Betty Crocker would be proud to learn of 2020’s favorite pandemic pastime.
Quarantine cookies, breads, and baked goods have consumed a lot of Americans’ time, and apparently a lot of butter. The USDA shared that production rose 6% in the first nine months of 2020 and is tracking to hit two billion pounds.
Last time we saw that much butter in America? 1943.
And as the dairy industry was in the dumps [literally, dumping milk] as schools shut their doors and food service demand dropped, butter became a bright spot.
One winner from this boost in butter use? Land O'Lakes. Their Q3 profit ballooned and CEO Beth Ford expects butter sales to be up +20% for 2020. All this even as the company saw big drops in the 15-20% of sales they normally receive from restaurant businesses.
"That's a significant increase in our butter business,"Ford said."That strength is more than offsetting the disruption [to the business-to-business dairy sales]."
+ No storage needed: In another strange twist to 2020, butter storage and inventory is nonexistent. As butter production ramped up during peak milk-producing summer months, most inventory went straight to grocery stores instead of heading to storage for the holiday season.
Oh, and this… Butter's leap in demand was more than just a baking binge. Butter is a gem for food marketers. Clean label? Check. Keto-friendly? Check. This and more kept folks beelining to the dairy aisle.
Crunch time: Butter has had a great 2020. But as COVID-19 cases surge, the holiday baking season is at risk as swapping Christmas cookies could be a no-go.
Grains dropped early in the session as Brazil rains struck overnight but rebounded with positive reports of weekly export sales.
COVID-19 continues to hurt the livestock complex as meat demand is questioned with cases surging.
The formation of aborted seeds positions the weed’s reproductive system against itself.
Game over. Sterility 101.
Add in the fact this is a green, non-toxic, bio-based solution, and investors see dollar signs. But results have to prove it.
WeedOUT’s first target: Palmer amaranth.
The aggressive and glyphosate-resistant weed has plenty going for it to have a target on its back:
→ Grows 2-3 inches per day → Produces up to a million seeds per plant → Packs huge genetic variation, creating resistance issues
It’s a tall task, but WeedOUT’s leadership is no B-team.
Enter, the Monsanto MasterClass: The co-founders are former Monsanto Israel science leaders and the new Board Chair is a former Monsanto M&A and growth platforms guy. These dudes know weeds.
Big picture: Killing weeds is big business. If WeedOut can tackle the weed resistance market, a big pay day is in their future.
FUN FACT
In case you were curious, November is Sweet Potato Awareness Month. Seems timely.
That naturally led our team to debate: Sweet Potatoes & Yams are the same thing.
Your guess: True or False.
Scroll to bottom for answer
MEAT PRODUCTION
Beef – It’s What’s for Dinner, Right?
David Chukalexey / Getty
Flashback: It’s February 2020. You’re at a dine-in restaurant, surrounded by family and friends. The biggest decision you have to make: what cut of beef do I want.
Cut to the COVID-19 facts: By April, your options would have been limited.
Beef has been in short supply during this pandemic and while you’d think that would boost prices, the market has been tricky to assess.
Like all meat proteins, beef supply chains continue to pivot product to food retail businesses when possible. But the damage has already been done to food service dependent cuts. Compared to a year ago, prices aren’t pretty:
Beef Tenderloins: -25.6%
Sirloin Top Butt: -18.4%
Brisket: -13.9%
And on the supply side, feedlots are still playing catch up. Carcass weights are slowly edging down, a sign of reducing animal backlog to plants after shut downs. Estimates point to supply getting current in Q1 2021.
But brace yourself...
Winter is coming: The food service outlook is bleak as cases race to new records and outdoor dining will grind to a halt in northern states. Toss in macroeconomic concerns and any resurfacing supply chain disruptions, and uncertainty will continue to be the name of the game.
+ While we’re here: Cattle associations and legislators are playing tug-of-war with market reform. After extreme volatility in 2020, price discovery rules and transparency mandates are in-play to even the playing field between meatpackers and feeders/producers. More to come here.
QUICK HITS
✅ Decatur, Illinois will be home to the largest insect protein facility via a collaboration between ADM and Innovafeed.
✅ An eastern Germany chicken farm is preparing to cull 70,000 birds to contain an outbreak of H5N8 avian influenza.
✅ Harvest 2020 is almostin the books. Corn is at 95% complete while soybeans stand at 96%, both a hair ahead of 5-year averages. ✅ $1.26 billion in trade is in jeopardy as China has essentially shut the door on Australian wine imports due to political tensions.
✅ American Pistachio Growers celebrated a record 2020 crop with over 1 billion pounds of the nut cranked out in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
ANSWER
False.
Even though they can look like twins, the veggies are not even in the same botanical family.
