A look back at 2022

<p>IT’S SHOWTIME: 2022 saw the full return of several ag trade shows after COVID-19-related adjustments and shutdowns the past few years. New York Farm Show was back in Syracuse this past February with more than 400 exhibitors and great crowds over three days at the New York State Fairgrounds. In August, Farm Progress Show returned to its permanent site in Boone, Iowa, for the first time since 2018. The show was supposed to be held live in Boone in 2020, but was instead put on as a virtual show that year as a result of COVID-related precautions. The show rotates to Boone in even-numbered years and is held in Decatur, Ill., in odd-numbered years. The North American Manure Expo returned to Pennsylvania for the first time since 2015 with dozens of exhibitors, thousands of visitors, and numerous demonstrations and tours of manure-related technologies and cutting-edge farm operations. And Farm Science Review celebrated its 60th anniversary this year by welcoming hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors to its annual site at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio.</p>

<p>CORN KING: Don Stall was corn king once again, winning the National Corn Growers Association contest for the second year in a row. In an article written for the April/May edition by Jennifer Kiel, Stall, who farms in Charlotte, Mich., and took first place with 465.7 bushels on conventional irrigated land, talked about planting corn and soybeans on both dry and irrigated land with an eye on optimal yields. “That means recognizing your limiting factors,” he said. “We grade our ground from A to E, and then break it down further into zones or areas. From there, we define our yield goals. We have some ground that is never going to produce more than 165-bushel corn. So, we’re not going to try to push that. On ground where the potential is 500 bushels, we’re going for it, but with adjustments throughout the year as limiting factors come into play.” Stall, a sixth-generation farmer who came back to the farm after six years in the Marines, variable-rate applies inputs based on 1-acre grid samples. “We variable-rate our P, K and lime based on those tests,” he said.</p>

<p>SELF-DRIVING TRACTOR: John Deere unveiled the autonomous 8R tractor earlier this year at CES in Las Vegas. In a story that ran in the April/May edition, written by Willie Vogt, Willy Pell who works with autonomous systems at Blue River, a division of John Deere, outlined the new technology on the machine. "There are six pairs of stereo cameras providing a 360-degree view around the machine," Pell said, adding that stereo cameras work like human eyes, where two images brought together provide depth perception around the machine. "It can calculate distance with those images using machine learning." The machine has been trained on more than 50 million images, and that list is growing. The tractor uses both artificial intelligence and machine learning to work in the environment, staying within a predetermined geofence during operation. Images captured by the cameras go through a deep neural network that classifies each pixel in about 100 milliseconds and determines if the machine should keep moving.</p>

<p>‘PLATINUM’ MILK PRODUCERS: Crandall Dairy Farm in Michigan and Tollgate Holsteins in New York were each awarded the Platinum Award for milk quality as part of the National Dairy Quality Awards program by National Mastitis Council. The farms were highlighted in June in an article co-authored by Chris Torres and Jennifer Kiel. The program looks at somatic cell count, standard plate count data and other quality standards in determining winning farms. Crandall Dairy, located in Calhoun County, Mich., is run by Brad and Mark Crandall, and includes 350 cows. The dairy has a rolling herd average of 32,000 pounds and a somatic cell count in the 60,000s. High-quality forages are raised on 800 acres of mostly family-owned land, all within 2 miles of the farm.. “And we harvest all our own crops, which means we can harvest forages when it’s optimal,” Brad says. They use a cow-monitoring system called Cow Manager, and through a phone app, the family receives alerts about cow activity and health. Tollgate Holsteins of Ancramdale, N.Y., is run by Jim Davenport, who milks nearly 70 Holsteins and Jerseys. Davenport doesn’t “push” his cows with a high-grain diet, which he thinks is key to high-quality milk. The cows are fed a high-forage diet from the 140 acres of brown midrib corn silage and fescue-based grasses he raises. He averages four cuttings with a 5-ton dry matter yield. His Holsteins can make 80 pounds of milk daily at 4% protein. His herd’s somatic cell count averages 30,000 to 40,000, but he’s gotten it as low as 26,000.</p>

<p>AVIAN FLU: An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza affected farms across the country, but some of the most severe effects were felt by growers in the Northeast. Some of the first cases of HPAI were confirmed in Delaware in February, the first HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the state since 2004. On its avian flu website, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reported the virus had affected 47.72 million birds on 247 commercial poultry flocks in 43 affected states, as of late October. In Pennsylvania, the ailment spread to 19 commercial poultry flocks and affected 4.27 million birds. In Ohio, it spread to one commercial poultry flock and six backyard flocks, affecting 3.75 million birds. In Delaware and Maryland, the ailment spread to seven commercial poultry flocks, affecting more than 2 million birds.</p>

<p>KILLER WASPS DEPLOYED: A parasitoid wasp with a taste for spotted wing drosophila was released in major fruit-growing regions of the U.S. this summer. The tiny SWD-killing parasitoid samba wasps, also known by the name <em>Ganaspis brasiliensis</em>, kill SWD by laying eggs inside the insect. When the wasp hatches, its larva consumes its prey. Spotted wing drosophila populations should then be reduced when the wasps are there to contribute to the fly-fighting cause, according to preliminary data. In an article that ran in the August edition, Jennifer Kiel reported that the wasps were released in fruit orchards, berry fields and other SWD-susceptible crops in prime growing regions, including blueberry and cherry farms in Michigan. Although researchers don’t expect immediate results, the availability of this new biocontrol agent opens up a new chapter in research on this devastating pest. “If growers could control this better on the farm, they could be using fewer pesticides, and we could get back to what I would consider normal IPM before this invasive species arrived,” said Rufus Isaacs, a researcher with the wasps. SWD is difficult to control because of its high reproductive rate and strong dispersal abilities, and, unlike most fruit flies, female SWD can pierce the skin of undamaged soft-skinned fruits such as cherries and berries to lay eggs.</p>

<p>WINNING MASTERS: A new crop of Master Farmers were named in Ohio, Michigan and the mid-Atlantic. The February edition featured the three 2022 Michigan Master Farmers: William (Bill) Hunt of Davison, Dennis Gardner of Yale and Greg McCarthy of Edmore. This year’s Michigan Master Farmer celebration was a two-for-one, as the in-person awards ceremony Jan. 27 at the Great Lakes Crop Summit honored both the 2021 Master Farmers and the 2022 winners. The March issue featured this year’s Ohio Master Farmers: Bret Margraf of McCutchenville and Jeff Duling of Ottawa. Margraf and Duling were honored March 8 at the Ohio Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference in Ada. The Mid-Atlantic Master Farmers, featured in the July edition, were an all-Pennsylvania group. But their diversity is a great representation of agriculture in the Keystone State. They included Donald Cairns of Parkesburg, Jeff and Sue Frey of Willow Street, and Arthur King of Valencia. The Master Farmers were honored during the annual Mid-Atlantic Master Farmer Association banquet and tour in July at the Hotel Rock Lititz, Pa.</p>

<p>RECORD-BREAKING COW: A group of investors led by farmers in New York and Vermont broke the bank to buy S-S-I Doc Have Not 8784-ET for $1.925 million, a record price, at an auction in Wisconsin. In an article in the September edition, written by Chris Torres, Tim Abbott of Enosburg Falls, Vt., one of the partners who bought the cow, raved, “We bought the factory. Now we’re going to start building things out of a factory.” And by factory, he means a cow that will mother a long line of high-performing offspring for other farmers. “I look at it as an entire business,” Abbott said. “With the cow, a fair number of potential offspring, it’s a foundation for her own company.” But still, why would a cow fetch nearly $2 million? Well, for one thing, it wasn’t just the cow that sold. The high price tag also came with 40 embryos that are being carried by recipient cows.</p>

<p>SUPERMARKET BEEF: Karns Quality Foods, a Pennsylvania-based supermarket chain, launched what is believed to be the first vertical supermarket beef chain in the country. In an article in the October edition — written by Chris Torres — Larissa Miller, president and CEO of Keystone Farm Future, said a new beef business model was long overdue given the growing demand for locally grown beef, the control of the industry by the four large packers and growers who want a steadier income without the burden of too much debt. Twenty farms are raising cattle directly for Karns. Keystone Farm Future fully manages the operation, from cattle to boxed beef. It is sold in stores under the Karns Beef Co. label. Ultimately, Miller said it made sense to work with a supermarket chain to understand its needs on a weekly and monthly basis, and build out a beef herd based on those needs. “The end goal was to create a surety of supply for the supermarket and ensure farmers will get paid a good price, and there was no mystery to costs they would have to put up,” she says. Keystone, on behalf of Karns, started building out the herd in November 2021 with backgrounded cattle from farms in Virginia and West Virginia. Ten farms, mostly in south-central Pennsylvania, were contracted to grow out the first batches of 700-pound cattle.</p>

<p>SOY ON STREETS: Soybean oil has proven to be versatile beyond being a food product. Industrial purposes account for 7% of soybean oil used in the U.S. That includes products such as paints, plastics, foam and cleaners. Biorestor, a restorage asphalt modifier made of soybean oil, was applied to a 1-mile stretch of road in Michigan this summer. Jennifer Kiel wrote of the project in the November edition. Biorestor has been shown to increase a pavement’s life cycle by up to 40%. According to the manufacturer, Biorestor penetrates to restore pavement from within, decreasing the brittleness and improving the flexibility of the pavement — and decreasing cracking. The cost of applying the soybean oil-based asphalt enhancement product was covered by the Michigan Soybean Committee and Soy Transportation Coalition (STC), in partnership with the Clinton County Road Commission.</p>

<p>BIOMASS HEATING: Mike Milligan, who farms about 4,500 acres with his father, Dave, in Michigan’s Cass City, is the first in the U.S. to install a Triple Green Products biomass heating system, and he’s put it to the test this past harvest. “My propane bill is one of the biggest expenses on the farm — at today’s prices, it’s like $70,000-$75,000,” he says. “With this system, I spent $7,500 in wood chips and transport. It’s a significant savings.” Milligan’s continuous-flow tower dryer was set up for propane, but this summer he retrofitted it to burn wood chips as a heating source to deliver very dry, hot air. The BioDryAir burner hooks to existing dryers with an air duct that directs the heat. The unit is fed the biomass via a hopper and auger system commonly used in agriculture. The system is completely automated and can be controlled by cellphone. The system also communicates with the dryer to provide the right amount of heat at the right temperature.</p>