While we’re on the home-stretch of the week, take some time to catch up with the latest news.
Livestock and Crops
Editor Madelyn Ostendorf writes about the momentum behind behind breeding dairy cows with beef bulls, a topic featured at the 2022 Cattle Industry Convention. This genetic technology can impact producers’ operations.
Beef x dairy cattle are not making new cattle, but rather replacing and enhancing existing dairy cattle. Kelli Retallick, president of Angus Genetics, says this type of breeding is a way to create a solution for issues that exist in the cattle industry.
The 2020 agreement that de-escalated the Sino-U.S. trade war set unrealistically high goals for U.S. exports to China and failed to deliver on them by large margins, say analysts.
Overall, China bought just 57% of the goods and services it committed to buying as part of the “phase one” agreement. The agriculture sector, at 83%, came closest to reaching its export goal.
Derek Reusser, marketing manager for Massey Ferguson talks through the features farmers asked for in the new 6S tractor.
See this versatile tractor work across row crop, livestock, and hay operations.
XtremeAg’s Matt Miles, Kelly Garrett, and Kevin Matthews are getting ready to plant, but a wintertime drought gives them concerns about germination in dryer than usual soil.
Here’s a look at the latest activity on their farms.
Weather
Editor Dave Mowitz covers the return of La Niña. “The second time is a charm for La Niña. It’s coming back in force for the spring and possibly the summer, bringing with it continued drought and targeting the southwestern corner of the nation, especially.”
“This La Niña probably means bad news for the American Southwest, which should see lower than normal rainfall this winter,” says Josh Willis, a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This La Niña may not be a whopper, but it’s still an unwelcome sign for an area already deep into a drought.”
Editor Mike McGinnis writes, “While last week’s broad-based storm improved precipitation shortfalls in the remaining U.S. drought areas, seasonal deficits are still present, according to this week’s Drought Monitor report.”
The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center forecast for the period of February 10-15 calls for relatively dry weather over much of the Lower 48.
A pair of storm systems are expected to bring snow to the Upper Midwest and Northeast. Much of the continental U.S. will see above-normal temperatures through the weekend.
