Buffalo Houseguest, Purple Warning Corn & the Hot-Spray Beetle | Daily Farm Brief

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning, Farm Nation, and Hello Truck City. This is FarmTale's Unplugged Daily Farm Brief for Wednesday, October 21st. Brought to you by World TradeX, empowering farmers. I'm Rick Portonova. Today, $8 billion in newly announced FarmAid and an ocean-going ship taking on 5,000 tons of ethanol. Then a Texas family whose buffalo moved into the house, and a Virginia family that waited nearly a decade for a harvest their dog had to find. We'll check the grain markets, meet corn that turns purple to warn of disease, and discover a beetle that fires a near-boiling chemical spray. And if you enjoy the show, give us a follow, a like, or a share. That would be fantastic. So grab your coffee, fire up whatever you're driving, and let's find out what was happening while you were busy actually working. $8 billion in new farm assistance. USDA announced the Harvest Fuel Relief Program Monday, October 19th. The agency says it will provide one-time payments to help farmers with increased production costs and market disruptions. The Farm Service Agency will administer it. Payments will use a formula based on reported planted acres, production costs, yields, and prices. That means the program is designed to cover part of the estimated losses across the crop year. Rates for major commodity crops are due in November. Details for other eligible commodities will come later. USDA has not announced the application period, so there's a substantial new aid package on the table, but farmers are still waiting for the rates and signup details that will tell them what it means for their operation. A ship just took on 5,000 metric tons of ethanol for fuel. On Monday, Marsk announced what it calls the world's largest ethanol refueling operation aboard the Mars Califax in Singapore. Here's why American growers should care. In a separate operation last month, Marsk fueled another ship in the United States with American-made corn ethanol. And on Monday, engine builder Win GD reported that the ship had successfully traveled from Houston to New York using only ethanol. Those are actual fueling operations and a completed voyage. For agriculture, the opportunity is another customer for ethanol beyond the gas station. There's still a long way from individual voyages to regular purchases across a fleet. Fuel prices, supplies, and port facilities all matter. But American Corn Ethanol has already made it into a working ship's fuel system. The question now is how much of that business can grow. Imagine a 2,500-pound buffalo walking into your house to watch television. That was life for Ronnie and Sharon Bridges of Quinlan, Texas, documented in a 2017 Inside Edition feature. Ronnie had sold his buffalo herd to help cover medical bills, but the couple kept one young calf, Wild Thing. Sharon suggested letting him inside. Eventually, this enormous animal had its own room. Ronnie said Wild Thing liked watching cartoons. The family moved furniture so he could pass through certain rooms. And according to Ronnie, the buffalo went outside when he needed the bathroom, then came back in. That's quite a change from looking after a herd out in the pasture. But the biggest family moment came when Ronnie and Sharon renewed their wedding vows. Wild Thing served as the best man. They put the rings on his horn. Ronnie told Inside Edition, the buffalo tossed them into the air. Imagine planting an orchard and waiting nearly a decade for the first harvest. That's the story behind Virginia Truffles in Rixyville, Virginia. Pat and John Martin's family planted its first orchard in 2008. The prize was Black Paragol Truffles, valuable fungi growing underground around tree roots. The first truffle finally appeared in 2018. Their daughter, Olivia Taylor, helped develop the farm's harvesting and scientific work. The business even built its own laboratory. But out amongst the trees, a dog's nose is essential. Today, the lead hunting dog is Posey. She follows the scent of truffles hidden beneath the soil. The people follow her and then carefully uncover the crop. The farm's winter harvest runs December through February. Visitors can join a guided hunt. And this family has found some substantial prizes. In 2021, they harvested a truffle weighing 12 ounces. Years of tending trees, and then a dog shows you where to dig. A quick market check. Using Monday, October 19th close. December corn settled at $4.67 a bushel, down 7.25 cents. November soybeans closed at $12.53.5 down seven and three quarter cents. Those are future prices your local cash bid will also reflect bases. And now your high-tech moment. What if corn could show you an infection before the usual damage appeared? Indiana Company Insignium Egg Tech is working on that. It uses a plant's natural purple pigment as an early warning. When the engineered plant responds to disease, purple markings appear in its tissue. The company has demonstrated the approach in field plots. Purdue Research Foundation reports that the signal can appear as much as 10 days before the usual visible disease symptoms. That timing is the attraction. A grower could inspect the flagged area and consider treatment while there's still time to protect the crop. Founder Kyle Moore wants the technology delivered through seed companies the farmers already use. This is a developing crop trait, and it needs to prove its value across real farming conditions. It doesn't turn every purple leaf in an ordinary cornfield into a disease diagnosis. But picture walking a row and finding a visible warning produced by the plant itself. The crop becomes part of the scouting system, a warning plague you grow right alongside the grain. Now for our almanac visit. A beetle that can fire near-boiling chemical spray at whatever tries to eat it. It's called a bombardier beetle. Inside its body is a tiny chamber where a chemical reaction creates intense heat and pressure. That pressure sends an irritating jet out of its rear end toward the attacker and it fires in rapid pulses. Researchers measured about 500 pulses per second in one species alone. Imagine something roughly half an inch long carrying a defense system that fast. Scientists used high-speed X-rays to watch the process inside of living beetles. As each burst release pressure, the system can refill and fire again. The beetle's body contains specialized structures that withstand the heat and control the reaction. That's a lot of equipment packed into one little insect. And here's the garden connection. Bombardier beetles belong to the ground beetle family. The old farmer's almanac points out that many ground beetles help gardeners by eating pests. So a beetle running across the soil doesn't automatically mean trouble for your plants. During fall cleanup, a little leaf cover in a suitable garden border can provide winter shelter for beneficial insects. Take a closer look before deciding every crawling thing needs to go. There may be useful hunters down there and one of nature's most remarkable defenses. Today, $8 billion in newly announced farm aid and ethanol finding a place in ocean-going ships. We met a Texas family whose buffalo became a house guest, and a Virginia family whose harvest depends on a dog's nose. We checked the grain markets, explored corn with its own disease-warning color, and met a beetle with an extraordinary chemical defense. And if you'd like more information about any of the topics we've covered, there's a matching blog for every episode we release. You'll find it on our website, farmtailsunplugged.com. To Farm Nation, have a safe and productive day. And to Truck City, keep the shiny side up. The future of food starts with the people who grow it and depends on the people who move it. And there you have it. That's your FarmTales Unplugged Daily Farm Brief for Wednesday, October 21st. Brought to you by World TradeX empowering farmers. I'm Rick Portonova, and I'll see you Thursday morning.