The Lead
The Bayer/Monsanto hookup is closer to a reality. Key concern for farmers is the future impact on input costs and control of data. Bayer is being forced to unload its $9 billion crop inputs business to rival BASF, including data analytics services. This is really just moving the pieces on the chess board, not changing the game. The most profitable farms of the future will be those that figure out how to localize data and apply more precisely than their neighbor.
Supply Watch
The Brazilian truckers’ strike over the past few weeks is a reminder of the critical role of transportation in the global ag supply chain. Millions of farm animals have been culled for lack of feed and hundreds of processing plants have been shut down for lack of incoming animals. Short-term, this will be positive for North American pork and chicken producers as they fill some of the global supply gap. Long-term, the effects are less certain. Brazil will recover because it is rich in resources and the global market for food will ultimately trump any government incompetencies and corporate malfeasance.
US farmers made huge progress on planting over the past 10 days, pulling ahead of annual averages for corn, soybeans, and wheat in most states. Even northern states gripped in cold in April have been planting like mad as ground heats up rapidly. A hot spell mid-May in the MidWest boosted growth and should not be a factor except in areas already challenged with drought.
Tech Notes
Scientists at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. say they have produced pigs which can resist nasty diseases like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). The PRRS virus infects pigs using a receptor on their cells' surface called CD163. Researchers edited the pigs’ genes to remove a small section of the CD163 gene. That was enough to make the pigs immune to PRRS. Potentially very valuable to the global pig industry. But the biggest hurdle to commercial adoption will not be the science. It will be convincing a skeptical consumer public that it’s OK to edit genes.