Good morning.
"What a tangled web we weave." - Vestaron, probably. The Michigan-based company has developed insecticides derived from spider venom. Spear RC is its latest product, which is derived from versutoxin, the Blue Mountain funnel-web spider's venom.
And they're not the only ones spinning some products out of annoying little critters. In Kenya, locusts have gone full-circle from crop destroyers to crop... fertilizers?
The Bug Picture (no, this isn't a new Pixar film) has been figuring out how to harvest and convert desert locusts into compost manure. Because, they say, desert locusts are basically "clouds of protein and nitrogen flying across the sky."
Now there's an image to start your week.
P.S. The Championship Round of Magnetic March Madness is open. Don't forget to vote! The deets are on the scroll.
The News:
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USDA Boosts Corn, Soybean, Wheat acres
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Major Ag Exporters Quit Russia
- Amaizing Orange Corn
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USDA Boosts Corn, Soybean, Wheat acres |
fotokostic from Getty Images Pro
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Get out your Magic 8 Ball for the acre-guessing game.
The USDA dropped an earful of planting data in its Prospective Plantings and Quarterly Grain Stocks reports on Friday. And there were definitely some head-turners.
By the numbers:
- Corn: 91.9M acres (+3.5M acres from 2022)
- Soybeans: 87.5M (+0.1M from 2022)
- All Wheat: 49.9M acres (+4.2M)
- Cotton: 11.3M acres (-2.4M)
The large increase in corn acres was due to more planting intentions in the Dakotas and Minnesota that were lost last year to prevent plant programs.
What’s the caveat? Farmers in the north could experience tight planting windows due to large snow depth and cold weather just before planting begins. Dry conditions also remain in the Western Corn Belt and Southern Plains, which could limit crop potential.
But wait, there’s more: The USDA’s Quarterly Grain Stocks report, also released on Friday, showed tighter grain stocks heading into the spring.
Soybean stockpiles as of March 1 totaled 1.685B bushels, down from 1.932B seen a year ago.
Corn stocks were at 7.401 billion bushels, compared to 7.758 billion a year ago. Wheat stocks were at 946M bushels, down from 1.029B.
It’s a waiting game: The plantings report released last week offers only a glimpse of what farmers may grow this year. The USDA will take another stab at estimating acres in its annual acreage report released at the end of June.
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→ Expanding the margin (protection). More than 1,000 counties are being added to the USDA’s Margin Protection insurance plan, which helps protect corn and soybean producers.
→ Tell us more. In a House Ag Appropriations subcommittee, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack faced questioning about his department’s use of Commodity Credit Corporation funds, as well as his "unrealistic" budget request.
→ Dicamba drama. Bayer has sued four Missouri farmers for violating its user agreement by replanting old saved seeds, plus illegally spraying older versions of dicamba on its GMO soybeans.
→ On track… for court. The Department of Justice is suing Norfolk Southern after the company’s February trail derailment in Ohio, which contaminated local soil and water.
→ Plotting a new course. CNH Industrial will purchase Hemisphere GNSS, a high-performance satellite positioning tech company.
→ There’s an app for that. Ever.Ag is launching a new app, FieldAlytics Engage, which gives growers one central location for multiple pieces of info, like work orders, spatial data, market info, weather forecasts, and more.
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We are down to the championship and it’s a nail biter. Thanks to your votes it’s the National FFA Organization tipping off against Certified Angus Beef.
Will the reigning Magnetic champion, the National FFA Organization, take the crown two years in a row?
Or will rookie Certified Angus Beef cause a major upset?
It’s up to you! Make sure your voice is heard! Cast your vote for the championship by Thursday, April 6 at noon CST.
A $500 donation in the winner’s name to Boys Grow is on the line. Boys Grow is a non-profit organization mentoring Kansas City’s urban youth through agricultural entrepreneurship.
Get your vote in before the clock runs out!
The winner will be announced in the April 7 newsletter.
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Major Ag Exporters Quit Russia |
Ag commodity giant Cargill announced its plan last week to stop handling Russian grain at its export terminal on July 1, the start of the exporting season. Viterra quickly followed suit.
Futures boost: The move rallied wheat futures to a one-month high, mirroring concerns over global grain flow. Soybeans also saw a sharp uptick.
By the numbers: From July 2022 to February 2023, Cargill exported 1.4M tons of Russian wheat, or 4% of the country’s total grain, making Cargill the sixth largest player in the field.
Viterra exported 2.1M tons in the same period.
Russia is currently the world’s largest wheat exporter.
Soundbite: The Russian agriculture ministry told Reuters, "The cessation of its export activities on the Russian market will not affect the volume of domestic grain shipments abroad. The company’s grain export assets will continue to operate regardless of who manages them."
Backstory: Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials began calling on Moscow to limit foreign influence in their markets. Subsequently Russia created new hoops to jump through for foreign companies operating in the country. Challenges with banking sanctions compounded the issues.
What the future holds: As major ag firms pull out, Russian domestic and government-funded companies will likely step in, leaving some concerned that Russia will be positioned to use food exports for geopolitical influence.
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True or False: Plants make sounds when they’re in distress.
Answer at the bottom of the email.
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NutraMaize (GoDaddy Photo/Kelly Ngo)
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It’s amaizing, so amaizing… that orange corn could boost poultry health and egg yolk pigmentation.
Candy corn? No, not that kind of orange corn. The grain is marketed under brand name "Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn'' and is produced by ag company NutraMaize.
The proof is in the pudding corn: Orange corn has been proven to minimize footpad dermatitis in poultry and elevate carotenoid content in egg yolks—which increases their color depth.
NutraMaize just received a $650K, 2-year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant to continue its work and further demonstrate the benefits of its special corn, now on a commercial scale.
Carrots Corn Eggs Are Good for Your Eyes: NutraMaize orange corn contains carotenoids that we usually associate with, yep, you guessed it—carrots. And carotenoids can reduce the risk of macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in the aging population.
Soundbite: "This means that orange corn has the potential to improve animal welfare and reduce disease-related losses for producers while simultaneously improving consumer well-being by enhancing the nutritional quality of one of America’s most important protein sources—eggs," – Evan Rocheford, NutraMaize CEO
That’s not all, folks. This corn can also be healthier for broilers and egg layers. And it amplifies the nutritional, visual, and functional properties of poultry meat and eggs.
What’s next? Field studies will be completed with commercial poultry producers and grain farmers.
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Why are you keeping us a secret? Make sure to share Magnetic with friends, family, and coworkers to snag Magnetic goodies when you hit certain referral counts.
Your link:
*Curious where you stand? You can always check your referral hub and see rewards here.
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True. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have worked with tobacco and tomato plants, discovering and recording them making high-frequency noises that can be picked up 16 feet away. These sounds were so specific that a tool could tell what the sound was for. Wild, we know. You can read more about this phenomenon here.
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Written & Edited by Dawson Schmitt, Jen Hill, Amelia VanLandegen, and Ashley Scoby
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Kansas City, MO 64153
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