Weekly Update from the Texas Seed Trade Association

Member News

We sincerely thank all our conference sponsors and attendees of The Texas Seed Trade Association Annual Membership & Policy Meeting

Additional news The Texas Seed Trade Association office has received several unsolicited memorials in honor of Rusty Smallwood. Thank you to those who have generously sent memorials. The executive committee and the board of directors have had some discussions about starting a memorial to Rusty via an endowed scholarship. This seems entirely appropriate as Rusty spearheaded our primary scholarship fundraiser, the corn-hole tournament, the last three years, and through his service as a dedicated association board member, Rusty was always a strong promoter of our scholarship activities.

If you would like to make a memorial scholarship contribution in Rusty's name please consider the TSTA Foundation, P.O. Box 1588, Goldthwaite, TX 76844.

The TSTA Board of Directors will hold a brief Zoom meeting tomorrow, Friday March 8, at 1:15PM. The meeting should conclude by 2:30PM.

PAT MILLER AND JORDAN GREGORY PROMOTED AT AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSOCIATION

ASTA release

American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) President & CEO Andy LaVigne is pleased to announce the promotion of two staff members. Pat Miller has been promoted to Senior Director, Special Projects; and Jordan Gregory has been promoted to Director, State Government Affairs.

"For nearly two decades, Pat Miller has been the seed industry's trusted advisor on state legislative affairs and treated seed issues. As he moves on to a new role within ASTA, we are grateful for his institutional and technical knowledge on critical issues impacting seed growers across the country," said LaVigne. "In the three years Jordan has been with ASTA, she has demonstrated her ability to quickly understand and address our members' needs. I am excited to have her on ASTA's government affairs team and encourage members to engage with her on state legislative issues during a key election year."

Pat has led ASTA's state government affairs since 2007, working with state and regional industry associations to monitor legislative initiatives across the 50 state capitals, and managing legislative, regulatory, and grassroots activities in response. He also directs ASTA's Seed Advocate program, informing and mobilizing seed industry activists.

Jordan joined ASTA in 2021 as Manager, Membership Engagement. She previously served as the Policy Specialist for the Texas Department of Agriculture, analyzing agricultural legislation on both the state and federal level, educating stakeholders and legislators to ensure relevant policy initiatives supported the industry's continued growth. In her new role, she will lead ASTA's state government affairs advocacy efforts, ensuring that the seed industry continues to have a strong voice across the country.

Will Europe's Farmer Protests Make Their Way To The U.S.?

By Steve Cubbage as appeared in The Scoop

In case you haven’t heard, farmers across Europe are fed up with their politicians and bureaucrats telling them how to farm. Such sentiment is nothing new. What is new is that the level of frustration has grown to the point where thousands of farmers are taking to the streets with their 15-ton tractors and marching to the capitals and major cities of European countries to give government officials a message: enough already.

For those of us old enough to remember, this moment has a bit of historical déjà vu to it. Flash back to the late 1970s when on this side of the pond, Washington, D.C. was stormed by thousands of farmers driving their tractors to protest critically low commodities prices, higher input costs, falling land values and rising interest rates. This was the warning shot signaling even more dire times to come as the farm crisis of the 1980s followed.

Now, nearly 45 years later, the flame still burns. But this time the fire is taking off in Europe. The ingredients for the discontent are much the same—low prices, costly inputs, high interest rates and so forth. However, the recipe has added an ingredient that has quickly become the biggest fly in the soup as far as European farmers are concerned.

Policy Pushback

The European Green Deal, approved in 2020, is a set of policy initiatives established by the European Commission. Its overarching aim is to make the European Union (EU) climate-neutral by 2050. For European farmers, one of the most controversial components of the deal was the goal to reduce chemical fertilizer and pesticide use by 50% by 2030. That, combined with plans to idle more farmland to increase land biodiversity and forests, along with very little funding directed to farmers to facilitate and harbor such a transition, set the stage for a revolt.

From Berlin and Paris to Brussels and Bucharest, European farmers have driven their tractors to the streets in protest in recent weeks. In Germany, an estimated 30,000 protestors and thousands of tractors brought Berlin’s city centre “to a standstill” in mid-January due to dissatisfaction with the government over the cutting of agricultural fuel subsidies. The protests in France erupted over plans to reduce agricultural fuel subsidies and the government’s push to halve pesticide use by the end of this decade.

The situation escalated to a point where farmers sprayed manure on a local government building in the city of Dijon. In Paris, hundreds of tractors blocked off major roads into the country’s capital in what was called the “siege of Paris” by many media outlets—one of which being BBC News.

By mid-February, protests had spread to other European countries including Italy, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Spain and even Romania and Lithuania. There seems to be no sign of this fire going out any time soon. All the politicians can hope for is that springtime and Mother Nature will draw the farmers and their tractors back to their fields to sow their spring crops and allow the political firestorm to cool off.

But hope is not a strategy, and European farmers know it. Now the question may be how much of the “green gains” are EU’s leaders willing to concede in order to save their political hide. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, now intends to scrap the plan to halve pesticide use. It also decided to exclude the agricultural sector from the strict timeline for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 90% before 2040. In Germany, farmers gained some concessions from the government on the issue of fuel subsidies but continue their demand for full reinstatement. On Feb. 1 in France, the main farmer unions called for an end to the protests after “securing promises of governmental assistance” on finance and regulatory issues. And in the EU’s home base, farmers “won their first concession from Brussels” after the commission proposed to delay rules for setting aside land for biodiversity.

Whether it is luck, strategy or irony on the part of the farmers, Europe’s reassessment of its climate policies comes as the bloc approaches EU parliamentary elections in June. The elections are expected to bring more far-right and fringe lawmakers into Parliament. Already, the continent’s political pundits are saying the next political cycle (2024-29) “will undoubtedly be less green to the point of putting into question the implementation of the green new deal.” Plus, the recent protests “are just a prelude of the further clashes to come.”

Too Many Sticks, Too Few Carrots

Will this fire jump the pond, and could we once again see tractors showing up on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.? Need I remind you, it is an election year here, too.

It is unfair and unwise to think farmers—no matter the continent where they live—are going to carry the costs of going green on their backs alone. At some point, all this needs to stop being an academic exercise and become an economic one. Start paying more to the farmer for carbon credits. Provide the tax incentives to finance the transition to “greener” farms. And stop with the rhetoric that burping cows are going to cause the next apocalypse.

Down on the farm in the U.S., the green agenda is at a crossroads. The question will be whether we will make the same mistakes Europe did and try to drive a green agenda too fast with a stick-heavy approach. The first litmus test may come sooner rather than later as Congress still has a new farm bill to pass. It is expected to be the “greenest” farm bill on record. This election year, given what’s happening in Europe, will our politicians pile on the carrots instead of giving us more sticks? Come November election time, we will see which road we are headed down.

Editor's Note: It's not just the "green" initiatives pushed by regulators but in the U.S. several large ag lenders have "voluntarily" joined the fracas. Some very large U.S. farming operations are now required by their lenders to demonstrate their carbon reduction plans as a stipulation for operating capital access. We cannot help but be reminded of a candidate for governor of a large southern state several years ago criticizing farm subsidies. She matter-of-fact stated "what do we need farmers for anyway; we have grocery stores." And that's really not funny.

News Bits

World-Grain.com reports:

BEIJING, CHINA -- Chinese scientists have developed higher yielding wheat for bread production, according to a research paper published in the latest issue of Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Using CRISPR-CAS9 genome editing and by identifying molecular mechanisms that affect grain development, researchers from several institutions in China boosted the length and weight of wheat, the paper said. China is the world's largest wheat producer.

The researchers identified that TabHLH489, a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, is associated with the grain length of the crop. The results showed that the knockout of TabHLH489 enhanced the length and weight of the grain, while overexpression had the opposite effect. The team also identified that the TaSnRK1α1-TabHLH489 regulatory module uses brassinosteroid and sugar signaling to control grain length.

After many years of research, the sequencing of the bread wheat genome, which is more than five times larger than the human genome and more complex, was completed in 2018. Wheat is the world's most widely grown food grain, with production and consumption forecast to reach nearly 800 million tonnes in the 2023-24 marketing year, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture.

To read entire report, Click Here

Editor's Note: You don't see many reports of scientific progress sourced fom China here in the Weekly Update. Once in a while, when corroborated by other sources, we'll report an advance claimed by the Chinese. This is one of those times.

by Tyler Leach, Dairy Herd Management

Earlier this month, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service released the latest Census of Agriculture data for 2022. When compared to the last census, which was conducted in 2017, the new data provides insights in on the direction the dairy industry is taking. And, without much surprise, herd consolidation was a major theme.

According to Lucas Fuess, Senior Dairy Analyst at Rabobank, there were 24,082 dairy operations with off-farm milk sales in 2022, down from the 39,303 dairy farms in 2017. In contrast, however, milk production increased by 5%, despite cow numbers remaining nearly identical at 9.4 million cows.

"Rabobank estimates that less than 25% of the U.S. milk supply (in 2022) was produced on farms with less than 500 head, but these operations accounted for more than 80% of dairy operations, at 20,631, offsetting their lower output with larger political clout," Fuess says.

While dairy operations with less than 500 cows make up 80% of the nation's dairy farms, the majority of cows within the nation's herd reside on farms with 1,000 animals or more.

To read the entire report click here.

Waters Advocacy Coalition news release

WASHINGTON - The Waters Advocacy Coalition commented today on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers listening sessions held this month to identify issues that may arise from the Waters of the United States Rule.

"The listening sessions held by the Corps and EPA on implementing the definition of WOTUS were disappointing, to say the least. Missing was any meaningful exchange of information or even answers to basic questions.

In order for stakeholders of all kinds to ensure effective protection of water quality, there must be a consistent, predictable and durable WOTUS definition. Together with commonsense permitting reform, we can lay a foundation to meet ambitious infrastructure and climate goals.

Our associations call on the agencies to engage with us and other stakeholders to provide the clarity needed both for compliance with the law and to effectively address these important national issues."

The Waters Advocacy Coalition includes nearly 50 organizations representing agriculture, energy, infrastructure, construction and real estate, manufacturing, mining, specialty pesticides, state departments of agriculture and many other job creators.

Editor's Note: Shocking, simply shocking, that the US EPA would not be responsive to the needs and concerns of our citizens. WOTUS is one of the worst things the federal government has ever done to rural communities.

Natural tech for ‘dimming’ genes brings transformative potential to agriculture - Texas A&M AgriLife researcher helps outline RNAi alternative to ‘knock out’ technology in thought piece

Texas A&M AgriLife release

Fast Facts:

— RNA interference, RNAi, is a natural gene-silencing technology that has been used in agriculture for years, but science has only recently begun exploring how it can be deliberately applied outside of the lab.

— RNAi acts as a dimmer switch for genes, controlling the expression level of a target gene in a plant instead of knocking out the gene completely.

— Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Keerti Rathore, Ph.D., are among the nation’s thought leaders in the use of RNAi, with Rathore first using the technology to create ultra-low gossypol cottonseed.

Keerti Rathore stands in his lab with ultra-low gossypol cotton plants that were created using RNA interference, a gene-silencing technique. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Beth Luedeker)

Until the 1992 advent of a tomato that could delay softening, the fruit was picked green to withstand shipping. The delayed-softening trait was an example of the gene-silencing technique RNA interference, RNAi, before the underlying mechanism was understood and the term was created.

Through the years, scientists across the globe have developed a greater understanding of RNAi. One team, through the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, CAST, has published a thought piece on RNAi’s transformative potential in modern agriculture. Its title is “RNA Interference in Agriculture: Methods, Applications and Governance.”

Keerti Rathore, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant biotechnologist in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, was one of six scientists who joined lead authors Ana María Vélez Arango, assistant professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Kenneth Narva, head of entomology, GreenLight Biosciences Inc. on the paper.

RNAi is a gene-silencing mechanism commonly found in plants, animals and fungi. It’s believed to serve as a natural defense against viruses and other cellular invaders. However, researchers have discovered many applications of RNAi for health and agriculture. The authors of the paper say RNAi has become a powerful crop protection and enhancement tool. The technique targets specific messenger RNA, or mRNA, in organisms and offers an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional pesticides. Its high specificity minimizes unintended effects on nontarget organisms, improving safety and efficacy.

RNAi technology explained

Rathore said RNAi technology has been used to benefit agricultural products for years. But the mechanisms underlying desirable traits produced by the previously unnamed technology needed to be better understood.

Papaya was the first crop showing virus resistance due to RNAi technology. As the papaya ringspot virus ravaged Hawaii’s papaya production in the late 90s, researchers at Cornell University sought to develop a resistant variety. Rathore said these researchers might not have known how it worked at the time, but they used RNAi to save Hawaii’s papaya industry. Additional RNAi research has been conducted using some commercially available virus-resistant squashes.

“People didn’t know about the underlying mechanism (RNAi), but they were already using it,” he said.

Rathore explained that RNAi silences a targeted gene in a plant or animal in a unique way. It differs from the better-known CRISPR, which completely targets and knocks out genes.

“CRISPR is like the on/off switch,” Rathore said. “The entire function of the gene is gone upon its knockout. In contrast, RNAi is like a dimmer switch used to adjust the lighting in the room, but, in this case, it dims the level of gene expression.”

Genes and their products have useful roles in the life of the plant or animal, he said. If that gene is totally knocked out, there might be unexpected or unwanted effects. “If you use RNAi to reduce gene expression level by 50-90%, you can avoid the detrimental effects of a total knockout. Also, you can target a gene for silencing with RNAi in a highly tissue-specific manner.”

RNAi use at Texas A&M AgriLife Research

Texas A&M and researchers like Rathore are among those doing research to improve the quality of food products. Rathore’s gossypol work is a prime example. Ultra-low gossypol cottonseed is the first product using RNAi that has come out of a university and gone through deregulation – approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Gossypol, which is a toxic compound, is present throughout the cotton plant and is valued for the protection it provides the plant from insects and some diseases, Rathore said. But because gossypol is also present in the seeds, they can’t be used as food or feed for nonruminant animals despite their high protein and oil content. Rathore said this is especially important because many cotton-producing countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

But, in 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light for ultra-low gossypol cottonseed to be used as human food and in animal feed based on Rathore’s work to remove the toxicity in the seed, something he had been working on for nearly 25 years.

“RNAi allows us to silence that gossypol gene in the seed, but when the seed grows into a plant, everything goes back to normal in the plant except for the next generation of seeds,” he said. “With CRISPR, you cannot achieve tissue specificity like you can with RNAi. The tissue-specific gene silencing allowed us to create this ultra-low gossypol cottonseed. If we totally eliminated it, insects would target that plant much more.”

Tissue-specific targeting of another gene using the RNAi has also allowed Australian scientists to increase the oleic level in cottonseed oil, making it almost as good as olive oil, Rathore said.

RNAi acceptance worldwide.

The authors of the paper, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, believe it can serve as a vital resource for regulatory agencies, policymakers and the public.

Rathore said interest continues to grow in RNAi technology to control pests and diseases. The paper outlines the current applications of RNAi in agriculture, provides regulatory perspectives on RNAi-based pesticides, and discusses the challenges and prospects of the technology in commercial agriculture.

“As people become more familiar with the technology, I’m optimistic that it will become more widely accepted,” he said. “There are more products already coming through. RNAi silencing has been used to reduce the level of caffeine in the coffee plant, where it is possible now to have coffee with a low level of caffeine without the need for chemical extraction. We want to educate people about this technology and the benefits it can deliver.”

Another area where RNAi technology is taking off and has hit markets is in the control of corn rootworms. Instead of creating the trait within the plant, researchers are testing a spray to control specific insect pests by inhibiting their growth and development.

“This technology is one tool that can help us maintain our productivity by lowering the cost of growing a crop and providing safety for humans and the environment by reducing the need for toxic chemicals,” Rathore said.

IOWA APPRAISER REPORTS INCREASING NUMBER OF "NO SALES" IN FARMLAND AUCTIONS

By Jim Rothermich, Iowa Appraisal

When looking at the auction results on the following pages, what sticks out to me the most is the number of "No Sales" at auction, which has increased significantly. There are nine "No Sales" this month. Looking back on February 2023, there were two.

This was trending upward last month with five "No Sales." I have been very optimistic about land market conditions, thinking we may have a single digit decrease, but I must acknowledge the facts.

The land market is adjusting, and in some areas, a double-digit decrease has occurred. I think this trend will continue as there are several factors pulling the market down. Sioux County keeps cranking out near-record prices, yielding a recent sale at $29,600/acre. Sioux County also produced the highest price on November 11, 2022, at $30,000/acre. Strong prices will show up in an adjusting market, but the overall trend currently shows market conditions are decreasing.

Here are some comments from my realtor/auctioneer friends this past month:

· Country elevators have upper $3 per bushel corn prices. Corn prices that begin with $3 do not work for anyone.

· Large supplies of grain are still sitting in grain bins on the farm, unpriced, which has caused potential buyers to "pause" in making large capital expenditures.

· All classes of land are feeling market conditions decrease.

· Some auctions struggle to get bids.

· Some sellers think market conditions are still at peak, which is causing "No Sales." Sellers need to be educated about the current market.

· Per the Iowa State 2024 Crop Budget, for corn following corn with 204 bushel per acre yield, breakeven is $5.11/bushel with $331/acre cash rent. For corn following soybeans, breakeven per bushel is $4.47. Input prices are so high that corn is not profitable and has either eliminated buyers or made them less aggressive. Corn is king in Iowa.

· The Federal Reserve is supposed to lower interest rates this year, but they haven't because it will cause inflation increases. Current interest rates are prohibitive for buying land.

To read the entire report click here.

Editor's Note: We had reported on the $30K per acre Sioux City land sale previously. It appears that might have set a standard likely to last for some time given the "no sales" that have occurred lately - almost unheard of in the last 20-30 years. The reason this may be important news is rather like the canary on the coal mine. When prime Iowa land isn't selling it's a pretty good sign farmers, who might otherwise like to farm that land, are not confident they can make a profit farming those acres. Remember a forecast we reprinted some weeks ago by a noted ag economist at University of Illinois stating that corn and soybean rotation farmers in his state would be generating cash flow in 2024 with a very bleak outlook for anything resembling profit.

Factoids

FARM BUREAU APPLAUDS SEC FOR SPARING FARMS FROM WALL STREET RULES

Source: American Farm Bureau Federation news release

WASHINGTON, - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) responded to American Farm Bureau Federation's (AFBF) concerns and affirmed that regulations intended for Wall Street should not extend to America's family farms. The SEC voted today on its final climate disclosure rule and removed the Scope 3 reporting requirement, which would have required public companies to report the greenhouse gas emissions of their supply chain.

Since the rule was first proposed two years ago, AFBF led the charge for the removal of Scope 3. Farm Bureau members sent almost 20,000 messages to the SEC and Capitol Hill, sharing their perspectives of how Scope 3 reporting would affect their farms.

"AFBF thanks SEC Chair Gary Gensler and his staff for their diligence in researching the unintended consequences of an overreaching Scope 3 requirement," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. "Farmers are committed to protecting the natural resources they've been entrusted with, and they continue to advance climate-smart agriculture, but they cannot afford to hire compliance officers just to handle SEC reporting requirements. This is especially true for small farms that would have likely been squeezed out of the supply chain.

"Over the past two years, our members have made their voices heard on this issue and several lawmakers and leaders really stepped up. We thank all those who stood with farmers, including Senators Jon Tester, Tammy Baldwin and Kyrsten Sinema, as well as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, all of whom listened to the concerns of America's farm families and recognized the impact Scope 3 would have had on rural America."

Farm Bureau recognizes the value of data collection and has actively contributed to responsible approaches to such efforts, including as a founding member of the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium and a leader in Field to Market. Both organizations work to empower farmers when it comes to on-farm data collection. The proposed Scope 3 requirement, however, would have imposed additional burdens on farmers, who provide almost every raw product that goes into the food supply chain. The onerous reporting requirements could have disqualified small, family-owned farms from doing business with public companies, putting those farms at risk of going out of business.

Now that the SEC has thoughtfully evaluated the issue, AFBF urges California to follow the SEC's lead by withdrawing its Scope 3 reporting requirement for any company doing business in the state. Farm Bureau, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others, recently challenged that state law and its national ramifications.

EPA CREATES NEW OFFICE TO STRENGTHEN ENGAGEMENT WITH AG AND RURAL COMMUNITIES

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) news release

LENEXA, KAN. -- Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is establishing a new office to expand engagement opportunities with agricultural and rural communities. The creation of the first-ever EPA Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs represents the Biden-Harris Administration's ongoing commitment to improving environmental stewardship and economic opportunity for America's farmers and ranchers, as well as strengthening the vitality of small towns and rural communities.

"Farmers and ranchers are crucial partners as we work together to deliver clean air, clear water, and climate solutions, all while playing the critical role of ensuring an abundant fiber, fuel and food supply," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "With the launch of this new office, we are ensuring agricultural and rural stakeholders will continue to have a seat at the table for many years to come."

Administrator Regan announced the creation of the new office alongside U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack while delivering remarks at the 2024 Commodity Classic in Houston, Texas, the largest farmer-led annual convention in the country. He is the first EPA Administrator in history to attend the seminal event.

The new Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will be led by Rod Snyder, who has served as Administrator Regan's Senior Advisor for Agriculture since October 2021. The new office will expand on the work of the Ag Advisor and increase coordination with a network of existing agriculture policy advisors located in all ten EPA regional offices across the country.

In close coordination with EPA's program offices and regions, the office will forge practical, science-based solutions that protect the environment while ensuring a vibrant and productive agricultural system. In support of the Biden-Harris Administration's Rural Partners Network, the new office will also collaborate with small, underserved towns and rural communities that are seeking federal investments in infrastructure upgrades and other community improvement opportunities.

Additionally, the new office will facilitate closer coordination with relevant federal and state partners such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and state departments of agriculture. The office will also house EPA's existing Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC). The Committee provides independent policy recommendations to Administrator Regan on a range of policies that impact agriculture and rural communities.

EPA will be launching an Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs website with more information.

Editor's Note: Just exactly what we need; more interference from the US EPA for the farm & ranch community! "Underserved" is a complete euphemism for "not yet entirely dependent on the federal government." Despite gleeful accolades from some national commodity associations we're confident there isn't anything positive about the EPA's new mission creep.

Texas Seed Trade Association | www.texasseedtrade.com

The articles, views, and opinions expressed in the Weekly Update do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Texas Seed Trade Association or the opinions of its members.