Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company’s Post

Here's a glimpse of our AU-BEES in the most recent Our Work Seminar, Bees: Life in the Colony and Their Impact on the Farm. 🐝 Catch the full version on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eAvyhx6J

We paused our sales experiment on the lake yesterday. We spent the past week communicating to our customers about the upcoming pause, and interestingly, our regulars understood why we were doing it and were ok with it, even if it means they need to source their produce from somewhere else for the time being. Why did we pause something that seemed to be working well, you ask? The reality of transitioning seasons was upon us. Seeds or saplings are planted, they grow and some time 45 days or so after planting, we start seeing the results of our efforts. They bear fruits and vegetables for some time and then they reach end of life, and must be replaced with new plants. This also typically matches with a change in season - in our case, from summer to monsoon. We had to remove our plants (mostly turn them over into the soil, so their nutrients are retained in the ecosystem), prep the fields by adding compost and other nutrients and remake the beds and sow new seeds / saplings. This could have been managed better - we could have had a phased transition where some farms were transitioned earlier and some later to ensure our produce did not stop. But, it required better planning, a diversified farm base and a lot of luck (we struggled for water in some of the farms at the peak of summer, which is when we would have had to sow new plants). Now, solving this problem using science, technology, planning & management is exactly why we started on this journey - but we do have miles to go before we get there 🙂 We did, however, increase our acreage this sowing season by 30%, bought a tractor of our own and achieved significantly better efficiencies SoS (Season on Season) in field preparation and sowing by some interesting and frugal engineering by Saurabh S.'s team - more on that in subsequent posts.

Chart of the day - Australia, one of the driest places on Earth has some of the highest water withdrawals. But the real champion is America, especially in the arid wonderlands of California and Arizona, where they practically turned scarce water into a luxury crop-growing elixir for the thirstiest alpha alpha and avocados. How do you price a public good like water to minimise such distortion is perhaps the most challenging public policy question of our time. #WaterLogic #SarcasmInSustainability

Believe it or not, it's time to start thinking about your spring/summer garden! Courtney Branch, Miracle Grounds Farm Coordinator, provides some tips on what you need to be doing now and how to get started. Read all about it today on the blog! https://bit.ly/3Ik0igY

Hopefully you will all be hearing a lot about the Farm Bill renewal over the coming months. If you are a landowner, farmer, forester, hunter, angler, or a fan of clean air, clean water, and healthy soils, this bill should be on your radar. Take a look at this great video series to learn more. If you want to know more about the Farm Bill impacts here in Maine, reach out and I can fill you in! Most importantly, make sure your voice is heard and reach out to your elected officials to tell them to support a robust Farm Bill!

Ranching is a timeless lifestyle, and what’s important to you is important to us. An American National farm and ranch policy is here to meet your specific needs. https://bit.ly/3UApkPS

Ranching is a timeless lifestyle, and what’s important to you is important to us. An American National farm and ranch policy is here to meet your specific needs. https://bit.ly/426vglP

I am SO excited with how many registrants we have for APBA in March. We wanted to give folx a bit more time to get registered, so we extended the early bird registration. And listen up to these 2 things loud and clear, I am trying to help y'all out — 1. GET A GROUP OF 10+ PEOPLE TO REGISTER AND GET A DISCOUNT! Then you can use that money to buy cool swag at the convention. 😬 You don't have to be form the same org or anything. SO get those group texts, DMs, and emails going people! 2. People who know they can't come in person and want to live-stream so they can participate remotely and watch content on-demand after the fact, DO NOT WAIT! Y'all live-streamers tend to wait until the last minute to register. Not only does that freak conference planner out (aka me), but you'll also get stuck paying the higher fee. Nab your registration between now and Feb 14th. Oh, and in-person attendees, consider adding the Mind the Gap lunch event on Sat and the knitting event on Fri. Association of Professional Behavior Analysts Feel free to share this post, spread the word, and help people save some $!

Ranching is a timeless lifestyle, and what’s important to you is important to us. An American National farm and ranch policy is here to meet your specific needs. https://bit.ly/41E5xk7

Kate Hansen, with the Izaak Walton League, talks about the impact of the Farm Bill on hunters and anglers. The farm bill is the biggest, most high-profile piece of legislation for farmers and ranchers, but it also has a huge impact on hunters and anglers in Iowa. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/gJ7k5DD6