 |
|||
 |
" I heard it |
||
August 18, 2011
· Texas ag losses on record pace at $5.2 billion
· Deere & Co. betting on US, EU markets
· Officials fear the worst from stink bugs
· Vending machines serve up fresh lunches
· An eco friendly solution to nematodes near
Texas ag losses on record pace at $5.2 billion
Officials say producers in the nation's leading cattle state have sent more animals than usual to auction, because there's nothing for them to graze on. That means fewer animals available to buy down the road, and they'll cost more because there will be fewer around.
It will also take time before ranchers will have new animals to sell, said Texas AgriLife Extension Service drought specialist Travis Miller.
"I really expect a three-year recovery in livestock when we start getting rain," he said.
Drought has spread over much of the South this year, setting
records from
Field surveys from November 2010 to Aug. 1 this year indicate livestock losses of $2.1 billion and crop losses of $3.1 billion in the state, extension service economist David Anderson said. By the time crops are done being harvested, it might be more.
"There can still be some losses there when we see
what's harvested,"
The previous record annual loss was $4.1 billion for the
2006 growing season,
Jim McAdams, a fourth-generation rancher, said demand and prices for beef are up and export markets are thriving, making it an ideal time for ranching — were there any food for animals to graze.
"You would hope that this thing would turn around," he said, adding that fertilizer, fuel and other costs are pulling down ranchers' bottom lines. "We're spending more money to make the same."
The crop losses include about $1.8 billion in cotton, $327 million in corn, $243 million in wheat, $63 million in sorghum and $750 million in lost hay production. The $5.2 billion estimates do not include any losses from fruit and vegetable producers, horticultural and nursery crops, or other grain and row crops.
The estimate also does not include losses from wildfires in the state. Since Nov. 15, state and local firefighters have battled 18,300 fires that have burned a record 3.4 million acres.
The loss estimates, Miller said, were based largely on U.S. Department of Agriculture surveys that he called "pretty conservative."
On the South Plains, the world's largest contiguous cotton patch, drought, winds and triple-digit heat doomed producers who rely on rain. Cotton production overall in the region was expected to be down 48 percent from last year.
Some cotton producers who irrigate were even affected and chose to stop doing so, because they might not be able to recoup the money to keep pumping along with their other costs.
Since 1998, drought has cost
Crops and rangeland across the state have been scorched this year from a lack of rainfall and record triple-digit temperatures. Most of the state has been in the two worst stages of drought since the beginning of May, which means there has been complete or near complete crop failure or no food for grazing livestock.
"We run less cattle and we've had to be very cautious and conservative in the decisions we've made," said McAdams, 61.
There's also not a lot of time before winter wheat in the Panhandle and Rolling Plains is planted in about a month. Ranchers need the rain so their young animals will have something to eat, Miller said.
Consumers will eventually see the cost of the drought passed on to them, although Anderson has said it's hard to say by how much since processing, marketing, transportation and other costs also play a big role in retail prices.
At this point,
While rain is the only thing that's going to bring back growth on grazing lands across the state, Miller said precipitation will bring its own set of consequences.
"It's just bare soil out there," he said. "Rainfall will fill creeks with sediment" from pastures.
Deere & Co. betting on US, EU markets
(Forbes)
– Commodity bellwether Deere & Co posted third quarter earnings before the
bell on Wednesday, noting global agricultural markets remain strong, despite
weakness in Latin America due to a slowdown in
The tractor manufacturer beat estimates but disappointed
investors, as its stock remained in the red at midday in
Deere posted net income of $712 million for the third quarter, up 15% and marking its fifth consecutive quarter-over-quarter record. The company earned $1.69 per share, beating Wall Street’s consensus estimate by two pennies.
Considered a proxy for global agricultural markets, John Deere reported net revenue of $8.472 billion, up 22% from the third quarter of 2010. Favored by a weak dollar, Deere benefited from a 6% favorable currency translation move, while net equipment sales grew 10%.
Confirming that the emerging world is still the global growth engine, international sales grew at a rate of 49% and now constitute approximately 43% of the company’s total sales pie.
Deere’s earnings provide an opportunity to assess the state for global agricultural markets from an insider’s perspective. “Farmers in the world’s major markets are experiencing solid levels of income due to rising demand for agricultural commodities as well as high crop prices,” read the release.
Interestingly, John Deere sees better prospects for North
America and Europe than for
While it expects industry farm machinery sales to increase
5% to 10% in the
For the full year, Deere estimates sales will grow about 25%, slightly boosting net income estimates to $2.7 billion. From the release:
“John Deere’s aggressive investment in new products and expanded global capacity puts the company on a sound footing to address the world’s growing need for food, shelter and infrastructure,” Allen stated. “We remain confident that these positive macroeconomic trends have staying power and should prove rewarding to the company and its stakeholders in the years ahead.” At the same time, he noted, concerns over the health of the global economy and recent turmoil in world financial markets have introduced an additional element of uncertainty into the near-term outlook.
And China Shares in Deere opened sharply in the red on
Wednesday but had made their way to positive territory by mid-morning in
Officials fear the worst from stink bugs
(The
Washington Post)
These stink bugs are the offspring of the same plague that
freaked out
They started creeping out of hibernation and coupling in late May. Their eggs hatched within three weeks, and their babies, or nymphs, reached adulthood within six weeks. They will possibly return to homes and other warm places when temperatures dip in late September.
Government entomologists say this year's plague seems worse
in many areas, and they expressed a particular worry about this invasive
species from Asia, which has no natural predators in the
"If they get to
In a desperate search for a solution, the Environmental
Protection Agency recently approved limited use of two insecticides to help
control the pest, and researchers at a government lab in
The Asian wasp isn't much bigger than a period that ends a
sentence, but introducing the insect is risky because it, too, could become
invasive and attack native insects that are beneficial to the mid-Atlantic's
ecosystem. If the wasp became a threat, it would join a host of species from
But the risk might be worth it, entomologists said. Detected
in 33 states and
This year in the western part of
"I'm seeing them. And I am seeing some damage that I am not familiar with," he said, but figuring out what caused the damage, when the region had intense rains in the spring, high heat and a dry spell in the summer and a hail storm -- that makes it a little tougher.
Mr. Schramm collects data on corn earworms and European corn
borers for
"The growers who have the most fear are the fruit growers," said Jerry Bruste, secretary and treasurer for the Maryland Vegetable Growers Association. "It will devastate them."
In a secured section of the Beneficial Insect Introduction
Research Unit at the
As stink bugs lounge on paulownia leaves and suck on vegetables and fruit, the wasps target stink bugs' tiny clusters of perfectly round, milk-colored eggs and use them as hosts for larvae that eat them from the inside. Asian stink bug eggs are thought to be the perfect size for the wasp, its mortal enemy.
"There are many kinds of insects that are very
specialized, feeding on only one or two other insects," said Kim Hoelmer, a research entomologist who is leading the study.
"Many times ... an invasive insect or plant comes into
The
The fear is that the Asian wasp will diversify its attack and kill native species. Ms. Hoelmer said the wasp's introduction wouldn't happen for at least another two years -- or possibly not at all -- as entomologists study how it behaves amid other species.
The last thing agriculturalists want is another bad-acting
predator from
Trade between the
The Chinese mitten crab came via ships in 2005. Its constant
burrowing erodes riverbanks. The Asian emerald ash borer arrived in 2002; it
was stowed away in cargo ships. Its larvae feeds on
native ash trees, killing them. And the northern snakehead was introduced from
Asia in 2002 after a man released one into a pond outside
No matter whether they're less than an inch, such as the Mexican fruit fly, or up to 28 feet, such as the Asian reticulated python, invasive species can wreak havoc on native plants and animals.
Regardless of the risk, "the wasps are needed" to control the brown marmorated stink bug and its damage to crops, said Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist for the Agricultural Research Service.
Vegetable growers in some areas have spotted the insect's
bites on every kernel on an ear of corn. Winery owners in the mid-Atlantic and
on the
The EPA has approved two insecticides, including dinotefuran, sold under the names Venom and Scorpion, for emergency use. The poison is effective, farmers said, but has a major downside: It kills the natural enemies of other pests that prey on crops.
Vending machines serve up fresh lunches
(livescience.com) – Miami-Dade County Public Schools have rolled out wireless and cashless vending machines that serve up healthy meal options made from local ingredients to its 45 high schools and 10 middle schools.
Students access the Star Food Healthy Express machines by typing in their student ID and birth date to receive a healthy meal of their choice that is ready in about 20 seconds.
Although each student account is attached to a meal account, more than 50 percent of students in the district are on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s reimbursable meal program. The technology allows students not to be singled out in the cafeteria line.
In addition, the school has partnered with a variety of
local celebrity chefs, including the Food Network’s Michelle Bernstein, to
offer quick healthy options. From
School systems around the country have been using Star Food Healthy Express on a smaller scale for the last few school years, but Miami-Dade is the first to implement the machines district-wide. They are also the first to tie in local chefs with the program.
“Students are very tech-savvy and love to text, punch in numbers and get things quickly,” said Penny Parham, administrative director of the food and nutrition department at Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “Teens also want healthy options and to stay fit, so it’s been an extremely successful program for us so far. We hope to roll out more vending machines to our middle schools soon.”
Each vending machine holds 90 meals at a time and is usually restocked once during a lunch period.
An eco friendly solution to nematodes near
(Gainesville.com)
He should know.
So when a venture capitalist told him about a small, Alachua-based company that had devised an environmentally-friendly way to kill crop-eating nematodes, he was very interested. He took the job as CEO in 2007, as the company was ready to make the move from research to market.
"There is no country in the world that doesn't utilize Roundup for weed control. It'll be the same here someday," he said.
"We're a solution," he said.
To attain that kind of reach, the company needed a much larger agribusiness partner. In June, it partnered with the largest — Switzerland-based Syngenta, which has 26,000 employees in 90 countries and $12 billion in annual revenues.
Over the next year or two, Pasteuria Bioscience will have to meet goals in planting trials of various crops around the world before Syngenta completes the acquisition.
At that point, the company would remain in Alachua as the
nematode research and development branch of Syngenta,
Pasteuria Bioscience currently
occupies five laboratories, several offices and two greenhouses at the
The company started with three people and one small lab in 2003. It had licensed a patent for reproducing the Pasteuria bacteria to kill nematodes from a company formed by former UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences administrator John Gerber.
The patent involved the first method for taking the bacteria outside of nematodes and growing it in an artificial environment through a fermentation process. The years of subsequent research were to grow the bacteria for mass production.
Last year, Pasteuria Bioscience released its first commercial product for turf called Econem. It has already produced more than $1 million in revenues and is being used by major golf resorts such as Augusta National, PGA National and TPC Sawgrass as a replacement for toxic fumigants. A deal is in the works for a major company to acquire that product line, as well.
Assuming the Syngenta deal is completed,
That would be his fourth company. After Monsanto closed its specialty crop division in 2000, he decided to license its specialty crop herbicide to start Colliant, but said he couldn't raise funding after the dot-com bubble burst.
He did get to know venture capitalists and signed with a firm to start Chlorogen, a company that engineered tobacco plants to produce a protein used in ovarian cancer treatment. That company was acquired by Dow AgroSciences.
Fast Facts
Dave Duncan
Occupation: Chief executive officer, Pasteuria Bioscience Inc.
Dream partners for lunch: “Pope John Paul and President Ronald Reagan, both charismatic leaders with positive, can-do attitudes.”
Favorite author: “Pope John Paul. His writings are among the most profound in 2000 years of church history.”
Favorite movies: “Gladiator” and “Braveheart”
Favorite CD: Phil Collins
Hobbies: Travel, especially to
Education: Ph.D. in plant biochemistry,
Military:
End Transmission