As growers look to the next season and plan their spring planting, they will be watching for the first signals of how their crops will succeed throughout the spring and summer and into harvest.

Crop emergence is the first predictor of crop success. The number of seeds that germinate and grow has a direct correlation to the total yield and quality. Therefore, it is important to take steps not only during the pre-emergence, but also in the previous growing and harvest periods, that will benefit the plants throughout the growing season.

Soil preparation

Preparing your soil begins during the previous season. The use of practices that promote the improvement and biological balance in the soil, such as cover crops, crop rotation and natural fertilizers, improves the soil. Optimal soil quality will help plants reach their full genetic potential and better face environmental stressors. 

The amount of crop residue can also affect emergence since it can keep the temperature of the soil significantly lower. Growers should take the time to break down the material, which will also provide additional nutrients to the soil. 

Field preparation

After improving soil health, it is time to properly prepare the field itself for planting. A soil test is recommended to check what nutrients — both macro and micro — may be low.

During the pre-emergence period, it is also time to begin scouting the fields for early signs of weeds. Growers should not only look for weeds that are beginning to break through, but also dig for weed seeds as well. Field borders can be a good place to check for signs of potential weed problems.

Seed selection

To make sure the crop emerges properly and in a timely fashion, the right variety of seed should be used. The chosen variety should work well for the soil type, the growing environment and the grower’s end market goals. For example, if the area is prone to stressors like temperature fluctuations, a seed that is rated for emergence stressors should be used. 

Timing

Timing is integral to ensure that the crop emerges correctly. Planting too early or too late can be detrimental to the overall yield and crop quality. Some crops, such as soybeans, perform better if they are planted a bit early.

Temperature

Keeping an eye on soil temperature will ensure a better emergence of your plants. Cold temperatures will stress the seeds and decrease the number of plants that will reach maturity. Growers should monitor the temperature at planting depth, and if it is a cold and wet period, planting should be stopped, if possible, until more favorable conditions are present. 

The attention in preparing the soil and field, finding the right seeds and ensuring correct timing and weather conditions will help growers get a leg up in ensuring that their seeds emerge into viable plants. To learn about more ways to improve soil and provide a strong start for your crops, contact Cropscience@alltech.com.  

Have a question or comment?

2017 was an extremely hot and dry year in Portugal, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Fahrenheit above average and summer temperatures extending through the end of October. Precipitation levels were 70 percent below previous years. These climatic conditions led to weak pollination, which predicted substantial production losses.

In the south of Portugal, an already hot and dry region, Rui Barros, a producer of corn for popcorn, was looking for solutions to help him keep his farm productivity at a normal level.

Vasco Stubner, sales representative for Alltech Portugal, proposed a simple program aimed at helping plants maintain their vital functions so production isn't lost. Grain-Set^® was applied through fertigation on June 15, and the corn was harvested three months later at the end of September.

The harvest numbers tell the story of Barros’ success:

• Increased cob weight

• Yield increased by 793 kg/ha (12.7 bu/acre) versus the control, which represented a return of investment around 5 to 1 

“We have only intervened on a small parcel of this farm,” said Stubner. “With productivity results that exceeded all the farmer’s best expectations, we are definitely looking into broadening the area of application for next season.”  

Beringel Farm, where the program was applied, has a total area of over 200 acres.

Have a question or comment?

An interview with Ramez Naam

The following is an edited transcript of our interview with Ramez Naam, co-chair for energy and environment at Singularity University.

To listen to our entire conversation with Ramez, click on the player below:

I don’t want to dwell on the fact that you are a science fiction writer, but I think that’s kind of cool that science fiction predicts science sometimes, and I wonder if maybe that was an inspiration for you? If, like, some of the things you thought about as a science fiction writer, you are now working to try to make reality?

I wish I had that story. Science fiction is amazing and it’s amazingly fun. It does provoke things. My science fiction and my speaking and writing on energy and food are actually pretty distinct, to be honest. But, they both come from the same thing, which is a deep curiosity about the future.

Here we are in the coal state of Kentucky, and there are definitely still some myths here about solar energy and how expensive it is and how doable it is to replace fossil fuels. I think that is probably true throughout a lot of the U.S. still. Can you comment on what the actual state of affairs is and what the potential is for solar energy?

I can’t blame people for doubting what solar or wind can do because the world has changed so fast. When I was born, a solar panel cost $100 per watt of power. Now, it’s less than 50 cents per watt of power, so that plunge in price is really the big story.

A new coal plant costs about seven-and-a-half cents per kilo-watt hour. In Los Angeles, they now have a new solar plant at three-and-a-half cents per kilowatt hour. In Dubai, oil capital of the world, they signed a deal for solar at less than three cents per kilo-watt hour. Those are all sunny places, sunnier than Kentucky is, but the changes are coming.

The price of technology always comes down. Just like your iPhone is so much cheaper than the mainframe computer that has the same power, solar follows that same trajectory, so it’s now kind of inevitable.

Since technology has ramped up so fast and prices have come down, there still seems to be a thought by some people that we need some sort of silver bullet technology. Do you feel like we have everything we need, or we have all the tools we need now, or we just need to start implementing them faster?

That’s what Bill Gates, who I used to work for, talks about — the need for an energy miracle or energy breakthroughs — but I would say the cost of solar has come down by a factor of five in the last five years, an 80 percent price decline. That’s a miracle already, that’s a breakthrough, but it’s not any one scientific breakthrough. It’s just the continual progress of technology.

If there is one area we want more of that, it’s in energy storage. With batteries, you can use them overnight, but batteries have dropped in price by a factor of five in the last five years, too, and they are going to keep on dropping. I wouldn’t say we are going to deploy a lot of technology that we have now, or rather we are going to, and that’s going to lead to more research and further dropping of prices.

Another big area of study for you is agriculture and land use; can you tell us a little bit about what you think our goals should be there?

If you look at how we, humanity, have changed the planet, the number one way we have changed the planet is through agriculture and fishing. Half of the world’s forests are gone, and almost all of that is for agriculture. A third of the land area of the planet is used to grow food or graze animals.

We have to almost double the amount of food we produce in the next 40 years or so. It’s all about more yield. It’s about growing more food on the same land or less land. That’s the only way we can make it through the challenge of the next century of more people eating richer diets, eating more meat without chopping down all the world for us. That’s what it’s all about to me: higher intensity agriculture and more food out of that same acre.

What are some of the key technologies that you think will help us do that?

There is every sort of technology. We have better seeds, we have high-tech equipment that allows us to plant better, more precise irrigation, better applications of fertilizer and technology that scans the field and tells you where you need to apply fertilizer. Alltech has done an awful lot with animal feed that allows you to grow healthier animals that have better nutrition, so all of those play a role.

Can you tell me a little bit about Singularity University and the program there and your role in it?

I am the co-chair for energy and environment at Singularity University. Singularity University is really a think tank that does continuing education. We take executives and people in government and we give them a week of bombarding them with information about the cutting edge of technology. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics — and I talk about energy.

That sounds like a fantastic program. It’s great that you are trying to reach some of the people that need that information the most and that can put it to the best use. Are they all willing, or do you have to go out and draft them sometimes?

We are oversubscribed. There is a waiting list for every one of our programs because people see that technology is changing fast and if they want to survive and thrive in their company and in their government, they need to be abreast as to what’s going on.

Ramez Naam spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference 2016.To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Ideas Lab. For access, click on the button below.

If, as the United Nations suggests, agribusiness is Africa’s best hope for economic growth and prosperity, what will it take to achieve broad and lasting success?

“Agribusiness plays a vital role in Africa’s economic development,” said John Young Simpson, director at the Singapore-based Duxton Asset Management, a specialist emerging market agribusiness investment company. “Based on figures from the International Finance Corporation, agribusiness accounts for 25 percent of the continent’s GDP and a significant 70 percent of employment.”

Seventy percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land is on the African continent. And, according to a Cato Institute report discussing what African nations need to do to develop and grow, “between 1990 and 2012, the proportion of the population of African countries with access to clean drinking water increased from 48 percent to 64 percent.”

Yet, despite the seemingly abundant opportunity, noted Simpson, “industrial potential has not been reached, with farm yields among the lowest in the world, and this is in turn due to numerous challenges.”

A “United States of Africa”?: Attempts to bring cohesion to the continent

“The biggest obstacles would be education and lack of infrastructure,” observed Nick Smit, Alltech vice president of Africa and the Middle East.

In fact, in the view of the Stellenbosch-based Smit, a lack of infrastructure is the single most important obstacle to African economic progress.

The continent contains dozens of countries of varying degrees of political, civil, cultural and economic strife and stability, its peoples communicating in more than 1,000 languages.

In 1999, leaders of 53 African nations began attempts to pull it all together. By 2002, they had created a new organization, the African Union (AU), to succeed a foundering Organization of African Unity (OAU). South Sudan became the 54th member state in the summer of 2011.

Conceived by then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a "United States of Africa," its structure is loosely modeled on that of the European Union.

The Constitutive Act of the African Union calls for “a culture of good governance, democracy, rule of law and popular participation.” There are plans to establish an African Economic Community with a single currency.

Some critics, pointing out that many AU leaders are the same individuals who presided over the OAU, an organization that became known as the “dictators' club,” question whether the AU can ever be truly effective in bringing the various players of the African continent onto the same page.

“Africa has suffered tremendously from this in the past and continues to suffer, even in times when progress is being made,” observed Aidan Connolly, Alltech vice president and chief innovation officer.

Adapting to the 21st century

“Development of infrastructure is typically a government-level investment,” said Mary Shelman, former director of Harvard Business School's Agribusiness Program. “But it requires a long-term view, which is difficult when governments mostly have short-term orientation.”

And in agreement with Smit, she added, “It’s challenging to see market-driven, private sector solutions if governments can't be trusted to stand by contracts and policies.”

The need for costly pipelines, dams, irrigation systems, highways, bridges and other forms of public infrastructure only mounts, however, as governments become pressed to come to terms with what looms just over the horizon.

“Africa Rising”: The role of agribusiness

“The population of the world is due to increase by 50 percent in the next 30 years, from 6 billion to 9 billion people,” noted Connolly in the white paper “A GLIMPSE™ into the Future: A Lens through Which to Consider ‘Africa’s Rising.’” “Sub-Saharan Africa alone will account for one-third of that growth, as the population more than doubles from over 1 billion in 2013 to at least 1.9 billion in 2050.”

Citing forecasts by the International Monetary Fund, he noted that Africa has averaged GDP growth of 5 percent annually throughout the past decade, “and that pace is expected to continue, with GDP projected to triple by 2030, achieving a sevenfold increase by 2050.”

According to a 2010 report from McKinsey & Co., this recent growth is the result of inflation reduction (dropping from 22 percent in the 1990s to 8 percent in the 2000s), a two-thirds decrease in budget deficits and general institution quality improvements.

Taken in combination, these factors have inspired The Economist magazine to coin the phrase “Africa Rising” to describe Africa’s burgeoning population and economic growth and the implications for agribusiness.

Much of this activity is concentrated in the southern two-thirds of the continent.

“Sub-Saharan Africa has a current food deficit in many countries and the promise of even larger future demand due to population and income increases,” said Shelman.

Anticipating and positioning now to efficiently and profitably meet that near-future explosion in demand may present an opening for smart, sustainable agribusiness.

“I believe very strongly that the number one way to feed people is to have affordable food, and the number one way to produce food affordably is to allow intensive agriculture the opportunity to produce efficiently,” said Connolly.

Africa restructures for more abundant food production

The good news is that these dynamics are increasingly being taken into account as African agriculture is restructured to accommodate rapid growth.

“We have seen the acceptance of the private sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships really take root, as well as the development of lobby and organization bodies such as the Rice Council of Tanzania,” said Simpson. “This is largely attributed to the government-led economic and political reforms thus far, with a recent initiative being the establishment of Africa’s biggest economic bloc that allows for free trade over 26 countries across the continent.”

Shelman adds that there’s been a positive shift from focusing only on improving farming to the development of value chains.

“Focusing solely on increasing supply leads to surplus production, which, in the absence of markets, causes farm-gate prices to fall,” she explained. “We now understand the need to develop markets at the same time as supply so product can be 'pulled' through, enabling prices to hold steady and farmer income to improve.”

Additionally, Connolly noted that “there are some challenges for which agribusiness is actually the best hope for progress, most notably in supply chain management, markets and innovation.”

China as Africa’s deus ex machina?

Simpson, stating that Africa has a potential to meet more than the needs of its own population, cited research at University in Munich supporting a commercially oriented approach to land use, with sub-Saharan regions projected to reap the greatest benefit.

“Crops cultivated on current cropland at locations where they yield the highest profits could boost yields by 30 percent on top of an increase by almost 39 percent from multiple harvests,” he said. “Optimal agricultural practices can lead to a further increase of 80 percent.”

This potential is not lost on China, which is scrambling to manage its own exploding population of middle class consumers.

The result is that even while Europeans and Americans remain cautious, viewing Africa as a troubling source of instability, migration and terrorism, China has started to establish its influence on the continent.

“Dance of the Lions and Dragons,” a study McKinsey & Co. conducted to improve understanding of “the rhythm of Chinese business in Africa,” states that, “In a mere two decades, China has become Africa’s biggest economic partner. Across trade, investment, infrastructure financing, and aid, there is no other country with such depth and breadth of engagement in Africa.”

Since the turn of the 21st century, Africa-China trade has been growing at an annual rate of approximately 20 percent. Foreign direct investment has been even more aggressive, growing at the rate of 40 percent annually, the study observed.

It became even more noteworthy in the first quarter of 2017, when China’s direct investment in Africa soared by 64 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.

China’s foreign direct investment in Africa, according to Simpson, has rapidly diversified to include central government-led, state-owned and private investments. It is both a donor and investor in Africa, he said.

“China has in recent years encouraged public-private partnerships and provided incentives for its agribusiness corporations to invest in African agriculture to develop sustainability, develop markets and expand trade,” said Simpson.

Speaking at a summit in Johannesburg in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing would plough $60 billion into African development projects.

According to the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town, Xi’s pledge has been materializing. Trade and investment deals between Chinese firms and African countries include:

• A $300 million highway renovation project in Nigeria.

• A $230 million ferrochrome mine and smelter project in South Africa.

• A $200 million copper project in Zambia.

• A $60 million textile factory in Sudan.

• A $55 million cement factory in Cape Verde.

• A $30 million contract to build a telephone network in Ghana.

• A $5 billion China-Africa Development Fund administered by the China Development Bank.

• $2 billion in export credits and $3 billion in preferential buyers’ credits.

What drives China’s interest in Africa?

There are competing views about what motivates the aggressive scale and pace of China’s heightened presence on the African continent.

While China has supported many of Africa’s most ambitious infrastructure developments in recent years, Shelman is wary.

“Chinese business interests, which could potentially be proxies for Chinese government interests, could have enough investing power and political will to help address the infrastructure problems,” she said. “But I would not necessarily view Chinese interests as truly market-driven.”

Shelman’s perception is that “China needs the entire world, including Africa, to produce more so they can buy what they need, when they need it. My view is that their land ownership is an attempt to jump-start African production, and ultimately they may not want to keep these holdings. Others interpret this differently.”

The People's Republic has snapped up about 12 million acres of land to grow grains that get shipped back to China, according to Sara Menker, founder of the agriculture data company Gro Intelligence.

“The world doesn’t know about it because these are really quiet deals,” she told an audience at a Forbes Reinventing America AgTech Summit. “These are large-scale farming operations in sesame, wheat, corn for export to China. It doesn’t really interact with the African farmer. It doesn’t get traded locally. It is purely for Chinese export.”

Offering a competing alternative perspective, the McKinsey & Co. report stated, “around 90 percent of the 10,000 Chinese firms operating in Africa today are privately owned — calling into question the notion of a monolithic, state-coordinated investment drive by ‘China, Inc.’ Although state-owned enterprises tend to be bigger, particularly in specific sectors such as energy and infrastructure, the sheer multitude of private Chinese firms working toward their own profit motives make Chinese investment in Africa a more market-driven phenomenon than is commonly understood.”

African agriculture could be abundant, IF…

According to the 2017 Alltech Global Feed Survey, the last five years have seen growth in the African region outpace the world.

“This year’s growth was over 13 percent,” said the survey of Africa’s 2016 feed production. “Half of the countries grew strongly. Shining stars include Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Kenya and Zambia, all of which saw growth of at least 30 percent.”

The World Bank estimates that African farmers could grow enough food to feed the continent — and generate an estimated $20 billion in earnings for their countries — if policy makers can agree to lift cross-border restrictions and simplify the rules and fees involved in food trade, according to Connolly’s white paper.

It’s a big “if.” The Cato Institute report finds many African countries plagued with regulatory hurdles. For example:

• A study by the Rwanda Ministry of Trade and Industry found that a truck driver traveling the 1,000-mile distance from Kigali to Mombasa, Kenya, must stop at 26 roadblocks and pay bribes (an average of $846) along the way. The study also found that it took 121 hours for drivers to make the trip.

• According to a World Bank economist, southern African truck drivers for supermarkets that cross a border can be required to carry a staggering 1,600 documents with them in order to comply with permitting requirements.

Connolly noted, however, that progress in reducing red tape is being made.

“Rwanda, South Africa and Botswana are now rated as in or near the top 50 (of 189) easiest countries in which to do business, according to the International Finance Corporation,” he said. “However, there is considerable scope for improvement: virtually all of the bottom 20 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The rapid pace of technological innovation also presents a major challenge to African governments, he said.

“Whether it is approval of a new type of crop protection chemical or regulation of the ownership of data collected in a field, agriculture requires dealing with complex scientific and legal matters,” said Connolly.

This is one area where agribusiness can assist. Agri-scientists are well-positioned to help reduce the scientific gap among industry, academia and government.

Additional applications of agribusiness expertise could address environmental sustainability as well as losses attributed to harvesting techniques, mold, insect and animal infestations in storage facilities, packaging and marketing.

The roadblocks

While Africa’s progress is evident, Connolly cited a formidable litany of continuing obstacles, captured in his GLIMPSE acronym: “government, losses, infrastructure, markets, people, science and the environment.”

What is clear, he noted, is “the central role of government, and indeed, not just mandating things, but also freeing businesses up in order to produce food more economically.”

In Shelman’s view, the opportunities for agribusiness in Africa are many.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables, and products like citrus and avocados that can be exported to Europe and other countries, can command strong prices if the transportation is available,” she said.

“The next opportunity,” in her view, “is to develop products for local markets, such as processing tomatoes in Nigeria and rice that can be substituted for imports.”

Meats and dairy, she said, “are more challenging due to the need for cold chain and processing capacity, but those are coming as the infrastructure develops.”

Back to the days of Alkebulan: Africa as our new “Garden of Eden”

Africa was known in ancient days as Alkebulan, meaning “mother of mankind” or “Garden of Eden.” Could its former name designate its destiny?

Time will tell.

The potential of the African continent is quite clear, yet the challenging impediments to its realization are many. But, keep watching. There is no doubt today that continent-wide change is not only coming — it’s already underway.

Nature has menacing ways of reminding us who has the ultimate upper hand.

Wildfires. Hurricanes. Floods. Droughts. Earthquakes. These powerful natural events can deliver massive destruction and loss of life. Often overlooked by the media and general public are the consequences for agriculture, and all who depend on farming for food and sustenance.

Agricultural impacts from natural events and disasters most commonly include:

   •      Contamination of water bodies.

   •      Loss of harvest or livestock.

   •      Increased susceptibility to disease.

   •      Destruction of irrigation systems and other agricultural infrastructure.

This article looks at many of the major natural disasters of 2017 and how these events have impacted farming, from the back-to-back powerful hurricanes that have wrecked crops in the Caribbean and the U.S. Gulf Coast and the wildfires that have decimated cattle ranches in the American West to a prolonged, devastating drought destroying crops in Portugal and Spain, and an earthquake in Latin America.

The furies of wind and rain

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was extremely destructive and among the costliest on record.

The August National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast for an above-normal, hyperactive season featuring two to five major hurricanes turned out to be horribly understated.

There were 10 of these ferocious storms during the season, and they all occurred one after another, the greatest number of consecutive hurricanes since satellites began tracking storms.

Three in particular left trails of devastation from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to Florida and Texas: Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Harvey

At 10 p.m. CDT on Aug. 25, a storm of intense ferocity rolled over the Texas Gulf Coast near Corpus Christi. Hurricane Harvey arrived, delivered its first blow, bounced back out over the warm waters of the Gulf, regained strength and slammed Texas a second time.

The weather analytics company WeatherBELL estimates that Harvey dumped 27 trillion gallons of rain over Texas and Louisiana during a six-day period. At 51 inches of rainfall, it was a record for the most ever from a tropical storm system in the continental U.S.

Estimates by Moody’s Analytics put eventual total losses from Harvey alone at approximately $100 billion.

Among the major casualties was what had been shaping up as one of the Texas cotton industry’s most promising years in recent times.

“The cotton crop along the Gulf Coast was exceptional. It really was,” said Russell Boening, Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) president. “Yield-wise, this was going to be one of the best in 10 or 15 years.”

That outlook disintegrated in only hours as Harvey roared inland, destroying at least $100 million in cotton, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economists, and perhaps much more, by Boening’s estimate.

The economists peg losses for Lone Star State livestock producers at $93 million, conservatively.

“Livestock were lost and livestock were affected because they were standing in water so long,” said Boening. “They may have survived, but may have some health issues.”

The Wendt Ranch in Bay City, Texas, after Harvey. Credit: The Wendt Ranch. 

Adding insult to injury, Harvey’s blow to Texas farmers arrived as grain producers were already dealing with trouble of another sort.

“In Texas, we have really dramatically high levels of fumonisin,” noted Dr. Max Hawkins, nutritionist with the Alltech^® Mycotoxin Management team.

The increased presence of fumonisin was a result of hot weather in late June and July followed by a cool, exceptionally wet August. 

The fences, barns and animal-handling facilities destroyed in the storm must be rebuilt. And there are concerns about the replacement costs of hay that was destroyed in the high flood waters.

“We are right on the verge of entering winter feeding season, and ranchers will have to find replacement hay that averages $63 per round bale,” said Dr. David Anderson, AgriLife Extension livestock economist in College Station, Texas. “A rancher may typically feed two or more round bales per cow during winter, so even if there isn’t hay available, they will still have to purchase some type of supplemental feed. All of this comes with a hefty price.”

Learning of all the destruction and loss early on the morning following Harvey’s landfall, Alltech’s founder and president, Dr. Pearse Lyons, issued a company-wide call-to-action on behalf of the Texans.

When word of this reached Alltech’s Ridley Block Operations managing director Earl Witham, trucks hit the road loaded with $40,000 in feed supplements, bound for the company’s Texas distributors to donate to ranchers in need.

“I just have to say this,” shared Witham. “The day that it happened, the day of the hurricane, I got a call, and they said, ‘Dr. Lyons wants to do something right now.’ So, it was driven from the very top that Alltech was going to get involved; we were going to volunteer people; we were going to donate product; we were going to give as much in funds as we could. It’s a good feeling to work for a gentleman who is that giving.”

Dr. Lyons' directive also resulted in the launch of "Hope After Harvey,” an effort to raise support funds for Texas farmers and ranchers.

Alltech committed to match donations made to its nonprofit Alltech ACE Foundation. As a result, company representatives presented the Texas Farm Bureau’s Agriculture Research and Education Foundation with a $42,607.12 check. The funds are providing support and relief to Texas farmers and ranchers who were affected by Hurricane Harvey.

Alltech’s “Hope After Harvey” campaign resulted in a donation of $42,607.12 to Texas Farm Bureau’s Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. Left to right: Brian Lawless, North America brand manager, Alltech; Si Cook, Texas Farm Bureau executive director/chief operating officer; Lee Pritchard, account manager for Ridley Block Operations, an Alltech company; Neil Walter, Texas Farm Bureau District 8 state director; and Randy Asher, regional sales manager for Alltech. Credit: Texas Farm Bureau

Boening said the hurricane was a tough blow to the Texas agricultural community, but farmers are resilient people.

“If you’ve been a cotton farmer, more than likely you’re going to continue to be a cotton farmer, and if you’ve raised livestock, even though you might’ve had a setback from this storm, you’re probably going to continue raising livestock,” he said.

Irma

One thousand miles eastward from the Texas coast across the Gulf of Mexico, the citrus growers of Florida were already struggling with crop losses due to the bacterial disease citrus huanglongbing(HLB). Also known as “yellow dragon” or “greening” disease, HLB had infected all 32 of the state’s growing citrus counties. There is no known cure.

But things finally seemed to be looking up in August when Dr. Elizabeth Steger of the Kissimmee-based Citrus Consulting International — whose crop yield forecasts have become something of a gold standard among Florida citrus growers — predicted a 10 percent increase in yield over 2016.

That forecast was dashed on Sept. 10 when Hurricane Irma struck the coast of southern Florida and tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the strongest ever to make landfall in the Atlantic basin. The huge storm proceeded to barrel north, straight up the peninsula, raking citrus groves in Florida's top-producing citrus counties: DeSoto, Polk, Hendry, Highlands, Hardee and Collier.

Citrus groves in Florida remain under flood waters Sept. 13 after Hurricane Irma. Credit: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Now, instead of the long-awaited growth that had been predicted, the Sunshine State’s citrus growers anticipate producing 35 percent less for 2017 than in the year before, according to Jim Ellis, financial examiner/analyst with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

And the impact doesn’t stop at grove’s edge.

Ellis noted that Florida is home to 18 fruit packing houses. In 2016, the industry packed 12 million 4/5 bushel cartons. He estimates that there is only enough citrus remaining after the storms of 2017 to fill 6 million cartons. Three packing houses can process that entire crop, he said, adding that the state’s fruit processors will pack an estimated 50 million boxes this year —down by 20 million boxes from 2016.

“The industry is crippled now,” said Ellis. “The packing and processing plants can’t run at full capacity, so there is a direct impact on labor and profits.”

Maria

Irma was soon followed in late September by Hurricane Maria, sweeping across the Caribbean, smashing Puerto Rico with Category 4 winds and in only hours wiping out about 80 percent of the U.S. territory’s crop value, which had only weeks before been hit hard by Irma. The island suffered a loss of $780 million in agriculture yields, according to preliminary estimates by the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture.

Also taking hits from Maria were Guadeloupe, Martinique and Dominica, where crop losses were estimated at between 90 and 100 percent, decimating small-scale agriculture.

Hurricane Katia had in the meantime struck Mexico on Sept. 8, dumping 10 to 15 inches of rain on northern Veracruz, eastern Hidalgo and Puebla. The winds and flooding left damage across 200,000 hectares of maize, pineapple, papaya, banana and other crops.

Cyclones and typhoons

Growers and producers in the Pacific basin were experiencing their own struggles with an intense cyclone season.

As 2017 dawned, nearly 67,000 farmers in the Philippines were only beginning to take stock of damages wrought by Typhoon Nina. The storm struck just days before the beginning of the new year. Nina’s destruction of Philippine rice farms, coconut groves, fisheries and livestock operations topped P4 billion ($80 million USD) in losses, according to the country’s department of agriculture. 

Madagascar vanilla beans. Credit: Shutterstock

In March, Cyclone Enawo slammed Madagascar, exporter of between 75 percent and 85 percent of the world’s vanilla beans. Many vanilla farms across the island nation were lost. In certain areas, the tree canopy that typically shades vanilla vines and serves as a scaffold for them to climb was either severely damaged or destroyed by the storm, placing the vines and vanilla pods at greater risk of UV damage from direct sun exposure. Pastry chefs and ice cream shops the world over have been forced to get creative. Vanilla pods are now trading at an all-time high, according to Craig Nielsen of the U.S. vanilla and flavorings group Nielsen-Massey.

“Inventories were already depleted, and now we have the damage caused by the cyclone,”  Nielsen-Massey told Financial Times. “It will be a tough time [for the vanilla market] for the next couple of years.”

Cyclone Debbie was, at the time, inundating farms in Australia, leaving heavy damage among tomato, capsicum, sugarcane and eggplant producers. Tree crops such as mangos, pawpaw, custard apples and lychees also suffered heavy damage, according to reports.

Cyclone Ockhi wiped out banana plantations and rice farms in western India.

Heavy early December rains and severe flooding hit rice production in Bangladesh, and agricultural damages from major storms was also reported from Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to Greece and Albania.

Send some of that water our way!

Even as many of the world’s farmers slogged through high waters to rescue or defend their crops and livestock, their counterparts in other regions of the planet suffered the opposite dilemma: severe drought.

One of the worst dry spells in recent decades is devastating southern European crops. Just this year, the damage is estimated to top €1 billion.

In Italy, around 30 percent less rain has fallen in 2017 compared to last year. Grains have been especially badly damaged by the lack of water and the intense heat.

The drought now threatens to reduce cereal production in Italy and parts of Spain to its lowest level in at least 20 years and hit other regional crops, including olives and almonds.

Spain is living through its worst drought in decades. Reservoirs have dried up. Corn, potato, beets and bean crops have died. Wildfires have wrought destruction, according to Euronews.

Some farmers have said they won't even harvest this year because the overall result would be so low it wouldn't be worth the money.

Rains have barely brought relief from a prolonged drought that is affecting the Horn of Africa region. Up to 75 percent of livestock has died in the worst affected areas, according to watchers.NEWS.

Sri Lanka has suffered from prolonged lack of rain. The charity Save the Children reports the country’s worst harvest in 40 years.

And in an ironic prelude to the hurricanes that slammed the state later in the year, Florida endured an extreme dry spell until June when just seven days of heavy rainfall, record-breaking in places, pulled the entire state out of extreme drought conditions.

Even so, Florida experienced extreme heat for the entire month of July, setting a record for hottest July. Only a single day had a high temperature below 90.

Fire!

A severe heat wave that brought record temperatures across the western United States exacerbated North American wildfires, which by July had spread across six U.S. states and into British Columbia, Canada.

More than 47,000 wildfires burned more than 8 million acres across the country, according to CBS News.

Late winter of 2017 brought flames to Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Thousands of cattle and hogs were lost, according to Alltech’s Global Supply Chain Weekly Market Notes.

Some 1,500 square miles of agricultural grazing land burned in early March. Thousands of cattle perished, and countless homes, buildings and fences were destroyed as windswept flames scorched pastures, reducing generations of hard work and dreams to ashes. In several cases, ranchers died trying to save livestock.

Alltech’s Hubbard Feeds and Ridley Block Operations both teamed up to provide livestock feed relief to fire-stricken cattle producers and ranchers in the four afflicted states.

In April, the Market Notes reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had opened emergency grazing lands previously protected under the Conservation Reserve Program in these states.

By summer, the thick, black smoke and red-hot, wind-fueled flames were consuming hundreds of thousands of acres in six Western states.

Taylor Brown herds recovered cattle across a charred pasture on L.O. Bar Ranch to water and food near Sand Springs, Montana. Credit: Billings Gazette | Rebecca Noble

Among them was drought-stricken Montana.

Multiple wildfires blackened over 1 million acres throughout the state. The most devastating to ranchers, the Lodgepole Complex fire in eastern Montana, impacted over 270,000 acres.

U.S. Highway 200 is surrounded by blackened earth in July after the Lodgepole Complex fire burned through the area. Credit: Billings Gazette | Casey Page

“The Lodgepole Complex fires didn't just wipe out this year; they wiped out years to come,” the Billings Gazette reported on July 30. “Many ranchers will likely have to sell off cattle to survive — losing years of carefully honed genetics.

“Other ranchers will have to wait until 2019 to see new calves reach market age — and who knows how they'll make it until then,” it continued. “And for new, young ranchers, the fires may have wiped out their budding businesses before they even got on their feet.”

The farming community rose to the occasion. Jerry Beggar, general manager of Alltech’s Montana-based WestFeeds, said his company joined the effort by donating supplies of feed supplements.

“We’re part of a community out here and care about everybody,” he said. “With all of the expenses they’re going to incur, we tried to lighten up the load a little bit.”

By Aug. 7, Seattle matched its all-time record for consecutive days without precipitation.

Oregon and Washington, the states that produce most of the nation’s apples, pears, cherries and hops (for brewing beer), were battling record blazes. Farmworkers were having difficulty getting out into the orchards, vineyards and fields due to choking smoke.

After California, Oregon and Washington have the highest number of wineries in the country. Together, the industry brings in more than $5 billion a year to the Pacific Northwest. But with wildfires becoming all too common in the region, growers are worried. The effects of wildfire smoke are being debated in wine circles across the West Coast.

October brought even more Western wildfires, this time decimating vineyards and wineries in California’s famed wine country.

According to San Francisco Chronicle wine writer Esther Mobley, “Depending on how widespread the destruction of vines is across wine country, it could mark a severe shortage of grapes for years to come. When vineyards are planted, it can take three to five years for them to bear fruit. Additionally, most Napa and Sonoma wineries hold at least three vintages of wine in barrel at any given time, not to mention the large inventory of bottles that many wineries hold back for years.”

In British Columbia, the 2017 fire season has left behind the largest total area burnt in a fire season in recorded history: more than 1 million acres.

“People have not only lost homes and buildings, but there’s also dead or injured cattle and the long-term health effects to some cattle,” Cody Cox, Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association president, told Business Vancouver. “The ranchers have lost miles and miles of fences; their summer and fall pastures that sustain the cattle until they sell them in the fall are burned up and gone. Some have lost their hay crops, their bales — it goes on and on.”

Shaken

When we think of damage from earthquakes, we tend to default to urban settings. Although risks are normally associated with densely populated cities, the effects on farming communities also can be devastating. Earthquakes sometimes trigger tsunamis, landslides and occasionally volcanic activity. The results can include injury and loss of family members and workforce, damage to irrigation systems, loss of crops and livestock, and damage to infrastructure.

A powerful Sept. 7 earthquake rumbling through more than a dozen states in Mexico damaged 138,000 hectares of crops, including bananas, coffee and corn, Fruitnet.com reported. No one could have foreseen that Mexico was in for a double whammy: 24 hours later, Hurricane Katia roared ashore.

Necessity is the mother of invention

While meteorology is delivering ever-improving forecast technologies, we are still never fully prepared for the unpredictable realities of powerful weather-related events. These include the severe wind and flooding damages wrought by hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes, as well as droughts that contribute to wildfires.

From the citrus growers of Florida and the cattle ranchers of Montana to the vanilla bean producers of Madagascar and the farmers of southeastern Spain, 2017 has delivered more evidence of the critical agricultural assets and infrastructure that natural disasters often destroy, disrupting production cycles, trade flows and livelihoods.

The number and frequency of natural disasters, along with the associated impact and damage to livelihoods and economies, are increasing significantly, according to The impact of disasters on agriculture and food security,” a comprehensive report by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

Food security is impacted and value chains are disrupted. Such disasters may slow overall economic growth, especially where agriculture and food production still account for a large share of gross domestic product and employment.

Many efforts are underway at national and international levels to improve agriculture’s ability to anticipate, prepare for and recover from these events.

However, vital systematic data and information on the impact of disasters and hazardous events in agriculture and its sub-sectors — crop, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and forestry — remain limited. Perhaps this presents a challenge as well as an opportunity for innovation and invention.

It is hard to believe that it is that time of year again: The combines are rolling and farmers across Canada, where I am based, are starting to pack, or have just finished packing, their bunks and silos. To better prepare producers — both livestock and grain farms — for next year’s growing season, I had the chance to discuss managing mycotoxins from the field with Dr. Art Schaafsma, a researcher at the University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

My name is Dr. Art Schaafsma, and I am a researcher at the University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus. I have a Ph.D. in crop protection and have been involved with field crop pest management at Ridgetown for just over 30 years. My main area of emphasis and research has been mycotoxins in both corn and wheat. I look at agronomic practices, sampling, detection and how to deal with mycotoxins along the value chain.

Is there a way to mitigate the risk of mycotoxins from the field, whether during planting, growing or harvesting? If so, how?

Mycotoxins are really complicated to manage, and it takes a multi-faceted approach and several tools to address them.

The typical rotation after wheat is corn, and wheat does not seem to be as large a source of inoculum as corn is. This is seen often in minimum till and no-till systems, as there is a lot of corn residue left.

Some pork producers use wheat as a way to manage mycotoxins. They will grow both corn and wheat and hope that one of those crops is clean and mix them if one is not as clean. They prefer corn, but if it is a bad year, then they will sell the wheat.

Also, pay attention to hybrid selection and look for hybrids that are less susceptible to mycotoxins. You want to look for a hybrid that will mature on time, because if you push the hybrid, you can increase the risk of mycotoxins forming. In wheat, it is much the same when it comes to variety selection.

During flowering in both corn and wheat is when the crop is most susceptible to the fungi that produce mycotoxins. In order to help combat this, producers should use a fungicide spray. The only group that is available are the triazoles to control Fusarium on both corn and wheat, and it is very important to get the timing right and get good coverage.

In corn, it is important to control western bean cutworm and other pests that can contribute to furthering the risk of mycotoxin contamination.

When it comes to harvest, some producers have started to take their wheat or corn off as soon as it can be taken off so that they can then dry it. This helps because they can control how fast the grain dries to stop the infection.

During the growing season, what are some visible signs of mycotoxin contamination?

In wheat, it is a bit easier to see the signs of deoxynivalenol (DON) because you look for head blight symptoms. These symptoms include the spikelets looking bleached. In corn, however, it is a bit more difficult, because there are a number of different species of Fusarium, and a lot don’t produce mycotoxins.

The main mycotoxin we deal with is DON. You can tell if you have DON if you have white mold accompanied by a purple or pink color anywhere on the cob. It is always better to test the grain, especially if you see any pink or purple color or white mold. Green molds and black molds are not associated with mycotoxins.

Many people worry about toxins increasing during storage; however, DON won’t increase if corn is stored below 18 percent moisture. However, this is when the mycotoxin zearalenone can be produced. Zearalenone is a late-season toxin, and there is an increased risk of zearalenone if the crop is late to harvest, stored incorrectly or not dried quickly enough. DON needs warm conditions to keep growing.  Zearalenone can form under cooler and damper conditions.

Are there certain types of mycotoxins that become more prevalent based on the type of growing season? For example, if it is a very wet year, do you see more DON versus in a dry year?

Depending on the type of year you may be experiencing, you could get different types of mycotoxins contaminating your corn or wheat. For example, DON forms in a moderately warm temperature, with its optimum temperature being 28 degrees Celsius, and if there is a lot of rain, DON can become a big issue. Also, in August, when we sometimes get the foggy mornings and then the rest of the day is warm, DON can be an issue.

DON is a complicated type of toxin and has several forms.  Most producers tend to use an ELISA test to test for DON in their crops, but it only measures a few forms of DON, not all its forms.  The other forms are just as toxic as DON.  DON can sometimes also be masked or hidden. This happens when DON is conjugated with a sugar and is then overlooked by an ELISA test. This is why sometimes you may run an ELISA test, think there are no problems, then discover a mycotoxin.

Fumonisin, another type of mycotoxin, shows up when there is heat stress, with low- to mid-30s degree Celsius weather and drought. In Ontario, we do not get this one too much because it isn’t hot and dry enough.

Zearalenone does not show up in wheat because it is too warm during flowering, as wheat heads out in June or July. However, it does show up in corn in the fall.

One toxin producers should be aware of is T-2 toxin. T-2 is related to a late harvest, and we find it regularly in corn that is left in the field too long and when corn lodges. The danger with this one is that it is 10 times more toxic than DON.

Where do you think the next advancements will come from in reducing/protecting against Fusarium-produced mycotoxins?

In corn, we are working on a sustainable way to manage western bean cutworm. I would like for there to be an incentive for farmers to grow less susceptible hybrids. This may happen soon because other end markets that buy a lot of corn are getting frustrated by mycotoxins as well. It is not just livestock producers that should be looking at their corn this way. More often now, there is a penalty applied for how much DON is brought into the processing plant. Awareness is growing and will lead us to change.

In wheat, the industry continues to improve the genetics. There is more progress in managing mycotoxins in wheat than in corn. We can manage it reasonably well in wheat. 

Have a question or comment?

[DUNBOYNE, Ireland] – Last week, during Nov. 20 to 24, a group of 130 dairy farmers from seven countries embarked on a European tour of dairy farms with Alltech to learn about new innovations and different approaches being adopted by farmers.

Visiting seven different dairy farms in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Ireland over the four-day journey, the tour also provided a networking opportunity for farmers to discuss and share ideas about the future of dairy production.

The host farms included a German farm near Berlin called Milsana, which has 3,600 cows. Herd health and performance are paramount at this large-scale operation, and it currently achieves 12,000 kilograms per lactation and 27.5 kilograms of dry matter intake. In the Netherlands, the group visited two family farms, one of which is outsourcing heifer rearing and calving at 22 months as well as placing emphasis on excellent silage management and quality to drive farm efficiency and performance.

Farm diversification was a common theme in each country, with biogas plants present on several farms in order to generate alternative sources of revenue and sustainable energy. In addition, a German farm showcased how it is developing its own brand of milk and selling it on-farm as well as a Dutch farm that welcomed the group to it’s very impressive new B&B facility.

In France, the group had the opportunity to visit Drakkar Holstein, a well-known genetics specialist selling high-genetic value animals, embryos and semen around the world. It also hosts an annual on-farm auction. On the final day of the Alltech Euro Tour, the group learned about Ireland’s unique grass-based system and seasonal calving at John Wynne’s impressive unit in County Wicklow, which is currently achieving a 72 percent conception rate to first service.

In addition to farm tours, the group heard presentations on the global dairy market outlook from Dr. Markus Fahlbusch from the University of Göttingen in Germany as well as the impact of digital technologies on dairy farming from David Hunt, CEO of Cainthus.

“The Alltech Euro Tour is a clear reminder of the desire for farmers to meet with, learn from and share experiences with neighbouring farmers across Europe,” said Julien Martin, Alltech regional director for Northwest Europe. “With many changes and uncertainties across the agricultural industry, the benefits of travelling to see what other farmers are doing, engaging in group discussion and idea sharing on occasions such as this are so invaluable.”

The tour experiences made a strong impression on the participating farmers, with one farmer in his 60s admitting that, instead of looking to retirement, he is now eager to take on some new projects, including a biogas plant, on the family farm.

“Alltech is extremely proud to have brought together this fantastic group of seven different nationalities,” added Martin. "We hope each attendee has walked away with at least one new idea to improve or change their business for future sustainability.”

Excessive plant growth can reflect hormonal imbalance

Contrary to popular belief, plant growth is not directly linked to an increase in yield. For example, in beans, excessive vegetative development can lead to self-shading, a condition in which the lower leaves, where the productive areas of the plant are located, do not receive sunlight. This impedes photosynthesis, decreasing the productivity of the plant.

According to agronomist Fransérgio Batista, grain specialist and technical manager for Alltech Crop Science, this occurrence signifies a hormonal imbalance in the plant.

“There is a plant hormone, auxin, which is responsible for plant growth,” explained Batista. “When the plant develops excessively, it’s because there is too much of this hormone acting on the plant. This also inhibits the production of other hormones that are important to the plant.”

Intent on improving the balance of his bean crop, Joel Ragagnin, a grower from Jataí, in the state of Goiás, Brazil, added natural products that are based on plant extracts, nutrients and amino acids to his management practices. This combination aids the crop in balanced plant development.

“By having better control over plant growth, we can improve the productivity indexes on the farm,” said Ragagnin.

According to Batista, because photosynthesis is vital to the plant, keeping leaves green and healthy should be a prime objective of crop management.

“There are leaves from the lower to the upper parts of the plant,” said Batista. “A plant that produces is a plant that photosynthesizes in all its leaves. This is a key process for the plant.“

In addition to the use of crop inputs that contribute to the hormonal balance of the plant, the agronomist noted the importance of plant nutrition, the availability of water during the entire growth cycle and the control of pests and diseases for attaining adequate crop development.

“Through these methods, it’s possible for the producer to have an even more significant response,” concluded Batista.

Biostimulants enhance nutrient assimilation and plant development. They are becoming a popular crop input in many countries around the world for several reasons.

Benefits to using biostimulants on your farm

1. Biostimulants assist in combating the effects of environmental stresses.

Biostimulants promote enhanced germination and root development, leading to increased vigor and greater stress resistance. An enhanced root system promotes more efficient nutrient and water uptake and translocation throughout the growing season.

2. Biostimulants increase grain fill and quality.

Promoting growth and improvinga plant’s metabolism can benefit overall plant growth and health. In addition, providing a catalyst at specific developmental stages can lead to increased yield, improved uniformity and overall crop quality.

3. Biostimulants encourage plant growth.

Biostimulants generally operate through different mechanisms than standard fertilizers and provide essential nutrients for plant metabolism that stimulate plant growth. These metabolic pathways upregulate gene expression that can have an effect on cell division and sizing, root and shoot growth, and reproductive development and timing.

Your agronomist or crop advisor can give you more information on incorporating biostimulants into your current crop management program.

When scouting for disease in your crops, it is important to remember that sometimes the cause of the symptoms is not obvious. Diseases can be caused by a variety of factors, such as environmental stressors, reactions to various fertilizers or herbicides, nutritional deficiencies or soil problems. Therefore, it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of the disease and determine an appropriate treatment.

When scouting your crops for disease, pay particular attention to these three plant parts:

1. Examine the roots

“Windshield scouting” while driving the fields doesn’t work because disease is not always easily visible to the human eye. To ensure you are catching any sign of disease before it progresses, it is important to get into the field and dig up a few plants to examine the roots. Look for unhealthy roots that may have lesions. To get a better look, try washing the roots with water and then cutting them up the middle to examine for any sign of internal infection.

2. Examine the leaves

Especially during flowering, make sure to look at the leaves and sheaths on each plant. Pay attention to lesions, which will help you determine the amount of leaf infection.

3. Examine the stem and heads

When examining the stems, heads and pods of plants, be sure to split them apart for a closer look at the inside, observing any discoloration that could be caused by fungi or bacteria. Also, check the outside of the stems, heads and pods of the plants for signs of fungal material or lesions.

Scouting for disease is critical to ensure early intervention. Samples should be taken of all suspect crops and submitted to a trusted lab, such as Quantum Genetix, that can test for disease.