Good morning.
Agriculture, meet Amazon.
With so many Amazon Prime orders heading east, the company has been looking to backhaul west—to the benefit of some farmers.
Dairy farmer Steve Maddox recently used an Amazon Prime truck to ship 21 tons of alfalfa hay from his hay ranch in Utah to his dairy farm in California. (Sadly, no free shipping on this order).
So remember that feeling you get as the Amazon Prime truck pulls up at your house with a package for you?
Dairy cows get to feel that now too.
Stories:
- Dairy Farmers to DC: Do Mooore for Milk
- Air Qualitree in Ag
- Ingredient Shortage Takes Bite Out of Snack Industry
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Dairy Farmers to DC: Do Mooore for Milk |
Farmers of a feather herd together.
And that’s just what happened when a motley crew of various organizations gathered together in Washington, D.C to promote a common interest—The Dairy Revitalization Plan.
Farmers and dairy groups linked arms in late July to advocate for dairy policy and discuss their plan with lawmakers who are in the process of drafting a new Farm Bill.
The goal of the plan? Stabilize and improve dairy prices through coordinated milk production growth among all dairy farmers.
In the plan, quota (which many dairy farmers view as being rather restrictive) would be replaced with a growth management model that offers incentives for aligning milk production growth with demand.
Sounds complicated.
Teamwork makes the dream work: It’s this complex and entirely novel system that makes the "Dairy Together" coalition so important. Groups including the Farmers Union, National Dairy Producers, and several others sent representatives to the gathering.
The pitfalls of food supply consolidation, unstable and extreme price fluctuations, and the fact that 17K dairies have closed over the past decade all helped these groups put aside any differences and rally around a common cause.
Soundbite: "Everybody else is asking for a minimum living wage. It’s time farmers ask for one." —Tina Hinchley, dairy farmer from Wisconsin.
Mooore to come: The Farm Bill has a long way to go, and dairy advocates are just getting started.
In October, the American Farm Bureau Federation will host a Federal Milk Marketing Order Forum that will focus on getting dairy pricing perspectives from anyone in the industry.
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→ See ya in court. Bayer CropScience first sued Corteva AgriScience, saying it used Bayer tech in its product development; Corteva followed suit by suing Bayer for infringing on one of its gene patents.
→ Struggling corn. Only 57% of the U.S. corn crop has a good to excellent rating, according to the USDA; this ties for the worst corn condition rating in a decade.
→ Feeding nutrient management. After President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act this week, $19.5B is headed toward climate-smart agriculture, including more opportunities for nutrient management planning for farmers and ranchers.
→ Input relief. Half of all fertilizers are down in price from a month ago, including all 8 of the major fertilizers.
→ A few bad apples. Washington state’s fresh apple crop is projected to be an 11.1% decrease from last year’s output; however, the estimated 108.7M boxes of apples is overall a positive, after a particularly cold spring.
→ Next-gen power. A record-high number of students are now members of the National FFA Organization, with membership increasing 15% from last year and 178 new chapters starting.
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USDA National Agroforestry Center Photo
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Silvopasture has farmers and companies alike barking up the right tree.
Silvopasture 101: Being the integration of trees with pastureland, landowners can plant trees on land they graze livestock on for several benefits, including providing shade, improving soil health, creating wildlife habitats, and the big one: generating carbon credits.
Getting poplar: Carbon credits are gaining traction. With companies aiming for net-zero carbon emissions, they offset emissions by buying carbon credits from farmers and ranchers.
Leafing the way: That’s where Working Trees comes in. This new venture got its roots at Stanford University and aims to help measure and sell carbon stored in trees that are planted on pasture—or silvopasture. The technology they use is collected through smartphones and satellite imagery.
Landowners can use the Working Trees app to take pictures of trees on their land, allowing auditors to review the images without visiting the farm in person. Then, Working Trees connects farmers who are generating carbon credits with companies and organizations looking to go green.
Triple win: More trees get planted, farmers get additional income, businesses can help offset carbon emissions. Working Trees is building a pilot program and wants to hear from ranchers and/or company leaders in the Eastern U.S.
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SPONSORED BY IMAGINE CONTENT
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We Couldn't Agree More... |
⬆️ Twitter wisdom at its finest… if you ask us.
And yeah, we might be a little biased, but we’re also bullish on good ag companies putting out good ag content.
So the Imagine Content team (Magnetic Ag’s sister company) is excited to launch our own free newsletter: ‘Imagine Content A Little Differently’
Whether you’re a new founder, a polished marketer, or just interested in the space, we guarantee you’ll snag some takeaways as we dish all we know on content creation, audience-building, email marketing, and so much more.
When you read our marketing musings every other Thursday, you can expect stories like:
- Who is the best at social media in agriculture and why is it John Deere?
- What's minimum viable content in agriculture?
- When should you be tilting your agribusiness or farm content, and why?
What are you waiting for? Sign up for free today.
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State fair trivia never gets old... especially when it involves a 'Big Boar Contest.'
The Iowa State Fair recently named their king pig, Pee-Wee, this past week in the famed competition.
Can you guess at what weight did Pee-Wee tip the scales?
Challenge a friend and see who can get the closest without going over!
Answer at the bottom of the email.
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Ingredient Shortage Takes Bite Out of Snack Industry |
Igor Dutina | Getty Images Pro
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Lack of ingredients has led to a sna(ck)fu for consumer packaged goods companies.
Twinkies, Nutter Butters, and other tasty treats are out of stock on grocery store shelves, with production lines halted as they wait on essential ingredients like wheat and cooking oils.
Halloween (and Christmas) candy supplies are also looking a little scary because of the low supply of raw ingredients and issues with suppliers. (However, despite predictions that candy supply around Halloween time will be a little sticky, overall sales are still looking sweeter than last year.)
Special new recipe. General Mills is getting creative in response to the ingredient shortage, changing recipes to keep products like pizza, hot snacks, and refrigerated baked goods on the shelves. The company has had a hard time finding everything from starch, fats, and oils, to packaging.
Soundbite: Some products have been "reformulated over 20 times year-to-date," said Jon Nudi, group president of North American retail for General Mills.
The backstory: The war in Ukraine caused a backup in exports out of the country, not to mention restrictions on Russian exports of grain and sunflower oil. But ships are now trickling out of the region, after a July 22 United Nations-facilitated agreement.
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Written & Edited by Kevin Cross, Sheridan Wimmer, Rachel Robinson, Ashley Scoby, and Travis Martin
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