“Well, at least we will make it home… it’s a good
thing brakes are optional!” – Samia Cartwright
Yep,
you guessed it… I had the young daughters out in the old classic pick-up the
other day running a couple errands, and on the last leg of the trip, we all got
a scare with a brake hose bursting and a loss of stopping power. Fortunately, we were able to limp it home
while avoiding any close calls, but the bad news is two-fold – she (and now her
sister too) thinks vehicle brakes are non-essential safety equipment, and she
still remembers the one time (or was it twice?) we got stranded in the old behemoth.
Well,
there is no optional safety equipment these days on the farm. With the high value of equipment, labor, and
insurance, implementing safety procedures and protocols should always be front
of mind for our families and employees.
I continue to be amazed that we don’t have more farm accidents in the
countryside, but then again, I probably don’t hear about all of them.
Thankfully,
our farm machinery manufactures also keep safety top of mind by providing farms
with efficient and safe equipment.
If/when you get the chance, be sure to tell your equipment manufacturer
representative that their company’s efforts around safety are much appreciated
and they need to keep up the good work!
Good luck to you and your teams for this years’ remainder of field work.
Weather and
Corn Development
Well,
the weather turned quick on us, but I guess that’s life in the far Northern
Plains. Since our killing frost in early
September, we’ve had above average temperatures and dry conditions, but now, it
feels like the end of autumn with below freezing temps every morning and daily
highs struggling to maintain above 35F. Unless something dramatically changes, we’ll be
lucky to garner any additional GDD’s moving forward and thus unlikely to see
any significant further loss of grain moisture content for the remaining acres
of standing corn and sunflowers. When
conditions are like this, it’s common to only experience 1-2 points of moisture
loss per month, or ¼ to ½ a point per week.
The
GDD accumulation for our region since our killing frost on September 8th
and 9th will end with close to 300 growing degree days accumulated
in most locations, but ranging from 250 to 350 GDD’s from north to south across
the region. When we look at the 30-year
normal accumulation over this time frame (from 1981 to 2010), we see a lot of variability
versus the 2020 season, but most locations were 10 to 30 GDD’s above average
this year which provided an extra full point or two of grain moisture loss.
I’ll count on your weather app
for the best guidance through the 7-8 day forecast, but looking beyond that,
I’ve found this site from NOAA to be fairly reliable for a general 8-14 day
outlook (next week). https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/index.php
For the late October timeframe,
the forecast is to have greater chances of below average temperatures and below
average precipitation.
The NOAA group
also provides three month outlooks. If
we would like to get a general forecast for the first three months of 2021
(Jan-Feb-Mar), it can be seen here: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=3
This forecast
currently predicts below average temperatures, while also calling for slightly
greater chances of above average precipitation. It may turn-out that we have plenty of time
for our shop projects before any farming activities can begin for the upcoming
growing season.
US Crop
Progress
The USDA estimates corn harvest at 60% of the
way completed for the year across the US, and the soybean harvest at 75% completed
across the nation (last week 40% and 61% respectively). For North Dakota, these numbers are 55% for
corn (19% for the 5-year average in the state) and 92% for soybeans (58% for
the 5-year average).
The National Sunflower Association (NSA)
estimated the nation’s sunflower harvest progress at 40% complete which would
be about 2-4 weeks ahead of average pace.
The sunflower production continues to be estimated at 2.81 bil lbs with
an average yield per acre of 1,730 lbs (which would tie the record yield
level).
By now, the traders know where this US crop
is going to land for production and all eyes will be on the export and
carry-over volumes looking ahead (more on exports later).
https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/8336h188j?locale=en
ADM Enderlin Releases ’21 Sunflower Pricing
Last week, the ADM Enderlin oil-seed crushing
facility announced their 2021 sunflower contracting opportunities. I’ve heard Cargill in West Fargo has bids out
as well.
For ADM, cash NuSuns are starting at
$17.75/cwt and Hi-Oleics will be offered at $18.00/cwt to begin the contracting
season. Act of God (AOG) contracts come
at a cost of $0.50 below the above stated prices. Contact ADM at 701-437-3000 for details and
market opportunities. Cargill of West
Fargo can be reached at 701-282-1631.
https://www.cargillag.com/explore-contracts https://admfarmview.com/cash-bids/bids/enderlin
Sunflower Combine Safety
Speaking
of sunflowers, the NSA (National Sunflower Association) had a great reminder
last week around harvest safety in regards to combine fires. The sunflower harvest produces a very fine
sunflower dust which can become highly combustible under dry, low humidity
conditions. Here are a few key
bullet-points to help prevent extensive damage with harvest machinery fires:
·
Use
compressed air to keep the engine bay clean on field equipment (especially
exhaust manifolds, radiators, and engine).
If conditions are extreme on the dry side, you may need to conduct this
task every couple hours or sooner
·
Try
nighttime harvesting when relative humidity can be higher
·
Keep
some water available in a hand sprayer as well as a fully charged fire
extinguisher on the combine. Some
operations will have a water truck on the field edge as well for a quick
response should the need arise.
www.sunflowernsa.com/growers/Surveys/Combine-Fire-Responses/
Exports Highlighted in FAS (Foreign Ag Service) Report
Last week, the FSA reported positive news regarding
many agriculture exports. Here are the
highlights:
·
China soybean purchasing from the US is
rebounding and causing the current US bullish market conditions as soybean
supplies in South America are limited
·
US soybean near-term commodity price is above
$10/bu for the first time since June of 2018
·
China pork production is rebounding from the African
Swine Fever and thus China is forecasted to decline somewhat in meat imports,
but the global outlook (excluding China) for meat imports will improve in 2021
·
The US is competing with Ukraine for corn
exports to China and since Sept 1, US corn shipments to China were ahead of
Mexico as the largest destination for US production
·
The poor quality of 2019’s US corn crop (test
weight, high FM) contributed to smaller corn exports from the US. The 2020 crop is forecasted to have better
quality and increased export demand.
It’s been awhile
since we’ve reviewed the Phase I Trade Deal between the US and China, but the
most recent data I could find was from the end of August. The good news is the import trend by China
from the US continues at a strong and elevated pace. However, the volume in question still lags
behind the commitment levels agreed upon and there is only four months
remaining to hit the Phase I targets. I
would think infrastructure logistics will now come into play to prevent Phase I
goals being met.
The following link
has some great charts and comprehensive review of the Phase I Trade Deal:
https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/us-china-phase-one-tracker-chinas-purchases-us-goods
Product Spotlight
– Pioneer Canola
The Pioneer sales
team is highly excited about our canola line-up moving forward. We finally have significant supplies of
LibertyLink™ herbicide technology with HarvestMax™ (pod shatter
tolerance). There are two hybrid
offerings with these traits in a Pioneer bag and the primary difference would
be the addition of white mold tolerance in one of the hybrids. If you have Liberty™ canola in your farm plans
for 2021, please contact me or your Pioneer sales agent to learn more about
P505MSL and P506ML.
For those of you who
like to participate in Cargill’s non-GMO canola program to gain some price
premiums, we do have a couple new Clearfield canola hybrids to fit this
market. And yes, one of these hybrids
(P508MCL) brings HarvestMax™ technology to the table to give you better harvest
flexibility around swathing timing or straight-cutting.
For our customers
who still may prefer glyphosate technology, we continue our tradition of
bringing straight glyphosate (RR®) products to the market with hybrids
specialized in blackleg tolerance (45H42), pod shatter tolerance (45M35,
45CM39, and 45CM44), or above average standability (45M35 and 45H42). Many of our Pioneer canola hybrids have
clubroot resistance and we are incorporating a second line of clubroot genetic
resistance as well. Finally, Pioneer canola
hybrids are straight herbicide offerings – no stacked herbicide traits (i.e.
RR/LL are not offered as a stack within the same hybrid)
Syngenta® Makes a Minor Acquisition
The
Syngenta® Group has announced an acquisition – Valagro® (a biological company
based in Atessa, Italy). Syngenta®
targets this move towards fulfilling their ‘Good Growth Plan’ to improve
environmental sustainability.
Financial
details of the business deal were not divulged in the Syngenta® press release,
but Valagro’s® sales revenue in 2019 was estimated at $175 mil. Valagro® has been an active player in the ag
market for 40 years, serving Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America with
more than 700 employees, 13 subsidiaries and eight production sites around the
world.
Valagro’s®
suite of products include micronutrients, various chelated plant nutrition,
humic acid, and plant biostimulants.
https://www.syngenta.com/...acquires-leading-biologicals-company-valagro
Random
Agricultural Facts – Bacon!
A couple of weeks
ago, I was curious to the amount of bacon consumption per person in the
US. Well, I couldn’t find any concrete
USDA data or other stats, but I did find this website with some interesting tidbits
about the topic: (https://southfloridareporter.com/the-average-american-consumes...
Here are the
supposed highlights:
- Bacon is one of the oldest processed meats. The Chinese have been salting pork
bellies for over 3500 years
- Bacon is a good source of choline, and pregnant women are encouraged to ingest some choline to aid in fetal brain development
The phrase “bringing home the bacon”, was not originally a reference to making money. Conversely, it relates back to the 12th century in England when the church would reward any married man a side of bacon if he could confess to a length of time of at least a year and a day without argument with his wife. Husbands who “brought home the bacon”, were therefore considered good men and good citizens (interesting that there was no tie to fidelity for this designation)- The first slices of bacon that were pre-wrapped for grocery
store shelves became available in 1924 thanks to… you guessed it, Oscar
Meyer.
- And here’s the data on consumption – unfortunately it’s
conflicting as the above website provides both these statements:
- The US consumes more than 1.7 billion lbs of bacon
per year (assuming 330 mil US citizens, this equates to about 5.1 lbs of
bacon per person)
- Americans eat over 5.6 billion lbs of bacon per year
(this would equate to about 17 lbs per US citizen assuming the same 330
mil US citizens – I would tend to believe 5 lbs/person over 17, but it’s
just a hunch)
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