Good morning.
…and cue "One Shining Moment."
The victors have been declared: National FFA is the winner of Magnetic March Madness.
Bragging rights and a $500 donation in the name of the top team will be gifted to Feeding America. So, really, everyone is a winner here.
To see the final bracket breakdown, head here. Thanks to all those who nominated their companies, voted, and shared across the ag industry!
Stories:
- Bird Flu is Getting Egg-spensive
- The Buzz Around Beewise
- Farmers to Lean on Soybeans in 2022
|
Bird Flu Is Getting Egg-spensive |
The Easter bunny may have to find something new to hide in 2022...
A recent report from CoBank shows that highly pathogenic avian influenza is putting pressure on the egg supply chain this Easter. We can expect increased prices at the grocery store and potential supply challenges.
By the numbers:
- 340M head to about 322M head: the amount the U.S. table egg layer flock shrunk from April 2019 to now
- 11M layers have been lost in recent weeks due to HPAI
- 5 days of inventory on hand: AMS weekly shell egg demand indicator
- $2.88 a dozen: average shell egg prices, up about 52% since Feb. 8 announcement of first HPAI case
But bird flu isn't the only one to blame...
Soundbite: "The supply decline stems from extreme shifts in consumer behavior during 2020. Although grocery demand shot through the roof in the infancy of the pandemic, egg producers were not initially set up to shift lost food service volumes into retail channels. The lack of packaging equipment and supplies led to empty store shelves, sky-high retail prices, and ultimately, lower egg consumption." - Brian Earnest, CoBank’s Lead Economist, Animal Protein
While we're here: Plenty of industry leaders are trying to tackle future 'poultry pandemics' to avoid similar supply chain crunches in the future.
Hit me with your best shot: The USDA is looking into options for vaccines for HPAI according to the agency's chief veterinary officer. These efforts would not be able to help with the current wave of the disease, but would look instead to maintain poultry health and food price stability in the future.
|
→ Playing chicken. After two mistrials, the U.S. Justice Department has dropped price-fixing charges against five executives of chicken-producing companies, although charges will remain against five other defendants.
→ Fertilizer fast cash. The USDA could potentially use the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act to provide assistance to farmers struggling with swelling input prices.
→ Chilled wine. Winemakers in France are concerned that spring frosts are becoming recurrent, as some producers last week were forced to place candles by their vines to keep them warm.
→ Biofuel bitterness. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor called out President Biden for not talking about biofuels in his energy announcement, a solution she says could help reduce gas prices for consumers.
→ Where’s the grain train? Some feed mills on the West Coast have shut down because of delayed rail shipments from the Corn Belt, putting pressure on farmers in the region who depend on the shipments to feed their livestock.
→ Juicy opportunities. A new Rabobank report highlighted fruit and nut development as the next big wave for genetic breeding.
|
Investors Bee-lieve in New Beehomes |
Investors are buzzing about Beewise, contributing $80M to its latest funding round.
Beewise, an Israel-based company with operations in Sacramento, sells solar-powered, robotic Beehomes that use software and AI to protect bees from pests and harsh weather conditions.
Busy bees: Global crops valued at $20M annually depend on bees for their success. Recently, honeybee colonies have decreased by more than 30% each year. Diseases, pests, chemicals, and climate change are all contributing factors to the demise of the honeybee.
Enter Beehomes, which protect bees from fires, flooding, and Asian wasps, while keeping them thermally regulated and ensuring they stay fed when forage is unavailable, through feeding technology.
Beehomes are proprietary robotic beehives with 24/7 monitoring and smart technology that increase pollination capacity by detecting threats and issuing an appropriate automatic robotic response in real time.
By the numbers…
Beehomes:
- Reduce bee mortality by 80%
- Increase crop yields by at least 50%
- Eliminate approximately 90% of manual labor vs. traditional beehives
Beewise was founded in 2018. Today it manages more than 7B bees and has saved more than 160M bees during the past year. The $80M Series C round brought the company’s total funding to more than $120M.
|
Grains: Not much change in Ukraine-Russia relations kept grain prices higher on Monday.
Livestock: As grains go up, so do feed costs, and all the proteins felt that yesterday.
*As of market close [4/4/22]
|
SPONSORED BY VERDANT ROBOTICS
|
Mars Technology Takes On the Farm |
Farmers have always been a little superhuman. But now they can get the tools to match.
Meet Verdant Robotics – offering the first multi-action ag robot capable of digitizing each plant in any GPS-denied location. Developed by a team who worked on self-driving cars and Mars rovers, they’re bringing their innovation closer to home.
If you’re a specialty crop producer who wants to integrate more sustainable and profitable practices, reduce overspray, get rid of manual weeding, improve yields, and more, Verdant is for you.
Verdant’s autonomous ag robot capable of millimeter-accurate spraying, laser weeding, and AI-based digital crop modeling.
Ready to make your jump to robot-assisted, superhuman farming? Learn more today.
|
Magnetic's Must-See Stuff |
Agriculture, meet web3. The Modern Acre podcast just launched The Modern Acre Co-op, an NFT-gated executive community that enables networking, mentorship, and project incubation within the food, agriculture, and web3 space.
Going once, going twice… From Samuel Burnett’s poker hand that won him the land, to being featured on the TV show Yellowstone, the 6666 Ranch in Texas has a long and deep history. That history now has a new chapter: the sprawling 266,000-acre operation, originally listed for $341M, has officially been sold.
Seeds of success. NASCAR driver Ross Chastain, an eighth-generation watermelon farmer, won his first career Cup race—and symbolically spiked one of the giant fruits from atop his car. This story has it all: Chastain eating watermelon off the asphalt, a NASCAR team owned by pop star Pitbull, and even a Ponzi scheme.
|
You tell us if this staggering veggie stat is true…
Before 2013, Pizza Hut was the largest purchaser of kale, but not exactly for what you might think. Kale was solely used as a garnish for the salad bar, not for consumption.
What do you think? True or False?
Answer at the bottom of the email.
|
Farmers to Lean on Soybeans for 2022 |
Planting season is upon us, and U.S. farmers are making planting decisions as we speak. But if you’re expecting to hear that the U.S. will fill in corn and wheat supply deficits, you’ll be disoypointed.
Despite grain prices rising as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the USDA Prospective Plantings Report didn’t find expanded wheat or corn acres. Instead, it found soybeans could dethrone King Corn for only the third time in history.
Soy what? U.S. producers surveyed in the report intend to plant 91M acres of soybeans in 2022. That’s not only up 4% from last year but also a record high. Illinois and Missouri are expected to see the largest soybean acreage increases—about 400K more acres each. Corn acres are expected to be down 4% from last year to 89.5M acres.
With the global wheat shortage on the horizon, all wheat planted area for 2022 is estimated to be up only 1% from 2021 to 47.4M acres.
Anticipated food shortages. Volatile markets. High input costs. In 2022, farmers could be facing more pressure than Luisa in Encanto.
The Prospective Plantings report is the first official, survey-based estimates of planting intentions, with nearly 73K farm operators surveyed.
Markets reacted to the report’s release, with the corn September future price jumping 20 cents above the day’s opening price, close to $7.00/bu. Soybean futures fell 37 cents below the day’s opening price to $14.74/bu. Wheat landed at $9.96/bu. after initially rising and then falling 39 cents.
|
Have friends or coworkers who'd love our newsletter too? Give them your unique referral link (below) and get Magnetic gear when you hit certain referral counts.
Your link:
*Curious where you stand? You can always check your referral hub and see rewards here.
|
|
|
Written & Edited by Aaron Dunajeski, Amelia VanLandegen, Rachel Robinson, Ashley Scoby and Travis Martin
Were you forwarded this email? Sign up here.
Best jobs in agriculture → Magnetic Ag Job Board
|
ADVERTISE
Not feeling Magnetic anymore?
Break our hearts and unsubscribe here.
Magnetic Ag
P.O. Box 7292
Greenwood, IN 46142-6423
United States
|
|
|
|
