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January 21, 2022

TOGETHER WITH:

Good morning.

If you’re like us, packing up the Christmas decor might have made you feel a little fa-la-la-la-awful.

What can we say? We love a twinkling, garland-filled family room.

But we’ve got an ag-related, pollinator-positive video to perk you up. Take a look at what the Disney parks do with their giant gingerbread houses after the New Year.

You won’t bee-lieve it.

Stories:

• Cuckoo for Cover Crops
• Solar Bots Deposit Seed Round
• Truckers Feeling the Grapes of Mandate Wrath

CROPS

Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is sending a clear message to America’s farmers:

Don’t farm naked—plant cover crops… LOTS of them.

At the recent American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Atlanta, Vilsack unveiled the USDA’s plan to double the number of U.S. corn and soybean acres utilizing cover crops.

**And the soil health crowd goes wild.**

By the numbers: The most recent USDA Census of Agriculture from 2017 put the total number of cover crop acres at 15.4M. The new goal? 30M by 2030.

As part of a larger soil health initiative, the Natural Resources Conservation Service will be directing $38M in EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) funds toward the project.

The main goal? Carbon sequestration.

Targeting 11 different states across the country, the program funds will be used "to help agricultural producers mitigate climate change through widespread adoption of cover crops."

And the NRCS has some big-league buddies on board.

Climate change comrades: The program is a joint initiative between the NRCS and Farmers for Soil Health (a partnership among the United Soybean Board, National Corn Growers Association, and National Pork Board).

And they’re not wasting any time getting started.

Sign-ups for the program should begin shortly at the state level, and applications will be selected by February 11… as in, next month.

Secretary Vilsack noted that roll-out for the program needed to be done right, and that stakeholders were intricately involved in the decision-making process.

Secretary soundbite: "We know it has to be voluntary, incentive-based, it can't be regulated. We're excited about the opportunity."

→ Hemp pivots. After wholesale CBD prices tanked and hemp acreage cratered to half of its peak, cannabis growers are now eyeing grain and fiber as steadier markets to sell into.

→ India startup snags $60M. Arya, the post-harvest startup, will use the cash to grow its network of 10,000 warehouses that let Indian farmers store products and get insurance, while linking them with potential buyers.

→ Weed seeds be gone. An uptick in excitement for seed mill technology has farmers hopeful for the ability to destroy the seeds of weeds like Palmer amaranth and waterhemp during harvest.

→ Bird flu takes flight. Additional cases of the avian flu popped up this week in the U.S., while France just ordered the culling of 2.5M infected birds.

→ Cotton’s galactic mission. 48 cotton seeds are headed to the International Space Station for evaluation on how to make the crop less dependent on natural resources, a vision funded by Target.

→ Crocodile, a pork substitute? After declaring its first official case of African swine fever, coupled with severe supply concerns, Thailand has seen pork prices skyrocket, leading many consumers to switch to crocodile meat for their protein.

Did you miss any of these premium, featured gig from the Magnetic Ag Job Board?

Client Lead - Dairy and/or Beef | Filament

Territory Sales Rep | DBC Ag Products

Summer Internship | Curious Plot

Snag the eyeballs of Magnetic's 9,500+ readers with your open roles. Post a job here.

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AGTECH

Aigen

Aigen’s carbon-keeping, weed-whacking robots just got an extra dose of fuel—and we’re not talking extra fun in the sun. 

After a $4M seed round, the company’s solar-powered, autonomous robots are on the fast track to help farmers manage weeds and plant propagation down to the individual plant level. 

The roundup of robotics: Aigen wants to help farmers save their soil health and wreak havoc on weeds with a low-cost crop protection solution. They call their mission "soil regeneration at the planetary scale," or automated terraforming.

(We looked it up; terraform means "to transform a planet to be earth-like and support human life." Save that one for big-word bingo). 

Inside the robot: The computers inside the solar-powered bots can tell weeds from desired plants, then act accordingly. They can cover up to three acres of farmland a day. With sensor, camera, and software-based trained systems, the robots cut out fuel, chemicals, and compaction. 

The company says their fundamental change to agriculture puts carbon neutrality within reach—a robot’s reach, that is. 

Soundbite: "Aigen’s technology leverages best-in-class AI and robotics to provide an elegant solution to several of humanity’s biggest problems," said Andrew Schoen, partner at seed-round-leading NEA. 

Other contributors to the seed round were AgFunder, Global Founders Capital, and ReGen Ventures. Aigen plans to bulk up its talent pool with the shiny new seed money, just in time to fill up the company’s new Kirkland, Washington headquarters. 

Grains: Soybeans surged on talks of a smaller South American crop and potential new Chinese demand.

Livestock: Hogs were green on strong consumer demand for pork.

*As of Market Close [1/20/22]

**Want to learn more about commodity markets? Sign up for the Farm Girl Next Door #WordoftheWeek email to boost your knowledge of grain marketing basics. Sign up today.**

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With cover crops on the brain, we were curious to see which ones topped the list of most used.

From the USDA graph below, can you guess which cover crop we hid and is represented in purple?

Answer at the bottom of the email.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service and USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2015 (cotton), 2016 (corn), and 2018 (soybeans) Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). 

SUPPLY CHAIN

GIPHY

Yep, vaccine mandates have plenty of unvaccinated truckers yelling 'pivot' at the border.

Sour grapes: Approximately 50-60% of truckers in the U.S. are vaccinated, and with Canada’s vaccine mandate that prohibits unvaccinated truck drivers from crossing into Canada from the U.S., shortages are already showing up. Consumers in Canada are seeing the impacts, as some grocery stores have no oranges or bananas.

There’s already been a cost increase of 25% to transport fruit from California and Arizona to Canada.

For the U.S. mandate, set to go into effect tomorrow, an estimated 12,000 Canadian drivers may not be permitted to enter the United States. This is a big deal, since 80% of trade between the two countries is moved by truck.

A prickly pear: As the supply chain continues to deal with COVID-related issues, the vaccine mandate only exacerbates the problem, according to the American Trucking Association (ATA).

"The U.S. is already facing unprecedented supply chain disruptions and delays due to many factors, including significant labor shortages, production shutdowns, a shortage of raw materials, and pent-up consumer demand," the ATA said in a letter to the Biden administration in October.

"Our data shows that a vaccine mandate may very well further cripple the supply chain throughout the country by forcing up to 13% of drivers to leave the industry entirely," the group added.

The mandate in the U.S. and Canada for truck drivers, plus berry many logistical issues, means an increase in freight costs, which will then trickle down into higher prices for consumers.

Lettuce give you an example: Fresh produce from California to Canada costs $2,500 more now than the usual average. In Canada, that would be a 12-cent increase in cost per head of lettuce. 

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Rye

Written by Kevin Cross, Kelsey Faivre, Sheridan Wimmer, and Travis Martin

Edited by Ashley Scoby

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