05/25/24 U.S. Farm File

From the studios of farm Journal broadcast This Is Us farm Report welcome to us Farm report this Memorial Day weekend I'm ty Morgan and here's what's in store over the next 60 Minutes a glimpse at the state of the dairy industry as pressures mount for Dairy Farmers it says is that for you know the Dairy Producers that are still.

Here you know it's a dog fight it is a street fight in terms of figuring out ways to stay relevant but some Farm are finding other ways to cash in including with beef on Dairy today we have some of the highest on Farm prices for cattle that we've seen in history day old beef calvs are you know selling for $900 to ,000 uh right off of the farm and it's.

This young farmer who will help toast to a tradition at the n500 this Memorial Day weekend plus a custombuilt tractor that rides in memory of the man who built he had a passion and that passion was preserving the the industrial history of our nation celebrating him and the work he did to keep a tradition.

Alive us farm Report presented by Pioneer what's next happens when the name on a cap matches the power of one's purpose Pioneer what's next happens here the house ad committee markup of the new $ 1.51 trillion Farm Bill started Thursday and didn't end until early Friday morning the markup passed with a vote of 33 to 21 and that was.

With the help of four Democrats voting yes the ACT secretary sharing his own thoughts ahead of that markup process Tom bsac telling reporters he has strong concerns about the ability to get the house Farm Bill proposal passed once it's out of committee he pointed to several areas that may sabotage completion of the measure this year.

Including the price tag the house bill has various Provisions that could raise the cost including higher reference prices Arc coverage will be increased from 86% to 90% minimum Arc payments will increase 2.5% and base Acres will be raised the secretary says this will have a budget impact of 30 billion that sets it up for failure The Proposal.

Being Advanced by the House of Representatives the Republican members of the egg committee it really is designed not to create a route to passage but I I think it's designed unfortunately for a route to impass to pay for the increased cost the house proposal makes a change to section five of the commodity Credit Corporation.

Vilsack says this will restrict its use for emergencies and natural disasters vilsack added that the house proposal will accelerate the consolidation of farms and instead advises use of the Senate ad committee proposal championed by chair Debbie stabenau which he says may provide the only hope of getting a bill done yet in.

2024 how s committee chairman GT Thompson releasing a statement after secretary Bill sack shared his thoughts saying quote it's clear from this 11th Hour push that the secretary is determined to use every penny of the borrowing Authority made available to him to circumvent Congress if left unchecked the committee is reasserting.

Congress's authority over the commodity Credit Corporation which will bring Reckless administrative spending under control and provides funding for key bipartisan priorities in the farm bill end quote well people are busy this holiday weekend cleaning up from powerful storms that hit the Midwest this week in Iowa.

The small city of Greenfield was hit by a massive tornado the impact area described as massive a local hospital among the buildings damaged the governor of Iowa issuing a disaster Proclamation for 15 counties and will apply for federal assistance I heard like a train and then insulation came from the basement and I knew it was hdden the.

Storms moved Eastward to Pummel parts of Illinois Wisconsin knocking out power of tens of thousands of customers in two states an update to Aven flu H5 in1 virus a Michigan Farm worker has now been diagnosed with Aven flu marking the second human case associated with the outbreak of h5n1 in dairy cattle Health officials say the patient had mild.

Symptoms they say they were in contact with cows and they also continue to say that the risk to the public remains low the first human case involving dairy cattle happened in late March that's when a farm worker in Texas was diagnosed USDA is reporting 52 Dairy herds in nine states are impacted by Aven flu and they continue to say beef.

And dairy products are safe that's it for the news well from severe weather to a heat wave we'll have a check of your forecast coming up next us farm Report weather is brought to you by H&S manufacturing with five models ranging from 1300 to the large 4200 galon and the ility to provide an excellent spread pattern agent s has a.

Top Shot side discharge Manure Spreader to fit your operation find out more at the H&S website welcome back well it has been a really active stretch of severe weather across the US April marked the second highest number of tornadoes on record in the US and severe weather has been reported every single day so far this month and Martin lore joins us now.

With a look at your forecast as we close out May Martin hey there everyone yeah we are going to be looking at seeing the possibility for for some better conditions over the next several days for a little bit of the rainfall we haven't seen much in some parts of the country drought monitor sitting across parts of Western Kansas sees that winter.

Wheat a lot of that's there they're want to get a little bit of rain before they harvest it up and of course almost the entirety of New Mexico sitting under that drought especially the most Southeastern corner you see that little dark area there it's the only part of the country sitting under exceptional drought but when it comes to the big.

Picture a good portion of the country is sitting out of the drought monitor so that is a good that is a good thing to see across most of the nation it's just those couple areas of that winter wheat in parts of Kansas definitely need to see some of that rainfall you can see very closely only part of the country sitting on the exceptional but again.

Plenty of rainfall for eastern Kansas as we have in the next couple of days unfortunately not going to be seeing much in terms of that rainfall across Western Kansas but they could see a couple drops which again any will help across most of that part of the country a lot of areas that don't necessarily need to see the rain are seeing that.

Rain fall across the Eastern portion of the country and again parts of Florida do need to see that rainfall not going to be seeing much as the high pressure is really dominating just to our South causing for some triple digit heat across southern Texas and Southern Florida so that flooding potential is going to be there as we get into our.

Monday you see that's where that rain's going to be is but we look at the jet stream you can't really see the culprit of what's going on here's this trough that's going to be rolling its way through across parts of the country this could spark up a couple of those stronger storms for our Sunday as we get into that storms for the Sunday and into.

Your Monday those will move on into New England don't expect them to be that s as they get there but still plenty of rainfall expected for that Monday but as we watch low pressure here high pressure down to the South it's going to stay there not going anywhere anytime soon because it's going to stay hot across the entirety of southern Texas and.

Southern Florida but as we get into the midweek we start seeing this low really dipping down into New England this could really be cooling off a good portion of New England and into parts of the Great Lakes where you're already watching for this high pressure Ridge to really start giving way as we get into that Friday there's that next low so it could break.

Down a little bit of that heat across the Northern Plains but that high pressure not wanting to go anywhere across the Southern Plains and in parts of Texas and of course Southern Florida where they're seeing triple dig heat nearly every day of the week not even counting in that humidity that really makes it even feel even worse with that.

Heat index so make sure to be on the safe side if you're going to be heading out over the next several days in the southern part of the nation as that heat is unfortunately not going anywhere Thanks Martin well farmers in key States like Iowa and Illinois saw some impressive planting progress across the US last week so what are the markets.

Really watching now Brian Grady and Jim McCormack join me next welcome back to us Farm report this Memorial Day Weekend well as promised with Brian Grady as well as Jim McCormick joining us this weekend Jim when we look at the markets this week we did see some pops we saw some momentum was it Supply or was it demand driven.

This week I know I think a lot of it well kind of it depends on which Market you're looking at Ty on the bean Market old crop beans it was probably a little bit of demand driven China came in and bought at least two cargos of beans they're buying it off the p&w as a reserve by because our beans are a little bit better quality so that was a.

Driver there um so on the demand on the beans on the other side of the equation corn and wheat I think that was more of a supply situation worried about delayed plantings as well as dryness issues in Russia Brian look at the wheat Market it's also been impressive to watch the wheat Market as of late I mean a couple weeks ago we mentioned it talking about.

The weather and the impact to Russia's crops is that still what's driving this Market yeah I think from a fundamental standpoint it is Ty and uh you know on top of the dryness that Jim mentioned we had the frost and freeze early this month and and uh so you know ongoing damage assessments there in terms of how much it means but really I'm not sure it.

Changes the market fundamentally as much as it just gave the funds a reason to cover short positions and we've seen that the money flow uh has definitely changed over the past uh four to six weeks or so in the Grain and soy Market well taking a look at the US crop a lot of you know focus on planting progress and USDA said as of Sunday 70% of the.

Corn had been planted that's up 21 points from the week prior 52% of soybeans are now planted Jim we crossed that halfway point that was up 17 points in a week did that catch the market by surprise I think it did a little bit I mean we were look I was looking forward to be up pretty big time because the reality is we can get this crop in a lot.

Quicker than we did 5 10 years ago but yeah when you look at the average trade as to what uh the actual number was it you know we were a little bit more aggressive than the trade was thinking now the question is how much is going to get done now the weather I think right now is a little bit mixed going into the holiday weekend you know the Traders.

Trying to brace for a very wet Memorial Day weekend but the six to 10 day forecast suggests that maybe we get a better window to maybe get some more stuff planted here at the very end of May so uh you know still a lot of weather volatility to play out as we try to get the finyl bit of this crop planted well Brian I mean when you look.

At where those impressive gains were made Illinois corn planting shot up 25 points in a week Iowa planting there for corn jumped up 21 points in a week I mean I knew we had some small windows but my gosh did that surprise you just how much progress we had made in a week's time well those were the key areas where we were lagging on on the.

Planting so they needed to make a jump and and uh still really wet here across the central uh corn Bel and uh that's the critical area now I'm not concerned on acreage 90 million I think that USDA projected in March was too low uh to begin with uh and so even if we shave off a few of the Corn Acres as we get up against the crop insurance planting date.

Uh you I still think that the acreage number will be up from what the March intentions were when all said and done Jim I know weather's always a wild card but as we look at this quick transition to lenia is this something that the Market's watching it's definitely looking what it's watching and it's going to really depend on how quick it.

Comes T some of the models say we're going to hit this heat and dryness by latter early part of July other models are putting it toward the latter part of August into September the later that transition comes the more likely we are going to have trend line yield so uh but yeah we're going to be you know we're in a weather Market traditional weather.

Market in the spring we'll probably get a secondary one in July August as we debate to see if this rain does come but the other thing to keep in mind is we are looking for a record active hurricane season so we could still have some dryness issues but the hurricanes come through the gulf and go right up the uh Midwest Mississippi river which.

Has happened from time to time that could also solve some of the dryness issues that may start to develop so we need to keep an eye on that yeah Brian I mean we've made some impressive progress when it comes to the soil moisture profile especially in your backyard looking at parts of of Iowa that had struggled with moisture now it's it's.

Too much moisture this year but what areas do you think are in the best shape leading into summer what areas are in the worst shape oh I think the wor I'll start with the worst shape because that's right in my backyard uh Northeast uh Iowa down into Central Iowa we were uh really dry um you know we've received about 0 10 to 15 inches of rainfall over.

The past five weeks through that area uh broadly and and uh so we're sitting in a really good situation right now from a moisture standpoint actually excessive in some of these areas and uh uh but we'll probably need it as Jim talked about the key is that transition from uh neutral conditions to linia and when it happens and as is the case with most.

Things in Commodities timing is everything and and so that'll be critical as we move through the summer but we're we're going to need that moisture uh increased moisture profile as we move forward I think uh through the growing season here all right well we've seen some cuts to the production forecast in South America we'll take a.

Look at that plus cash cattle trade heading into the Memorial Day weekend we'll talk about that coming up next welcome back to us Farm report this weekend Jim when you look at the international grains Council it lowered its Global corn production forecast by 6 million metric tons we've seen some cuts to key growing areas in Brazil when you.

Look at this forecast it has this picture changed dramatically when you look at the possibility of increasing the amount of corn Acres that we have in the US come June plain and simple they did Make Some Cuts but when you look at the overall Supply on the world time I think it looks very comfortable I'm with Brian and the fact earlier when he said.

That the corn acres are probably going to increase a little bit I think when they did the survey in March the farmer is pretty down on his on the economic situation I think he'll he bounced back I think a good majority of the Corn is going to get in and if we get anywhere close to trend line yields um we're going to have more than enough and then.

Demand I think time is still a real question you look at what China said the USDA says China's going to import 23 million metric tons of corn the Chinese say they're going to import 13 million metric tons same thing on the beans I think there's about an 8 n difference between the usda's import for China's versus the Chinese Viewpoint so you know.

If China's Viewpoint is correct that they don't need as many products as what the USDA thinks that could have a huge ramification on the bearish side for the balance sheet all right Brian let's switch gears a little bit to cattle because as we head into the Memorial Day Weekend big time for demand and Grilling but through cash negotiations they've.

Been slow to develop in most areas but according to profarmer Brian you guys say it appears the average cash Kettle price for will challenge or eclipse the all-time high of 18956 posted in March some impressive cash action that we've seen this week absolutely and probably even more impressive than the cash action has been.

Wholesale beef prices uh just on fire here recently and and really um you know the domestic demand is pulling uh this market and we need it because the the exports aren't very good on the uh the beef side of things and so um what we have is that demand is keeping up uh the supply situation remains bullish for cattle because uh we know that they.

Continue to tighten up there uh feed lot supplies are are going to remain tight as we move into 2025 and and so really the the question mark on the cattle and beef side of things is on demand and domestic demand for now is strong it needs to be because we're into that key time frame once we get past the beef holidays this summer uh then it backs.

Off quite a bit traditionally Jim strong domestic demand and the FEDS are still confident inflation will ease but a new survey shows more than half of Americans think that the United States is in a recession although gross domestic product has been increasing for the past several years so for consumers they have a lack of confidence in the economy yet.

We're still seeing demand for things like meat products strong well I is what you're seeing T is essentially kind of a dichotomy of what people think and what they believe and what I mean by that is you ask a consumer they say well what do you think the economy like you said they say it's not good and then you say well what are.

You doing to do well guess what they're going on vacation we're looking for record amount of people traveling over a Memorial Day Weekend airlines are saying that you know record amount of travel so even though the consumer may say I'm worried about the economy they're spending like they're not concerned about the economy and that's going to be.

The key to the cattle market near term if that consumer continues to spend like he has for the last year year and a half coming out of the pandemic it should be supportive at least near term thanks Jim Andrian all right up next we have a custombuilt tractor that rides in memory of the man who built it celebrating him and the work he did to keep a tradition.

Alive that's this Memorial Day weekend next watch markets now with Michelle Rook on the f Journal YouTube channel keeping you updated throughout the day on the markets at the open midday and close find out what moved the markets today and what to expect the market to do next hey folks welcome back to tractor.

Tales this week we're off to Northern Indiana to check out a 1925 John E hit and Mist tractor now this tractor was restored in memory of a good friend and a meaning to The Collector we have here is a 1925 John Deere Model E hit Miss tractor it's riding on a 1964 Wheelhorse chassis it's one of 14 that was built back in the.

Late 7s and early 80s it was built by a a good friend of mine and his father uh Roger Tenny and his dad Hugo uh they they began in 1963 and they just had a passion for hit and miss engines and wanted a good way to take them to shows and display them Hugo came up with a way of mounting these engines on a tractor chassis to.

Make them a little bit easier to move around and drive them and uh ultimately make them a better display piece Roger and I go way back I'd known him about 25 years he started to fall into declining Health he sadly passed away on uh April 12th of this year but June of last year was the classic green reunion Model E hit and miss engines were the feat one.

Of the features that they had down there so I knew that Roger still had this tractor and uh I asked him one day if I could take that tractor down and show it there on his behalf and over the course of this past winter I took it and completely disassembled it I sand lasted everything that needed to be down to bare metal and gave it a professional.

Level restoration and uh continue to show it on his behalf and uh hope to continue to do so well Roger had a little club that called itself the Americana antique engine society and today it's defunct but Roger was the self-proclaimed leader of it and did a good job today in parades and and.

Shows uh I still carry around the the sign and the banner that say Americana antique ancient Society in his memory he had a passion and that passion was preserving the the industrial history of our nation he wanted to pass us on to the next generation and that's something that.

That I feel is extremely important and I do this for him his spirit lives on with this tractor and so help me I will show it as long as I can thanks Greg there's no doubt the dairy industry is shrinking as the number of dairies decline how could the dairy industry change well it's a.

Glimpse at the state of the dairy industry next you're watching us farm Report trusted timely tradition the state of the dairy industry report on us farm Report is brought to you by m power Dairy from Merc Animal Health only MK Animal Health combines technology and biofarma products for a true full.

Solution approach to Dairy management see how at m-p power- dairy.com and by Robo Agra Finance discover how local relationship managers and Global SE expertise can help you address challenges and seize opportunities Robo Agra Finance let's talk learn more at www.o.com welcome back well Farm Journal just released stateof the da industry.

2024 report it surveyed 210 Dairy Producers throughout the us more than 2third reported 5 years of profitability and more than half have a growth mindset with plans to expand in the next 5 years Farm journals Michelle Rook talked to a leading Dairy economists to get his insights about what it means for the future of dairy the Dair space has.

Always been tough but our state of the dairy industry study shows that it's not going to get any easier over the next 3 to five years due to a host of variables including things like higher input costs and a labor and that's why consolidation will continue at a breathtaking pace and Dairy Producers need to be proactive the latest USDA sensus of a showed around.

24,000 Dair operations in 2022 down 39% from 2017 and 50% from 2012 and ever a insight's president Phil plur says extrapolating that Trend to 2027 takes operations down another 20 to 25% daies with 2500 plus cows now account for more than 50% of operations and over 60% of the milk comes from dairies a thousand head or more and what it says is that.

For you know the Dairy Producers that are still here you know it's a dog fight it is a street fight in terms of figuring out ways to stay relevant to get more productive to stay ahead of the curves to manage risk better um because it's never been an easy business it's not going to be an easy business anytime.

Soon Dairy producer surveyed indicate the biggest challenges for the future are the pay price for milk egg labor and the cost of inputs we've had a couple years here of you know relatively elevated feed prices we certainly know that labor is more expensive um just to General inflation right around operations sa the good ad.

Producer Lynn Bodwin says the pay price for milk has improved lately but it's been a real headwind and there's no guarantees for the future we've really been in a year and a half of crippling low prices you know negative margins uh you know it's uh it's started to improve now you know we haven't got our first checks but it needs to improve to.

Overcome those challenges PL says maximizing productivity presents a better chance of profitability the investment needs to continue genomics genetics you know making the best productivity decisions we can around breeding and then feeding and then housing and just you know it's sort of a you know the investment in.

Productivity has to be there because productivity is profit at the end of the day right he says deiry producers also need to proactively deploy risk management tools producers maximizing Dairy margin coverage received close to $150,000 in 2023 GMC can go a long way to providing real meaningful protection to a Farm's profitability and the cost.

Of it is you know it's it's it's sort of a no-brainer in terms of what it takes to get involved with DMC so at a minimum that's a nice safety net for you know up to 200 300 cow producers for 200 plus cow operations PL says Dairy Revenue protection paid out more than $500 million in net indemnities in 2023 and it's the key for staying in business.

It's a great product because you're basically at subsidized put options you know at a very very high level that's what we're dealing with and so you're able to protect downside and keep the upside n of what it cost you for the insurance beyond that he says the dairy industry is becoming increasingly dependent on exports and farmers are.

Losing out with the lack of a robust trade agenda I just think from a political perspective I think that that farmers generally need to keep um you know keep banging on the drum with their legislators uh and representatives that you know act trade is really really important to the American Farmer he also recommends cashing in on climate.

Opportunities leveraging data and technology and investing in protein Innovation one of our focuses is cow comfort Animal Health and getting the most out of each individual animal and that in itself you know lowers our carbon footprint but he's taken it one step.

Further working with breit Mark to install a methane digestor it was a pretty easy decision less odor a treatment system you know and especially with the world so tuned in on Su ability plus it's an opportunity for a new Revenue stream for the operation that will help him stay viable for the future I'm aelle Rook for us farm Report well.

Some Dairy Farmers are finding new ways to grow and that's not just in size but what they produce we'll show you one farmer finding success with beef on Dairy later but first Aven flu concerns in China a glimpse of agar on the globe is next now for a glimpse of a around the world cases of Avan fluent animals have now.

Been confirmed in western China the country's a Ministry confirming 275 cases of avien flu among dead goues and other wild birds news of the outbreak comes as Beijing says it's minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is under investigation Bloomberg reporting the country's anti-graft agency is investigating Tang renan for quote.

Serious violations of the law Tang was appointed the EG minister in December of 201 20 the 62-year-old also headed China's food security campaign and Australia is reporting its first human case of H5 in1 Health officials reported involves a child who contracted the virus in India but has since recovered additionally they report.

On unidentified H7 strain has been found on an egg Farm in Melbourne it is suspected to have originated from while Birds they say infected birds will be cold and movement restrictions have been imposed around the farm an update on the flooding in southern Brazil the area has recently seen half a Year's worth of rain in about a week the area is seing.

Between 10 to 20 in of rain in some places and as we've told you the flooding has been widespread killing dozens of people and it couldn't come at a worst time for Farmers there it was untimely to say the least for crops such as corn soybeans and rice all of them are being harvested right now for instance USDA estimates a 1 million ton.

Reduction in Brazilian soybean produ uction from the previous month that's due to flooding in the state of Rio Grande doou and also in that state following the floods hog Farmers lost an estimated 12,600 head one expert in the area reporting some 30 Farms were impacted including those of suppliers to brf and JBS the loss is calculated at.

More than $35 million the state accounts for almost 25% of overall Brazilian pork export you know it's amazing what robots can do these days including saving your lives life Sony unveiling a new surgical robot tool using an ear of corn to show off exactly what it can do more precisely it used a kernel of corn and we mean Precision this is a prototype.

That was recently unveiled at The Institute of electrical and electronics Engineers International Conference in Japan just watch this for a moment as the robot is able to First Cut That tiny corn kernel and then run stitches through it it works by replicating the movements of the surgeon's hands and fingers the delicate instrument can work.

In conjunction with a microscope to repair small tissues veins and even nerves Sony says it will work with University Medical departments and institutions to help make them more available and accessible to doctors taking smart farming and smart surgery to a whole new level impressive well that's a look at a.

Around the world well the weather here at home is creating hurdle after hurdle for getting this year's crop planted but what are the sins of spring that can fairy is seeing right now that's chips corner next chips corner on us farm Report is brought to you by full scale from Helena grow strong returns this season with.

Breakthrough folar nutrition from full scale at reproduction welcome back to us Farm report this weekend chip flury for chips corner chip I know we've talked quite a few weeks about policy but let's switch gears now and talk about crops because this planting season has been challenging to say the least for a lot of people um I've seen some Fields you.

Know some yellow corn just from all the the leeching that's happened uh with all of this wet weather and the amount of weed escapes out there I mean some Fields chip are just plain ugly this year oh yeah yeah there's no question about it and obviously the weather has a whole lot to do with some of the challenges that farmers are facing in.

The field out there this year uh but some of the things come down to management as well and and different choices and the thing is the weather can make a management Choice a bad choice after the fact and and we know that we and and we understand that doesn't change the fact that some of the things are happening out there you.

Mentioned the weed escapes uh earlier this week on AGR talk I talked with Ken Ferry for the farm Journal agronomist crop Tech Consulting and he mentioned the weed escapes and and the thing is Ty Ken was talking about the 2024 planting season as something completely unique and different than what he has ever seen you know and and.

For Ken ferry to be talking about how unique a season is it's really gota be it it's really got to be something U uh unique out there and and that that accounts for some of the challenges that farmers are dealing with and Ken's always referred to it as something special in the spring of the year we call it the sins of spring right when we.

Get out and we're working this ground wet and um this past week there was a lot of sins committed down here we've got a lot of ground that got worked wet in a panic to get it planted um and then we end up with a lot of clouds and then yesterday we had dust storms down here were crazy um unfortunately those compaction layers.

That we were laying in to get this thing planted are going to haunt us in July August deeper into the year you and I have talked about the weather issues that we're dealing with this this transition from El Nino back to Len if we've got a fairly shallow rooted crop out there and and Lenin sets in later in the growing season and we've.

Got a a dry half of the growing season with that layer of compaction down there time that's going to be a big issue that that could be a yield limiting factor as we make our way through the through the harvest season and here's the thing it's that compaction layer is not just an a problem for this year as Ken said as a lot of Growers are making transitions in.

Their production practices don't forget that you laid that layer of compaction in there in the spring of 2024 when you're making some of those changes in your production practices is you got to fix that problem before you go forward and change the production practices yeah not to mention some of the cover crops that need to be killed.

In some of these Farmers that have had challenges doing that and I know that kin's talked about that as as as well so another layer onto this well chip Lori thank you so much for joining us this Memorial Day weekend you can hear chip every morning at 10:00 am for AGR talk am and 2 pm Central for aggr talk PM all right when we come back you know there's.

A lot of things that Dairy Farmers are exploring right now from some of these climate smart programs to also new opportunities to cash in on beef on Dairy is one of those we traveled to Indiana to talk to One producer who was kind of on the Leading Edge of that we'll do that next well earlier in the show Michelle.

Rook had a look at the state of the dairy industry and there's no doubt Dairy Producers have faced major headwinds the past couple years with milk prices but one area of opportunity is beef on Dairy and as we showed you this week and it's an opportunity in which Dairy Producers of all sizes are cashing.

In we reuse the sand and then it all goes through a manure separator fighing efficiency at every level and then the sand goes through another separator and takes out all of the solid manure so we can utilize that on fields is one way this fourth generation Dairy producer has learned to thrive and then the liquid will go back out to our lagoons.

And then it will cycle back through flush our floors and then eventually we'll take the Lagoon water and irrigate ated out on our Fescue to help us grow crops because on this 1100 cow Indiana dairy farm there is no waste I think it's one of the coolest things about dairy farms in general is that we just recycle everything Alex new and swander.

Says when they expanded and built the new barn in 2019 they also modernize their Dairy using modern technology has been a huge thing to help us be more efficient we're utilizing sensors on the cows we're utilizing AI technology on cameras that are constantly watching the cows so we can make fast informed decisions I mean just as quick as we.

Need to and it that has really helped us become more efficient um streamline some labor and uh just getting us where we need to be so that we can work the most efficiently as possible too another game changer according to new and schwander is the focus of beef on Dairy 70% of our cows we use for beef on da so they'll have a beef calf that's.

Marketable from day one he says by breeding for beef it's bringing even more value back to their dairy farm fueling another Revenue stream the buyer will come in two or three times a week and buy all of the baby calves that are that are beef calves it's really a high value added Enterprise for sure they just bring a lot of value back to the.

Dairy the team at Farm journal's Dairy her just released a state-of the dairy report which was based off a survey of more than 200 Dairy Producers the survey found 59% of dairy operations are breiding for beef on Dairy and just just over half are raising them well it began really as we uh came into 2019.

20120 um we saw especially in the covid Years uh a lot of disruption in the supply chain around beef that coupled with the drought in the west and south sparked a new opportunity for Dairy Farmers to cash in today we have some of the highest on Farm prices for cattle that we've seen in history day old beef calves are you know selling for $900 to.

,000 uh right off of the farm Mike North says in 2020 those CS were virtually worth nothing now at the time we had plenty of replacement heers and Derman said you know what we're just going to start breeding some of our our our lower uh genomic testing cows uh to beef and putting beef seam them in them we breed the our best cows to sex seen and the.

Lower end to beef semen and then we can improve our genetics off of our highest cows made it with the best bows and we can everything else is a is a valuable beef calf so it's a win-win for us from more consistent carcasses to high quality beef North says beef on Dairy has become big business and one that isn't going away with the Advent of.

Genomics with sex beef seen with improved uh Bol selection and um you know availability of of of beef semen uh and and pricing that is providing a great incentive against a beef herd that likely isn't going to grow much either the state of the dairy industry report also found despite a mountain of challenges for Dairy Farmers more than.

Half plan to grow in one way or another over the next five years it could be more counts it could be this beef on Dairy discussion that that we had and adding another Enterprise to the operation maybe it's feed security and moving towards growing all of my own forages either way I'm going to have to create new growth inside my operation to.

Be able to accommodate the arrival of the Next Generation and or to overcome some of the margin compression that we've had over these you know last many years as Dairy Farmers like new and schwander continue to ride the volatility of milk prices they're looking for growth any way they can even if that growth is measured in many.

Different ways dairy farms are getting better all the time you know it used to be that let's say we were making 80 lbs of milk and we thought that was good now now you need to be making 90 lb of milk and for for it to be good it's just dairy farms are getting way more efficient Alex actually has a big job off the farm this weekend that's because.

He's the 2024 Indie 500 Milkman that's the individual who will deliver the coveted glass of milk to the winning driver this weekend so a toast to that tradition we'll do that next a Dair tradition will be waiting at the finish line again this weekend for the winner of the Indie 500 the winner.

Of the race will be given a delicious bottle of milk to quench their thirst it's a tradition that started after the 1936 race when driver Lou Meyer requested buttermilk to drink then but since then an Indiana Dairy Farmer has been in the Winter's Circle to hand off a cool glass of moo juice to the winter each year two Dairy Producers in the.

State are selected to carry out that honor and this year's producer selected to hand over that ice cold bottle to the winning driver is Alex who we just introduced you to with our beef on Dairy look he's located in bluon Indiana the rookie in training this year is Abby her of South Whitley Indiana next year she'll be giving the bottle to the first.

Driver to cross the finish line so what do the Indie 500 drivers prefer well it's clear that this year's field of drivers have some definite opinions on what they would like to be served if they win the race 26 drivers selected whole milk five want 2% and two drivers selected skim Indiana dairies says all three options will be available well.

What about chocolate milk I'm letting you in on a little fun fact this weekend it was never an option at the Indie 500 and buttermilk that we mentioned earlier is no longer an option for drivers either well that's all the time we have this weekend on us farm Report thank you so much for watching this Memorial Day I hope you enjoy a glass of milk grill out.

Do all the good things this weekend for this holiday we hope that you join us again next weekend as we work to build on our tradition have a great weekend everyone us farm Report is produced and distributed by Farm Journal broadcast

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