This Week in Ag #36

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

#Harvest23 is in full swing. You probably have a sense of what farmers are currently doing. But what are farmers currently thinking about? Well, at this time of the year… A LOT!

Harvest logistics. Just as they do for planting, farmers prepare detailed plans for harvest. The two are carefully intertwined. Crop selection, varietal selection, field location and planting dates play a huge role in the “picking order” of what fields are harvested when. Field conditions also play a big role. Fields notorious for having wet holes could be moved up or down the picking order, based on current and expected weather conditions. You’ll want to get those fields out of the way if it’s currently dry, or delay them if they are currently wet. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #35

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

Last week I was a guest on the TopSoil Webinar series hosted by Mitchell Hora of Continuum Ag (you can check it out here). I mentioned how western growers seem further along in their regenerative agriculture journey. That’s largely driven by regional attitudes and the food companies, who have pledged to sell products grown using regen ag practices. This has motivated growers of crops such as potatoes, onions, apples, and blueberries to hasten their adoption. But in the Heartland, where commodity crops fill the landscape, these growers have lacked many of the market-driven economic incentives. Until now. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #33

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

In commodity crop production, we talk a lot about bushels per acre. Because that’s how farmers get paid. But what exactly does bushels per acre mean? A bushel is the unit of measure we use in the USA (other parts of the world use tons or metric tons) to calculate yield, verify shipments and set pricing standards for crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, rice and sorghum. There’s a good chance your grandparents had a bushel basket laying around their house, garage, or barn. If you were to fill that basket to the brim with corn, you’d have one bushel’s worth. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #23

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

Move over carbon credits, and make room for carbon intensity scores. That’s the sentiment of many in the ag industry. Launched with plenty of fanfare, and hailed by celebrities and politicians alike, carbon credits seemed to represent a modern-day gold rush. Yet we’re multiple years in, and adoption sits at about 1-3% of farmers. Why is that? For starters, farmers already employing the cultural practices required to qualify for carbon capture payments – no-till, cover crops, NUE, etc. – are ineligible to participate. Among those who are, lengthy contracts, significant investments in time and resources, and a lack of clarity serve as deterrents. Enter carbon intensity scores. [Read more…]

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