A five-minute summary of AAI, regulation, and industry activities for members of the largest state agribusiness association in the nation. | |
INREC, ISU, Farmers, and Google Join Together For Design Sprint To Develop Innovative Farming Tools |
Sprint creates prototype of tool to improve farmers’ nitrogen management and environmental performance
Iowa Nutrient Research & Education Council (INREC) and Iowa State University (ISU)’s Department of Agronomy, with support from Google.org, are bringing together more than 30 farmers, crop advisors, scientists and other agricultural stakeholders for a three-day event to design a new decision-support tool that supports nitrogen fertilizer rate decisions. The event comes after a $250,000 grant from Google.org in 2022 to bolster INREC’s water quality improvement initiatives and support Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
A team of 10 Google employees, with design and engineering expertise, volunteered their time to plan and facilitate the design sprint as part of a Google.org program that provides technical expertise to support nonprofits and civic entities.
A design sprint is a proven methodology for answering complex questions rapidly through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users. Sprints are designed to iterate and validate rapidly. Attendees will complete a series of drawing and writing activities to brainstorm new ideas before deciding on the most favorable prototype. By brainstorming, running ideas by product teams (UX/PM/ENG) and end users (farmers and farm advisors) in real time, the process makes sure that the tool is designed in a way that is both useful to farmers and possible to build within one year.
By the end of the event, INREC and ISU had a prototype for a decision-support tool to reduce uncertainty around the optimum rate of nitrogen fertilizer application for Iowa’s nearly 85,000 farming operations, improving productivity, profitability, and environmental performance and contributing to the state’s goal of reducing nitrogen loss by 45%.
Full News Release
| |
Iowa Nitrogen Initiative Regional Meetings |
Farmers, crop advisors, custom fertilizer applicators, and others involved in crop production are invited to attend the 2023 Iowa Nitrogen Initiative Winter Meetings. Hear about the 2022 trials and learn how to participate in 2023.
Meetings begin at noon with free lunch. Remaining dates and locations:
- Wednesday, March 8: AgState, Albert City (rescheduled from Feb. 22)
For more information and to RSVP visit:
Iowa Nitrogen Initiative Winter Meeting RSVP (google.com)
| |
Agribusiness Groups Testify At House Ag Committee Hearing in DC |
Representatives from our national partner groups testified at the "Uncertainty, Inflation, Regulations: Challenges for American Agriculture" US House Ag Committee hearing this week.
The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch provided official testimony focusing much of his comments on the fact that fertilizer is a globally traded commodity subject to international pressures and geopolitical events.
Read the full TFI testimony
Also providing testimony at the hearing Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) member Michael Twining with Willard Agri-Service. Twining's testimony included comments about pesticide regulatory burdens, WOTUS, energy production, and labor.
Read the full ARA testimony
Other groups providing testimony included American Farm Bureau Federation, Agriculture Transportation Coalition, National Chicken Council, and National Farmers Union.
| |
High Demand For Spring Grain Grading Workshops Filling Seats Quickly |
Grain Grading Workshops
March 28 & 29 - 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Registration Fees:
AAI Member - $130
Non-Member - $155
Location:
Ziegler CAT
1500 Ziegler Drive NW
Altoona, Iowa 50009
|
Seats Remaining: 60 23
This one-day hands-on workshop will feature the latest information on grain quality. The Grain Grading workshop will address and display many different grain samples but will emphasize corn and soybeans. Presentations on the grading and appeal process will be given. Participants will learn what the official U.S. grades are and how to obtain a representative sample. Attendees will also learn how to recognize major grain damage factors.
Workshop registrants will be assigned on a first come, first-served basis. The same workshop is held on both days, so participants only need to attend one session.
The workshop is under the direction of Federal Grain Inspection Service inspectors from the National Grain Center.
| |
Agribusiness Career Day and Environmental Award Winners At 2023 Showcase |
The 2023 Agribusiness Showcase & Conference concluded on February 15 after two days of amazing interactions among ag professionals, a wide variety of learning opportunities, and new insights from government and industry leaders.
Agribusiness Career Day
The tenth annual Agribusiness Career Day was held during the second day of Showcase. The event drew 350 students to gain insight on the opportunities in agriculture and what to expect as they enter their chosen career path. The students were either high school FFA seniors or first year community college students majoring in ag-related majors.
The Iowa Agribusiness Foundation also handed out $15,000 in scholarships, one to each community college and one to an FFA student. The event ended with a career fair attended by AAI member companies.
| |
Environmental Leader Awards
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) recognized outstanding individuals and businesses for their environmental leadership in the ag community during the Wednesday breakfast. Susan Kozak, Division Director Soil Conservation & Water Quality, presented the awards on behalf of IDALS.
Award recipients (clockwise from left to right):
- The Waterhouse Family, Waterhouse Construction
- Chase and Jess Weller, Weller Seed Supply
- Mollie Aronowitz, Peoples Company
- Paul Mausser, Agri-Partners Farm Management
| |
Next Showcase - February 2024
We look forward to seeing everyone next year, in February of 2024, for an even better and more engaging event.
| |
The following list of members have recently completed their membership investment for 2023.
Thank you for your membership!
| |
- True North Companies
- Phosphorlutions
| |
|
Meetings and events attended by AAI:
Ag Outlook Conference - Washington, DC
In Attendance:
Bill Northey, AAI CEO
Amy Asmus, Asmus Farm Supply
Sue Tronchetti, Landus
| |
|
March 3
Membership Committee Meeting
3:00 PM | AAI Main Office Board Room
March 21
Agronomy Committee & Environment Committee
Joint Meeting
10:00 AM | AAI Main Office Board Room
March 28 & 29
Grain Grading Workshops
Ziegler CAT - Altoona, Iowa
Click Here to Register Online
April 6
AAI Board of Directors Meeting
10:00 AM | AAI Main Office Board Room
| |
WATCH THE AGRIBUSINESS REPORT | |
Cover Crop Workshop March 28 in West Union |
Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE), will host a cover crop workshop on Tuesday, March 28 from 12:00-2:00 p.m. at the West Union Event Center. Farmers and landowners are welcome to attend the free event, which includes a complimentary meal catered by the West Union Event Center.
The discussion will be facilitated by Dr. Jacqueline Comito, Iowa Learning Farms program director, Dr. Matt Helmers, Iowa Nutrient Research Center director, and Dr. Mark Licht, associate professor and extension cropping systems specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and Liz Ripley, Iowa Learning Farms conservation and cover crop outreach specialist.
Reservations are required to ensure adequate space and food. For reasonable accommodations and to RSVP, please contact Liz Ripley at 515-294-5429 or ilf@iastate.edu.
Click for Full Details
| |
Why Our Food System Needs Agricultural Research from Both the Public and Private Sectors
Stephanie Mercier, Farm Journal Foundation
|
The future health of the U.S. agri-food sector depends crucially on maintaining robust investments in agricultural research by both the public and private sectors. Public agricultural research and development (R&D), primarily funded by the federal government, provides an important complement to R&D funded by private businesses, driving basic scientific and technological innovations that raise U.S. agricultural productivity.
For the most part, private firms specialize in fewer research topics, focusing on areas with established product markets, such as major commodity crops, agricultural inputs like crop seed and chemicals, farm machinery, and veterinary pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, public institutions such as land-grant universities invest in a broader portfolio of research topics. Often, public-sector investments support early stage discoveries that can later be developed by the private sector, or address issues that benefit our food system and society broadly, such as research on food safety, animal health, or environmental issues. In addition, public sector research often focuses on crops that have smaller planted acreage in the U.S. but still play vital roles in our food supply chain, such as wheat, rice, and specialty crops.
Agricultural research delivers impressive returns on public investment – one recent USDA study showed $20 in benefits to the U.S. economy for every $1 spent. In spite of this, U.S. public funding for agricultural R&D has fallen off, declining by about one-third in inflation-adjusted terms since 2002, according to a December 2022 article published by USDA’s Economic Research Service.
To address this decline, Congress established the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) in the 2014 Farm Bill, aimed at leveraging public and private resources to generate more innovation and boost the U.S. agricultural economy. Since it was launched, FFAR has attracted $1.40 in non-federal funding, particularly from the private sector, for every $1 of public investment. Additional federal funding for FFAR will be up for consideration in the 2023 Farm Bill. Successful models like this deserve more support.
Farm Journal Foundation and the American Farm Bureau Federation recently commissioned a research paper about the role of public funding for agricultural research in driving innovation. To find out more, please read the report or visit www.farmjournalfoundation.org.
| |
The annual summary recording nationwide grain dust bin explosions reported nine incidents in 2022. This compares to seven reported incidents in 2021 and a 10-year average of 7.8 explosions annually.
Kingsly Ambrose, Purdue University professor of agricultural and biological engineering and report author, said that despite the increase in explosions from the previous year and 18 total injuries this year, no fatalities were reported.
The explosions occurred in one ethanol plant, two feed mills, two grain elevators, two rice mills and two grain processing plants. The probable ignition sources were identified in three cases as a fire and one incidence as welding, while five cases were from unknown sources. Fuel sources for all nine explosions were identified as grain dust.
The dust explosions occurred in seven different states, with two each occurring in Arkansas and Louisiana, and one each in New Mexico, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Ohio.
"Often, five of the conditions needed for a grain dust explosion to occur are present in most grain feed, milling and processing facilities," Ambrose said. "These conditions include dust, dispersed dust, confined space and oxygen. The presence of the fifth factor, an ignition source such as overheated bearing or mechanical friction, could lead to an explosion."
[...] Read Full Story
| |
The U.S. may soon have a new wild pig problem. Until now, the invasive species has largely proliferated in warm places like the southeast, Texas, and California. But in recent years, invasive pigs have started thriving in Canada and may spread into North Dakota, Montana, Michigan, and Minnesota.
According to Dr. Ryan Brook, who leads the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Wild Pig Research Project, Canada’s wild pig problem is relatively new. “The U.S. has a 400-plus year history with invasive wild pigs, but we didn’t have any here until the early 1980s,” he says. “There was a big push to diversify agriculture with species like wild boards and ostriches. Wild boars were brought in from Europe to be raised on farms across Canada.”
Most of those pigs were kept on meat farms, but some were used on high-fence hunting preserves. Many farmers and ranchers soon crossbred the wild boars with domestic pigs. According to Brook, the hybridization resulted in bigger “super pigs” that could survive in cold climates. “For surviving in cold winters, one of the rules of ecology is: the bigger the better,” he says. “Larger body animals survive the cold better and have better reproduction in those conditions.”
In the early 2000s, the market for farmed boars dropped out in Canada. Some escaped from their enclosures and others were let free without anyone to sell them to. In less than 20 years, the wild—or feral—population exploded, in part due to the species’ extraordinarily high reproductive rate. Wild boars now roam approximately 620,000 square miles in Canada, primarily in the Prairie Provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta.
“That they can survive in such a cold climate is one of the big surprises of this issue. The Prairie Provinces are where we have the coldest winters in Canada except for the very far north,” says Brook. “One of the things they do to survive is tunnel under the snow. They go into a cattail marsh and channel into the soft snow and cut nests in the cattails. If you go early in the morning on a cold day, you can actually see steam pouring out the top of the nests.”
[...] Read Full Story
| |
Source: Brownfield Ag News
|
A Midwestern Governor who led the effort on a year-round E15 waiver says she’ll keep fighting to get the rule finalized before this summer.
Kim Reynolds of Iowa says while EPA’s proposed rule to lift summertime restrictions on E15 sales is welcome, delaying implementation until April 2024 is unacceptable and disappointing.
“But hardly surprising, and we won’t accept it without a fight.”
Reynolds is requesting another emergency waiver to allow E15 sales this summer while at the same time asking the courts to intervene and require the administration to grant the governors’ request immediately.
“And I’ve also asked for a meeting with President Biden to discuss the critical timeliness of the waiver.”
The Renewable Fuels Association presented Reynolds an industry award Thursday morning at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando.
[...] Read Full Story
| |
One of Kraft Heinz’s most profitable brands, Lunchables, is signing a deal with grades K-12 schools across the country — potentially launching Big Cheese, Ham, and Crackers into unknown heights.
Carlos Abrams-Rivera, Kraft Heinz executive vice president, announced the deal at the annual Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) meeting on Feb. 21. Two types of Lunchables with “improved nutrition” will be served in grades K-12 schools as soon as this fall.
A Kraft-Heinz spokesperson declined to provide more details. The company will release more information about this program in the next month.
The effort is likely intriguing to any of the folks who have consumed the billions of Lunchables packages sold by Kraft Heinz since they were introduced in 1988. I — or more accurately, my parents — purchased untold units of Lunchables because I was for some reason obsessed with eating the pepperoni pizza variety through much of my childhood. My organs have come out mostly unscathed.
For the uninitiated, here is what a Lunchables consists of:
- Some sort of main dish that you make yourself, like stacking rectangles of ham and cheese on a circular cracker or squeezing a red pizza sauce on a disc of bread and adding cheese and pepperoni.
- A drink, like bottled water, Capri-Sun, or a mysterious fizzy drink called “Cola.”
- Dessert, like a wee Crunch bar.
Here is my ode to Lunchables, the most MBA-friendly product to ever exist, with a significant footnote for the nutritionally suspicious element within. Ultimately, as schools become more strapped for cash, we will see more of these deals come about — and it’s a spooky indicator for our country’s health outlook.
What I did not admire as a child eating Maxed Out Deep Dish Pizza Lunchables is the logistics and margin-slashing wonder within. (In addition to not forcing me to eat kale salad for lunch every day as a child, my parents did not buy me a subscription to Harvard Business Review.) But fear not! I learned a bit more about the economics behind Lunchables when I read “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us” by investigative reporter Michael Moss.
[...] Read Full Story
| |
THE AGRIBUSINESS REPORT
Follow host David Geiger on Twitter:
@geigerreports
Watch daily broadcast live:
KCRG-TV Cedar Rapids
WHO-TV Des Moines
KYOU-TV Ottumwa
Watch online any time:
https://agribiz.org/report
| |
|
NOTE: If you unsubscribe below you will no longer receive ANY emails from AAI, including important member specific information and notices. To unsubscribe from just this type of email (i.e. newsletter or event marketing), select Update Profile below. | | | | |