No-till farming and conservation agriculture will receive nearly $23 billion in additional U.S. government funding over the next 5 years, a “once-in-a-lifetime investment into conservation,” according to USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Terry Cosby. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed Aug. 16, 2022, designates $20 billion for the NRCS. Another $2.8 billion will come from the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, a USDA program that finances pilot projects supporting the production and marketing of “climate-smart” commodities.
With almost $23 billion coming its way, the NCRS annual budget will double to $8.5 million, according to a Feb. 6 report from Trust In Food.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime investment into conservation,” NRCS Chief Terry Cosby told attendees during a presentation at the 2023 Trust In Food Symposium in February.
The funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will be broken up into the following programs:
$8.45 billion for Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
$4.95 billion for Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
$3.25 billion for Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
$1.4 billion for Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP)
$1 billion for Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA)
$300 million for evaluation
Trust in Food reports the NRCS receives more than 100,000 applications each year for its programs, but it typically has funding for only 25% of those requests. This has created a backlog and frustration among farmers — two issues the NRCS hopes to resolve with the new funding.
“ To get (farmers) engaged, it funded a $50 million outreach program to get new producers through the door,” the Trust in Food report says. “Cosby calls this two-fold dynamic ‘unmet demand that includes a backlog’ of interested producers. He’s looking for support from outside the agency to help producers understand how funding is available and who qualifies.”
Cosby says that support will come in the form of 118 agreements signed by partners who will help with outreach. NRCS will also have to hire 3,000-4,000 people in the next 2 years to deliver the funding and provide technical assistance producers need to be successful.
“We’re going to need to grow it and maintain the science base in the work we do,” Cosby says. “Farmers trust us, but with that comes an obligation to make sure that you have well-trained employees who are going to be out there on the farms making the best scientific recommendations to make sure we get this conservation on the ground.”
(NewsDakota.com/NAFB) – The first of seven satellites for agriculture launched into space Tuesday by SpaceX. Built by Dragonfly Aerospace, the satellite is part of the Transporter-6 mission for customer EOS Data Analytics.
The remaining six satellites of the constellation will be deployed over the next three years. The EOS Data Analytics project is the world’s first agriculture-focused satellite constellation providing the industry with high-quality data to support efficient and sustainable practices. Images obtained from Dragonfly’s EOS SAT-1 will deliver information for harvest monitoring, application mapping, seasonal planning and assessments that analyze information such as soil moisture, yield prediction and biomass levels.
The data will support growers with reducing carbon dioxide emissions and help them to develop sustainable agricultural methods. The company says the information will have important environmental benefits for the planet and help prevent natural habitats from being diminished for crop growth and maintain biodiversity.
Soybean fields are inspected as part of University of Wisconsin research trial into whether the weed killer dicamba drifted away from where it was sprayed in Arlington, Wisconsin, U.S., August 2, 2018. REUTERS/Tom Polansek/File Photo
CHICAGO, June 27 (Reuters) – U.S. farmers have cut back on using common weedkillers, hunted for substitutes to popular fungicides and changed planting plans over persistent shortages of agricultural chemicals that threaten to trim harvests.
Spraying smaller volumes of herbicides and turning to less-effective fungicides increase the risk for weeds and diseases to dent crop production at a time when global grain supplies are already tight because the Ukraine war is reducing the country’s exports.
Interviews with more than a dozen chemical dealers, manufacturers, farmers and weed specialists showed shortages disrupted U.S. growers’ production strategies and raised their costs.
Shawn Inman, owner of distributor Spinner Ag Incorporated in Zionsville, Indiana, said supplies are the tightest in his 24-year career.
“This is off the charts,” Inman said. “Everything was delayed, delayed, delayed.”
Shortages further reduce options for farmers battling weeds that developed resistance to glyphosate, the key ingredient in the commonly used Roundup herbicide, after decades of overuse in the United States.
Prices for glyphosate and glufosinate, another widely used herbicide sold under the brand Liberty, jumped more than 50% from last year, dealers said, padding profit at companies like Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE), BASF SE (BASFn.DE) and Corteva Inc (CTVA.N).
The U.S. Agriculture Department said it heard from farmers and food companies concerned about whether agribusinesses are hiking prices for goods like chemicals, seeds and fertilizer to boost profit, not simply because of supply and demand factors. The agency has launched an inquiry into competition in the sector, and some watchdog groups said it is moving too slowly.
Agrichemical companies blame the COVID-19 pandemic, transportation delays, a lack of workers and extreme weather for shortages. Fertilizer and some seeds are also in short supply globally. read more
SUPPLY CHAIN STALLED
More difficulties are on the horizon, as BASF, which formulates glufosinate, told Reuters the supply situation will not improve significantly next year.
“It’s going to take more time than what our customers, farmers and retailers would have thought,” said Scott Kay, vice president of U.S. crops for BASF.
Tennessee farmer Jason Birdsong said he abandoned plans to plant soybeans on 100 acres after waiting months to receive Liberty he ordered from Nutrien Ag Solutions. He ultimately received less than half his order for 125 gallons and planted corn on the land instead. Birdsong said he is better able to control weeds in corn than soybeans.
Read more at the link above~~
Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Matthew Lewis
Land matching lets our rural communities have a brighter future, by letting young farmers work the land.
Land matching keeps our family farms strong. It keeps our rural communities vibrant. It ensures that the American independent farmer is here to stay.
NEW FARMER/RANCHER BENEFITS
gain access to land
find help with financing
learn from experienced landowners
LANDOWNER BENEFITS
tax incentives and other financial benefits
ease transition into retirement
ensure the continuity of a farm’s operation and legacy
bring fresh energy and strong hands to work on the farm
EVERYBODY BENEFITS
small family farms continue a proud American tradition
rural communities thrive with new farm families
Land matching is a great way for new farmers to get started, for retiring farmers to make sure their operation will continue long into the future, and for rural communities to stay strong.
How do matching programs work?
All matching programs work a little differently, but the basics are the same:
Sign up: The program compiles lists of new farmers and of landowners who want to link.
Match time: Usually, the new farmer must contact a landowner.
Talk about it: Both parties get to know each other and decide whether/how to link.
Think before you link: Most application forms ask about participants’ assets, experience, and goals. Both landowners and beginners need to know what they want to get out of a linking relationship before they start trying to work it out with each other. This worksheet for beginners and this worksheet for landowners will help you describe what you’re looking for and what assets you bring to the discussion. Before you link, you should:
Know what you want and need
Be flexible where you can and firm on what you need
Most programs focus on specific states or regions, so new farmers can find matches in the area where they want to farm. Some matching programs work with farmers nationwide.
Looking for even more opportunities? Use your acquaintance network to build connections in the area you want to farm. Anyone—family, friends, business acquaintances, extension agents, real estate agents, postmasters, feed store staff, and more—can be your “in” to a farm transition opportunity. The more people you build relationships with and the more people know you’re looking for and seriously committed to a farming or ranching opportunity, the better your chance of being in the right place at the right time to access that opportunity.
Michigan State University C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture Jason Rowntree is examining the benefits and applicability of regenerative agriculture-based livestock systems.
Rowntree
Regenerative agriculture is a relatively new approach to livestock farming that emphasizes the reduction of farming inputs and restoring ecosystem services such as soil carbon sequestration and improved water cycling.
“These regenerative agriculture principles suggest that modern livestock systems can be redesigned to better capitalize on animals’ ecological niches as biological up-cyclers and may be necessary to fully regenerate some landscapes,” wrote Rowntree in a paper recently published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
“Regenerative agriculture is a newer movement in agriculture with the overarching premise of trying to improve land while simultaneously growing food – meaning its aim is improving the land, improving the ecosystem, and improving productivity with certain ecological boundaries.”
Rowntree worked with Quantis and General Mills, as well as White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, to conduct a whole-farm life cycle assessment from grazing land that was originally converted from degraded cropland. The team compared production outputs, greenhouse gas emissions, environmental footprints and soil health outcomes to a conventional, commodity production system of each respective species.
White Oaks Farms transitioned to regenerative agriculture practices in 1995. The 20-year study of the farm’s indicated considerably improvements in soil health and carbon sequestration in a transition from degraded cropland to perennial pasture.
The paper indicates benefits to a multi-species pasture rotation system that raises multiple types of livestock animals. Rowntree said in the context of this experiment, land use should also be considered.
“When comparing required land between the two systems for food production, (the regenerative techniques) required two-and-a-half times more land when compared to business as usual agriculture. Thus, while our model indicates that the farm studied can simultaneously produce protein while regenerating land, considerably greater land area is needed when compared to today’s agriculture,” he said.
Rowntree suggests these types of studies can add to the ongoing conversation around preserving farmland and protecting the environment, while producing food and remaining profitable.
“These complexities must be considered in the global debate of agricultural practice and land,” he said. “Do we throw this system out because it takes more land? No. Do we throw today’s agriculture out because it requires more energy? No. What we do is we try to blend the two and take some of these principles and put them into larger-scale agriculture to get better outcomes.”
Did you know, last year the U.S. spent $18.6B (20.5M tons) on fertilizer? Over 60 percent of that fertilizer was used on corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton.
Yet scientific literature states that over 50% of fertilizer is lost because it becomes tied in the soil, washes off, erodes, or becomes volatilized in the air. That loss equates to $9.3 B USD.
“The waste is outrageous. And the thing is, soil microbes improve fertilizer efficiency,” explains Dave Stark, P.hD., and President of Agriculture at Holganix, LLC. “Biologically healthy soils create greater corn yields per unit of nitrogen input.”
In this blog, we discuss how soil microbes improve fertilizer efficiency. Click the link to skip to the topic of your choosing, or continue scrolling to read the full report.
Higher Nitrogen Efficiency With Higher Microbial Populations
A meta-study from Nature Research Scientific Reports reviewed 230 published studies on how microbes interact with fertilizer. According to that study, only 36-42% of the current year’s applied nitrogen goes to the crop (corn, rice, and small grains).
In fact, soil organic nitrogen turnover (the nitrogen that is mineralized or cycled by microbes) contributes more than the nitrogen we apply to the crop.
And, since microbes increase the soil’s ability to mineralize or cycle nitrogen, the presence of high microbial populations leads to better nitrogen efficiency.
“Using a microbial and using farming techniques that foster beneficial microbial populations, increases your farm’s ability to use fertilizer efficiency and can reduce the need for fertilizer,” explains Dave.
“This is so critical to farming today. Fertilizer prices are high. Farmers need an edge to reduce costs and increase their crop productivity.”
What About Phosphorus And Potassium?
“The top six inches of soil is abundant in phosphorus and potassium, but extraordinarily little of that phosphorus and potassium is bioavailable,” states Dave. In other words, phosphorus and potassium become bound in the soil and the plant cannot access them.
Yet, while the plant cannot access these bound nutrients, soil microbes can! Microbes break down phosphorus, potassium, and other micronutrients and feed them back into the plant root.
This is just another way microbes increase fertilizer efficiency.
Accessing Nutrients Via Crop Residue Breakdown
In addition to solubilizing and mineralizing nutrients, microbes also make nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium available by breaking down crop residue. Crop residue is filled with valuable nutrients. As an example, corn stover holds about 17 lbs of nitrogen, 4 lbs of phosphorus, and 34 lbs of potassium per ton.
Having an abundant source of degrading soil microbes allows farmers to use no-till farming techniques to access these nutrients.
A Note On Diversity And Using Microbial Inoculants
Microbial inoculants are soil amendments containing microbial species. Most microbial inoculants contain just a handful of bacterial species, while others like, Holganix Bio 800+, contain a large diversity of soil microbe species including bacteria, fungi, and protists.
Choosing to use a microbial product that contains only a few species of plant growth-promoting bacteria or nutrient solubilizing bacteria might boost root mass or improve the availability of a single nutrient, such as phosphorus. However, products with just a few species of microbes, can’t do everything. Instead, they focus on a narrow piece of the puzzle. For example, a bacteria-only product won’t cycle nitrogen efficiently since bacteria require a lot of nitrogen to grow. Microbes that eat bacteria, namely fungi and protists, require much less nitrogen and cycle it back to the crop.
With Holganix Bio 800+, growers do not have to choose; over 800 species of bacteria, fungi and protists are present including a broad range of plant growth promoters and nutrient solubilizers. In fact, the microbes in Bio 800+ consume fertilizer and keep it in the root zone, all while cycling nutrients back to the plant so more nutrients go to the crop instead of being lost in the environment.
Holganix Bio 800+ has consistently given farmers a 2-10x ROI through increased crop yields and improved fertilizer efficiency. Bio 800+ is a valuable tool that allows growers to back off inputs knowing more of the inputs put down will actually feed the crop.
