Runaway Pumpkin, Apple-Picking Robots & Cattle Markets | Daily Farm Brief — October 22

Good morning, Farm Nation, and Hello Truck City. This is FarmTale's unplugged daily farm brief brought to you by World TradeX, empowering farmers. I'm Rick Bordenova. Today, a new cattle price report, a North Carolina family whose enormous pumpkin escaped, and robots teaming up to find hidden apples. Plus, a quick look at grain, livestock, and dairy markets, and a cold weather surprise in the garden. And if you enjoy our show, please give us a follow, a like, or a share. So grab your coffee, fire up whatever you're driving, and let's find out what was happening while you were busy actually working. Cattle producers are getting another price report next week. USDA announced Tuesday that it will combine cash cattle sales from Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas into an additional regional report. It starts Monday afternoon, October 26th. Fewer cattle are being sold through negotiated cash deals. That can lead too few transactions to publish useful prices while protecting the businesses involved. USDA says combining the region should provide more useful information. For producers, that means another reference when checking what cattle are actually bringing. Then a sudden gust sent it rolling past a fence and then a church. Daniel Wester was heading to the farm with his family when he spotted it. People reports he helped deflate the pumpkin and move it into storage. The farm thanked the helpers with free festival tickets. The video spread online, putting the family's fall attraction in front of people who might never have heard of it. And the pumpkin's new anchoring system, it includes two tractors. Michael told AP, unless the tractors fly away, it's not going anywhere. Quick market watch. Wednesday's farm markets were mixed. December corn settled at 463 and a quarter a bushel, up one and a quarter cents. November soybeans slipped to three cents at 12.45 and a quarter. December Chicago wheat fell 15 cents to $6.28 and a quarter. Cattle moved higher, December live cattle gained 95 cents per 100 weight, and January feeders added 320. In dairy, November Class 3 milk was quoted at $17.51 per 100 weight, down 58 cents. That milk quote was still awaiting final settlement at recording time. Time for your high-tech moment. An apple can be perfectly ripe and still be invisible to a harvesting robot. A few leaves in front of the camera may be all it takes. Texas AM researcher Ming Wei Jung and colleagues at two Michigan universities are exploring a different approach. Flying robots working with robots on the ground. The airborne helpers could move foliage and give cameras a better view. A ground robot could then reach the apples that were hidden. Picture one machine moving the leaves while another picks the fruit. The project received a National Science Foundation grant announced earlier this month. It's research being developed with reliable picking and less fruit damage among the golds. The hard part is getting those machines to work together amongst branches, leaves, and clusters of apples. Finding the fruit is only the beginning. They also have to reach it and bring it down without bruising it. That's a demanding assignment for a mechanical picking crew. Now let's open the old farmer's almanac. A cold October morning can change what's good for supper. That kale still standing in the garden may taste sweeter after frost. The almanac says cool fall weather brings out its sweet, nutty flavor. And underground parsnips are doing something similar. University of Minnesota Extension explains that cold soil increases the sugar in those roots. So the last vegetables in the garden may have something going for them that the summer crop didn't. With kale, pick some of the outer leaves and leave the growing center alone. That lets the plant keep producing. The almanac recommends taking no more than about a third of the plant at once. Parsnips can stay in the ground into late fall or even winter where conditions allow. When you dig them, use a garden fork and work carefully. Those long roots can break if you simply pull on the tops. Cold tolerance has limits, of course. A light frost and a long, hard freeze are different things. But before you decide the garden is finished, take another look. There may be a good meal out there and a little more sweetness than you expected. If you'd like more information about any of the topics we covered, there's a matching blog for every episode we release. You'll find it on our website, farmtailsunplugged.com. And there you have it. That's your FarmTales Unplugged Daily Farm Brief, brought to you by World Trade X, empowering farmers. The future of food starts with the people who grow it and depends on the people who move it. I'm Rick Portonova, and I'll see you tomorrow morning.