North American Ag Spotlight: Agriculture & Farming News and Views

Today Chrissy Wozniak is sitting down with the Principal of BioMass Solution, Jacek Chmielewski to discuss carbon reduction strategies in agriculture.

BioMass Solution's mission is to bring financially and environmentally restorative and regenerative solutions to undervalued and problematic waste. Through this, we are solving an environmental problem, lowering (or in fact restoring carbon via sequestration carriers) the overall generated energy carbon footprint, producing renewable energy, creating jobs, and contributing to the local tax base, all the while providing strong financial returns.

BioMass Solution is providing full scope of carbon negative solutions (feedstock selection, location selection, co-location and energy integration, carbon credits, biochar application and sales).  Augmenting our core services, we provide full array of carbon negative services and solutions to our clients.

BioMass Solution currently has low carbon (implemented and operating) and carbon negative (Puerto Rico) projects (Red River Biorefinery in Grand Forks, ND and bamboo to biochar in Puerto Rico).

To learn more about BioMass Solution, visit the website https://www.biomasssolution.com/ or contact Jacek Chmielewski at [email protected]

This episode is sponsored by GAPS Ontario- Phosphorus solutions bridging the gap between technology and clean water. Learn more at https://gapsontario.com/ 

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Last week, the U.S. House voted to pass two NCBA-supported pieces of legislation that are critical to providing producers with greater transparency in the cattle markets.

Chrissy Wozniak sits down with NCBA's Tanner Beymer to learn more about what the passing of these bills means for the industry.

The House voted 418-9 to advance H.R. 5290, introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-GA). This legislation, which was supported by Ranking Member Glenn "G.T." Thompson (R-PA) and unanimously approved by the Committee, would extend authorization for livestock mandatory reporting (LMR) through September 30, 2022.

The authorization for LMR — the most important tool cattle producers have for understanding transactions and trends in the cattle markets — is currently set to expire along with federal funding on February 18, 2022.

By an overwhelming vote of 411-13, the House also passed the Cattle Contract Library Act of 2021. NCBA secured the introduction of this bipartisan legislation in October, led by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). 

“The fact that House Agriculture Committee Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Thompson have both been vocal champions for LMR reauthorization is yet another indication of the broad-base support this measure has among producers across the country. LMR is absolutely essential to fair, competitive, and transparent cattle markets. We appreciate Chairman Scott's leadership, and the heavy engagement we have seen from both sides of the committee on this issue. We also thank Rep. Johnson and Rep. Cuellar for their work to equip producers with vital market data through a cattle contract library,” said NCBA President Jerry Bohn.

The creation of a cattle contract library and the reauthorization of LMR are both widely supported across the cattle and beef industry. When livestock groups met in Phoenix earlier this year to identify common goals and priorities, those two measures were agreed upon as urgent.

NCBA left that meeting and immediately set to work advancing these proposals. We upheld our commitment to the industry, even when R-CALF changed their tune and refused to support these viable, popular solutions.

Background 

NCBA has long advocated for increased transparency in the cattle and beef supply chain.

In October 2021, NCBA Vice President and South Dakota rancher Todd Wilkinson testified before the House Agriculture Committee and underscored the need for greater transparency in live cattle markets.

In August 2021, NCBA succeeded in pushing USDA to make more market data publicly available. The agency began publishing a new daily report on the foundational prices used in cattle market formulas, grids, and contracts, and a new weekly report on the volume of cattle purchased at each different level of pricing.

In June 2021, NCBA led a letter with the support of more than 36 state affiliate groups urging Congress to act on the reauthorization of LMR. LMR is the legislative mandate that requires large meat processors to regularly report information on their transactions, such as the price they pay for livestock and the volume of purchases.

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Welcome to the launch of the much-anticipated podcast, 'What Color Is Your Tractor?'. Hosted by North American Ag's Chrissy Wozniak, this show is here to give you insight on the stories behind the ag brands you love, and the ag brands you love to hate.

Today, Chrissy is diving into the story behind Landoll with founder, owner and president Don Landoll. 

Chrissy Wozniak has always been fascinated by brand loyalty in agriculture, she has had the opportunity to travel the US and Canada throughout her career and has been blessed to build relationships with the people who run the companies that help keep farmers farming. She wants to tell the stories of these great companies, and help you get to know them for who they really are.

Learn more about 'What Color Is Your Tractor' and stay updated at https://www.whatcolorisyourtractor.com/ 

President of Landoll Company LLC, Don Landoll, has provided a vision for the company focusing on the “Customer Comes First” philosophy. Since 1963, founder, owner, and president has been an entrepreneurial inspiration.  Chrissy Wozniak talks with Don about how the company started, what their first products were, and why they are a great company to work for in Marysville, Kansas.

Landoll has been providing proven solutions to our customers for over 55 years. With a worldwide consumer base, they continue to supply their customers with products of the highest quality materials and workmanship. Don’s commitment to customer satisfaction is still very much in effect 55 years later. This approach has helped build the long-standing, stable relationships that Landoll Company, LLC shares with it's customers.

From the very first line of farm equipment to the very latest lines of products, Landoll continues to develop products that exceed their customers’ expectations. Whether you need a tillage machine to handle today’s high residues, a grain drill, or a machine to address your compaction concerns, Landoll has a machine to fit your needs. They also manufacture outside of the ag industry with their lines of trailers, forklifts and construction equipment.

Learn more about Landoll at https://landoll.com

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This week, Chrissy Wozniak is sitting down with Stacy Anthony of AgRevolution to discuss this newly established and extremely innovative new dealership for AGCO.

In early 2021, AGCO formed AgRevolution™, an agricultural equipment dealership providing industry-leading products and support services to the farming community throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana.

AGCO supports a strong independent dealership network across North America. The launch of AgRevolution is a unique situation and the result of Boyd’s decision to focus on its core heavy construction equipment business and AGCO’s commitment to continue serving customers in the area. Though it is a wholly owned subsidiary of AGCO, AgRevolution is operate in a manner similar to that of AGCO’s independent dealerships.

At AgRevolution, we're committed to building a bright new future for our customers. We supply farmers with today's highest-performing brands, including Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Challenger. We offer the highest-quality parts on the market today and we have skilled service technicians on hand, ready to help you.

Shop their current inventory of industry-leading equipment (both new and used) or browse the services that their experienced technicians offer here.

This episode is sponsored by Kühlerz. Cows perform best on consistently cool days, and Kühlerz makes every day feel like a cool day. Learn more here.

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This week Chrissy Wozniak sits down with Gary Steuart, founder of Steuart Laboratories. For over 35 years, Steuart's has helped animals (and people!) with natural & herbal creams and ointments.

Steuart Laboratories' products promote healthier skin, tissue repair and healing and relief from joint, muscle, and nerve pain. Our products are formulated with organic and natural ingredients (unless stated on bottle) and are manufactured and shipped in Mabel, Minnesota.

The company's first product, Miracle Weed, was developed in 1982 using the healing herb, comfrey. Today, comfrey is still a key ingredient, often in combination with other proven herbs, plant-extracts and natural oils. Steuart Laboratories' products are often effective in treating tough skin problems that don't respond to other remedies, including: slow-healing sores, dry or cracked skin, and rashes.

Learn more and browse their full range of natural products here.

This episode is sponsored by Energrow. Energrow provides the most reliable farm-scale oilseed pressing and filtration systems built for your farm, crushing your feed costs. Learn more here.

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This week, Chrissy Wozniak sits down with Tyler Bramble, Portfolio Growth Lead at Cainthus.

Cainthus is a leading Computer Vision and AI company offering technology that is transformational for animals, farmers and the production of food.

The Cainthus technology - used for both ALUS Nutrition and ALUS Behavior - relies on a smart camera system that monitors animal behavior as well as operations on the farm, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Cainthus has developed state-of-the-art artificial intelligence that automatically turns visual inputs from cameras into real-time insights. These insights are displayed daily on any device available on the farm - phone, tablet or PC.

The information delivered is reliable and non-biased. This technology is easily scalable, it doesn’t require any hardware on the cows and unlike other technologies, very little maintenance is needed.

To learn more, visit the Cainthus website here.

This episode is sponsored by Morning Ag Clips, America’s #1 Daily Ag News Source.

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Today Chrissy Wozniak sits down with Sam Guererri, the South East Sales Manager of revolutionary agtech company PlantTape.

Based in California’s Salinas Valley, PlantTape brings precision agriculture to growers of vegetables, tomatoes, and hemp. We believe in empowering farmers around the world to increase crop yield and lower costs. The entire PlantTape process is built around our namesake innovation: a biodegradable tape that holds seeds and seedlings. The tape facilitates ease of sowing, efficient nursery operations, and automated transplanting.

PlantTape’s automated transplanter is easy to use and designed by farmers, for farmers. It is built to withstand the elements, while giving growers the reliability and precision they need. Where other automated transplanters rely on complex computer systems, actuators, and sensors, the PlantTape 3-point automated transplanter is 100% mechanical. It is easy to learn and easy to use.

Line-to-line spacing can be altered in the field to allow for many different bed configurations. Growers can plant fields with different bed configurations on the same day with some mechanical adjustments. Plant-to-plant spacing can be altered on the fly. Additionally, the PlantTape transplanter is crop-agnostic, meaning it will pull whatever plant species is in the nursery trays and put it into the ground.

To learn more about this incredible company, go to planttape.com.

This episode is sponsored by Energrow. Energrow provides the most reliable farm-scale oilseed pressing and filtration systems built for your farm, crushing your feed costs. Learn more here.

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New partnership will offer on-demand feed testing and in-field decision-making capabilities.

Si-Ware Systems Inc., creator of NeoSpectra material analysis solutions built on single-chip FT-NIR spectrometers, today announced a partnership with Dairyland Laboratories, Inc., a leading agricultural feed and forage testing laboratory with customers across the U.S. and in over 20 countries. The partnership will utilize the power of Si-Ware’s NeoSpectra technology and Dairyland’s feed testing expertise, enabling on-demand results, quicker decisions, and improved feed quality assurance.  

The partnership marks an exciting era in agriculture technology and in-field analysis. Dairyland’s feed testing and NIR expertise, paired with NeoSpectra Scanners, will allow users to capture and review feed composition on-demand to empower in-field decision-making and variation control. Customers can accurately analyze moisture in real time, detect trends and changes in quality, and screen quality of incoming ingredients. The in-field solution enables users to analyze more samples in less time, adjust to feed changes quickly, and optimize harvest timing. 

Dairyland’s NIR support and data integrations will be made available on Si-Ware’s NeoSpectra LabStore via the Dairyland Feed Analysis app. The NeoSpectra LabStore is a secure place to discover and download test models that are developed by FT-NIR technology experts such as laboratories, researchers, universities, and companies. NeoSpectra portable analyzer users access the LabStore to download the models they need to perform in-field analysis in industries such as agriculture, food, life sciences, and others. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Dairyland Laboratories to launch new dairy feed testing models on the NeoSpectra LabStore,” said Youssri Helmy, CEO of Si-Ware Systems. “At Si-Ware, our vision is to deliver on-demand, accurate analysis anywhere by empowering laboratories and experts with the technology to deliver their models to users at the point of need. Our work with Dairyland will help deliver on this vision and will provide instant feed analysis insights for farmers, laboratories, ingredient suppliers, feed mills, dairy consultants, and more.” 

The Dairyland and Si-Ware partnership seeks to address the in-field burdens of feed variation while maximizing feed nutrient content and animal productivity for the hundreds of thousands of dairy farms and feed mills globally. 

“This is a ground-breaking partnership not only for Dairyland, but also for our customers,” said Kyle Taysom, CEO at Dairyland Laboratories, Inc. “Dairyland is excited to partner closely with Si-Ware to bring this technology to the field. This new agreement extends our testing capabilities to farms and feed mills and enables decision-making that was previously unfeasible.” 

The Dairyland partnership, which was announced on the first day of the 2021 World Dairy Expo, is Si-Ware’s first lab partner in the U.S. 

About Si-Ware Systems™   
Si-Ware’s NeoSpectra all-in-one, universal material analysis solution platform, built on a family of single-chip FT-NIR spectrometers, enables businesses to bring the lab to the field and makes the concept of analyzing anywhere with high return on investment a reality.  For more information, visit Si-Ware.com 

About Dairyland Laboratories, Inc. 
Dairyland Laboratories is an independent agricultural laboratory providing analysis of feed, forage, soil, water, manure, molds and mycotoxins. Established in 1958, Dairyland Labs has grown to become a primary supplier of agriculture analysis with customers in the world's primary dairy markets. For more information call Dairyland Laboratories, Inc. at 608-323-2123 or visit www.dairylandlabs.com.

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Last week the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) welcomed the introduction of the Cattle Contract Library Act, led by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Tanner Beymer of the NCBA sat down to talk to Chrissy Wozniak about the bill. 

This bipartisan bill would establish a cattle contract library within USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS), equipping cattle producers with the market data they need to make informed business decisions and exert greater leverage in negotiations with major meatpackers. 

The cattle contract library is widely supported by industry groups and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and the introduction of this legislation comes after more than a year of NCBA pushing for the creation of the library. 

"After more than a year of upheaval, facing everything from extreme drought to supply chain disruptions, many cattle producers have been backed against a wall. We need to act urgently to provide them with relief," said NCBA President Jerry Bohn. "There is no single, silver bullet solution to the wide variety of needs among our diverse membership, but lawmakers can start by focusing on viable solutions that have broad-base support across the industry. The cattle contract library is one such solution, and it will help our producers command more leverage in negotiations with the packers. We appreciate the work of Congressman Johnson and Congressman Cuellar to move the ball forward on this urgent issue." 

Earlier this month, NCBA Vice President and South Dakota rancher Todd Wilkinson testified before the House Agriculture Committee and underscored the need for greater transparency in cattle markets. One of the solutions he advocated for was the creation of the cattle contract library, as well as full reauthorization of Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR). 

Background: NCBA has long advocated for increased transparency in the cattle and beef supply chain. 

In August 2021, NCBA succeeded in pushing USDA to make more market data publicly available. The agency began publishing a new daily report on the foundational prices used in cattle market formulas, grids, and contracts, and a new weekly report on the volume of cattle purchased at each different level of pricing.

In June 2021, NCBA led a letter with the support of more than 36 state affiliate groups urging Congress to act on the reauthorization of LMR. LMR is the legislative mandate that requires large meat processors to regularly report information on their transactions, such as the price they pay for livestock and the volume of purchases. 

In May 2021, NCBA met with American Farm Bureau Federation, Livestock Marketing Association, National Farmers Union, R-CALF and U.S. Cattlemen's Association to discuss urgent concerns and the need for a cattle contract library was one of three priorities agreed upon by these disparate groups. 

The introduction of the Cattle Contract Library Act follows months of NCBA engagement to ensure Members of Congress understand the most urgent needs facing cattle producers, the complex cattle market conditions influencing these outcomes, and the risks of adopting one-size-fits-all policy solutions that may hurt producers' bottom line.

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Today Roger Olson brings his experience to the table as we focus on the health and wellbeing of dairy cows. Roger is the dairy account manager at Zinpro, and is former owner and manager of a 1,200-cow dairy and inventor of Shredlage – a corn silage processing technology that he sold to CLAAS. His experience with Dr. Don Hoglund’s training methods have also helped develop his well-rounded philosophy of cattle management.

Zinpro offers a full range of products, services and expertise to ensure every animal gets everything they need to maximize wellbeing and productivity. Zinpro partners with customers to advance the health and performance of their animals with the best, most researched performance trace minerals — coupled with comprehensive tools, solutions and resources to maximize productivity and overall wellbeing.

To learn more, visit their website here: https://www.zinpro.com/

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