Weekend Ag News Round-up - June 11

 NEBRASKA CROP PRODUCTION REPORT

Based on June 1 conditions, Nebraska's 2023 winter wheat crop is forecast at 33.0 million bushels, up 26% from last year's crop, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. Average yield is forecast at 34 bushels per acre, up 2 bushels from last year.

Acreage to be harvested for grain is estimated at 970,000 acres, up 150,000 acres from last year. This would be 84% of the planted acres, compared with last year's 84% harvested.

Winter Wheat Production Up 1 Percent from May Forecast
Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.14 billion bushels, up 1 percent from the May 1 forecast and up 3 percent from 2022. As of June 1, the United States yield is forecast at 44.9 bushels per acre, up 0.2 bushel from last month but down 2.1 bushels from last year's average yield of 47.0 bushels per acre.

Hard Red Winter production, at 525 million bushels, is up 2 percent last month. Soft Red Winter, at 402 million bushels, is down 1 percent from the May forecast. White Winter, at 209 million bushels, is down 1 percent from last month. Of the White Winter production, 10.3 million bushels are Hard White and 199 million bushels are Soft White.



Early Season Irrigation During Drought
Steve Melvin - Extension Educator Irrigated Cropping Systems

Key Takeaways
    Soil holds off-season moisture for getting crops established.
    Little irrigation is needed most years on corn during the vegetative stage to produce top yields. 2023 is the exception to this general rule in many Nebraska fields.
    Excess irrigation in June puts you at risk for losing 5-10 lbs of nitrogen/extra inch.
    Leave room to capture rainfall events.
    Measure soil moisture and ET.

Getting the crop off to a great start is essential for a successful season. On dry years, it is sometimes necessary to start irrigating in May and June. However, it is critical to monitor soil moisture to balance crop needs with the risk of losing nitrogen and other valuable crop inputs. Monitoring will also help prevent unnecessary irrigation expenses, and if you have a water allocation, avoid using up water that is critical for later growth stages.

May and June are particularly vulnerable times for nitrate leaching in our irrigated fields because of several factors. First, the fields are left fairly wet from last season's irrigation, precipitation from October through May usually puts more water into the soil than it can hold, the crop is still small and not using much water, and most — if not all — the nitrogen for the corn crop has been applied.

Strategies for Early Season Irrigation
Last year’s irrigation will have left the soil fairly wet compared to dryland fields. On a typical year, a silt loam soil that was reasonably well irrigated the previously year (full yield) may only hold two to four inches of water from precipitation in the non-growing season. Sandy soils will hold even less. This means most years, irrigated fields will be at or above field capacity in May, particularly in the eastern two-thirds of Nebraska.

Also, keep in mind the corn roots grow about an inch each day into soil that is at field capacity, providing much of the water the plants need for that day. Generally, irrigation needs to be delayed until the soil begins to dry down. Furthermore, research conducted in the North Platte area has shown that irrigation could be reduced by one to four inches, compared to a fully irrigated crop, during the vegetative period without a significant yield reduction and can stimulate deeper root growth. For more information, go to "Vegetative Growth Stage Irrigation, Is It Needed This Year?" https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2020/vegetative-growth-stage-irrigation-it-needed-year

2023’s Exceptional Drought
Reviewing several soil water logs from central Nebraska, many fields were left a little drier than normal after 2022’s harvest. Plus, with many areas of the state getting very little precipitation from October through May, many fields have needed some irrigation to get the crop established and growing well through the vegetative stage. It all depends on the amount of water stored in the soil.

Soil Moisture Monitoring
In this drought year, many irrigated fields have very little subsoil moisture, while other portions of Nebraska have experienced significant rains over the last month. With irrigation, any grower can can over-irrigate early and create a wet spring. The most reliable method to know when and how much to irrigate is to monitor soil moisture at multiple depths. Keep in mind that when irrigation is applied with a center pivot an inch at a time on the soil surface, the top foot will stay very wet all summer.

Soil water monitoring data is easier to analyze once the crop has taken up water at the 16- to 24-inch depth during the vegetative growth stage. This drier zone can then be monitored with sensors to see if the area gets wetter or drier. If it keeps getting drier, the irrigation system needs to keep running. However, if it starts to get wetter, then stop irrigating for a few days. Ideally, the drier zone should slowly expand deeper with the crop using most of the subsoil water by the time the crop matures.

For more information on this scheduling strategy, watch the Advanced Irrigation Scheduling Techniques video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idbb7PE5E8w.

Risk of Early Season Leaching
Excess irrigation has its own risks. Generally, when the soil is above field capacity, excess water leaves the root zone, called deep percolation. This is an essential function of the soil for groundwater recharge. When deep percolation takes agrichemicals past the root zone, it is called leaching. May and June are the most critical time for leaching losses all year.

Nitrate leaching loss rates typically range from five to 10 pounds of nitrogen for every inch of water lost to deep percolation or drainage in Nebraska (based on in-field research as well as modeling nitrate-nitrogen losses in a Hastings silt loam soil series with over-irrigation during May and June. Source Aaron Daigh, 2023). Leaching losses can be even larger in sandy soil, with values as large as 30 lb/ac for every inch of over-irrigation measured in a loamy sand soil. Over-irrigation is very expensive and something that needs to be avoided.

Leave Room for Storing Rainfall
Monitoring soil moisture and leaving it moderately dry during the vegetative growth states also leaves room for the soil to store any rainfall that may come. Too wet and you’ll lose that rainfall as runoff or deep percolation. Each inch of rainfall you store saves irrigation, input costs and prevents nitrate leaching.

The key to early water management is to apply irrigation only when it is needed to get the crop off to a good start, while keeping in mind over-irrigation enables crop input losses. Precision water and nitrogen management can help guide your early season irrigation decisions.



Start Scouting for Potato Leafhoppers in Alfalfa
Robert Wright - Extension Entomologist

Potato leafhoppers have the potential to injure alfalfa in Nebraska every year and have been reported recently in southeast Nebraska. They don't overwinter in Nebraska but rather are brought in on southerly winds. Generally they are a second and third cutting pest.

If you have not yet started to scout for potato leafhopper, now would be a good time to begin.

These small (1/8 inch long), bright green, wedge-shaped insects may cause severe damage to alfalfa. This feeding results in a distinctive yellow or purple triangle shape at the leaf tip. First year, spring planted alfalfa fields are particularly attractive to and vulnerable to potato leafhoppers, as are fields planted last year. In older fields, these insects are usually a problem on second and third cuttings.

Resistant varieties provide fairly good protection from potato leafhoppers, but alfalfa in the seedling stage may still be damaged. All fields should still be scouted, as large numbers of leafhoppers may still cause a problem, even in resistant variety fields.

Treatment Thresholds and Insecticides
Treatment decisions are based on numbers captured by a sweep net. (A sweep net is the only reliable way to scout for potato leafhoppers.) See Tables 1-3 for decision-making help. Note that there do not have to be many to cause a problem.

Many insecticides are registered for control, and all will provide good results when applied properly. Commonly used insecticides include Mustang, Warrior, Baythroid, or products with the same active ingredients.

Refer to the UNL Extension Circular 130 for a list of suggested insecticides.



Nutrition Adventure Seeks to Answer Tough Industry Questions

Are beef cattle sustainable? Why is food security an issue in the United States, and why does our population fall short on consuming macro and micronutrients? These are just some of the hard questions that the Nutrition Adventure conference answered through a panel of experts speaking to 28 dieticians from 12 different states, in and around Kansas City.

Nutrition Adventure is an immersive experience where dieticians gather to learn from some of the best in the areas of beef nutrition, research, and much more through discussions and industry tours. It is a joint effort through the Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma Beef Councils, and is held every other year since it requires a lot of preparation and planning, says Nebraska Beef Council Director of Nutrition and Education, Mitch Rippe.

 “We had a great panel discussion with all aspects of the beef supply chain, with a cow calf operation, feed yard, veterinarian, Cargill.” said Rippe. “So really focusing on the transparency aspect and providing them an opportunity to really ask anything and everything beef and production related.”

 As for how the participants are chosen, Rippe said they invite colleagues of different state beef councils from across the country, as well as referred professionals from beef councils. Some presenters and their topics included Tryon Wickersham, PhD, who discussed in depth how beef cattle are sustainable, and Clancy Harrison, MS, RDN, FAND, whose mission is to educate and stop the gap of food insecurity.

 Another important aspect of Nutrition Adventure is the relationships that forms between participants and presenters. Megan Hall was a registered dietitian in attendance who works for Hyvee and Creighton University. Hall said it was enlightening to see other nutritionists’ backgrounds and the variety of careers with dietetics at the conference.

 “I was just excited to get invited to go and I didn't realize that the dietitians were going to be from all over the country,” said Hall. “This was a great opportunity for me to be further educated and be surrounded by dieticians, which doesn't always happen.”

 Hall said that she works with a variety of patients, from chronically ill, to female athletes with iron deficiencies, and that she recommends beef as a protein option in their diet often.

 “Beef can be cost effective, and help with maintaining higher iron levels, which then helps with better performance, etc,” said Hall. “We need the continued message of dispelling any kind of myths that are out there and getting away from food having to be this perfect thing, and we need to make sure that we're eating and make sure that we're enjoying the eating process.”

For Suzanne Ousey, CEO of Nutrition Therapy Essentials of San Jose, California, the trip was about learning how to communicate better when there's any kind of backlash around beef in her line of work.

"It brought a lot of things to my attention," said Ousey. "We're not going to back down as a company, we're not not going to use beef. It has a place in our society, with people and with nutrition."

 Moving forward, the goal of Nutrition Adventure is for the dietitians to continue to work with their state Beef Councils, and spread the message of beef in new and creative ways.

“This is a really wonderful foundational piece,” said Rippe. “Now they can continue to reach new audiences and create new programs that are local in their state, and just continue to expand that messaging.”



How baseball and carbon markets can positively affect pork production

Baseball and pork are two of America’s favorites, and the people responsible for creating a great product on the field and in the barn share some important characteristics. Bringing out the best in everyone on your team is imperative for great outcomes and positive bottom lines.

Eric Potterat, first of the 2023 Iowa Swine Day plenary speakers, will share how his expertise and experience as Director of Specialized Performance Programs for the Los Angeles Dodgers has direct parallels to today’s pork production operations and their people.

His presentation, “Learned Excellence: The key performance optimization factors of high performing individuals and teams” is sure to be a home run.

Second plenary speaker Joe Kerns brings his 30 years worth of industry experience to the podium. The president of Partners for Production Agriculture leads his team in understanding the importance of financial impacts on agricultural markets, to increase opportunity for clients to thrive and prosper.

In his presentation, “Understanding the carbon market and how it applies to your business,” Kerns will explain the effects of that market on animal agriculture and how that knowledge applies to pork production businesses.

The 2023 Iowa Swine Day program, set for Thursday, June 29,  will be held at the Scheman Building on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and the official program starts at 8:30. Registration cost is $65, and students may attend at no charge with the registration deadline of midnight, June 22. No walk-in registrations are accepted.

There are four plenary speakers in the morning and following lunch, the afternoon is organized into four concurrent sessions: sustainable pork production, production strategies for foreign animal disease and health, the future of pig farming, and Iowa State University research. Each session has four presentations, and attendees are welcome to choose from among any of the sessions and presentations.

A new preconference ISU Swine Networking Social sponsored by TechMix, AB Vista and Lynch Livestock will be held Wed., June 28, at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center, 2508 Mortensen Rd in Ames, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. All attendees registered for Iowa Swine Day are welcome to join.This replaces the post-program barbeque held in previous years.

The full program, registration forms and information and directions to the venue are available on the Iowa Swine Day conference website http://www.aep.iastate.edu/iowaswineday/.

Iowa Swine Day is hosted by the Iowa Pork Industry Center with support provided by the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.



K-State chosen to lead global animal health effort

A Kansas State University agricultural economist has been selected to lead a five-year project to develop decision-making tools and improve communication on the economic impacts of animal disease, ultimately improving the health of those animals.

Dustin Pendell, a professor in K-State's department of agricultural economics, was named head of the Americas region of the Collaborating Center for the Economics of Animal Health. The project is supported by the World Organisation for Animal Health, or WOAH, which has headquarters in Paris, France.

WOAH — similar in purpose to that of the World Health Organization, which preserves and promotes human health — approved the creation of the center during its 90th General Assembly in late May. WOAH has 183 member countries, 33 of which are in the Americas region.

"Our thought process is that we can start to work together across these 33 countries in the Americas region to develop a set of consistent methods and tools that everyone can use to estimate the economic impacts of animal health," Pendell said. "Then we can take that knowledge that we generate and disseminate that information back to the decision-makers, whether that be animal health officials, producers or anybody throughout the supply chain, so they can make better management decisions."

The Collaborating Center for the Economics of Animal Health-Americas centers its operations at K-State's Manhattan campus, though there are no physical buildings representing the group. It will involve partners at the University of Sao Paulo, University of Brasilia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Washington State University.

The center will focus its effort on animal health related to terrestrial livestock — animals that live primarily on land — and aquaculture.

"As an economist, I will focus my work in that area, but this center is much more than economics," Pendell said. "It will take multiple disciplines, such as veterinarians, economists, epidemiologists, engineers and more, to make this a success."

Pendell said he anticipates the center's work will build upon recent global efforts such as the Global Burden of Animal Diseases, or GBADs, and Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases, a joint effort of WOAH and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

"The GBADs team has been working together for the past five years or so, during which time we've been developing methods on how we estimate the burden of animal health," Pendell said.

Pendell said knowing the burden of animal diseases across the world will not only assist governments and animal health officials invest appropriately in combatting those diseases but will help everyone across the livestock and meat supply chain.

"My hope is that we can provide decision-makers with the information such that they will be better able to optimally allocate their limited resources," he said.

Pendell said his vision for the CCEAH-Americas is rooted in K-State's land-grant mission.

"As an agricultural economist at a land-grant university, my job is to provide unbiased research to our stakeholders, such that they can make a better-informed decisions," he said. "We want business management decisions to be based on more than just a gut feeling. My vision for this center incorporates the land-grant philosophy and gets the research into the hands of the stakeholders, both here at home and around the world."



USDA Seeks Public Comment On Update to Methods for Entity Scale Inventory Report

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on an update to the report titled Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity Scale Inventory. The report provides farmers, ranchers and forest landowners with methods and tools to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of their operations. The update improves methods outlined in the report to increase their accuracy, provides new methods that allow users to quantify the GHG benefits of additional management practices, and introduces several improvements to make the report more user-friendly. See the update to the report and provide comments... https://www.regulations.gov/docket/USDA-2023-0007.  

The report was originally published in 2014 in response to Section 2709 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, which directed USDA to “establish technical guidelines that outline science-based methods to measure the environmental service benefits from conservation and land management activities in order to facilitate the participation of farmers, ranchers and forest landowners in emerging environmental services markets.”

The update to the report brings to bear the expertise of more than 60 authors, including USDA scientists, university researchers, and experts from nongovernment environmental organizations and research institutions to develop consistent metrics for estimating changes in GHG emissions and carbon sequestration for farm, ranch and forest operations. These estimation methods are the foundation for COMET-Farm, an online carbon and greenhouse gas accounting system developed by USDA and Colorado State University, and helps farmers and ranchers create a farm-scale GHG inventory and provides them with a range of management scenarios that, if implemented, could reduce GHG emissions from their operations.

The update ensures the report and USDA’s farm-scale GHG accounting tools continue to reflect the state of the science, providing guidance to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners interested in quantifying the GHG benefits of management changes in their operation. The guidance and tools will also help USDA assess the benefits of current and future conservation programs and initiatives.

USDA has been a leader in conducting regional and national GHG inventories for decades, and its scientists have a long history of collaborative research with universities to advance the scientific understanding of agriculture’s role in helping to mitigate and adapt to climate change.



ASA Urges House to Support UNITED Act & Strengthen U.S. Trade with U.K.

The American Soybean Association and other ag groups are urging members of the House to support legislation that would allow President Biden and Congress to seek a comprehensive trade agreement between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

In a letter this week, the groups asked House members to co-sponsor the UNITED Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would bolster an already-close relationship with the U.K.

“As supporters of trade agreements that advance American strategic and economic interests, we see these bills as a tremendous opportunity. A comprehensive trade agreement with the U.K. would broaden the scope of exporting opportunities for American businesses, strengthen our supply chain resilience, and improve the well-being of our consumers,” the groups write in the letter.



R-CALF USA Announces “American Spirit” 24th Annual Convention and Trade Show

R-CALF USA will host its 24th Annual National Convention and Trade Show “American Spirit” Aug. 17-18, 2023, at the Monument in Rapid City, South Dakota. Excited for another year of inciting producer engagement, the group looks forward to further developing strategies to improve the trajectory of the U.S. cattle industry.

Taking place at the foot of the Black Hills not far from Mount Rushmore, a symbol of American spirit itself, the group looks for the convention to embody the essence of that spirit. Feeding off the themes of freedom, patriotism, liberty, democracy, family and country, the event will provide attendees with the tools to act and defend the American cattle industry against the impending threats they are facing.

Confirmed convention speakers include: Dutch farmer advocate and internationally known political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), property rights advocate Angel Cushing, No Rancher Left Behind founder and rancher advocate Coy Young, World Trade Organization and Coalition for a Prosperous America trade expert Charles Benoit, Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef expert Tracy Hunt, monopoly power and market concentration expert Claire Kelloway, U.S./Mexico border rancher Erica Valdez, veterinarian Dr. Lora Bledsoe, R-CALF USA’s antitrust attorney Daniel Herrera, and R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. The event will also include panels featuring sheep industry representatives and the R-CALF USA Board of Directors. More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Preconvention activities and meetings will kick off Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 16, with committee and policy development meetings and an affiliate council meeting. Wednesday evening will host a welcome reception with appetizers, drinks, and early registration and trade show access.

On Thursday, Aug. 17, presentations will follow a convention welcome and prayer breakfast by Max Thornsberry, DVM. The day will conclude with a social, dinner, drinks and entertainment. Attendees will have access to the trade show, silent auction and other activities.

Friday, Aug. 18, will open with the affiliate and trade show breakfast and the business meeting will conclude Friday afternoon activities. The keynote address will be given Friday evening by internationally renowned Eva Vlaardingerbroek from Amsterdam, Netherlands, discussing the Dutch farmer movement, the globalized effort to control the food supply and those who produce it, and how the Dutch fought back and won. A saddle raffle and a live auction fundraiser will follow.

An affiliate report and committee reports from the Animal Identification, Animal Health, Checkoff, Sheep, Marketing, Country of Origin Labeling and Private Property Rights Committees will be presented throughout the course of the convention.

The trade show will be open Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to visit with the different vendors throughout the convention and during the numerous dedicated trade show breaks.

Sponsor and trade show vendor spots are available. To view the agenda, find hotel accommodations, and register to attend or sponsor the event visit www.RCALFconvention.com.