🐄 Smoked Out + Regrow Gets Dinero, Cotton on Storm Watch, and more...

In case you hadn’t heard, fires in the northwestern portion of the U.S. have been blazing for weeks. And those soaring flames are souring milk production...

The National Interagency Fire Center says more than 2.2M acres have burned in 104 large fires in 12 states.

And where there’s smoke, there’s less milk: Those fires have an impact on human health, and researchers are discovering the implications to animal health as well. University of Idaho assistant professor of animal, veterinary, and food science Amy Skibiel says it’s no cow-incidence poor air quality has an impact on milk production.

Her study on a small group of dairy cows showed they produced three pounds less milk after exposure to poor air quality for seven days.

That’s a major dip: Western dairy farms produce 40% of the nation’s milk—with California topping the charts and Idaho producing the third-largest amount of milk in the states.

Results of their study also showed higher rates of mastitis and increased risk of mortality for calves.

Udderly sad: Not only are the fires, drought, and high temperatures affecting milk production, but the poor conditions are also affecting grazing land quality and quantity.

All these factors are causing some producers to cull their herd ahead of normal schedule.

What’s next: Skibiel hopes more research within the next year will result in a better sense of the impacts smoke has on cattle. Because wildfires, unfortunately, aren’t going away anytime soon.

Quick Hits

→ Chlorpyrifos gets axed. After 55 years of being commercially available, the pesticide will be banned by the EPA for use on food crops after linkages to health problems in children.

→ LP prices heat up. A mix of plateauing production and increased exports have liquid propane prices reaching top tier levels as producers approach corn harvest drying season.

→ AgTech funding for days…

Apeel: The food waste reduction company focused on extending food freshness snagged $250M in Series E funding to hit a $2B valuation.
Sound Agriculture: The microbe and nutrient-focused startup revealed a $45M investment lead by Leaps by Bayer.

→ Cargill eyes cocoa sustainability. The agribusiness giant will partner with vertical farming leader AeroFarms to research how to improve cocoa bean yields and discover climate-friendly farming practices.

→ Nutrien not worried. The global fertilizer giant shrugged off concerns that BHP’s newest Canadian potash mining project —which will produce 4.35M tons of potash—will ding either their revenue or demand for the popular crop nutrient.

→ No shocker here… Beyond Meat has filed for a trademark for the name ‘Beyond Milk,’ giving the plant-based food company optionality to expand into the trendy plant-based milk market.

Regrow, the ag software startup, raised $17M in Series A funding to help roll out its carbon sequestration monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) tool.

Who’s at the table: Microsoft’s venture unit M12 was back after an initial investment in the company. Cargill (agribusiness giant), VC Ajax Strategies (climate-focused), and VC Tenacious Ventures (Aussie agrifoodtech) also threw in some chips this round.

Regrow sprouted from two ag sustainability startups, FluroSat and Dagan, this February. The ag carbon market software space is getting crowded fast with competitors like CIBO, Indigo, and Nori. But Regrow says they have something the others don’t: objectivity.

Keep the $$$ out of it: Mixing MRV capabilities with the carbon market itself creates conflicts of interest, according to Regrow CEO Anastasia Volkova.

So instead, Regrow powers the sustainability programs of key players without deciding on the price of the credit or making the payment.

A-B-C, easy as M-R-V: Regrow cuts verification costs using integrations with farm management systems, satellite imagery, and Dagan’s signature Operation Tillage Information System (OpTIS). These tools map out cover cropping and tillage verifying to supplement farmer records—without the need for manual checking.

Tropical Storm Fred has cotton farmers looking for the extra spin cycle button to dry things out.

The storm also struck economists with a mild case of supply fears, leading cotton prices to reach levels not seen in 10 years.

Add this to the mix: Prior to the fears of Fred, the USDA threw a curveball and cut yield and production expectations for this growing season.

In the report, they placed U.S. production for 2021 at 17.25M bales. Although lower than earlier estimates, that’s still an 18% increase over last year.

It’s not often that both supply and prices are expected to be higher, but last year’s ending stocks were low, thanks to decreased 2020 production and strong demand.

That demand has continued to strengthen in 2021 across the globe, so when the market doubted how big this year's crop would be, prices jumped.

How high? The USDA expects farmers to see a price of 80 cents per pound, which is 13 cents higher than last year.