The Van Trump Report

Month: February 2021

Saving Farms Money by Using Automated Sustainable Practice Verification and Improving Operational Efficiency

Every input on the farm that goes into the process of growing and harvesting crops is considered a sunk cost. That’s why “operational efficiency” is so important to most farmers’ bottom lines. A company called FluroSat is working to help farmers cut costs by up to -30% by using data to optimize everything from irrigation …

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Rantizo Brings “Spraying Drone Swarm” to Fields Near You

Farmers that have embraced drones in their agricultural operations tend to use them for crop monitoring purposes but Iowa-based ag startup Rantizo thinks drones can do much more to help lessen the workload for farmers. The company utilizes autonomous sprayer drones for precise input application. Last summer, Rantizo became the first in the U.S. to …

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INTERESTING… NEW BioRefining Turning Grass into Feed

New Danish research and innovation have now cracked the code on how you can extract protein from grass in an effective way. The process is called biorefining, which covers a wide array of methods that can refine or improve the value of nature’s most basic resources. The perspectives are far-reaching. The company is called “BioRefine Denmark”. …

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There is So Much More We Need to Learn About “Light”

GROW is a short 2-minute video inspired by scientific light recipes which improve plants’ growth and resilience. The light is somewhat poetic, and inspired by photobiology light science technologies which have shown that certain recipes of blue, red, and ultraviolet light can enhance plant growth and reduce the use of pesticides by up to 50%. …

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Australian Wheat Exports are Back in a Big Way

Australia is on track to produce its second-largest wheat crop in history with exports that are expected to match. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service’s post in Canberra recently forecast Australia’s wheat production at 31 million metric tons (MMT) for the 2020/21 marketing year, more than double last year’s drought-afflicted output of just over 15 MMT and …

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Crop Prices are Higher… But Farm Income Could be Lower in 2021

USDA’s latest outlook for the farm economy in 2021 forecasts higher receipts for crops and livestock but an overall decline in income. Much of the income reduction stems from lower supplemental and ad hoc disaster assistance to farmers and ranchers for the coronavirus pandemic compared with 2020. Meanwhile, receipts for actual sales of crops in …

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