CropLife Retail Week: Coated Seed Update, Farmer Sentiment, and Biotech Crops

Eric Sfiligoj and Lara Sowinski discuss the latest on coated seed lawsuits, farmer sentiment figures, and biotech crop percentages in the U.S.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj: Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, Editor of CropLife. I’m here again with Lara Sowinski. Lara, how are you doing?

Lara Sowinski: I’m doing great. Thank you.

ES: How are things going in El Paso today?

LS: A brisk 20, I’m sorry, 60 degrees, 70 degrees.

ES: That’s why you’re wearing a lighter looking outfit today.

LS: Yeah, actually, today’s not too bad. Just a little bit overcast. But believe it or not, next week, first week of February. It’s going to be in the 70s, which almost seems unnatural, but, you know.

ES: Well, I know I’ll be making the trek with a lot of our staff to the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, and I, you know, that show is an interesting, you know, coming just after Groundhog Day.

You know, it’s always interesting because it’s like on some occasions I’ve been there and it’s been like snowy or freezing rain and, it’s miserable. And then other times I’m down there and the flowers are starting to bloom, and it’s like in the low 60s, and I’m like, I’m wearing too heavy a coat. So, you know, we’ll know one couple of weeks, I guess.

Well, we’ll know next week actually, just before our video airs, we’ll find out with Punxsutawney, the groundhog says about the weather going forward for the next six weeks. But I know, you know, it warmed up pretty good here the last few days. I know a lot of the snow we have down has been melting. I’m actually seeing little patches of dead grass, when I’m walking lucky.

So, who knows? Fingers crossed. Maybe spring will be early. We’ll. We’ll see. Yeah. It’s nice. I noticed the seams just a smidge lighter. Around 530 than it was a couple weeks ago. Yeah, yeah I do, I do love that. To be able to get up with the sun and go to bed, I mean, finish working before it’s gone down.

I do like that. So. Yeah. All right. Well hey, we’ve talked weather and stuff, so hey, let’s get to some news of the week. And actually, I guess I’ll have to apologize to our viewers. This is a new story that I should have reported on, at the tail end of 24. But the, it happened right around Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday season.

And then we got caught up doing shows and visits and other things, with the CropLife 100. So, I hadn’t I hadn’t updated this, but I will give it now. So, folks, again, I know if you are a long time viewer, we have talked about some of the, the legal troubles that coated seed were having, during 2024 and 2023.

There were several lawsuits going through the courts where special interest groups were claiming that the, long standing EPA exemption for coated seed should not apply to coated seed, and then they should be regulated the same as any other crop protection product. But I’m happy to report that, in November, last November, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California ruled in favor of EPA and CropLife America, in favor of upholding the exemption for coated seed. So according to the district court in California, the coated seed do not have to follow the same rules. EPA doesn’t have to follow same rules with them as they do with crop protection products. And I know that, you know, again, that’s a really good bit of news.

I know there are some states, like New York, for instance, that are still proposing some type of coated seed regulation. But it does it looks like based on this ruling, a federal or national mandate, uncoated seed being treated like a regular pesticide is not going to happen. And that was in, December. Oh, I saw November, but November.

Yeah, it was, I guess it was right around Thanksgiving. That’s why it kind of slipped through the cracks as we were, as we were doing the CropLife retail weeks. But again, good news, it coated seed. And I know, when I was at the Illinois Fertilizer Conference last week, Kevin Johnson had mentioned their president had mentioned the ruling.

So I’m like, oh, yeah, I forgot we never reported on this. So that’s why I decided to look it up. Well, it’s good, it’s good. Yeah. I have I guess what could be described is a little bit late news. Nonetheless.

LS: It’s important, you know, that I like to, stay on top of Purdue’s monthly, farm barometer and, the work confidence scale.

You were definitely our confidence scale. Right. And this is from January 7th. So I realized that I’m a little bit late nonetheless. We’re ahead of the next release, but, I did want to, highlight some of the findings from the latest report. And again, this was released from Purdue on January 7th. And, farmer sentiment drifted lower in December as the Purdue University CME Group and Economy Barometer, at the decline, according to the barometer, the decline was driven by producers weaker perspective on current conditions in U.S. AG and on their farms.

But it wasn’t all bad news. So, for instance, while it dipped, the index declined, for, December, it’s still above, 24, 24 points above its low in September and flood points higher than in October. Likewise. Index of future expectations fell eight points to 153, but still, 59 points. Quite a bit above its September low and 29 points higher than October.

So, James Minter, of course, director of Purdue University Center for Commercial Ag and, the lead guy on, the report said while sentiment dipped this month, this month, in December, it’s clear that much of the post-election optimism about future conditions is still holding strong. Producers optimism about the future seems to stem largely from their expectations for a more favorable policy environment over the next five years.

And just a couple more things from the report. Again, overall, much higher, with, in terms of optimism than we were at the end of, the summer, the shift appears to be driven by expectations, policy, policy changes, post-election, particularly in the areas, not surprisingly, as, such as environmental estate and income tax policies.

So actually just these, those three things, environmental estate and income tax policies, really did shift, the barometer for December. One ongoing concern for U.S farmers is the future of international trade. So this is kind of like the other kind of thing that they’re nonetheless concerned about. And products, which, you know, we’ve been talking about here, in December, four out of ten.

So 43% of farmers chose trade policy as the most important policy for their farm in the upcoming five years. Both the November and December barometer surveys asked producers about the likelihood of a trade war that could negatively affect U.S ad exports. And, the results indicate that many producers remain worried about the scenario. In December, nearly half 40% of farmers said they believe a trade war, that harms ag exports is other.

Likely 32% said that, or very likely 16%, which is an increase from 40% in November. So, some good news. People are still filling, optimistic about, results post-election. Nonetheless, that trade policy and a threat of a trade war still weighing heavy on the minds out there. But you’ll see. So now, you know, now that we’ve had a couple, weeks, and so forth to kind of live with the new administration.

And, now that we’ve been talking to our, partners on the association side and trying to kind of get the vibe what they’re hearing and seeing, you know, on the Hill, what are lawmakers looking at, what direction it may go? Some things are starting to sort out a little bit. So as we go along, I know that you and I have been talking to our association partners quite a bit recently and making visits, at least on my part.

ES: And, we’ll be reporting about that, a lot, I’m sure, in these this next month or so. Yeah, as a matter of fact, since you mentioned that, I know, you know, I’ve attended the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association annual meeting for, you know, 20 some years now. And, you know, there’s always talk about whether there’s talk about, you know, crop input prices.

There’s talk about labor. I never remember a year where trade, international trade and export policy, ever was discussed. But, you know, in the, in the three meals that I had at that event that were sort of part of the association meeting that came up, that came up every time. So, yeah, a lot of lot.

I mean, again, and that’s a, that’s a meeting for ag retailers basically. So it came up. So obviously growers are concerned, their customers are concerned, which is why they’re concerned. So yeah we’ll have to keep an eye on this as we go throughout the year. So. Well and then just to, you know, add a little more color to this topic of trade, I, you know, kind of right next to we have the labor issue and migrant labor.

And that’s another thing that we’ve been talking about again. So, two big issues intertwined, of course. And, we’ll let you know what we find out as we find it out. Yep. Very good. Well, then let’s transition from a little bit of uncertainty and concern to something a little more positive. And again, this this comes from the 2024 data just finally catching up on it.

But, as we’ve talked about for many, many years, biotech crops are very, very popular in the United States. You know, they came into the marketplace in the late 90s, and their market share of total acreage is just growing like crazy. So, I can report that according to the USDA data that was released not too long ago, that biotech crops the major row crops, that herbicide tolerant varieties represent over 90% of the acreage grown.

For the three crops in particular, 90% for corn, 93% for cotton, and 96% for soybean. So it’s kind of hard to find soybean acreage. Obviously, that is not herbicide tolerant, crops growing in the field. So again, good news. If you like biotech crops, they are very prevalent and continuing to increase their acreage. And I’m glad you chose that news item.