According to the January 2020 USDA Cattle on Feed Report, the total inventory of U.S. cattle on feed in 1,000+ capacity feedlots was almost 12 million head, up 2% from the previous year.
Wind energy has been harnessed for thousands of years. Early users of wind energy propelled their boats, grinded grain, pumped water and managed bodies of water creatively using wind power. In 1850, Daniel Halladay and John Burnham patented the first commercial windmill and established the first wind engine company in the U.S. How has wind energy harvesting changed since 1850? Today, the main use for wind energy is to generate electricity
In March of 2020 I had the privilege to be one of the leaders of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation 2020 Market Study Tour to Brazil. I serve as a consultant to Iowa Farm Bureau through Decision Innovation Solutions. Twenty-three of us travels to the heart of the Amazon and other areas along the Amazon River and in Mato Grosso to look at agriculture, transportation and grain handling infrastructure.
U.S. pork muscle cut export volume was up 9% to 2.176 million metric tons (MT) in 2019 compared with 2018 (see Figure 1). 2019 U.S. pork muscle cut exports were boosted by large shipments to China despite high retaliatory tariffs on U.S. pork. China's drastic swine herd reduction due to the African Swine Fever (ASF) has caused lower Chinese pork production and considerably higher domestic pork prices.
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting essentially all areas of our personal and professional lives. “Social distancing”, a term never heard in all my (increasing!) years, may end up being the “phrase of the year” before this challenge is put in the rear view.
As a general rule, pets are considered “family” in the United States. More than 100 million U.S. families have a pet at home. For the one-year time period, June 2018 to May 2019, pet owners spent more than $30 billion on 9.8 million tons of pet food products.
As I reflect back on my time at Decision Innovation Solutions, I feel so grateful for my experience! I could not have asked for a more perfect internship during college.
As promised in my last blog I will be writing a few blogs about Aquaculture in the U.S. as I continue my research for one of our market analytics projects. The last blog provided an overview of changes in U.S. Aquaculture over the five-year period between the 2013 USDA Census of Aquaculture and the 2018 USDA Census of Aquaculture. This focus of this blog and others will be on individual species of seafood raised in the U.S.
It is hard to believe that I have been a member of the DIS team for nearly four months now! A lot has changed since the beginning of the spring semester when I started my internship, but I am grateful to be able to continue my work and research remotely for the time being.
The spread of COVID-19 has created disruptions in livestock slaughter facilities. At the first of April, hog slaughter facilities began to operate at less than capacity.
