October 26, 2023

A five-minute summary of AAI, regulation, and industry activities for members of the largest state agribusiness association in the nation.

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EXHIBITOR REGISTRATION OPENS MONDAY

Exhibit at the 2024 Showcase

Where Agribusiness Meets

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR EXHIBITORS

Exhibitor registration opens on October 30 at 10:00 AM.

Exhibitors will choose their booth during registration. Once registration is complete, the exhibitor booth is instantly assigned.

There are a limited number of booths available. We have maximized the space at the new venue to allow for 71 exhibitors. 

Plan your booth location now. View the venue map here:

2024 Showcase Exhibitor Booth Map 

NEW FOR 2024 - Companies have the opportunity to host hospitality rooms. Options are available both for main floor and hotel suite rooms. View the Sponsorship Options on the registration site for full details:

Sponsor Options Information

Contact us at 515.262.8323 or agribizshowcase@agribiz.org to reserve your sponsorship.

2024 Showcase Attendees

Registration opens for attendees in mid-November. Mark your calendar now for February 12 & 13 and watch your email for more details in the coming weeks.

• Pella Feed Service
• Associated Benefits Corp
• MarshMcLennan Agency
• SoilView LLC
• First Interstate Bank
• Iowa Limestone Producers Assn
• Victor Oil Inc.
• Stateline Coop

• Steve's Farm Supply Inc.
• Archer Cooperative Grain Co
• Sukup Mfg Co
• Oakland Corp
• TrueNorth Companies
• MaxAg
• Bolton & Menk
• TriOak Foods
• Mosaic Crop Nutrition

Not currently a member? Click Here to send us an email so we can follow up with your company and help you get connected to AAI.

October 30

Showcase Exhibitor Registration Opens

10:00 AM | AgribizShowcase.com

December 11

AAI Legislative Committee Meeting

10:00 AM | AAI Main Office Board Room

Farm lending activity at commercial banks slowed further and operating loan volumes dropped in Q3 2023, likely the result of nearly two years of interest rate increases, according to an update from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. After seven consecutive quarters of increases, interest rates on all types of farm loans have reached the highest level since 2007, authors Nate Kauffman and Ty Kreitman reported.

During Q3, the number of new non-real estate farm loans was flat compared with a year ago, while the average size shrank by nearly 20%. The amount of operating loans over $1 million also dropped notably and a reduction in loan size contributed to the third consecutive quarter of declines in non-real estate farm loan volumes, they noted.

“The farm economy moderated in recent months as profit margins thinned alongside lower commodity prices and elevated expenses,” explained Kauffman and Kreitman. “Credit needs have increased for many borrowers alongside high input costs, but strong liquidity built up in recent years has also allowed many producers to supplement additional loan advances.”

[...] Read Full Story

Pumpkins were one of the earliest cultivated crops in the Americas and have become one of the most distinctive symbols of fall. With a variety of uses, from pies and spiced coffee drinks to festive jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkins are grown commercially in every U.S. State.

Production has trended up over the past two decades. In the early 2000s, about 4 pounds of the gourd were available per person, increasing to about 6 pounds per person in the 2020s. In the top 6 pumpkin-growing States, farms produced about 1.2 billion pounds in 2022. Illinois alone harvested 630 million pounds. The next 5 largest pumpkin-producing States by weight were Indiana with 160 million pounds, California with 120 million pounds, Michigan and Pennsylvania with 90 million pounds each, and Virginia with 50 million pounds.

Most pumpkins are grown for decorative purposes, with a smaller amount processed into puree to be used in food products such as pies, muffins, or breads. However, in Illinois—the largest producer by both acres and weight—about 80 percent of the State’s harvested pumpkin acres are used for processing.

This chart is drawn from the USDA, Economic Research Service’s Trending Topics Pumpkins: Background & Statistics page.

[...] Read Full Story

Adding crushed volcanic rock to cropland could play a key role in removing carbon from the air.

In a field study, scientists at the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University found the technology stored carbon in the soil even during an extreme drought in California. The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Communications.

Rain captures carbon dioxide from the air as it falls and reacts with the volcanic rock to lock up carbon. The process, called rock weathering, can take millions of years — too slow to offset global warming. But by crushing the rock into fine dust, rock weathering speeds up. Previous studies have estimated this “enhanced” rock weathering could store 215 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the next 75 years if spread across croplands globally.

But until now, the technology hasn’t been field-tested in dry climates.

“These reactions require water,” said lead author Iris Holzer, a doctoral candidate in soils and biogeochemistry in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis. “Since we’re interested in the global carbon storage potential of enhanced weathering, we need to understand if it can work in these drier climates and if different measurement approaches are effective. We were excited to observe carbon removal in this environment.”

Researchers applied crushed rock, both metabasalt and olivine, on five acres of a fallowed cornfield in the Sacramento Valley. They collected measurements during the winter months of 2020-2021. California was experiencing extreme drought at the time, with rainfall at 41 percent of its historical average.

The study found the plots with crushed rock stored 0.15 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare (2.47 acres) during the study compared to plots without crushed rock. Though researchers expect different weathering rates in different environments, if this amount of carbon was removed across all California cropland, it would be equivalent to taking 350,000 cars off the road yearly.

[...] Read Full Story

Fewer than half the people at a recent farm auction in Clinton County were actual bidders. The rest came for the cookies, conversation and to see who would walk away with 150 acres of Iowa dirt.

Would it be the men in suits sitting in folding chairs by the wall?

What about the old-timer in overalls?

Or would an online buyer swoop in with the highest bid?

"Folks, you don't want to be driving past the farm and saying, 'I wish I would have bought it' later down the road," said Jesse Meyer, an auctioneer for the Peoples Company. "It'll be another 50, 60, 70 years before this farm comes back on the open market."

The sense that Iowa's agricultural land is both scarce and gaining in value drove the average price to a record-setting $11,400 per acre last year. Now Iowa farmers are bidding, not only against neighbors but against out-of-state investors, including professional athletes, well-known billionaires and the Mormon Church.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette spent four months searching county assessor records in all 99 Iowa counties, looking at maps and talking with land agents, farmers and investor owners to get a sense of who owns Iowa farmland. Here are some of the findings.

-- An investing arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known to many Iowans as the Mormon Church, owns at least 22,000 acres of Iowa farmland. At the average per-acre price, that land is worth more than $250 million.

-- Lee County land prices have shot up as developers and investors compete for land around the Iowa Fertilizer Co. "All these big investment groups want to jump on the bandwagon," one Lee County farmer said.

-- A Tennessee family purchased at least 5,000 acres of land in northwest Iowa using at least 10 different names.

-- Iowa is one of only 21 states in the country that prohibits foreign land ownership but still had 549,000 acres of agricultural land in 2020 owned by people from other countries.

[...] Read Full Story

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