DTN Staff
OMAHA (DTN) -- From pandemic-related supply-chain issues to destructive storms, cybersecurity breaches and a change of leadership in the White House, 2021 had more than its fair share of big stories.
But those weren't the only things that happened last year. Beyond the major events that dominated the headlines last year were numerous other stories that, though they may not have attracted as much attention, had a significant impact on the farming and ranching community and rural America.
In recognition of the importance of these stories to agriculture, we're presenting some of them here in what we call DTN's "Best of the Rest" list, in no particular order:
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African Swine Fever Arrives in Western Hemisphere
By Todd Neeley
DTN Staff Reporter
African swine fever was confirmed in the Western Hemisphere for the first time in decades in 2021.
The disease then reportedly spread to Haiti as World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, confirmed an outbreak in the very-most southern city of Anse-a-Pitre, bordering the Dominican Republic. The outbreak in Haiti was the first in the country since 1984.
As of this writing, the disease had not spread to the U.S. mainland. USDA's Animal Health Inspection Service announced a number of steps to prevent the spread including shutting off the flow of pork products from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands while the U.S. government set up a system to prevent the spread of the virus to the mainland U.S.
See more on that here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
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How Many Lives Does Dicamba Have?
By Emily Unglesbee
DTN Staff Reporter
Both biology and regulatory scrutiny threatened the future of dicamba use in agriculture in 2021.
Dicamba resistance in a problematic weed species called waterhemp was confirmed by scientists in two different states, Tennessee and Illinois, in the fall. Perhaps most concerning was that the Illinois population of waterhemp appeared to have a dangerous new kind of weed resistance called metabolic resistance, wherein weeds evolve to rapidly metabolize herbicides, even ones they've never encountered before.
See more on that here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
The Biden EPA dealt another blow to dicamba-tolerant technology, by announcing that the agency was very concerned about another year of reported off-target dicamba damage in the Midwest and South, and demanding more transparency from the companies that sell over-the-top dicamba herbicides.
See that story here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Then, in the days before Christmas, EPA published a 73-page report detailing nearly 3,500 reported incidents of alleged dicamba injury and concluding that the agency's 2020 dicamba label changes had failed to diminish the level of off-target dicamba movement. Although EPA says it is unable to enact nation-wide label changes to dicamba herbicides XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium by the 2022 spray season, it promised to help states further restrict use if necessary. In the meantime, environmental groups who are suing EPA over the 2020 dicamba registration are certain to seize upon the report, as support in their pending lawsuit demanding a federal court vacate the three dicamba herbicides' registrations, just as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did in June 2020.
See more on the EPA's report and its implications here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
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A Good Year to Be a Pest: Weeds, Disease and Insects Thrive in 2021
By Pamela Smith
DTN/Progressive Farmer Crops Technology Editor
Agronomic pests never rest, but sometimes they do launch sneak attacks. Fall armyworm took the prize for the surprise pest of 2021. The voracious pest munched through pastures, alfalfa, rice, soybean and grain sorghum fields in near epidemic proportions across wide swaths of the country. They also were found to be circumventing control measures.
Some entomologists called it the worst fall armyworm outbreak in nearly five decades.
Unfortunately, it may happen more frequently according to Auburn University Extension Entomologist Katelyn Kesheimer.
"We had the perfect storm of events that led to this snowballing effect that let them take over the entire country," Kesheimer said. "But if you look at what those storm components were -- a warm winter, lots of tropical storm systems and potential spray failures -- those are going to become more common moving forward and chances are that they will line up again before the next 50 years. We need to be prepared for that."
See more on that at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Meanwhile, waterhemp continued to show its ability to defeat herbicides. Scientists from both Tennessee and Illinois confirmed dicamba-resistant waterhemp in their respective states -- adding to a long list of herbicides that no longer adequately control the weed.
See more on that waterhemp story at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Palmer amaranth also continued to expand its footprint. Distribution maps place it in nearly every state, except a few areas in the extreme northeast and northwest. A survey by the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) pegged Palmer amaranth as the hardest-to-control weed in grass crops.
See more on that survey at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Diseases were also in the equation this year. Grabbing headlines was tar spot. Fueled by plentiful inoculum from previous years' outbreaks, lots of early and midsummer rains and plenty of susceptible hybrids, tar spot in corn made it clear this yield-robbing disease is here to stay, said Michigan State University plant pathologist Martin Chilvers.
See more on tar spot at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
The sneakiest adversary goes to soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Despite being widely distributed and causing significant yield reductions, SCN often goes unnoticed in fields as yield losses are not always accompanied by visual symptoms. Most of the major soybean growing regions now battle the pest.
See more on SCN at: https://www.dtnpf.com/…
The good news is farmers who have long relied on SCN resistance called PI 88788 have some alternative options. More seed companies are integrating Peking resistance into their lineups and PI 89772 varieties from Syngenta became available on limited acres in 2021. Even better, the yield penalty once associated with newer alternatives has disappeared, according to Iowa State University research.
Learn more about the varieties at: https://www.dtnpf.com/…
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White Gold: Cotton Farmers Enjoy Record Prices
By Matthew Wilde
Progressive Farmer Crops Editor
The 2021 cotton crop could be one for the record books. Not because of production, though it was good, but its value.
USDA projects the 2021-22 season-average farm price for upland cotton at a record 90 cents per pound. That's nearly 2% above the previous all-time high in 2011-12.
DTN posted on Jan. 1 that spot cotton prices escalated a "remarkable" 63% in 2021.
Find out why and if the high prices will last in 2022 in the story at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
The COVID-19 pandemic spurred online shopping for clothes, especially leisure wear that is cotton rich. In turn, the sparked demand for cotton and lowered inventories contributed to the meteoric rise in cotton prices in 2021, according to cotton specialists. March cotton futures, which flirted with $1.20 per pound, have been consistently above $1 per pound since mid-October. DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman believes cotton demand and prices will remain strong through winter and possibly longer.
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Mormon Church Group Outbids Bill Gates on Easterday Farm, Ranch Assets
By Todd Neeley
A company connected to the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints was the winning bidder for the assets of southeast Washington rancher Cody Easterday last summer, according to court documents filed in federal bankruptcy court. The second-highest bidder was an investment company tied to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
In April 2021, the Mesa, Washington, rancher pleaded guilty to wire fraud for defrauding Tyson Foods and another unnamed company $244 million in costs for buying and feeding hundreds of thousands of cattle that didn't exist.
Farmland Reserve was awarded the winning bid of $209 million for the Easterday assets. Farmland Reserve is operated by the Mormon Church. The second-highest bid was for $208 million from 100C LLC, an investment company owned by Bill Gates.
See more on the bids at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
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Autonomy Becomes More Mainstream in Production Agriculture
By Matthew Wilde
Advancements in autonomous agriculture continued in 2021 as companies strive to produce equipment and technology that will reduce the need of farm equipment operators behind the wheel. DTN reported extensively reported about the technology that is currently in use or development.
Sabanto, a Chicago-based robotic farming company, installed its autonomous technology in a farmer's tractor for the first time in 2021. The company, which hires out its fleet of autonomous Kubota tractors for custom farming operations such as planting and tillage, will start scaling up installations of its technology in farmer-owned tractors in 2022.
Read the latest story at: https://www.dtnpf.com/…. Also, watch of video of autonomous tillage with a farmer-owned tractor at https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Monarch Tractor, maker of the world's first fully electric, driver-optional tractor, raised more than $60 million in funding in 2021 to continue to scale up its sales and services functions. CNH Industrial and Trimble Ventures are among the investors in the company. The infusion of funds will allow Monarch to increase its production facilities by three times.
Read more at https://www.dtnpf.com/….
CNH Industrial believes autonomy is an important part of agriculture's future and it took a big step to ensure it will be a major player. CNH purchased Raven Industries in 2021 to broaden its offerings in automated field work, logistics and data management. Raven offers autonomous products through two, branded product lines. OMNiPOWER is a self-propelled, driverless power platform that gives owners the ability to incorporate with the unit various farming implements farm implements like sprayers and spreaders. OMNiDRIVE allows farmers to monitor and operate a driverless tractor and grain cart from the cab of a harvester. The autonomous system gives the combine operator an ability to offload grain on-the-go and then return the autonomous tractor to a predetermined unloading area.
Find out more at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
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Appeals Court Throws Out Year-Round E15 Rule
By Todd Neeley
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an EPA rule that allowed for year-round E15 sales, leaving ethanol industry officials stunned.
See more on the court decision at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
The so-called Reid-vapor pressure waiver rule that opened the door to E10 sales originally does not apply to E15 even though the Trump administration declared the two blends to be substantially similar fuels. The Reid vapor pressure waiver is a measure of the volatility of gasoline.
At the end of 2021, the ethanol industry was waiting to hear if the Supreme Court would consider a petition by Growth Energy to review the case.
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Farmland Values Eclipse Records as Sellers Turn to Auctions
By DTN Staff
Eye-popping farmland values grabbed headlines again in 2021.
A Tipton County, Indiana, sale, for example, brought $14,467 per acre for 615 acres on Aug. 30. A 75.7-acre tract of farmland in rural Grundy County, Iowa, topped the charts at $22,600 per acre at an auction on Aug. 27. This exceeded the previous Iowa cropland record of a Sioux County farm in 2012 at $22,300 per acre.
See more about land values at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Farm profits, low interest rates, a strong economy, inflation fears, potential tax changes and generational transfers were all responsible for pushing farmland prices higher.
The skyrocketing farmland prices also kept land auctioneers busier they had ever been last year. In mid-November, Hertz Real Estate Services told DTN it had 30 land auctions scheduled for the 20 business days in November. People's Company, based in Clive, Iowa, also reported a 50% to 60% increase over 2020 in the total number of farm auctions it conducts in nine states. And Farmers National Company, which covers eight states from Indiana to Nebraska and from North Dakota to Kansas, had twice as many land auctions booked compared to 2020. See the story on high values at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Farmers and ranchers weren't the only ones buying land, though. Institutional investors and foreign countries alike also increasingly saw U.S. farmland as a sound investment. While foreign investors are reported to own less than 3% of America's food-producing soil, according to USDA statistics from 2019, concerns continued to mount in 2021 about who is actually buying up acres during this most recent "land rush" across agriculture.
Find out more about the buyers at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
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Biden Rolls Back Trump ESA Reforms
By Todd Neeley
In October 2021, the Biden administration released a proposal to roll back a number of Trump administration reforms to the Endangered Species Act.
See the proposal at: https://www.dtnpf.com/….
The Trump administration finalized three rules. Most notably, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed its blanket rule in the ESA that automatically granted the same protections for threatened species that are available for endangered species.
Farmers and ranchers across the country face challenges in managing their land when critical habitats are present.
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Editor's Note:
To watch DTN Editor-in-Chief Greg Horstmeier talk about the top 10 ag news stories of the year, see the Reporter's Notebook video from Dec. 31 at https://www.dtnpf.com/….
You can find No. 10 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/….
You can find No. 9 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 8 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 7 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 6 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 5 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 4 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 3 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 2 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
You can find No. 1 in DTN's top 10 list at https://www.dtnpf.com/….
What did you think was the top ag news story of 2021? You can email DTN at talk@dtn.com or respond on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/….
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