Touch the Soil News #2064 (photo – Growing Crops – Public Domain, USDA)

The International Grains Council reports on carryover grain stocks from year to year.  Carryover is that inventory of grain on hand before new crop comes in.  For the grain year 2016/2017 grain stocks ended at 662.9 million metric tonnes.  A metric tonne is 2,205 lbs.  When we calculate that out in pounds per person, it comes to 192 lbs.

Fast forward to the 2024/2025 crop year, estimates are that carryover grain stocks will be 580.2 million metric tonnes.  When we calculate that out in pounds per person it comes to 158 lbs.

Using this measure of 192 lbs. per person in 2017 to 156 lbs. per person in 2025, we can calculate carryover stocks have deteriorated by 19 percent.  What do you think?  Are people overall feeling more food insecure?  Are you feeling you should get involved in some type of food production?

Touch the Soil News #2063 (photo – Farmland – courtesy of USDA , Public Domain)

The non-profit International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (iPES), which is a thinktank on global food systems recently released a report called the Land Squeeze.  Coming out of the report is the impact of financial interest in farmland from the point of investment, bringing more competing dollars making it difficult for farmers to compete.  Other concerns included estimates that 40 percent of the world’s land is at risk of degradation.

Moving away from the report, farmland soil improvement and salt remediation holds promise.  Rescuing acres from degradation and improving land productivity is emerging as a new economic and financial answer to growers of all sizes and crops.  Benefits of soil microbes to fix nitrogen, help in phosphorus solubilization, suppression of pests and pathogens, and aiding against environmental stresses such as drought and decomposition to aid soil health are not false promises.

For the land perspective, you can visit the iPES website and download the report here:  https://ipes-food.org/

Touch the Soil News #2062 (photo – U.S. Farmland  – Courtesy of the USDA, Public Domain)

While farmer’s farm, and people in other occupations work, it is inevitable that millions of people are working to build investments for retirement.  Every month, billions of dollars that were circulating through wages, are taken out of that loop and put into retirement investments.  As these pools of investment dollars grow, these dollars now have a different mission – how to get return on investment.

It comes as no surprise then that millions of investment dollars are now looking for good farmland to invest in.  The challenge to farmers then becomes one of competing with farmers for farmland.

One of the more successful companies in owning and managing farmland is Farmland Partners (https://www.farmlandpartners.com/).  In the reverse, there services that companies like Farmland Partners provide.  If a grower is in need of liquidity and must sell a parcel of land, Farmland will buy the land and then lease it back to the farmer.

In the larger picture, this kind of circularity is prevalent throughout the whole world, whether it is business investments, forests for harvest, or owning water rights.  Without taking sides, it represents a real paradox in which an abundance of dollars are competing for the same assets.

For the Farmer, the challenge is if the value of farmland exceeds what the crops are able to pay.

Touch the Soil News #2060 (photo – Farming in Egypt – CCA SA 4.0 International, Hesham Farouk Ragab)

Farmlandgrab brings a story of a public/private partnership in Egypt to reclaim 1.5 million acres of farmland to increase the nation’s agricultural productivity.  It is being accomplished in land that has limited water.  Part of the larger “Future of Egypt Project,” this agricultural project is equivalent to a farm 23.4 miles wide and 100 miles long.  The larger Future of Egypt Project looks to reclaim 4.5 million acres.

The significance of this project is that Egypt imports 50 percent of the food it needs.  Economically, the more food a nation can produce for its consumption, the more the value of its currency.  It is the volume of goods and services a nation produces that gives its currency something to buy.  This is also why nations with the ability to export can build their foreign exchange reserves to buy what their nation might be short on.

The economic message in what Egypt is doing has relevance to the United States.  One of the largest water aquifers in the central part of the nation, the Ogallala aquifer, from which 27 percent of the irrigated land in America.  Measurements have shown water levels dropping by 5 feet a year.

The Egyptian plan that employs a public/private partnership, sets the stage for other nation’s experiencing water challenges.  You can read the full story here:

https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/32220-agricultural-revolution-in-the-making

Touch the Soil News #2058 (photo – Soil Blocker – Courtesy of Johnny’s Selected Seeds   https://www.johnnyseeds.com/search/?q=soil+blockers&search-button=&lang=en_US)

Nursery plants are known for their plastic containers, which are a cost for the grower and a waste for the consumer.  Enter the world of Soil Blocking, a process that firms up the soil, so no external plastic forms are needed.  As simple as it sounds, it is a great breakthrough.  You can link to the site of the inventor and read the full story here:

https://www.soilblockers.co.uk/pages/our-story#:~:text=This%20is%20where%20Mike%20Ladbrooke,sell%20his%20gardening%20tool%20company.

Touch the Soil News #2057 (photo – Farmer’s Market – USDA )

While growing your own food is great for a few items, to grow a full spectrum of produce from most of a household’s needs can be a big undertaking.  However, if a number of people got together and each one grew different varieties, the specialization of labor would be an advantage.  This could also be said about resources for growing and work performed.  Enter the idea of a Barter Market where everyone contributes and then everyone spilts – according to contribution – the harvest.  This is what the Urban Farm Collective in Portland Oregon does.

The idea is simple.  We get more and greater variety of we work together.  You can learn more by visiting the parent organization OSALT at the links below:

https://www.osalt.us/urban-farm-collective

https://urbanfarmcollective.org/barter-market/

We can always use new ideas from others, especially when it comes to increasing sales.  Farmer’s Markets have become a staple for urban settings.  It helps to just walk through a Farmer’s Market and see what everyone is doing or not doing.  It also helps to talk to market managers about your ideas.  The cost and logistics of getting to the market, setting up and what to do about unsold perishables can add some challenges.  Below are several links to Farmer’s Market ideas to help further your success.

https://www.plantingforretirement.com/farmers-market-ideas/

https://www.engagebay.com/blog/farmers-market-ideas/

https://mvpvisuals.com/blogs/resources/farmers-market-booth-ideas

https://www.farmraise.com/blog/ag-side-hustles-extra-ranch-farm-income?gad_source=2&gclid=CjwKCAjwkuqvBhAQEiwA65XxQEFETScjCDz9gZfKV5vlpKtKUe0Jp4SKxPrwuUDqOT5JMIRKjGDTzBoCPn4QAvD_BwE

https://www.ccof.org/blog/marketing-resources-farmers-sell-farmers-markets?gad_source=2&gclid=CjwKCAjwkuqvBhAQEiwA65XxQJQInUTyW8MHAFWVLMGveyPgVVKoWN4lEXD5z2zKiNrOQWkbfLySdRoCF-kQAvD_BwE

Touch the Soil News #2055 (photo – Field Corn – USDA NRCS)

Each year, new records are broken in terms of farmland sales as a price per acre.  While farmland in terms of sagebrush ridden desert acres is worth much less that prime farmland in Iowa, a driver of prices is that acres being farmed are on the decrease.

The peak year for farmed acres in the U.S was 1954 when the nation farmed 1,206,355,000 acres.  For perspective, the U.S. population in 1954 was 158,205,873.  This then equates to 7.63 acres of land farmed for every person in the nation.

Fast forward to the start of 2024.  According to the USDA land in farms is now 878,560,000 acres.  The U.S. Population in March of 2024 is 341,297,969.  This then equates to 2.57 acres of land farmed for every person in the nation.  While there have been productivity gains, from a strictly per-acre basis, farmland security in the U.S. is only one third of what it was in 1954.

The upshot is that farmland is now a real treasure whose value will stem from sustainable ways to improve its quality and productivity.  This change in farmland security has cities looking within and around their outskirts to improve regional productivity and even bring unused land within cities into production.

In 1954 there were 4,798,200 farms in existence.  As of early 2024, there was 1,894,950 farms in existence.  The kicker is that almost half these farms earned less than $10,000 a year.   Best guess estimates are that over 90 percent of the food produced in America is done by fewer than 300,000 farms.

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Touch the Soil News #2054 (photo – Field Corn – USDA NRCS)

Farm Journal’s AgWeb news portal reports on a new field of research that studies roots.  In this case it is corn roots.  The importance of corn research is that this year there will be 91 million acres of corn planted, making it the largest crop by acres in America, slightly ahead of the 87.5 million acres of soybeans.  Corn plantings represent almost one-third of the nation’s 300 million acres of cropland.  You can read more about the story below:

https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/corn/scientists-say-new-frontier-corn-research-found-crops-roots

https://www.beckshybrids.com/research/root-reveal-research

Learn about roots and Living Water here: https://livingwateragriculture.com/