🐂 Feed & Top 10 Bulls

Agri-food outlook, world records, and top ten bulls

Author

Clint Fischer
January 25, 2023

Good Morning. Welcome to the Gravel Road - your weekly agri-news update. We've got you covered like hoar frost on a tree. (We'll check the rain guage in 6 months to see if the Farmer's Almanac is right...)

Here's what we have this week:

  • 🐟 Feed

  • 🐂 Bulls

  • 🥤 Pepsi?

  • 🏷️ Ear Tags

Agri-Food Outlook

When someone mentions science in agriculture, two things immediately pop into my brain: 1) the all-knowing Ron Burgandy, and 2) Alltech.

"Help[ing] farmers feed the world, raise healthy plants and animals, and protect the environment through nutrition and innovation" is Alltech's stated mission. (they also make a weird beer that's aged in bourbon barrels that people either love or hate... there's no in between) So, when they recently published their Agri-Food Outlook for 2023, we had to check it out. The 16 page .pdf is packed with knowledge, and here are some of the highlights.

Looking back to 2022, global feed production remained generally steady despite the economic and supply chain challenges, with aquaculture, broiler, layer, and pet food increasing and beef, dairy, and pig feed production decreasing.

Respondents to Alltech's survey touted technology, specifically to increase efficiency and improve sustainability, as the key growth area for the agri-food industry. Growing inflation, supply chain disruption, and animal diseases (anyone heard of the bird flu?) were the biggest challenges to the industry in 2022.

Looking forward to 2023, over half of those surveyed by Alltech were optimistic that global feed production will grow this year. The top 10 countries consume 64% of the world's feed with the US in the number two spot producing ~240 million tons. China took the top spot at ~260 million tons.

Overall, the agri-food industry seems to be maintaining production levels while placing an increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability, due in part to government and consumer pressures. Alltech's report dives deep into the broiler, pig, layer, dairy, beef, aquaculture, pet, and equine feed sectors. Check out all the details for yourself here.

"Many people believe the term “work/life balance” means an equal distribution of time, money, energy, and resources to all things all the time.

 

Actually, a healthy balance is putting the right amount of time, money, energy, and resources into the right things at the right time.

Here are 6 tips to help find the right balance for you and stick to it:

1. Be ok with saying “no”

2. Know where your feet are, and be there

3. Automate, delegate, eliminate

4. Control what you can control

5. There is no failing, only lessons learned

6. Remember your “why”

Kacee helps those in the agriculture industry level up, both personally and professionally. Click here to work with Kacee in 2023.

-Kacee Bohle (Follow on Twitter)

SEEDS

  • 🥤 Pepsi: Your most second favorite pop (soda) brand, PepsiCo, is partnering with AgMission initiative to invest up to $6M to producers in an effort to accelerate regenerative ag practices in crops. The awards will be given through a request for application (RFA) process with a maximum of $1.5M to each eligible producer. 

  • 🔵 Blue Tombstones: Here's a recent blog from Scott Irwin supplementing what you learned about Harvestore silos in Monday's history lesson.

  • 🌽 World Record: A farmer in North Carolina just broke the world record for dryland corn yield by growing 459.1 bu/acre. He planted AgVenture 9916 to break the previous record of 442.14 bushels.

  • 🐔 HPAI: How bad was the high path avian influenza (aka Bird Flu) for poultry growers in 2022? Here's a summary outlining the impact. Since the first case was seen in Feb '22, 57.82 million birds have been affected across all but 3 states. Unfortunately, the lull in cases hoped for by experts has not happened.

  • 🥛 Nutrition: Dairy is a great way to stretch your dollar and get the most bang for your buck from your grocery dollars; here's why.

  • 🏷️ E-Ear Tags: USDA is proposing a new rule to require cattle and bison electronic ID eartags to be 1) visible and 2) readable for the interstate movement of these critters. This new requirement would impact show and rodeo cattle, all female dairy cattle, and sexually intact bison and cattle over the age of 18 months. The USDA says this will allow better response to a potential disease oubreak among the approximately 11 million head of impacted livestock.

THIS WEEK'S TOP 10: BEST BUCKING BULLS

A seldom discussed niche in the cattle industry is raising world-class bucking bulls. These athletes are showcased all over the continent at rodeos and bull bashes ranging from your local, small town event to the biggest stage at the PBR. These bulls can have lengthy careers earning their owners hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Here's the top 10 bucking bulls based on their exceptional bucking ability, earnings, and longevity in the sport:

MEME OF THE WEEK

Whenever I meet one on the road, I always wonder if I could ride a motorcycle under it.

That's a wrap, folks.

THANK YOU to everyone who works off the beaten path to feed our nation.

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