmers and ranchers live and raise their families on the land that they work, often for many generations, so they naturally care for the land. But expectations have risen, and farmers are increasingly being asked to make up for the environmental impacts of the rest of us.
The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated many new federal budget dollars to conservation programs aimed at helping farmers support their own land’s sustainability, as well as the sustainability of the global environment, but over a limited time period. There is an opportunity to incorporate those IRA conservation and climate dollars into a new farm bill and make it part of Congress’ permanent baseline for future farm bills.
This infusion of conservation funding is particularly important because the farm bill budget baseline without it is based on a fixed nominal amount of money being available. Like the safety net programs discussed above, conservation programs are defined by that fixed amount; and like those safety net programs, their value is eroded by inflation.
During the one-year farm bill extension that ends with the 2024 fiscal year in September, over $2.7 billion of this IRA money is projected to be spent outside the farm bill, and so won’t be available for future farm bills, by congressional budget rules. Even more is likely to be spent in fiscal year 2025. Getting a farm bill passed is the simplest, and maybe the only way, to convert the one-time limited spending for sustainable agriculture into a long-term commitment. Every year of delay means billions of dollars lost to future programs.
Boosting conservation funding for agriculture is critical to supporting agriculture’s contribution to the global environment.
- Research: Even more critical to the sustainability of agriculture – and to its capacity to clean up the planet – is growing agricultural productivity. Farmers are being asked to do more with less, but this depends on having the technology to do that. A lot of good research is done in the private sector, but much critical work depends on publicly funded research by government agencies and universities. The most productive wheat varieties, for one example, were developed with public research funding and are freely available, because it has historically been difficult for seed companies to cash in on wheat improvement investments.
The United States has been falling behind the rest of the world’s major agricultural producers in our public investment in agricultural research. In real terms, our public investment in agricultural research has fallen by more than a third since 2002. China, in particular, spends more than $10 billion a year on agricultural research, twice what the United States public sector is spending. In fact, China’s public research expenditures alone are almost as much as those of the U.S., India and Brazil combined.
Commitment to agricultural research in a new farm bill could provide new investment in research facilities, a boost in the search for a solution to citrus greening – which has devastated Florida’s citrus industry and now threatens California’s – and additional investment in specialty crops research.
Supporting the productivity of U.S. agriculture is critical to our competitiveness in the larger world market; it is fundamental to building our capacity to contribute to environmental sustainability; and it is absolutely necessary to supporting the health and nutrition of the world’s population.
- Food security is economic and national security: Let us count the ways that the farm bill contributes to our security, at home and around the world.
First, the investment in agricultural research is, as discussed above, absolutely critical to the growth of production on a limited amount of land. This is the arithmetic that reconciles the needs of a hungry world with the care of the planet.
Second, helping farmers get through bad years, with commodity programs and crop insurance, keeps agricultural production capacity in business and helps ensure supplies of food (and fiber and fuel) for the nation and the world. U.S. exports are expected to make up nearly 18% of world grain trade in the 2024/25 marketing year, and a well-fed world is a safer world for all of us.
Third, the economic success of American agriculture supports our national economy. When farms go out of business, rural and small town economies feel the pinch as the multiplied impact of the farm business is lost to hardware stores, feed stores, implement dealerships and all the businesses that serve the people who support the farmer. According to USDA, this nation lost more than 140,000 farms and 20 million acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022.
Finally, the farm bill supports those in need in our own country, through the permanent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and through programs that depend on farm bill reauthorization, such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program.
Agriculture is economic and national security. The farm bill ensures American production is available to provide families in America – and beyond – access to safe, affordable and nutritious food. This is good for all of us.
Conclusion
The farm bill is overdue.
A second one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill would leave us working under a seven-year-old plan in the much-changed world of 2025. Reference prices for crop farmers and margin support for dairy farmers would be another year out of date and less effective after years of inflation. Research funding would be stagnant in amount and direction. Billions of dollars of conservation funding would be lost for farmers and the rest of us. And our security would be weakened by all of the above.
Sources: American Farm Bureau Federation, NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/30215410/sabrina-wrap-hat-national-pork-economic-impact-study-073024.mp3"]$62 billion is how much the U.S. pork industry contributes to the American economy. That’s according to the latest Economic Impact Report from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).
“It’s an interesting report because we look not just at the farm level, but we estimate the impact that arises from purchasing inputs from other industries, and then the added value that comes from marketing those pigs at the packing and processing level,” explained NPPC economist Holly Cook.
According to the report, in 2023, more than 60,000 U.S. pork producers marketed more than 149 million hogs valued at more $27 billion in gross cash receipts. The sales generated from hog marketings and pork processing support a total economic contribution of more than $37 billion in personal income, $62 billion in value added (GDP), and more than 573,000 jobs in the U.S. economy.
The NPPC says the pork industry generates significant economy activity through its purchase of inputs. Feed inputs account for an estimated 52 percent of total U.S. production costs. They say other costs include equipment, buildings, land, utilities, trucking, and labor.
Despite those high numbers, Cook says compared to the previous report year of 2021, 2023 was a difficult year.
“A lot of negative profit margins and by some accounts, one of the worst years that we’ve had ever. So, it’s certainly not surprising to see a little bit of a reduced impact there just given those things as well as an inflationary environment where the incomes that are earned in some of these industries maybe aren’t going as far and generating more impacts,” she said. “But it’s still certainly a very resilient industry and still very significant numbers despite all of those challenges.
Meanwhile, the 2022 USDA-NASS Census of Agriculture shows that the number of farms raising hogs has declined but the number of hogs per farm has increased.
Click HERE to read the full report.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/29204730/corteva-garden-wrap.mp3"]Last week, employees at the Corteva Agriscience headquarters in Indianapolis celebrated a milestone.
“So, back in 2014, there was a group of employees that thought we should be able to do more as an agricultural company to help feed the local community,” Heidi Spahn, Global Community Investment Leader for Corteva, explains, “and could we do that through providing fresh produce? And so, they identified two acres of land on our property here on the northwest side and created a ‘Harvest for Hunger’ garden. It was all about creating produce to get into local food pantries so that they had fresh produce for their clients.”
That “Harvest for Hunger” garden has now distributed over 100-thousand pounds of produce to local food pantries since 2014. The garden is led entirely by Corteva employee volunteers.
Crooked Creek Food Pantry is one of the many food pantries that benefit from the garden. It didn’t exist 10 years ago, but Corteva helped to establish the food pantry in their neighborhood in Pike Township.
“Corteva has been a mission critical partner since day one,” says Kathy Hahn Keiner, Executive Director Crooked Creek Food Pantry. “Before Crooked Creek Food Pantry was even formed, Corteva and other community partners got together. We knew there was a need on the northwest side of Indianapolis- lack of food access, food insecurity being so high, and unfortunately, a lot of those things have not changed. The need is still great- and so having Corteva and other partners from day one really makes a difference. And today, with Corteva’s Harvest for Hunger garden, we get much of their produce, and we’re very grateful for that.”
And it’s not just the produce Crooked Creek is getting from Corteva. The employees are volunteering in the garden and in the pantry.
“So, to run a food pantry, you need food, funds, and feet,” Hahn Keiner explains. “And so, Corteva is volunteering at our pantry on a regular basis is a game changer. We really appreciate that. Not only their employees, but then they bring their families. We love seeing the blue shirts because we know we’re going to have a good group of volunteers on a regular basis. And then Corteva also plays a leadership role on our board of directors.”
Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Don Lamb spoke last week at an event celebrating the 100-thousand-pound milestone. He thanked the employees for their tireless efforts working in the garden and at the pantry to help feed hungry Hoosiers. Lamb was also complimentary of Corteva for being so actively involved in the Indianapolis community over the years.
Crooked Creek Food Pantry requires more than 150 volunteers per week. If you’d like to help them out, visit ccfpindy.org. Be sure to visit your local food pantry to see what their volunteer needs are as well.
Hoosier Ag Today, Indiana’s leading agricultural media organization, has been selected by the AgrIInstitute to livestream the Lieutenant Governor Debate on August 13, beginning at 3:00pm EDT. The debate will take place before a public audience in the Purdue University Extension Building (formerly the Farm Bureau Building) on the North side of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The live coverage will be available on hoosieragtoday.com, the Hoosier Ag Today mobile app, the Hoosier Ag Today You Tube channel, and the Hoosier Ag Today Facebook page.
The debate will feature two announced candidates for Lt. Governor, Micah Beckwith, Republican, and Terry Goodin, Democrat. Inside Indiana Business host Gerry Dick will moderate the hour-long program. A panel representing farmers, farm organizations, and the farm media will ask questions of the candidates. That panel includes Eric Pfeiffer, Vice President of Hoosier Ag Today; David Hardin, Hardin Farms; Allison Lund, Editor at Indiana Prairie Farmer; and John Ketzenberger, Director Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy.
AgrIInstitute serves a robust network of agriculture and rural leaders through leadership development and meaningful dialogue on matters that enhance the capacity of the industry’s most important asset — People. The 2024 debate is the 6th such LG debate presented by the AgrIInstitute. Sponsorship of the event is provided by Ice Miller, along with Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Corn Growers Association, Indiana Soybean Alliance, and CountryMark.
USDA estimates 2023 farm production expenditures in the U.S. at $481.9 billion, up from $452.5 billion the previous year. The four largest expenditures totaled $238.7 billion and accounted for 49.6 percent of total expenditures in 2023. These include feed at 16.6 percent, livestock, poultry, and related expenses at 11.6 percent, farm services accounted for 11.3 percent, and labor at 10.1 percent.
In 2023, the U.S. saw the total average farm expenditure reach $255,047, up 12.4 percent from $226,885 in 2022. On average, U.S. farm operations spent $42,340 on feed, $29,479 on livestock, poultry, and related expenses, $28,800 on farm services, and more than $25,600 on labor.
Total fuel expense in 2023 was $16.5 billion. Diesel was the largest sub-component at $10.9 billion, accounting for 66 percent. Diesel expenditures were down 4.4 percent from 2022. Gasoline expenditures reached $2.8 billion, down 5.7 percent from the previous year. LP gas reached $1.8 billion.
According to the Crop Progress report released by USDA’s Indiana NASS Field Office on Monday, Indiana’s corn and soybean crops remain ahead of schedule and in very good condition.
70% of Indiana’s corn crop is rated in good-to-excellent condition. That compares to the national rating of 68%.
Nationally, soybeans are rated 67% good-to-excellent while Indiana beans are better at 69%.
Corn silking progress remains ahead of the five-year average pace at 81% complete. Nearly half of the Indiana soybean crop was setting pods (48%).
For more on crop conditions around the state, tune in to the latest Purdue Crop Podcast below with Purdue Extension’s corn and soybean specialists Dr. Dan Quinn and Dr. Shaun Casteel.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/29155907/cj-wrap-hat-edit-indiana-pork-beef-checkoffs-at-state-fair-072924.mp3"]When the Indiana State Fair kicks off on Friday, Aug. 2, be sure to bring your appetite when you check out the delicious new food items that are being featured at the tents sponsored by Indiana’s Pork and Beef checkoffs.
Indiana Pork will have three different tents across the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
“We have one located near Pioneer Village, we have one that’s located in front of the West Pavilion or the Cattle barn, and then we have our third food tent in front of the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion or the Swine Barn—or you can’t miss us,” says Jeanette Merritt, Director of Communications with Indiana Pork.
She says their signature dish this year is their Pork Riblets.
“They are run through the same seasoning that our pork burgers are seasoned with, so if you love the taste of our pork burgers, you’re going to love these ribs,” says Merritt. “They are dry, so they’re not going to create a ton of sticky fingers, but we are serving them with three different sauces: a hot honey, a citrus sauce, and a barbecue sauce.”
Meanwhile, at the Indiana Beef Council food tent, they plan to serve up their specialty dish—the Hoosier Cowboy Sandwich.
“It’s a perfectly grilled ribeye stuck between two pieces of pepper jack cheese on grilled sourdough bread,” says Brian Shuter, Executive Vice President of Indiana Beef.
Shuter told Hoosier Ag Today how he and his team collaborated with American Dairy Association Indiana on the Hoosier Cowboy Sandwich.
“Last year sitting around the Indiana State Fair, we were playing around with some sandwich ideas and decided to try throwing a grilled ribeye in the middle of one of their grilled cheese sandwiches,” says Shuter. “In addition, we’ll also have beef brats, beef hot dogs, as well as a smoked brisket sandwich.”
Where can you find the Indiana Beef tent at the Indiana State Fairgrounds?
“We’re tucked in the corner here in the just outside the Cattle Barn on the North End. As you walk along Main Street and get close to the Cattle Barn, you’ll certainly smell our ribeyes grilling on the grill,” says Shuter.
Merritt says the Indiana State Fair is the “Super Bowl” of the Indiana agriculture community.
“I love celebrating every aspect of agriculture,” she says. “For people who haven’t visited the Indiana State Fair in a while and think it’s the same thing, it really isn’t. There are new opportunities all around the fairgrounds this year. It’s a great way to spend the day with your family—or reconnect with all of your friends. It’s just a great way to spend August.”
Shuter says the Indiana State Fair gives the Indiana Beef Council and other ag groups the opportunity to educate the public about the importance of the ag industry.
“We love the educational opportunities here to connect with our consumers so they can learn more about where their food comes from,” says Shuter. “We also have our own booth in the Ag/Hort building to help connect to consumers, so there’s no better showcase for Indiana agriculture than the Indiana State Fair and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
The Indiana State Fair begins Friday, Aug. 2 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 18. The event will be closed on Mondays.
Click HERE for Indiana Pork.
Click HERE for the Indiana Beef Council.
Click HERE for American Dairy Association Indiana.
Click HERE for the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center.
The Indiana State Fair sign on top of the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
College students with the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program were in Indianapolis for a tour of True Essence Foods, a chocolate and fruit processing facility. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/28234916/cj-wrap-hat-china-thompson-field-atlas-student-072624.mp3"]There are countless career opportunities that exist in the agbioscience industry—but many college students may not even know they exist. That’s why AgriNovus Indiana is helping students to make those connections through their Field Atlas program.
“I feel like that’s been the most shocking thing I’ve learn while being in this program is that you don’t really have to know a lot about agriculture to be involved in it and make a difference,” says China Thompson, who is studying nutrition, fitness, and wellness at Marian University in Indianapolis.
She is also part of the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program to learn more about the agbioscience industry through tours of ag-based businesses, on-farm visits, and meetings with Indiana’s agbioscience leaders.
China Thompson, a nutrition, fitness, and wellness major at Marian University in Indianapolis. China was part of AgriNovus Indiana’s Field Atlas program this summer to explore career opportunities in Indiana’s agbioscience industries. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.China recently toured Fair Oaks pig adventure and did a farm tour with West Lafayette-based Solinftec. She also joined eleven other college students for a tour of True Essence Foods, which is a chocolate and fruit processing facility near downtown Indianapolis. While on the tour, China and the students learned how researchers use different chemical components of chocolates and fruits grown around the world to create different flavor profiles in their products. The final stop on the tour was Premier Companies, an agriculture and energy company based in Seymour.
“I got into the Field Atlas program because I want to make a difference and I want to help people eat healthier,” she says. “But since I’ve been on these tours, I’ve realized that before we can even get to people eating healthier, we have to take care of the soils and our animals because we have to make sure those things are in order for us to eat right. The nutrition side of the equation is at the very end of the process, so it has really opened my eyes to see that we need to be better before we can be better.”
China was part of a several different tours this summer with other college students from across the state.
She says now that she has been a part of the Field Atlas program, it has helped her realize that she can use her passions for health and wellness to make an impact in the agbiosciences.
I didn’t know anything about agriculture growing up, and I would have never thought in a million years that I would be thinking about a career in agriculture, but it makes sense,” she says. “I’m excited for the future and excited to see where God places me.
Click HERE to learn more about the Field Atlas program through AgriNovus Indiana.
Tipton County native and Purdue University alumnus Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/27221124/sabrina-wrap-hat-ted-mckinney-on-farm-bill-delay-072624.mp3"]Many ag leaders are expressing their frustrations with lawmakers over the lack of any further action regarding a new Farm Bill. Among those leading the charge is a Hoosier ag leader.
More than 500 agricultural groups—including the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA)—sent a letter to the leaders of the U.S. House and Senate agriculture committees.
Ted McKinney, CEO of NASDA and former Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), said the time to pass the Farm Bill is now.
“Well, the impact of further delay was at least a big part of the letter and that was included deliberately because oftentimes I think the legislators know, members of Congress know, but many in the out in the world of even in ag don’t understand that punting this, kicking this down the road has consequences, I’d say, for our farmers and ranchers who are at the core of this. It leaves great uncertainty,” he said.
He explained even aspects of USDA come to a halt when funding stops.
“Many people don’t know that the good people of the agencies of the government, in this case, USDA cannot plan. They are disallowed legally from planning any point beyond the point where they have funding. Well, we have funding up through and including September, I believe. But after that, they’re not allowed to plan,” he said. “Well, what kind of a business is that when you are disallowed from planning for the future?”
He said he remains hopeful that it can get done before the end of the year.
“Hope springs eternal and we would not have signed the letter if we didn’t believe that might be possible,” he said. “So, we hang on that we still hang on that thread that says it can get done.”
Click BELOW to hear Indiana-native and NASDA CEO Ted McKinney and his full conversation with Hoosier Ag Today’s Sabrina Halvorson:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/25202611/gauck-master-farmer-wrap.mp3"]Decatur County farmer Tim Gauck (in red) visits the Panama Canal with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council. He received the distinguished Master Farmer Award on July 17th. Photo credit: Eric Pfeiffer/ Hoosier Ag TodayThe Purdue Farm Management Tour and Master Farmer Reception was held last week in Randolph County. Decatur County’s Tim Gauck was one of six honorees to receive the distinguished Master Farmer Award.
“It’s quite an honor, a humbling honor, to be to be mentioned in the field of people that have been there before,” Gauck told Hoosier Ag Today. “It’s also encouraging. The nomination letter I got and the supporting letters, a lot of them were people that were my children’s age that had good things to say. And that makes it all worthwhile for all the things that I’ve been able to do- 4-H leader, REMC director, and participated in lots of activities in the county that were advantageous to ag.”
The Master Farmer program is a long-standing tradition in Indiana and honors individuals who have contributed to Indiana agriculture and demonstrated success in their farming operation, stewardship of natural resources and community service.
Gauck had a number of people to thank for the honor.
“My family, I’m most blessed to have them, and they’ve been encouraging for everything I have done. My nominator and the Extension and 4-H groups in Decatur County have all been good to me. So, I just want to thank everybody that has been part of it.”
Congratulations to the other Master Farmers honored this year: Troy & Lisa Furrer (Wolcott), Ron & Sherry Cash (Greencastle), Keith & Darla Schoettmer (Tipton), and Honorary Master Farmers Steve Nichols (Delphi) and Harry Pearson (Hartford City).
The Indiana Grown Marketplace will offer fairgoers the opportunity to shop from 407 products representing over 90 Hoosier businesses in one location at the Indiana State Fair. The multi-week event allows plenty of opportunity to discover and shop local products at the Indiana Grown Marketplace, located within The Mercantile building at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
“Getting a taste of Indiana has never been easier,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “If you are looking for quality products created by people who care about their craft, look no further than the Indiana Grown Marketplace.”
Shoppers will be immersed in a storefront solely featuring products grown, processed, packaged or produced in Indiana with product samples available to taste each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 11 a.m.
“The state fair always brings the best Hoosiers have to the table; the same can be said for the Indiana Grown Marketplace given that all products were cultivated with Hoosier care,” said Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. “I hope you join us at the Indiana Grown Marketplace to experience the excellence of Indiana Grown producers for yourself.”
Shoppers will find a variety of products like sauces, cookies, fudge, teas and popcorn. Also available are body care items like handcrafted soap, natural bath bombs, laundry detergents, lotions and more.
The Indiana State Fair runs from Friday, Aug. 2 through Sunday, Aug. 18 (closed Mondays). The Mercantile building, formerly known as the Agriculture/Horticulture building, is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Mercantile is located to the right of the Midway on the west side of the fairgrounds.
Learn more about Indiana Grown at indianagrown.org.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association confirmed that the effort to prevent ultra-processed, lab-grown protein in the diet of the American armed forces was successful. The announcement came following news that the U.S. Department of Defense is not pursuing lab-grown protein products for human consumption.
“NCBA was the first and only group to fight back against lab-grown protein getting served to our armed forces,” says NCBA President Mark Eisele. “After weeks of speaking out against the plan, we are thrilled to have DoD confirmation that lab-grown protein is not on the menu for our nation’s service members.”
He also says the men and women who make the greatest sacrifices in service to our country deserve high-quality, nutritious, and wholesome food like real beef grown by American farmers and ranchers.
“The Department of Defense can and should be on the cutting edge of science, and we respect their work to investigate defense applications for new tools and technology,” says Sigrid Johannes, NCBA senior director of government affairs. “However, there’s a big difference between industrial or defense applications and the food we put in our bodies.”
Two different storm systems that swept through Indiana in recent weeks left some fields ponded and had farmers a bit concerned about their corn.
“I had some pictures sent to me, actually saw some of my neighbor’s corn here in West Lafayette the day after that, that was leaning pretty good,” explains Purdue Extension’s Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn on the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast from Hoosier Ag Today.
Quinn says the first of the storms was the worst of the two.
“The good thing is that a lot of that crop really recovered in two to three days. Corn is pretty resilient to root lodging. And what I mean by root lodging is that we’re not snapping that stalk. We’re not having green snap or any issues like that. When that soil gets really, really moist, like three or four inches of rain, and then you have wind on top of it, that crop is just lodging at the roots. So, the roots are coming out of the soil a little bit.”
All in all, Quinn says the corn crop recovered really well.
“You can notice some goose necking out there. But you know, a lot of that crop, as long as it recovers in time for pollination, should be okay. We shouldn’t expect a whole lot of yield loss. A lot of the crop that was in pollination at that time is standing. It looks really good. There’s a little concern for some of the sweet corn growers, some of the popcorn growers, that maybe had a few more instances of lodging, but for the most part, I thought it was going to be a lot worse than what it actually was.”
Reports from Northern Indiana are that the moisture that came with those storms gave them just what they needed. Quinn expects excellent pollination and kernel numbers across the state, something we’ve grown accustomed to the past few years.
Here more from Quinn and Purdue’s ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel in the Purdue Crop Chat below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Kyle Mohler, the Founder and CEO of Insignum AgTech during the QUADRANT event hosted by AgriNovus Indiana at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis on July 17. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/24225438/cj-wrap-hat-insignum-ag-tech-collaboration-with-purdue-072424.mp3"]Imagine if your plants could turn purple to let you know they’re sick? That has already become a reality thanks to Insignum AgTech, which is based in Indiana. A new collaboration may soon help corn farmers identify the early stages of Tar Spot disease.
“We’re really excited to announce a collaboration with Purdue University to see how our plants specifically respond to Tar Spot,” says Kyle Mohler, the founder and CEO of Insignum Ag Tech.
Hoosier Ag Today spoke with Mohler during the QUADRANT event hosted by AgriNovus Indiana at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis on July 17. Insignum Ag Tech was one of the ag startup companies featured during the event.
Mohler says he and his team are working with researchers from Purdue University to test out the new traits from his company that give early indications of Tar Spot in corn simply by the having the plant turn purple.
Tar spot disease lessens a corn plant’s ability to absorb sunlight, thereby weakening the plant and reducing yield. The disease is caused by the Phyllachora maydis fungus. It creates raised, bumpy black spots called stromata on corn husks, leaves and stalks. Each individual stroma can produce thousands of fungal spores that can quickly infect other plants and fields.
Insignum AgTech uses DNA already present in corn plants to develop a new gene that reveals infections at an early stage. The gene uses the plant’s innate response to a fungal spore to cause leaves to form purple spots at the site of infection about a week before disease symptoms can be identified.
“We’re working with a couple of professors in the College of Agriculture to gather more data on that and study this in a really controlled way,” says Mohler. “This collaboration with Purdue is also being supported by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, so we’re really excited to have their support and the support of all the growers of Indiana.”
Among the Purdue professors involved in the collaboration with Mohler and Insignum Ag Tech are Christian Cruz, associate professor of botany and plant pathology, and Jian Jin, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering.
Insignum AgTech is collaborating with Purdue University researchers to identify early stages of tar spot disease outbreaks in corn plants by using already present DNA to turn the color of the leaves. Purple spots appeared on the infection site five days after inoculation, and evaluations are ongoing to determine if they indicate an active infection preceding tar spot development. (Purdue University photo/C.D. Cruz)Mohler says the idea to develop the biotechnology that enables plants to use their pigments to warn growers about plant stresses has been on his mind for a very long time.
“The idea initially came because I grew up on a farm here in Central Indiana and my family farm started to use fungicides,” says Mohler. “I was curious why you would spray if you don’t know whether you have that problem or not? Then I learned that by the time you see the problem, it’s already too late because you have to be preventative in order to be effective at controlling for diseases. I understand that’s why you do things, but surely we can do better.”
He adds that his background in plant biochemistry led to this breakthrough development.
“I put a couple of pieces of background knowledge together about how plants react to diseases and how they make pigments,” he says. “We put these two things together to give plants the ability to tell us when they are sick so that we can get a jump start on exactly when that problem starts.”
“It’s a really simple and easy way to see that that problem is occurring, but even more so, it’s easy to pick up across thousands of acres so any color camera can see this color change and then that information could be fed back to the farmer,” says Mohler.
Read more about Insignum AgTech at InsignumAgTech.com.
Indiana Grown and the Indiana Farmers Market Community of Practice (INFMP) announced the Indiana’s Ultimate Farmers Market is returning this summer for its second year.
Previously called the Indiana’s Ultimate Farmers Market Challenge, this contest is a chance for customers across the state to vote for their favorite hometown farmers market to encourage local engagement and statewide recognition.
“The Indiana’s Ultimate Farmers Market allows for communities to support their local farmers market by voting for their favorite,” said Christina Ferroli, INFMP Program Coordinator. “Not only can consumers show support of their favorite farmers market, but by voting, it helps others discover local products.”
Is your farmers market the best? Nominate them for the Indiana’s Ultimate Farmers Market distinction on INFMP’s website beginning July 19 through July 26.
Once the nomination period is complete, voting will begin July 29 and will run through Aug. 11. Farmers market fans are allowed one vote per person, per day. The winning farmers market will be announced Aug.13.
“One thing is certain, Hoosiers love their farmers markets,” said Caroline Patrick, Indiana Grown Program Director. “Farmers markets are an integral part of Indiana communities’ economies, and it is great to see consumers supporting them!”
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Corn crops near Hope, Indiana in Bartholomew County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC), the state’s corn checkoff program, will host elections for Board of Director positions in Districts 5 and 8 and also for two, statewide, at-large seats.
Absentee voting is open now through Aug. 7. Absentee ballots can be downloaded from the ICMC website at incornandsoy.org/ICMCvoting or by calling the ICMC office at 317-644-2863.
Farmers may vote in person at Purdue Cooperative Extension Service county offices from Aug. 12-16. All eligible Hoosier corn producers, defined as any person engaged in the business of producing and marketing corn in Indiana under the producer’s own name or the name of an entity in which the producer has ownership, may vote in the election.
The state is divided into nine districts with one director representing each of the state’s Congressional districts and six at-large seats representing all of Indiana. The following candidates will appear on the ballots:
- Scott Smith, a Windfall, Ind., farmer – District 5, which includes the counties of Bartholomew, Boone, Clinton, Decatur, Grant, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Howard, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Rush, Shelby and Tipton.
- Matthew Lucas, a Brownstown, Ind., farmer – District 8, which includes the counties of Brown, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Lawrence, Monroe, Orange, Perry and Washington.
- Janis Highley, a Warren, Ind., farmer – an at-large candidate who would represent all 92 Indiana counties.
- Lori Cyr, a Fowler, Ind., farmer – an at-large candidate who would represent all 92 Indiana counties.
The ICMC board manages state corn checkoff investments and determines promotional, educational and research activities that can strengthen Indiana’s corn industry. The elected directors will serve three-year terms beginning Oct. 1, 2024. ICMC directors can serve three consecutive full terms or a total of nine consecutive years.
ICMC was established by the Indiana General Assembly in 2007 to promote the interests of corn growers in the state and to manage corn checkoff funds. Led by a board of 17 voting directors who guide corn checkoff funds on behalf of more than 20,000 Indiana corn farmers, ICMC aids corn farmers through its strategic initiatives of market development; environmental, social and economic sustainability; value creation and producer engagement.
For more information, visit incornandsoy.org/ICMCvoting or call Amber Myers, ICMC Board Leadership Manager, at 317-644-2863.
For details about Indiana’s corn checkoff program, visit www.incornandsoy.org.
Source: Indiana Corn Marketing Council
Nutramaize co-founders Dr. Torbert Rocheford (left) and his son Evan Rocheford (right) show off the “Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn” brand of products during the recent QUADRANT event hosted by AgriNovus Indiana in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/24011358/cj-wrap-hat-nutramaize-orange-corn-072324.mp3"]You’ve heard of yellow corn and white corn—but what about ‘Orange Corn’? Thanks to a father-son duo who started their own company based in Indiana called Nutramaize, you’ll likely be hearing a lot more about it in the years to come.
“We want to be the leader in nutritionally-enhanced corn,” says Evan Rocheford, who co-founded Nutramaize with his father, Dr. Torbert Rocheford, the Dr. Fred L. Patterson Endowed Chair in Translational Genomics for Crop Improvement and a professor of agronomy with Purdue University’s College of Agriculture.
Hoosier Ag Today spoke with Evan Rocheford during the QUADRANT event hosted by AgriNovus Indiana at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis on July 17. Nutramaize was one of the ag startup companies featured during the event.
Evan says his father came up with the idea for orange corn more than 20 years ago in order to bring Vitamin A and other nutrients to those who have vitamin deficiencies in many areas of the world, such as Africa.
“A lot of people did not think that they would be able to develop varieties that had high enough vitamin A levels to actually make a difference in Africa,” said Evan. “Most people said, ‘You’re never going to be able to do it with natural variation.’ [My father] proved them wrong. He found the variation after he and his collaborators identified key genes that are present in corn through natural variation. They were able to use those to breed varieties that have much higher levels of vitamin A, so it’s been a tremendously successful scientific innovation.”
Evan says another goal is to bring orange corn to the masses through the “Professor Torbert” brand of Nutramaize’s retail products.
“We have grits, corn meal, corn flour—all of those are available at Amazon.com or on our website, which is ProfessorTorberts.com,” he says. “People describe [our products] as being creamy and having a rich flavor.”
The retail products available from Nutramaize through the “Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn” brand at ProfessorTorbert.com. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Evan adds that Nutramaize has also been working to provide their orange corn as poultry feed for egg producers. The corn not only provides more nutrients for both the animal and the egg—but it also gives the egg yolks a darker color and a richer flavor.
“We’re able to increase the nutritional density of the eggs and improve the health of the birds,” says Evan. “The research has proven these benefits through our collaborations with Purdue University.”
The Rochefords have received a significant amount of funding to expand their research. Last year, Nutramaize received a two-year, $650,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from USDA to demonstrate the health and pigmentation benefits of feeding orange corn to poultry on a commercial scale.
Earlier this year, Nutramaize received a three-year, $460,455 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to study how the antioxidant carotenoids abundant in its orange corn can mitigate the negative health effects and production losses associated with heat stress in laying hens.
NutraMaize licenses its orange corn through the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization.
Click HERE to learn more about ‘Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn’ products.
Click HERE for Nutramaize.com.
Evansville ag banker Tony Hotchkiss, who serves as Chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Bankers Committee of the American Bankers Association, testified before the House Ag Committee on Tuesday during a hearing on “Financial Conditions in Farm Country.” Photo courtesy of the House Agricultural Committee.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/24001852/sabrina-wrap-hat-house-ag-hearing-on-farm-income-072324.mp3"]Farmers across the U.S. could see a drop of nearly 25-percent in their farm income compared to last year. That’s what USDA is predicting—and that’s why your lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are looking for answers.
Evansville ag banker Tony Hotchkiss, who serves as Chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Bankers Committee of the American Bankers Association, testified before the House Ag Committee on Tuesday about the recent impact on the ag banking industry.
“Banks continue to be one of the first places that farmers and ranchers turn when looking for agricultural loans for their deep connection to farmers and ranchers,” said Hotchkiss. “Banks are often the first to see changes within balance sheets and cash flows on the farm operation often due to changing economic conditions.”
Hotchkiss told lawmakers that he and other ag bankers are already seeing the negative impacts of falling farm incomes.
“With rising input costs and lower commodity prices, farmers and ranchers have worked through the liquidity and working capital they build up over the past few years at a more rapid pace than anticipated and are now beginning to leverage equity through refinancing debt,” he says. “This has made agricultural bankers feel like they are looking over the cliff in regards to the agricultural economy.”
Hotchkiss encouraged lawmakers to pass a new Farm Bill and to keep current tax exemptions for farmers, such as the state tax and capital gains exemptions. He also said he supports the Access to Credit for Rural Economy Act (ACRE), which he said would create a level playing field for all lenders to agriculture.
Click BELOW to watch the full testimony from Evansville ag banker Tony Hotchkiss and others during the House Ag Committee hearing Tuesday on “Financial Conditions in Farm Country.” The hearing begins at the 2:00 mark:
More than 500 ag groups have sent a letter to congressional leaders calling for the passage of a new, modernized Farm Bill.
The letter was sent to leaders in both chambers, and leaders of the U.S. House and Senate Ag committees.
“Millions of Americans rely daily on the provisions of the farm bill to produce food, fiber and fuel; to feed their families and others around the world; to voluntarily conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat; to provide sustainable solutions for clean air and water; to provide a producer safety net; to facilitate international trade; to create local jobs and robust economies; and to support rural development nationwide,” the letter states.
Among the Indiana ag groups who have signed the letter include:
- Agribusiness Council of Indiana
- Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
- Indiana Corn Growers Association
- Indiana Dairy Producers
- Indiana Farm Bureau
- Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association
- Indiana Pork Producers Association
- Indiana Soybean Alliance
- Indiana Sportsmens Roundtable
- Indiana Wildlife Federation
The groups say that time is running out to craft and pass a farm bill this year and that passing a stopgap extension of this critical piece of legislation would put it at risk of further delay following the presidential election, the seating of a new Congress, and other legislative priorities.
“When more than 500 groups – many of which typically have competing agendas – come together and speak with one voice, it clearly demonstrates the urgency and importance of passing a new farm bill. We’ve experienced a pandemic, record-high inflation, global unrest and supply chain issues since the current farm bill passed. It’s time lawmakers work in a bipartisan manner and agree on a new farm bill that addresses challenges and looks to the future to ensure America’s families continue to have access to the safest, most affordable food, fiber and fuel in the world,” said Zippy Duvall, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Click HERE to read the full letter.
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) released a new economic contribution report detailing the significant impact America’s pig farmers have on the United States’ agricultural and overall economy.
“America’s pork industry is a vital pillar of our nation’s agricultural economy, contributing over $62 billion annually and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country,” said NPPC President Lori Stevermer, a pork producer from Easton, Minn.
Key takeaways in the report include:
- The pork industry supports an estimated 573,311 direct, indirect, and induced jobs in the United States.
- In 2023, more than 60,000 pig farms sold more than 149 million hogs worth over $27 billion in gross cash receipts.
- The U.S pork industry supports more than $37 billion in personal income and boosts economic activity in related services such as trucking, grain elevators, insurance, and other rural-based businesses.
- Approximately 25% of U.S. pork was exported abroad in 2023, amounting to nearly 7 billion pounds of pork valued at over $8 billion. Pork exports help support more than 143,000 U.S. jobs.
- The pork industry generates significant economic activity through its purchase of inputs. Feed inputs, such as corn and soybean meal, account for an estimated 52% of total U.S. production costs with purchases valued at nearly $13 billion annually. “Last year brought significant financial challenges for U.S. pork producers, marked by decreased gross cash receipts and a substantially higher average cost of production in 2023,” said Holly Cook, NPPC economist. “Despite these hurdles, this report demonstrates that the pork industry remains a vital contributor to the nation’s economy and a key player in global trade.”
For more pork industry economic data, visit: nppc.org/The-Pork-Industry.
Source: National Pork Producer’s Council
We’re a step closer to knowing if the ban on U.S. corn to Mexico is going to stick. In a surprising move that runs completely counter to science, Mexico placed a ban on biotech corn. The U.S. then moved forward with a dispute settlement panel under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
“The panel just completed a public hearing at the end of June, and they will work on a final report that will come out in November,” says Nancy Martinez, fellow Hoosier and Director of Public Policy, Trade and Biotechnology for the National Corn Growers Association.
Martinez was a guest on the most recent Indiana Ag Policy Podcast presented by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance.
Martinez says the lawyers that argued the case for the U.S. made a great argument that the science is on our side and that Mexico did not conduct a full risk assessment before making the decision to ban our biotech corn.
“One thing that Mexico argues over and over again is that their population consumes more corn than anywhere else in the world, so therefore they are at an increased exposure. But the U.S. lawyers made the case that if they did conduct a risk assessment, that would have been part of the risk assessment. Exposure is part of any risk assessment by international standards. So, I thought the U.S. did a great job to combat some of the Mexican arguments, and we’ll have to see in November.”
If for some reason this dispute panel doesn’t go in favor of the United States, the loss of our number one market in Mexico would be huge. But Martinez says the losses don’t end there.
“First, it’s a huge loss for science and biotech. So, if for some reason, the panel decision does not come out in our favor, it would significantly undermine the 1,700 studies that have been done by very good organizations about the science here. Other countries could also follow in Mexico’s steps. They could take measures like Mexico just for the sole fact of trying to knock U.S. imports out of their markets in an effort to prop up their own domestic industries. So, we definitely don’t want that to occur either.”
She adds that innovation would also take a hit. Companies in the biotech corn space would limit investment in that space if the market dwindles. Hear more from Martinez in the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/22235659/cj-wrap-hat-chinese-made-drone-threat-072224.mp3"]Over three million acres of American farmland were sprayed by drones last year alone! As more farmers use drones for spraying and scouting, there are concerns that drones made in China pose a major risk to our national security.
“A country like China—which is in economic competition with us now, and perhaps even more serious, competition in the future—it’d be foolish to think that they wouldn’t try to use every advantage that they have to get an edge economically,” says Arthur Erickson, CEO of Hylio, which is a drone manufacturer based in Texas.
He says the main concern has been over the use of drones that come from a Chinese company called DJI.
“Back in 2017, the Department of Homeland Security put out a memo stating that they had strong reasons to believe that DJI drones were sending critical information back to the Chinese government that could be used to undermine U.S. National Security,” he says. “Then you start to see in The National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 that the Chinese-made drones were in fact banned for purchasing use by the U.S. government. Now that ban and those concerns have grown even further and there are calls to ban Chinese drone use outright—not just in the private sector, but in the public sector as well in the United States.”
Erickson says there’s legislation that has passed in the U.S. House that would effectively ban the use of drones made by DJI.
“What [the legislation] will do is basically make DJI into a ‘covered entity’ as defined by the government, which means that they would not be allowed to have FCC authorization to operate on the frequencies and communication channels in our country, so all of their drones would basically become paperweights because they need those frequencies to function,” according to Erickson.
The Countering CCP Drones Act passed through the House back in June as part of The National Defense Authorization Act for 2025 (NDAA). However, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has recently released its marked-up version of the 2025 NDAA, and it does not include the provisions to effectively ban DJI activities that were present in the House version. If it passes the full Senate, the legislation must then be reconciled with the House version, which may or may not ultimately include the DJI drone ban.
According to USDA, China is known to own nearly 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states. However, the Chinese government and those who have Chinese citizenship are banned from owning farmland anywhere in Indiana—or any real estate located within a ten-mile radius of a U.S. military installation. That same law also includes Russia, Iran, and North Korea, which took effect on July 1, 2024.
More than 300 agricultural groups, including the American Soybean Association and American Sugarbeet Growers Association, have called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to work with stakeholders to reform its Endangered Species Act processes for pesticides.
In a letter signed by 318 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of farmers, the groups contend farmers and other pesticide users will face significant and costly restrictions without reforms. Further, EPA may not be meeting its own legal obligations in determining credible risks to those endangered species.
Josh Gackle, American Soybean Association president and North Dakota soybean farmer, explained the groups support EPA efforts to meet its legal requirements, but there is more to it than simply making a passing grade:
“The courts have been clear they will continue to strike down pesticide registrations if EPA does not comply. However, EPA cannot do perfunctory work on the Endangered Species Act and pass the test. Rather, it needs to aim for an “A” by doing so in a way that is consistent with the law. EPA often makes conservative assumptions instead of using ‘the best scientific and commercial data available’ as required by ESA. By doing so, the result is often unnecessary restrictions for farmers and legal vulnerabilities for pesticide registrations.”
Federal courts repeatedly found EPA had not fulfilled its legally required ESA work and would strike down pesticide registrations, causing farmers and other pesticide users to lose invaluable and safe pesticide tools. As a result, EPA has tried the last couple of years to bring its pesticide program into compliance, including through proposals such as the draft Herbicide Strategy.
In its efforts to become compliant, the agency’s regulatory pendulum has now swung too far, and EPA risks overregulating tools by predicting worst-case scenarios that overstate pesticide impacts to endangered species. These unduly conservative predictions impose increased and often unnecessary restrictions on farmers versus when quality data and more refined assumptions are used.
“It is imperative that EPA engage with growers to understand our actual agronomic practices. Instead, EPA seems to be focusing on imaginary risks to endangered species based on unrealistic assumptions and ignoring the way we actually use pesticides in the real world. EPA assumptions will ultimately impose unnecessary restrictions on growers, making it harder for American farmers to feed the world, all while doing nothing to protect species. EPA must commit to using the best available science,” said Neil Rockstad, president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.
The groups point to available data EPA does not typically use—data that would provide a more accurate picture of how pesticides affect species. This includes real-world pesticide usage, percent of crop area treated, existing conservation practices and other data sets. Further, if EPA were to use more refined models as it has done on occasion in the past, it could also yield more precise results, the letter suggests. These improvements would result in more accurate assessments requiring farmers to adopt restrictions only when genuinely needed to protect endangered species or critical habitat.
The letter calls on EPA to engage with stakeholders “as soon as possible—by no later than September 2024,” to ensure any agreed-upon refinements are timely and do not come long after EPA has implemented potentially unnecessary ESA restrictions. The signer organizations plan to follow up with EPA in the days ahead to pursue stakeholder engagement discussions to assist EPA with meeting its legal requirements in a way that protects species while not being unnecessarily prohibitive to farmers.
Tune in below to hear more about how the EPA’s Endangered Species Act Herbicide Strategy could revolutionize farming- and not in a good way- with American Soybean Association Director of Government Affairs Kyle Kunkler and Kala Jenkins, Government Affairs Advocate for Beck’s Hybrids. They appeared recently on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast produced by Hoosier Ag Today.
Source: American Soybean Association
Strong winds from recent storms caused some corn to lean, but continued rainfall strengthened crop conditions across Indiana last week. The Crop Progress report from USDA’s Indiana NASS Field Office shows Indiana corn is rated 69% good-to-excellent compared to the nationwide rating of 67%. Hoosier soybeans are right on par with the national rating at 68%.
With the recent storms we’ve had, perhaps the better news is that we’re only seeing 8% of both corn and soybeans across the state reported as poor-to-very poor.
Indiana State Statistician Nathanial Warenski with USDA NASS says both corn silking and soybean blooming progress continued ahead of schedule. You can see the chart below for details. He adds that farmers were wrapping up winter wheat harvest, and pasture conditions remained stable, while second cutting hay yields were reported to be lower.
Warenski also says farmers were active with vegetable harvest, fungicide applications, roadside mowing, and county fair activities.
Black angus cattle on a farm near Waldron, Indiana in Shelby County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/21224722/sabrina-wrap-hat-beef-checkoff-investments-071924-1.mp3"]U.S. beef producers get back $13.41 for each dollar they invest into the national Beef Checkoff program, according to a recent independent economic study.
Dr. Harry M. Kaiser of Cornell University conducted the evaluation. Bottom-line, he said, there are a couple of indications he gets from the study.
“These programs tend to have very high ROIs, which is indicative of two things. One on the very positive side, they’re giving a big bang for the buck for the stakeholders. But what it also means is that not only beef producers but other farmers that pay into these programs that have a high ROI, what it’s telling you is that they’re kind of under investing in these programs,” he said. “They’re leaving money out on the table.”
The study looked at the last five years and measured three main points. First, whether national Beef Checkoff demand-driving activities increased demand for beef products domestically and abroad.
“Yes, it had a substantial impact on both domestic and foreign market demand for U.S. beef. More specifically, what I found was had there not been a national beef checkoff program per capita beef demand would have been approximately eight-and-a-half percent lower than it actually was over the last five years,” Dr. Kaiser said.
The study also looked at the combined benefits of those activities in terms of their incremental financial impact to beef producers and importers. It found that without the Beef Checkoff, the total domestic beef demand would have been 2.4 billion pounds (8.5%) lower per year than the actual results. The steer price would have been 7.8% lower per year than actual results, and U.S. export beef demand would have been 372 million pounds (11.5%) lower than actual results in the seven major importing countries included in the study.
The final point studied the indirect benefits of national Beef Checkoff demand-driving activities to the broader macroeconomy. It found that the checkoff had positive indirect effects on the broader U.S. economy, including increases in U.S. employment by almost 47,000 people and U.S. employment income by $2 billion. It also found total value added to the U.S. economy of $4.1 billion and U.S. GDP by nearly $9.5 billion. The national Beef Checkoff contributed to increased tax revenue at the federal, state, and local levels, amounting to a grand total of $743 million in 2023.
While commissioned by the Beef Checkoff, Dr. Kaiser said the economic evaluation was independent.
“That is exactly correct. So, under the farm bill, all federal checkoff programs must commission an evaluation study and ROI study at least every five years, and it must be done independently. So, I do a lot of these evaluations and I will only do it if I can basically not have anybody overlooking my results,” he said.
You can see the full study by clicking here.
Josh Linville, Vice President of Fertilizer with StoneX. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Fertilizer prices remain higher despite agriculture being past the high-demand spring season, according to Josh Linville, Vice President of Fertilizer with StoneX. He says that multiple global factors are the reason prices have stayed high.
Lower European production is one reason as skyrocketing natural gas prices have cut EU production by 25 percent. Brazil is another reason as high costs have led to a decrease in many of the country’s production plants.
China’s restriction on fertilizer exports means the government figured out they can make sure there’s enough for their own people and reduce the domestic price. Restrictions are also coming out of Egypt due to heat and people trying to cool their homes as a result, so natural gas supplies are getting tight.
In addition to an export shortage from other countries, the U.S. has also restricted imports from three major countries that supply the majority of the world’s fertilizer supplies.
“We have import restrictions on Morocco, Russia and China – that’s a huge part of the marketplace,” says Linville. “We’re low [in supplies] and we can’t really import anything.”
Source: NAFB News Service
As farmers across the U.S. are on track to harvest some of their biggest corn and soybean crops ever, the Federal Reserve says the ongoing decline in commodity prices is putting farm income in questionable territory.
“Regional Fed banks in Chicago and Minneapolis say the farm income outlook had weakened in recent months,” according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book. “Agricultural conditions in the Kansas City Fed’s District says farmers faced headwinds from weak crop prices. Elevated production costs, interest expenses and farm household expenditures remained primary concerns for many agricultural lenders.”
The Sixth District of Atlanta said agricultural conditions have improved slightly in recent weeks as cattle and poultry sales remained strong. Farmers in Chicago’s Seventh District have been slow to sell crops from storage and were holding back selling ahead of the fall harvest because of low prices.
The Eighth District of St. Louis reported soil conditions have improved relative to the drought conditions during the last growing season. In addition, crop conditions in the 11th District around Dallas broadly improved in most areas.
Source: NAFB News Service
Emily Bick, an entomology professor at the University of Wisconsin and co-founder of the Insect Eavesdropper. The devices uses microphones to detect insects feeding on crops in order to significantly enhance crop protection strategies.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/21030043/cj-wrap-hat-insect-eavesdropper-071924.mp3"]Imagine detecting pests in your crops simply by using a microphone to listen to them eat? This groundbreaking concept has become a reality with the introduction of brand-new tool called the Insect Eavesdropper.
“It’s basically a guitar mic that we clipped onto a plant which had an insect feeding on it,” says Emily Bick, an entomology professor at the University of Wisconsin and co-founder of the Insect Eavesdropper.
She says by harnessing the power of sound, this sensor offers farmers a new way to detect and monitor insect pests directly on their crops.
“We actually figured out that you only need to clip the mic on for about 40 seconds to be 95 percent confident that you have an insect if it’s there—with the big caveat that it is during the time of day that the insect is feeding since they feed at certain times for our about four hours a day,” says Bick. “So, if you clip it on during that time of day and you wait 40 seconds, you’ll know really easily if you have that insect.”
She says Insect Eavesdropper offers significant advantages over traditional methods, which often involve labor-intensive processes like digging up plants or using traps.
“To figure out if you have corn rootworm in your field, you have to dig the plant—especially at the larval stage, which is doing the vast majority of the damage. You take the plant, you have to put it in a bucket, and you wait until the larva hatches, dries out, and then you can start to count it and you can actually tell what that damage is,” says Bick. “But this type of sensor allows for that direct detection without having to bring your machete or butcher’s knife to cornfield to split a stock of corn or try to open a cob of corn to see if you have corn earworm. All you could just simply do is listen for them.”
Bick says that the idea for Insect Eavesdropper came about while she was studying crops overseas.
“We thought of the idea during a trip to a sugar cane plantation in Indonesia,” she says. “I was working with all of these population models trying to predict when pests show up just based off of the temperature, and the farmers I was working with out there said, ‘We don’t care when the adults show up, we really want to know are the larvae in the stock.’ We thought we can actually use the plant stem as a way to amplify the sound and actually hear or ‘eavesdrop’ on insects as they’re directly feeding on the crops.”
Bick says that she and her team of researchers are still working to further develop the technology. They have distributed prototypes to 20 academic labs, including some in Europe, for further testing. She says the goal is to refine the technology to accurately detect different types of pests across various crops and environments.
“We’re working on a suite of machine learning algorithms to differentiate species,” says Bick. “Even though there are over two-million known insect species, only a few are pests for crops like corn.”
Source: NAFB News Service
Mitch Frazier, President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana, discusses the impact of Indiana’s agbioscience sector on the state’s economy during their QUADRANT event at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis on July 17. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/19001119/cj-wrap-hat-agrinovus-indiana-quadrant-event-071824.mp3"]$69.6 billion! That’s how much Indiana’s agbioscience sector contributes to the state’s economy, according to a new study from RTI International—the details of which were announced this week during the AgriNovus Indiana QUADRANT event at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis.
“The insights from the study show the power of Indiana’s ag bioscience economy,” says Mitch Frazier, President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana.
The study entitled Accelerate 2050: A Vision for Indiana Agbioscience, identified the state’s relative economic performance across food, animal health, plant science, agtech and production agriculture.
“But the story gets even better as we look at that $69.6 billion. There are 147,000 Hoosiers who work in the agbioscience economy—ultimately making it possible so people can eat,” he says.
“What that really means in the context of this broader economy, Indiana’s agbioscience economy contributes $22.7 billion to the state’s gross domestic product—that’s roughly the same contribution as Indiana’s auto manufacturing industry,” says Frazier.
A panel discussion during the AgriNovus Indiana QUADRANT event discussing the opportunities for growing the state’s agbioscience economy. From left to right: Jim Redden, Innovation Advisor and Stategic Foresight Practice Lead with RTI International; Karen Plaut, Executive Vice President for Research at Purdue University; Wendy Srnic, Vice President of Biotechnology at Corteva Agriscience; and Katie Cook, Vice President of Livestock Sustainability and Farm Animal Marketing with Elanco. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The study also defined priority opportunities to position Indiana’s agbioscience economy for differentiated growth amid future uncertainty.
According to the study, Indiana’s priority opportunities include:
- Farmer-focused innovation: Development of a multi-faceted entrepreneurial support system for Indiana farmers that recognizes their central role in agrifood innovation and implementation.
- Food is Health: Innovation at the intersection of plant, animal, human and environmental health that recognizes food as the nexus to fuel both economic growth and improved health outcomes.
- Bioinnovation: Establish Indiana as a premier destination for bio-innovators and manufacturers to research, commercialize and scale biotechnology processes, platforms and products.
During the QUADRANT event, Frazier also gave a goal for Indiana’s ag community to grow the agbioscience economy even further.
“The big ambition for Indiana’s agbioscience economy is to drive $8 billion of growth by 2030,” says Frazier. “That really is a function of looking back at how this economy has performed, and then realizing that this is going to take all of us. This isn’t an AgriNovus Indiana target—this is all of us working together across food, animal health, plant science, agtech, and production agriculture as we set our eyes on the horizon and drive growth. $8 billion is a target, and I am confident we can get there.”
Frazier laid out several different opportunities for Indiana’s ag leaders and lawmakers to help reach that goal.
The biggest opportunity for everyone to realize is that the reason why Indiana has an agbioscience economy and the reason why we can drive growth in plant science, crop protection, animal health, food and agtech is because of production agriculture,” says Frazier.
“Farmers are at the cornerstone of this economy. Working with them and through farmer-led innovation, through bioinnovations, and through food as health—this will be the next chapter. Together, farmers working alongside innovators, as well as big and small companies—we can drive this economy and we can hit that $8 billion target,” he says.
Click BELOW to hear the full conversation with Mitch Frazier, President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana, as he discusses the impact of Indiana’s agbioscience sector on the state’s economy—as well as the goal to further grow Indiana’s agbioscience economy.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/18235516/cj-full-interview-mitch-frazier-agrinovus-indiana-071724.mp3"]For more information, visit AgriNovusIndiana.com.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/18205501/dunn-on-ethanol-wrap.mp3"]Indiana Corn Growers Association CEO Courtney Kingery chats with farmer board members Tom Murphy of Chesterton, Alan Dunn of Michigantown, and ICGA member Jerry Osterholt of Roanoke as they advocate on Capitol Hill for better corn policy. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer/ Hoosier Ag TodayObviously, getting the Farm Bill finished is priority one for farmers in Washington, D.C., but corn growers were sure to take the opportunity to discuss other priorities on Capitol Hill this week.
U.S. corn growers will grow somewhere around 15 billion bushels of corn in 2024. Just under 6 billion bushels of that will go toward ethanol production.
“So, we already have through the Renewable Fuel Standard an E10 level, 10% ethanol blended in every gallon of gasoline. We’d like to see that move to E15 or a 15% level,” says Indiana Corn Growers Association board member Alan Dunn, a Clinton County farmer. “That’s being held up with some regulations that are different across the country that make it inconsistent on where you can find it and when you can find it. So, we’re trying to fix that legislatively by introducing a nationwide E15 standard.”
It’s also being held up in the Senate. The Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2023 is a bipartisan bill that’s currently stalled in committee. Dunn says allowing year-round E15 will save consumers at the pump, an average of 15 cents per gallon, and provides the environmental benefits everyone is looking for.
“We have the ability to produce a safe and reliable fuel supply that does not require mining of rare earth minerals from some other part of the world or worries about how you’re going to dispose of an old battery, or any of those kinds of problems that we have. We just have a 100% renewable product made from the energy of the sun that is produced here in the United States. And it just seems like a no brainer.”
The frustrating part of this for corn growers is that this should be one of the rare areas where both Republicans and Democrats can agree. Dunn and others shared this with staffers from both parties on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
“The economic impacts and the environmental impacts both come together right where we all want to be. And so why are we not moving forward? What is the difficulty? So, we tried to point out some of those commonsense areas of similar thinking, and hopefully, we made a difference.”
E15, or Unleaded 88 as you might see it at the pump, is approved for use in all light-duty vehicles built in 2001 or later.
The National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association were among seven commodity groups who sent a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo asking her to consider the impacts on farmers as she reviews a petition by the agricultural chemical company Corteva that would place duties on imports of the herbicide 2,4-D.
“Restricting imports of 2,4-D will have wide-ranging consequences for farmers,” the letter said. “American farmers cannot solely rely on Corteva, which is the only domestic supplier of 2,4-D, because there is not enough supply to meet demand.”
The letter also said that, if granted, the petition would cause availability shortages and hamper the ability of growers to be successful.
“Restricting the availability of 2,4-D will be very harmful at a time when farmers are grappling with rising input costs and low commodity prices,” the letter said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects total farm production cash expenses for 2024 at a record-high level. Concurrently, crop values are declining. USDA predicts total cash receipts in nominal value for crops in 2024 will be 11.7% lower than in 2022.
“Farmers are unable to incur additional costs in what is already a period of tight margins,” the letter said. “This case has the potential to forcibly cause farmers to cut budgets, which will impact their ability to have successful yields and will further disrupt the economic health of local economies.”
Other groups signing the letter were the National Association of Wheat Growers, National Barley Growers Association, National Sorghum Producers and U.S. Durum Growers Association.
The Department of Commerce is expected to issue the preliminary duty rates in September.
Click HERE to read the letter.
Source: National Corn Growers Association
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/17213222/neil-caskey-farm-bill-wrap.mp3"]Nearly 300 corn growers took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to share with staffers the urgency of getting a farm bill across the finish line this year, but time is running out.
“We’re down to about 50 legislative days between now and the elections. So, in one sense, that’s not much time. I think that’s the reality,” says Neil Caskey, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association. “But I would say that if we could help Congress develop the political will to get a farm bill done, there’s plenty of time to do that.”
House Ag Republicans have already pushed their version forward. It still awaits a vote from the full House. Ag Democrats have yet to move forward in the Senate.
When asked what the biggest obstacle is to progress the Farm Bill, Caskey says, “Simple politics. I say ‘simple’, I mean, there’s nothing simple about the political world that we’re in. But, I mean, I think that that’s just trying to get people to come together. We’re grateful for all the leadership and the commitment that we’re seeing from Capitol Hill. It’s just that we really need them to come together on a bipartisan bill and deliver for rural America. Obviously, Senator Stabenow is sitting in a key spot, and we’re grateful for people like her. We know that she wants to get a bill done, and we are ready to throw our collective shoulders behind whatever efforts she needs us to do to get something moving on the Senate side. We hope that that will happen soon.”
Obviously, the sooner the better. As Caskey says, tomorrow, there will only be around 49 legislative days left before the elections, and a bipartisan farm bill is what’s needed.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/16151535/eric-wrap-hat-for-web-jr-roesner-in-dc-071624.mp3"]Members of the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy Committee are advocating for better policy in Washington, D.C. this week as they meet with other corn and soybean growers from around the country.
Ferdinand, Indiana farmer JR Roesner is an Indiana Corn Growers Association board member and a National Corn board member. He says Monday and Tuesday were set aside for the seven different NCGA action teams to meet and discuss policy priorities. There are 7 NCGA action teams.
“Currently, I sit on the Production Technology Access Action Team,” Roesner tells HAT. “So, we work a lot in biotech with crop protection, fertilizer, and with some of the stuff we’re seeing within the Endangered Species Act. It’s part of what my team is handling right now, and so we’re really focused on that. We’re really focused on some of the sustainability pieces within that and making sure that the American farmer and the Indiana farmer have the tools they need to produce the crop that the world needs.”
The other action teams revolve around ethanol, market development, member & consumer engagement, risk management & transportation, stewardship, and sustainable ag research.
Hill visits with Congressional staffers will take place Wednesday to share about the urgency of getting a farm bill done among other important topics.
Roesner reminds Hoosier farmers to get involved in the policy process if you’re not already.
“No checkoff dollars can be used for policy work. So, everything we do on the policy side is through our memberships and through sponsorships, and the people that are involved with it are very important. And you know, we realize that not everyone has the time to do it, but just having that membership is key, giving the support to these organizations that can fight for the American farmer. When we’re together, we have a very loud voice, and it’s very important for us to continue to fight for that.
You can learn more at incornandsoy.org.
A corn field north of Needham in Johnson County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/16225738/sabrina-wrap-hat-farmland-values-071624.mp3"]“Nothing short of exceptional.” That’s how Farmers National Company describes the agricultural land market over the last five years.
According to the company, gains in value are prevalent across all classes of land in every region of the country. Strong commodity markets, moderate interest rates, buyer demand and an overall healthy agricultural economy have also supported the growth of land values during this time.
“Well, right now we’re sitting at what you would still call all-time record highs for U.S. farmland. We’ve seen a real rapid rise here in about the last three plus years that is starting to level off at this point now due to several factors. But yeah, really at all-time high numbers,” said Jay VanGorden, Farmers National Company Area Sales Manager for the Eastern Region, including Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky.
If you’re considering selling, he said things look good now and for the next few months.
“If you’re looking to sell, now would still be a good time to do it in the upcoming six months. Typically, prime selling season tends to be late summer, early fall and through the end of the calendar year, as that’s when crops are coming off, leases are terminating, and the buyer can most quickly gain control of the land from that standpoint,” he said.
It’s a different story for potential buyers, due, in part, to current interest rates.
“Interest rates are definitely a negative factor for buyers, as well as, for farm operators, declining grain markets down to about a 3-4 year low in the last few weeks. Along with inflation, those factors make the buying part a little tougher,” he explained. “You’re probably going to want to have at least part of that purchase, a fairly decent part of that purchase in cash, to really look at buying a property right now.”
However, VanGorden pointed out that while things may be more difficult for buyers right now, much of the land for sale is of high value.
“Right now, we’re seeing fairly level pricing for really high quality, high percentage tillable land,” he said. “Less productive farms that are in lower tillable, say 60, 70 percent tillable or lower quality soils, poorly drained farms are probably off 5 to 10 percent in the last 12 months.”
According to Farmers National Company, with farm operators being the largest segment of land buyers, the biggest impact on land values moving forward will be profitability in agriculture.
Photo courtesy of the Indiana Corn Growers Association and the Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Membership and Policy Committee.The Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Membership and Policy Committee (M&P) and the Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA) will host Shop Talks throughout the state this August. These events are hosted on rural farms and attended by farmers and agribusiness professionals.
Shop Talks are organized to bring together state and federal lawmakers with farmers to discuss policy issues like the farm bill, trade, infrastructure, biofuels and more. The meetings are an opportunity to bring together neighbors and local industry partners to learn more about the state and federal policies that impact growers’ operations and rural communities.
ICGA and M&P directors and staff address ag policy issues at all levels of government by making trips to Washington, D.C., and the Indiana Statehouse to meet with lawmakers and raise awareness of farmer priorities. The summer Shop Talk series allows for legislators to meet the farmers in their districts and communities.
Several federal and state leaders are confirmed to be in attendance and speak this year, including Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) Director Don Lamb, U.S. Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN-08) and U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym (R-IN-02), with several more in discussion for those hosted in open districts.
In addition to policy discussions, the meetings will offer Pesticide Application Recertification Program (PARP) certifications with Purdue University Extension educators to provide credits to farmers. The Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council – the state’s soybean and corn checkoff programs – will sponsor the PARP fees at these meetings.
Recertification programs are at least two hours in length on fertilizer and pesticide-related topics. Each program will also include an approved regulatory topic. A private applicator can attend and receive credit for a recertification program in any county, not just their home county.
The first Shop Talk of the season is at 8 a.m., Wednesday, July 24 at Susan and Mike Brocksmith’s farm in Knox County with special guest ISDA Director Lamb. The policy organizations have scheduled five more Shop Talk meetings, including:
- Aug. 8 – Delaware County
- Aug. 12 – Decatur County with special guest, Congresswoman Erin Houchin
- Aug. 15 – Huntington County
- Aug. 26 – Marshall County with special guest, Congressman Rudy Yakym
- Aug. 27 – Rush County
- Pending – White County
- Pending – Morgan County
Go online to incornandsoy.org/events to register and for updates on the two pending Shop Talks.
ICGA and M&P are membership organizations that serve as the policy voice of Indiana’s farmers. Both M&P and ICGA are led by a board of directors committed to continuing the conversations of farm bill, biofuels, trade and other ag policy priorities with federal and state legislators.
Policy work is not funded by checkoff dollars. Membership dollars empower M&P and ICGA to positively influence policy and regulatory matters impacting the U.S. soybean and corn industry. ICGA and M&P are at the table with lawmakers while you work at your farm. Contact Khyla Goodman by email at kgoodman@indianasoybean.com to learn more about becoming a member.
Source: Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Membership and Policy Committee and the Indiana Corn Growers Association.
Cereal rye used as cover crops on a no-till corn field.According to the latest results from the Conservation Tillage Transect survey, 1.7 million acres of farmland are now under living cover across all crops in Indiana. This significant milestone underscores the increasing adoption of cover crops by farmers, driven by their multiple benefits for soil health, water management and overall farm productivity.
Overwintering living covers (i.e. – cover crops and small grains, like wheat) are known for their environmental benefits. Cover crops and small grains help increase organic matter in the soil and improve overall soil health by adding living roots to the soil more months of the year. Cover crops also improve water infiltration into the soil, while other covers, like legumes serve as natural fertilizers.
Although the conservation transect does not differentiate between cover crops and small grains, Indiana farmers typically plant fewer than 300,000 acres of small grains annually, so cover crops vastly dominate the 1.7 million estimated acres. Apart from corn and soybeans, cover crops are planted on more acres than any other commodity crop in Indiana. Cover crops are typically planted in the fall after harvest and designed to protect the soil and keep roots in the ground throughout the winter, which improves soil health and helps filter water runoff.
“These results are very encouraging,” said Damarys Mortenson, state conservationist for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Indiana. “The adoption of cover crops on such a large scale indicates that farmers are recognizing the long-term benefits of these practices for both their land and the environment.”
Farmers like Todd Armstrong, who operates a 1,100-acre farm in Washington County, have seen firsthand the advantages of cover crops.
“The water holding capacity and tilth of the ground has just improved so much and my neighbors have even seen that,” said Armstrong. “Neighbors that worked ground every year have stopped and started incorporating cover crops because they’ve seen how good it has worked for us.”
As a result of the cover crops and other overwintering covers planted last year, it is estimated that 1.8 million tons of sediment was prevented from entering Indiana’s waterways, which would fill about 18.4 thousand train freight cars.
The conservation survey also showed that about 69% of row crop acres were not tilled and about 17% had employed reduced tillage over winter, after the 2023 harvest. This early spring survey is not intended to quantify pre-planting tillage.
Despite the clear benefits, there are challenges to the widespread adoption of cover crops, including the initial cost of seeds and the need for additional management skills. However, various federal and state programs offer financial incentives and technical assistance to help farmers incorporate cover crops into their operations. One such initiative that helped contribute to the successful year for cover crops in 2023 was the Cover Crop Premium Discount Program (CCPDP). It is a program that provides a discount on crop insurance for planting cover crops. CCPDP assisted landowners in planting about 19 thousand acres of cover crops in 2023.
The conservation transect is a visual survey of cropland in the state. It was conducted between March and May 2024 by members of the Indiana Conservation Partnership, including the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Indiana’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Purdue Extension, as well as Earth Team volunteers, to show a more complete story of the state’s conservation efforts.
“Protecting soil, our most vital natural resource, is top of mind for our Indiana farmers and year after year our farmers are breaking their own conservation records” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Through the implementation of cover crops and other conservation efforts, farmers are ensuring our land and water resources remain healthy and productive for years to come.”
To see the full conservation transect report, click here.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/15214005/winger-benton-co-update-wrap.mp3"]“It’s not in the bin yet,” says Benton County farmer Andrew Winger, “but at this point, I would say we have a good shot at a record crop in our area.”
Winger is excited about the potential of his corn and soybean crops this year even after last week’s heavy rain and wind events that brought anywhere from 3.5 to 5 inches around their fields. Winger says the winds weren’t as bad as they were in other parts of Indiana.
The ground took up the 3.5 to 5 inches of rain pretty well. Winger won’t wish for more rain any time real soon, but in order to get those record yields he’s hoping for, “We need another good rain probably the end of the first week of August or second week to finish the beans and add some kernel depth on corn, and I think we’ve got enough moisture to go the rest of the way.”
Tar spot has been rearing its ugly head around the state. From a management perspective, Winger is looking at that fungicide pass here pretty soon.
“From the people that I work with, they’re saying it’s probably in every field at some level. Obviously, it’s not at detrimental levels yet, but it’s anybody’s guess, depending on the weather, whether we get there or not. It’s a concern. We do some preemptive stuff early to try to keep it at bay the best we can. And we always plan on a late fungicide pass.”
Winger tells Hoosier Ag Today that he’s “not, not worried” about tar spot, but he’s not losing any sleep over it either at this point. He’ll be making that fungicide pass for soybeans soon too.
A corn field and small silo in Johnson County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana’s corn and soybean crops are both rated at 67 percent good-to-excellent, according to the USDA’s Weekly Crop Progress Report.
This week’s percentages reflect a one-point increase for Indiana’s soybeans, while the state’s corn crop rating remains unchanged.
Across the U.S., 68 percent of the nation’s corn and soybean crops are rated in good-to-excellent condition.
“The average temperature for the week was 75.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.1 degrees above normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 2.23 inches, 1.31 inches above normal. There were 4.1 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending July 14,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Indiana Field Office.
Forty-two percent of Indiana’s corn is silking and three percent is in the dough stage. Meanwhile, 51 percent of the state’s soybean crop is blooming and 21 percent is setting pods.
94 percent of the Indiana’s winter wheat is harvested.
Source: USDA
Corn growers were responsible for a $151 billion boost to the U.S. economy in 2023, according to a new report released this week by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).
The report, entitled NCGA Economic Contribution Study for 2023, looked at a number of ways in which corn growers shaped the economy, including economic output, contributions to the gross domestic product, tax revenues, labor income and employment statistics.
“This report highlights the crucial role America’s corn growers play in our nation’s agricultural and economic value chain,” said NCGA Lead Economist Krista Swanson who authored the analysis. “The data show that growers remain deeply rooted in rural America where they serve as pillars of economic growth. They work to foster technological innovation, expand commercial opportunities, advance free trade, build the bioeconomy, and feed a hungry world.”
In 2023 U.S. corn farmers produced 15.3 billion bushels of corn, valued at $73.9 billion, across 289,382 farms dedicated to growing corn for grain, according to the report.
Corn grower production directly contributed $20.7 billion to the gross domestic product and provided $12 billion in labor wages and benefits.
The economic impact of corn farming extended across 524 different industry sectors in all 50 states, reinforcing its broad influence on the national economy.
The report comes as corn prices have dropped and corn growers face many challenges, including higher input costs, tariffs and some trade barriers. NCGA leaders say the report should serve as a reminder to policymakers that corn grower contributions are important.
“The data in this report illustrate the critical role farmers play in shaping the U.S. economy,” said Minnesota farmer and NCGA President Harold Wolle. “Yet, we are facing many challenges that need to be addressed by America’s policymakers. Our message to Congress is to act on legislative and regulatory issues, like the farm bill, that will support our work.”
The study relied on IMPLAN, an economic analysis software, to calculate the direct, indirect, and induced impact of corn farming for grain production on the U.S. economy at the state and national level.
Source: National Corn Growers Association
Mint plants on a farm in northern Indiana. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/16010557/sabrina-wrap-hat-specialty-crop-insurance-rma-071524.mp3"]The USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding coverage options for specialty crop producers.
Marcia Bunger, RMA Administrator, says recent crop insurance changes give specialty crops some of the benefits that other crops have enjoyed for years.
“There’s a number of crops that we have existing policies on, but never before have they been allowed to utilize Enterprise Units, which is something that’s very familiar to traditional row crop growers in the upper Midwest. We are also allowing noncontiguous parcels of land that qualify for optional units to also qualify for enterprise units,” Bunger said.
An Enterprise Unit consists of all insurable acreage of the same insured crop within one county. This structure allows a producer to insure all acres of the insured crop in the county together, as opposed to other structures that separate the acreage for insurance. Often, the use of Enterprise leads to lower premium rates because of the lower risk associated with geographic diversification.
The following changes will be made beginning with the 2025 crop year:
- Enterprise and Optional Units:
- Expand Enterprise Units (EU) to almonds, apples, avocado (California), citrus (Arizona, California, and Texas), figs, macadamia nuts, pears, prunes, and walnuts.
- Allow non-contiguous parcels of land that qualify for Optional Units (OU) to also qualify for EU.
- Allow EUs by organic farming practice for alfalfa seed, almonds, apples, avocado (California), cabbage, canola, citrus (Arizona, California and Texas), coarse grains, cotton, ELS cotton, dry beans, dry peas, figs, fresh market tomatoes, forage production, grass seed, macadamia nuts, millet, mint, mustard, pears, potatoes (northern, central, and southern), processing tomatoes, prunes, safflower, small grains, sunflower seed, and walnuts.
- Expand OUs by organic practice to all remaining crops where OUs are available, and the organic practice is insurable.
- Walnut Quality Adjustment: Allow sunburned damaged walnuts to be eligible for indemnity payments through quality adjustment.
- Almond Leaf Year: Expand insurance coverage to younger trees by including trees in their fifth leaf year after being set out.
- Processing Bean End of Insurance Period: Extend insurance coverage in Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey by an additional 16 days.
- Canola: Expand insurance for canola into South Dakota and Michigan.
Bunger encourages growers to talk to a crop insurance professional or the local RMA office to see how new options may work for their farm.
“Contact your insurance agent and start visiting on the additional options that are available. In some instances, it may not work for an individual’s operation, but yet at the same time it may be something that is very welcomed. You know, my experience with enterprise units has been that it does provide a cheaper level of insurance,” she said. “And why it’s cheaper is that as the producer, I’m willing to take more risk. But again, it’s just another tool in the toolbox and I’m just really proud of the work that RMA has done with expanding so many options to growers that previously, never had the kinds of opportunities options that I had as a corn and bean insurance holder.”
Ohio pork and poultry producer Gary Cooper of Cooper Farms in Oakwood, Ohio, testifies before the House Ag Committee during a recent hearing on the consequences of EPA’s actions on farmers and the ag industry.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/13180851/sabrina-wrap-hat-farmers-express-epa-frustrations-at-house-ag-hearing-071224.mp3"]Farmers and ag leaders told the House Agriculture Committee last Wednesday they are concerned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been charting a regulatory path for the industry largely without their input.
The hearing focused on a wide range of EPA regulations from the Waters of the U.S. rule, to dicamba, to new agency efforts to enforce the Endangered Species Act.
Hog and poultry producer Gary Cooper of Ohio testified on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council.
“First, we are very concerned about EPA ‘s EFG’s [Effluent Limitations Guidelines] for meat and poultry processors. Even if EPA admits this rule will cause many processes to close, it is frustrating that the government would propose regulations putting large numbers of meat processors out of the business,” he said. “This does create real economic hardships for those communities and the farmers who rely on them. Their closure means the loss of marketing opportunities for farmers, undermining both congress and USDA ‘s efforts to expand the number of small and medium local meat processors.”
He pointed out the difficulties livestock ranchers have had in recent years, such as last year when hog producers lost an average of $30 per head due to lower hog prices and high production costs. He said there’s been some relief this year, but many farmers remain ‘deep in the red.’
“This is all happening while farmers nationwide contended with the ever-present threat of all kinds of animal diseases. As a poultry farmer, I’m also aware of the devastation that has been caused by avian influenza and as a hog farmer i worry about the massive economic harm that will occur if African swine fever manages to make its way into the U.S. Our industry continues to face activists and regulatory distractions on environmental performance,” Cooper stated. “While activists are unavoidable, government agencies like EPA shouldn’t be putting unnecessary burdens on struggling farmers like us.”
Cooper has firsthand experience with the EPA, as he once served on the EPA’s Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee.
Click BELOW to watch the full House Ag Committee hearing on the consequences of EPA’s action on U.S. agriculture:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/13174830/cj-wrap-hat-fcma-sarah-lucas-071224.mp3"]If you’re a farmer, you may be focused on the crops you currently have in the ground. But, it’s not too early to start thinking ahead about the crops you’ll plan on having next year.
Sarah Lucas is a Financial Officer with Farm Credit Mid-America. She recommends having those conversations now with your seed, chemical, and fertilizer sales representatives about pricing for 2025.
“Figure out what are those early pay or cash discounts that are available,” she says. “Since we’re in the middle of a growing season one might think, ‘How do we take advantage of those?’”
She says if companies offer a pay-in-full discount, you may consider a Farm Operating Loan from Farm Credit Mid-America.
“With that, not only could they have access to the credit, but we also offer some savings there as well,” she says. “Every dollar counts—especially in a time like we’re experiencing now with lower commodity prices.”
Sarah says you can manage your finances through Farm Credit Mid-America from anywhere at anytime on your phone or mobile device.
“My favorite feature is somebody that can just be sitting in the cab of their truck or combine and take a picture of a $400,000 grain check, and they can direct deposit the money into their account the same day and they don’t even have to get out of the cab!”
She adds that another advantage of Farm Credit Mid-America is their patronage program.
“Historically, we’ve been averaging around 1.75 percent back on the average daily balance of that line of credit. That is tremendous savings—and that is money back into the customer’s pocket,” she says.
For more information about the options available from Farm Credit Mid-America, visit fcma.com.
What are the three opportunities shaping the future of the agbioscience economy?
Find out on Wednesday, July 17 at 4 p.m. as AgriNovus Indiana invites you to a special QUADRANT event at VisionLoft Stutz in Indianapolis. You’ll learn about those agbioscience opportunities and how the economy is evolving across food, animal health, plant science, ag tech and agriculture.
AgriNovus Indiana will explore these topics and data with the following experts:
- Katie Cook, Vice President of Livestock Sustainability & Farm Animal Marketing with Elanco.
- Karen Plaut, Executive Vice President for Research with Purdue University
- Jim Redden, Innovation Advisor and Strategic Foresight Practice Lead with RTI International
- Wendy Srnic, Vice President of Biotechnology with Corteva Agriscience.
In addition, the following start-up companies will be featuring during the networking reception:
- Insignum AgTech
- NutraMaize
- Grow Anu
- Contango
The event will be held at:
VisionLoft Stutz
1060 North Capitol Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Registration is from 3:30 – 4:00 p.m., the Program is 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., and the Networking Event is from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
The event is also presented by Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Insperity and Keystone Cooperative.
RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gCs5xPyC
Click HERE for more information.
USDA says the 2024-2025 corn outlook calls for larger supplies, greater domestic use and exports, and lower ending stocks in its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report for July.
Corn production is forecast up by 240 million bushels on greater planted and harvested area from the June Acreage Report. Yield is unchanged at 181 bushels an acre, and ending stocks are down by five million bushels. The season-average farm price is down ten cents to $4.30 a bushel.
Soybean production is projected at 4.4 billion bushels, 15 million lower on less harvested area. The yield forecast is unchanged at 52 bushels, and ending stocks are down 20 million bushels from June. The season-average soybean price is down a dime to $11.10.
The wheat outlook is for larger supplies, domestic use, exports, and ending stocks. Ending stocks are predicted at 856 million bushels, the highest in five years. The season-average price is down 80 cents at $5.70.
Click BELOW to hear Brian Basting, Commodity Research Analyst at Advance Trading, as he provides analysis of USDA’s July WASDE Report for Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/12234406/hat010-071224.mp3"]
Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15), who serves as Chair of the House Ag Committee, during a hearing held Wednesday over the consequences of EPA’s actions on U.S. agriculture.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/11225738/sabrina-wrap-hat-edit-house-ag-committee-hearing-on-epa-071124.mp3"]The EPA’s regulations that impact the ag industry were scrutinized during a House Ag Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“What producers should not have to worry about is the federal government working against them,” said Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15), who serves as Chair of the House Ag Committee.
In his opening statement, Thompson pointed out recent actions that pit the EPA against agriculture.
“Last summer, the EPA published the draft Vulnerable Species Pilot Program and the draft herbicide strategy that will directly impact the ability of producers to utilize these critical tools and will cost billions to comply with. Even this administration’s own U.S. Department of Agriculture expressed significant concerns with these actions,” he said.
“The Biden Administration’s attacks on American agriculture do not stop at crop protection tools. Earlier this year, the EPA published a proposed rule that significantly changes the effluent limitation guidelines for meat and poultry processing. While Biden’s USDA spends millions to supposedly expand meat and poultry processing capacity, his EPA is simultaneously proposing a rule that would shutter processing plants and impose significant compliance costs across industries vital to food affordability,” he said.
Thompson also pointed out the environmental stewardship of farmers.
“American farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists. No one cares more for the environment than those whose livelihoods depend on it. They work tirelessly to ensure consumers have the safest, most abundant, most affordable food and fiber supply in the world. Agriculture isn’t like any other industry. Producers are at the mercy of many uncontrollable factors, including extreme weather, natural disasters, pests and diseases, input costs and geopolitical unrest,” he said.
Among those who testified before the House Ag Committee hearing was Chris Chinn, Missouri Agriculture Director. During her testimony, Chinn underscored the need for federal agencies to more meaningfully include state departments of agriculture in conversations concerning regulatory policymaking, more commonly known as cooperative federalism.
“When it comes to protecting the environment, agricultural producers and communities of every size rely on decisions from the EPA that are based on sound science, collaboration and transparency throughout each step of the process,” Chinn said. “It is time for the EPA to invite agriculture generally, and state departments of agriculture specifically, into discussions early and often to find solutions that can elevate environmental protections and production agriculture.”
Chinn stated that a collaborative approach from the EPA would elevate state departments of agriculture’s critical contributions as co-regulatory partners while reducing the negative effects of burdensome mandates on American agriculture.
“Regulations must be based on validated science and science-based risk assessments,” Chinn said. “To achieve this goal, the federal government must embrace states’ co-regulatory role – lifting them up as true partners in the regulatory process, not simply stakeholders.”
When discussing the EPA’s Vulnerable Species Pilot Project and Herbicide Strategy in the 2022 Endangered Species Act Workplan Update, Chinn noted how a lack of collaboration from the EPA resulted in frameworks that were not feasible for the agriculture community.
“The Agency’s failure to engage with co-regulators that are closest to producers is a major factor in those frameworks being unworkable for both pesticide applicators and state enforcement agencies,” Chinn said.
Chinn expressed additional concern about regulations regarding the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ revisions and inaction of implementation of the 2023 Waters of the U.S. rule after the Sackett v. EPA Supreme Court decision.
“It’s been over a year since the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA, and state departments of agriculture, farmers, ranchers and landowners are still waiting on the agency to implement the decision into their WOTUS rule and, most importantly, recognize the critical role of states in regulating non-navigable waters,” Chinn said.
Despite these concerns, Chinn applauded the EPA’s efforts in incorporating cooperative federalism objectives into various regulatory policy developments. This includes the agency forming the Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Federal Advisory Subcommittee and the successful Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force.
Conversely, Rep. David Scott (D-GA-07), the Ranking Member of the House Ag Committee, expressed his disappointment during the hearing that the House version of the Farm Bill has stalled since it advanced the committee in May.
“I must express my deep concerns about Chairman Thompson’s willingness to forego the farm bill. His stubborn refusal to engage on a bipartisan farm bill is irresponsible for the American people, especially our farmers who feed, fuel, clothe, and house our nation,” Scott said. “Since our very divisive mark up almost two months ago, there has been absolutely no progress on Chairman Thompson’s bipartisan bill. This delay hurts the American people.”
Click BELOW to watch the full hearing of the House Ag Committee over the consequences of EPA’s actions on U.S. agriculture:
Perry Seitzinger, Consulting Forester and Owner of Seitzinger Forestry based in Putnam County, Indiana. Photo courtesy of Perry Seitzinger.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/11173028/cj-wrap-hat-ifwoa-tips-for-selling-timber-071124.mp3"]If you’re a woodland owner, you may be thinking about harvesting some of your timber to bring in a little extra income. But there are several things to consider before you do.
“You first need to know what you have in your woods and whether or not it is biologically and or economically mature,” says Perry Seitzinger, owner of Seitzinger Forestry and a Consulting Forester based in Putnam County.
He recommends reaching out to a DNR district forester or hiring Consulting Forester—like himself—to help you out.
“The first step in selling timber is getting those trees marked,” he says. “It’s important to know what your goals and objectives are. Once we figure out what the goals and objectives are, I can mark those trees and advertise them for sale for you.”
He also says you should have a legal agreement in place with your logging company before they begin.
“You always want to have a written contract before your timber sale that protects your interests, protects your property, and spells out how your land is to be treated during the harvest,” he says. “In addition, once the harvest is completed, the agreement should identify what condition the property is to be left in. The contract should also spell out the terms of the sales, such as the purchase price, the length of the contract, and the payment terms.”
Once the contact is in place, Seitzinger recommends hiring someone to monitor the logging process.
“Somebody like myself—a consulting forester—that can come out, check in on the logging process, make sure that your property is being treated correctly, the timber is being harvested in a way that it protects your residual trees, and makes sure your woodland property is in good shape for the next timber harvest.”
For more tips from Perry Seitzinger, Consulting Forester and Owner of Seitzinger Forestry, check out the full conversation below with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/11173325/perry-seitzinger-raw-audio-071124.mp3"]Contact Perry Seitzinger at Seitzinger Forestry via e-mail: psforestry@yahoo.com.
For the Indiana Call Before You Cut website, visit https://callb4ucut.com/indiana/
For a directory of professional foresters, visit www.findindianaforester.org
For a director of Indiana DNR district foresters: https://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/private-forestland-management/district-foresters/
For more information about the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association, visit IFWOA.org.
August soybean futures began the week at $11.66 ¼ while November beans started at $11.29 ¾. After Wednesday trade, August sits at $11.13 ¼ while November fell to $10.67. Market analyst Tom Fritz with EFG Group in Chicago tells us that we’re seeing a lot of weather related selling this week, even though he thinks it’s a little early for that.
“We all know soybeans are made in August. But right now, the attitude is that the crop is going to get plenty of moisture to withstand any curveballs Mother Nature may throw at us in August. Also, our demand isn’t very good.”
We’ve reported previously about the significant ag trade deficit with the rest of the world, China in particular. USDA did report a Chinese purchase of 132,000 tons of new crop soybeans Wednesday morning.
“Oh, you want to get excited about that? No,” Fritz says. “We’re so far behind last year’s export sales pace that it would take a hell of a lot. I think all China did was throw us a bone with the collapse in prices here that we’re seeing.”
Asked if he sees a bounce coming for this soybean market, Fritz opined, “Any bounce we see right now, at this point in time, I think it would be mostly due to technical considerations that the market’s oversold. And I’ll be honest with you, we’re really not there yet.”
Hear more from Fritz below.
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Public health officials in Colorado announced last week that an adult male had tested positive for avian flu. Farm Policy News says the man reported mild symptoms from the infection, including pink eye.
The man is a dairy farm employee who was exposed to infected cattle and recovered after antiviral treatment. Since avian influenza was first confirmed in cattle in March, the Colorado man became the fourth reported case of human infection. The other three people who tested positive also worked on dairy farms and successfully recovered.
Colorado newspapers report the state now has the largest outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle in the country. Colorado had more cases in the past month than any other state.
The latest federal and state data says Colorado has identified 26 herds so far with cases of avian influenza. Of those, 22 were identified within the last month and are still in quarantine.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/10182140"]The Indiana corn crop is now rated 67 percent good to excellent and soybean ratings are at 66 percent. Those ratings appear to track pretty well with the crops in west-central Indiana, according to Levi Riggs of Riggs Ag Solutions.
“That’s probably right,” he said. “I think in in my geographical area here in West Central, Indiana, Hendricks County, Boone, Putnam, our crops look really pretty good. We got planted early and on time with not a lot of replant, so I feel like maybe we’re a little bit better than most, but I’d say that that’s probably accurate.”
Riggs is a Channel Seed Pro, and he told HAT in the new Channel Seeds growing season update that a lot of corn is shorter this year with the early heat, but also tar spot has come about 2 weeks early.
“With tar spot, these humid, wet conditions that we may find ourselves in, it could proliferate into something bigger, so definitely be looking at that. Consider a shot of Delaro Complete on that to deal with tar spot and northern corn leaf blight and gray leaf spot. It’s also great on frog eye, but I think that’s the big thing right now, is tar spot can be nothing and we’ve been fortunate for it to come in late after a lot of grain fill late in the season in previous years, but just the fact that it’s here so much earlier is a little bit more worrisome.”
He says the ideal application timing is “right at full tassel is the best time to hit it if you use a little bit higher rate you can buy yourself about another week to 10 days of efficacy, and timing with tar spot is the tricky part.”
Riggs is optimistic that yield results come harvest can be very good in a year that has benefited from good planting conditions and rainfall. Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seeds growing season update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/10182353/levi-riggs-channel-update-7-10-24.mp3"]
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/09183008/ag-exports-stay-slow-in-wrap.mp3"]U.S. ag exports continue to slow while ag imports continue to grow. USDA has complete trade numbers for the first eight months of this fiscal year, October through May.
“Agricultural exports in May were at $13.7 billion, down almost 2% from the previous May,” says USDA economist James Kaufman. “This puts U.S. exports for fiscal year 2024 at $122.4 billion- 5% or $6 billion lower than the same period in fiscal 2023.”
Meanwhile, Kaufman points out we’re importing more ag products, 4% more than at this time a year ago.
“Import growth has been spurred by a relatively strong U.S. economy and a strong dollar which makes imports less expensive.”
Kaufman says, so far this year, we’re running a $15 billion ag trade deficit with the rest of the world as major bulk commodities are down 18%.
“The main problem is soybean exports, and especially soybean exports to China,” Kaufman says. “This year, the U.S. exported 23.4 million metric tons, as opposed to 30.5 million metric tons the previous year. This is a 23% decrease in soybean export volumes to China.”
Kauffman says China is still importing soybeans, just not from us. As you can imagine, those soybeans are coming mostly from Brazil which has a huge supply and competitive prices. Total U.S. soybean exports to the world so far this season are down 19%.
Source: USDA Radio Newsline
More and more farmers are being sought out by solar energy companies about leasing their farmland. And the offers are getting pretty high.
The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer surveys 400 U.S. ag producers each month. For the past several months, the survey has asked farmers if they’ve been actively engaged in discussions with any companies about leasing farmland they own for the installation of a solar energy project to generate electricity.
April and May saw slightly higher “Yes” responses, but June had 16% of respondents say yes. Dr. Jim Mintert, director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture and principal investigator of the survey says 69% of those were offered over $1,000 per acre.
“And one out of four, approximately- 27 percent- said they were offered $1,500 per acre or more. That surprised me. I knew enough to know that there were some people being offered rates above $1,500 because we’d heard about it. I didn’t expect it to be that many.”
Dr. Michael Langemeier, associate director of the Center for Commercial Ag, joins Mintert on the Purdue Commercial AgCast to discuss the results of the Ag Economy Barometer. He agreed that number was surprising.
“No, I didn’t think it’d be 27%. And just to remind those that are not as familiar with the rental market as other people, this is several multiples of cash rent.”
They knew this solar topic was a hot one in Indiana, but Mintert says, “the nationwide aspect of this has kind of got me a little bit befuddled. And I think one of the issues for us is we don’t have a good grip on how many acres have been contracted here in Indiana or the Eastern Corn Belt. We know that there’s quite a few acres that are under contract where no activity’s taken place. We don’t have a good grip on how many acres are actually under contract. So, this is suggesting there’s quite a bit of activity under the surface that we’re not seeing that you can’t pick up by visual traveling around the country.”
Tune in to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform or tune in below.
The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) will host a meeting for the dairy industry—farmers, haulers, veterinarians, and service providers—to discuss the latest information and outlook related to the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) situation.
The in-person meeting will be held at the Topeka Livestock Auction’s livestock arena at 7 PM (Eastern) on Thursday, July 11, 2024. The market is located at 601 E Lake Street, Topeka, IN 46571.
Indiana State Veterinarian Bret D. Marsh, DVM will host the meeting, along with key BOAH staff. The meeting will address many aspects of the H5N1 situation: the current status of the disease nationally; testing protocols and programs; state response plans, if a positive is identified; practical biosecurity and prevention efforts; and available federal programs.
“Everyone working in the dairy sector is welcome to attend,” Dr. Marsh said. “Preventing the spread of this disease and all subsequent response will take a coordinated effort by everyone associated with this industry.”
Since the first case of H5N1 was identified on a Texas dairy farm in March, BOAH has been monitoring the situation closely and working with veterinarians and farmers to coordinate testing. To date, no case of the virus has been confirmed in Indiana dairy cattle.
For updates about the disease and the current situation, visit the BOAH website at: https://www.in.gov/boah/species-information/cattle-sheep-and-other-ruminants/cattle-dairy-and-beef/h5n1influenzaincattle/
Anyone who wants to receive updates from BOAH should subscribe to text and/or email updates here.
Source: Indiana State Board of Animal Health
A barn and corn field north of Michigantown along State Road 29 in Clinton County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana’s corn crops are rated at 67 percent good-to-excellent, while the state’s soybeans are rated at 66 percent according to the USDA’s Weekly Crop Progress Report.
This week’s percentages reflect two-point increases for both Indiana’s corn and soybeans.
Across the U.S., 68 percent of both the nation’s corn and soybean crops are rated in good-to-excellent condition.
“Timely rains improved soil moisture levels and bolstered crop conditions,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Indiana Field Office.
“The average temperature for the week was 72.0 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.8 degrees below normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 0.98 inches, 0.04 inches above normal. There were 5.2 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending July 7,” says Warenski.
Twenty percent of Indiana’s corn is silking. Meanwhile, 30 percent of the state’s soybean crop is blooming and nine percent is setting pods.
Winter wheat is 96 percent mature with 84 percent already harvested.
Source: USDA
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/07193405/corn-soy-events-wrap.mp3"]The Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy Committee have some events coming up that you won’t want to miss. Their annual Indiana Ag Policy Summit is coming to the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Noblesville Wednesday, July 31.
“We’re really excited that former Ag Secretary Mike Johanns is going to be joining us,” says Steve Howell, Senior Director of Industry Affairs for the Corn and Soy policy groups. “He’s a former senator, former governor of Nebraska, also former Ag Secretary under George W Bush.”
Johanns will discuss the status of the farm bill among other topics. Kyle Kunkler from the American Soybean Association will also be on hand to lead a discussion on the EPA’s herbicide strategy to comply with the Endangered Species Act affecting what pesticides farmers can use in certain areas of the state.
In addition to policy discussion, Howell says they’ve added a Technology Showcase to this year’s event.
“It’s not a trade show, but a showcase just to see some new technology, something of interest to farmers. It’s not a not a high-pressure sales thing, just a chance to take a look at some new technology that we see coming.”
After the Policy Summit, several Shop Talks are being set up around the state for farmers to get a chance to meet with legislators. Indiana Soybean Alliance Chairman Kevin Cox explains the importance of showing up at these events and sharing the difficulties you’re facing on the farm.
“Understanding those challenges and being able to convey that to the legislator, they understand whenever it’s a personal story that you’re able to share with them- there’s value in that… So, if we can get people to come out that are producers, that are members, to come out to these, participate in these Shop Talks, tell their story, that’s what counts.”
To register for these events and the membership appreciation night they’re having on July 30, visit incornandsoy.org/events.
John Deere has purchased 234 acres near Lowell in Lake County to build a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility according to a press release from Coldwell Banker Commercial Realty.
John Deere has spent $7 million on the site, with plans for the facility to be longer on its side than the Willis Tower—formerly Sears Tower—a 110-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper in Chicago.
In addition, it is estimated that the project will create approximately 1,200 union construction jobs and 400-500 permanent positions upon completion.
The location is at 2105 W. 181st Ave. in Lowell—just southwest of the interchange of I-65 South and State Road 2.
The announcement of John Deere’s acquisition of the land in northwestern Indiana comes less than a week after the company announced it would be laying off workers across the Midwest.
Around 610 production staff at plants in Illinois and Iowa have been notified they will be out of a job by the end of the summer.
The company is eliminating around 280 positions from a plant in East Moline, Illinois, while another 230 employees are being let go at a factory in Davenport, Iowa. About 100 production positions at the company’s Dubuque, Iowa, plant will also be eliminated.
The company claimed the layoffs were necessary because there has been a reduction in demand for products produced at some of its facilities in Iowa and Illinois.
In June, John Deere announced it is moving the manufacturing of skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from its Dubuque, Iowa facility to Mexico by the end of 2026.
John Deere says it generated nearly $10.2 billion in profits in 2023, while the company’s CEO, John May, received $26.7 million in total compensation in 2023 according to the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). May’s compensation in 2022 was listed at $20.3 million.
The site of the future 1.2 million square foot warehouse and distribution facility for John Deere. The site is located near the interchange of I-65 and State Road 2 near Lowell in Lake County. Photo courtesy of Coldwell Banker Commercial Realty.
Legendary farm broadcaster and Hoosier Max Armstrong, who retired in 2023 after a 48-year career in farm broadcasting. In 2001, the Gibson County native was recognized as Farm Broadcaster of the Year by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB). Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.You hear and see less of him now, because he’s “retired”—but for years, Max Armstrong brought you farm news and information on your radio and television. The fellow Hoosier started his farm broadcasting journey in southwest Indiana.
“We understate and underappreciate Hoosier Hospitality. The people of [Indiana] are so genuine and so kind,” says Armstrong, who recently retired after 48 years in farm broadcasting.
Growing up near Owensville in Gibson County, Armstrong says his love of listening to AM radio stations across the U.S.—including KMOX in St. Louis and WLW in Cincinnati—is what led to his career path in farm broadcasting.
“I was just so fortunate to grow up on a farm in Gibson County and to be born into a farm family—a community that cared about us—and a Church community that was so welcoming too—as well as being able to live my dream of wanting to be on the radio,” says Armstrong. “Many of us have walked down that pathway as kids wanting to be on the radio. For me to be able to do it over all of these years has really been a blessing.”
Max Armstrong “running the board” at WVMC radio in Mt. Carmel, Illinois circa 1971. Photo courtesy of Max Armstrong.As a student at Owensville High School, Armstrong traveled across state lines to work on-air at WVMC radio in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.
After graduation, Armstrong went to Purdue University and started working on-air for WASK radio in Lafayette as a young college student.
“They gave me the chance to do what I wanted to do,” he says. “I chased fire trucks and I would go to accident scenes. I called them ‘Spiker Reports’ because they were ‘brought to you by Spiker Oil Company’. It was just a wonderful opportunity to work with some very talented people.
After graduating from Purdue, Max worked for more than two years with the Illinois Farm Bureau before joining Chicago’s legendary WGN Radio and WGN-TV. There, he worked with fellow farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson for more than 35 years. The two of them also started and hosted This Week in Agribusiness beginning in 2005, which is shown on RFD-TV and syndicated to television stations across the U.S. The program is now hosted by Mike Pearson.
While working for WGN, Armstrong also shared the airwaves and hallways with Phil Donahue, as well as Bob Bell, who portrayed Bozo the Clown on Bozo’s Circus from 1960-1984, and Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Carey.
Max Armstrong (left) with fellow legendary farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson (right) at the WGN-AM studios in Chicago circa 1995. Photo courtesy of Max Armstrong.In 2001, Armstrong was named Farm Broadcaster of the Year by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB). Armstrong says he has been fortunate to originate farm broadcasts from every state in America and file reports from more than 30 different nations.
Even though Max “retired” at the end of last year, he says he still has a passion for both broadcasting and sharing the stories of the farm community.
“That’s why I try to stay engaged, to some extent, going to various major events where farmers are a present. That’s the joy of having been so close to farmers and sharing their stories. It’s that personal contact of being at their kitchen tables, being in their cabs, being with them in their barns—there’s something very special about that.”
Max not only has a passion for sharing the stories of America’s farmers in front of a radio microphone and in front of a television camera, but he also has authored two books: Stories From the Heartland, which was published in 2015, and More Stories from the Heartland. Both are collections of stories and photos of the farm families and people who help feed, fuel, and clothe the world.
Nowadays, instead of seeing Max on your television or hearing him on your radio, you may be more likely to see him at your hometown antique farm machinery show riding around on one of his fully-restored Farmall tractors.
Click BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s feature story on legendary farm broadcaster and Gibson County native Max Armstrong.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/06021855/cj-wrap-hat-full-max-armstrong-070524.mp3"]Max Armstrong driving his 1953 Farmall Super M during a parade in 2015. Photo courtesy of Max Armstrong.
“Knee-high by the Fourth of July”- that’s what Grandpa always used to hope for when watching that corn grow. Until we start growing more of the short-stature corn that may not get much taller than knee-high, I think we’ve all adjusted our expectations from Grandpa’s day. Purdue’s Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn says on the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast that most of us would prefer “over your head by the Fourth of July”, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel has been saying for several years though now that your beans should be green to the eye by the Fourth of July. He says as farmers plant soybeans earlier, the accumulated heat units and critical night length that we get before photoperiod pushes us into flowering, taking us from an 18-20 trifoliate noded plant to upwards of a 24-noded plant.
“Those are just great opportunities for more pod production. Usually that earlier planted crop is more compact, and it is a compact plant this year. So, you know, we’re ahead in terms of stand establishment, emergence and heat unit accumulation. But when I’ve been looking at these plants, their internodal elongation hasn’t been extreme. They’ve been very tight early on. And what I mean by that, the early ones, quarter to half inch on the lower ones, but usually by node 6,7,8, 9, I mean, we’re really stretching out. They’re still, I’d say, a good two inches instead of three- or four-inch internodes. That just gives me an indication that we’ve got a crop that’s noding well, but it’s not growing really tall, so it’s going to be a compact plant. It is flowering, so as long as we can get that thing closed, harvest that sunlight, that ‘green to the eye by the Fourth of July’, so we’re maximizing sunlight interception, solar radiation, all the things that we want to do to create the factory, to transition to flowers and pods. That’s what it’s about.”
Hear much more from Casteel and Quinn in the Purdue Crop Chat below or on your favorite podcast platform!
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/05005109/sabrina-wrap-hat-basf-nemasphere-070424.mp3"]A new development for soybeans could change the management of the crop’s biggest pest.
BASF Agricultural Solutions has introduced Nemasphere nematode resistance trait—which gives soybean producers another tool in the proverbial “toolbox” to tackle soybean cyst nematode (SCN).
Michael McCarville, BASF Trait Development Manager, says it’s the most groundbreaking innovation in SCN management in more than 60 years.
“The pest is not new. Soybean cyst nematode is the number one yield-reducing pathogen in the United States. It’s been that way for the last 50 years. Management has been rather stagnant for the last two to three decades, with most management relying on native resistance traits,” he said. “And with all great things in agriculture, pests adapt to good management tools. So, BASF is looking at bringing the first transgenic traits to market, Nemasphere, to help improve soybean cyst nematode management for U.S. farmers.”
McCarville says the effectiveness of native SCN traits is declining significantly. To combat this problem, Nemasphere produces a protein that is ingested by nematodes. It interferes with nutrient uptake in their intestines which leads to the nematodes’ death. BASF is the first company to develop a transgenic trait to control the pest.
“Since management focuses around the planting of resistant varieties, and the pest has been adapting to that here, we’re going to bring in new technology, BT or Cry proteins, like the farmer knows for insect management in corn. We’re bringing that technology to soybean to manage soybean cyst nematode. This will be the first time in agriculture that we’ve used a BT or Cry protein for nematode management and so this is going to allow us to bring a totally new mode of action to attack that number one pest in soybean,” McCarville explained. “It’s going to allow us to stack a Cry protein with native resistance to get us to a level of SCN management that we need to be profitable.”
The technology is currently going through the registration process. McCarville expects growers to be able to plant the Nemasphere variety in the 2028 season.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/03194129/farm-management-tour-goes-to-randolph-county.mp3"]Attend this year’s Purdue Farm Management Tour and they say you’ll be touring two of Indiana’s “most innovative farms.” The Purdue Center for Commercial Ag tour is headed to Randolph County July 17, followed by the annual Master Farmer awards presentation.
Purdue’s Jim Mintert says one common theme at both stops on the tour, the Clements-Miller Farm and Union Go Dairy, is how to integrate the next generation into the operation.
“It’s a challenge financially and it’s a challenge managerially,” Mintert explains. “There’s no magic formula, and so one of the things we like to highlight in the Farm Management Tour is how different people have managed to work through the challenges that they face in bringing that next generation into the farm operation.”
Rex Clements and Wade Miller have worked for about a decade to improve drainage on the farm. Mintert says they’ll have a lot to share about their improvements.
“So much of Indiana can benefit from improving drainage and they’re going to highlight how they use technology to identify the need for drainage, how they’ve gone about actually doing it and, in their case, they actually installed the drainage themselves. They’ve purchased a self-propelled tile plow and do all the drainage work themselves, so you’ll learn a lot about identifying the need for drainage as well as how they’ve gone about actually doing it themselves, so I think it’ll be a very interesting tour.”
Tony and Yvonne Goltstein moved from Europe to start their dairy operation in 2003. Those on the tour will learn a lot about dairy operations, from the challenges to the partnerships.
“We’ll talk a little bit about the technology they use in their dairy operation and in particular they have a strong partnership with Dannon, and they’ll talk about how working with Dannon and has actually helped them become a better Dairy operation over the years,” Mintert told HAT
The Tour begins at 9 AM EDT at Clements-Miller Farm, 4698 E 600 S, Lynn, Indiana and then moves to Union Go Dairy at 1 PM at Willow’s Edge, 627 W 100 S, Winchester, Indiana. Willow’s Edge is also the venue for Master Farmers starting at 4 PM.
The Farm Management Tour and Master Farmer reception and panel discussion are free and open to the public July 17th, but registration is required. Details and registration are available here.
Hear more from Jim Mintert here:
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Emily Grant, who will be a freshman this fall at Purdue University studying Agricultural Communications and Animal Sciences, during the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention in June. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/04000021/cj-wrap-hat-the-whole-farmer-emily-grant-070324.mp3"]Emily Grant may have just graduated from high school, but she is already using her passion for agriculture to bring awareness to the mental health issues facing farmers.
“It truly is something that is important and needs to be talked about –especially in the agriculture industry,” says Emily, who recently graduated from Eastern Hancock High School. She’ll be a freshman this fall at Purdue University.
Emily has created a social media page on Facebook and Instagram called “The Whole Farmer”, which focuses on the mental, physical and social well-being of our farmers. She says she was inspired while serving as a member of Indiana FFA.
“I wanted to focus on the mental health crisis that is currently happening in the agriculture industry,” she says. “I went to the National FFA’s Washington Leadership Conference, and when I came back, I created a ‘Living to Serve’ plan and created my social media platform.”
Emily says she wants farmers to know that they can open up about the stress they’re under by talking about it with someone they trust.
“I initially was drawn to this because I do have people in the community that I know—family and friends—who are farmers, and it really does take a toll on them. I’ve seen firsthand what it truly can do when you have too many irons in the fire. When it’s planting season and you have cattle and you have everything else to worry about, as well as your family, it does bring a stress on everything you’re doing,” she says.
In addition to posting videos and inspirational messages on “The Whole Farmer” page on Facebook and Instagram, Emily has been busy this past year advocating for Indiana agriculture by serving as Indiana FFA District VIII President, in addition to serving as Miss Hancock County 2023 during last year’s Hancock County Fair.
Not only will Emily be studying Agricultural Communications and Animal Sciences at Purdue, but she also says she’s interested in connecting with the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team.
“That is definitely something that I am currently looking into—especially since I’ll be in the Ag Communications Department. I do want to do something hand-in-hand [with the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team] while I have the opportunity,” she says.
Click HERE to find The Whole Farmer on Facebook.
Click HERE to find The Whole Farmer on Instagram.
In addition to creating content for “The Whole Farmer” pages on Facebook and Instagram, Emily served as Indiana FFA District VIII President for 2023-24, as well as Miss Hancock County 2023 during last year’s Hancock County Fair. Photo courtesy of the Hancock County Agricultural Association.
Vital Farms, which is based in Austin, Texas and known for its pasture-raised eggs, has announced plans to build an new facility in Seymour.
The company says it plans to operate an egg washing and packing facility on a 72-acre site near Exit 50 of I-65 at U.S. 31.
In a press release, Vital Farms says they plan to create more than 150 jobs in its first phase and expect to help generate over $350 million in additional revenue for the brand as they plan to hit $1 billion in company revenues by 2027.
The company also expects this new facility, which has been called Egg Central Station Seymour (ECSS), will support approximately 165 family farmers in its first phase.
This will be the second egg washing and packing facility for Vital Farms. Their first facility—in Springfield, Missouri—opened in 2017.
Vital Farms says they expect to break ground mid-2025 and be fully operational at the beginning of 2027.
“This is an exciting milestone for Vital Farms. We continue to invest in our robust and resilient supply chain to expand our network of family farmers and continue our mission to bring ethical food to the table,” said Russell Diez-Canseco, President and CEO, Vital Farms.
“We are grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received from the City of Seymour, Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation and Indiana Economic Development Corporation, and we look forward to deepening our relationship and building an even stronger connection to Southern Indiana and its surrounding communities in the years ahead.”
“Indiana boasts a rich tradition of agriculture – one that continues to grow and evolve thanks to the vision and commitment of companies like Vital Farms,” said Ann Lathrop, chief strategy officer at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). “This investment will not only result in increased economic activity – bolstering a statewide ecosystem that generates $4.6 billion in annual exports – but it will support Hoosier farmers, accelerate rural development and support continued quality of place enhancements in Seymour and the surrounding south central region for years to come.”
Click HERE for more information about Vital Farms.
Yesterday we told you about the report released by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture that showed just under 350,000 acres of farmland lost in Indiana between 2010 and 2022.
“I would say the data is significant. In my mind, we should be concerned as Hoosiers,” says Republican State Representative Kendell Culp who represents House District 16 in Northwest Indiana.
The Rensselaer farmer authored the bill asking ISDA for the data regarding lost farmland. He put his math skills to the test and says if you divide the number of acres by the size of the average farm in Indiana, “we’re losing 106 farms per year. At this rate, that’s what that works out to be. And that’s substantial. You know, 94% of Indiana’s farms are family farms, so just say 106 of those are going to be family farms that are no longer going to be in existence every year. These are real people. These are people that are doing business in their local communities, that are supporting the food chain. And so, it becomes very personal, I think. And again, these numbers do not include renewable energy conversions.”
So, what’s next? Culp says the legislature should all agree that this is a problem that needs a solution, or at least a majority should. Then, it’s time to start looking for solutions because this is a food security issue.
“If ag is important to our communities, then I think we have to look at not only how can we protect the farmland, but how can we protect the farmer. And so, I’m going to be digesting this information on a personal level and coming up with some thoughts and ideas, and I certainly welcome input on that, on how can we protect the farmer? How can we say to them that you’re important, that we know that there are a lot of struggles, there’s a lot of competition out here for your land, and instead of leasing it for another purpose, what kind of incentive would it take for you to keep it in production that produces food? I think that’s really going to be an important question we’re going to have to find an answer to.”
Culp throws out some potential incentives and discusses some of the issues farmers will face at the Statehouse this year, like property taxes, in the full HAT interview below.
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Photo courtesy of the National Pork Board.You’ve been hearing a lot lately about biosecurity and traceability because of foreign animal diseases impacting the livestock industry. That’s why there’s a tool called AgView that’s available for those in the pork industry.
“It’s an online platform that brings the capabilities of tracking movements of pigs,” says Chad Martin, Director of Strategic Outreach with Indiana Pork, talking about AgView. That platform is free for pork producers.
“It will allow us to identify where a pig individually, or as a group of pigs in a shipment, have been brought from, where they’re headed to thereafter, and how much time they’ve spent in all those different locations,” he says.
AgView is supported by the National Pork Board and funded by the Pork Checkoff.
With the busy show pig season underway, including the Indiana State Fair in August, Martin says the platform can provide real-time health status updates—plus site and pig movement data from participating farms to state animal health officials in the event that there’s a confirmed case of a foreign animal disease among swine in the U.S.
“If you think about the journey of a show pig from California, they may have stopped at a couple of different locations as a resting place and maybe co-mingled at a show here and there between then and getting to their final destination. If we can monitor those movements, we can be better able to understand where those disease pressures are located, where to contain those diseases, and then eventually, hopefully eradicate them before they spread,” says Martin.
The biggest concern among those in the pork industry, is that African Swine Fever is brought into the U.S.
“There’s a study that was recently conducted that says $79 billion of economic loss would be felt within the pork industry over a 10-year period if African Swine Fever were to infiltrate the country,” according to Martin. “What we need to do is to be proactive and understand measures how to contain that disease before it spreads to that magnitude.”
To learn more about the AgView platform, visit AgView.com.
Farmers are feeling less optimistic about the ag economy and the future of their farm operations according to the latest survey from Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.
“The impact of rising interest rates on their farm operations has become a bigger concern for producers in recent months,” said Dr. James Mintert, Director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “Interest rate risk and high breakeven levels combined with concerns that crop and livestock prices could weaken are holding back producer sentiment and making producers cautious about making large investments.”
Farmer sentiment drifted downward in June as the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer reading of 105 was 3 points lower than a month earlier. The overall decline in sentiment was due to a 5-point drop in the Index of Future Expectations, which fell to 112, while the June Current Conditions Index increased to 90, 1 point higher than the May index. High input costs, the risk of lower prices for their products, and rising interest rates continue to weigh on farmer sentiment. This month’s Ag Economy Barometer survey was conducted from June 17-21.
This month’s Farm Capital Investment Index declined by 3 points to a reading of 32, just one point above its historical low. More producers indicated this month that it is not a favorable time for large investments compared to May, while the percentage of producers who viewed it as a good time remained the same.
The Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index remained steady at 115 for June. However, there was a notable shift in producers’ longer-term outlook on farmland values, with the Long-Term Farmland Values Index dropping to 152, down 7 points from May. Fewer producers expect that farmland values will increase over the next five years, coinciding with a rise in those anticipating values holding steady. Among those expecting a long-term increase in farmland values, 57% attributed their confidence to nonfarm investor demand, while 16% cited inflation as a driving factor. June marked the third consecutive month to include “Energy Production” as a potential driver of farmland values, with 10% of optimistic respondents pointing to energy production as a key driver of farmland values.
This month’s survey also explored respondents’ interest in carbon capture and storage projects introduced by ethanol plants. Eight percent of respondents reported being approached about such projects, with the majority (93%) noting they received payment offers for less than $25 per acre and only 8% receiving offers exceeding $50 per acre. Additionally, 16% of respondents reported discussions taking place within the last six months about leasing farmland for solar energy production, a slight decline from April and May survey responses. However, lease rates continued an upward trend, with 69% of respondents being offered long-term rates of $1,000 per acre or higher, compared to 27% in June 2021. Notably, 27% of respondents received offers of $1,500 per acre or more, with 58% of leases including an annual escalator clause, typically between 2% and 3% per year.
Click BELOW to hear Dr. Jim Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier with Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture analyze the results of the most recent monthly survey of U.S. farmers.
Source: Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.
Purdue Crop Chat is a regular podcast from Hoosier Ag Today and the Purdue University Extension Service, featuring Purdue Extension soybean specialist Dr. Shaun Casteel and Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Dan Quinn. On this episode, Shaun and Dan discuss tissue sampling and what can be done in season to remedy some of the nutrient deficiencies you might find. And, of course, they discuss crop progress as we enter critical crop stages.
This podcast is made possible by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Your Indiana corn and soybean checkoff investments yesterday are paying off today. New research, new uses, demand creation — bringing dollars back to the farm. Check it out at YourCheckoff.org.
Back in 2023, the Indiana General Assembly passed House Enrolled Act 1557, tasking the Indiana State Department of Agriculture to complete an inventory of lost farmland in Indiana from 2010-2022.
ISDA released that data Monday. Director Don Lamb says that, unsurprisingly, the data does show a loss of Indiana farmland during those years.
“We show that we’ve lost about 1.89% of our farmland in that time, which is somewhere around 345,000-350,000 acres. So, it’s not an insignificant number…What they asked us to do is really come up with a baseline. You know, we make a lot of assumptions about farmland loss, and we look around and we see it going away, so we make assumptions. But we really didn’t know what that meant to us in numbers. So, that was the goal of this project, was to get that baseline established. And we think we’ve done that.”
ISDA compiled the report using data from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance and USDA. 2023 data from USDA shows 14.6 million acres of farmland being operated currently in Indiana.
Also unsurprising, Lamb says the primary cause of reduction in farmland was due to residential use.
“And if you look at the map of where it is, it’s around the urban areas. And, of course, that follows jobs, that follows businesses. So, a business may take up a little bit of the land, and then it takes quite a bit of land in housing to provide the workers for that business. And so, as you would expect, around the urban areas is where most of that growth has taken place.”
ISDA outlined several recommendations within the report to the Legislative Council, including that legislation be passed directing ISDA to update the inventory of lost farmland every five years to have more accurate data.
Click here to view the full 2010 to 2022 report or narrative. Hear the full HAT interview with ISDA Director Lamb below.
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Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana’s corn crops are rated at 65 percent good-to-excellent, while the state’s soybeans are rated at 64 according to the USDA’s Weekly Crop Progress Report.
This week’s percentages reflect a two-point increase for corn and a three-point increase for soybeans.
77 percent of the winter wheat in Indiana is rated in good-to-excellent condition—seven percentage points higher from last week.
Across the entirety of the U.S., corn and soybeans are both rated at 67 percent good-to-excellent.
“Much-needed rainfall combined with cooler weather alleviated dry conditions across much of Indiana,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Indiana Field Office.
“The average temperature for the week was 74.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.3 degrees above normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 1.16 inches, 0.18 inches above normal. There were 5.2 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending June 30,” says Warenski.
Seven percent of Indiana’s corn is silking. Meanwhile, 15 percent of the state’s soybean crop is blooming and one percent is setting pods.
Winter wheat is 92 percent mature with 64 percent already harvested.
Source: USDA
Indiana farmers have many challenges to manage during the growing season. While weather, weeds and insects are expected, changes in laws, rules and regulations can be just as important.
The Indiana Ag Policy Summit is an annual policy-focused program presented by the Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Membership and Policy Committee (M&P) and the Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA). This year’s event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 31 at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Noblesville, Ind. Registration for the Summit will open at 7:30 a.m. with the program beginning at 8:30 a.m. Lunch is included, and the program will wrap up with a time for farmers to interact with lawmakers, legislative staff and ag stakeholders from noon to 3 p.m. Go online to bit.ly/INAgPolicySummit to register.
Former USDA Director Mike Johanns, who served in President George W. Bush’s cabinet from 2005-2007, will be the keynote speaker. He was Governor of Nebraska from 1999-2005 and the state’s U.S. Senator from 2009-2015.
Johanns will provide an overview of the 2024 Farm Bill’s status, addressing potential outcomes and alternatives as the current bill’s September expiration approaches. He will highlight key political dynamics and discuss solutions to help farmer secure future funding. Additionally, Johanns will cover how the Research and Development Tax credit has helped U.S. farmers reinvest in their operations. With farm bill funding uncertain, Johanns said this incentive has proven valuable for farmers tasked with feeding America’s growing population. This session is collaborative and will conclude with a 20-minute question-and-answer session. Greg Knarr, director of alliantgroup, will moderate.
“The Ag Policy Summit is a great event for getting the opportunity to talk with other farmers about what’s important on their farm, and to talk to policy decision-makers about what rules and regulations might be coming our way,” said ICGA President Chris Cherry, a farmer from Hancock County, Ind. “With former USDA Secretary Johanns coming, we will definitely talk about federal policy and the farm bill. However, there are issues such as encouraging Indiana to create more infrastructure for container shipping of ag products that will also be discussed.”
Expanding the state’s container shipping capacity has been identified as a key objective to support Indiana’s economic and agricultural growth by the Ports of Indiana and the state’s corn and soybean checkoff programs – the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC). A panel will discuss these plans at the Summit.
Also on the agenda is a discussion led by the American Soybean Association’s Kyle Kunkler on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s herbicide strategy to comply with the Endangered Species Act. This strategy affects what pesticides farmers can use in certain areas of the state.
The Technology Showcase will feature select ag tech companies that are working towards solutions to make farming more efficient. The companies cover technology that’s used in new equipment, grain handling and plant research. Equipment dealer Bane-Welker will showcase live demonstrations of Raven and Trimble equipment. Plus, Bane-Welker will offer savings on select displays and steering units and have staff on hand to answer questions. In all, approximately 10 companies will display in the Showcase. Stay updated on more company announcements for the Technology Showcase on ISA and ICGA’s social media pages.
Finally, ICGA and M&P will announce their 2024 Friend of Farmer award winner. Last year, Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, was the award winner. The award is presented to someone who has promoted the interests of Indiana farmers through ag policy advocacy. Previous winners include State Rep. Ed Soliday, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, State Sen. Jean Leising and State Rep. Don Lehe.
Hoosier Ag Today Vice President and host of the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast Eric Pfeiffer will once again emcee this year’s Ag Policy Summit.
Many sponsors make events like the Ag Policy Summit possible. This year’s comes from Premier sponsor alliantgroup; Gold sponsors Pioneer and Farm Credit Mid-America; Silver sponsors Bane-Welker and Insta-Pro; Bronze sponsor Beck’s Hybrids. Lunch is sponsored by the United Soybean Board (USB), the national soybean checkoff program.
New this year is the Member Appreciation Night – exclusive for ICGA and M&P members. This will be an evening of fun, food and networking as a perk to members. This event is set for July 30 at West Fork Whiskey in Westfield, Ind., the night before the Indiana Ag Policy Summit. Anyone interested in becoming a member and attending the Member Appreciation Night should contact Khyla Goodman, Industry Affairs Outreach Manager for ICGA and M&P, at kgoodman@indianasoybean.com.
U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington., D.C.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/07/01132327/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SUPREME-COURT-OVERTURNS-CHEVRON-DEFERNCE-070124.mp3"]The U.S. Supreme Court last week overturned 40 years of legal precedent that gave federal agencies regulatory powers that federal courts had to follow. That’s why several ag leaders are calling the decision a huge victory for the ag industry.
“If we’re thinking about long-term impact, I would say this is easily one of the biggest decisions we’ve gotten from the Supreme Court, at least in the last decade,” according to Mary Thomas Hart, Chief Counsel with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Back in 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies—like USDA, FDA, and EPA—not only had the power to put laws into place without Congressional approval—but the power to interpret and rule upon those very laws they issue. That 1984 case has been referred to as The Chevron Deference.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), overturned The Chevron Deference—which now gives federal judges to ability to call the shots instead of the agencies themselves.
Hart says The Chevron Deference allowed the EPA to reinterpret the WOTUS (Waters of the U.S.) statute 14 different times until the Supreme Court finally stepped in.
“Every time we got a new president, every time we got a new set of priorities, that definition changed, and the features that were on your property changed. It significantly affected the cost of compliance, cost of maintaining your own private property, and that is directly a product of ‘Chevron deference.’”
Travis Cushman with American Farm Bureau says they were thrilled with the Supreme Court’s decision, and that it puts Congress, instead of un-elected bureaucrats back in the driver’s seat.
“So many regulations that we believe—whether it’s USDA, EPA, the U.S. Department of Labor—push the bounds of what Congress intended, and this will force those agencies to really evaluate how much authority they have to regulate and allow us to challenge them when they’ve gone too far.”
As farm groups discuss priorities to take to the Indiana Statehouse for the 2025 General Assembly, you can bet property taxes will be near the top of that list. The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance announced the base rate for farmland at $2,280 per acre for property taxes in 2025, a 20% increase from this year’s $1,900 and the third straight year of big increases according to Purdue Extension’s Larry DeBoer.
“Farmers, I think, have been hit exceptionally hard on property taxes this year,” says Joe Stoller, chair of the Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy Committee. “And the way they’re figured, I mean, it’s probably only going to get worse for the next so many years. There definitely needs to be some talks about what we can do to change the formulas on how things are calculated. Some of the increases just are not sustainable, and they won’t be.”
Stoller was a guest on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now at hoosieragtoday.com. He’s joined on the podcast by Steve Howell, Senior Director of Industry Affairs for the Indiana Soybean Alliance, who says there will be a broad coalition of farm groups looking to get that property tax formula changed, and it will take farmers stepping up to make it happen.
“We need to hear stories from farmers. You know, what is that impact? I’ve got relationships with lawmakers both at the state and federal level. I talk with them often. It’s good to have that connection, but without a farmer’s story, it doesn’t mean as much. So, we need to hear from farmers what’s the impact of a particular policy issue. So, what are the numbers? How bad have you been hit with increase in property tax?”
We discuss statewide and national policy priorities like biofuels and the farm bill on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now on your favorite podcast platform.
“The Corn Guy” Bob Nielsen, who is Professor Emeritus of Agronomy at Purdue University. Photo courtesy of Tom Campbell / Purdue Agricultural Communications.For the most part, June was very hot month—but how much of that heat impacted Indiana’s corn crops?
“Some fields in Indiana are probably stressed enough during the current hot spell to impact the potential for kernel numbers before pollination,” says ‘The Corn Guy’ Bob Nielsen—who is Professor Emeritus of Agronomy at Purdue University.
Nielsen says the recent heat stress could have a negative impact on the early development of Indiana’s corn.
“The combination of unusually warm temperatures for mid-June and moderately low humidities until recent days at least—both of which lead to high rates of soil evaporation and plant transpiration. Brilliant sunlight and either restricted root development or simply small root systems due to the fact that they’re young plants—these kinds of combinations can cause severe stress on young plants,” says Nielsen.
The recent hot spell could mean trouble for corn yields according to Nielsen by limiting the maximum number of kernels. That is, if the soils in those corn fields are uncooperative.
“Those fields would be ones where early root development has been severely compromised to begin with, meaning fields with significant shallow soil compaction due to the wet spring and tillage that we experienced or soils that simply do not allow for deep root development—for example, eroded hillsides,” he says.
Nielsen adds that it’s still early in this ballgame, and there’s still a long way to go with the growing season.
“I began to see crops rolling a week ago on eroded slopes before we had the onset of 90-plus-degree weather. So, certainly, there are fields that are experiencing stress now. We may see a reduction in ovule numbers, but again, depending on how well pollination and early grain-fill proceeds, it may or may not have an effect on final kernel number at harvest.”
Click HERE to read Nielsen’s recent article: Early Season Hot Spell and Corn Grain Yield Potential.
Click BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s news report featuring “The Corn Guy” Bob Nielsen discussing the impact of June’s heat on Indiana’s corn crops.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/29122942/CJ-WRAP-HAT-BOB-NIELSEN-HEAT-IMPACTING-JUNE-CORN-062824.mp3"]“The Corn Guy” Bob Nielsen, Professor Emeritus of Agronomy at Purdue University. Photo by Tom Campbell and courtesy of Purdue University.
Indiana’s breeding hog inventory, at 250,000 head, was down four percent from June 2023—while the state’s total hog and pig inventory was estimated at 4.40 million head on June 1, down 50,000 head from a year ago, according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office.
Market hog inventory, at 4.15 million head, was down 1 percent from last year. The average pigs saved per litter for the March to May quarter was 11.55, compared to 11.10 from the same period last year.
U.S. inventory of all hogs and pigs on June 1, 2024, was 74.5 million head. This was up 1 percent from June 1, 2023, and up slightly from March 1, 2024. Breeding inventory, at 6.01 million head, was down 3 percent from last year, and down slightly from the previous quarter. Market hog inventory, at 68.5 million head, was up 2 percent from last year, and up slightly from last quarter.
The March-May 2024 pig crop, at 34.0 million head, was up 2 percent from 2023. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.94 million head, up slightly from 2023. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 49 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was 11.56 for the March-May period, compared to 11.36 last year.
U.S. hog producers intend to have 2.96 million sows farrow during the June-August 2024 quarter, down 3 percent from the actual farrowings during the same period one year earlier, and down 4 percent from the same period two years earlier. Intended farrowings for September-November 2024, at 2.94 million sows, are down 1 percent from the same period one year earlier, and down 5 percent from the same period two years earlier.
Source: USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office
The USDA’s Acreage Report and Quarterly Stocks Report released on Friday were both bearish for corn futures, causing the July contract to drop by 16 ½ cents and end the day below $4.00 a bushel at $3.97 ¼ .
According to the USDA’s June Planted Acreage Report, corn planted area for all purposes is currently estimated at 91.5 million acres, down three percent, or three million acres, from last year, but ahead of expectations from March’s prospective plantings report. U.S. farmers still have 3.36 million acres of corn to plant and 12.8 million soybean acres.
Soybean planted area for 2024 is estimated at 86.1 million acres, up three percent from 2023. The all-wheat planted area for 2024 is estimated at 47.2 million acres, down five percent from last year. The 2024 winter wheat planted area, at 33.8 million acres, is down eight percent from last year and one percent from the previous estimate. Of this total, about 24.1 million acres are Hard Red Winter, 6.14 million acres are Soft Red Winter, and 3.59 million acres are white winter.
USDA’s June Grain Stocks Report shows corn stocks in all positions on June 1, 2024, totaled 4.99 billion bushels, up 22 percent from June 1, 2023. Of the total stocks, 3.03 billion bushels are stored on farms, 37 percent higher than last year. Off-farm stocks hit 1.97 billion bushels, four percent higher than in 2023.
in all positions on June 1 totaled 970 million bushels, up 22 percent from June 1, 2023. On-farm stocks were up 44 percent from last year at 466 million bushels. Off-farm stocks, at 504 million, are up six percent from last year. Old crop all wheat stored in all positions totaled 702 million bushels, up 23 percent over 2023. On-farm stocks are estimated at 139 million bushels, up 12 percent from last year.
The data from USDA’s reports was from June 1—however, flooding in portions of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota has since had a negative impact on corn and soybean crops in those areas. Recent rainfall in some areas reached up to 15 inches, causing problems in already saturated conditions from earlier in the summer. USDA will provide updated production projections on July 12.
According to Brian Basting, Community Research Analyst with Advance Trading, Inc., the USDA’s data hit the grain markets with a “double whammy” on Friday, which may cause corn futures to dip even lower in the coming days and weeks.
“From a risk management standpoint, I’d encourage producers to manage these lower prices,” says Basting. “If they’ve got positions in place, that’s strongly encouraged because trying to pick a bottom is historically dangerous because the market will always surprise you, so manage these markets lower if you got risk management positions in place now.”
Click BELOW to hear Brian Basting’s review of the USDA’s Acreage and Quarterly Stocks reports and their impacts on the grain markets.
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Farmers Joe Stoller and Kevin Cox with the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Steve Howell, Senior Director of Industry Affairs for ISA, join host Eric Pfeiffer to discuss policy priorities for soybean growers like biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel, property taxes, trade, and others. We also discuss some upcoming events that you won’t want to miss!
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/27214230/vilsack-magic-math-wrap.mp3"]USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says House Republicans have written a largely political farm bill and it’s time for them to get practical. He questions their math skills, saying it must be some kind of magic.
“There are many issues here with raising expectations too high and not having real money. I like to say they’ve used Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak to essentially cloak over what I think CBO says is at least a $30 billion deficit.”
House Ag Chair Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson claims his funding proposals do not cut any individual or family SNAP benefits over the course of the five-year farm bill, but Vilsack charges those cuts to offset higher crop supports or reference prices step on Democrats’ “red lines”.
“I think what we saw from the House Agriculture Committee is more of a political point of view, essentially establishing and providing just about everybody everything they’re asking for. The problem of course is that there are not enough resources to be able to pay for all of that. So, as the Congressional Budget Office has determined, there are multiple billions of dollars of deficit in the House bill, which causes, I think, concern about whether it can pass the House, and certainly, have problems in the Senate.”
Vilsack’s hope is that we wouldn’t have to do another extension of the current 2018 farm bill, “but obviously, if September 30th comes and goes and we haven’t got a farm bill passed, at that point it would be appropriate for the Congress to pass an extension to give them sufficient time, hopefully before the end of the year, to get this farm bill passed.”
Increasingly, the farm bill stalemate has prompted some lawmakers in both parties to say it might be better to wait until after the elections to write a five-year farm bill.
Source: NAFB News Service
Sophia Bollenbacher of Marshall County, winner of the 4-H Supreme Champion Dairy Cow at the 2022 Indiana State Fair. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/27170659/CJ-WRAP-HAT-DR-MARSH-BIOSECURITY-AT-THE-FAIR-062724.mp3"]As Indiana’s farm families proudly show off their livestock at county fairs and the upcoming Indiana State Fair, animal health officials are spreading the word about biosecurity as cases of the H5N1 virus continue to appear in dairy cattle across the U.S.
“We’ve had states nearby—including Michigan—that have been severely impacted by it and they have changed their exhibition requirements. We have not to this point,” says Dr. Bret Marsh, State Veterinarian with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.
He says that you should keep the following biosecurity measures in mind as your exhibit your livestock during fair season.
“First and foremost, if you have a sick animal, please don’t come to the exhibition with it,” says Marsh. “Plus, make sure that you’re continuing to wash your hands. Also, don’t share equipment with your fellow exhibitors. I know that everyone wants to pitch in and help, but with events like this, the spread of the H5N1 virus is very possible.
“If you have a lactating dairy cow at exhibition, contain that milk because we know the milk is carrying high viral loads of the H5N1 virus. Make sure we’re not dumping the raw milk on the ground so it doesn’t get exposed to other animals or people,” says Marsh.
He also recommends that biosecurity measures also be followed after the fair is over.
“Make sure that you isolate the animal once you get home, which is standard procedure, so that if anything is contracted at the fair, it is not spread to other animals either on the farm or in the community,” he says.
Although there have been no specific changes regarding livestock exhibitor policies at the Indiana State Fair, Dr. Marsh says that things could rapidly change if a confirmed case of the H5N1 virus was found in the state’s dairy cattle.
“This is a very fluid situation. Even though the Indiana State Fair is only a month or so away, there could be a lot of change taking place. We would encourage people to continue to be aware of what’s going on with this particular virus, but as far as I know, in our conversations with the Indiana State Fair, there are no specific changes,” says Marsh.
The H5N1 virus has been confirmed in 12 states—including Ohio and Michigan—impacting 131 dairy herds. At this time, Indiana currently only requires testing of lactating dairy cattle that are moving across state lines, per USDA’s federal order issued on April 29.
The Indiana State Fair starts Friday, Aug. 2 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 18. The fair will be closed on Mondays.
Click HERE for considerations and information for fair exhibitors to help prevent H5N1.
Indiana shoppers will see slightly lower prices than last year as they prepare for their Fourth of July cookout. Indiana Farm Bureau’s annual summer cookout market basket, featuring some of America’s summertime staples, revealed Hoosiers are paying an average of $68.33 for a cookout feeding 10 people this summer, or $6.83 per person – a 2% decrease compared to last year.
Indiana’s market basket price is approximately 4% less, or 29 cents less, than the U.S. average price of $7.12 per person. Additionally, the Indiana price is on par with the average price for the Midwest region of $6.83 per person, showing that the Midwest has experienced lower food inflation rates than other regions.
“Inflation is slowing slightly and supply chain issues that have been prevalent for the last few years are slowly getting worked out, so we are seeing a slight decrease in prices compared to last year here in Indiana,” explained INFB Chief Economist Dr. Todd Davis. “Our location in the central part of the country – closer to where most food is produced – also plays a role in Indiana and other Midwest states coming in lower than the national average.”
The total market basket price of $68.33 includes ground beef, cheese, hamburger buns, pork chops, chicken breasts, pork and beans, potato salad, strawberries, chips, ice cream, cookies and lemonade.
The item that saw the largest increase in price was ground beef, which increased 14% from last year to $13.88 for 2 pounds and was 9% more expensive than the U.S. average cost of $12.77 for 2 pounds.
Cattle herds have declined to the lowest levels since 1961 because of sustained and persistent drought impacting the Southern Plains over the last few years, resulting in higher feeding and operating costs for cattle farmers.
“Fewer animals mean fewer head going to market, causing a tighter supply at the grocery store,” said Dr. Davis.
Other items on the shopping list that were slightly more expensive in Indiana than last year include hamburger buns, pork chops, lemonade, potato salad and strawberries. However, strawberries were 16% less in Indiana than they were nationally.
“We’ve heard from specialty growers in central Indiana who had a large early crop this year around the end of May and beginning of June when this survey was conducted, which may have resulted in more affordable strawberries in the state compared to other regions,” noted Dr. Davis.
Cookies, chicken breasts, cheese, ice cream and chips are more affordable in Indiana than last year.
While food prices have slightly decreased this year, overall food costs are still high compared to two or three years ago largely due to general inflation affecting the cost of transportation and transforming what is produced on the farm into what is ready for consumption at the supermarket.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, just 15 cents of every retail food dollar can be attributed to farm production, after accounting for input costs. Using this figure, the farmer’s share of this $68.33 market basket would be slightly more than $10. The rest is for food processing, packaging, transportation, wholesale and retail distribution, and food service preparation.
“Farmers are price takers, not price makers – just like consumers,” said Janis Highley, INFB 2nd vice president. “It is encouraging to see that food prices in Indiana are decreasing slightly from last year, but margins are still tight for farmers due to high supply costs because the amount farmers are being paid isn’t covering that increase in expenses.
But Indiana farmers are committed to streamlining their operations to decrease costs of production as best they can, all while providing safe, affordable food not just for Hoosiers, but for families all over the world.”
The INFB summer cookout market basket survey was conducted in early June by volunteer shoppers across the state who collected prices on specific food items from one of their local grocery stores. Volunteer shoppers were asked to look for the best possible prices, without taking advantage of special promotional coupons or purchase deals.
Indiana’s survey was completed in conjunction with a national survey administered by the American Farm Bureau Federation. More details about AFBF’s national summer cookout market basket results can be found at fb.org.
Hear the full HAT interview with Highley and Davis below.
| Cookout Items (INFB survey) | 2023 Indiana Costs | 2024 Indiana Costs | % Change of Indiana Costs (2023 to 2024) | % Difference between 2024 U.S. average costs and 2024 Indiana costs | | Ground Beef (2 lbs.) | $12.16 | $13.88 | 14% | 9% | | Cheese (1 lb.) | $3.54 | $3.32 | -6% | -7% | | Cookies (13 oz bag) | $4.75 | $3.62 | -24% | -9% | | Ice cream (half gallon) | $4.67 | $4.28 | -8% | -24% | | Strawberries (2 pints) | $3.80 | $3.87 | 2% | -16% | | Chips (16 oz bag) | $5.04 | $4.58 | -9% | -6% | | Chicken Breast (2 lbs.) | $9.30 | $7.64 | -18% | -2% | | Pork Chops (3 lbs.) | $15.12 | $15.76 | 4% | 2% | | Pork and beans (32 oz) | $2.38 | $2.46 | 3% | -1% | | Hamburger Buns (1 package) | $1.95 | $2.04 | 5% | -15% | | Lemonade (2.5 qts.) | $3.66 | $3.72 | 2% | -11% | | Potato Salad (2.5 lbs.) | $3.11 | $3.16 | 2% | -5% | | AVERAGE TOTAL MEAL PRICE | $69.48 | $68.33 | -2% | -4% |
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/26195816/infb-market-basket-survey.mp3"]
Purdue University is accepting nominations for the 2024 Frederick L. Hovde Award of Excellence, given annually to a member of Purdue’s faculty or staff who has displayed outstanding educational service to rural Indiana.
Any active member of Purdue’s faculty and staff, including field staff, is eligible for the award. Nominees can serve any college, school, division or unit, whether at the West Lafayette campus or a regional campus.
“Purdue’s connection to local communities and individuals across the state continues to be critically important to the university’s land-grant mission,” said Bernie Engel, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture. “We thank Indiana Farm Bureau for continuing to support the Hovde Award to recognize a Purdue faculty or staff member for their dedication in bringing the university’s resources to Hoosiers across the state.”
The nomination deadline is noon ET Monday, Sept. 2. Nomination packets should be submitted via email to agdean@purdue.edu.
At least one — and no more than five — one-page letters of support must accompany the nomination form. Nomination forms and guidelines are available in PDF format here. The recipient will receive an $800 cash prize and plaque. The award, which has been given annually since 1972, is sponsored by Indiana Farm Bureau Inc., in appreciation of Hovde, who was Purdue’s seventh president and served from 1946-1971.
The 2023 recipient was Ken Foster, professor of agricultural economics. Foster served as interim dean of the College of Agriculture in 2023.
Ken Foster receives the 2023 Hovde Award from Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron and Purdue Ag Dean Bernie Engel. (Photo credit to @PurdueAgDean on X)
Register now for the Purdue Small Farm Education Field Day, an event featuring an array of demonstration stations featuring best management practices and highlights of research methods on the farm. On Thursday, July 25, attendees can learn about topics like companion plants and syrphid fly recruitment, high-tunnel sweet pepper and table grape production, raised bed gardening, strawberry production and propagation, postharvest wash/pack design, Peruvian bean and corn production, and onion and potato weed management updates. The event is presented by the Purdue Student Farm and the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.
According to surveys from previous years, 80% of participants reported that they had experienced financial improvements after adopting new, recommended practices from the information presented at past field days.
“This field day brings together small farm and urban growers from all over Indiana. Its unique setup allows ample time for knowledge sharing and networking,” says Petrus Langenhoven, Purdue Student Farm director. “In past years, growers have been able to directly apply the knowledge gained at their own farms or urban gardens. The smallest details, things that we as educators take for granted, have a big impact on small farm or urban garden operations.”
Topics to be covered include:
- Insect dynamics in high tunnels
- Companion plants and syrphid fly recruitment
- High-tunnel table grapes
- Advantages and considerations of raised bed gardening
- High-tunnel sweet pepper production strategies and variety selection
- Tarps, fire and cultivation — weed management updates and demonstrations
- Strawberry production at small-scale vegetable farms
- Growing open-pollinated corn on small farms
- Post-harvest wash/pack design for small farms
- Bringing the cuisine of the Andes to Greater Lafayette
- Digital tools for small farms
- Freight Farms container farming
The Purdue Student Farm is located at 1491 Cherry Lane, West Lafayette, Indiana. Register to attend here.
The Black Dog Barbeque Company will be on-site for attendees to purchase lunch and snacks. The Kona Ice truck will be on site with one free cup for each attendee compliments of Purdue Extension and Purdue Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.
The National Pork Producers Council has made clear its support for the GOP Farm Bill frameworks in both the House and Senate. In addition to providing a legislative solution to the host of problems triggered by California’s Proposition 12, they also address other priorities facing America’s over 60,000 pork producers.
One of those priorities is increasing market access program funding for U.S. pork. NPPC board member and Indiana farmer Jeb Stevens is a guest on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast from Hoosier Ag Today.
Jeb Stevens (Photo courtesy of NPPC and links to Stevens’ biography page on the NPPC website.)“Last year, U.S. pork producers exported $8.6 billion worth of pork to over 100 different countries. And I think it’s important to note that U.S. producers are really good at raising pork, and exports at whatever level are a significant key to our success in maintaining those exports. So, any of those free trade agreements, or countries that are taking advantage of free trade agreements, I mean, staff at NPPC is going to continue to push to fight for that market access and keep those channels of pork moving, ultimately, just to maintain the price and economic features of producers in the U.S.”
Just because African Swine Fever hasn’t been in the headlines lately, that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. Stevens says protecting herd health from that and other foreign animal diseases remains a priority.
“It’s important to note that we do have African Swine Fever in the Dominican Republic. That’s not that far from the coast of Florida. And, you know, we have a lot of retail and a lot of tourism and a lot of vacationers that go there weekly. We need to make sure that we have a strong Beagle Brigade and we have strong information at all of our parts of entry for consumers and vacationers and tourists and whatever, just to understand the ramifications of what could potentially happen if there was a slip up of that virus.”
Stevens is joined by Indiana Pork Executive Director Josh Trenary on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast. Hear it now below or on the free HAT Mobile App.
On Tuesday, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) said it was strongly opposed to USDA’s latest proposed Packers and Stockyards rule Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets.
The USDA says it’s proposed rule would tackle longstanding challenges around interpretations of unfairness and competitive injury for the livestock, meat, and poultry sectors. They say the rule is designed to support farmers and growers and reduce food costs for consumers.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement during an event at the Center for American Progress showcasing the push to create more affordable and competitive agricultural markets. The event highlighted USDA’s wide-ranging progress to enhance the Department’s ability to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act, including previous rulemaking and an enforcement partnership with the Department of Justice.
“The proposed rule stands for clear and transparent standards so that markets function fairly and competitively for consumers and producers alike,” Vilsack says. “It’s designed to give farmers a fairer shake.”
However, Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs with NCBA, issued the following statement in response:
“USDA’s newly proposed rule is a direct attack on cattle producer profitability. By creating criteria that effectively deems any innovation or differentiation in the marketplace improper, USDA is sending a clear message that cattle producers should not derive any benefit from the free market but instead be paid one low price regardless of quality, all in the name of so-called fairness.”
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall issued the following statement on Tuesday saying that he and his organization “appreciate” the USDA’s efforts:
“We appreciate USDA’s ongoing work to bring fairness to the marketplace for America’s farmers and ranchers. The proposed rule may impact growers differently depending on their business structure, location and animal species. Our focus is to ensure USDA understands the positive and potential negative aspects of this complex proposed rule. Farm Bureau will review the rule carefully and provide comments consistent with our member-developed policy.”
Click HERE to read the USDA’s newly proposed rule: Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets.
A faint haze from the Sites Fire is seen on the horizon over the Fisher vineyards near Santa Rosa, California. Photo by Sabrina Halvorson.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/25232513/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-CALIFORNIA-WILDFIRES-AFFECT-WINERIES-062524.mp3"]Wine enthusiasts around the nation know the reputation of wines from California’s Napa Valley, but those wine grapes and the farmers who grow them are in constant peril each summer because of area wildfires.
Hoosier Ag Today’s Sabrina Halvorson caught up with Rob Fisher, CEO of Fisher Wines, as two fires burned within a hundred miles of his land. The Point Fire in Sonoma County was the smaller of the two at 1,200 acres burned. The Sites Fire in Colusa County has burned more than 19,000 acres and continues burning.
“We absolutely worry about it. Every year,” Fisher said as he swiftly opened the active wildfire map on his cell phone. He has the map saved for easy access. “Every year, starting about a decade ago. It’s something that we now insure regularly around, in terms of crop insurance.”
It’s not just the flames that can ruin Fisher’s crop. Smoke from nearby fires, such as the Sites or Point fires, can also cause complete devastation.
“It can completely ruin the crop. There really is no amount of smoke and smoke evidence that’s positive. Any smoke evidence is really damaging,” Fisher explained. “It is a factor of the skin of the grape respiring, breathing in the volatile smoke and [the smoke] binding to elements in the skin and juice that damages the harvest.”
Rob Fisher, CEO of Fisher Wines, discusses the intricacies of growing wine grapes. Light smoke haze from the Point Fire rises over the mountains behind him. Photo by Sabrina Halvorson.The damage is called smoke taint, and the Australian Wine Research Institute explains on its webpage that the compounds in smoke primarily responsible for the taint are the free volatile phenols that are produced when wood burns. This creates an ashy taste in the grapes and makes them unsuitable for wine.
Fisher said testing for smoke damage in wine grapes is improving and the details of the issue are becoming better understood.
“We’re learning more and more each year, and a number of places are hard at work with research on this. We’re starting to find that it’s fresh smoke that’s the most damaging. It tends to be more volatile and can bind more easily to the fruit itself,” Fisher said. “Acrid smoke that’s had had days in the atmosphere, maybe blowing from other counties, other states, it appears, has less of an immediate impact.”
That means he keeps a close eye not only on the flames, but on the wind as well, with continued hope that it blows away from his vineyards.
The Point Fire is now 100% contained. The Sites Fire is 86% contained as of June 25. So far this fire season, California has had more than 2,400 wildfires which burned more than 95,500 acres.
Bill Johnson, Purdue professor of weed science in the botany and plant pathology department at Purdue University, has been appointed to the position of the Corteva AgriScience Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences by Purdue’s Board of Trustees. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.The Purdue University Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of Bill Johnson, professor of weed science in the botany and plant pathology department, to the position of the Corteva AgriScience Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences.
Johnson, who joined the Purdue faculty in 2002, focuses on researching weed management that directly impacts crop productivity, resilience and quality, reduces environmental impacts and enhances food security.
“I am very honored to receive this recognition for my work on the war against weeds. I am a true believer in the land grant mission of extending our cutting-edge research results to the ultimate end user of our information, the Indiana farmer and their farming operations. This chair will allow me to continue to do my work on finding the most economical, efficacious, and environmentally sound approaches involving herbicides, non-chemical control methods, and the use of new technology to minimize the impact of weeds on crop yields and productivity,” said Johnson.
In nominating Johnson for the position, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture Bernie Engel wrote: “Dr. Johnson’s cutting-edge research, with a specific focus on addressing the needs of farmers in Indiana and neighboring states, coupled with his impactful mentorship of both graduate and undergraduate students, positions him as an excellent fit for this esteemed chair.”
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education Ron Turco praised Johnson’s scholarly impact.
“Dr. Johnson’s exceptional record in weed management, especially in corn and soybeans, has garnered national and international recognition. His innovative research, published in top-tier journals and supported by numerous grants, reflects his commitment to advancing the field,” said Turco.
The Corteva AgriScience Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences supports a faculty member who applies modern technology to crop science. Corteva Agriscience provided the gift funds for this position in 2018 that were matched by the anonymous donor who established the College of Agriculture Endowed Chair Challenge Matching Gift Program.
Bill Johnson, Purdue professor of weed science in the botany and plant pathology department at Purdue University, has been appointed to the position of the Corteva AgriScience Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences by Purdue’s Board of Trustees. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.Source: Purdue Agricultural Communications.
The hosts of “The High Ground Podcast Powered by Premier Companies.” Sal Sama (at left), Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Ryan Priest (at right), Chief Operating Officer of Premier Companies take an informative and entertaining look at Indiana agriculture and energy sectors. Photo courtesy of Premier Companies.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/24232254/CJ-WRAP-HAT-HIGH-GROUND-PODCAST-062424.mp3"]We hope you enjoyed listening to the many podcasts available through the Hoosier Ag Today Podcast Network to help keep you informed of the latest news in Indiana Agriculture. One such podcast that is both informative and entertaining is The High Ground Podcast—Powered by Premier Companies.
“We’ve had a lot of esteemed guests on—and sometimes it’s just us talking, which is not that esteemed, but people still seem to enjoy it,” says Ryan Priest jokingly.
Priest is the Chief Operating Officer of Premier Companies based in Seymour. He is also one of the co-hosts of The High Ground Podcast—Powered by Premier Companies. The other co-host is Sal Sama, Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Premier Companies.
Since starting their podcast more than two-and-a-half years ago, they’re now approaching 150 episodes.
“It has gotten a lot of traction and I think that’s attributed to our guests and the format,” says Priest. “We tend to have a lot of fun with it. We certainly pride ourselves on being positive advocates for agriculture and energy—as well as supporting Indiana agriculture. We’ve got a good format, and the information seems to be well received.”
Ryan Priest, Chief Operating Officer of Premier Companies and co-host of “The High Ground Podcast Powered by Premier Companies.” Photo by C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Among Indiana’s ag leaders who have been the featured guests on The High Ground Podcast—Powered by Premier Companies include:
- Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture
- Bruce Kettler, President and CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana
- Courtney Kingery, the CEO of Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Corn Growers Association.
“The value that they provide to our listeners and those that surround Indiana agriculture is invaluable,” he says. “Certainly, those episodes have covered a plethora of topics. We’ve discussed the Farm Bill with ag leaders—all the way down to our more regular guests who come from internally here at Premier Ag & Energy and talk about the agronomic effects of pests, weeds, the weather or whatever might be affecting the crops.”
In addition to talking about policies and news impacting Indiana agriculture, Ryan and Sal also ask each guest ‘The Question of the Day’ which may not even involve agriculture. You may find them asking their guests about their favorite music, movies, and TV shows.
“We get a lot of response from ‘The Question of the Day’, which people tell us is the funniest thing or that it gives them such a human perspective of the people we’re talking to. I hope it’s not so popular that we should move it to the end of the podcast so they listen to the rest of it,” says Priest with a laugh.
You can find The High Ground Podcast—Powered by Premier Companies at PremierAg.com. It’s also part of the Hoosier Ag Today Podcast Network at HoosierAgToday.com.
The labor contract for longshoremen working East and Gulf Coast ports expires at the end of September, and right now the two sides are not even at the bargaining table.
“September 30 sounds like a long way away, but for a complex agreement like this, we’re definitely coming down to crunch time,” says U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom. He explains why this is a growing concern for meat exporters and for all of U.S. agriculture.
“While the West Coast ports are probably a little bit more critical to our business with all the Asian traffic, the East and Gulf ports are still critical as well for the rest of the world. About 45% of our waterborne pork exports go through the Gulf and East coasts, and I think it’s around 25% or 30% on the beef side, so that is a significant portion of our business. While most of these products are frozen going through the Gulf and East Coast, there is some chilled product, especially on the beef side, going into places like Europe and the Middle East and there’s also beef and pork that goes into Central and South America out of the Gulf. Obviously chilled products are more time sensitive, which makes this even more urgent.”
Unlike some past negotiations, the Longshoreman’s union has said its members will not continue to move cargo past the September deadline.
“When the West Coast contract negotiations started in 2022, both parties agreed to continue even though they may not get it done by the deadline of the contract. There still was an agreement to work beyond the expiration of the contract. The situation we have now with the Gulf and the East Coast longshoremen is that recently they’ve made it very clear that they’re only going to work up till the deadline of September 30. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and they make some progress on this, but right now it’s a real concern.”
To follow this situation, visit the U.S. Meat Export Federation website.
Source: U.S. Meat Export Federation
Between 2020 and 2025, there will be an estimated total of 59,400 annual job openings in the agricultural job sector. Purdue University doctoral student Joshua Strine authored a study on the average starting salary for agricultural graduates.
The average posted starting salary in those five years reached a high of $63,945 in January 2023. The lowest was $42,247 in February 2023. More recently in the study, the average salary was $53,594 in January 2024.
Multiple trends show up in the data. First, there was an increase in posted salaries from 2022 to 2023. The average salary of job openings in 2022 and 2023 were $49,373 and $56,147, respectively. Salaries were also higher in 2021 at $52,051.
One possible explanation is the increased demand for employees as companies transitioned back to full operation after COVID-19. Companies may have had to increase the wages they were offering to recruit more at-home workers back into the office.
A corn field near Smithland in Shelby County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana’s corn crops are rated at 63 percent good-to-excellent, while the state’s soybeans are rated at 61 percent good-to-excellent according to USDA.
This week’s percentages reflect an eight-point drop for corn and a ten-point drop for soybeans.
Across the entire U.S., corn is rated at 69 percent good-to-excellent, while soybeans are at 67 percent.
Winter wheat condition is at 70 percent of the crop rated in good-to-excellent condition—nine percentage points lower from last week.
“A second week of below-average precipitation levels resulted in signs of crop stress in some parts of Indiana,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Indiana Field Office.
“The average temperature for the week was 80.9 degrees Fahrenheit, 8.6 degrees above normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 0.62 inches, 0.27 inches below normal. There were 6.6 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending June 23,” says Warenski.
Indiana’s corn is 97 percent emerged and one percent is silking. The state’s soybean crop is 95 percent emerged and three percent blooming.
Winter wheat is 81 percent mature with 39 percent already harvested.
Source: USDA
Tar spot has been confirmed now in 10 counties across Indiana by Dr. Darcy Telenko’s Purdue Field Crop Pathology Lab according to the map on her website. She was our guest on the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast last week with Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn and ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel. This is the earliest she’s detected tar spot in Indiana.
“Most of the areas where we found tar spot, it’s still at a very low severity level, maybe one or two spots on a leaf. So, that’s still really low. So yes, we found tar spot. It was June 10th, 11th, I guess is where we were. That being said, where we found it in our research plots was my April planted corn. We planted about the 25th of April and that’s the corn where we’re finding it right now. I don’t think they found it in our May planting yet.”
Telenko shares her advice for tar spot management from her years of research.
“Generally, we’re saying we’re not going to spray fungicides for tar spot until at least V10. I still want to hold on, actually, until we get silks and tassels out there really to spray, because looking at the corn prices, I really want one well-timed fungicide application to manage this disease.”
She knows some farmers want to pull the trigger now on fungicides, but she urges some patience and offers a tool to help.
“Look at the Tarspotter app. We’ve been working on it. We’re on version five where we continue to pull the weather data and try to predict when the disease is going to be active and moving in the canopy. I would say this last week of heat and dryness, that probably slowed things down a little bit. So, let’s just hold on and see where that goes.”
Take a listen to the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast now below, in the free HAT mobile app, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We talk agronomy, tar spot, white mold, other corn and soybean diseases, and still manage to have some fun with it too. Just search Hoosier Ag Today in your app store to download the app.
Indiana Pork Executive Director Josh Trenary and current National Pork Producers Council board member Jeb Stevens from Osgood, Indiana join Eric Pfeiffer on this podcast to discuss Prop 12, market access programs, protecting herd health, and much more as it relates to policy priorities for pork producers in the Farm Bill and at the Indiana Statehouse.
Vincent ‘Zippy’ Duvall, a Georgia farmer and President of the American Farm Bureau Federation since 2016. Photo courtesy of the American Farm Bureau Federation.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/21231837/CJ-WRAP-HAT-FARM-BUREAU-LABOR-REFORM-062124.mp3"]Labor shortages continue to have a negative impact on Indiana’s farms and ag industry. That’s why one ag organization is trying to bring solutions to the table.
“The frustrating part is that we continue to hear the outcry from farm country that these issues need to be addressed, and unfortunately, there seems to be little action taking place,” says John Walt Boatright, Director of Government Affairs with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). He says that’s the reason why AFBF President Vincent “Zippy” Duvall sent off a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Acting Secretary Julie Su asking for farm labor policy changes from both agencies.
“The real goal is also to continue a productive and meaningful conversation, to recognize these challenges, admit that there needs to be action taken, and how do we as a group of people try to improve the situation, from policymakers within their agencies to the industry really looking at solving this problem? So, our goal really is to continue to engage in a thoughtful dialogue about these issues.”
Boatwright says that Duvall has brought forth specific policy changes that could help solve many of the farm labor challenges.
“The first is USDA has a purview over the farm labor survey, which determines the wage rates for the H2A Program,” he says. “We asked them to really reevaluate and look at the farm labor survey to make improvements in those areas. And then the second major thing that we asked for from the Department of Labor is a willingness and an interest to really engage with farmers and ranchers and understand the challenges that they’re faced with.”
Unfortunately, Boatright says the stalemate on these policy discussions has gone on for too long.
“Nothing of late has happened pertaining specifically to agricultural labor. So, we’re hopeful that this type of engagement will help jump-start some of those conversations,” says Boatright.
Click HERE to read the full letter from American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall.
Source: NAFB News Service
The Indiana FFA State Officer team for 2024-25. From left to right: Sentinel, Garrett Bolin; Reporter, Sienna Alexander; Treasurer, Kyatalin Baker; Southern Region Vice President, Cale Williams; Northern Region Vice President, Stephanie Breenda; Secretary, Christina Caldwell; and President, Ethan Wolheter. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The 95th Indiana FFA State Convention concluded Thursday with the installation of new state officers.
- President: Ethan Wolheter, Prairie Heights FFA
- Secretary: Christina Caldwell, Connersville FFA
- Northern Region Vice President: Stephanie Berenda, South Newton FFA
- Southern Region Vice President: Cale Williams, Terre Haute South FFA
- Treasurer: Kyatalin Baker, Switzerland County FFA
- Reporter: Sienna Alexander, Monrovia
- Sentinel: Garrett Bolin, Indian Creek FFA
Hoosier Ag Today provided coverage of the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention all week long thanks to McDonald’s of Greater Indiana!
Check out the video with Indiana FFA President Ethan Wolheter below!
Ron Noll, the Indiana FFA Golden Owl Award winner for Indiana Ag Educator of the Year. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Ron Noll, who has been an ag teacher at Prairie Heights High School in LaGrange County since 2002, has been named Indiana FFA’s Golden Owl Award winner for Indiana Ag Educator of the Year during the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention at Purdue University.
In addition to the title of Indiana’s Ag Educator of the Year, Ron Noll received the coveted Golden Owl Award trophy and a $3,000 Nationwide-funded donation to further Prairie Heights’ agricultural education efforts.
The award is sponsored by Nationwide, in partnership with the Indiana FFA and Farm Credit Mid-America.
Noll’s nominations described him as wanting the best for every student. One nomination read, “He is passionate about his field, but also worldly enough to inject other disciplines into his content. He is focused, but able to be flexible to teach to different needs. He builds relationships, and still sets boundaries of respect and discipline.”
Another one states, “His commitment to the students and the Prairie Heights School is second to none. Selfless giving, growth mindset, and moral soundness are only a few examples that describe him. His approach to life is if it is worth doing, then it is worth doing very well.”
As the number one insurer of farms and ranches in the U.S., Nationwide established the Golden Owl Award with its state partners to shed light on the contributions of Indiana’s leading agricultural teachers and provide additional resources to support their programs.
“Nationwide is proud to recognize the dedicated teachers who are educating and inspiring students to pursue careers in agriculture,” said Brad Liggett, president of Agribusiness at Nationwide. “We’re honored to have the opportunity to appreciate their contributions, highlight the growing need for their services, and supply additional resources to help provide their students with optimal learning experiences.”
Nationwide supports the future of the ag community through meaningful sponsorships of national and local organizations. In conjunction with the Golden Owl Award, Nationwide is donating $5,000 to each participating state’s FFA, including Indiana, to further support the personal and professional growth of students, teachers and advisors alike.
For more information, visit www.GoldenOwlAward.com.
Click below to hear Ron Noll’s conversation with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller immediately after winning the Golden Owl Award for Indiana Ag Educator of the Year:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/20234518/CJ-WRAP-HAT-EDIT-GOLDEN-OWL-WINNER-RON-NOLL-062024.mp3"]Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Purdue Crop Chat is a regular podcast from Hoosier Ag Today and the Purdue University Extension Service, featuring Purdue Extension soybean specialist Dr. Shaun Casteel and Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Dan Quinn. On this episode, Shaun and Dan welcome Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology at Purdue and one of the foremost experts in the US on tar spot in corn. She says this is the earliest she has found the yield-limiting disease.
This podcast is made possible by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Your Indiana corn and soybean checkoff investments yesterday are paying off today. New research, new uses, demand creation — bringing dollars back to the farm. Check it out at Your Checkoff.org.
Students in blue corduroy jackets braved the 90+ degree heat as they walked across the Purdue University campus Wednesday as the Indiana FFA State Convention continued. It concludes today with the installation of new state officers.
I caught up with members from the Tri-County FFA Chapter Wednesday morning. You can catch our chat in the video on our Facebook page, @hoosieragtoday, proudly presented by McDonald’s of Greater Indiana. They’re excited to usher in the next generation of Hoosier farmers and agriculturalists!
Ava Woods, Tri-County FFA incoming Vice President, shared what convention week has been like so far.
“It’s a lot of fun, but we’re also very busy. It is very tiring. I started this week on Monday with vet science, and we did okay. I mean, not top four, but hey, we did well. And then yesterday (Tuesday), I competed in prepared public speaking as well as having a plant soil science demo.”
Ava shared more about her prepared public speaking competition, telling me that it was a 6-8-minute speech she wrote and presented to judges who then asked her some questions.
“My speech was about ag advocacy, focusing more on the livestock industry and advocating for the livestock industry because ag advocacy is such a broad topic that I could talk about grain farming or animal agriculture, but I decided, with animals of my own and with my mom as a large animal vet, I decided to focus more on the animal agricultural industry.”
Catch the video at our Facebook page or below.
Indiana FFA recognized Joe Ramey for his dedication in service and monetary support to the Indiana FFA Foundation at the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention Wednesday when he was named this year’s Outstanding Service Award Recipient.
From 1982 to 1987, Mr. Joe Ramey served as the production manager at a nursery in Indianapolis. Managing three crews, Mr. Ramey gained experience in selecting plants and other landscape materials. Taking his experience to the classroom, Mr. Ramey then spent thirty years, from 1988 to 2018, teaching agriculture at the Central Nine Career Center in Greenwood, Indiana. According to prior students and current staff at the Career Center, Mr. Ramey was a beloved teacher who significantly impacted those in his program. Thanks to his previous expertise with landscaping, Mr. Ramey was able to help several of his students win State Level Proficiencies in diversified horticulture, landscape management, and nursery operations. Throughout his time at the Central Nine Career Center, Mr. Ramey educated hundreds of students who would later become specialists in a wide array of agricultural fields.
When he retired in 2018, Mr. Ramey then pursued a career at the Indiana FFA Leadership Center. Hired on as the Center Director, he continues to impact the members in this organization. Over the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Mr. Ramey’s leadership allowed the Leadership Center to survive the struggles of reduced patrons and funding.
For his entire life, Mr. Ramey has dedicated his work to making a positive difference in agriculture and Indiana FFA. He is now retiring after 6 years of dedicated and passionate service to the Indiana FFA Leadership Center, Indiana FFA Members, and visitors of the center.
As the weather has heated up there is a garden spot of corn fields west of Indianapolis that is handling the temperatures well.
Eric Wornhoff is a field sales representative at Channel Seeds covering west-central Indiana. He says corn there has recovered nicely from downpours after Mother’s Day.
“All in all, everything is really kind of evened up a little bit,” he told HAT. “The heat that we’ve had here recently, the corn all got side dressed and sprayed very timely this year. We’re very blessed with that. There were a few windows to get that done and now everything’s starting to even up and even the replant is looking pretty good. It’s only four to five inches tall right now.”
But, Warnhoff says it is certainly time for a drink of water.
“Absolutely. You know, with a heavy wet spring like we’ve had, we got stuff put in. Some of the tail end of planting of course was put into less-than-ideal conditions. We were opening ground up to get it aired out to plant and then we get those heavy two-, four-, or five-inch rains and the ground conditions really got very tight and of course whenever we get heavy pounding rains, we push all the oxygen out so our shallow roots have been kind of mitigated a little bit by some heat and some dryer weather here recently. But we would not turn down any rain from this point on towards the end of the month.”
The west-central Indiana soybean crop is having more of a struggle than most of the corn.
“The soybeans, again we go back to planting date,” he explained. “The early planted beans are in that 4th and 5th trifoliate range. They’re about a foot tall right now, so they’re making their own nitrogen. The nodulation looks pretty good even though we’ve got some tight soils. Right now, I would rate the soybean crop across West Central Indiana at about 60% good, 40% would be in that kind of iffy range. We just need time and water.”
Wornhoff says many soybean field weeds are taller than the beans themselves as farmers try to keep up with spraying. He feels both weed and insect emergence have been moved up a couple of weeks from normal. More on that is in the full HAT and Channel Seeds growing season update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/19141814/Channel-Seeds-Update-with-Eric-Wornhoff.mp3"]
Nominations are now being accepted for farmers and ranchers to serve on local USDA Farm Service Agency county committees. The committees make important decisions about how federal farm programs are administered locally. All nomination forms for the 2024 election must be postmarked or received in the local FSA office by August 1.
“Serving on a county committee is your chance to ensure that other producers who share your interests, your production practices, and your perspective are represented,” says FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. “Nominations are now open, and elections begin in November, so don’t miss this chance to help FSA serve all producers.”
Elections for committee members will occur in certain Local Administrative Areas. Producers may be nominated for candidacy if they participate or cooperate in a USDA program and reside in the LAA that is up for election this year.
Nationwide, over 7,700 ag community members serve on their county committees.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/18200344/FFA-comm-service-wrap.mp3"]“Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.” The FFA motto was on display Tuesday at Benton Central as members were packing meals for those in need. Avery Haehl with the Waldron FFA Chapter explains what “Living to Serve” means to her.
“So, I actually did creed speaking for my contest this year. One of the questions was, what does ‘living to serve’ mean? And I’ve always interpreted it from the creed and from my experience as an FFA member as us being leaders and learning how to be a leader that helps other people. And that is either just teaching them, helping them, just making things easier for other people so that they can learn about us and learn that life’s not going to be super hard if you ask for help.”
Indiana FFA partnered with Million Meal Movement to pack meals.
“Our mission is to fight hunger at home,” says Molly Adams, development manager for Million Meal Movement. “What we mean by that is all the food that we package stays right here in Indiana, so it’s Hoosiers helping Hoosiers, making sure that food banks and food pantries throughout the state of Indiana has enough food on their shelves to provide food to families that need it.”
Adams says the Indiana FFA team called them up one day and asked if they could work together on this community service project. It just seemed like a natural fit.
“The kids with FFA are wonderful kids, you know, they have such serving hearts and want to give back to the local community. They’re so well behaved and very well-mannered, they’re just great. And they’re having so much fun in there packing 40,000 meals.”
Adams says it doesn’t have to be a group of 200 like it was for the Indiana FFA students. A group of 10 could work as well. Learn more at millionmealmovement.org.
McDonald’s of Indiana is a proud supporter of this year’s coverage of the Indiana FFA Convention and is excited to usher in the next generation of Hoosier farmers!
Brian and Katie Southern, the co-founders of AgroRenew LLC, which is building an $83 million facility south of Vincennes that will convert the waste from watermelons, cantaloupes, and pumpkins into bioplastics. Photo provided by Brian Southern.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/18161855/CJ-WRAP-HAT-AGRORENEW-GROUNDBREAKING-061824.mp3"]Turning watermelon waste into biodegradable plastics is the plan for a new company based out of Vincennes called AgroRenew. This week, they’re now one step closer to starting production.
“The demand for this product is so intense right now that everything that we can make is going to go,” says Brian Southern, who co-founded AgroRenew with his wife Katie last year.
On Wednesday, the company is officially breaking ground on its new $83 million facility south of Vincennes in the U.S. 41 Industrial Park. The facility will be a total of 196,000-square feet and cover more than 20 acres. More than 250 career opportunities will be available at the new facility.
In addition to watermelon waste, the company also plans to use the waste of cantaloupes and pumpkins to convert into eco-friendly bioplastics.
Brian says customers are already lined up to buy the product—as soon as it can be made.
“We’ll be testing product during the first quarter of 2025, so as we’re testing equipment and finalizing our processes, our product demand is so high that our customers are saying that they will buy our test product,” he says. “By the end of 2025, that facility will be closer to production capacity.”
A rendering of the new AgroRenew manufacturing facility that is being built south of Vincennes. Graphic courtesy of the Knox County Indiana Economic Development Corporation.Just how did Brian and Katie Southern come up with the idea of converting watermelon waste into bioplastics?
“Working with the local farmers, we started to figure out there was a significant amount of watermelon waste, so we started to do some experimentation and figured out that there are chemical properties that exist in the watermelon that can be used as one of the ingredients that we can actually make a 100-percent biodegradable plastic,” he says.
“My wife, Katie, is a food scientist, so she understands all the chemical properties. With my experience in chemical engineering, we were able to work together and come up with biodegradable plastics.”
In addition to building a new manufacturing facility, the company will also set up a Bioplastics Innovation Center and hire research scientists to develop new innovations.
“We’re openly collaborating with other plastics industry companies, as well as scientists from across the world and from the universities,” he says. “We will be working jointly together on developing new innovation by having that Bioplastics Innovation Center right here, it’s going to create some huge opportunities.”
For more information about AgroRenew, visit AgroRenew.org.
Click BELOW to hear the full conversation with co-founder Brian Southern as he shares the story of AgroRenew.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/18161251/BRIAN-SOUTHERN-AGRORENEW-GROUNDBREAKING-061324.mp3"]AgroRenew founders Brian and and Katie Southern, along with officials from the City of Vincennes, the Knox County Indiana Economic Development Corporation, and The Pantheon announced AgroRenew’s $83 million facility that will convert waste from Indiana’s watermelon and pumpkin industries into biodegradable plastics. Photo courtesy of the Knox County Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/17221750/in-ffa-day-1-wrap.mp3"]Day 1 of the Indiana FFA State Convention is in the books as students from around Indiana made their way to Benton Central High School Monday morning for their Career Development Events.
“For example, food science and veterinary science, they get a chance to take what they’ve learned in the classroom all year and put it into a contest,” says Ethan Wolheter with the Prairie Heights FFA Chapter. “So, not only are they learning those things, but they get a chance to compete and put their knowledge to the test.”
Wolheter is on the “Convention Crew” this week, helping things run smoothly as he is one of twelve candidates seeking a state officer position.
“I think it’s always kind of been in the back of my head to be a state officer ever since I joined FFA my freshman year. I thought that was kind of neat thing. I didn’t really know much about it, this whole state officer process, but last year another person from our chapter, Conner Keeslar, he made it onto the state officer team, and so getting to kind of see what his year was like and the involvement he had in it and being a state officer kind of just showed me a little more about it, and that kind of helped me finalize, hey, this is something I’d like to do.”
Wolheter says he joined FFA because of family tradition.
“Freshman year I moved to Prairie Heights High School where my dad had gone to high school and he was involved in FFA when he was in school. His dad, my grandpa, was also involved in FFA when he was in school. Both of them did lots of contests, competed on various levels, and they just learned a lot from it and both of them have been involved in the agricultural industry at some point in their life. And I definitely want to be involved in the agricultural industry also. And I knew that FFA helps you with your agricultural knowledge, but it also helps with leadership skills, and that’s something that’s been instilled as a huge value in my life and through my family. And just hearing all the stories my dad told me from FFA, I knew that it was an opportunity I can’t miss out on.”
We’ll have much more coverage throughout the week from the Indiana FFA Convention on radio and on social media, including the state officer announcement Thursday afternoon. McDonald’s of Indiana is a proud supporter of this year’s coverage of the Indiana FFA Convention and is excited to usher in the next generation of Hoosier farmers!
College students with the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program were in Seymour for a tour of the Premier Companies Ag & Energy Services corporate offices and the Premier Ag Cortland Branch given by COO Ryan Priest and Conservation Specialist Sydney Calhoun. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/18001423/CJ-WRAP-HAT-BETHANIE-MAJEWSKI-FIELD-ATLAS-STUDENT-1724.mp3"]There are thousands of college students across Indiana that know they want to work in the science field—but may not know of the countless career opportunities that exist in the agbiosciences. That’s why AgriNovus Indiana is helping students to make those connections.
“I know people who are farmers and I never grew up in that type of setting, so I didn’t think it was for me necessarily. However I want to learn more about agbiosciences,” says Bethanie Majewski from Portage, Indiana, who is studying biology at Marian University in Indianapolis. She’s also part of the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas platform to build awareness of the agbioscience industry through company tours, on-farm visits, and face-to-face interactions with Indiana’s agbioscience leaders.
“Going into the Field Atlas ambassadorship, I knew something I was interested, but I didn’t know necessarily if I would connect with it. Then, when we started with orientation, I knew this was a great decision,” she says.
“I’m just discovering that just agbioscience and agriculture are truly everywhere, but I didn’t think it would be something that I would be so passionate about. But I think there is a part for me in agbiosciences—I just have to figure out where.”
Bethanie was part of a tour with eleven other college students last week of True Essence Foods, which is a chocolate and fruit processing facility near downtown Indy—as well as Premier Companies, an ag and fuel company based in Seymour.
Bethanie Majewski, an ambassador and member of the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program. She’s from Portage, Indiana and studying biology at Marian University in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.She says the Field Atlas program has helped her realize that she wants to make an impact in the agbiosciences.
I really find research fascinating and I know different companies like Corteva Agriscience do a lot of different research. Also, I find the animal science part of agbiosciences really interesting to me. I’m not really sure where that all is going to lead me, but I know I have a definite passion for it and I’m kind of excited to see how it all pans out,” she says.
Bethanie highly recommends that students learn more about the opportunities in agbiosciences through the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program.
“There are so many different opportunities—especially if you reach out to AgriNovus Indiana because they can help get you connected to all these different companies. I know there are lots of internship opportunities.
“I’ve also talked to people who want to do human resources (HR) work and they realize that maybe they can connect with agbioscience through HR because that’s still actively helping the world within that field, so I think it all connects. It’s just taking that first step to be interested and wanting to discover what it holds.”
Click HERE to learn more about the Field Atlas program through AgriNovus Indiana.
Marco Decca, Equipment Design Engineer with True Essence Foods near downtown Indianapolis, discusses the role that engineering plays in processing chocolate and fruit for food products with students from the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Sydney Calhoun, Conservation Specialist with Premier Companies, discusses opportunities in agbiosciences with students from the AgriNovus Indiana Field Atlas program. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Noblesville pastor Micah Beckwith, who was named the GOP nominee for Lt. Governor during the Indiana Republican Party State Convention on June 15. If elected, Beckwith would also serve as Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development and would oversee the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). Photo courtesy of Micah Beckwith for Indiana Facebook page.Indiana Republican Party convention delegates chose Noblesville pastor Micah Beckwith as the GOP nominee for Lieutenant Governor—which would make him the head of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture should he and GOP gubernatorial nominee Mike Braun win the general election this November.
In Indiana, the Lieutenant Governor is also the state’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development and oversees the following state agencies:
- Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA)
- Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA)
- Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA)
- Indiana Destination Development Corporation (IDDC)
If Beckwith is elected Indiana’s next Lieutenant Governor, he would be the direct report over both the Director of ISDA and Executive Director of the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor also serves as the President of the Indiana Senate, presiding over the Senate during its session, as well as casting deciding votes in the event of a tie.
The Lieutenant Governor of Indiana also chairs the Indiana Mental Health Roundtable, the Intellectual and Development Disabilities Task Force, and the Civics Education Commission.
Indiana GOP Delegates named Beckwith by a narrow margin on Saturday over Braun’s handpicked choice, first term State Rep. Julie McGuire.
Jennifer McCormick is Indiana’s Democrat nominee for Governor. However, she has yet to submit a nominee for Lieutenant Governor, who would have to be chosen by delegates during the upcoming Indiana Democrat Party State Convention on July 13.
So far, the two Democrat candidates who have formally announced their candidacy for Indiana Lt. Governor are Bob Kern and Clif Marsiglio.
A corn field in front of Union Chapel Methodist Church south of St. Paul in Decatur County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana’s corn and soybean crops are both rated at 71 percent good-to-excellent according to the USDA’s Weekly Crop Progress Report.
This week’s percentages reflect a one-point drop for the state’s corn. However, the weekly rating remains unchanged for Indiana soybeans.
The winter wheat crop is rated at 79 percent good-to-excellent condition—also unchanged from last week.
Across the entirety of the U.S., corn is at 72 percent good-to-excellent, the nation’s soybeans are 70 percent good-to-excellent, and the overall U.S. wheat rating is at 49 percent good-to-excellent.
“The week was dry with hot weather, resulting in topsoil that quickly dried. However, crop conditions remained stable, as irrigation helped to reduce crop stress. Corn and soybean planting was wrapping up on schedule, with farmers shifting their focus to applying herbicides and side-dressing nitrogen,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Indiana Field Office.
“The average temperature for the week was 69.2 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.6 degrees below normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 0.33 inches, 0.69 inches below normal. There were 6.4 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending June 16,” says Warenski.
In terms of planting, Indiana’s corn is 97 percent planted and 92 percent has emerged. The state’s soybean crop is 95 percent planted and 88 emerged. All planting percentages are above their respective five-year averages.
Winter wheat is 63 percent mature with 13 percent already harvested.
Source: USDA
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/16211442/chapman-crop-update-wrap.mp3"]Henry County farmer Matthew Chapman got his corn and soybean planting finished early this year. He’s nestled right in between Muncie and New Castle in the small town of Springport, Indiana, where he says they missed a lot of those early rain events that kept others around the state out of their fields.
“Overall, the crop is well on its way. Corn is growing well, really enjoying this heat last week. Beans are a little slower coming, but, you know, beans always seem to grow slow in the beginning when you’re watching the corn be off to the races every day. It seems like the beans take a little while before they start making their own nitrogen and get some nice color to them.”
I asked Chapman if he’s concerned right now about any disease or insect pressure.
“At the moment, we’re okay. We did spray insecticide on the corn early when we did our final herbicide pass because we were getting a lot of pressure, which was very unusual. I assume just the warm spring and the mild winter probably added to that.”
As for weeds, Chapman says those have been a problem from the get-go this season.
“We’ve been playing catch up it seems like all year. I think that goes back to the mild winter and the early spring heat. Really, the weeds got a jump start on us, and we really had to be aggressive with them on our burn down and our tillage in the spring. We had to work a lot of the cornfields a couple times to try to get them into shape. I think that may be a future issue that we have to plan ahead for. I know a lot of guys are spraying more in the fall to try to get a jump start on that program, and that’s probably something we need to be more aggressive with.”
Chapman says that makes for a difficult decision because you need to plan out your corn and bean rotation in the fall since what you spray in the fall can determine what you have to plant in the spring.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/16204500/AFBF-Joins-Suit-Against-EPA.mp3"]The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Corn Growers Association joined the American Petroleum Institute in suing the EPA over its emissions standards for light and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027-2032. Travis Cushman, deputy general counsel for AFBF, explains what issues the groups have with the rule.
“What this rule would do is by 2032, 68 percent of all cars and light trucks will need to be electric and 43 percent of large pickups and vans would have to be electric. We are arguing that EPA here, they’re not regulating air emissions. They are requiring the country to change how they propel their vehicles, and in doing so, they’ve gone well beyond the scope of the regulatory authority Congress granted them.”
Cushman says this rule would place a large burden on farmers.
“This rule is aiming to artificially and significantly decrease the supply of internal combustion engines in favor of electric vehicles, which thereby forces consumers off of sustainable biofuels and into much more expensive electric vehicles. Rural America lacks proper charging infrastructure. As a result, farmers will steadily lose access to a large market for biofuels, and farm vehicles will become significantly more expensive to purchase.”
He talks about what’s next in the legal process.
“So, we will start briefing the issue. After we brief the issue, the Court will hold oral arguments and then, later on, they’ll issue a decision. Representing us is Paul Clement, the former solicitor general, so he’s a very exciting attorney to work with.”
To keep up with the developments, go to fb.org.
Source: AFBF
King’s Hawaiian, a California-based bakery known for its sweet bread, is looking to expand upon its initial plan of building a new manufacturing facility near Edinburgh, Indiana.
Last December, the company announced plans to spend more than $150 million to build a 368,000 square-foot facility on 86 acres across I-65 from the Indiana Premium Outlets of Edinburgh shopping center, not far from Exit 76 in Bartholomew County.
King’s Hawaiian is now looking to spend an additional $40 million to expanding their original building and construction plans, as well as investing an additional $14 million for new equipment, according to the Columbus Republic.
The new plans for expansion will also double the size of new jobs, with a new total of almost 300 new jobs once the new facility is operational.
While no timetable has been set for a groundbreaking event, the company had previously said they expect the manufacturing plant to be fully running by 2027.
King’s Hawaiian is owned by Irresistible Foods Group, which is headquartered in Torrance, California. The new facility in Edinburgh would be the company’s third manufacturing facility—with the other two located in Torrance, and Oakwood, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta.
King’s Hawaiian’s bakery products include rolls, buns and loaves, as well as specialty baked items such as cookies and fruitcake. Other offerings include sauces, mixes, spreads and Kona coffee.
The future site of the King’s Hawaiian manufacturing facility in Bartholomew County. The 86-acre site sits directly across I-65 near Exit 76 from the Indiana Premium Outlets of Edinburgh shopping center. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
The IHT Cooling Mats on display during the 2024 World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo courtesy of IHT Group.A product that was created by two Purdue University College of Agriculture professors for cooling pigs during hot weather has recently been recognized with a national award.
IHT Cooling Mats won the Producer’s Choice Award at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. The technology was designed by Allan Schinckel, Purdue Professor of Animal Sciences, and Robert M. Stwalley III, Clinical Associate Professor of Purdue’s Agricultural & Biological Engineering department.
In 2023, IHT Group of Winnipeg, Manitoba, signed an exclusive license to manufacture and sell the pads in North America.
The IHT Cooling Mats were introduced as part of the National Hog Farmer’s 2024 New Product Tour during the World Pork Expo.
These innovative cooling mats help reduce heat stress, promote sow performance, improve boar breeding success, and enhance overall animal welfare. Designed with durability and ease of use in mind, the mats offer a practical and effective solution for pork producers aiming to optimize their operations.
Dr. Robert M. Stwalley III, clinical associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, shows a cooling pad designed to keep hogs cool. IHT Group of Winnipeg, Manitoba, signed an exclusive license to manufacture and sell the pads in North America. Source: Purdue Ag Communications photo / Tom Campbell.IHT Group President Chris Grant emphasized the broader impact of these cooling mats: “By investing in IHT Cooling Mats, pork producers demonstrate a commitment to animal welfare, enhancing their brand reputation and market positioning. Our innovative cooling mats will reduce heat stress, improve production, and enhance animal welfare. After rigorous tests, we have manufactured a cooling mat that has shown incredible results for both sows and boars.”
The New Product Tour was showcased during the Global Hog Industry Virtual Conference on May 22. A panel of pork industry experts reviewed and evaluated products based on their benefits to producers and the industry. Company representatives presented their products in a format like TV’s “Shark Tank,” followed by a Q&A session with the judges. Online voting for the Producer’s Choice Award took place on the National Hog Farmer site and at the National Hog Farmer Booth at the World Pork Expo.
Breakthrough Research ResultsSeveral studies have validated the effectiveness of cooling pad technology. A study published in the Journal of Animal Science demonstrated that electronically controlled cooling pads (ECP) significantly mitigate the negative impact of heat stress on sow productivity and litter growth. Sows with access to ECPs showed a notable decrease in respiration rate and maximum daily body temperature, along with a remarkable increase in litter growth performance.
Research on boars revealed that boars using ECPs had a higher percentage of morphologically normal sperm, indicating enhanced semen quality. This improvement can lead to higher conception rates and healthier litter, boosting farm productivity.
Combatting Heat Stress: A Billion-Dollar ProblemHeat stress is a significant concern for the swine industry, costing the U.S. swine sector approximately $900 million annually. Pigs are susceptible to overheating, leading to severe long-term performance reductions. IHT Cooling Mats addresses this challenge head-on, offering a solution that enhances sow milk production, respiration rates, feed intake, and overall piglet health and growth.
The benefits also extend to boars, with improved semen quality and higher conception rates leading to increased farm productivity and genetic progress. In a study conducted by Purdue University, reducing the trash rate in a barn with 300 boars could increase monthly revenues by more than $19,000.
Transforming the Future of Pig FarmingIHT Cooling Mats represents a revolutionary approach to managing heat stress in the pork industry. By adopting these mats, pork producers are improving their farms and setting new animal welfare and management standards. Join us on this innovative journey to transform pig farming, one mat at a time.
Sources: IHT Group, Purdue University College of Agriculture
You often hear about managing your strategic risk. As a small business, you know that’s important. But what does it really mean? The experts at Purdue give their definition.
“A strategic risk is the risk of being out of strategic position,” says Dr. Michael Langemeier, associate director for the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture and professor of ag econ. “And usually when we think about strategic position, we’re thinking about a business plan or a strategic plan. And in that plan, we typically indicate is our goal to be a low-cost producer- to have lower per unit costs than other farms in the industry? Or is our goal to add value- to get a higher price for our products than other farms in the same industry that we’re in?”
Langemeier discusses how different shocks can throw us off our plans. He says those shocks could be external, like governmental policy or like the Russia/Ukraine War.
“The shock can also be internally, and the classic example there is you lose a key member of the team, of the decision-making team, through retirement or leaving the farm or something like that. And so, it can be internally or externally, but that’s what we’re talking about. We talk about strategic risk, how can we ensure that we just keep right on rolling with production if we’re faced with these external or internal shocks?”
Langemeier discusses these shocks and how to best manage your strategic risk in a 3-part podcast series with Dr. Jim Mintert, director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Ag as part of their Purdue Commercial AgCast.
“We’re not talking about forecasting necessarily what that strategic risk is,” Mintert says. “It’s an idea about managing your business in a way that you can weather strategic risk, and it could be a variety of different things. It’s useful to think about some of the possibilities that could happen.”
Langemeier answers, “It’s not forecasting, and it’s not predicting. You can’t you often, if ever, predict a strategic shock, either externally, internally and so, you’re right, Jim, you’re thinking about, how would I respond to a shock?”
Tune in to the Purdue Commercial AgCast below as they go through different scenarios to help you prepare for some of those potential shocks.
U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) speaking to members of the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) has introduced the Youth Lead Act to support agricultural youth programs in rural communities and small towns.
The bipartisan bill would reauthorize grants for the National 4–H Council and the National FFA Organization—as well as the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and the Boy Scouts of America—to help expand the programs carried about by these organizations to rural communities and small towns.
“Our bipartisan bill will help ensure young leaders in Indiana and across the country can continue to participate in the educational opportunities and hands-on experiences provided by agricultural youth programs,” said Young.
The bill was also introduced by Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).
“Organizations like Scouting America, the FFA, and 4-H provide critical opportunities for young Delawareans to find mentors, learn life skills, and develop leadership techniques. Our entire state benefits when more Delawareans, no matter where they’re from, have the opportunity to join these programs,” said Coons. “This bipartisan bill with Senator Young recognizes the importance of investing in the next generation and ensures that every Delawarean, especially those from rural communities, will have the chance to grow.”
In addition to Senators Young and Coons, Senators Mike Braun (R-IN), Shelley Moore Capito (R- WV), Angus King (I-ME), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Jon Tester (D-MT), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) also cosponsored the legislation.
The Youth Lead Act is also endorsed by the National FFA Organization and the National 4-H Council.
“On behalf of the membership of the National FFA Organization, I express our thanks to Senators Todd Young and Chris Coons for their support of FFA, 4-H, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts through the ‘Youth Lead Act of 2024,’” said National FFA Advisor Dr. Travis Park. “Their commitment, along with the commitment of their colleagues who have signed onto the bill, shows the value that the U.S. Senate puts toward youth development. We hope this legislation will be included in the final versions of the farm bill conversations and that the grant program receives consideration through the appropriations process,” said Dr. Travis Park, National FFA Advisory Board Chair.
“The Youth Lead Act of 2024 represents an investment in the future of our nation’s youth. This legislation would enable Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program to expand experiences for all youth to develop the skills they need to succeed in work and in life,” said Jill Bramble, National 4-H Council President and CEO.
U.S. Representatives Tracy Mann (R-KS-01.), Don Bacon (R-NE-02), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Click HERE for the full text of the Senate legislation.
The National Corn Growers Association, American Farm Bureau Federation and six auto dealers representing 16 brands and collectively operating dozens of dealerships in major markets across the country joined the American Petroleum Institute today in filing a lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) light-duty and medium-duty vehicle emissions standards for model years 2027-2032.
The groups said EPA exceeded its congressional authority with the regulation and rendered a decision that values one tool for fighting climate change over others.
“By approving tailpipe standards that focus exclusively on electric vehicles, EPA has ignored the proven benefits corn ethanol offers in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combatting climate change,” Minnesota farmer and National Corn Growers Association President Harold Wolle said. “While it could take decades to get enough electric vehicles on the road to significantly lower GHG emissions, ethanol is a critical and effective climate solution that is available now. We have tried to make this case to EPA to no avail, and now we will make our case in court.”
The groups also noted that EPA’s standard will hurt America’s farmers.
“Farmers answered the call to help America be more sustainable by growing the crops necessary for renewable fuels. Now, the rug is being pulled out from underneath them with unrealistic emissions goals that put years of investment at risk,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said. “Impractical standards for light-duty and medium-duty trucks will drive up the cost of farm vehicles and force farmers to rely on a charging network that does not yet exist in rural areas.”
Leaders at API emphasized the impact the agency’s standards would have on American consumers.
“Today, we are taking action to protect American consumers, U.S. manufacturing workers and our nation’s hard-won energy security from this intrusive government mandate,” API Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ryan Meyers said. “EPA has exceeded its congressional authority with this regulation that will eliminate most new gas cars and traditional hybrids from the U.S. market in less than a decade. We look forward to making our case in court.”
In March, the Biden administration finalized new federal vehicle emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles that require 68% of new passenger vehicles and 43% of new medium-duty trucks and vans to be electric by 2032.
Source: National Corn Growers Association
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/14010630/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-HEALTHCARE-IS-FOOD-INITIATIVE-061324.mp3"]As some grocery prices continue to climb, the American Heart Association is working to make healthy food more accessible and affordable for those in need across the U.S.
Dr. Kevin Volpp, Scientific Lead for the Health Care by Food Initiative from the American Heart Association, says a recent survey by the organization shows that cost is a big factor when it comes to food purchases.
“I was struck throughout the report and the survey that cost really does loom large as a big barrier to many Americans. This probably shouldn’t surprise any of us. We’re well aware of the fact that inflation has been high. A lot of people are struggling and there’s a real mismatch in many cases between. The supplying availability of healthy food, where people live and what it costs,” he said.
The purpose of the Health Care by Food Initiative is to build the evidence needed to show clinical and cost effectiveness so patients with acute or chronic disease or who have risk factors for disease can access cost-effective food is medicine programs as a covered benefit through public and private health insurance.
“Commonly, people think of food as medicine initiatives as being comprised of medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries, and the strongest evidence existing is in medically tailored meals where there’s some very encouraging evidence on the impact of hospital readmission, hospital costs,” he said. “On produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries, we have pretty good evidence that this reduces food insecurity and improves people’s diets.”
However, Volpp says more awareness is needed.
“The ‘food is medicine’ is still, from the consumer standpoint, a relatively a concept people are relatively unaware of. So, we have a lot of work to do there in terms of communication and marketing. But that said, a lot of people are very familiar with the concept of produce prescriptions,” Volpp said. “So, in some sense this has begun to enter into the lexicon of what people are familiar with. People are very aware of the need to eat healthy food. These programs are still in a nascent stage, and so we need to both build evidence and build awareness more broadly on what’s possible.”
Click HERE to learn more about the American Heart Association’s Health Care by Food Initiative.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/12204605/hat001.mp3"]Farm Bureau has been told that House GOP leadership wants Fiscal Year 2025 spending bills out of the way before a Farm Bill moves forward. Well, House Republicans’ fiscal year 2025 USDA spending plan advanced in subcommittee late Tuesday and sharply cut the president’s request, upending key administration priorities.
The GOP spending plan would pare nearly $2.7 billion or almost 9.5% off the president’s USDA/FDA budget request.
“This subcommittee will not prioritize climate change, equity, or green initiatives over mission critical services to our farmers,” says Maryland Republican Dr. Andy Harris, subcommittee chair.
The GOP bill rejects new funding for USDA regional climate hubs, and the climate corps. And the fight over SNAP reforms continues inside and outside of the farm bill.
“As steward of taxpayer dollars, we have an obligation to scrutinize mandatory funding when it goes beyond what Congress has authorized and intended,” Harris added. “The USDA has consistently sought to expand eligibility, loosen work requirements, and increase benefits.”
The GOP bill would boost both SNAP and WIC, but only to account for inflation and allow states into a SNAP voluntary pilot to restrict unhealthy food choices. And the bill rejects any new program funding, taking aim at the bureaucracy as Harris did for FY 2024.
“You’re prioritizing bloating the bureaucracy, focusing on staffing up your Washington, D.C. headquarters rather than hiring field office staff to serve and support our nation’s producers and to deliver on USDA’s core mission.”
The FY 2025 proposal boosts funding for ag research, meat and poultry inspectors, emerging pest control, and the ReConnect broadband program. It also improves tracking of foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and directs NASS to reinstate its July cattle and county crop reports.
Source: NAFB News Service
Twelve Indiana FFA members from across the state are preparing for the opportunity to serve as an Indiana FFA state officer for the upcoming year. After a week of engagement during the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention June 17-20 in West Lafayette, seven individuals will be selected to fulfill the roles of president, secretary, northern region vice president, southern region vice president, treasurer, reporter and sentinel.
The candidates will participate in a rigorous interview and selection process, with the chosen candidates being announced on the final day of the convention, Thursday, June 20.
“Indiana FFA students represent our state so well, it is a pleasure to see so many students that strive for excellence,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “I look forward to working with the seven individuals selected to lead Indiana FFA this next year.”
Once selected, the newly-elected officers will embark on a year of service, providing direction and overseeing the development of the student-led organization, which has more than 14,000 members statewide.
Along with promoting FFA, agriculture and agricultural education, a majority of their responsibilities include conducting FFA chapter visits, facilitating leadership conferences, and hosting career and leadership development events, to name a few.
“There are so many well-qualified individuals vying to represent Indiana FFA on the state level,” said Don Lamb, Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director. “It will be a difficult task trying to choose just seven students to lead this state. I wish them all the best of luck on representing Indiana FFA.”
The 12 Indiana FFA State Officer candidates are:
- Stephanie Berenda, South Newton FFA
- Rylan Cooper, Warsaw FFA
- Noah Butler, Prairie Heights FFA
- Ethan Wolheter, Prairie Heights FFA
- Kira King, Lebanon FFA
- Makayla Hitt, Sullivan FFA
- Cale Williams, Terre Haute South FFA
- Sienna Alexander, Monrovia
- Garrett Bolin, Indian Creek FFA
- Camille Thopy, Southwestern Shelby FFA
- Christina Caldwell, Connersville FFA
- Kyatalin Baker, Switzerland County FFA
The 2024-2025 Indiana FFA state officer team will be announced on June 20.
Hoosier Ag Today will have coverage from the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention presented by McDonald’s of Greater Indiana.
The June World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates Report says the 2024-2025 U.S. corn outlook is unchanged relative to last month. The season-average price received by producers remains at $4.40 a bushel.
USDA will release its Acreage Report on June 28, which will provide survey-based indications of planted and harvested areas.
The soybean outlook includes higher beginning and ending stocks. With increased supplies and no use changes, soybean ending stocks are predicted at 455 million bushels, up by 10 million. The soybean price is forecast at $11.20 per bushel, unchanged from last month.
The June wheat outlook is for larger supplies, unchanged domestic use, increased exports, and lower stocks. Supplies are raised as wheat production is forecast at 1.875 billion bushels, up by 17 million from last month. Ending stocks are lowered slightly from last month but still significantly higher than last year at 758 million bushels. The season-average price is $6.50.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/12160020/CJ-WRAP-SENATE-GOP-VS-DEMS-FARM-BILL-PROPOSALS-061224.mp3"]Earlier this week, Republicans on the Senate Ag Committee released their framework for a new Farm Bill. But, just how different are their proposals from the ones that were put out last month by Senate Ag Committee Democrats?
“Some key differences that are going to define the debate going forward are primarily in places like the nutrition title and what the proposals are – policy proposals – that different leaders have,” says Joby Young, Executive Vice President of American Farm Bureau.
“Another piece is what the conservation programs look like going forward. They’ve made a lot of progress in the last few months, moving closer together on conservation, but there’s still a little bit of pencil sharpening left to go to have some final agreement on that piece,” says Young.
Even though there are distinct policy differences when it comes to the Farm Bill—such as funding for SNAP, and whether additional oversight should be in place for the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), Young says there are some commonalities from both sides.
Joby Young, Executive Vice President of the American Farm Bureau Federation.“What we’re seeing in the proposals that are coming out from all of our leaders on the Senate Ag Committee is the broad recognition that the ag provisions of the farm bill do need some updates—like looking at our ag programs and updating pieces of that to meet the economic changes we’ve seen over the last few years. The value of crop insurance and finding ways to improve and expand crop insurance are some of the commonalities,” he says.
So, what’s next for the Senate Ag Committee?
“Well, what we’re hoping for is now that Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR) both have proposals out there that are summaries, that we’ll see bill text, and we’ll see a markup scheduled, and they’ll take what they put here in sort of outline format and memorialize it and formalize it into bill text, so they can go and have a hearing, and have a markup, and pass the farm bill on the Senate side,” Young says.
Last month, the House Ag Committee advanced its version of the Farm Bill, also known as The Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024 (HB 8467). That bill is currently up for consideration before the U.S. House.
Click HERE for the Farm Bill framework summary provided by Senate Ag Committee Republicans.
Click HERE for the Farm Bill framework summary provided by Senate Ag Committee Democrats.
Reports are showing a surprising tax change in Brazil has the potential to make soy grown in the world’s largest soybean exporter less competitive with supplies from the U.S. A provisional measure signed by Brazil’s president limits the ability of Brazil’s commodity exporters and processors to monetize tax credits. To compensate, merchants will likely have to raise soy prices, making beans grown in Brazil less competitive with American soybeans.
“This tax law basically increases costs, increases the tax burden of all corporations doing business in Brazil,” says Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist with StoneX. “And it’s just going to impact their domestic crush and processors in a way that may benefit demand for our soy oil and soy meal.”
Suderman says since this was an executive order signed by the president, this could be short lived- just 120 days- unless Brazil’s Congress ratifies it. What impact has it had and could it have on soybean futures?
“It temporarily gave us a rally, and then the market kind of forgot about it until it sees if Congress ratifies it. Basically, what it means for us now is absorbing some of that soy oil that our renewable diesel plants were not utilizing that we thought that they would by this time as we’ve been expanding crush capacity. It absorbs some of the soy meal on the market. We’ve seen of late stronger demand for soy meal, which has been helping that market and helping our domestic crush margins use up a little bit more of the soybeans that we have in this country. So, it’s a little bit incremental at this point until we know whether Brazil’s Congress ratifies it.”
After we conducted the interview Suderman early in the day Tuesday, he reached back out to us to let us know that it’s being reported that the administration in Brazil is considering withdrawing the tax change due to significant political pushback. Suderman says the StoneX team in Brazil believes that will happen, but it has not yet occurred at the time of this posting.
Hear how this situation came to be and other factors impacting global trade, including with China, in the full interview with Suderman below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/11215524/arlan-suderman-061124.mp3"]
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), center, who also serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee, was part of a farm listening tour with his Senate colleagues Mike Braun (R-IN), at left, and Todd Young (R-IN), at right, at a farm in Tippecanoe County in July 2023. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.The framework for a new Farm Bill put together by Senate Ag Republicans was released on Tuesday by Senator John Boozman (R-AR), Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee.
Among the highlights of the Farm Bill framework issued by Senate Ag Republicans include modernizing the farm safety net, facilitating the expansion of access to overseas markets, and fostering breakthroughs in ag research.
Boozman issued the following statement on the Senate Republican’s Farm Bill framework:
“From the onset of this process, we have sought to draft a Farm Bill that reflects the needs of stakeholders. The world has changed dramatically since the 2018 bill became law, and the unprecedented challenges and economic uncertainty that farmers face now are only projected to get worse in the coming years.
Following on the House Committee on Agriculture’s bipartisan passage of farmer-focused farm bill, we are putting forth a framework that exhibits a shared common ground with our Democrat counterparts on several key priorities and offers a path forward in the places where we differ.
Our framework builds on the momentum from committee passage in the House and Chairwoman Stabenow’s release of Senate Democrats’ priorities. I am eager to follow the House’s lead and draft a bill that will garner support on both sides of the aisle.
I have been proud to partner with Chairwoman Stabenow on priority issues and shepherd significant reforms into law, particularly the accomplishments focused on climate and nutrition. These accomplishments would not have been possible without a commitment to working together as good faith partners. Senate Republicans have every intention of continuing farm bill negotiations in the same manner and remain committed to advancing a bipartisan farm bill that meets the needs of farmers, ranchers, foresters, rural communities and consumers nationwide.”
Last month, the House Ag Committee advanced its version of the Farm Bill, also known as The Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024 (HB 8467). The bill has yet to be considered for a full vote before the U.S. House.
U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who serves Senate Ag Chair, had previously released an outline of the Senate Ag Democrats’ version of the Farm Bill last month.
Following the release of Senate Ag Republican’s farm bill framework, ag leaders have issued the following statements.
Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA-15), Chairman of the House Ag Committee:
“Ranking Member Boozman and Senate Agriculture Republicans have put forward a slate of thoughtful proposals that must be addressed in the next farm bill. Their framework elevates the urgent needs voiced by diverse stakeholders across the country, and articulates common-sense solutions in response, an approach the House Committee on Agriculture took in developing and advancing the bipartisan Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024. House Republicans are eager to build on this momentum and enact a comprehensive farm bill that meets the needs across the agricultural value chain.”
Zippy Duvall, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation:
“Farm Bureau appreciates Senator Boozman’s release of an outline for a new, modernized farm bill that increases investments in the farm safety net and advances voluntary conservation efforts. His plan, combined with Senator Stabenow’s previously released outline, brings into better focus each party’s vision for this important legislation.
“This is encouraging progress in the Senate, but there is much work to be done. There are stark differences between the two outlines and we urge Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Boozman to find common ground on the important issues that farmers and ranchers face. We urge the Senate Agriculture Committee to use these outlines to draft a bipartisan farm bill that updates the farm safety net and makes crop insurance more accessible, and to schedule a Committee markup soon. The farm bill benefits every family in America. They’re relying on Congress to get the job done.”
Lori Stevermer, President of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC):
“On behalf of America’s 60,000+ pork producers, we thank Ranking Member Boozman for a farm bill framework that listens to and answers producers’ calls for foreign animal disease prevention resources, market access expansion, relief from burdensome multi-state regulations, and more. After a successful markup of the House Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill, we urge swift action by Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Boozman to protect producers from a patchwork of regulations across 50 states and provide certainty to the food supply chain.”
Mark Eisele, President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA):
“Thank you to Ranking Member Boozman for building on the successful, bipartisan work of Chairman GT Thompson, to put forward a Farm Bill that cattle producers across the country can proudly support. This Senate Farm Bill framework understands the full threat of a foreign animal disease outbreak on U.S. soil and acknowledges that cattle farmers and ranchers carry out vital work, through voluntary conservation programs, to preserve our Nation’s natural resources. NCBA welcomes this positive step forward and urges the Senate to follow the Ranking Member’s lead, as the policy ideas in this framework have already received bipartisan support in the House.”
Keef Felty, President of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG):
“NAWG commends Ranking Member Boozman for continuing to move the process forward by releasing his version of a farm bill. We appreciate his farm bill proposal, which protects crop insurance and incorporates policies we advocated for. This is a step in the right direction and will hopefully lead to Senate action soon.”
“The farm bill is one of the most impactful pieces of legislation when it comes to protecting our food supply and food security, advancing conservation and environmental stewardship, and ensuring the farmers who produce our food can feed a growing population.”
“We will continue to review this proposal and urge members in both chambers to get a bipartisan farm bill signed into law this year.”
Gregg Doud, President and CEO, National Milk Producers Federation:
“Dairy farmers and their cooperatives commend Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman, R-AR, for issuing a strong farm bill framework that marks another important step toward enacting a bipartisan farm bill into law this year. Ranking Member Boozman’s framework includes numerous dairy priorities, such as reauthorizing and updating the vital Dairy Margin Coverage safety net and advancing NMPF-led bipartisan bills to spur approval of innovative feed ingredients, protect the use of common food names, and boost consumption of nutritious milk among our nation’s youth.
“A five-year farm bill provides producers with certainty as they manage their risk and resources and feed consumers at home and abroad. We stand ready to continue working with House and Senate Ag leaders in both parties to complete the job this year.”
An overview of the framework and title by title highlights released by Senate Ag Republicans are available through the links below.
Key Priorities
Short Summary
Title I – Commodities
Title II – Conservation
Title III – Trade
Title IV – Nutrition
Title V – Credit
Title VI – Rural Development
Title VII – Research
Title VIII – Forestry
Title IX – Energy
Title X – Horticulture
Title XI – Crop Insurance
Title XII – Miscellaneous
Dr. Willie Reed, Dean of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine (at right) and his wife Dorothy (at left) following the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry on Feb. 3. Reed was recognized with the Distinguished Service Award from Dr. Bernie Engel, Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture during the event. Reed is stepping down as dean on June 30 and will be named Dean Emeritus. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.To honor Willie Reed’s loyalty and service to Purdue University, the veterinary medicine profession and the state of Indiana, the Purdue University Board of Trustees have approved renaming the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory on Purdue’s campus as the Willie M. Reed Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.
Reed — who has served as dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine since 2007, among 25 total years of service to Purdue — is stepping down June 30. He will be granted dean emeritus status.
Purdue 150th Anniversary Professor S. Kathleen Salisbury, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Veterinary Medicine and professor of small animal surgery, has been appointed interim dean of the college, effective July 1.
Dr. Willie Reed, Dean of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Reed is stepping down effective June 30 and will be granted Dean Emeritus status. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.Reed has consistently championed One Health at Purdue — bringing together animal health, human health and plant health — and the university continues to strengthen and accelerate his groundbreaking approach to excellence and education in these areas. He has also guided the College of Veterinary Medicine in developing and executing a series of three visionary strategic plans to enhance the future through innovative educational initiatives, groundbreaking research, and creative and effective engagement programs. His strategic planning initiatives culminated in the opening of the David and Bonnie Brunner Purdue Veterinary Medical Hospital Complex in 2022 — expanding the college’s Small Animal Hospital and creating new Equine and Farm Animal hospitals to replace the Large Animal Hospital.
Reed’s leadership of the college also improved Purdue DVM and veterinary nursing education by implementing new approaches to clinical-skills training and the use of innovative technology. He fostered growth in research programs, achieving record-level research funding through expanded external support for scientific discovery that advances medicine for both animals and humans. Reed spearheaded efforts that enhanced the teaching, clinical and research facilities in Lynn Hall; increased the DVM class size by 20%; fostered successful recruitment of faculty members from around the globe in many disciplines; and significantly expanded the college’s global engagement programs.
In 2023 Reed’s many achievements were recognized when he was selected by the American Veterinary Medical Association as its inaugural recipient of the AVMA Frederick Douglass Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring his innovative leadership and contributions in supporting and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the veterinary profession.
Dean Willie Reed was given the Distinguished Service Award from Dr. Bernie Engel, Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture, during the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry on Feb. 3, 2024. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Source: Patrick Wolfe, Purdue University provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity.
Lillie Beringer, a farmer from northeast Iowa. From no-till and cover crops to a thriving beef business, she’s transforming her family’s operation with conservation practices through The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund. Photo courtesy of The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/12011511/CJ-WRAP-HAT-EDIT-SOIL-WATER-OUTCOMES-FUND-061124.mp3"]If you would like to begin or expand a conservation practice on your farm operation—and earn some revenue as well, then you might want to enroll in The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.
“We’re working with growers to implement new conservation practices such as tillage reduction, cover crop implementation, or extended crop rotation,” says Tyler Roush, Indiana’s Field Program Representative for the program.
He says The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, which is a subsidiary of the Iowa Soybean Association, improves the long-term resiliency of your farm operation.
“We’re not only looking at the soil health benefits, but the farm benefits from reducing fertilizer rates, as well as the carbon sequestration process from reducing the tillage, which is also reducing the amount of diesel fuel that is burned,” he says.
Roush adds that you’ll not only reduce erosion and improve your soil health, but you’ll also receive monetary compensation for putting these practices into place on your farm for the first time.
“Last year, our average payment was $33 an acre,” he says. “The nice thing about that is you’ll receive a free estimate before signing the contract with The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund. Once that contract is signed and you’re ready to move forward, you’ll receive 50 percent of that payment up front within the first couple of months to assist you in implementing those conservation practices. Then, when the following spring rolls around, you’ll receive the other 50 percent of the payment for that year.”
According to The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, the program enrolled over 300,000 acres across 14 states in 2023 and provided over $10.5 million in payments to farmers.
What are the qualifications for enrolling into the program?
“You’ll need to implement a new conservation practice. The key piece is that there is something new on your operation,” says Roush. “We can be looking at doing a tillage reduction, adding a cover crop, or an extended crop rotation—going from a corn-soy rotation to a corn-soy-wheat rotation, or possibly going beans-after-beans or corn-after-corn, and then transitioning to a corn-soy rotation.”
Roush says is no minimum or maximum acreage required for enrollment, and that the program is designed to scale at each farmer’s own pace.
In addition, each agreement is made through a one-year contract, so farmers don’t feel like they are locked into the program long-term.
Learn more about The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund at TheOutcomesFund.com.
Prop 12 has again come to the forefront as the House version of the Farm Bill that passed through the House Ag Committee and awaits a vote from the full House includes a fix for California’s legislative overreach.
Malcolm DeKryger is president and co-owner of Belstra in DeMotte, Indiana. Belstra is an independent livestock feed manufacturer and owns and manages six sow farms that will produce over 550,000 pigs this year. They have opted to not comply with Prop 12 regulations.
“We are professionals in our field. My master’s degree from Purdue is in animal sciences, and so this is what I’ve lived. This is what I practice. This is my wheelhouse. My staff and I understand very well how animals, particularly pigs, thrive. Not survive- but thrive.”
DeKryger says they’ve studied Prop 12 and the regulations they have in place to sell fresh meats into California. In his professional opinion, they are shortsighted in two key areas.
“One is animal care and animal welfare. They may think that this is better for an animal, but the way that they have set this up, in terms of their statutes and regulations, there’s a lot of opportunity for injuries to animals and then mortality. I think that that’s very sad.”
The other area that DeKryger says is being completely ignored and is equally sad is safety for employees.
“I think that we have to be very, very mindful of these large animals, these 450 to 500 pound sows, that are going through their natural estrus cycles and natural behaviors, and then putting people in the middle of that mix, trying to get them to get animals to someplace when they’re going through an estrus or when they’re getting them into a breeding stall for a couple of hours. There are just so many different things that can go wrong.”
DeKryger is so confident in the care taken of his pigs, he invites everyone to come see. One of those six sow farms that Belstra owns and manages is the Pig Adventure at Fair Oaks Farms where visitors can tour and see exactly what happens on the farm. He and I spoke recently during one of those tours.
“The working floor is identical to all of our other sow farms. The upper level is kind of a museum and a skybox to look out across everything within our production system. I think most people are pretty fascinated by how much they can really see. We do put it on display and we do have it full of windows. You know, one of the students today said, ‘Hey, can we take pictures?’ I said, ‘Well, absolutely. That’s why I paid for all these windows to be in this upper box here. Take as many videos and pictures as you want.’”
DeKryger says they’re frequently audited by animal welfare professors at Purdue and others, always coming away with remarkable scores.
He’s hopeful the Farm Bill addresses Prop 12. Hear my full interview with DeKryger below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/10201808/malcolm-dekryger-interview.mp3"]
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/10194356/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-MEXICO-AG-TRADE-061024.mp3"]Mexico’s election last week means a change in leadership for the nation and possible changes in trade with the U.S. Claudia Sheinbaum won the election and will take over the post held by current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador later this year.
Jacqui Fatka, the lead economist for farm supply and biofuels in CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange research division, says it could have an impact on several areas starting with the effect it’s had on the peso.
“The dollar-to-peso ratio has been favorable to exports there, especially with corn. We’ve seen a lot of our corn go to Mexico, and with so many headwinds that the industry is facing that was really a tailwind, right? It was kind of giving us some boost,” Fatka said. “But a weaker peso longer term may actually slow US grain exports to Mexico. So corn in particular, that’s one thing we’re watching there with the recent elections.”
She says there could be another change as well, with Mexico’s current refusal to take GMO corn for most purposes.
“There is the GMO concern and that’s going through the USMCA trade dispute process right now,’ Fatka said. “This newly elected president is a very close ally of her predecessor. And so there are some questions of whether she would continue that going forward or whether she would relax that. She’s a scientist and so maybe she would be able to kind of see where things go through the trade dispute. But when she comes into office later this fall, maybe she will reevaluate the country’s position on GMO corn.”
Fatka explains there has been some progress already on that front.
“We’ve also been able to kind of scale that back,” she said. “The fact that at one point we didn’t know if we’d be able to send any corn and now it was just corn that was going to be used in their food. So, a smaller chunk,” she said. “If we weren’t able to send any of our corn for their feeding, then it would really be a problem.”
She said the GMO discussion could have bigger implications.
“This is something that’s really important, not just for the relationship with US and Mexico but around the world,” she said. “The biotechnology and the science behind it is really under scrutiny in this case. So, it’s going to have an impact not just with Mexico trade, but possibly all around the world in the continued just knowledge and understanding of the safety that comes with GMO corn.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association condemned a recently announced U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored research grant that will fund the development of lab-grown meat products by a biotechnology manufacturing company called BioMADE.
NCBA says it’s outraged that the Department of Defense is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to feed America’s heroes like lab rats.
“U.S. cattle producers raise the highest quality of beef in the world, with the lowest carbon footprint, and American troops in all branches deserve to get that same wholesome, natural meat and not the ultra-processed, lab-grown protein that is cooked up in a chemical-filled bioreactor,” says National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane. “This misguided research project is a giant slap in the face to everyone who has served the country.”
The NCBA, which has represented cattle producers since 1898, says American veterans and active-duty troops deserve so much better than this.
A soybean field near Smithland in Shelby County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.According to USDA, 94 percent of Indiana’s corn and 89 percent of the state’s soybeans have been planted. That compares to 87 percent for corn and 81 percent for soybeans planted from last week’s report.
Planting progress for Indiana’s corn is now ahead of its five-year average of 91 percent. The same is true for Indiana’s soybeans, which are also above their five-year average of 82 percent.
83 percent of Indiana’s corn crop and 77 percent of Indiana’s soybeans have now emerged.
Throughout the entire U.S., 95 percent of corn and 87 percent of soybeans are planted.
Winter wheat for Indiana is 96 percent headed and 27 percent mature.
Source: USDA
American vehicle manufacturers announced plans last year to remove AM radio from new electric vehicles, and Farm Bureau is urging Congress to get behind the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act as it moves to the Senate.
“AM radio is important for rural America because farmers, ranchers, and rural residents rely on it as a source of weather, commodity, and national farm policy updates,” says Emily Buckman, Farm Bureau’s director of government affairs. “Access to radio is critically important for America’s producers, especially in times of emergency.”
Buckman says auto manufacturers previously cast doubt on the future of AM radio, but Congress is considering a legislative fix.
“Last year, several automakers announced they have removed or planned to remove broadcast AM radio receivers from EVs due to interference generated by electric batteries. Ford Motor Company even went so far as to claim they are removing AM radio from all vehicles. They later reversed that decision. They are considering legislation that would require the Department of Transportation to require automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in their new vehicles at no additional charge.”
Another concern is if it’s AM radio now, how long before it’s FM radio? Or how long before vehicle manufacturers start charging you for what is now free over-the-air radio?
“If farmers and ranchers want to ensure AM radio remains available in their vehicles, I would encourage everyone to reach out to their lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate to urge support for the AM Radio in Every Vehicle Act.”
Farmers can help by responding to the action alert on the Farm Bureau website.
Josh Miller, who farms in Madison County, Indiana, is on the U.S. Grains Council board of directors and had served as Chair from 2022-23. Photo courtesy of U.S. Grains Council.Indiana farmer Josh Miller was among several ag leaders representing the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) on a recent trade visit to Mexico.
Miller, who is from Madison County and had served as USGC Chair in 2022-23, was joined by the USGC’s current chair Brent Boydston, for meetings in Monterrey with major stakeholders in the U.S. and Mexico corn trade market. Miller continues to serve on the USGC board of director as Past Chair.
The group met with staff from the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) to coordinate future collaboration efforts in the country. The ATO works with private industry and government officials in both the United States and Mexico to serve as a center for U.S. export promotion and a point of contact for Mexican importers looking to purchase feed grains and other products.
“With the recent political obstacles and challenges to rail transport logistics affecting grain imports from Mexico, it’s vital for the Council to work in tandem with the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service in Mexico to keep shipments moving,” said Boydston. “U.S. producers and Mexican importers and end-users alike need reassurance that trade will continue operating smoothly, and it’s our duty to facilitate that goal.”
The delegation also met with staff from a leading global food production company that offers products in 112 countries to discuss how U.S. producers can meet the company’s demand. USGC is trying to keep U.S. ag as the premier option for Mexican importers.
At the beginning of June, Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidential election and will assume office on Oct. 1, 2024. Many ag leaders—including NASDA CEO and Tipton County, Indiana native Ted McKinney—have expressed their optimism that Sheinbaum will overturn a decree issued by Mexico’s current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that bans the import of U.S. biotech white corn for human consumption.
Source: NAFB News Service
Bob and Karen Thompson. Photo by Bosch Studios Photography.Bob and Karen Thompson have operated as a team, both throughout their 55-year marriage and in their long-standing commitment to sending Purdue Agriculture students abroad and welcoming international students to their home.
Now the Thompsons are strengthening the international focus of Bob’s former department by endowing the Robert and Karen Thompson Chair in International Agricultural Economics. The couple hopes the position will ensure a leading scholar in an international aspect of the discipline such as trade, development or comparative agricultural policy “to help solidify the commitment to the international focus in the offerings of the department,” he says.
The Thompson Chair is open-ended by design. “As a former dean, I understand that the college has to have the flexibility to respond to greatest needs and opportunities that come along that you never see coming,” Bob says.
Thompson knows about unanticipated opportunities. He grew up in New York state, so close to the Canadian border that the news source in his home was the Canadian Broadcasting Company, which he credits with “more of an international perspective than the average American community would get.”
Despite his emerging interest in international affairs, his options for study abroad were limited. Some local high schools sent students overseas through American Field Service (AFS) programs. “I really wished my little rural high school — I was in a graduating class of 20 — would get an AFS program, but it never did,” he recalls.
Thompson’s focus on agricultural policy emerged as an undergraduate at Cornell University, where he became intrigued by international food issues such as hunger and poverty. He applied for the university’s two study abroad scholarships — and ended up as firstrunner-up for each of them. Based on his interest, however, officials told him that if he was accepted to another program, Cornell would support him with additional scholarship funds.
Thompson wasn’t selective about his destination. “My first choice was ‘wherever,’” he says.
“Wherever” turned out to be Denmark for his junior year, where he met Karen, then a student in elementary education who grew up on a small farm on the Danish island of Bornholm. The couple maintained a long-distance romance for two years after Bob returned to Cornell and then completed a master’s degree at Purdue.
Shortly after they married in August 1968, the Thompsons went to Laos with International Voluntary Service, a Peace Corps-type program that allowed the two citizens of different countries to serve together, working with local agriculture and home economics extension agents.
Karen immigrated to the U.S. when they returned from Laos in 1970. That summer, they came to Purdue for her to complete her elementary education degree and Bob to begin a PhD program in agricultural economics. After earning her teaching degree in 1971, Karen started a master’s degree in special education.
In summer 1972, the Thompsons went abroad again, this time to Brazil, where Purdue had an institutional strengthening program with the Federal University of Viçosa dating to the 1950s. Bob collected data for his thesis and taught agricultural production economics in Portuguese, while Karen taught the elementary school-age children of Purdue professors on the Viçosa project.
Now a family of three — their daughter, Kristina, was born in Brazil — the Thompsons returned to Purdue in January 1974. At the May commencement, Karen received her master’s degree, and Bob received his PhD and joined the agricultural economics faculty. Their second child, Eric, arrived a year later. As a faculty member, Bob developed a nationally recognized program in international trade and agricultural development.
In 1983, the family moved to Washington, D.C. for a one-year leave that extended to four. There Bob served as a senior staff economist for the President’s Council on Economic Advisers, and later, assistant secretary for economics for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Thompson returned to Purdue as dean of the College of Agriculture in 1987 and was a strong advocate for study abroad. At the beginning of his tenure, only one student in the College of Agriculture was studying overseas. When he left six-and-a-half years later, 10 percent of agriculture students graduated having had an international experience.
Thompson equates his one year in Denmark, two in Laos and two in Brazil, all within a nine-year time frame, to “a second PhD program.”
In 1993 Thompson left the dean’s position to return to his passion for developing agriculture and reducing hunger in low-income countries. He became president and chief executive officer of the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development; and later moved back to Washington, D.C. to become director of rural development for the World Bank.
In Washington, Karen became volunteer curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s lace collection in its American History Museum. Her mother had taught her the basics of bobbin lace, and over time she honed her skills through training courses in several European countries. In addition to research and writing on lace made in colonial Ipswich, Massachusetts, the only U.S. site of a commercial bobbin lace industry, Karen continues to teach online courses on the technique.
Thompson’s commitment to study abroad laid the groundwork for the nearly 40 percent of Agriculture students who now graduate having studied abroad in hundreds of wide-ranging programs the college offers through International Programs in Agriculture (IPIA).
The Thompsons were so passionate about providing international opportunities to undergraduates that they endowed the Robert L. and Karen H. Thompson Scholarship to support students who participate in international study programs in agriculture.
IPIA asks the scholarship recipients to send the couple a postcard from their overseas institution. “Those are so nice to receive,” Bob says. “The comment that you hear most often is that it’s ‘a life-changing experience.’ It certainly was for me.”
Ensuring that agriculture students experience different cultures firsthand is good for Indiana agriculture, Karen adds. “It’s great for the ones who go back on the farms, but for the ones who are hired by agribusiness, the firms want international experience.”
Bob credits Karen for managing family and hosting responsibilities while he taught, conducted research and served in administrative positions. In addition to raising bicultural and bilingual children, the Thompsons regularly welcomed international students and friends to their home. Karen recalls learning to prepare an American Thanksgiving dinner before she had ever had one herself.
“Our children grew up with the American part of the family, the Danish part of the family, but also the international students at Purdue, because they really became our third family, to us and our children,” she says. “And it’s so important for the international students to get to know an American home and family.”
Not surprisingly, the travel bug also bit the Thompsons’ children. Kristina studied in Denmark in high school and college before volunteering with the Peace Corps in Benin and later, in Rwanda with her husband, Tom. The couple currently is assigned to Cotonou, Benin, where she is the Peace Corps’ country program and training director, and Tom teaches in the international school.
Both Eric and his wife, Amy, are Purdue graduates. Eric spent his junior year in Purdue Engineering at a German university and completed graduate study at the Danish Technical University. He now works in human hearing research for the Air Force. Their son is a high school senior, and their two daughters both studied abroad as college students.
“You detect a pattern here?” Bob asks, smiling.
The international perspective that the Thompsons cultivated in their own home has over time changed the College of Agriculture, by broadening student horizons through study abroad, and now, in a new chair in agricultural economics that promises to impact teaching and research.
Bob and Karen Thompson. Photo by Bosch Studios Photography.Written by Nancy Alexander. Photos by Bosch Studios Photography.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/06222254/resicore-rev-wrap.mp3"]A new option for weed control will hit the market for 2025 from Corteva. Nick Burke, U.S. Corn Herbicides Product Manager for Corteva, says Resicore® REV herbicide will provide corn farmers a strong start to their weed control programs, thanks to multiple benefits.
“Resicore® REV herbicide combines three powerful active ingredients, plus supercharged mixing and handling, pumped up flexibility, and boosted crop safety. This high-performance premix will put the brakes on more than 75 of the toughest broadleaf and grass weeds, giving farmers the peace of mind that comes with clean cornfields, while revving up their yield potential.”
Burke says those tough weeds include the difficult, resistant weeds we often deal with here in the Midwest like palmer amaranth, waterhemp, marestail, and giant ragweed. Resicore REV herbicide can be applied on corn up to 24-inches tall and offers up to eight weeks of residual activity.
“Resicore REV herbicide can be applied pre-plant, pre-emergence or post-emergence and can be used on traited corn or conventional corn, as well as on reduced- and no-till acres. Additionally, the premix is compatible with a wide variety of tank-mix partners and is formulated for increased crop safety with an encapsulated acetochlor. All these benefits will allow corn farmers to tailor their weed control programs to better fit their acres, leading to maximum yield potential.”
Resicore REV herbicide will be available for the 2025 growing season. Visit their website to learn more.
Source: NAFB News Service
Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association. She’s also been chosen to serve on the EPA’s new subcommittee on Animal Agriculture and Water Quality.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/06162033/CJ-WRAP-HAT-BECKY-JONISKAN-EPA-WATER-QUALITY-SUBCOMMITTEE-060624.mp3"]The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is listening to ag leaders first before putting out any new regulations regarding water quality that could have a negative impact on the ag industry. One of those ag leaders is a native Hoosier.
“I’m proud to represent Indiana. I think we have a lot of really good practices in place already to protect Indiana’s water quality,” says Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association.
She was recently asked by United Egg Producers to represent the U.S. poultry industry on the EPA’s newly created subcommittee on Animal Agriculture and Water Quality.
The subcommittee is part of the EPA’s Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Advisory Committee.
Joniskan was asked to serve on the subcommittee due to her sixteen years of work experience with the Indiana Department of Environment Management (IDEM) prior to leading the Indiana State Poultry Association.
She says Indiana has long been ahead of the game when it comes to having regulations in place that protect both the ag industry and the state’s water supply.
“I know here in Indiana we have a lot of great programs already in place, such as our Confined Feeding Operations (CFO) program that IDEM established in 1971, so there’s a long history of working to protect water quality through that,” she says.
Joniskan also points to several Indiana ag organizations that already promote best management practices when it comes to soil health and water quality.
“The Indiana Ag Nutrient Alliance is a great example. Another good collaboration is from all of Indiana’s animal ag agencies, as well as the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Farm Bureau, and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to see what we can do that really works for Hoosier Farmers to keep those nutrients on their fields.”
Overall, Joniskan says she glad that EPA is bringing ag leaders to the table through this new subcommittee–and recognizing the important role that farmers play in protecting our soils and water supplies.
“Part of the message is that farmers know how to farm, and we’re trying our best not to add more regulations telling them how to farm,” she says. “Indiana farmers are already great stewards of the environment and their land. I’ll do my best to continue to bring that message to Washington.”
Joniskan was in Washington, D.C. for the subcommittee’s first meetings, which were held on May 28 and 29. She says the subcommittee’s next meeting will be scheduled for early August.
When I chat with Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn and ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel on the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, we typically talk about corn and soybeans. We do plenty of that on the newest Crop Chat episode, available now below or wherever you listen to your podcasts, but we also take some time on this one to talk about wheat.
In addition to soybeans, Casteel’s expertise extends to small grains, including wheat. He says this year’s wheat crop has looked good and wheat growers have done a good job managing this crop for the highest yield potential.
“I haven’t gotten any yield estimates on it, but I have heard some pretty early reports that as early as next week in the southern parts of the state they may be starting to cut. And so that’s a really good opportunity. Think about that. The 10th of June, give or take, to start cutting wheat, that gives you almost a full normal growing season to get that double crop soybean in. So, I think the wheat crop is a good opportunity to get max yield out of that, get the straw that people deal with, but then also to get the double crop bean.”
Casteel believes that wheat growers in central and northern parts of Indiana have a good opportunity again this year to capitalize on double crop soybeans. As we’ve previously reported, Northeast Indiana has been hit hard by rain events this year.
“That’s a part of the state that’s got a lot of wheat and I think there’s a reason why we’ve got a fair amount of wheat there. It’s because we tend to have these wet pockets. So why not get a third crop in there so then we don’t have to in this two-day period (when it’s dry) get all the corn and soybeans in. We’ve got a crop that’s already growing. A third of our land, or at least a fourth of it, is in wheat, so we don’t have to worry about that. Well, that same ground now has an opportunity to get a really good yield on the wheat and maybe even get another crop, which is not always a given year in and year out.”
Casteel has planting tips for those double crop beans in the Purdue Crop Chat. Download it now wherever you get your podcasts or hit the play button below!
Mexico’s President-Elect Claudia Sheinbaum.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/05193703/CJ-WRAP-MCKINNEY-ON-MEXICOS-PRESIDENT-ELECT-SHEINBAUM-060524.mp3"]Now that Mexico has elected Claudia Sheinbaum as their new president, many ag leaders are hopeful that she and her administration will make some decisions to strengthen their ag trade relationship with the U.S.
“I know I’m optimistic, but I hope one way or the other that corn decree and some other things might see a change,” says Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).
Given Sheinbaum’s science background as a research engineer, McKinney says he’s optimistic that she’ll overturn the previous decree put into place by current President Obrador that bans the import of U.S. biotech white corn for human consumption.
“The way to get there could be varied,” he says. “For example, it may be that before she makes any decision to overturn such a decree, the results of the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) dispute come out and they say or rule it’s inappropriate and she just let’s that stand. She may or may not have to make a reversal of the decree, but either way—no matter how you vector into this—the result absolutely must be a change in that policy.”
McKinney says he’s also optimistic that Sheinbaum will agree to increase Mexico’s funding for research and preventative measures to keep harmful animal diseases—such as African Swine Fever—from rearing its ugly head.
“We know that there’s been a substantial reduction in funding for [Mexico’s] regulatory agencies that are looking for invasive species and various diseases that could—without losing some care—could find their way to the U.S. We’re hoping that [Sheinbaum’s] science background is applied in good fashion and we get some things fixed,” he says.
Ted McKinney, who serves as CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Most of all, McKinney says it’s important that U.S. and Mexico maintain their strong ag trade partnership.
“We still live in the best ‘neighborhood’ on the planet, with respect to our trade north to Canada and south to Mexico,” says McKinney. “We have to strengthen that. If there’s ever a time to strengthen it, it’s now. I also say that here in a year or so, we’re going to have the first formal review of USMCA and that we don’t want to have to go into that review with all kinds of problems.”
According to USDA, Mexico is set to be the number one ag export destination for the U.S.—and will spend an estimated $28.7 billion this year alone on U.S. ag products.
Sheinbaum will become Mexico’s next president beginning Oct. 1, 2024.
USDA has announced the next steps it’s proposing to address the many complex competition issues in agricultural markets and create a fairer playing field for poultry growers and farmers. USDA is proposing the “Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems” rule.
The new rule would address a range of abuses that have occurred in relation to grower ranking payment systems, commonly called “tournaments.” It also addresses abuses of additional capital investment requirements that poultry companies commonly ask of their contract growers for broiler chickens.
This rule is the third in a suite of Packers and Stockyards Act rules that USDA has undertaken to create fairer markets, which ultimately will lead to lower grocery prices for hardworking families.
USDA is also announcing new publicly available cattle market transparency tools. These and previous actions are intended to enhance transparency, stop retaliation and discrimination, reduce costs, and support market fairness in every circumstance.
In a statement, Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall commented, “Farm Bureau appreciates USDA’s work to bring more transparency to the poultry industry. AFBF has long advocated for changes to ensure poultry farmers who contract with processing companies are treated fairly, and we’re glad to see many of our concerns addressed in the new rule.
“The current poultry tournament system puts tremendous pressure on farmers, while providing them little information and recourse throughout the contracting process. We are thoroughly reviewing the proposed rule to understand its full implications and look forward to submitting comments.”
Source: NAFB News Service
America’s farmers and ranchers are counting on Congress to deliver a new, modernized farm bill. That was the message delivered by Kevin Lussier, Chair of Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee.
“The future of American dairy farming depends on investment in the next generation,” he said. “By increasing access, we can ensure the next generation of farmers have the tools and resources we need to thrive.”
He also stressed the need for Congress to pass a farm bill this year. Tessa Parks, a young farmer from Minnesota, testified on behalf of the National Farmers Union.
“The farm safety net favors larger and more established farms, land is expensive, and capital is difficult to access,” she said. “Ongoing consolidation limits our access to a fair and open marketplace.”
The hearing took place before the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade. Senate farm bill markup is expected soon.
The dual roles for Kelby Roberts this summer. During the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention from June 17-20, she’ll be wrapping her year of serving as Indiana FFA President. Soon after, she’ll be serving as Miss Rush County during the Rush County 4-H Fair from June 29-July 6. Photo at left courtesy of Marcassa Jo Photography. Photo at right courtesy of Samantha Wagner Photography.The 95th Indiana FFA State Convention is fast approaching—and the student who is finishing up her term as Indiana FFA President has a very busy summer ahead of her. Later this month, she’ll be trading in her Indiana FFA corduroy jacket for a crown and a sash.
“This year has been life-changing and absolutely breathtaking they’re so few words to describe it,” says Kelby Roberts of Rushville. Not only has she been serving as President of Indiana FFA over the past year, but just last weekend she was crowned Miss Rush County 2024 for the upcoming Rush County 4-H Fair.
“I talked about it in my interviews when I was running for Rush County Fair Queen that I’ve always been a dreamer—I always knew I wanted to run for Indiana FFA State Officer, and I always knew that I wanted to run for Miss Rush County. Obviously I take those dreams and run with them, but I’m so blessed to be able to really live those out with some awesome people,” she says.
First up this summer is the Indiana FFA State Convention, which is June 17-20 at the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette. Kelby and the rest of the Indiana FFA State Officer team have been working together over the past several months to plan for the upcoming convention.
The 2023-24 Indiana FFA State Officers after being introduced during the 94th Indiana FFA State Convention in June 2023. From left to right: Sentinel: Tanner Weakley, Reporter: Carson Rudd, Treasurer: Caden Sixberry, Southern Region Vice President: Blaine Wagner, Northern Region Vice President: Conner Keeslar, Secretary: Madalyn Denton, President: Kelby Roberts. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.“Our theme this year is ‘Discover’ and we are super excited for that,” she says. “We are about to absolutely bring the hype, the energy, and the fun. We have a lot of really cool new things in store and we’re so excited to welcome our FFA members to West Lafayette.”
What is Kelby looking forward to most as she serves as President for this year’s Indiana FFA State Convention?
“I would say reconnecting with members I’ve already made those connection with and meeting new members that maybe I haven’t gotten to meet directly but they’ve followed me on social media, or they’ve reached out to me or know who I am, so I really want to get to know all of them. I’m really looking forward to our sessions that we’re sharing, and my retiring address, of course.”
Soon after the convention, Kelby will serve as Fair Queen during the Rush County 4-H Fair June 29-July 6.
“Being a ten-year 4-H member and have really been involved in the livestock side of things—that’s where my roots at the Rush County 4-H Fair really run deep, so I’m super excited to see the successful 4-H members and see their faces light up,” she says. “Also, going on the Midway and getting to interact with our community. Maybe I’ll get over my fear of heights a little more and ride some of the rides?”
Then, once the Rush County 4-H Fair is over, Kelby says she plans to finish out her busy summer by serving as an intern with the City of Rushville.
This fall, Kelby will be a freshman at Purdue University with a double major in both Political Science and Agricultural Economics with a Pre-Law and Policy concentration.
“I definitely want to work in the policy sector of American agriculture. Hopefully, at one point I’ll be living and working in Washington, D.C. I’m really excited to explore those opportunities at Purdue to see exactly what that’s going to look like,” she says.
Click below to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s full interview with Kelby Roberts, as shares more about serving as Indiana FFA President—as well as Miss Rush County 2024.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/04180907/KELBY-ROBERTS-INDIANA-FFA-PRESIDENT-MISS-RUSH-COUNTY-2024-RAW-AUDIO-060324.mp3"]Miss Rush County 2024 Kelby Roberts (center, at front) with the Rush County Fair Queen Court. From left to right: 4th Runner Up: Lanea Adams, 3rd Runner Up: Mallory Angle, 2nd Runner Up: Jenna Lawler, 1st Runner Up: Ashleigh Spaeth. Photo courtesy of A Shutter in Time, LLC.Kelby Roberts celebrating with her fellow Indiana FFA State Officers and former Rushville FFA advisor following the Rush County Fair Queen Pageant. From left to right: Rushville FFA Advisor Blair Orme, Blaine Wagner, Carson Rudd, Kelby Roberts, Madalyn Denton, and Tanner Weakley. Photo courtesy of Kelby Roberts.
Farmers are feeling more optimistic about the economy, according to the latest survey from the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
U.S. farmers’ outlook improved in May as the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer index rose to 108, marking a 9-point increase from April. Both of the barometer’s subindices saw increases, with the Index of Future Expectations climbing 11 points to 117 and the Current Conditions Index rising 6 points.
The rise in crop prices played a role in boosting farmer sentiment this month. By mid-May, Eastern Corn Belt cash corn prices had increased by 6% to 7%, and soybean prices had risen by 2% to 3% since the April survey was conducted. The improvement in prices aligned with good corn and soybean planting progress, which likely contributed to the sentiment improvement. This month’s Ag Economy Barometer survey was conducted from May 13-17, 2024.
“The boost in the Index of Future Expectations reflects farmers’ expectation that conditions will improve, although it’s clear 2024’s financial challenges are still a concern,” said Dr. James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.
The Farm Financial Performance Index rose to 82 in May, a 6-point increase from April. This index, which asks producers to compare their farm’s expected financial performance to last year, shows some improvement. However, despite the gain, the index remains 15 points lower than at the end of last year. This indicates that producers still anticipate 2024 to be a more financially challenging year compared to 2023.
Producers’ outlook on capital investments improved modestly in May, with the Farm Capital Investment Index rising to 35, up 4 points from its all-time low reading of 31 in April. Despite this increase, the survey revealed that 77% of respondents believe it is a bad time to make large investments, while only 12% felt it was a good time. Interest rates and elevated prices for farm machinery and new construction were the main reasons cited for this cautious approach. Among those who considered it a good time to invest, nearly half (45%) cited high inventories at machinery dealers as the key factor.
Producers’ views on farmland values in May remained steady, with a small 3-point increase in the Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index. Compared to last fall, producers’ sentiment in 2024 has weakened, as indicated by an average index of 116 from January to May, down 6% from the average of 124 in October-December 2023. Those expecting higher farmland values in the coming year point to nonfarm investor demand and inflation as key drivers for their optimism. Notably, the survey expanded its response categories in April and May to include energy production from wind and solar installations as a reason to expect values to rise. In May, 12% of optimistic respondents cited energy production as a factor for their positive outlook, up from 8% in April.
“While the overall outlook on farmland values showed little change in May, the evolving landscape of energy production is beginning to play a role in producers’ views,” Mintert said. “We are seeing a shift in how alternative revenue sources are impacting farmland value expectations.”
Interest in developing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects is rising among ethanol plants, partly driven by tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. This month’s survey inquired about farmers’ experiences with potential CCS projects from ethanol plants. Seven percent reported being approached about such projects. Payment rates per acre ranged from under $26 to over $50, showcasing considerable variation. Future surveys will delve deeper into CCS project specifics.
Interest in leasing farmland for solar energy production is on the rise, according to recent survey findings. In both April and May, approximately 20% of respondents — up from just 12% in March — have discussed leasing farmland for solar energy production within the last six months. Notably, over half (55%) of respondents were offered long-term lease rates of $1,000 per acre or more, with 27% receiving offers exceeding $1,250 per acre. Combining data from both April and May surveys reveals that approximately 30% of respondents who explored leasing options have now signed solar energy leases for farmland they control.
Click BELOW to hear Dr. Jim Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier with the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture analyze the results of the most recent monthly survey of U.S. farmers.
Source: Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/04233555/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-AG-LABOR-DEMOGRAPHICS-060424.mp3"]Many U.S. ag companies are having trouble finding enough people to fill the jobs that are now available within the ag industry. However, one ag researcher says there are a number of different global factors that could create more challenges to finding ag labor in the years to come.
“Demographic changes going on around the world are not favorable for U.S. agricultural labor research food and agribusiness in North America,” according to Dr. Roland Fumasi, the head of RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness for North America.
He says there are two sides to the food production coin.
“On one side, nations around the world are becoming more developed. But there’s a flip side to that coin, and those same positive economic forces as countries develop around the world that are great for food demand also can put tremendous pressure on what is already a challenging farm labor situation.”
Fumasi adds that the trends and worker ages show that there are fewer younger workers in ag labor and more who are 50 years old or older.
“In previous decades, we added a lot of young people and that trend has significantly slowed down,” he says. “The driver of that is that birth rates are declining and that is one of the consequences of economic development in countries around the world. As countries get more economically developed, their birth rates decline.”
Fumasi says there are several factors for the U.S. to consider in order to keep an adequate ag workforce in coming decades—such as better immigration policies tied to agriculture, increasing pay rates, and generally making the U.S. more competitive overall in the ag labor space.
“That overall ‘pool’ or ‘pie’ will continue to get smaller,” he says. “Is there a way for us maybe to get a bigger slice of a smaller pie? Probably?”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/03210749/rilynne-puckett-agrinovus-wrap.mp3"]Labor shortages continue to plague the agriculture industry. Those shortages aren’t only on the farm, and AgriNovus Indiana is looking to help.
Rilynne Puckett, a Ball State junior working toward a degree in Chemistry, was one of 12 college students from Indiana universities who toured Fair Oaks pig adventure and did a farm tour with West Lafayette-based Solinftec last week. The event was part of AgriNovus Indiana’s Field Atlas platform to build awareness of the agbioscience industry and connect the students with careers and on-farm experiences.
“As a first-generation student, there was not too much exposed to me about college or really what you can do,” Rilynne explained. “And being a chemistry major on top of that, it’s such a broad major that you can do so much with. I really would just love to open my scope of what’s actually available out here to me other than what we’re used to hearing such as being in a cosmetology lab or something like that. I want to make an impact.”
After seeing the care given to the pigs at Fair Oaks and the work being done with fertilizer and other nutrients, Rilynne felt a spark for agriculture.
Rilynne Puckett, Ball State University“It honestly is breeding a want of innovation. I want to be someone who can help to make our food life better or just anything that us humans use day to day, I now have a spark in me that’s like, I can create something. There are more ideas out here to be created. We haven’t capped out.”
Rilynne has opened her mind now to a future in the ag space and is interested in learning more about careers that align with her chemistry background. She encourages other students across Indiana to check out the Field Atlas program from AgriNovus so they can have a similar experience.
“There is a hidden world literally under here. I can say I was one of the people who thought there was not much to agriculture or just the hard work that goes behind it. But after taking the tour today, I see there’s a whole family and it’s a family that is looking to grow and is breeding creativity and innovation. There is so much room. I can see it. I can see the vision of agriculture growing and even how other people, if your major interest isn’t in agriculture, there is a place for you here. That has been emphasized, and it is honestly comforting. As a chemistry major, you think there’s nothing here for me, but there is. There’s a spot for everyone here and I love it.”
In addition to Ball State, students from Purdue, IU, IUPUI, Indiana State, Manchester, Marian, and Franklin College joined the tour with majors like biology, food science, pharmacy, nutrition, and data science. Learn more about the Field Atlas program at the AgriNovus Indiana website.
While spring moisture has helped alleviate widespread drought in many areas, too much rain has caused many corn and soybean producers to fall behind on finishing their planting.
According to the USDA’s Crop Progress Report for Monday, June 3, 87 percent of Indiana’s corn and 81 percent of the state’s soybeans have been planted. That still leaves 13 percent of corn 19 percent of soybeans unplanted across the state.
“We are certainly a long way from panic mode as far as I’m concerned,” says Brian Shrader, Field Agronomist with Pioneer® Seeds. He says if you haven’t quite finished all of your planting yet, he says the key is to remain patient.
“Recent experience—from 2019—would tell us that if things cooperate weather wise, we have the potential to have very good corn and very good soybeans even with what we would consider to be a late-planting window,” says Shrader.
What is his best piece of advice for late corn planting?
“In 2024, we have lots of 16-row and 24-row planters, and so pedal down all the way until the minute that it rains. When you get another window, you can put a lot of corn in the ground in a hurry,” says Shrader.
“The rule of thumb that I was taught by my father and uncle who farmed was ‘an acre a row an hour’. That was with a six-row corn planter that you had to fill all the time. Today, my guess is it’s probably twice or more than that for a 24-row planter, so you can plant a lot of corn in a very short amount of time.”
What is Shrader’s advice for late soybean planting?
“The one thing that you’re going to want to consider is that you may want to increase your population in soybeans if they are planted later. You’re not going to have quite as many nodes per plant, so there is a need potentially to increase populations to ensure that we get those additional nodes per acre that we’re going to need to get really good yields.”
Click BELOW to hear Pioneer Field Agronomists Brian Shrader and Carl Joern’s full conversation about late corn and soybean planting recommendations during the Indiana Pioneer Agronomy Podcast.
In USDA’s Monday Crop Progress Report, Indiana State Statistician Nathanial Warenski says favorable planting conditions allowed corn and soybean planting progress to continue ahead of their respective five-year averages. Indiana corn is 83% planted, jumping from 73% last week. Indiana soybeans are 81% complete, jumping 10% from a week ago.
Nationally, 91% of corn is in the ground and 78% of soybeans are planted.
This week marks the first time this year that crop conditions are provided for Indiana corn and soybeans. Indiana corn and soybeans are both rated 71% good to excellent and only 6% poor to very poor. Nationally, 64% of corn is rated good to excellent.
Other items of note from Warenski, winter wheat headed neared completion. Winter wheat condition was stable, but growers remained concerned about wet field conditions precipitating disease. Livestock enjoyed thriving pasture conditions with 77 percent of pastures rated in good to excellent condition. Hay cutting progressed slightly ahead of schedule compared to previous years. Other activities for the week included spraying herbicides, fertilizer applications, mowing roadsides, and harvesting asparagus.
Deere and Co., the world’s top seller of farm machinery, will cut an unknown number of employees from its global production and salaried workforce. That’s according to a letter sent to employees last week that was acquired by Bloomberg.
Farm Policy News from the University of Illinois says a letter signed by Chief Executive Officer John May shows the company is facing rising operational costs and dropping demand. The announced layoffs will add to the more than 650 employees who have been or are scheduled to get laid off at Deere.
Meantime, Cargill workers in Ontario began a strike last week. The beef processing facility in Guelph closed down last week as hundreds of workers took to the picket lines. The cost of living and the ending of a two-dollar-an-hour COVID premium were key issues raised in collective bargaining meetings.
Cargill provided a statement saying it’s disappointed in the outcome.
It’s all about empowering farmers and ag producers to share their stories first-hand. That’s why there’s a brand-new company and digital platform called Make Hay.
“Ultimately, what Make Hay does is we pay farmers for content that they create on their land,” says Scott Nelson, CEO of Make Hay.
“One of the reasons why we created Make Hay was generally around food transparency and this idea that consumers, now more than ever, want to know more about where their food comes from. This is a fact and there’s data all around it,” says Nelson.
He says his company’s goal is to not only help share stories of farmers and ag producers, but also to amplify and empower the voice of America’s agriculture industry.
Scott Nelson, CEO of Make Hay.“Raw, real authentic content is where you’re seeing a lot of the engagement,” he says. “Where we can help brands, companies, and subscribers to our platform—that is what we bring. It’s getting to know the farmers and their stories—the stories that they want to tell, by the way—but it’s really getting to know them very intimately, so that’s what we’re bringing is that larger stage to be heard at Make Hay.”
Nelson adds that farmers and ag producers who share their user generated content with Make Hay will receive monetary compensation for their content.
“That is the primary driver of why we built Make Hay. It is to indeed provide that secondary income stream to farmers. That is our core reason why we exist,” he says. “We want to make sure that we not only showcase our farmers in the ag industry at large, but we also want to be able to help them from a monetary standpoint.”
Nelson credits Purdue University and Purdue’s DIAL Ventures for helping launch Make Hay.
“Purdue University has a really reputable innovation fellowship program run by their DIAL Ventures group and they provided me the opportunity and the surrounding network to develop ultimately what we did in Make Hay.”
For more information about Make Hay, visit GoMakeHay.com.
Click BELOW to hear Scott Nelson, CEO of Make Hay, share more about his new company as part of the “Hoosier Ag This Week” show and podcast.
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Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.USDA says it plans to spend $824 million in emergency funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation to launch a new Voluntary H5N1 Dairy Herd Status Pilot Program.
The agency says the program will give producers more options to monitor the health of their herds and move cows quickly while providing ongoing testing and expanding USDA’s understanding of the disease.
The main benefit for farmers who enroll in the voluntary pilot program is that they can prove their herds are free from H5N1 with results from a National Animal Health Laboratory Network facility. If the herds test negative for three consecutive weeks, farmers will be able to move animals without additional pre-movement testing currently required under the federal order.
Producers from participating states can begin enrolling the week of June 3.
Click HERE to read the full release from USDA.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/06/02010318/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-USDA-TRADE-NUMBERS-053024.mp3"]The total number of U.S. ag exports are sharply lower—and that’s because China has recently pumped the breaks on buying a lot of our ag products.
“Generally speaking, our exports are struggling,” said USDA’s chief economist Seth Meyer following the release of the agency’s U.S. Ag Trade Outlook issued on May 29.
Exports are down $8.2 billion from last year at $170.5 billion this year, leading to an overall ag trade deficit of $32 billion.
As for the decline in our ag exports, Meyer says China played a big role. It’s now buying less corn and soybeans from the U.S. and more from Brazil.
“I think the interesting headline story from this is China falls to our number three trading partner and we’re seeing a lot of competition with Brazil into that Chinese market and that is what is driving our bulk export values,” he said, as U.S. food and ag exports to China will fall by $6 billion this fiscal year.
Mexico and Canada will surpass China as the top U.S. export markets for ag products, according to USDA. Exports to Mexico are forecast to rise by $300 million to $28.7 billion, whereas exports to Canada are forecast up $400 million to $28.4 billion, both record highs.
“So, unchanged for the new forecast for 2024. But we’re still down pretty sharply from the prior year. On the import side, there actually was an upward revision of imports of 1.5 billion dollars. And that’s up from 195.4 billion the prior year,” he said. “So, you’re talking about a $7.1 billion increase in imports year over year and a $8.2 billion decline in exports.”
Meyer explained that it’s not just the amount of exports and imports that have affected these numbers, but also the value.
“It’s the unit value. So, the price of imported goods has been rising. It’s not necessarily a volume issue, but that’s at least part of the story,” he explained. “The values of agricultural imports are rising and then alternatively, export values continue to fall.”
USDA has not lowered the forecast for ag exports, but has increased the projection for ag imports.
Click HERE to read the USDA’s full Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade report for May 2024.
Beth Archer (center), Executive Director of AgriInstitute, receives the AgriVision Award from ISDA Director Don Lamb (left) and Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch (right), during a ceremony held at the 2023 Indiana State Fair. Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.Nominations are now being accepted for the 2024 AgriVision Award, the highest agricultural honor presented by the State of Indiana.
This award, now in its 18th year, was established by the lieutenant governor and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) to recognize Indiana’s agricultural leaders who are ensuring Indiana is, and remains, a global center for food and agricultural innovation and commercialization.
The AgriVision Award is open to any Indiana resident and all sectors of the agriculture industry—from bioenergy to livestock to the agbiosciences. Any person or organization may submit a nomination through July 1, 2024.
Previous AgriVision Award winners have included individuals who have made significant contributions to the agriculture industry, whether it’s developing a new technology, managing an agribusiness or organization, or working to address a global issue.
Award nominations will be accepted beginning June 1 and close on July 1. To nominate an individual, you must complete a form found on the ISDA website and email it to the department.
Once a winner has been selected, the award will be presented by Lt. Gov. Crouch and ISDA Director Lamb during the Celebration of Agriculture at the 2024 Indiana State Fair.
Previous AgriVision Award winners include:
- Beth Archer and Cindy Hoye (2023)
- Gary Truitt and Dr. Karen Plaut (2022)
- Doug Leman and Dr. Robert Waltz (2021)
- Garwood Orchards and MPS Egg Farms (2020)
- Stan Poe family and Terry L. Tucker (2019)
- Jerry Seger family and Tim and Jim Craig (2018)
- Beth Bechdol and Dr. Jay Akridge (2017)
- Dr. Bret Marsh and John Hardin (2016)
- Don Orr and Don Villwock (2015)
- Adam Moody (2014)
- Norman McCowan (2013)
- Kip Tom (2012)
- Vic Lechtenberg (2011)
- JoAnn Brouillette (2010)
- Brian Reichert and John Swisher (2009)
- Charles “Shorty” Whittington (2008)
- Lawrence “Sonny” Beck (2007)
“This award is a way to recognize those individuals who continue to push Indiana agriculture to new heights,” said Indiana’s Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “It is my honor to serve as Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and to work alongside some of the best and brightest leaders in the state.”
“Indiana has many leaders that oversee agricultural production, business and technology across the state,” said Don Lamb, director of the State Department of Agriculture. “I look forward to honoring this year’s award recipients for their leadership and commitment to Indiana agriculture in August.”
Click here or visit ISDA.IN.GOV to learn more about the award.
[audio mp3="https://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/IN-wx-0531-wrap.mp3"]A fantastic finish to this week just might be getting you excited about fieldwork! But Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says Mother Nature has other plans.
Sunshine Friday will be great for drying, “but we need about three to four more days of this to be able to get to do anything and that’s just not happening,” says Martin. “Clouds increase on Saturday. Rains will be here from mid to late morning on through sunset. I think we pick up anywhere from a quarter to three quarters of an inch of moisture over 90% of Indiana. Yes, there’ll be a few holes, but nobody’s really missing this rain event for sure.”
Martin’s Sunday forecast includes on again, off again clouds but not much new precipitation.
“Monday through Thursday of next week we’re very unsettled. We have pop-up activity that can happen pretty much every day. The Monday/Tuesday timeframe will have 40% to 50% coverage and Wednesday/Thursday will be closer to 70%-75% coverage. Combined over the four-day period, we’ve got 100% coverage of rains with half to two inches. So, not helpful there at all.”
Late next week, Martin says cold Canadian air tries to push in over the Great Lakes region.
“While this gives mostly just cloud cover to Indiana (we keep the moisture farther north in Michigan), it does limit how fast we dry without good sunshine. If we have lots of clouds around and if we see cool temperatures, we’re just not going to have evaporation be what it should and could be for early parts of June. So, we’re going to have to watch for that. I don’t think we add a lot of additional moisture in the Friday, Saturday, Sunday timeframe, but we don’t dry things very quickly at all.”
Martin provides his Indiana Farm Forecast each weekday in the HAT podcast.
USDA Under Secretaries Alexis Taylor and Jenny Moffit met with Vietnam Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan in March 2023 to discuss further collaboration and exchange of technical information to demonstrate the benefits of agricultural biotechnologies and innovative technologies. Photo courtesy of USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/30115331/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-USDA-VIETNAM-TRADE-MISSION-052924.mp3"]USDA is gearing up for its next trade mission—this time to Vietnam. The agency is encouraging Indiana’s ag business leaders and producers to join them to find new export opportunities for Indiana’s ag products.
The deadline to apply for USDA’s trade mission to Vietnam is June 4th for the trade mission, which is set for Sept. 9-13.
Alexis Taylor, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, says there are opportunities for more U.S. agricultural goods—especially specialty crops.
“Products like cotton, dairy, dried distillers, grains for animal feed, fresh fruit, poultry, soybeans and tree nuts really were some of the leading categories. But I think there are increasingly some exciting opportunities as we also work on the market access side of the equation for our specialty crop producers. We’re also working on a priority of opening up the Vietnamese market to U.S. stone fruit, so things like peaches and nectarines,” Taylor said.
Taylor explained that during trade missions like the one to Vietnam, she meets with her government counterparts to work on trade policy issues and amplify challenges or new opportunities in that market.
“But the real focus is for those businesses as we set up those business-to-business meetings,” she said. “I think we will see a really great delegation from the United States, from the food and ag sector. And we’re excited and working hard to set up really qualified, reliable partners for them to meet with on the importer side.”
Though delegates will be in Vietnam, there will also be opportunities for meetings with ag leaders from other areas.
“We are also bringing in buyers from across the region. So, we will be in two cities. In Vietnam we are going to both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, but we will bring in buyers from Burma or Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand. So we’re not only tapping into the Vietnamese market, but really expanding our reach regionally as well for those businesses that join us,” said Taylor.
Applications are available through the USDA FAS website.
Although later than what many would like, 2024 north-central Indiana corn and soybean crops are off to a good start. That’s the assessment from Daniel Stauffer, field sales representative at Channel Seeds.
Planting progress got a nice bump throughout the state and in his territory in the last week, even with plenty of rain events.
“But the positive out of all of this is that last week to 10 days a lot of seed got in the ground here in North Central Indiana and a lot of folks made some good progress getting seed in the ground and getting a good start with the temperatures we have.”
Stauffer says farmers are concentrating on helping the crop get off to the best start possible. Weed control heads the list.
“Getting nitrogen on in a timely manner, getting control of these weeds because they were 2 to 3 weeks ahead of our pace from a spray standpoint,” he explained. “A lot of growers were waiting on seed to get in the ground to keep their spray pace going, and so getting control of weeds, and then we have heard a few spots here and there of some insects. Some Asiatic beetles have been found in some wheat fields that cause issues with seed in the ground, seedlings, as well as some army worm has been found in some wheat fields. So just keeping an eye. watching your fields, scouting to see if any sort of pesticide application needs done.”
As wet as it has been, north-central Indiana is setup for disease to move in, so he said a fungicide application would be wise. Stauffer said that decision will be a balancing act given current commodity prices. One approach could be an early application at ½-rate “and then come in with a full rate of fungicide later in the growing season depending on what we’re seeing in the fields.”
Hear more in the full HAT and Channel Seeds update:
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It could revolutionize farming, and not in a good way. I’m talking about the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Herbicide Strategy to comply with the Endangered Species Act. Kyle Kunkler, Director of Government Affairs for the American Soybean Association, joins us on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast from Hoosier Ag Today to explain.
“If this thing were implemented tomorrow, 80% of our farmers would be non compliant and about 50% of them would have a pretty significant implementation burden to bring their farm up to compliance to continue to use the pesticides that they’re they’re currently using on their farm, to say nothing of new pesticides. I mean, we’re looking at potentially billions upon billions of dollars in costs for implementing this thing.”
The good news is it won’t be implemented tomorrow, and the EPA is listening to farm groups like ASA. EPA wants more conservation practices like using cover crops and reduced tillage to be able to continue using pesticides. But it’s going to take a lot more than just doing those practices, things that Kunkler says farmers aren’t currently doing a lot of.
“They could be things like riparian buffers, vegetative filter strips, grass waterways. To put those in on one field- maybe not a big deal. Extrapolate that- what’s that going to cost to put those in across 1,000 acres, 2,000, 5,000 acres? You’re looking at significant, enormous cost for an individual farming operation. And then if everybody and all of their neighbors are trying to do this all at once, and this was a USDA estimate, they did an analysis for herbicide strategy, they said one crop- corn- in three states, Iowa, Illinois in Nebraska, could cost those farmers as much as over $5 billion to implement this thing. And so we’re talking about the risk of potentially putting a lot of farmers out of business.”
Kunkler says if you’re not in the know on this, you need to be. It’s coming whether you like it or not. Learn more on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
During the month of June, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture will accept submissions for the 17th annual Indiana Agriculture Photo Contest. The contest is open to all Indiana residents and was created to recognize the hard work and contributions of Hoosier farmers, as well as the beauty of the state’s agricultural landscape.
“Each and every Hoosier is welcome to submit an entry to the contest,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “No matter the camera equipment you own, we encourage you to submit your best images showcasing Indiana agriculture.”
Participants are encouraged to submit photos reflecting the wide array of agriculture. The categories photos can be entered under are:
- On the Farm: Showcasing any building, piece of equipment or activity that is a part of life on an Indiana farm.
- Faces of Agriculture: Featuring those who grow and produce food, fuel and fiber in Indiana.
- Agritourism: Spotlighting Indiana’s seasonal and agricultural destinations, such as orchards, wineries and farmers markets.
- Conservation: Highlighting Indiana’s natural beauty with landscapes, water and wildlife.
In total, ten winners will be selected: two from each category and two overall. Winners will be invited to attend a special ceremony at the Indiana State Fair, where they will be recognized and receive certificates from Lt. Gov. Crouch and Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Don Lamb. Contest winners will also have their photographs featured in the offices of the Lt. Governor’s Family of Business in Indianapolis throughout the year.
“Indiana agriculture is a beautiful thing and we are blessed to be surrounded by so much of it,” Lamb said. “I look forward to seeing how that beauty is captured in this year’s contest.”
Contestants can submit up to five photos in digital format accommodated by a submission form for each photo. Photos will be evaluated based on creativity, composition and category representation. Entries must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. (ET) on June 30, 2024.
Click here for entry forms, guidelines and criteria or visit ISDA.IN.GOV
The United States and European Union are taking steps to acquire or manufacture H5N1 bird flu vaccines. Reports say the vaccines would protect at-risk poultry and dairy workers, veterinarians, and lab technicians.
Experts say this could curb a pandemic threat. U.S. officials are already moving bulk vaccine that closely matches the current virus into almost five million vaccine doses. These actions come after the rapid spread of a new bird flu that first emerged in late 2020, killing a large number of wild birds and domestic poultry.
In 2024, the virus began infecting several mammal species, including cattle. The virus has infected a large number of cattle in nine states and two dairy employees.
The Food and Drug Administration estimates that 20% of the U.S. milk supply shows signs of the virus, increasing chances of a wider spread. Officials told Reuters the sole focus should be on preventing that.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/28210322/soybean-buyers-wrap.mp3"]The Indiana Soybean Alliance and the US Soybean Export Council hosted foreign soybean buyers last week in Indiana as part of their Soybean Oil Master’s Program. They toured a number of different places around Indiana like Beck’s Hybrids, the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center at Purdue, Corteva Agrisciences, Victory Field, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and they even took in the Indy 500! They also visited farms around the state, including Kevin Kelley’s farm in Brookston.
“It’s always interesting when we have these groups come in,” Kelley tells HAT. “We learn about as much from them as they do from us. It helps put a face on American agriculture and maybe give them some confidence about where their products come from.”
Kelley explains why it’s so important to open his farm for tours like this.
“The world of ag is competitive and opportunities like this help us educate them as to why American soybeans maybe should be the preferred source for them and a trusted source as well.”
There were a number of tour groups from all around the world across Indiana last week. The group on Kelley’s farm was largely from China. Brazil has been their preferred buying destination of late. Kelley says they stuck to the basics in explaining why American soybeans are the best in the world.
“We talked a little bit about our crop rotations, that we’re using cover crops, we’re using minimum tillage. Since we own the majority of the land that we farm, thankfully, that we’re able to make some decisions, long-term decisions, for the health of the soil, which then results in healthier crops, healthier soybeans, soybeans with better traits, better nutrient profile for them. We’ve been here for 100 years, 120 years, and we’re hopefully going to be here for quite a bit longer. So, we’re a reliable source for them, and we’re looking to be a good long-term partner.”
You can learn more about the impact of the Soybean Oil Master’s Program here.
73 percent of Indiana’s corn and 69 percent of the state’s soybeans have been planted according to USDA. That compares to 54 percent for corn and 49 percent for soybeans planted from last week’s report.
Planting progress for both corn is now ahead of its five-year average of 71 percent, as well as soybeans, which are also above that average of 60 percent.
“A drier, hot week gave Indiana farmers an opportunity to make good planting progress and harvest hay. However, some areas were still too wet to plant due to isolated heavy rainfall,” said Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA NASS Indiana Field Office.
50 percent of the corn crop and 45 percent of Indiana’s soybeans have now emerged.
Winter wheat jointing for Indiana is at 97 percent and 83 percent is headed.
Source: USDA
Photo courtesy of Elanco Animal Health.Elanco says it has been given FDA approval for Bovaer®, a feed supplement that reduces methane emissions in dairy cattle.
Elanco says it expects to launch the product during the third quarter of 2024.
According to Elanco, Bovaer® works by suppressing the enzyme in the cow’s rumen that forms methane. Feeding one tablespoon of Bovaer® per lactating dairy cow per day can reduce methane emissions about 30% or about 1.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions annually, while creating opportunity for dairy farmers to be financially rewarded for reducing their dairy’s carbon footprint. Feeding one million cows Bovaer® would reduce emissions equivalent to removing more than 285,000 cars from the road for a year.
Expanding Access Across North America
Elanco and dsm-firmenich have agreed to expand Elanco’s commercialization of Bovaer® across North America. In addition to the U.S., Elanco will also now have the right to market Bovaer® in Canada and Mexico, where the product is already available for use in beef and dairy cattle. This expanded agreement can accelerate the opportunity to make climate-neutral cattle farming in North America a reality this decade.
“We congratulate Elanco and the U.S. dairy sector, on this important milestone, and will support Elanco by providing initial supplies from Europe,” said Dimitri de Vreeze, CEO at dsm-firmenich. “This strategic collaboration exemplifies how we can accelerate the expansion and adoption of Bovaer® in North America to significantly decrease methane emissions on a large scale, and thereby support global efforts to combat climate change. Bovaer® holds the key to a transformative shift in the global dairy sector, and launching this feed ingredient in the U.S. after years of dedicated research, trials, and industry collaboration is a testament to its global potential.”
Simmons said, “We appreciate the work dsm-firmenichhas invested in this revolutionary product and are pleased they’ve recognized Elanco as the global farm animal health leader and the right partner to bring this solution to farmers across North America.”
Why Methane Matters
This announcement comes at a pivotal time. According to the United Nations, the world’s population has until the year 2030 to curb greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) or deal with irreversible impacts to the planet. In response, about two-thirds of all Fortune 500 companies have set significant climate commitment goals.4 Reducing enteric methane emissions from cattle—naturally generated through the enteric fermentation process—represents a key opportunity. Methane lasts about a decade in the atmosphere and is 27x more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat—so smaller reductions create greater impact on temperature. By mitigating methane, the livestock industry can reduce the rate of climate warming and allow food companies and retailers to make meaningful progress toward their Scope 3 emissions goals.
“Reducing enteric methane is critical if we are to reach our climate goals,” said Dr. Frank Mitloehner, CLEAR Center Director and University California Davis Professor and Cooperative Extension Air Quality Specialist. “It’s exciting our farmers will have an important tool to do that, in Bovaer®.”
Creating New Revenue Streams for Farmers
Feeding Bovaer® to cows provides a scalable and credible way for dairy farmers to benefit from being good stewards of the environment by being financially rewarded for implementing on-farm sustainability interventions.
“At an added cost of a few cents a gallon of milk, Bovaer® can help food companies meet their climate commitments and consumer desire for more sustainable dairy products,” said Katie Cook, Vice President, Livestock Sustainability and Farm Animal Marketing at Elanco. “Meanwhile, by engaging in voluntary carbon markets and securing USDA and state conservation programming, dairy producers have a scalable sustainability practice with the potential to create an annual return of $20 or more per lactating cow by feeding Bovaer6. Our goal is to make this opportunity a reality starting this summer, while creating a self-sustaining carbon inset market for American agriculture.”
Dairy farmers incorporate Bovaer® into their rations and quantify the effect using carbon market-friendly tools like UpLook by Elanco, an insights-based engine designed to quantify greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The tool utilizes on-farm data and peer-reviewed science to identify key drivers of an operation’s carbon footprint and track the progress of sustainability efforts. UpLook connects seamlessly to Athian, the first-of-its-kind livestock carbon inset marketplace. This seamless process allows farmers to quantify their emissions reduction efforts and certify carbon credits for sale.
In addition to the carbon marketplace, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $89 million in funding to support farms using technologies like Bovaer® to reduce their methane emissions.
“This monumental announcement has the ability to accelerate the opportunity for climate-neutral dairy farming while creating a new revenue stream for dairy farmers across the country,” said Jeff Simmons, President and CEO, Elanco Animal Health. “We appreciate FDA’s commitment to maintaining high standards for science-based review, while balancing the need to quickly bring solutions to the market. Bovaer® represents another example of Elanco being a partner of choice in animal health, where the capabilities of our talented R&D, regulatory and commercial teams are delivering significant value.
Simmons continued: “As global temperatures breach new thresholds, consumers demand more sustainable products and the farm economy battles profitability challenges, we are excited to bring Bovaer® to the market as a potential solution. Bovaer® will create value for farmers, while helping food companies meet consumer demands and deliver on their sustainability commitments. As animal, human and now environmental health continue to converge, Bovaer® is one of the most significant innovations that considers this intersection and provides consumers, farmers and society what they want for our future.”
“Products like Elanco’s Bovaer® will allow U.S. farmers to be rewarded for participating in voluntary, producer-led sustainability efforts,” said Gregg Doud, President and CEO, National Milk Producers Federation. “Consumers around the world are demanding lower-carbon foods. Bovaer® is an innovation that can help U.S. dairy farmers remain globally competitive and maintain their role as leaders in more sustainable dairy production.”
At left: Black cutworm larvae. At right: Western corn rootworm beetles. Photos courtesy of Purdue Extension.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/28140716/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SCOUTING-BLACK-CUTWORMS-WESTERN-CORN-ROOTWORMS-052824.mp3"]As we get closer to finishing planting across the state, now’s the time for Indiana’s farmers to start scouting fields for insect pests.
“It’s a good time to check and see if you don’t have some cutworm damage,” says Nick Seiter, Field Crops Entomologist with University of Illinois Extension.
He says that larvae from black cutworms are now large enough to do more than just the simple pinhole damage you might find in the corn plant’s early leaves.
Black cutworm moths are attracted to fields heavily infested with weeds like chickweed, shepherd’s purse, peppergrass, and yellow rocket. Late tillage and planting tend to increase the susceptibility of fields to black cutworm infestations. Cutting of corn plants begins when larvae reach the fourth instar, with a single cutworm cutting an average of three to four plants during its larval development.
Seiter says cutting tends to occur most often during nights or on dark overcast days.
“If you are seeing stand loss from black cutworm, it doesn’t take a whole lot of that to justify an insecticide application. We are talking somewhere between two and five percent of plants cut to justify an insecticide (application because it) exceeds the economic threshold,” says Seiter.
The other insect pest he says to be aware of is the western corn rootworm. As their eggs are now beginning to hatch, the insects could feed upon the roots until the end of June.
“Now, if it’s one of these like planted fields where you don’t have corner roots out there yet, those larvae are going to hatch and they’re going to die. So, when we see planting delayed, you typically see less of a threat from corn rootworm feeding in those fields. But that’ll be kind of the next thing to keep an eye out for as this root feeding develops. In about a month from now, we’ll be able to know what we’ve got. We’ll be able to go out and evaluate how well our controls have performed,” he says.
The western corn rootworm has been adapting to the corn hybrids used to control it. So, it’s important to understand what’s happening in a field this season to adjust what control measures will be most successful in future years.
The western corn rootworm has historically been the most economically damaging insect pest of field corn across the U.S.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/27201855/old-newgarden-wrap.mp3"]Josef Newgarden stands next to the Fastest Rookie Award that he earned back in 2012. Photo credit: Andy Eubank/ Hoosier Ag Today“It’s such a great tradition here and to be honored, to be that guy, in front of this amount of people around this racetrack would be incredible. I don’t think you can really describe it.”
Well, he certainly can now. That was back-to-back Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden 12 years ago speaking with our Andy Eubank after receiving his Fastest Rookie Award at the track from the American Dairy Association Indiana.
Newgarden accepted his bottle of whole milk from Indiana dairy farmer Alex Neuenschwander, co-owner of Neu-Hope Dairy in Bluffton, after passing Pato O’Ward on the final lap of the rain delayed Indy 500 Sunday night.
Eight years later, he joined us again at the Fastest Rookie Award presentation and was still in search of that first Indy 500 win, but his love of milk kept him close with the dairy folks. He and I shared this conversation.
“If you’re running the Indianapolis 500, you think about winning the milk at the end of the day. Obviously, the Borg Warner trophy, which is the famous trophy of the Indianapolis 500 with everybody’s faces on it, that’s a very cool deal, but the traditions are what make the Indy 500 what it is, and you automatically think of the winner drinking that jug of milk, which is so cool. Just to be able to have a sip of that, pour it all over you, the iconic images that have been created at the Indianapolis 500 because of that tradition.”
Newgarden has great respect for Indiana and U.S. dairy farmers. Ahead of last year’s win, he visited the dairy farm of Kerry Estes in Shelby County. You can see video of that below. Newgarden was then very happy to see Estes with that bottle of milk in Victory Circle at the end of the race.
“Dairy Farmers absolutely work their butts off to produce the necessary milk that we all need in society to keep our lives moving forward and to provide the nutritious milk that people drink every day or use every day in food. But obviously for us, we’re very thankful to that group for honoring this tradition of the 500 and providing that tasty milk at the end of the race if you’re hopefully the lucky winner. So, thanks to all of the dairy farmers in the United States and certainly the American Dairy Association Indiana!”
Newgarden will receive $10,000 from the American Dairy Association Indiana in addition to his other winnings from the race.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/27201007/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-DIGITAL-COMMODITIES-ACT-052724.mp3"]The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4763, the “Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act”, known as FIT21. It establishes federal requirements over digital asset markets and provides the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with new jurisdiction over digital commodities. It also clarifies the Securities and Exchange Commission’s jurisdiction over digital assets that are offered as part of an investment contract.
The bill creates a process to permit the secondary market trading of digital commodities if they are part of an investment contract. FIT21 requires customer disclosure, asset safeguarding, and operational requirements on all entities that must register with either of the commissions.
House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA) says the bill underscores the Agriculture Committee’s efforts to establish a regulatory framework. Thompson was one of the representatives to introduce the bill last year. He spoke in favor of it before the vote.
“The current process to determine if a digital asset is a security or not is unclear, unworkable, and impractical. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission lacks essential regulatory authority over retailing intermediaries in the digital commodity spot market. The treatment of customer assets held by intermediaries needs to be strengthened,” he said.
There was opposition, primarily from Democrats.
“I have serious concerns about the loss of protections for consumers and investors. The CFTC is generally designed to deal with sophisticated institutional investors and traders,” said Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA). “It doesn’t have the same kind of protections that the SEC has for retail investors and consumers.”
The bill passed last week 279 to 136, with all but three republicans voting in favor. Democrats were split, with 71 voting in favor and 133 voting against. FIT21 now moves to the Senate.
Lawmakers recently advanced the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act out of a subcommittee. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce’s marked up and passed the legislation for full committee consideration.
The action follows a subcommittee hearing on April 30, and mirrors the draft legislative language that was the focus of hearing. Representatives from the National Association of Broadcasting and the National Association of Farm Broadcasting attended that hearing.
During Thursday’s markup, Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, noted that automakers are ready to commit to voluntarily keeping AM radio in vehicles but added, “I also think AM radio should be in all — in cars as well as trucks, boats, agriculture, and recreational vehicles. I think we need to study those issues.”
Legislation to require AM radio as a safety feature in all vehicles currently has 61 cosponsors in the Senate and 254 cosponsors in the House of Representatives.
Josef Newgarden (at right) of Team Penske, winner of the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500, celebrates with with an ice-cold bottle of whole milk presented by American Dairy Association Indiana. Indiana Dairy producer Alex Neuenschwander, who served as this year’s Veteran Milk Presenter, celebrates with Newgarden and his team at left.Celebrating with milk at the end of the Indy 500 is the goal of every driver. Now, Josef Newgarden can say he’s not only done it twice—but back-to-back!
After winning the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500, Newgarden joined Team Penske in Victory Circle and was handed a bottle of whole milk by 2024 Veteran Milk Presenter Alex Neuenschwander, co-owner of Neu-Hope Dairy in Bluffton. The milk celebration in Victory Circle is presented by American Dairy Association Indiana.
A drink for the history books! #WinnersDrinkMilk | #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/a6iJIVtH9D
— Indianapolis Motor Speedway (@IMS) May 27, 2024
Newgarden started third on the outside of Row 1 and led a total of 26 laps throughout the race.
Newgarden drove his No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet to the victory by 0.3417 of a second over the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward, as they swapped the lead four times over the last eight laps.
“I knew we could win this race again,” Newgarden said. “There’s just no better way to win this race than that. I’ve got to give it up to Pato, as well. He’s an incredibly clean driver. It takes two people to make that work.”
The repeat victory delivered a $440,000 bonus to Newgarden from BorgWarner, the sponsor of the winner’s Borg-Warner Trophy.
Newgarden is now only the sixth person to win the Indianapolis 500 in back-to-back years:
- 1939-40: Wilbur Shaw.
- 1947-48: Mauri Rose.
- 1953-54: Bill Vukovich.
- 1970-71: Al Unser.
- 2001-02: Helio Castroneves.
- 2023-24: Josef Newgarden
In addition, Newgarden is now the 11th driver to win the Indianapolis 500 twice and one of only 21 drivers to have won “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” more than once.
The race was delayed by four hours due to a midday rainstorm over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
For his first victory last year, Newgarden was handed the victory bottle of milk by Indiana Dairy producer Kerry Estes. The two had met previously as Newgarden was invited to Estes’ farm near Fountaintown in Shelby County to shoot a promotional video on behalf of American Dairy Association Indiana.
Josef Newgarden with Team Penske celebrates his victory in 2023 of the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 with an ice-cold bottle of whole milk courtesy of American Dairy Association Indiana. Indiana Dairy producer Kerry Estes, who served as last year’s Veteran Milk Presenter, celebrates with Newgarden and his team at far left. Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Click BELOW to watch Josef Newgarden, winner of the 107th and 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500, as a guest on Kerry Estes’ dairy farm on behalf of American Dairy Association Indiana in 2022.
Sources: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, American Dairy Association Indiana.
Members of Verbio management and public officials held a groundbreaking ceremony at their facility in South Bend to kick off the $230 million expansion project at the bioprocessing plant. Photo courtesy of Hagerman Construction.Verbio has started construction to convert its South Bend ethanol plant into the second integrated biorefinery plant in North America producing both renewable natural gas (RNG) and bioethanol.
The expansion is estimated at $230 million with commercial production of RNG expected to begin in 2026.
Members of Verbio management and public officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for this milestone gathered on May 23 in South Bend.
The company, a subsidiary of biofuels and bioenergy producer Verbio SE, had received approval for its expansion proposal from the City of South Bend in April.
Following the application of the Verbio technology and commissioning, Verbio targets a production capacity of at least 85 million gallons of corn ethanol and 2.8 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of RNG annually.
In this first phase of upgrading the South Bend plant over the next six months, Verbio will build the foundations for eight new anaerobic digester (AD) tanks.
Major construction planned for the second phase includes the erection of an additional eight digesters, related piping and wiring, the construction of several new buildings and the addition of miscellaneous process equipment.
The RNG produced at Verbio South Bend will be fed to the regional natural gas grid and support the needs of industrial and commercial uses.
Verbio acquired the plant in May 2023 from Mercuria Investments.
The Verbio North America ethanol production facility in South Bend. Photo courtesy of Verbio North America.
Addie Gauck, a 2024 graduate of North Decatur High School, is the recipient of the 2024-25 ASA / BASF Soy Scholarship Award . Photo courtesy of the American Soybean Association.Addie Gauck of Greensburg, Indiana, is the recipient of the 2024-25 Soy Scholarship Award, sponsored by the American Soybean Association (ASA) and BASF.
The ASA/BASF Soy Scholarship is a $7,000 award presented to an exceptional high school senior who excels in both academic and leadership roles and who plans to pursue a degree in an agriculture-related field at an accredited college or university. The scholarship is open to children and grandchildren of ASA members.
Gauck is a 2024 graduate of North Decatur High School and plans to study agriculture systems management at Purdue University. Her impressive agricultural involvement includes numerous awards and leadership roles in 4-H and FFA.
Gauck also owns Addie’s Fresh Pork and Pasture Raised Chicken, a business she started at age 11 that she credits for boosting her confidence and broadening her awareness of working with others.
Gauck says an important lesson her father taught her is to maintain her business and agriculture connections—and she reports clearly seeing the value in these relationships as she plans her future career. She notes that owning her own business has changed her life by showing her the importance of being responsible and accountable. Gauck says her goal is to someday bring together all the skills she’s learned to improve the agriculture industry and her community.
“ASA is proud to partner with BASF to offer this opportunity to a promising student pursuing agriculture as a career path,” said ASA President Josh Gackle. “Investing in future industry leaders like Addie helps pave the future of agriculture with success and growth.”
“Farming is the ‘Biggest Job on Earth’ and BASF is committed to supporting the next generation of farmers dedicated to solving the challenges facing the future of aquiculture,” said Scott Kay, vice president of U.S. Agricultural Solutions at BASF. “BASF is proud to support this scholarship and invest in the future leaders of our industry.”
Source: American Soybean Association
Photo courtesy of Purdue Extension.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/24170231/HATThisWeek2-052524.mp3"]After a largely dry week this past week, we will be dealing with a bit of precipitation over the Holiday weekend. Scattered showers Friday night through Saturday midday will put down anywhere from a few hundredths to half an inch but will only have coverage of 60% of the state or less. We should get sunshine for the later afternoon Saturday, and clear out overnight Saturday night.
Sunday starts with sun, but then a significant storm complex moves toward the state. We will have showers and thunderstorms Sunday afternoon through Memorial Day early morning. Rain totals can be 0.25”-1.5” with coverage at 100% of the Region. The map below shows this event, as it will be the most significant one of the entire 10-day period.
Memorial Day does turn out to be pretty decent, though. Rains end early morning, then clouds give way to sun. We expect evaporation rates to improve quickly. Tuesday there is a round of scattered showers that moves through Michigan, and that may throw clouds into northern Indiana. In addition, we can’t rule out a renegade shower or two in far northern tier counties that border Michigan, although we don’t think this really is a big possibility.
The rest of the state is dry. In fact, we are dry from Monday afternoon through next Sunday over the entire state. Fantastic drying is expected, warm temperatures and this should give us the window of opportunity to get the remaining fieldwork done in most instances. How fast we get back at it will all depend on what we see for rain totals from this Sunday afternoon-early Memorial Day event.
A frontal boundary is ready to move through right at the end of the 10-day forecast window overnight next Sunday the 2nd into Monday the third, but likely will have only half an inch or less on 70% coverage.
Extended Period:
After that front moves through to start the week, we should be dry for Tuesday and Wednesday. A system is slated for June 6th (Thursday) that can bring rain and thunderstorms to the entire region on the order of .1”-1”. Showers can linger in the wrap around of a large upper level low for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, adding another .75” over the 3 extra days combined.
Weeks 3 & 4:
We expect normal to below normal precipitation in weeks three and four. Temps look to be normal to slightly below for week 3, but warm dramatically in week 4, moving to a good 2-3 degrees above average for the 3rd week of June.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/24120534/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-HOUSE-AG-COMMITTEE-ADVANCES-FARM-BILL-052424.mp3"]The House Agriculture Committee has advanced its version of the Farm Bill, also known as The Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024 (HB 8467), but not without some major disagreements between Republicans and Democrats.
The bill passed out of the committee 33-21 with four votes from Democrat lawmakers: Representatives Eric Sorensen (D-IL), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Don Davis (D-NC), and Yadira Caraveo (D-CO).
Markup Debate
The markup session highlighted some of the political differences over a general framework that Committee Chair Glenn GT Thompson has offered.
Representative Jahana Hayes (D-CT) said the House bill does not include her party’s priorities.
“I think any one of us would have loved to have the opportunity to at least get one or two of our priorities in and that’s what we are asking for and that is what we are working for,” she said. “I too had a field hearing in my district and many of the things that my constituents talked about are not included in here.”
Representative Kat Cammack of Florida didn’t mince words with her response to Hayes and other Democrats, who argued that the bill is partisan.
“Now, as we all know, facts don’t care about feelings. So here are some facts. This bill in the base text includes over forty Democrat led initiatives. Forty! And of those forty initiatives, they were specific asks from Democrat members on this committee, the very same members who are claiming that this bill is a wholly partisan undertaking,” she said. “To say that this is not a bipartisan bill when you know full well that this bill includes your requested priorities, well, back home, we call that chicken [expletive]!”
Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts criticized the draft legislation, including its funding mechanisms that could take money away from nutrition programs.
“We have Republican staffers, apparently telling reporters that my colleagues and I are hunger weirdos! I mean, what the hell is wrong with you guys? I mean, really, hunger weirdos? Are you kidding me? We’re weird for thinking it’s wrong for people in this country to go without food,” McGovern said. “Guess what? I think it’s weird that a single American goes hungry! I think it’s weird in the richest country in the history of the world that we have people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from! And I think it’s weird that we have hungry veterans and hungry seniors and hungry kids. And yeah, I think making it harder for people to eat is weird!”
Thompson defended his funding proposals regarding nutrition spending.
“I will say that the savings that CBO has identified that we’ve reinvested back into the farm bill quite frankly do not cut during the course of this five years of this farm bill any individual or family snap benefits. There’s rhetoric on the outside that is amplifying that for their own purposes, but it’s just not true,” he said.
Ag Groups Respond
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) supports the House Farm Bill, which includes a federal fix to California’s Prop. 12 issues that affect pork producers.
“The 2024 Farm Bill is a golden opportunity to address a top issue for pork producers across the country – California Prop. 12 – and I’m pleased to see the U.S. House Agriculture Committee seize the opportunity to stop a potential 50-state patchwork of differing on-farm regulations,” said NPPC President Lori Stevermer, a pork producer from Easton, Minn.
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Rob Larew issued the following statement after the passage of the bill out of the House Agriculture Committee.
“A successful farm bill needs broad bipartisan support. We applaud today’s progress, but we know that significant improvements will be needed to advance this bill. H.R. 8467 includes a number of Farmers Union priorities, but those positive steps can’t come at the cost of the broad support that’s needed to pass a bill on the House floor. “
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) thanked the House Agriculture Committee for approving the next Farm Bill, and said it includes top priorities for cattle farmers and ranchers including cattle health, voluntary conservation, and food security provisions.
NCBA President and Wyoming rancher Mark Eisele said in the statement, “This Farm Bill protects the cattle industry from foreign animal disease, supports producers’ voluntary conservation efforts, and safeguards our food supply, recognizing that our food security is national security.”
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement, “We applaud the bipartisan vote after 13 hours of rigorous debate but know that tight margins in both chambers and a crowded congressional calendar will present challenges in the next legislative steps. We urge House leaders to continue the momentum and bring this important legislation to a vote on the floor.”
What’s next?
The House version of the Farm Bill will now head to the full chamber for consideration. The Senate also released its version of the Farm Bill but has not set a markup date.
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, released the following statement following the vote by the House Ag Committee to advance their version of the 2024 Farm Bill:
“Despite areas of common ground, it is now clear that key parts of the House bill split the Farm Bill coalition in a way that makes it impossible to achieve the votes to become law. And it is also clear that we do not have time to waste on proposals that cannot meet that goal.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/24173417/CJ-WRAP-HAT-GRILLING-GOOFS-052424.mp3"]You may be grilling out during Memorial Day weekend—or many weekends throughout this summer. But, be careful though because the CDC says millions of us will get sick from outdoor grilling goofs.
“I would say the biggest would be not fully cooking the foods on the grill,” says Meredith Carothers, a food safety expert with USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline.
She reminds you to use a food thermometer and follow the temperature guidelines for your beef, pork, or poultry.
Another grilling goof, according to Carothers, is, “Using the same utensil that you used to put all the raw stuff on the grill to take the cooked stuff off.” She adds that you shouldn’t use the same platter that you carried out raw food on to bring the cooked food back in.?”
The third big grilling goof according to Carothers: not washing your hands!
“Certain bacteria can live on surfaces for like 72 hours. So, think about it. You’re making dinner, you’ve touched chicken, touched your spice containers without washing your hands, and then in the morning you’re cooking eggs and you want to use the same spice in your eggs, and then that gets all touched to other places… So, yeah, it’s just crazy what your hands can move around.”
This seems like a simple one, but USDA conducted a study in their test kitchens and found, “97 percent of the time people didn’t either wash their hands at all or didn’t do all 5 steps of hand washing for a full 20 seconds.”
If you have questions, wash your hands, pick up the phone and dial the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE (888-674-6854). You can also go online to Ask.USDA.gov.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/23204150"]There have been opportunities to get in the field this past week, but Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says those opportunities will narrow as we move into the holiday weekend. Rain to kickoff the weekend doesn’t look all that impressive with some potential hit-and-miss scattered showers Friday night and Saturday morning in northern and southern parts of Indiana.
“The big feature for the holiday weekend is going to be rain and thunderstorms. A big cluster wants to move through from Sunday afternoon right on through early Monday morning. There we can see anywhere from a quarter to one and a half inches of rain with coverage at about 90% of Indiana. There will be a few holes, but I think everybody gets a good shot of moisture out of that round of precipitation. We do dry down Monday afternoon, so it’s not a long haul feature. But there’s plenty of moisture that can come.”
That rain could potentially wreak havoc on our beloved Indy 500. We’ll have to wait and see.
Looking ahead, Martin says, “Tuesday forward next week we are mostly dry. I think we see some lingering clouds Tuesday with northwest flow but Wednesday, Thursday, Friday we are sunny, warm, and dry. I don’t see us having another round of precipitation until we get closer to the weekend of the 1st and 2nd. There we probably do see some hit-and-miss scattered showers. So, once again, I do believe there are windows of opportunity here across the Hoosier State.”
Get more forecast details later Friday at hoosieragtoday.com.
USDA Thursday expanded support for dairy producers taking mitigation measures to protect cattle from H5N1. USDA will now provide financial support, up to $1,500 per premises, to any producer to develop and implement a biosecurity plan based on existing secure milk supply plans.
In addition, USDA will provide a $100 payment to producers who purchase and use an in-line sampler for their milk system.
USDA is supporting producers by covering fees for veterinarians to collect samples for H5N1 testing. Veterinary sample collection costs are eligible to be covered from April 29, 2024, up to $2,000 per premises. USDA will pay for the cost of shipping samples to National Animal Health Laboratory Network labs for testing, not to exceed $50 per shipment for up to two shipments per month for each premise.
Further, USDA will soon issue a rule making funding available from the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees, and Farm-raised Fish Program to compensate eligible producers with positive herds who experience loss of milk production.
The 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden celebrates in Victory Circle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an ice-cold bottle of milk from American Dairy Association Indiana. The 2023 Indy 500 “Veteran Milk Presenter” Kerry Estes, who handed Newgarden the bottle of milk, is at far left. Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.One of the biggest traditions every year with the Indianapolis 500 is the glass bottle of milk given to the winner of the Indianapolis 500 presented by American Dairy Association Indiana as part of the celebration immediately following the race.
According to Donald Davidson, Historian Emeritus with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that tradition first started nearly 90 years ago.
“Louis Meyer, who ended up winning the race three times, regularly drank buttermilk. That’s what he drank on a hot day. He used to say that the tradition started in 1933. Well, he may have drunk milk in ’33, but we have no photographic record of that,” says Davidson.
“We do know Louis Meyer wins again in 1936 and then he’s given this bottle of buttermilk and it was photographed. Apparently, some executive in the in the milk industry saw that and thought, ‘you know, what great publicity!’”
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer, who started the tradition with drinking buttermilk after winning the race. Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Davidson says the tradition really didn’t pick up until more than 20 years later.
“In 1956, it was a cash prize if the winner drank milk [after finishing], he got $300 and the chief mechanic got $50. As luck would have it in 1956, [Indianapolis 500 winner] Pat Flaherty drank milk regularly anyway because he had some kind of a bone condition. Milk been offered every year since and now it’s a lot more than $300,” according to Davidson.
Now, that prize from American Dairy Association of Indiana is $10,000 for the Indianapolis 500 and $500 for the winning crew chief.
Every year, before the race, each of the drivers are asked about their preference of whole milk, two-percent or fat-free milk to sip on should they win. One of three bottles is chilled and ready to pull out and hand to the winning driver in the Winner’s Circle.
The milk preferences for each of the 33 drivers in the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Graphic provided by American Dairy Association Indiana.Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s conversation with Donald Davidson, Historian Emeritus with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, about how the traditional bottle of milk celebration started at the Indianapolis 500.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2022/05/16204548/CJ-WRAP-INDY-500-MILK-TRADITION-2022.mp3"]Alexander Rossi is handed the celebratory milk after winning the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Photo courtesy of the American Dairy Association Indiana.Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves drinks his celebratory milk after winning the 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500. However, Castroneves added strawberry flavoring to his milk bottle before taking a celebratory sip. Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Donald Davidson, Historian Emeritus with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, poses with Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/21210453/railroad-staffing-wrap.mp3"]You remember the old song, “I’ve been workin’ on the railroad, all the live-long day…” Well, far fewer people are singing that song these days and one United States senator is pretty concerned about that for U.S. farmers.
“We know that rail service is how some of our producers get their products to market, and any cessation, especially when you’re talking about perishable products, is a critical issue,” says Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin.
She’s on a quest for answers about severe staffing shortages causing challenges with the nation’s railroads. She’s calling on the six Class One railroads to address those shortages.
“We were on the verge of a strike just a couple of years ago here in the U.S. that was averted with last-minute negotiations. I have several layers of concerns with staffing issues. The freight rails tend to want to have fewer staff, which raises safety issues. I think you can’t have a mile-long train without having adequate personnel as a matter of safety.”
Baldwin points to data saying railroads reduced their staff by 30 percent between 2011 and 2021. That’s compared to only a three percent decrease in carloads and a one percent drop in tons of freight during the same period.
Baldwin says the issue extends beyond the US borders.
“When we hear about the prospect of strikes in Canada, the disruptions that could then impact the United States are very significant, and some of the freight rail, as you know, are Canadian owned.”
The Surface Transportation Board said in an April 2022 hearing that staffing shortages were a major reason for exceptionally poor service levels.
Source: NAFB News Service
Bryan Fischer, the third generation of the Fischer family in Shelby County, Indiana to lead Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms. The company was started by his grandparents in 1938. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Back in 1938, Charles and Dorothy Fischer of Shelby County decided to start selling hybrid seed corn to make some extra money for their farm. 86 years later, their family’s company is still growing and going strong.
“My grandmother was probably the progressive business woman of her time, but that was a different time then, so my grandpa was the face of the operation,” says Bryan Fischer of Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms based near Shelbyville. He says his grandparents found success pretty quickly selling their brand of seed corn during the Great Depression.
“My grandfather was in a competition that they would have in those days called the World Corn King. It would be someone that could get the best ten-ear sample—and he won the competition six times—in 1940, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1956, and 1963. After the sixth time they made him a judge. After that, he couldn’t drive customers off with a stick!”
Indiana farmer Charles Fischer of Shelby County won the World Corn King Competition six times: in 1940, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1956, and 1963. After the sixth time winning the competition, he was named a judge. Photo courtesy of Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms.Years later when Bryan’s father, Mark, and his brothers were managing the farm and the company, they decided expand into food-grade grain production and processing in the 1980s.
“Somebody wanted to know if we could supply some corn for a corn chip company, but in the 1980’s, corn chips weren’t quite as popular as they are today, so it seemed like a strange thing to do,” he says. “We started doing one load a week, which was probably about all we could have done anyway, and it helped our business with some cash flow throughout the year since selling seed was more of a seasonal thing. That’s where Fishers Food Grade got its birth.”
Today, Bryan says his family’s company is helping to feed the world.
“We clean white and yellow food grade corn and sell it to people that make corn chips, cereal, tortillas, a little bit of bourbon—but most of it is snack food and cereal stuff. Most of it is domestic business, but we do export some food grade corn to Japan, South Korea, and Egypt. We also do food grade soybeans—most of those are actually exports. We raise non-GMO food grade soybeans that are mostly for either tofu or soy sauce in Asia.
In fact, Bryan says you don’t have to look too hard in your local grocery store to find products that originate from Fischers in Shelby County.
“Probably the easiest one to find would be General Mills cereal,” he says. “If you get some of the General Mills cereals made with corn, that would come from here.”
No doubt Charles and Dorothy would be extremely proud of their family’s business today. Charles passed away in 1982, while Dorothy passed in 2003—but their legacy lives on.
Charles Fischer, who founded his family’s seed company with his wife Dorothy in 1938. Photo courtesy of Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms.Even though Bryan is the third generation from the Fischer family to have a hand in the business, he says it may be several years before the fourth generation becomes involved.
“Most of them are too young to know yet. My youngest son expresses interest that this is what he wants to do. He says he’s going to Purdue to study Ag and he’s coming back here to work. I think my brother, Brad, has a few kids like that too. I don’t know what my sister Brittany’s daughters are going to do, so I think there will be someone come back, but all of the kids are still trying to get through grade school, middle school, and high school for the most part,” says Bryan.
Click HERE to learn more about Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms.
Click below to hear Bryan Fischer share the story of Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms in Shelby County, Indiana.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/21171102/CJ-WRAP-HAT-FISCHERS-FOOD-GRADE-SEEDS-FARMS-052024.mp3"]Charles and Dorothy Fischer loading seed bags circa 1965. Photo courtesy of Fischers Food Grade, Seeds, and Farms.
Planting progress has varied region by region across Indiana. It could be argued that Northeast Indiana has been hit the hardest by rain events this spring, halting planters and leaving farmers waiting ever so patiently. Pioneer agronomist Lance Shepherd says he’s received about 9 inches of rain since the beginning of April!
“Thanks to the sand ground to the north in Steuben County that’s really pulling their weight, they’re probably around 70% to 80% complete, whereas there’s a band basically running north of Wabash toward DeKalb County, and as you move east it gets a lot wider, that are probably 1% to 2% complete. So, a big variation throughout my geography. But I would say that the majority of the area is less than 30% complete.”
So, it begs the question- do we start thinking about changing to earlier maturities? Shepherd says that, for now, let’s stick to the original plan.
“Even some of the fuller season stuff that we can plant in Northeast Indiana, such as 113 to 111 days, we should still reach black layer prior to our first frost, which on average is October 20th. So, I would continue to go forward with plan A up here until the latter part of May, meaning Memorial Day weekend. And I would even say that we can push it until the calendar switches to June. Once the calendar switches to June we will have to consider switching over to earlier maturities.”
If the time comes to consider plan B, get in touch with your Pioneer representative by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep. Hear the rest of my conversation with Shepherd below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/20214135/lance-shephard-052024.mp3"]
The American Farm Bureau sees much it likes in the House farm bill proposal but less in the Senate’s as the partisan battle lines deepen in the lead-up to Thursday’s House Ag panel markup.
The farm bill fight has reached a boiling point even before the House markup, with Ag Democrats mounting a full-court press against Chair GT Thompson’s GOP proposal, unleashing an exhaustive roster of hunger, conservation, and labor groups who are opposed to it.
But the American Farm Bureau, National Cattlemen, and even the National Farmers Union see much they like.
“Where Chairman Thompson is coming down is he’s doing an across-the-board reference price increase that is 10 to 20 percent over what is currently the statutory reference price,” says Joe Gilson, director of government affairs with Farm Bureau. “And Farm Bureau believes that the 10 to 20 percent increase is meeting the moment.”
Senate Ag Chair Stabenow’s plan at five percent more heavily favors southern crops. Stabenow would lower the AGI income cap to $700,000 for farmers to receive farm payments.
“They might have a gross income that’s over $700,000, but net income where they don’t make any money that year because of the increased expenses that they faced on the farm,” Gilson says. “And so, just the reality of farming in today’s inflationary environment, that’s not going to work for a lot of farms and ranches.”
And, on CRP, Gilson says Farm Bureau is concerned because Stabenow’s proposal increases the number of acres and increases the payment rate.
That CRP will compete with beginning farmers and ranchers. House Chair Thompson hopes if he can get some bipartisan support in committee and advance a bill in the House, it will put pressure on Senate Democrats to move. But it’s a tall order in an election year and the need for another extension by September 30th.
54 percent of Indiana’s corn and 49 percent of the state’s soybeans have been planted according to USDA. That compares to 36 percent for corn and 34 percent for soybeans planted from last week’s report.
Planting progress for corn is still below its five-year average of 57 percent, but soybeans are above that average, which is 46 percent.
Thirty percent of the corn crop and 27 percent of Indiana’s soybeans have now emerged.
Winter wheat jointing for Indiana is at 94 percent and 65 percent is headed.
Source: USDA
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/20171137/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-CALIFORNIA-ANIMAL-RIGHTS-AGITATORS-052024.mp3"]Shutting down our hog, cattle, and poultry farms is the overall goal of animal rights activists. That’s why ag leaders in California are warning farmers across the rest of the U.S how activists are using their state to impose laws to destroy the country’s livestock industry.
“For them, this is a steppingstone—that they are seeking out to throw something against the wall and see what sticks. Because if they can make it happen here, it’s going to take off,” says Dayna Ghirardelli, Sonoma County, California, Farm Bureau Executive Director.
She’s talking about animal activists who have selected Sonoma County as their target for the state’s next anti-animal ag law. The group says it’s targeting big factory farms, but Ghirardelli says that’s simply not the case.
“The majority are family farms. There may be one group of farms that might fall under our corporate structure, but for the most part they are locally owned or locally operated,” Ghirardelli said. “Absolutely our food shed here in Sonoma County is very much family farming.”
Farm Bureau and other ag organizations are pulling together to educate voters about their local family farms and what the measure would do to them, but Ghirardelli says it’s a costly campaign and they could use some help.
“Support us in whatever way you can,” she said. “Not just by endorsing, but if there’s any financial contributions that can be offered because we know that this is going to be in at least $1.65 million effort to combat as a fully waged campaign.”
You can get more information on the Sonoma County Family Farmers Alliance website.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/19204858/grain-bin-mgmt-wrap.mp3"]With temperatures on the rise, grain bin management becomes even more important.
Grain bins can heat up very quickly when sunlight hits at this time of year with the temperature increase, so you need to monitor your grain,” says GSI District Manager Dave Ellis. “If it’s in good condition, you’ll have less dockage at the elevator and more profit in your operation.”
Now that temperatures are up over 50 degrees, Ellis says you always want to manage the aeration with fans to keep the grain as cool as possible for the rest of the summer until you have to deliver it. He offers this advice as well.
“During springtime, when temperatures begin to rise, you want to keep that grain within 10 degrees of ambient to prevent any condensation that can lead to grain spoilage. Checking grain weekly, that’s one thing you need to do, and by doing that you avoid any issues. If you do go up the bin, you want to make sure you have somebody with you. You don’t want to go up there by yourself. If crusting is on any top layer or any smell or any spoilage, you need to equalize the bin and exterior temperatures with aeration with those fans. If you do have a bad spot, you can blend that off with some in-quality grain that will help your profits when you deliver your bushels.”
Remote monitoring tools can help automate grain quality by providing up-to-date moisture and temperature data, making it so you don’t have to climb in and do the visual inspections. For more on that and additional grain management recommendations, farmers should contact their grain bin dealers.
Source: NAFB News Service
The Wabash County Junior Leaders, winners of the 2023 “Stock the Trailer, Fight the Hunger” food drive challenge.$5,000 is a significant amount of money—which is how much the top 4-H club in the state will win this county fair season with the “Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer” food drive challenge—supported by Farm Credit Mid-America and Rural 1st.
Jessica Weathers, Associate Financial Officer with Farm Credit Mid-America, says the food drive challenge will pit the county fairs against each other to see which county’s 4-H youth and Junior Leaders organization can collect the most pounds in food donations for their trailer.
“This year is going to be our third year. Last year, we had 36 counties participating and this year we have approximately 40 that have verbally committed, so it looks like it’s going to be an even bigger year and an even better opportunity for our local 4-H youth and Junior Leaders to really help have an impact on fighting hunger in their local communities,” she says.
Once the counties fairs are over, that’s when the winners of this year’s competition will be announced.
The Wabash County Junior Leaders were named last year’s winner after they had collected more than 15,760 pounds of food donations.
“Last year when the initiative was offered statewide, we were able to collect 99,020 pounds,” says Weathers. “Since we’re having more counties hopefully participating this year, we’re looking at breaking that 100,000-pound mark.”
Not only will first prize win $5,000 for their 4-H club, but there are also cash prizes for all counties who participate.
“We are also rewarding second, third, fourth, and fifth place with $4,000, $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000 prizes respectively,” says Weathers.
“All of the counties that are participating will receive $250, but if those counties collect over 1,000 pounds in food donations, then that amount increases to $500,” she says.
There’s still time for your local 4-H club at your county fair to sign up to be a part of the “Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer” food drive challenge. Just reach out to your local Farm Credit Mid-America office. You can also find more info at our website at fcma.com.
Click BELOW for Hoosier Ag Today’s video congratulating the Wabash County 4-H for winning the 2023 “Fight the Hunger, Stock the Trailer” food drive challenge.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/17232312/HATThisWeek2-051824.mp3"]The eastern corn belt and great lakes remains wet over the next 10 days. We are stringing together some back to back dry days, but the precipitation that comes does not stretch out enough to give us big confidence that we have enough drying.
We need to continue to expect random potential for field work based on some areas getting missed over the next 10 days to 2 weeks, but also enough moisture that we continue to lag on planting progress.
Saturday turns out mostly dry. We will have some clouds holding over the area, but generally no new precipitation. Both Michigan and Indiana see better sunshine Sunday. Clouds increase to the west on Monday, bringing some rain shower action to northern MI before sunset, but the rest of lower MI and all of Indiana remain precipitation free late Monday into early Tuesday morning.
The weather system that is triggering the clouds build up to the west early in the week will move east for Tuesday and Wednesday. Rain showers initially start early Tuesday morning in northern MI, develop in SW lower MI Tuesday late morning, and then move across the rest of the MI/IN area late Tuesday afternoon/evening and into Wednesday midday. However, we do see some holes opening up, and as such, we are projecting rain totals in most areas to be half an inch or less. The only places to see higher rain totals will be extreme southern IN near the OH river, and then in far northern MI.
We go back to dry weather for Wednesday later afternoon and evening through Thursday. Friday, we see moisture lift up from the southwest into central and southern IN, tracking into OH. This will produce rain in Indiana of .25”-1” with coverage at 75% of the state. Only northern areas miss out. MI does not see any precipitation from that round late in the week.
Unsettled weather continues for the rest of the Memorial Day weekend. We won’t rule out hit and miss showers Saturday, Memorial Day, but we expect under 40% coverage on either of those days. We stay warm and humid. Smack in the middle will be a big round of showers and storms with 100% coverage over IN and 70% coverage in MI on Sunday the 26th. Rain totals there will be half to 1.5”.
The map below shows precipitation for the region combined over the next 10 days.
Extended Period:
The extended window still looks humid and a bit unsettled, but we should be dry Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday the 30th we see scattered showers with 50% coverage over MI and IN. Action lingers in MI and by association a few northern tier counties in IN for the 31st into the 1st. Farther south we dry out a bit. We should return to sunny, warm and dry weather for the 2nd on into the first fill week of June.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Weeks three and four remain near normal on precipitation, so chances will be around. Temps are warmer than normal for the first half of June. Evaporation should be strong in that kind of set up. However, drying potential comes down to seeing lower rain totals out of any system that develops in weeks 3 or 4.
Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, who serves as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee.On Friday, Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15), Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, has released the full text of a new Farm Bill which has been identified in the U.S. House as The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024
Among the key inclusions in Thompson’s draft are legislative solutions to the problems triggered by California’s Proposition 12 and language preserving the resources needed to protect the nation’s food supply through foreign animal disease prevention.
The following statement was issued on behalf of Thompson following the release of the Farm Bill.
“The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 is the product of extensive feedback from stakeholders and all Members of the House, and is responsive to the needs of farm country through the incorporation of hundreds of bipartisan policies. The release of this draft is a significant step forward in a years-long, deliberative process. The markup is one step in a greater House process, that should not be compromised by misleading arguments, false narratives, or edicts from the Senate. I look forward to engaging with colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we move to markup.”
Thompson has said that he plans to begin markup of the House bill on Thursday, May 23.
Meanwhile, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, released an outline for the Senate Democrats’ version of the Farm Bill earlier this month called The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act of 2024. However, the Stabenow has yet to release a full draft of the Senate Democrats’ bill.
Click here to read the full draft of the House Republicans’ version of the Farm Bill.
Blair Orme (left), ag educator and FFA advisor at Rushville Consolidated High School (RCHS), along with his wife Natasha (right), after Orme won the Indiana FFA’s Golden Owl “Ag Educator of the Year” Award during the Indiana FFA State Convention in June 2022. Orme is retiring after 35 years at RCHS. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.When it comes to Indiana’s high school ag educators and FFA advisors, it would be hard to find someone who has been more closely connected with only one high school than Mr. Blair Orme. He’s retiring from Rushville Consolidated High School (RCHS) at the end of this school year after 35 years on the job.
“Well it’s funny how people look at the word retirement. One article I read said it’s important that you retire from something to something, and I think that’s a good way of looking at it,” says Blair Orme, who first started teaching ag in Rushville in 1988.
Orme also graduated from Rushville in 1984 and returned to his alma mater after he earned his Agricultural Education degree from Purdue University. In fact, Orme has been one of only two people who have held that particular ag teaching position at RCHS for nearly 75 years.
“Mr. Kenneth Brashaber was here for 38 years, and I was fortunate enough to take his position after his retirement, so together he and I have 73 years of combined teaching and FFA services to the community of Rushville,” says Orme. Brashaber passed away last October at the age of 93.
Blair Orme (at left) receives special recognition during the 2024 Rushville FFA banquet from 2023-24 Indiana FFA President and former Rushville FFA student Kelby Roberts. Photo courtesy of Rushville FFA.Orme says ag education has changed significantly since he first started teaching in Rushville—which includes precision agriculture, advanced computer technology and the use of drones.
“You know, without change you don’t survive,” he says. “We continue to evolve and we just have to continue to make those changes to make the education relevant to our students.”
When it comes to the success of the RCHS ag program and Rushville FFA, Orme prefers giving credit to the school’s students, parents, staff, and the community.
“The saying, ‘Surround yourself with good people,’ is so true,” says Orme. “It’s a family atmosphere for the Rushville FFA and that’s what has really made the difference is that so many people support us and are part of this program.”
Orme says he plans to remain active and stay involved with Rushville FFA. He adds that he is also looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Natasha, and their family. Orme also says he plans to spend more time working on their family farm.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s interview with Blair Orme as part of the “Hoosier Ag This Week” show and podcast.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/16165135/HATThisWeek4-BLAIR-ORME-051824.mp3"]Blair and Natasha Orme (center), along with members of Rushville FFA and Indiana FFA District IX during the Indiana FFA State Convention in June 2022. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/16161106/HAT-planting-wx-051724-wrap.mp3"]We still have a ways to go in terms of planting progress here in Indiana. Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says if you look really hard you might be able to find some positives in his longer-term forecast.
“One of those positives may be a slightly bigger window of dryness in between rain events. Temperatures may be warmer as well. But the negative, still, is we’ve got too much rain.”
Martin has windows in between weather systems stretching to about 3 days.
“We should be mostly dry for the start of this weekend on Saturday and we get good sunshine on Sunday. We are dry all day Monday with good evaporation. However, our next weather system comes Tuesday, so we’re limited to three days of dryness there. After the Tuesday/Wednesday system, we are dry for Thursday and most of Friday. In Northern Indiana, we extend the drying through Saturday and early Sunday.”
But in southern Indiana, hit-and-miss moisture is expected Friday night into Saturday.
“We have another weather system sitting out to the west of us right at the end of the 10-day forecast window,” Martin continues. “That means we probably don’t get through Memorial Day without seeing a little bit of moisture here and there. But I want to also point out- this is another positive- that systems are starting to slowly but surely ease back on the total available moisture as they come through. For example, that Memorial Day system, if it comes together, probably only gives us anywhere from a tenth to half an inch.”
Martin provides full forecast details later Friday at hoosieragtoday.com and in the free HAT mobile app.
Pictured above is USB Farmer Leader Shannon Tignor Ellis, USB Vice President of Market Intelligence Mac Marshall, and The Yield Lab Institute COO Brandon Day—along with challenge winner Clean Label Solution CEO and Founder Dr. Mohammad Arshadi, and runners-up, Renewable Green Composites Founder Scott Loethen, EDEN Cellyfill Vice President Nancy Levens, and NeuEsse CEO Joseph Connell. Photo courtesy of United Soybean Board.The United Soybean Board, in partnership with The Yield Lab Institute and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Startups, has named Clean Label Solution as this year’s Soy Innovation Challenge grand prize winner.
Through a proprietary fermentation process, Clean Label Solution delivers high-value beef and dairy cattle feed from soybeans and soybean meal. U.S. soybean farmers produce a high-quality and eco-friendly feed ingredient for the livestock supply chain, making soybeans a preferred choice for animal agriculture.
The protein component of the soybean provides a valuable source of nutrients for cattle, however cattle are unable to consume the soy oil component. In trials of the Clean Label Solution’s Bi-Pass Pro+ feed product, cattle could digest the 30% of soy protein that otherwise passes through the animal without use. This boosts milk and meat production while curbing methane emissions. It also offers a more sustainable ingredient that replaces the need for palm oil in cow feed.
“Securing victory in the Soy Innovation Challenge unlocks the immense potential of the soybean market, not only in terms of methane reduction but also economically. Our breakthrough soy-based feed addresses environmental concerns by reducing methane emissions and also presents lucrative opportunities for sustainable agriculture and economic growth. This win marks a pivotal moment in harnessing the full potential of soybeans for a greener, more prosperous future,” says Dr. Mohammad Arshadi, Founder and CEO of Clean Label Solution.
This year’s Soy Innovation Challenge encouraged new and novel uses for soybean meal. As soybean oil demand continues to expand in the biofuels space to help U.S. states decarbonize, this presents an opportunity to find new uses for increased soybean meal supply. Nearly 70 candidates from around the globe submitted innovative ideas for soy-based solutions for a wide range of applications, including food, cosmetics, petrochemicals, and biofuels. A panel of nine experts vetted applications and selected four finalists to participate in a venture accelerator program while also competing for a U.S. Soy investment. This furthers the economic viability of their businesses and grows a customer base that will consume U.S.-grown soybeans through these products.
“Reviewing all of the applicants’ submissions and hearing from them firsthand showcased the power and the possibility of the soybean,” shared USB farmer-leader from Virginia and Soy Innovation Challenge judge Shannon Tignor Ellis. “Each of the four finalists brought something different to the table, opening doors for innovation that elevates the value of our soybeans and presents a unique opportunity for checkoff investment. While the push for sustainability continues, our soybeans keep finding new ways to be part of the solution.”
In addition to Clean Label Solutions being awarded $75,000, the other 2023 Soy Innovation Challenge winners include:
- EDEN Concept Fill developed Cellyfill cushion products as a fully sustainable alternative to polyurethane foam, the petroleum-based industry standard. Cellyfill is a cellulose-based material from soy hulls that gives manufacturers and consumers a lower-cost, high-quality, sustainable option for soft fill in furniture, mattresses, and other products. – First runner-up awarded $50,000.
- NeuEsse developed a human skin substitute, OmegaSkin, made from soy protein. OmegaSkin becomes a scaffold for the body to regrow its skin over serious wounds or burns with minimal to no scarring, offering a more cost-effective medical solution than current treatments, like skin grafting or advanced cellular therapies. – Second runner-up awarded $25,000.
- Renewable Green Composites creates plastics and polymer building blocks from soybean meal to improve the sustainability of some plastics. Soy-based plastic beads and additives by Renewable Green Composites can be melted and molded into various non-durable outdoor applications, including golf tees, lawn toys and more. – Third runner-up awarded $20,000.
“The Soy Innovation Challenge has been a fantastic effort to showcase the most promising and innovative technology to promote the utility of soy in markets we know like feed, food, and fuel and new markets in consumer packaged goods (CPGs), medicine, and nonfood uses. We cannot thank the United Soybean Board, AWS and partners enough for believing in the challenge model and funding 3 of these exciting challenges over the past four years. We look forward to seeing where these finalists go and how they bring their soy innovations to market,” says Brandon Day, COO of The Yield Lab Institute.
Source: United Soybean Board
Maddie Powell of Tipton, who serves on the National 4-H Council Young Alumni Advisory Committee (YAAC). She’s also an Agriculture Education major at Purdue University.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/15191545/CJ-WRAP-HAT-MADDIE-POWELL-AT-RURAL-SUMMIT-051524.mp3"]A summit addressing the problems impacting rural communities was held earlier this week in Washington, D.C. One National 4-H representative from Indiana was at that summit to help find solutions to those problems.
“When there aren’t opportunities for [rural] students, they leave and then it’s just like it’s a continuous, compounding problem,” says Maddie Powell of Tipton, referring to the “brain drain” that many rural communities have been experiencing.
Powell serves on the National 4-H Council Young Alumni Advisory Committee (YAAC). She’s also an Agriculture Education major at Purdue University.
Maddie attended the “Rural Communities in Action” summit on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. She says one of the major issues impacting Hoosiers in rural areas is a lack of childcare facilities.
“If you don’t have childcare, then the parents can’t go to work. If your parents can’t go to work, they can’t pay a mortgage, they can’t have a house, and they have to leave. Something so small as a childcare facility has such an impact on that the daily lives of our community.”
She says that ag leaders have been working together to find solutions to these problems—which also includes setting up better broadband and wireless service for those who live out in the country.
Maddie adds that 4-H has long been providing an example of how rural communities can prosper from education and outreach opportunities.
“4-H is definitely a backbone to so many students’ starts,” she says. “I think that the efforts that we’ve talked about at this Rural Community Summit really showed that we’re not alone and that rural communities are just as important as big cities and that there are really big efforts that are being put into place into the future.”
Click BELOW to watch the “Rural Communities in Action” summit that was held Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
President Biden increased tariffs on Chinese goods under Section 301 of 1974’s Trade Act. The hike goes on $18 billion worth of imports from China, prompting significant concerns that China might impose tariffs on the U.S. agricultural products that the Asian nation imports.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai says the move is a response to China’s “unfair and anticompetitive economic practices.”
Tariffs are going up on critical manufacturing and mining sectors, including steel, aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, solar cells, and certain critical minerals.
National Journal notes that Biden “doubled down” on former President Trump’s tariff policies, keeping the Trump tariffs in force and imposing even more in an effort to keep China from dominating the emerging clean-energy global market.
CNN says China has vowed to “resolutely defend its interests” because of the new U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and says these barriers would affect the two countries’ “wider relationship.”
Indiana landowners, for the second year in a row, set a record in the number of conservation practices to maintain soil health, according to the Indiana Conservation Partnership (ICP).
The ICP, which works with Hoosier landowners to provide technical or financial assistance for the implementation of conservation projects, recently announced its 2024 conservation accomplishments. In 2023, landowners supported by the ICP installed more than 50,000 new conservation practices, up 3,000 from 2022. Last year’s 47,000 conservation practices installed was also a record.
“Year after year Hoosier farmers and conservationists are installing additional stewardship practices and working hard to ensure nutrients and irreplaceable topsoil stay on their fields,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Breaking records year after year is no small feat, and I want to thank the partners in this program and also the landowners and farmers for their contributions and wish them well on their continued success of improving soil health.”
The ICP report showed that over the last year landowners helped prevent over 1.6 million tons of sediment, over 3.6 million pounds of nitrogen and over 1.8 million pounds of phosphorus from entering Indiana waterways.
In the fall of 2022, and emerging in the spring of 2023, Hoosier farmers planted more than 1.6 million acres of living cover, which includes cover crops and winter wheat. Cover crops and no-till practices implemented with ICP’s assistance sequestered an estimated 41,000 tons of soil organic carbon, which is the equivalent to the carbon emissions of more than 30,168 cars.
While the term conservation practices can mean many things, in Indiana, some of the most common conservation best management practices are cover crops, nutrient management, residue and tillage management, conservation cover, early successional habitat development/management and grassed waterways.
“Indiana’s vitality is rooted in the soil. In a time when extreme weather events are inevitable, keeping our soil healthy and productive is of paramount importance,” said Indiana Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist Damarys Mortenson. “We are seeing great strides by our Indiana farmers who are working with the ICP to incorporate soil health principles on their land. These producers are increasing their soil’s organic matter, reducing the need for expensive inputs and improving microbial activity — all while harvesting better profits and often better yields.”
Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Don Lamb congratulates Hoosier farmers and landowners on another record year.
“It is exciting news to share that Hoosier farmers and landowners continue to break records each year on installing soil conservation practices,” said Lamb. “A large key to this success is helpful partnerships, having the right tools available and having willing participants. I want to thank the Indiana Conservation Partnership team for their efforts and of course our farmers and landowners who want to keep their soil healthy and thriving for years to come.”
The ICP is made up of public and non-profit groups, along with landowners, that work together for the betterment of soil health and water quality. ICP organizations include, Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, ISDA, Indiana State Soil Conservation Board, Purdue Extension, USDA-Farm Service Agency and USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Indiana Conservation Partnership is a crucial part of Indiana’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, this illustrates the continued success and challenges of conservation and serves as a tool to help set watershed priorities and reduction targets, manage conservation resources and to further stakeholder involvement across Indiana.
To find more information on soil and water conservation in Indiana, soil and carbon sequestration, soil conservation trends, Indiana’s work in our three water basins or partnerships between other states in the full report, click here.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/15212421/ev-mandate-wrap.mp3"]During a recent hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, EPA chief Michael Regan got an earful from Wyoming GOP Senator Cynthia Lummis as she expressed her displeasure about overreach at the EPA, specifically on electric vehicles and the Biden administration’s push to force their use by regulation.
“The average EV is over $10,000 more expensive than the average gas-powered car, and they don’t work at altitude. They don’t work when it’s that cold. And they don’t work when you can’t get them charged because there are no charging stations.”
Biden’s EPA has proposed tough new auto pollution rules that could force EVs to make up two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032. Lummis says this just won’t work for rural communities like hers in Wyoming.
“People in Wyoming frequently drive long distances. My ranch and my farm are 400 miles apart, and yet they’re still in Wyoming. Their livelihoods depend on affordable, reliable vehicles. And that means a gas- or diesel-powered car, truck, or natural gas.”
Biden officials, including USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, defend EVs to boost manufacturing jobs and reduce climate pollution. Lummis told EPA’s Regan consumers feel differently.
“Judging by the numbers, Americans don’t want EVs. EV sales are around six or seven percent. And dealerships are saying to pump the brakes on electric vehicles. For the good of the country, pull the plug on this mandate.”
The ethanol industry argues hybrid flex-fuel vehicles make more sense. The Renewable Fuels Association road-tested one last year and says it got 440 miles with a full tank of E85 and a full charge—nearly double that of a comparable electric vehicle.
Source: NAFB News Service
Montgomery County farmer Ryan Rippy, who says last weekend’s solar storm caused a disruption in the GPS software in his tractor during soybean planting.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/14185814/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SOLAR-STORM-KNOCKS-OUT-FARM-GPS-051424.mp3"]You may have been fortunate enough to have seen the Northern Lights here in Indiana last weekend. But, the solar storm responsible for it also caused problems for farmers in the middle of spring planting.
“I fired the tractor up and went to go across the field and had an issue with the GPS,” said Montgomery County farmer Ryan Rippy, who says he was trying to finish planting soybeans on Friday, but wasn’t sure why the GPS in his tractor had quit working.
“I spent a couple of hours back and forth on the phone with the Advanced Farming System (AFS) technician with Bane-Welker, the Case IH dealer, and he couldn’t really come to conclusion what the problem was,” said Rippy. “About a half an hour later, he texted me and said it’s probably related to the solar flare that was going on. He said his phone had just been blowing up in the last hour and that several other farmers that were having similar issues.”
Rippy says he temporarily hit the pause button on planting Friday because of the issue.
“Finally, I just decided to quit that day because we’re having some other issues with the planter,” he said. “We came back on Saturday and were still having the same problem. I was finally able to resolve it by creating a new field and new guidance lines with the GPS software. That seemed to solve the problem, but it was surely a frustration.”
Rippy says he was able to finish planting beans on Saturday—and had already finished planting corn the week before.
According to the NAFB News Service, one chain of John Deere dealerships had given farmers a heads-up that some of the computer systems in their tractors were “extremely compromised” from the solar storm and that farmers who had planting crops while the GPS and precision equipment were compromised may end up facing problems at harvest time.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/14191819/550-wagyu-wrap.mp3"]For the Stonecipher family, it started out as a brisket they picked up for a party they were having and turned into an online business. As you can imagine, that brisket was pretty darn good. Elizabeth Stonecipher explains why she and her husband Adam decided to start their company, 550 Wagyu, in Tippecanoe County.
“We liked the meat and just decided let’s go that route with our cows. A lot of our cows are angus-based, so calving ease is good for that. But Wagyu bulls are also calving ease and with our schedule- our kids are in sports and 4-H, Adam works full-time- with all those things, it’s nice to know that, most of the time, we’re not going to have an issue. So, it was a win-win for us.”
Wagyu is a Japanese cattle breed and Wagyu cows are typically raised longer than traditional beef cattle. As for the beef, Stonecipher describes what you’re getting if you buy from them.
“It’s just a rich marbley beef. So, that marbling in that beef kind of melts when you cook it and it’s just rich and buttery tasting. It’s just really delicious. You’re going to notice a difference between a traditional angus steak than something with Wagyu just because of the marbling.”
550 Wagyu stoneciphers-isda 550-wagyu stonecipher-kids wagyu-cowsFarmers around Indiana have started to take advantage of farmers markets around the state. You can find the Stoneciphers in West Lafayette at their farmers market on Wednesday nights this summer.
“And they are extending their hours in June, July, and August until eight o’clock. It’ll be from 4-8 during that period of time. We are going to do a pop-up at the Lafayette Market a couple of times to see how that will go. And if anybody’s in the Indy area or the outskirts, we do Market Wagon as well.”
You can also visit them online at 550wagyu.com. 550 Wagyu is a member of Indiana Grown, a program of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture to promote products grown or made by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers!
Indiana winter wheat growers anticipate lower yields in 2024 than they had last year, according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician of USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office. Indiana wheat growers expect to harvest 240,000 acres, down 95,000 acres from last year. Wheat production in the State is expected to be 20.2 million bushels. The yield forecast of 84 bushels is down 8 bushels per acre from last year’s crop.
U.S. winter wheat production is forecast at 1.28 billion bushels, up 2 percent from 2023. As of May 1, the United States yield is forecast at 50.7 bushels per acre, up 0.1 bushel from last year’s average yield of 50.6 bushels per acre. Area expected to be harvested for grain or seed totals 25.2 million acres, up 2 percent from last year.
Hay stocks on Indiana farms on May 1, 2024, were 190,000 tons, down 14 percent from this time last year.
All hay stored on United States farms as of May 1, 2024, totaled 21.0 million tons, up 47 percent from May 1, 2023. Disappearance from December 1, 2023 – May 1, 2024, totaled 55.7 million tons, down 3 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Alabama is now the second state in the nation to ban the sale of cultured meat. Last week, Governor Kay Ivey signed SB23 into law, making the manufacture, sale, or distribution of food products produced from cultured animal cells a Class C misdemeanor as of October 1.
According to the bill, civil penalties could range from $100 for a Class 2 violation up to $10,000 for a Class 5 violation for food sales establishments that violate the provisions of the bill.
Feedstuffs says the legislation doesn’t prevent any federal institution of higher education or a person who’s partnered with a governmental entity or higher educational institution from conducting research in Alabama regarding the production of cultivated food products. Alabama’s ban follows Florida’s legal precedent taken earlier this month.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis says his state will increase meat production and encourage residents to consume 100% real beef.
We’ve seen some nicer weather around parts of Indiana lately, including in West Central Indiana.
“We’ve been really fortunate in this last 10 to 12-day stretch here in the western part of my coverage area,” says agronomist Nick Hedden in this Pioneer planting progress update. “In Tippecanoe, Montgomery, Fountain, Warren, and Benton, we’ve had a great run, and we’re very blessed in that regard. We’re probably close to 80% planted for corn and soybeans.”
In fact, Hedden says he’s spoken with a few growers in Benton and Warren counties who wrapped up planting Monday.
It’s not all sunshine and planters rolling everywhere though. The eastern part of Hedden’s territory has had to be more patient.
“There are some growers up in White County that I visited with last week that they’re always a day or two away from field conditions being right and then a rain would happen. That’s kind of been the story of the year but patience will pay off.”
Hedden says we definitely have quite a few fields out there that have emerged and it’s really important to take early stand counts to make replant decisions.
“Obviously, we need to have enough population to maximize yield. The other key component when we’re doing stand counts is uniformity. So, you might have areas in the field that are below the threshold of what we want for minimum population to maximize yield within an area that will have acceptable stands. So, these can make for really difficult decisions and it’s important to conduct multiple stand counts throughout those fields to help make informed decisions on what to do.”
Hear more from Hedden in the full HAT interview below and reach out to your Pioneer representatives at pioneer.com/findmyrep.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/13210236/nick-hedden-051324.mp3"]
Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15), who serves as Chairman of the House Ag Committee. Photo courtesy of C-SPAN.Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15), who serves as Chairman of the House Ag Committee, has released a more detailed, title-by-title summary of his Farm Bill proposal.
The summary includes many key provisions like increasing the statutory reference prices by 10-to-20 percent for all covered commodities in Title 1.
His proposal increases the Agricultural Risk Coverage guarantee to 90 percent of the benchmark revenue and expands the maximum payment band to 12.5 percent for both ARC-IC and ARC-CO. It also increases marketing loan rates for most commodities.
A full draft of the House version of the Farm Bill could come next week with markup scheduled for Thursday, May 23.
Click HERE for the newly-released detailed summary of the Farm Bill released by Senate Ag Chair Thompson and House Ag Republicans.
Source: NAFB News Service
Thirty-six percent of Indiana’s corn and 34 percent of the state’s soybeans have been planted according to USDA. That compares to 20 percent for both corn and soybeans planted from last week’s report.
Planting progress for corn is still below its five-year average of 39 percent, but soybeans remain above that average, which is 30 percent.
Fifteen percent of the corn crop and 14 percent of Indiana’s soybeans have now emerged.
“Some areas of the State saw ideal planting and germinating conditions, while others received heavy rains and high winds which prevented fieldwork,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office.
“The average temperature for the week was 63.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.2 degrees above normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 1.26 inches, 0.34 inches above normal. There were 3.3 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending May 12,” according to Warenski.
Winter wheat jointing for Indiana is at 88 percent and 46 percent is headed.
Source: USDA
Congressman John Duarte (R-CA-13), who is also a farmer and serves on the House Ag Committee.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/14001125/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-DUARTE-ON-PROP-12-051324.mp3"]California’s Prop 12 was pushed by animal rights activists who successfully lobbied for major changes within the pork industry. However, Rep. John Duarte (R-CA-13) says those same activists should instead be more focused on human rights violations.
Duarte told Hoosier Ag Today that the nation should be more concerned about slave labor being used in the Congo to mine for minerals used in the production of electric vehicles than how U.S. pigs are housed for production.
“This is disgusting,” he said when asked about Prop 12. “We care about how many piggies there are in a pig pen. We care about how a chicken lays an egg. Although I don’t think most of the people supporting these policies really know either. [It is] on moral grounds. There’s no documented animal welfare issue or anything else. This is just somebody’s morality exercised in policy in California and affecting the affordability of animal protein.”
He said moral grounds should also apply to things like production of electric cars, which use minerals mined in the Congo.
“It is the most abject colonialism and slavery that we’ve seen in the history of the world. It’s industrialized slavery in the Congo and we are subsidizing electric vehicles made with these critical minerals out of these inhuman mines,” he said.
Duarte added that his legislative focus is on stopping human rights violations.
“If you want an electric vehicle, great. I’m sure you look cute in it. But if you want a federal rebate, we have to document that these electric vehicles that we’re subsidizing through taxpayer dollars are not made of constituents or components produced with slave labor. I’m a lot more concerned about human slave labor through our proxy imperialism, through China in the Congo than I am about telling a farmer who raises pigs…how to raise a pig.”
Indiana Dairy producer Alex Neuenschwander, co-owner of Neu-Hope Dairy in Bluffton, will serve as the 2024 Indy 500 Veteran Milk Presenter. Photo courtesy of American Dairy Association Indiana.The 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is fast approaching—and so is the tradition of having an Indiana Dairy producer hand an ice-cold glass bottle of milk to the winning driver of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
This year’s Indy 500 Veteran Milk Presenter is Alex Neuenschwander, a fourth-generation Indiana Dairy producer from the Bluffton area. He co-owns Neu-Hope Dairy with his brother Kip near Bluffton in Wells County.
Alex Neuenschwander with a young calf at his dairy farm in Bluffton. Photo courtesy of Alex Neuenschwander.“A couple of years ago I brought my son to the Indy 500 and it was it was an electric atmosphere,” said Neuenschwander. “We could feel the cars as they’re going around, and it was just an exciting time. My son was like, ‘Hey Dad, you got to be the one to hand off that milk to the winner,’ so I threw my through my name in and they asked me to, so I am beyond thrilled to be doing this.”
He’ll be handing off the traditional glass bottle of milk to this year’s winning driver, while Abbie Herr of Herr Dairy in Noble County, is this year’s Indy 500 Rookie Milk Presenter and will hand another glass bottle of milk to this year’s winning chief mechanic.
Last year, Neuenschwander learned a great deal while serving as the “Rookie Milk Presenter” and got a front-row seat to watch the exciting exchange between the 2023 “Veteran Milk Presenter” Kerry Estes and 2023 Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden. While shooting a promotional video for American Dairy Association Indiana in 2022, Josef Newgarden had visited Estes’ dairy farm near New Palestine, so the two had already met and had gotten to know each other prior to Newgarden’s 2023 celebration in Victory Circle.
“That was epic. I don’t know that it would be possible the replicate that because it just was absolutely perfect. there was definitely a bond and a little bit of a chemistry between Kerry and Josef. I think Kerry may have been a little bit more excited than Josef when he won that race,” he says.
The 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden celebrates in Victory Circle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an ice-cold bottle of milk from American Dairy Association Indiana. The 2023 Indy 500 “Veteran Milk Presenter” Kerry Estes, who handed Newgarden the bottle of milk, is at far left. Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Neuenschwander adds that he’s not only proud to represent Indiana’s nearly 700 dairy producers as part of the celebration in Victory Circle at the end of this year’s Indy 500, but he’s also proud to represent the thousands of dairy producers throughout the U.S.
“As dairy farmers, we work really hard to produce high-quality milk. We just love it. It’s our passion—and it has to be a passion. I’m so excited to be part of that this year, and excited to see all my hard work coming into that moment,” he says.
Click HERE to read from Donald Davidson, Historian Emeritus of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, how the glass bottle of milk became part of the winner’s celebration and tradition at the Indianapolis 500.
Click below to hear* C.J. Miller’s interview with Alex Neuenschwander*, this year’s Indy 500 Veteran Milk Presenter.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/12020011/HATThisWeek4.mp3"]Alex Neuenschwander, his wife Shauna, and their three sons. Photo courtesy of Alex Neuenschwander.
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who serves as Chair of the Senate Ag Committee.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/12032148/SABRINA-WRAP-MAT-STABENOW-FARM-BILL-SPECIALTY-CROPS-051024.mp3"]Tomatoes, pumpkins, and watermelons are just three of the biggest specialty crops produced here in Indiana. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who serves as Senate Ag Chair, recently told Hoosier Ag Today about her plans to strengthen protections for specialty crop producers with the next Farm Bill.
“We’re doing a number of things that address the issues that the specialty crop folks have brought to us,” said Stabenow.
Following the release of the Senate Ag Democrats’ overview for the next Farm Bill, she says her proposal offers improvements for specialty crops including a change to adjusted gross income (AGI) limits for some programs.
“We’re strengthening what’s called NAP,” she said, which is the Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. It provides financial assistance to producers of non-insurable crops when they have low yields loss of inventory or prevented planting because of natural disasters.
“[If] you lose your trees, your orchard, or whatever, I think you can 65-percent reimbursement—we’re upping that to 75 percent,” she says.
As far as passing the Farm Bill, Stabenow says it takes a joint effort from a lot of angles.
“We don’t get a Farm Bill done unless it’s bipartisan—period,” said Stabenow. “I’ve been involved in six Farm Bills. This is the third one I’ve led in the Senate, and I know how to get bills done. I know that you do that by keeping the broad Farm Bill coalition together, and that means commodities and conservationists and foresters and environmentalists and nutrition folks and local governments and bioenergy—it’s all of it.”
Both the Senate and House overviews for the Farm Bill increase funding for the Specialty Crop Block Grant program and maintain the funding for the local agriculture market program. The House overview of the bill maintains the National Organic Program and The Organic Certification Cost Share Program while the Senate’s overview of the bill increases funding for both.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/10222345/HATThisWeek2-051124.mp3"]We still have plenty of moisture in our planting forecast, but we are seeing some drier days coming near the end of the 10-day forecast window.
However, we start things off with scattered light rain showers Saturday morning. Most of the rain will be less than a quarter inch and in the northern half to third of the state. However, we won’t rule out hit and miss action and a lot of clouds father south. Still, threats of rain should be done by mid-to-late afternoon and clouds break from there.
We dry out Sunday and Monday. Clouds build Monday evening. Rain showers and thunderstorms return for Monday overnight and Tuesday. The late Monday action will be limited to far northern IN, but Tuesday we look for statewide precipitation. Rain totals can be 0.25” – 1” with coverage at 90 percent of the state.
Wednesday dries down in the north, but moisture lingers through midday in southern IN. We are rain free through Thursday and Friday.
Scattered showers come back for Friday night and Saturday morning, with rain totals of 0.25” – 0.75” and coverage at 60%. However, we shift that action out quickly Saturday afternoon. We finish the 10-day forecast window dry through Sunday. The map below shows cumulative rain totals for the 10-day period as we see them at this point.
Extended Period:
The week of May 20th looks mostly dry over a large part of the country. There is a minor area of low pressure developing Monday the 20th in southern Montana and the western Dakotas. However, it does not have much moisture with it, and we should see action stay mostly clear of the region. If it does hold together all the way into the corn belt, we will likely see a few showers Tuesday the 21st, but other than that, we have no serious threat of rain. Even that threat we have low confidence in developing, meaning we might just string together our first longer term dry window of the planting season so far.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Weeks three and four both look to be near normal, meaning we see at least one chance of rain in each 7 day period. Week 3 is cooler than normal, but week four should return to near and slightly above normal levels.
Week 3 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 3 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
Week 4 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 4 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
Photo courtesy of the Purdue National AgriMarketing Association Student Chapter.Purdue Agriculture students took home the top prize recently during the Student Marketing Competition hosted by the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA).
This year’s event was held in conjunction with NAMA’s annual Conference in Kansas City, April 23-24. It was the 48th year of the competition.
The organization holds a competition each year among its student chapters in which they select a product, develop a marketing plan to support it, and then present to a panel of judges composed of agri-marketing professionals. Products must be an agricultural product, commodity, or service.
Purdue students finished in first place among 26 total teams in the competition.
Their product was called PomaVino, a wine grape pomace pasta.
Also, during the 2024 NAMA Agri-Marketing Conference:
- Brady Brewer with Purdue University received the Outstanding Advisor Award.
- Todd Frazier with Corteva received the Agribusiness Leader Award.
NAMA’s next conference is set to return to Kansas City on April 9-11, 2025.
Photo courtesy of the Purdue National AgriMarketing Association Student Chapter.Click HERE to see the list of 2024 NAMA Award Winners.
[audio mp3="//cdn1.itmwpb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/IN-planting-wx-051024-wrap.mp3"]Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin believes we still have too much moisture in the near-term forecast to get a whole lot done, but we might start to see some longer breaks in between those moisture events.
To close out this week and start the weekend, Martin says, “We’ll have to deal with a few hit and miss scattered showers overnight Friday night into Saturday morning, totaling a few hundredths to a few tenths. I then think we are dry for Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday.”
The next frontal boundary shows up in Martin’s forecast overnight Monday through Tuesday.
“At this point, showers and thunderstorms both can be part of that with quarter to three quarter inch rainfall totals. All activity should be done by Wednesday morning. We are dry then for the balance of Wednesday and into Thursday before another frontal boundary comes through late in the week, Thursday night and Friday, with only a few hundredths to a tenth or two out of that.”
And after weeks of hearing from Ryan, he might FINALLY have some good news for us. Let’s cross our fingers that this forecast for late next week holds true.
“As we get into Friday midday and afternoon, we’re seeing sunshine and blue sky. And looking back west, a massive high-pressure dome settles in over the Great Plains and Western Corn Belt, so I believe we’re going to put together a longer-term dry window from Thursday late afternoon/early Friday the 17th all the way through next weekend and into the following week. There could be four to five days back-to-back-to-back of dry weather that I believe is going to be our significant planting window that opens up here in the Hoosier State.”
Sign up to receive the Hoosier Ag Today daily newsletter below and receive Martin’s forecast details in your email inbox 6am Saturday morning.
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USDA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/09194231/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-USDA-NASS-REPORTS-050824.mp3"]Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are pressuring USDA in response to the agency’s announcement they’re no longer issuing some important reports later this summer.
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) cited budget restraints when it announced recently that it would stop producing several reports, including the July Cattle Report, the Cotton Objective Yield Survey, and County Estimates for Crops and Livestock reports.
Rep. Tracey Mann (R-KS-01), who is also Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, is among the lawmakers who are leading the charge to get a turnaround from NASS.
“They did not let us know in advance; They just made this announcement. As someone that grew up on a farm, I know firsthand we rely on this data. This information, producers need it,” Mann said in an interview. “There has been no good reason that USDA has given for not putting this report together, so we are pushing. We’re leaning hard on them to do what they ought to do and that’s issue these reports here in July.”
The reports provide transparent livestock, grain, and fiber market insights for American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers. These insights help them effectively manage risk, build supply and demand estimates, and determine plans for commodity sourcing to remain operational. Mann stressed the importance of these reports for ag businesses.
“It means that they are having to make very large business decisions, marketing decisions, without the information. The markets rely on this data so that markets work,” Mann continued. “Markets work and function in many ways. Good data is one of the bedrocks or the keystones to functioning, appropriate markets. And to just withdraw and prevent this information from being assembled when we know the USD has the staff, they have the people they’ve been doing it for decades, [it’s] very, very disappointing. Actually, [it’s] infuriating that this is the action that they’ve taken, which is why we are pushing back and doing everything that we can do to get them to convince them to reverse course.”
Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA-21), and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) joined Mann in penning the letter. About another 70 lawmakers have signed on—including Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN).
Click HERE to read Rep. Mann’s letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Legislation has been introduced in Congress to streamline the permitting process for rural broadband infrastructure projects
The Facilitating Optimal and Rapid Expansion and Siting of Telecommunications (FOREST) Act, which was written by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), is intended to cut down on bureaucratic red tape to improve broadband access in rural America.
“Regulations and red tape are making it harder for us to deploy broadband in rural America,” said Johnson. “My bill will reduce unnecessary red tape so we can get more and better service across our country.”
“Permitting approval on federal lands is one of the biggest obstacles for broadband deployment. It is a major roadblock for achieving universal connectivity and could compromise the success of federal and state broadband funding programs like BEAD and ReConnect. We appreciate Representative Johnson’s leadership on this bill to ensure broadband providers can complete projects on USFS lands efficiently and responsibly. It serves as an important step toward closing the digital divide for many communities in South Dakota and across the country,” said Brandon Heiner, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for USTelecom.
The lengthy permitting process on federal lands has prevented the federal government from improving broadband access, even though billions of dollars are available to improve broadband deployment. The FOREST Act expedites broadband projects in places where the government has already conducted the appropriate environmental and historical preservation reviews.
Specifically, the FOREST Act:
- Grants exemptions from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historical Preservation Act (NHPA) for a communications facility or communications use authorization on National Forest System lands if it is an upgrade or addition to existing infrastructure, or if the United States Forest Service has already conducted the appropriate environmental and historical preservation reviews.
- Allows USFS to waive the consultation requirements under NEPA and NHPA for a communications use authorization on previously analyzed areas of National Forest System lands.
- Streamlines the NEPA permitting process by allowing broadband infrastructure to be built on land that has already gone through the appropriate reviews as it pertains to the National Forest System.
The FOREST Act is cosponsored by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and supported by USTelecom and NCTA – The Internet and Television Association.
Read the full bill text here.
Farmers have quite a bit of time right now to think about unique and different approaches as they wait for dry spells to get in and plant. Research agronomists are doing the same.
On the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast (available now at hoosieragtoday.com), Purdue Extension Soybean Specialist Shaun Casteel asks Corn Specialist Dan Quinn if you should consider shallowing up your corn seeding depth to avoid sidewall compaction given all this moisture we’ve had.
“I just don’t like going under two inches with corn,” Quinn says, “because I see a lot of issues on the other side in terms of root development.”
Quinn adds that they’ve done some simple seeding depth trials over the past couple of years.
“And we’ve seen yield losses every single time when we go down to about an inch and a half to an inch with that corn plant. And that’s across a fair amount of different conditions, a couple of different hybrids that we looked at. I just like staying at two inches. Last year when it got as dry as it was, I actually sunk corn down to three inches.”
For soybeans, Casteel says you can plant too deep. Going that deep would snap the plant’s neck.
“We’re going to be in the inch and a quarter to an inch and three quarters range. We’re in a pretty narrow range. An inch and a half is where I like to be, but that kind of changes based on a sandy field or a coarse texture, or the ones that are going to be a little heavier ground and some of those that have those seed slots that are opening up. I don’t like to go shallower than an inch.”
The Purdue Crop Chat Podcast is available now on the HAT mobile app, just search Hoosier Ag Today in your app store, or click the play button below.
Purdue Crop Chat Episode 65, ‘Planting Progress Envy’
In the first of our growing season updates with Channel Seeds, a look at northwest Indiana planting progress reveals slow progress as farmers wait on Mother Nature to give them the necessary planting windows.
“It’s hit or miss but overall, we’re pretty far behind up here compared to normal,” says Jeff Lakin, Technical Agronomist with Channel Seeds.
There has been more planting in the southern part of his territory, south of US 24 and closer to Lafayette.
“There’s been some activity down there that we had some guys that were able to get in the first part of April and got some corn in the ground, and that stuff’s actually coming through and looking pretty good so far. But as you move further north to the northwest corner of the state, Jasper, Newton, Lake and Porter County, it’s pretty slow. We’ve had some activity over the weekend but it’s really hit or miss. The well-tiled field or sandier ground that guys were able to get on, they were getting some stuff planted. But we’ve got some guys that haven’t spun a wheel yet, and then we got some guys that are moving right along.”
Lakin says ground temperatures are good but there is just too much water, and that problem extends into eastern Indiana too. He told HAT farmers have mostly been patient, as they need to be until the ground is ready.
“Guys are waiting but there has definitely been some stuff going in the ground that was probably questionable. We’re going to have to watch that stuff, make sure that it gets out of the ground and then we’re also going to be watching it for seedling diseases and some root diseases later, especially the stuff that was dry on top and wet underneath that got planted into.”
Those possible seedling diseases are his #1 fear right now. Hear more on that in the full HAT and Channel Seeds update:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/08154739/Jeff-Lakin-Channel-May24-Update.mp3"]
The Indiana FFA Association and Make48 company named the Top Agilities, Top Sales Pitch, and Overall Winner in the first ever all FFA teams Make48 Innovation Competition held at the Fishers Maker Space on Sunday, May 5. The Make48 Competition is held all over the country and each competition has a new challenge. The overall winner of each competition advances to the national competition in November. This event was made possible by Corteva.
Often there is a limited view of the agriculture industry. The goal of the event was to teach everyday people about agriculture showing the positive impact agriculture can have on communities and careers. Many people hear agriculture and focus on simply production agriculture/farming and not on the varied roles and responsibilities of the greater agriculture industry.
Teams must have shared the positive impact by building an interactive display to educate others. The categories included plant science, natural resources, agriculture technology/innovation and agriculture business. Teams built a physical prototype or interactive display and created a one-page, informational sheet explaining the educational components of their project.
Seven Indiana FFA Chapters participated in the competition, Connersville, Eastern Hancock, Fishers, Frankton-Lapel, Hamilton Heights, Hamilton Southeastern and Purdue Polytechnic.
Awardees are as follows:
Best Agilities- Purdue Polytechnic
Best Sales Pitch- Hamilton Southeastern
Overall Winner- Hamilton Southeastern (pictured above)
A recent Rabobank report says the global pork industry is starting to shift as sow herd numbers begin to plateau after declining for some time.
The stabilization is a result of better-than-expected consumption trends coupled with reduced production costs across most regions. These factors are contributing to a more optimistic outlook for hog prices and are encouraging producers to consider rebuilding their herds.
“The industry’s improved supply-demand balance has led to a contraction slowdown,” says Christine McCracken, senior animal protein analyst with Rabobank.
The U.S., Canada, and China are seeing healthier herds, which means more hogs are available. Higher global stocks of grains and oilseeds have resulted in lower feed costs for producers, which is a beneficial boost for the industry.
Despite a drop in some key Asian markets’ consumption, pork is maintaining its position as a cost-effective protein choice for worldwide consumers, especially in light of high beef prices.
State Rep. Craig Snow (R-Warsaw), who represents District 22. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/07192510/CJ-WRAP-HAT-CRAIG-SNOW-BIOFUELS-TAX-CREDIT-BILL-050724.mp3"]A bill that would have given tax credits for retailers to sell more ethanol and biodiesel in Indiana was heard by the state legislature this year, but one state lawmaker will bring that same bill back around next year with hopes of seeing it becoming law.
“We think that it will benefit our farmers and our corn and soy producers,” says State Rep. Craig Snow (R-Warsaw), who introduced House Bill 1315—a biofuels tax credit bill—earlier this year.
Snow spoke about his legislation as one of the guest panelists during the recent High-Performance Low Carbon Fuels Summit held at Andretti Global in Indianapolis and sponsored by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance.
He says his bill didn’t pass the hearing stage because it would have offered retailers up to $10 million in tax credits for selling higher blends of ethanol—and up to $5 million in tax credits for selling biodiesel.
“Which is why it was a hearing only in 2024 because it was not a budget year,” he says. “We were not going to open up the budget so we’re looking forward to having that done in 2025 it’ll be a budget year so we’re looking to take that bill back and get that $10 million appropriated for this purpose.”
Snow says he’s planning to introduce the biofuels tax credit bill once again in January. He says he is already working now to get this legislation across the finish line for next year.
“What I’ll be working on this summer and fall will be working with my peers—state senators and state representatives alike—to just educate them on what the bill trying to do,” says Snow. “A lot of our legislators are not ag people, so there’s a lot of education there, but I would also say within the industry itself with our producers—we want to educate them. We want them to call their legislators and help them understand why they want this done.”
According to the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance, Snow’s bill would add over $223 million in economic activity from biodiesel and would grow the demand for 51 million more bushels of corn for ethanol production.
Click HERE to read more about the Biofuel Tax Credit legislation that Rep. Snow had introduced into the 2024 Indiana General Assembly.
State Rep. Craig Snow (center) speaks during a panel discussion on biofuels legislation during the High Performance Low Carbon Liquid Fuels Summit at Andretti Global in Indianapolis. Joining Snow during the panel discussion are State Senator Brian Buchanan (R-District 7) and Steve Howell (right), Senior Director of Industry Affairs with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
For decades, the committees on agriculture in both the House and Senate in D.C. have been regarded as the most bipartisan. After Farm Bill frameworks were released last week by House Ag Republicans and Senate Ag Democrats, it seems like they may be further apart than ever before.
Indiana Beef Cattle Association President Kelley Sheiss was recently in Washington, D.C. and spoke with HAT on the new Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, available now wherever you listen to podcasts.
“Unfortunately, some of the things that have come up this week are very polarizing on the House and the Senate side on what that farm bill should look at. So, we’re very, very supportive of the House of Representatives bill. It’s very agriculture friendly, very supportive for Indiana ag and cattle producers. And we want to make sure it goes that route versus the other option, which is very greenhouse gas emissions, environmentally focused, that is not friendly to cattle producers whatsoever.”
We’ll know more after May 23rd when the House Ag Committee expects to mark up their version of the Farm Bill.
Sheiss lays out some of the priorities discussed with legislators on their recent trip to the Beltway.
“Conservation programs, crop insurance, EQIP- something that I think every one of us that were on that trip to D.C. have taken advantage of, so we realize the importance of it. The good thing was that everybody we met with understood that importance.”
Sheiss reiterates that cattle producers are not opposed to conservation programs. In fact, it’s quite the opposite- cattle producers are the original conservationists. IBCA would just like to see those conservation practices remain voluntary and incentive based, not mandatory.
You can hear more from Sheiss and IBCA Executive Vice President Brian Shuter on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast below or in the free HAT mobile app that can also connect to your Apple CarPlay.
Farm Bill Priorities for the Indiana Beef Cattle Association
April witnessed a steep decline in U.S. farmer sentiment, as indicated by the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, which fell 15 points from March to a reading of 99. Both subindexes of the barometer also saw declines: The Current Condition Index dropped by 18 points to 83, while the Future Expectations Index fell by 14 points to 106. The month marked the lowest farmer sentiment reading since June 2022 and the weakest current condition rating since May 2020. The sentiment decline was driven by worries regarding the current financial situation on farms and anticipated financial challenges in the coming year. The April Ag Economy Barometer survey was conducted from April 8-12, 2024.
“Farmers’ sentiment took a significant hit in April, reflecting broader concerns about financial performance and farmland values,” said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.
The Farm Financial Performance Index declined to 76 in April, marking a 7-point drop from the previous month and a 21-point decrease from last fall’s peak of 97. This downturn reflects farmers’ growing concerns about the upcoming year’s financial outlook, with fewer respondents expecting better or equal performance than last year.
Farmers’ expectations regarding interest rates and farmland values shifted in April’s survey. Only 24% of respondents anticipate interest rates rising over the next year, down from 32% in March. Fewer farmers this month also said they expect to see farmland values rise over the next year, despite the modest improvement in their interest rate outlook, while more farmers reported that they look for farmland values to hold steady. In the April survey, just 29% of producers said they expect farmland values to rise in the upcoming year, compared to 38% who felt that way in March. These shifts reflect farmers’ concern about farm financial performance in 2024, outweighing their improved interest rate outlook.
There is growing interest in using farmland for solar energy production, and solar lease rates appear to be increasing. This month’s survey revealed a 7-point uptick in respondents reporting discussions with companies about solar energy leases, reaching 19% compared to 12% in March. Specifically, discussions around solar leasing suggest demand for solar leases is increasing, with 58% of farmers reporting lease rate offers exceeding $1,000 per acre — up from 54% in March. Over one-fourth of respondents (28%) said they were offered a farmland lease rate of $1,250 or more per acre. Rising lease rates for energy production could be starting to impact farmland values, at least in some areas. Among producers who said they expect values to rise in the next year, 8% of respondents highlighted energy production as a key reason.
“Looking ahead, energy production activities could provide some support for farmland values and expectations in some regions,” Mintert said.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economists project the Panhandle wildfires caused $123 million in preliminary agricultural losses, making it the costliest on record. The wildfires began on February 26 and burned 1.2 million acres, making it the largest wildfire in Texas history.
“The recovery process will be ongoing, and we’ll continue to provide support,” says Rick Avery, AgriLife Extension Director.
The losses include more than 12,000 dead cattle, lost grazing values, and fence repair costs, according to economists. The initial loss estimates span from February through mid-March.
Other estimates include $68.7 million lost in ranch infrastructure, fences, barns, corrals, well pump motors, windmills, and stocks of hay or feed. They estimate $26 million lost in long-term grazing in fire-damaged pastures and range and short-term emergency feeding costs.
Producers lost an estimated $27 million worth of cattle, which includes both cattle and estimated losses of this season’s calf crop.
Donations are still being accepted by Texas Farm Bureau to help impacted farmers and ranchers.
Twenty percent of Indiana’s corn and soybeans have been planted across the state according to USDA. That compares to eight percent for both corn and soybeans planted from last week’s report.
Planting progress for both corn is still below the five-year average of 24 percent, but soybeans are now above the five-year average, which is 18 percent.
Six percent of both corn and soybeans have now emerged.
“Exceptionally warm weather bolstered winter wheat crop progress, and many Indiana farmers made planting progress where field conditions allowed,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office.
“The average temperature for the week was 67.9 degrees Fahrenheit, 11.7 degrees above normal for the State. The statewide average precipitation was 1.09 inches, 0.13 inches above normal. There were 3.6 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending May 5,” according to Warenski.
Winter wheat jointing for Indiana is at 79 percent compared to 61 percent from last week. Twenty-three percent is headed.
Source: USDA
The Indy 500 is coming up later this month, but for farmers, the race to try and squeeze in a little bit of planting in between rains has already begun. Unfortunately, planters don’t move quite that fast.
North Central Indiana Pioneer agronomist Brian Early says farmers are already worried about potential corn yield loss, but their data and Purdue’s shows there’s no reason to worry.
“It really isn’t that important to have your corn planted the first week of May. It’s a very poor correlation. Really, conditions need to be fit. So, with corn, you really need to be patient. Now beans on the other hand, they’re pretty responsive to sunlight. I get more worked up when we don’t have a decent slug of beans planted more so than corn.”
Early adds that conditions that promote uniform emergence are more important than the calendar date.
“The corn, I really would like it perfect if at all possible. So, if that means that perfect week is the last week of May, I’d rather have that than have corn planted right now.”
For those concerned about soybean yield loss, Early says the deeper we get into May you should consider planting a little thicker to make up for the timing delay.
“My rule of thumb is to add 10,000 plants a week. So, this first week of May you’ve got your standard plan that you’re going to do. Every week, just start adding 10,000 to get some more plants out there to harvest some light. So, there is something you can do yourself with beans to make up for the delayed planting. There’s nothing great about the situation, but patience on corn, not planting in bad conditions, and then adding more plants with beans can help you get to that end point where the loss probably isn’t near what you’re making it out to be in your mind as you sit around.”
Early encourages you to reach out to your agronomist if this planting delay has you frustrated and considering something off the wall. They can help you walk through a plan. You can reach your local Pioneer agronomist at pioneer.com/findmyrep.
Hear the full HAT interview with Early below.
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[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/05211838/aquaculture-wrap.mp3"]Seafood is big business around the world, and Indiana soybean producers are trying to capitalize by investing in new aquaculture strategies.
On a recent trip to Panama, Indiana Soybean Alliance Treasurer and Northeast Indiana farmer Carey McKibben learned more about investments they’ve been making in Central American aquaculture, one of the leaders worldwide in tilapia and shrimp production.
“Aquaculture in this region has exploded. And part of the reason is we’ve helped fund some of the research in getting the species able to digest more soybean into their diet. So, it’s able to process soybeans better and also be more efficient in growing tilapia and shrimp.”
What is the growth potential for soybean producers in aquaculture?
“They’re projecting within the next few years a 12% growth,” says McKibben. “I mean, that’s huge. Especially with the amount they already have. Central America already produces the most shrimp in the world.”
McKibben says the Indiana Soybean Alliance investments are helping move the pile, as they like to say, but they’re also improving sustainability.
“Not only have we helped on the diet side, we’ve also helped implement the race system to where the fish are basically in raceways in ponds and feed gets recirculated, the waste gets recirculated. It’s better for the ponds themselves, and also, the fish are able to be handled more easily. It’s a more efficient way to produce tilapia.”
You can learn more about soybean use in aquaculture in the video below from the U.S. Soy Export Council.
The Purdue Animal Sciences Department’s Distinguished Alumni Award Winners for 2024. Front row (left to right): James Bishop, Mark Legan, and Zachary Tucker. Back row (left to right): Dr. Kelli Werling, Dr. Paul Ebner, Interim Department Head and Professor of Animal Sciences; Dr. Mark Diekman, and Bailey Graham. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agriculture / Purdue Animal Sciences Department.The Purdue Animal Sciences Department hosted its 2024 Animal Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony on Friday, April 26. The individuals honored during this ceremony were Dr. Mark A. Diekman, Mark H. Legan, James D. Bishop, Bailey Graham, Zachary S. Tucker, and Dr. Kelli K. Werling.
The annual event honors alumni with three different awards: Early Career, Mid-Career, and Lifetime. The Early Career Award is given to alumni who received their first degree from the department between the years 2008 to 2018. The Mid-Career Award is given to alumni who received their first degree from the department between the years 1992 to 2007. The Lifetime Award is given to alumni who received their first degree from the department before 1992.
Bailey Graham was awarded the Early Career Award. She received her bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from Purdue University in 2015. She also received a minor in farm and agribusiness management and completed the certificate of entrepreneurship. Graham was heavily involved while she attended Purdue. She was in Mortar Board, Old Masters, Ag Ambassadors, Delta Gamma sorority and a Purdue Legacy Maker being the 25th person in her family to attend Purdue.
Graham began her career at Elanco Animal Health and is still there today as an Advisor in Poultry Food Safety Marketing. Currently, she is involved in the Diamond Hats Organization, which supports young females in agriculture at the Oklahoma Youth Expo and the EDGE mentorship program.
From left to right: Dr. Paul Ebner, Bailey Graham, Barry Delks, Shikha AdhikariZachary Tucker was another Early Career Award recipient. He graduated from Purdue in 2012 and received a degree in animal sciences. He also received a master’s degree from Purdue in agricultural economics and a Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.Tucker is a fourth-generation family member of Maple Leaf Farms, Inc., which is known as a global leader in duck production and breeding. He has been working at the company full-time for over 11 years and is now the Director of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. Tucker is on the Family Council and is the Philanthropy Committee chair; furthermore, he will join the board of directors for Maple Leaf Farms later this year.From left to right: Katie Wininger, Zachary Tucker, Dr. Paul EbnerDr. Kelli Werling also received the Early Career Award. She graduated from Purdue in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences and a minor in biological sciences. She also received a degree from the Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine in 2017 and joined the Indiana State Board of Animal Health where she is now the Senior Director of Operations and Director of Swine Health.Werling is a member of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and the United States Animal Health Association and a foreign disease diagnostician. At Purdue, she is a representative of the Purdue Veterinary Alumni Association board of directors, member of the College of Agriculture Alumni Mentorship Program and is president of the Stewart Cooperative Alumni board.From left to right: Dr. Paul Ebner, Dr. Kelli Werling, Natsume NarasakiJames Bishop was awarded the Mid-Career Award. He graduated from Purdue in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences. He also received his master’s degree in animal sciences from Purdue in 1997. While at Purdue, Bishop received the Outstanding Student in Animal Sciences recognition all four years of his undergraduate career.
Bishop has invested over 20 years in life-science organizations. He studied what makes great leaders while developing high-efficiency teams and outstanding cultures.
Bishop launched Conjunction Leadership in 2020. Conjunction Leadership provides coaching to industry executives, which helps them become adaptable and excellent leaders.
From left to right: Alyson Galey, James Bishop, Dr. Paul EbnerDr. Mark Diekman was awarded the Lifetime Award. He earned two animal sciences degrees from Purdue. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1970 and his master’s degree in 1972. He has also acquired degrees from Vincennes University and Colorado State University. Additionally, he completed postdoctoral research at Iowa State University.Diekman joined Purdue in 1979 as an assistant professor in animal sciences. He was promoted to full professor by 1989. He lead a research program to resolve swine reproductive inefficiency from 1979 to 1999. During his career at Purdue, he has published 83 referred papers and 92 abstracts.In 1997, Diekman took on the role of undergraduate program coordinator in the animal sciences department and stayed in the role until he retired in 2016 and was appointed professor emeritus.Diekman is the only faculty member in the College of Agriculture to earn the Young Agricultural Research Award, outstanding counselor in the College of Agriculture and the PACADA advising award. He has also received the Dean Bev Stone Award for non-academic advising in 2007 and the university’s Distinguished Service Award in 2021.From left to right: Kelly Curry, Dr. Mark Diekman, Dr. Paul EbnerMark Legan was also a Lifetime Award recipient. He graduated from Purdue with a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences in 1982. He also earned a master’s degree in extension education in 1985.Legan served as a Purdue Extension agent for seven years prior to starting a farming operation. Currently, he owns and operates Legan Livestock & Grain, Inc., which is located in Putnam County, Indiana. It consists of a 2,200 sow farrow-to-finish operation and about 1,100 acres of corn and soybeans. The operation finishes around 60,000 pigs annually.Legan has been a member and past president of the Indiana Pork Producers Association and has served on the boards of the National Pork Producers Council, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Board of Animal Health and the U.S. Meat Export Federation executive committee. Legan has also served on various committees and boards for Purdue and other organizations at many different levels.From left to right: Dr. Paul Ebner, Mark Legan, Hadley JamesNominations for the 2025 Animal Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards will be accepted beginning in October 2024. Click HERE for more information on criteria for nominations.
Story by: Katy Kinker
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/05133356/CJ-WRAP-FARM-BILL-OVERVIEW-DIFFERENCES-050324.mp3"]As U.S. House and Senate Ag Committee leaders have released separate overviews for a new Farm Bill, there are some differences between what the two committee leaders are seeking.
Many of those differences are because both committee leaders come from opposite sides of the political aisle. House Ag Chair Glenn “G.T.” Thompson is a Republican, while Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow is a Democrat.
“Chairman Thompson released a five-page outline of his 2024 Farm Bill, and he also announced a House Agriculture Committee markup date of May 23. Moving to the Senate, Chairwoman Stabenow released a section by section of her farm bill, very substantial, clocking in at 94 pages. She has not indicated a date for a markup, but we’re looking over both overviews that were sent out and trying to read through them and what it means for the Farm Bill,” says Joe Gilson, director of government affairs for American Farm Bureau.
Gilson points out some of the differences in what the two ag committee leaders are pushing for in the new Farm Bill.
“Both overviews make large investments in Title One,” he says. “We also see House Ag Chairman Thompson’s bill will include provisions to prevent states from regulating animal welfare outside of their borders. In Senate Ag Chairman Stabenow’s bill, it does make conservation programs permanent. One thing she also wants to do is impose a $700,000 adjusted gross income limit for commodity program payments.”
Gilson says the next few weeks will be critical in determining what happens next in the process.
“The May 23 markup from the House Ag Committee, depending on how that goes, will determine what happens in this Congress in terms of the Farm Bill. If we get a solid bipartisan vote out of that committee, I think, it can move to the House floor and really put pressure on the Senate,” says Gilson.
The 2018 Farm Bill is currently under a one-year extension that expires on Sept. 30.
Click HERE for the overviews for a new Farm Bill that were released by Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15).
Click HERE for the new Farm Bill overviews that were released by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/03231007/HATThisWeek2.mp3"]Way too much moisture in the planting forecast this time around. We only see a couple of days that stay precipitation free, and they are not really next to each other.
Saturday turns out rain free, but we see plenty of clouds holding on through the day in the wake of the rains that came through Friday and Friday evening. So, while we are not adding more moisture, we likely will see limited evaporation through the day and a lid stays on temps. Scattered showers are back in the state Saturday overnight through Sunday midday with rain totals of up to half an inch.
Sunday afternoon clouds will give way to some late sun, and then Monday we stay mostly dry as the active precipitation track sets up to our south, along and south of the Ohio River Valley. This dry look is short lived, though. Clouds build overnight Monday night.
We are very unsettled then Tuesday through Saturday. We have a chance of scattered showers and storms every day with about 60% coverage. All of us have the potential for multiple rounds of rain from Tuesday through the end of the 10 day forecast window. A few thunderstorms can be strong. Temps stay warm, fueling the convection. The week looks rather soggy, with combined rain totals for the Tuesday to Saturday period at 1”-3” at least, and coverage at 100%. The map below shows rain totals for the full 10 day window, through next Sunday evening.
Extended Period:
Two systems in the extended 11-16 day forecast window. We start the period dry Monday and Tuesday but then see Rain showers develop with a system for Wednesday the 15th. That round produces .25”-.75” with coverage at 80%. After a dry Thursday period, another stronger system arrives for Friday the 17th with .25”-1” rains and coverage at 100%. We should finish the period dry from Saturday the 18th through Monday the 20th.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Not a lot of good news in the far extended window either this time around. Precipitation will stay close to normal for the entire week 3 and week 4 outlook. Meanwhile, week 3 looks cool, meaning any potential drying will be slowed, and we bounce back only to “near normal” for week 4. The forecast is a bit concerning.
Week 3 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 3 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
Week 4 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 4 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/02204117/IN-wx-0503-wrap.mp3"]With the amount of rain we’ve received throughout Indiana, a good dry stretch is needed for many to get equipment back in the field. Unfortunately, Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin isn’t confident that will happen in the near term.
“Most folks across northern Indiana say that with no rain from this point forward, we would need a good three to four days at least before they can even think about rolling into the fields. A lot are talking a little bit more than that, especially in northeast Indiana. Here’s the problem: over the course of the next 10 days I, at best, see two days between rain events and most of the time it’s less than that. We have way too much moisture coming in the next 10 days to two weeks.”
Martin’s forecast begins with the potential for a tenth to three quarters of an inch of rain Friday.
“I think we get by with a mostly dry Saturday, but clouds will hamstring evaporation a little bit through the day there. Sunday, we also are not going to be seeing super evaporation and drying mostly due to the fact that there’s plenty of moisture over the state. It’s humid and we can’t even rule out a few pop-up showers and maybe a rumble of thunder up in the northern half to northern third of Indiana.”
Showers and thunderstorms kick off next week in central and southern Indiana, but Martin won’t rule them out up north too.
“A big frontal boundary hits later Tuesday into early Wednesday. A secondary surge of moisture comes Wednesday night into Thursday. We are dry for Thursday afternoon through Friday and into Saturday. But when I say dry, we still can’t rule out some pop-up showers in there. And guess what? Sunday, the 12th, we have another frontal boundary developing in the western Corn Belt and Great Plains. It’s likely going to head towards us with moisture late Sunday or into Monday the 13th.”
Additional forecast details from Martin can be in your inbox Saturday morning if you sign up for the Hoosier Ag Today newsletter below now.
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At left: Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15)—who serves as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee. At right: Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)—Chair of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/02160706/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-THOMPSON-STABENOW-ON-FARM-BILL-050224.mp3"]Overviews for a new Farm Bill were released earlier this week by leaders of both the U.S. House and Senate Ag Committees.
Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (PA-15)—who serves as Chair of the House Agriculture Committee—said he plans to mark-up the bill this month while speaking with reporters from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) this week in Washington, D.C.
“We’re going to do a markup on this Farm Bill on May 23rd in the House Act committee and it is, in its structure, it is a strong bipartisan bill,” he said.
Thompson also released the following statement after sharing a title-by-title overview of the bipartisan policies and priorities included in the 2024 Farm Bill.
“This bill is a product of an extensive and transparent process, which included soliciting feedback from members of both political parties, stakeholder input from across the nation, and some tough conversations,” said Thompson. “Each title of this farm bill reflects a commitment to the American farmer and viable pathways to funding those commitments and is equally responsive to the politics of the 118th Congress. The Committee on Agriculture will markup this bill on May 23, and I hope for unanimous support in this endeavor to bring stability to producers, protect our nation’s food security, and revitalize rural America.”
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)—Chair of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee—told NAFB reporters that she’s counting on bipartisan support for the bill.
“We don’t get a farm bill done unless it’s bipartisan, period,” she said. “I’ve been involved in six farm bills. This is the third one I’ve led in the Senate, and I know how to get these done. And I know that you do that by keeping the broad Farm bill coalition together, and that means commodities and conservationists and foresters, and environmentalists and nutrition folks and local governments and bioenergy. And I mean, it’s all of it,” she said. “So, what we’re doing today is putting out not a framework. A bill. This is a bill.”
She said she’s serious about getting the bill done.
“You know that we’re stuck right now on some negotiations. I hope this helps free that because our farmers need the certainty of a five-year farm bill. I think rural communities need that as well,” she said. “So, we’re doing this within the context of three major goals: keeping farmers farming; keeping families fed; and keeping rural communities strong. That’s the framework that we are using.”
The 2018 Farm Bill is currently under a one-year extension that expires on Sept. 30.
Click HERE for the overviews for a new Farm Bill that were released by Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15).
Click HERE for the new Farm Bill overviews that were released by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/02114315/CJ-WRAP-HAT-MCKINNEY-US-AG-TRADE-DEFICIT-050124.mp3"]We’re buying far more ag products from outside the U.S. than what we’re selling and exporting—and that’s led to a U.S. ag trade deficit of $16.6 billion for fiscal year 2023.
One Indiana ag leader says the Biden administration still needs to much more to correct that deficit.
“First, I’ll say that we are pleased the current administration is trying to straighten out some trade under existing rules,” says Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). He had previously served under President Trump as USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. McKinney is also a native of Tipton County and former director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
“We’ve seen the advancement of a few products that we can sell in India, and the same for Vietnam,” he says. “They’re working on trying to fix the dairy issue in Canada, and that ridiculous corn decree in Mexico, so good.”
But, McKinney says he and other ag leaders are pushing President Biden, USDA, and the U.S. Trade Representative to do far more to reverse the ag trade deficit.
“It’s pretty clear that a lot of ag really wants more. If you can’t bring tariffs down, whatever it takes to do that, you’re going to be cut out at least at some level, of a lot of markets. We thought that the testimony of Ambassador Tai’s testimony was good in front of one of the Senate committees, I believe, and she said trade is good for ag but less so for workers. We’ve not heard that before, so let’s parse those. Let’s see, all right, if it’s good for ag, how can we do more for ag? So, we’re respectfully trying to push that,” says McKinney.
Some officials estimate that the U.S. ag trade deficit for fiscal year 2024 may reach $30 billion.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/05/01162135/biden-trade-wrap.mp3"]At a recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, South Dakota Republican John Thune complained to Biden Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai that the White House refusal to boost market opening trade deals is harming producers.
“We’re running the largest trade deficit this year, ever- $17 billion this year. They’re saying it could be $30 billion this coming year. And net farm income was down $30 million last year and will be down they say, $39 billion this year. So, thanks to inflation, input costs are going up, and commodity prices are going down. One of the things that affects commodity prices is demand. And the way you create demand is to open markets. And I can’t tell that the administration is doing anything on that.”
Tai argues that some like the UK and EU don’t want to do Ag deals, and free trade agreements don’t boost demand fast enough. She cited $21 billion worth of Ag market gains over the past three years in Japan, India, and other countries, what she called “singles and doubles” as opposed to trade homeruns like free trade agreements.
She insisted some of the deficit is due to a strong US economy and dollar.
“I think our farmers are the savviest businesspeople that I talk to and work with in trade. They know their businesses; they know trade. With respect to the deficit, we’re concerned about the deficit. Absolutely… I just wish that our ag champions were as concerned about the industrial trade deficit as they are with ag trade because it can absolutely indicate a need for concern. Secretary Vilsack and I know, along with our farmers, that we need to be able to diversify our export opportunities. Because we are at a lot of risk. We are working very, very hard to do that.”
Thune expressed that while their approach is grounded in things other than market access, market access is what American farmers want and need to get farm income back in the plus column.
House Ag Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) laid out his title-by-title overview of the 2024 Farm Bill on Wednesday.
He called the legislation a product that happens when the development process is extensive and transparent, which included feedback from members of both political parties, stakeholder input from across the U.S., and some tough conversations. Thompson says he plans to markup his bill on May 23.
Ranking Member David Scott (D-GA) says, “Ag Committee Democrats presented a farm bill counterproposal to our Republican colleagues as part of an ongoing, years-long process that could invest tens of billions in the farm bill safety net without any cuts to SNAP benefits.” He added, “Unfortunately, Republicans rejected this bipartisan approach in favor of a partisan bill with an untenable funding scheme. By insisting on poison pill policies, Republicans have turned what could have been a genuinely bipartisan bill into a messaging exercise to appease their right flank that has no chance of becoming law.”
In Thompson’s overviewunder Title 12: Miscellaneous, one of his bullet points says, “Clarifies that states and local governments cannot impose a condition or standard on the production of covered livestock unless the livestock is physically located within such state or local government.” This appears to be in response to California’s Proposition 12.
In the Senate, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow unveiled the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, which she says contains more than 100 bipartisan bills and puts the 2024 Farm Bill back on track to being signed into law by the end of the year.
The Biden administration released guidance on its sustainable aviation fuel subsidy program that allows corn-based ethanol to qualify for the program if it’s sourced from farms using climate-friendly growing techniques.
Farm Policy News from the University of Illinois says SAF can be made from corn, soy, or other agricultural products. To access the subsidies that make it economically viable, refiners must demonstrate their fuel is at least 50 percent lower in emissions than petroleum jet fuel.
Ethanol-based SAF can meet that threshold only if corn farmers use a bundle of agricultural practices that include no-till, cover cropping, and efficient fertilizer application that holds carbon in the soil.
The announcement also says soy-based biodiesel will qualify if the soy farms use a combination of no-till and cover cropping.
SAF producers are eligible for a tax credit of $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon.
“This is a stepping stone,” says Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The 40B tax credit guidance and modified GREET model begins to unlock the door for U.S. ethanol producers and farmers to participate in the emerging market for sustainable aviation fuels; however, the Renewable Fuels Association says more work must be done to fully open the market to ethanol.
“We believe less prescription on ag practices and more flexibility and additional low-carbon technologies and practices should be added to the modeling framework,” says RFA chief Geoff Cooper.
Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says the administration’s all-or-nothing approach to recognizing the value of climate-smart agricultural practices may ultimately limit innovation and overall SAF production.
The American Soybean Association says the announcement went “sideways” because, for soybean oil to qualify, they must be grown using no-till and cover cropping.
“Specifying only two practices out of a variety of options will further restrict soybean oil use as a SAF feedstock,” says Josh Gackle, ASA President.
The U.S. government announced it will collect samples of ground beef from retail stores in the states with outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cattle. Reuters says the government is confident that the meat supply is safe.
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have said the overall public health risk is low, but it is higher for those with exposure to infected animals.
Scientists believe the outbreaks are more widespread in cows than officially reported based on findings of H5N1 particles in about 20 percent of milk samples. The Food and Drug Administration says that preliminary results of gold-standard PCR tests showed pasteurization killed the bird flu virus in milk.
USDA will analyze retail ground beef samples with PCR tests that indicate “whether any viral particles are present,” according to a statement.
USDA’s mandatory testing rule for lactating dairy cattle began this week.
In what’s becoming an annual tradition, EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced last week a summertime sales waiver for E15 or Unleaded 88, allowing the fuel to be sold year-round nationwide.
“It’s a cleaner fuel. It’s more efficient and it costs less,” says Indiana Corn Growers Association Senior Director of Industry Affairs Steve Howell. “A lot of times it’s five to ten cents less than regular 87. So, it’s good for the farmer, it’s good for the environment, and it’s good for the consumer.”
Howell is one of the guests on the latest Indiana Ag Policy Podcast from Hoosier Ag Today. He says it’s frustrating that this has to happen each year, especially since E15 is already allowed to be sold year-round in some parts of the country.
“So, areas with higher air pollution can sell it year-round because it is a cleaner fuel, but because of frankly, some conflicting bureaucratic rules, it’s not allowed in other areas. So, very frustrating that we’re having to go back every year to have this waiver applied. That’s why we’re pushing for a legislative fix. That is building momentum.”
Howell credits Indiana Congressmen Baird and Carson for being part of that legislation awaiting action.
Also on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast, Hancock County farmer Chris Cherry, president of the Indiana Corn Growers Association, describes the impact to Indiana farmers from Mexico’s ban on white corn.
“Basically, our exports on white corn are down 87% in 2023, and down about 12% on corn in general.”
Cherry also discusses the Farm Bill and how he’d like to see it get updated to match what farmers are dealing with now, not what farmers were facing back in 2018 when it passed.
“I mean, right now, local ethanol plants are around $4.30 for corn, and it probably costs $5.30 to put out an acre of corn when you factor rent into the equation. So, right now, we’re penciling in $100 an acre loss.”
The Indiana Ag Policy Podcast can be heard below or in the free HAT mobile app on iPhone or Android devices.
Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, and Indiana Corn Growers Association, meeting with ag business leaders while part of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s recent economic development trip to Brazil and Mexico. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/30161505/CJ-WRAP-HAT-COURTNEY-KINGERY-TRADE-TRIPS-043024.mp3"]Making Indiana’s corn and soybeans more valuable for producers is the reason why an Indiana ag leader has traveled throughout three different continents in just the past two weeks!
“The world needs Indiana agriculture. Indiana has a role to play in feeding and fueling the world,” says Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance.
She not only joined Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on his economic development trip to Brazil and Mexico two weeks ago, but she was also part of the USDA trade mission last week to India. She says the overall goal is to continue to “move the pile” for Indiana corn and soybean producers.
“They need Indiana corn and soybeans. They need our pork and poultry products. They need our ethanol and our biofuels—and I heard that loud and clear meeting with government officials in Brazil and meeting with customers and the fuel and ethanol industry and poultry producers in India,” says Kingery. “They need our fuel, our soybean meal, our turkey, and our duck.”
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (sixth from left) and his delegation—including Courtney Kingery (second from left)—following a roundtable discussion in Mexico with the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC), Probocca, and Maple Leaf Farms. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.Kingery says that India is targeting to make E20 fuel their standard over the next two years. She believes their goal opens a huge new market for Indiana ethanol and corn producers.
“Forty-five percent of the corn in Indiana goes into ethanol,” according to Kingery. “There’s a tremendous opportunity for Indiana ethanol to meet the needs of the Indian market and to be a part of the solution to hit those E20 targets. While the farmers in Indiana are planting the corn to become next year’s ethanol, Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance—the checkoff organizations—are out promoting their product into those emerging markets on their behalf.
Kingery was one of many Hoosier ag leaders who have traveled overseas during the past two weeks promoting Indiana ag products. Joining Gov. Holcomb and Kingery in Brazil and Mexico were Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA); and Mitch Frazier, President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana.
Hoosier ag leaders who also joined Kingery as part of the recent USDA trade mission to India were Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association; Katie Nelson, ISDA Deputy Director; Drew Sherman, ISDA International Trade Director; and Sean Smith, General Manager of Culver Duck.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/30161226/COURTNEY-KINGERY-TRADE-TRIPS-RAW-AUDIO-043024.mp3"]Members of the Indiana trade delegation with Alexis Taylor, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, during a recent trade mission to New Delhi, India. From left to right: Drew Sherman, ISDA Trade Director; Katie Nelson, ISDA Deputy Director; Alexis Taylor; Sean Smith, General Manager of Culver Duck; Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association; and Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Corn Growers Association, and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Photo courtesy of USDA Foreign Ag Service.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/30224549/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-PFAS-AFBF-COURTNEY-BRIGGS-042924.mp3"]Ag leaders are expressing their concerns over the EPA’s final rule on PFAS—or “forever chemicals”—that could unintentionally be found in farm fields and that farmers could be unfairly targeted by the rule.
In its final rule, the EPA has labeled PFAS as “hazardous materials” under The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA).
“The federal government is building this plane as they’re flying it,” said Courtney Briggs, Senior Director of Government Affairs with the American Farm Bureau Federation.
“There are a lot of components that [the EPA] just have not figured out yet,” she said. “There is technology that still needs to come online. There are standards that need to be set. But a farmer would be forced at this point—if they had a contaminated farm field—they would potentially be held liable and have to pay for the cleanup and remediation of the farm field. Right now, when you go ask the federal government, ‘How do you remediate a farm field? What exactly goes into that? What kind of techniques should be used in order to clean up a farm field?’ They don’t have the answers to that yet.”
Briggs says that the CERCLA rule is not the place to start when it comes to assessing responsibility for clean-up.
“You can’t go around assigning liability to people when you haven’t even figured out a way of properly cleaning this up,” she said. “Certainly, there are entities out there that should be held responsible because we do need to clean up a number of areas of the country from PFAS contamination, but the theme of the CERCLA rule has always been that the polluter pays. Well, if that’s the case, then it should be the chemical companies that should be on the hook for clean-up and remediation and paying into the super fund. They should assume that liability.”
She says that Farm Bureau is pushing lawmakers in Congress to create the “Liability Shield” that would protect passive receivers, like farmers, from any liability.
Photo courtesy of Indiana FFA.The Indiana FFA Association has named the Top Four for each of the Career Development Events (CDE) held Saturday, April 27, at Indian Creek High School and the Indiana FFA Leadership Center, which are both located near Trafalgar.
Indiana FFA also hosted the first ever Unified Horticulture CDE for students with intellectual disabilities.
Floriculture – Senior Team Results
1 – Southmont FFA
2 – Danville FFA
3 – Whiteland FFA
4 – Central Noble FFA
Floriculture – Junior Team Results
1 – Central Noble FFA
Nursery/Landscape – Team Results
1 – East Central FFA
2 – Tippecanoe Valley FFA
Small Engines – Team Results
1 – Eastbrook FFA
2 – Central Noble FFA
3 – Indiana Ag & Tech FFA
4 – Heritage FFA
Practical Forestry – Team Results
1 – Manchester FFA
2 – Tippecanoe Valley FFA
3 – Heritage Hills FFA
4 – Heritage Hills FFA
Unified Horticulture – Individual Results
1 – Caleb Conner, Connersville FFA
2 – Kevin Altman, Frontier FFA
3 – Blake Williams, Northview FFA
4 – Daly Britt, Indian Creek FFA
Source: Indiana FFA
If you are among those hit by rains that halted planting operations, use the downtime to walk fields and see if you are happy with your results so far. Pioneer Southeast Indiana agronomist Jason Geis recommends checking your planting depth, spacing and closure before you resume planting.
“We can cover a lot of acres in one day anymore,” he explained. “Because of that we can also have issues on a lot of acres in one day, so it’s not uncommon to get a call in the spring and find one row that’s maybe stunted or not emerging as well. So maybe we broke a spring or something like that or didn’t have the right closing wheel pressure. Maybe one of our 2×2 row starter rows was worn or got bent and we put fertilizer closer to the road and the fertilizer burned those roots. So just take the time to walk around the planter and make sure that you’re getting good seed contact. Make sure nothing looks out of the norm.”
Geis is frequently asked if soybean seed treatments are still an important tool even as temperatures warm up. His answer is yes, stick with the treated seed.
“There’s a handful of those diseases that actually like warmer soils as well, so phytophthora is one that likes warm, wet soils to infect the plant, and fusarium is another seedling disease that can infect in a wide range of soil conditions. Then if we’re talking about nematodes, those can infect soybeans and the damage is typically worse when it’s hot and dry. So just because it’s getting later, things are emerging quicker, there is still certainly plenty of opportunity for our stands to get impacted by seedling diseases.”
Pioneer’s new insecticide seed treatment called Lumiderm is very good at treating seed corn maggot. That could be important this year.
Hear more from Pioneer’s Jason Geis in the full HAT interview below and get in touch with your Pioneer agronomist by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/29183133/Jason-Geis-Pioneer-update-4-29-24.mp3"]
Eight percent of Indiana’s corn and soybeans have been planted across the state according to USDA. That compares to two percent of both corn and soybeans planted from last week’s report.
Planting progress for both corn and soybeans are below their respective five-year averages at 13 and 9 percent.
“The statewide average precipitation was 0.80 inches, 0.02 inches below normal. There were 3.8 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending April 28,” according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician, USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office.
Winter wheat jointing for Indiana is at 61 percent compared to 43 percent from last week. Seven percent is headed.
Source: USDA
It won’t be long before 4-Hers across Indiana take to their county fairgrounds to show off what they’ve been up to for the past year. All are invited to attend 4-H county fairs across Indiana this summer.
County fairs bring communities together and serve as a culmination of the yearlong educational experiences of participants in Purdue University Extension’s 4-H Youth Development program. Activities can include exhibition of 4-H projects on topics from aerospace to woodworking, livestock shows and public speaking competitions.
Casey Mull, assistant director of Purdue Extension and 4-H youth development, says, “The county fairs give 4-H’ers the opportunity to share what sparks their interests and showcase the valuable skills, credentials and connections they have gained, preparing them for the future.”
See the dates for each county fair below.
The agricultural economy has faced some challenges during the past year with increased interest rates and decreased commodity prices. However, farmers are the eternal optimists. Farmers National Company reports that overall farmland demand remains extraordinarily strong and land values are holding steady in most areas.
Troy Swee, Assistant Vice President of Farmers National, says even in the slight downward turn in the ag sector, the company continues to get phone calls and emails from farmers and investors looking to expand their landholdings.
“High-quality land continues to sell at a level comparable to the spring of 2023,” he says. “However, lower quality farms and farms with a few blemishes on them have seen a seven to 15 percent reduction in price.”
Swee also predicts that land values will continue holding steady for the first half of 2024, even after getting into early summer, when the sales volume typically begins to shrink.
Photo courtesy of Tom Campbell / Purdue Agricultural Communications.Colombia has become the first country to restrict U.S. beef imports due to the recent viral infections in dairy cattle caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Earlier this month, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners have begun referring to HPAI in cattle as bovine influenza A virus, or BIAV.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) says there is “no scientific basis” for the restrictions.
“Columbia is the only country that has officially restricted imports of U.S. beef,” the organization says. “We are encouraged that the vast majority of our trading partners are following the science on the matter.”
The U.S. is Colombia’s largest supplier of imported beef, making Columbia’s attempt to suspend beef imports from specific U.S. states is unworkable and misguided.
“It’s created uncertainty for Colombian importers and their customers and suppliers,” USMEF says. “This will greatly disrupt trade.”
The organization appreciates the efforts of the U.S. government to address Colombian officials’ concerns, and they’re hopeful that the matter can be resolved as soon as possible.
The U.S. exported about $40 million in beef and beef products to Colombia last year.
Source: NAFB News Service
The Biden administration is expected to release a tax credit model for its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) subsidy program on Tuesday. The rule will dictate how ethanol producers can use climate-smart agriculture to qualify for tax credits in the production of SAF.
Representatives of the ethanol industry say that SAF is a way to build demand for its products going forward, as gasoline consumption is expected to decline.
According to a report from Reuters, the administration will release a preliminary climate mode for its sustainable aviation fuel subsidy program in the coming weeks that’s more restrictive than what the ethanol industry had expected. The report says it will leave producers with a pathway to the subsidies if they can partner with corn growers that use sustainable farming practices.
“To access SAF subsidies, producers must demonstrate that their feedstock is 50 percent lower in emissions than jet fuel,” Reuters says.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/27203827/mental-health-month-wrap.mp3"]Studies show that farmer suicide rates are several times higher than the national average. Jessica Cabrera, managing director of member engagement with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says mental health among farmers and ranchers is an important topic to discuss, particularly during Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
“There are just so many unpredictable experiences in farming. Experiences such as natural disasters, lots of financial uncertainty, fluctuating markets, labor shortages, trade disruptions. There are so many factors that contribute to extreme stress for farmers and ranchers. And they also often live in a very isolated setting, which can compound the issue. I think it’s really important to break the stigma around mental health challenges.”
If you or someone you know is struggling, the Farm State of Mind website has many resources to help.
“You’ll find a national resource directory that is searchable. You’ll find helpful tips like how to help someone in emotional pain or how to start a conversation with someone. We have videos, including video and radio public service announcements. We have a peer-to-peer support community resource called ‘Together All’. That resource offers a space for farm family members ages 16 and older a way to express themselves anonymously and to receive and give peer support.”
Cabrera says anyone can be an advocate for mental health in rural America.
“I would say the most impactful way to advocate for mental health wellness among farmers and ranchers is to let everyone know it’s okay not to be okay. Just reducing that stigma alone, encouraging those who are struggling to reach out for help and to let them know that that is a completely acceptable way to move forward. Empowering people to believe that reaching out for help is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness.”
For more information, go to fb.org/farmstateofmind.
Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). Conner is also a native of Benton County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/26232105/CJ-WRAP-HAT-CHUCK-CONNER-ON-H-2A-FINAL-RULE-042624.mp3"]On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a final rule regarding the H-2A program for migrant workers. The agency says the rule would “strengthen protections for farmworkers.” However, one Indiana ag leader says that rule could instead create a burden for Hoosier farmers.
“The proposed rule that is leading up to this was just very, very problematic for American agriculture, and so our view is nothing positive can come out of the final rule,” says Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). He is also a native of Benton County, Indiana.
Even though he and his team are currently reading through the language of the final rule, Conner says the direction of the rule could negatively impact farm operations.
“The U.S. Department of Labor just seems determined to grant an enormous number of new worker rights for farm workers out there. These rights are important, but yet at the same time, they really can’t come at the expense of the freedom and the oversight on our farms and ranches,” says Conner.
“Pitting individual farmers out there against Union organizers and basically anybody else that [farm workers] would like to bring on our farms and ranches to oversee these farm operations is just not the direction we should be going at this point,” he says. “Our farmers do not need any burden placed upon them in these kind of times.”
Conner says he’s been pushing for farm labor reform, but this isn’t it.
“Our hope and our goal for labor reform is to increase access to workers for American agriculture. It’s not to go down the path of these proposed Biden rules that are now going final, which is basically to give workers unprecedented rights to disrupt farm production on these farms and ranches,” says Conner. “Our goal is quite the opposite. We want these farms and ranchers to have full access to as much labor as they need to keep food production in this country and not overseas somewhere.”
Click HERE to read the press release from the U.S. Department of Labor touting the final rule for H-2A farmworkers.
Click HERE to access the complete 600-page document from the U.S. Department of Labor detailing the final rule for H-2A farmworkers.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Hoosier native and ag leader Chuck Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, regarding the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule on H-2A farm labor.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/26232048/CHUCK-CONNER-H-2A-FINAL-RULE-RAW-AUDIO-042624.mp3"]
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/26222440/HATThisWeek2-042724.mp3"]The Planting Weather Forecast does not look that favorable over the next ten days in the east. Specifically, we are seeing four threats of rain between this weekend and early the week of May 6th, with no more than 2-3 days of dryness in-between each wave, sometimes only 1 day between waves. So, we will not see net drying over the next 10 days, and all of a sudden, we have a little bit of anxiety about planting. Longer term looks a bit better, but time will tell.
We start the weekend with scattered showers and storms lingering on Saturday morning after starting off Friday afternoon and overnight. The rain totals from that first wave of moisture will be .25”-.75” over about 70% of the state. We see action end Saturday afternoon and evening, and we should make it through most of Sunday with partly sunny and warm conditions. Precipitation returns late Sunday afternoon and evening and rolls through Monday afternoon. That second wave brings an additional .25”-.75” over 90% of Indiana. We get 36 hours of dry weather from Monday evening through Tuesday. Then Wednesday we start off May with scattered showers. Rain totals Wednesday will be .25”-.75” with 75% coverage.
Dry weather for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday starts cool, but not as cold as this past week. Then temps moderate quickly to finish the week, and temps should be above normal. Evaporation rates will be good, near maximum, but we likely just run out of time for drying. Showers are back with a frontal boundary for Sunday the 5th. Rain potential looks to be up to half an inch again, with coverage at 80%. While those rain totals next week are not over the top, it does mean we are not drying on those rainy days, and we just can’t quite string together a dry trend that is long enough to produce widespread planting opportunities. The map below shows rain totals for the next 10 days.
Extended Period:
We start the following week dry on Monday the 6th. We keep the dry pattern through the 7th and 8th before a frontal boundary sags through the state for the afternoon of the 9th and early the 10th. Rain totals are not that impressive at a few hundredths to .3” with coverage at 60%. Dry, warm weather is back for the afternoon of the 10th, the 11th and 12th. So, that means in our extended window, we are starting to see some potential planting windows emerge, especially if the system late on the 9th can fizzle out and merely produce sprinkles or hit and miss coverage.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Precipitation looks to be below normal in week 3 and near normal for week 4. If that holds, any planting window that opens in the extended 11-16 day forecast window would be on track to hold into mid-May. Temps though will be below normal in week 3, returning to near normal in week 4.
Week 3 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 3 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
Week 4 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 4 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/25194613/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-HPAI-IN-MILK-042524.mp3"]The USDA this week is now requiring that dairy cattle be tested for bird flu before they can be moved beyond state lines. That’s an effort to stop the spread of the virus. Even though trace amounts of the virus have been found in our milk supply, the USDA and FDA say milk remains safe for you and your family to drink.
Health officials site two reasons for the safety of the milk that is on the shelves: the pasteurization process and the diversion or destruction of milk from sick cows.
“Just to be clear about this, it’s not surprising that the virus could be found in a pasteurized sample. The question is whether or not the virus is live in that sample,” explained USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack during a call with agriculture media. “You can find particles of the virus after pasteurization, because pasteurization is not sterilization. It doesn’t necessarily remove every evidence of a virus. But what it does is, it kills the capacity of the virus to infect and that’s what you’re concerned about.”
While pasteurization inactivates the virus, it does not eliminate the presence of viral particles. That’s why testing discovered the inactive trace amounts. Secretary Vilsack said the primary concern is if there is a live virus in the milk.
“The pasteurization samples that have been done up to this point on milk that has contained virus has resulted in the virus not being alive,” he confirmed.
Bernt Nelson with the American Farm Bureau Federation agreed on the safety of the U.S. milk supply.
“Number one, their milk is safe to drink. Sick cows are pulled out of the herd, so their milk is not allowed to enter the supply chain. Further, pasteurization kills both bacteria and viruses. This includes high-path avian influenza, so their milk is safe to drink,” he said.
Vilsack said it is possible that the milk that has made it through to packaging was from asymptomatic cows that were not treated as having the illness.
During the course of the outbreak, the FDA has been evaluating milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves. To date, it has found nothing that would change its assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe. FDA says results from multiple studies will be made available in the next few days to weeks.
What you’re paying at the gas pump may likely be dropping over the coming days throughout Indiana.
After weeks of paying higher prices, the recent increases for gas may be coming to an end as refineries complete the transition from winter to summer gas blends. The changing fuel blends come with the changing seasons.
“As the nationwide changeover to summer gasoline is now behind us, at least one of the three factors that had been actively causing prices to rise in the last couple of months is behind us. However, it may take time for the largest pain point to be over: refinery maintenance. The next few weeks should see many refineries wrapping up their work and gasoline output should rise, putting downward pressure on gasoline prices soon,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.com.
“While Israel’s retribution on Iran was somewhat surprising, it was also measured, with Iran virtually not even mentioning it publicly. As such, the price of oil has moved slightly lower, following the de-escalation that now appears to be taking place. I’m hopeful with reduced concern in the Middle East and an end to the seasonal factors pushing prices up that Americans will soon see relief,” said DeHaan.
OIL PRICESWith de-escalation occurring between Israel and Iran after recent direct attacks, oil markets are breathing a sigh of relief. While the danger is not completely gone, risk has been reduced as Iran has largely ignored Israel’s most recent attack. Energy markets have seen downward movement as the CFTC reported last Friday that net longs slipped by over 36,000 lots, indicating more are betting that a potential short-term top in the price of oil may have been reached. In addition, some speculation has exited gasoline, with longs falling nearly 6,000 lots, with a rise in shorts of over 5,000 lots. The skew represents a market that is betting on lower short-term prices. Oil was also in the red in early Monday trading, with WTI crude down 46 cents to $82.68 per barrel, off from last Monday’s $85.09 fetch. Brent was also down in early trade, falling 86 cents to $86.43 per barrel, down from $89.69 on last week’s open.
OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTSLast week’s report from the EIA showed a 2.7 million barrel increase in crude oil inventories, which are just 1% below the five-year average range. The SPR added another 600,000 barrels and stands at nearly 365 million barrels. Domestic crude oil production was unchanged at 13.1 million barrels per day. Gasoline inventories shed 1.2 million barrels and stand about 4% below the five-year average with a large draw on the West Coast, where heavy refinery maintenance has pushed prices up considerably. Distillate inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels, which is still down 7% compared to the five-year average for this time of year. Implied gasoline demand slipped to 8.66 million barrels per day, while refinery utilization also slipped 0.2 percentage points to 88.1%.
FUEL DEMANDAccording to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy fuel card, U.S. retail gasoline demand saw a rise of 1.4% for the week ending April 20 (Sun-Sat). Broken down by PADD region, demand rose 1.9% in PADD 1, rose 2.2% in PADD 2, fell 1.5% in PADD 3, rose 0.5% in PADD 4, and rose 2.3% in PADD 5. GasBuddy models U.S. gasoline demand at 8.820 million barrels per day for the week ending April 13.
GAS PRICE TRENDSThe most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.59 per gallon, up 20 cents from last week, followed by $3.39, $3.29, $3.49, and $3.69 rounding out the top five most common prices.
The median U.S. gas price is $3.49 per gallon, up 10 cents from last week and about 15 cents lower than the national average. The top 10% of stations in the country average $5.12 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.02 per gallon. The states with the lowest average prices: Mississippi ($3.06), Louisiana ($3.11), Colorado ($3.14).
The states with the highest average prices: California ($5.40), Hawaii ($4.72), and Washington ($4.62).
The average price for regular unleaded in Indiana as of Thursday, April 25, is $3.61 a gallon.
DIESEL PRICE TRENDSThe most common U.S. diesel price stood at $3.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $3.79, $3.89, $3.69, and $4.19 rounding out the top five most common prices.
The median U.S. diesel price is $3.89 per gallon, unchanged from last week and about 12 cents lower than the national average for diesel.
Diesel prices at the top 10% of stations in the country average $5.01 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.44 per gallon.
The states with the lowest average diesel prices: Colorado ($3.57), Oklahoma ($3.61), and Texas ($3.61).
The states with the highest average diesel prices: Hawaii ($5.58), California ($5.39), and Washington ($4.64).
The average price for diesel in Indiana as of Thursday, April 25, is $4.06 a gallon.
Source: GasBuddy.com**
Photo courtesy of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.Following the USDA’s recent trade mission to India, the agency is now accepting applications from ag producers and business leaders for their next agribusiness trade mission to Bogotá, Colombia, Aug. 13-15, 2024.
Colombia is the largest South American market for U.S. ag products and the seventh-largest market for U.S. food and beverage exports globally. Since the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement was implemented in 2012, U.S. agricultural exports to Colombia have grown 237 percent, reaching a record $3.7 billion in 2023.
Changes in Colombians’ lifestyles – including increasingly common dual-income households, interest in healthier foods, and demand for packaged and prepared food products – bode well for U.S. exports. Furthermore, formal retail establishments, including supermarkets and mid-sized grocery stores, now account for 60 percent of food distribution nationwide.
While in Bogotá, U.S. agribusiness representatives will meet with potential importers from across Colombia, and FAS staff and local/regional industry trade experts will provide detailed market briefings. The mission will also include engagements with USDA leadership, site visits in Bogotá and the surrounding area, and multiple networking opportunities.
Colombia’s modern retail sector presents newfound opportunities for a diverse range of U.S. exports, including:
- healthy foods (low-sodium, low-sugar, low-fat)
- fresh fruit
- dog and cat food
- distilled spirits and wine
- meat and meat products (beef, pork, and poultry)
- processed vegetables
- beans
- seafood
- dairy products
- food preparations
- snack foods
- cereals
- tree nuts
- condiments and sauces
- food and baking ingredients
- feed ingredients
The trade mission will be led by Alexis Taylor, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
“Colombia represents a top-tier food and agricultural export destination for American farmers, ranchers and processors,” said Taylor. “As the second-most-populous country in South America, Colombia enjoys highly favorable demographics, coupled with 20 years of continuous economic growth, which saw a 36-percent increase in the median household income. USDA is committed to supporting and facilitating agricultural trade between suppliers and buyers throughout the Western Hemisphere, including Colombia.”
For consideration to participate in the trade mission, please complete the online application here by May 3.
More information about USDA trade missions can be found on the FAS website.
Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/25200312/HAT-planting-wx-042624-wrap.mp3"]A big weather system is brewing for the Western and Central Corn Belt over the weekend and HAT Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says we’ll see some of that try to get into Indiana.
“At this point, I think we have to divide the system up into two waves. The first wave initiating here Friday night and going through Saturday. I think that it’s going to be mostly Saturday midday and afternoon before it winds down. We’ll see anywhere from a quarter to three quarters of an inch of precipitation across the Hoosier State with coverage only about 60% to 70% max.”
Martin has the second wave coming from the big storm complex late this weekend.
“Sunday late afternoon/evening through Monday- so, we are dry from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. We’re not seeing a lot of drying, but I think we are dry. And then the second round of moisture brings a quarter to three quarters of an inch of rain through Monday afternoon with coverage at 100% of the Hoosier state.”
The rest of Martin’s 10-day forecast doesn’t look good for planting progress either, with on-again, off-again showers throughout.
“So, we don’t see anything coming Tuesday, but you get into Wednesday and we’ve got hit-and-miss scattered showers with a frontal boundary coming through bringing a quarter to three quarter inch potential in that. We are dry for Thursday and Friday, but on Thursday, we’re cool for sure. Friday, we start to warm up. Saturday the 4th, I don’t think we see much of anything here in Indiana, but Sunday the 5th we’ll see scattered showers back with a quarter to half an inch with coverage around 75% of the state. So, to me the issue is we don’t have long enough dry windows in between our precipitation outbreaks over the next 10 days.”
Martin provides more forecast details in our Saturday morning e-newsletter delivered to your inbox at 6am if you sign up now below.
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[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/24212422/IEDC-debate-wrap.mp3"]Candidate photos courtesy of the Indiana Debate Commission.The final Republican gubernatorial debate Tuesday evening sparked some lively discussion around the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and, specifically, the LEAP Project in Boone County where the state has purchased significant amounts of farmland that will become shovel-ready sites for companies.
Candidate Eric Doden, former head of the IEDC in the Pence administration, says we should have a 92-county strategy, not a one county strategy.
“I’ve been very clear on this that the IEDC should not be spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money buying land in one county and then discover we have a water problem and then taking water and resources from a smaller community to Central Indiana. This is just inappropriate behavior.”
The plan to address that water issue Doden referenced is to pull water from Tippecanoe County, where some residents have started a “Stop the Water Steal” campaign. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch says more local input was needed in the process.
“As a former county commissioner, you have to have collaboration. And visiting with the Boone County and Tippecanoe County commissioners, there has not been that collaboration between the state and local government. That’s absolutely critical. That’s why I want to empower local and economic development organizations to have that true partnership.”
Candidate Brad Chambers, who led the IEDC in developing the LEAP Project, defended their actions saying it needed to happen to keep up with other states who would take these jobs if Indiana didn’t want them.
“There is an abundance of water in this state. But the career politicians, like Suzanne Crouch, didn’t take the time and didn’t have the interest in studying it and knowing that it’s an asset that we can use strategically against our competitors like Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. We have an abundance of water. It’s a transportation issue, bringing in outside investment to pay for that- not taxpayers.”
Senator Mike Braun did not participate in the debate as he was in D.C. for a vote. Election Day is Tuesday, May 7.
You can watch Tuesday night’s debate below.
Part of the USDA Trade Delegation to New Delhi, India on April 22, 2024. Among the ag leaders on the trade mission were Katie Nelson, Deputy Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA); Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance; Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association; Drew Sherman, ISDA International Trade Director; and Sean Smith, General Manager of Culver Duck. Photo courtesy of the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/24181713/CJ-WRAP-HAT-KATIE-NELSON-USDA-TRADE-MISSION-TO-INDIA-042424.mp3"]About 7,600 miles separates Indianapolis, Indiana from New Delhi, India. Several Indiana ag leaders have traveled that distance this week to sell more of Indiana ag products to India.
“We are focused on exports and that the world is excited about the high quality of products that Indiana and the United States can supply them,” said Katie Nelson, Deputy Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). She chatted with Hoosier Ag Today while in India as part of a trade mission hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“In India this week, we’ve really been focusing on grain—specifically ethanol—as well as duck,” said Nelson. “Indiana is the number one duck producing state in the country and number three turkey producing state. Last year when India decreased their basic tariffs on duck and turkey from 30 percent to five percent, U.S. products became a lot more price competitive in the Indian market and we’re taking advantage of that lower tariff rate.”
The trade mission to India is being led by Alexis Taylor, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
Among the Indiana ag leaders joining Taylor and Nelson on the trade mission are:
- Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance
- Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association
- Drew Sherman, International Trade Director with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture
- Sean Smith, General Manager of Culver Duck
Katie Nelson, Deputy Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). Photo courtesy of ISDA.During a lunch visit at the Institute of Hotel Management in India, Nelson says she and the USDA trade delegation were treated to a taste of Indiana agriculture.
“I was so excited one of our entrees was Indiana duck and I have to say it was delicious and really awesome to celebrate that with our Indian counterparts.”
She says another goal of this trip is for India to buy more of Indiana’s corn and ethanol.
“We are great at producing ethanol and corn and Indiana,” she said. “We’re really excited about India’s goal to be E20, so we hope that we can contribute to that as well.”
Nelson encourages Indiana’s ag producers to think globally about their products.
“Keep looking for those export opportunities and we at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture have really been focusing on helping producers get into that export market,” says Nelson. “If folks are interested in exploring that, they should reach out to me or to ISDA Trade Director Drew Sherman and we can help get them connected and on the right path.”
The USDA has four additional trade missions planned for 2024:
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from June 17-20.
- Bogotá, Colombia, Aug. 13-15.
- Vietnam, Sept. 9-13
- Morocco, Dec. 2-6
The Indiana Beef Cattle Association (IBCA) concluded another successful Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C hosted by NCBA. The event brought cattle producers from across the country to Washington to meet with federal agencies and elected members of Congress.
“It was a privilege to join fellow Indiana cattle producers on the Hill serving as an advocacy voice speaking with our state representatives. Even better was the four IJBCA youth members who accompanied us and played an integral role in explaining the needs and concerns of our industry,” said IBCA President Kelley Sheiss. “From the Farm Bill, importance of the checkoff, traceability and black vultures, IBCA’s presence at the legislative conference is an important opportunity to support our membership.”
This year, Indiana had one of the largest contingencies present of any state association and we were one of the few states that brought junior members. IBCA members present were Brian Shuter, Kelley Sheiss, Dr. David Dixon, Andrew Stewart, Jeff Sherfield, Chad Lanum and Tim Schwab. IJBCA Board members present were Grace Klinkhamer, Sidney Stinson, Brady Tracy and Libby Dixon. During the event, these attendees met with 9 legislative officials over the 2 day period. These meetings allowed for discussions of topics important to Indiana Producers. These included:
- Farm Bill
- Increased funding for the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank and Disease Diagnostic Laboratories
- Strengthen Risk Management and Disaster Relief Programs for Livestock
- Maintaining support for voluntary Conservation programs such as EQIP and others
- Financial support for EID’s and Readers to ease implementation of voluntary animal traceability programs
- Value of the Beef Check-off and fending off attacks to this critical producer controlled investment program
- Black Vulture Depredation Relief Act – allowing for increased ability to protect herds from this growing predator problem
- Blocking USDA’s move to allow Paraguayan Beef Imports to protect our herds and food supplies
- Reinstating the July Cattle on Feed Report that USDA has announced the discontinuation of
- Protecting tax provisions that are set to sunset at the end of 2025 at a minimum of current levels, while asking for additional cuts including the complete repeal of the Death Tax
- Importance of International Trade and Market Access to remain science-based
“Decisions that are made in Washington not only affect producers, but future generations. It is important to have boots on the ground when discussing transportation, welfare and property taxes,” said NCBA President Mark Eisele. “There is strength in numbers, even if you are supporting the beef industry through NCBA or just your state affiliation. They are looking for advice and stories to make better and informed decisions.”
The Department of Agriculture Wednesday mandated testing for H5N1 of dairy cattle that cross state lines. The move is to protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat of avian influenza.
Before interstate movement, dairy cattle are required to receive a negative test for Influenza A virus at an approved National Animal Health Laboratory Network laboratory. Owners of herds in which dairy cattle test positive for interstate movement will be required to provide epidemiological information, including animal movement tracing.
USDA has identified spread between cows within the same herd, spread from cows to poultry, spread between dairies associated with cattle movements, and cows without clinical signs that have tested positive.
On April 16, APHIS microbiologists identified a shift in an H5N1 sample from a cow in Kansas that could indicate that the virus has an adaptation to mammals. USDA has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans and between people.
The Food and Drug Administration confirmed again this week pasteurization of milk consistent with the federal Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance destroys harmful pathogenic bacteria and other microorganisms, including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.
The data cited by the FDA is consistent with other studies demonstrating that the legally required temperature and time for milk pasteurization will readily inactivate HPAI. Viral fragments detected after pasteurization are nothing more than evidence that the virus is dead and have zero impact on human health.
Further, federal rules prohibit milk from sick cows from entering the food supply chain. The National Milk Producers Federation and International Dairy Foods Association encourage the FDA to continue to gather scientific data and information that is consistent with its plans.
The FDA has also remained consistent in its vigilance against raw milk consumption. Raw milk is a key vehicle in the transmission of human pathogens. As this situation continues to evolve, the dairy organizations strongly discourage the consumption of raw milk.
The candidates for the 2024-25 Indiana FFA State Officer Team. Photo courtesy of Indiana FFA.Fourteen Indiana FFA members from across the state are preparing for the opportunity to serve as an Indiana FFA State Officer for the upcoming year. Among the fourteen members, seven individuals will be selected to fulfill the roles of President, Secretary, Northern Region Vice President, Southern Region Vice President, Treasurer, Reporter and Sentinel.
During the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention at Purdue University’s campus, the candidates will participate in a rigorous interview and selection process, in which, the chosen candidates will be announced at the final session on Thursday, June 20.
Once selected, the newly-elected officers will embark on a year of service, providing direction and overseeing the development of the student-led organization, which has more than 13,000 members statewide.
Along with promoting FFA, agriculture and agricultural education, a majority of their responsibilities include conducting FFA chapter visits, facilitating leadership conferences, and hosting career and leadership development events, to name a few.
The following students are Indiana FFA State Officer candidates for 2024-25:
- Kira King, Lebanon FFA
- Christina Caldwell, Connersville FFA
- Stephanie Berenda, South Newton FFA
- Bailey Blacker, Rossville FFA
- Camille Thopy, Southwestern Shelby FFA
- Makayla Hitt, Sullivan FFA
- Sienna Alexander, Monrovia FFA
- Kyatalin Baker, Switzerland County FFA
- Cale Williams, Terre Haute South FFA
- Ethan Wolheter, Prairie Heights FFA
- Noah Butler, Prairie Heights FFA
- Rylan Cooper, Warsaw FFA
- Brayson Tatman, Eastbrook FFA
- Garrett Bolin, Indian Creek FFA
The 2024-2025 Indiana FFA state officer team will be announced on Thursday, June 20 during the final session of the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention at Purdue University.
Photo courtesy of AgriNovus Indiana.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/23222021/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SCOTT-IRWIN-BEARISH-GRAIN-MARKETS-WILL-CONTINUE-042324.mp3"]For more than a year now, we’ve seen a sharp drop in grain prices while input prices remain on the higher side. One expert says he expects grain prices to stay on the low side for a while.
“I would describe my views as leaning towards the bearish scenario,” says Dr. Scott Irwin, Professor and Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is also the author of Back to the Futures—an in-depth look at the futures market, how it works, and how it affects our economy.
In addition, Irwin is the most recent guest on the Agbioscience Podcast—Presented by AgriNovus Indiana and hosted by their President and CEO Mitch Frazier.
“I think unless something really dramatic happens to U.S. crops this summer, we’re heading into what is a fairly regular cyclical downturn in agricultural crop prices,” he says.
Dr. Scott Irwin, Professor and Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.Irwin believes the lower prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat will likely lead to some tough decisions for Indiana’s farmers.
“Basically, the theme will be to pull back and ‘tighten down the hatches’ so to speak,” he says. “We’ll be seeing less aggressive strategies because everybody is going to be trying to operate their businesses in a less flush margin environment. You’ll have layoffs, cutbacks, and capital expenditures—those kinds of things I think will be probably the order of the day.”
As a comparison, here are the grain prices at the close of trade for April 23, 2024 compared to April 24, 2023:
MAY CORN:
- April 24, 2023: $6.63 ¼
- April 23, 2024: $4.43 — A DROP OF $2.20 ¼
MAY SOYBEANS:
- April 24, 2023: $14.83 ½
- April 23, 2024: $11.67 ½ — A DROP OF $3.16
MAY WHEAT:
- April 24, 2023: $6.61 ¾
- April 23, 2024: $5.85 — A DROP OF $0.76 ¾
Even though Irwin’s outlook sounds pessimistic, he believes that the recent downturn in grain prices will eventually correct itself and climb in the other direction.
“No upcycle or downcycle in prices ever lasts forever,” he says. “That’s one of the things you learn really studying these markets is the emotional and psychological element. There’s real truth to this idea that when prices are near the top, people tend to get a little too optimistic and think they’re always going to be this high. But equally—and sometimes even more in reverse—when prices go low, extreme pessimism can take over and many start to believe that we’re never going to get out of this, but we always do.”
Click below to hear the complete conversation between Dr. Scott Irwin and Mitch Frazier as part of the Agbioscience Podcast—Presented by AgriNovus Indiana.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/24033727/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-SUSTAINABLE-AVIATION-FUEL-042324.mp3"]You’ve been hearing a lot of talk lately about Sustainable Aviation Fuel, but is that talk becoming action?
Jordan Godwin, Biofuels Director for the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), says the conversation around the evolving SAF landscape – so far – involves a lot of promises.
“There’s been a lot of projects announced in this space, a lot of promises made by airlines as they set their respective goals of trying to blend more sustainable aviation fuel into their in their fuel supply,” Godwin said during a recent webinar hosted by OPIS. “We’ve been all over it.”
However, there is a lack of tangible results when it comes to the widespread production and usage of sustainable aviation fuel. Godwin noted that the current cost of producing SAF is significantly higher than that of jet fuel. He said the industry needs tax credits to level the playing field.
“We’ve also heard that there are people working on these sort of certificates where, for example, when you go to buy your airline ticket, it may give you an option of would you like to add X amount to your the cost of your ticket to offset your carbon footprint or whatever it may be, to kind of ask the consumer to voluntarily help pay for the cost of the SAF,” he said. “That could be a development that we’ll see over the next five years or so. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.”
Experts expect the Biden administration to release a preliminary climate model for its sustainable aviation fuel subsidy program in the coming weeks.
It was dry over the weekend, but cool temperatures kept soils a bit too wet in most areas to get out and do much to prepare for planting. East Central Indiana Pioneer agronomist Brian Shrader says weeds aren’t helping with dry down either.
He says there’s often this prevailing thought of if you get out there and work the field, you can get it to dry out faster.
“And in theory, I think that sounds good. In application, it oftentimes doesn’t turn out that way. And with the number of weeds, especially the winter annuals that we have right now, I’m afraid that the size and the amount that we have of those weeds to go out there and just try to work the ground right now, I don’t know that we’re going to be very successful at improving our situation.”
Shrader says in order to fight this there will need to be some herbicide intervention.
“Specifically, I think glyphosate and 2,4-D is what’s going to be required. I understand that that will limit the amount of time it takes for us to be able to plant when it does dry up because you do need to wait on that label for 2,4-D to be able to go back in and plant, but I think that’s an important tool in our toolbox that we have to use if we’re going to try to get through these winter annuals and really have a good seedbed for corn and soybeans.”
The good news, if you want to look for the silver lining, is that it’s still early.
“Even with the need to wait because of a reentry interval on an herbicide application, we’re still well in our window to have very good, or have the potential for very good, corn yields in 2024.”
Hear more from Pioneer’s Brian Shrader in the full HAT interview below and get in touch with your Pioneer agronomist by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/22220250/brian-shrader-042224-interview.mp3"]
Continued soil wetness last week meant limited fieldwork for farmers across the state. In USDA’s Monday Crop Progress report, Indiana corn and soybean planting progress is at 2%.
The five-year average pace for Indiana corn is 5% and for soybeans 3%.
At the national level, corn and soybean planting is ahead of the five-year average pace. Corn planting is 12% complete while soybeans are 8% complete.
For our neighbors to the west, planting progress is moving along at a nice clip. Illinois has 11% of their corn crop in the ground and 11% of their soybean crop too. Iowa has 13% of their corn planted and 8% of their soybeans.
Nathaniel Warenski, USDA NASS Indiana Statistician, says Indiana’s winter wheat crop conditions improved from last week, with 77 percent of the crop rated good to excellent. Winter wheat progress has been bolstered by the ample rainfall and warm temperatures, remaining ahead of the five-year average.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/22150013/CJ-WRAP-HAT-E15-SUMMERTIME-WAIVER-042224.mp3"]It’s a win for Indiana’s corn producers and the state’s 15 ethanol production facilities, as the EPA has issued an emergency fuel waiver to allow E15—gasoline blended with 15% ethanol—to be sold during the 2024 summer driving season.
“Probably about 400 million gallons of E15 sales occurred last summer, again, only because this waiver was issued last summer. We would expect similar numbers or even larger numbers this summer,” says Geoff Cooper, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association.
He says the move will not only give a boost to ethanol producers and corn growers, but it will provide drivers with relief at the pump this summer.
Supply issues have been created by the ongoing Ukraine war and conflict in the Middle East. He also says fuel supplies are being impacted by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries, who have pulled back on their oil production. Plus, Americans are simply using more fuel than ever before.
“So, EPA is looking at all of those factors and using its authority under the Clean Air Act to declare emergency conditions for this summer and effectively waive the volatility requirements for E15.”
Cooper says the E15 waiver will help offset rising gas prices this summer—as more folks hit the roads for vacation.
“That fuel is typically priced 25 to 30 cents below E10. So, drivers that are frequenting those 35-hundred stations that sell E15 today are saving a lot of money when they pull up to the pump.”
The EPA’s emergency waiver follows similar ones that were issued in 2022 and 2023.
Click HERE to find your nearest gas station that offers E15.
Click HERE to read the economic impact that Indiana’s 15 ethanol production facilities have on the state’s ag economy.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/21202332/pcc-weeds-wrap.mp3"]For the casual observer, those Indiana farm fields of purple might look kind of pretty, but farmers know that henbit and purple deadnettle are just weeds that need controlled. A mild winter allowed weeds to get a good head start this year.
“We’ve had these purple flowered weeds, henbit and purple deadnettle, for decades in this area and throughout the Corn Belt,” says Dr. Bill Johnson, Purdue professor of weed science. He’s a guest on the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, available now at hoosieragtoday.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.
“The key thing to remember about these winter annual weeds is if we don’t get them controlled, they can go on and produce seed and obviously, produce a seed bank for future years. But also, in conditions where we have daytime air temps in the 60s and some wet soils, the soils will not dry out very rapidly either. They’ll kind of form a mat and they’ll prevent water from evaporating.”
Johnson warns that henbit and purple deadnettle can also serve as an alternative host to soybean cyst nematode.
“And so, when we have what appears to be the pattern that we’re in now with kind of a warm, extended spring, but a little on the wet side, if we’re not able to get the henbit and purple deadnettle controlled, we can allow more reproduction of SCN on those weeds in the springtime as well which can increase higher populations of those weeds in the long run.”
Johnson adds that, “if we’re in the pattern that we’re in now, where our daytime air temps are primarily highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s, I think we’re still okay to spray under those conditions. But expect the herbicides to work more slowly.”
Hear more from Johnson, Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn, ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel, and new Extension Weed Specialist Tommy Butts on the new Purdue Crop Chat Podcast below.
Purdue Crop Chat Episode 64, Weed Control Strategies & Technologies
Julia Wickard, Indiana State Executive Director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.I have the tremendous opportunity to work with some of the greatest employees in the federal government and we have the pleasure to serve and work for the American farmer – the original environmentalist, who cares for the land and our natural resources like no other. On behalf of Indiana Farm Service Agency (FSA) employees, we all are proud to be partners with the men and women who farm in the great state of Indiana. Agriculture is an honorable profession and we are privileged to do our part to help. We salute you – the American Farmer – on Earth Day, April 22, 2024.
Our nation’s farmers work hard to provide food and clothing for our country and the world. Their dedication to the land and all-things conservation is an inspiration to all of us as Americans, and to the next generation of farmers. Without them, we would not have the abundant food, fiber, feed, and fuel supplies that we not only depend on, but often take for granted.
Agriculture involves sacrifice, dedication and hard work. As a young person growing up on the family farm, I mostly remember the sacrifice of sleep. Getting up early and working hard until sundown is not something that always comes naturally; rather, it usually must be learned – a lesson I learned from my parents and grandparents, and that my husband and I have worked to instill in our children.
The sacrifices and work ethic you learned while you were young continues as you get older. For those who start farming later in life, they quickly encounter the long hours, the hard work, and the risks associated with farming – caring for a sick animal, changing a machinery part, determining when to plant based on the weather, or financing next year’s costs. These risks feed and clothe our families and friends.
USDA studies indicate that the agriculture sector is a bright spot in terms of economic stability and growth, with strong, global demand for U.S. agricultural products. Generation after generation of agricultural producers in Indiana get up early every day to keep this sector of the economy viable, by providing jobs and income for both rural and urban families and communities. And they do it all while caring for the environment in which agriculture exists so this and the next, and the next generation will have a plentiful and healthy planet.
In 1960 each U.S. farmer provided food for about 25 people. Today, each U.S. farmer feeds more than 166 people worldwide, an increase of over 560%. Research and new technologies have boosted production, but someone still has to go outside, work in the elements and make things grow. Without regard for the wind, rain, snow, freeze, fire, and drought, day-in and day-out, farmers can be found tending to the crops, managing their herd, and making ends meet – in the environment.
Agriculture is America’s number one export, and critical to sustaining a healthy economy. Here in Indiana, agriculture is a leading driver of our state’s economy; with our state being a national leader in poultry production. However, Indiana also ranks in the top ten states in: popcorn, tomatoes for processing, ice cream production, mint production, pork production, corn, soybeans and several fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the diversity of crops and livestock on our over 53,000 Hoosier farms ensures economic growth and stability for Indiana’s economy.
While it is easy to take agriculture for granted, we should never lose sight of the importance of a safe, abundant and affordable food supply. For this, we as a nation are fortunate. Please take the time to recognize and appreciate the men and women in agriculture who selflessly improve our quality of life and care for our Earth like no other.
Written by Julia A. Wickard, Indiana State Executive Director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. In addition, she and her husband, Chris, and their two children, Jordyn and Jacob, raise registered Angus cattle on their 100-year homesteaded family farm in Hancock County. Wickard received the Certificate of Distinction from the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association in April 2022. She may be contacted at julia.wickard@usda.gov.
Indiana farmer Martin Eberhart plants soybeans near Marietta in Shelby County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-IN) visiting with Corteva’s Brazil Country Leader Juan Carlos Rojas during the governor’s economic development trip to Brazil and Mexico. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.Strengthening relationships with several Indiana agbioscience companies was one of the main goals of Governor Eric Holcomb’s economic development trip last week to Brazil and Mexico.
“This ag sector—ag and agbiosciences—means $58 billion to our Hoosier bottom line every year, but that number can be even bigger,” said Gov. Holcomb, who spoke with Hoosier Ag Today while in Mexico during his recent economic development trip.
Among Indiana’s ag leaders who joined Holcomb as part of the delegation were Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance; Mitch Frazier, CEO of AgriNovus Indiana; and Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
Holcomb said there are significant benefits to meet face-to-face with ag business leaders in their home countries. The governor and his delegation met with Brazilian and Mexican business partners with several Indiana-based ag companies including Corteva, Elanco, and Solinftec.
“We’ve made some progress on some projects that we’ve been working on while we were at home, but we’ve made more progress here [in Brazil and Mexico],” he says. “Details [are] yet to be shared, but I grow in confidence that they will materialize, and we have some new prospects and some new possibilities so we’re going to continue to cultivate relations.”
Gov. Holcomb and members of Indiana’s delegation following a roundtable discussion in Mexico with the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, Probocca, and Maple Leaf Farms. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.In addition, Holcomb said he’s been using the opportunity during the trip to push our trade partners in Brazil and Mexico into buying more Indiana grown and produced products—to raise the value of those products for Indiana’s producers.
“Any trip I go on, you have to ‘sell, sell, sell,’ and we need Indiana ag in the world,” said Holcomb. “I’m proud whether it be Farbest Foods or Maple Leaf Duck or Weaver Popcorn—you name it—these companies that have operations abroad become stronger because of the work we’re doing together.”
Indiana trade between Brazil and Mexico topped $1.7 billion and $13.4 billion in 2023, respectively, and the state is already home to 14 Brazil-based and 13 Mexico-based business establishments.
While Holcomb’s time as governor will come to an end in early January of next year, he said he is still working and going full throttle when it comes to growing Indiana’s ag economy.
“It’s paramount to go out and meet your customers. That’s what needs to happen. I’ve got 270 days left—6,480 hours—and I pledge to do it to my last hour selling Indiana and selling Indiana ag.”
According to the governor’s office, the cost for his travel was paid for through private donations to the Indiana Economic Development Foundation.
Click below to hear Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb discuss his economic development trip to Brazil and Mexico with Hoosier Ag Today, as well as his goal of boosting Indiana’s ag and agbioscience economy.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/20001727/CJ-WRAP-HAT-GOV-HOLCOMB-BRAZIL-MEXICO-TRIP-041924.mp3"]Gov. Holcomb and the Indiana delegation meeting with Atarraya in Mexico City, celebrating their innovative shrimp farm in Indianapolis and the research and development that’s happening in Mexico. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Dry and cool for the weekend. Canadian high pressure dominates the discussion Saturday through Monday morning. Soil temps are backing up a bit this weekend and corn may not like conditions a whole lot. However, we stay dry, with good sunshine, so we do see some evaporation, even if it is not super fast. Temps moderate on Monday and we stay sunny.
Clouds increase Tuesday with scattered showers moving through the state. We are projecting a few hundredths to half an inch with coverage at 60% over Indiana and lower Michigan. However, we are clearly not drying much in that period even if we miss rains. This wave of moisture likely pushes back field work a bit.
Sun returns for Wednesday and Thursday. After a cool start Wednesday, we turn quite warm to finish the week. That warmth, though, will feed into our next weather system.
A strong storm complex will be building in the plains and western corn belt late this week. That system kicks out this way late Friday through the weekend. Rain totals can be significant. Someone, somewhere between Iowa and Ohio will end up with 2-3” of rain or more. However, track is still not set, and the biggest totals still can stay west. This is a system that we need to watch.
The moisture is starting to look like it may delay its final push east, meaning we can stay dry into Saturday, but may have moisture linger into Monday. In any case the map below shows a current look at this coming weekend’s precipitation potential.
Extended Period:
Behind that system, we move back to drier weather for a couple of days, getting through May 1 with no additional moisture. However, Late that week, for May 2, 3 and 4, another low pressure area lifts into the eastern corn belt and Great Lakes, triggering scattered showers. Rain potential can be .25”-1” over the 3 days combined. Drier to start the following week.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Precipitation looks to be near normal both in week 3 and week 4. Temps are near normal for week 3 but turn quite warm with well above normal marks expected for week 4.
Click BELOW to hear Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin’s Planting Weather Forecast.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/19192149/HATThisWeek2.mp3"]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an emergency fuel waiver to allow E15 to be sold during the summer driving season.
The agency says the move will provide communities with relief at the pump from ongoing market supply issues created by the ongoing Ukraine war and conflict in the Middle East by increasing the fuel supply and offering a variety of fuel blends that consumers can choose from.
“EPA is taking action to ensure that American consumers have more choices at the pump,” says EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “Allowing E15 sales during the summer driving season will increase fuel supply while supporting American farmers, strengthening our nation’s energy security, and providing relief to drivers across the country.”
Current estimates indicate that on average, E15 is about 25 cents a gallon cheaper than E10. The Clean Air Act allows the EPA administrator to temporarily waive certain fuel requirements to address shortages.
The National Corn Growers (NCGA), who have advocated for the move, applauded the decision.
“This waiver is good news for corn growers and those in rural America who will benefit economically from this decision and for consumers who will save money at the pump during a busy travel season,” says NCGA President Harold Wolle. “We deeply appreciate the EPA, the administration, and our congressional allies for all their work on this issue.”
Under current policy, E15 cannot be sold at terminals beginning on May 1 and at retail stations starting on June 1.
NCGA say it is working with allies, including the petroleum industry, on federal legislation that would provide permanent, year-round access to E15.
Source: NAFB News Service
The Purdue Crop Chat is a regular podcast from Hoosier Ag Today and the Purdue University Extension Service, featuring Purdue Extension soybean specialist Dr. Shaun Casteel and Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Dan Quinn. On this episode, Shaun and Dan welcome Dr. Bill Johnson, professor of weed science at Purdue and new Extension Weed Scientist Dr. Tommy Butts, who discuss weed strategies to kick off the season.
This podcast is made possible by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Your Indiana corn and soybean checkoff investments yesterday are paying off today. New research, new uses, demand creation — bringing dollars back to the farm. Check it out at YourCheckoff.org.
Over 200 employees will be laid-off by CNH Industrial at its Racine, Wisconsin facility with those jobs being shifted to Mexico, according to a statement from Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
CNH Industrial, which manufactures the CaseIH and New Holland brands, intends to reduce costs by $150 million as part of a company-wide reorganization.
“Agricultural machinery has been made in Racine for over 175 years and made Case-New Holland into an international manufacturing powerhouse,” Baldwin wrote in a letter to Scott Wine, CEO of CNH Industrial. “Moving production to Mexico is a slap in the face to the workers who have given so much, and it would destroy the institutional knowledge that your workforce has developed over decades.”
Over 1,000 United Auto Workers members ratified a new contract with CNH in January 2023 after a strike lasted over 260 days. Baldwin questioned if this round of layoffs was “retribution” following the UAW strike.
Six of the nation’s major commodity groups have sent a letter to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) encouraging them to vote no in advancing a petition from Corteva Agribusiness.
The petition asks ITC to place antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of the herbicide 2-4D shipped from India and China. The letter says if the case continues beyond the preliminary stage, farmers across the country could soon find it difficult to access critical supplies.
“Corteva is the only U.S. supplier of 2-4D,” the letter says. “To put it simply, America’s farmers cannot rely on a sole domestic supplier of 2-4D to meet nearly all of the market’s needs, which cannot fully be met without imports.”
Duties on 2-4D imports from the two countries would intensify an already difficult period for many growers as key input costs continue to rise.
USDA is projecting record-high farm production cash expenses for 2024.
The letter was signed by leaders from the American Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Barley Growers Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Sorghum Producers and the U.S. Durum Growers Association.
The ITC is scheduled to vote on its preliminary determination in this case on May 17, 2024.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/18151719/HAT-plant-wx-041924-wrap.mp3"]HAT Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says the short-term weather forecast has quite a bit of cool air in it in his Indiana Planting Weather Forecast.
After picking up some moisture Friday morning, Martin says we’ll be dry for the entirety of the weekend.
“As we put the dry weather in for both Saturday and Sunday, even though we have sunshine coming, temperatures are going to be a good five to ten degrees below normal. It’s chilly. Overnight lows will be down in the 30s, so this is not the kind of forecast that screams fast drying at all. And I think we back soil temperatures up a little bit from where they have been this past week, thanks to our overnight lows this weekend.”
Martin has next week starting with some temperature moderation on Monday.
“By Tuesday, we’re dealing with a minor system that can give us anywhere from a tenth to a half an inch with coverage around 60% of the state. That coverage seems to be more central and north but I’m not going to rule it out anywhere. Behind that moisture we turn cool again for Wednesday and Thursday.”
Even though we cool off Wednesday and Thursday, Martin expects it will be dry those days.
“So, we’re dry Wednesday, Thursday and I’ll throw Friday in there as well with temperatures moderating. Humidity values come up next Friday. But that’s ahead of a monster weather system. A strong low is coming through the Great Plains and the Corn Belt next weekend. Saturday the 27th and Sunday the 28th I think we have potential for half to one and a half inches of rains combined. So, what we’re stringing together here is only about three days’ worth of break before some kind of weather system comes in and gives us at least a little moisture.”
Martin provides more forecast details each Saturday morning throughout the planting season in the HAT Newsletter. Sign up to receive it below.
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The Food and Agriculture – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Food and Ag-ISAC) has launched a new University Partnership Program with Purdue University and the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI) to drive improved collaboration between the industry and the university on a range of security issues impacting America’s food and agriculture sector.
In addition to Purdue and PARI, the partnership program has also been launched with three additional founding collaborators: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, the University of Nebraska, and Virginia Tech.
The Food and Ag-ISAC selected these initial university partners since they produce cutting-edge research on a range of issues impacting the food and agriculture industry – from animal and crop health to the integration of emerging technologies into modern agriculture – and for their trusted relationships with the larger agriculture community. As the Food and Ag-ISAC and its initial partners lay the groundwork for further collaborations, more institutions of higher education will be invited to join.
“Managing risks to the food and agriculture sector requires partnership across industry, academia, and government,” said Jonathan Braley, Director of the Food and Ag-ISAC. “Our University Partners cultivate not only research that is relevant to our members but also open more opportunities to share threat intelligence from the Food and Ag-ISAC to small and medium-sized organizations. This University Partner Program is an essential step to help defend and protect the sector.”
The collaboration will provide industry access and visibility to the partner universities’ collective body of research, allowing member companies to engage in research on a range of potential risks that could impact the sector. It also provides industry with better insights on emerging technologies being built by the universities for the agriculture industry, furthering next-generation research in partnership with innovators.
“Each of these institutions do amazing research that makes the sector smarter, more connected, and more innovative. This program will help connect their research to companies in the industry who are best able to leverage it and help ensure it is reflective of industry realities,” said Paul
Hershberger, Chair of the Food and Ag-ISAC and Cyber Command Center Leader at Cargill. ”Ultimately, this partnership will produce more meaningful research that can be applied within the industry while creating a pathway for smaller companies and individual farms to plug into the Food and Ag-ISAC. We look forward to adding more institutions to this program.”
The University Partner Program complements existing partnerships the Food and Ag-ISAC has established through its Association Partnership Program, focusing on trade associations; its membership in the National Council of ISACs, which enables active sharing with other critical infrastructure sectors; and its engagement with various government agencies.
Both the Food and Ag-ISAC and the partnered universities expressed their eagerness to begin collaborating for the benefit of both industry and academia.
“Purdue and PARI are thrilled to be founding members of the Food and Ag-ISAC’s University Partnership Program. We are excited to share our research with industry colleagues and to work together on transformative solutions for the pressing cybersecurity needs in the food and agriculture sectors. This program will be instrumental in protecting and strengthening our nation’s food supply chain, and we are honored to be part of it,” said Josh Detre, Director of the University Consortium for Health, Food, and Agricultural Resilience at PARI.
For more information about the Food and Ag-ISAC, please visit www.foodandag-isac.org.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack appearing before a U.S. Senate Ag Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/18233733/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-VILSACK-BUDGET-PRIORITIES-FOR-USDA-041824.mp3"]Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appeared before the Senate Ag Appropriations Subcommittee earlier this week to examine the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Requests for the USDA.
Vilsack detailed several priorities for agriculture in President Biden’s budget request.
“Clearly, we need to continue to look at ways in which we can focus on things like HPAI and some of the other challenges that are faced out in the countryside. I appreciate the opportunity to acquaint the committee with the challenges of our ARS facilities, particularly in Beltsville. The need for significant investment there and improvement,” he said. “And the importance of containing and retaining the flexibility within the CCC in order to allow us to respond to situations that crop up from time to time. The most recent example [is] fertilizer. We’re now in the process of funding at least forty-two projects that are helping to tamp down the cost increase in fertilizer.”
Vilsack made a commitment to lawmakers regarding the CCC – or Commodity Credit Corporation – which is a government-owned and operated entity that was created to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices.
“We will never, ever, ever drain the account. We’ll never just for one thing, as has happened in the past, drain the account and force you to replenish it. We are very sensitive to the importance of maintaining some set of responsibility, fiscal responsibility, and the utilization of those tools,” he said.
A bill to allow the year-round sales of E15 across eight Midwestern states beginning this summer has been introduced in the U.S. House by Congressman Zach Nunn (R-IA-03).
The Year-Round E15 Act, which is co-led by Representatives Adrian Smith (R-NE-03), Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13), Brad Finstad (R-MN-01), Eric Sorensen (D-IL-17), and Don Bacon (R-NE-02), would allow for sales of E15 in 2024 in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
“Since day one, I’ve been fighting for year-round E15. Unfortunately, this Administration has repeatedly put America’s producers and families behind as they stubbornly opposed E15, which is good for the economy, good for the climate, and good for families,” said Rep. Nunn. “This bill wouldn’t be necessary if the Administration had just done the right thing to begin with, but this is a critical step to provide certainty for farmers, producers, and families who will benefit from less expensive fuel.”
Nearly every other row of corn in Iowa is used to create biofuels. In 2022, the average price of a gallon of diesel fuel increased by 95 percent and the average price of a gallon of gasoline reached its highest level ever recorded. In the same year, the ethanol industry provided nearly 80,000 U.S. jobs, $34.8 billion in household income, and contributed $57 billion to the nation’s GDP.
“Biofuels bring down fuel costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, cut carbon emissions and support critical markets for Illinois’ family farmers,”said Rep. Budzinski. “I was glad to see the Environmental Protection Agency take evidence-based action to allow the permanent sale of E15 in Illinois and across the Midwest, but this long-awaited action doesn’t take effect until 2025. Today, I’m proud to introduce bipartisan legislation with my friend, Congressman Zach Nunn, that will address this gap and allow for the sale of cheaper, cleaner fuel for Heartland consumers this summer.”
“As co-chair of the Biofuels Caucus, I have long supported year-round availability of E15 as part of an all-of-the-above approach to energy abundance,” said Rep. Smith. “Our producers, retailers, and consumers all stand to benefit greatly from the flexibility and cost-savings offered by E15. Eliminating this red tape to provide regulatory certainty for growers and options for Americans in serious need of relief at the pump is a no-brainer. I thank Reps. Nunn, Budzinski, Finstad, Sorensen, and Bacon for championing this issue.”
Ethanol also reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 52 percent compared to gasoline. On average, biodiesel and renewable diesel provide a 74 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Ethanol reduced U.S. crude oil imports by 600 million barrels in 2022.
“The ethanol industry is a driving force for southern Minnesota’s economy and provides a cleaner, low-cost energy source for consumers at the pump,” said Rep. Finstad. “Though the EPA recently announced the year-round sale of E15 in the Midwest starting in 2025, farmers, ethanol producers, and American’s pocketbooks are footing the bill for this multi-year delay. I’m proud to help introduce this legislation which will allow for the sale of E15 this summer.”
“Nebraska ranks second in ethanol production. When the nation runs on ethanol – year-round – Nebraska communities and our environment benefit,” said Rep. Bacon. “This bill is a step in the right direction to alleviating the pain at the gas pump, to energy independence, and to supporting Nebraska’s ethanol industry. I appreciate Rep. Nunn’s leadership on this incredibly important issue. Year-round E15 is good for Nebraska and good for the nation.”
In April of 2022, eight Midwestern governors, led by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, submitted a letter urging the Biden Administration to allow year-round sales of E15. Under current law, the EPA is required to act upon this request within 90 days. The EPA waited until March 6, 2023, just days before biofuel producers would have halted production, to issue a waiver for E15 sales for the summer of 2023.
“In Congress, I am doing everything I can to lower costs for working families, from reducing food prices at the grocery store to paying less to fill up your tank,” said Rep. Sorensen. “Through expanding the sale of E15, we can lower prices at the pump, give our corn farmers the support they need, and make sure our economy is sustainable for generations to come. I am proud to join this bipartisan effort with Congressman Nunn to introduce the Year-Round E15 Act so we can help our neighbors, farmers, and producers in the heartland who need it most.”
“The ethanol industry greatly appreciates Representative Nunn’s efforts to ensure Midwest drivers have continued access to lower-cost, cleaner-burning E15 this summer driving season,”said Geoff Cooper, Renewable Fuels Association President.
On February 22, 2024, the EPA issued its final ruling to allow for the year-round sale of E15 beginning April 28, 2025, a year after the Biden Administration’s initial proposed implementation date of April 28, 2024. By delaying the implementation, the EPA is punishing American families and farmers who have already faced record inflation, skyrocketing fuel prices, and uncertainty in the market due to the Administration’s economic policies. In response to this decision, Rep. Nunn led a letter with the Iowa Delegation urging the EPA to approve permanent year-round sales in 2024.
“Consumers need access to E15 now, not in 2025,” said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy. “This lower carbon, more affordable fuel choice saves drivers money while simultaneously benefiting America’s rural communities and should be available to consumers without restrictions. We thank Rep. Nunn for his focus on this issue, and for his unwavering support for E15 and Iowa’s biofuels sector.”
The bipartisan Year-Round E15 Act would extend the Reid vapor pressure (RVP) volatility waiver to ethanol blends above 10 percent to allow for the year-round sale of E15 in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin for 2024.
Click HERE to read the full text of the bill.
Dr. Kelli Werling, Senior Director of Operations and Director of Swine Health with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. Photo courtesy of Dr. Kelli Werling.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/17185600/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SWINE-HEALTH-PROGRAMS-041724.mp3"]You’ve been hearing quite a bit about foreign animal diseases impacting livestock—including bird flu, which is not only found in poultry, but now it’s been found in dairy cattle. State health officials are now letting folks know about voluntary programs for Indiana’s pork producers to help mitigate the risks of diseases that could spread among swine herds.
“Our ultimate goal is to prevent disease from ever reaching our swine populations and causing disease in our animals, so certainly prevention is key,” says Dr. Kelli Werling, Senior Director of Operations and Director of Swine Health with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.
She says a new program that’s available is the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan.
“The full goal of that program is to minimize the effect of a trade-impacting disease—such as African Swine Fever (ASF)—in our pork populations here in the United States,” says Werling. “There are three essential pillars of the program: biosecurity, traceability, and disease surveillance. Those three main tenants of the program are what directs all the program standards and are the items that we ask for from individuals who are voluntarily choosing to participate.”
Another program is also seeking volunteers called the Certified Swine Health Collector Program.
“That program aims to increase the sampling capacity on these swine sites so that we could quickly and without delay be able to sample a large number of farms, if needed, to be able to determine if they were free from disease or if they were being you impacted or affected during that animal health emergency or incident,” says Werling.
With more volunteers to increase the sampling capacity, she also says it would greatly increase the ability for health officials to respond.
Dr. Werling adds that these two programs have an added benefit of building relationships between state health officials and Indiana’s pork producers.
“I don’t want the first time that I’m meeting a particular pork producer to be on their worst day—when their swine herds have been diagnosed with one of these trade-impacting diseases,” says Werling.
“Anything that we can do to work together ahead of time during what we call ‘peace time’ here at the Indiana State Board of Animal Health when there’s not an animal health emergency going on, is going to be invaluable where it ever to happen here in Indiana.”
Click HERE to learn more about the U.S. Swine Health Improvement Plan (SHIP).
Click HERE to learn more about the Certified Swine Sample Collector (CSSC) Training Program.
Click HERE to learn more about the National Secure Pork Supply Plan.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s full interview with Dr. Kelli Werling, Director of Swine Health with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, as she talks further about the programs available to safeguard Indiana’s pork industry by minimizing the long-term impact of a foreign animal disease.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/17185322/KELLI-WERLING-SWINE-HEALTH-PROGRAMS-RAW-AUDIO-041224.mp3"]
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack testifying before a Senate Ag Subcommittee appropriations hearing on the USDA’s budget for 2025.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/17194503/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-VILSACK-TESTIFIES-BEFORE-SENATE-AG-APPROPRIATIONS-HEARING-041724.mp3"]USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack testified at a hearing before the Senate Ag Appropriations Subcommittee to review the agriculture department’s 2025 budget. While the secretary spoke on a wide range of issues, his opening comments did not include trade. However, Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), who also serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee, pressed the issue while questioning Vilsack.
“We’ve always had a surplus in ag trade. We have a deficit right now on ag trade,” Hoeven said.
Secretary Vilsack said, and Hoeven agreed, that part of the issue was a strong dollar. The secretary said the world economy also played a part.
“However, this is an interesting statistic. Maybe it’s just coincidental. Our trade deficit for the first three months of fiscal year 2024 was $6 billion. We bought $6 billion more than we sold,” Vilsack said. “China bought $6 billion less.”
“I knew that’s where you were going. Coincidence? No,” Hoeven responded.
“Look, if you continually wrap your number one customer, it’s not surprising that your number one customer sends you a signal about ‘hey, we’re paying attention.’ What has to happen, I think, is a much more nuanced and sophisticated conversation about China,” the Secretary retorted. “What’s a greater risk, Chinese ownership of farmland or the fact that Wall Street investment banks own a third of the largest farm operations in the country?”
Senator Hoeven pressed the issue once more and stated, “Again, we need to be tougher on trade.”
Secretary Vilsack said there had been $20 billion in trade wins. “They’re doubles and singles. They’re not home runs, but the cumulative impact and effect is important,” he said. He added that USDA programs like the Regional Agricultural Promotions Program (RAPP) were designed to create new markets in agriculture.
The Food and Agriculture – Information Sharing and Analysis Center released its first annual report on ransomware incidents in the U.S. food and agriculture sector. The report shows that while there were fewer ransomware incidents in the industry than other sectors, ransomware actors have shown a level of sophistication and understanding of sector victims.
The Food and AG-ISAC found 167 ransomware attacks against the sector out of 2,905 total ransomware incidents studied in 2023, which was 5.5 percent of all attacks.
Ransomware hackers use malicious code to encrypt critical data so an organization cannot access files, databases, or applications, rendering systems unusable unless the victim pays a ransom.
“Ransomware remains a serious threat to all business sectors, including the food and ag industry,” says Jonathan Braley, Director of the Food and Ag-ISAC. “Despite several hacker disruptions by law enforcement, cyber attackers often operate in countries that turn a blind eye to their efforts.”
The American Farm Bureau urged USDA to reverse its decision to cancel livestock and crop surveys that are crucial to the success of America’s farmers and ranchers.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service recently announced it would no longer provide a July cattle inventory survey, as well as county-level estimates for crops and livestock and the objective yield survey for cotton.
Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall sent a letter to USDA emphasizing the importance of the surveys, particularly the July cattle report.
“NASS’s two reports regarding the total U.S. cattle inventory, published in January and July, give farmers, ranchers, researchers, and other data users a full picture of supplies in the U.S. cattle sector at the beginning and in the middle of each year,” he says. “This allows for a fair assessment of the cattle market for the next six months.”
Eliminating the mid-year report will put the market in the dark.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/16214433/this-old-farm-wrap.mp3"]For most companies, COVID-19 meant a downturn in business and profit. One of the few exceptions was the smaller meat processors around the country. As it turned out, we didn’t have nearly enough of them.
Jessica Roosa, owner of This Old Farm, a meat processing and packaging facility in Clinton County, says they remember the day grocery stores no longer had meat on their shelves.
“Because the phone started ringing and it rang every 30 seconds. We certainly weren’t staffed to take care of it at that point in time. But we grew. We answered.”
This Old Farm did grow through the pandemic and kept up with demand as best they could. Demand for quarter or half beefs and hogs went through the roof, and Roosa, a small farmer herself, was excited for her farmer customers and the trend toward local food.
“We were excited to see people start to pay attention to where their food was coming from. And we expected that not everybody would maintain that, and we’ve seen that today. About 30% of those stayed interested in local ag and others went back to the previous route of gaining food.”
Roosa says the convenience of buying at the grocery store is the likely culprit for consumers reverting back to their previous buying habits, but they continue to grow and adapt.
“We’re standing in the middle of nowhere out here in Colfax, and so we responded to that need for convenience by opening two butcher shops, two ‘Old World’ style butcher shops, that are in places that people are. We understand that people go to the grocery store because it’s convenient, and we needed to become more convenient for them.”
This Old Butcher Shoppe is located on the south side of Lafayette and Saint Adrian Meats & Sausage is in Lebanon.
Grants from USDA and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture have helped This Old Farm’s growth. They’re under construction now to add to their facilities for more capacity.
Learn more about This Old Farm and their mission to support the local food system at thisoldfarm.com.
Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor and Field Crop Plant Pathologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University. Photo: Tom Campbell / Purdue Agricultural Communications.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/16155015/CJ-WRAP-HAT-CORN-STUNT-DISEASE-TELENKO-041624.mp3"]You may not have heard about Corn Stunt Disease, but it’s causing damage to corn this year in Argentina and dropping corn yields there by 10-to-15 percent.
“Corn stunt disease is a disease that is caused by a Spiroplasma that is actually transmitted by leafhoppers in the field,” according to Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology at Purdue University.
The impact of Corn Stunt Disease on corn stalks.“Here in the United States, we have detected the disease, but it’s been a minor issue,” she says. “It’s mainly been found in the southern part of the United States—in Southern Florida and Texas—and I know they’re having major issues in Argentina, but here in the United States, it’s been around for a while. I have reports that they found it in California in 1996 and they continue to find it, but generally, we don’t think it’s leading to significant losses here in the United States and it’s never been reported here in Indiana as far as we know.”
So far, she says, two things are absent here in Indiana that would lead to the spread of Corn Stunt Disease.
“The inoculum has to be present for the corn leafhopper to pick it up, and then you have to have populations of the corn leafhopper with the disease that would spread it through the crop canopy,” she says.
Overall, Dr. Telenko says she’s not worried about Corn Stunt Disease impacting corn yields in the Midwest.
“Generally, we don’t see many viral diseases here in United States causing losses to corn, so I would say it’s not really a disease problem I’m worried about seeing,” says Telenko. “I would keep an eye out if I start hearing more reports out of Texas or Florida where they might start seeing a little bit more infections since it’s already been documented there and they’ve seen in California.
“We’ll monitor that and we’ll keep an ear out with my counterparts that are in those states if they start seeing a problem with it, but generally, I’m not going to worry about it here in Indiana until we start seeing it creeping up with other states, so I’m hoping it’s not a disease that we’re going to have to worry about,” she says.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange has lowered Argentina’s corn production estimates this year by two million tons due to recent impact of the disease.
Click HERE for the Indiana Field Crop Pathology Telenko Lab.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Dr. Darcy Telenko, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology at Purdue University, as she discusses Corn Stunt Disease.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/16154934/DARCY-TELENKO-CORN-STUNT-DISEASE-RAW-AUDIO-041524.mp3"]Corn leafhoppers, which can carry a Corn Stunt Spiroplasma (Spiroplasma kunkelli) that has been causing Corn Stunt Disease in Argentina.
Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center.American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI) has announced the two specialty grilled cheese sandwiches which will be available at the Indiana Farmers Dairy Bar throughout the 2024 Indiana State Fair.
The first specialty sandwich is the Hot Honey Pepperoni Pull: made with Mozzarella cheese with pepperonis and hot honey drizzle on sweet Hawaiian bread—which is shown below.
Photo courtesy of American Dairy Association Indiana.The second specialty sandwich is the Melty Mess: made with Cheddar, Havarti, and Muenster cheeses overloaded on Sourdough bread—which is shown below.
Photo courtesy of American Dairy Association Indiana.The Indiana Farmers Dairy Bar will be open throughout the 2024 Indiana State Fair, which opens on Friday, Aug. 2 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. The Fair will be closed on Mondays.
For more information about American Dairy Association Indiana, visit WinnersDrinkMilk.com.
Recently, Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15), who also serves as Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said that he expects to have a new Farm Bill introduced “without a doubt” by Memorial Day. His push could help jump-start long-stalled action by those who serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), says he’s still pessimistic about chances for a new Farm Bill this year. However, if Rep. Thompson gets bipartisan agreement in the House Ag Committee on a way to fund farm safety net improvements, Grassley says that could break the cycle of inaction on the Senate side.
“Yeah, if it was something that, I suppose in this case, it’d be something that Republicans could agree to with the funding, and I assume if Thompson came up with something that House Republicans agreed to, it’d probably look pretty good to us,” says Grassley. He still predicts Congress won’t pass a new Farm Bill until next year, although he hopes otherwise.
“What’s going on in the House is very unpredictable, so I wouldn’t want to make a speculation on what the House can do. But I would hope the House would pass a Farm Bill,” he said.
In February, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who serves as Chair of the Senate Ag Committee, said she would rather push a new Farm Bill further into the future rather than strike a deal with Republicans on cutting funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or initiatives that deal with conservation.
“I’m not going to do it,” she says. “If that means we continue the policies of the 2018 Farm Bill, which were pretty good if I do say so myself, then that’s okay.”
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says he’s also pessimistic about a new Farm Bill coming out of the House given the mix in support among House members for higher crop insurance levels.
“There’s a conflicting set of messages coming out of [Congress] on crop insurance. I think we need, perhaps, some consistency in the approach here would be helpful. There are 166 members of the House Republican caucus that feel that crop insurance should be cut,” said Vilsack.
House Ag Chair Thompson says he is focused instead on limiting the Secretary’s CCC spending authority, while Vilsack says CCC could be used creatively to fund a farm bill and disputes the claims that USDA has abused the fund.
Source: NAFB News Service
Beautiful, warm days in the middle of April, like what we saw over the weekend and to start the week, is what farmers live for. It’s been tough for many of them to have to watch fields dry after significant rainfall last week.
“I understand the excitement this time of year. I’m excited about it too and I can’t wait to be out in the field but let’s make sure we’re doing it right the first time,” says West Central Indiana agronomist Ben Jacob.
In our first Pioneer agronomy update of the season, Jacob opines that patience will be rewarded this year.
“The damage we can do by dragging iron through the field too early lingers with us for years. That’s not a one-time impact.”
It hasn’t just been the past few days of nice weather either. We had 60+ degrees days going all the way back to February and some awfully nice days in March too. Hopefully, farmers won’t be waiting for too long.
“Depending on what the weather does this week, we could open up. But as I drive through the countryside, one of the things that stands out to me is with the early heat we received and just how much growth we have of winter annuals and how wooly some of these fields are getting,” Jacob says. “So, there may be an opportunity here while the fields are still too wet to plant, or really too wet to till, if we can get a sprayer out with some floats and burn down some of this growth that we have to make the tillage passes easier and have a nice seedbed whenever we do get a chance to get into the field here hopefully sooner rather than later.
Jacob adds that while it’s frustrating to have to wait, the moisture is still welcome after the fall and winter that didn’t bring quite enough.
Hear the full HAT interview with Jacob below. To get in touch with your Pioneer agronomist, visit pioneer.com/findmyrep.
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In their Monday Crop Progress report, USDA showed 6% of corn across the U.S. has been planted and soybeans are 3% planted.
Corn planting is ahead of the five-year average pace but slightly behind 2023 planting progress. Soybeans are also ahead of the five-year average and on par with a year ago.
Rain continues to slow planting progress across Indiana, with only 1% of Hoosier corn in the ground. Indiana soybeans have yet to register in the USDA report.
Indiana winter wheat is rated 74% good to excellent according to USDA. Winter wheat jointing progressed slightly ahead of the five-year average at 25%.
With above average precipitation for two consecutive weeks, Indiana topsoil moisture levels increased from the previous week with 97% rated adequate or surplus.
Exports of U.S. pork continued their robust growth in the first two months of 2024, according to recently released data by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce. They increased ten percent in volume, to 502,585 metric tons, and ten percent in value, to $1.37 billion, over the same period last year.
As it was for all of 2023, Mexico was the top destination for U.S. pork in January and February, totaling 196,452 metric tons, worth nearly $397 million, up 12 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from the same time in 2023.
Exports accounted for $61.45 in average value from each hog marketed, which is the price producers received in January and February, up four percent from the same period in 2023, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
Exports accounted for 25 percent of total production, an increase of 1.7 percent from the same month one year ago.
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), center, who also serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee, was part of a farm listening tour with his Senate colleagues Mike Braun (R-IN), at left, and Todd Young (R-IN), at right, at a farm in Tippecanoe County in July 2023. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/15160822/CJ-WRAP-HAT-BOOZMAN-ON-NEW-FARM-BILL-041524.mp3"]Even though House Ag Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson has said that a new Farm Bill will be introduced “without a doubt” by Memorial Day, the Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee says he wants to make sure the Farm Bill is done right.
Senator John Boozman (R-AR) says he wants a new Farm Bill to be able to meet the needs of America’s farmers over the next five years.
“To commit our farmers—not just one year, but a five-year contract—because we take this very seriously in Congress. Once we set this, then it is a contract with our farmers. We don’t allow other entities like Transportation to ‘steal’ the money. Again, it is a contract, so we’ve got to get it right,” he says.
With so many changes to the economy since the last Farm Bill was passed in 2018—including a rise in inflation and interest rate hikes—Boozman says that the risk management component is very important.
“The Farm Bill to me, the first thing you got to get in order, in place, is making sure that the risk management tools are there so that our farmers can go the bank, borrow the money that they need, and know that they’re taking huge risks, but at least there is a bottom to that risk, and that’s through crop insurance, ARC, PLC, programs like that,” he says.
He adds that ag trade is another important aspect of a new Farm Bill.
“Certainly risk management, crop insurance, increasing reference prices, things like that are right at the top. But also, trade, trade is the lifeblood of agriculture. Last year, we had essentially the first time in 50 years, we had a trade imbalance in agriculture. That’s always the bright star. So, we need to do a much better job with trade. These countries are begging us, nobody wants to put all their eggs in the China basket anymore, and so, there’s a lot of opportunities, but to be honest the administration simply not following through,” says Boozman.
Nearly 100 Pork Producers from across the country made their way to D.C. last week to chat with legislators about pressure points on the pork industry. Indiana Pork members met with both Indiana senators and eight of the nine Indiana representatives to discuss several issues, including those presented by California’s Proposition 12.
Hamilton County Indiana Pork board director Todd Rodibaugh says pork producers should have a choice when it comes to how they raise their pigs and not have burdensome regulations like Prop 12 demands.
“You can easily snowball that issue into 50 states coming out with 50 different production practices and then making it nearly impossible to keep track of that on the farm. and in ultimately raising prices for consumers not only in the state of California, which we’ve seen to a certain extent with Prop 12, but across the nation.”
There has been talk that Prop 12 might be addressed in the Farm Bill, which House Ag Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) says will “without a doubt” be out of his committee by Memorial Day. Rodibaugh says the farm bill is important to pork producers for many other reasons.
“We had a lot of discussion on foreign animal disease prevention and preparedness. There are very important programs that need to be addressed by a farm bill in that regard. The National Animal Health Lab Network, veterinary stockpile, vaccine bank, the animal disease preparation and response program just to just to name a few.”
Rodibaugh adds, “And, of course, we want to keep a focus on the Beagle Brigade which has done a great job protecting our borders making sure no foreign pork products are entering illegally into the United States.
Rodibaugh thanked Indiana Pork and the National Pork Producers Council for arranging the trip. Hear more from Rodibaugh in the full HAT interview below.
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Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA-08), who also serves on the House Agriculture Committee.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/14004837/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-REP-AUSTIN-SCOTT-ON-FARM-BILL-041224.mp3"]There may be some progress on the Farm Bill, but Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA-08), who also serves on the House Agriculture Committee, says he would like to see the bill split into two different bills that fund agriculture and nutrition separately.
“I’ve advocated for separating them for the last several years. I do think that the partnership has worked over the course of the last several decades. In today’s time it doesn’t seem to be working for the producer. It’s not an equitable split when you have gone down to less than ten percent going to production agriculture, if we’re just honest about things,” he said.
Scott pointed to the changing landscape of the nation’s population as well.
“The population growth in the country has been in the metropolitan areas, and so there are fewer and fewer of us that actually represent farm country, and there are fewer and fewer Democrats that represent farm country. And so, I’m fortunate to be from a state where I have Representatives Sanford Bishop (D-GA-02) and David Scott (D-GA-13)—both good pro-ag Democrats—but a lot of states don’t have pro-ag Democrats. I mean, people from the metropolitan area don’t understand what it takes to operate the farm,” he said. “And I shouldn’t point that finger at Democrats when there are a lot of metro area Republicans that won’t support the Farm Bill either.”
Opponents of the idea say it would be harder to pass either bill if there were separate bills for nutrition and agriculture.
Nonetheless, Scott believes there is progress on a new Farm Bill and it may be ready for release in a few weeks.
“We want to have a five-year Farm Bill, but that five-year Farm Bill has got to take into account the increased cost of operations for the American farmer. So, it’s been a difficult time with the Congressional Budget Office. Right now, we’re putting, according to their stores, less than 10-percent of what we call the ‘Farm Bill’ into production agriculture and risk mitigation for our producers. And that’s simply not enough for them to be able to have the stop losses that they need to keep their operations going forward in the case of bad commodity collapses,” Scott said.
Photo by Tom Campbell / Purdue Agricultural Communications.The Boilermaker Butcher Block’s selections will now include farm fresh eggs laid by Purdue chickens that are fed orange corn.
Orange corn is a nutritionally enhanced type of corn developed by Purdue Agronomy Professor Torbert Rocheford as part of an international humanitarian effort aimed at addressing malnutrition globally. Since 2017, Rocheford’s startup company NutraMaize has worked closely with Purdue Animal Sciences to demonstrate the benefits of orange corn for poultry.
A team of researchers, including Rocheford and Darrin Karcher, associate professor of animal sciences, have found orange corn to have some benefits, such as having more antioxidant carotenoids, which are associated with darker, richer yolks and reducing the risk of age-related macular degeneration. Additional research from Purdue’s Agronomy and Animal Sciences departments and NutraMaize found that orange corn produces healthier hens.
The eggs from chickens fed orange corn tend to have dark orange yolks. This high color pigmentation comes from an increased amount of carotenoids that get transferred to the eggs from the chickens’ diets. Photo: Tom Campbell / Purdue Agricultural Communications.“We decided to sell the eggs because of the introduction of orange corn,” poultry unit manager Jason Fields said. “We thought it would be a way to introduce a product that nobody else had. We have a lot of pride in our birds and in the programs that we’re doing.”
Nearly every part of the egg production process takes place on campus.
“The orange corn is grown at the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE),” Emily Ford, manager of the Butcher Block, explained. “The chickens are raised at the Animal Sciences Research and Education Center (ASREC) farms. The eggs are washed and packaged at the farms. Then, we sell the eggs at the Butcher Block. It’s Purdue farm to fork.”
Fields said, “It’s great that we can provide food to people under the Purdue name, but it’s also another way that we can educate our consumers about the food and where it comes from.”
The Butcher Block’s retail area began offering the eggs in early April for $6 a dozen, with the proceeds helping to support the Butcher Block’s educational mission. The eggs will also be sold at Spring Fest this year.
In the future, the Butcher Block plans to get students involved in the egg production. “We want to get all hands-on deck,” said Ford. “We want to expose interested students to the process. Initially, however, we want to have a good idea of the process before we extend that knowledge to students.”
Indiana-based NutraMaize, co-founded by Purdue Agronomy professor Torbert Rocheford (left), and his son, Evan (right). Photo courtesy of the Purdue University Research Foundation.Written by: Olivia DeYoung / Purdue University.
Twenty U.S. Senators are calling on the Biden administration to allow nationwide E15 sales this summer.
Twelve Republicans were joined by eight Democrats in a letter to President Biden underscoring the geopolitical importance of uninterrupted biofuel access and noted that the president directed the Environmental Protection Agency to issue summertime waivers in 2022 and 2023.
“Enabling the year-round sale of E15 helped allow our energy supply chain to ‘address extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances caused by the war in Ukraine that are affecting all regions of the nation.’ Unfortunately, this underlying justification remains applicable as Russia’s war of aggression continues to weigh on global energy and security. Further, Iran-backed aggression in the Middle East, specifically Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, presents new threats to global energy markets and our energy security,” the senators wrote.
“To counter these influences, we must pursue an all-of-the-above energy strategy, which includes leveraging domestic biofuels. As your previous temporary waivers have proven, permitting the sale of higher blends of biofuels like E15 through the summer driving season bolsters the domestic fuel supply, lowers consumer costs, and promotes the environmental benefits of American biofuels and modern agriculture,” they continued.
The bipartisan effort is backed by the National Corn Growers Association, Growth Energy, and the Renewable Fuels Association.
The list of U.S. Senators who signed the letter include Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Thune (R-SD), Dick Durbin (D-IL) Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
Click HERE to read the letter.
Purdue entomology professor Christian Krupke examines an alfalfa plot for weevil infestation at the Purdue Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE). Krupke is the Dean’s Fellow for Resilient Agriculture to provide research leadership aimed at making agriculture more productive and durable. Photo courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communications / Tom Campbell.At Purdue University’s College of Agriculture, they’re not only preparing students to become our next generation of ag leaders, they’re also conducting valuable research to benefit Indiana’s farmers.
“The Purdue Agricultural Centers—being Purdue-owned, being Purdue-managed—allow us to do some work that’s can be a little bit more experimental,” says Christian Krupke, Professor of Entomology at Purdue. He is also the Dean’s Fellow for Resilient Agriculture to provide research leadership aimed at making agriculture more productive and durable.
Much of the research done at the eight Purdue Ag Centers located throughout Indiana focuses on how to make crops more resilient to different stresses—such as pests, heat, drought, and disease.
“By using the Purdue Ag Centers to investigate, we are a little bit more able to weather the ups-and-downs and the economics when certain approaches don’t work as well as we thought than a producer could because it’s their livelihood,” he says.
A major benefit of using the Purdue Ag Centers for research is the amount of farmland they have to work with. Several of their test plots are ten acres in size.
“Ten acres is still, of course, smaller than your average corn or soybean field in Indiana, but it’s at least of a scale that gets rid of some of the variation when it comes to yields and the variability across fields, so it’s more representative of what an actual producer would see in terms of scale.”
Krupke says the Purdue Ag Centers are also spread out across Indiana to be more closely connected with producers in the different regions of the state to share research and receive feedback.
“Part of the reason for locating them at areas throughout the state is to have them closer to where people may be and so they don’t have to travel all the way to campus or to the Agronomy Farm close to main campus to see it,” says Krupke.
Krupke is a guest on the latest episode of the Hoosier Ag Today Soil Health Podcast hosted by Elise Koning. Krupke is joined by Joel Wahlman, Superintendent of the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center in Jennings County, Indiana, as they go into further detail about the research that is planned at the Purdue Agriculture Centers for 2024.
Click below to hear the Hoosier Ag Today Soil Health Podcast—presented by the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative. You can learn more about their efforts and see a schedule of events at ccsin.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/11153658/Reclaim-Optimal-Soils.mp3"]To achieve the best stands possible, farmers take many steps, and better results are possible with improved breakdown of crop residue and better overall soil health. A new biological is doing just that.
“We’ve got a product called Reclaim which is a crop residue breakdown, soil health-enhancing nutrient release product,” says Quinton Keeran, Director of Marketing for Direct Enterprises, Inc.
He says Reclaim is a consortium of nine specifically chosen microbes that get to work in your fields.
“They go in and they eat basically anything with a carbon backbone, so they go in and they feast on and break through the exterior of the stalk, they break that down, makes it softer and then they take those nutrients and they excrete them back into the soil where they’re then available to the next growing crop.”
Reclaim is approved for spring or fall application.
“We can either chase combines and apply it in the fall right after the combine stops you would put that on your bare ground or your residue,” Keeran says. “You can also apply in the spring. You can put it in with your spring burn down, it’s tank mix compatible, so there’s no issue mixing with your other chemistries and your other products. You don’t need an extra pass, but it is rated for a fall application and a spring application. For crop residue breakdown you’re going to do best with a fall application. So you put that in and then you let Mother Nature kind of take over.”
Spring applications are best for nutrient release and soil health benefits.
Reclaim’s sweet spot is for soybeans going into corn ground, but it works well in no-till and strip-till environments, and conventional till for capturing those soil health benefits.
This biological offering is available from a growing dealer network that Direct Enterprises, Inc. is creating. Learn more at their website and in the full interview:
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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R)Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) signed into law new reporting requirements and harsher penalties related to foreign land ownership in Iowa.
“With this bill our message is unmistakable: American soil belongs in American hands,” said Reynolds.
The law (Senate File 2204) grants the Iowa attorney general more powers related to foreign land ownership. Those powers include the ability to subpoena foreign landowners for financial records and land purchase agreements for investigations into potential violations of foreign farmland owner restrictions.
Foreign landowners would be required to provide details to the state about their land owned in other states if it’s more than 250 acres. It also requires the Iowa Secretary of State to file an annual report on foreign farmland ownership in Iowa for consideration by state officials.
The law also raises fines on violations of reporting requirements. Failing to report holdings every two years would be up to $10,000 per violation for foreign landowners, and failure to disclose leases or purchases of farmland by foreign entities would be fined up to 25% of the property’s value per violation, which is a potentially much higher rate than the previous $2,000 fine maximum per violation.
“Adversaries like China have grown significantly more aggressive on the world stage, constantly looking for any opening to assert themselves at the expense of our country. One all-too-common weapon in this battle is the purchase of American farmland. Our state’s fertile soil and unmatched production capacity make us a natural target for this strategy. Our farm families produce 10 percent of the nation’s food supply and Iowa ranks as America’s top producer of biofuels. That makes us a natural leader in the race to stave off the evolving threat to American agriculture,” said Reynolds.
In March, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed House Bill 1183 into law that prohibits adversarial countries, such as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana. The bill, introduced by State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer), also prohibits China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from buying any real estate within 10 miles of a military installation in Indiana. The law takes effect in Indiana on July 1, 2024.
Sources: Office of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, NAFB News Service
The USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report for April predicts lower corn and higher soybean ending stocks.
The 2023-2024 U.S. corn outlook is for greater corn used for ethanol, feed, and residual use. With no supply changes and use rising, ending stocks dropped 50 million bushels to 2.1 million. The season-average farm price is lowered five cents to $4.70 a bushel.
The U.S. soybean outlook includes lower imports, residual use, exports, and higher ending stocks. With trade changes and slightly lower residual use, soybean ending stocks were raised 25 million bushels to 340 million. The season-average soybean price is forecast at $12.55 a bushel, down ten cents.
The supply and demand outlook for U.S. wheat is for lower supplies, reduced domestic use, unchanged exports, and higher ending stocks, which are raised 25 million bushels to 698 million, 22 percent above 2023. The season-average farm price is down five cents at $7.10.
Click BELOW to hear Mike Silver with Kokomo Grain discuss the data from the USDA’s April WASDE Report and its impact on the grain markets.
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[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/10202603/tax-relief-wrap.mp3"]The American Farm Bureau Federation and a coalition of agricultural groups are asking the Senate to pass the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, which passed in the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support. AFBF government affairs director Dustin Sherer says the need is now.
”There are a number of provisions in this bill that are important to the ag industry, and it needs to get done now and that it can’t wait until 2025. And so, they need to find a way, whether or not it’s voting on the bill as is, or coming to a compromise on some of the provisions and then moving forward, they need to find a way to get this bill done now.”
Important to agriculture is Section 179 expensing, and bonus depreciation, which is phasing down.
“With that phasing down 20 percent year over year and the loss of your ability to buy and sell under 1031, farmers’ tax bills are going up and they’re losing their ability to minimize their tax liability, invest back into their business the way that they want to, into this equipment that’s helped them make their operations more efficient, more resilient, more sustainable, as they want to do and as the public wants them to do.”
Sherer urges farmers and ranchers to contact their lawmakers.
“They can reach out to their respective Senators, whether through email or through a phone call, and have their Senators urge leadership to bring the bill to the floor or to find a compromise bill and bring that to the floor and get this bill to the President’s desk as soon as possible. It can’t wait until ’25. It needs to get done now.”
Among the ag organizations pushing for the Senate to pass the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act include the National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, National Pork Producers Council, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Click HERE to read the ag industry letter to Senate leaders Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Learn more at fb.org.
Governor Eric J. Holcomb will lead an international economic development trip to Brazil and Mexico next week to cultivate innovation and growth of the agbioscience and agricultural economy. This marks the Governor’s second international economic development trip of 2024 and his first official visits to both Brazil and Mexico.
“Indiana agriculture and agbiosciences continues to be a catalyst for economic and community growth, contributing $58.1 billion annually to the state’s economy,” said Gov. Holcomb. “Brazil and Mexico both represent opportunities to collaborate and mutually advance trade, innovation and investment across the sector, spurring developments across food safety, security and sustainability that are critical to the global economy of the future.”
Gov. Holcomb and First Lady Janet Holcomb will depart Indianapolis on Friday, April 12, and return on Friday, April 19. They will be joined by representatives of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) as well as officials of the state’s agbiosciences and agriculture sector representing industry, innovation, workforce and economic development.
Brazil and Mexico, like Indiana, both share robust agbiosciences industries, advancing global services, products and solutions across agriculture, food production and animal health. Indiana trade between Brazil and Mexico topped $1.7 billion and $13.4 billion in 2023, respectively, and the state is already home to 14 Brazil-based and 13 Mexico-based business establishments.
In Brazil, Gov. Holcomb, First Lady Holcomb and the Indiana delegation will travel to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to build relationships and identify partnership opportunities across government, academia and industry. This year marks the 200-year anniversary of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Brazil, serving as an important backdrop to continue discussions between Indiana and Brazil.
The governor will meet with representatives of government, including U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Elizabeth Bagley, to discuss avenues to grow Indiana’s engagement with Brazil and with the state of São Paulo, which is the business capital of Brazil, the industrial center of Latin America and boasts the largest and most modern agbioscience system in the country.
The governor will also work to advance industry partnerships, trade and investment across the agbiosciences sector, meeting with business prospects and Brazil-based companies with Indiana operations, including São Paulo-based Solinftec. The digital agriculture company announced plans in 2018 to establish its U.S. headquarters in West Lafayette, creating 334 new jobs. The delegation will also pitch Indiana as a global sector leader to entrepreneurs, startups and industry executives at two business roundtables hosted by the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP), the largest Brazilian industry association, and in partnership with Bayer, a global corporation focused on life sciences, health care and agriculture with operations in Granger, Indiana.
Gov. Holcomb and the delegation will also meet with representatives of Indiana-based companies with operations in Brazil, including Corteva, which moved its headquarters to Indianapolis in 2023, and Elanco, which is growing its Indiana operations with a new state-of-the-art global headquarters and campus on the westside of downtown Indianapolis. The Indiana delegation will also network with Brazilian and global leaders across government, academia and industry at a Friends of Indiana Reception hosted by Consul General Hodge.
In Brazil, Gov. Holcomb will be joined by Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture; Mitch Frazier, CEO of AgriNovus Indiana; Dr. Alex Cochran, chief technology officer of DPH Biologicals; Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance; and Dr. Jerry Shively, associate dean for international programs for Purdue University College of Agriculture.
Gov. Holcomb and First Lady Holcomb will depart Brazil for Mexico on Wednesday, April 17. In Mexico City, the governor will meet with government officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and Mexican Secretary of Economy Raquel Buenrostro, to explore opportunities to increase trade, advance innovation and grow two-way investment across agriculture, agbiosciences and broader economic opportunities.
The delegation will also meet with leadership and members of Mexican agriculture industry stakeholders, including the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham Mexico) and a roundtable focused on meat processing, as well as university partners such as Indiana University’s Gateway Office, to highlight Indiana’s commitment to advancing global engagement and future-focused sectors. The delegation will also tour and meet with leadership from Atarraya, a Mexican company invested in Indiana which is revolutionizing the ability to grow sustainable shrimp protein.
In Mexico, Gov. Holcomb will be joined by representatives of the state and U.S. agbiosciences and agriculture sector, including Mitch Frazier, CEO of AgriNovus Indiana; Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance; Leonardo Chapula, marketing specialist at the U.S. Soybean Export Council; Doug Newcom, vice president of genetics and technology at the National Swine Registry; and Paul Siems, export sales manager at Weaver Popcorn.
Indiana is home to more than 1,050 foreign-owned business establishments, representing more than 40 countries and territories. In 2023, foreign-owned companies committed to investing $20.49 billion to locate or expand operations in Indiana – a 182% increase from 2022 and 71% of the IEDC’s total committed capital investment in 2023 – and create approximately 8,500 new Hoosier jobs.
This marks Gov. Holcomb’s 22nd international economic development trip as governor and his first official visits to Brazil and Mexico. The cost for the governor’s travel is being paid for through private donations to the Indiana Economic Development Foundation.
Source: Governor’s Office Press Release
Congressman Jim Baird (R-IN-04) sits with Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15), who also serves as the Chair of the House Ag Committee, during an ag policy listening session in Indiana. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson says “without a doubt,” the farm bill will be out of his committee by Memorial Day.
The Pennsylvania Republican says he found a way to fund commodity program changes, adding, “it’s going to allow us to do what we know needs to be done in terms of safety net issues.”
Getting a five-year farm bill across the finish line remains the priority for agriculture following last years’ one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill. However, lawmakers in the Senate, like Senator Chuck Grassley, are not optimistic.
Grassley said to reporters this week, “What they need is a five-year extension, but I’m very pessimistic about there being an agreement in the Senate on a bipartisan farm bill this year.”
While the House may ultimately pass a bill, Grassley adds, “I don’t think you should assume that that’s got much to do with what’s happening in the United States Senate.”
U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) discusses the FARMER Act before the media in Washington, D.C.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/10185027/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-FARMER-ACT-041024.mp3"]Improving the federal crop insurance program is the goal of new legislation that has been introduced this week in the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Agricultural Appropriations Committee, has introduced the Federal Agriculture Risk Management Enhancement and Resilience Act—or FARMER Act.
Hoeven says the legislation will strengthen crop insurance and make higher levels of coverage more affordable for producers across the country.
Specifically, Hoeven’s legislation, which he is working to include in the Farm Bill, would seek to:
- Increase premium support for higher levels of crop insurance coverage, which will enhance affordability and reduce the need for ad-hoc disaster assistance.
- Improve the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) by increasing premium support and expanding the coverage level, providing producers with an additional level of protection.
- Direct the Risk Management Agency (RMA) to conduct a study to improve the effectiveness of SCO in large counties.
- Not require producers to choose between purchasing enhanced crop insurance coverage or participating in Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, giving them flexibility to make decisions that work best for their operations.
Hoeven says the FARMER Act is better for taxpayers too.
“We talk about a Farm Bill being for farmers and ranchers, but a good Farm Bill is for every single American,” he says. “Our farmers and ranchers produce the highest-quality, lowest-cost food supply in the world and every American benefits from that every single day. It’s brought to us by our farmers and ranchers. Americans spend less of their budget than any other developed country on their food and they have better food and a better choice. It’s national security—we don’t have to worry about food security.”
Co-sponsors of the bill include Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS).
Among the ag organizations that have given their support of Hoeven’s legislation include the American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, and the National Association of Wheat Growers.
Click HERE for a summary of the bill.
Click HERE for the full text of the bill.
Click BELOW to watch Sen. John Hoeven introduce the FARMER Act.
On this episode of the HAT Soil Health Podcast, we discuss the Purdue Agricultural Centers that are located around the state and how their research projects are providing valuable resources for Indiana farmers.
Our guests are Joel Wahlman, Superintendent of the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center and Christian Krupke, Professor of Entomology at Purdue.
This episode of the HAT Soil Health Podcast is brought to you by the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative. You can learn more about their efforts and see a schedule of events at ccsin.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/10000225/ERIC-WRAP-HAT-PLANTING-SAFETY-2024-040924.mp3"]Planting season is quickly approaching for Indiana’s 94,000 farmers. With the warm weather and sunshine, Hoosier motorists will also see more large slow-moving farm equipment traveling Indiana’s rural roads and highways.
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana Department of Transportation, Indiana State Police and Hoosier Ag Today want to encourage motorists to slow down, be alert and be patient on roadways this spring.
“Indiana farmers will be working hard this spring to ensure their crops are planted safely, timely and efficiently,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Whether you live in rural, urban or suburban Indiana, remain alert on the road this spring as you may encounter large farm equipment moving between fields.”
In 2021, four occupants were involved in crashes with farm equipment in Indiana which resulted in two deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration*.
“With the onset of warmer weather, we will begin to see more and more farm machinery on our rural roads and highways,” said Doug Carter, Indiana State Police Superintendent. “Patience, courtesy, undivided attention, and understanding will help everyone get to where they need to be safely. Let’s all do our part to ensure our farmers enjoy a safe planting season.”
While the term “farm equipment” encompasses a wide range of vehicles, the most common types motorists will encounter during planting season include sprayers, tractors pulling planters or tillage equipment, and large trucks hauling agricultural products. These vehicles are wide, sometimes taking up most of the road, and often travel at speeds no greater than 25 mph.
The following list includes several safety tips for motorists approaching large farm equipment:
- Farmers will pull over when they are able to let motorists pass, but it may take time for them to get to a safe place to do so.
- Be patient. Farm equipment is wide, sometimes taking up most of the road.
- Be careful when passing. Do not pass in a designated “No Passing Zone” or within 100 feet of any intersection, railroad grade crossing, bridge, elevation structure or tunnel.
- Do not try to pass slow-moving farm equipment on the left without ensuring that the farmer driving is not planning a left turn. It may appear that the driver is pulling over to allow a pass when the farmer is actually preparing to turn. You will drive right into its path, endangering yourself and the farmer.
- Avoid tailgating, as some farm equipment might have to make sudden stops along the road.
- Allow plenty of time to get to a destination, be aware of alternate routes and avoid distractions.
Don Lamb, ISDA Director, wants to remind motorists that farmers work hard to ensure they are being as safe as possible.
“As a farmer myself, I have heard of way too many accidents involving farm equipment and motorists on rural Indiana roads,” said Lamb. “Unfortunately, crashes and deaths occur each year during this busy time. We want to encourage motorists to slow down, be alert and be patient when sharing the roads with farmers this busy spring season.”
For a list of safety tips, click here or visit isda.in.gov.
The following organizations will be working together to share this important safety message during planting season: Hoosier Ag Today, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana State Police.
*2021 data from the National Highway Traffic Administration is the latest available.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/09153434/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SOY-BASED-FIREFIGHTING-FOAM-040924.mp3"]The Indiana Soybean Alliance and United Soybean Board are working to develop new products to increase the value of soybeans. One such product that uses soybeans to help firefighters do their job more safely is called SoyFoam.
“It’s a firefighting foam made from soy flour that is safer to the environment and safer to the users because of the PFAS (synthetic chemicals) that are in the firefighting foam,” according to Pat Mullooly, President of the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.
The United Soybean Board began investing checkoff dollars into SoyFoam in October 2022. A year later, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Defense began testing the product.
The foam concentrate is certified 100-percent biodegradable, 84-percent biobased, and made using U.S.-grown soybeans.
“We were able to talk to the chemist who developed SoyFoam and he said, ‘I knew I could get soy to foam up, it was just a matter of getting the right formulation for those firefighters,” he said.
“Three percent of that solution that comes out of the end of their hose is this SoyFoam. It foams up and it coats and smothers that fire out.”
And much like other products that have been developed by the The Indiana Soybean Alliance and United Soybean Board—such as PoreShield concrete protectant and soy-based shoes made by Skechers, the firefighting SoyFoam presents another new market for soybean producers.
“It’s not a huge market of soybeans as far as usage. There was a figure of 12 million bushels a year to start—in the grand scheme of things that’s not a lot—but we all know somebody that’s had a fire or has a firefighter in their family, so it really touches all walks of life and it really could be a big deal and a very good product for the environment and for the safety of those firefighters,” says Mullooly.
SoyFoam will be manufactured by Premier Polymers based in Dalton, Georgia.
Photo courtesy of Indiana Grown and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.Indiana Grown, the state’s branding initiative for promoting locally grown, raised, produced and processed agricultural products, is hosting a one-day showcase of members and their products to food buyers, restaurants, chef’s, hospitals, school purchasers and more in Bloomington.
The goal of this showcase is to highlight Indiana Grown businesses and their vast array of products that are retail and wholesale ready for these unique markets.
WHAT: A one-day showcase of Indiana Grown products that are retail and wholesale ready. Vendors are all Indiana only businesses and will be sampling products.
WHO: More than 60 Indiana Grown businesses
WHEN: Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Noon – 4 p.m. ET
WHERE: Monroe County Convention Center (302 S. College Ave., Bloomington, IN 47403)
RSVP: This showcase is an invite-only event for attendees. Members of the media are welcome, but please RSVP to indianagrown@isda.in.gov by April 18, 2024.
Visit IndianaGrown.org for more information about Indiana Grown and its members.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The National FFA Organization says it has received a multi-year donation from Nutrien Ag Solutions totaling nearly $850,000 in support of its commitment to shape future agriculture leaders.
The yearly donation of $282,500 will support a variety of National FFA Organization programs and events during the three years (from 2024 to 2026), including supporting FFA members in competitive events, assisting FFA advisors in their professional development, as well as providing National FFA Officers with a $10,000 scholarship at the end of their year of service. In addition, the donations will also support alumni chapter grants.
“We are honored to receive this donation from Nutrien Ag Solutions,” said Molly Ball, president of the National FFA Foundation and chief marketing officer of the National FFA Organization. “Throughout our years of collaboration, Nutrien Ag Solutions has been unwavering in its support and continues to see the potential leaders in our members and advisors. Their generosity allows us to reach more members and continue providing new opportunities that help feed the talent pipeline while supporting the hard work of our FFA advisors.”
“Nutrien Ag Solutions has been a proud sponsor of the National FFA Organization for 45 years, and we are excited to continue our support for this integral organization for agricultural education,” said Spencer Harris, senior vice president at Nutrien Ag Solutions. “As an FFA alumni, I am excited to be part of this investment that will help give students the same opportunities that shaped my career in agriculture today. There are over 300 different career possibilities in agriculture, and FFA provides students with critical skills such as public speaking, hands-on research experience, collaboration with a team, as well as many other skills that they will carry with them for the rest of their academic and professional careers.”
Source: National FFA Organization
Whether it’s property taxes at the Statehouse or the Farm Bill on Capitol Hill, policy plays a big role in farm life. That’s why we’ve decided here at Hoosier Ag Today to launch the new Indiana Ag Policy Podcast. Guests will join us as we tackle the major policy issues impacting your farm from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C.
Our first guest on the Indiana Ag Policy Podcast is the lone full-time farmer at the Indiana Statehouse, State Representative Kendell Culp from Jasper County. Culp takes us behind the scenes of the creation and passage of House Bill 1183 that banned China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba from owning or leasing Indiana farmland.
“It only had one no vote in the whole process of committees and everything, and that’s because that representative felt like it was not strong enough. It needed to be stronger yet. I was happy to take that win. What we ended up with is that any one of those adversarial countries cannot have a majority ownership of farmland in Indiana or cannot have majority ownership of any real estate within 10 miles of a military installation.”
Culp also details conversations had throughout the process, including concerns from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation about the potential for lost development opportunities.
“I want to give the governor credit because I was really sweating it out whether he would sign it… Think about that- 11 companies they’re negotiating with. He chairs the IEDC. That could not have been an easy decision for him to say, ‘Yeah, I’m anxious to sign this bill.’ But when it went through, basically unanimously through the whole process, it puts a lot of pressure on the governor to do that. And I know that there have been some companies, some deals that are going to fall through. Whether any make it before July 1 I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see. But, really, hats off though to the governor for following through with that and signing that.”
Culp shares more about House Bill 1183, also a bill he championed to loosen regulations on Indiana agritourism locations, and he discusses national issues like the Farm Bill on the new Indiana Ag Policy Podcast found below.
Indiana Ag Policy Podcast: State Rep. Kendell Culp
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/08175247/avian-flu-dairy-wrap.mp3"]USDA has confirmed avian influenza in dairy herds in Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Idaho, Ohio and New Mexico. At this point in time, veterinary officials are not putting mandatory quarantines around those dairies.
Dr. Rosemary Sifford with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says there are also no plans right now to depopulate cattle in herds with confirmed bird flu infections.
“So far, it appears that the cattle are able to recover after a couple of weeks go back into the milking herd and so at this point, we do not expect the need to depopulate cattle. “
Dairy operators across the country are being asked to step up their biosecurity efforts and to watch their cows for symptoms of avian influenza.
“The primary symptoms in dairy cattle are loss of appetite going off feed and then a dramatic drop in milk production,” Sifford says. “Some of the cattle occasionally showed a slight fever.”
If you see those symptoms in your herd, Sifford urges you to contact your vet right away.
Source: USDA Radio
Applications are now open for the 2024 Indiana Beef Cattle Association Scholarship. Applicants must be an Indiana resident whose family is actively involved in the beef industry and are current members of the IBCA.
In addition, applicants must be an existing secondary student in good standing or high school senior. In order to be considered, students must complete an application which includes four essay questions. Applications for the scholarship are being accepted now through April 30, 2024.
Applications will be reviewed by the IBCA Scholarship Committee, and the scholarship winner(s) announced during the 2024 Indiana Junior Beef Cattle Association Awards Banquet.
The application may be found on the Indiana Beef website. Questions should be directed to the IBCA office at (317) 293-2333.
In February, America’s trade deficit reached $68.9 billion, the highest disparity in almost a year.
The Hill says import values exceeded exports by more than analysts were expecting. The total value of imports hit $331.9 billion, while exports were $263 billion, and the overall deficit rose 1.9 percent during the month.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have expressed frustration with what they call an unambitious trade strategy and inadequate initiatives undertaken by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. While they expect trade fluctuations, Republican senators wrote to Tai saying the current sharp decline in America’s agricultural exports is directly attributable to a trade strategy that doesn’t meaningfully expand market access or reduce barriers to trade.
February trade data shows a year-to-year decline of $729 million in the foods, feeds, and beverages category of national exports. Soybean exports dropped by $1.9 billion, wheat dropped by $429 million, and dairy products by $97 million.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/07184937/reference-prices-wrap.mp3"]As input prices go up and commodity prices go down, farmers rely on the reference prices in the farm safety net to help stay in business when margins get squeezed. That’s why Farm Bureau and other U.S. ag stakeholders are pushing lawmakers for updated reference prices in the next farm bill.
“Reference prices play an essential role in the ARC and PLC programs, which, along with crop insurance and other programs, make up the farm safety net,” says Betty Resnick, an economist with American Farm Bureau. “The safety net’s goal is to keep farms in business during periods of low farm income, as our farmers play such an important role in both our country and the world’s food security.”
Resnick explains why reference prices need to be updated in the next farm bill.
“Statutory reference prices have not been updated since the 2014 Farm Bill, which was over a decade ago. The world has changed a lot since then. We’ve had a global pandemic. We’ve had record fertilizer prices. We’ve had massive supply chain issues due to global conflicts and other factors, and some of the worst inflation we’ve seen in many people’s lifetimes. The cost of production agriculture has also steeply increased with these changes. For some of the crops in the program, costs have increased upwards of 40% or more since introduction, and that’s after prices have kind of settled back down over the past few years.”
There are several ways to raise reference prices, but Resnick says Farm Bureau hasn’t advocated for one specific fix.
“We at the American Farm Bureau are advocating for an increase in reference prices for all crops but leave the specifics of that to our legislators on Capitol Hill.”
But Resnick says they’re eagerly waiting to hear about those specifics, and the sooner the better.
Source: NAFB News Service
Photo courtesy of the Indiana Prescribed Fire Council.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/05201421/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-PRESCRIBED-FIRE-040524.mp3"]Forestry and ag experts use prescribed fires—or controlled burning—to clear vegetation and prevent wildfires. However, there are many more benefits of having these prescribed fires.
Lenya N. Quinn-Davidson, Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network Director at the University of California, says there is a lot of interest in prescribed fires throughout the Midwest.
“I recommend that if people are interested in learning more, then look into your statewide prescribed fire councils,” says Quinn-Davidson. “This is definitely something that’s there’s a lot of interest, a lot of movement, and a lot of policy work going on. Plus, there are opportunities for people to get involved.”
The Indiana Prescribed Fire Council promotes the safe and effective use of prescribed fire in Indiana for restoring natural plant communities, improving forest health, enhancing habitat for wildlife, and controlling invasive plants.
“Many of our ecosystems are adapted to frequent fires,” she says. Historically, fires would have burned in some of these places—like many parts of California—every five to ten years. For so long, we have removed fire from these places. We took it out of the system. I liken it to removing rain or removing sunshine—removing a really important natural process that regenerates plants, releases nutrients into the soil, and maintains healthy forest density.
“By taking that out, we’ve had so many problems including increased wildfire risks, but also a lot of ecological impacts. Bringing fire back in restores a lot of those benefits to the landscape.”
Click HERE to find information about prescribed burning from the Indiana Prescribed Fire Council.
Click HERE for additional information from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Illustration by Janet Metzger-Hartwig. Photo courtesy of the Indiana Soybean Alliance.To support the Indiana State Fair’s 2024 theme of “The Art and Nature of Fun,” the Indiana Soybean Alliance has launched an art competition in partnership with the Brooks Lamb Foundation for the Arts in Lebanon.
This competition will offer Hoosier artists more than $1,000 in prize money, which will be awarded on Aug. 1 during a ceremony at the Glass Barn the evening before the State Fair opens.
This competition is open to anyone 18 years and older who are residents of Indiana. Each entrant may submit one or two works, which must be original in concept and execution, using soybeans in their piece. This could include, but is not limited to, soybeans, soybean crayons, soy wax, soy fabric. Both three-dimensional and flat pieces will be accepted. The art objects may include oil, acrylic, mixed media, fiber, sculpture, etc. Artists are encouraged to get creative with their use of soybeans in their piece.
“Since 2013, the Glass Barn has been a great tool for Indiana’s soybean farmers to tell our story to millions of visitors to the State Fair,” said ISA Chair Kevin Cox, a farmer from Brazil, Ind. “The State Fair takes great care in coming up with its annual themes, and we are happy to support this year’s theme about ‘The Art and Nature of Fun’ with our own soy-based, art competition. I can’t wait to see the creative and exciting things people will make.”
Artists interested in entering this competition must pay a non-refundable $60 entry fee for each submitted work. All entry fees will be donated to the Brooks Lamb Foundation for the Arts, which supports art education for students. By submitting an entry, contestants understand that their artwork and the artist’s photo and bio by be used in marketing materials by Indiana’s soybean checkoff program and the Brooks Lamb Foundation.
All entries must be submitted electronically by June 1 at bit.ly/Indianasoybeanart.
Founded by Ed Lamb to honor his daughter, the Brooks Lamb Foundation celebrates students who are exploring their talents in visual and performing arts. The Foundation was created to support students with financial need or compelling hardship to provide assistance in their creative exploration.
The judges will award prizes in three categories:
- Best of Show – $600 – The winning object will be displayed at the Glass Barn during the Indiana State Fair (Aug. 2-18).
- Merit Award – $200 – The winning object will show the best use of soybeans, a soy product or a soy medium.
- Merit Award – $200 – The winning object will show the best representation of Indiana agriculture.
An additional $150 People’s Choice Award will be available to the winners of each category plus 5-10 more works selected by the judges. These works will be on display at the Glass Barn during the State Fair, and fairgoers will vote for the winning art object. All art competition finalists will receive four Indiana State Fair tickets and a State Fair Family Fun Pack.
Anyone with questions about the art competition should contact ISA Consumer Outreach Manager Ben Linder at blinder@indianasoybean.com.
Source: Indiana Soybean Alliance
More than $307,000 has been awarded to Indiana landowners to implement a series of conservation practices according to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and the USDA-Indiana Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
These conservation practices will work to implement over 125 new acres of cover crops, apply Gypsum to over 925 acres and use precision nutrient management on over 660 acres. In total, over 1,700 Indiana farmland acres will be impacted through the Western Lake Erie Basin Regional Conservation Partnership (RCPP).
The goal of these practices is to prevent nutrient runoff and decrease algal blooms in order to protect the Western Lake Erie Basin region.
The Western Lake Erie Basin Tri-State Collaboration Effort allows three states — Indiana, Michigan and Ohio — to come together to work with farmers, universities and non-governmental organizations and offer financial assistance to producers. The primary goal of this multi-state project is to protect the western basin of Lake Erie by reducing phosphorus and sediment loading, and algal blooms by using a suite of conservation practices working towards a 40 percent reduction of dissolved phosphorus.
The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) funding comes from a 2021 agreement totaling $7.8 million. Indiana, Michigan and Ohio each receive a portion of the funding to assist producers in implementing best management practices in an effort to reduce downstream runoff and ultimately decrease harmful algal blooms and phosphorus levels. The Tri-State RCPP promotes the coordination between NRCS and ISDA partners to implement conservation to landowners in the Western Lake Erie Basin. Counties in the Western Lake Erie Basin include parts of Adams, Allen, Dekalb, Noble, Steuben and Wells.
RCPP funding was made possible by USDA, our fellow partnering states and more than 40 collaborating public and private organizations on the state and local level. Eligible producers and forestland owners who wish to implement conservation practices on their land should discuss their options with their local district conservationist. NRCS accepts program applications year-round, to be considered for the current RCPP-WLEB funding cycle.
“This funding goes a long way in ensuring we are enhancing and protecting the Western Lake Erie basin and in turn, members of those communities and the fish and wildlife that live there,” said Don Lamb, Indiana State Department of Agriculture director. “Collaborations like this Regional Conservation Partnership Program are incredibly valuable as we can share our finances, time, skills and talents to better our environment.”
“When partners come together to combine resources and contacts, they create a stronger force and set the stage for a collaborative journey marked by shared success,” said Damarys Mortenson, Indiana NRCS State Conservationist. “The Tri-State RCPP partnership is heightening the efforts already being done in the Western Lake Erie basin, helping to deliver conservation at a scale never before achieved in the watershed.”
For more information or to submit an application, contact your local district conservationist by visiting Farmers.gov/Service-locator.
Source: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/04185350/kron-tornado-wrap.mp3"]Severe weather swept through Indiana Tuesday providing plenty of flooding and wind damage in its wake. Southern Indiana and Kentucky received the brunt of the severe weather activity, with multiple tornadoes touching down.
“It pretty much destroyed absolutely everything we had,” says Ben Kron. A tornado ripped through their farm in Evansville where he farms with his mom, Joyce, and dad, Randy. “Four barns are gone. Four grain bins gone, you know, our grain leg got torn down in it too and even the house shifted a little bit and the garage. There’s pretty much nothing left from the whole thing.”
Kron says, thankfully, no one was injured on their farm. He was in the house with his family when the tornado came through, but they made it to the basement in time.
Now, they’re in clean up mode. Kron says the community is coming together to help.
“It’s been really great honestly. Even guys from our local co-op, they’re all down here today helping us get stuff cleaned up. We’ve got three or four different neighbors here helping us. Farm Credit and AgriGold brought us out some lunch and cleaning supplies yesterday. It’s a really great site to see.”
Kron says you see this kind of thing on the news, but you may not truly understand how hard an event like this hits until it happens to you.
When asked what’s next, Kron said, “Just pick everything back up. We’re always optimistic, so just keep going. That’s the only thing we can do is keep going, fix what we can fix, and deal with what we can’t. Just keep going and don’t stop.”
Both of their planters and a sprayer were in one of the barns that’s now pretty much scrap metal, but they sustained what Kron says is relatively minor damage.
Items from Kron’s farm ended up in neighboring fields, and unfortunately some of those neighbors suffered damage as well.
Kron believes the rain will keep farmers out of the field for at least the next week. While he hates to see that for others, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for Kron Farms as they continue to clean up.
Tornado Rips Through Kron Farmskron-tornado-1Photos from Kron Farms in Evansville following a tornado Tuesday. Photo provided via social media.kron-tornado-5Photos from Kron Farms in Evansville following a tornado Tuesday. Photo provided via social media.kron-tornado-4Photos from Kron Farms in Evansville following a tornado Tuesday. Photo provided via social media.kron-tornado-2Photos from Kron Farms in Evansville following a tornado Tuesday. Photo provided via social media.
Bruce Kettler, President and CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/04171441/CJ-WRAP-HAT-ACI-POLICY-PRIORITIES-040424.mp3"]Even though your Indiana state lawmakers have wrapped up this year’s session of the Indiana General Assembly, ag leaders are already focusing on next year’s legislative session because Indiana lawmakers will be putting together another two-year budget beginning next January.
“How will next year’s state budget affect the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the Office of Indiana State Chemist, or any of these agencies that impact Indiana’s ag businesses?” says Bruce Kettler, the President and CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana (ACI).
He says he’s also concerned about any state legislation that could put a damper on ag innovation and research.
“We’re always looking at new things like ag technology and how does the policy that’s being worked on in the Statehouse affect those Industries? It’s always the inadvertent pieces of legislation that sometimes aren’t thought about that can be the biggest problems and challenges if you get a law enacted that doesn’t think about that,” he says.
Even though Kettler says he and the ACI policy committee are already thinking about next year’s Indiana General Assembly, the immediate concern impacting Indiana’s ag businesses and the state’s ag economy regard the lack of a new Farm Bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
“We just keep hoping that something’s going to happen with that,” says Kettler. “Frankly, I think at this stage, chances are pretty slim that we’re going to get a Farm Bill this year. I think everybody would like to see it because it gives us some certainty for our farmers and that ultimately affects our Agribusiness Council of Indiana members as well.”
Click HERE for more information about the Agribusiness Council of Indiana (ACI).
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Bruce Kettler, President and CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana, as they discuss several new state laws that were passed during the 2024 Indiana General Assembly that impact Indiana’s ag businesses.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/04171526/BRUCE-KETTLER-ACI-REGIONAL-MEETING-RAW-AUDIO-040224.mp3"]
Photo courtesy of Vincennes University.Vincennes University (VU) has received a $750,000 donation from a Bartholomew County couple to create new faculty positions to support agriculture education.
The donation has been made by Ro and Charles “Shorty” Whittington of Columbus, Indiana to start the Whittington Endowed Faculty Fund. It represents VU’s first-ever faculty fund endowment.
The faculty fund will address critical challenges in talent recruitment and retention within highly competitive fields of study, particularly agriculture. With an initial focus on supporting faculty positions in the College of Technology and College of Business and Public Service, the fund will allocate stipends to five positions, enabling Vincennes University to attract and retain top-tier talent in these crucial areas.
In addition to providing immediate support for faculty positions, a significant portion of their gift will be allocated towards establishing a named endowed fund, ensuring sustained support for faculty in perpetuity.
This enduring commitment to agricultural education underscores the University’s role as a leader in addressing the evolving needs of the agriculture sector.
Ro and Charles “Shorty” Whittington of Columbus, Indiana, who have made a $750,000 donation to Vincennes University to create new faculty positions to support ag education. Photo provided by Vincennes University.Shorty Whittington was founder and CEO of Grammer Logistics, an Indiana-based trucking company that serves as an over-the-road transporter of grain and crop protection products serving the agricultural industry.
The Whittingtons are long-time philanthropists and have supported 4-H youth through scholarships for several decades. Their recent gift continues their legacy of giving.
“My wife and I have a real desire to build up kids to get them where they need to be,” Shorty Whittington said. “Our objective is to invest in Vincennes University faculty and help them make things better. We want to make things available for young people to help them grow and help get them jump-started. I farmed for a long time, and if you plant a seed and you take care of that seed it grows.”
The transformative gift from the Whittingtons’ Landmark Farm Foundation, Inc. represents one of the largest individual donor gifts in recent years, underscoring the profound impact of philanthropy on VU’s continued success and growth.
Shorty Whittington added, “I have two things in my life that I go by, and the No. 1 thing is “If you give, you get.”
“This historic endowment underscores our unwavering dedication to academic excellence and innovation. Faculty are the lifeblood of what we do, working directly with our students to produce skills and experiences that lead to life-changing outcomes. I and Vincennes University are immensely grateful to Ro and Shorty Whittington for their visionary philanthropy, which will have a profound and lasting impact on our faculty, University community, and beyond,” said Dr. Laura Treanor, Provost of Vincennes University.
“We extend our deepest gratitude to Ro and Shorty Whittington for their outstanding generosity. It is an honor for VU and the Foundation to be a part of their passion and vision for making a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve. Their commitment to youth and education is truly inspiring,” said Kristi Deetz, Executive Director of VU Foundation and Senior Director of Institutional Advancement.
A photo rendering of the new distribution facility planned for The Andersons, Inc. in Delphi. Photo courtesy of the Carroll County Economic Development Corporation.The Andersons, Inc. has announced it is establishing a new distribution center in Delphi.
The new distribution center will be in the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Park. It will replace a nearby facility and is strategically located near the company’s manufacturing operations.
The facility will be on a long-term lease and is expected to be operational by the end of the year to support the company’s industry-leading cob and paper-based products to the lab, pet, and industrial markets.
“We are pleased to be able to partner with Carroll County, Indiana, to bring this new distribution center to the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Park,” said Kelly Bodway, vice president and general manager of contract and carrier manufacturing for The Andersons. “The facility’s central location will enable us to effectively support our customers and offers the opportunity to continue to grow our business.”
“The Andersons bringing this facility to Carroll County is a testament to the appeal of the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Park as a prime location for businesses looking to thrive,” said Jacob Adams, executive director of the
Carroll County Economic Development Corporation. “We believe that our continued investments into housing, broadband, and infrastructure are the catalysts for growth in our community.”
Source: Carroll County Economic Development Corporation
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/03155354/CJ-WRAP-HAT-MISSISSIPPI-RIVER-ISSUES-040324.mp3"]Over the past two years, low river levels along the Mississippi River system have had a negative impact on farmers and ag businesses here at home. Those issues may continue for many more years if they’re not addressed.
Jason Selking, Regional General Manager with Consolidated Grain and Barge, addressed the ongoing issues with grain and ag shipments along the Mississippi River system during a presentation this week at the Agribusiness Council of Indiana (ACI) Regional Meeting in Shelbyville.
He says the issue hasn’t been along the Ohio River, but several hundreds of miles away.
“The Lower Mississippi River is where we saw issues,” according to Selking. “While we have the locks and dams on the Ohio River, on the Lower Mississippi River, they lack those, so they do not benefit from the same management of river levels and are prone to more issues with low water events than we are along the Ohio River.”
Because of those issues, Selking says it’s created a ripple effect for grain and ag freight.
“Those issues caused smaller size tows—from 42 barge tows down to a small as 25 barge tows, which further restricts the speed and the velocity that grain can move along the Inland River System on its way to export,” says Selking. “That further compounds things for our American farmers as that causes a slowdown and an inability to take grain for export from them while they are in their middle of their harvest as it was happening during the last two years.”
That reduced capacity has caused price fluctuations for grain and other ag products.
Selking suggests that dredging continue along the Lower Mississippi River as a preventative measure.
“To the degree we can, it would be wonderful if we could start a preventative or predictive dredging program so that annually in those trouble spots that have been identified or where there have been issues in the last two seasons, it would be wonderful if we could preemptively dredge those sections of the Mississippi River to maintain adequate transit opportunities.”
Jason Selking, Regional General Manager of Consolidated Grain & Barge. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.What message does Selking have for farmers?
“I would certainly suggest that farmers take the opportunity while we have good river levels and while we are not pricing in extremely high barge freight levels as a result of low water because they’re not here today,” he says. “If farmers can find those opportunities, I would recommend they take the opportunity to price ahead their grain in times that they would be advantageous to them.”
He adds that your lawmakers on Capitol Hill should be made aware of these ongoing issues with the Mississippi River system because of the negative impacts that have been felt back home, as well as to fund projects to install locks and perform ongoing dredging of the Mississippi River to prevent further slowdowns in case of continued lower water levels.
“As a whole, we need to continue to as agriculture to be advocates of ourselves,” says Selking. “As large users of the Inland River System, we should be advocating for policies that would be advantageous to the grain flow as it is sent for export.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/03150436/huma-wrap.mp3"]If you’re interested in improving soil health, building organic matter, and reducing crop input costs, then Huma might be the company you’re looking to partner with. Cory Ritter, Midwest Regional Sales Manager for Huma, says they can do all that while reducing dependency on synthetic fertilizers and chemicals.
“Our company has been around for over 50 years. We’ve had a bunch of different names and we brought everything under one roof under Huma. We like to say our products have been around for 50 million years because it is a humic based product. We have our own mines and provide that. We’re a company that takes humic solutions and we really try to provide a targeted approach to the farmer to solve the issues of what they’re after.”
Huma further processes humates to create their proprietary Micro Carbon Technology which super charges their innovative carbon-rich liquid products to naturally increase nutrient availability and uptake, improve soil and plant health, and offer zero-residue crop protection against pests and diseases.
Ritter says their Micro Carbon Technology delivers fast-acting results and greater uptake in the foliage and soil at much lower rates.
“I don’t believe that in this industry, there is something that is a better deliverer, that helps products get to the plant, better than our Micro Carbon Technology.”
Ritter tells customers that Huma products will help you get what you’re actually paying for out of many of the products you’re currently using.
“Whether it’s a biological that you’ve had great results with some years and poor results in others. I think I have some products that can partner with that to provide you some more consistency year over year.”
Learn more about Huma at huma.us.
Indiana’s total hog and pig inventory on March 1 was estimated at 4.40 million head, unchanged from a year ago, according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician of the USDA NASS, Indiana Field Office. Breeding hog inventory, at 250,000 head, was unchanged from last March. Market hog inventory, at 4.15 million head, was unchanged from last year. The average pigs saved per litter for the December-February 2024 quarter was 11.30, compared to 11.25 last year.
United States inventory of all hogs and pigs on March 1, 2024 was 74.6 million head. This was up 1 percent from March 1, 2023, but down 2 percent from December 1, 2023. Breeding inventory, at 6.02 million head, was down 2 percent from last year, but up slightly from the previous quarter. Market hog inventory, at 68.6 million head, was up 1 percent from last year, but down 2 percent from last quarter.
The December 2023-February 2024 pig crop, at 33.1 million head, was up 2 percent from last year. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.88 million head, down 3 percent from previous year. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 48 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was 11.53 for the December 2023-February 2024 period, compared to 11.02 last year.
United States hog producers intend to have 2.92 million sows farrow during the March-May 2024 quarter, down 1 percent from the actual farrowings during the same period one year earlier, and down 2 percent from the same period two years earlier. Intended farrowings for June-August 2024, at 2.99 million sows, are down 2 percent from the same period one year earlier, and down 3 percent from the same period two years earlier.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has registered Tolvera herbicide for effective broadleaf and grass weed control in spring and winter wheat, durum and barley. The product features two modes of action – tolpyralate, an active ingredient new to the cereals market, and bromoxynil – to help combat the spread of resistant weeds while providing flexibility in application and crop rotation. Tolvera herbicide will be available for the 2025 season.
A proven weed control tool for corn growers, tolpyralate is an HPPD inhibitor (Group 27) with less known resistance than some other herbicide groups. Tolvera herbicide provides farmers with tank-mix flexibility for ease of use, along with excellent control of many challenging weeds, including all common herbicide-resistant biotypes of kochia, Russian thistle, waterhemp, green and yellow foxtail, and barnyard grass.
“Tolvera herbicide offers growers a new, effective tool to manage hard-to-control weeds and expands their choices for crop rotation options the following season,” said Drew Clark, Corteva Agriscience Cereal Herbicide Product Manager. “We’re excited to deliver a new active ingredient to the cereals market, expanding farmers’ access to effective crop management tools.”
With Tolvera herbicide, cereals growers can rotate to the crop that best improves profitability potential. It offers a nine-month plant-back rotation to many important crops in the Northern Plains and Pacific Northwest regions, including field peas, lentils, canola, chickpeas, soybeans and sunflower.
As an emulsifiable concentrate (EC) formulation, Tolvera herbicide is tank-mix-friendly and compatible with many grass and broadleaf herbicides, including Quelex® herbicide with Arylex active, OpenSky® herbicide, Pixxaro® EC herbicide with Arylex active, Stinger® HL herbicide or Tarzec® herbicide with Arylex active from the Corteva Agriscience cereal portfolio.
Growers can apply Tolvera herbicide to spring and winter wheat, durum and barley starting at the one-leaf stage all the way up through the jointing phase. This provides growers a wide window to apply the product and achieve maximum control of actively growing weeds less than 4 inches tall.
To learn more, visit Corteva.us/Tolvera or contact your local Corteva territory manager.
Source: Corteva Agriscience
Trey Kaufman-Renn, who is a forward for the Purdue University Men’s Basketball team, poses with a Purdue Ag Week T-shirt and fellow students as the campus in West Lafayette celebrates both Purdue Ag Week and the Boilermakers’ first Final Four appearance since 1980. Photo courtesy of the Purdue Ag Week Task Force.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/02164800/CJ-WRAP-HAT-PURDUE-AG-WEEK-040224.mp3"]It sure is a great week to be a Purdue fan! Not only is the men’s basketball team in the Final Four for the first time in 44 years, but it’s also Purdue Ag Week—a celebration of Purdue’s College of Agriculture.
“Purdue Ag Week doesn’t just stop when the week is over. We just want to light the spark underneath people so that way they try to explore on their own what agriculture means,” says Kayla Grennes, President of Purdue Ag Week, which is happening all this week on Memorial Mall at the campus in West Lafayette.
One of the big events throughout Purdue Ag Week is Burger Bash, which is Wednesday, April 3.
“We’ll give out over 2,000 burgers by the time it’s all said and done,” she says. “It’s our biggest day of the year and it’s crazy because we have lines that almost wrap around the entire Memorial Mall.”
Even though Purdue is home to thousands of ag students, many students who aren’t studying agriculture may not realize the importance of the ag industry—which is the main goal of Purdue Ag Week.
“A lot of people might not understand how much protein they could get from their meat, or the different types of cuts of different meat—whether it’s pork, beef, or poultry,” she says. “We want to help make students more aware of the nutritional aspect behind their food and where it comes from.”
Much like Coach Matt Painter and the Purdue Men’s Basketball team has done throughout the 2024 NCAA tournament, Grennes says Purdue Ag Week is also about bringing together the entire Purdue community.
“I love Purdue and it’s really nice that we can do things like this to bring people together,” she says. “We started a booth this year and made a couch out of bales of hay to welcome people in to sit down and have a little conversation. Even if students just want to hang out between their classes, that’s great. That’s what we’re here for and that’s what we want to be.
Members of the Purdue Ag Week Task Force. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.The Purdue Ag Week Task Force, a team of 20 students, has planned the following events for the remainder of the week:
- Burger Bash, Ag Expo and Cultivating Conversations (Wednesday, April 3): Partnering with the Indiana Beef Cattle Association, students will serve beef, turkey and plant-based burgers and share information about the production processes for each. Ag Expo will promote opportunities within the agriculture sector through educational booths sponsored by industry representatives. Following Burger Bash, the Ag Week Task Force will host Cultivating Conversations. This event is open to the public and will feature Jay Akridge, former Purdue University provost and dean of the College of Agriculture, and Gebisa Ejeta, presidential fellow and Distinguished Professor of Agronomy.
- Hammer Down Hunger (Thursday, April 4): Hammer Down Hunger provides students with the opportunity to help combat local and international food insecurity by packing meals with the organization Pack Away Hunger. In 2023, students packed over 60,000 meals and dispersed them throughout Indiana food deserts and internationally to Ukraine. This year their goal is to pack over 65,000 meals.
- Farm to Fork Friday (April 5): Ag Week concludes with Farm to Fork Friday, an opportunity for Indiana producers to educate students about their production process. This year, the event will showcase products grown in Indiana and abroad.
Each day during this week, College of Agriculture student organizations will also set up booths on Memorial Mall from 10 a.m-3 p.m. to promote their clubs and share information about their sector of the agriculture industry. The Ag Week Task Force will also be handing out free promotional items daily.
To cap off the week, the Purdue Men’s Basketball team will play North Carolina State in the Final Four at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday, April 6. Tip-off is at 6:09 ET.
Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.
Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, shares laughter with members of the South Korean trade delegation during a recent USDA trade mission to South Korea. Photo provided by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/02212441/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-DON-LAMB-ON-SOUTH-KOREA-040224.mp3"]Several ag leaders from across the U.S. were part of last week’s USDA trade mission to South Korea—including Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
Lamb was among representatives from 49 U.S. companies and organizations on the trade mission to South Korea. Lamb shared with Hoosier Ag Today that he and Indiana ag businesses are developing relationships with South Korean business partners to create new opportunities to export Indiana ag products.
“When we think about the growing our exports, we think a lot about corn and soybeans here in Indiana obviously—but really beef, pork, poultry are the areas that we probably have the most opportunities to increase,” he said. “Of course, that means corn and soybeans in one way or another from feed products.”
He said it was a good experience to be on the USDA’s trade mission with representatives from other states.
“It’s really good to be part of a team and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) team puts together a really great way for us to kind of work together where we all have an opportunity to share in that market,” he said.
South Korea relies on imported agricultural goods, especially meat and bulk commodities, to satisfy food and feed demand. It is one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world but has relativity small amounts of arable land.
Alexis Taylor, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, led the South Korea trade mission and says it was one of several trade missions planned for the year.
“At USDA, we are really focused on market diversification and opening doors, helping build relationships for U.S. food and agricultural exporters and our industries and markets all over the world,” she said. “I think Korea, being our fifth largest market, is really key to that market diversification work.”
You can learn more about upcoming trade missions on the USDA website.
Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, during a recent USDA trade mission to South Korea. Photo provided by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.
The outlook that U.S. farmers have on the future of the ag economy has improved in March as expectations for interest rate changes have shifted according to a recent survey by the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.
The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer index increased to 114, 3-points higher than in February. While the Index of Current Conditions fell by 2 points to 101, the Index of Future Expectations climbed to 120, up by 5 points compared to February. The disparity between current and future indexes was primarily attributable to farmers’ perceptions that a financial downturn took place over the past year, coupled with expectations for some improvement over the next 12 months. The March survey was conducted from March 11-15, 2024.
Producers’ expectations for interest rate changes have shifted which could help explain why producers look for financial conditions to improve. This month 48% of respondents said they expect a decline in the U.S. prime interest rate over the next year, up from 35% in December. Just one-third (32%) of producers foresee an interest rate increase compared to 43% last month. Only 20% of respondents this month identified the risk of rising interest rates as a primary concern, a decrease from the 24% recorded in December 2023. High input costs continue to be producers’ No. 1 concern, with 36% of respondents expressing worry.
The Farm Capital Investment Index increased by 7 points this month, indicating a rise in optimism among producers about making large investments. Producers who said it is a good time for a large investment rose to 15%, up from 11% at the start of the year. Producers who said it’s a good time to invest pointed to strong cash flows on their farms coupled with higher dealer inventories for farm machinery as key reasons. However, a majority of producers still feel hesitant to invest due to concerns about high costs for machinery and construction as well as high interest rates.
Producers displayed a more optimistic short-term outlook on farmland values in March, with the Short-Term Farmland Values Index rising to 124, a 9-point increase from the previous month. This month, 38% of producers expect farmland values to increase in the coming year, compared to 31% in January and February. Factors contributing to this optimism included non-farm investor demand, inflation expectations and strong cash flows. An improved interest rate outlook might have been a factor as well, although producers didn’t point to that explicitly in this month’s survey.
More farmers this month (24%) said they believe farmland prices will go up because of inflation expectations compared to last month (18%). There was also a slight increase in producers citing strong cash flows (8% in March versus 6% in February) as a reason, and a modest decline in the number of producers who mentioned non-farm investor demand as a major factor influencing the farmland market. However, despite this decline, 57% of producers still consider non-farm investor demand the primary reason for their bullish outlook on farmland values.
Interest in using farmland for carbon sequestration or solar energy production appears to be increasing. In this month’s survey, nearly 1 out of 5 respondents (18%) said they or their landowners had been approached about carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) on their farmland. Additionally, 12% of this month’s respondents said they had discussions with companies interested in leasing farmland for a solar energy project in the last six months, compared to 10% in February. When it comes to long-term farmland lease rates offered by solar energy companies, 54% of respondents this month said they were offered $1,000 or more per acre, while just over one-fourth (27%) were offered $1,250 or more per acre.
The March barometer also revealed that many farmers are concerned about potential government policy changes affecting their farms following this year’s elections. Forty-three percent of respondents anticipate more restrictive regulations for agriculture. Additionally, 4 out of 10 (39%) producers expect taxes impacting agriculture to rise.
Click BELOW to listen to Dr. Jim Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier with the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture discuss the results of the recent Purdue Ag Economy Barometer survey.
Source: Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
The entrance to the Bunge facility near Morristown in Shelby County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Bunge says it is looking to hire more than 70 full-time employees for its expanded production facility in Shelby County.
This is Bunge’s largest hiring initiative to date in the region and is connected to the plant’s expansion with the construction of a $550 million fully integrated soy protein concentrate and textured soy protein concentrate facility near Morristown.
The job openings include hourly Production, Material Handling, Packaging, Warehouse Operators, Maintenance Mechanics, Engineers and Quality Food Safety Experts.
“This is an exciting time to join our growing company. Bunge has been an anchor in the Morristown community for 25+ years and we are expanding our operations to continue to meet the growing demand for our products,” said Brian Douville, Bunge’s Vice President Emulsifiers and Proteins. “We are proud to have dynamic and high performing teams creating ingredients for the fast-growing plant-based protein segment. We are looking for individuals who don’t just come here to work, they come here to grow and be part of a dynamic team,” he continued.
In a press release, Bunge says that starting wages for qualified applicants are $28.00 per hour—including a compensation and benefits package. The company says it will also provide training and developmental opportunities for new employees.
Click HERE for more information.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/01194049/checkoff-wrap.mp3"]When you sell your soybeans, half of 1% of the total selling price goes toward the soybean checkoff. Half of that goes to the United Soybean Board for investment in their long-range strategic plan, and the other half goes to the Indiana Soybean Alliance for investment in areas that are priorities for Indiana soybean farmers as decided on by Indiana soybean farmers.
Indiana Soybean Alliance board chair Kevin Cox told Hoosier Ag Today that one of his fellow board members was recently asked, “Why do you support the checkoff program?”
“And he pondered for a moment and then he said, ‘You know, I support the checkoff because the checkoff supports me.’ And I think that sums it all up very, very well because if we don’t do something to try to promote our product, to promote our industry, we’re going to be in serious trouble.”
We told you last week about the Student Soybean Innovation Competition at Purdue where students come up with their own soybean creations. This is one of the many events sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Alliance aimed at finding new uses.
“Our goal, as the board of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, is just trying to figure out how to move the pile, how to move more and more soybeans out of the state of Indiana. To be able to come here, to see the enthusiasm and the excitement from the students that are here, the way that they address the competition, they’re trying to figure out something that’s brand new, something that nobody else has done, and trying to figure out a way that they can utilize soybeans that we produce here, it’s just exciting.”
While at Purdue last week, Cox says ISA board members sifted through over 100 requests for funding during their board meeting for different research projects around the world to help move that Indiana soybean pile.
“Feeding trials, feeding fish overseas, feeding fish in Indonesia, or using it for different foodstuffs, different food products, plastics, oils, inks, those kinds of things. Things that you don’t traditionally think about as just being crushed for soybean oil or soybean meal. So, utilizing those opportunities that we have, figuring out ways of investing the checkoff dollars into research so that we can see some of these products come to fruition.”
Research from Cornell shows that for every $1 invested in the soybean checkoff, it returns over $12 back to the farm.
Four-year-old Ellie Clayton meets “Peanut Butter” and “Jelly” at the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry. Photo courtesy of Tom Campbell / Purdue University.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/01193514/CJ-WRAP-HAT-INDIANA-TURKEY-CHECKOFF-040124.mp3"]If you’re an Indiana grain and livestock producer, you’re well aware of the respective state and national check-off programs that support your industry. Indiana’s turkey producers also have a checkoff program called the Indiana Turkey Market Development Council.
“We use the turkey check-off program funds to support Indiana turkey overall,” says Becky Joniskan, who serves as the Executive Director of the Indiana Turkey Market Development Council. She is also President of the Indiana State Poultry Association.
The checkoff collects 3/100 of a penny ($0.0003) per pound net live weight of turkeys sold in Indiana.
Becky Joniskan, President of the Indiana State Poultry Association. She also serves as Executive Director of the Indiana Turkey Market Development Council, which oversees Indiana’s turkey checkoff program. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.“About 75 percent of [checkoff funds] go to the National Turkey Federation to help support activities on a national level to advocate for turkey, support research and development, and add new markets for turkey more broadly,” she says. “In Indiana, we use the remainder of that fund to make sure that people are aware of turkey production here in Indiana. We also support research conducted by Purdue University’s poultry professors and provide support to organizations like Indiana FFA and Indiana 4-H.”
Joniskan says the checkoff has set up a website to help bring attention to Indiana’s turkey producers and the state’s turkey industry.
“YourIndianaTurkeyFarmers.com is our Indiana-specific landing pad that features lots of turkey recipes and information about turkey farming,” says Joniskan. “Plus, we profile ‘Peanut Butter’ and ‘Jelly’—the two turkeys that were ‘pardoned’ by President Biden at the White House before Thanksgiving in 2021.”
She adds that the Indiana Turkey Market Development Council is helping to promote a big event that is coming to the Johnson County Fairgrounds later this summer.
“The National Turkey Federation sponsors a program called Turkey Smoke that helps celebrate and encourage people to consider turkey when they are grilling and barbecuing,” says Joniskan. “For the second year, we are going to host a Turkey Smoke event through the Hoosier Barbecue Classic in Franklin on June 7th and 8th. This event is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and features the country’s top competitors, so these are serious barbecue folks. It will be really delicious and interesting to see what they do with our cuts of Indiana turkey.”
Joniskan is also representing Indiana’s turkey and poultry sector as part of the USDA’s trade mission to New Delhi, India from April 22-25.
“The U.S. Trade Representative and others in Washington were recently able work with India to reduce their tariffs on U.S. products from 30 percent to 5 percent,” says Joniskan. “Indiana is the nation’s largest producer of duck—we produce 60 percent of the nation’s duck. Indiana is also number three in the U.S. for turkey production, so it seems very appropriate that as that door opens, we are there to greet our Indian customers and explore how our products can make it to their shores, into their culture and become more of their cuisine. I’m excited to be traveling to India and look forward to representing Indiana’s turkey producers.”
Click HERE for YourIndianaTurkeyFarmers.com.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Becky Joniskan, President of Indiana State Poultry Association, as they talk more about the ways that Indiana’s turkey checkoff program is supporting Indiana’s turkey producers.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/04/01193455/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-BECKY-JONISKAN-INDIANA-TURKEY-CHECK-OFF-032624.mp3"]
Soybean Cyst Nematode is present in most areas where soybeans are grown. Because nematodes feed on the roots of each plant, the damage is often difficult to detect with no above-ground symptoms.
To help farmers do their jobs more efficiently, BASF launched SCNFields.com, a website that will provide farmers with SCN sampling results from more than 4,000 collected samples across the U.S.
“SCN is the leading cause of soybean yield loss in the U.S., costing growers over 100 million bushels of yield and an estimated $1.5 billion annually,” says Troy Bauer, BASF Senior Technical Field Representative. “Farmers need to test their fields to ensure SCN isn’t becoming a problem without them realizing it.”
With SCNFields.com, a farmer can see samples with high counts locally and know they need to take steps now to manage the threat of SCN. Additionally, SCN populations can change in season.
Beef and pork exports of $18.1 billion in 2023 had a significant impact on the corn and soybean industries. An independent study released by the U.S. Meat Export Federation quantified the returns that beef and pork exports brought to corn and soybean producers nationally and on a state-by-state level for leading corn and soybean-producing states.
Nationally, U.S. pork and beef exports contributed an estimated total economic impact of 14.6% per bushel to the value of corn and 13.9% per bushel to soybeans in 2023.
The study shows that despite the headwinds facing the red meat industry in 2023, exports contributed substantially to the value of U.S. corn and soybeans.
Beef and pork exports accounted for 512.7 million bushels of U.S. corn usage, equating to a market value of $3.05 billion. In Indiana, they accounted for 36.02 million bushels.
Pork exports accounted for 96.8 million bushels of U.S. soybean usage, equating to a market value of $1.36 billion. In Indiana, pork exports accounted for 7.7 million bushels of soybean usage.
Nice weather of late has farmers out in the field getting some work done and, in a few cases, putting seed in the ground. The latest Purdue Crop Chat, a podcast featuring Purdue Extension specialists Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn and ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel, is available now from Hoosier Ag Today on our website and wherever you listen to podcasts.
With soybeans getting planted earlier and earlier, Casteel suggests farmers take a good look at the tags on those seed bags to find germ scores. If they’re not there, contact your seed rep.
“See if you can get some vigor scores or some cool germination scores. So, then it’s like, okay, of the three or four varieties I have, this lot is the one that has better vigor or has better cold germ scores. You better be thinking about putting those out first.”
Quinn emphasizes planter maintenance on the podcast, saying that most farmers do this really well, but the road to even and consistent emergence begins with that planter.
“The depth consistency, the furrow. Any issues that we have with that seed in terms of compaction with the furrow… So, it starts with the row cleaners. It starts with what the down pressure is. Think about the closing wheels, the starter system. There are so many different components on that planter. So, doing everything you can to make sure things are maintained well, parts are replaced where it needs to be, things are set well. There are a lot of good tools to check every row and make sure the depth is consistent across that entire planter.”
With the recent stretch of warmer weather, Casteel adds that those with cover crops, particularly cereal rye, should have a plan together sooner rather than later.
“Are you looking to get on a lot of biomass? Are you looking to get shin-high kind of biomass? That might come a little bit earlier than it did last year. Last year we were mid-April. With that kind of a target, if that’s where you’re at, it may be (this) week depending on what kind of seeding rates that you put out with the cereal rye.”
Catch the Purdue Crop Chat now wherever you listen to podcasts and hear Casteel gloat a little bit about how corn is no longer king in Indiana, being dethroned as soybean acres once again eclipse corn acres in Indiana this season.
Purdue University students enjoying the site of cattle on campus during Purdue Ag Week. Photo: Tom Campbell / Purdue University.During the week of April 1-5, Purdue University’s College of Agriculture will host Ag Week on Memorial Mall. Ag Week is an annual series of student-led events that highlight the giant leaps occurring within the College of Agriculture and the agriculture industry.
The Purdue Ag Week Task Force, a team of 20 students, has planned the following events:
- Milk Monday (April 1): In collaboration with the Purdue Dairy Club, Milk Monday will focus on production agriculture in the dairy industry by displaying educational booths, bringing live cattle on campus from the Purdue Animal Sciences Research and Education Center, and distributing milk and grilled cheese sandwiches.
- Tech Tuesday (April 2): Tech Tuesday will highlight ground-breaking technological advancements that impact the agriculture industry of today and tomorrow. Industry professionals will also showcase their equipment on Memorial Mall.
- Burger Bash, Ag Expo and Cultivating Conversations (Wednesday, April 3): Partnering with the Indiana Beef Cattle Association, students will serve beef, turkey and plant-based burgers and share information about the production processes for each. Ag Expo will promote opportunities within the agriculture sector through educational booths sponsored by industry representatives. Following Burger Bash, the Ag Week Task Force will host Cultivating Conversations. This event is open to the public and will feature Jay Akridge, former Purdue University provost and dean of the College of Agriculture, and Gebisa Ejeta, presidential fellow and Distinguished Professor of Agronomy.
- Hammer Down Hunger (Thursday, April 4): Hammer Down Hunger provides students with the opportunity to help combat local and international food insecurity by packing meals with the organization Pack Away Hunger. In 2023, students packed over 60,000 meals and dispersed them throughout Indiana food deserts and internationally to Ukraine. This year their goal is to pack over 65,000 meals.
- Farm to Fork Friday (April 5): Ag Week concludes with Farm to Fork Friday, an opportunity for Indiana producers to educate students about their production process. This year, the event will showcase products grown in Indiana and abroad.
Each day during this week, College of Agriculture student organizations will also set up booths on Memorial Mall from 10 a.m-3 p.m. to promote their clubs and share information about their sector of the agriculture industry. The Ag Week Task Force will also be handing out free promotional items daily.
You can stay connected with Purdue Ag Week on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X and YouTube at @PurdueAgWeek.
Source: Purdue University College of Agriculture
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/30171008/CJ-WRAP-BALTIMORE-BRIDGE-COLLAPSE-032924.mp3"]By now, you’ve seen the footage of the recent collision between a cargo freighter and the Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore. The collapse of that bridge and the temporary shutdown of the nearby Port of Baltimore have brought further attention to America’s ports and the shipping industry.
“When you have a trauma to one key bridge and port, like what’s happening at Baltimore, there are clearly going to be some negative ripple effects for that,” says Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition.
He says the incident on March 26 highlights the critical role that ports—like the Port of Baltimore—play in our supply chain.
“When you see events like this occur, it really underscores the reality that while our oceans are vast and expansive, all of that ocean transit eventually narrows down to where it originates or where it’s destined to, and that’s our port regions. Our ports are really critical to our national economy and our national security, so the whole notion of investing in our ports, maintaining them, and securing them must remain a national priority.”
Steenhoek adds that while just 350,000 tons of soybeans went through the Port of Baltimore in 2020, it ranked second to sugar among ag products that were handled there.
Overall, the Port of Baltimore is responsible for moving 0.3% of U.S. ag exports and 2.1% of imports, meaning its overall impact on U.S. ag trade is relatively minor. However, the Maryland Port Administration has suspended all vessel traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore until further notice.
Purdue Crop Chat is a regular podcast from Hoosier Ag Today and the Purdue University Extension Service, featuring Purdue Extension soybean specialist Dr. Shaun Casteel and Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Dan Quinn. On this episode, Shaun and Dan get ready for planting season. Some already have seed in the ground, leaving Shaun wondering whether or not that was a good idea.
This podcast is made possible by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Learn more at YourCheckoff.org
A herd of dairy cattle in Michigan that had recently been relocated from Texas has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) according to the USDA and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD).
The affected farm—which is located in Montcalm County, northeast of Grand Rapids—recently received cattle from an affected premises in Texas before that herd showed any sign of disease. When the cattle were moved from Texas to Michigan, the cattle were not symptomatic and did not appear ill.
In a written statement sent to Hoosier Ag Today by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH):
- No cases have been identified in Indiana.
- Any cattle owner in Indiana who notices clinical signs consistent with this illness should contact his/her veterinarian for evaluation and diagnostics.
- As always, producers are encouraged to practice good biosecurity when moving on/off and between farms.
- BOAH will continue to monitor the situation and communicate developments as appropriate.
On Monday, March 25, the agencies confirmed the detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in two dairy herds in Texas and two dairy herds in Kansas that had cattle exhibiting these symptoms. Presumptive positive test results have also been received for additional herds in New Mexico, Idaho, and Texas.
USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) has also confirmed that the strain of the virus found in Michigan is very similar to the strain confirmed in Texas and Kansas that appears to have been introduced by wild birds (H5N1, Eurasian lineage goose/Guangdong clade 2.3.4.4b). Initial testing has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans. While cases among humans in direct contact with infected animals are possible, this indicates that the current risk to the public remains low.
HPAI is a highly contagious virus that can be spread directly by infected wild birds/animals or indirectly through any item that has been exposed to the virus—such as equipment, feed, or the clothing and shoes of caretakers. The virus has been detected in various species of mammals—presumably after the animals come into contact with infected birds. To limit the spread of the disease, the affected premises voluntarily stopped movement.
Spread of symptoms among the Michigan herd also indicates that HPAI transmission between cattle cannot be ruled out; USDA and partners continue to monitor this closely and have advised veterinarians and producers to practice good biosecurity, test animals before necessary movements, minimize animal movements, and isolate sick cattle from the herd. Among the dairies whose herds are exhibiting symptoms, the affected animals have recovered after isolation with little to no associated mortality reported.
There continues to be no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply because products are pasteurized before entering the market, or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health. Dairies are required to send only milk from healthy animals into processing for human consumption; milk from impacted animals is being diverted or destroyed so that it does not enter the human food supply.
In addition, pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk. Pasteurization is required for any milk entering interstate commerce for human consumption. FDA’s longstanding position is that unpasteurized, raw milk can harbor dangerous microorganisms that can pose serious health risks to consumers, and FDA is reminding consumers of the risks associated with raw milk consumption in light of the HPAI detections.
Because of the limited information available about the transmission of HPAI in raw milk, the FDA recommends that industry does not manufacture or sell raw milk or raw/unpasteurized milk cheese products made with milk from cows showing symptoms of illness, including those infected with avian influenza or exposed to those infected with avian influenza.
At this time, the FDA is not aware that any milk or food product from symptomatic cows is entering interstate commerce. Furthermore, if milk from cows showing symptoms of illness, including those infected with avian influenza or exposed to those infected with avian influenza is intended to be used to feed calves, FDA strongly encourages that it be heat treated to kill harmful bacteria or viruses, such as influenza, before calf feeding.
Milk loss resulting from symptomatic cattle to date is too limited to have a major impact on supply and there should be no impact on the price of milk or other dairy products. Further, the U.S. typically has a more than sufficient milk supply in the spring months due to seasonally higher production.
Federal agencies are also working with state and industry partners to encourage farmers and veterinarians to report cattle illnesses quickly so that we can monitor potential additional cases and minimize the impact and risk to farmers, farmworkers, consumers and other animals. Producers are urged to work with their veterinarian to report cattle illnesses quickly and practice enhanced biosecurity measures.
Sources: USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD)
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/28200318/24-student-soy-wrap.mp3"]A skin-sensitive baby wipe with only one non-soybean ingredient besides water earned the $20,000 grand prize in the 30th annual Student Soybean Innovation Competition, announced during an awards ceremony on Wednesday evening at the Purdue Memorial Union in West Lafayette.
Gentle on the skin like silk, SoySilk uses soybean ingredients in every step of the baby wipe production, including the base sheet and the formulation. SoySilk is a plastic-free, vegan, non-toxic, environmentally friendly, biodegradable and compostable alternative to all other baby wipes used in the United States, while still giving customers a quality product.
SoySilk was created by the duo of Purdue University junior Kyle Han from Taipei, Taiwan, and Purdue freshman Ben Gottlieb from Chappaqua, New York. Han is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering with a concentration in cellular and biomolecular engineering in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Gottlieb is studying finance at Purdue’s Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.
Prior to learning they had won the $20,000 prize, Han told Hoosier Ag Today what it would mean to him if they did win.
“I think a big point about being a Boilermaker is just the whole Purdue spirit. So, if we win first place, then we can 100% say that Purdue helped us utilize a resource to create a solution that the global environment is suffering from right now. That will be something I’m really proud of.”
And soybean farmers, you’ll love this- Han explains one of the biggest takeaways from competing in this year’s event.
“So, the soybean is actually a very versatile agricultural crop that we notice. It can make everything, if I’m going to be honest. So, the soybean is now a very magical thing for me. We definitely know its potential and we can solve a lot of problems by using soybeans.”
The Student Soybean Innovation Competition is sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and Purdue University. To win this competition, Purdue University students must develop novel applications for soybeans that satisfy a market need.
“ISA looks forward to working with Purdue students each year and seeing what unique products they create,” said ISA Board Chair Kevin Cox, a farmer from Brazil, Ind. “The goal of this competition is to showcase the versatility of soybeans while addressing a need in agriculture or the general public. The results often expand opportunities and markets for all Indiana soybean growers. We are excited about SoySilk. This appears to be a safe and necessary product that we think will be attractive to many people.”
Baby wipes on the market today are made of pulp, plastic and chemicals such as cleaning or disinfecting agents. SoySilk uses soy fiber as the base sheet, soy protein crosslink to increase breaking tenacity, and soy glycerin and soy lecithin as emollients for the skin. No trees are cut down, and no plastic polymers are used, yet it offers the best cleaning effect to consumers. With a soy fiber base sheet, SoySilk created a baby wipe that is 143 percent thicker than the average baby wipes on the market.
“Our product’s mission is to provide a top-tier customer experience in baby wipes while creating positive environmental effects,” Gottlieb said. “Most importantly, SoySilk will pave a new path for wet wipe materials as countries pass new regulations to prohibit the plastic polymers contained in current baby wipes.”
According to Persistence Market Research, the global baby wipes market will reach $9.9 billion by 2032. SoySilk contains 92 percent soy content on a dry weight, which can utilize $313 million worth of soy protein through U.S. sales alone. Gottlieb added, “Our product introduces an innovative business opportunity in a high-value market with an enormous volume of soy for our high-quality Indiana soybean industry to profit and create a positive impact on our planet.”
The United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published a report on April 4, 2023 calling for a ban on baby wipes – or wet wipes – containing plastic. A similar report listed wet wipes as a commonly littered, single-use plastic items in England. A U.K. survey showed 96 percent of respondents supported a ban on wet wipes containing plastic.
“Global consumer-goods manufacturing companies like Proctor & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark have been trying to develop a new material for their Pampers and Huggies baby wipes pipeline without plastic polymers but still strong,” Han explained. “Many companies believe that with the sustainability trend, the European Union and the United States will soon catch up on banning wet wipes that contain plastic. Our team is providing a new alternative with SoySilk baby wipes to tackle the ban and influence the business for the U.S. market.”
This year, 15 teams composed of 48 Purdue University students and 19 faculty advisors, finished the competition. These students represent a variety of majors including agronomy, biological engineering, animal science, pharmacy and environmental and natural resource engineering. Each team works with two faculty advisors who provide technical and market research support.
This year’s judges included four ISA board members: Roger Bommer of Brookville, Ind.; Jason Misiniec of Bicknell, Ind.; Brian Warpup of Warren, Ind.; and Allen Buchanan of Fowler, Ind. Also three industry experts served as judges including Tom Kilcoyne with Next Consulting, Brit Walker with ADM and Lisa Zentner of Crafco.
The contest introduces Purdue students to the multi-faceted uses and vast potential of soybeans while drawing on students’ creativity to develop products that utilize soy. Following the contest, ISA works to develop the products, evaluate their long-term feasibility and commercial viability.
“The Student Soybean Innovation Competition allows ISA to create relationships with bright and creative students and their advisors at Purdue,” said ISA board member Jenna Scott, a farmer from Muncie, Ind., and chair of the ISA Sustainability and Value Creation Committee. “Some of the products from this contest will help us move more soybeans into the market. Indiana soybean checkoff funds are used to find new uses and new markets for our soybeans, which creates more demand and helps our farms to be more profitable and sustainable.”
Previous contest winners include last year’s StyroSoy, which is an environmentally friendly, plastic-free alternative to polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam. In 2022, a soybean-based mulch and playground surface called Smulch was the winner. Biostimulant, a liquid biostimulant designed to promote growth in crops grown in vertical farms, won in 2021. The ever-popular soybean crayons and soy candles are past winners, as well.
Earning second place this year, and a $10,000 prize, were the creators of SoyBox, a soy-based thermoplastic starch that can be used to manufacture cartons that can hold liquid. SoyBox is a multipurpose, water-resistant material for liquid packaging boards that can be used to store milk, juice, broths and other liquids typically stored in a carton rather than a bottle or jug. SoyBox is high in soy content and is a lower cost, sustainable, simpler, alternative to the multi-layered containers used today made from polyethylene, aluminum and paper.
Team SoyBox consists of Laurian Lien, a sophomore from Los Angeles, Calif., who is studying biological engineering with an interest in science and sustainability; and Lewis Polansky, a freshman from Los Angeles, Calif., who is studying high technology entrepreneurship and is an Integrated Business and Engineering major.
Finishing third, and earning a $5,000 prize, were the creators of Green Eggs, No Ham!, a novel egg substitute made with multiple ingredients derived from soy. The product has two parts: a soy-derived substitute for an egg white and a soy-derived substitute for an egg yolk. Green Eggs, No Ham! provides a more authentic egg visual experience than traditional egg substitutes while also able to blend into one liquid for various end uses and product packaging.
The product is cheaper to manufacture than existing products, using wholesale ingredient cost estimates. Green Eggs, No Ham! has 67.45 percent soy-derived ingredients This team has four Purdue students: Alekhya Ankaraju, a senior in agricultural communications from Carmel, Ind.; Amanda Wolf, a sophomore studying biological engineering from Indianapolis, Ind.; Chris Mechalke, a sophomore majoring in biological engineering from Corning, N.Y.; and Will Meyer, a sophomore in chemical engineering from Lake Bluff, Ill.
Indiana soybean farmers’ investment in finding new soybean innovations is not limited to the competition. The state soybean checkoff also funds the Soybean Utilization Endowed Chair at Purdue’s College of Agriculture, Dr. Nathan Mosier, to lead research into new uses for soybeans.
InsectiSoy was the winner of the People’s Choice award. This $500 award is determined by votes of the more than 300 attendees prior to the awards ceremony. Utilizing soy properties and a knowledge of natural insect repellents, the InsectiSoy team formulated a way to create an insect perimeter that is safe for families and pets. Along with safety, this soy-based solution is just as effective as insecticides on the market, holds a lower price point, is safer to manufacture, and is produced from naturally occurring, easily produced materials. The InsectiSoy team consists of Purdue junior Charles Sebright from East Berlin, Penn.; Josh Stephenson of Muncie, Ind.; and Sarah Juffer from Fishers, Ind.
Go online to bit.ly/soycompetition for more details on ISA’s investment in soybean innovation. To watch the awards ceremony, go online to Purdue’s YouTube page at https://bit.ly/Soylivefeed
Source: Indiana Soybean Alliance
Photo courtesy of Barbara Hatton / National Corn Growers Association.The USDA released two huge reports on Thursday. The first was the Quarterly U.S. Grain Stocks Report. The second was the Prospective Plantings Report.
Karl Setzer with Consus Ag Consulting says the USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report was bullish for corn futures. The May contract for Corn climbed $0.15 ¼ higher to end both the day and the week at $4.42 a bushel.
“The corn acreage numbers are what really got corn moving,” according to Setzer. “USDA and the Ag Outlook Forum had previously projected corn acres at 91 million. The average trade estimate was 91.8 million acres. Plus, last year, U.S. farmers planted 94.6 million acres of corn. However, the USDA’s data from Thursday’s report was 90.04 million, so well below what the trade was expecting and well below last year. That really got the market moving—especially with the traders heavily short that corn complex. We’re still 250,000 contracts short by the managed money crowd, so that data alone is what really caused corn to rally.”
With the grain markets closed on Friday, March 29 to commemorate the Good Friday and Easter holidays, Setzer says it is possible that corn futures will continue their rally on Monday and through the first week of April.
“Next week when we get back, I wouldn’t be too surprised if we don’t see a little bit of risk premium added to this market,” says Setzer. “We’ll see whether we remain dry across several portions of the United States—especially the key growing areas. Forecasts are bringing precipitation, but it’s not huge volumes of rainfall. I think we start to see corn prices on the rise. I’m not saying we go to $6.00 or $7.00 a bushel, but perhaps back up to that $5.00 a bushel mark could definitely be a possibility.”
Here in Indiana, farmers intend to plant less corn and more soybeans compared to last year, according to Nathanial Warenski, State Statistician with the USDA.
Acres intended for corn in Indiana are 5.10 million acres, down 6 percent from last year. Indiana producers intended to plant 5.75 million acres of soybeans, up 5 percent from last year. The winter wheat acreage seeded last fall for harvest in 2024 is estimated at 350,000 acres, down 14 percent from the crop seeded in 2022. Hay acres intended for dry hay harvest, at 550,000 acres, is up 4 percent from last year.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Karl Setzer from Consus Ag Consulting, as Setzer also reviews the soybean and wheat acreage and stocks numbers from the USDA’s Reports—and reviews the factors that led to higher cattle and hog prices on Thursday.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/28153940/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-KARL-SETZER-ON-USDA-REPORTS-032824.mp3"]Click HERE for more information about Consus Ag Consulting.
Last October, 2009 World Food Prize winner Gebisa Ejeta received the highest scientific honor awarded in the United States: the National Medal of Science. On April 1 he will receive Purdue’s highest honor at an event that will also focus on Ejeta’s research and his commitment to end hunger in Africa.
Purdue President Mung Chiang will open the program “Transforming African Food Systems in the 21st Century” at 3 p.m. by presenting Ejeta, a Presidential Fellow for Food Security and Sustainable Global Development and Distinguished Professor of Agronomy, the Order of the Griffin. The Order of the Griffin recognizes outstanding service to Purdue by men and women whose commitment has gone beyond the call of duty and greatly benefited the university.
“Gebisa Ejeta personifies excellence at scale not only on our campus at Purdue University but around the world,” Chiang said. “His story is one of perseverance and resilience — a role model for all Boilermakers. He came to America from a small rural community in west-central Ethiopia to study at Purdue, earning his master’s degree and PhD in plant breeding and genetics. Joining our faculty in the College of Agriculture, he became a pioneering researcher in food security, a World Food Prize and National Medal of Science recipient as one of the world’s most impactful geneticists. He is emblematic of what the Order of the Griffin signifies, and I am delighted to present him with our university’s highest honor.”
Following the presentation, two speakers selected by Ejeta will address the gathering: William Masters, professor of food economics and policy at Tufts University, and Jocelyn Brown Hall, director, Liaison Office for North American Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Ejeta’s closing remarks, “Chronology and Highlights of an Uncommon Academic Career,” will be followed by a reception.
“Gebisa Ejeta has made extraordinary contributions to our college, university, country and world as a plant geneticist, educator and advocate dedicated to addressing issues impacting global food security,” said Bernie Engel, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture. “He has both lived and supported the land-grant mission throughout his career. We are honored to gather for this special event to recognize him as well as to continue the critical discussions surrounding hunger on the African continent.
The 3 p.m. event and following reception, which starts at 5 p.m., will take place in Stewart Center, Room 218. Both are open to the public.
Traffic in Indiana on April 8 and the surrounding days can cause major delays in travel and transportation on county roads, state highways and interstates. This is especially important for hauling livestock and other time or temperature-sensitive products – delays of up to 9 hours have been experienced in other states during past solar eclipses.
State Police, IN Department of Transportation, and IN Board of Animal Health are sharing the following information to prepare:
- Fuel up in advance and schedule deliveries ahead if possible.
- The most significant impacts will be seen in central Indiana along I-70 and I-69 in the afternoon hours, but delays will compound throughout the state.
- GPS mapping may direct travelers off main roads and onto county roads to avoid traffic. This can include heavy trucks onto impassable roads, leading to more delays.
- INDOT offers real-time traffic conditions maps for major roads across the state online.
Source: American Dairy Association Indiana
U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-IN) and Mike Braun (R-IN) joined eight members of Indiana’s Congressional delegation in sending a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the impact the newly released draft risk evaluation for formaldehyde would have on critical industries in Indiana.
The EPA’s proposal would establish a de facto ban on formaldehyde manufacturing, which disproportionately affects the production and accessibility of crop protection products, wood furniture, seatbelts, electric toothbrushes, EpiPens, metered dose inhalers, and funeral home services. The EPA’s proposal also departs from the international consensus on formaldehyde.
The lawmakers wrote:
“We write to you today regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) newly released draft risk evaluation for formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). As you may know, formaldehyde is a “building block” chemical that has diverse applications throughout the Hoosier State in agriculture, automotive manufacturing, building and construction, consumer goods, and healthcare…
We believe that Congress and the Administration should encourage, not hinder, the expansion of America’s critical manufacturing sectors, and we understand that regulatory certainty is critical to assisting this imperative.”
In addition to Senators Young and Braun, Indiana Representatives Frank Mrvan (D-01), Rudy Yakym (R-02), Jim Banks (R-03), Jim Baird (R-04), Victoria Spartz (R-05), Greg Pence (R-06), Larry Bucshon (R-08), and Erin Houchin (R-09) also signed the letter.
Rep. André Carson (D-07) was the only member of Indiana’s Congressional Delegation who did not sign the letter.
Read the full letter here or below:
Dear Administrator Regan:
We write to you today regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) newly released draft risk evaluation for formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). As you may know, formaldehyde is a “building block” chemical that has diverse applications throughout the Hoosier State in agriculture, automotive manufacturing, building and construction, consumer goods, and healthcare.
Due to its versatility, formaldehyde is one of the most well-studied, well-understood compounds in commerce. Federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Consumer Product Safety Commission, have promulgated clear records in support of formaldehyde’s safety in a variety of applications.
Foreign regulators, including the European Union (EU), share this understanding. In July 2023, the EU finalized its formaldehyde risk evaluation and, in careful consideration of the data, implemented a permissible worker exposure level of 300 parts per billion (ppb). The EU’s new risk evaluation was considered to be a “win-win” for labor, consumers, and manufacturers.
We are concerned that EPA’s draft TSCA risk evaluation for formaldehyde may depart from the international consensus and establish unreasonable restrictions on formaldehyde by setting a risk exposure standard that is significantly lower than that which manufacturers would reasonably be able to meet. We are seriously concerned with the disproportionate impact that an extremely low standard will have on critical industries in Indiana.
As we state above, formaldehyde has diverse applications that span numerous sectors of the economy. EPA’s proposal would establish a de facto ban on formaldehyde, disproportionately impacting the production and accessibility of epi-pens, metered dose inhalers, seatbelts, electric toothbrushes, crop protection products, wood furniture, and funeral home services. The downstream effect will be felt far and wide if these supply chains are disrupted by an unachievable standard that is not aligned with sound science.
We believe that Congress and the Administration should encourage, not hinder, the expansion of America’s critical manufacturing sectors, and we understand that regulatory certainty is critical to assisting this imperative.
Therefore, consistent with TSCA and past practice, we would encourage EPA to consider a full interagency review process for any draft or final risk evaluation that could impact the utilization of formaldehyde. We also would request this process be overseen by the White House Office of Management and Budget, include a process consistent with Executive Order 12866, last at least 60 days, and seek input from all relevant agencies and sub-agencies.
We are very proud of the manufacturing sites in Indiana, where formaldehyde has been used in a controlled and safe manner for decades, and would welcome the opportunity to assist with any visits to these sites from EPA officials.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/27163315/AgRevolution-Leads-on-FarmerCore.mp3"]Much of the work being done in recent years to revolutionize selling and servicing large farm equipment has happened in western Kentucky, and southern Indiana and Illinois. The revolution has been to bring dealers closer to their farmer customers, and for AGCO the model company is AgRevolution, an AGCO-owned, full-line agricultural equipment dealer.
The CEO of AgRevolution, Stacy Anthony, says it all started by asking farmers what they wanted in future dealer-farmer relationships.
“What we heard was, the farmer spoke up and said listen we want to transact business on our farm,” he explained. “All of it, not just some of it, but we want everything we do to be done here at the farm gate, and so we designed a model that was very lean on brick and mortar. It was very heavily dependent upon mobile service and our goal is to basically just reposition the dealership into closer proximity to the farm, making it easier for us to do business with them and them to do business with us.”
AgRevolution’s success the last three years has turned into AGCO’s FarmerCore, a global initiative for the company that allows farmers to transact business at their place of business, not the dealership.
One aspect of that is service, and the difference between AgRevolution and competitors is the amount of service done at the farm.
“Ninety percent of what AgRevolution does is done on the farmer or in the field through the service department. If you take a look at the traditional model, that swings back to around 10 to 20% that is done out in the field versus the majority of their business is done at the dealership structure. So it’s not right versus wrong, it’s just different, and it’s how we chose to approach the industry and solve the solutions for the farmer and answer the call of transacting at the point and place where the farmer wants to his business. Today we believe that’s on the farm.”
Anthony explains they can essentially take the entire dealership to the farm.
“So, whether he wants to order a tractor, buy a part, or have a repair done, it’s all done right there at the place and point where he chooses to do business.”
FarmerCore launches beyond AgRevolution to select North and South American dealers throughout this year.
AgRevolution is a wholly owned subsidiary of AGCO started three years ago this month. They focus on mobile service and now have eight locations in western Kentucky, southern Indiana and southern Illinois. Click this link to visit their website and click here to listen to more about FarmerCore:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/27163326/Stacy-Anthony-FarmerCore.mp3"]News Release – Duluth, GA, January 30, 2024 – AGCO (NYSE: AGCO), a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural machinery and precision ag technology, today announced the launch of FarmerCore, a transformative global initiative to deliver a next-generation farmer and dealer experience. The launch of the new end-to-end distribution model is a significant milestone in advancing AGCO’s Farmer-First strategy and solidifying its commitment to helping farmers across the globe become more profitable, productive and sustainable.
FarmerCore revolutionizes sales and service using tools that put dealers in closer proximity – onsite and online – to farmers. From product research to in-season uptime, the program develops and integrates digital and physical elements across the purchasing journey and product ownership lifecycle to create a leading on-farm offering.
“AGCO’s strategy remains focused on putting the farmer at the center of everything we do,” said Eric Hansotia, Chairman, President and CEO of AGCO. “The FarmerCore initiative further solidifies our pledge to prioritize farmers, blending physical and digital experiences to build brand loyalty and deepen customer engagement. Ultimately, we’re going to bring our entire business to the farmer through digital tools, service trucks, local parts access and more in partnership with AGCO’s global dealer network.”
FarmerCore is built on three pillars: the on-farm mindset, smart network coverage and digital engagement. The on-farm mindset positions dealers to meet customers’ needs at every stage of the ownership journey. Smart network coverage de-emphasizes the one-size-fits all outlet approach, moving toward a hub-and-spoke model that adds “light” retail outlets, service centers and parts-only locations. Digital engagement gives farmers 24/7 online access to sales and support, including online parts purchasing, dealer digital storefronts, online configurators and more.
Many AGCO dealerships already deploy aspects of the FarmerCore program, including mobile service fleets, alternative format outlets (e.g., parts-only stores) and digital tools to enhance customer support. In fact, the FarmerCore model has proven successful at the regional level through AgRevolution, an AGCO-owned, full-line agricultural equipment dealer serving farmers in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.
“We provide farmers with an outstanding on-farm experience that spans the entire ownership journey,” said Stacy Anthony, CEO of AgRevolution. “Our farmer-first mentality, combined with implementing FarmerCore’s assets, enables greater engagement across our region and helps us deliver exceptional customer outcomes and value. I am excited at the unlimited potential this innovative, farmer-first model will deliver to AGCO’s dealer network and farmers around the world.”
With FarmerCore, mobile assets bring buying and servicing to the farm. While dealership locations will continue to anchor farmer support in local communities, mobile and digital channels allow farmers to engage on their terms.
FarmerCore will be implemented in close partnership with AGCO’s global dealer network and will become a leader in ag machinery support, across every aspect of the ownership lifecycle. The program launches globally this year in select North and South America dealer organizations, with continued expansion throughout 2024.
The Indiana Dairy Producer award for 2024 IDP Producer of the Year was presented to Tony Goltstein, Union Go Dairy near Winchester, Indiana. Tony and his wife Yvonne, milk 1,750 cows along with their children Rob, Sanne, and Maike. Photo courtesy of Indiana Dairy Producers.The Indiana Dairy Producers Association (IDP) recently announced its 2024 award winners at its Annual Meeting held in Indianapolis.
“Our industry is built on individuals like our 2024 winners who tirelessly advocate and work to shine a spotlight on dairy producers. From decades of involvement to our young scholarship winners who are early in their journey, our 2024 honorees represent the passion and leadership that makes the dairy industry great,” said Steve Obert, Executive Director of Indiana Dairy Producers.
2024 IDP Producer of the Year: Tony Goltstein
The Producer of the Year honor recognizes individuals who embody all that is great about the dairy industry. The 2024 award was presented to Tony Goltstein, Union Go Dairy, Winchester, Indiana. Tony and his wife Yvonne, milk 1,750 cows along with their children Rob, Sanne, and Maike.
Originally from the Netherlands, the Goltsteins moved to Indiana in 2003 to pursue growth opportunities in the United States. Tony saw Indiana as his dream location, and they built their operation from the ground up. Tony takes pride in their excellent nutrition program for their cows, as well as the sustainability initiatives taking place on their farm.
Union Go Dairy has earned several certifications, including Validus Animal Welfare Certification to ensure quality care and animal comfort. Tony and his family are outstanding ambassadors for the dairy industry, including host farm tours and telling the story of the dairy industry.
Abbie McKaig, Chapel View Dairy near Logansport, is IDP’s 2024 Young Producer of the Year. Photo courtesy of Indiana Dairy Producers.2024 IDP Young Producer of the Year: Abbie McKaig
Abbie McKaig, Chapel View Dairy, is IDP’s 2024 Young Producer of the Year. She farms with her parents, Sandra and Robert McKaig, and her uncle Ed McKaig on the farm near Logansport, Indiana. An active community member, Abbie has represented the Indiana dairy community at several industry meetings including the National DHIA meeting and the Dairy Records Management Meeting as a delegate. Abbie is a graduate of Purdue University and uses her education and expertise both on and off the farm to tell the story of the dairy industry.
2024 Alan Kuehnert Memorial Scholarship Winner: Reagan Koester
Purdue University student and Posey County native Reagan Koester is the recipient of this year’s Alan Kuehnert Memorial Scholarship from Indiana Dairy Producers.The recipient of this year’s Alan Kuehnert Memorial Scholarship is Reagan Koester, Diamond K Dairy, Wadesville, Indiana. Reagan has been an advocate for agriculture and the dairy industry since a very young age and has a long list of accolades and activities that illustrate her commitment to advancing the dairy industry. Regan states that her dairy involvement has played a key role in shaping her values and purpose.
Community outreach is her passion as she informs the public about the importance of dairy nutrition in a variety of ways. Regan sees dairy products as a source of joy, even providing ice cream to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to help at a tough time. Regan is thriving as an agribusiness student at Purdue University and is involved in a variety of activities including being selected to go to Washington DC to advocate for dairy issues.
2024 IDP Scholarship Winner: Sydney Haag
Purdue University student and Boone County native Sydney Haag is the recipient of this year’s Indiana Dairy Producers scholarship.The recipient of this year’s IDP scholarship is Sydney Haag, Thorntown, Indiana. Currently an animal science student at Purdue University, Sydney has been passionate about learning the dairy business since childhood. In middle school she began leasing and showing dairy cattle for 4-H and also became active in FFA.
Sydney shares that she fell in love with the dairy industry and enjoys helping others expand their knowledge of animal husbandry. She is expanding her own horizons as an ambassador for the American Dairy Association of Indiana and serves as an officer of Purdue’s Dairy Club. She currently works with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture as a milk tester, gaining insight into animal handling, health, and farm management skills.
Source: Indiana Dairy Producers
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/27235406/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-NCBA-AGAINST-PARAGUAY-BEEF-032724.mp3"]After the U.S. Senate passed a resolution last week to block beef from imports from Paraguay, ag industry leaders are now pushing House members to do the same.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is calling on the House to follow the Senate’s lead and pass a resolution against the import of beef from Paraguay. It comes after a USDA decision back in November to allow beef from Paraguay, a country that until now USDA has blocked from beef imports because it must vaccinate for Foot and Mouth Disease. USDA considers the continued need for the vaccine to mean that the disease is still in the country.
“When you have anything coming from those areas of the world that have had those issues, whether it be Foot and Mouth Disease, BSE, or whatever else, to the United States, we in the industry here take an extremely sharp eye to in any kind of discussion about a trade relationship in the beef supply chain with those countries,” said Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs with NCBA.
“So, the announcement that USDA was going to allow fresh beef from Paraguay back into the United States, having not been on site to inspect those facilities in country since, for FSIS and AFIS 2009 and 2014 respectively, that, for our producers around the country, is unacceptable,” he added.
Lane makes the point clear that while it’s a regulatory issue for the beef industry, consumers do not need to worry about the safety of the meat.
“No, we’re good as far as that goes. Our inspection system and safety system in the United States are unparalleled. This is this is not a consumer issue,” he said. “This is something where we want to make sure that we are exercising an abundance of caution to ensure that we don’t have a problem at some point down the line. But no, this is not a consumer threat issue at all.”
On Monday, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed that clinical samples of milk from sick cattle from two dairy farms in Kansas and one in Texas tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Dr. Bret Marsh, Indiana’s State Veterinarian, told Hoosier Ag Today that he spoke with his counterpart in Texas to get a clearer understanding of the symptoms exhibited by these cattle.
“They’ve seen a decrease in feed consumption, then they get a drop in milk production. And particularly the cows that are affected, which seem to be mid and late lactation cattle, they’re producing milk that was more colostrum like. Producers in Indiana- If they’re seeing clinical signs that are consistent with what I just described, we would certainly encourage them to reach out to their veterinarians to have an evaluation done of the herd.”
Marsh reiterated that avian flu in cattle has not been detected in Indiana, but it’s important to know that these detections appear to have been introduced by wild birds.
“If our dairy producers in the state have retention ponds, etc., where these birds may be accumulating, I would encourage them to take a look at ways to haste the birds away. Also, look at their biosecurity practices around the operations and making sure that traffic on and off the site is being monitored and appropriate biosecurity steps are taken so that we’re not moving this virus around.”
Initial testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans, which would indicate that the current risk to the public remains low.
Additionally, “The milk that’s in the commercial milk supply is safe to consume with the pasteurization that’s routinely used in milk products,” Marsh explained. “There’s no concern on the part of the public from a public health or food safety standpoint.”
The same can be said for beef consumption.
Listen to the full HAT interview with Dr. Marsh below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/26194539/marsh-hpai-cows.mp3"]
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) testifying about the danger that China poses on American farmland during a hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture on March 20, 2024.As lawmakers struggle to come to terms on a new farm bill, one farm state governor drove home its importance at a recent hearing before the House Ag Committee.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R), who is also a farmer and former member of the House Ag Committee while having previously served as a congresswoman, was passionate in her call before lawmakers on Capitol Hill on March 20 for a new farm bill as not just a safety net for farmers, but for the nation’s food supply.
“America decided years ago that we need to have a farm bill to ensure that every family in this country had a safe, and had an affordable food supply, that they had the ability to go to a grocery store to put food on the table for their families. And that if a farmer had a good year, he could pay his bills, but if he had a bad year, he could lose everything,” she said.
Noem stressed a farm bill should be bipartisan but argued it wouldn’t work without boosting subsidy triggers or reference prices—an issue that’s divided the two parties over funding.
“If you don’t address the increase in reference prices and bring them up to where they should be, there is no safety net,” she said.
That’s a big key, Noem argues, to keep farmers on the land.
“They’re some of the biggest gamblers in the world that I know because they bury millions of dollars in the dirt and they’re taking a chance because they really, truly do believe that producing food is a world need, and it’s a need that America needs to have, so at least give them a safety net.”
Noem concluded that having a viable farm safety net is crucial to getting producers through bad years and enabling America to feed itself instead of depending on others to feed it.
Click BELOW to watch South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and her full testimony before the House Ag Committee on March 20.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/26124848/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-FARMLAND-FOR-FARMERS-ACT-032624.mp3"]The ownership of American farmland by U.S. foreign adversaries has gained a lot of attention lately. However, Fran Miller, senior staff attorney and professor with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School, says more attention should go be paid to regulating domestic corporate ownership.
“Corporate consolidation is a big issue in farmland. Congress, I think in a bipartisan way, has been focusing on some of the foreign investors in farmlands. But in my opinion, that really ignores the bigger issue in America, which is domestic corporate consolidation and ways that land is being treated as a commodity, as an investment vehicle,” she said. “There are lots of examples of that. If you look at some of the ads that are coming out from some of these multi-layered subsidiaries, which are really just buying land for investment purposes.”
She says it not only takes viable ag land off the market, but also drives up the cost of the land that is available for smaller farmers. And, she says, that’s not all.
“It’s decimating rural communities. It’s not a good thing. It prevents younger farmers and farmers with less capital from purchasing land,” she said. “It takes people out of rural communities and sends them off in other places.”
The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems partners with the National Family Farm Coalition on policy work, including the Farmland for Farmers Act. The bill would restrict corporations and multi-layered subsidiaries, pension funds, and investment funds from purchasing and leasing land and then getting USDA subsidies. Miller said there are exceptions for people who are farming the land themselves.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), who serves on the Senate Ag Committee, introduced the legislation in July and stated in a news release, “This legislation is a crucial step in safeguarding rural America by ensuring that farmland remains in the hands of family farmers and is easier to acquire for those who dream of farming. For our domestic food security and the strength of our economy, we should prioritize the autonomy of rural communities and end speculative corporate investments that drive small farms out of business.”
Specifically, the Farmland for Farmers Act would:
- Restrict corporations, multilayered subsidiaries, pension funds and investment funds from purchasing or leasing agricultural land. These types of corporations would be allowed to continue owning farmland they already own, but these corporate owners would not have future access to USDA and Farm Credit System programs and benefits, which should not be used to underwrite speculative corporate farmland investments.
- Not apply to corporations with 25 or fewer shareholders, partners, members, or beneficial owners who are all actively engaged in farming; non-profit corporations; farmer cooperatives; or to farmland owned by a legal entity formed by owners of heirs’ property.
- Strengthen State authority to regulate corporations, both domestic and foreign, involved in farmland ownership.
- Authorize the imposition of penalties on corporate entities that violate ownership restrictions.
Several organizations are supporting the legislation, including: Action Aid USA, American Grassfed Association, American Sustainable Business Network, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Dakota Resource Council, Farm Action Fund, Farm Aid, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Food & Water Watch, HEAL Food Alliance, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Land Loss Prevention Project, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, National Family Farm Coalition, National Young Farmers Coalition, Nebraska Communities United, Northeast Organic Farming Association – New Jersey, Open Markets Institute, Pennsylvania Farmers Union, R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America), Rural Advancement Foundation International–USA, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Western Organization of Resource Councils, Wisconsin Farmers Union.
To read the full bill, click here.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says that officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state veterinary and public health officials, are investigating an illness among primarily older dairy cows in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico that is causing decreased lactation, low appetite, and other symptoms.
As of Monday, March 25, unpasteurized, clinical samples of milk from sick cattle collected from two dairy farms in Kansas and one in Texas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas, have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Additional testing was initiated on Friday, March 22, and over the weekend because farms have also reported finding deceased wild birds on their properties. Based on findings from Texas, the detections appear to have been introduced by wild birds.
Initial testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories has not found changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans, which would indicate that the current risk to the public remains low.
Federal and state agencies are moving quickly to conduct additional testing for HPAI, as well as viral genome sequencing, so that we can better understand the situation, including characterization of the HPAI strain or strains associated with these detections.
At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health. Dairies are required to send only milk from healthy animals into processing for human consumption; milk from impacted animals is being diverted or destroyed so that it does not enter the food supply. In addition, pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk. Pasteurization is required for any milk entering interstate commerce.
The same can be said for beef consumption. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and USDA food safety experts, properly prepared beef is safe to eat,” said Meat Institute President and CEO, Julie Anna Potts. “HPAI cannot be transmitted to humans by eating meat or poultry products.”
Federal agencies are also working with state and industry partners to encourage farmers and veterinarians to report cattle illnesses quickly so that we can monitor potential additional cases and minimize the impact to farmers, consumers and other animals. For the dairies whose herds are exhibiting symptoms, on average about ten percent of each affected herd appears to be impacted, with little to no associated mortality reported among the animals. Milk loss resulting from symptomatic cattle to date is too limited to have a major impact on supply and there should be no impact on the price of milk or other dairy products.
The Indiana State Board of Animal Health says that while no cases have been identified in Indiana, any cattle owner who notices clinical signs consistent with this illness should contact their veterinarian for evaluation and diagnostics.
This is a rapidly evolving situation, and USDA and federal and state partners will continue to share additional updates as soon as information becomes available. More information on biosecurity measures can be found here.
Source: USDA APHIS, Indiana State Board of Animal Health
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/25182539/less-wheat-wrap.mp3"]USDA’s Economic Research Service released their March Wheat Outlook Report recently that shows the number of U.S. wheat farms has dropped substantially over the past 20 years- a decline of 40% since 2002. Ryan Hanrahan is the farm policy news editor for Farmdoc from the University of Illinois. He explains some of the numbers highlighted in that report.
“The larger wheat farms, specifically 3,000 to 5,000 acre and larger category, saw some increases over those 20 years, while a lot of those smaller, maybe more family-type farms, those 100-to-500-acre farms are where those decreases were concentrated.”
Hanrahan says the USDA report shows a big dent in U.S. wheat production from losing those farms.
“The declines that they point back to about 2008-2009 when there was a 2.5-billion-bushel production in those years, and since the 2017 census, our production hasn’t topped two billion bushels. They point to the decline in planted acreage there and harvested acreage, particularly that 2008-2009 year again had 56 million acres, they say, and down to a low of 35.5 million acres harvested here in 2022-23.”
Wheat has become more of a rotational crop that gets mixed in with corn and soybeans. Hanrahan explains that corn and soybeans are typically more profitable.
“All three of the crops, wheat, corn, and soybeans, have increased in their value of production from 2017 to the 2022 Census of Ag. The increases for corn and soybeans are much more significant than what farmers have seen for wheat.”
The drop in production came in many of the different classes of wheat. Durum wheat saw the largest decline, losing 60 percent from the 2002 data to the 2022 data. Spring wheat, the report says, has fallen 43% since 2002.
Source: NAFB News Service
Coordinators with the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA) and the Let the Sun Shine In program share with Indiana woodland owners how to identify oak trees from the acorns and leaves. Photo courtesy of the Let the Sun Shine In program.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/25162019/CJ-WRAP-HAT-IFWOA-LET-THE-SUN-SHINE-IN-PROGRAM-032524.mp3"]You may not know that Indiana is home to nearly five million acres of forestland. However, there is a greater need for more oak and hickory trees to populate our forests throughout the state.
“If you look up, you see a lot of mature oak trees, but if you look at the forest floor, there aren’t very many oak trees regenerating,” according to Judi Brown, coordinator of a new program in Indiana called Let the Sun Shine In.
“The program is working with private landowners to encourage them to manage their forests to allow sunshine to reach the forest floor so oak trees can thrive,” says Brown. “Oak and hickory trees need a lot of sunshine to grow, so foresters are encouraging landowners to manage their forests using practices that allow enough sunshine to reach the forest floor to allow oak trees to regenerate.”
She says that without new oak and hickory trees replacing those that have been harvested or naturally replacing those in woodlands that fall due to storms and age, Indiana’s wildlife and ecosystem will be thrown off balance.
“Oak trees have at least 900 different types of insects and caterpillars that live among the leaves and the branches of the oak trees,” according to Brown. “Birds will come because it’s a food source. When a bird is raising a nest, it needs a lot of protein from those caterpillars and insects to feed their babies for them to grow.”
Brown adds that many wildlife animals are dependent upon Indiana’s oak trees for survival.
“Oak trees also produce acorns which is a hard mast crop which supports a whole different suite of wildlife like deer, foxes, and squirrels. They’ll be eating the mast from the oak trees too, so the oak trees support such a diversity of wildlife.”
Click HERE for more information about the Let the Sun Shine In program.
Click HERE for more information about the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owner’s Association (IFWOA).
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full interview with Judi Brown with the Let the Sun Shine In program—as she talks about the importance of regenerating new oak and hickory trees throughout Indiana’s woodlands and forests.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/25161248/JUDI-BROWN-LET-THE-SUN-SHINE-IN-RAW-AUDIO-032524.mp3"]A young oak tree regenerates after a prescribed fire and shelterwood treatments allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor at the Hoosier National Forest. Photo courtesy of the Let the Sun Shine In program.
Prop 12 is already raising the price of pork in California. In effect for just over six months, pork sales have dropped across the state.
Data compiled by the USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist found prices for pork products affected by Prop 12, including loins, ribs, and bellies, have averaged 20 percent higher in California since before July 1, 2023, when the initiative was partially implemented.
Loin prices average 41 percent higher than before Prop 12 implementation. Pork not covered by the initiative hasn’t significantly increased. The data also shows that California’s share of fresh pork consumption has “significantly declined.”
The economists found the price premium end-users paid for Prop 12-compliant pork compared with non-compliant products at the wholesale level was 22 percent higher on average, with compliant loins and bellies 30 percent higher.
Prop 12-compliant pork must meet specific space standards to be legal.
Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), along with Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who introduced the Farm Transition Act of 2024. Photos courtesy of the U.S. Senate.Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), along with Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), introduced new bipartisan legislation on Friday to break down barriers to farming and agricultural land ownership and help more Americans pursue careers in farming.
The Farm Transition Act of 2024 would for the first time stand up the Commission on Farm Transitions to study the issues impacting the transition of agricultural operations to the next generation of farmers and ranchers and make recommendations to address those barriers.
“America’s food security is national security. With one in three farmers preparing to retire in the next decade, we cannot afford to stand back and watch as the nation’s agricultural industry reaches a tipping point without a plan to feed the future. This is a big priority for Hoosier farmers and families, which is why I released our Aging Farmers report in October. A lot of farms are going to go up for sale and we need to make sure that America isn’t bought up acre by acre by foreign competitors,” said Braun.
“To ensure America’s future in agriculture we must proactively attract and retain farmers, increase agriculture innovation, and streamline regulations and protect domestic agriculture. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan bill with Sen. Baldwin because we need to make it easier for folks to get into farming and encourage family farms to go from generation to generation,” added Braun.
As of 2021, seniors aged 65 and older owned more than 40 percent of the agricultural land in the United States, according to the American Farmland Trust. This suggests an impending transfer of more than 370 million acres of farmland in the next two decades. Despite the current and projected increase in transfers of agricultural land ownership, young and beginning farmers and ranchers struggle to afford purchasing farms.
One factor is the amount of farmland bought by investment firms, which has steeply risen more than 230% from 2008 to 2023. Additionally, the number of acres owned by foreign entities increased by nearly 65 percent between 2010 and 2021 to 40 million acres.
Agricultural land loss and access to capital contributes to this challenge. Between 2001 and 2016, 11 million acres of land were paved over or converted to uses that threaten the future of agriculture – a rate of 2,000 acres of productive agricultural land a day. Wisconsin lost 10 percent of its farms and 30 percent of its dairy farms in a five-year period, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Additionally, most farmland is not sold on the open market, and is often sold only to well-capitalized, well-established buyers.
The 2018 Farm Bill authorized the Commission on Farm Transitions to investigate barriers to farm and agricultural land ownership, but the USDA never stood up the Commission. The Farm Transition Act of 2024 would reauthorize the Commission on Farm Transitions and require the USDA to actually set up the Commission within 60 days of enactment and address these barriers to farming and agricultural land ownership.
The 10-member Commission is tasked with studying issues impacting the transition of agricultural operations to the next generation of farmers and ranchers, and making subsequent recommendations to address them, including:
- The availability of quality land, necessary infrastructure, affordable credit, adequate risk management tools, and apprenticeship and mentorship programs;
- The state of current agricultural asset transfer strategies and potential improvements;
- Incentives to facilitate agricultural asset transfers to the next generation of farmers and ranchers, including an assessment of how current federal tax policy impacts lifetime and estate asset transfers, and impacts individuals seeking to farm who do not have a farm family lineage, as well as recommendations for new or modified incentives;
- The effectiveness, and potential improvements, of transition assistance programs and incentives;
- Barriers faced by farmers and ranchers in the ability to transfer, inherit, or purchase agricultural assets, including land; and
- The impact of leasing and ownership trends by foreign persons or entities.
The Farmland Transitions Act of 2024 was also introduced in the House today by Representatives Yadira Caraveo (D-CO-8), Trent Kelly (R-MS-01), Don Davis (D-NC-01), and Zach Nunn (R-IA-03).
“Nearly a third of the country’s total agricultural land will change hands over the next twenty years as the current generation of farmers retire,” said Tim Fink, Policy Director for American Farmland Trust. “Ensuring that this land remains in agriculture and creates opportunities for new farmers will require deliberate policy. AFT applauds the introduction of the Farm Transition Act which will help identify the barriers and the solutions needed to enable these farms and ranches to transfer to the next generation of producers.”
A one-page summary on this legislation is available here.
Full text of this legislation is available here.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/24192407/fmc-xyway-wrap.mp3"]ROI- farmers are looking for more of it as they sharpen their pencils ahead of the 2024 planting season. University trials and farmer testimonials suggest that when it comes to corn disease prevention, Xyway fungicide from FMC will give you more return on investment.
Xyway is an at-plant fungicide that provides season-long systemic foliar disease protection against grey leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, and many other foliar diseases. Gail Stratman with FMC says they’re also seeing suppression of tar spot. They’re also consistently seeing higher yield.
“Not only are we seeing the outstanding disease control, but we’re also capitalizing and viewing a lot of other physiological impacts that we’re seeing on that crop. We’re seeing a much larger root mass, more root hairs, more root development, and then we’re seeing that translocate into stock diameter and stalk health throughout the growing season. We get very good control of stalk diseases, things like fusarium crown rot and anthracnose crown rot and anthracnose stalk rot throughout the growing season.”
As you do look to sharpen that pencil, Stratman says fungicide applications have shown a consistent response over the past 5-10 years. And with Xyway, applying it at planting provides several benefits.
“Essentially, we’re saving a pass across the field that we could be spending money on later in the season. We gain efficiencies that way. We get more utilization out of that planter pass across the field and we basically treat every plant in the field because we’re laying that down alongside the row with the seeds. So, we get the maximum of application, we get the ultimate in flexibility because you can apply Xyway any way you want, as long as it’s not right on the seed.”
Stratman says research on Xyway continues as many growers have shown tremendous results in using it as a side-dress application. They’ll continue to work with universities like Purdue and Michigan State to learn more. You can learn more about Xyway from FMC at their website.
The Koop / Otte / Reiker family of Jackson County, who was recognized for both the Centennial and Sesquicentennial award during the ISDA’s Hoosier Homestead Award ceremony on March 21, 2024. Their farm has been owned by the same family since 1867. Photo provided by ISDA Communications.Recognized for their families’ farm legacies and longstanding commitment to agriculture, 59 Indiana family farms were presented the Hoosier Homestead Award at the Indiana Statehouse on Friday from Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) Director Don Lamb.
To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years and consist of more than 20 acres. If less than 20 acres, the farm must produce more than $1,000 of agricultural products per year. Indiana farms may qualify for three honors: Centennial Award for 100 years of ownership, Sesquicentennial Award for 150 years of ownership and the Bicentennial Award for 200 years of ownership.
Since the program’s inception in 1976, over 6,100 families have received the Hoosier Homestead Award. Many past awardees can be identified by the sign proudly displayed in front of the family farm or field.
During the ceremonies, two Indiana farms received the Bicentennial Award for 200 years of continuous ownership: the Dorton family from Harrison County and the Coleman family from Parke County.
The Spindler family of Gibson County, who was recognized for the Centennial Award during the ISDA’s Hoosier Homestead Award ceremony on March 21, 2024. Their farm has been owned by the same family since 1924. Photo provided by ISDA Communications.“These long-standing Hoosier farming families are the backbone of our state’s rich agricultural history,” said Crouch, who also serves at Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “They have dedicated their lives to supporting our strong agricultural economy, and it was a pleasure to honor them today.”
“Honoring over 50 farming families today was a unique look into Indiana’s rich past, especially when celebrating two bicentennial awards,” said Lamb. “Thinking of how much agriculture, and our whole world, has changed in the last 200 years was an incredible thought and we are so thankful to these farming families for remaining committed to agriculture production.”
Below is the full list of the Hoosier Homestead Award recipients honored during the Spring 2024 ceremony:
| County | Award Name | Award Year | Award Type | | Adams | Girod | 1865 | Sesquicentennial | | Allen | Kruse | 1872 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Bartholomew | David & Brenda Simmons | 1850 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Blackford | Twibell | 1870 | Sesquicentennial | | Cass | Ide | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Clark | Trainor | 1920 | Centennial | | Daviess | Ferguson | 1852 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Daviess | Flinn | 1893 | Centennial | | Daviess | Kavanaugh | 1894 | Centennial | | Dearborn | Andrews-Probst | 1916 | Centennial |
| Dearborn | Gaynor | 1924 | Centennial | | Delaware | Felton | 1881 | Centennial | | Dubois | Feldmeyer – Holtzman | 1848 | Sesquicentennial | | Elkhart | Zollinger | 1899 | Centennial | | Floyd | Leonard C. Lemmel | 1918 | Centennial | | Franklin | Elmer & May Brack | 1919 | Centennial | | Franklin | Werner | 1923 | Centennial | | Fulton | Shewman | 1905 | Centennial | | Gibson | Spindler | 1924 | Centennial | | Grant | Dearduff | 1870 | Sesquicentennial |
| Hancock | Troy | 1921 | Centennial | | Hancock | Gundrum-Long | 1906 | Centennial | | Harrison | Dorton | 1824 | Bicentennial | | Huntington | Kennedy | 1919 | Centennial | | Huntington | Bone-Ulrich-McPherson | 1912 | Centennial | | Jackson | Cummings | 1924 | Centennial | | Jackson | Durham | 1919 | Centennial | | Jackson | Koop/Otte/Rieker | 1867 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Jackson | Speaker/Otte/Rieker | 1886 | Centennial | | Jackson | Tatlock Farms | 1888 | Centennial | | Knox | Marchino | 1865 | Sesquicentennial | | Lake | Merritt G. Bailey | 1882 | Centennial | | LaPorte | Spence | 1868 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial |
| Madison | Moore-Rydman | 1890 | Centennial | | Madison | Drake | 1920 | Centennial | | Madison | McClintick-McClintock | 1898 | Centennial | | Miami | Peter/Fisher/John H. Balsbaugh/Raymond E. Musselman | 1837 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Miami | Peter/Fisher/John H. Balsbaugh/Raymond E. Musselman | 1873 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Montgomery | Richard S. & Sandra K. Clouser | 1848 | Sesquicentennial | | Montgomery | Gentry | 1918 | Centennial | | Morgan | Rhea | 1920 | Centennial | | Orange | McDonald | 1922 | Centennial | | Orange | McDonald | 1887 | Centennial | | Owen | Stahl-Williams | 1902 | Centennial | | Parke | Coleman | 1824 | Bicentennial |
| Perry | Hagerdon | 1919 | Centennial | | Pike | Whitehead | 1869 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Ripley | Amy & Edward Rodriguez | 1852 | Sesquicentennial | | Rush | Halterman/Wallace/Mull | 1883 | Centennial | | Spencer | Hildenbrand | 1923 | Centennial | | St. Joseph | Berger | 1907 | Centennial | | St. Joseph | Besinger | 1873 | Sesquicentennial | | St. Joseph | Besinger | 1873 | Sesquicentennial | | Tippecanoe | Charles Dill | 1896 | Centennial | | Tippecanoe | Stan Thayer | 1850 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial |
| Tippecanoe | Charles & Theresa Shelby | 1835 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Vanderburgh | Herman Wortman | 1866 | Centennial & Sesquicentennial | | Wells | Ted B. & Valerie N. Markley | 1874 | Sesquicentennial | | Whitley | Keiser-Fenker | 1923 | Centennial |
For more information about the Hoosier Homestead Award program, please visit isda.in.gov.
Click HERE to see the photos taken during the Hoosier Homestead Award ceremony at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
Source: Indiana Department of Agriculture.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/22235542/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-USDA-ORGANICS-032224.mp3"]The USDA is offering help for Indiana’s producers of organic products to expand their operations in order to keep up with market demand.
Consumer demand for domestic organic products is on the rise, said USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Program Jenny Lester Moffitt, as she highlighted the Organic Market Development Grant (OMDG) program.
“It’s an opportunity for producers to be able to capture a price premium. It’s a market that’s now at about four percent of the overall food market, which has grown significantly from where it was just a few decades ago at one percent,” she said.
The USDA announced grants to 70 projects with more than $61 million in investments. OMDG offers a choice of project types: 24-month Simplified Equipment-Only with funding between $10,000 and $100,000; and 3-year Market Development and Processing Capacity Expansion with funding ranging between $100,000 and $3,000,000.
Lester Moffitt explained how organizations use the grants in various ways and the multiple benefits they offer. She provided the example of Almar Orchards, an apple grower in Michigan.
“They’re able, through this grant program, to be able to purchase and install a washing and sorting line that’s going to allow them to be able to partner and grow into the organic baby and kids’ food market sector, which is an important market sector for organics,” she explained. “It allows them not only to expand their own organic production, but also to be able to expand production for other apple producers in the state to become organic. It’s about tapping this new market opportunity there in Michigan and, of course, to grow organic production around the nation as well.
According to the USDA, the program focuses on building and expanding capacity for certified organic production, aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, distribution, and development of consumer markets. OMDG aims to increase the availability and demand for domestically produced organic agricultural products and address the critical need for additional market paths.
“It’s about supporting the development and expansion of new and existing organic markets to increase consumption. Just through this program alone, through the seventy projects and the sixty-one-point-five million we’ve invested, we know that more than twenty-seven thousand organic producers are going to benefit from these investments,” Moffitt said.
She pointed out that more than 30 million consumers will also benefit, as more options become available at the grocery store.
Click HERE to read more about the USDA’s Organic Market Development Grant program.
Kip Tom, Indiana farmer and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, spoke before lawmakers during a hearing held on Wednesday before the House Ag Committee to address the threats that China has on American agriculture. Photo courtesy of the House Committee on Agriculture.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/21155316/KIP-TOM-HOUSE-AG-COMMITTEE-TESTIMONY-WRITTEN-STATEMENT-032024.mp3"]Hoosier Ag Today has been reporting on House Bill 1183, which was recently signed by Governor Eric Holcomb (R-IN) into law and bans our foreign adversaries—including China—from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana. That bill, which was introduced by State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer), has brought a lot of attention to the threats that the Chinese government poses on Indiana and U.S. agriculture. That’s why one Indiana farmer and ag leader spoke before Congress to share with lawmakers just how serious those threats have become.
Kip Tom, Indiana farmer and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, spoke Wednesday during a hearing held before the House Ag Committee to address the threats that China poses on American agriculture.
Tom believes that the U.S. food and agriculture sector isn’t adequately prepared for a major cyberattack against our key suppliers—nor does the U.S. possess the ability to respond in case of such an attack.
“Farming operations could be halted by ransomware attacks demanding payments to restore access to essential digital systems,” said Tom. “We all can remember the ransom attacks on JBS several years ago which disrupted the entire supply chain—from livestock production operations to the consumers dinner table. The $11 million ransom was paid, but the cost to JBS and the agricultural supply chain was many multiples greater.”
Tom also shared a personal experience about Chinese nationals who were discovered stealing U.S. ag research information and sending it back to China.
“The Chinese have targeted proprietary farming data, such as crop yield data, seeding or fertilizer algorithms, breeding information, and biotechnology research which will lead to a loss of competitive advantage for the United States,” Tom said. “I have seen this first-hand in the seed production industry. Several Chinese nationals were sending proprietary seeds in our area from production fields and shipping them back to China. These Chinese nationals were caught and convicted, but how many were not caught?”
He said that the Chinese government is also making every attempt to spy on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as our top ag businesses and manufacturers.
“The Chinese are creative in their attempts to steal as much information as possible from as many sources possible from the USDA FSA (Food Service Agency) offices to our industries, and from any conduit that flows data or conversations.”
“Although the U.S. government is aware of these threats, we need to strengthen the protection for America’s food supply and economic advantage. This includes identifying vulnerabilities and improving the protective measures of government and private entities against cyber threats,” he said.
Kip Tom, Indiana farmer and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Tom also shared with lawmakers that China has a stronghold on manufacturing products that are essential to agriculture. He said 70 percent of all crop nutrition products come from China.
“This is a national security threat to the United States and our allies,” he said. “Imagine if they shut off our supply? Without crop protection products or crop nutrients, yields will decrease requiring substantially more land to maintain current production levels. The economic impact of farmers consumers and our nation would have devastating consequences. This would lead to higher consumer prices and food insecurity in the United States and around the world.”
He added that China has been using agriculture to strengthen their control over the U.S. and other countries around the world.
“[Chinese President] Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recognize the importance of food in relation to their position of power in the world,” he said. “The CCP’s goal is to reshape the world order through their control of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), global trade, and their ‘Belts and Road Initiative’—all to attain economic superiority over the United States and our allies to meet these goals. They are strategically growing their agriculture production domestically and globally at the expense of the United States.”
Tom pressed lawmakers to do more in response to those threats from China.
“The Chinese are strategically attempting to build their dominance in a world over food systems,” said Tom. “These moves are coming at the expense of American innovation but are amplified by our burdensome regulatory environment.”
“[Lawmakers] need to take action to bring our supply chains home, protect our innovation, and increase our funding for research and development. Now is the time for a national strategy for agricultural and food systems. If not, America could once again face food insecurity like we did 100 years ago,” said Tom.
Click BELOW to listen to Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer and C.J. Miller provide team coverage of Ambassador Kip Tom’s testimony on the danger China poses to U.S. agriculture during the House Ag Committee hearing.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/21160355/HOOSIER-AG-TODAY-KIP-TOM-TESTIFIES-ON-CHINA-THREAT-BEFORE-HOUSE-AG-COMMITTEE-HAT001.mp3"]Click BELOW to watch Ambassador Kip Tom’s full testimony before the House Ag Committee on March 20. Tom’s statement and testimony begins at the 1:54:13 mark.
An Indiana farmer harvesting soybeans in Shelby County. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.In the latest “Feeding the Economy” report that has just been released by more than 30 ag groups, Indiana’s agriculture and food industries have a total economic output of $219.75 billion, with a direct economic impact of $87.96 billion.
The 2024 report also revealed the following stats for Indiana’s ag and food sectors:
- Total Jobs: 968,577
- Total Wages: $53.69 billion
- Total Taxes: $22.61 billion
- Exports: $2.90 billion
Across the entire United States, the 2024 report’s findings show that the total economic impact for the food and agriculture-related industries grew 11.8% over the last year, reaching $9.63 trillion. This represents 20.01% of total U.S. output. The study also drills down to highlight the impact of this sector to include:
- Total Jobs: 48,665,870 (up 19.53% since the 2020 report)
- Total Wages: $2.77 trillion (up 33.82% since the 2020 report)
- Total Taxes: $1.25 trillion (up 36.91% since the 2020 report)
- Exports: $181.36 billion (down 2.70% since the 2020 report)
There were almost the same number of jobs in agriculture (2.49 million) and manufacturing agricultural products (2.46 million). The number of direct jobs in food and agriculture was up almost 800,000 since the 2020 report (up 20%).
From the 2020 Feeding the Economy report to now, food and agriculture manufacturing jobs grew at a faster rate than any other job category. As a result, manufacturing of agricultural production now accounts for almost 20% of America’s manufacturing jobs, over twice as many as automobile manufacturing. The report shows the significant role that the food and agriculture sectors play in supporting the U.S. economy and helps the public and policymakers better understand how these industries continue to promote those contributions.
Among the sponsors of this year’s “Feeding the Economy” report include: American Soybean Association, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, National Corn Growers Association, National Milk Producers Federation, National Pork Producers Council, U.S. Dairy Export Council, U.S. Grains Council, and United Soybean Board.
Click HERE to read the 2024 “Feeding the Economy” report for Indiana.
Lei Zhang, Assistant Professor of Plant Nematology (at right), and PhD student Vijay Kunwar (at left), are working on developing methods for the early and fast detection of SCN infection of soybean roots. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.Lei Zhang, Assistant Professor of Plant Nematology at Purdue University, is on the lookout for the soil-borne roundworm called soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Zhang can’t see the microscopic parasite with his eyes, but technology available in the Ag Alumni Seed Phenotyping Facility (AAPF) at Purdue might.
With grant support from the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Zhang and PhD student Vijay Kunwar, collaborating with the AAPF team and Jianxin Ma, Professor of Agronomy and Indiana Soybean Alliance Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement, are working on developing methods for the early and fast detection of SCN infection of soybean roots using two advanced imaging technologies: hyperspectral imaging and chlorophyll fluorescence imaging.
The team’s efforts to find soybean root infections by SCN earlier and faster may help reduce this parasite’s devastating damage to soybean crops, contributing both to breeding resistance and better management options.
Nematodes comprise a large and diverse family of roundworms, some of which are parasitic in plants, animals and humans. “We are focusing on the plant-parasitic nematodes,” Zhang says. SCN, or Heterodera glycines, is one of over 4,100 such plant-parasitic nematode species. “The nematodes are very tiny; we cannot see them for most of their life stages,” he says.
This particular nematode, SCN, attacks the roots of soybeans. “SCN is the number-one pest of soybean in the U.S., causing soybean annual yield losses estimated at $1.5 billion,” Zhang says. Even without obvious aboveground symptoms, SCN could reduce soybean yields up to 30%. “If you see aboveground symptoms, there’s not much the growers can do during the growing season.”
The Zhang lab teamed with the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab, crop pathologist and associate professor of botany and plant pathology Darcy Telenko and soybean growers to survey 124 Indiana fields throughout the state. They found SCN in every soil sample in the survey in varying population densities.
Indiana soybean growers have planted soybean varieties with the same source of genetic resistance against SCN from the soybean Plant Introduction (PI) line PI 88788 for over 30 years, so the nematode has had plenty of time to evolve. The Indiana survey also showed that more than 80% of SCN populations tested can overcome this soybean resistance, Zhang says. “So there is a critical need to find new sources of resistance for breeding soybean with effective resistance to the virulent SCN populations.”
To achieve the goal, scientists need quicker and easier methods to evaluate nematode infection of soybean plants. The current method — extracting nematodes from the soil and soybean roots and counting them — is time-consuming and labor-intensive. In the lab, Zhang infects soybean plants by putting nematode eggs into the soil they’re growing in. He waits 30-35 days for the nematode to infect the plant and develop to adult stages, tracks its path from the roots and manually counts the number of parasites to quantify the level of infection.
“Basically, with automated phenotyping, we’re trying to make this a faster process, targeting the nematode infection and detecting it earlier, maybe in 10 to 14 days after nematode inoculation. The other thing is, the phenotyping is non-destructive,” he says. “We don’t have to take down the plant and count the nematodes.”
Nematode infection of roots can negatively impact the photosynthesis efficacy. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging can be used to measure photosynthesis efficiency of soybean leaves. Hyperspectral imaging looks at wavelength patterns and possibly emissions associated with a nematode infection. “We’re using both to see which one works better,” Zhang says.
Instead of roots, the hyperspectral and fluorescence imaging methods focus on leaves. Even before root symptoms become obvious, the parasitic infection reduces photosynthesis. “This might be a subtle change — our eyes may not catch it — but using this kind of the hyperspectral imaging or fluorescence camera, we might be able to catch it,” Zhang says. “Based on leaf response, we try to tell if there is a nematode infection on soybean roots in the soil and the level of infection.”
Hyperspectral imaging in the phenomics center focuses on different wavelengths that somehow may be associated with a nematode infection. For example, the researchers are studying if leaf reflections at certain wavelength ranges of infected plants is higher or lower than control plants with no infection.
Zhang’s team might be able to reduce the time required for SCN detection to within 10 days of SCN inoculation in a controlled environment, so the project is still ongoing, he says. Still, the study shows promise for soybean resistance discovery and breeding purposes. Next steps include testing different levels of the nematode inoculums, different soybean varieties or breeding lines.
Written by: Nancy Alexander, Purdue University
Members of the Rushville FFA Chapter pose at the FFA sign during the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Cargill has awarded a three-year grant of $3.15 million to the National FFA Organization in support of its commitment to shape future agriculture leaders.
The grant supports a variety of National FFA Organization programs and events during the three-year period (from 2023 to 2025), including the organization’s sustainability platform; the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) pathway; and the Living to Serve program.
During the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo, which is scheduled for Oct. 23-26, 2024 in Indianapolis, the grant will support a booth, the rodeo, and travel grants for career development event (CDE) participants. In addition, the funding supports the American FFA Degree and the American Star Awards.
Cargill’s grant also supports programs that encourage the exploration of career pathways in agriculture. This includes AgExplorer and two career pathways – Food Products and Processing and Animal Systems. In 2024, the grant will also support the Next Gen Conference, which is focused on food, processing and products. The conference will be held June 25-29, 2024, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
During its first year, the Cargill grant has significantly impacted FFA. In the fall 2023 semester, funding helped FFA members, non-FFA members and adults complete 77,678 hours of service through projects funded by yearlong Living to Serve Grants. It also supported 619 FFA members who participated in national competitive events related to the Food Products and Processing career pathway and 1,600 members who participated in Animal Systems competitive events.
Additionally, funds provided 14 travel grants to CDE participants to enable them to compete at the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo. The grant also helped fund the State Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Collaborative, which helps state FFA associations create and implement EDI plans. The 2022-23 cohort involved nine states, and 14 states are part of the 2023-24 cohort.
“We are honored to receive this grant from Cargill,” said Molly Ball, president of the National FFA Foundation and chief marketing officer of the National FFA Organization. “Throughout our partnership, Cargill has been unwavering in its support and continues to see the potential leaders in our members and advisors. This grant allows us to reach more members and continue providing new opportunities that help feed the talent pipeline.”
“Cargill is grateful for the opportunity to continue our partnership with the FFA, which spans more than 60 years,” said Rob Stewart, director of Growth Ventures and Emerging Markets for Cargill’s North American Protein business. “Together, we‘re able to convene the best and brightest young minds to create awareness and enthusiasm for diversity, equity and inclusion as well as sustainability programming to ensure a stronger future for the agriculture industry and our world.”
The National FFA Organization has more than 945,000 student members as part of 9,163 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Source: National FFA Organization
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/20212615/cherry-retires-wrap.mp3"]As the Indiana General Assembly wrapped up the legislative session back on March 8th, a longtime friend of the Indiana agriculture community wrapped up his 26th and final year at the Statehouse.
“Agriculture is in my roots,” says Republican Representative Bob Cherry. “I grew up on a farm. In fact, I still reside on that same farm where I grew up.”
Cherry has represented portions of Hancock and Madison Counties in District 53 since 1998.
Cherry reflected on his time at the Statehouse with HAT last month, saying his biggest accomplishment for agriculture was when he helped revamp the property tax system in Indiana because farmers were paying too much on a per acre basis.
“We changed that a few years ago, which was a big win for Indiana farmers. Also, one of the small things I did, which means a lot, we had the ‘save the barn’ thing where if it’s a pin barn versus a pole barn that was built more than 50 years ago, prior to 1950 really, they were taken off their property tax rolls. These older barns in our state, many were falling down, and they couldn’t be used for modern agriculture today, but the landscape of our rural areas was very important. So, we removed that from the property taxes, and that was a big way to save some barns. Other states have done this, and I felt it was important for the Indiana landscape to preserve those heritage barns.”
Cherry says he’s looking forward to helping his nephews farm the ground around his childhood home, calling it stress relief for him to get out and drive the tractor.
The National Corn Growers Association expressed grave concern and disappointment with the Environmental Protection Agency’s final 2027-2032 tailpipe emissions standards. NCGA says the plan still relies almost exclusively on using electric vehicles, a decision that will have long-lasting impacts on the rural economy because it ignores the benefits of ethanol.
Economists at the University of Nebraska say the resulting large drop in corn demand will lead to a permanent 50 percent decrease in the price of corn. That could cost the top five corn-producing states, including Indiana, well over $100 billion in farmland value.
The Renewable Fuels Association says today’s ruling is not the best way to accomplish the administration’s climate goals.
“Today’s final rule forces automakers to produce more electric battery vehicles based on the premise that they’re ‘zero-emission’ vehicles,” says RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “The regulation would strongly discourage manufacturers from pursuing other technologies like flex fuel vehicles.”
In Congress, Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley is increasing his opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s tailpipe emissions proposal. He cites a new cost estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.
“The CBO released a ten-year budget and economic outlook projecting a $224 billion increase in the cumulative deficit caused by higher electric vehicle tax credit claims and reduced gas tax revenues,” he says. “CBO noted the EV Rule is the largest factor to contributing to these revisions.”
In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Grassley said, “The American taxpayers have not voted for and can’t afford the EPA’s tailpipe standards.”
Grassley also noted the challenges the standards pose for auto dealers and wants the agency to clarify its legal authority for promoting the EV Rule.
He’d also like the EPA to outline its plans to compensate for the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost tax revenue and extra spending.
The Indiana State Fair sign on top of the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The Indiana State Fair has announced the full list of its 2024 Featured Farmers that will be honored throughout each day of this year’s event.
These 15 farm operations represent a variety of regions throughout the state, showcasing different agricultural products and stories. The 2024 Featured Farmers program is presented by Corteva Agriscience.
The 2024 Indiana State Fair starts on Friday, August 2 and runs through Sunday, August 18. The Fair will be closed on Mondays.
Here is the complete list of featured farmers, farm products and their home counties:
- Friday, August 2nd – Scarborough Farms (Soybeans), Laporte County
- Saturday, August 3rd – Paschen Farms Inc. (Pork), Cass County
- Sunday, August 4th – Howe Farms (Beef, Pork, Hops), Lake County
- Tuesday, August 6th – Lueken Dairy Farm (Dairy), Dubois County
- Wednesday, August 7th – Celtic Glen Heritage Livestock (Beef Cattle, Goats, Sheep, Rabbits), Owen County
- Thursday, August 8th – Union Go Dairy (Dairy), Randolph County
- Friday, August 9th – Blue Yonder Organic Farm (Organic Certified Farm Fresh Products), Hendricks County
- Saturday, August 10th – Kirk Hoffman & Family Farms (Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, Forage Production, Maple Syrup), Whitley County
- Sunday, August 11th – Fair Farms and Produce (Farm Fresh Produce), Hancock County
- Tuesday, August 13th – Advanced Resources Inc. (Seed Corn, Seed Beans), Wabash County
- Wednesday, August 14th – DDH Farms (Corn, Soybeans), Randolph County
- Thursday, August 15th – Winzerwald Winery (grapes, wine), Perry County
- Friday, August 16th – Tree City Bee Company (Honey Drink, Honey, Bees), Decatur County
- Saturday, August 17th – Everett Farms and Seed (Corn), Boone County
- Sunday, August 18th – 550 Wagyu (Beef), Tippecanoe County
Visitors to the Indiana State Fair can attend a live chat at 2:30 p.m. in the Glass Barn with a Featured Farmer every day of the Fair, in addition to many other opportunities to talk with that day’s Featured Farm family and learn about their family operation.
“Our mission at the Indiana State Fair is rooted in agriculture and connecting our fairgoers to the farmers feeding the world. We are proud of our Featured Farmer program and excited to unveil our 2024 honorees.” said Cindy Hoye, executive director, Indiana State Fair Commission. “These farmers have incredible stories to tell, and we are grateful to celebrate them with our partners at Corteva Agriscience.”
“The Indiana State Fair is the perfect place for fairgoers who are also consumers to meet Indiana farmers from across the state who dedicate their lives to feeding all of us. We are pleased to once again make this connection happen through the Featured Farmers program which is in its ninth year. At Corteva Agriscience, we are committed to enriching lives and helping farmers succeed,” said Heidi Spahn, Corporate and Community Investment Leader, Corteva Agriscience.
Source: Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/20234635/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-RMA-TOOLS-FOR-SPECIALTY-CROPS-032024.mp3"]The USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is making it easier for Indiana’s specialty crop growers to find crop insurance agents.
Marcia Bunger, RMA Administrator, says the agency has developed a new searchable directory for those producers to find the right agents since finding the right risk management tools for specialty crops and smaller-scale farmers can be daunting.
“We’ve asked crop insurance agents across the country to self-identify if they are experts in selling Whole Farm Revenue and by providing us that, we’ve now created a new searchable directory on our page,” explained Bunger. “We’re hoping that we’ll give producers that maybe weren’t always in the traditional lane of crop insurance, but yet, they’re very interested in having a policy that will cover their specialty crop farms, their vegetable farms, maybe urban ag types of operations.”
Bunger reminds growers that there are several options for crop insurance agents, and you may talk to a few before you find the right fit. She says it’s a long-term relationship, so it’s important to find an agent with a business style that compliments yours.
“Just because you find an agent the first time,” Bunger said, “that doesn’t mean you have to buy. But, get a sense of if you have a good feel for that probably long-term relationship and if you don’t, then maybe move on to the next. Experience different agents and how they interact with you…So, some additional advice would be to shop around.”
Whole Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm are two of the most comprehensive risk management plans available.
Specialty crop and small-scale producers can click HERE to access the RMA’s new searchable directory.
U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-IN) and Mike Braun (R-IN). Photos courtesy of the U.S. Senate.U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-IN) and Mike Braun (R-IN) joined a group of 14 additional Republican Senators in sending a letter to Congressional leadership urging that a freeze to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) for ag labor be included in the earliest possible piece of legislation before Congress.
An increased AEWR went into effect on January 1, 2024, and nationally, the rate increased by 5.6 percent.
Unsustainable increases in the AEWR are especially harmful to small and family-operated farms, who are already limiting operations because they cannot afford to hire enough labor. The AEWR is one of many increasing costs farmers face, and its unsustainable increases could threaten national food security and shift production outside the United States.
“The increasing cost of labor for agriculture producers is unsustainable. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the national average AEWR will be $17.55 this year. That represents an increase of 5.6 percent from 2023, the third year in a row the AEWR increased by over five percent. In fact, the national average AEWR has more than doubled since 2005. This is compounded by the increased costs of inputs like energy and fertilizer, other guest worker expenses such as housing and transportation, and forthcoming expenses imposed by new regulations and fees,” the senators wrote.
“If costs continue to increase as they have, the pressure put on America’s food producers will fundamentally shift the food production model that has allowed us to be agriculturally independent and secure. In order to support our farmers and ranchers and feed families across the country, we must act now,” the senators continued.
In addition to Senators Young and Braun, the letter was also signed by Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim Risch (R-ID), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Tim Scott (R-SC), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-FL), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Ted Budd (R-NC), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and John Hoeven (R-ND).
Click HERE to read the full text of the letter.
Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The Indiana FFA Association named its 2024 State Star Finalists as a part of its preparation for the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention.
After submitting an application, FFA members participated in a personal interview. Finalists will now undergo a site visit to determine which members will be deemed State Stars in their respective categories.
Members determined as Star Finalists are interviewed for a chance to be named as a State Star in these four prestigious award areas: Star Farmer, Star in Agricultural Placement, Star in Agribusiness and Star in Agriscience. Those determined as State Stars in each of the categories will receive a cash award for $250.
The results will be announced on June 19, 2024 at 7 p.m. during the 95th Indiana State FFA Convention at Purdue University.
Below are the names, chapter, and SAE information of each finalist.
Finalists in Agricultural Placement
Tatym Green, Hamilton Heights FFA: Tatym works at TGTG Boer Goat Production, while also managing her own herd of 30 does and 3 bucks. Her work responsibilities include feeding, record keeping, breeding, and running social media for sales. Due to her experiences, she is now able to run operations on her own.
Camille Thopy, Southwestern (Shelby County) FFA: Camille’s SAE consists of working at Barnyard Pals Mobile Petting Zoo. She assists with taking the petting zoo to local fairs, festivals, and other events throughout the state while also ensuring safety during the events. Camille is passionate about educating others about agriculture and the various animal species that are part of the petting zoo’s operation.
Josie Kelsay, Whiteland FFA: Josie works as a Farm Tour Assistant at Kelsay Farms where she is responsible for various duties including setting up and tearing down activities for seasonal events, welcoming visitors to the farm and leading tours, driving the “Moo Choo” children’s train, preparing food in the concession stand, assisting with map development of the corn maze, organizing pumpkin sales, and overall appearance of the farm. She has developed her communication and teamwork skills through her roles on the farm.
Jackson Beier, Jasper FFA: Jackson works for the Jasper Vet Clinic, checking in patients and helping as needed. He has had the opportunity to shadow the veterinarians, assist with surgeries, vaccinations, and diagnosing sick animals. Jackson’s greatest challenge is to triage the patients and assess the urgency of the patient’s needs, including the type of treatment required.
Finalists in Agriscience
Blaine Wagner, North Decatur FFA: Blaine conducted 3 agriscience projects during his career. Two of his projects studied the effects of COVID-19 on agility dog fitness and quality of training. The third project studied how landowners can increase carbon levels in the soil as a way to increase water retention capabilities, drainage, and storage of nutrients with their potential for income in the form of carbon credits. Blaine plans to continue his agricultural research after college.
Finalists in Agribusiness
Grant Lake, Central Noble FFA: Grant is the owner-operator of Lakes Lube and Tune, a repair and maintenance business for outdoor power equipment. He has built up a customer base of 70 people while also buying, repairing, and selling used equipment for profit.
Alexa Newby, South Putnam FFA: Alexa started Alie’s Annuals in 2021 to fulfill her love for the marketing and floriculture industries. Alexa travels to an Amish farm where she purchases mums at wholesale, creates a digital flier to market her product, and then sells the mums to the local community. She has created a care sheet with instructions on how to provide care for the mums she sells, as well as keeping records of all orders and sorting the flowers into groups for buyers.
Abigaile Wolfe, Indiana Ag & Tech FFA: Abigaile is the owner-operator of The Barn Babysitter, a business offering farm care for local clients. She has built a relationship with more than 30 clients, providing care for a range of livestock and pets. Her SAE has allowed her to develop skills in public relations, communication, and critical thinking.
Finalists for Farmer
Owen Knight, North Miami FFA: Owen’s love for agriculture has centered around his passion for raising cattle. He purchases three to five day old Holstein bull calves and provides diligent care as he feeds them to 550 pounds. Owen manages all aspects of his operation to make sure the calves receive appropriate medical care before being ready for a feedlot or grass pasture before resale.
Cale Williams, Terre Haute South FFA: Cale purchased his first gilt in 2016 and has worked to ensure genetic excellence, biosecurity, and efficiency in his operation ever since. He currently owns 15 purebred sows spanning five different breeds. Cale credits the time spent learning from his family’s farm as the third generation to helping instill passion for swine production.
Isaac Pohl, Gibson Southern FFA: Isaac began his SAE in 2019 due to his love for horticulture and the joy that plants bring to the lives of others. After his cousin was diagnosed with cancer, Isaac started Pohl’s Greenhouse in his honor. He began producing and selling vegetable seedlings and flowers with his first public sale coming in 2022. Isaac has cultivated 23 different species of plant and flowers, managing every aspect of the greenhouse and it’s products.
Addie Gauck, North Decatur FFA: Addie started her SAE by joining her family’s business, Gauck Meats. After seeing the potential to grow the company’s impact, Addie started to purchase feeder pigs to raise and eventually butcher to provide fresh pork for the community. She also started raising meat chickens to process and sell. As of 2023, Addie has raised 23 pigs and 400 meat chickens, along with 100 laying hens. Her biggest challenge has been the growing pains from increasing to such a high rate of production which caused her to be creative by raising pigs at various ages so she could butcher on different dates, allowing for less freezer space.
Source: Indiana FFA Association
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/19222312/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-IMPROVING-AG-EXPORTS-031924.mp3"]As more Indiana farmers and ag businesses are shipping their ag products overseas, there have been concerns about making sure those products actually get to their destination. That’s why ag leaders are looking at ways to ensure that our ag products are shipped safely around the world.
Ag leaders discussed rebuilding export markets and overseas demand for U.S. agricultural goods during a recent panel discussion at the Ag and Food Policy Summit held earlier this week in Washington, D.C.
Dan Halstrom, President and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), said that higher shipping rates and logistical challenges around the world are concerning for all industries, not just agriculture. He used the example of pirate activity by Houthi rebels causing shipping uncertainty in the Red Sea.
“These sorts of [events], they seem one off, but they’re really not. Those of us international world, we know that these vessels don’t just go to the Red Sea, they’re going around the world. So, what you’re doing is you’re adding more cost, more time, more inputs, higher across the board,” he said. “So, the more these conflicts happen or continue to happen, the higher the cost of logistics and freight will be.”
Agricultural exports are heading down from a post-pandemic peak as experts deal with international complications that can stunt export growth or, sometimes, stop exports altogether. According to USDA, the value of U.S. agricultural exports peaked in fiscal year 2022 but declined in 2023. In 2023, the total export value was $178.7 billion, which was $17 billion less than in 2022.
Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council, said the international issues are “tremendously complicated.”
“No single individual, no single entity is going to solve these. We have to have good coordination amongst all of the various agencies, all of the great people in the foreign service, working in posts around the world,” Quarles said. “You’ve got to have strong collaboration with all of our industry folks and our technical partners to get these things right. Sometimes it literally takes decades. We’ve seen that, but ultimately, it’s worth it when you can move the needle in that significant way.”
Halstrom said the U.S. Meat Export Federation is “extremely optimistic” for export markets and overseas demand in the future.
“I have always looked at it this way: that the more success we have, the more issues that come up. So, all the more reason that we have to be aligned as industries. I’m not just talking beef and pork,” he said. “I’m talking agriculture. Agriculture is the backbone of the American economy. And I think with the folks in this room, on this panel, with FAS, USTR, USDA, we’re well equipped to handle the challenge.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/19231847/CJ-WRAP-HAT-BAYER-DICAMBA-TRAINING-031924.mp3"]Planting season will be here before you know it—which is why Bayer is offering dicamba herbicide training for Indiana farmers.
Training is required annually for everyone planning to apply approved low-volatility dicamba formulations, like Bayer’s XtendiMax herbicide with VaporGrip Technology, a restricted use pesticide.
“Bayer is committed to positioning farmers and applicators for success in 2024 and beyond, and we know making it as easy as possible for them to educate themselves and meet the requirements for certification is a critical first step,” said Jennifer Stutz, North American weed management and chemistry stewardship manager for Bayer.
She says there’s three different ways Bayer is offering dicamba training. The first is in-person training.
“If someone is interested in an in-person training option, they would reach out to their field sales representative and say, ‘Hey! I want to do one of those in-person training options.’ The field sales representative would reach out to my team and we would set one of those up at a dealership or a retailer that’s interested in hosting one of those. Typically, they bring all their buddies into the dealership, that field sales representative would come in, and they would teach that training,” says Stutz.
Their in-person training is done on a request basis with a Bayer sales representative.
She says they also offer dicamba training online.
“We have two types of online options for training. That first type is a Webinar. The next one is coming up on Thursday, March 21, and then our last one wraps up on Wednesday April 10. With those webinars what’s unique about those is you have real people walking you through the training. They are Bayer experts and Bayer scientists,” according to Stutz.
She adds that you can also sign up for their computer-based self-paced training program.
“That’s available everyday 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week at the convenience of anybody that would like to take that training,” says Stutz.
While Bayer experts present this training, it will include what applicators and farmers need to know to apply dicamba products approved for use with Roundup Ready Xtend Technology, including the following products: Bayer’s XtendiMax herbicide with VaporGrip Technology, BASF’s Engenia herbicide, and Syngenta’s Tavium Plus VaporGrip Technology herbicide.
Topics covered in the course include application timing, record keeping, sprayer cleanout, using volatility-reducing adjuvants, determining buffer distances, application conditions specific to certain states, and other dicamba restrictions. It also covers how to check for Pesticide Use Limitation Areas on the EPA Bulletins Live! Two websites as well as best management practices for dicamba application.
“All of us at Bayer are working to help ensure our products are used properly and responsibly so farmers can continue to count on them for generations to come,” said Stutz. “We encourage farmers to visit our website for more training and stewardship resources.”
Access Bayer’s dicamba training by visiting RoundupReadyXtend.com/training to register. If farmers would like to request an in-person event, please contact dicamba.training@bayer.com.
For more information, visit RoundupReadyXtend.com/Training.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/18201239/ccc-slush-fund-wrap.mp3"]The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a government-owned and operated entity that was created in 1933 to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices. Today, Republicans charge that the $30 billion CCC is being used inappropriately.
“I get a kick out of our friends in Congress. They go, ‘It’s a slush fund. He’s just using it for whatever he wants to do.’ No, I don’t. I can’t do that because I’ve got lawyers,” says Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. “I’ve got 230 some lawyers in the General Counsel’s office who are scared to death we don’t go into the guard rails. So, they’ll come to me and say, ‘Mr. Secretary, you can do this, and you can’t do this.’”
But Republicans see it differently, and not just with Democratic presidents. Senator Chuck Grassley blames former President Trump for raiding the CCC to offset China’s retaliation for his tariffs.
“He found out it was hurting agriculture, so he just willy-nilly takes $28 billion dollars to give to the farmers to offset the bad impact that it has on American agriculture exports. I call that a ‘slush fund.’”
That prompted Grassley and other Senate Republicans to introduce the USDA Spending Accountability Act and secure reporting requirements in the just enacted FY’24 Ag spending bill. But Vilsack argues the key example Republicans cite as CCC misuse isn’t misuse at all.
“So, when we did ‘climate-smart’ agriculture, we didn’t just simply say, ‘Here’s money, go do sustainable practices.’ We said, ‘Here’s money, go do sustainable practices and let’s create a new category of commodity, and let the market value that new category of commodity,’ because that’s the way you fit it into the CCC.”
Republicans agree that there are legitimate uses of CCC for farm subsidies and trade promotion but argue that even the Government Accountability Office has ruled that USDA should ask Congress first.
https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/18161653/Awad-farm-visit-social.mp4[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/18204710/CJ-WRAP-HAT-MCDONALDS-NATIONAL-AG-DAY-031824.mp3"]As we celebrate both National Ag Day and National Ag Week, we bring you the story of an Indiana McDonald’s owner-operator and his daughter who brought the importance of Hoosier farmers and Indiana agriculture directly to his team members by planning a company trip to a local dairy.
“It was just a great team building experience for us, as well as educational for our people,” said Stephanie Awad, whose father owns and operates a total of 14 McDonald’s restaurants. Eleven of their family’s restaurants are located in Elkhart, Goshen, Ligoneer, and across northern Indiana. The remaining three are in southern Michigan.
She and her father Estephan Awad partnered up with American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI) to take their restaurant managers and team members on a tour of Crystal Springs Creamery in St. Joseph County.
Estephan said the purpose of their visit to the dairy farm was to educate their team about the importance of Indiana’s farmers and the value that their local dairy suppliers bring.
Estephan Awad (at far right), the owner-operator of 14 McDonald’s restaurants in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, on a tour with his McDonald’s team members of Crystal Springs Creamery in Osceola, Indiana. Photo provided by McDonald’s of Greater Indiana and Southwest Michigan.“You wouldn’t think that a McDonald’s would have similarities with the farm, but we deal with similar issues,” he said. “We count on technology to help us do better, more efficient jobs, and similar to us, farms sometimes struggle with the labor force. There were a lot of similarities, which made it a more engaging for us to better understand what we all deal with within the same community.”
Stephanie says McDonald’s has long been a supporter of Indiana’s farmers and the ag industry.
“McDonald’s purchases more than $29 million worth of quality ingredients in Indiana. That includes eight million gallons of milk, so we want to take the time to recognize this huge role that Indiana farmers and ag organizations like the American Dairy Association Indiana play in our communities and in our economy,” she said.
In addition, the McDonald’s system also purchases 1.9 million pounds of soybean oil, 12.4 million pounds of sugar, and nearly 13 million pounds of pork from Indiana producers.
Estephan Awad and his McDonald’s team following their tour of Crystal Springs Creamery in Osceola, Indiana. Photo provided by McDonald’s of Greater Indiana and Southwest Michigan.Estephan also says that McDonald’s also shares a family connection with Indiana’s farms.
“There are 700 dairy farms in the state of Indiana and 95 percent of them are family-owned and operated. There are also 250 McDonald’s restaurants in Indiana and 95 percent of them are also family-owned and operated,” he said.
So, the next time you take a bite into a McRib or a Sausage Egg McMuffin, remember those Indiana farmers who work hard every day to supply their products to McDonald’s.
McDonald’s owner-operator Estephan Awad (left), who owns 14 McDonald’s restaurants in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, stands with his daughter Stephanie Awad (right). Photo provided by Stephanie Awad.Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Estephan and Stephanie Awad, as they discuss their tour of Crystal Springs Creamy in St. Joseph County through American Dairy Association Indiana. Estephan and Stephanie also discuss their family dynamic as they work together to manage their 14 McDonald’s locations.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/18160958/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-ESTEPHAN-STEPHANIE-AWAD-031824.mp3"]The Awad family poses with Allie Reith, Agricultural Affairs Manager with American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI). Photo provided by McDonald’s of Greater Indiana and Southwest Michigan.
Hoosier farmers interested in directing Indiana’s corn checkoff investments may now petition to run for one of the five seats up for election this year. The Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) will host elections for Board of Director positions in Districts 2, 5 and 8 and also for two, statewide, at-large seats.
“New people bring new perspectives and fresh ideas and will help us invest checkoff dollars wisely in our efforts to develop new markets, implement new research and increase promotional efforts of Indiana corn,” said ICMC President Tim Gauck, a Greensburg, Ind., farmer. “We rely on farmers to fill these leadership positions to keep the state’s corn checkoff strong. For many years, Indiana corn growers have benefitted from the volunteer leaders of the ICMC board.”
Gauck added that Indiana’s corn checkoff program actively advocates the production and use of ethanol, develops new markets around the world and promotes farm safety through its Grain Bin Safety program – among other projects. For more, go online to www.incornandsoy.org
ICMC was established by the Indiana General Assembly in 2007 to promote the interests of corn growers in the state and to manage corn checkoff funds. Led by a board of 17 voting directors who guide corn checkoff funds on behalf of more than 20,000 Indiana corn farmers, ICMC aids corn farmers through its strategic initiatives of market development; environmental, social and economic sustainability; value creation and producer engagement.
To run for an ICMC director seat, Indiana corn farmers must be at least 18 years old, a registered Indiana voter, and a resident in the appropriate district. All farmers who submit a valid petition by June 1 will be listed as a candidate on the election ballot. Voting will be at Purdue Cooperative Extension Service offices in August.
Three current ICMC directors will complete their third, three-year term this year and are not eligible for re-election. Exiting the board at the end of the year are Kelly Whiteman Snipes in District 2, Mike Beard in District 5, and At-Large Director Sarah Delbecq.
Here is the breakdown of each district:
- District 2 includes the counties of Carroll, Cass, Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Miami, St. Joseph and Wabash.
- District 5 includes the counties of Bartholomew, Boone, Clinton, Decatur, Grant, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Howard, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Rush, Shelby and Tipton.
- District 8 includes the counties of Brown, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Lawrence, Monroe, Orange, Perry and Washington.
- Two statewide At-Large seats represent and are elected by farmers from all 92 Indiana counties.
Farmers can download any necessary forms at incornandsoy.org/icmcelection or by sending an email to ICMC Board Leadership Manager Amber Myers at amyers@indianacorn.org or by calling 317-644-2863. Forms are also available at all Purdue County Extension offices.
Newly elected directors will begin a three-year term Oct. 1, 2024. ICMC directors can serve three consecutive full terms or a total of nine consecutive years.
Two Senate Agriculture Committee members are questioning the Department of Agriculture’s telework policy.
Republicans John Boozman of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa request USDA’s Inspector General build upon its oversight of the federal agency’s telework abuse and expand its investigation into the department’s footprint and workforce.
In a letter, Boozman and Ernst called for an enhanced investigation after USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was questioned during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing last month. The committee focused on a department supervisor’s revelation to the committee that the agency’s headquarters resemble a “ghost town,” to which the secretary claimed that his employees and managers are in the D.C. office “a majority of the week.”
The letter states, “Secretary Vilsack’s apparent misapprehension regarding the telework posture of his workforce underlines the importance of comprehensive reviews, audits, and evaluations of the USDA’s telework, locality pay, and space utilization policies.”
The letter requests a response by March 27, 2024.
Congressman John Duarte (R-CA-13), who also serves on House Ag Committee.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/16200420/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-DUARTE-FARM-BILL-031524.mp3"]You’ve been hearing a lot about the next Farm Bill—or the lack thereof. Many ag leaders believe that Congress may just extend the old Farm Bill once again and kick that can down the road even further.
Congressman John Duarte (R-CA-13), who serves on the House Ag Committee, says he’s also unsure if we will see a new Farm Bill introduced and passed in 2024.
“Any Farm Bill that we do this year probably have to go through suspension, meaning we need two-thirds of the entire Congress to vote for it,” Duarte said, “which also, to some degree, means it may be a spending blowout, which there’s not a lot of appetite for.”
Duarte stated farm programs for conservation will spend a significant amount of money over the next few years. He supports the suggestion by Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15), the Chair of the House Ag Committee, to spread that spending over ten years.
“And then have a good Farm Bill that funds the commodity programs and then nutrition programs in a rational, reasonable way,” Duarte said. “Then we’ve got something. But that’s not what we’re getting on the other side.”
Unless the two sides of the aisle can make a deal on that, he thinks they’ll be extending the 2018 Farm Bill once again. Duarte believes the 2018 Farm Bill was a good one for specialty crops, so, he said, for those producers, it’s not a bad outcome.
However, legislative work continues.
“We’ve done some good things for it with the appropriations bill. I’m on a bill with Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19), a bipartisan bill called the GATES Act. It would take the income limit off qualifications for some of the conservation programs. If you want to use EQIP money to modernize the operation smog-wise or emissions-wise, if you want to use an EQIP grant to do a large recharge basin, these are things we want farmers to do, even if they make more than $900,000 a year.”
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners for conservation-related projects.
“The GATES Act would make these patient conservation programs eligible for everybody, including bigger farms that can really have an impact on recharge basins and conservation,” Duarte said. “So even if the Farm Bill doesn’t go this year, we’re still going to do some good things to improve it.”
Spring Fest attendees participate in the “Cockroach Coliseum” event, hosted by Bug Bowl co-founder Tom Turpin, to observe the world of entomology through the lens of a cockroach. (Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Tom Campbell)From the plant sale to the legendary Bug Bowl, featuring the Cockroach Colosseum and honey tasting, the 2024 Spring Fest will offer an array of vibrant, interactive activities suitable for all ages Saturday, April 13.
The annual festival, a free and inclusive event open to all, is set to take place in 36 sites on campus from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This seasonal celebration will span the College of Agriculture buildings and grounds, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Memorial Mall. Community members and students are invited to participate in immersive activities that cover a range of subjects, including science, technology, engineering and the arts.
“Spring Fest is a great way for people of all ages to engage with the College of Agriculture, as well as other colleges, departments, centers and student activity organizations through hands-on activities and cultural experiences,” said Amy Winger, event coordinator. “It’s a fun way for students to interact with the community while showcasing their educational pursuits.”
Pocket guides containing a map and list of activities will be available at the information booth located at the corner of Mitch Daniels Boulevard and Marsteller Street. Some of the activities include:
- Boiler Barnyard, a live petting zoo that features cows and calves, sheep, pigs, chickens and horses, hosted by the Department of Animal Sciences.
- The Purdue Veterinary Medicine Open House.
- The Sandra Yover Haas String Quartet performing as the Cricket Quartet at the Bug Bowl.
- The Boilermaker Black and Gold Edition hot sauces sale, hosted by the Department of Food Science.
Spring Fest will also present Canstruction, a capstone project for students in the College of Education designed to spark creativity while making a meaningful contribution to the local community. Students will create structures using canned goods collected from parents and donors, demonstrating their artistic talents and their dedication to philanthropy. Doubling as a food drive, all cans will be donated to Food Finders Food Bank after Spring Fest, helping the organization support Greater Lafayette residents.
In tandem with Spring Fest, Purdue will be hosting the 16th annual Purdue Challenge 5k run/walk, supporting the Purdue University Institute for Cancer Research, and Purdue Aviation Day.
Free event parking is available in the Marsteller Street parking lot, Discovery Park Lot and the Wood Street Parking Garage. Additionally, paid parking is available at the Harrison Street Parking Garage.
For additional details, including activities, demonstrations and reading lists, please visit the official Spring Fest website.
Written by: Devyn Raver, Purdue Agricultural Communications.
Governor Eric Holcomb (R-IN) speaking at the Indiana Statehouse in November 2023. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.On Friday, Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-IN) signed a bill into law that bans China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana.
The bill (House Bill 1183), which was written and introduced by Rep. Kendell Culp (R-District 16), also prevents China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from buying any real estate within 10 miles of all military installations in Indiana.
Rep. Culp issued the following statement to Hoosier Ag Today:
“Thank you to Gov. Holcomb for protecting Hoosiers by signing HB1183 into law today. Indiana farmland and military installations will be protected from those countries who wish to do us harm. Our food and water supply will remain in the hands of Hoosier farmers and property owners as it should.
“We cannot afford to let our enemies control even a fraction of our food supply or conduct surveillance near our military resources. HB1183 will provide peace of mind for Hoosiers. I’m proud to author the legislation and thank Sen. Jean Leising for sponsoring it in the senate. It’s an exciting day for the citizens of Indiana.”
The bill had received unanimous support from both the Indiana House and Senate.
The new law takes effect July 1, 2024.
Click HERE to read the full text of the bill.
State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-16th District) files House Bill 1183 at the Indiana Statehouse in January 2024. Photo courtesy of Kendell Culp.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/15213350/CJ-WRAP-HAT-TAX-CUTS-JOBS-ACT-031524.mp3"]Back in 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which gave tax breaks to many farmers and ag businesses. But many of those tax breaks are set to expire in 2025. Several ag leaders are concerned that if those tax breaks expire, tax bills for Indiana’s farmers will increase significantly.
“If nothing is done to extend them beyond 2025, farmers will face well over a nine-billion-dollar tax increase in 2026 between increased income tax liability and the increased estate tax liability. The expiration of 199A alone would see certain farms’ tax liability increased by up to 20 percent,” says Dustin Sherer, Director of Government Affairs for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
He says the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is important for farmers.
“It lowered taxes for most individuals as well as most businesses of every size and type, including farms and ranches,” according to Sherer. “The legislation is important for farmers and ranchers because 98 percent of their operations are organized as pass-throughs, and there were specific provisions included in the bill that benefit pass-through businesses, including the broader brackets and lower rates, the enhanced estate tax exemption, and the 199A qualified business income deduction that drives more rate parity between the top rates that small businesses pay and the 21-percent corporate rate.”
Sherer recommends having a conversation with your tax professional ahead of time to find out what your own personal tax liabilities might be without those tax breaks. Then, have a conversation with your lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the importance of renewing those tax breaks.
“Arm yourself with information. Do some research or talk to your CPA to understand how these various provisions of the tax code are benefiting your operation and how your operation is utilizing the savings from the provisions enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. And once you do that, talk to your elected officials. Tell them your personal story and tell them what the consequences would be if these options went away. Educating elected officials with personal stories is the best advocacy there is,” he says.
Source: NAFB News Service
Decatur County farmer Mike Koehne was recently appointed to the U.S. Soybean Export Council’s board of directors during Commodity Classic in Houston. Koehne also serves on the boards for the Indiana Soybean Alliance, American Soybean Association, and the Soy Transportation Coalition. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/14165154/CJ-WRAP-HAT-MIKE-KOEHNE-USSEC-DIRECTOR-031424.mp3"]Indiana Farmer Mike Koehne is a very busy man. Not only does he farm near Greensburg in Decatur County, but he was just appointed to the Board of Directors of the U.S. Soybean Export Council—or USSEC for short.
“I’m really looking forward to promoting U.S. soybeans across the world, and hopefully we can make a difference for here in Indiana and across the whole U.S.,” says Koehne.
He was named to USSEC’s board during Commodity Classic in Houston just a few weeks ago. Koehne also serves on the boards for the Indiana Soybean Alliance, American Soybean Association, and the Soy Transportation Coalition.
His new role with USSEC will be to help grow the value of U.S. soybeans by growing relationships with trade partners outside the U.S.
“USSEC is pretty much our boots on the ground,” he says. In all of these countries, we have people stationed around the world to promote and assist any buyers who are buying U.S. soybeans, answer questions to promote our soybeans, so being on the board, I get to hear their needs and what they need to do so hopefully I can bring some of that information back to Indiana.”
Although the top five markets for U.S. soybeans are China, Mexico, the EU, Japan, and the Philippines, Koehne says that USSEC is looking for new opportunities for soybean exports.
“They’re looking at Africa, Indonesia, and India. Those are probably some of the bigger markets,” according to Koehne. “Vietnam and South Korea are big markets for U.S. soybeans, but we can get our foot in the door with Africa, India, and Indonesia. It seems like they’re hungry for a cheap protein source and that’s what soybeans can provide.”
He adds that the Asian markets are pushing U.S. growers to produce and export more food-grade soybeans.
“They’re hungry for soybeans over there. When I was over there, that’s what they talked about. They want food-grade soybeans, and they want to feed their people. We can produce that here,” says Koehne.
“When it comes right down to it, food security and safety starts on the farm. We are where it all starts. We can promote that and give them a good, finished product from right here in the U.S.A.,” he says.
For more information about the U.S. Soybean Export Council, visit ussec.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/14172726/Beating-tar-spot-in-2024.mp3"]So, how likely is it that tar spot makes another appearance in 2024? Since first coming on the scene in 2015, tar spot has continued to spread. It is now in more than nineteen states and the disease still spread in corn fields even during a very hot and dry 2023 season.
“It bled over into Nebraska and some other surrounding states,” says BASF’s Kim Tutor, technical marketing manager. “It’s as far south as Georgia and Florida and so it’s important to keep in mind when you think back to the disease triangle, you need three things for disease. You need the host. We’ve got lots of corn and soybeans, and tar spot, we’ve got a lot of corn. You need the pathogen. Well, we know it’s there because it overwinters in corn stubble, but the other reason tar spot’s problematic is it can blow in. So you can see infection not just from the bottom of the plant up from that overwintering of the pathogens, you can also see it in fact from the top of the plant down.”
Thirdly, environmental conditions need to be present for that disease outbreak.
“So in 2023 two of those three conditions were already met in the Midwest, and as soon as those certain pockets and certain geographies started getting rain, boom we had the disease. So I would say the potential is always there, it’s a matter of those environmental conditions. It just takes a little bit of change in those weather patterns. All you need is several hours of leaf wetness at night for that disease to take off.”
Because of a very long latent period for tar spot in corn, BASF recommends including a fungicide in your plans this year vs. waiting to see if the disease shows up.
“With tar spot it’s upwards of 14 to 20 days, so that’s almost 3 weeks that that disease is inside that plant depositing toxins and robbing it of its photosynthetic abilities, and that’s why if you take that wait and see approach, you’re trying to really I don’t know if I want to use one or not, you can’t, because by the time you’ve seen those lesions oftentimes it’s too late. You’ve already lost your yield potential.”
Tutor says BASF’s Veltyma is the best fungicide to control tar spot in corn.
“Veltyma has proven itself year over year,” she said. “In 8 out of 10 trials against competition it beats it. Compared to the untreated acre, 9 out of 10 trials it beats it. We have over a thousand field scale grower demonstration trials on revxfields.com Growers can go and visit and see how that product performs in their backyard.”
Hear more about fungicide plant health benefits in the full interview with Kim Tutor:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/14212906/Fungicidies-with-Kim-Tutor-of-BASF.mp3"]
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) has announced that small and very small meat processors in need of funding can apply for low-interest loans.
The Indiana Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program (MPILP) is a $15 million revolving loan program that assists Indiana meat and poultry packers and processors with access to affordable capital for meat expansion projects. This intermediary lending program addresses critical meat expansion needs, which developed and have continued since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program will support local livestock producers by allowing their market ready livestock to be processed within their communities and help to reduce processing delays. ISDA will be working closely with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), who will serve as the intermediary lender. ISDA is also partnering with the Indiana Small Business Development Centers (ISBDC) who will assist in development of meat expansion projects and loan packages with local meat packers and processors.
“This program is a big step forward in allowing farmers to process their livestock locally,” USDA Rural Development Indiana State Director Dr. Terry Goodin, said. “It shows the importance of investing locally and allows rural Hoosier livestock producers to send their market-ready livestock without delays.”
Meat expansion projects will add local job opportunities and tax revenues for local communities and the State of Indiana.
Eligible entities include small meat processors looking to expand or entrepreneurs who would like to open a new facility.
Loan Terms:
- 3% interest rates for scalable loans from $100,000 up to $5 million;
- 2% interest rates for wastewater projects; and
- Up to 15-year loan terms.
ISDA is working closely with the Indiana Bankers Association (IBA) to encourage local bank participation in the meat expansion revolving loans that will result in blended interest rates while preserving local bank relationships.
Eligible expenses may include, but are not limited to:
- Purchase/upgrade of equipment, infrastructure and technology – including installation;
- Purchase or construction of a new facility;
- Start-up costs, working capital, fees or expenses related to meeting federal or state standards;
- Increasing packaging and labeling capabilities; and
- Pollution control and abatement including wastewater and transportation.
“We are thrilled to announce this first-ever loan program through the Indiana State Department of Agriculture,” said Don Lamb, ISDA director. “Traditional bank funding for agribusinesses can be challenging, especially for meat processors, so we are excited to work hand in hand with our partners to ensure this needed funding is available to our Hoosier businesses.”
“This loan program is a first of its kind for our Indiana State Department of Agriculture and I am excited to support them in this unique opportunity for Hoosier agribusinesses,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, the Secretary of ISDA. “We know that more and more Hoosiers are shopping local for meat products and our small meat processors are struggling to keep up with demand. Additionally, some traditional business loans can be hard to secure for this industry, so this low interest loan program will go a long way in ensuring our local meat processors can expand and Hoosier customers get the products they are seeking.”
The Indiana Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program will open for applications on April 1, 2024. For information regarding the Indiana Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program, please contact David Coates at dcoates@isda.in.gov.
This funding was from the USDA Rural Development Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program with the goal of increasing meat and poultry processing capacity, which in turn increases competition, supports producer income, and strengthens the food supply chain to lower costs for families and create jobs and economic opportunities in rural areas.
Source: Indiana Department of Agriculture
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced Wednesday the state has received more than $800,000 in donations for wildfire relief.
The donations are through the State of Texas Agriculture Relief, or STAR Fund.
“The overwhelming response demonstrates the strength of our Texas spirit and our commitment to standing together in times of crisis,” says Miller.
To date, more than 1,600 individuals have donated to the fund that will provide financial assistance, helping farmers rebuild and recover from the unprecedented damage.
The STAR Fund, administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture, provides financial assistance to agricultural producers who have suffered losses due to natural disasters, including wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and droughts. The funds collected will be distributed directly to those in need to help cover expenses such as livestock feed, fencing repairs, and other essential recovery efforts.
Those who wish to contribute to the STAR Fund can visit the Texas Department of Agriculture website for more information.
Source: NAFB News Service
Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) speaking before members of the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Growers Association. Photo: Eric Pfeiffer / Hoosier Ag Today.Senator Todd Young (R-IN) is among 22 Republican Senators who are demanding President Biden and his administration focus more attention on increasing U.S. agricultural exports and improving the competitiveness of U.S. products abroad.
On Wednesday, Young joined his colleagues in signing a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“We expect trade to fluctuate in response to macroeconomic factors and market conditions,” wrote the senators. “However, the current sharp decline in U.S. agricultural exports is directly attributable to and exacerbated by an unambitious U.S. trade strategy that is failing to meaningfully expand market access or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. While the Biden administration continually refuses to pursue traditional free trade agreements, China, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and others continue to ink trade pacts that diminish American export opportunities and global economic influence.”
The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ted Budd (R-NC), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Hoeven (R-ND), Ron Johnson (R-WI), James Lankford (R-OK), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Tim Scott (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
The full letter can be found below:
Dear Ambassador Tai and Secretary Vilsack:
We write to express deep concern with the continued erosion of critical markets for U.S. agricultural exports. For decades, the United States steadily increased market access for U.S. food and agricultural products. We accomplished this feat through negotiations of actual free trade agreements, removal of technical barriers to trade, and holding our trading partners accountable to their commitments, all of which have helped strengthen the agriculture economy at home and developed important strategic relationships abroad. Yet, in the last fiscal year (FY) alone, U.S. agricultural exports declined by more than $17 billion, and recent forecasts show a further decline by more than $8 billion in FY 2024. As a result, the U.S. agricultural trade deficit is projected to reach a record $30.5 billion in FY 2024. This decline is unsustainable, and we urge the Biden administration to immediately take action to improve the competitiveness of U.S. agricultural products abroad and reverse this trend.
We expect trade to fluctuate in response to macroeconomic factors and market conditions. However, the current sharp decline in U.S. agricultural exports is directly attributable to and exacerbated by an unambitious U.S. trade strategy that is failing to meaningfully expand market access or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. While the Biden administration continually refuses to pursue traditional free trade agreements, China, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and others continue to ink trade pacts that diminish American export opportunities and global economic influence.
International trade is critical to the continued success of U.S. agriculture. For the 2023 marketing year, nearly 70 million acres of major crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat were planted to meet the demands of our foreign customers. Additionally, more than 95 percent of U.S. cotton produced, nearly 80 percent of almonds produced, and more than 70 percent of nonfat milk powder produced were destined for the export market in 2023. And in a typical year, half of U.S.-produced rice and 20 percent of U.S.-produced potatoes are exported. Diminishing access to foreign agricultural markets for U.S. industries creates significant economic headwinds and jeopardizes the livelihoods of more than one million American workers, farmers, and ranchers, as well as millions more U.S. jobs throughout the export supply chain.
With our concerns in mind, please respond to the following questions within 14 days of your receipt of this letter.
What specific actions does the Biden administration plan to take to increase U.S. agricultural exports in 2024?
Does the Biden administration intend to pursue new or improved free trade agreements with any countries to obtain new market access for agricultural products in 2024?
We further ask the Biden administration to take steps to analyze and consider the relationship between U.S. competitiveness and market share in foreign agricultural markets with negotiated tariffs, tariff rate quotas, and other market access provisions.
A continued decline in U.S. agricultural exports is avoidable and unacceptable. The Biden administration must take immediate action to ensure this does not become a long-term trend. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.
Click HERE to read the PDF copy of the official letter sent to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
AgrIInstitute, a nonprofit organization that prepares leaders to advance agriculture and serve the industry’s related communities, has announced the members who have been accepted into the Indiana Agricultural Leadership Program (ALP). This is the 21st class for the program, which will begin on July 11 and spans over the next two years.
The ALP Class 21 will attend 12 seminars held throughout Indiana, travel to Washington D.C. to meet with national leaders, and spend two weeks in a foreign country studying international issues.
“This group represents the 21st class of the program, which has been building leadership ability for more than 40 years with nearly 550 program graduates. A wide variety of agricultural interests and industries are represented in the new class members who went through an extensive application and interview process to be selected for this highly acclaimed professional development opportunity,” said Beth Archer, Executive Director of AgrIInstitute.
Selected to participate in the 21st Class of the Indiana Agricultural Leadership Program are:
· Janice Agarwal
Executive Director/President/Founder
Watch Us Farm, Inc.
· Cord Barricklow
Strategic Account Manager
Corteva Agriscience
· Jason Beck
Talent Acquistion Specialist
Beck’s Hybrids
· Jeremy Bender
Vice President, Agribusiness Lending Manager
Interra Credit Union
· Austin Bohm
Agronomy Regional Sales Manager
Keystone Cooperative
· Mark Caskey
Assistant General Manager
Consolidated Grain and Barge
· Colette Childress
Local Government Policy Advisor
Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc.
· Katie Cook
Vice President, Farm Animal Innovation & US Marketing
Elanco Animal Health
· Gabby DiRusso
Consultant, US Farm Animal Marketing, Beef
Elanco Animal Health
· Matthew Eldridge
Vice President, Commercial & Ag Lending
First Farmers Bank & Trust
· Allie Ellis
Associate Director of Alumni and Supporters
National FFA Organization
· Megan Espinda
Agricultural Liaison
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
· Shawn Gearhart
District Manager
Brock Grain Systems, Div. of CTB, Inc.
· Garrett Kelly
Managing Editor – Digital and Video Content
Indiana Farm Bureau
· Doug Matthys
Farm Manager
Shady Lane Farms
· Samantha Otten
Sr. Human Resources Manager
Bane-Welker Equipment
Otten Family Farms
· Kristal Painter
Chief Operating Officer of Discover Southern Indiana
Program Coordinator of Choose Southern Indiana
Radius Indiana
· Eric Pfeiffer
Vice President
Hoosier Ag Today
· Noah Radde
Indiana Regenerative Ag-Specialist
Archer Daniels Midland Company
· Cora Reinbolt
Ag & Natural Resources and Community Dev. Extension Educator
Purdue Extension – Bartholowmew County
· Joe Schmees
Freshwater Strategy Manager
The Nature Conservancy, Indiana Chapter
· Luke Schnitker
Account Manager
Premier Companies
Schnitker Family Farms
· Andrew Sherman
International Trade Director
Indiana State Dept. of Agriculture
· Thomas Shobe
Swine Production Support
Ag Production Enterprise, Inc.
· Breanna Thompson
Swine Marketing Brand Manager
Elanco Animal Health
· Kelli Werling, DVM
Sr. Director Operations & Director Swine Health, Animal Programs Div.
Indiana State Board of Animal Health
· Jason Wilson
Regional Vice President – Agricultural Sales
Farm Credit Mid-America
· Andrew Winger
Owner/Operator
Winger Farms
For more information about AgriInstitute, visit AgriInstitute.org.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/13153844/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SETZER-ON-TYSON-IOWA-PORK-PLANT-CLOSURE-031324.mp3"]It was announced this week that Tyson plans to shut down another food production facility—this time, a pork production plant in Perry, Iowa near Des Moines. That plant has nearly 1,300 employees and kills about 8,000 head a day. That facility is expected to close later this summer.
“The market has not crumbled on this news. To me, that is supportive long-term,” according to Karl Setzer with Consus Ag Consulting.
“It’s detrimental when you see a packing plant close—and we probably are going to see a few others close and I feel bad for that, but the industry on a whole is going to absorb this rather quickly,” he says.
Setzer believes other packing plants across the U.S. will quickly pick up the slack once the plant in Perry, Iowa shuts down.
“We’re starting to see packers move their new facilities. They’re ramping up some facilities, and the shackle speed at some of these plants has been bumped up as well,” he says. “We’ve seen some guidelines eased a little bit on some restrictions so we can put hogs through a little quicker. Plus, hog weights are just a little bit heavier.”
He adds that the USDA’s recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report shows the forecasts for both pork production and pork exports have increased for 2024.
“When we go back to that WASDE report, the USDA average hog value for 2024 is estimated at $60.75 per head. That is up $2.16 on the year. So, the USDA anyway is a little bit more optimistic than some of the other data that we’re showing that would be detrimental for hog values,” says Setzer.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Karl Setzer from Consus Ag Consulting.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/13152634/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-KARL-SETZER-TYSON-IOWA-PORK-PLANT-CLOSURE-031324.mp3"]For more information about Consus Ag Consulting, visit ConsusAg.net.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/13230711/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-AQUACULTURE-031324.mp3"]The U.S. is far behind other countries in the production of aquaculture. Americans are large consumers of seafood despite our need to import most of it, says Drue Winters with Stronger America through Seafood.
“The U.S. imports somewhere between sixty and eighty percent of our seafood, depending on how you calculate it. And fifty percent of that is farm-raised,” she said. “So, we actually produce very little of our own seafood, and we’re getting a big chunk of it from overseas already.”
Because of the sustainability and nutritional benefits of seafood, she expects demand to increase.
“Seafood is an incredibly healthy source of protein, so, from the perspective of health and the Omega threes in fish oil, it’s really important. U.S. dietary guidelines call for Americans to eat far more seafood for a range of health benefits. We’re not doing that yet, although seafood consumption has grown,” she said. “So, for a healthy lifestyle and a climate-smart source of protein, U.S. grown seafood is going to be really, really important. In addition to that, people want to know where their seafood comes from, and that it’s ethically grown and ethically sourced, and I think the U.S. aquaculture provides a great opportunity to meet those needs.”
She said there are ways for the nation to expand the domestic seafood supply.
“The real key to expanding that is to move into U.S. Federal waters. The U.S. does have an aquaculture industry, but there are no farms in U.S. Federal waters right now,” Winters said. “The regulatory process is very complex. There are farmers who have been trying to establish operations in federal waters for decades and have been unable to get through the process. So, the real key to being able to expand our seafood supply through aquaculture is being able to do that in federal waters.”
Winters also said federal legislation is needed.
“We need clear authority to farm in federal waters and we need a clear pathway through the regulatory process,” she said. “Stronger America through Seafood has been advocating for a bill called the AQUAA Act in Congress that would do just that.”
The Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act was first introduced in 2018 and would establish national standards for offshore aquaculture. It has been reintroduced several times, including in 2024. Though it has bipartisan support, it has yet to make it out of committee. The organization Don’t Cage Our Oceans is opposed to the legislation and credits its actions for blocking the original bill in 2018.
Dr. Willie Reed, Dean of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine (at right) and his wife Dorothy (at left) following the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry on Feb. 3. Reed was recognized with the Distinguished Service Award from Dr. Bernie Engel, Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture during the event. Reed will step down as dean effective June 30. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Dr. Willie Reed, the Dean of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, will step down June 30, after 17 years in his leadership role and 25 total years of service to the university. Dean Reed had shared his plan to step down in his leadership role with his colleagues two years ago.
“It has been a humbling and incredible honor to live out my childhood dream of becoming a doctor of veterinary medicine to the fullest at Purdue,” said Reed. “The college has worked tirelessly to achieve excellence, and I believe the outstanding Boilermakers in veterinary medicine have each played a key role in its success. Although we’ve made great progress, I am eager and excited to see the many accomplishments that are sure to come in the future. My sincerest thank-you to all I’ve worked with along the way.”
A celebration of Dean Reed’s legacy will take place later this semester, and a search advisory committee will soon begin looking into his successor.
“We simply cannot thank Dean Reed enough for his pioneering leadership at Purdue,” Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe said. “Having received two lifetime achievement awards from Indiana and U.S. professional societies this past year alone, I know Willie is looking forward to a much-deserved scientific sabbatical. His story is amazing, as is the arc of his career and professional accomplishments, and it is one that I know students, faculty and staff at Purdue will cherish for many years to come.”
Since becoming dean in 2007, Reed has consistently championed One Health at Purdue — bringing together animal health, human health and plant health — and the university continues to strengthen and accelerate his groundbreaking approach to excellence and education in these areas. He has also guided Purdue Veterinary Medicine in developing and executing a series of three visionary strategic plans to enhance the future through innovative educational initiatives, groundbreaking research, and creative and effective engagement programs.
In recognition of Reed’s role in growing Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine, he was the recipient of the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association (IVMA) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024. The honor was bestowed Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024 during the IVMA membership meeting by IVMA President Greg Kurtz that was held as part of the association’s annual Crossroads Veterinary Conference in Noblesville. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.As one of his first acts as dean, Reed established the Office of Engagement to focus on the college’s scholarly engagement efforts and the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to establish and model innovative practices that introduced diversity into the systems, structure and culture of the college and the veterinary profession. These offices have generated countless positive impacts, including educational and outreach initiatives for elementary students, scholarship initiatives, certificate programs and on-campus learning experiences, each with the aim of encouraging diversity and fostering a welcoming culture for all.
Reed’s strategic planning initiatives culminated in the opening of the new David and Bonnie Brunner Purdue Veterinary Medical Hospital Complex in 2022. This complex expanded the college’s Small Animal Hospital and created new Equine and Farm Animal hospitals to replace the Large Animal Hospital. The stunning new facilities have enabled the college to grow its hospital services, expand delivery of the highest quality of veterinary medical care for animal patients, enhance clinical education for students, and advance veterinary and comparative medical research through clinical trials.
The new David and Bonnie Brunner Equine Hospital represents the college’s second equine hospital opened during Reed’s tenure. The first opened in 2017 in Shelbyville, Indiana, as a satellite facility. Located in proximity to the state’s two racetracks, the Caesars Entertainment Equine Specialty Hospital is especially suited to treat cases involving performance horses.
Reed’s leadership of the college also has improved Purdue DVM and veterinary nursing education through implementation of new approaches to clinical skills training and the use of innovative technology.
Reed has fostered growth in research programs, achieving record-level research funding in 2023 through expanded external support for scientific discovery that advances medicine for both animals and humans. Additionally, he spearheaded efforts that enhanced the teaching, clinical and research facilities in the Lynn Hall; increased the DVM class size by 20%; fostered successful recruitment of faculty members from around the globe in many disciplines; and significantly expanded the college’s global engagement programs.
In 2009 he led the college’s 50th anniversary with a year of celebratory programs and events.
In 2023 Reed’s many achievements were recognized when he was selected by the American Veterinary Medical Association as its inaugural recipient of the AVMA Frederick Douglass Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring his innovative leadership and contributions in supporting and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the veterinary profession. Additionally, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 2018, “for his powerful advocacy on behalf of groups underrepresented in veterinary medicine and for his leadership in veterinary medical education and research.”
Reed received his bachelor’s degree in animal and poultry science and his DVM degree from Tuskegee University. He earned his PhD in pathology from Purdue in 1982 and joined the College of Veterinary Medicine faculty as an assistant professor of veterinary pathology and diagnostician in the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL). He later became chief of the Avian Diseases Diagnostic Service. Board-certified as a specialist in veterinary pathology, Reed served eight years on the Purdue faculty. During that time, he was promoted to associate professor of avian pathology and named ADDL assistant director.
In 1990 Reed joined the Michigan State University faculty as a full professor and director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (previously the Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory). He became a charter diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians and was named chairperson of MSU’s Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation before returning to Purdue as dean in 2007.
Just two days after receiving the IVMA Lifetime Achievement Award, Reed was recognized once again. This time, he was given the Distinguished Service Award from Dr. Bernie Engel, Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture, during the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry on Feb. 3, 2024. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Lucy Flesch, Purdue’s Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science and professor of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, will chair an advisory committee as follows to assist in the search for Reed’s successor:
- Devon Anderson, DVM student, president, Student American Veterinary Medical Association
- Candace Croney, professor of animal behavior and well-being and director of the Center for Animal Welfare Science
- Matt Folk, Purdue alumnus and president & CEO of the Purdue for Life Foundation
- Lindsey Hedges, DVM, senior director of veterinary mentorship for Mission Veterinary Partners and president of Indiana Veterinary Medical Association
- Kenitra Hendrix, clinical associate professor of veterinary diagnostic microbiology and director of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory
- Debbie Knapp, distinguished professor of comparative oncology, Dolores L. McCall Professor of Comparative Oncology, and director of the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center
- Diane Little, associate professor in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering (courtesy)
- Ellen Lowery, clinical professor, chief veterinary officer and associate dean for hospital operations
- Catharine Scott-Moncrieff, professor of small animal internal medicine and head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences
- Jay Wasson, Purdue alumnus and vice president for physical facilities
Candidate nominations (including self-nominations) are strongly encouraged and can be sent to vet-search@purdue.edu.
Source: Purdue University
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/12152124/Soil-tests-for-better-fertility.mp3"]Is this the year to soil test on your farm? If it has been more than three years since the last tests, one expert says plan on it this year.
“I’m not really concerned about if you’re a spring sampler or a fall sampler, I just want you to be consistent,” says Stephanie Zelinko, national agronomist from AgroLiquid. “So, if you’re going to be sampling in the fall, always do it in the fall. That way you can do those comparisons from year to year, and I like to see every two to three years, especially if you’re doing heavy applications of manure or other dry applications, just so you can monitor those changes over time.”
She says more and more are aware of the importance of soil testing as farmers continue to push yields. But the expense and all that data returned in a test can cause some to shy away from testing regularly.
“But for us it’s a good baseline of that soil overall health, the overall fertility health of it that we’re going to help you pinpoint some areas to focus on to improve your overall cropping applications.”
Zelinko likens a soil test to what happens when you visit the doctor.
“A soil test is really no different than a blood test that you would get for yourself at a doctor,” she said. “It’s just going to give you an overall quick snapshot of how your body is working. The soil test is going to do the same thing. That’s going to be that main food source for your crop so it’s going to tell you what nutrients you have, what you may be lacking, and then growers can work with a crop nutrition specialist to actually figure out where they need to improve. That’s going to improve their overall return and overall profitability, and so that’s where they’re going to make money.”
AgroLiquid research here and across the country is entered into a complete database to calculate what they call “win-rates” for farmers.
“That’s just the likelihood that we’re going to see a yield and economic return of adding a specific nutrient component, and this is what our sales team uses to help growers make those decisions. And it goes back to the operation. Are you pushing 300-bushel corn or are you pushing 150-bushel corn, and then you can figure out if you should spend those dollars on say, zinc to get that anticipated return.”
AgroLiquid is a family-owned company headquartered in St. Johns, Michigan producing and manufacturing a complete line of crop nutrition. They offer nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium along with secondary and micronutrients in the liquid form.
“It’s all liquid nutrition that can go out at planning time, in furrow, two by two, through foliar applications, so a lot of flexibility.”
Learn more about soil testing at https://www.agroliquid.com/back2basics/.
In 2022, U.S. farms on average received 24.1 cents for each dollar spent on food-at-home and 3.6 cents for each dollar spent on food-away-from-home. These amounts, called farm shares, highlight the different paths that food takes from farms to consumers’ points of purchase, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service.
Food-at-home dollars include food purchases from outlets such as grocery stores, supermarkets, and wholesale clubs that are meant to be prepared at home. Food-away-from-home dollars include food purchases at restaurants, including delivery and carry-out, and other venues where the food is eaten on the premises. The remainder of each food dollar makes up the marketing share, which is the total value of processing, transportation, retailing, and other activities that get food from farm operations to points of purchase for consumers.
In 2022, the marketing share was 75.9 cents per food-at-home dollar and 96.4 cents per food-away-from-home dollar.
Source: NAFB News Service
Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer is the featured guest on the latest episode of the “Farming the Future” Podcast presented by Purdue Ag Week.
Hosts Abby Stuckwisch and Allydale Downey, who are both students at Purdue University, invited Pfeiffer as a guest on their podcast to talk about Ag Broadcasting. Pfeiffer discusses the importance of bringing the latest news and information impacting Indiana agriculture to farmers and ag business professionals.
Pfeiffer also chats with Abby and Allydale how ag broadcasting has evolved since the early days of radio and television and how Hoosier Ag Today has adapted to the ever-changing landscape of media.
In addition, Pfeiffer also shares his advice for students seeking a career in ag broadcasting.
Click BELOW to listen to the “Farming the Future” Podcast Presented by Purdue Ag Week—featuring Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer as their guest.
From left to right: Anwar Parvez, Chief Technology Office; and Shashi Raghunandan, Founder and CEO of Oaken.Ag. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.If you lease land for your farming operation, you know that managing those landowner relationships can be time-consuming. That’s why a new Indiana-based company has created a lease and land management platform that helps you stay organized.
“Oaken.Ag is a software platform that helps you consolidate all information as it relates to landowners,” says Shashi Raghunandan, the Founder and CEO of Oaken.Ag. He started the company last July with Anwar Parvez, the Chief Technology Officer, on his team. The platform officially launched in January 2024.
He says the company’s software can help landowners save time, reduce hassle, and strengthen their connections with their leasing partners. The ultimate goal is to streamline communications, document management, and payments between landowners and growers.
“When we spoke to farmers today, the way they managed their landowner relationships was complex and time-consuming,” he says. “It was also being managed in manual folders, in Google spreadsheets, and in the worst-case situation, it was being managed in someone’s head.”
“Not only was it time-consuming, when it came time to pass that information on to the next generation that was taking on the farming operation, it became problematic and cumbersome to kind of pass that information on because there was no single way or a place where it all got consolidated.”
He says that Oaken.Ag also helps track of the landowner’s family members so that the hand-off during a farm-succession plan is smoother during that transition.
“We know how critical it is for farmers today to connect not just with the landowner, but somebody who is going to start inheriting that land down the road,” he says. “We help you understand what that structure would look like and help you keep in touch with not just the primary decision maker, but all of the family members, so when that time comes, you’re in touch with all of them and you’re able to convince them to keep the land holding within the farming operation and it remains whole.”
Raghunandan says Oaken.Ag is a cloud-based program that you can use from any computer with a username and password. He adds that the company will work with you to make sure you’re set up and getting the most out of the program to help you manage your landowner agreements and finances.
“You can just log in and you don’t need to download any software,” he says. “Once you get in touch with us, we will set you up on the platform. You’ll get a login ID and password—and then once you’re set up, all of the information resides in a single place. You’re organized and can keep updating data on it. We also help you for the first two months hand as you work through the software and learn the process because we really want you to enjoy using the platform.”
Among the first to use Oaken.Ag is Kassi Rowland with Tom Farms, which is based in Kosciusko County, Indiana. Raghunandan says that Rowland worked with him and his team to ensure that the software platform was simple to use and met the needs of farmland owners and managers.
Oaken.Ag is brand-new ag business that was established with funding from Purdue DIAL Ventures.
“I never would have been able to get our start-up going without Purdue. That connection is dear to me and I’m grateful to Purdue DIAL,” says Raghunandan.
“The two ways that [Purdue DIAL Ventures] supports companies that are coming out of their ag entrepreneurship program—number one: they provide the funding. That’s really critical for any startup to launch themselves and to have a good shot at being able to solve a real challenge in the industry. But also, as you come up with ideas, they help you validate that for the industry and help set you up with the first set of customers who are going to use your platform, so we’ve been grateful for all that Purdue has brought to us.”
For more information, visit Oaken.Ag.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news story about Oaken.Ag for Hoosier Ag Today:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/11184808/CJ-WRAP-HAT-OAKEN-AG-RAW-AUDIO-031124.mp3"]Graphic courtesy of Oaken.Ag.
The six Distinguished Agriculture Alumni Award winners for 2024 from the Purdue University College of Agriculture. Photo: Vincent Walter, Purdue University.Purdue University’s College of Agriculture gave six alumni their “Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award” on March 8, 2024.
The following Purdue Ag Alumni were recognized with the award:
JENNIFER CRANDALL, BS 1998, FOOD SCIENCEJennifer Crandall spent 20 years becoming an expert on food safety. As supplier compliance manager she capped a dozen years of steady promotions with industry giant Kroger before striking out on her own in 2018. Safe Food En Route LLC has more than 140 small and midsize clients relying on advice that protects consumers from foodborne illness. Based in northern Kentucky, it’s a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and Women-Owned Small Business-certified food safety solutions consulting firm that also works directly with distributors, importers and broker/brand owners. Crandall has maintained close ties since her 1998 Purdue graduation as a guest lecturer and membership with the President’s Council and Griffin Society.JEFFREY HABBEN, PHD 1989, AGRONOMYJeffrey Habben’s 27-year career with Corteva Agriscience has yielded more than 30 U.S. patents. As senior research manager, working primarily with corn and soybeans, he leads four research groups – seed composition, hybrid platforms, disease resistance, and agronomy traits. The missions are to create enhanced composition of corn, soybean, and canola seeds; develop a hybrid wheat system; improve the disease resistance of maize and soybean to create a gene-edited “Disease Super Locus” in both crops; and advance both transgenic and genome-edited maize and canola that improve yield and yield stability. Habben has published nearly 50 refereed research publications.
STACY HAVILAND, BS 2002, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTUREStacy Haviland has made herself increasingly useful in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She’s the first landscape architect to work for the city’s utilities engineering department and recently was promoted to Program Manager II for stormwater management and sustainability. As community development manager/administrator, she planned, then oversaw significant urban design projects, including the Urban Trail and the Landing-Columbia Street streetscape design. For 13 years she was a project manager and landscape architect for a Fort Wayne enterprise. Haviland has served on the Purdue Landscape Architecture Professional Advisory Council.
MATTHEW HOLT, BS 1981, MS 1983, AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICSSince 2017, Matthew Holt has led the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech. He is working hand-in-hand with President Timothy Sands, a former Purdue acting president and provost, on a decade-long project called Virginia Tech Advantage. It seeks to dramatically increase need-based financial aid to students. A Pell Grant helped Holt earn bachelor and master’s degrees in agricultural economics – he’s a leading authority on price hedging – at Purdue. Since then, he’s been at Iowa State, Wisconsin, North Carolina State, Arizona, back to Purdue as a professor, and Alabama. In Tuscaloosa, he was an endowed faculty fellow and a department head.
TRENT OSMON, BS 1999, FORESTRYTrent Osmon has worked at the U.S Navy’s base in Crane, Indiana, since two years before graduating from Purdue. He was a forester, then the forestry program team leader, and since 2018 the environmental division supervisor, overseeing a staff of nine that includes three full-time foresters. He manages annual timber sale contracts for more than 3 million board feet from 1,500 acres of upland hardwoods. The 63,000-acre base is the Navy’s largest forested installation. The USS Constitution is the world’s oldest commissioned warship, and Crane is the Navy’s sole provider of white oak used to keep it afloat.
JOAO PEDRA, PHD 2004, ENTOMOLOGYJoao Pedra is positioned to be an expert on tick-pathogen transmission. Since 2022 Pedra has been a full professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His internationally recognized program seeks to advance understanding of tickborne diseases. His research is focused on the role of tick saliva in pathogen transmission, and the development of therapeutic strategies to disrupt tick-borne diseases.
Written by: Charles Wineland, Purdue University.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/11234421/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-MIXDOWN-USDAS-NEW-MEAT-LABEL-RULE-031124.mp3"]The USDA has finalized a rule to align the voluntary “Product of USA” label claim with consumer understanding of what the claim means.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the rule Monday at the National Farmer’s Union (NFU) annual convention in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“We are now on record as being for the utilization of that label only, only, when the animal was born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S.,” he told the crowd that answered with applause.
Secretary Vilsack said the rule will prohibit misleading U.S. origin labeling in the market and help ensure that the information that consumers receive about where their food comes from is truthful.
“The reason for this is quite simple. We surveyed consumers. We asked them the question, ‘When you see this label, what do you think it means?’” he explained.
He said most respondents believed the label meant everything was done in the United States. The next question asked if the consumer would pay a little extra for a package with the Product of the USA label.
“[They said] ‘absolutely, we want to help our farmers out.’ So, in order for that value proposition to be respected, in order for there to be fairness and honesty and the proper representation in the marketplace, it’s important to have rules like this,” Vilsack said.
Secretary Vilsack also made two other announcements. First, USDA is awarding $9.5 million to 42 projects through the Local Meat Capacity grant program to expand processing options for the meat and poultry industry. Second, there are new actions to ensure transparency and a fair and competitive market in the U.S. seed industry.
State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-16th District) speaks before the “Taste of Shelby County Ag Promotion” banquet on March 6, 2024 at Horseshoe Racing & Casino in Shelbyville, Indiana.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/11003712/CJ-WRAP-HAT-CULP-ADVERSARIAL-FARMLAND-BILL-GOES-TO-GOVERNOR-031124.mp3"]Last Friday, your state lawmakers wrapped up the Indiana General Assembly for 2024. One of the bills that received final approval and now heads to Governor Eric Holcomb’s desk for his approval is one that impacts the renting or selling of Indiana’s farmland.
“[The bill] said if you were one of the adversarial countries as identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce—Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba—then you would not be permitted to buy farmland in Indiana,” says State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-16th District) who spoke during the Shelby County Ag Promotion banquet last week in Shelbyville before the bill received full approval from state lawmakers.
Culp introduced House Bill 1183, which passed in the House unanimously back in February. When his bill made it to Senate Ag Committee, they added some additional ownership restrictions to his bill.
“It’s going to put a 10-mile circle around every military installation in Indiana, including armories and bases, and just the four main ones—Cuba and Venezuela are not on that list. They could not buy any real estate within that 10-mile radius including buildings and property, not just farmland,” according to Culp.
Even though the bill also received unanimous support from State Senators, Culp says he has received pushback from members of the Indiana Economic Development Commission (IEDC).
“State Sen. Jean Leising (R-District 42) and I met with a representative from the Indiana Economic Development organization, and they told us then there were nine companies that fit the definition of ‘foreign adversary’ that they currently are working with to locate in Indiana. Sen. Leising asked how many of those are Chinese. The answer: all nine of them. Now that’s concerning—and that should be concerning to all of us,” he said.
Culp adds that the bill goes beyond food security. It’s a matter of national security.
“We had a gentleman named Brian Cavanaugh who flew in from Washington D.C. to testify for Sen. Leising’s Ag Committee. Cavanaugh was on the National Security Council during the Trump Administration, and he says there’s every reason to be concerned about why these foreign entities are wanting to come in here. This is Communist China, and maybe they want to do good things, but you don’t know who is giving them the money that is behind them. If it’s the Chinese government, that should be concerning to us,” says Culp.
If Gov. Holcomb signs House Bill 1183 into law, it would take effect beginning July 1, 2024.
Click HERE to read the final version of House Bill 1183.
Click below to hear watch Rep. Kendell Culp comment on House Bill 1183 last Wednesday during the “Taste of Shelby County Agriculture” banquet in Shelbyville. Culp’s comments on the bill begin at the 20:16 mark in the video below:
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/10203430/SEC-rule-wrap.mp3"]Ag groups are hailing last week’s Securities and Exchange Commission’s final rule on reporting greenhouse gas emissions. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Chief Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart says the 2022 SEC proposed rule wasn’t a good idea to begin with.
“Farmers and ranchers across the country would have had to submit their greenhouse gas emissions, eventually providing those reports to the federal government.”
That’s simply because a producer sold to a publicly traded firm.
“Fortunately, those companies will no longer be required to submit that information.”
The reporting proposal first raised alarms at the American Farm Bureau. Their general counsel, Travis Cushman, says the process would have been onerous for farmers across the country if the Scope 3 provision had been included.
“Scope 3 would have required public companies to report on the greenhouse gas emission of their supply chain, meaning that farmers would potentially have to be tracking all their emissions constantly. Anytime you sell a bushel of corn, we’d have to say, ‘These are how much of seven different types of greenhouse gases were emitted for every bushel I’m selling.’”
For most of the country, this issue is now put to bed. The only exception is, of course, California.
“California recently passed a rule that would also require disclosure of Scope 3 for anyone to do business in California,” says Cushman. “We have sued California over this as well.”
Hart says the EPA already does a greenhouse gas inventory that shows beef cattle contribute just two percent of GHG emissions.
Source: NAFB News Service
The USDA’s March World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report looked very similar to February’s numbers.
This month’s 2023-2024 U.S. corn outlook is unchanged relative to last month. The season-average corn price received by producers is lowered to $4.75 a bushel based on observed prices to date.
The outlook for U.S. soybean supply and use for 2023-2024 is also unchanged this month. Higher soybean meal exports are mostly offset by lower domestic use. The season-average soybean price and soybean meal price forecasts are also unchanged from last month.
The outlook for 2023-2024 U.S. wheat this month calls for unchanged supplies and domestic use, lower exports, and higher ending stocks. Exports were reduced by 15 million bushels to 710 million. Ending stocks were raised by the same amount to 673 million bushels and are 18 percent higher than last year. The season-average wheat price dropped by five cents to $7.15 a bushel.
Click BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s Andy Eubank chat with Brian Basting, Commodity Research Analyst with Advance Trading, about the results of the USDA’s March WASDE Report.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/09124046/hat010.mp3"]Source: NAFB News Service
Justin Gayliard, Director of Digital Farming, and Amy Pawlick, Digital Farming Manager with BASF, during Commodity Classic 2024 in Houston. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/09121743/CJ-WRAP-HAT-EDIT-BASF-XARVIO-FIELD-MANAGER-030824.mp3"]Farming has become a high-tech business with new digital platforms available to help agronomists. One digital farming tool that is available is xarvio® FIELD MANAGER by BASF.
“We’re just really excited about putting together a platform that’s helping agronomists bring the best decisions that they can to the grower,” says Justin Gayliard, Director of Digital Farming with BASF Agricultural Solutions.
He says xarvio® FIELD MANAGER is designed for agronomy consultants to help growers identify concerns with their fields throughout the planting and growing seasons in order to maximize their yields at harvest.
“The idea here is to create a platform and a tool that helps them bring the most powerful insights to their growers,” says Gayliard. Disease is disease and pests are pests—so, this is a tool that gives an alert of when those diseases are coming into play, and then the agronomists can decide what they want to do about that.”
He says xarvio® FIELD MANAGER shows and compares data for fields across several different seasons.
“Right now, we’re using satellite imagery to capture what’s happening on the ground level and give feedback and use Power Zones, which are looking at seven years of history, and biomass maps,” according to Gayliard. “The biomass maps are where the most productive areas of the field are, so we’re able to combine that and give you an immediate look at the history of the field in one day.”
Click HERE for more information about xarvio® FIELD MANAGER by BASF.
Keystone Cooperative CEO Kevin Still presents a donation of $40,000 to Indiana FFA state officers for the Indiana FFA Foundation. Photo courtesy of Keystone Cooperative.Keystone Cooperative has deepened its commitment to the Indiana FFA Foundation by donating $40,000 to the organization in 2024. As the farmer-owned cooperative remains centered on the rural communities it serves, this gift signifies its increased commitment to youth agriculture education and leadership across the state.
The $40,000 gift will go towards amplifying efforts to educate youth about the rapidly evolving agricultural industry, including conservation, technology, leadership opportunities and beyond. Keystone recognizes the immense value of the FFA organization and the many benefits it affords its members. A remarkable number of Keystone employees were once active members of the FFA. Additionally, numerous employees dedicate their time, energy and expertise to the organization as volunteers, coaches, mentors and contest judges.
Formed through a recent merger between Ceres Solutions and Co-Alliance, two farmer-owned cooperatives headquartered in Indiana, Keystone Cooperative remains focused on developing opportunities for the next generation of agriculturalists. This $40,000 support level is a direct benefit of the recent merger.
“The very essence of the cooperative spirit is to work together to provide greater opportunities for those in agriculture and this $40,000 to the Indiana FFA Foundation is a testament to that. Keystone is committed to the Indiana FFA Foundation and its mission to provide leadership opportunities to those who will excel in the work force and will become the future leaders of the agricultural industry.” says Keystone CEO, Kevin Still.
To even further expand the impact of this donation, Keystone industry partner, Syngenta, is matching the $40,000 amount by giving $40,000 to the National FFA Foundation on Keystone’s behalf.
“The agriculture industry is evolving at a record pace, and aligned with that growth is Syngenta’s commitment to the FFA organization. We believe there is no other youth organization that teaches such leadership skills, and we’re thrilled to partner with Keystone on this momentous contribution to the National FFA organization,” said Vern Hawkins, President, Syngenta Crop Protection.
The Indiana FFA Foundation recognizes the impact this donation will have. “Indiana FFA is grateful for the partnership of Keystone Cooperative to influence positive growth in agriculture education and career development for more than 13,000 FFA members in Indiana”, said Tim Hoberty, Indiana FFA Foundation Board Chairman. “FFA depends on industry partners to be able to sustain these programs. Keystone Cooperative’s increased level of support of FFA demonstrates a commitment to agriculture for today and for the future.”
This level of commitment to the FFA organization coincides with Keystone’s recent launch of SEED (Securing Experience & Employee Development), a two-year program where recent high school graduates can be hired full-time at Keystone to explore the diversity of the cooperative, resulting in rewarding, fulfilling long-term employment opportunities.
This program is strategically designed for non-college-bound graduates who are ready to get to work rather than report to a classroom.
SEED employees will rotate through all areas of the business (Agronomy, Energy, Grain, Swine & Animal Nutrition and Corporate) to find the place where they can build a promising career in agriculture and energy. SEED employees will receive full-time benefits and pay and have any accreditations that are required for the job paid for by Keystone. At the conclusion of their two-year experience, they will work with the SEED program manager to evaluate their fit within the company and find the best opportunity for them personally.
Source: Keystone Cooperative
Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller moderated a panel discussion about the top issues facing Indiana agriculture at the 2024 “Taste of Shelby County Agriculture”, which you can watch by clicking above. The event was presented by Shelby County Ag Promotion and held at Horseshoe Racing and Casino in Shelbyville on March 6.
On the “Indiana Agriculture All-Star” Panel:
- Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA)
- Bruce Kettler, President & CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana
- Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Corn Growers Association
- Kendell Culp, Vice President of Indiana Farm Bureau and State Representative (District 16)
- Michael Langemeier, Purdue University Professor of Agricultural Economics and Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
Among the topics discussed impacting Indiana farmers and ag businesses included:
- The decline of commodity prices over the past year
- Farmland values
- Farm labor and current H-2A regulations
- The Farm Bill (or lack thereof from Congress)
- The role of the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Marketing Council checkoff organizations.
- The growth of ethanol and the push for sustainable aviation fuel
- Attracting additional ag businesses to the local community
- Advice for young men and women in FFA who are seeking careers in agriculture
In addition, Rep. Kendell Culp discusses House Bill 1183, which he wrote and introduced this year during the Indiana General Assembly. His bill would prevent adversarial countries, such as China and Russia, from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana.
Also, Don Lamb shares the details and takeaways from his recent trip to Havana, Cuba as part of a trade mission with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
The event was a fundraiser for Shelby County Ag Promotion to fund scholarships for ag students, as well as to help fund and support the Indiana FFA chapters throughout Shelby County.
Click HERE for the Shelby County Ag Promotion Facebook page.
The “Indiana Ag All-Star Panel” during the Taste of Shelby County Agriculture event on Wednesday, March 6. From left to right: Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA); Bruce Kettler, President & CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana; Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Corn Growers Association; Kendell Culp, Vice President of Indiana Farm Bureau and State Representative (District 16); and Dr. Michael Langemeier, Purdue University Professor of Agricultural Economics and Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
Mitch Frazier, President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana, hosts a “fireside chat” with Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-IN) to discuss what makes Indiana a thriving environment that is attractive for new agbioscience startup companies during a recent QUADRANT event hosted by AgriNovus Indiana. Photo provided by AgriNovus Indiana.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/07153948/agrinovus-quad-1-wrap.mp3"]We’ve given you some of the stats surrounding Indiana agriculture in recent weeks from the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture. Those stats include:
- The number one producer in the country of popcorn, gourds, and duck
- Number four in soybeans
- Number five in corn & hog production
- Total ag production valued at over $18 billion
Here are some other stats for the state according to AgriNovus Indiana:
- Second in the nation for cost of doing business
- The best state regulatory environment
- Third in best state infrastructure
All this is why agbioscience companies are making Indiana home. AgriNovus Indiana held the first of four events they’ll have this year called QUADRANT to highlight the Indiana agbiosciences industry.
Dr. Reza Rasoulpour, VP, Global Regulatory and Stewardship Leader at Corteva Agriscience, says when they were deciding about five years ago where to put their headquarters, Indiana was the logical choice.
“We’re here in the Heartland, we’re close to customers, really able to understand how we can provide tools in those farmers toolboxes, and of key importance is we have plant health, animal health, human health, right here in the Indiana Biosciences community.”
Corteva Agriscience’s Dr. Reza Rasoulpour, VP, Global Regulatory and Stewardship Leader, speaks at the AgriNovus Indiana QUADRANT event on 3/6/24. Photo provided by AgriNovus IndianaRasoulpour continued, saying, “At Corteva, we spend over $4 million a day, each and every day in R&D (research and development). As an R&D scientist myself, it’s great that we’re able to attract lots of talent into Indiana from the coasts, from all around the world to invest within that community.”
AgriNovus, Indiana government officials, and existing agbioscience companies like Corteva are working together to attract more companies and more talent here to do more with the products that you, the Indiana farmer, produce.
“When I go and I recruit people or talk to students, I think a lot of it is demystifying agriculture,” says Rasoulpour. “So, have you hugged a farmer today? Do you understand how hard it is to be a farmer? The challenges that farmers will have over the next 20 years are so much greater than the challenges that they had 20 years ago as we think about climate change, as you think about regulations, as we think about complexity. So, the thing that I want you to know is, if you want to have a really significant impact on the world, please come and join us at Corteva and come and join us in Indiana.”
Hear more from the QUADRANT event with Governor Eric Holcomb, CEO Kevin Still from the new Keystone Cooperative, and others by clicking the play button below.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/07154016/030624-QUADRANT-Full-Program-Audio.mp3"]
Don Lamb (at left), Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, and Ted McKinney (middle), CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), in Havana, Cuba with a Cuban representative at a farmers market. Photo courtesy of NASDA.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/07233805/CJ-WRAP-HAT-DON-LAMB-NASDA-TRADE-MISSION-TO-CUBA-030724.mp3"]We send a lot of our ag products here in Indiana to nearby countries, such as Canada and Mexico—but what about Cuba?
“I could see in the long-term future Cuba being a really great market for us and then being a really friendly neighbor, but it’s just going to take quite a bit of change that’s out of our hands,” says Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
He recently traveled to Cuba as part of a trade mission hosted by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and funded by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
Lamb is a Director of NASDA and was invited to join NASDA’s trade mission to Cuba by NASDA CEO Ted McKinney, who had once served as ISDA Director before he became the USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
Lamb says it was an eye-opening experience to see the food crisis in Cuba first-hand.
“It’s kind of a good and bad situation. You’re excited about the potential for the future [with Cuba], but it’s also somewhat discouraging with the situation that they’re in there,” he says. “They’re in really bad financial shape. The people are hungry. There’s not going to be a real quick way to start trading a lot of dollars with them or a lot of food, but there are definitely opportunities because it’s needed. There are 11 million people there 90 miles off our coast and they’re hungry. We would really like to be able to do something about that.”
Lamb adds that the ongoing embargo and political tensions between the U.S. and Cuba that have lasted for nearly 65 years are certainly barriers to trading there. But he says he’s optimistic that things could turn around and that Indiana’s ag products could eventually find a new market in Cuba.
“I always joke around that I’m a popcorn guy, so I want them to buy [Indiana] popcorn to eat at a Cuban baseball game,” he says. “Right now, their economy really doesn’t support that kind of lifestyle. But if they keep improving, wouldn’t that be great if ten years from now baseball games in Cuba are enjoyed with a nice box of popcorn? But there are a lot of things that have to come into place in the meantime to make that happen.”
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with ISDA Director Don Lamb during the “Taste of Shelby County Agriculture” banquet presented by Shelby County Ag Promotion, as Lamb discusses the further takeaways from being part of the recent NASDA trade mission to Havana, Cuba.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/07234636/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-DON-LAMB-NASDA-TRADE-MISSION-TO-CUBA-030624.mp3"]ISDA Director Don Lamb being interviewed by journalists during a recent NASDA trade mission to Havana, Cuba. Photo courtesy of NASDA.
The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has hit the magic number of voting co-sponsors it will need to ensure passage through the House of Representatives.
Sponsors of the House legislation, led by Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-5th District), announced they had picked up the 218th voting supporter.
The majority of votes is necessary because Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked a bipartisan-driven majority consent vote in November. He’s seeking to override the AM mandate and instead use the legislation to end electric vehicle subsidies under the American Vehicle Tax Credit.
As the bill moves closer to the goal, the U.S. Department of Transportation is ready to implement the legislation. In a February interview, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he’s “ready to run with the Act the moment Congress gets it done.”
The Act has picked up massive public support, including more than 400,000 emails, letters, and social media posts directed to Senators and Representatives.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/06152126/tx-wildfires-wrap.mp3"]Wildfires continue in the Texas panhandle, burning nearly 1.25 million acres in just over a week.
“The loss is devastating and very substantial,” says Texas A&M Extension Agent Andy Holloway in Hemphill County, Texas. He’s been traveling around the county to assess losses and damage.
“There are rows of dead cattle and it’s hard for me to say yet specific numbers, but I do know that in my communications with some of the ranchers that the death loss is significant.”
Holloway says these ranchers will have a hard time recovering financially from the tragic fires.
“The value of these cattle is at record highs. And so, when just a 500-pound calf dies, right now that’s over a $1,500 loss for that one calf, and that doesn’t count his mother… The insurance is a help, but my goodness, with the situation we’re in with the market, it’s not near enough money to replace what they’ve lost.”
Relief efforts are underway as ranchers continue to look for lost cattle and relocate cattle that survived to areas less prone to fire events. Hay and cattle cubes are needed for feed.
Texas Farm Bureau has set up the Texas Panhandle Wildfire Relief Fund.
“Anyone can donate- individuals, companies, corporations,” says Texas Farm Bureau President Russel Boening. “We take all of those dollars and use none of them for administration. We try to get all those dollars to farmers and ranchers.”
From left to right: Jason Gregory, Brand Manager of Coron and Nutritionals; Stacey Swain, Brand Manager from Helena, at Commodity Classic in Houston, Texas. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/07010409/CJ-WRAP-HAT-HELENA-QUICKSHOT-030624.mp3"]Last week at Commodity Classic in Houston, many companies were there to introduce new products into the ag marketplace. One of those companies was Helena Agri-Enterprises, as they launched a new crop nutrition product called Quickshot.
“Quickshot is our brand-new, dual-purpose seed fluency agent and nutritional. Most all farmers—when you look in their handbook of their planter and it’s saying, ‘You need to put some type of fluency agent that’s talc-graphite based,’ that’s what this is. It’s an 80/20 talc-graphite ratio with a nutritional package built in,” according to Jason Gregory, Brand Manager with Helena.
He says Quickshot has shown some remarkable results in their test trials.
“For a minimal investment over what you would typically use, we’re seeing a seven-bushel increase on corn,” says Gregory. “We’ve been testing this product for three years now and have decided to have a very limited launch this year. In the fall, we will roll it out to the rest of our Helena sales folks and then have a real big kickoff for it next Spring.”
Gregory says Quickshot is designed to provide more value during planting without adding an extra step.
“Your typical talc-graphite powder is going out as two-and-a-half ounces per unit. This is three ounces per unit. It’s not a different one for each crop—there are some products out there that you use for corn then there’s a different product you use for soybeans. But, you can use Quickshot amongst all your crops,” he says.
“You just put it in your planter system and then it helps with the overall flow, and it helps with better germination. Plus, you’re going to have more singulation, reduced double emergence, you’re not going to end up with residue build-up. Overall, it makes the planter a whole lot easier to clean up. It’s not changing anything that you’re already doing. You’re just getting it from a different source. Helena is going to deliver it with your seed as opposed to you having to run down to the part shop and pick up a tile graphite type product,” says Gregory.
For more information about the new Quickshot crop nutrition product from Helena, visit helenaagri.com.
Photo courtesy of Helena Agri-Enterprises.
Indiana Congressman Jim Baird, a Republican representing Indiana’s 4th district, was honored by the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) with their Legislator of the Year award for 2023. Baird serves on the House Agriculture Committee.
“Supporting American farmers means making sure they have access to affordable products and equipment to reduce their operating costs,” said Rep. Baird. “Since my first day in Congress, I’ve been committed to helping our farmers so they can continue doing what they do best – keep feeding our nation. I’m honored to be recognized with this award and will continue to be a relentless advocate for American agriculture.”
Each year, ARA recognizes top legislators who have championed the issues of importance to agriculture and agriculture suppliers.
“Rep. Baird receives this award for his leading efforts to promote the Increased TSP Access Act of 2023 (HR 3036) and the Plant Biostimulant Act (HR 1472),” said ARA President & CEO Daren Coppock.
“The entire ag community benefits when leaders like Rep. Baird take a stand on policies that protect the ag retailer’s right to operate and deliver essential products and services to their farmer customers.”
Source: Agriculture Retailers Association
Bernie Engel, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture at Purdue University, has announced the appointment of Laura Bowling as the department head for the department of agronomy. She will officially assume the position on August 19, succeeding Jeff Volenec, who served as interim department head during the last year.
Engel credits Bowling’s many diverse accomplishments for making her an ideal candidate for this position. “Dr. Bowling is an outstanding member of the agronomy department and the greater university and research communities. She has received numerous awards recognizing her contributions including as University Faculty Scholar and the Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. She assumes this responsibility with exciting ideas for the department’s future.”
Bowling joined the college’s faculty in 2004. In 2017, she became co-director of the college’s Natural Resources and Environmental Science program and assumed responsibility as director in 2021. The program has seen a 220% growth in enrollment since 2017.
In accepting the position, Bowling shared her perspective on the department’s history and future. “I am excited about the opportunity to serve as the head because I truly value the legacy and the people of the department of agronomy. They took a chance on me as an assistant professor 20 years ago, and have helped me to grow my teaching, research and extension skills. This department has a strong 100+ year history of innovation. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to continue to innovate and share our strengths in digital agronomy, climate change adaptation and mitigation and sustainable agroecosystems that improve soil and water quality.”
After earning her undergraduate degree in civil engineering at Princeton University, Bowling completed her doctorate at the University of Washington. Her applied research and teaching focus in hydrology and water resources addresses how the water cycle is altered through human intervention across ecosystems and then on communicating those findings to key stakeholders.
Purdue Extension’s Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn and ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel are back for another episode of the Purdue Crop Chat podcast, found now at HoosierAgToday.com. We caught up in Houston last week at Commodity Classic. Indiana Soybean Alliance member Mark Legan joined us to discuss the top corn and soybean issues facing him on his farm. He had this one for Dan.
“Nitrogen management in corn- it seems like the more I know, the less I know. It just seems like we spend an awful lot of money and cross our fingers that the weather’s going to participate to help us like it did this last year. And if not, by the way, we’re not being good stewards of the environment if we can’t utilize all that nitrogen.”
Quinn says he’d be a much better nitrogen manager if only he had a weather crystal ball, but he says Indiana farmers are doing a good job managing it the best they can.
“You talk about starters. We can put some level of nitrogen by the plant and then a lot of folks have moved towards more in-season where they’re side dressing it or even later side dressing it so they can kind of time it. It comes back to those four R’s of nitrogen. Can we time it when that plant needs it instead of some folks putting it all on in the fall or very early spring where that nitrogen is just going to be exposed for a longer period of time for potential losses.”
While researching nitrogen is difficult because it’s always moving and transforming, Quinn has been conducting research on nitrogen inhibitors.
“I think a lot of the inhibitors that are out there, that technology has been around for years… They work, right? They do a good job of keeping it in the ammonium form, keeping it where it kind of needs to be. They’re not a perfect silver bullet to it. But in terms of some level of protection, urease inhibitors do a great job of helping with volatility.”
Hear more on this and much, much more in the Purdue Crop Chat podcast, found below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer is the featured guest on the latest episode of The High Ground Podcast Powered by Premier Companies.
Hosts Ryan Priest (COO of Premier Companies) and Sal Sama (VP of Agronomy Sales & Marketing) invited Pfeiffer as a guest on their podcast to talk about the history of Hoosier Ag Today and the path that led him to a career in broadcasting. Pfeiffer also shares the unique opportunity he has to work from his home studio—even while his three children are often playing Pop-a-Shot basketball just outside his door!
Pfeiffer also shares with Ryan and Sal several news items that Hoosier Ag Today has been covering including the Farm Bill, and the impact that California’s Prop 12 is having on pork producers.
In addition to talking about farm broadcasting and ag news, Priest and Sama ask Pfeiffer about the number one rule that he feels is a must for any office environment.
Click ABOVE to watch the YouTube version of “Episode 124: California’s Prop 12, Hoosier Ag Today, & Office Rules” as part of The High Ground Podcast Powered by Premier Companies.
Click HERE to listen to the audio version: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1893315/12651061
Video and audio courtesy of Premier Companies and Ryan Furr Creative.
Sal Sama (VP of Agronomy Sales & Marketing) and Ryan Priest (COO of Premier Companies) are the hosts of “The High Ground Podcast Powered by Premier Companies.” Photos and graphic courtesy of Premier Ag and Ryan Furr Creative.
Purdue Crop Chat is a regular podcast from Hoosier Ag Today and the Purdue University Extension Service, featuring Purdue Extension soybean specialist Dr. Shaun Casteel and Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Dan Quinn. On this episode, Shaun and Dan catch up with us in Houston, Texas from Commodity Classic. They chat with fellow agronomists from Ohio State and Indiana farmer Mark Legan who was ready to jump right in the middle of their ongoing battle of which is better- corn or soybeans?
This podcast is made possible by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. Your Indiana corn and soybean checkoff investments yesterday are paying off today. New research, new uses, demand creation — bringing dollars back to the farm. Check it out at YourCheckoff.org.
There is a modest increase in the number of farmers who have a positive outlook on the ag economy compared to the previous month, though concerns remain regarding farm financial performance in the year ahead. That’s according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.
The February barometer reading reached 111, marking a 5-point rise from last month. The small uptick is attributed to producers expressing increased optimism about the future, with the Future Expectations Index climbing 7 points to 115. However, the Current Conditions Index remained unchanged.
Despite their improved outlook for the future, farmers’ financial performance expectations did not keep pace. February’s Farm Financial Performance Index registered at 85, a slight dip from January and notably lower than its recent peak in December. The February survey was conducted from Feb. 12-16.
“Weak crop prices continue to weigh heavily on financial expectations, with mid-February Eastern Corn Belt cash prices for corn and soybeans declining by 7% and 8%, respectively, compared to two months earlier,” said Dr. James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and Director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.
When producers were asked about their primary concerns for farm operations in the upcoming year, the top concern cited by 34% of respondents was “high input costs,” closely followed by “lower crop/livestock prices,” chosen by 28% of respondents. Worries about rising interest rates among producers seem to have diminished somewhat, with only 18% of February respondents citing it as a top concern, down from 26% who did so in November.
The Farm Capital Investment Index remains weak at 34 points, 9 points lower than last year. Producers expressing reluctance toward making large investments highlighted concerns over high production costs and weak output prices. The percentage of farmers worried about farm profitability has tripled since last October. This month, 22 out of every 100 farmers pointed to farm profitability concerns, while last fall only 7 out of every 100 farmers felt the same way.
The Short-Term Farmland Values Expectations Index held steady in comparison to January but declined by 4 points from a year ago and by 30 points from two years ago. Although the farmland index remains positive, it is clear that overall sentiment regarding future increases in farmland values is weaker than it was a couple of years ago. Among producers who expect values to increase in the next year, the top reason cited for their optimism was demand from non-farm investors.
Each February, the barometer survey asks producers about growth plans for their farm operation in the upcoming five years. This year, 4 out of 10 respondents expressed no plans for growth, with 14% saying they plan to exit or retire. Alternatively, just over 3 out of 10 respondents anticipate their farm’s annual growth rate to exceed 5%. Responses to this question, which have been consistent in recent years, point to further consolidation among farm operations.
“To put growth rates into perspective, consider that a farm operation growing at a 5% annual rate will double in size in about 14 years, whereas a farm growing at an annual rate of 10% will need just seven years to double,” Mintert said.
Interest in leasing farmland for solar energy development remains strong, with 10% of respondents having discussed such projects in the last six months. Rates varied widely, but over half of the respondents reported being offered lease rates of $1,000 per acre or more. The top end for solar lease rates appears to be rising over time. When this question was posed in June 2021, just 27% of respondents reported a lease rate offer of $1,000 or more per acre, compared to 56% of respondents this year.
Click BELOW to hear Dr. James Mintert and Dr. Michael Langemeier with the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture discuss the findings of the latest Purdue Ag Economy Barometer.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Michael Regan during Commodity Classic in Houston on Friday, March 1. Photo courtesy of the Iowa Soybean Association / Bethany Baratta.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/05225432/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-NEW-EPA-AG-OFFICE-030524.mp3"]The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is establishing a new office to expand engagement opportunities with agricultural and rural communities.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced the first-ever EPA Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs during his remarks at Commodity Classic in Houston, Texas, on Friday. Commodity Classic is the largest farmer-led annual convention in the country and Regan is the first EPA Administrator in history to attend the event.
Administrator Regan made the announcement alongside U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. He said it represents the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing commitment to improving environmental stewardship and economic opportunity for America’s farmers and ranchers, as well as strengthening the vitality of small towns and rural communities.
“Farmers and ranchers are crucial partners as we work together to deliver clean air, clear water, and climate solutions, all while playing the critical role of ensuring an abundant fiber, fuel and food supply,” Regan said. “With the launch of this new office, we are ensuring agricultural and rural stakeholders will continue to have a seat at the table for many years to come.”
According to the office’s website, its roles and responsibilities include increasing coordination with a network of existing agriculture policy advisors in all 10 EPA regional offices across the country. It houses EPA’s existing Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC), which provides independent policy recommendations to the Agency on environmental issues important to agriculture and rural communities.
The new office will also work with the Office of Water (OW) to oversee the newly created Animal Agriculture and Water quality (AAWQ) FRRCC Subcommittee. That subcommittee informs the Agency’s decisions on EPA’s permitting program to reduce nutrients and water pollutants from Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs).
Finally, it works with federal and state partners and the Rural Partners Network to collaborate with small, underserved towns and rural communities on federal investments in infrastructure upgrades and other community improvements.
Rod Snyder, who has served as Administrator Regan’s Senior Advisor for Agriculture since October 2021, will head the new office.
Jeff Troike, Executive Vice President of Keystone Cooperative, Inc. (left) and Kevin Still, President and CEO of Keystone Cooperative (right). Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana-based agriculture & energy co-op Keystone Cooperative officially began business operations on March 1, 2024.
The result of a historic merger between two strong farmer-owned cooperatives, Co-Alliance and Ceres Solutions, the newly formed Keystone Cooperative serves the interests of 20,000 farmer-owners across Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio.
Keystone is centered on the valued relationships with customers, employees and rural communities that have built and grown the cooperative for 100 years. Led by a team of nearly 1,700 employees, the cooperative will serve customers in energy, agronomy, grain, animal nutrition, and swine production.
“This is an exciting milestone for farmer-owners, employees, and rural communities,” said Keystone CEO Kevin Still. “We are thrilled to bring together a world-class team as we double down on the longstanding commitment of farmer-owned cooperatives to serve as a trusted business partner, reliable service provider, and steadfast supporter of rural communities.”
With more than 196 local teams serving rural communities across four states, Keystone remains firmly rooted in the cooperative values that have served growers for 100 years. The recently announced leadership structure can be found here.
The benefits of Keystone Cooperative will include enhanced services for farmer-members, improved benefits for Keystone employees, and increased investment in rural communities. Keystone will be focused on creating and delivering the farmer-owned cooperative that is ready to service today and tomorrow’s farm families.
“Keystone represents the next big step toward a vibrant future for Midwest farmers,” said Keystone board chairman, Bill Peters. “Our members voted in overwhelming support of this new organization, and we remain committed to providing exceptional service and return for our farmer-owners.”
Source: Keystone Cooperative Press Release
[audio mp3="//cdn1.itmwpb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/z-series-beans-HAT-wrap.mp3"]Pioneer is going from A to Z in the soybean seed arena, offering farmers a significant yield advantage and better disease resistance over their already very successful A-Series soybeans. Last week at Commodity Classic, Pioneer announced the commercial availability of their new Pioneer Z-Series soybeans.
“They’re bringing a 2.7 bushel per acre yield advantage over our industry leading A-Series varieties,” says Liz Knutson, Pioneer’s U.S. Soybean Marketing Lead. “Multiply that out by the market price of beans today and we’re talking about a $35 per acre opportunity for farmers. Those are real dollars. That’s years and years of pent-up genetic gain coming to the market all in one class.”
And that class is a big one. Pioneer is launching 50 new Z-Series soybean varieties in the U.S.
Knutson says that in addition to more yield, the new Z-Series soybeans feature improved scores in sudden death syndrome (SDS), brown stem rot, white mold, and iron deficiency chlorosis. They’ll also perform well against soybean cyst nematode (SCN), and Phytophthora.
As for weed control, “Enlist E3 eclipsed 50% of U.S. soybean acres planted in 2023 and Z-Series will come forward with Enlist E3. So, great, flexible weed control option for U.S. soybean farmers, packs a real punch to control tough to control weeds.”
Pioneer will offer limited availability of Z-Series soybeans for the 2024 planting season, with greater quantities available for 2025. Z-Series varieties will range from relative maturity 00.3 to relative maturity 6.4 – providing farmers across North America access to varieties that fit their needs.
“Farmers across the U.S. will see about a half a million acres planted to Z-Series in 2024,” Knutson says. “As we move ahead to 2025, over 50% of Pioneer’s volume sold in soybeans will be Z-Series varieties. So, lots of opportunity next year to take a look at these, but what I’d encourage farmers to do right now, if they’re interested, is talk to their local sales representative to see what they have available in saleable volume for this year. And then definitely get into the plots this summer. Find out- let’s prove it. Let’s look at yield. Let’s look at those agronomic disease scores and really see what Z- Series can do.”
To learn more about Pioneer® brand Z-Series soybeans, talk with your local Pioneer sales representative or visit Pioneer.com.
The team from Culver Duck at “An Evening Under the Stars” Presented by the Indiana State Poultry Association at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis. From left to right: Sean Smith, General Manager; Carlos Rivero Borquez; Julia Perez; Maria Loera; Heidi Parnin; and Drew Frey, Director of Live Operations. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/04154136/CJ-WRAP-HAT-CULVER-DUCK-SEEKS-TO-EXPAND-EXPORTS-TO-INDIA-030424.mp3"]According to the USDA, Indiana remains number one in the U.S. for duck production. One of Indiana’s leading duck producers that has helped the state achieve its number one ranking is looking to further grow their sales by expanding their exports overseas.
“We get our opportunities overseas to share our product with different countries and Philippines and Mexico and the Caribbean and there are a lot of other countries that are looking for western style products,” says Sean Smith, General Manager of Culver Duck, which is headquartered in Middlebury in Elkhart County, Indiana.
He says one of those countries that Culver Duck is looking to grow their export market is India.
“India is a very populous country,” says Smith. “They are a protein-deficient country overall and they are looking for opportunities to bring in products from the United States—namely duck and poultry in general—and we’re serious about trying to get involved in that and we’re going to make the investment.”
Smith says he plans to represent Culver Duck on two upcoming trade trips to India. The first will be March 18-22 with the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC). Smith will return to India the week of April 22-25 as part of a separate trade mission planned by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
He says the two trips will give Culver Duck the opportunity to heavily promote the export of their duck products for India’s restaurant, hotel and resort industries.
“That’s an outlet that just kind of fits duck,” says Smith. “Duck is usually looked upon as a luxury item, so people get to treat themselves to a duck breast, a half duck, or a whole duck for their family at the table. We think it’s a great opportunity for us to expand our reach.”
Smith says the overall goal for Culver Duck to grow the market not just internationally, but across the U.S. as well.
“For us, it’s just continuing to be open to opportunities and also trying to find outlets that don’t traditionally use duck,” says Smith. “Everybody pivots towards chicken, turkey, pork, and beef. It’s our mission to find those outlets that haven’t discovered duck as a main center-of-the-plate, everyday entrée—not just what I referred to before as a luxury item. Even though it’s not a commodity, there are opportunities out there. That is what we’ve tasked our entire sales team with is find those outlets that don’t understand and educate them on why duck is the right choice.”
For more information, visit CulverDuck.com.
Indigo Ag announced last week the successful completion of its third carbon crop. With more than 163,000 carbon credits produced, Indigo is the only company to complete three carbon harvests at scale, and the program continues to show growth with year-over-year increases in the number of farmers paid, fields filed, and credits produced.
Since its inception in 2019, farmers participating in Indigo Ag’s carbon program have sequestered or abated the equivalent of nearly 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Indigo Ag CEO Dean Banks says, “Our record breaking third carbon crop reinforces that farmers can earn money and have a real and measurable impact leveraging agricultural soil as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.”
Indigo Ag’s carbon credits are verified and issued by the Climate Action Reserve. To date, farmers in Indigo Ag’s sustainability programs have earned more than $12 million.
Farmers are scheduled to be paid for the third carbon crop this month.
On Friday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Michael Regan addressed the over 11,000 registrants at Commodity Classic in Houston. There were talks that a big announcement on sustainable aviation fuel or year-round E15 would be coming. Neither of those announcements happened.
“We were hoping today would be the day we would get some clarity on the plan going forward for sustainable aviation fuel and the path with renewable diesel that we’ve been working on for a long time,” Henry County farmer Matthew Chapman told us in Houston.
Chapman, a member of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, was in attendance to hear Vilsack and Regan speak.
“We are excited that they both joined us here at the Commodity Classic and addressed the farmers. This is the first time we’ve ever had the EPA Administrator here. It does feel like they’re heading in the right direction. They’re near the finish line.”
Vilsack opined that they were weeks away, not months, on news coming regarding sustainable aviation fuel.
Asked if he was disappointed in the lack of news, Chapman responded, “I expect things to move slowly when the government is involved. But, the words Secretary Vilsack used were ‘measure twice, cut once’, and I do hope they’re taking that approach. They’re trying to do it the right way. Trying to make sure everything’s on the right path and, most of all, the American farmer is protected through the process and can be a beneficiary of all these new ideas.”
Regan did announce a new Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in the EPA for better collaboration with USDA. Rod Snyder, a former lobbyist for the National Corn Growers Association who currently serves as advisor to the administrator, will head the office.
“We are exceptionally pleased that there will be a program at EPA that is tasked with ensuring the voices and concerns of farmers are heard loud and clear,” said NCGA President Harold Wolle. “And the administrator could not have found a better person to lead this office than Rod Snyder. Anyone who has worked with Rod will tell you he is a smart, stellar professional who thoroughly understands the agricultural community.”
To hear more reaction from Chapman, tune in to the Hoosier Ag This Week podcast below.
Bergen Nelson, John Deere go-to-market manager for harvesters, stands in front of the brand new John Deere S7 Series 900 Model combine on display during Commodity Classic in Houston. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/03/02184726/CJ-WRAP-HAT-JOHN-DEERE-S7-COMBINES-030124.mp3"]If you were at Commodity Classic in Houston, you couldn’t help but notice—not one, but two huge new combines on display by John Deere.
Their new S7 Series of combines was officially introduced last week during Commodity Classic.
Bergen Nelson, John Deere go-to-market manager for harvesters, says their new S7 Series is designed to be even more productive while using far less fuel.
“We’re really happy to show our producers the improved efficiencies that we’re bringing with new power systems,” says Nelson. “Also, the 20-percent productivity increase that we’re going to see through new harvesting automation technology including predictive ground speed automation and harvest settings automation. Our customers are also going to see a 10-percent improvement in their fuel efficiency. We know that really impacts their bottom line, so we’re excited to see how those new engines perform in the field.”
The John Deere S7 Series features four different models:
- S7 600: 333hp/249kw rated power; 367hp/274kw max power
- S7 700: 402hp/300kw rated power; 460hp/343kw max power
- S7 800: 473hp/353kw rated power; 540hp/402kw max power
- S7 900: 543hp/405kw rated power; 617hp/460kw max power
The new John Deere S7 Series combines will be equipped with either the JD14 13.6L engine, or the JD9 9L engine, both in Final Tier 4 configuration, from John Deere Power Systems. Designed to produce higher power at lower RPMs, these powerhouses offer improved all-conditions performance and advanced diagnostics capabilities
In addition to power, the S7 Series combines also features some new technology from John Deere.
“Predictive ground speed automation is using two new cameras on the front of our cab looking 28 feet out in front of the cutter bar and it’s looking at crop height and crop density,” he says. “Then we’re using a predictive yield layer map on top of that. With that information we can proactively speed up and slow down the combine throughout the field to make sure that we’re taking advantage of the capacity of the machines with the new S7 series. That’s bringing that 20-percent productivity increase through that technology.”
The S7 Series combines also offer a new high-efficiency residue management system. Featuring straight knives, a mechanical tailboard drive, and the available Premium PowerCast tailboard, the S7 Series combines can more consistently size and spread fine- or extra-fine cut residue up to 45 feet, while drawing up to 15 fewer hp for residue management functions.
Your local John Deere dealer will be taking orders later this year and you’ll begin seeing these S7 Series combines in the fields for 2025.
Click HERE to learn more about John Deere’s new S7 Series of combines.
From agbioscience juggernauts Elanco and Corteva to tech heavyweights Meta and Samsung, Indiana has been a landing spot for a growing list of companies in recent years. Building an economy of the future requires a few questions: what does it look like and how does Indiana ensure control of its destiny?
AgriNovus Indiana invites you for a special QUADRANT event to examine agbioscience’s critical role in our state’s future and how collaboration and strong assets will help to shape our next chapter of innovation, one that connects an emerging ecosystem of changemakers to the ultimate early tech adopter: the farmer.
The event is Wednesday, March 6 at:
The AMP at 16 Tech
1220 Waterway Blvd
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Registration is from 3:30 – 4:00 p.m., the Program is 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., and the Networking Event is from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
The guest speakers featured during the QUADRANT event on March 6:
- Governor Eric Holcomb, State of Indiana
- Megan Ritter, Executive Director of Administration with Indiana Farm Bureau
- Reza Rasoulpour, VP, Global Regulatory and Stewardship Leader with Corteva Agriscience
- Salena Scardina, Executive Vice President of External Engagement with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation
- Kevin Still, CEO of Keystone Cooperative
AgriNovus Indiana will also feature four new start-ups during QUADRANT whose leaders will be available to network during the networking reception:
- FiberX
- GreenBasket
- NanoBioDesigns
- Ourobio
RSVP: https://agrinovusindiana.com/quadrant/
Click HERE for more information.
“You can work really hard all day long and enjoy every minute of it.”
That is part of the legacy of Fred Woods, a leader in Indiana conservation. He mentored hundreds of conservation professionals as he worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Martin County. After he retired, he continued to serve the community by planting trees.
On this episode, Barry Fisher, independent soil health consultant, and Chris Lee, with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, share memories of Fred Woods, a man who heard Hugh Hammond Bennett speak on his North Carolina farm, then went on to influence conservation in Indiana.
This episode of the HAT Soil Health Podcast is brought to you by the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative. You can learn more about their efforts and see a schedule of events at ccsin.org.
NASDA CEO Ted McKinney receives the “Friend of Farmer Award” from Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy chair Joe Stoller (at left) and Indiana Corn Growers Association President Chris Cherry (at right) during Commodity Classic in Houston on Feb. 29. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.Indiana native Ted McKinney, who serves as CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), recently received the “Friend of Farmer Award” from the Indiana Corn Growers Association and the Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership and Policy Committee.
McKinney received the honor during Commodity Classic in Houston on February 29 in recognition of his hard work in improving policy for Indiana farmers and producers. Prior to serving as NASDA CEO, McKinney was the USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs from 2017-2021. McKinney also previously served as Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
“Two words: special and humbling,” McKinney told Hoosier Ag Today after being presented with the award. “First, just the fact that only six [Friend of Farmer Awards] have been presented, and then seeing the list of those who received it are people I held up as icons in Indiana agriculture, so to be among them is pretty special and I’m honored.”
McKinney was in Houston just a little more than a week after he led a delegation from NASDA to Havana, Cuba—including current ISDA Director Don Lamb.
NASDA’s mission in visiting Cuba was to identify and address trade barriers for U.S. agricultural products, gain a better understanding of trade rules and regulations as well as the political and economic environment in order to strengthen the United States’ trade relationship with Cuba. While in-country, NASDA met with government officials as well as industry and private sector leaders to learn more about how the U.S. and Cuba can collaborate in the future.
“Well, on the downside, things [in Cuba] are not good in their food and ag area. They’re down 90 percent in pork and they’re down at least 40 or 50 percent in poultry, and it’s because they don’t have the hard currency to buy feed grains,” according to McKinney.
“But the upside that most people are not aware is that under then-President Raul Castro, Cuba changed their Constitution where they now allow private companies and private cooperatives, and they’re supposed to be free of interference. The question to me is, can the rise in those private companies and cooperatives come in time to remedy this tailspin on food and nutrition that they’re experiencing? As a humanitarian, I hope so. But the story is yet to be written.”
McKinney shared an interesting fact about the current U.S. ag trade with Cuba.
“Cuba is our number three market for poultry. It’s chicken quarters, it’s the legs, but we have an anchor there and a presence there. If we can build on that, then maybe there’s an opportunity and I think that it can get there.”
Click below to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller’s full conversation with NASDA CEO Ted McKinney from Commodity Classic in Houston—as McKinney elaborates further on the NASDA delegation’s recent visit to Cuba, as well as whether a new Farm Bill can be introduced and passed in 2024.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/29235110/HATThisWeek3.mp3"]NASDA CEO Ted McKinney (right) poses with Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance, during Commodity Classic in Houston on Feb. 29. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.
The team from Sweetwater Technologies Powered by Gripp. From left to right: Hannah Harrell, Strategic Partnership Director; David Taylor, VP of Operations; and Chase Gripp, Sales Representative. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/29223930/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SWEETWATER-TECHNOLOGIES-022924.mp3"]As more farmers are using drones to have crop protection treatments applied on their farm fields, one company is looking to grow their business by seeking new owner-operator partners to expand their services throughout Indiana and much of the Midwest.
“We sell chemicals, sell fertilizers, and we do all the custom applications, and as our company grew, we wanted to figure out how to diversify ourselves away from the competition,” said Chase Gripp with Sweetwater Technologies Powered by Gripp.
They are looking for business partners who want to start their own company and help bring Sweetwater Technologies’ drone application service to more farmers.
“We had the idea to start this partnership process and help people who want to come back to the family farm, but there’s not really a place for them. We want to help our owner-operators grow their business to where they have an income-producing side business where they can work during the times where they’re not needed for planting and harvesting and be able to help contribute back to the farm. This business opportunity gives them that pathway back,” says Gripp.
“The whole idea of the need for young ag professional to diversity their ag professionals to diversity their ag incomes came from my personal experience,” said Gripp. “While it was a very rewarding challenge, I want to use Sweetwater Powered by Gripp platform to provide an affordable and strategic path for the young people who want to call agriculture their full-time profession.”
David Taylor, the VP of Operations with Sweetwater Technologies, says that partners will be given the tools to help them succeed and grow their own business.
“We’ll have training on the drones, as well as our proprietary chemical products and any other product you’d want to spray,” says Taylor. “We’ve got access to every fungicide on the market. We also have a really unique setup for these drones. The starting package includes what we call a brush truck. It has an all-inclusive tank generator and a single drone. You operate that with two guys—including one pilot and then one visual observer. It’s just a super-efficient option out there for those wanting to get into the drone application business.
Hannah Harrell, Strategic Partnership Director with Sweetwater Technologies, says in addition to the training and equipment, their company also provides a great deal of support for their network of partners.
“We also provide the billing, the receiving, the legal help, the sales support, and service support,” says Harrell. “If you have a drone that goes down, we’ll make sure you have another one within the next 24 hours to make sure you’re up and running. We also supply marketing brochures to be able to let each partner start a new income-producing business that allows them to grow from there.”
For more information on becoming an owner-operator partner with Sweetwater Technologies Powered by Gripp, visit SweetwaterTechnologies.com.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Chase Gripp, Hannah Harrell, and David Taylor with Sweetwater Technologies at their booth at Commodity Classic in Houston.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/29173219/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-SWEETWATER-TECHNOLOGIES-022924.mp3"]Click below to watch an introduction video on Sweetwater Technologies Powered by Gripp hosted by Hannah Harrell.
Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced his agency’s commitment to providing support to the state’s producers as they deal with the aftermath of devastating wildfires in the Texas Panhandle.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned through almost 1,700 square miles of land, making it the largest on record in Texas going back to 1988. Seven grain and seed operations have reported total losses.
“The fires not only threaten lives and property but will also have a substantial impact on our agriculture industry,” Miller says. “Over 85 percent of the state’s cattle population is located on ranches in the Panhandle.”
He also says there are millions of cattle in the region, with some towns made up of more cattle than people.
As Governor Greg Abbott declares a disaster in 60 counties, the TDA’s State of Texas Agriculture Relief (STAR) Fund is calling for donations to assist Texas Panhandle farmers and ranchers.
Click HERE to learn how you can donate to the STAR Fund to help provide crucial assistance to the recovery of those Texans suffering significant infrastructure losses during the Texas wildfires.
Source: NAFB News Service
The USDA published its third trade outlook for fiscal year 2024. The trade outlook for 2024 is unfortunately still showing the United States with a record trade deficit.
Betty Resnick, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says 2024 will see lower agricultural exports.
“There is still expected to be a record agricultural trade deficit of $30.5 billion and also an annual decline in agricultural exports of about $8.3 billion to now $170.5 billion. And that reduction is fueled primarily by a reduction in both the value and volume of soybeans and soybean products and also a strong U.S. dollar.”
Resnick says this report includes some notable changes compared to the previous one issued late last year.
“Overall, U.S. agricultural exports and imports, both of them are projected up a billion dollars each. As for our export partners, U.S. exports to China were revised down by $800 billion as compared to the previous report, while exports to both Mexico and Canada were increased. Mexico has almost caught up to China as the number one destination for U.S. agricultural products.”
Resnick talks about what’s driving the forecasted increase in trade income.
“The increase in exports in the February outlook is being driven primarily by an increase of about four percent or $1.4 billion in livestock and dairy products, driven by both robust exports and rising prices in those products and an increase of $700 million in grain exports. These increases were counterbalanced by further declines in soybeans, which were reduced by $1 billion or 2.6 percent due to both falling prices and volume.”
Hogging much of the discussion this week at Commodity Classic in Houston, Texas is the status of the Farm Bill. Ferdinand, Indiana farmer and member of the National Corn Board JR Roesner says they’re still hopeful a new Farm Bill can get done this year even with election politics taking center stage in Washington, D.C.
“We’re continuing to push for passage this year. We’re really focusing in on our priorities with crop insurance, with some of the foreign market development and market access programs to help trade promotion, and also finding ways we can improve those safety nets through ARC and PLC that farmers need. Especially given the downturn in farm prices here.”
In addition to the Farm Bill, Roesner says year-round E15 and sustainable aviation fuel will be hot topics of conversation this week. You can watch the video with Roesner below to hear his thoughts.
For the first time, Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow says she’ll push a new farm bill further into the future rather than strike a deal with Republicans on SNAP and climate spending changes.
The Fence Post says she won’t agree to limit any updates to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or cut any climate-smart conservation money in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“I’m not going to do it,” she says. “If that means we continue the policies of the 2018 Farm Bill, which were pretty good if I do say so myself, then that’s okay.”
Stabenow sat next to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack during an event at the White House this week, and he said, “You’re tough. That’s great.”
Stabenow has said privately for months that her legacy depends on protecting climate funding as well as not cutting anti-hunger programs.
The current farm bill authorization expires at the end of September.
Enrollment opens this week for the Dairy Margin Coverage program and the American Farm Bureau Federation is encouraging dairy producers to enroll in the risk management program.
The Department of Agriculture has opened the Dairy Margin Coverage Program enrollment period for 2024. American Farm Bureau Federation Economist Danny Munch says the program helps dairy producers manage risks.
“Dairy Margin Coverage, often called DMC, provides a level of risk management protection to dairy farmers under low margin conditions, so that can be caused by low milk prices, high feed costs, or a combination of both. To participate in Dairy Margin Coverage, dairy producers select a coverage level ranging from $4 to $9.50 per hundredweight on 50 cent increments, and then they select the coverage level for their production history ranging from five percent to 95 percent of their coverage history.”
The enrollment period started on Wednesday.
“Enrollment for the year, which traditionally opens in October, has been delayed up until this point. FSA originally reported delays for software updates as well as the need to publish a new rule related to production history as the reason why there were delays. AFBF sent a letter urging FSA to open enrollment back on February 6. Signup for Dairy Margin Coverage will end April 29. And the good news is there will be retroactive coverage and payment for those who sign up quickly.”
Munch says that while opening DMC enrollment helps, AFBF is still seeking larger changes to how dairy farmers are paid.
“National Farmers Union joined AFBF last week to request emergency implementation of the higher-of Class I mover. We calculated that that pool losses for the month of January because of that formula switch back in the 2018 farm bill were over $55 million, and that negatively impacts our producers’ checks. So, we’re glad to be joining with the National Farmers Union to request that emergency implementation from the Secretary.”
Learn more at fb.org.
Phil and Cindy Ramsey (at left) from Shelby County, as well as Joe Stoller from Marshall County, are among the representatives from the Indiana Soybean Alliance who are in Houston this week for the annual Commodity Classic event to discuss ag policies and check out the latest developments and technologies impacting the ag industry. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/27135446/hat001-for-podcast.mp3"]Commodity Classic is America’s largest farmer-led, farmer-focused ag and educational experience. This year, many Indiana farmers, producers, and ag leaders are making the trip to Houston for this week’s conference.
“This is the highlight of the year. A lot of work goes into this, and it is going to be one of the biggest Commodity Classic [events] that we’ve had,” says Phil Ramsey, a soybean and corn producer from Shelby County. He’s also on the boards for the American Soybean Association, the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Soy Transportation Coalition.
He says he has a very busy week ahead, as he meets with other ag leaders from across the U.S. to discuss policies that have a major impact on the ag industry.
“The Farm Bill is the main focus right now in trying to get that passed before we have to have another extension,” says Ramsey. “There’s a lot of support for it and I think it could be done.”
“Another big one that just doesn’t go away is ‘WOTUS’ (Waters of the U.S. Rule). About the time we thought it had it put to bed, it raises its head again, so there’s still more work that has to be done to get that behind us.”
Ramsey also says Commodity Classic gives farmers a chance to meet one-on-one with executives from a wide range of companies—from equipment manufacturers to crop protection companies.
“This is the show to be at if you want to talk to the people who can make things happen. They like listening to us farmers because we the ones with our boots on the ground and using their products. The decisions they make directly influence our opportunity to make a living out here on the farm,” says Ramsey.
Commodity Classic is also an opportunity to check out the latest technologies—including drones and precision agriculture. In fact, you’ll be hearing a lot more about some exciting new technology over the next several days as part of our week-long coverage from Houston.
Be sure to check back all week long at our website, as well as the new Hoosier Ag Today mobile app.
Click here for additional information about Commodity Classic 2024 in Houston, Texas.
Hoosier Ag Today’s coverage from Commodity Classic in Houston is brought to you by the Indiana Soybean Alliance, the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, and Sweetwater Technologies.
Clint Chaffer Asgrow Brand Manager. Photo by Andy Eubank / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/27161309/Early-soybean-planting.mp3"]The warmup this week has all of us thinking spring, and on the farm the weather makes planting time appear to be right around the corner. In fact, planters will be rolling before we know it, especially with many farmers planting soybeans earlier in recent years.
“Which means they’re going into maybe a little bit colder, wetter soils in the springtime and what we end up looking at is we need to make sure that we’re protecting that seed coming out of the bag going into the ground,” says Clint Chaffer, Asgrow Brand Manager. “So a product like our Acceleron Seed Applied Solutions makes sure that we’re really coating that seed and giving it the best chance of emergence.”
Chaffer says farmers are seeing the benefit of those earlier plant dates.
“Because we’re putting in that seed earlier, we’re giving that plant more time to absorb that sunlight and hopefully turn into yield. You pair that up with 100% exclusive genetics from Asgrow, just coming out of our robust pipeline, all the innovation, research and development that goes into these products, they’re just more resilient. They’re able to go through a lot of those stressful factors and really come out of the ground and be able to really put those soybeans, put those pods on and end up yielding the way that we want them to yield in the end.”
Last year was another typical year of weather challenges facing corn and soybean plants. Thanks to an extensive research and development pipeline, there were many successes.
“Asgrow selects the best of the best products coming out of that pipeline each and every year,” he said. “We were really excited for our XF3 class that was really one of the first products that we started seeing out of our latest generation of our breeding program, and so this XF4 class is the next generation coming out and we’re seeing even better results coming from that class.”
Chaffer says the 2024 lineup of XtendFlex triple-stacked soybean traits includes 23 new products.
Kingsly Ambrose, Purdue University professor of agricultural and biological engineering, is the author of an annual summary recording nationwide grain dust explosions. He reported nine incidents in 2023, all occurring in the Midwest, in the corn handling or processing industries. (Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Tom Campbell)Purdue University’s annual summary of nationwide grain dust explosions reported nine incidents in the United States in 2023, resulting in 12 injuries but no fatalities.
“Dust explosions are one of the most serious hazards that can occur in the grain industry,” said Kingsly Ambrose, Purdue University professor of agricultural and biological engineering and report author. “The explosions can also lead to significant financial and personal losses from downtime, repair, injuries and fatalities.”
Last year’s nine incidents marked no increase from the nine reported incidents in 2022. The 10-year average of 8.4 explosions remains relatively unchanged. Notably, this average is significantly lower than the average number of incidents that occurred prior to the implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s grain handling standard in 1988.
Ambrose said all the explosions occurred in the Midwest, most of them taking place in the corn handling or processing industry.
The explosions occurred in one ethanol plant, one wheat mill, two grain elevators, two soybean processing plants, two corn processing plants and one corncob processing plant. The probable ignition sources were identified in two cases as fire and another as equipment malfunction, while six cases were from unknown sources. Fuel sources for all nine of the explosions were identified as grain dust.
The dust explosions occurred in four different states, with three each in Illinois and Minnesota, two in Iowa, and one in Indiana.
“There is a critical need to educate the workers and employers on dust explosion prevention within a facility, including assessments of dust accumulation and dust explosion protection methods,” Ambrose said.
He further stressed the need to develop relevant and practical hands-on educational materials to raise awareness and adoption of prevention technologies by grain handling and processing facilities.
Purdue has been involved in collecting data related to grain dust explosions in the U.S. since 2015.
Writer: Ashvini Malshe, Purdue University
Food and agriculture are at the top of government shutdown concerns this week, as top Senate leaders point to the danger of letting funding lapse on Saturday for USDA and a handful of other agencies.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on the first of the next two shutdown deadlines.
“A shutdown of the Agriculture Department would threaten higher food costs for all Americans, threaten critical services for farmers in rural communities, from home ownership programs to food banks, and delay access to critical programs, just as spring is arriving,” said Schumer.
Those critical services for farmers include ARC and PLC and highly subscribed conservation programs.
“American farmers and ranchers, like the Kentuckians visiting Washington this week, expect us to take the challenges they face in feeding our nation, seriously,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Emily Buckman, Director of Government Affairs with American Farm Bureau, asks if Congress can’t do its basic job of funding the government, what does that mean for getting a farm bill done?
“If we’re truly thinking about getting a farm bill done, time is of the essence, because the current extension that was offered for the farm bill is September 30th. We cannot forget that it is an election year. Obviously, we’re still in the first quarter, dealing with appropriations, but once fiscal ’24 appropriations are taken care of, we’ve got to think about fiscal year ’25,” said Buckman.
“If we don’t get action by the Ag committee in March, I don’t think we’re going to have a five-year farm bill this year,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Grassley cited continuing disagreements over farm vs. nutrition funding and AFBF’s Buckman on House policy riders on spending bills that could spill over into farm bill talks.
Source: NAFB News Service.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/26151644/hog-profitability-wrap.mp3"]Hog profitability has turned around in the last couple of months according to Dr. Steve Meyer with Ever.Ag. He forecasts break-even now at $85.
“Things have gotten much better. Back in December when I first estimated profits and losses for 2024, I had a minus $12 and change per head. That number, as of last Friday, is a plus $1.66. That’s nothing to write home about but it beats minus $12.”
Meyer estimates six months of profits; however, the average producer may be five to six dollars higher on cost.
“Still, the direction is right. It’s coming off a terrible year last year. In fact, by the model, last year was even worse than 1998 was and yet we’re kind of headed in the right direction. So, it’s kind of a breath of fresh air as we go through late winter here.”
Meyer says there are only three things that could bring back profitability: costs have to go down, demand needs to improve, or supplies need to be cut.
“Well, we’re getting two of them for sure. We’re certainly getting lower costs. And as you look at the USDA Ag Outlook Forum last week and the acreages they’ve got in and yields they’ve got in and the carryout- I mean, 350 million bushels of beans and 2.5 billion bushels of corn- we’re going to get a break on costs here, probably more than we’ve seen.”
Meyer says demand may get better. Exports have been great.
“Global Agritrends and USMEF think we’re going to be up another 4%-5% this year, the Mexican peso is strong and that’s our number one trade customer. So, I think the export side is going to be good. So, I think we’re going to pick up some on cost and some on demand, maybe.”
Meyer adds he doesn’t anticipate supplies or the sow herd getting cut and productivity is up.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/26151523/prev-am-wrap.mp3"]Farmers are still going through the process of planning for the upcoming growing season, evaluating products from a number of companies to see what might provide the best return on investment.
Nate Kemp, technical agronomist for Rovensa Next, says they have a product called Prev-Am that you should consider. It’s a 3-in-1 insecticide, miticide, and fungicide that you maybe haven’t heard of before, but it isn’t necessarily new.
“It’s actually been on the market here in the United States since about 2004, but it’s a product that is new to the Midwest. We’ve primarily used it in high value crops in the past, and we think it has a real nice fit in in corn and soybean for people.”
Kemp explains that Prev-Am is formulated using their technology OROWET®, which is cold-pressed orange oil.
“We basically found it accidentally in South Africa many years ago. What we figured out is it’s a very good insecticide and miticide and fungicide and it also has adjuvant properties. So, in the United States, it’s sort of developed as an adjuvant and it has sort of developed as a pesticide.”
Kemp says they’ve found that Prev-Am is a really good tank-mix partner.
“It helps with things like tar spot, it helps with things like gray leaf spot in corn. You mix it with your fungicide and you kind of have another mode of action in the tank. It also has really good activity on diseases like white mold in soybeans.”
Kemp adds that Prev-Am is one of the few products that actually has curative activity on white mold.
Learn more about Prev-Am from Rovensa Next by clicking here.
Melissa Widhalm, associate director of Purdue University’s Midwest Regional Climate Center and regional climatologist. Photo: Tom Campbell / Purdue University.Purdue University’s Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC) has launched its new interactive chilling hours tool. Growers now can more closely monitor accumulated chilling hours, an important factor that tracks how long fruit plants have been exposed to an ideal range of cool temperatures throughout the dormant season.
The tool utilizes hourly data from hundreds of weather stations in all 50 U.S. states. Other organizations offer chilling-hour maps, but they typically limit the temperature range to between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit, said Melissa Widhalm, the MRCC’s associate director and regional climatologist. Some crops, however, respond better when exposed to different temperature ranges during the dormant season.
“What’s unique about this tool is the amount of customization you can do,” Widhalm said. Some tools force a particular starting date for accumulation and tally up the chilling hours for the rest of the season. “We let you select the accumulation start and end date. You can pick your temperature ranges. That’s how you can narrow the tool to deliver the exact data you need for a specific plant species or variety.”
The tool, a collaboration between the MRCC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Midwest Climate Hub, is the most recent in a series that includes a Freeze Date Tool, a Snowfall Climatology Toolbox and other Ag-Climate Tools.
“This project is part of a collaboration between the climate hub and MRCC to continue developing tools and data for a variety of agricultural and food production applications in the Midwest,” said Dennis Todey, director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub. “In this case we are developing information for a less-served audience, perennial fruit growers. Through partnerships we are able to expand the capabilities of various partners to better serve stakeholders in the region.”
Accumulating the optimal number of chilling hours too soon or too late, or failing to reach the chilling hour target at all, could have negative implications for the timing of spring plant growth and overall fruit quality.
Each type of fruit plant or its varieties has its own chilling hour requirements. Blackberries need from 200 to 500 hours, for example, while raspberries require 700 to 800 hours. During a mild winter, an apple variety needing 800 chilling hours may achieve that mark by mid-February. If a long enough warm spell then sets in, the tree would begin its process of losing cold hardiness and break out of dormancy.
“But if it’s only mid-February, here in the Midwest you’re going to get freeze events in March and April. This would potentially leave trees vulnerable to cold damage,” Widhalm observed.
“If you’re a grower and you know that your tree could break dormancy earlier than you want, you can take preventative measures.” These measures include spraying plants or turning on large fans to mix the air to increase the temperature.
In the fall, when temperatures get colder and the days become shorter, plants enter their dormancy stage, said Amaya Atucha, associate professor and the Gottschalk Endowed Chair of Cranberry Research in Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Even when external conditions for growing are present, there will be no growth because they are dormant. An internal physiological mechanism is preventing them from growth.”
Plants use this strategy to survive the winter, especially in temperate climates, Atucha said. “To break out of this dormancy, plants need to be exposed to a specific range of temperatures for a certain amount of time, what we refer to as ‘chilling.’”
After this chilling period, the plants need warmer temperatures, typically more than about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, to promote budding and resume growth in the spring.
“We don’t know exactly what’s happening. This is still a very active area of research,” Atucha noted. Plant scientists do know that during chill accumulation, something partly breaks down the internal mechanism that prevents bud growth.
But after the plants have accumulated enough chilling, the buds only need warm temperatures to begin budding. The chilling tool can help growers figure out what dormancy stage their trees have reached.
The tool is based on hourly temperature values recorded at stations in the Automated Surface Observing Systems and the Automated Weather Observing System.
Because of funding issues, large gaps in the data exist from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Dates from stations missing more than three hourly observations in 24 hours are omitted from accumulation totals.
The MRCC receives chilling-hour data requests fairly regularly, Widhalm noted. Users already had access to chilling-hour data from the center’s cli-MATE database. But that database is more difficult to use, and it doesn’t display results on a regional map.
“We want to make this easy and accessible because this is everybody’s data,” said Purdue’s Beth Hall, director of both the Indiana State Climate Office and MRCC. “These are publicly funded datasets that you’ve already paid for. Therefore, we want to ensure that everyone can freely benefit from the information the data provides. And that these resources are easy to find and easy to use.”
Written by: Steve Koppes, Purdue University
Cattle on a farm near Marietta in Shelby County, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.The USDA’s monthly Cattle-on-Feed Report showed slightly higher inventories on February 1.
Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.8 million.
The inventory was slightly above 2023, with placements in feedlots at 1.79 million head, seven percent below 2023, and net placements at 1.71 million head.
Marketings of fed cattle during January totaled 1.84 million head, slightly below 2023.
Cattle on Feed and Annual Size Group Estimates Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head represented 82.7 percent of all cattle and calves on feed in the United States on January 1, 2024. This is comparable to the 82.6 percent on January 1, 2023.
Marketings of fed cattle for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head during 2023 represented 87.3 percent, up slightly from 87.2 percent during 2022.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/25192227/fb-24-fb-MAT-wrap.mp3"]With 2024 being an election year and Democrats and Republicans drawing lines in the sand over funding, concerns continue for the American agriculture community that a new Farm Bill won’t get done this year.
“The best thing you can do is reach out to your elected officials and tell them how the farm bill is important to your farm,” says Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall.
Duvall believes it’s critical that Congress finish a Farm Bill this year.
“Well, there are only a few pieces of legislation that are more significant than the farm bill when it comes to helping our farmers secure our food supply. The farm bill is essential to our farmers and ranchers as it ensures funding for risk management tools that are important to them. Farming is difficult and risky business, and the farm bill helps farmers weather the storms. Even though Congress passed an extension of the 2018 farm bill, getting a new farm bill done is still a priority of ours. Farmers and ranchers need and deserve a modernized farm bill that reflects changes our industry has gone through in the last five years.”
Duvall says Farm Bureau members are sending a clear message to Congress: the farm bill can’t wait.
“We asked our members to step up to the plate to advocate for this issue, and boy, have they done that. Our members have sent more than 10,000 messages to their senators and representatives asking them to get the farm bill done. We’ve had messages from all over the country, in nearly every state. Our members from California to Florida to Texas to Minnesota have made their voices heard.”
He encourages all farmers to get involved in farm bill advocacy.
“You can share your story about how the farm bill has helped you, and what you would like to see written in the new farm bill. If you’re not already a Farm Bureau member, we encourage you to join us by going to your local, county Farm Bureau and getting involved with grassroots.”
Take action today by visiting fb.org/advocacy.
Source: NAFB News Service
Indiana FFA State Officers pose with two of this year’s Golden Owl finalists. Amanda Line (left) with South Putnam FFA and Ron Noll (right) with Prairie Heights FFA. Photos courtesy of Indiana FFA.Eight Indiana ag educators have been announced as finalists for the Indiana FFA’s Golden Owl Award for the 2023-2024 Ag Educator of the Year.
The grand prize winner will receive the coveted Golden Owl Award trophy and $3,000 to help fund future educational efforts. The remaining seven finalists will each receive an individualized plaque and $500.
Indiana’s 2023-2024 Golden Owl Award finalists are:
- Hank Carson, Orleans FFA
- ZoeAnn Chernowsky, Blue River Valley FFA
- Erin Gilley, Southmont FFA
- Brianna Lammers, Jasper FFA
- Amanda Line, South Putnam FFA
- Ron Noll, Prairie Heights FFA
- McCord Snider, East Central FFA
- Shelby Wolford, Owen Valley FFA
Indiana’s Golden Owl Award winner will be announced at the 95th Indiana FFA State Convention at Purdue University in June 2024.
In conjunction with the Golden Owl Award, Nationwide is also donating $5,000 to the Indiana FFA to further support the personal and professional growth of students, teachers, and advisors alike.
The Golden Owl Award is sponsored by Nationwide and Farm Credit Mid-America.
Michael Spalding, Program Coordinator with the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape—which is part of the Conservation Law Center in Bloomington. Photo courtesy of the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/24203255/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SOUTHERN-INDIANA-SENTINEL-LANDSCAPE-IFWOA-022324.mp3"]When it comes to conservation across the state, Indiana’s farmers are among the leading practitioners—but also, so are Indiana’s foresters and woodland owners. One agency that’s leading the way in those conservation efforts is the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.
“The Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape is a partnership of government and private entities that come together to support sustainable rural uses of our land, which in turn, supports the missions and training that occur on our critical military installations in southern Indiana,” says Michael Spalding, Program Coordinator with the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape—which is part of the Conservation Law Center in Bloomington.
The major federal entities that are involved include the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Interior.
Spalding’s territory covers more than 3.5 million acres across southern Indiana—including the land in and around Camp Atterbury and the Crane Naval facility.
The Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape (SISL) has recently received funding from the USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
“The RCPP is a program opportunity through the Natural Resources Conservation Service,” says Spalding. “They put this funding out there that partners can coalesce around, put together a compelling need and a project for, and then use those resources to support conservation activities by farmers and producers to implement practices on their land to make their operations more sustainable.”
That funding from the RCPP will restore over 2,500 acres of forestland and increase sustainable farming practices on tens of thousands of acres.
“The RCPP will have opportunities for cropland practices. Cover crops are one of the best-known examples that farmers can tap into,” he says. “On the woodland side, we have activities like forest stand improvement and brush management which helps get invasive species under control.”
Spalding gives a great deal of credit to the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA) in spreading the word about conservation efforts, and letting woodland owners know about the resources available to help with those efforts.
“[IFWOA is] connecting with those landowners. In fact, I make connections directly with landowners through them and then they promote these practices out to them,” he says. “Just in conversations I’ve had with these great landowners, it really resonates how that message is getting out there to a large number of people. By them being able to combine that outreach power with us bringing new resources into Indiana for this work, we’re really going to see some benefits over the next five years.”
Click HERE to learn more about the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.
Click HERE to learn more about the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association (IFWOA).
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Michael Spalding with Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/24203119"]Photo courtesy of the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.
Brazil’s 2023 soybean exports reached a record 3.74 billion bushels, 29 percent higher than the previous year as Brazilian production hit record levels. Meanwhile, U.S. shipments dropped 14 percent to 1.78 billion bushels in the same period.
The two countries are major competitors and together ship over 80 percent of global soybean exports.
Historically, the U.S. was the world’s largest soybean exporter. Brazil surpassed the U.S. in soybean shipments for the first time in 2013.
The University of Illinois FarmDoc website says over the last 20 years, Brazil’s soybean exports jumped 431 percent, with the jump occurring mainly in the most recent decade. Brazil exports up to 60 percent of its domestic soybean production.
During the past two decades, America’s soybean exports have increased 94 percent. U.S. soybean exports have plateaued since 2016, with an average annual volume of 1.993 billion bushels. The U.S. exports 49 percent of its soybeans.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/22182345/CJ-WRAP-HAT-SHELBY-CO-AG-PROMOTION-EVENT-PREVIEW-022224.mp3"]It’s a celebration of Indiana’s farm community.
The “Taste of Shelby County Agriculture” event, presented by Shelby County Ag Promotion, is set for Wednesday, March 6 at Horseshoe Racing and Casino in Shelbyville. The social hour will start at 5:30 p.m. and the dinner begins at 7 p.m.
This year’s event will feature an “Indiana Agriculture All-Star Panel” moderated by Hoosier Ag Today’s C.J. Miller, as they discuss Indiana ag policy, planting, pricing, and topics impacting farmers and ag businesses. The audience will also have the opportunity to ask the panelists questions during the event.
The panelists include:
- Bruce Kettler, President & CEO of the Agribusiness Council of Indiana
- Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Corn Growers Association
- Kendell Culp, Vice President of Indiana Farm Bureau and State Representative (District 16)
- Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture
- Dr. Michael Langemeier, Purdue University Professor of Agricultural Economics and Associate Director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture
- Mike Silver, Manager and Commodity Market Analyst with Kokomo Grain
In addition, scholarships will be awarded during the event to local students, and one member of the ag community will receive the “Lifetime Achievement Award”.
“It’s important that we raise the awareness of agriculture and the impact that our producers and ag leaders have here in our community,” says Scott Gabbard, County Extension Director and Ag Educator with Purdue Extension-Shelby County. According to USDA’s latest Census of Agriculture, Indiana remains a top agricultural state, with the state’s agricultural products valued at over $18 billion.
The proceeds from the event will be used by Shelby County Ag Promotion to fund and coordinate community activities and programs—including the renewable scholarships that are awarded during the banquet, as well as support for local FFA chapters.
Sponsorship opportunities and tickets are still available for this year’s event. For more information, call the Purdue Extension—Shelby County Office at 317-392-6460—or CLICK HERE: http://tinyurl.com/scapc.
Graphic courtesy of the Indiana Soybean Alliance.The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and Indiana Corn Marketing Council are launching a video competition to help celebrate and grow the next generation of farmers.
Create a vertical video (TikTok/Instagram Reels format) up to 90 seconds long showcasing your family’s farm, showing how many ways you use soybeans throughout the day, representing how farmers use sustainable practices, or sharing your reason for joining Indiana FFA Organization, and the importance of paving the way for the next generation of agricultural leaders.
Use your filmmaking and editing skills to create a portrait (9:16 ratio) video following one of the four prompts below:
- What makes your farm special? Create a video showing off your farm, farm equipment, and/or what makes your farm unique.
- How many ways are soybeans used in your daily life? From your shoes, the oil in your food, Poreshield on the roads you drive on, or the crayons you draw with, soybeans are used everywhere in our daily lives. Create a video showcasing all of the ways you use soybeans on a daily basis.
- Farmers use sustainable practices to improve the environment around them and ensure the land is in good shape for generations to come. Most commonly implemented sustainable practices include cover crops and no-till. Create a video showing what practices are implemented and how and why farmers use sustainable practices.
- FFA members are making great strides to improve the future of agriculture. Why is it important to you to shape the next generation of agriculture? Create a video sharing your reason for joining FFA and the importance of paving the way for the next generation of agricultural leaders.
Edit your video to add effects, music, voiceovers, etc.
Submit your video for a chance to win $200.
Here is an example video from our friends with Indiana FFA of what a video could look like:
The deadline for submissions is April 8, 2024.
You must be a resident of Indiana to win. Your video may be posted on the Indiana Soybean Alliance social media pages. Winner will be notified by email or phone.
CLICK HERE to see the full contest details and submit your entry.
NOTE: A Gmail account is needed to submit and entry through the Google form.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the year-round sale of E15 fuel blends in eight Midwestern states beginning in 2025.
Those states, whose governors had petitioned the EPA as far back as April 2022 for approval to allow year-round E15 sales, are Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Even though Indiana isn’t among those eight states, the decision may give a boost to Indiana’s 14 ethanol production facilities.
Geoff Cooper, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, says the delay until 2025 creates considerable uncertainty and confusion about the availability of lower-cost, lower-carbon E15 this coming summer.
“It’s helpful to have certainty about 2025, but what happens this summer?” Cooper asked. ”The [Biden] administration missed its statutory deadline to finalize the governors’ petition by more than 500 days, and now it claims there isn’t enough time to implement the rule in time for summer 2024.”
Cooper says he doesn’t understand why ethanol producers, fuel retailers, consumers, and farmers should be penalized for EPA’s foot-dragging.
“We want uninterrupted access this year,” he adds.
Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says it’s great news but notes, “Drivers will need a solution for this summer to minimize disruptions and make sure they have continued access to E15.”
The National Corn Growers Association is also glad to hear about the decision because it provides more certainty. “However, since it doesn’t begin until the summer of 2025, we are concerned about the implications for growers and consumers this summer,” says NCGA President Harold Wolle.
The American Coalition for Ethanol says the decision is “better late than never” but also says the EPA had a legal responsibility to approve E15 in those states more than a year ago.
Source: NAFB News Service
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/22231338/SABRINA-WRAP-HAT-CELL-CULTURED-MEAT-LABELING-022224.mp3"]By now, we’ve all heard of fake meat, lab meat, cell-cultured meat, cultivated meat—whatever you want to call it, it’s out there. But the question now is how to label the product if it ever hits your grocery store shelves.
During a session on cell-cultured meat at last week’s USDA Ag Outlook Forum in Washington, D.C., an audience member wondered how far labeling will go.
“Are we looking at a future where you’re going to have to have a cultured label and a conventional? And also, are we looking at a point where you may have sales taking from a grass-fed cattle that then can be labeled as a grass fed cell cultured product or a range-free chicken or something along those lines?” he asked. “So, looking way ahead, are we looking at things like that on labels potentially?”
“It depends,” answered Director of Food Policy at Consumer Reports Brian Ronholm, who was a speaker at the session. “From a company’s marketing standpoint, whether they want to go in that direction. But from a consumer standpoint, it would seem to me misleading. Like, sure you’re using cells from an animal that was grass fed or free range, what have you, but ultimately the final product is you have cultivated in a lab.”
Speaker William Hallman, Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University agreed that there’s a lot yet to be determined.
“I think it’s a really interesting question. Grass fed and free range would be how they’re raised,” he said. “I have questions about Angus and Kobe, and I don’t have an answer to that. I’m going to look to USDA to figure that out, but these are real questions.”
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/21202136/in-pork-ag-students-wrap.mp3"]Indiana Pork hosted students Wednesday at the Jasper County Fairgrounds from the Indiana Ag & Tech School to discuss career opportunities in the pork industry.
“They can work in feed nutrition. They can work in genetics,” says Chad Martin, Indiana Pork’s Director of Strategic Outreach. “If they have a mechanically inclined mind, there are maintenance crews… If they have an interest in policy, there’s a lot of opportunity in advocacy.”
Martin called the partnership with the Indiana Ag & Tech School a natural fit for collaboration with students who are interested in coming into the ag industry.
In partnership with the Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Pork conducted a study with Indiana youth and young adults aged 13-18 to help combat labor shortages experienced at the production level.
“We found with the study that if we attract them and expose them younger, the 13- to 15-year-olds, that we have a chance to maybe capture their interest earlier on,” Martin explained. “Then to also provide them an avenue and maybe try to find coursework, opportunities, and work-based learning and internships while they are still in high school.”
Martin encouraged the students to find an internship or part-time job with a pork producer or company to expose them more to the industry. They heard the story of Indiana Pork board member Micah Render who started as a power washer before quickly rising the ranks into farm management.
“It’s our role at Indiana pork to shed light on those opportunities, maybe be a connector and help find those young people find a path to make those connections. Maybe it’s in their backyard and they didn’t even know that those opportunities existed for a rewarding and positive career in the industry.”
The Indiana Ag & Tech School offers hybrid and virtual learning options for 7th-12th graders. They now have over 400 students enrolled.
In honor of National FFA Week, the seven Indiana FFA State Officers, and dozens of FFA members, met in the Statehouse to receive a proclamation and resolution declaring Feb. 17-24 Indiana FFA Week.
“It was a pleasure to have these outstanding young professionals representing the State of Indiana and agriculture so well in the Statehouse today,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “FFA is a dynamic youth led organization and I am excited to celebrate National FFA Week this week and agriculture year-round.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a proclamation to name this week National FFA Week in recognition of all the work the Indiana FFA Organization, agriculture educators and FFA advisors do to cultivate the next generation of agriculturists for the state.
During the week, chapters across the state and nation will host a variety of events to educate, advocate and celebrate the agricultural industry. From a school animal experience to a farmer’s breakfast, these activities pay homage to the dedication and commitment of today’s agriculturalists. Throughout the week, the Indiana FFA State Officers will travel the state to participate in activities alongside local FFA chapters and their communities.
The Indiana FFA Association also received a Senate Concurrent Resolution highlighting the impact of the FFA Organization, which is preparing more than 14,000 members in 90 of Indiana’s 92 counties for the over 250 unique careers in the food, fiber and natural resource sectors. The resolution was led by Sen. Jean Leising, Senate District 42 and Rep. Michael Aylesworth, House District 11.
Indiana FFA State Reporter Carson Rudd was excited to meet with legislators to promote Indiana agricultural education.
“National FFA Week is a week full of celebration and a time to reflect on the significance the organization has across the country and here in over 220 communities across the state,” said Rudd. “We are honored to have the support of our state’s legislature not only during National FFA Week, but throughout the year as well.”
Tamara Ketchen, Director of the Indiana FFA Association, is looking forward to seeing all the work done this week at FFA chapters across the state.
“National FFA Week is a time for local chapters to highlight their programs showcasing their success and passion for agriculture,” Ketchen said. “We also use this as an opportunity to recognize community supporters and broadcast the mission of the organization.”
FFA members are agriculture’s future leaders, future food suppliers, future innovators and more! Whether it is through service projects or community gatherings, National FFA Week is a time for FFA members to raise awareness about agricultural education and the role the National FFA Organization plays in the development of agriculture’s future leaders.
The first National FFA Week was held in 1948, when the National FFA Board of Directors designated a weeklong celebration to recognize George Washington’s example and legacy as a leader and farmer. For the past 75 years, FFA members across the country have taken part in agricultural, leadership and service-based activities during National FFA Week.
Visit www.inffa.org to learn more about Indiana FFA.
Graphic courtesy of AgriNovis Indiana.AgriNovus Indiana, a nonprofit coalition focused on growing Indiana’s agbioscience economy, announced today that Dr. Karen Plaut, executive vice president of research at Purdue University, will serve as chair of the organization’s board of directors.
The board also unanimously approved Trent Torrance, chief operating officer at United Animal Health, as its vice chair and the appointment of Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, to the executive committee. Dr. Jose Simas, executive vice president, U.S. Farm Animal Business at Elanco was approved as a succession to replace an outgoing director.
“Indiana’s agbioscience economy continues to record growth and strength thanks to the direction and support of the AgriNovus board of directors,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana. “The addition of these experts to our Board brings even more leadership and industry context to our team as we work together to build the agbioscience economy of the future.”
Plaut is the executive vice president for research at Purdue University. She previously served as dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture, overseeing academic programs within the college, the Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station, the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service and several state regulatory services. Plaut was also the senior associate dean for Research and Faculty Affairs in Purdue’s College of Agriculture and held faculty positions at the University of Vermont and Michigan State University, serving as the chair of the Department of Animal Sciences at both institutions. She spent a few years working with NASA as lead scientist for the Space Station Biological Research Project for the International Space Station. Plaut holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Vermont, a master’s degree in animal nutrition from Penn State University and a doctorate in animal science from Cornell University. Her postdoctoral studies were completed at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health. Plaut was named a Fellow of the American Dairy Science Association in 2020.
Torrance is the chief operating officer and is a member of the board of directors for United Animal Health, a Sheridan, Ind.-based company focused on providing solutions for animal nutrition and health. He has served in various roles for the company since 2001, including research and development, project management and corporate leadership. Torrance holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Western Illinois University and a master’s in animal science from the University of Missouri. He also serves on the board of directors for United Animal Health’s Joint Venture in China, Shandong United Nutrition.
Kingery serves as the CEO of Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, leading the state’s corn and soybean checkoff programs to build domestic and global demand for those crops. She previously worked as global director of health and wellness innovation at Tate and Lyle and was a grain trader and marketing manager for oilseeds and food ingredients for ADM. Kingery has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hanover College with a master’s of business administration from Kuztown University.
Simas is executive vice president of U.S. Farm Animal at Elanco, bringing more than 20 years of leadership experience in commercial, marketing, R&D and regulatory roles. Previously, he served as president of Trouw Nutrition USA and has also served in key roles within Elanco’s business, including senior director of Latin America and Global Aquaculture, senior director of U.S. Beef Business and area director for Central, Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Simas received a bachelor’s degree from the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil. He also holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in Animal Nutrition and Physiology from the University of Arizona, as well as a post doctorate from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The AgriNovus Indiana board of directors is comprised of leaders from industry, academia and government. All members are listed online at www.AgriNovusIndiana.com/Board.
Source: AgriNovus Indiana
Ben Braughton, an Equipment Specialist with Action Equipment Sales Company during the 2024 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville. His company is based in Indianapolis with additional locations in Fort Wayne, Evansville, and Louisville. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/21191315/CJ-WRAP-HAT-FARM-ECONOMY-IMPACT-ON-PRESSURE-WASHER-SALES-022124.mp3"]When you think of farm equipment, you may think of tractors, combines, sprayers and the heavy machinery that are all used as part of a farm operation. But farmers also buy and use a lot of smaller equipment, which is why many companies—including one based in Indiana that sells power washers—are directly impacted by the farm economy.
Action Equipment Sales Company, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, had a booth at the recent National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville. During the event, farmers stopped by to ask about the sales and service of their industrial cleaning equipment, such as their industrial high-pressure washers and floor scrubber machines. The company also sells portable heaters for use in barns and farm workshops during the winter.
Ben Braughton, an Equipment Specialist with Action Equipment Sales Company, says when farmers have a good year, like many did last year, they see a spike in sales of new equipment.
“We have seen a few folks that are wanting to upgrade because they had a good year in 2023, but a lot of them will hold off until they do have a good year,” says Braughton. “We take a lot of trade-ins on their old equipment and when it gets ‘long-in-the-tooth’, they’re more apt to come by, and it’s years like this that we see a lot more of that.”
Braughton says there’s been a high demand for new pressure washers within the ag industry. Especially for use at the end of planting season and harvest season.
“We sell to contract cleaners that also just go out and make a living washing combines for other farmers,” he says. “We also see a lot of that with trucks as well. We set up wash bays for truck washes.”
In addition to their home office in Indianapolis, Action Equipment Sales Company also has locations in Fort Wayne, Evansville, and Louisville.
“Peanut Butter” and “Jelly”—the two turkeys that were “pardoned” by President Biden at the White House in Nov. 2021. Ever since, they have both called Purdue University their home. Photo: Tom Campbell / Purdue University.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/20164936/CJ-WRAP-HAT-POULTRY-EDUCATION-CORNER-WEBSITE-022024.mp3"]According to the USDA’s latest Census of Agriculture, Indiana ranks third in the U.S. for turkey production—which makes it a significant part of Indiana’s ag economy.
That’s why a Purdue University Professor and her team have just put together a new website, as well as an educational program to teach kids about Indiana’s turkey industry and poultry sector.
“The new website—it just launched last month—is PoultryEducationCorner.com. All the resources are freely available to anybody around the world who would like to use them,” says Dr. Elizabeth Karcher, Professor of Animal Sciences with Purdue’s College of Agriculture.
She says the program offers several resources for teachers to adopt ag related topics into their classrooms—including their POULT program to teach students about the turkey and poultry industries.
“As part of the POULT program, we worked with the turkey industry, and they provided us with a review of all the different materials that we had prepared to make sure everything represented the industry’s side and what they would like to share about the important work that they’re doing.”
Dr. Elizabeth Karcher, Professor of Animal Sciences with Purdue’s University College of Agriculture. Photo courtesy of Purdue University.She says the main goal of the program is for students to learn where their food comes from—and share the importance of Indiana’s turkey and poultry producers.
“In 2021, we piloted the program to about 475 students—about 25 classrooms in fourth and fifth grade classrooms across the state of Indiana,” according to Karcher. “The program consists of several online modules that a teacher can use. It has a simulation game that’s included and as well. We also provide resources to do an in-class activity with the students, so the teachers can have the students work independently on the modules during class time, but then bring them together to discuss what they just learned.”
One of the simulation games that kids can play is called “Backpacking Through the Turkey’s Digestive System!”
“I love this program because I also have young children and they like to play it as well after we developed it,” says Karcher.
“Students get to pick from one of three different ‘feed characters’ and they go through the digestive system on a backpack quest. They have to answer questions, they gather things along the way, and it’s just a really fun way to let them see the process to get the nutrients from the feed to the turkey. It’s all about being able to take complex ideas and integrate them into a way that a fourth and fifth grader can understand by playing this game,” she says.
For more information, visit PoultryEducationCorner.com.
Click here for more information from the Indiana Turkey Marketing Council.
Click here for more information from the Indiana State Poultry Association.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Karcher, Professor of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, as she talks more about the outreach that she and her team with Purdue are doing to teach young students about Indiana’s turkey industry and poultry sector.
[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/20165016/CJ-FULL-INTERVIEW-DR-ELIZABETH-KARCHER-022024.mp3"]
Economists been predicting it for a few years now, but there has been no recession. That doesn’t mean things have been easy for ag producers over that time.
Steve Nicholson, strategist with RaboBank, says the key now is that there are still jobs available.
“Until we see, in my mind, until we see a pullback in jobs created or the opportunities for jobs, it’s going to be very hard to go down a path of a recession,” according to Nicholson. “The fed may have engineered the classic soft landing. That’s I think yet to be seen, but it’s remarkable how resilient the U.S. economy has been.”
The Fed, Nicholson says will likely continue to play it down.
“So I think they’re going to be reluctant because of both political pressure to move rates up, to say that they’ve put their thumb on the scale, but at the same time, take them down too much, with their thumb on the scale, I think they’re going to try to have a fairly quiet year because, we all know that, politicians will criticize them or praise them depending on what actions they take and how that fits into their political narrative,” he says.
When it comes to the next Farm Bill, Nicholson says our economic worries and the fact this is an election year just may add to the challenges.
“Well, I hope they don’t put it off for another year, let’s say that,” says Nicholson. “You know, you’ve got two challenges there, one you have a Congress that’s not focused on anything, and a Congress that’s not functioning very well. You know, they’ve got budget deadlines that are coming up and USDA is on that first list of agencies that would get shut down. So that’s not a good thing. And, oh yeah, it’s an election year for them and I think it’s a coin toss that we could get it.”
But Nicholson says there are some incentives to getting a new Farm Bill introduced and passed.
“Keep in mind, in the politics of it, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is retiring. She is the chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, and she would love to be able to send one of her legacies out the door and get the Farm Bill over the line. So, there are political pressures on both sides of that issue,” he says.
But, Nicholson adds it needs to happen soon.
“Yeah, that would be my concern too. I’ll be a little more optimistic for the first half of the year. I think it’ll be really difficult to get it done, certainly, the second half of the year.”
The existing Farm Bill—which was extended beyond its original deadline of Sept. 30, 2023—is now set to expire on Sept. 30, 2024.
Source: NAFB News Service.
During the USDA’s recent Ag Outlook Forum in Washington, D.C., Tim Boring, Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), was part of a panel discussion with Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate and Maine Agriculture Commissioner Amanda Beal, and USDA Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. Photo courtesy of the USDA.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/20225857/hat004.mp3"]During the USDA’s recent Ag Outlook Forum in Washington, D.C., three state ag leaders shared their perspectives on the future of U.S. agriculture and the challenges that producers are facing.
Tim Boring, Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (MDARD), discussed some of the roundtable discussions he’s held with farmers around the state and said weather was a consistent concern.
“Extreme weather continues to create a lot of challenges for us in Michigan, whether it’s too much rain, at inopportune times or these short-term flash droughts. Temperature swings are a big thing in a state like Michigan, where we’re dependent on trees budding out of the proper time in the spring so that they don’t get nipped by frost,” he explained. “The continued challenges the producers have of dealing with the effects of climate change.”
He said all the weather challenges have something in common.
“All of this is kind of under this umbrella of resiliency and diversity of how you build out resilient systems. And to me that’s one of the true values of the work on the Climate Smart Commodities Program,” he said. “How do you incentivize soil health practices in the way that’s focused on outcomes to get us where we need to go to mitigate the effects of climate change, ultimately reverse some of these drivers of it?”
He said he’s optimistic as he looks forward to future developments in climate change mitigation efforts that may reward farmers. Another high priority for Michigan producers was water quality.
Boring was joined on stage by Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate and Maine Agriculture Commissioner Amanda Beal.
Photo courtesy of Purdue University.There’s still time to register for the 2024 Indiana Small Farm Conference. The 12th annual conference and trade show will take place Feb. 29 through March 1 at the Hendricks County Fairgrounds in Danville.
“It’s an honor to host this event and help advance small-farm production and profitability within the state,” said Dr. Bernie Engel, Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture. “We are thankful that this event has continued through the years and appreciate the involvement of our Purdue Agriculture professionals, as well as industry experts and small-farm producers. With a variety of sessions, the trade show and networking options, the schedule has something for everyone.”
Sessions offered at the two-day conference include topics ranging from raising turkeys on pasture to mushroom cultivation, agritourism, marketing, fermentation and flower farming. Learn more about the sessions, demonstrations and trade show schedule here.
“The trade show is a great opportunity for exhibitors to showcase products and services in a relaxed atmosphere to a variety of clientele,” said Phil Cox, Purdue Extension agricultural and natural resources educator in Vermillion County. “If you’re interested in exhibiting your products or services, there is still time to register as a vendor.”
This year’s conference includes a keynote presentation from Michael Kilpatrick, a farmer, educator and host of the top-rated “Thriving Farmer Podcast.”
“It’s the small farmers who are in the best position to provide fresh, local food their communities need,” Kilpatrick said. “With the right systems in place, any small farmer can become a thriving, cash-flowing source of food for their community.”
The last date for online registration (which includes meals and breaks) is Wednesday (Feb. 21). On-site registration will be available, but meals and breaks will not be available.
For more information or to sign up, visit the Indiana Small Farm Conference website at purdue.ag/sfc.
Follow the conference on X (formerly known as Twitter) @SmallFarmPurdue, on Instagram @PurdueDFFS or on Facebook at @PurdueExtensionSmallFarms, with the hashtag #PurdueSmallFarms.
Written by: Nyssa Lilovich, Purdue University.
The 2023-24 National FFA Officers hold the gavel for the first time during the 96th National FFA Convention & Expo. From left to right: 2022-23 President Andrew Seibel of Virginia, 2023-24 President Amara Jackson of Michigan, Secretary Grant Horfleet of Missouri, Southern Vice President Carter Howell of Florida, Central Vice President Kanyon Huntington of Iowa, Eastern Vice President Morgan Anderson of Ohio, and Western Vice President Emily Gossett of New Mexico. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="//cdn1.itmwpb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/ffa-week-24-wrap.mp3"]This week is National FFA Week, a time to share what FFA is and the impact it has on members every day. FFA chapters across the country are celebrating in different ways.
National FFA President Amara Jackson from Michigan says the week is a great time to reflect and celebrate the organization that has brought such wonderful opportunities and memories.
“When I think back to my time at Corunna High School at the Corunna FFA chapter in Michigan, I’m quick to think of the fun celebrations that we had during FFA week. My favorite being our Ag Olympics game that we had during FFA week. During Ag Olympics, we would have a hay bale toss, we would have Pie Face, which is where it’s a competition of who can fish out the most gummy bears out of a pan of pudding, pop chugging, the list went on. And during ag Olympics as a chapter, we were able to just celebrate and be together during a week that ultimately is here because of our wonderful organization.”
National FFA Week is also a good time for members to focus on recruitment. Grant Norfleet, National FFA Secretary from Missouri, says FFA is more than just an ag organization. It’s helping mold the next generation of leaders who will change the world.
“Whether you have a connection to production agriculture or not, at the end of the day, we’re going to provide students the opportunities to be successful for any career in and outside of agriculture. Yes, we have agricultural literacy roots, but we’re providing students the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge so they can be better advocates and consumers for industry, but ultimately, we’re going to provide them the opportunities to be a successful, functioning member of society, which I think is really important in this day and age.”
‘Give FFA Day’ will be held on Thursday. Visit the Give FFA Day website to give and help FFA reach their goal of raising $1 million dollars. And on Friday, be sure to wear blue. Share your experiences throughout the week using #ffaweek.
The historic McDonald’s sign at the corner of County Line Road and Emerson Avenue in Greenwood, Indiana. Photo: C.J. Miller / Hoosier Ag Today.[audio mp3="https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2103/2024/02/19152040/CJ-WRAP-HAT-MIXDOWN-MCDONALDS-NATIONAL-FFA-WEEK-021924.mp3"]As we celebrate National FFA Week, McDonald’s of Indiana is proud to salute the next generation of farmers throughout the Hoosier State.
“[The McDonald’s system] purchases over $29 million worth of quality ingredients from Indiana farmers,” according to Jonathan Terhune, who owns and operates three McDonald’s restaurants across east-central Indiana in Anderson, Union City, and Winchester.
Jonathan Terhune, a third-generation McDonald’s owner-operator. He owns three locations in east-central Indiana: Anderson, Union City, and Winchester.Terhune is also a third-generation McDonald’s owner-operator. His grandfather opened one of the first McDonald’s franchise locations in Indiana back in 1958 in Muncie. That location at 500 E. Charles Street, still has the original “Speedy” McDonald’s sign from 1958 in front of the restaurant. Jonathan’s father, as well as his brother, Nick, are also McDonald’s owner-operators.
McDonald’s has long been a supporter of Indiana’s farmers and the ag industry.
“The numbers are pretty staggering—with eight million gallons of milk, 13 million pounds of pork, and over 12 million pounds of sugar all sourced from our Indiana farmers and suppliers,” says Terhune.
He says that McDonald’s is also a supporter of the local community. What better way to show that support than by working with local farmers.
“[We have] a lot of respect for our farmers,” says Terhune. “They are always out there morning, noon, and night—and we see them coming through our restaurants morning, noon, and night. It’s exciting to know when you’re going to work in the morning or heading home at night and you see those farmers out there, it’s exciting to know that what they’re doing on their farms is coming right into our restaurants and being served to our customers. It’s exciting to see the whole circle of how everybody works together between farmers, suppliers, and the restaurants, to make everything connect together.”
Much like Indiana’s farmers and future farmers, Terhune says McDonald’s shares in that family connection.
“McDonald’s truly is locally owned and operated,” he says. “Everybody sees the McDonald’s logo out there and knows that that’s a global brand, but each local restaurant—just like a majority, if not all local farms—are run by families and individuals who are just really passionate about what they do. It’s not just McDonald’s that’s a family business, but we know a lot of our farms and our future farmers that are coming along, a lot of them are family businesses, too.”
McDonald’s of Indiana says thank you, Indiana farmers. And they’re proud to salute the next generation of agriculture throughout National FFA Week.
The original McDonald’s sign from 1958 in front of the McDonald’s at 500 E. Charles St. in Muncie, Indiana. The location was opened by Jonathan Terhune’s grandfather and was the third McDonald’s to open in Indiana. Photo provided by Jonathan Terhune.
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