Weather forecasting is always an interesting, sometimes confusing, and occasionally a hotly debated topic. No one is more confused than I am. How do you go from an all but snowless winter to 6-8 inches on the ground a couple days before Christmas? I would have been more than happy with a brown Christmas.
Ryan Martin of Warsaw, Indiana, wears a lot of hats. Grain trader, farmer origination specialist, farmer, and ag meteorologist. He’s the Chief Meteorologist for Hoosier Ag Today. (Photo from hoosieragtoday.com)
But I digress. The dry weather isn’t a good thing for farm country. For the most part, it seems awfully dry from coast to coast across the U.S. So, when I’ve got questions about the weather, I give Ryan Martin a call over in Indiana. I worked for him over a couple of years, helping him to get his weather forecasting ready to be sent to clients. He’s one of the best forecasters I’ve ever come across and I’ve known several of them.
It’s been a dry winter for the most part in U.S. farm country. A pre-Christmas snowfall turned things white in many areas but did little to alleviate the dry conditions. Ryan Martin is an ag meteorologist who lives in Warsaw, Indiana, and says December was well-below average in terms of moisture.
“All things considered, the precipitation that happened in mid-to-late-December didn’t even get the month of December up to near normal over most of the Upper Midwest, Eastern Corn Belt, Great Lakes, and I’ll even throw parts of the Central Corn Belt in there. Overall, we are still well below normal, and the blanket of snow is uninspiring to me at this point.”
He does some weather forecasting for the Upper Midwest and Eastern Corn Belt.
“Temperatures continue to be well-above-normal. By the time we get to January 15-16, we’ll have put enough days in far enough above normal that it’s going to be difficult to see any kind of cold snap bring the entire month back to below-normal levels. Cold air is pooling in Canada, and weather forecasting says it’s going to come down. I don’t think the second half of January will look anything like the first but is it enough to say January is going to flip to cold all over for the entire month? No way, it’s not going to happen.”
There will likely be some cold air incursions into early February, but he doesn’t see any extended cold snaps after that. The Central and Southern Plains will continue to see above-normal temperatures more often than not.
“We’re spending many more days above normal than we are below. Our concern in the Plains is this continued dry stretch. The overall conditions are not lending themselves to seeing any kind rain come through, or even snow for that matter. We did see a nice blanket of snow in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma out of a winter event a couple of weeks back, but the effects of that are gone now. The wheat greened up a little bit, but I see nothing that says we’re looking at a huge surge of moisture at all over the next 2-3 months.”
Things will likely stay dry and warm in the Delta and the Southeastern States.
“We do have a documented La Nina situation going on. We can see that first of all, from the data coming from the Pacific, but you can see the effects happening down in South America. So, I think as you look into the Gulf Coast states like the lower Delta, we’re already trying to talk about planting or at least getting ready for it here in the next six weeks. I think we’re going to be trending a little bit wet and active, but I guess I’m not concerned about any early hurricane events or anything that will cause a long-term issue in the Deep South. If anything, we’re going to be trending slightly drier there as well.”
The western U.S. will stay dry too.
“Over the Western U.S., generally speaking, we continue to see below-normal precipitation there, and at this point, I don’t see anything that changes that. The high elevations are not seeing any kind of influx of moisture, so I don’t think that fuels anything. I do believe the West Coast is going to stay dry, and La Nina usually helps to fuel that. I’m not going to put this all on a La Nina forecast, but to me, I don’t see anything that says we’re looking at exceptionally-good conditions over the West.”
Again, Ryan Martin is an ag meteorologist from Indiana.
USDA assistance is now available for producers who were hit by natural disasters in 2018 and 2019. Lord knows there were enough of them to last most farmers a lifetime.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) today announced that signup for the Quality Loss Adjustment (QLA) Program will begin Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Funded by the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, this new program provides assistance to producers who suffered eligible crop quality losses due to natural disasters occurring in 2018 and 2019. The deadline to apply for this USDA assistance is Friday, March 5, 2021.
“Farmers and livestock producers nationwide experienced crop quality losses due to natural disasters in 2018 and 2019,” said. Bill Northey, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “We have worked diligently over the past couple of years to roll out meaningful USDA assistance programs to help alleviate the substantial financial loss experienced by so many agricultural producers, and are pleased to offer quality loss assistance as added relief. Many of the eligible producers have already received compensation for quantity losses.”
Eligible Crops
Crops eligible for USDA assistance include those for which federal crop insurance or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program(NAP) coverage is available, except for grazed crops and value loss crops, such as honey, maple sap, aquaculture, floriculture, mushrooms, ginseng root, ornamental nursery, Christmas trees, and turfgrass sod.
Additionally, crops that were sold or fed to livestock or that are in storage may be eligible; however, crops that were destroyed before harvest are not eligible. Crop quality losses occurring after harvest, due to deterioration in storage, or that could have been mitigated, are also not eligible.
Losses must have been a result of a qualifying disaster event (hurricane, excessive moisture, flood, qualifying drought, tornado, typhoon, volcanic activity, snowstorm, or wildfire) or related condition that occurred in calendar years 2018 and/or 2019.
Assistance is available for eligible producers in counties that received a qualifying Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration or Secretarial Disaster Designation because of one or more of the qualifying disaster events or related conditions.
Lists of counties with Presidential Emergency Disaster Declarations and Secretarial Disaster Designations for all qualifying disaster events for 2018 and 2019 are available here. For drought, producers are eligible for QLA if the loss occurred in an area within a county rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D3 (extreme drought) or higher intensity level during 2018 or 2019.
Producers in counties that did not receive a qualifying declaration or designation may still apply but must also provide supporting documentation to establish that the crop was directly affected by a qualifying disaster event.
To determine QLA eligibility and payments, FSA considers the total quality loss caused by all qualifying natural disasters in cases where a crop was impacted by multiple events.
Applying for QLA
When applying, producers are asked to provide verifiable documentation to support claims of quality loss or nutrient loss in the case of forage crops. For crops that have been sold, grading must have been completed within 30 days of harvest, and for forage crops, a laboratory analysis must have been completed within 30 days of harvest.
Some acceptable forms of documentation include sales receipts from buyers, settlement sheets, truck or warehouse scale tickets, written sales contracts, similar records that represent actual and specific quality loss information, and forage tests for nutritional values.
QLA payments are based on formulas for the type of crop (forage or non-forage) and loss documentation submitted. Based on this documentation FSA is calculating payments based on the producer’s own individual loss or based on the county average loss. More information on payments can be found on farmers.gov/quality-loss.
FSA will issue payments once the application period ends. If the total amount of calculated QLA payments exceeds available program funding, payments will be prorated.
For each crop year, 2018, 2019 and 2020, the maximum amount that a person or legal entity may receive, directly or indirectly, is $125,000. Payments made to a joint operation (including a general partnership or joint venture) will not exceed $125,000, multiplied by the number of persons and legal entities that comprise the ownership of the joint operation. A person or legal entity is ineligible for QLA payment if the person’s or legal entity’s average Adjusted Gross Income exceeds $900,000, unless at least 75% is derived from farming, ranching or forestry-related activities.
Future Insurance Coverage Requirements
All producers receiving QLA Program payments are required to purchase crop insurance or NAP coverage for the next two available crop years at the 60% coverage level or higher. If eligible, QLA participants may meet the insurance purchase requirement by purchasing Whole-Farm Revenue Protection coverage offered through USDA’s Risk Management Agency.
More Information
For more information, visit farmers.gov/quality-loss, or contact your local USDA Service Center. Producers can also obtain one-on-one support with applications by calling 877-508-8364.
All USDA Service Centers are open for business, including those that restrict in-person visits or require appointments. All Service Center visitors wishing to conduct business with FSA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or any other Service Center agency should call ahead and schedule an appointment. Service Centers that are open for appointments will pre-screen visitors based on health concerns or recent travel, and visitors must adhere to social distancing guidelines. Visitors are also required to wear a face covering during their appointment. Our program delivery staff will continue to work with our producers by phone, email and using online tools. More information can be found at farmers.gov/coronavirus.
“Fish all Fifty.” It might be an understatement to say that’s a rather big goal, sort of like trying to actually shoot the moon.
Two 18-year-old Virginia men have embarked on the mother of all road trips. With their secondary education plans sidetracked by COVID-19, Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak of Virginia hit the road with the lofty goal of catching the state fish of every state in America. Instead of sitting in front of computer screens, they’re staring through the windshield of a “commandeered” family minivan as the miles go by on their “Fish All Fifty” trip.
The buddies graduated high school in June, and they were planning to enroll this fall at Clemson University in South Carolina. However, because the year started with all online education, they didn’t want to spend any more time sitting in front of computer screens. Because they’d taken the last couple months of their senior year online, Luke Konson said, “We didn’t love it.”
Luke Kolson is pictured here after catching a walleye, the state fish in Minnesota, as a part of his “Fish all Fifty” trip with fellow Virginian Daniel Balserak. (Contributed Photo)
“We both decided to defer our admissions to the fall of 2021,” Konson said on the phone from Mississippi. “We were trying to decide what to do in the meantime and didn’t want to sit at home for a year. Travelling was a little more difficult because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“While we were trying to make that decision, I happened to be fishing with my family in North Carolina,” he recalled. “So, fishing was on our minds at the time. The idea hit us to travel to all 50 states and, because we love to fish, we wanted to catch every state fish. As far as we can tell, no one has ever accomplished that task.”
Their most recent conquest was catching the Mississippi state fish, a largemouth bass, and the duo was halfway to accomplishing their mission. He says several of the state fish they’ve caught so far were challenging.
“We had to catch a muskie in Wisconsin,” Konson said. “That’s a seriously cool fish, and it’s hard to catch. One of the things we do is if we’re in a state trying to catch a fish that we aren’t familiar with, I’ll go into Facebook groups to tell people what we’re doing and get some advice. The interesting thing is we often get people reaching out to us and offering to take us fishing.”
Daniel Balserak of Virginia is pictured here after catching his own walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine. (Contributed photo)
The variety of fish has been an especially-interesting part of the trip. The boys caught Atlantic Salmon on a road trip to Maine. Several states feature Brook Trout as their state fish. Konson says anytime they’ve gotten to catch a fish they aren’t familiar with was a “really cool experience.” They each caught a Guadalupe Bass, a fish found only in Texas.
They’ve been fishing in the Midwest as well. Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas all named Channel Catfish as their state fish. It’s one fish the duo knows a lot about as they go after catfish in Virginia. They caught walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine, Minnesota, and Channel Catfish on the Racoon River in Iowa.
“Our first road trip was a loop through the Northeastern states,” he said, “including Maine. We wanted to grab an American Shad in Connecticut, but it was out of season, so we’ll head back there to get one of those. We also hit New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.”
Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa were next on the list, through the Midwest states, and then into Texas. While on the phone for this interview, Luke and Daniel were traveling through the Southeastern States.
Balserak, pictured here with his channel catfish caught on the Raccoon River in Iowa. He and Luke Konson are busy with their “Fish all Fifty” road trip around the country. They’re trying to catch the state fish in all fifty states. (Contributed Photo)
While they don’t usually do the “tourist things” on their trips, one of the best parts of the “Fish All Fifty” road trip is the places they fish in are some of the most scenic areas in the country. “For example, we went fishing for Brook Trout in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it’s beautiful up there,” Konson said. “Fishing for salmon in the wilderness of Maine was amazing.”
They do intend to do a little more sightseeing when the pair heads west. Konson mentioned seeing Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, as well as the Grand Canyon.
While the price of gas might be as low as it’s been in years in many states, it still adds up quickly when road tripping through every state in the Union. Combine that with food and other incidental costs, the price tag adds up quickly. The next logical question is how they’re financing an adventure like this. While they had a little money saved up for college they didn’t want to burn through, the boys turned to the generosity of others.
“We set up a GoFundMe page, which is where most of our funding is coming from,” he said. “People have been supporting us on GoFundMe, which has been super helpful for us. A lot of those people on GoFundMe, as well as the people we meet face-to-face, tell us the trip is a great idea, and they wish they’d done it themselves.”
Virgina natives Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak are holding their channel catfish caught in Iowa. It’s a part of their “Fish all Fifty” road trip before they begin school at Clemson in the fall of 2021. (Contributed photo)
With a laugh, Luke said, “I think a lot of people are living out the trip they wanted to take through us.”
The biggest surprise of the road trip so far? “I don’t think we were quite ready for the cold when we headed north,” Konson said. “Six inches of snow fell on our first day in Minnesota. That’s not something we deal with an awful lot where we live.”
Two 18-year-olds likely don’t set a big goal like this without support from their families and friends. However, that doesn’t mean family members weren’t a little skeptical of the idea when they first brought it up.
“It took a little convincing at first,” he said with a laugh, “but we got it done. I think they’re happy for us because we’re getting some good life experiences and learning a lot of things through our travels. We’re seeing a lot of things and meeting a lot of people we likely wouldn’t get to know while sitting in a dorm room watching online classes.”
Their tentative plan is to be home a couple of weeks over the Christmas holiday. They may squeeze in a quick trip to the Carolinas and Georgia, which aren’t too far from home.
Here’s the link to their Go Fund Me page if you want to chip in for gas to help the boys complete what really is a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
The Sugar Bowl looks much more entertaining than the other half of the College Football Playoffs. 35 points between the two teams and we aren’t quite to halftime yet. In fact, there’s more than ten minutes to go to the break.
I saw multiple surveys on who the fans thought would win the Sugar Bowl. The results were 70-30 in favor of Clemson.
I do have to ask a question: why is Etienne returning kicks at this point in the year? He took a long time getting up after that last return and I’m not sure there should be another one.
I like what Ohio State is doing. It looks like they’re calling plays with the specific intent of getting Clemson defenders going the wrong way. The Tigers obliged on that third Buckeye TD by calling a line stunt that went in the wrong direction. Might want to play a little more straight up from now on.
Clemson might wanna pick up the pace. OSU came to play tonight.
Justin Fields is playing much better football than the conference title game.
The Buckeyes are bringing something against Clemson that the Irish couldn’t bring against Bama: speed, plain and simple speed.
Am I the only one who thinks Clemson looks disorganized? They’re having trouble even getting lined up defensively before OSU snaps the ball.
It’s no longer a shootout right now. The interesting thing is Fields is now hurt. He’s looking to avoid contact, which tells you he’s hurting worse than he’s letting on.
Are you hearing those pads popping through the microphones? These kids are hitting hard and the injuries are piling up a bit on both sides!
Please disregard said title of the post. OSU came in with a chip on their shoulders and they are clobbering Clemson at halftime.
400 yards of offense for the Buckeyes at halftime. That’s a great GAME on any other night. If they keep going at this rate, the final score might turn obscene.
The Rose bowl just doesn’t look the same anymore. I freely admit the house that Jerry built looks like a great place to watch a game but it’s not the same as playing in Pasadena. Oh well. Welcome to a COVID-19 world.
Devonta Smith is a men among boys. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. 5 catches for 101 yards and a couple touchdowns is a great game for most wideouts. He has another half to play against a defense that can’t seem to stop him.
He’s making some fast people in white jerseys look really slow. They aren’t slow. I haven’t seen many Alabama games, but if the kid has played this well all year, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence might have some competition for the Heisman Trophy.
I was hoping for better things from Notre Dame. Lots of questions after the Irish were announced as one of the four national semi finalists and they’ve done almost nothing to alleviate those doubts.
To coin a basketball phrase, the Irish’s best chance coming in was likely to “take the air out of the ball.” Get an early lead and run the heck out of the ball.. They needed to keep that Bama offense off the field because the Notre Dame D can’t do much to disrupt the Tide’s offense.
That’s out the window. What now Irish fans? Can they keep it close into the fourth quarter, let alone pull off a late Christmas miracle? Or is it time to pull a beverage out of the fridge and call it good?
Urban exploring in Mendota, Minnesota, was next on my weekend list of things to do. After all, the weather was going to be exceptional for November, so I’d be crazy not to go, right? What I thought was going to just be a chance to stretch out my legs turned into an unexpected photo opportunity and historical exploration.
Anyone who’s followed my urban exploring at either chadsmithmedia.com or on YouTube knows that sandstone architecture is one of my favorites. What I unexpectedly came upon was the Sibley Historic Site, which is located right at the head of the Mendota Trail.
The restored Sibley House, located at the Sibley Historical Site in Mendota, Minnesota. (Photo by Chad Smith)
For those who don’t know, Henry Hastings Sibley was the first governor of Minnesota. He made his fortune working for the American Fur Company, one of America’s first truly multinational companies by 1830. Most of their market was overseas in Europe, which bought a lot of the furs produced by the company.
However, the booming fur trade began to decline by the mid-1800s. That’s when Sibley jumped with both feet into politics, first on the local level, followed by state and national level offices. After being appointed Justice of the Peace in 1838, he was elected to Congress from the new Minnesota Territory, serving in that office from 1849 to 1853.
When the Minnesota Territory finally became a state, Sibley was elected as its first governor. His personal office in his home was the first governor’s office, and he served as governor from May 24, 1858, to January 2, 1860. He stayed in Mendota for a couple of years after leaving the governor’s office.
If I understand it right, this is the house Sibley used for cold storage as the construction obviously pre-dated refrigeration. (Photo by Chad Smith)
In December of 1862, Sibley moved his growing family to a larger house in St. Paul while he started to sell off his property in Mendota. He served as a colonel and later as a brigadier-general in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. When that concluded, Sibley continue to be active in public life.
He was a member of the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents, a founding member of the Minnesota Historical Society, and he played a part in regional politics and business until passing away in 1891.
The Sibley House is next to another similarly restored house once owned by a gentleman named Jean-Baptiste Faribault, who also made money in the fur trade. As a former military man, he eventually settled in Mendota, Minnesota, as well.
Come on in to the Sibley House. I’d love to know what it looks like on the inside at the Sibley Historic Site in Mendota, Minnesota. (Photo by Chad Smith)
In June of 1839, Faribault signed a contract to have a stone house constructed, “to be furnished in the same manner as the dwelling house built…for H.H. Sibley.” The house was built out of Platteville limestone and sandstone, and it stood three stories tall. It set him back $5,000, a tidy sum in those days, and was completed in June of 1840. It currently is part of the Sibley Historic Site.
Highly recommend you do some urban exploring in and around the Sibley Historical Site! A learning opportunity and a little exercise never hurt anyone, did they?
Thirsty? At the Sibley Historic Site in Mendota, Minnesota. (Photo by Chad Smith)
The Sibley House at the Sibley Historical Site is a fantastic example of sandstone/limestone architecture.
Dairy farming exploration was too good to pass up. It’s been a while since this old fart got out and did some urbex, either in the city or out in the country. Hat tip to Shelby Staye, an urbexing Rockstar, for the tip! You can find her stuff on pages like Abandoned Places in Minnesota on Facebook.
An old dairy farm west of Cokato, Minnesota. A once-proud dairy farm has fallen on hard times, due in no small part to vandals. It looks like a place Freddy Krueger might be proud to call home now… and that’s sad. (Photo by Chad Smith)
This was an interesting exploration for me, and not just because I grew up working on my uncle’s dairy farm. While I do love dairy farming and exploring, this was unusual because a car was parked in the driveway when I got there. That’s never happened when I’ve been out exploring before, so I wasn’t sure how to handle it.
Finally, I got my nerve up and walked up to the place and found an older gentleman there cutting up some branches. Got my courage up and asked if I could take pictures of the old buildings there. It was a remarkable opportunity because I got a little history of the place.
The family was full-on into dairy farming back in the day. This gentleman (who I won’t name for the sake of anonymity) inherited the place from his mother-in-law, who sounded like a family matriarch. He and his wife lived on the property for a couple of years but their well wound up drying out, so they moved to a different location.
As you can tell from the pictures and short video, it’s sat there unused for a long time. However, Mother Nature hasn’t been as hard on the building as vandals have. I could hear the sadness in the guy’s voice as he described all the damage to what once was a stately old building it used to be.
The dairy barn is long gone from the property. The only other buildings on the property are an old metal building and a crumbling wooden shed. However, they may not be there for long. The owner said his wife wants to build a house and spend their golden years on the property, so it may not be there for long.
After that, it was off for a short drive over the Myrback Bridge and pulling up to the old Myrback School. I’ve been Googling a lot of different things to try and get some history of the Myrback School, but I can’t find any more than very small snippets. I do know at one point in its history, one of the teachers that worked there over time bought the school building. There are books available about those old schools in Wright County, but none of them are online.
It was nice to get out and explore again. With everything that’s been going on here in the Twin Cities since early this summer, I felt the need to stay closer to home. Good to see the rest of Minnesota again!
Here’s a link to my Facebook album with all the pictures:
No-Till November? Is that like No Shave November? Yes and no. The Natural Resources Conservation Service is asking farmers to keep your stubble – out in the fields, that is. NRCS is encouraging South Dakota farmers to “keep the stubble” on their harvested crop fields and improve soil health during No-Till November.
The three-year-old “No-Till November” Campaign kicks off soon, encouraging farmers to “keep the stubble” in their fields. (Photo from cropwatch.unl.edu)
First launched in 2017, the NRCS project is, of course, mirrored after the national cancer awareness No Shave November campaign that encourages people not to shave during the entire month. The NRCS campaign encourages farmers to keep tillage equipment in their machine sheds this fall and keep the crop stubble on their fields.
The campaign has reached more than 1.5 million people through Twitter and local media since 2017.
“No-till farming is a cornerstone soil health conservation practice, which also promotes water quality while saving farmers time and money,” said South Dakota NRCS State Conservationist Jeff Zimprich. “One of the first soil health principles is ‘do not disturb’. This campaign is a fun way to remind farmers about the important relationship between tillage and soil health. Utilizing cover crops and leaving residues on the soil surface improve soil health while increasing soil biological activity, providing erosion control and adding beneficial nutrients.”
Terry Ness has been farming in central South Dakota for 42 years. He describes the changes he and his wife Mary have made to improve their soil health helped to give their soils more resilience. After utilizing tillage for the first 14 years of his career, he switched completely to a no-till system and noticed that many challenges became easier to overcome.
To see Terry and Mary’s full Profile in Soil Health video feature, visit: bit.ly/TerryNess.“With all these good things I’m doing, you can see it in the insect population, the bird population – healthy soil makes healthy animals, makes healthy food – all this ties together.” – Terry Ness
More InformationTo learn more about soil health and no-till in South Dakota, visit your nearest NRCS service center, visit bit.ly/contactnrcssd, or ask questions from a local soil health mentor! E-mail Rachel.Giles@usda.gov to receive a digital copy of the “Building Connections” SD soil health mentor network directory, or have one mailed to you at no cost.
Minecraft. The chances are good that you know what it is if you have kids. Would it surprise you if I said the dairy industry was thinking outside the box and turning to a video game such as Minecraft to help promote its products? Dairy Management Incorporated held a press conference recently to announce a partnership with four of the most influential gamers in the world to promote itself to people in “Gen Z (early teens to early 20s).”
The idea started growing late in 2019 when the dairy industry found out that per-capita dairy consumption hit its highest level in 60 years. America hasn’t consumed this level of dairy products since 1960, so the question is how to keep this trend going into the future? Dairy Management Incorporated CEO Tom Gallagher says you reach out to younger people on platforms where they already engage with each other.
The U.S. dairy industry is partnering with four of the most popular Minecraft gamers in the world to promote their products to the next generation of consumers. (Photo from theverge.com)
Dairy industry sustainability is another key driver in the new idea. “The businesses of dairy, such as the co-ops, the processors, and the manufacturers, have collectively set the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050,” Gallagher said.
“Dairy Management’s role in that is to support the environmental science, communications, and other relationships in achieving that goal,” he added. “While sustainability is important, it also has to be profitable for the industry. We are working on several different test cases on various farms to prove that profitability is possible, or what might need to change to make sustainability profitable.”
Gallagher said there is no sustainability without profitability. Without improving sustainability, farmers and the entire industry will likely be subject to very pejorative regulations in the future. It’s a chance for the industry to be proactive and avoid excessive regulations.
So how does Minecraft fit into the discussion? DMI had five college interns over the past summer who were in their low 20s and MBA students. DMI gave them the challenge to figure out how they would promote dairy sustainability to Gen Z if they had 10 million dollars to do the job. The students came up with the idea of promoting dairy through the video games that Gen Z plays.
Dairy Management Incorporated is thinking “outside the box” in coming up with new methods to promote dairy to the next generation of consumers, one of which is using the popular video game Minecraft. (photo from lakenormanpublications.com)
Joanna Hunter is the Executive Vice President of Communications with DMI, who says the dairy industry will work with four of the most well-known Minecraft gamers in the world. It’s a chance to reach the Gen Z audience through a platform they’re already engaging in.
“We are going to work directly with four gamers who combine for more than 120 million followers,” she said. “Each of the influencers will take part in a virtual visit to dairy farms of different sizes and locations across the country, and every farm will have its own sustainability practices.
“After that virtual visit, the gamers will take what they learned and build a dairy farm in Minecraft,” Hunter added. “They may challenge each other, or they may challenge their followers to build the best dairy farm.”
The overall goal is for the gamers to engage others in that sustainability story and how dairy farmers are working hard to bring a nutritious and sustainable product to their audience. The gamers will be putting out dairy-related content through November. Hunter says it’s a great time to use the platform for a unique two-way engagement with the intended audience.
This kind of work doesn’t get off the ground without direct support from dairy farmers. Aric DeJager owns and operates Icon Holsteins in Kersey, Colorado. His role will be to provide on-site dairy farm education for the four gamers through FaceTime. Like a lot of folks older than Gen Z, he’s learning about Minecraft from younger relatives.
“I’m learning a lot about the scale of this from my nieces and nephews,” he said. “I’m just figuring out exactly how popular this stuff is. These gamers will have 40 million young and impressionable people watching them build their dairy farms on Minecraft. I’m really excited to see how this goes forward from here.
“I think this is a great step in the right direction,” Jager added.
Gallagher says things are changing, and the industry has to change with the times. The days of three cable TV channels are over, and it’s a new generation of marketing.
“Things like traditional television and cable news just don’t present the same marketing opportunities they once did,” Gallagher said. “We have to go where the people are. Over the next year, we’re going to test some new things, including Minecraft.
“Through GenYouth and Fuel Up to Play 60, we’ll be doing some things with NFL Madden,” he added. “Retailers are starting to create their own media cloud as the more traditional forms of advertising have declined in their reach a bit. Companies like Quaker have gone to 70 percent digital advertising, with more and more retailers following suit.
“As retailers continue to test their own channels, we’ll be doing more and more testing with them,” Gallagher added.
Dairy industry sustainability is another key driver in the new idea. “The businesses of dairy, such as the co-ops, the processors, and the manufacturers, have collectively set the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050,” Gallagher said.
“Dairy Management’s role in that is to support the environmental science, communications, and other relationships in achieving that goal,” he added. “While sustainability is important, it also has to be profitable for the industry. We are working on several different test cases on various farms to prove that profitability is possible, or what might need to change to make sustainability profitable.”
Gallagher said there is no sustainability without profitability. Without improving sustainability, farmers and the entire industry will likely be subject to very pejorative regulations in the future. It’s a chance for the industry to be proactive and avoid excessive regulations.
So how does Minecraft fit into the discussion? DMI had five college interns over the past summer who were in their low 20s and MBA students. DMI gave them the challenge to figure out how they would promote dairy sustainability to Gen Z if they had 10 million dollars to do the job. The students came up with the idea of promoting dairy through the video games that Gen Z plays.
Joanna Hunter is the Executive Vice President of Communications with DMI, who says the dairy industry will work with four of the most well-known Minecraft gamers in the world. It’s a chance to reach the Gen Z audience through a platform they’re already engaging in.
“We are going to work directly with four gamers who combine for more than 120 million followers,” she said. “Each of the influencers will take part in a virtual visit to dairy farms of different sizes and locations across the country, and every farm will have its own sustainability practices.
“After that virtual visit, the gamers will take what they learned and build a dairy farm in Minecraft,” Hunter added. “They may challenge each other, or they may challenge their followers to build the best dairy farm.”
The overall goal is for the gamers to engage others in that sustainability story and how dairy farmers are working hard to bring a nutritious and sustainable product to their audience. The gamers will be putting out dairy-related content through November. Hunter says it’s a great time to use the platform for a unique two-way engagement with the intended audience.
This kind of work doesn’t get off the ground without direct support from dairy farmers. Aric DeJager owns and operates Icon Holsteins in Kersey, Colorado. His role will be to provide on-site dairy farm education for the four gamers through FaceTime. Like a lot of folks older than Gen Z, he’s learning about Minecraft from younger relatives.
“I’m learning a lot about the scale of this from my nieces and nephews,” he said. “I’m just figuring out exactly how popular this stuff is. These gamers will have 40 million young and impressionable people watching them build their dairy farms on Minecraft. I’m really excited to see how this goes forward from here.
“I think this is a great step in the right direction,” Jager added.
Gallagher says things are changing, and the industry has to change with the times. The days of three cable TV channels are over, and it’s a new generation of marketing.
“Things like traditional television and cable news just don’t present the same marketing opportunities they once did,” Gallagher said. “We have to go where the people are. Over the next year, we’re going to test some new things, including Minecraft.
“Through GenYouth and Fuel Up to Play 60, we’ll be doing some things with NFL Madden,” he added. “Retailers are starting to create their own media cloud as the more traditional forms of advertising have declined in their reach a bit. Companies like Quaker have gone to 70 percent digital advertising, with more and more retailers following suit.
“As retailers continue to test their own channels, we’ll be doing more and more testing with them,” Gallagher added.
Organic farming in the U.S. is a blossoming business opportunity for farmers across the country. Overall industry sales totaled $1 billion in 1990 when the nation’s organic laws passed, and then reached a recent high of $55 billion. Unfortunately, there are some unintended loopholes in the regulations that allow non-organic products to be labeled as organic. The industry is concerned about the effect on the credibility of their label.
The U.S. organic industry is concerned about the credibility of the label and are looking to strengthen enforcement rules governing the industry. (photo from geneticliteracyproject.org)
The Organic Trade Association is one of several groups working on closing the loopholes and making enforcement of the regulations more uniform. They’ve been working on it since 2017 when the Washington Post reported on 36 million pounds of fraudulently labeled soybeans that entered the United States.
“We started our legislative work in 2018 when the new farm bill went into effect,” said Gwendolyn Wyard, the Vice President of Regulatory and Technical Affairs. “That gave the National Organic Program the support, funding, and the authorization to do its work.”
The USDA released a proposed rule last July designed to detect and deter the kind of fraud the industry is fighting. The National Farmers Union points out that millions of dollars of non-organic products have been intentionally mislabeled and sold in the U.S. The scale of the problem is large and requires equally large solutions.
Wyard says this is the largest single piece of rule-making since the USDA organic regulations first went into effect in 2002. She calls it a complete overhaul of the rules that will strengthen the oversight and enforcement of rules governing the production and sale of products. “It will close gaps in the supply chain and strengthen regulations to prevent fraud,” Wyard added.
“We must do this, and we do it right,” she said. “Shoppers need to know that organic standards are strong. Fraud takes the value out of the supply chain and hurts producers wherever they farm. We rely entirely on consumer trust.”
