Good morning.
It’s another scorcher for much of corn country today (read Story #1) but if there is any set of species that deserves a break from the heat, it’s probably not us humans…
…it’s our friendly pollinator pals. Per the USDA, we should be celebrating them as it’s National Pollinator Week.
Pollinator species, such as bats, birds, bees, butterflies, moths, and other insects, play an essential role in facilitating the production of much of our food supply.
With more than 100 U.S.-grown crops banking on their abilities, here’s to the winged wingmen that, literally, help keep food on the table.
Stories:
P.S. This is the last week for the Reader Survey! Help out the Magnetic team and answer our 30-second questionnaire today. Survey now.
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U.S. Corn Starting to Sweat... |
Record-breaking heat waves across the U.S. have the corn crop sweating.
Intense heat paired with existing or developing droughts is causing commodity markets to skyrocket and early predictions to form - some forecasters even calling for 2012-level price spikes.
Feeling the (barometric) pressure. According to Eric Snodgrass, principal atmospheric scientist at Nutrien Ag Solutions, a ridge of persistent high pressure is to blame for much of this temperature tantrum.
His models suggest that the pressure could continue over the center of the country into July. Another contributing factor is that the jet stream is farther north than its typical position for June.
Here comes the sun: Within the last week, there have been more than 1,853 heat records broken in the US - with heat advisory warnings issued for an area stretching from Kansas to West Virginia, according to Jim Wiesemeyer, Pro Farmer Washington analyst.
Riding the bull (market): "In the next two to three weeks we could see quite a violent upswing like you saw on 1988 and 2012. I think we're going to the moon, and that's the opportunity as a seller when you want to start really thinking about how are you going to start providing some protection for the long-term," noted Bob Utterback, Utterback Marketing.
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→ Glyphosate gets another shot with EPA. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to take another look at glyphosate to better assess if it’s harmful to humans, wildlife, or the environment.
→ Regrow’s got Cheerios on the brain. General Mills announced a partnership with Regrow Agriculture to monitor farm practices and their environmental impacts across 175 million acres of farmland in North America, Europe, and South America.
→ Putting the brakes on Monarch Tractor? The electric, driver-optional smart tractor company was halted by California’s OSHA division when it denied a proposed amendment to a regulation from the 1970s requiring self-propelled equipment to have an operator when in motion.
→ No leaky bucket in Nebraska. A state climatologist confirmed that the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest aquifers, is not at risk of going dry even with the current drought in the Great Plains.
→ Big ag bills on the docket. The Senate Ag Panel will vote on both the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act and the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act tomorrow.
→ Silos sliding in to save the day. Ukraine will receive the first of many temporary grain storage facilities to aid in the 15M tonnes of space shortage due to the Russian invasion.
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The SEC & Livestock Lowdown |
"No, the SEC won’t let us be…" is the tune the National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association are singing.
The SEC’s latest ruling will require publicly traded companies to disclose their direct (scope 1), energy/electricity consumption (scope 2), and supply chain emissions (scope 3).
What’s at steak? According to the NPPC and NCBA, the greenhouse gas disclosure rule would place an unnecessary burden on producers who supply meat to publicly traded retailers, processors, and restaurants. Both note that it would be another expensive reporting mechanism that won’t improve environmental performance and is a violation of federal law (asking for confidential information).
Plus, this: The federal government has acknowledged the difficulty in calculating emissions on the farm or ranch level is virtually impossible.
Soundbite: "With cattle producers facing record inflation, rising input costs and labor shortages, another bureaucratic rule from Washington is a burden we cannot afford," said NCBA President Don Schiefelbein. "Policymakers should be focused on lowering costs and solving the real problems facing farmers and ranchers, not creating more complex rules that require a team of lawyers to understand."
In their filed comments to the NPPC and NCBA, the groups asked that the SEC reconsider its unnecessary climate disclosure requirements under Scope 3 of the proposed rules. More than 6,700 letters from individual cattle producers were also submitted to SEC commissioners and Congress. Numerous ag organizations filed comments in coalition with the NPPC and NCBA.
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Magnetic's Must-See Stuff |
The Ogallala Aquifer that we mentioned in today’s Quick Hits isn’t just situated under its main state of Nebraska. The water table is spread out across 174,000 square miles, touching portions of seven other states.
Can you name the seven?
Answer at the bottom of the email.
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Back to the (Cattle Markets) Future |
Leandro Hernandez / Getty Images
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Wall Street investors have all kinds of software to help predict markets for a trading advantage, but cattle and corn markets are a different beast.
Enter a group of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) students who developed software to predict cattle markets. Graduating seniors Jordan Baumeister, Dustin Reff and Trevor Borman are computer science students who used AI and data science to develop accurate models.
The backstory: A long time ago (29 years) in a land (not so) far away… Ron Ragsdale, a cattle rancher, worked with SDSMT student Todd Gange on the very same problem. He shared his pen and paper calculation predictions using equations with Gange.
Soundbite: "What he did was genius," Gagne says. "He looked at the futures market for both cattle and corn and backed out all the costs needed to fatten his calves. He used 187 variables, not just feed. He included the costs of the lights in his barn, vaccination, and fuel. This way, he knew what he could pay for his calves to make a profit in the future."
Gange took his calculations and beefed them using a computer program he and his wife had created in college. The program predicted risk vs. reward and best times to buy and sell.
Now, years later, the three SDSMT students are continuing to improve and rebuild this original system and will continue to coach the next team as the next phase of the project begins.
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Beyond Nebraska, the Ogallala Aquifer also touches South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.
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Written & Edited by Aaron Dunajeski, Amelia VanLandegen, Rachel Robinson, Ashley Scoby, and Travis Martin
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