Industry News | 12-27-2021
Foresight for 2022: Watch These 4 Megatrends
You have two choices. As trends change, you can adapt your farm and capitalize on the opportunities, or you can stay the course and watch your business decline. “Today is the slowest rate of change we will experience,” says Jack Uldrich, a futurist and former naval intelligence officer. “Our world is not slowing down; the pandemic unexpectedly accelerated the future by five to 10 years.” What trends will shape the next year or five?
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Will the Cotton Blanket Cover 12M-plus Acres in 2022?
Don’t expect the dizzying heights of $1.21 per pound, but the cotton outlook appears relatively solid for 2022. Bouncing up from 11.2 million planted acres in 2021, the Cotton Belt could see 12 million acres in 2022, and possibly more, contingent on a mercurial La Niña. Fueled by a COVID clampdown and release, cotton’s amazing run from the 50-cent basement in 2020, to a pinnacle of $1.21 in November 2021, bodes well for 2022, with strong prices projected on the near horizon.
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Dispelling Misconceptions About Pork Through Mythbusting Campaign
Earlier this year, the National Pork Board launched the Real Pork Mythbusting campaign featuring Emmy-award winning actor Eric Stonestreet of Modern Family fame. Rich Deaton, producer from Ohio and Board of Directors member, says these videos exceeded expectations. ”We’ve reached 16 million impressions, far exceeded anything I anticipated. And of those 16 million 155,000 People went on and clicked on the link to pork.org/ruraldictionary.” Deaton says the videos increased consumer confidence in the pork industry and in purchasing pork.
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January Expected to Bring More Active Winter Weather to the Heartland
After a month of unseasonal warm and severe weather, Brownfield meteorologist Greg Soulje says a more typical, yet active and wet winter weather pattern will return to the Midwest in January. “We have been spoiled, especially in these northern areas with the warmth, but it is back to reality and then some heading into the rest of the wintertime season.” He says while the severity of winter storms in the corn belt for early 2022 look to be mild, they will be frequent and farmers across the Midwest should expect to see some form of precipitation every 24-36 hours.
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Nebraska Butchers Expand Beef Business by Going Local
A family of cattle producers, butchers, and restauranteurs in Norfolk, Nebraska, didn’t let COVID-19 clip their wings. Instead, they found a way to tap into the power of locality and reach even more consumers amid the heights of the pandemic. To do this, the Albers family added a brand-new curated meat service to their business portfolio — a delivery subscription service known as “Meat Man.”
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