Thursday December 26 Ag News

Preparing the Cow Herd for Cold Weather
Larry Howard, NE Extension Educator, Cuming County

Moisture, high winds, and cold temperatures increase the cow's energy requirements. Cows in an optimal body condition score (BCS 5 to 6) are better able to withstand adverse environmental conditions. As a risk management strategy as we go into the winter, reduce the number of BCS 4 cows and increase the number of BCS 5 cows in your herd.

Another management strategy is to provide cattle with an area that provides wind protection. The lower critical temperature of a beef cow is the lowest temperature a cow can be exposed to before she needs to have metabolic changes to cope with cold stress.

Usually what happens metabolically is cows begin to shiver. These processes require extra energy. Lower critical temperature for beef cows is influenced by hair coat condition (dry or wet/muddy), body condition (thin, moderate, fleshy) and hair coat description. 

As hair coat changes from summer to winter, BCS changes from thin to fleshy, and hair coat changes from wet to dry, the lower critical temperature decreases which means cows can withstand harsher conditions without an increase in energy needs. Energy requirement increases about 1% for each degree of cold stress. As an example, cows that have a heavy winter hair coat that is dry and are in condition score of 5 have a lower critical temperature of 19°F.

Let's say, for the next week if the temperature next week is going to be 5°F and the wind at 15 mph, then the wind chill index is -10° F. At those environmental conditions, the energy needs of the herd increases by about 30%.

If the total digestible nutrients (TDN) requirements of the cows are 12 pounds of TDN per head per day for this week, you would consider bumping the ration to 15.5 lb/hd/day. This is an increase in 3.5 pounds of TDN per head per day. If grass hay is 57% TDN, that's an increase of about 6 lb/hd/day on a dry matter basis.  However if, the hay is 88% dry matter, that would mean each cow receives an additional 7 lb/hd/day. If these cows were being fed 24 lb/hd/day under current conditions, could they eat 31 lb/hd/day during the harsh weather conditions? For a 1200 pound cow, this calculates to about 2.3% of her body weigh on a dry matter basis to maintain body condition.

Be very careful if you plan to use grains (corn) to increase the energy density of the diet during severe conditions as you may do more harm than good. Feeding more than 2-3 lb/hd/day of corn to cows on a forage based diet will decrease fiber digestion. When cows are on a forage-based diet and supplemental energy is needed, consider the use of high energy, non-starch feed stuffs such as distillers grains and soy hulls to meet cow energy requirements. It is not advisable to change rations daily, but if is predicted that weather conditions will be severe over a period of time then ration changes may be warranted.



CVA Announces Jeremy Lee as SVP of Grain

Central Valley Ag (CVA) is pleased to announce Jeremy Lee as Senior Vice President of Grain. He will be responsible for leading the grain division of CVA, focused on providing the best markets to local producers in the challenging grain marketing environment. Lee comes to CVA from Mid-South AG of the Lawrence Group in Wilson, Arkansas. where he held the position of CFO/COO.

Central Valley Ag’s grain division has access to every major market west of the Mississippi, allowing them to provide competitive bids to patrons. Lee will lead the Grain Specialists at CVA. They are the frontline grain buyers for the company and help customers find the best way to sell their grain.

“Jeremy has a very diverse background in agriculture serving coops, banking, and private ag companies,” said Carl Dickinson, CEO of Central Valley Ag. “I am very excited to have him join our leadership team. He is a terrific entrepreneurial leader that shares the values of our cooperative.”

“I’m very excited to join the CVA team,” said Lee. “I look forward to working with the grain division to continue providing outstanding service and marketing opportunities for CVA patrons.”

Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and financial management from the University of North Dakota. He started working at CVA in early December.



CVA Hosts Annual Meeting

Central Valley Ag Cooperative (CVA) recently hosted its Annual Meeting at the Holthus Convention Center in York, Nebraska, on November 25, 2019, for member-owners to review the fiscal year. CVA reported $8.7 million in Total Profit from $1.4 billion in total sales for their fiscal year 2019, ending on August 31, 2019.

“I am really proud of the job our employees did,” said Carl Dickinson, CEO/President of Central Valley Ag. “This was an extremely difficult year with floods, rain, and many challenging conditions for the entire industry.” Despite those challenges, CVA reported an over $9.0 Million increase in working capital from 2018.

“CVA has built a balance sheet to withstand the difficult times in agriculture, ensuring your cooperative will be there to serve future generations of producers,” said Dave Beckman, CVA Board Chairman.

The cooperative also invested $42.6 Million in several capital improvement and expansion projects to better serve patrons. “We’re here to add value and help our farmers in their operations – both in easing their workload, reducing the stress. To ultimately make more profits, raise more bushels,” said Dickinson. “It’s about us getting up every day in an ever-changing world and saying, “What do we need to do to add value today?”.”

At the meeting, CVA announced the election of Dave Beckman, Pat Wemhoff, Randy Johnson, Ron Benson, Mark Philips and Jacob Porter to serve on their Board of Directors.

Three new associate board members were announced at the meeting:
    Grant Schmidt - Henderson, NE
    Derek Applebee - Akron, IA
    Ryan May – Hunter, KS

CVA relies on its Board of Directors to position the cooperative for future success and profitability for member-owners. CVA’s Board of Directors is made up of local agricultural producers who are recognized for their industry expertise, as well as economic and community development skills.

“Serving on the CVA Co-op Board prompts me to take a wider view of agriculture, which I value and enjoy,” said Jacob Porter, CVA Board of Director from Mankato, Kansas. “It’s exciting to be a part of, and I believe producer-owned cooperatives are necessary for a healthy marketplace for agricultural inputs and products.”



Feedlot Forum Explores Marketing Challenges, Expectations

Feedlot Forum 2020 will be held Jan. 14, 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m., at the Terrace View Event Center, Sioux Center. The event marks the 17th year for the program co-hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Iowa Beef Center, the Sioux, Lyon and Plymouth County Cattlemen's Associations, and the Iowa Cattlemen's Association.

Feedlot Forum is an opportunity for feedlot producers and allied agribusiness professionals to receive the latest information on beef production and marketing. The program features several industry-leaders as speakers, agribusiness sponsor displays, a steak dinner and a $10 beef certificate for attendees.

"The feedlot industry has had its share of challenges, including restricted processing capacity, high export tariffs and plant proteins competing for the center of the consumer's plate," said Beth Doran, beef program specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. "Coupled with these challenges, the consumer also has expectations. They want assurance that their beef is produced with attention to animal stewardship and environmental sustainability, and that it is nutritious and high quality."

Keynote speakers and their topics are:
- Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, director of sustainability, JBS USA, presenting "Customer Expectations of Today."
- Greg Hanes, Cattlemen's Beef Board CEO, "International Customer Expectations and Your Checkoff."
- Colin Woodall, National Cattlemen's Beef Association CEO, "NCBA's Role in Marketing Issues."
- Andrew Gottschalk, R.J. O'Brien and Associates senior vice president and HedgersEdge.com LLC president, "Herd Expansion Ends, What's Next?"

Attendees will also hear brief updates on the Iowa Beef Industry Council's efforts to increase consumer demand and the Iowa Cattlemen's Association's efforts to maintain market access for Iowa feedlot operators.

"Marketing has expanded beyond the farm gate to include not only state and national venues, but now an expansive international focus," Doran said. "The goal of this forum is to help today's producer learn what it will take to be competitive in the future."

The forum features 26 agribusiness sponsor displays with the latest in cattle products, technology and services, all of which are available to cattle producers.

Registration for Feedlot Forum 2020 is $25 per person with a discounted price of $10 for students. Registration is due to the ISU Extension and Outreach Sioux County office (400 Central Ave. NW, Suite 700, Orange City, IA 51041) no later than Jan. 9.

For more information, contact Doran at 712-737-4230 or doranb@iastate.edu.



Plant Engineering Research Breakthrough Could Boost Productivity
USSEC

Photosynthesis research from the University of Illinois and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service has been gaining global attention. The work of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) has been featured by Reuters, BBC, Science Daily, The Japan Times and many others.  The study is part of an international project to boost global food production sustainably.

Changing the way crops like soybeans, rice and wheat process sunlight has the potential to increase yields by 40 percent, according to the researchers’ report published in the journal Science.

These crops, along with fruits and vegetables, use the C3 photosynthesis process, which has a natural “glitch” or inefficiency in the use of energy as resources.

“We could feed up to 200 million additional people with the calories lost to photorespiration in the Midwestern U.S. each year,” said principal investigator Donald Ort, the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Science and Crop Sciences at Illinois’ Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology in a press release. “Reclaiming even a portion of these calories across the world would go a long way to meeting the 21st Century’s rapidly expanding food demands—driven by population growth and more affluent high-calorie diets.”

Researchers inserted genes from bacteria, green algae and other plants into tobacco plants, shortcutting the C3 photosynthesis process. Two years of replicated field trials found that these engineered plants developed faster, grew taller, and saved enough energy to increase productivity by 40 percent in real-world conditions.

According to Paul South, lead author and a research molecular biologist with the Agricultural Research Service, “Photosynthesis is nearly identical in plants, so we expect that benefits observed in tobacco will result in changes to food crops.”

The team is now translating these findings to boost the yield of soybeans, rice, potatoes, and other crops.

“It takes 10 to 15 years for technologies like this to undergo rigorous regulatory approval process, which examines engineered crops for health and environmental impacts. Thus, it is all the more urgent to invest in these types of technologies today,” said South.

According to Timothy Searchinger, lecturer at Princeton University and senior fellow at the World Resources Institute who authored a recent report on sustainable food systems, the latest findings provide “important, promising work as it may open up new ways to expand crop yields.”

Many innovations in agriculture, come with costly intellectual property rights, but RIPE and its sponsors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are committed to ensuring that smallholder farmers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, will have royalty-free access to all of the project’s breakthroughs.  According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, smallholder farmers provide up to 80 percent of the food supply in those regions.



Fertilizer Prices Continue to Move Lower

Average retail fertilizer prices continued to shift lower the third week of December 2019, according to retailers surveyed by DTN.

All eight of the major fertilizers were lower in price from a month earlier, but none were considerably lower. DTN designates a significant price move as 5% or more.

DAP had an average price of $444 per ton, MAP $460/ton, potash $378/ton, urea $377/ton, 10-34-0 $469/ton, anhydrous $487/ton, UAN28 $239/ton and UAN32 $276/ton.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $0.41/lb.N, anhydrous $0.30/lb.N, UAN28 $0.43/lb.N and UAN32 $0.43/lb.N.

Retail fertilizers are mixed in price from a year ago. Both MAP and anhydrous are now 14% less expensive, DAP is 13% lower, UAN28 is 10% less expensive, UAN32 is 9% lower, urea is 7% lower and 10-34-0 is 3% less expensive from last year at this time. In addition, potash is 1% higher more expensive compared to last year.




USDA Announces Pilot Insurance Coverage for Hemp Growers

USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) today announced a new crop insurance option for hemp growers in select counties of 21 states in 2020.  The pilot insurance program will provide Actual Production History (APH) coverage under 508(h) Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) for eligible producers in certain counties in Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The MPCI coverage is for hemp grown for fiber, grain or CBD oil for the 2020 crop year. It is in addition to the Whole-Farm Revenue Protection coverage available to hemp growers announced earlier this year.

“We are excited to offer coverage to certain hemp producers in this pilot program,” said RMA Administrator Martin Barbre. “Since this is a pilot program, we look forward to feedback from producers on the program in the coming crop year.”

The 2018 Farm Bill amended the Controlled Substances Act to address how industrial hemp is to be defined and regulated at the federal level, and those modifications cleared the way for the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to offer policies for it. The Farm Bill defines hemp as containing 0.3 percent or less tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on a dry-weight basis.

To be eligible for the MPCI pilot program, among other requirements, a hemp producer must comply with applicable state, tribal or federal regulations for hemp production, have at least one year of history producing the crop, and have a contract for the sale of the insured hemp. Producers also must be a part of a Section 7606 state or university research pilot, as authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill, or be licensed under a state, tribal or federal program approved under the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) interim final rule issued in October 2019. The MPCI provisions state that hemp having THC above the federal statutory compliance level will not constitute an insurable cause of loss. Additionally, hemp will not qualify for replant payments or prevented plant payments under MPCI.

In addition, beginning with the 2021 crop year, hemp will be insurable under the Nursery crop insurance program and the Nursery Value Select pilot crop insurance program. Under both programs, hemp will be insurable if grown in containers and in accordance with federal regulations, any applicable state or tribal laws, and terms of the crop insurance policy.

More information on the MPCI pilot will be available in 2020. Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents.