This Week in Ag #84

“We’re to the short rows” is a phrase you often hear when a project is nearing completion. So where do you think this adage comes from? Yes, it’s from the farm. Despite what you may think when soaring above fly-over country in a jet plane, very seldom is a farm field perfectly square. Houses, buildings, waterways, trees, non-tillable areas, forestland and other obstructions – even the angle of roads – will disrupt the trajectory of square rows. When planting a field, after making a pass or two around the circumference of a field to establish end rows and turn rows, you always start at the longest side of a field and make a straight edge. You then continue to plant back and forth. In most cases, as you get toward the end of a field, the rows get shorter, thus you’ve reached the short rows.

As you get to the very end, you can reach what we call point rows. This is when one end of your planter touches the end row on the side of the field. This can cause an overlap of your crop (which if left untouched, will dramatically decrease yield). Back in the day, when farmers cultivated to control weeds in emerged crops, they would just wipe those plants out. When I planted, I would go slowly in these areas, and manually turn off each row on my planter monitor to avoid any overlap (yes, it was also a pride thing). Nowadays, with precision farming equipment, the planter will automatically turn off those touching rows. As I frequently say, much of the art of farming is now lost to GPS satellites.

Based here in the Mississippi Delta, I’ve been active in the movement to diversify the region’s agriculture. The goal is to become the next California, or at least a viable alternative to the Golden State when it comes to crop production. Water scarcity, government regulations, land values and labor are placing a strain on California producers, making some wonder if the world’s most prosperous farming region can, ironically enough, remain sustainable. Then there’s the issue of localizing the food system, as a middle American food production hub would address transportation, perishability, environmental and nutritional concerns. Here in west Tennessee, at Agricenter International, where I proudly serve on the Board of Directors, we successfully grow dozens of crops. This includes almonds, chestnuts, blueberries, blackberries, hops, barely, strawberries, pumpkins, and bamboo, as well as cotton, peanuts, corn, wheat and soybeans. My friend Mary Riddle captures this Delta transformation brilliantly, in this article she wrote for the Triple Pundit.

It’s #NationalOrganicMonth. More than 17,000 producers grow over 3.6 million acres of crops and graze livestock across 1.3 million acres of certified organic pastureland across the Fruited Plain. Not surprisingly, the majority of the USA’s $9.6 billion in organic sales occur on the west coast, with California accounting for 40% of the nation’s total. I’ve never understood the friction some conventional farmers and their advocates have with organic producers. America is the world’s richest nation. We spend $2.6 trillion annually on food. There’s room for everyone. And as an industry that prides itself as independent capitalists, we should respect anyone who finds a niche to market their product, especially when there is consumer demand. That’s why I’m especially proud that Huma offers a line of OMRI certified organic products to support these growers, along with conventional growers. Just like many of the farmers we serve, who grow both conventional and organic crops, we make organic products that are very beneficial to both growers. One such product is Promax. This crop protection product has long been popular with berry and potato operations in the West. But now we’re seeing a growing opportunity in the South and Midwest, specifically for controlling nematodes and soil-borne diseases in soybeans. We have multiple trials underway this season and have several more planned for 2025.