? For Those Of You Who Lost Taste And/Or Smell...

[MelroseHawkins]

This. Glyphosate ain’t goin nowhere. With expected yields/acre where they’re at now and the requirement by our economy that meet those yields every year, we’re married to it.

The nerds have made crops completely drought and wind/hail resistant, and more than tripled yields in the past 40 years. The days of walking beans and letting weeds go in corn fields are over. And the government ain’t gonna let things go south because of a little cancer. People forget that the US isn’t California.

I've often thought about how over the years, we've lost so much farmland to city expansion, roadways, solar farms, etc. etc., but we keep hearing about record setting yields all the time. It really is remarkable they are able to stay ahead of the curve of expansion and losing family farms. The available farmland is always going to be farmed, though.

 

[HawkGold]

Lol. The problem isn’t starvation. It’s the economy and commodity price stability. Any large scale decrease in crop yields will start a cascade of economic disaster. I’m not going to spend time on a post detailing the order of operations. If you are as involved in agriculture as you claim to be, you should understand that.

Of course I get it. And I would never suggest an immediate ban. We need better EPA methods and testing. We are basically talking about the same issues with the Covid vax. The main issue is political payoffs which are real.

Even at that, there wouldn't be a catastrophe but would be one hell of a chaotic moment. But again, who is talking about an immediate ban? We can do well without glyphosate if phased out over time. Our world won't collapse without it. We would not see large scale reduction in crop yields. On soybeans, it could be reasoned that lower yields would be helpful as protein levels decrease the higher the yields. The US is off on their system as we operate on bushels and the world operates on protein amounts which are not the same. In general NW Iowa cannot grow as much protein per bu as central IL and central IL can't compete with Mississippi, which cannot compete with Brazil on growing for protein. Russian breeders have made some gains, but not enough. The soybeans need high quality sun and high quality respiration which occurs at night. The further north, the less quality. Quality in protein. We produce a much better bean in terms of uniformity (size/shape).

GMOs were largely developed to be able to use glyphosate. GMOs in general are the real issue in increased yields (climate change some). GMOs allow the use of glyphosate on growing crops. The health issues involving GMOs are another issue which we aren't discussing.

Point...we can do well without glyphosate phased out over time. Just like atrazines which are much less used now and DDT. Btw, I've managed over 300 million dollars of ag assets in the past 10 years and have direct 1 million dollar drainage projects. FYI. And I like good discussion which I oft anticipate from you and others.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

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So do you remember what happened in 2019. Was there a weather anomaly that year?