Hempitecture Inc. has chosen to build the facility at Northbridge Junction industrial park, where Interstate 84 and U.S. Highway 93 intersect in Jerome County.

The 21,632-square-foot facility will manufacture HempWool, a fiber thermal insulation for residential and commercial construction projects.

“We’re thrilled to be locating our nonwoven manufacturing facility in Jerome, Idaho,” Hempitecture founder & CEO Matthew Mead said.

Hempitecture raised $2.5 million on a crowdfunding website to help with building costs.

Jerome County Commissioner Charlie Howell said the company creates an opportunity for farmers to diversify their crops with a plant that uses less water. The final product could also be used in construction products around the state and the Magic Valley.

Idaho was the only state where hemp was illegal, until recently. In April, Gov. Brad Little signed a bill to legalize the production, research and transportation of industrial hemp starting with the spring 2022 growing season.

Idaho Gov. Little signs bill allowing growing, transport of hemp

Hemp manufacturing company officially coming to the Magic Valley

“Both plants processed about 6,000 head per day or approximately 6% of total daily beef slaughter,” he says.

With the similarities, the previous experience could hint at what lies ahead for markets.

“We learned several lessons from the Holcomb, Kansas, fire that could apply to the Grand Island, Nebraska, fire,” Dennis says. “First, live cattle prices are likely to fall given the now over supply of harvest-ready cattle relative to processing capacity. Second, wholesale cutouts are likely to increase as retailers seek to make advance purchases on beef. Combined, these will likely widen beef processing margins – something that has been curiously and intensely watched since 2019.”

Two key factors will help determine the outcomes, Dennis says.

“The market will look for two signals to regulate this margin,” he says. “One, will the damaged plant be rebuilt, and two, how long will the plant be shut down before it will be fully operational.”

Dennis says the incident could impact feeder cattle producers negatively.

Dennis says the Holcomb fire in Kansas had a variety of impacts, and the JBS fire could have some similar outcomes.

“Although the plant fire primarily affected fed cattle, it did influence feeder cattle prices,” he says. “Feeder cattle have already started to enter feedlots earlier than in previous years as drought and reduced forage production has forced some feeder cattle producers to market feeder cattle earlier.”

The fire could impact how full pens are and what price feeder cattle can bring, Dennis says.

“If pens continue to stay full, this could reduce the price feedlots would be willing to pay for feeder cattle,” he says. “This combined with potentially higher feed grain prices both have the potential for increased downside price movements.”

“If I had no bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all,” Matthews said.

The depredation by bald eagles has reduced his lamb inventory, which in turn limited his ability to support the rest of his sheep operation. No lambs to sell meant there was no money to purchase corn seed. No corn crop meant no feed to harvest for animals. And with no cash, Matthews couldn’t purchase additional feed for the winter.

“It’s a snowball effect,” he said.

The one bright spot? The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP).

Under LIP, Matthews should be entitled to 75% of the market value for each confirmed kill. But he hasn’t seen a single dollar.

Typically, LIP applications are processed and approved by the local Farm Service Agency County Committee within 30 days, said a USDA spokesperson over email. That timeline can change, especially if the FSA is waiting for required documentation.

Producers are required to provide evidence of losses. This can include proof of beginning and ending herd inventory, tax documents, third-party certification, or date-stamped pictures and videos of losses.

“We understand that there is a process but it’s past that process,” Matthews said. “I did everything I was supposed to.”

He submitted proof of herd inventory and a copy of the Wildlife Services depredation investigation report. Wildlife Services – part of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – handles such conflicts between humans and wildlife.

An investigator came out to his farm April 26 and filed a report in addition to performing necropsies, the equivalent of a human autopsy.

“The evidence basically just speaks for itself,” Jared Hedelius, state director for Wildlife Services, said in a telephone conversation.

“All evidence collected is 99.9% indicative of eagle predation on lambs,” the official investigation report says. The report lists 20 confirmed kills and 30 probable.

The difference between Matthews’ numbers and Wildlife Services’ numbers is the number of sheep killed before or after the investigation or those that just disappeared, Hedelius said.

After such reports are filed, the wildlife services’ involvement is over and the case moves on to the county Farm Service Agency office.

Eagle depredation cases are rare. Wildlife Services investigates one or two each year in Idaho.

Matthews is aware his case is unusual; he’s a member of the Twin Falls County Committee, the same body that signs off on LIP claims. Because of this, he has recused himself from the decision-making process.

“There is no reason for this to be months later and nothing has happened,” Matthews said. “I am hoping we (the committee) never treat other producers this way.”

The Times-News asked the agency why his case has yet to be approved.

“Due to privacy protocol, we cannot discuss application or payment status for individual producers,” a national USDA spokesperson wrote in an email to the Times-News.

The whole ordeal has taken a toll on the farming family. Matthews’ wife, Becca, continues to document their operations in YouTube videos.

“You can feel the pain in her voice as she’s recording some of those,” he said.

Matthews never expected his story to receive national attention. News outlets including The San Francisco Chronicle, Field and Stream, Montana Outdoor and Fox News retold his story in June after it was reported by the Times-News.

Bald eagles kill 54 sheep at Magic Valley farm

Great Pyrenees dogs, bred to guard livestock, roam the Matthews property to protect the herd.

After the attacks, he moved the lambs inside a covered arena but the eagles continued to attack. Eventually, Matthews moved all the lambs to a neighbor’s property until they grew larger.

“No matter what you do, you can’t be everywhere at once,” Matthews said. “Other than building a cover to keep them in, I just don’t think there is much a guy can do.”

Friends of the family started a GoFundMe account to raise money for an enclosure to protect next year’s crop of lambs.

Matthews doesn’t want people to use his story to argue for fewer federal bald eagle protections.

“Out of respect for our symbol of freedom, I still believe that they need a higher level of protection than most protected animals.”

Beautiful rain provided a respite from drought along Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shore the last days of August. The first two weeks of September were mostly dry, but more rain came at the start of the third week with more in the forecast.

Still drought continued all across the Lake Superior Basin, with some tributaries drying completely. The water level in the big lake dropped to less than normal levels. In the forests the duff is moist, but the soil is dry.

Wildfire danger in northern Wisconsin abated for the moment. Smoke and haze from wildfires in both the United States and Canada mostly lifted, but the fires in Minnesota and Ontario continue to rage.

The dry weather has made for good field conditions for harvest and fall field work. Many are reporting great progress with both. Some are far enough ahead to start working through the lists of repairs and maintenance. This past winter was mild. Some are predicting another mild winter by observing the small size of firewood piles in some yards. Maybe the weather prognosticators should stick to the stripes on wooly bear caterpillars!

Looking to the Fall Equinox and beyond we see change coming quickly. Shortening days, lower sun in the sky and fall colors are lighting up the woods a little more each day. It’s the time of abundance. The time is now to harvest and put up food for the winter to sustain both humans and our wild neighbors in the fields and forests. It has been a mast year in the north. But dry conditions have caused the mast, though plentiful in some areas, to be on the light and imperfect side.

Foragers found mushrooms after the rainy days. Their eyes were peeled for the hen of the woods. Folks are gathering leaves for winter tea and seasoning. Sweet fern, sweet gale, wild raspberry, Labrador tea and more were ready for picking.

Around Chequamegon Bay folks are preparing for the Bayfield Apple Fest to be held the first three days of October. The apples are cooperating. Varieties available in September at Bayfield Fruit Loop orchards included Hume, Zestar, Cortland, Gala, Honeycrisp, Melba, McIntosh, Greening and Priscilla. Fresh-pressed cider and hard cider is available. Visit bayfield.org/festivals-events/bayfield-apple-festival for more information.

Farm stores and farm markets remained open in September and business was brisk. Folks were snapping up available winter community-supported-agriculture subscriptions. Grapes, raspberries, pears, melons, pumpkins, squash, plums, tomatoes, garlic, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, cultivated mushrooms and more are available. There’s an abundant supply of local pasture-fed meat and eggs. Fresh local greens of many varieties are available. There’s a good supply of local fiber, dairy products, milk, ice cream and sheep-milk cheese. Locally made beer, mead, hard cider, wine and spirits are available. Honey, syrup and preserves continue to tempt visitors. Call ahead and check farm websites for availability and store hours. Visit www.feastbythebay.org and bayfield.org/what-to-do/orchards-berry-farms/orchard-reports for more information.

Surrounded with so much locally produced excellent-quality food, it’s difficult for many of us to imagine how it is that folks in our own community and all across our nation can be going hungry. Some are working to solve the problem by helping folks learn how to grow and preserve food. Others are donating to food banks. Folks in the countryside tend to have a generous streak. Many can take care of themselves and others. They care about neighbors and strangers alike. Maybe that’s why so many of us love life in the country.

“There’s two or three sheets of paper in my desk drawer,” he says. “When I think of the right name, I write it down.”

Eggers is the manager for Sydenstricker Genetics, based in Audrain County, Missouri. He works with Eddie Sydenstricker, whose father, Ralph, founded the operation in 1952. Eggers says a number of factors go into naming a bull.

“What we do is try to think of something that makes sense and includes the bull’s lineage,” he says.

For many bulls, this involves taking the sire’s name and adding a number, to give them their own unique tag. But for some of the best bulls, they get a unique name that still has ties to their sire. For example, Eggers recalls a successful bull named Fortune, and they named his best son Fame.

“(We had to decide) which one got to be named Fame and which one was Fortune 5,000-something,” he says.

Other names reflect histories. Eggers says they had a top-selling bull named Colonel, and they knew he had been named for a particular auctioneer, so they named a son Gavel.

Names that invoke success are often popular for bulls, and Eggers says names that can fit into advertising efforts are helpful. A bull named Exceed gives marketing options.

“He continues to ‘exceed’ expectations,” Eggers says, giving an example.

Exceed sired a bull named Enhance, a name that calls to mind his lineage, Eggers says.

He also tries not to get too complicated.

“We like to be as unique as possible, and we try to be as short as possible,” he says.

Naming livestock can be a team effort, and Eggers says he asks family and workers on the farm what they think of certain names and how they sound. He also works with clients on naming livestock sometimes.

“A lot of times it’s a team process,” he says. “Is it spell-able, is it sayable?”

The bull names can often pay homage to sports figures. Eggers recalls a bull named Denver, and names of his offspring included Manning and Peyton, after quarterback Peyton Manning, who won a Super Bowl while playing for the Denver Broncos. Another son of Denver was named Volunteer, since Peyton Manning played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers, and another was named Omaha, a word the quarterback would famously yell to signal plays.

Eggers says it is less common to think of creative names for the females, although a bull named Rock Star had several of his daughters named for famous rock stars, including Jagger after the singer of the Rolling Stones.

Eggers says his advisors can keep him reined in.

“I’ve always wanted to name one Meat Loaf, but my wife kind of killed that,” he says with a laugh.

The work of naming livestock extends to youth livestock exhibitors. Jerry Kaibe, a freshman at Eldon High School in Eldon, Missouri, says the name for his market hog came to him right away.

“I named him Chubbs,” he says. “Because he was big, funny and did not run like a normal pig. He fell over when he stopped running. When I looked at him, my first thought was, ‘Your name is Chubbs.’”

Jonathan Bax, a junior at Eldon, says naming by appearance is a reliable approach.

“I named my steer Rusty because he is a rusty red color,” he says. “I usually name them based on their appearance.”

Morghan Crane, a student at Paris, Missouri, likes to use names that go together.

“We sometimes use themes for the names of our pigs. A couple of years ago they were all named after gemstones, Opal, Diamond and Ruby,” she says.

Reid Ragadale, also a student at Paris, says sometimes the names come with the animal.

“Sometimes I use names for my show steers that come with them when I buy them,” he says. “This year’s steer was named by a 5-year-old kid: Noodle.”

Dairy Farmers of America – along with 13 of its regional farmer-owned milk brands – is helping to fuel school athletic programs with the launch of its first-ever “Fuel Their Drive” promotion. The fall promotion will award $1 million to high school athletic programs across the country when consumers purchase milk from one of the cooperative’s participating brands.

More than 250 grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 will be awarded across 13 of Dairy Farmers of America’s brand communities in 26 markets. The grants may be used to update a sports field, revamp a school gymnasium, purchase athletic equipment, or whatever an athletic department deems as its greatest need.

Milk provides student athletes high-quality protein for strong muscles, fluids to rehydrate, and nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus. And winning milk money is made easy for consumers, according to Dairy Farmers of America.

• Buy milk from one of the organization’s 13 participating, farmer-owned milk brands.
• Snap a photo of your receipt.
• Visit fueltheirdrive.com and find the link to the page for local participating brands. From there you can upload the receipt
• Vote for your local high school. High schools with the most votes in each market will win $10,000. Some winners will be chosen at random for $2,000. Shoppers are encouraged to purchase and upload often. Community members and high school students have an additional chance to win $1,000 for their local school by showing and sharing their school pride on social media and participating in a school spirit challenge.
• Community members and students are encouraged to post photos or videos on Instagram. Tag your local participating brand and use hashtag #FuelTheirDriveSweepstakes to enter.

The participating regional brands are listed.

• Alta Dena Dairy
• Cass-Clay Creamery
• Country Fresh Dairy
• Guida’s Dairy
• Kemps
• Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms
• Mayfield Dairy Farms
• Meadow Gold Dairy
• Oak Farms Dairy
• PET Dairy
• Reiter Dairy
• T.G. Lee Dairy
• Tuscan Dairy Farms

Visit fueltheirdrive.com for more information.

Milk-quality-expert nominations sought

The National Mastitis Council recently opened nominations for its Award of Excellence for Contribution to Mastitis Prevention and Control. The award recognizes a council member who has provided sustained contributions to mastitis prevention and control through research, Extension and-or education, clinical practice. or service to dairy producers.

The award carries a cash honorarium and a travel stipend to attend the National Mastitis Council Annual Meeting, which will be held Feb. 1-3 in San Diego. The award, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, will be presented during the meeting.

Nominations are due Oct. 31. The nomination form may be found on the council’s website. In addition to the completed form, submit two or three letters of support. The letters should describe how the nominee has met award criteria, including time in the dairy industry, positions held, major contributions to mastitis prevention and milk quality, research, publications, leadership roles, participation in National Mastitis Council activities and industry involvement. Also include the nominee’s curriculum vitae and-or resume. Visit nmconline.org/award-of-excellence for more information.

Foot-and-mouth disease plan tested

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship recently partnered to test state and federal animal-health officials’ plans to respond to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak if it were to occur. The disease hasn’t been detected in the United States since 1929.

During the training exercise state and federal animal-health officials discussed their vaccine-distribution strategy. They practiced actions that would need to be taken at the beginning of an actual foreign animal-disease outbreak. The training exercise involved detecting a hypothetical case in a susceptible animal, identifying the strain of the virus, and activating the North American Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Bank. It also involved shipping the placebo vaccine from a European manufacturer to the United States and distributing the placebo to participating livestock producers and veterinary clinics in multiple states. It was essential to demonstrate that the placebo vaccine could be held within a specific temperature range during shipping and that chain of control could be maintained during the entire distribution process.

The foot-and-mouth virus affects cows, pigs, sheep, goats, deer and other animals with divided hooves. The virus can cause a fever, blisters and lameness in livestock, resulting in decreased protein and milk production. If a positive case of the disease was confirmed in the United States, it could disrupt the food-supply chain, international trade and the economy.

There are vaccines available to protect livestock from foot-and-mouth disease but they must be matched to the specific type and subtype of the virus to be effective. To date there are more than seven known types and 60 subtypes of the virus. Visit aphis.usda.gov/aphis/home for more information.

Product competition targets gamers

The 10th annual National Dairy Council New Product Competition seeks the next innovative dairy product from U.S. college students. Undergraduate students and graduate students are eligible to compete by developing innovative dairy-based products for gamers. Successful entries will meet competition criteria, demonstrate innovation, and provide value to consumers.

The competition is an opportunity for students to develop products in line with industry and consumer insights to uncover innovative products for gamers.

• 94 percent of young people play video games in some capacity
• 60 percent of gamers say video games help them to be social
• 90 percent of gamers ages 21-35 regularly eat food and drink while gaming

The judging panel is comprised of experts from the dairy industry. Winning teams will be recognized at the American Dairy Science Association’s annual meeting in Kansas City June 19-22. A combined $16,000 in cash prizes will be awarded – $8,000 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $3,000 for third place.

The deadline for submissions is Jan. 17. Visit usdairy.com or contact rohit.kapoor@dairy.org for more information.

It is a pretty big gap, he said, noting how much higher Randy Dowdy’s record-breaking yield of 190 bu./acre soybeans in Georgia is compared to the U.S. average of 53 bu./acre.

David Hula set the world record corn yield at 616 bu./acre in Virginia, compared to the U.S. average at 177 bu./acre. Neither Virginia nor Georgia are known as leading corn and soybean states, Below said.

“The gap presents you with an opportunity to increase your yields,” Below told farmers attending Agronomy Field Day in Champaign Aug. 19.

Tools to help narrow this gap include planting the best “racehorse hybrids” at high density and using other research-proven practices to reduce plant stress and help plants reach their full potential.

For soybeans, “planting early is the single best thing you can do to increase yields,” he said.

A lot of people are planting soybeans before corn now and using seed treatments, he said. Early leaf development is important for soybeans.

Eight years of research has shown that every day after April 23 when soybeans are planted, half a bushel per acre of yield is lost.

Below noted the record holders aim to reduce plant stress as much as possible. All the winners used both irrigation and biologicals, he said.

For corn, “despite the high seed costs, plant populations need to go up” to raise yields, he said. In the future, they will be planted in narrower rows than the common practice of 30-inch rows today, he said.

Plant placement will also be more important as more densely planted corn has fewer roots. This will require better fertilizer placement to get to those roots, he said.

Scott Foxhoven, a research agronomist and graduate student on Below’s team, said that banded fertility, applied with a toolbar directly below the future crop, mimics strip till. It increases efficiency and reduces nutrient losses. Four of the top 10 yields in 2019 used strip till, he said.

Any emerging corn plants which don’t get needed nutrients are stunted and act more like a weed than yield providers, he said.

In 2021, the university’s corn fields with banded fertility got off to a good start.

“It will pay,” Foxhoven said of the practice.

For higher yields, hybrids matter. Foxhoven is betting on “racehorse hybrids” with smaller roots and banded fertility to win the yield race this year.

Choosing the right biologicals is also essential to high yields, said Connor Sible, a graduate research assistant on Below’s team. Again, the goal is to reduce plant stress.

“They (biologicals) will not replace good management,” he said.

Below and his research team highlighted potential practices and tools for closing the yield gap, noting that intense management is one of those tools.

While farmers have undoubtedly benefited from the wonders of precision data capture, the technology carries with it some vulnerabilities.

“They should have concerns,” said Stuart Birrell, a professor of agricultural engineering at Iowa State University.

Birrell said there is a struggle for dominance in ag data, threatening to move into the space long held by smaller entities.

“You have a little bit of a fight between the seed company and the tractor company,” he said. “On one side you have the seed companies and chemical companies, which are basically the same now. They have all of the knowledge in terms of what is the potential for the seed information. They don’t have the knowledge of what is out in the field in terms of planting. The tractor manufacturers are collecting that data.”

Birrell said further tightening of the information stream could have the effect of infringing on cooperatives and pushing independent consultants out.

“That basically would threaten their livelihoods to a certain extent,” he said. “It would become one-stop shopping. ‘We will do the analysis for you. And we know your neighbors’ data so we can give you better prescription maps because we have a bigger sample.’”

Farmers may be caught in the middle, struggling to retain ownership of data on their farms.

“It’s definitely a concern,” said Doug Cropp, a grain merchandiser with Champaign,

Illinois-based Premier Cooperative. “Some of the large companies and startups with a lot of money behind them have a lot of data, and they are trying to leverage that to get at the farm level. They’re trying to capture all that and we’re trying to be protective of that because it’s (farmers’) data, not someone else’s data. We don’t share that with anybody.”

The European Union has addressed the issue with implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018. The law covers a broad range of commerce, including cellphones, internet and other entities that collect data from users. While only EU countries are bound by the law, its values have been adopted by others.

Agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO is among companies that point to their compliance with GDPR guidelines as well as other government-guaranteed protections.

“It is important to point out that AGCO’s data collection and usage practices universally adhere to GDPR and California laws in all markets even though these regulations typically go beyond most other requirements,” said company spokesman Bob Blakely.

“AGCO agrees that the customer owns any information and data about the machine that is available through these applications.”

Seed and chemical company Bayer did not have experts available to discuss the topic, but did respond that the company collects data to help improve products and bring value to customers.

“We do not share customer data with third parties without clear customer consent,” Bayer said in a statement to IFT. “We provide a clear view of how and why data is used, and how it is protected.”

Birrell said sellers of iron and chemicals have designs to be the end-all for farm operations. He sees it as an attempt at vertical integration.

“That’s exactly what it is,” he said. “You are locked into one supplier or manufacturer at that point. It would be a monopoly. They want to become more than just an equipment manufacturer and supplier. Previously for chemicals, the farmers relied on the co-ops and in some cases outside consultants. Equipment manufacturers see a financial stream so they can sell you knowledge and data analysis systems to make the maps.”

Cropp said many of the cooperatives’ farmer-members have raised concerns about data ownership, though he is optimistic because the issue has been in the forefront lately.

“There have been some concerns because of things that have happened over the past several years, when some of the data has gotten out that should have been protected,” he said. “I think things have gotten more secure. Security of the data is the most important thing.”

Even though he thrives on the excitement of breaking records on his irrigated land in northern Illinois, he still has an eye for return on investment.

“We are always chasing profit,” the fifth-generation Illinois farmer said at a gathering at the BASF media tent at the Farm Progress Show Aug. 31.

Leupkes first got excited about using intensive management practices when he saw using these practices on his sandy soils in northwestern Illinois could produce yields which rival those of corn grown on more ideal soils.

“Every year we try multiple new things. We’ve made mistakes. We learn what not to do as much as what to do,” said the Oregon, Illinois, farmer.

Unfortunately this year, Leupkes’ farms in Ogle County are located in the 20 to 30 mile band of “severe drought” in Illinois. In this area, 50 bu./acre corn won’t be unusual. He expects to see a difference as much as 200 bu./acre between his non-irrigated and irrigated land.

Irrigation was the most profitable investment for him this year, he said.

You do “better” before you do “more,” said Kelly Garrett, a western Iowa farmer who focuses on the small details.

Garrett, like Leupkes, gets a thrill from high yields while farming for the long haul – learning from extreme practices to make better management decisions every day.

“The big yields are my hobby,” said Garrett, who farms with his dad, Gene, near Denison in Crawford County, Iowa.

“Big yields are great. They help you learn how to make the most on every acre,” Garrett said.

Leupkes and Garrett are both part of XtremeAg.Farm, an online community of self-described “real farmers with real results and real success” who pay membership fees.

The online community was launched at Commodity Classic in San  Antonio in March 2020.

“It’s been a great experience with the XtremeAg team learning from others. I have learned more than I taught,” said Garrett, who grew the National Corn Growers Association top high yield corn on irrigated land from 2016 to 2019. The derecho squashed his chances in 2020.

At one point this year, Garrett’s fields were 7 inches behind the usual rainfall rate in his part of Iowa and crops were dry, but the weather changed.

“We’re looking at a good crop this year. We had timely rains,” he said.

His top corn yield on irrigated land so far is 387 bu./acre.

There is something contagious about the thrill of high yields, agrees Josh Miller, a plant scientist and technical market manager of crop protection/fungicides for BASF research. He readily admits to getting carried away in the excitement of high yields.

“I know that adrenaline rush,” he said.

Miller, who was working in retail at the time, tells the story of dropping his wife off at home after the birth of their third child so he could hurry to a field to check on a potentially record-breaking wheat yield for a customer.

It’s been a memorable year for Minnesota soybean producers, but mostly for the wrong reasons. Dry conditions were problematic most of the year. Soybean emergence was affected by dry soil conditions in some fields.

Poor canopy development has allowed waterhemp, volunteer corn and other weeds to establish and poke out of the canopy in fields statewide.

Do these weed escapes really matter?

While farmers all strive for clean fields, it is likely that the sporadic escaped weeds had little effect on this years’ soybean yields.

These weed escapes do have an impact, however. Economic impacts can occur at the local elevator as well as thousands of miles away via export markets. These escapes will also exacerbate weed problems in the future if they are able to produce viable seeds.

The good news is that it isn’t too late to keep these weedy plants out of the combine and out of the commodity stream.

Ideally, weeds should be pulled prior to harvest and removed from fields if seeds have been produced. However, this may not be a realistic option in many situations. If weeds are present in patches, consider mowing these areas to isolate the weed seed to a limited area where it can be carefully monitored and managed in subsequent crops.

Impact on exports

International customers of U.S. soybeans, including China, are rejecting soybean shipments carrying more than 1% foreign material (FM). Since FM includes any material that is not soybean seed, weed seed is an important factor. In fact, the limits on FM in soybean imports are focused on weed seed and other crop seeds, like corn.

Weed seed found in shipments will likely lead to rejection of entire vessels. Rejected vessels are extremely costly for the exporter who will certainly turn around and push costs back through the system to the farmer.

Annually, the Naeve Lab at the University of Minnesota analyzes up to 2,000 soybean samples from U.S. producers for a wide range of quality traits, including FM and weed seed. Although FM tends to be very low (about 0.2% on average), around 25% of the samples contain weed seed, indicating famers are still combining plenty of weeds.

Weeds at harvest

Part of the problem is that our common weeds retain seeds until crop harvest, meaning a large percentage of weed seeds pass through the combine. Research from the University of Wisconsin has documented how important combines are in spreading weed seeds.

Of the 31 samples collected from within nine different combines, 97% of them contained viable weed seed. The weed seed most often found included grasses, pigweeds and common lambsquarters.

Sanitizing combines between fields can minimize the spread of weeds. Focus sanitation efforts towards the front of the combine if time is limited. The greatest number of weed seeds were found on the header, followed by the feeder house, rock trap and rotor.

Efforts to produce high-quality, weed-free grain serves a dual purpose. Keeping weeds out of soybean fields and out of combines will help maintain important market access while simultaneously improving weed management.