As the winter months near, you may be in the midst of harvest. Perhaps you’ve already started thinking about how to increase your crop quality or increase your yield next year.

As you consider how to better your crops, there are a few things you can do now to prepare your soil for the winter and the eventual spring.

Setting your soil up for success

1. Broadcast or drill in a cover crop

Topsoil has been a big topic of discussion across the globe. Each year, erosion eliminates some of our fields’ topsoil, and it takes many years to try and rebuild it, if it can be done at all. One way to maintain the top soil in your fields is to keep it covered throughout the winter by broadcasting or drilling in a cover crop post-harvest.

2. Apply a soil amendment

One of the challenges of minimum tillage or no-till practices is the buildup of residue on the soil post-harvest and pre-plant. To help reduce this buildup of residue and use it to benefit your soil, try applying a soil amendment like Soil-Set®. By breaking down that buildup of residue, it will turn into organic matter for the soil, and planting may be a bit easier, too.

3. Get your soil tested

Many people only soil test their fields on a biannual or triannual basis, making it difficult to have a solid understanding of what is going on in their fields year after year. By getting your soil tested post-harvest, you can have a better idea of what you need to apply in the spring to get the most out of your soil and ultimately grow a better crop. Many agriculture retailers offer this as a service and can help with the planning of proper nutrient placement and timing once the results are back.

Want to learn more about getting your soil set for success? Click here to contact us.

There’s a coolness in the air, and leaves are starting to turn. The onset of fall weather means harvest season is upon us. During this time, farmers have much work to do in a short time. That sense of urgency can lead to accidents and damage that might otherwise have been prevented.

While we want you to accomplish your tasks efficiently, we’d like to ensure you do so safely. Therefore, we’ve compiled some recommended safety guidelines that should be useful reminders during your busy season.

Equipment and operator safety

Harvest inevitably means long hours spent behind the wheel of heavy machinery, and the safe completion of related tasks depends on both overall knowledge and attentiveness. It’s perfectly normal for us to take pride in our work, especially if that means putting in long hours in pursuit of a common goal. This is particularly evident in harvesting operations. Yet exhaustion and sickness regularly contribute to accidents in the field. It is important to recognize what your body is trying to tell you. If you aren’t feeling your best, consider turning the operation over to a trusted friend while you recover.

Keep in mind these safety tips:

• Take regular breaks to aid in divvying up the monotony of machinery operation.
• Turn off engines, remove keys and wait for all moving parts to stop before getting out of machinery.
• If you are going to eat in the field, climb down from the combine and relax for a little while.
• Dress with both comfort and safety in mind. Wear protective footwear and close-fitting clothes.
• Proper safety gear should be worn at all times around dangerous noise, dust or hazardous materials.
• Turn equipment off before making any repairs or adjustments.
• Do not remove safety shields, roll bars or guards. They are there to protect you.

Grain bin safety

Farm workers should all know the hazards of flowing grain and how to prevent a grain entrapment situation. When grain is being unloaded from the bottom of a bin, it flows downward from the top center, creating a funnel effect. If a person is on top of the grain in a bin being unloaded, they can be pulled into the flowing grain within a matter of seconds, likely rendering them helpless and potentially resulting in suffocation. Anybody who works with grain, in any capacity, must be aware of the dangers.

If you must enter a bin, it is vitally important to follow these safety precautions:

• Shut off and lock all unloading equipment before entering a bin.
• When possible, ladders should be installed inside grain bins as emergency exits.
• Avoid entering the bin when possible. A long pole can be used to break up crusted grain instead of having a worker enter the bin. Grain that has crusted can cover open spaces, which likely will not support the weight of a person.
• Wear a harness that is attached to a properly secured rope.
• Stay near the outer wall of the bin. If the grain starts to flow, move to the bin ladder or safety rope as quickly as possible.
• Never enter a bin alone. Have at least one person stand outside the bin, someone who can help you should you become entrapped. It is best to have two people available who are properly trained to follow all safety procedures for entering the bin.
• Wear a dust filter or filter respirator when working in a grain bin, especially while cleaning.
• Do not allow children to play in or around grain bins, wagons or truck beds.

Farm equipment road safety

If you need to drive your equipment on any roadways, you should consider the following safety tips:

• Increase visibility by using the equipment’s lights and flashers, especially during inclement weather or when light is low (early mornings and evenings).
• Avoid busy roads whenever possible.
• If there is a line of cars behind you and a suitable shoulder is available, pull over and allow traffic to pass before proceeding.

It is our hope that, by following these and other appropriate farm safety guidelines, you will have a productive and safe harvest not only this year, but for many years to come.

You may be wondering, “When is the right time to begin building healthy soil?” While this answer may surprise you, the right time is always now. Whether you are choosing the seeds for your next crop or have just finished harvesting your fields, planning your sustainable soil management strategies should always be top of mind. 

Through seasons of use, soils can become depleted of nutrients and organic matter. If left unattended, this will lead to a decrease in yields for the grower. Additionally, soil depletion is not a phenomenon that is limited to the farmer; the home grower and gardener can face the same issues in their own front or backyards. 

Proactive growers work for their soil to ensure that it works for them.

Healthy soil — which is soil that has a high organic matter content, a balanced structure and high nutrient availability — provides an excellent basis for plants. It can decrease the amount of inputs that a grower needs to use, since many of the nutritional requirements of the crops will already be supplied through the soil. This increased nutrient availability can also help plants to develop stronger roots and become naturally more resistant to environmental stressors. 

The four tips included below will help increase your soil health in a sustainable way and will lead to noticeable improvements for years to come. 

Increase soil organic matter

Between all the animals (like worms and insects) and the millions of microbes that make their homes in the ground, healthy soil is teeming with life. Each of these creatures plays a role in nutrient cycling, which is the process of breaking down crop residue, such as corn stubble, and degrading it into organic matter in the soil. Once the breakdown process is complete, the nutrients then become available for use by the plants. When plants use the nutrients that are available in the soil, growers can begin using more specific additives and fertilizers instead of deploying widespread “just in case” spraying. 

Minimize tillage

Tilling can damage the soil environment and should only be used to improve problem areas, including where the soil is compacted or where drainage issues are heavily impacting the fields. Tilling can also increase the number of weeds in a field by bringing them to the surface, where they can germinate and grow. These weeds will compete with the intended crop for nutrients and take over precious field space, potentially decreasing crop yields.

Keep the surface of the soil covered

Using cover crops has become increasingly popular, and for good reason. Not only do cover crops offer another opportunity for growers to improve their soil makeup, since their use increases the availability of nutrients like nitrogen in the soil, but they also significantly reduce the likelihood of soil erosion. When fields are kept uncovered after harvest and during the winter, they become susceptible to erosion from wind and rain, which leaves the grower a step behind in building a healthy foundation for springtime crops.

Rotate crops

The type and amount of nutrients used by different crops will vary depending on which crop is being grown. Different crops also will increase the availability of different nutrients, which can be used by the crops that follow. Crop rotation also plays a part in preventing soil erosion. Not only does the field remain covered, but as each crop’s roots grow to varying lengths, they will hold onto the soil at different depths throughout the seasons, maintaining stability against heavier rains and winds.

While these steps are great ways to improve your soil and ensure that it will continue to be the hardworking first step toward producing a healthy plant and a profitable yield, their results can be maximized when combined with other management tools. Soil testing throughout your fields, for instance, will help you pinpoint areas of concern. Field scouting during the growing season will help the grower catch any areas where there might be a nutrient deficiency or disease pressure before the problem becomes widespread and requires more intervention. By combining all the tools at their disposal, growers can give crops the best possible foundation for seasons to come in a proactive and sustainable way.

Want to learn more? Sign up for Top Crop, our newsletter full of information on sustainable management practices, grower stories from around the world and news from Alltech Crop Science.

To listen to our entire conversation with Matthew, click on the player.

Tom:                      Where is the world’s most exciting animal nutrition market? Matthew Smith is here to tell us about that. Hint: Matthew is Alltech vice president of Asia-Pacific. Thank you for being with us, Matthew.

Matthew:                It’s a great pleasure.

Tom:                      Let’s go to that question. What country is home to the most exciting nutrition market?

Matthew:                One word: Vietnam.

Tom:                      And why is that?  

Matthew:                I would describe Vietnam as the most dynamic marketplace for agribusiness and agri-food currently within the Southeast Asian region. It’s probably best to put Vietnam in context with the Asian countries: It has the second-highest population density of the Asian countries. Of course, number one is Singapore. Singapore is a completely different model. Food security is the main concern in Singapore. But in Vietnam, we have many hidden treasures that are yet to be discovered globally, which are making a big difference in the industry in Vietnam. They have the potential to change the way in which other countries produce protein by adopting the right technology and the right platforms to get to the consumer.

Tom:                      What are the dynamics in Vietnam? What’s driving this?

Matthew:                The consumer. It’s very much a move toward growth in the middle-income bracket and the desire to westernize. Food is very much about culture in Asia, and culture is about food. The two are inseparable.

                              We do see a significant shift toward well-being and wellness and a more informed choice about food, maybe food with a story.

                                Clearly, the dominant segment of the industry — the highest consumption — is pork. When we look at that as a metric in the feed industry, pork or swine feed would account for about 64 to 65 percent of the 19 million tons of feed consumed annually in Vietnam. The majority of the remainder is poultry feed, so it’s really very conventional.  

                               However, we’re seeing big growth now in the move toward packaged and processed food. And, ironically, the biggest segment of the packaged food market is milk. I would describe milk as probably the real disruptor at the moment within the Vietnamese industry.

Tom:                      Can you elaborate on that?

Matthew:                I say the biggest disruptor because, where is the largest centralized dairy in the world?

Tom:                      Vietnam?

Matthew:                Good answer. That wouldn’t be apparent to most people. When we say centralized dairy, there is a business in the central part of Northern Vietnam that was originally a joint venture with an Israeli conglomerate and the Vietnamese government. They decided that they were going to produce milk in what effectively is a desert. And they now milk 42,000 cows on one farm, with the majority of the feed being produced on the farm in terms of total mixed rations.

                              The business is called TH Milk. It’s a fully integrated operation, a runaway success story in terms of the utilization of technology, whether it be milking technology or feeding technology or technology that they use to purify the water for the cows to drink. Also, the way in which they process all of the effluent and waste from the dairy farm so that you will have an entirely sustainable unit.

                               But, when we talk about disruption, it’s the way in which that milk is sold. Milk is very much seen as a premium drink. Domestically, the dairy industry within Vietnam only produces about 28 percent of demand. So, that creates a huge opportunity. The business, TH Milk, and other businesses that operate in a similar fashion have really made the purchase of milk into a consumer experience. 

Tom:                      Is dairy a relative newcomer to the Vietnamese diet?

Matthew:                No. There would have been a lot of what we would describe, maybe, as backyard farming in terms of dairy production. So, it would have been sustenance. We would have two, three cows, and we would produce for the family and the neighbor. We would share the milk. However, given this huge increase in demand for the consumption of milk, that’s prompted much more cohesive dairy farming and has attracted a huge amount of investment. That sums up Vietnam’s move away in the 1990s from a centralized approach to agriculture and food production and much more toward primary production and integration.

Tom:                      What are the opportunities for emerging technologies, innovation in the Vietnamese market?

Matthew:                One of the biggest trends that we see within the Vietnamese market is the use of technology on the horticulture side. There is a lot of investment from engineering industries, from car manufacturers, from businesses that would not historically have been related to agriculture in terms of them utilizing distribution mechanics.

                               We’re talking about growing vegetables in an enclosed environment: hydroponics, etcetera. And those other industries see a lot of overlap with their technologies in terms of assisting in a huge increase in vegetables, which would be grown very close to the cities, which obviously are the primary markets.

Tom:                      I’ve read that Vietnam’s aquaculture market has nearly doubled in only a few years. If that’s true, what’s driving it?

Matthew:                One of the most recognized brands in the U.S. and Europe would be barramundi. Barramundi would be the Asian sea bass equivalent. The brand is actually called Australis. Most consumers would buy that to fillet. Very nicely packaged and very heavily branded, believing that it’s come from Australia. But it hasn’t. It’s from a very progressive operation, which grows the barramundi offshore in cages, in an extremely isolated environment that has incredible water quality, which is what’s needed for sustainability and to grow the fish and have a good feed conversion rate.

                              That’s just one example of people using a brand that doesn’t necessarily present itself as coming from Vietnam, but that is utilizing the environmental assets Vietnam has. You do have to contrast that with some of the challenges that Vietnam has in terms of the environment, the recycling of waste, areas the industry is attempting to tackle. That’s another opportunity for technology.

Tom:                      We’ve been focusing on Vietnam, but what about other countries in the region such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia?

Matthew:                All of those countries represent a huge opportunity for technology for a number of different reasons. Cambodia is wedged between Vietnam and Thailand, two countries that have much greater recognition in terms of the food chain and primary production. But Cambodia itself is a natural resource, a very clean environment where crops can be grown, particularly in the south. As you move up to the north, you start to see the opportunity for fruits and vegetables to be grown. Cambodia is the world’s largest exporter of mangoes, a fact that is not necessarily at the forefront of people’s minds when they consume a mango.

                               We have to embrace the local regulations, which, until recently, has been a challenge for businesses going into those countries to set up operations. But there is a growing industry in Cambodia on the aqua side, a growing industry on the poultry side.

                               Myanmar, for many, many years was a closed market, but now government policy is changing. Myanmar is dominated by the poultry industry. And that poultry industry has the potential to grow with technology, to scale up and be in a stronger position to supply the export markets.

Tom:                      What disruptors do you expect to see in this emerging market?

Matthew:                I guess the implementation of a more cohesive food chain, more cohesive supply chain and retail outlets.

                                Thailand and Vietnam are not well-known for having big supermarkets, but they have an increasing number of smaller retail outlets, which are generally owned as part of integrated operations. So, whilst we still have a big wet market where food is bought on a daily basis and consumed that day, there is a much greater move toward processed and packaged food, and that has big implications. It requires a supply chain. It requires refrigeration. It requires speed. But with growing affluence in that middle class, the opportunity for the consumer to purchase packaged food is a clear opportunity and will be a disruptor moving forward.

Tom:                      How is Alltech fitting into the Vietnamese market? What’s going on there?

Matthew:                We opened our Vietnamese office in 1993. So, we’ve been there for some time now. As with all of the Alltech businesses, we really look to localize our approach in terms of the makeup of the team from a production point of view, from sales, from a marketing perspective. People who really know and understand the industry.

                              Vietnam has been a very successful marketplace for us in the past 24 years, and we just see our business going from strength to strength as we are now in the position to offer more feed solutions to a growing feed industry.

                               Across the Asian countries, we’ve had a presence for a minimum of 20 years. Myanmar is new. Cambodia is new, and Mongolia will be very new for us. A very small market, but it represents the opportunity for us to localize our business and takes us into more of those countries. 

Tom:                      Matthew Smith is Alltech vice president of Asia-Pacific. Thank you so much for joining us.

Matthew Smith spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE17). To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Idea Lab. 

When choosing between organic and conventionally grown produce, we tend to see it as an “all or nothing” decision. However, many growers are using techniques that have traditionally been seen in organic farming and are incorporating them into conventional farming.

The gap between organic and conventional growers is narrowing with every passing year as new technology is making it easier to incorporate more natural methods into traditional management practices.

Soil management

Many growers are turning away from using traditional tillage practices in an effort to nurture the agribiome in the soil. Instead of churning the soil annually, many will now till only when needed to combat soil compaction.

Soil testing

Soil testing is done to guide precision nutrient application. The grower can apply only the nutrients that are shown as deficient on the tests and only in the correct areas, thus increasing the efficacy of the nutrients while decreasing some of the costs associated with soil treatments.

Cover crops

Many conventional growers are also using various cover crops and polyculture, the practice of growing multiple crops in the same area. These practices aid in maintaining nutrient-rich soils through organic matter breakdown, and they also help prevent weeds.

Crop scouting

Early detection of pests, diseases and nutrient deficiencies through crop scouting can reduce the use of pesticides and other inputs and allow for more precise applications of treatments to address crop issues.

A natural approach

Naturally based crop inputs, such as those that use amino acid technology, are being used by growers throughout the plant growth cycle. These inputs result in improved soil biology, plant health and greater yields, all while decreasing the use of synthetic inputs.

More growers are coming to the realization that there is no need to compromise growth, yield or profit in the pursuit of improved sustainability.

For more information, or to discuss ways in which you too can incorporate some of these techniques into your operation, contact your local Alltech Crop Science representative.

Luther:                        I’m joined by Dr. Mark Lyons, global vice presid ent and head of Greater China at Alltech. He received his master’s degree in brewing and distilling and a Ph.D. in solid state fermentation at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thank you for joining us.

Mark:                          Thank you.

Luther:                        What are your thoughts on the rising billion?

Mark:                          I think it’s really the “rising billions” because, as we delved into this, we really started to see what is transpiring in the world and how, from my perspective living in China for the last five years, we’re only at the start of a major change.

                                    We think about the transformation of China in the last 30 years, and what’s taking place is that only 10 percent of the Chinese population has about $10,000 of disposable income in their pocket. By 2030, that will increase to 35 percent of the population. That 25 percent increase is bigger than the American population. So, if we think about that and then we think about India, we think about many other developing nations, we think about the continent of Africa, and to a certain degree we even think about the transformation through technology of our own population and millennial spending and the next generation coming after them — there’s an absolute transformation in terms of the way our economy is going to work and the way our companies need to respond.

Luther:                        How do you define the rising billions in terms of that group of people?

Mark:                          By 2022, there will actually be more people in the middle class than the poor class. So, I think we’re starting to see that there’s a group of people who have money to spend and who are interested in different types of products. Their access to technology and the transparency that that brings is extraordinary, and some of the platforms they’re using, particularly “fintech,” or financial technology, are really transforming these individuals. So, these are people for whom there’s an aspirational element. There’s a yearning to have certain types of products. And so, I think we need to market to these individuals in a different way than we traditionally do and realize that the market is much, much bigger than our traditional market or our domestic market. This is going to take different types of thinking. It’s also going to take different ways of transacting.

Luther:                        So, how are we going to connect these people to the internet? What technologies are going to be used?

Mark:                          Yes, there are some really exciting projects. There’s Project Loon, which is essentially launching a bunch of mini satellites and ways for people to be connected. Just the emergence of accessible smartphones, so people are able to get access to the internet. Some of the estimates are that by 2030 we’ll have about 50 percent of the global population connected to the internet. I think that’s probably conservative. I think this is all going to happen a lot faster.

                                    Some of the projects that people are looking at — you’ll virtually be able to access the internet anywhere in the world at low cost. Already in China we’re using social media to pay, so Alipay, or a lot of other pay programs through WeChat, through social media. That’s transforming things, because people who don’t even have a computer are accessing information, but they’re also paying for products. In Africa, we’re already seeing that just through text messages people are paying for products, and that’s been in place for over five years.

Luther:                        How will the rising billions disrupt the global economy?

Mark:                          Look at the approximately 325 million Americans and the position of the number one economy globally. I think we have to accept the fact that there are countries that obviously have much bigger populations than us that are going to be — even if they’re half as affluent — their economies are going to be bigger. Obviously, there’s a lot of focus on China — but all the ASEAN countries, India, again Africa as a region — you’re talking about populations that dwarf ours. So, we have to start to switch our mindset from being so focused on our domestic market to start to think like these more nimble, smaller countries that are really export-focused.

                                    We’re originally from Ireland. Everything is about export. Everything is about the global network and being connected. I think, as a country, America needs to reposition itself to being a leader in technology, perhaps being a leader in innovations, and that those are the types of things that we’re going to lead the way in.

Luther:                        What should businesses be doing to prepare for the arrival of these additional billions of people coming online?

Mark:                          I think it’s really a way of seeing these as market opportunities and getting out there, visiting. Educate yourself, educate your people, start to think globally, and not in the closed mindset that we have.

                                    Unfortunately, I think politically and globally right now, there’s a lot of pullback. There are a lot of people pushing against globalization, but I think it’s just something that’s inevitable. Once that door opens, and how connected people are, if we don’t get involved in that, we’re going to be sitting on the sidelines.  As a very global company operating in almost 130 countries, we can’t think any other way. I always encourage people: Get out there. See what these markets are like. Find the ones that you think fit you, and your business, and your culture, and go there and make it happen.

Luther:                        What about in a local economy? You’re a global company. What about for a business that may be more local? Do you see an effect on that from the billions coming online? Is there something they should be doing?

Mark:                          I think the other aspect of it is that you see some of these markets, and you see similar challenges that they’re going through. I think there’s often a lot that can be learned.

                                    It really is incredible to see in China people going to Starbucks with no money — they get 10 people in line and no money changing hands. Isn’t that amazing? China’s probably going to be the first cashless society and also the largest country in the world.

                                    Are there things like that that maybe we could bring back here and we could innovate? Are there new technologies? Are there new ways that we could do things? I think that’s probably one of the parts that we find most interesting traveling around the world. You see something in some place, and you see applications for it in another.

                                    I think the local part is going to be critical because people are searching for — Europeans call it “provenance.” We call it “origin” or “traceability.” People want authentic products. They want local products. So, all of that is very, very important.

                                    Yesterday, we had a beer festival. Five thousand people came through. More than 5,000 people. What were they looking for? They were looking for beers that were local. They were looking for products that were local. That’s the real draw. The story…and that traceability is something that local companies will have as an advantage over global big brands, and that’s something they need to exploit.

Luther:                        You addressed the fact that in China they are exchanging currencies cashless. In what ways are the rising billions coming online that are different than the Western world?

Mark:                          I think that there’s obviously this whole discussion around leapfrogging, and the fact that they’re not having to go through all the steps. So many countries have just forgone having phone lines and all these networks that are very expensive and expensive to maintain. They’re skipping a lot of those infrastructure steps because they’re just able to go straight to cellular. Leapfrogging brings a certain expectation of speed, an expectation of change.

                                    The biggest difference is that they’re so much more open to change and anticipating change, whereas we’re often pushing back against change and wanting to have things stay the same. That’s something that concerns me, because I think that if you’re anticipating change, then you’re much more innovative. You’re much more likely to come up with new ideas. That’s something that I think we need to be aware of — that change is a good thing. Change is something that we should want, and we should be driving it forward.

Luther:                        Are there potential negative consequences to the rising billions coming online?

Mark:                          I think that geopolitical shifts and power shifts in the economy will cause eruptions. They’ll cause confusion. I think there’s a big feeling in this country of people who feel like America is number one. Wait a minute, what if we’re number two?

                                    Number one in what, and what is it that we’re really after here? I think repositioning America as a leader is really important. Are there negatives? I think that’s going to be down to how we handle the situation. There are incredible positives. The number of people that are going to be lifted out of poverty, and poverty being something that is of the past is very much an idea that we can be thinking about and realize is going to happen. That’s a tremendous positive; that can’t be a negative.

Luther:                        How will the rise in billions affect the average consumer?

Mark:                          I think that we’re going to see a total transformation in terms of the number of people in this middle class. In Asia today, about half a billion people would be considered in the middle class. By 2030, we’re talking about 3.2 billion.

                                    For the average consumer, I think that just transforms everything. We’re going to live in a world that’s totally different. The communication we’re going to have with these individuals around the world is going to be extraordinary. And so, I think for the average consumer, and we’re definitely going to see it in the next generations coming through, they’re going to grow up with a totally different mindset. I think that’s supposed to be the exciting part for us, but also maybe one of the challenges.

Luther:                        Amazon is always referenced for having taken advantage of the long tail effect. Do you see the rising billions as a similar effect to the long tail, maybe not as high in income, but because of the quantity that are coming online, the opportunity there for disruption and for profitability and companies that take advantage of it?

Mark:                          Absolutely. I think we’ve seen this now with companies that are operating in these very large markets. The population is so big that you can come up with something, make not that much money on it, and you’ve got such a scale that once you start to get out of your own country, your competitiveness is just off the charts. Certainly we’re seeing that in China. I think we’re already seeing that in India with some of the domestic companies. Once they start to step out of their own markets, they can really take a dominant position. That’s going to be something to keep an eye on.

                                    Already we’re facing a situation that seems like we don’t have that many companies that are really dominating the space, and that may even become fewer when we look at it globally. So, I think that’s something that many, many companies are seeing as a big opportunity.

                                    On the other side, I think back to the local idea, how do we come up with ways that we can play in those niche spaces that could be much more profitable? So, I think that in certain regards there are going to be dominant players, but sometimes those spaces are not that profitable. We’ve seen in many cases that, in certain niche areas that are very specialized, you can be making far less revenue and similar profits.

Luther:                        What other facts about the rising billions do you find surprising or intriguing or that you’re seeing that the average person in America or in the Western world may not realize?

Mark:                          I think the big message is that these individuals have the same types of desires and interests and want experiences and products that are probably not dissimilar to what we would want.

                                    I think their spending patterns are quite different than ours. I’m amazed in China. Beijing is such an expensive city. I look at the salaries that my colleagues make and the salaries that friends make, thinking, “How are people living on this?” You realize it’s because they’re not buying a lot of the types of things we’re buying. They don’t have two, three, four cars. They don’t have a television in every room. They think of debt in a very different way. And so, there’s a whole array of surprising things about these individuals and their spending patterns, but I think there’s opportunities within that.

                                    At the end of the day, I think our similarities are much greater than people anticipate. People care about the same types of things. Their family, certain interests, feeling important, feeling recognized. Those things are fairly universal.

Luther:                        Dr. Mark Lyons is the global vice president and head of Greater China at Alltech. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Mark Lyons spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE17). To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech  Idea Lab. For access, click on the button below.

Winter has come to the world as it is known to the hardworking honey bee. “Game of Thrones,” the popular HBO series based on George R. R. Martin’s bestselling books, set in a harsh world, its characters struggling as they face hard truths, might be a fitting metaphor for what is happening in the kingdom of the honey bee. But this is no game.

The European honey bee, Apis mellifera, is the most economically valuable pollinator of agricultural crops worldwide. Bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in added crop value in the United States. Especially dependent on bees are specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits and vegetables. And there is the product of the bees themselves: honey.

“Sadly, when all of this started to happen back around 2005–2006 with the bees just disappearing from their hives, nobody knew what to call it, so the media latched onto something called CCD, or colony collapse disorder, and that’s just a misnomer,” said Michele Colopy, program director at the Pollinator Stewardship Council in Akron, Ohio. “It is not explaining the issue well enough, and we would like the media to stop using it.”

In fairness to the media, the term originated in the mid-2000s with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where scientists were scrambling for an explanation. But the origins of the term hardly matters.

Beekeepers had awakened to a nightmare of sickened, even vacant, hives.

Think of their anxiety this way, suggested Colopy: “Honey bees are a beekeeper’s livestock, and they suffer under the same health stresses as any four-legged livestock that doesn’t have wings.”

What happened? As Colopy stressed, in recent years, it has become clear that no single factor is responsible. According to the USDA, research is beginning to strongly suggest that CCD “may be a syndrome caused by many different factors, working in combination or synergistically.”

As in the mythical “Game of Thrones,” the very real forces arrayed against the kingdom of the honey bee, the hive, have converged to lay siege in many guises and from many directions.

Some likely candidates have recently been identified. There remains speculation about additional culprits.

What we know about “colony collapse disorder”

According to the USDA, researchers have documented elevated pathogen levels, and a wide array of pesticides have been present in the wax and pollen in both CCD-affected and non-affected apiaries, with none linked definitively to CCD.

Pesticides

“The wax (inside the hive) holds onto pesticides,” said Colopy. “It is a sponge. So, when a pesticide is brought into the hive on pollen or nectar or on the bodies of the bees, the toxin in the pesticide stays active for a longer time because it’s in the dark — most pesticides break down in sunlight.

“But it’s not that we can suddenly open the hive to sunlight to change this, because the wax still holds onto the toxin and protects it,” she continued. “The toxin leaches through the wax.”

Beginning in 2015, beekeepers began to report more bee deaths in late summer than in winter. It was a troubling sign. Hives are expected to be stronger and healthier in warm weather and more stressed in the cold months.

“What is happening at the end of summer is the full effect of the pesticides,” explained Colopy. “They build up across the summer, and the bees are eating these toxins. This slowly kills off the adult foragers. Then the whole organism of the hive is thrown off because different bees have different duties, based on their age.

“If you suddenly have too many foragers dying and everybody gets shoved ahead in their duties, you start to throw off the life cycle of the hive,” she continued. “The queen’s reproduction ability declines; there aren’t enough bees to help raise the brood, so you begin to slowly lose the population, and this is where that so-called ‘colony collapse’ comes in.”

Mites

In addition to pesticides, infestations of mites have taken a toll.

Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite, propagates within the brood cells of bees. The mites can do serious damage to their hosts' health, latching on and feeding on hemolymph, insects' rough equivalent to blood. Bees are left with open wounds, making them susceptible to infection.

Adding insult to injury, noted Kentucky State apiarist Tammy Potter, is a finding that Varroa mites can introduce viruses — one, in particular — to honey bee colonies.

“Lake Sinai virus, named for a lake in South Dakota, is fairly new,” she said. “It has characteristics that look remarkably similar to what we used to call colony collapse disorder.

“Forty-six percent of our (Kentucky) apiaries have high Varroa mite counts,” continued Potter, referencing the most recent USDA Honey Bee Health Survey. “There was only one from this particular year that did not have a virus present. The other 23 did.”

Researchers and the USDA have urged a change in management strategy, including more frequent sampling.

“Given the biology of the Varroa mite, the best management practice is to sample your bees for mites four times a year,” said Potter.

In 2015, the EPA approved the use of oxalic acid (OA) as a Varroa mite treatment. Various studies have shown OA to be effective in a variety of climatic conditions with an efficacy as high as 97 percent in a broodless period.

But it’s far too soon to breathe easy. Researchers at Purdue University have discovered that a sister species of the Varroa destructor mite is “shifting from feeding and reproducing on Asian honey bees, their preferred host, to European honey bees, the primary species used for crop pollination and honey production worldwide.”

While Varroa Jacobsoni mites have not been found outside of Papua New Guinea, Purdue researcher Gladys Andino said vigilance is needed to protect European honey bees worldwide from further risk.

"This could represent a real threat,” said Andino. “If this mite gets out of control and spreads, we might have another situation like V. destructor."

The Purdue researchers note with caution that “V. destructor made the same host leap at least 60 years ago, spreading rapidly to become the most important global health threat to European honey bees.”

The Honey Bee Health Coalition, an organization of beekeepers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, growers, conservation groups, manufacturers and consumer brands, is holding its first Mite-A-Thon in September. The event is “a national effort to collect mite infestation data and to visualize Varroa infestations in honey bee colonies across North America within a one-week window.” The Varroa monitoring data will be uploaded to www.mitecheck.com.

Continuing research also focuses on additional possible CCD factors, such as the synergistic effects of the Nosema fungus and pesticides, and of pesticides and other pathogens.

Monocultures

Even before CCD came along, one of the biggest challenges for native wild bees has been the agricultural specialization that has produced huge fields of just one crop: the monoculture.

The almond groves of California, for example, are a sea of blossoms in February.

"But for the rest of the year, there's nothing blooming," Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at the University of California, Berkeley told NPR. "In fact, in places where we have very large monocultures of almond, we don't find any native bees anymore."

So honey bees must be trucked in from all over the country. And the industry's migratory characteristic may also contribute to the colony collapse problem.

“If you start in South Dakota and you take your bees to California, where there are also honey bees from Indiana, Kentucky and Texas, that virus can be spread,” said Potter.

Time is money, and this travel leaves little time to sample for mites, which can be a lengthy process. However, necessity has inspired invention, said Potter.

“There is a new tool on the market to help beekeepers quickly sample their bees,” she said. “I think you will begin to see a significant decrease in hive mortality.”

The Varro Easy Check tool uses an alcohol solution to remove mites from up to 300 bees at a time.

Forage land development

Working in combination with the impact of monocultures is the development of countryside and forests. Much pollinator habitat has been lost to urban and suburban development as well as surface mining.

“Many pollinators are adversely affected when large, intact tracts of habitat are broken up into smaller, isolated patches by road construction, development or agriculture,” observed a joint study by the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and the Greenbelt Native Plant Center. “These habitat fragments may not be large enough to meet all pollinator needs by themselves.”

Honey bees are left without the diverse sources of nectar and pollen they need to thrive when confronted with multiple factors known to affect their survival, growth and reproduction, the study concluded.

How can we help the bees?

What can be done to improve survival prospects for these industrious, socially sophisticated creatures and the human agriculture that depends on them?

A survey of its beekeeper members by the Honey Bee Health Coalition found a demand for companies to offer supplemental pollen patties that address “specific regional, seasonal, and/or life cycle challenges and objectives.”

They identified two primary drivers for beekeepers to feed protein supplements: “to stimulate colonies to produce more brood at certain times of year; and to offer nourishment when natural pollen flow is lacking.”

Initial trials of the Alltech supplement Bee Pollen-Ate® suggest a promising response.

“We’re increasing brood during low pollen levels,” said Kyle McKinney, Alltech’s crop science manager in Costa Rica. “It means the whole hive is active and healthy. When the queen lays the brood, the worker bees come in and start feeding the brood and building up the comb to protect the brood. We know with certainty that what we’ve seen in Costa Rica, during low pollen season, supplementing with Bee Pollen-Ate, we have a healthier and more active hive.”

Acting as something of a worksite food truck, the quarter-inch-thick patty is placed atop the comb where the bees are working.

“They come up and they feed on the patty and go back to work,” explained McKinney.

There are numerous feed supplements on the market, and many beekeepers make their own “patty” of supplements.

“I see about a 50-50 split between people who want to make their own patty using their own recipe versus people who want to buy a finished patty,” noted McKinney. “But even those who make their own are using our Bee Pollen-Ate as the protein supplement.”

McKinney’s research partner, Tyler Bramble, general manager of Alltech ruminant nutrition in Visalia, California, said it appears that many commercial companies making pollen substitute products are in a race to see who can pack the most protein into a bee supplement patty.

“I’m not convinced that more is always better,” he said. “I think you really need to look at the form and the digestibility. We see in livestock animals deleterious effects as protein levels become ridiculous. It costs the animal energy to process and get rid of all that extra protein.”

The distinction between the Alltech product and others, Bramble noted, is the particular expertise behind its development.

“With Alltech’s core competencies being animal nutrition and yeast fermentation, we understand all the different parts of a yeast cell,” he said. “That’s our business. We fractionate the yeast cell, and, because of our knowledge of the yeast cell and its various components, we are able to pull out protein, carbohydrate and nucleotide-rich portions of the cell. That enables us to make a designer pollen substitute.”

With McKinney in Costa Rica, where it is now winter, and Bramble in California, where summer is in full force, the two are teaming up to carry out continuous trials of Bee Pollen-Ate. Their findings are anticipated by spring of 2018.

A “what if” to ponder

But what if all of our best efforts fail to restore the honey bee population to levels required for crop pollination? One possibility makes the long, deadly winter of “Game of Thrones” seem springlike by comparison.

There is the prospect that in the not-too-distant future, farmers might not have to rely on declining bee populations. For example, researchers at Tokushima University in Japan have used the CRISPR gene-editing technique to produce seedless tomatoes, which do not require pollination at all.

The buzz of the beehive is growing silent. A mysterious grim reaper has been killing off large percentages of the insect population responsible for the majority of the food we consume.

Colony Collapse Disorder is the term scientists have coined for the little-understood cause of an approximately 30 percent annual reduction in the number of bees on our planet. The trigger of such “beecide” may be multifactoral, possibly involving pathogens, parasites, pesticides and environment stressors such as climate change and habitat loss.

The potential impact of this perplexing problem could sting much more than the bees’ own memorable pokes. Seventy-five percent of all cultivated crops are unable to produce without pollination!

Morehead State University in Kentucky is already beginning to feel that sting. The university is home to Browning Orchard, a 250-acre farm that produces 23 varieties of apples. The apples are processed by several local cider mills, are used by the University of Kentucky for hard cider research and also serve as the centerpiece of the university’s much-loved Apple Festival held each autumn.

“We use bees to pollinate our trees. For the past three years, we have lost some of the bees — not all of them, but some of them,” said Amy Poston Lentz, then-horticulture supervisor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Morehead State University and team advisor to the 2016 Alltech Innovation Competition undergraduate winners.

Each time they experienced bee losses, a new hive needed to be started, driving up their production costs at the orchard.

So they decided to craft a plan B.

The Pollinizer: A drone alternative to real bees

An undergraduate team of Morehead students, representing a collaboration between the school’s agriculture and business programs, designed “The Pollinizer,” a drone attachment capable of mimicking the pollination activities of a real bee.

Not only does The Pollinizer present an alternative should worst fears be realized and more of the bee population is decimated, but the team noted that their drone attachment can increase and improve yield by working in conjunction with the bees.

After winning first place in the undergraduate category of the 2016 Alltech Innovation Competition in Kentucky, the student team — Jordan Bach, Tessa Combs, Adam Lyon and Dalton Shepherd — is still considering their next steps but plan to pursue a patent. The team is being advised by Janet Ratliff, assistant professor of management/entrepreneurship, director of the Center for Economic Education and advisor for the student organization Students in Free Enterprise at Morehead State University.

Most importantly to them, they say, is the impact this project could have on their school’s orchard as well as the surrounding community. Morehead State University is located in eastern Kentucky, a region that has been hit hard economically by the decline of coal. Lentz noted that reclaimed mountain tops in the area are now becoming apple orchards and small farms.

Have a question or comment?

“Winter is coming.” While our winters don’t last as long as those in Westeros of the “Game of Thrones,” preparation is key in readying ourselves for the coming spring.

Once harvest is complete, it is the perfect time to take stock of the previous growing season and look ahead to what the next year will bring. In particular, we have four winter planning suggestions for growers to maximize the potential of their operation in the coming seasons.

Soil testing:

Post-harvest is an important time to get your soil testing done. The testing will create a baseline for spring and help you plan for nutrient applications. It can also allow for more economical alternatives to nutrient applications that are usually administered in the spring. For example, phosphorus and potassium tend to be more economical during the offseason.

“Historically, the least expensive time to buy phosphorus and potassium is late in the year,” said Chuck McKenna, Alltech Crop Science sales manager. “As soon as facilities start filling up with those ingredients, the price goes up.”

McKenna also noted that applying these nutrients in late autumn and winter frees up the grower to potentially only apply nitrogen, if needed, in the spring.

Cover cropping:

The use of cover crops in autumn and winter allows for increased aeration and water-holding capability in the soil. A growing crop will also help support microbes in the soil and allow them to break down organic matter well into the winter and spring. Depending on the blend of cover the grower chooses, it can also target compaction and weed control issues.

Weed control:

An effective weed control program will allow you to plant earlier, as the soils will tend to warm up faster if they are not affected by a weed problem. If there is a problem with breakthrough weeds or weeds that haven’t been seen before, this is a good time to plan for how to manage these challenges.

Review the information from your yield monitor:

Are you finding that there are trouble spots that you are not able to see? Is there an issue with sudden death syndrome that was not noticeable while the crop was growing? Are there areas that are more susceptible to weeds, therefore decreasing yield? Have insects caused a problem with your yields? A bird’s-eye view from the yield monitor, paired with the field record, will give you a broader image of what is going on in the field.

In order to make the most of the time between harvest and planting, gather all the information from the previous year and create a map for the upcoming year, including financial aspects such as ROI and whether or not you plan to use more acres for a particular crop. Sit down with your agronomist and talk about your issues and your plan now, because winter is coming but spring is just around the corner.

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Big data is ready for the farm. But is the farm ready for big data?

Agriculture is the least digitized major industry in the United States, according to a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute.  

Farmers sometimes struggle to see the benefits of new technologies. Some have been burned by investments that they feel did not deliver, making them reluctant to commit and invest again, according to Alltech chief innovation officer Aidan Connolly.

In Connolly’s view, however, agriculture, with its inefficiencies, offers greater opportunity for improvement than any other industry.

And there is recent evidence that the sector is now racing to catch up at a supercharged pace, spurring innovation that is virtually transforming farming.

However, as drones, sensors, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, smartphones and high-speed mobile internet gather and analyze data, growers and producers are struggling to manage the resulting deluge of information.

Eighty-four percent of U.S. farmers who responded to a recent Stratus Ag Research (SAR) survey said they have high-tech equipment that captures reams of data from livestock, planting, harvesting or crop protection operations. Yet only 42 percent of them are actually transferring this information to a field data management software program for further analysis. 

Connolly has observed that technological solutions are sometimes over-engineered, capturing a lot of information that the purchaser doesn’t see as beneficial. He suggests that these technology companies would benefit by narrowing the focuses and applications of their innovations.

“Entrepreneurs are throwing out a lot of information and analysis and hoping some of it will stick, most of which doesn’t, and indeed it ends up distracting from the real value that they provide,” he said

Establishing that value creates an enormous frontier of opportunity.

For technological entrepreneurs like KEENAN, the Irish feed mixer manufacturer and Alltech acquisition, those circumstances invited a response: expansion into farm data analysis.

“We've been involved with the internet of things (IoT) since about 2011,” said Conan Condon, director of KEENAN’s InTouch. “At that stage, there wasn't much connectivity. There were about 12 million connected devices. Today, there are about 6.4 billion connected devices. So you can see the growth that has happened within six years.” 

Today, more than 2,000 livestock operations, ranging in size from tens to thousands of cows, use the InTouch system, a live review and support service that helps producers apply actionable intelligence to their operations, giving them the benefit of KEENAN’s access to data on more than 1.3 million monitored cows.

Data-gathering technology represents a profound departure from “the way it’s always been done.” John Fargher is a fifth-generation Australian livestock producer and the co-founder of AgriWebb, a late-stage startup producing farm and livestock management software.

“I identified the problem on our own family farm, which is a simple one: farmers and ranchers running their business off pencil and paper,” he said. “We can now track all the inputs and all the outputs across that business and then facilitate data-driven decisions.”

Who sees my farm’s data?

2016 saw investments in data-driven agriculture fall 39 percent from 2015, according to the SAR report.

“It plateaued for one reason: the inability of everybody to share data,” said Condon.

“We're very open to sharing data,” he continued. “Always have been and always will be. Too many people are holding onto what they think is their farm data, and the farmer is not benefitting from the sum of all data.”

Some farmers express concerns about the security of their information. How might companies and government officials exploit and profit from their data? Who gets to access it? Who owns it? Does having data somewhere in the cloud leave it vulnerable to attacks and misuse?

All these questions remain largely unanswered, even as the technology pushes ever forward. Yet Connolly believes it is essential that data clients “are willing to trade this level of privacy in return for gaining greater value from what they are using.”

“Certainly, individual farm data is first in importance, especially to make proper variable-rate decisions and to build data on individual fields,” said SAR survey project manager Krista Maclean. “Better long-term decisions, however, may come from incorporating aggregated data into the decision mix.”

Farmers responding to the SAR survey consider data specific to their farm more useful than aggregated data. But, as application of the technology evolves, observers are seeing room for both.

Aggregated data can predict weather, report the condition of soils and crops, and alert to the presence of pests on a sub-regional basis.

“However, if the data is to be truly actionable and valuable, we need to drill down to the farm level,” said Connolly. “There is no reason to dumb down our offering by trying to make it into something that is not specific to the decisions being taken on an acre-by-acre or even an inch-by-inch basis.”

He suggests machine vision technology as an example. The monitoring and analysis of cattle and pig behaviors, especially in large-scale operations, is challenging, but vital. Pig and cattle behavior can provide information about the barn environment, food and water adequacy, health, welfare and production efficiency. Imaging-based inspection and analysis can offer an automated, non-contact, non-stress and cost-effective option.

“It appears to be capable of generating a benefit of up to $300 per cow,” Connolly said. “It is inconceivable that a producer would not consider using this technology if they are competing with a neighbor who has a $300 benefit over them on a per cow basis.” 

Grape growers and winemakers are also gravitating to high-tech solutions, contracting with firms like the drone-based SkySquirrel of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to keep watch over their grapes using a unique disease detection technology.

“Grapevines infected with disease produce lower quality wines and can cost a winery up to $40,000 per hectare in lost profits,” said Emily Ennett, marketing and business development manager of SkySquirrel. “Our disease detection is 100 times more efficient and significantly more accurate and cost-effective than scouts on the ground.”

SkySquirrel also provides triple-calibrated “Vine Vigour” zone maps for fertilizer applications and to improve the aromatics of wines, drive homogeneity and optimize harvest segmentation.

Big data, from seed to salad

A key driver of farming’s embrace of digital technology is the depth of transparency enabled by data collection and analysis.

Increasingly, Connolly said, consumers — millennials, in particular — are demanding this traceability in their food, such as: where and how it was produced; its environmental footprint; and its benefits with respect to the welfare of animals and farm workers.

“With that in mind, I believe that these technologies allow farmers to connect directly with the end user in a manner that can only be good for both sides, giving the consumers more confidence in the food chain and hopefully allowing producers/farmers to capture more of that value for themselves,” said Connolly.

With the arrival on the farm of big data, the work of the 21st century grower or producer is rapidly being fine-tuned like never before. Out with the guesswork and the questions left open to interpretation, in with unassailable hard facts, an entirely new degree of precision and a sense of reassurance that only a decade ago might have been dismissed as wishful thinking.

"I see a lot of changes in our area of expertise, IoT; the ability to use the cell phone network to transfer data back to the farmer’s phone so he can act on making informed decisions,” said Emmet Savage, co-founder of Moocall, a calving sensor that signals a farmer’s smart device when a cow is going into labor.

“There’s so much happening,” he continued. “It’s all about data. It’s all about recurring revenue. And it’s all about making the farmers’ lives easy.”