Soybeans Are Booming 📈

Soybeans sure feel rejuvenated after the holiday break.

Abundant demand and tight supplies are leading to +$13 prices, not seen since 2014. A trifecta of drivers are leading to the tightest demand-supply split in over six years:

→ China’s heavy purchases - $6.8 billion in October & November alone - as they rebuild their hog herd

→ Southern Brazil and Argentina’s continued dry spell this growing season

→ Weakness in the U.S. dollar giving a price break to global importers

On the flip side: While row crop farmers bask in the price opportunity, livestock producers are cringing. It’s the double edged sword of agriculture inputs.

CoBank projects that 2021 will bring 12% higher feed costs for the animal protein sector. In the summer alone, cost inflation is expected to reach 18% for hog producers, cattle feeders, and chicken growers.

Bottom line: The industry has its eyes on January 12 for the next WASDE report. Expectations of increased U.S. soy exports and lower South American production means this soybean surge won’t slow anytime soon.

→ California court says ‘Nah’ to NAMI. For the second time, a court has rejected the North American Meat Institute’s attempt to overturn the 2018 ballot initiative that requires producers to create more floor space for egg-laying hens, sows, and veal calves.

→ Ontario plant (back) open for business. Following an 11-day shutdown, Cargill resumed operations at its beef processing site in Canada after 82 employees tested positive for COVID-19.

→ Potato packaging magic: Hazel Technologies Inc. announced new USDA-funding for a packaging insert that stops sprouting issues which lead to lower commercial values and food waste.

→ New Chief Techie at Corteva: Legacy Monsanto science leader Sam Eathington was snatched up from The Climate Corporation [Bayer] to lead Corteva’s R&D organization.

→ Twitter’s #drought help: The Drought Mitigation Center is using two years worth of tweets to provide insights into developing drought situations.

In the world of eggs, females are at the top of the pecking order. You know, since males can’t lay eggs and all. And an innovative idea from Soos Technology could be a game changer for this global poultry predicament.

The big idea: Soos is using sound.

The backstory: Soos CEO Yael Alter and Nashat Haj Mohamad began using sound vibration in incubators and when their first test yielded a higher number of females, they knew they were on to something.

$weet tune: By taking the male egg embryos and converting them to female, the technology could eliminate the need to cull male chicks – helping the industry be more humane, while also cracking down on lost revenue.

“It is well known that sound affects cells, as this technology is also used in medicine and even in cancer treatment,” noted Alter in a Poultry World interview. “This is precisely what we are doing: we are affecting the cells and thereby defining the sex of the embryos.”

What’s next: In November, Soos won the $1 million grand prize from a New York State food and agriculture competition. And while the coronavirus has slowed their progress, Soos hopes to run more pilots in Europe and the U.S. soon.

There’s a fine line between the risk & reward of a promising strawberry season in Florida.

And with the potential of losing millions of dollars of crop, growers are on high alert to cold spells in the Sunshine State like they were the last week of December.

But cold weather can actually produce plump, prime strawberries that are sweet and firm.

The catch: Farmers have to balance the cold weather and their crop care strategies to avoid disaster.

“It can actually freeze the berry, freeze the fruit. The cold will just turn it into Jell-O," noted Tres McQuaig, a farm manager at Astin Farms.

So what’s a farmer to do? Ice ‘em.

Warm water is pumped over the strawberries, creating a thin layer of ice as the cold air on the berries’ skin meets the hot H²O. Insulation 101.

Zoom out: Florida strawberries are clawing back from a disappointing end to the 2019-2020 season.

In Dover, Florida, Parkesdale Farms was packing 35,000 boxes of berries a day last spring before brokers called off orders headed to shuttering East Coast cities.

But for now, projected demand for strawberries looks solid. And assuming demand doesn’t shrink and the crop can withstand the cold, producers will be in a sweet spot for 2021.