🐑 'Super Bowl' of livestock shows

Welcome to the Gravel Road - your weekly agri-news update. We're like the old-timey milkman delivering your weekly sustenance.

Here's what we have this week:

• 🐑 Stock Show

• 🌱 Carbon Farming

• 💸 Start-ups

• ⚖️ EPA

NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW

Self-dubbed as the "Super Bowl of Livestock Shows," the National Western Stock Show is happening Jan. 7-22. Located in Denver, this year marks the 117th anniversary and only twice in its history has it been canceled: 1922 (an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease) and 2021 (The 'Rona).

Livestock: 1906 was the first year the Stock Show was held. This first year of the National Western boasted 351 total entries of cattle, sheep, and hogs. Today, more than 12,000 entries pass through the gates each year during the 16 days of livestock shows. No longer can attendees only expect to see the main three species (including minature Zebu)... there are exhibitions for llamas, alpacas, poultry (cancelled this year due to bird flu), and stock dogs as well.

Auction: One of the main highlights of the two+ weeks of rodeos, horse shows, and livestock shows is the Auction of Junior Livestock Champions. Only 96 of the thousands of market animals shown qualify for this exclusive sale. Oh, and exhibitors must be between the ages of 9-18 to participate. 90% of the sale proceeds go directly to the exhibitor and 10% goes to fund the National Western Scholarship Trust to provide scholarships to ag students.

Records were broken in 2022 with total auction sales of $1,189,500, more than $110K higher than 2020's record. Here are the tops from last year:

Grand Champion Market Steer exhibited by Rhylee Rodgers. Bought by Ames Construction Company for $160,000

Grand Champion Market Lamb exhibited by Colt Randall. Bought by Wagner Equipment Co. for $42,000

Grand Champion Market Swine exhibited by Cole Philips - bought by Occidental Petroleum for $60,000

Grand Champion Market Goat exhibited by Sayde Allen - bought by Babson Farms for $44,000

Economic impact: The stock show brings in nearly 700K visitors on average, and boasted as many as 726,972 guests for the 100th anniversary in 2006. All these strangers to town bring with them pockets-full of money. The annual impact is estimated at $115M ($69M coming from non-local sources), so stock is big-business to the Mile High City. With a 2023 budget of $1.66B, Denver can use every bit of the expected $6M of state and local tax revenues from the National Western.

Growth: The National Western Center is a construction project of more than 2.2M square feet of indoor and outdoor space designed to host labs, farmers markets, conferences, festivals, and more. Included with this campaign is the expansion of the Legacy Building, Livestock Center, The Yards, and the Equestrian Center.

If you're heading to Denver this year, use these links to help you out:

• Here's the Livestock Schedule

• Here's the Map

'Buster' is not impressed with my writing...

CARBON FARMING

Brace yourself for what you're about to read:

"Climate Change" 

Those two buzzwords elicit an emotional reaction from most anyone who hears them, rivaled only by "COVID Vaccine." 

So why would we want to get you riled up regardless of which side of the fence you're on?

To draw attention to a growing trend within agriculture... Carbon Farming.

What is it? Carbon farming, sometimes referred to as "regenerative agriculture," is a framework that implements practices on farms and ranches which are designed to improve the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in plant material.

Implementation of carbon farming methods are intended to "improve soil health and sequester carbon while increasing soil water holding capacity, hydrological function, biodiversity, and resilience." (Gravel Road translation: 'make your dirt better') The NRCS published a list of methods. Here are just a few:

• No-till planting

• Compost application to rangelands

• Interseeding covercrops

• Crop rotation

• Field borders

• Prescribed grazing

• Windbreak establishment

How can farmers profit? We can all agree farmers and ranchers are the best stewards of the land; always have been, always will be. However, there are 332 million people in the US (all of whom eat food) and only 1.3% of them make a living in agriculture. That's a huge percentage of the population who rely on marketing 'propaganda'.

Producers can use Carbon Farming marketing to value-add their products. Specifically, explaining your sustainable growing processes will greatly boost your direct-to-consumer marketed products. And, there are new supply chain initiatives designed to specifically benefit regenerative agriculture producers. Also, the growing trend for corporations to source sustainable products will lead to higher premiums on marketed goods.

Carbon Credits: Lastly, a way for producers to cash in on their Carbon Farming initiatives, is through the voluntary agricultural carbon credit market. These markets are complex and intimidating to most producers, as 97% of farmers surveyed said they aren't ready to participate in carbon markets. Although, 93% of those surveyed farmers were aware that the carbon markets exist.

With sizable up-front intestments and more integrated data software solutions needed, these challenges need to be addressed before participation in the carbon markets becomes more mainstream. One company helping producers through the process is Indigo Ag. They are rolling up partners to help with finance, inputs, data management, and more. Indigo and their collaborator companies have helped farmers begin their carbon farming journeys on over 1.8 million acres to date. Indigo is looking to expand their carbon credit buyer network (think JP Morgan Chase, Ralph Lauren, The North Face, etc) and have pre-sold credits for as high as $40/credit in 2022.

To recap: Carbon Farming is a growing trend that producers should be aware of as a potential way to add another revenue stream to their operations.

THIS WEEK'S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

I don't know about you, but I need professional help to just change my windshield wipers... I can't imagine setting up my new Precision Planting technology by myself.

That's why you ought to contact Alan, Eric, or Scott at Breakthrough Ag to help you out. They have years of experience, the right connections and tools, and all the resources to get your planting equipment ready for spring.

It may be a ❄️Winter Wonderland❄️ out right now, but spring is just around the corner. Make 2023 the year you actually plan ahead so you're ready to turn wheels when the ground is.

What else do they carry?

• Precision Planting Premier Dealer

• Copperhead Ag

• Dekalb/Asgrow Seed

• Peterson Farm Seed

• Croplan

• NK

• Nachurs Starter Fertilizer

*Tell them The Gravel Road sent you and ask for the 'good guy' discount... no guarantees, but maybe they'll cut you a deal!

SEEDS

• 🌵 Drought: "Odds favor above normal precipitation" for the next two weeks. We're keeping an eye out with this interactive map to see if current drought conditions improve.

• 💸 Start-up: Although VC investments into Agtech start-ups are slowing, capital is still at historic amounts. Consulting firm McKinsey encourages Agtech and Foodtech startups to 1) stay bold, 2) be fast, and 3) stay focused.

• ⚖️ Policy: The EPA issued a new rule before year's end which defines the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. Because this rule revises the current definition of WOTUS, many experts expect legal challenges from farmers to the rule. Also, the Supreme Court's ruling is still forthcoming, so we'll have to wait and see how the legal clashes shake out.

• 🥛 Got Milk? Here's a handy list of 23 reasons to keep dairy in your diet during 2023. Be sure to share this with all your vegan friends...

• 🤠 Ranch-Tech: Enriched Ag, a tech start-up using data to improve rancher's decision making and boost revenue, closed out a $9M seed funding round. Their leadership combines backgrounds in Google, Apple, and Yahoo with ranch and grazing management professionals to "unlock the environmental and socio-economic value of grazing lands."

MEME OF THE WEEK

When your spouse spent the weekend at the Stock Show...

That's a wrap, folks.

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

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Click below to get new issues directly in your inbox.

Missed an issue? See previous editions here.

INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING ON THE GRAVEL ROAD?

Spots are filling up for 2023. Send us an email ([email protected]) with a bit about your company and we will get back to you lickety-split.