Earth Day: “It’s Getting Better All the Time”

April 22, 2023 by

By Larry Cooper, MA, Cert/KM
Director, Sustainability and Knowledge Management
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

Celebrating Earth Day every April 22 is a great time to pause and reflect: How are we, today, treating the environment and the plants, animals, and people who live in it? What have we accomplished in the past year that makes our planet a better, more sustainable place to live and raise our families? What are our goals for future improvement?

In this blog, I provide a little historical perspective. How did Earth Day come to be? Why did it come about in 1970? What was life on the planet like before we started celebrating Earth Day? [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #10

April 18, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

Football may be a game of inches, but farming is a business of fractional inches. Take planting. Seed placement is paramount to the success of a crop. Farmers spend lots of time calculating the optimum rate and depth to plant their seeds based on genetics, soil type, soil conditions, weather, management practices and the desired output of their crop. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #9

April 11, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

Regenerative agriculture is not some passing fad. It’s now a movement. And it’s here to stay. How can we be sure? Just look at who’s driving it. Unlike well-intentioned predecessors, such as LISA (Low Input Sustainable Agriculture), regen ag has a financial benefactor: food companies. From lofty goals articulated by their CEOs to multi-million-dollar investments, consumer brands are rushing to attach their name to nature-based growing practices. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #8

April 4, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

Farmers love to grow corn. Only twice in modern history has corn not held the title of the most-grown crop in the USA. That was in 2018 and (if you count it) 1983, when the government’s PIK program artificially swayed planting practices. Spurred by record fertilizer prices, many projected soybeans would overtake corn last year in their annual acreage tug-of-war. But the allure of maize once again prevailed. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #7

March 28, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

For most farmers, April means the start of planting season. It’s a lot like opening day for a baseball team: heavy planning, great excitement and anticipation, lots of optimism and more than a few watch outs. So when exactly do farmers start planting? While they all have a plan, Mother Nature usually has the final say. There is an art and science to determining when to first drop the planter. Here are some key factors that determine the right time. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #6

March 20, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

Tomorrow is National Ag Day! Just like Bio Huma Netics, Inc., National Ag Day is enjoying its golden anniversary. The day is dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness for how our food, fiber (and energy) is produced. This year’s theme is “Growing a Climate for Tomorrow.” Agriculture is the USA’s largest employer, responsible for 23 million jobs – with about 2 million being actual farmers. While the number of farmers continues to decline, the job market in agriculture is booming. USDA expects to see almost 58,000 job openings per year for graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The strongest job market is expected for plant scientists, food scientists, sustainable biomaterials specialists, water resources scientists and engineers, precision agriculture specialists, and farm-animal veterinarians. While Ag Day is officially celebrated on March 21, agriculture is the one industry we celebrate every day, three times a day. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #5

March 8, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

It’s Commodity Classic week. This is one of the ag industry’s most important shows, and among my favorite times of the year. I’ll be in Orlando for the show, as will Lyndon Smith, Barrett Smith and Michael Gardner. #Classic23 is expected to draw around 5,000 farmers. But what makes this show exceptional is not the number of farmers who attend, it’s the type of farmers who attend. On average, farmer attendees operate 3,500 acres, earn $3.5 million in gross income and annually purchase $383,000 in fertilizer, $429,000 in seed and crop protection products and $718,000 in equipment. Moreover, these farmers are highly influential. Many serve on state and national boards for the corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum associations, elected by their peers to do so. This is also where state and national yield contest winners are recognized. Among attendees, 72% say Commodity Classic is the most important event they attend all year. And as is often the case, #Classic23 will include a speaking appearance by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. [Read more…]

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Nematodes: Friends, Foes, or Both?

March 7, 2023 by

By Mojtaba Zaifnejad, Ph.D.
Sr. Director of Field Research and Technical Services,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

During field visits, I often come across people who ask – what exactly are nematodes? More often than not, many of them associate nematodes with everything bad that happens to their crops. Is this true? We’ll get into that too, but first, what exactly are nematodes?

Nematodes are invertebrate worms that have been around for about a billion years. Some of them are beneficial, while others are parasitic or neutral. They are typically vermiform or “worm-shaped,” but some species swell to become sphere-shaped in later life stages and do not resemble typical worms. Nematodes may also vary in size—some are 26 feet long and one inch wide, and some are tiny (250 um long and 15 um wide). A shovel of soil can contain millions of nematodes. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #4

March 2, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

Wednesday was Tax Day. For farmers, it was. Unlike the rest of us, farmers (and fishermen) file taxes on March 1. Due to the complexities of farming, including depreciation schedules for machinery, most farmers hire a professional tax preparer to help file their Schedule F. These are often independent accountants. And most are long-standing, often multi-generational relationships. Some local Farm Credit and Farm Bureau offices also offer the service. The business of farming is rife with fluidity. Even though they are harvested in the summer or fall, many grain crops are stored and sold throughout the year, as are livestock, so income can be generated any time of the year. There are several options farmers can use to “adjust” their income with expenses. They can elect to prepay fertilizer or other crop inputs in December or purchase equipment. So, farmers frequently consult with their tax person throughout the year for advice on managing income and expenses and how this can impact taxes. [Read more…]

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This Week in Ag #3

February 2, 2023 by

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

There are lots of definitions floating around for regenerative agriculture. But the best and simplest I’ve heard was from Soilcraft. They define regen ag as adding “life.” When you think about it, the practices of no-till/low-till, crop rotation, cover crops, manure and biological products all help create, stimulate, prolong and accelerate more diverse life in the soil. Better soil life leads to better plant life (healthier crops), better human life (more nutritious food), better environmental life (less erosion, fewer toxins, less carbon emissions) and better financial life (reduced crop input costs, higher long-term yields, higher land values) for farmers. [Read more…]

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