📊 Corn Stocks Get Skinny / 🐢 Epic Berry Robots /🌾 India's Farmers Pounce

Honey, I shrunk the...corn pile.

Last Friday’s WASDE report for the month of April projected U.S. corn supplies or carryover to be lower than expected, which drove futures for the grain to prices not seen in eight years.

So are they hiding it under a bushel basket or what? Not quite. Instead, the tighter supply stems from stronger demand, both domestic and foreign.

The corn demand shifted across the following categories:

Feed use: +50 million bushels
Ethanol Usage: +25 million bushels
Exports: +75 million bushels

The shrink ray missed the soybean pile, though, as there were some tweaks but no major updates. The USDA is predicting slightly lower crush, seed, and residual use but anticipates slightly higher exports. Soybean ending stocks remained unchanged from March at 120 million bushels.

Bottom line: While the data didn’t cause fireworks quite like the previous week’s Prospective Planting report, many will be eyeing 2021 data closely to gauge where the country’s commodities are headed in the fall.

→ Tyson’s race to retail. For the first in time 25 years, Tyson Foods opened a new poultry plant. The Humboldt, Tennessee site will boost supply for the pandemic-sponsored surge in chicken sales at grocery stores.

→ North Dakota is parched. Governor Doug Burgum has declared a state of emergency after the U.S. Drought Monitor revealed that 94% of the state is in a severe drought category.

→ Beefing up ag’s allowance. The USDA requested a 16% increase [+$3.8 billion] in their budget over initial 2021 submissions to ramp up rural development, scientific research work, and climate change initiatives.

→ Cucurbits want a fair shake. The International Trade Commission is hosting virtual hearings to dive into alleged unfair trade practices from foreign partners that are hurting the U.S. cucumber and squash industry.

→ Carbon contracts are...coming? The Ag Economy Barometer from Purdue University noted that while 30-40% of farmers surveyed were aware of financial programs to sequester carbon, only 1% had signed any sort of contract.

→ A machinery state of mind. Machinery Pete shared that the used equipment market is the hottest he’s seen in over a decade, a mix of commodity price surges, low inventory, online auctions, and more.

→ Brazil says, ‘light on the soy.’ With tight global soybean supplies, the Brazilian government reduced biodiesel blending requirements to 10% from 13% for diesel fuel to mitigate sky-high prices at the pump.

Tortuga AgTech is ramping up to build hundreds of automated harvest robots, and the company has producers pickin’ and investors grinnin’.

Refresher: In 2017, Tortuga secured $2.4 million in seed capital to begin designing robots that could harvest fresh, delicate fruits grown in controlled environments (AKA -- greenhouses). They began designing the robots for strawberry harvest, and by 2019, they’d scraped together another $5 million to further refine the product.

And now, this: Venture capitalists, including big-wigs like eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning, have climbed aboard the harvest train...in a big way. A newly announced Series A round will dump $20 million into Tortuga’s bank accounts.

The startup will use the cash to build hundreds of new robots that will pick berries in 2022. Using a grower-contracted model of traveling robots, the funds will also be used to pay employees operating robot fleets.

With a unique history of putting growers first during research and development, investors see big things on the horizon for Tortuga. Larry Page, managing director of Lewis & Clark AgriFood, put it this way: “We believe Tortuga can be the world leader in on-farm technology and automation.”

While we’re here: AppHarvest, the Nasdaq-listed high-tech greenhouse startup, is getting in on the robot action as well. The company purchased Root AI, a robotics-focused firm that claims that its Virgo robots are the world’s first “universal harvester.”

The price tag? A cool $60 million.

MAGNETIC'S MUST-SEE STUFF

Innovate at the farm gate. American Farm Bureau is looking to award $165,000 to startups addressing challenges for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.

Support the red, white, and blue. Meredith Bernard (aka @thisfarmwife) teamed up with The Veterans Project for a new line of merch where proceeds support those freedom fighters who gave their all.

Reader Q&A: Justin from Iowa asked, “I joined Clubhouse based on the newsletter from a few weeks back. Are there any “clubs” you would recommend we join?”

The AgTech & Agriculture Club is the place to be for interesting conversations from top-notch investors, entrepreneurs, journalists, and enthusiasts. They’ll keep you posted on weekly rooms worth joining!

*Got a question for the Magnetic team? Ask away.

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The past year has been tough for Indian farmers, and the hits just keep coming.

New farm laws. Protests. The pandemic. Low rice exports. Fertilizer price increases.

Some context: Mid-March marked four months since farmers have been protesting new farm laws that they believe will allow corporate interests to take advantage of them.

Their fear? The eventual elimination of subsidies that have been critical to Indian farmers making ends meet and helped India grow enough food for their 1+ billion population.

So to commemorate the continuation of the protests, farmers decided to picnic on India’s train tracks, blocking and delaying over 50 passenger and commodity-filled trains.

And as if battling their own government wasn’t enough, farmers were dealt new blows last week as:

Currency woes led to a 20%+ drop in rice export prices.
Fertilizer companies raised prices by ⅓ to offset global potash and phosphate price even though the Indian government said, “Not now.”