Marketing-Communications

How to Boost Your Auction Success: Expert Tips for Selling Used Farm Equipment in the Digital Age

Thu, 29 May 2025 15:49:10 GMT

With over 70 years of combined experience in the used farm equipment auction market, hosts Casey Seymour and Machinery Pete have picked up some good ideas to help farmers and dealers get the most out of their auctions.

According to Pete, there’s two schools of thought among most farmers when it comes to choosing an auctioneer: You go with your gut — which often leads straight to the local auction company — or you pick based on the best marketing and social media promotion, which he recommends.

“The auction companies have all lifted their (marketing) games because they have to; it’s such a competitive business,” Pete says. “If they don’t, farmers know they will get left behind.”

Another selling point to emphasize is the level of care that has gone into the machines being sold. If it’s a Gold Key-certified tractor, lead with that. Also, take a ton of pictures and videos, from all different angles, both inside and outside the machine.

Seymour says it also helps to call in your local dealer for support. Let them know the date of your auction and ask them to give a testimonial on how well you take care of your equipment.

“It’s so simple, but nobody’s doing it yet, and it costs zero dollars to do,” Pete adds. “And you already have this great relationship with your dealer. But part of it is, as farmers, God bless ’em, they don’t want to impose on anyone, and they don’t want to say how great their stuff is.”

It can also pay off to list your equipment in a retirement auction instead of a consignment auction, Seymour says. Machinery Pete data shows used equipment often commands higher bids at retirement sales, while consignment auctions tend to bring out the bargain hunters.

Talking Corn Heads

Aaron Fintel, used equipment specialist for 21st Century Equipment, joined Seymour for a deep dive into the evolution of combine harvesting heads.

Fintel says hinged flex draper heads are growing in popularity over rigid corn heads, and even in regions like the High Plains, where topography is mostly flat, farmers are setting aside the rigid corn head in greater numbers.

Due to the average farm size growing with consolidation and farmers having to transport combines longer distances, folding corn heads are seeing higher farmer interest and trade-in value on the used market.

Another trend to note, Fintel and Seymour say, is that more farmers are hanging onto their corn heads longer, often preferring to use the same heads for upward of three to even five or six harvests before trading it in.

“From a dealer standpoint, as weird as this is to say, it’s easier to get rid of the combine than both heads that come with it,” Fintel says. “The next guy doesn’t need heads; he just needs a combine and the heads that he has still work fine.”

Rounding out this week’s episode is a conversation with Ryan Stien, go-to-market manager for digital products, on John Deere’s Operations Center and how farmers are using it to collect, organize and view machine telemetry data in real time. And Rich Posson talks about where the ag economy stands and how cautious consumer behavior is trickling down into the used equipment market.

Watch the full episode of Moving Iron on YouTube by clicking this link.

Market With Purpose: Set Achievable ROI Goals

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

In times of tight margins, every purchase must have a purpose with ROI top of mind. As you optimize your equipment, crop inputs, farmland and business intellect for the year ahead, take the time to plan your work, and then you work your plan.

In keeping with the “purchase with purpose” theme for the week, let’s talk about farming with purpose and marketing with purpose.

I’m going to start with farming with purpose. More than a few years ago, I wrote a booklet titled, “Making the Family Farm the Family Business” that included writing a mission statement, vision statement and values statement.

Too many farms try to operate without those things. Without these guiding principles in writing, framed and hanging on the wall, the risk is you’re farming just to keep busy — the least rewarding kind of work. With a mission or a destination of what you want your business to be, and an understanding of what it could be, the work takes on purpose.

Let’s also consider the idea of marketing with purpose. It seems too many farmers view a cash grain sale as a “give up.” I can’t believe how many times I’ve heard, “I guess the price won’t go any higher, I might as well sell.” Or how about this one: “I guess I better sell before prices drop even more.”

A cash grain sale should be a celebration — your opportunity to cash in on the efforts of an entire growing season. If you have a long-term business plan that includes long-term goals for your business, and if making cash sales now helps to advance your business toward reaching those goals, cash sales can (and should) be a celebration.

“When a single year’s marketing effort is tied to longer-term goals, you’ll develop a constructive, disciplined approach to selling each year’s production.”

If reaching a marketing goal allows you to reach a higher goal in your overall business plan, you’ll look at marketing as a single step in your business and not an end-all or terminal step. When a single year’s marketing effort is tied to longer-term goals, you’ll develop a constructive, disciplined approach to selling each year’s production.

Perhaps the easiest way to market with purpose is to set return-on-investment goals. If you know a 5% return on 20% of expected production will allow you to make progress toward the long-term goals of your business, it should be easy to sell 20% of expected production at a 5% ROI. And it should be easy to make the sale even if prices are trending higher because there is a reason for the sale. Write it down and have the discipline to follow through.

Write the mission, vision and value statements. Write goals for your business (and your business partners). Write a marketing plan that will move your business toward achieving long-term, high-level goals. Market with a purpose.

Quick Outlook

Most areas are handling more corn and soybean bushels than ever before. Your first priority is to keep you and all those around you safe. Priority No. 2 is to have a positive return on 2024 crops — probably the most expensive crops you’ve ever grown. Set a reasonable ROI goal and enter price orders to capture opportunities.

Your Next Read: You Need To Invest With Intent To Create Your Legacy

4 Tips to Grow as a Leader

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:25:09 GMT

Sometimes stepping into leadership hardly feels like a choice, especially when you hear the age-old phrase: Someone should do something. It really hits home when you look around and realize that someone is you.

If your journey into a leadership role is imminent, one of the most important ways to get started is through cultivating influence, but building influence isn’t an egotistical thing. It’s about getting the attention of those who need to hear from you to trust your message.

Two ways to build influence are through using effective communication and building a network.

First, influential communication is about meeting people where they are and communicating with them in a way they understand and accept. For example, let’s say you need to step into leadership in your own farm operation with employees or family members. Does the process of communication currently work in your operation? If not, consider building your own communication norms.

Everyone’s different today. Some like to text, some like to pick up the phone, some like group apps, and some don’t. One of the easiest fixes is to get a norm that everyone’s bought into and agrees to use. Try to practice active listening to better understand the needs and concerns of your team.

Next, surround yourself with a support network of mentors, peers and friends who are able to provide guidance, encouragement and a safe space to share your fears and doubts.

Here’s a recap of some tried and tested ways to grow as a leader that you might want to consider going into the new year:

Join a Board of Directors
Get involved in your local community, whether it’s ag-based or not, by volunteering to serve on a board of directors or get yourself elected to the board of a corn or soybean association, town council or rural electric cooperative. You’ll learn new skills and be involved in high-level decisions that provide new insights into your business.

Build a Peer Advisory Board
If you can’t join one, build one. By assembling an advisory board for your own
business with people who have an outside perspective on your operation (not family or staff), you’ll create deeper relationships with professionals and mentors you trust. It’s a great way to bounce new ideas around with those not too close to the business.

Join a Peer-Group Network
A peer-group network managed by a third-party facilitator is a fantastic way to deepen your relationships with like-minded, growth-oriented producers. Share stories, benchmark your financials, and be ready to get valuable feedback.

Attend Workshops
Get out and go! If you don’t have at least one or two professional conferences or workshops on your calendar each year, you should start researching a few. Content, learning and engaging with others is necessary to keep approaches fresh. Hint: Top Producer Summit is coming up!

Stepping into leadership is a journey that requires courage and self-awareness. While the fear of leadership is natural, don’t let it be a barrier to personal and professional growth.

Remember, leadership is not about being fearless but about finding the strength to lead despite your fears.

2024 Top Producer Summit
Feb. 5 to 7
Kansas City

Gulke: 'We've Run Out of Demand'

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 15:00:58 GMT

U.S. farmers are harvesting record-breaking corn and soybean crops, according to USDA’s Nov. 9 Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates . While the storyline for much of the growing season has been record production, now farmers are faced with an even bigger problem—increasing production without corresponding demand increases.

USDA pegs the 2016 corn production at 15.2 billion bu., up 1% from the October forecast and up 12% from last year. The national average corn yield is forecast at 175.3 bu. per acre, up 1.9 bu. from the October forecast and up 6.9 bu. from 2015.

U.S. soybean production is forecast at 4.36 billion bu., up 2% from October and up 11% from last year. The national average soybean yield is pegged at 52.5 bu. per acre, up 1.1 bu. from last month and up 4.5 bu. from 2015.

Most pre-report estimates called for a decrease in corn and a 6/10 increase in soybean yield, says Jerry Gulke, president of Gulke Group .

“We thought they would raise corn,” he says. “But they raised it 1.9 bushels, which is pretty big.”

In the last several reports, as USDA has increased production for both crops this year, Gulke says, demand followed suit. But that largely stopped Nov. 9.

“What we feared was at some point in time you run out of demand,” he says. “That’s what we saw today.”

With supply rising faster than use, USDA raised corn ending stocks to 83 million bu. “The thing that concerned us most is they translated most of the new production into ending stocks, which in essence is saying we can’t really find a home for all of it,” Gulke says.

Soybean ending stocks also increased by 85 million bu. to 480 million bu. USDA pointed to reduced soybean crush and reduced demand for soybean meal.

“Now you have too much of everything,” Gulke says. “All this translated into corn going down 12 cents and beans are down are 24 cents after the report. The party is over for now.”

Looking forward, to see a dramatic increase in prices, a major crop production problem will have to surface in the U.S. or in South America.

“Fortunately we had a big crop to cover some of the downside in prices,” he says.

Listen to Jerry Gulke’s full commentary:

How to Make Communications and Marketing Work for Your Farm

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 19:03:48 GMT

Creative problem-solving for your farm business doesn’t have to be complicated. Erin Dickson and Leah Halverson of Ten Acre Marketing boiled down the tactical basics of communications and marketing during the 2023 Top Producer Summit in Nashville.

In order to make marketing and communications work, the following questions need to be answered:

1. What is something that needs to change?

Not only do we need to identify challenges, but we also need to ask ourselves “what needs to grow?”

2. What does success look like?

Measuring success is crucial to determine when you’ve “won.”

3. Who is your audience?

This includes who cares, needs to care and who is going to care in the future.

4. Where can you meet them?

Establishing where your audience is (physically and online) is crucial to communication. When it comes to social media, Halverson believes “the only thing worse than not having a social media presence is having a stagnant one.”

5. What is your message?

Clearly define what makes your farm different or special as well as your value proposition.

6. How will you do it?

What will you do to reach your audience where they’re at with the relevant message to achieve your goals?

For additional coverage from the 2023 Top Producer Summit, check out:

2023 Top Producer of the Year award winner: Farming for the Future in the Heart of the Mississippi Delta

2023 Executive Women in Agriculture Trailblazer award winner: Ohio Farmer Takes to Heart Business Innovation and Grassroots Leadership

2023 Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon award winner: From Seedstock to Meat Case, A Vision Becomes Reality for Nebraska Rancher

3 Tenets Of A Decade-Forward View of the U.S. Food System

Invest in Your Farm's Reputation with Social Media

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 17:43:48 GMT

From attracting landlords to honoring employees to sharing a behind-the-scene view of a modern farm, social media can be a vital tool for your operation.

Consider what passersby think when they see your headquarters or machinery on the highway. Do you want them to draw their own conclusions, or do you want to be the one telling the story?

Be Proactive

Fourth-generation farmer Leah Halverson can remember the exact moment she told her family they needed to get their operation, Black Gold Farms, on social media.

“My dad said, ‘But then everybody’s going to know what we’re doing!’” she recalls. “This led to what we call a drive by; we decided if you can drive by and see what we’re doing on the farm, then we should be able to talk about it.”

Have a Gameplan

Through her business, Ten Acre Marketing, Halverson and her team help growers communicate their farms’ stories through social media. The first steps, she says, are to define your goals, best tools and a plan for action. Halverson suggests a marketing plan checklist:

1. Ask yourself what you’re looking to achieve. Some examples include attracting employees or developing new buyer relationships.

2. Set an investment plan. This includes time, money and resources.

In 2012, Madeline Peterson, social media strategist at Peterson Farms in Loretto, Ky., and 2016 Top Producer of the Year winner, kickstarted her farm’s social presence with a similar checklist in mind.

“We’re most interested in creating meaningful content for the community while weaving in the narrative of Peterson Farms’ legacy that we want to leave behind,” Peterson says. “Sometimes it’s thought-provoking content, other days it’s feel-good content, such as a sunset.”

For years, Peterson has posted weekly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. She recently joined TikTok since video content is becoming more relevant.

Power of a Brand

While these marketing stories are optional now, some, including Halverson, speculate telling your farm story will one day be essential.

“I don’t think you should be worried about getting asked about your operation’s practices, but I think you should be expecting that it’ll be part of your checklist each year in the future,” she says. “If that time comes, we have to make sure we have messaging and branding in place, and that we’re following through with it.”

The bottom line, according to Halverson and Peterson: Don’t be bashful in learning new skills and promoting your operation — it just might pay off.

More on social media:

Young Farmer Makes History, Uses Video Games and YouTube to Buy $1.8M Land
Tell Your Unique Farming Story Without Getting Lost in the Science

Head to Head: A Plan for Low Prices

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

Q:

Producers have been hearing for months about how low prices can go in light of record-planted corn and soybean acres. As we continue to remove some of the uncertainty with these crops, what would be your downside objectives for both December corn and November soybeans?

A:

Scenario Planning Paints Picture

Naomi Blohm, Senior Market Advisor, Stewart-Peterson

For December corn, if $5 support is taken out, the next short-term objective is $4.50. This could happen by mid-August with good weather. There is substantial support at $4.50, as it’s the long-term uptrend for the continuous weekly December corn chart. With current acreage estimates, yields of 160 bu. per acre and $4.50 support breaks, the next technical low is $4 at harvest.

If USDA accounts for prevent-plant acres and reduces corn acreage and if yield is average or better, then $4.50 will likely be the low for December futures, with prices between $4.50 and $5.50 into year end.

Unlike corn, soybean fundamentals have a negative slant because of ample global supplies. The first support on November beans is $12, which will likely be hit by mid-August with good weather. If $12 fails, then the next target lower is $11.25 to $11, which is where the uptrend holds for the continuous weekly, November chart. If corn breaks below its long term up-trend price of $4.50, then soybeans will likely break below $11, leaving $10 as the harvest target.

If USDA accounts for prevent-plant acres, $11 November futures should hold, allowing prices to bounce between $11 and $12.50 for November futures towards year end.

A:

Implement Discipline When Marketing

Brian Bastings, Commodity Research Analyst, Advance Trading

If there is one thing certain, it’s that there will be surprises this fall, which will ultimately affect corn and soybean price direction.

These could range from a surge in Chinese purchases to unprecedented export competition from South America to economic developments that directly affect the purchasing power of overseas buyers.

These types of events can send prices much lower, or higher, than we had anticipated. In this environment, our guiding principle is there always has been, and will be, uncertainty in price prediction.

However, this uncertainty can be turned into opportunity by implementing disciplined management strategies.

Current fundamentals indicate a significant downside price potential for corn and soybeans. With respect to corn, a record harvest and weak export demand could see December futures trade to $3.50 to $4. A bumper soybean crop and stronger export competition from South America could send November soybean futures to $9.50 to $10.

It’s likely both lows would be seen at harvest. Again, amid the uncertainty in commodity price trends, successful marketing is tied directly to implementation of risk management strategies.

Wheat Journal

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 07:44:14 GMT

Survey Says Promotion Pays

A survey commissioned by U.S. Wheat Associates shows that wheat promotions are paying off. From 2000 to 2007, U.S. wheat growers invested an average of $10 million per year to promote wheat products overseas. For every dollar invested, growers received $23 back in increased net revenue, the analysis says.

The study was funded by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Market Access Program and conducted by Harry M. Kaiser, director of the Cornell Commodity Promotion Research Program.

“One of the models we used showed the overall average revenue benefit to the wheat industry from combined producer and FAS expenditures was about $115 for each dollar spent,” Kaiser says.

Kaiser also quantified the impact of wheat export promotion. The model determined that cutting production by 50% between 2000 and 2007 would have reduced wheat exports by 17.1%, a total export loss of about 1.4 billion bushels or almost 172.7 million bushels per year.

U.S. Wheat Associates will use this information to plan and manage future activities. The full study can be found at www.uswheat.org .

Make Your Wheat Nitrogen Plan Now

This month, you should decide your plan of attack for applying nitrogen on wheat fields, says Farm Journal Associate Field Agronomist Missy Bauer.

Bauer says the big question for farmers right now is whether to apply nitrogen with a split-shot or single application.

“You should let the tillering of the plant tell you what to do,” Bauer encourages.

Currently, a healthy wheat plant should have three or four tillers. If the number of tillers is lower, consider a split shot of nitrogen, she says. By giving the plant a healthy dose of nitrogen in early spring, more tillers can be created.

With a split-shot application, Bauer explains, you’re not really putting on more nitrogen, you’re just dividing when you apply it.

“Don’t put off getting your tiller and stand counts. It’s important to start now,” she emphasizes.

With the late planting dates many farmers had to deal with in 2009, Bauer says, there’s a good chance tiller counts will be lower than normal.

Wheat Growers Ask for Cuban Trade

The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and almost 30 other groups are looking for additional congressional support of a bill designed to ease trade and travel restrictions with Cuba.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) will soon introduce their bill, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, and are working to add original cosponsors. The bill has already gained the support of many agricultural groups that see a significant opportunity to increase ag sales to Cuba.

The bill would require ag exports to Cuba to meet the same payment requirements as exports to other countries, eliminate a requirement that payments to U.S. ag sellers must pass through banks in third countries and lift restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba in order to facilitate closer trading relationships.

Since passage of the 2000 Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act, U.S. farmers have seen $4 billion in sales to the Cuban market. However, market potential in Cuba is limited due to trade restrictions, and Cuban buyers have told U.S. wheat industry leaders that buying from the U.S. is no longer tenable without trade reform. Trade restrictions with Cuba cost the U.S. wheat industry an estimated $40 million each year, according to NAWG.

Explore “How Wheat Works”

Take an interactive tour of the wheat industry with the Wheat Foods Council’s new online program, “How Wheat Works.” More than 700 people have planted a virtual wheat field so far, returning to harvest, mill, bake and virtually eat their final wheat-based product. Each of the steps takes a few minutes to complete and an e-mail will alert you to return to the site the following day to continue the next phase.

Users can choose to plant hard winter, soft winter or durum wheat. Watch as your field is planted and harvested for you, all while wheat information is presented in a short and easy-to-understand format. Through the process, viewers learn valuable information about the wheat industry, including explanations on classes of wheat, growing stages, harvest information and how wheat is transformed into food products that are found in grocery stores.

For each person who goes to http://www.wheatfoods.org/HowWheatWork-39/Index.htm and completes the program, the Wheat Foods Council and partners ADM and ConAgra Mills will donate 2 lb. of flour to Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to needy U.S. troops and their families.

Resistant Wheat Aims For Hessian Fly Gut

Wheat is hitting Hessian flies hard. Studies by Purdue University and USDA show resistant wheat plants stop Hessian fly larvae by destroying the fly’s midgut and its ability to absorb nutrients.

Within three hours of ingesting resistant wheat, the Hessian fly larvae midgut, similar to human intestines, showed abnormal microvilli, fingerlike appendages that extend inward from the walls of the midgut to increase surface area for nutrient absorption. About six hours after the pest had ingested resistant wheat, the microvilli were nearly destroyed.

“Some chemical or compound from the resistant plant is causing the microvilli to be disrupted, and it’s happening very quickly,” says Purdue entomologist Richard Shukle. “The midgut is certainly one of the major targets of the defense compounds elicited from a resistant plant.”
There are about a half dozen undeployed genes identified in wheat that offer high resistance to Hessian flies and could be deployed to defend plants. The key is to know which resistance genes to use, researchers say, as the Hessian fly is a flexible pest known to overcome several genes intended to protect wheat lines.

El Niño Brings Moisture to Southern Wheat

QT Weather meteorologist Allen Motew says the recent bout of moisture that has wreaked havoc on much of the Midwest is bringing good news to Southern wheat growers. In January 2009, much of the High Plains was experiencing below-adequate soil moisture conditions. This year is a different story, however, and it’s not over yet, he says. “A very wet ‘southern stream’ will bring 10" rain totals to California and the Gulf States, with 2" to 8" rains in Arizona, Texas and the Southeastern states over the next two weeks,” Motew says.

Stand or Kneel; Finding Common Ground

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 06:28:13 GMT

While controversy surrounds sporting events and athletes, AgDay host Clinton Griffiths shares his thoughts on finding common ground, being a good neighbor and helping build stronger communities.

More Layoffs at Deere

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 02:15:00 GMT

Agricultural machinery firm Deere and Co. said Friday that it was laying off nearly 500 employees in Waterloo, Iowa, just one week after it let more than 600 workers go at four U.S. locations.

The company said the decision was in response to softening demand for its products. With commodity prices falling in anticipating of big corn and soybean harvests, farmers are not expected to invest as heavily in new equipment in the coming months as in recent years.

What do you think about the latest layoff news from Deere? Join the conversation and see what other farmers are saying on the AgWeb discussion boards here.

Forget the Propaganda: Come Visit Our Farms

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 13:00:00 GMT

By John Rigolizzo, Jr.: Berlin, New Jersey USA

“This is just pure propaganda.”

When I heard Jennifer Jacquet utter this line in a video op-ed that tries to vilify farmers, I laughed so hard that I could have fallen out of the cab of my John Deere combine harvester.

If the comments weren’t so out-of-touch, I’d be amused because Jacquet is so unaware. She seeks to demonize people like me, a farmer in New Jersey. Instead, she describes her own ideas and behavior.

An associate professor of environmental studies at New York University, Jacquet is one of the on-screen stars in a 14-minute film, the first of three videos in a series about agriculture that was titled “We’re Cooked: Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet”, recently released by the New York Times.

“We’re Cooked” is in fact half baked, starting with its ridiculous title. The videos are a smug and obnoxious attack on agriculture—a one-sided account that misleads and even lies about the business of farming.

I can’t put it any better than Jacquet: “This is just pure propaganda.”

I’d find the whole thing outrageous and shameful if this mini-movie weren’t an unintentional comic masterpiece.

Jacquet sits in her bright and clean Manhattan office as she attacks the men and women who get dirt on their hands and mud on their boots as they work in fields, growing crops, raising livestock, and also raising children.

In the film, it might appear that farmers do not have time to appear in videos about agriculture. The moviemakers did not bother to include any original interviews with farmers.

For a flick about farming, you might think that the producers would have thought to send a camera crew to an actual farm inhabited by real farmers. Then they could have heard what we think about production, sustainability, technology, and more. That’s what a news organization that aspires to practice fair-minded and objective journalism would do.

Jacquet’s co-star in the anti-agriculture flick is Peter Lehner, who works at Earthjustice, an environmental outfit that appears to spend a lot of its time suing agricultural groups. The video reveals that he sits in his own shiny office, just like Jacquet, from which he delivers an absolutely adorable line: “I’m a lawyer and my client is planet earth!”

As a farmer, perhaps I should be reminding everyone who eats: “I’m a farmer and my client is you.”

This is what the propaganda series refuses to understand: Farmers work for everyone as we grow the food, feed, fiber and fuel the world needs.

We produce meat, fish, vegetables and potatoes for families as well as kale salad with quinoa and carrot ginger dressing for those whose tastes go in another direction.

Farming is one of America’s great success stories. We’re growing more food on less land than ever before. Food is more affordable and abundant today than at any point in history.

The majority of Americans appreciate farmers: 88 percent of them trust us, according to a 2020 poll . Another 58 percent rate our sustainability practices as good or excellent.

The New York Times and its ideological allies can say what they like—it’s still a free country—but most other Americans appear more inclined to thank a farmer . There’s even a song about it.

Just don’t expect Sen. Cory Booker , who happens to be my Senator from New Jersey, to hum along. He’s the third figure to appear on screen for an interview in the first video. He warns that farmers are among the worst planet-destroying people in the history of everything.

Then he partakes in the video’s accidental comedy: “There must be regulation,” he says, as if agriculture isn’t already regulated and required to abide by rules that touch every area of their business.

Perhaps someone should take the senator on an Uber ride from the Capitol, where he meets with lobbyists and delivers speeches, to a place about a mile to the west. It’s called the Department of Agriculture, and it’s a building full of regulators.

An old expression says that ignorance is bliss . I have a suggestion: Senator Booker and friends, I invite you to go online and take a virtual farm tour , hosted by a farmer, and see first-hand some of the practices we are putting in place to protect and enhance the environment we live and work in. Or better yet, come visit some local farms in South Jersey. Let’s make a day of it!

Forget the propaganda. Ask your questions and listen to their answers. In the world we are living in, there is no need to be ignorant.

John Rigolizzo, Jr. is a fifth generation farmer, previously raising 1,400 acres of fresh vegetables and field corn in southern New Jersey. The family farm now raises 70 acres of field corn and John advises local farmers on growing and marketing retail vegetables. John volunteers as a board member for the Global Farmer Network. This column originates at www.globalfarmernetwork.org

International Year of the Pulses: An Important Crop for India and the World

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 17:30:39 GMT

By V. Ravichandran: Tamil Nadu, India

Pulses are a very important crop for India. They are an important source of protein, grow quickly, generate good profits for farmers, and contribute to agricultural and environmental sustainability.

It was wise that the UN Food and Agricultural Organization has declared 2016 as the “International Year of Pulses.” The more farmers produce these crops and the more consumers eat them, the better off we’ll all be. This is true everywhere, though it’s especially true for my country of India, where the demand for pulses is higher than the supply—and the challenge of meeting the demand through smarter farming and better technology is an essential part of national food security.

“Pulse” is an agricultural term, familiar to farmers but less so to others. In India we grow many different kinds of pulses such as black gram, green gram, chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans, and black-eyed peas etc. On my farm, I grow black gram and green gram, known popularly in India as urd and moong, respectively. They are the major source of protein in our country and important ingredients in many traditional dishes.

Pulses belong to the legume family, which includes plants whose fruit grows in a pod, such as peanuts, soybeans, and green peas. Yet none of those foods are pulses. The term “pulse” refers strictly to dried seeds.

On my farm in Tamil Nadu, a state at the southeastern tip of India, I grow rice, sugarcane, cotton, and pulses on 60 acres—a small amount of land by the standards of North and South America, but a size that makes me one of the bigger farmers in my region, where most farmers hold less than three acres.

One of the best things about pulses is a feature that farmers see but consumers don’t: availability of water is the crucial factor influencing the choice of crops we grow. Pulses need much less water than other crop choices besides putting nitrogen back into the ground through its root nodules. These traits reduce stress on natural resources and replenish the soil, which is good for the environment. When used in rotation, pulses also have the power to boost the yields of my other crops. They can be an important factor in India’s agricultural environmental and economic sustainability

Pulses are a staple source of protein and fiber for Indians – the majority who are vegetarian. They’re even low in fat. These are truly some of the best crops in the world.

The challenge is that we don’t grow enough pulses here in India. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that our diets should contain 80 grams of pulse every day. In 1960, we produced more than 65 grams of pulses per person per day. Today, the figure is 31 grams—a decline of more than 50 percent. That means our pulse consumption is falling short by 60% from the WHO recommendation for our diet.

Much of this is due to population growth: We’re currently on track to overtake China as the most populated country in the world.

To meet India’s rising demand for pulses, we’ve had to rely on imports: 4.4 million metric tons last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, and probably more this year.

From my three decades of farming experience in different field crops, pulses get me the maximum profit in minimum duration and need less water. My fond wish is that India become self-sufficient in pulse production, making healthy food available for all and increasing India’s food security.

This crop has the potential to enhance the income of our smallholder farmers, many resource poor, who constitute the majority of India’s farming population. But we confront major challenges to get the best price in the market and fight pests that inflict substantial damage to the pulse crop.

It is encouraging that my farmer colleagues in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, with the support of their respective state governments and private players are able to realize the best price for their produce and at the same time, consumers are getting the best product. In my own state of Tamil Nadu, our state government is supporting an initiative to motivate farmers to take up pulse crops to create a win-win solution for the farmers and consumers.

To make the most of our potential—to grow the most food on the least land—we must also do a better job of fighting pod-borers, the insect larvae that attack our crops. Unfortunately, spraying chemicals to fight these pests is not effective.

We need a technological solution of the sort that revolutionized our cotton industry, when we moved from the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution and benefitted from advances in biotechnology. Genetically modified cotton helped us defeat the boll worm and the same technology can help us enhance the yield of pulse.

If we were to develop GM pulses, I am positive our productivity would boom. We wouldn’t have to rely on imports nearly as much, if at all. Most important, we’d create a domestic source of a food that fights malnutrition each time a child takes a bite from a meal that includes pulses among its ingredients.

GM pulses do not pose a major scientific challenge. Our brightest minds can innovate. Instead, we face a political problem: We must have the will to overcome the ideological objections of foreign activists and people who don’t struggle with hunger. Our Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi, has set a goal to double the income of India’s farmers by 2022. We can realize this goal much earlier by adopting new technologies in pulse cultivation and the active participation of government, farmers and private players together.

Let’s start the field trials as soon as possible—and make every year the International Year of Pulses.

Mr. V Ravichandran owns a 60-acre farm at Poongulam Village in Tamil Nadu, India where he grows rice, sugar cane, cotton and pulses (small grains). Mr. Ravichandran is a member of the Global Farmer Network, 2013 recipient of the Kleckner Trade & Technology Advancement Award and serves on the World Economic Forum New Vision for Agriculture Transformational Leaders Network.

Follow us: www.globalfarmernetwork.org | Global Farmer Network on Facebook | @GlobalFarmerNet and @World_Farmers on Twitter.

Young Farmer Jumps Headfirst Into Export Market

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:11:15 GMT

Chris Adams breaks bread with his buyers. In a farewell to convention and the middleman, Adams is delivering crops straight from his farmland to the doorsteps of foreign customers.

Welcome to direct marketing on steroids. Adams, 30, is transforming his North Dakota farming operation with an export business built on trust and boots-on-the-ground trade missions. When he packs crops into containers and slams the locks in place, the loads are sealed until buyer hands open the doors in South America. Old school is new school because Adams offers a face and handshake with every sale.

Adams Family Farm is a 9,000-acre operation 60 miles south of the Canadian border in Grand Forks. Sugarbeets, hard red spring wheat, hemp, soybeans, and six varieties of edible beans make up a diverse crop roster.

In 2014, Adams was a wide-eyed 27 in the midst of generational change, farming alongside his father, Steve, and preparing for a day when he’d steer the ship solo. “My dad built this farm into a little empire since he was 19 and I didn’t want to just take the reins, but I wanted to add to the operation and keep building. I started looking to try something different.”

Jumping headfirst

Adams grows cranberry beans and in 2014, had 30% to 50% of U.S. production sitting on his farm. Searching for the best market channel, Adams attended The Agriculture Program for Executive Producers ( TEPAP ) and developed a fortuitous friendship with Roger Gussiaas, owner of Healthy Oilseeds LLC in Carrington, N.D. Gussiaas, 56, exports specialty oilseed products (borage, flax, hemp and more) to 20 foreign countries. “I was really intrigued by Roger’s exports. He was a mentor and helped me learn the possibilities,” Adams says.

Cranberry beans spurred Adams to start seeking additional markets in 2014.

© ADAMS FAMILY FARM

“Chris was trying to move a hard-to-market bean and I said, “Why not look at exporting?’” Gussiaas recalls. “He’s not afraid of risk and is just a step ahead of some producers.”

Finger on the pulse, Adams knew the North Dakota Trade Office ( NDTO ) was organizing a trip to Colombia, and he moved with lightning speed to book a spot. “I was nervous and had no clue what I was doing, but I jumped in headfirst,” he explains.

Lindsey Warner, director of Marketing & Events for the NDTO, says Adams was ready to do things right: “His operation wasn’t initially set up for targeting international customers via the website and brochure marketing materials, but he was determined to export. We gave him some steps to follow and he quickly completed each one. He’s got a unique, super-friendly personality and is very adaptable.”

Trial by fire

On his first trade trip, Adams made multiple edible bean sales, meeting over 40 buyers in Bogota and Medellin. The Colombia meetings were the first in a chain that propelled Adams to long-term personal and commercial relationships: “I was 27 and a little fearful, but I didn’t care because I wanted to learn.”

“It’s a two-way street. Foreign buyers want a face to trust. They want to know you and your company and your family,” he adds. “Trade missions are invaluable to international agriculture business.”

Adams offers Philippine delegates an up-close view of his operation during a reverse trade mission in 2017.

© North Dakota Trade Office

Adams has brought the personal relationship business back to Grand Forks, hosting reverse trade missions and delegations at his operation. Potential customers walk across his soil, handle the edible bean crops and get a front-row seat from processing to loading. “I’ve worked with Chris on both outbound and reverse trade missions. When he hosts, he’s entirely unique. He shows potential customers that his team is the only one that touches the product,” Warner emphasizes.

“If U.S. farmers are interested in exporting, they can look to Chris as a fine example,” she adds.

“I admire and respect a guy like Chris who wants to take his farm to another step and market close to the consumer,” Gussiaas echoes. “He’s atypical and willing to look at new markets or new crops.”

Initially, Adams organized the freight on international orders and paid a custom processor to bag beans and load containers. This past spring, he bought a processing plant and has both hands on the beans until the container doors swing shut.

Adams doesn’t minimize the challenges of foreign market: “Face-to-face takes time and travel, and I have to make sure I keep a balance with my family and farm at home. Exporting requires risk as far as payment methods and product vulnerability until it’s at the customer’s door. Then again, risk is present in every aspect of farming.”

Gussiaas’ buyers are spread across the globe, but he says many U.S. growers would be surprised by the security of foreign payment methods: “Frankly, I’m completely comfortable collecting money from overseas because there are some very dependable methods of payment. Certainly there is risk, but that applies to foreign or domestic buyers.”

Will Adams export any crops beyond edible beans? Generally, soybeans and wheat are traded in volumes that keep players like Adams off the floor. However, Adams has traveled to the Philippines several times and sees a possible export seam for wheat: “They buy almost 100% North Dakota spring wheat for their mills. If I can develop a good relationship with a Philippine buyer, I could ship over a couple hundred metric tons of wheat. I’m very willing, but just haven’t got to that stage yet.”

Cannabis next?

Always looking for new opportunity, Adams grew hemp in 2017 for the first time and his 300 acres represented approximately 10% of North Dakota’s entire hemp production. His hemp for seed averaged close to 1,800 lb. per acre, vastly superior to typical yields of 800-1,000 lb. per acre in Canada. Hemp remains classified as a Schedule 1 drug in the U.S., and marketing options are limited. Adams’ hemp seed goes to Canada where it’s processed into oil and shipped back to the U.S.

Adams hopes to begin marijuana production in 2018 and he’s closely watching regulatory developments unfold at the state level. Initially, North Dakota will allow two growers and eight dispensaries. (Adams has turned in a letter of intent and next will begin the process of official application.)

Time never waits

Whether export expansion, custom cleaning, hemp or marijuana, Adams intends to wade directly into the market. Adept at dealing with risk, Adams stares a farming certainty in the face: More change is coming to his operation and he’ll stand alone when Steve steps entirely aside. Since Adams was a tiny child, he’s followed the giant strides of his father through their fields of Red River Valley soil. Adams walked away from a career in dentistry for a life in farming: It was painful to wake in time for 8 a.m. classes, but so easy to jump up at 5:30 a.m. to farm.

“My dad has done a phenomenal job and I won’t disappoint him,” Adams says. “I’m driven every day by the lessons he has taught me. Sure, I do things differently and I’m from a different era, but this is in my blood.”

Adams is still learning the ropes in more foreign countries, ready to connect with a waiting customer-base that can’t always grow its own food. “I was a little intimidated at the get-go, but now I love to go and meet buyers in other countries. I’m always amazed to see what’s sitting in the warehouses of my customers—bags of beans straight off of my farm.”

Cotton Just Went Farm to Table

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:09:05 GMT

The red dirt girl has come home to the farm holding a cotton sheet. The heirloom sheet’s white borders contain agriculture’s elusive full circle of seed, fiber, gin, mill and finished product wrapped in a single farm package. In a time of anemic commodity prices, Red Land Cotton is conjuring the past to carve the future and using agriculture’s permanent echo to go vertical.

The proof is in the product, and “Made in the U.S.A.” has never looked or felt as fine. The father-daughter team of Mark Yeager and Anna Brakefield is taking heirloom cotton linens from farm to home and protecting the purity in every link of the production chain. Planting, growing, picking, ginning, spinning, weaving and blasting over social media, Red Land Cotton is a farm and business marriage anchored deep in the red clay of Moulton, Ala.

In an age of sputtering cotton markets and shuttering gins, the remarkable road from seminal idea to farming venture was carved by 56-year-old Yeager, a maverick third-generation producer born with farming hands and entrepreneurial eyes. As a boy, Yeager watched in awe as a big operating neighbor drove by each harvest with a convoy of cotton equipment. Yeager swore he’d one day captain his own fleet: “I promised myself that would be me some day. I would have my own string of cotton pickers.”

In 1979, he bought his first 100 acres at 18, financed by the Federal Land Bank, and never looked away from a life in cotton. Two picker patents, 5,000 acres of crops, 500 head of cattle, one gin, and a Red Land business later, Yeager remains a hard-driving producer.

“Just taking what I get from the market without trying for more is not enough,” he says. “I want people to know my crops are the highest quality. Farmers should not be afraid to promote and look vertical.”

Yeager rotates corn and cotton on rolling ground prone to erosion. Water is quick to find a crack and open a gully, and Yeager protects his soil with a no till cover crop scheme. He planted two and one cotton on 30” skip rows in 2016 to save on seed costs and improve harvest time. With three John Deere 7760 roller pickers gobbling up six-row skip, it’s a fast graze across the fields.

“I can’t speak for others, but I’m not having yield troubles and I’ve nearly doubled my productivity,” he says. “Who enjoys putting 300 gallons of diesel in a picker every morning?”

In 1994, Yeager rolled quality, time and expense into a unified business bale and built his own gin with a single Continental 161 stand. Yeager Gin is a model of efficiency, managed under the keen eye of Tony Blankenship, 44, a jack-of-all-trades cotton master who oversees ginning, works year round on the Yeager operation, and farms his own land on the side.

“Getting a great crop is not enough and fieldwork alone doesn’t bring success in farming,” Blankenship says. “Mark is a fine businessman and knows how to sell his product.”

Yeager goes against convention and cleans his cotton twice to gain a higher grade, running everything through two 1950s Moss Continental lint cleaners at the lowest heat possible. No added moisture; and no questions of rotten cotton.

“I’ll always try new things to add value. Going vertical means your farm products must be distinct,” he says.

Ever the innovator, Yeager tinkered with the idea of branded cotton products until 2015, when he placed a video on Instagram of a forklift moving a cotton bale. His sister, living in Texas, saw the video and sent Yeager a message: “I’d love to have sheets made from Alabama cotton.”

Serendipity smiled and Yeager reached for the phone to call his daughter. It was time for the red dirt girl to return. With a degree in design and marketing, Brakefield, 27, had lived in New York for two years working in advertising, and Yeager wanted to harness those same skills on the farm. Her campaign awareness and psychology of advertising; his business acumen and insight into cotton production.

“We were ready to blend agriculture and art,” she says. “I knew daddy could grow and I knew I could market. We just had to fill in blanks.”

Yet, before those blanks were filled with knowledge from vendors, textile consultants and agriculture organizations, a cotton prototype was needed. Literally, where to find the finished fiber, fabric and feel? Yeager and Brakefield quickly found their Ur cotton source, a historical blueprint in the form of a 1920s family heirloom sheet. They took the pristine specimen to Cotton Incorporated in Cary, N.C., for reverse engineering to crack the weaving code.

Cotton, from Seed to Sheet

Click through the interactive timeline to see the year-long process of getting Red Land Cotton from the field to the bedroom.

Yvonne Johnson, director of product development for Cotton Incorporated , says the Yeager’s home textile venture speaks to the American farm legacy and modern agriculture: “Mark’s family has been farming for generations. Farm practices have changed over time and so have farming business innovations. Red Land Cotton is a great example of diversification and expansion.”

Formula in hand, a far bigger hurdle loomed. There was virtually no vertical cotton format entirely within the United States. Mills once took cotton from spinning to final product; no more. In March 2016, SpunLab in Graniteville, S.C., agreed to spin Yeager’s high grade bales into yarn, with no mixing from any other cotton sources: a guarantee of absolute purity.

Spinning nailed down, a weaving arrangement was made with Hamrick Mills in Gaffney, S.C.: 19,000 yards from 48 bales in the first run. Next, a finisher was located in Flinstone, Ga., to bleach part of the product and leave a portion natural. Finishing, cutting and sewing was established in North Bergen, N.J., before transport back to Moulton for packaging and shipping.

Born of the 2015 harvest, Red Land Cotton shipped its first sheet orders in October 2016. A good bit heavier than traditional material, the natural sheets contain discernible leaf and stem material in the fabric. Beauty in imperfection, it’s a tactile sense of history and the true feel of cotton.

Red Land has pulled tightly on the cords of family and farm for the Yeagers. Brakefield’s younger brothers are already in the operation: Mark, 23, handles row crops, and Joe, 21, tends the cattle.

“This venture has brought us closer together on the farm,” Yeager explains. “My daughter works 50-50 with me; my boys are on board; and my wife, Cassandra, is fired up about it all.”

Yeager average 6,000 bales per year, and says with an international cotton market stacked against U.S. farmers, the time is right for a venture to preserve the domestic identity of cotton. Seed to sheet, he’s banking on an American product tracked and traced to and from his ground.

“Millennials demand a story and I don’t blame them. We want people to identify with an average farming family growing a crop and making a product they really care about,” he says.

“Where does it come from? Who grows it? Who manufactures it?” Brakefield asks. “Those are market veins waiting to be tapped in new ways by U.S. farmers.”

This is Yeager’s version of farm to table, except with a “seed to sheets” twist.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to find profit and improve this operation because someday my kids will take over,” he adds. “I’m never going to sit still as a farmer or a businessman.”

For more information, visit Red Land Cotton .

2017 Outlook: Cotton, Rice Stuck in Static Markets

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:09:05 GMT

Despite a tepid forecast, cotton growers won’t “spit the bit” in 2017, particularly with no safe haven crop in sight, but rice producers may be in for a significant acreage dip.

Cotton

The echo of a 17% jump to 10 million acres in 2016 is fading fast for the U.S. cotton industry. With prices perpetually caught in the doldrums, shifts between 65 to 75 cents make for a sub-profitable cash price -- the third year of inadequate or subsistence level pricing for growers. John Robinson, Texas A&M University Extension cotton economist, doesn’t see much cause for change, and expects expect Dec. 17 futures to trade between 63 and 75 cents.

“We have a cluster of financial stress, carryover debt, banking concerns, and production problems in some areas, and a lot of growers, at least in Texas, can’t really switch to grain,” he says.

Signals from the futures market indicate scant change in demand. In 2016, China whittled down its 50-million bale reserve by shaving off 11 to 12 million bales, yet didn’t crater the market. However, Robinson expects China’s influence to remain in 2017, depending on how much of the reserve they unwind: “We’ve been in a weak demand situation for several years and may not get pulled out soon. All said, I expect prices will stay in the current range.”

Flat cotton prices and relatively weak grain prices may mean growers will hold the line on cotton acreage in 2017.

“Sometimes you can ease price pain by packing on pounds and good grades, but most growers are already stretching their crop to the fullest,” he says. “Financial stress is a fair description for cotton in 2017.”

Rice

Rice prices tottering in a see-saw motion don’t bode well for 2017. Two of the biggest sales of the 2016 marketing year registered in November, but didn’t provide fuel for a rice market fire: Prices haven’t responded and trends can’t find traction. As jumps to $10.30 cwt become falls to 9.70 cwt, rice prices are trapped in a cough-and-sputter cycle.

Jarrod Hardke, rice Extension agronomist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, expects Mid-South rice acres to fall by 15% to 20% in 2017. He forecasts Arkansas at roughly 1.2 million acres; Missouri at 200,000 to 220,000; Mississippi at 180,000; and Louisiana at 420,000; for an approximate total of 2 million Mid-South rice acres.

Hardke is hoping for sudden market interest, but doesn’t know where it might surface. “We already know our domestic demand, but we’re looking for something to pop up on the international market,” he says.

From a grower perspective, Hardke believes 2017 will be another year to weather the storm. Tremendous acreage in the Mid-South is uniquely suited to grow rice, and when rotated to other crops, doesn’t hit high yields.

“The market for rice growers in 2017 isn’t great,” Hardke adds. “I’d say everybody is disappointed and I don’t see many positive outlooks. Most people are just hoping to tread water.”

The editors at AgWeb.com are taking a look at experts’ projections for a variety of commodities in 2017 to help you succeed and be profitable in the coming year. Tune in periodically over the next six weeks as we add outlooks for corn, wheat, soybeans, cattle, machinery and more. Read all the outlook pieces here.

2017 Outlook: Hay Prices Rely on Basic Economics

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:52:46 GMT

If you’re a dairy farmer, the only thing keeping your business afloat may be the incredibly forgiving price of feed. Grains and alfalfa have been lower than average over the last several months. Barring a weather catastrophe next spring, analysts expect 2017 hay prices to remain in the same range they’ve been this year. Immense supply and lower than average demand will continue to put price pressure on hay, excluding premium alfalfa.

The June 2016 acreage report from USDA indicated 56.1 million acres of hay would be harvested this year. That jump in hay acreage, combined with near perfect growing conditions in most of the U.S., led to barns full of hay. Although this poses an upside for dairy farmers and hay tarp suppliers, it’s bad news for hay growers.

Use the slider above to see where alfalfa is grown, compared to where other types of hay are grown in the U.S.

“We have an incredible amount of hay,” says Dan Undersander with the University of Wisconsin forage team. “We had an above-average carryover, and we had tremendous yields. The supply is good.”

According to Western hay market expert Seth Hoyt of the Hoyt Report, there’s sufficient carryover in the West as well, with Idaho leading the pack. Evidence of this carryover appeared in the latest USDA hay price report, which quoted Idaho having one of the lowest prices in the seven Western states for “supreme” quality hay.

The huge gap in price between “supreme” quality hay and low quality hay, a trend that really picked up steam last year, will likely continue, according to Undersander.

“Quality hay has a good premium and that is likely to stay,” he says. “There will be opportunity to bring some hay in from the West, but of course the farther you go, the higher the transportation costs become.”

The drought the Eastern U.S. experienced this summer will help chew through the supply, but farmers in places like NY are also bringing in hay from Canada, according to Undersander. In addition, he says a long, cold winter has the potential to help reduce stocks as well.

Fortunately for livestock producers, corn prices have been down, too. However, Undersander warns that low corn prices throughout the winter won’t likely make the hay price go much lower.

“Usually when corn prices are down we put up more corn silage and that makes hay prices down,” he explains. “This year people didn’t put up as much corn silage because bunks were full of haylage.”

Undersander says the corn silage that was put up this year in the Midwest wasn’t as high quality as it should be, so farmers will feed more hay to make up for the lost nutrients.

Hay exports to China have increased compared to last year but fell sharply in September, Hoyt reports. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, hay exports to China were down 27% from August, but are still 51% higher than September a year prior. Hoyt credits the decline to the Chinese not being willing to pay exporters full price because of heavy shipments from June through August.

“According to sources, dairies in China were losing money due to low milk prices and were buying lower priced local hay,” he says.

Could the price bounce back?

“A hard winter will increase use as will the number of cows we feed through the winter,” Undersander says. “If we have an average to good growing season next year, prices will stay about where they are now.”

Barring a significant weather event next spring, demand won’t be able to outpace supply, and prices will remain relatively stagnant.

The editors at AgWeb.com are taking a look at experts’ projections for a variety of commodities in 2017 to help you succeed and be profitable in the coming year. Tune in periodically over the next six weeks as we add outlooks for corn, wheat, cotton, cattle, machinery and more. Read all the outlook pieces here.

2017 Outlook: Can 'King Corn' Keep its Crown?

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:52:42 GMT

The king of the crop world might lose ground in 2017. Weak prices combined with more appealing profits on alternative crops means corn acres could be down next year.

“In August, we put out projections that indicate we expect to see a drop in corn acreage and a jump in soybean acres in 2017,” says Pat Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri. “If you look at prices today it says plant beans, don’t plant corn.”

Westhoff warns, however, that input prices might reduce the advantage of soybeans. “Corn looks better when fertilizer prices are lower,” he says. “It also gets more complicated when you look at futures, corn prices look better in December 2017 than they do today.”

This isn’t the first year farmers have taken a harder look at swapping out corn acres for soybeans, either.

“Farmdoc showed this is the fourth year in a row where soybean profits beat corn profits in Illinois,” says Matt Bennett, corn and soybean farmer and owner of Bennett Consulting. “But now input prices have affected corn profitability and rotation is so important. I’m encouraging producers when planning for next year not to just make the assumption that the best thing to do is plant more soybeans.”

Bennett says it’s critical to pencil out the math with consideration for corn’s significantly lower input costs, including fertilizer, and compare overall profitability to soybeans before making a decision.

Although lower inputs might improve opportunity for profitability on corn, FAPRI research still predicts a drop in corn acres and a jump in soybean acres. In August, the group released predictions that corn will drop from 94.1 million acres in 2016 to 90.6 million acres next year. Soybeans should jump from 83.7 million acres to 85.7 million acres, meantime.

Prices could improve in 2017. “If you look at the numbers we put out in August, we’re in the high $3.00 range, but we don’t get to $4.00 in the next couple years,” Westhoff says. “But, as always, we’ll have surprises.”

Corn likely won’t climb as high as $5 without a massive drought, but Westhoff still expects price recovery with more normal weather conditions.

“This would lower average yields and that would help work through the massive stocks we’ve built up here and worldwide,” he says.

The U.S. has its own massive supply, but it’s not the only country in this situation. Westhoff says China is immensely important to watch.

“They have changed policies to allowed corn prices to drop in the country,” he says. “That’s positive for demand in the long run, but in the near term it means they’re going to be working to draw down their large government stocks. So it’s unlikely they’ll be a major importer in the short run.”

In South America, Westhoff says farmers should pay attention to weather and policy and how it’ll affect worldwide supply.

Leave emotion at the door when marketing in 2017. “The most important thing a producer needs to take from 2016 to 2017 is not so much the mistakes we make in marketing, but why are we making decisions this way,” Bennett says. “Our priority needs to be locking in profitability on our farm when it’s there and managing risk when it falls to levels we don’t expect.”

It’s important to go into the year with a plan, know breakeven levels for corn and soybeans and avoid putting all eggs in one price basket, he says.

“Start [selling] in small increments before you know production and get more aggressive once production is known,” Bennett adds.

As always, there is risk in marketing, so you might book your crop on the highest price, but there’s a chance you might miss out on opportunity as well. Domestic and foreign weather and stocks can impact prices quickly.

“Don’t make marketing plans based on any single current market projections—think about what you’ll do in many situations and consider downside risk,” Westhoff says.

The editors at AgWeb.com are taking a look at experts’ projections for a variety of commodities in 2017 to help you succeed and be profitable in the coming year. Tune in periodically over the next six weeks as we add outlooks for corn, wheat, cotton, cattle, machinery and more. Read all the outlook pieces here.

Is a Crop Scare Unfolding?

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:38:53 GMT

It could hit 100˚F in Des Moines next Wednesday.

That in and of itself is not entirely abnormal, but it does help drive home a larger point – extreme heat is descending on large areas of the Corn Belt.

And that heat might bring some grain marketing opportunities with it, according to Joe Vaclavik, founder and president of Standard Grain. That’s because some grain prices are already within pennies of 12-month highs, he says.

“If you’re mad at yourself for missing the marketing opportunities the last couple of times around, this is about as good as you could have done,” he says. “It doesn’t mean the market couldn’t go higher, but we’re sitting pretty close to some 12-month highs, so if you have some old crop bushels that you need to move, maybe this isn’t the worst time to do it.

Vaclavik suggests the row crop markets are reacting to weather forecasts, particularly in the western Corn Belt, where the next one or two weeks should prove to be abnormally hot. Meantime, the market may also be reacting to flooding and planting delays more rampant in the eastern Corn Belt earlier this spring.

“It’s not a full-blown crop scare, but certainly adding some weather premiums,” he says.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, only about 22% of the U.S. is experiencing some level of drought. However, several key crop production areas are affected, including significant portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

Historically, the hottest weather of the year occurs in mid to late July, according to NOAA data.

Food & Ag Industry Contributes $992 Billion to U.S. Economy

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:37:31 GMT

The food and farming industry is worth nearly a trillion dollars to the U.S. economy in 2015, according to data collected from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS). That’s 5.5% of the U.S. gross domestic product.

In total, ag and ag-related industries contributed $992 billion to the GDP. Output from U.S. farms specifically contributed $136.7 billion, or about 1% of the U.S. GDP.

ERS counts other sectors that rely on agricultural inputs such as food and materials for textile production. Therefore, contributions from the food service and food/beverage manufacturing industries are also calculated toward the total amount.

Farming’s contribution to GDP has retreated two consecutive years after reaching an all-time high of $189.9 billion in 213.

ERS updated this chart in March 2017. Track this and related data at Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials.

AFBF Chief Economist: Grains Still Glum

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:35:56 GMT

During the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) convention in Phoenix earlier this week, members were told to expect another year of soft grain prices unless there’s a major disruption in outside factors, such as weather or foreign markets.

Dr. Pat Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, says prices will continue to be below average, and perhaps even lower than 2016.

2017 could provide opportunities in some aspects of agriculture, especially proteins, according to Bob Young, chief economist with AFBF.

Young talked to AgriTalk host Mike Adams on his outlook for the year ahead.

“2017 might not be better, but at least sideways,” said Young. “Soybean oil prices are in the mid 30’s, which historically if I talked to you about 35 cent oil prices, you would have said, ‘No way.’ There are a few spots [one] could say SOMETHING.”

Young says the U.S. must constantly increase world demand for agricultural products, but that could be impacted by the strength of the U.S. dollar.

“Our economy must look like one of the better economies [around the world], so it’s not just interest rate moves,” said Young. “There’s potential for trade conflict as the administration turns over. The dollar has to continue to be the haven currency.”

Listen to Young discuss inflation, demand growth and land prices on AgriTalk below.

Market Outlook: Spring Pork, Soybean Stock, and Wheat Exports...Oh, my!

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:18:24 GMT

By Julie Douglas and Jeanne Bernick

Spring Pork Price Recovery Threatened

Live-hog and futures prices fell in recent weeks as gas prices soared, budgets threatened to furlough meat inspectors and global markets reduced exports, says Chris Hurt, Purdue University Extension ag economist.

Economists and producers had been hopeful that U.S. prices would return to at least break-even this spring, but a $9-per-hundredweight drop in live-hog prices and a $7.50-per-hundredweight drop in futures prices since February has dampered some of the optimism.

“The current outlook suggests the industry will have to wait until late summer for break-even conditions when feed prices can decline if more normal corn and soybean crops develop,” Hurt says. “With the more cautious tone, hog prices are expected to only average about $66 in the second quarter, with costs of production near $70 per live hundredweight.”

Price weakness comes from demand concerns, Hurt says. The first of those concerns is the weakened buying power of U.S. consumers.

Unusually high gasoline prices for this time of year and increased payroll taxes since Jan. 1 have reduced the buying power of American consumers.

Second, Hurt says the potential reduction in federal meat inspectors as a result of automatic spending cuts mandated by sequestration could mean animal-processing plants would operate fewer days of the year. If plants shut down some days, they wouldn’t buy hogs, thus weakening hog prices.

The biggest problem has been with pork exports, which account for 23% of total U.S. pork production. In February, Russia banned imports of U.S. pork because of ractopamine concerns. Then China announced they were going to more closely check imports of U.S. pork for ractopamine. Last year, China’s pork purchases from the U.S. represented 3.4% of total U.S. production.

In addition to loss of Russian and Chinese markets, the value of the Japanese yen has fallen by 12% so far this year and by 16% since October. The decline means U.S. pork prices are higher in Japan by similar percentages. Japan bought 6% of the U.S. pork production volume in 2012, making the country the largest U.S. pork buyer.

The market problems have created a less-then-welcome outlook for hog producers.

Soybean Stock Levels Push Prices Higher

Smaller soybean stocks are setting the price for the 2012/13 marketing year. The 2012 soybean crop was 79 million bushels smaller than the 2011 crop, meaning the current marketing year supply is 121 million bushels (3.6%) smaller than the previous year.

Consumption of U.S. soybeans during the first quarter of the marketing year, however, was record large and the pace of consumption remained high during much of the second quarter, says Darrell Good, University of Illinois economist.

Watch South America. The rapid pace of consumption reflects continued strong export demand for soybeans and soybean products and the drought reduced South American harvest in 2012. The market was willing to let consumption proceed at such a rapid pace in anticipation of a seasonal slowdown in export demand during the last half of the marketing year when South American supplies become more abundant.

“With prospects of a sharp rebound in South American production to a record level in 2013, it has been anticipated that the slowdown in consumption of U.S. soybeans would be sharper than normal this year and that yearending stocks would be maintained at pipeline levels,” Good explains.

The magnitude of the required slowdown will in turn determine whether soybean prices need to adjust higher in order to slow the pace of consumption to more normal or whether supplies are large enough to allow prices to continue to move lower.

Projected Wheat Exports Lowered

Strong Competition. Demand competition from the EU and a relatively strong currency have further reduced prospects for U.S. wheat shipments.

U.S. wheat exports for 2012/13 are projected to be 25 million bushels lower in March, according to USDA’s Wheat Outlook released March 12. Fewer exports mean a boost to projected ending stocks by the same amount.

Continued strong competition, mainly from the EU, and a relatively strong currency, further reduces prospects for U.S. wheat shipments, reports Olga Liefert, a USDA economist for the Department’s monthly Wheat Outlook. USDA lowered exports for hard red winter wheat by 25 million bushels.

Exports also reduced white wheat by exports by 10 million bushels and hard red spring wheat by 5 million bushels, but raised soft red winter wheat by 15 million bushels.

All-wheat imports remain unchanged, but adjustments have been made among the classes. Trade changes largely reflect the pace of sales and shipment to date, Liefert says. USDA’s projected range for the season-average farm price for 2012/13 was lowered 10¢ at the midpoint and narrowed to a range of $7.65 to $7.95 per bushel.

USDA increased numbers for world wheat production for 2012/13 by 1.9 million tons to 655.5 million tons, due mostly to upward revisions by India, the EU and Nepal, Liefert says.

Wheat use is up slightly as of March, according to USDA, with feed and residual use up 1.3 million tons and food use lower by 0.8 million tons. Overall, Liefert says, world wheat trade is projected to be larger.

Bulletproof Your Balance Sheet

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:14:53 GMT

The past few years have been tremendous for those involved in agriculture. For 2011, USDA’s Economic Research Service projected farmers to net $100.9 billion in farm income. That’s up almost 30% from 2010.

Moe Russell, Farm Journal columnist, says agricultural prices follow cycles. So, what goes up must come down.

Russell says farmers can prepare their businesses to not only survive in these tough times, but also thrive.

He explains how to analyze and improve your balance sheet to handle any economic climate.

For More Information
Learn more practical tips and tools for maximizing profitability of crop and animal production with Farm Journal’s Profit College .

Pro Farmer's Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:14:47 GMT

After building optimism European leaders had reached a deal to address the region’s financial troubles, there is now growing concern the plan is not aggressive enough to ease the debt crisis. As a result, investors have pushed the U.S. dollar sharply higher and removed risk. This, in turn, is putting pressure on commodities, including the grain markets. Check this link to hear the “Monday Morning Wake Up Call” provided by your Pro Farmer Editors.

If you would like to receive this message on your phone, go to this link to sign up.

AgWeb Radio: Bottomline Profit Opportunity 9-8-11

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:13:28 GMT

Bob Utterback of Utterback Marketing discusses a bottomline profit opportunity and explains how to execute it.

Production Journal

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:10:47 GMT

Questions About County-Level Cash Rent Data

The release of USDA’s county-level cash rent data in early April may have raised more questions than it answered. The data showed cash rents dropping in many regions, which is contradictory to USDA’s statewide data and what is generally being reported across the country. It’s also interesting to note that there was a drop in responses from 2009’s first-ever county-level report.

Illinois farmer John Phipps, who is a Farm Journal columnist and host of “U.S. Farm Report,” says the data may be flawed because there is no incentive for farmers to report.

“There are ways you can look at the question and say, ‘All right, I can report a cash rent I’m paying, rather than an average for all of my ground, or my highest,’” he says. “My county dropped $20 per acre, and this is not what I’m seeing. I didn’t participate myself and I’m not sure whether adding transparency to this market is in the best interest of individual producers.”

Managing costs. Costs are rising across the board for farmers, and cash rents are among the most significant contributors, says Bob Utterback, Farm Journal Economist. Regardless of the validity of the USDA data, the impact of cash rents on a farmer’s bottom line won’t change.

“I take the position that cash rents won’t come down until farmers stop competing, and land values will continue to go higher as long as we have cheap interest rates,” he says.

To illustrate, Utterback tells of a farmer near Lafayette, Ind., who was offered $6,500 per acre. The $3.5 million sale was not enough at the 1% return on savings when compared to the 6% to 7% he would receive by continuing to cash-rent his ground.

Numerous regions are facing unprecedented competition for land, which is supporting higher cash rents. However, Utterback believes the rent market is reaching a plateau because land is reaching a level where rent-to-land-value ratios are maxed out.

Mike Walsten, editor of LandOwner newsletter, points to historic cash rent data that shows rents don’t drop once a market has been established. “When you look back, you don’t see a time when cash rents went down. Granted, we have a lot more land being cash-rented now than we did in the ‘70s and ‘80s. But when we had the downturn in the ‘80s, I think rents went down only one year.”

New Products

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:10:36 GMT

Fill, Measure and Go

Scale-Tec introduces a scale kit option for CCS seed delivery systems on Case IH 1250 and 1260 planters. With the kit farmers can use bulk seed, evenly fill both hoppers, track seed inventory at night, measure seed needs per field and go to the next field without emptying hoppers. The kit includes four load cells, wiring, mounting brackets and a waterproof, back-lit readout. Planters are manufactured scale-ready, so no welding or drilling is required. Installation takes three hours, and the kits are also available for John Deere and AGCO White planters. Price: $2,600 to $3,000. Contact: a local dealer or Scale-Tec Ltd., 16027 Highway 64 E., Anamosa, IA 52205; (888) 962-2344; www.scale-tec.com .

On-the-Go Density Control

Small square baler operators can now control density from the tractor with the Unstoppable Density Adjustor, a new add-on to the Airbaler system from Scott Seaver Company. The system uses air pressure, instead of springs or hydraulics, to apply constant tension to the bale chamber, producing bales of consistent size and weight. With the Adjustor, an air compressor mounted on the baler allows the operator to add or remove air pressure from the system, without stopping, from a switch in the cab. Price: $400 plus shipping (includes an on-board air compressor and an adjustor switch); $1,145 with the Airbaler kit; one-year warranty on all parts. Contact: The Scott Seaver Company, 4346 W. Roosevelt Road, Montague, MI 49437; (231) 894-9703; www.airbaler.com .

Stretch Your Connection

EZ-Bridge announces a new wireless bridging system that shares network resources and extends full broadband capability to multiple buildings. Without any wires, farmers can share the cost of an Internet connection among all buildings within a three-mile radius. The EZ-Bridge-LT is a plug-and-play product that is easily installed in less than 30 minutes at each location. You can even add a wireless router to have multiple computers online in one building. The system operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum, complies with 802.11 standards and has a data rate of up to 15 megabits per second. A unique security protocol, with WPA and WPA2 encryption, ensures data is safely transmitted. A high-gain antenna provides long-distance data links immune to rain and snow. Price: $199, one-year warranty. Contact: e-zy.net, 693 Draper Heights Way, Suite 200, Draper, UT 84020; (801) 432-0098; www.ez-bridge.com .

Get a Grip

Ever wrestled with an oil filter that’s been overtightened? Gator Jaws is the only tool specifically designed to grip and remove stuck filters from trucks, heavy-duty equipment, etc. The gripping force of its 32 teeth provide maximum leverage and torque, spinning off even the most difficult, hard-to-reach filters with one short pull. The 23"-long angled handles allow you to reach around hot exhaust manifolds without burning your arm. Gator Jaws adjusts to two sizes to grip filters as large as 7" in diameter or as small as 2½". It can also be used on oil, fuel and hydraulic filters. Price: $69.95; lifetime warranty. Contact: Innovative Products of America, P.O. Box 266, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457; (888) 786-7899; www.ipatools.com .

Moneywise

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:10:36 GMT

Large Farms Hold the Most Debt

Except for a brief period in the early 1990s, the percentage of farms with debt has fallen and the share held by large farms has risen, reports Robert Dubman of USDA’s Economic Research Service. In 1988, farms with more than $250,000 in gross income represented 8% of farms and held 32% of the debt. In 2007, those numbers changed to 23% of farms and 60% of debt.

“Operations require a larger line of credit because of rising input prices and higher cash rents, but now prices for production have fallen, creating a squeeze,” adds Paul Ellinger, University of Illinois ag economist. “It will be interesting to see what happens next year.”

Possibly adding a complication to that squeeze is falling land values. “Lenders normally have some equity requirement such as 20%, depending on the operation,” says Jim Kielkopf of AgriBank. “When prices are high, it’s easy for banks to take the risk of getting outside the requirement. Now, with prices down, they may return to safety.”

Whether more farms will return to using debt as an input if the economy does not quickly rebound remains to be seen. “Current low interest rates encourage it,” Dubman says. “But caution is needed. Large farms with the most debt could face solvency problems.” —Linda H. Smith

Choose Your Battles

Farming has always been a gamble: “Plant…hope crop comes up…produce…sell for a profit,” commented one respondent to a survey of Top Producer readers last month. “But the input costs versus selling price, along with the tremendous cost of machinery, makes that gamble a much higher risk today. I don’t believe a farmer makes more net profit today, just handles more money. But it is a really great way to make a living.”

It’s not possible—or even desirable—to control every business risk you face. However, you should make informed and logical choices about which you accept, which you manage and which you sell to an insurer. As the graph below shows, in our survey, 77% of readers reduce price risk through forward pricing or using futures or options. More than half seek to reduce input price risk the same way. See “Risk Audit,” page 22, for a list of risk categories and how one grower deals with them. —Linda H. Smith

“An unemployed worker is a lost opportunity. Like an empty seat on an airplane, the economy can never get back the value lost.” Robert Frank, Cornell University

Top Producer, September 2009

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