You Got This

THIS You Got You Got THIS BY ANDREW CANO To the graduating seniors, we are amidst a time that we have certainly never experienced before. A lot is left to uncertainty, and the anxiety that ran through my body during this time in 2017 would have been turned up to eleven.

For some of you, masks are the only thing you have to worry about. Unfortunately, some of you will find more adversities. Do not dread them though, in my experience, the moments when I lost all assurance in myself were the times I rose to the occasion and powered forward.

Hi everyone, my name is Andrew Cano and

I am a senior Animal Science major attending Texas A&M University. I am graduating this December with my Bache- lor’s Degree and a Meat Science Certifi- cate. Although I was quite nervous to start my undergraduate degree, I was ready to make new friends and begin studying something that I was truly passionate about. As a first-generation Aggie, I was unsure how I would navigate College Station.

As most Aggies can agree, it is definitely a different kind of college town. Living at Texas A&M has definitely been… hmm… memorable, to say the least.

My experience has definitely been rocky, but I figured that I was the only one that had the ability to fix it, and I did so by meat judging. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Meat Judging? Why would anyone want to do that?” My response is: “I know. I am certainly out of my mind.”

I remember at my new student conference, my mom and I were introduced to the idea of judging teams. In good ol’ mom fashion, she believed that I had the talent and determination in order to try out, take a spot, and represent TAMU across the country. Meanwhile, in skeptical teenage son fashion, I rolled my eyes and did not pay it much mind, as judging wasn’t my forté in 4-H.

As I started my first semester of college, I quickly realized that she was correct. Not about me being talented, but about needing to make friends and getting involved. However, due to the overwhelming pressure that the first year of college can put on a student, I wasn’t really thinking about organizations or judging teams. I was more concerned with my plummeting grades and the awful roommate situation that I was dealing with behind closed doors.

Nonetheless, I was pretty frightened throughout the semester and began to not believe in myself. I lost every semblance of confidence and questioned if I even belonged at TAMU at all. I tried attending the wool judging team’s practices in hopes to make the team; however, I realized that I did not have the necessary time to commit to judging. My first semester is not

something I am usually proud of, but it is where I turned everything around. It took a month but at the beginning of the spring semester, I moved out of the disgusting dorm I was previously living in and into another one. Just my luck. With the determination to never go back home, I persevered and moved on.

Saying goodbye to the wool judging team so early made me feel like a quitter, so I got busy. I was introduced to Dr. Leslie Frenzel when she stood in for Dr. Ramsey’s general animal science class and when she came to speak to my wool evaluation class. Dr. Frenzel wore many hats at the time. Aside from being an advisor, she taught her own general animal science course among other classes and is the Coordinator of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Meat Judging Program.

I had decided to contact Dr. Frenzel after I had left the prospective wool judgers, in order to put my hat in the ring early for the meat judging team. She eventually asked me to come in and sit down with her, in a meeting that I thought would take less than fifteen minutes, turned into an hour and a half. This included a deep discussion about my time at A&M and what I had to do to make it better. Dr. Frenzel gave it to me straight. Truth be told I was a little intimidated by her, but I understood that she was passionate and was only grilling me so I could figure out for myself if I belonged here.

When she met my parents this past November, she explained how she thought I would never return to her for advising and my interest in meat judging was out of the question. She was proven wrong when I came back for a follow-up meeting that spring semester and registered for her meat judging course that following fall. At the time it was just an email to a faculty member in hopes to feel like I belonged. I never could have imagined what I was getting myself into.

ANSC 317, the meat evaluation course taught by Dr. Frenzel, was quite a workload for only 2 credits and is required for all students trying out for the judging team. The class is designed to prepare students for collegiate meat judging contests, which consist of learning how to evaluate beef, pork, and lamb, quality and yield grading in beef, and specifications.

Practice for the 2019 team started very soon after the semester began, with students dropping out left and right. That November, I was informed that I was going to continue on and be able to represent Texas A&M University across the country as a member of the 2019 Fightin’ Texas Aggie Meat Judging Team.

To say I was ecstatic is an understatement. For a whole semester, I stood in freezing coolers just to be granted a spot to con-tinue evaluating meat competitively with some of the most determined and talented people I have met in my life.

Led by Ciarra Gawlik and Kyle Caldwell, the 2019 team took the American Royal Championship Team title in Omaha, Nebraska, and never left the top three the whole year. To be part of such a successful team was such a fulfilling experience, and exactly what I needed in order to break out of my comfort zone. During 2019, this team and I became I realize that I put in the hard work; however, I would be negligent to not thank Dr. Leslie Frenzel, Ciarra Gawlik, Kyle Caldwell, Jenna Hunt, Bo Garcia, and the 2019 Fightin’ Texas Aggie Meat Judging Team. Thank you for such an incredible, life-changing year. As well as my parents, thank you for always believing in me even when I frequently do not believe in myself.

Texas specialty crop sector hit hard by COVID-19 Pandemic created ‘perfect storm’ for many vegetable, fruit producers

The specialty crop sector in Texas — con sisting primarily of fruits and vegetables — has been one of the hardest hit sectors of agriculture due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to agricultural economists, indus- try groups and agricultural producers. “Most fruits and vegetables are consumed when fresh and are highly perishable com modities,” said Joe Outlaw, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agricultural economist and codirector of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center, AFPC, at Texas A&M University, College Station. “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of most restaurants and schools has caused a major reduction in demand for produce. The pandemic has also caused significant disruptions to the supply chain and agricultural systems.”

BY PAUL SCHATTENBERG

tancing restrictions, labor shortages and other factors that have kept them from getting their products from the farm to the table,” he said. Leskovar noted while growing conditions in the state’s Winter Garden area bode well for most specialty crops already in the ground, these factors will likely continue to affect producer profitability for some time to come.

“Right now, we’re down to about 50% production,” said Brandon Laffere, co-owner of L&L Farms in Batesville, which produces lettuce, cabbage, spinach, broccoli and other specialty crops. “We took the biggest hit with lettuce since that is more perishable and our food service outlets weren’t ordering it.” Now, Laffere said, they are growing summer crops, including squash and watermelon, but are still uncertain as to how much of those they will be able to sell once harvested. “Our biggest challenge is the unknown, but we’re optimistic things will get better,” he said.

Outlaw said while some of that reduction in demand from restaurants and other food-service outlets has translated to higher demand at grocery stores, different packaging requirements, changes in volume needed, other factors are affecting fresh produce prices, mainly at the farmgate level. A recent report by the AFPC on how the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected Texas agricultural production indicates if the pandemic persists, Texas fruit and vegetable producers could be left without outlets for their highly perishable products and ultimately lose more than $397 million. Fruit and vegetable producers in South Texas have experienced anywhere between a 20% to 50% reduction in sales. Additionally, imports of fruits and vegetables from Mexico went down 18% in April, so the demand is still low for both domestic and imported produce. Many producers are struggling to find outlets for their produce and many grocery stores have significantly reduced the variety of items they stock, both of which have had a serious impact on Texas specialty crop producers.

Components of the ‘perfect storm’

“Overall, due to COVID-19, the short-run outlook for specialty crop producers in Texas is complicated,” Outlaw explained. “The sudden loss of most food-service outlets for highly perishable products along with good winter production of fruits and vegetables in the state is causing low prices across most fresh produce commodities. Changing consumer purchasing habits at the grocery store, demand uncertainty and labor shortages have created the perfect storm for specialty crop producers in Texas and throughout the U.S.” The COVID-19 situation has had an impact on almost all aspects of agricultural production systems, including those affecting specialty crop producers,” said Daniel Leskovar, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research vegetable physiologist and director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde.

A major shift in marketing direction

“Practically overnight, producers lost 40% of their outlets, and many producers had to destroy their crops because there was no place to sell them. Now produc ers are waiting to see how much of their current crop they may be able to salvage and how much they may have to plow under.” – Dante Galeazzi, CEO and president of Texas International Produce Association

Reduced demand combined with good domestic winter fruit and vegetable production have driven down specialty crop prices in South Texas. “We’re seeing less competition from Mexico on fruits and vegetables due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which would normally be considered good news for specialty crop growers in the Valley,” said Juan Landivar, Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco. “But lower demand, a lack of labor and logistical issues have negated most positive outcomes for a majority of growers.”

Typically, a large fruit and vegetable producer would sell about 40% of its production to retail grocers, about 40% to restaurants and other food-service outlets, and about 20% to other outlets. “Practically overnight, producers lost 40% of their outlets, and many producers had to destroy their crops because there was no place to sell them,” said Dante Galeazzi, CEO and president of Texas International Produce Association, Mission.

“Now producers are waiting to see how much of their current crop they may be able to salvage and how much they may have to plow under. They also have to decide if they should plant, what they should plant and how much they should plant under changing and uncertain conditions.”

Galeazzi said while many Winter Garden and South Texas producers were able to cut short the harvest season for leafy greens such as kale, lettuce, parsley and celery — getting most of those products to food service outlets before they closed – new crops will have an even less certain future. “Some producers are hoping to stretch out the season in hopes they will be able to sell to food service outlets once again,” he said. “While grocery stores may be purchasing greater amounts of smaller onions and heads of cabbage, for example, it’s restaurants and other food service outlets that buy the larger sizes. Unfortunately, the increase in retail sales to grocery stores doesn’t come close to offsetting the food-service outlet losses.” J&B Produce in Edinburgh is now in the process of completing its melon and onion harvest. “We were fortunate in that we were finished growing and harvesting most of what we produce here in South Texas before the COVID-19 pandemic hit,” said Trent Bishop, vice president of sales and marketing. “But overall, our sales dropped about 20% because the sales we made to high-end restaurants, hotels and even cruise ships suddenly came to a screeching halt. It was even necessary to disc under a few crops, but it could have been worse.” Bishop said the operation has taken measures to ensure a safe work environment for packing plant workers by having them wear aprons, gloves and face masks, as well as asking them to adhere to social distancing guidelines. “We have also alternated their breaks to minimize the amount of potential congregating among workers,” he said. “Our administrative staff was able to work from home and just recently returned to the office. We’re all wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.”

“There has always been a shortage of labor in this area and the pandemic has just made it worse. We have had to divert a lot of our labor toward additional clean ing, disinfecting and sanitizing. And while this is all necessary, it has kept available labor from performing other essential tasks, such as harvesting the produce.” – Jimmy Bassetti, co-owner J&B Produce

Jimmy Bassetti, co-owner of J&B Produce, said demand for certain specialty crops they grow - including Swiss chard, parsley, dandelion greens and honeydew melons - has fallen dramatically. “We’re also facing a labor shortage,” he said. “There has always been a shortage of labor in this area and the pandemic has just made it worse. We have had to divert a lot of our labor toward additional cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing. And while this is all necessary, it has kept available labor from performing other essential tasks, such as harvesting the produce.” Bassetti also noted during the pandemic J&B made produce donations to all local food banks, but even that sometimes had its challenges. “At the outset, many of the food banks were understaffed and were unable to get our prod ucts unloaded and into their system for distribution,” he said. “But the community rallied, and after a while there were enough people hired or volunteering, so they were able to handle the increased volume of produce and other food donations being made.”

Unwanted fruits of their labor

Dale Murden, CEO and president of Texas Citrus Mutual in Mission, said while most citrus production in South Texas is now complete, there are still effects from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Some citrus producers, including myself, even though we have finished the grapefruit growing season, were hampered by reduced food service sales and difficulties in getting our product onto store shelves,” he said. “Many of us have had to take more of our grapefruit to tank farms where it can be processed into juice, bottled and delivered.”

Jim Kamas, AgriLife Extension fruit specialist based in Fredericksburg, said with peaches and blackberries now being harvested, producers will have to find different ways to market their product. “There likely won’t be the large numbers of people we’re used to coming to the Hill Country and other fruit-producing parts of the state,” Kamas said. “The loss of this foot traffic and previously dependable outlets will affect producers for some time. He noted the warm January counteracted the number of chill hours the peaches needed, so the crop likely will not be as strong. “Producers who have stayed on top of things and used growth regulators to compensate say they expect to have 75% to 80% of their normal crop,” he said. Kamas also noted the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on Texas wineries.

“Wineries and tasting rooms have had to close and many are struggling to stay afloat,” he said. “And the grape growers throughout the state are having to deal with losing that outlet for their product, as well as wondering what future demand might be.” Strawberry growers have been affected as well. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the popular Poteet Strawberry Festival was postponed from April to Oct. 30-Nov. 1. “The pick-your-own strawberry operations have seen a significant reduction in traffic and are adjusting by picking the strawberries themselves and selling them in containers,” he said. “But with fewer people and fewer dependable outlets to buy them, they are also facing uncertainty.”

Labor and market uncertainty

A labor shortage mixed with market uncertainty has also kept specialty crop producers guessing, said Luis Ribera, AgriLife Extension agricultural economist, College Station.

“Some producers have experienced up to a 50% reduction in harvesting crews,” he said. “There is also uncertainty regarding the processing of new H-2A nonimmigrant temporary or seasonal job applicants, which means uncertainty about the future availability of H-2A workers.” Payments under the Payment Protection Program of the U.S. Small Business Administration do not cover H-2A workers.

“The specialty crop situation in Texas is a complicated, one and producers are having to do the best they can to adapt to and try to overcome a number of challenges on multiple fronts,” Ribera said.

Old crop residue and a cover crop help improve soil health and water infiltration says Matt Griggs, Humboldt, Tenn.

Cover crops are crucial to sustainability on Griggs farm

BY KELLY GRIGGS

att Griggs’ cover crops im- prove soil health, increase water infiltration and boost yields. Cover crops have made a significant difference for Matt Griggs’ Humboldt, Tenn., farm. M “It’s been impressive,” says Matt, 38, who farms with his wife Kelley, 41, on a cotton, corn, soybean and wheat farm that goes back five generations. “I can trace it back to 1882,” Matt says, to when his great, great grandfather bought a cotton gin in what was once the bustling village of Mason Grove. Both the railroad and the prosperity that would have come with it bypassed Mason Grove, leaving a farming community that endures.

Griggs intends that the farm endures as well and has put in place a philosophy of sustainable production to make that happen. “We are big on cover crops,” Griggs says, explaining that the lynchpin of his stewardship efforts is improving soil health, increasing water infiltration and boosting yields.

“We plant everything into green cover,” he says, “because we want to let the cover get as big as possible to produce more biomass and add more nitrogen to the soil.” His cover crop mix includes legumes — crimson clover, vetch and winter pea.

“We went to cover crops on a large scale in 2015, so this is the fourth year planting into green.” Except for cotton, he plants through the mature biomass. “We don’t terminate until the day we plant,” he says. “We spray, come back with a roller and then plant.”

Planting cotton

He had issues planting cotton into that thick cover. “Seed-tosoil contact was not what we needed,” he explains. “Last year, we found a way. We sprayed herbicide to kill the cover on a

narrow band and planted into that. We got a perfect stand of cotton and we made the best cotton ever, 1,100 pounds per acre.” That’s dryland production. He says in the last four years he’s “seen some of the best yields ever.”

He does recall, however, that one of the best crops he ever made was in 2014, the year before he converted to no-till cover. “Net profit that year was $50 an acre,” he says. “I was farming out of a jug. The next year, with the first cover crop, yields were less but profit was up, $100 per acre.”

Lower weed control cost made possible with cover crops, made a difference, Griggs says. “I cut my herbicide costs in half.”

Palmer amaranth has been an issue, but keeping cover on the fields year-round reduces weed germination. “We have zero tolerance for pigweed,” he says. Kelley adds that it’s not unusual for Matt to stop his truck, walk out into a field to pull up one pigweed.

“They can produce up to 1 million seeds,” Griggs says.

Soil health

He’s also using cover crops to build soil health. “Organic matter has improved from 1.5 percent to 3 percent,” he says.

Water infiltration rate changed significantly. “With no-till but no cover crop, the maximum water infiltration rate is about 2 inches per hour. I’ve documented infiltration on cover crop fields at 62 inches an hour.” He explains that infiltration rate was 62 inches per hour for the first inch of rainfall and 12 inches per hour for the second inch.

“On the no-till, it was 2 inches per hour for the first inch and the second inch would not infiltrate. This was on long-term, 15-year no-till. The cover crop plot beside it was on its third year with a cover.”

For years, Griggs says, agriculture has paid too little attention to soil health. “We have degraded soil. Now, we know we have to build it back up. Soil and sun are the basis for growing plants and soil is the world’s most valuable resource.”

Rotation plays a role in preserving and improving that resource. Griggs says it is more than rare to plant the same crop in a field two years in a row. “We plant equal 25 percent acreage to each crop,” he says. Soybeans may follow wheat in a double-cropping system.

“Not all of our land is good wheat land,” he says.

As the wheat edges toward maturity, they are preparing to plant corn, soybeans and cotton. “I’ll probably plant cotton the first of May,” Griggs says, “depending on the weather.”

Timing important

In early April, they were waiting on conditions to improve enough to plant corn and soybeans. Timing is important. “It’s not always good to be the first in the field with a planter,” Kelley says. “Patience is a good thing. It’s not the calendar but the weather and the soil temperature that matter.” They say timing is important on the back end, too. “We have one basket cotton picker and one combine,” Griggs says. “We want to get cotton picked in two to three weeks because we have other crops to harvest.”

They say cover crops work well in dryland farming. “We can’t irrigate here,” Griggs says, “so a cover crop is one way to drought-proof the crops. We conserve moisture with green plants.”

A devastating drought in 2007 drove home the importance of moisture management. “We lost $100,000 that year,” he says.

The cover crop experiment began in 2010 with tillage radishes. “Those were baby steps, just learning,” Griggs says. “We have learned that no-till alone is not sustainable.”

Matt and Kelley agree that conversion to full rotation and no-till cover crop agriculture requires a new mindset. “We had to change our thinking on production,” he says.

“If you don’t change the way you do things, you will not survive,” Kelley says.

Matt and Kelley Griggs check the yellowing bands of vegetation where they will plant cotton next month. The terminated bands, Matt says, improve seed-to-soil contact and improves germination.

The Griggs Farm commitment to sustainable production is currently featured on a History Channel documentary, The American Farm. It airs Thursday evenings at 10.

BY KYLE WILSON Chapters of LIFE

his chapter of my life could be called “there’s crap everywhere and most of it is broken.” If I could harness my children’s capacity for losing and T right now. Recently when a friend of mine was asked why, in the midst of the turmoil, he was still farming, he smiled and said, “because foreclosures take time.” I think you have to have destroying tools, for example, the world would ice in your veins to make a joke about that. I’m never have an energy problem again. They are sure most of you do. both resourceful and ambitious at obtaining the very things that I wish they would leave alone Why in the world do we keep going? most. But as much it frustrates me, I secretly love it. I know you love it, too. On average a farmer gets about 600 fewer hours of sleep every year than most Americans. The average parent loses about 1,000 hours of sleep the first year of a baby’s life alone. So with those numbers, I figure we all should have died some time last week. Even if you’re a 4th, 5th. Or 6th generation outfit, it’s bigger than your heritage. Maybe we’re doing it for theirs. The kids. Not out of tradition, guilt, or even duty, but because we really want them to be able to experience the satisfaction of going to sleep when they’re tired and not just because it’s bedtime. We want them to see that sometimes, little failures are ok, too. Failing is not the end, We’re still here, though. and that’s not the worst thing that can happen. That they can dust off and move on when someDo you think that’s what our kids will see and thing doesn’t work out. internalize from watching us? That we didn’t get beat? Do you think they’ll see that excellence means our heads are bloody but unbowed? Let’s be honest, most of our heads are bloodied Not least of all, I want them to see that they can laugh. Last winter I had one pretty bad day. On my way to work in the morning a strap broke and my load came off the trailer. Shortly thereafter a

seal in the front end of my tractor failed and with only the rear wheels spinning I sunk it in mud up to the frame. After spending some time getting the machine out, it began to snow. Before I left for home I prayed to be able to make it there without incident. I wasn’t sure I could handle another obstacle. Approaching one of the last passes before home, the snow got too deep and the truck slid off onto the shoulder. I’ve heard it said that God writes great comedy, He just has so many bad actors. I sat there and laughed in the snow on the shoulder that day. God has a good sense of humor. I want my kids to see that sometimes, when things go wrong, it’s ok to laugh it off.

I want the kids to see what it means to make something out of nearly nothing. I want them to see a pile of bar stock become an implement. I want them to see what it’s like to build a life and a family with little more than the idea that we could.

I’d love for my kids to see that we don’t have all the answers, we don’t know what’s going to happen, and we keep moving forward in spite of the uncertainty. That progress means not digging in our heels, but marching on.

Ultimately, I want to show the kids that whatever they are, that’s all they have to be. And that when they finally settle on the part they’ll play, they can start to become good at it.

That’s my hope for you, just the same. I hope you go to bed so tired that your thoughts can’t race. I hope that you give yourself grace. I hope that when your brow is beaten your head is still high. I hope you can find humor when things aren’t so happy. I hope that whatever you have to work with is enough.

It doesn’t matter if you pump water or pray for rain. If you plough 5 acres or plant 50,000. There are little ones looking at you and wondering what to do next. You matter. You’re just who they need to see. You’re doing great.

See you around.