Tuesday August 02 Ag News

 LENRD Board Votes On Path Forward for Battle Creek Watershed Plan

The Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District (LENRD) Board of Directors voted to move forward and sign a contract with Houston Engineering to incorporate the Battle Creek Hydraulic Analysis Alternative into the Battle Creek Watershed & Flood Prevention Operations (WFPO) Plan at their meeting on Thursday, July 27th.

At the July 13th Committee of the Whole meeting, Directors were given a presentation from Mike Sotak, Houston Engineering, that included a variety of flood mitigation options for Battle Creek. The options included: dam with detention, dam with diversion channel, dam with levee, a detention north of town, and a levee only. Due to the smaller environmental footprint, lower cost, and eligibility to meet the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grant funding requirements, Directors chose the single dam and levee option to bring forward for consideration at the July 27th Board meeting.

The vote to sign the contract with Houston Engineering for the levee and single dam option allows the almost 90% completed WFPO plan to move forward towards completion. The total cost of the single dam and levee option is approximately $50 million and will require less of an out-of-pocket expense for the LENRD taxpayers. Houston Engineering and JEO will now work together to complete the remainder of the Battle Creek WFPO plan.

“This vote is a positive step forward for the Battle Creek WFPO project. The single dam/levee option will allow us to have a better finished product and is the most cost-effective alternative,” said Brian Bruckner, LENRD interim General Manager.

Directors also approved a payment of $8,894.55 to Houston Engineering for their professional services related to the presentation of information at the July 13th meeting of the LENRD Committee of the Whole.

In other action, LENRD staff were directed to begin advertising a request for proposals for the development of a North Fork Elkhorn River Watershed Plan and Environmental Document for the WFPO program. The target of this project is to leverage assistance to the towns of Pierce and Osmond. While Osmond has interest in a levee of their own, the Pierce levee needs to be brought up to the necessary requirements for certification. Chairman Roger Gustafson chose five Directors to participate on an Evaluation and Selection Committee to select a candidate for the project: Jay Reikofski, Scott Clausen, Chad Korth, Jerry Allemann, and Melissa Temple. Proposals for the project will be accepted until Monday, August 21st at 4:30 p.m.

Directors awarded the Willow Creek Reservoir Outlet Channel Repair Project to Cech Excavating LLC for a total of $84,950.00. There were three contractors that submitted bids for the project. LENRD staff were estimating that the total cost of the project would be approximately $150,000.  The contractor has a completion date of March 15, 2024 and plans to begin work this month.

To learn more about the 12 responsibilities of the Nebraska’s NRDs and how your local district can work with you and your community to protect your natural resources, visit www.lenrd.org and sign up for our monthly emails. The next board of directors meeting will be Thursday, August 24th, at the LENRD office in Norfolk at 7:30 p.m. and on Facebook Live.



CORN SILAGE HARVEST ADJUSTMENT
– Todd Whitney, NE Extension Educator

Silage harvest for fully irrigated full-season corn usually begins 45 days or 800 GDD’s after the tassel / silking growth stage. However, corn maturity can hasten due to drought, heat stress and shorter-season hybrid breeding. Therefore, ear kernel milk line development and accumulated growing degree days (GDD’s) may be better predictors for timing silage harvest than following a calendar especially for drought impacted corn.

Accurately assessing whole plant moisture is key to proper silage pile fermentation and tight packing. If silage is too dry; then, packing is difficult and may allow oxygen into the pile causing overheating, mold/yeast/bad microbe growth, and spoilage. When the silage moisture content is too high, piles can weep with valuable energy and nutrients flowing out as a loss from the pile. Also, damaging clostridia bacteria colonies can grow when silage is too wet. So, target silage storage moisture content should be 65-70% moisture.

Another factor to consider for silage chopping is milk line (a corn kernel starch content indicator). Starch is one of the most energy dense feed components; so silage that contains higher amounts of starch will be higher energy overall. The further down the kernel milk line is established; the more starch content has been stored in the kernel.

However, plant moisture and milk line may not be directly correlated and may vary among hybrids. While these development factors trend in the same direction, the moisture content can still vary. For example, corn that is 55% moisture and ¼ milk may be 65% moisture at the same ¼ milk the next field over.

Corn silage is a great feed resource that can benefit from moisture content monitoring at harvest. Target harvest silage at 65-70% moisture content for best results. Use the ear kernel milk line (closer to the cob means more starch and higher energy silage) to find your ideal harvest window based on your hybrids.



INOCULANTS FOR CORN SILAGE
– Ben Beckman, NE Extension Educator

Corn silage harvest success rests on proper harvest, packing, and storage practices.  When we need a boost, adding an inoculant at harvest time can help improve fermentation and storage, but we need to know what products to use to get the best result.

Silage inoculants are simply bacterial cultures that help manage pH in the pile by converting sugars to acids which reduce molds, fungi, and unwanted bacteria such as clostridia.

When selecting an inoculant, the first step is deciding if up-front fermentation or pile stability are needed, or maybe both. Up front fermentation helps if most of our issues center around harvest and packing.  If problems are more centered on storage and feed out, stability is where we should spend our money.  Sometimes, a mix of both are needed.

Inoculants primarily reduce storage losses.  Silages that contain homolactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus plantarum help fermentation start and end quicker by dropping the pH fast.  This allows more silage to remain for feeding.  Other inoculants, like heterolactic acid bacteria Lactobacillius buchneri, can improve aerobic stability by reducing spoilage losses when silage is re-exposed to air.  These bacteria are especially useful at reducing spoilage on the face of bunker silos if the face is too wide to keep fresh or if producers take out several days’ worth of feed from the pile at one time.

The purpose of inoculants is not to fix a train wreck or improve a perfect silage year, but they can help when things aren’t ideal. Inoculants can be used as an insurance policy to reduce the risk of spoilage and maintain quality.



Department of Animal Science Hosts U.S. Meat Export Federation Global Processing Workshop

The Department of Animal Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln hosted representatives from seven countries as part of a U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Global Processing Workshop on July 31-Aug. 1, 2023.

USMEF partners from meat processing companies in Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, and Japan traveled to Lincoln to attend sessions about basic meat science, injection and marinated meat processing, flavor trends, freezing and thawing of raw materials, thermal processing, and packaging. All sessions were led by Nebraska faculty, graduate students, and representatives from USMEF.

“This is the third time we’ve hosted this event at Nebraska, and our attendees always have a great experience here," said Paige Parker, Manager of Technical Programs for USMEF. "No matter the level of experience of our attendees, they learn something that can be applied to their company. That is a compliment to the level of expertise here at Nebraska, as the faculty and staff really go above and beyond and help us put on a first-class workshop."

Attendees also worked with faculty members and students in a product development activity held in the Loeffel Meat Lab. Each group developed a marinated ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook beef or pork product to be targeted to their own domestic markets. Products developed included Colombian-style marinated pork loin, lomo saltado, apple-cinnamon seasoned pork loin, and a beef pastor. Samples of developed products were then served along with lunch on day two.

"This is one of our favorite workshop events every year because it allows us to interact with processors from different countries," said Dr. Gary Sullivan, associate professor of meat science. "We highlight underutilized U.S. beef and pork cuts and work with our participants to help them identify new opportunities to expand their current product lines."

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, USMEF increases the value and profit opportunities for the U.S. beef, pork and lamb industries by enhancing demand in export markets through a coordinated and collaborative partnership of all stakeholders. In addition to its headquarters in the U.S., USMEF has offices in Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Singapore, Taipei, Mexico City, and Monterrey. USMEF also has special market representatives covering South America, South China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean.



Applications open for Practical Farmers’ cover crop cost-share
Farmers in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota are eligible

Midwestern farmers looking for support to implement cover crops can now get cost-share and technical assistance for the increasingly common practice, thanks to Practical Farmers of Iowa’s cover crop cost-share program. Sign-ups are now open, and program participants can get payment rates of $10 per acre on an unlimited number of acres.

“We continue to see more and more farmers interested in cover crops, which is great,” says Morgan Jennings, PFI’s field crops viability coordinator. “This program is perfect for farmers who want to try cover crops but aren’t sure where to start, as well as those more experienced with covers. In addition to payments, we also offer farmers step-by-step support from our staff agronomists. We’re excited to bring this program to farmers again and look forward to getting more cover crops on the land.”

For years, the cover crop cost-share program has helped farmers reach their cover crop goals. In 2022 alone, PFI paid more than 1,100 farmers over $3.1 million to seed cover crops. In total last year, PFI’s program supported farmers in planting over 360,000 acres of cover crops across the Midwest.

Fred Abels, a farmer who raises corn and cover crop seed has enrolled in PFI’s cover crop cost-share every year since 2018. “It is quick and easy, and the staff at PFI are great to work with,” says Fred, who farms in Holland, Iowa. “The companies supporting the cost-share show that they are willing to put skin in the game, and we as farmers need to give cover crops a try.”

Of those who participated in PFI’s program, 90% said they would refer friends or other farmers to the cost-share. Participants also reported that using cover crops decreased weed pressure, increased long-term yield stability and provided additional forage or grazing value.

Farmers in Iowa and parts of Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota are eligible for the program. Both farmers with a history of cover crop use and those seeding cover crops for the first time are eligible. New this year, farmers have the option to sign up for one-year or four-year contracts.

The application form only takes about 10 minutes to complete, and farmers can stack the cost-share with other publicly funded programs (but cannot dually enroll acres in another private cost-share program, like a carbon market). Full details and the application form are available at practicalfarmers.org/cover-crop-cost-share.

For questions, to check eligibility or for help getting signed up, farmers should contact Morgan Jennings at (515) 232-5661 or morgan.jennings@practicalfarmers.org, or visit practicalfarmers.org/cover-crop-cost-share.



‘Generations of Conservation’ celebrated at Farm Bureau Park during the Iowa State Fair

True or false: Iowa farmers rank number one nationally in many conservation practices such as water quality wetlands, bioreactors, grassed waterways, filter strips, buffer strips and conservation tillage?

Fairgoers who answer this or other trivia questions at Iowa Farm Bureau Park during the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 10-20, will receive a prize. (Hint: The answer is true.) Located next to the Varied Industries Building, Farm Bureau Park is celebrating “Generations of Conservation” and the family farms who help Iowa earn this number one standing.

“Each farming generation gets to build upon what the previous generation did, adopting a mindset of continuous improvement,” says Brent Johnson, Iowa Farm Bureau president. “And during that same time, new technology, innovation and research is being adopted to support family farm sustainability goals. That’s why we’re able to do more using fewer resources than ever before in the history of agriculture. For example, between 1990 and 2020, greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. agriculture dropped by 18% when adjusted for an increase in agricultural productivity.”

Win prizes
Iowa Farm Bureau members can present their membership card for a gift and enter to win $2,500 in groceries plus $2,500 in fuel. Fairgoers who sign up for an Iowa Farm Bureau membership at Farm Bureau Park are entered into a drawing for $500 in groceries plus $500 in fuel and receive a $10 Fareway gift card.

Everyone has a chance to win $500 in groceries by taking the Member Benefit Challenge at the park. Stop by the game tent for a chance to win great prizes while visiting with Iowa farmers to learn how your food is grown and raised.

“We understand consumers have questions about what we do on the farm today, and how we take care of our animals, as well as the land,” says Johnson. “We invite all fairgoers to stop by Farm Bureau Park and visit with a farmer to get their questions answered and have some fun winning a few prizes while they’re doing it.”

Special events
On Saturday, Aug. 12 Iowa Farm Bureau young farmers will provide kid-focused activities and prizes.

The 59th Iowa Farm Bureau Cookout Contest will kick off Farm Bureau Day at the fair on Tuesday, Aug. 15 on the Grand Concourse. More than 50 backyard chefs will compete to earn the title of Grand Champion, along with a $1,000 cash prize.  

On Aug. 17, 242 Century Farms, held in the same family for 100 years, and 156 Heritage Farms, held in the same family for 150 years, will be recognized. With the addition of this year’s recipients, more than 21,000 Century Farms and 1,800 Heritage Farms have been celebrated across Iowa.

Park guests and screenings
Farm Bureau Park will host Farm Rescue on Aug. 15. This organization assists farmers who have experienced a major illness, injury or natural disaster that hinders them from tending to their crops or livestock.

Visit the Farm Bureau Financial Services (FBFS) tent to learn how safe driving habits could qualify you for auto insurance premium savings. Test out the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau "Seat Belt Convincer" to experience the impact of a 5 to 10 mph crash, underscoring the importance of wearing seat belts even at lower speeds.

Thanks to Farm Bureau health partners like Iowa Physical Therapy Association, Dental Connections, Health Gauge, Wolfe Eye Clinics, Wolfe Audiology, American Cancer Society, John Stoddard Cancer Center and the Grand View Nursing Student Association, Farm Bureau Park will offer free screenings for skin cancer, glaucoma, hearing, balance, stroke detection and blood pressure. Demonstrations of the new hands-only CPR method will also be conducted by the American Red Cross and Unity Point Health.

Visit IowaFarmBureau.com/StateFair for the daily schedule of park activities.



Weekly Ethanol Production for 7/28/2023

According to EIA data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association for the week ending July 28, ethanol production scaled back 2.5% to 1.067 million b/d, equivalent to 44.81 million gallons daily. However, output was 2.3% more than the same week last year and 4.1% above the five-year average for the week. The four-week average ethanol production rate increased 0.2% to 1.066 million b/d, equivalent to an annualized rate of 16.34 billion gallons (bg).

Ethanol stocks tightened by 1.6% to 22.9 million barrels. Stocks were 2.3% less than a year ago but 1.7% above the five-year average. Inventories thinned across all regions except the Rocky Mountains (PADD 4) and West Coast (PADD 5).

The volume of gasoline supplied to the U.S. market, a measure of implied demand, slipped 1.1% to 8.84 million b/d (135.49 bg annualized). Demand was 3.5% more than a year ago but 3.8% below the five-year average.

Refiner/blender net inputs of ethanol perked up, rising 1.2% to a 9-week high of 924,000 b/d, equivalent to 14.16 bg annualized. Net inputs were 1.8% more than the same week last year and 1.1% above the five-year average.

Ethanol exports were estimated at 141,000 b/d (5.9 million gallons per day), a 64% increase over the prior week and the largest volume since April 2022. There were zero imports recorded for the 34th consecutive week.



Truterra Announces New Flexible and Farmer-Friendly Programs Beyond Carbon

Truterra, LLC, a leading agricultural sustainability business that offers consultation, tools and solutions for the ag and food value chain, today announced the launch of four new data-driven regional and crop-specific programs to support farmers as they adopt regenerative growing practices.

The offerings include a long-awaited solution for long-term adopters, Truterra's first cotton-specific program, first nitrogen management program following a successful pilot and more. These programs build on Truterra’s mission to support farmers wherever they are on their sustainability journey and provide flexible, farmer-friendly programs.

“Everything Truterra does is with the farmer at the center, backed by the network of ag retailers they trust,” said Tom Ryan, President of Truterra. “Each of these programs is designed to support farmers as they adopt customized conservation management practices to help them make the best informed agronomic, economic and environmental decisions for their farms.”

Truterra’s new 2023 sustainability programs include:

Field Data Management – Cotton
    Truterra’s Cotton Field Data Management program is available for eligible Tennessee farmers to enroll in the heart of the cotton belt.
    In exchange for providing field management data and signing a one-year commitment, eligible farmers will receive compensation as well as exposure to the transformative power of data-driven agriculture.
    This program provides a critical entry point for farmers at the start of their sustainability journeys, enabling them to try a sustainability program without agreeing to a long-term commitment.

Field Data Management – Wheat
    Truterra’s Wheat Field Data Management program is available to eligible farmers in Ohio, Maryland and Kansas at the start of their sustainability journeys, with wheat in rotation between 2018-2023.
    As part of this flexible one-year commitment, eligible enrolled farmers may be compensated for providing field data management and receive insights for enrolled acres while building the baseline data required to potentially participate in future Truterra™ programs.

Supply Shed Benefits
    This program offers a long-awaited solution for long-term adopters of sustainable practices.
    Farmers in Indiana are eligible if they have implemented strip-till or no-till and/or added cover crops on fields with corn. The practice must be in place for crop year 2023, regardless of the date of practice change.
    Eligible farmers who participate in the 2023 Truterra™ supply shed benefits program could potentially receive $5/acre while also building the baseline data required to potentially participate in future Truterra™ programs.

Nitrogen Management Incentive
    Truterra’s Nitrogen Management Incentive is available for eligible farmers with corn fields in Illinois having met the qualifying practice changes.
    This is the first nitrogen reduction incentive program for Truterra and completely independent of tillage reduction or addition of cover crops, which builds on Truterra’s purpose to meet the farmer where they’re at on their sustainability journey.
    The program is designed to be flexible in how a farmer may be incentivized, with either the reduction of fertilizer and/or addition of stabilizer.
    This program is targeting an important GHG that is more than 270x more potent than CO2.

Beyond these new programs, Truterra also offers a range of solutions for farmers, from a soil health assessment, which provides a comprehensive report with actionable insights for farmers to understand the biological, chemical and physical health of their fields, and then create a roadmap for improving their soil health, to our farmer-centric, retail-driven carbon program. Sustainability is not a one-sized-fits-all approach and Truterra is committed to supporting farmers with customized tools, insights and pathways to plan, make and maintain regenerative practices on their operations for the long-term.



DMC Margin Drops Below $4 for First Time Ever
NMPF

The June Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin dropped by $1.18/cwt from a month earlier to $3.65/cwt, the first time it’s been below $4/cwt since margin protection became the basic federal safety net mechanism for dairy in 2014. It will generate a lot of $0.35/cwt payments for Tier 2 coverage at the free $4/cwt coverage level, as well as payments of $5.85/cwt for coverage at the maximum $9.50/cwt Tier 1 coverage level. The June all-milk price was $1.40/cwt lower than in May, the same as the April to May drop a month earlier, while the DMC June feed cost was only $0.22/cwt of milk lower than May’s, due relatively evenly to slight drops in the prices of all three feed formula components.

Available forecasts indicate the margin will improve slightly in July from the June level, then increase rapidly from August through October and approach $9.50/cwt by December.

July CWT-Assisted Dairy Export Sales Totaled Over 4 Million Pounds
CWT member cooperatives secured 36 contracts in July, adding 3.2 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 44,000 pounds of butter, 679,000 pounds of cream cheese and 130,000 pounds of whole milk powder to CWT-assisted sales in 2023. In milk equivalent, this is equal to 36.7 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. These products will go to customers in Asia, Oceania, Central America, the Caribbean and Middle East-North Africa, and will be shipped from July through December 2023.

CWT-assisted 2023 dairy product sales contracts year-to-date total 27.6 million pounds of American-type cheese, 809,000 pounds of butter, 24,000 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 5.9 million pounds of cream cheese and 31.4 million pounds of whole milk powder. This brings the total milk equivalent for the year to 548.9 million pounds on a milkfat basis.

Exporting dairy products is critical to the viability of dairy farmers and their cooperatives across the country. Whether or not a cooperative is actively engaged in exporting cheese, butter, anhydrous milkfat, cream cheese, or whole milk powder, moving products into world markets is essential. CWT provides a means to move domestic dairy products to overseas markets by helping to overcome U.S. dairy’s trade disadvantages.



Uncertainty and Variability but not in Cattle
Stephen R. Koontz, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University

Cattle and feed markets remain a contrast this summer. December corn futures established a support low in May, tested the resistance high at the end of June, then returned to and tested support a few days later in early-July, rallied to what I am uncomfortable calling a 50% correction in mid-July, and is now breaking back to the support low. This is a textbook case of uncertainty where the market is looking for the appropriate price level where the trading slows down. And I do not think the feed grain market is through as crop conditions remain uncertain. There are a lot of acres but rather variable conditions. In the face of this for-now lower feed grain market, the forage markets in the high plains remain rather strong. Higher quality hays are in the mid-$200s approaching $300 per ton. And lower quality forages are well above $100 to $150 per ton. There is enough drought and strong demand that forages remain expensive.

Feeder cattle and calf markets showed little comparable reaction to the feed grain markets over the past two months. There was a brief price break in June with the first harvest corn price run up. But 7-8 weight feeder cattle futures have largely held the $250 per hundredweight level and cash has moved to these levels. This is reasonable – from an economic fundamental perspective – given the strength in the fed cattle market and the downstream boxed beef market. It is not simply tighter numbers – much tighter numbers are ahead of us when herd building restarts – beef production is off modestly but the strength in demand. Within the important underlying fundamentals, slaughter weights are seasonally tight, cattle on feed over 120 days are very tight compared to prior years, packer margins and feedlot margins are very strong. These are all bullish signals. At some point in the future, we will need to be concerned about competing meat supplies, trade volumes, the strength of the dollar, and interest rates versus inflation. But this summer the cattle and beef market just continue to show dramatic strength. And this is largely due to the underlying strength in the domestic economy.



USDA, Washington State University Break Ground on New State-of-the-Art Agricultural Research Facility

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Tuesday this week participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Plant Sciences Building that will house scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Washington State University (WSU).

ARS and WSU hosted the ceremony for the new building that will be located on the campus of WSU. Research conducted at the new facility will focus on improving the health, sustainability, and profitability of dryland and irrigated agriculture in the Pacific Northwest. The collaboration between WSU and ARS began in 1931 and is one of the nation's most robust federal-state partnerships.

“Robust and innovative agricultural research is a requisite to confronting many of the challenges we are facing, from feeding a growing world population and improving farming practices, to tackling the effects of a changing climate,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The collaboration between USDA and Washington State University we celebrate today opens a new era in a long research partnership and pushes the boundaries of what is possible for agriculture through a commitment to ensuring our farmers are equipped with world-class research that leads to real-world, practical solutions.”

Four ARS research units will be housed in the new building —Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality; Grain Legume Genetics and Physiology; Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems; and Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing. In addition, members of the WSU Departments of Plant Pathology, Crop, Soil Sciences, and Horticulture will share lab and office space with federal researchers.

Working on behalf of ARS, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Interagency and International Services program is providing the planning, environmental, contracting, design and construction contract oversight for this project.

The new building will house approximately 15 ARS scientists and 15 WSU scientists. The collaborative research benefits growers, commodity groups, agricultural businesses and the public, which depend heavily on this partnership to solve agricultural and environmental problems.

“The groundbreaking of the new USDA-WSU building reflects USDA's commitment to innovative research and cutting-edge solutions that make our farmers more productive, profitable, and resilient,” said USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young. “It also underscores the importance of our partnerships with Land-grant Universities and USDA's commitment that the best and brightest agriculture scientists and researchers are working in state-of-the-art facilities equipped with the tools they need to take on the world's greatest agricultural challenges.”

Other leaders who spoke at the groundbreaking included U.S. Senator Patty Murray; U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers; ARS Administrator Dr. Simon Liu; Dr. Elizabeth Chilton, Provost/Executive Vice President and Pullman Chancellor, Washington State University; Dr. Wendy Powers, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University; and Mary Palmer Sullivan, Vice President, Washington Grain Commission.

In May, USDA released a three-year science and research strategy, which establishes a scientific framework to transform the U.S. food system and support our nation’s farmers, ranchers, producers and foresters. Facilities like this new ARS Plant Sciences Building enhance USDA’s continued efforts to respond to the needs of the diverse communities we serve across the nation.



Ryan Goodman and Jen Sorenson to share consumer engagement tips with 2023 College Aggies Online participants

Ryan Goodman, also known online as “The Beef Runner,” and Jen Sorenson, former president of the National Pork Producers Council, will mentor 2023 College Aggies Online (CAO) participants as they compete for scholarship awards and build resume experience. The 2023 program kicks off on September 11. Registration is now open for undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students studying in the U.S., as well as collegiate clubs and classes. Last year, nearly $20,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded to participants. Sign up for this year’s competition here: https://animalagalliance.org/initiatives/college-aggies-online/.

Reflecting on the 2022 competition, Morgan Elia, student at California Polytechnic State University and second place individual, said, “I thoroughly enjoyed every week of the competition, and I feel like I walked away with a lot of experience and knowledge. I'm definitely glad I participated. I have had numerous friends and family tell me they learned a lot from my posts and thought it was really cool I was spreading that kind of knowledge.”

CAO is an initiative of the Animal Agriculture Alliance connecting college students from across the country who are passionate about sharing positive, factual information about agriculture. Participants receive nine interactive and educational weeks of content to help them become confident and effective communicators for agriculture with guidance from farmer and industry mentors. Goodman will support students as they are challenged to write and publish a blog post, and Sorenson will share her tips for engaging online about pork and pig farming.

Goodman works to bridge the gap between cattle farmers and ranchers in his role as director of communications and community engagement at Certified Angus Beef. He engages the brand’s network of fans to grow its global presence and helps make topics like cattle care and sustainability easier to discuss and understand. He has worked in the beef community with family farmers and cow-calf, stocker, and feeder farms, and as a freelance writer for agriculture publications. Before joining the brand in 2022, he served as director of grassroots advocacy and spokesperson development for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Goodman has been a longtime leader in agriculture advocacy as an early adopter of social media and blogging, reaching global audiences through his writing and digital content.

Sorenson grew up on a pig farm in southeastern Iowa and has always had a passion for telling the story of agriculture. After receiving degrees in animal science and journalism from Iowa State University, she worked in several communications departments, including at the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Christensen Farms, and McCormick Company. She is now Iowa Select Farms’ director of communications. Sorenson has been with Iowa Select Farms for ten years and is responsible for all facets of internal and external communications, media relations, public relations and industry outreach. She is the immediate past president of the National Pork Producers Council.

Goodman and Sorenson will help the Alliance in selecting weekly scholarship winners. The top participants at the conclusion of the program will be invited to attend the Alliance’s 2024 Stakeholders Summit, set for May 8-9 in Kansas City, Missouri, for national recognition.

Students interested in networking with industry professionals and learning from successful agriculture influencers while strengthening their communication skills are invited to sign up today at https://animalagalliance.org/initiatives/college-aggies-online-sign-up/.