🌵 New Year, New... Drought

Drought trigger warning. 2021 precip conditions are looking parched for the southwestern U.S.

Early January’s drought index, with 46%-ish of the U.S. experiencing moderate drought or worse, is raising concern for what’s to come. Looking at you, La Niña.

Refresher: A few degrees difference can be disturbing. In a La Niña year, fierce winds over the Pacific Ocean push warm water west. Cold water rises to the surface. The eastern Pacific Ocean becomes a hair colder than normal. And we end up with a drier southwestern U.S. and a wet Australia and Indonesia.

USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says La Niña dryness should last through the spring of 2021 and possibly longer. “Multi-year La Niña episodes have occurred several times, including 2010-12 and 1998-2001.”

Wut. 2010-12 drought conditions? Pause. Breathe. We aren't there yet. But if La Niña keeps being as grosera (Spanish word of the day: rude) as forecasted, states like CA, NM, AZ, TX, and FL could be on that track. Plus, crispy conditions can equal wildfire risk. And Cali’s snowpack was only 52% of its average as of Jan. 1.

Zoom out: Despite the leery forecast, CoBank set a positive tone for the second half of 2021 in their quarterly report. Optimism was tied to the steady rise of corn, soybean, and wheat prices in 2020’s fourth quarter and hope of a rebounding foodservice sector.

But cattle folks cringe. Drought conditions and slightly tightened supplies of these crops have feed costs estimated to climb 29% during 2021.

→ More $ettlement news: JBA SA took a $24.5 million settlement in its price-fixing suit with pork wholesalers while Tyson’s poultry antitrust settlement became public...a whopping $221.5 million.

→ Vilsack’s #2: Dr. Jewel Bronaugh is the nominee for the second-in-command seat at the USDA. She’ll leave her post as Virginia’s agriculture commissioner if confirmed and is a former dean of Virginia State’s College of Agriculture. #GoTrojans

→ Court tells EPA to halt. The D.C. Court of Appeals will halt and review three waivers for exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard for small refineries that the Trump administration doled out Tuesday.

→ Gone fishin’: Trident Seafoods will close its pollock, cod, and crab processing plant in Akutan, Alaska for three weeks to halt a COVID-19 outbreak.

→ ‘Bye-bye’ ethanol: Green Plains, the 3rd largest ethanol producer in the U.S., is pivoting towards protein-dense feed ingredients with ethanol as a byproduct to distance itself from the volatile and regulated biofuels space.

Cargill might need an extra shot of espresso in its morning brew to tackle its to-do list these days. But that comes with the territory when you’re one of the largest privately-held companies in the U.S.

Lots of industry news has Cargill’s name floating into headlines. Here’s just a sample:

Tech nerds

Collaboration is the name of the game when it comes to blockchain, and Cargill wants to lead the pack. Working in partnership with several unidentified agrifood businesses, the company has revealed ‘Splinter,’ a new open-source software to tackle some million dollar problems.

The goal? To fix tracking and communication issues across supply chain partners - think producer → processor → distributor → retailer - while maintaining independent partners' data privacy.

Meaty probs

On its urgent and important docket, Cargill is playing nice with Canadian labor groups. Union groups claim Cargill undermined their leadership when they attempted to better protect workers at the High River beef plant in Alberta.

The plant saw nearly half of its 2,000 workers test positive with COVID-19 last May. The talks come just as a new investigation begins for one of the two worker deaths due to the virus.

Nixing Sugar

To focus on food-processing and meat production, the company is in negotiations to sell its 50% stake in Alvean, the leading global sugar trader. While sugar prices may be high now, the trading group struggled when yields soared and prices plunged the majority of the past six years.

And they’re following suit: ADM, Bunge, and Louis Dreyfus Co. are all saying ‘hasta la vista’ to their respective sugar-related investments.

MAGNETIC'S MUST-SEE STUFF

Crowdsourced feed price tool. No more calling on mills to get price checks. Feedstuffs' new tool gives you 24/7 feed price market intel while letting you benchmark your prices against verified deals in your neck of the woods. Bookmark this, livestock folks!

@farmwifeguru & Magnetic reader, Whitney Larson, is on a roll. Check out her upcoming Cultivating Courage conference for women in ag or tune into the Midwest Farm Wives podcast for all things farming & motherhood.

*Correction: Our apologies for link issues from Tuesday. If AgEmerge 2021 - the regenerative ag conference by Ag Solutions Network - is of interest, register here.

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Account Executive | DroneDeploy
→ The sales team is getting a boost at fast-growing DroneDeploy. Strategic, driven revenue chasers are needed in a variety of commercial and enterprise sales roles. See them now.

Interns | Nutrien
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