🐶 Sorghum's Best Friend / ❄️ France Thaws Out / 📈 Cotton's Comeb ack

Sorghum has a pet-filled pandemic to thank for its dynamite 2020.

And the companion animal data doesn’t lie…

The U.S. pet industry notched $99 billion in 2020.
21% of owners spent more on their pets during the pandemic.
12% of adults with children adopted a pet last year.

Why it matters: With more four-legged friends comes lots and lots of kibbles.

That’s where sorghum steps in.

The cereal crop, in high demand due to being gluten-free and high in antioxidants, had a banner year as a top ingredient in pet food.

Noting the $1.7 billion in pet food exports last year, Tim Lust of the National Sorghum Producers made it clear that sorghum is one hot commodity:

"The pet food industry just continues to take more and more sorghum. And domestically, they have been very aggressively bidding against the international markets to try to make sure they get those supplies."

Per usual, China is in the mix.

With a big appetite for sorghum to feed their own livestock and produce alcohol for biofuels, the Asian kingpin is making markets move. In early March, China snatched up 14 million U.S. bushels, pushing prices to a market tipping $5 per bushel.

What’s ahead: The USDA thinks sorghum producers will double down with the demand. Early April reports pegged U.S. sorghum acres up 18% from 2020, with Kansas - the top producing state - scaling up 20% from last year.

→ Dairy feels the brunt. Container shortages are disproportionately hurting dairy products like cheese and dry whey that need quick voyages to China as warmer temperatures arrive.

→ That’s trillion...with a 't.' A report titled ‘Feeding the Economy’ found that the food and agriculture sector contributes $7 trillion to the nation’s economy and is home to 13% of all U.S. employment.

→ Farmland takes flight. Farmers National Company noted that farm ground sales are up 67% compared to the prior three years.

→ When Walmart says jump...you ask how many bees. The U.S. grocer-retailer plans to source 100% of its fresh produce and floral offerings from suppliers improving pollinator health and biodiversity.

→ Poultry and pollution don’t mix. Mountaire Farms, a poultry processor in Millsboro, Delaware, will settle $65 million on a class-action lawsuit from 600 local residents who claim sludge and wastewater ran onto their properties.

→ Who let the dogs in? The National Pork Producers Council is urging Congress to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to monitor importing of dogs from nations with current African Swine Fever cases.

→ Livestock gets anchored. Over the next two years, New Zealand will phase out livestock exports by sea to maintain animal welfare standards.

Oh, snap. Cold snap, that is.

We noted last week that farmers in France were feeling the latest temperature drops in their bones and their fields. Unusually warm temperatures in March caused vineyards and other crops across France to bloom. Then Mother Nature said, “Au revoir,” and released below-zero temperatures.

That’s “pas bon” (translation: not good)

Devastating to budding crops, the French frost has affected every wine-producing area in France. For many winemakers, the 2021 harvest is ruined, some reporting 90% of their crop destroyed. And not only are grapes affected, but also peach trees, nectarines, apricots, and sugar beets.

A farmer told French radio, "It literally turns your stomach, when you spend the morning in the vines and see the frozen leaves, which after two or three hours in the sun have gone grey or black."

Save the grapes!

Vineyard farmers are trying whatever they can to save their crops. Some are spraying their vines with water to form a coating of ice around the buds to try to protect them from frost, while others have lit paraffin lamps as a method of keeping the vines warm. Others even lit bales of hay on fire.

Primetime: France’s Prime Minister has declared the cold snap an agricultural disaster, prompting the need for relief funds.

But farmers are also asking for bank loan payments to be put on hold and improvements in insurance for grape growers – only a third of French winemakers are insured.

So little time.

Or at least we assume the AgBiome® team is slammed as they dig through their 80,000+ sequenced genome collection.

Their proprietary GENESISTM platform allows them to capture and evaluate microbes for agriculturally relevant applications.

AKA - they’re finding microorganisms and proteins to kill pests, pathogens, and weeds.

With a goal of discovering and developing innovative biological and trait products, the AgBiome team has a hefty to-do list. But don’t worry, they’ve already got a product on the shelf.

Enter, Howler®.

A revolutionary fungicide for disease control in everything from berries and grapes to cucurbits and leafy vegetables, Howler is the first of many crop protection solutions to come from the AgBiome portfolio.

Tackling a broad spectrum of soilborne and foliar diseases, the fungicide can be used from the greenhouse and preplant, all the way to harvest.

Learn more about AgBiome and Howler here.

Cotton is on the up and up.

Higher cotton exports and lower supply are driving the price of cotton up. As a result, the USDA projected ending stocks of the fiber at 3.9 million bales, down 300,000 bales.

And suddenly, cotton is looking quite bullish.

A soundbite:

"With the weather challenges we had last year, the U.S. crop was not as large as originally expected," says Gary Adams, CEO of National Cotton Council (NCC). "In fact, it got quite a bit smaller. And so as a result, the stocks-to-use situation, which we went into the year with a lot of stocks, we're getting into a year with a much smaller level of stocks. So, the overall balance sheet has tightened up."

Not to mention, cotton is seeing a good ol’ revival.

Refresher: Last year, the World Ag Outlook estimated ending stocks landing at 7.25 million bales versus the 3.9 million bale estimate for this marketing year, which ends in July.

That’s a gin-erous difference.

Zoom out: Given the expectations that COVID-19 would ravage the textile industry, cotton is in a solid spot thanks to $timmy checks and a resurgence in global consumer demand.