Crop Protection

The New Ag Economy: Why This Downturn is a Structural Shift, Not Just a Cycle

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:22:17 GMT

What You Need to Know:

Structural Evolution: This downturn is a permanent market shift, not just a temporary cycle.
Friend-Shoring: Trade is moving toward geopolitical allies to ensure supply chain resilience.
Aggressive Cost-Cutting: Farmers are doubling generic input use and delaying machinery purchases to protect margins.
Financial Resilience: Better management and working capital make today far more stable than the 1980s.
Premium Protein Demand: GLP-1 medications are driving consumers toward smaller, higher-quality meat portions

As the industry enters the third year of this downturn, farmers and agribusinesses are questioning if a recovery is on the two-year horizon. While cyclical behavior is normal, two economists suggest the structural evolution within crop protection, machinery, technology, livestock and other individual sectors is creating a different kind of staying power for those who survive the recovery.

The Evolution of the Cycle

When characterizing the current economic cycle in agriculture, historical patterns provide a necessary baseline, yet the present landscape is defined by unique pressures. Typical agricultural cycles consist of roughly six years of expansion followed by four years of decline. Currently, the market is navigating a “corrective period,” returning to long-run averages.

The drivers of growth are typically demand shocks — export surges, fuel demand or policy shifts such as the Renewable Fuel Standard. However, Wes Davis, ag economist at Meridian Ag Advisors, notes the current environment is an intersection of traditional contraction and sector-specific evolution.

“What I think we’re experiencing right now is that typical cycle behavior where we see growth in some business firms, and then some contraction and pullback to adjust to the cycle going back to more of the long-run average,” Davis explains. “I think we’re also seeing evolution of individual sectors within the market where there’s adjustments happening because of the industry itself.”

In other words, this isn’t just a cycle — it’s also a structural shift.

Change Fatigue and Modern Volatility

Farmers aren’t strangers to volatility, but global trade disruptions, policy shifts and rising competition, especially from Brazil, are layering uncertainty onto already volatile markets.
Farmers are grappling with “change fatigue,” a byproduct of the high velocity of information and extreme price swings that dwarf the relative stability of the early 2000s.

“When I go talk to any industry group right now, the phrase that I hear is ‘change fatigue’, and I feel that. Every couple minutes, something shifts,” says Trey Malone, Purdue University ag econ professor. “But to be clear, it’s not that the farm economy isn’t used to volatility, it’s just the uncertainty and the volatility now is, like, ‘hold my beer relative’ to the old volatility.”

Malone attributes this to layers of uncertainty created by global trade and policy. The rise of Brazilian production, coinciding with the disruption of U.S.-China trade relations, has created a permanent state of flux. This sentiment is reflected in the Purdue Ag Economy Barometer, which shares a higher correlation with the Small Business Index (.5) than with actual commodity prices. This suggests farmers view themselves primarily as small business owners facing broad economic pressures rather than just price-takers.

“We don’t see very strong correlations even with lagged soybean prices and corn prices,” Malone notes. “The world is more complicated than just looking at what happened in the market yesterday and gauging how farmers feel.”

Global Competitiveness and the Trade Reallocation

A primary concern for U.S. producers is their position as low-cost providers. While the U.S. maintains an infrastructure advantage that lowers the cost of getting products to export ports, Brazil continues to close the gap.

“It’s a fair question farmers ask a lot: Are we actually the ones who are the low-cost producers, and do we still have a place in the global market if Brazil continues to lower the cost of production and transport their grain to export terminals?” Davis asks.

However, Davis points out that global trade hasn’t shut off; it has reallocated. Only three global regions — North America, Latin America and parts of Southeastern Europe/Central Asia — are net exporters. The rest of the world remains net importers.

“While our trade has kind of shifted around ... that shift has really reallocated stuff in different places. Those calories and products end up going somewhere. It’s just a question of where,” he says.

The Shift to “Friend-Shoring” and Resilient Supply Chains

The industry is moving from “just-in-time” (hyper-lean) procurement to “just-in-case” (inventory-heavy) strategies, a lesson reinforced by the pandemic. This shift is accompanied by “friend-shoring,” where the U.S. prioritizes trade with geopolitical allies.

“We’ve gone from offshoring to onshoring to nearshoring to friendshoring,” Malone explains. “We’ve got a paper that’ll be coming out ... where we document friend-shoring in ag and food supply chains. Over the last 10 years, there’s been a shift where we mostly in the U.S. trade with other people who vote like us in the WTO. That’s kind of one way to measure friends.”

This resilience is also visible in crop protection. In 2019, 80% of active ingredients were sourced from China. Today, that is closer to 60%, with manufacturing shifting to India and domestic sites. Davis calls these “geopolitically resilient” supply chains.

The Rise of Generics and Decision Paralysis

The economic downturn is fundamentally changing the business model for input providers. Farmers are aggressively cutting costs, leading to a massive surge in generic usage.

“The latest survey I saw shows about 60% of farmers use generics today. That was about 30% to 40% just 5 years ago,” Davis says. This forces companies to pivot from differentiation to operational volume.

In the machinery sector, high costs and economic uncertainty have led to “decision paralysis.” Farmers are extending the life of their equipment, treating machinery replacement as the most controllable variable in managing annual ROI. Davis notes the U.S. ag equipment cycle is currently 15 to 20 percentage points lower than typical low points, driven by this hesitation. Furthermore, there is significant skepticism toward subscription-based technology models.

“Farmers don’t terribly love this idea, and I think the other interesting thought here is I’m not sure that retailers like selling them either,” Malone adds.

AI: The “Undergraduate Intern”

While artificial intelligence (AI) is a major talking point, its current role in agriculture is more supportive than transformative. Malone views AI as a “highly capable undergraduate intern” — useful for processing information but incapable of replacing the trust and risk management provided by human advisors.

“I don’t think you need to be replacing your agronomist. I think your mediocre agronomist just got OK,” Malone says, noting while LLMs can pass CCA exams, they cannot manage the risk of a wrong decision. “The risk management value proposition of an in-person Claude, or whoever, is probably going to win out because there’s still a risk.”

Currently, the adoption gap is wide: While 75% of agribusiness managers see potential in AI, only 4% have implemented it, according to a Purdue University survey in 2025.

Livestock and the GLP-1 Impact

The livestock sector is facing a unique demand shift driven by weight-loss medications (GLP-1s). This is leading to “premiumization.” As consumers eat smaller portions, they are opting for higher-quality cuts.

“The explosion in demand for protein is just shocking,” Malone says. “What GLP-1s do to that calorie count is they are all shifting toward premium cuts. You don’t care how much it costs because you’re only going to have seven bites of it. But you’re going to have a steak. That premiumization is going to really, really take off in the next 10 years.”

Conversely, the hype surrounding “fake meat” has largely faded, proving to be more of an investor-led phenomenon than a market-driven one.

Financial Stability: Not the 1980s

Despite the downturn, the financial health of the American farmer remains more stable than during the crisis of the 1980s. Currently, 10% to 12% of farmers are in a “tight” financial position , compared to 20% to 30% in the 80s.

“We do have a completely different, more professional ag workforce than we did back then,” Malone says. “The farm policy we have right now does not necessarily match what we need for the future, but all of these things make me think we’re in a much more stable position.”

Farmers have built-in “shock absorbers,” Davis adds, including off-farm income and working capital built up during the expansion years. However, in his research Davis has seen how alternative financing is becoming a major tool for the 50% of farmers who use it — either to manage stress or, for larger operations, to leverage relationships with retailers.

Strategic Reassessment: Winning at the Bottom

The experts agree the “bottom of the cycle” is the time for professionalization and upskilling. Surviving — and thriving — will require sharper management. It is an opportunity to reassess farm transitions and management disciplines, such as financial management, accounting and planning, which become critical in tight margins.

“Farmers are going to have to get smarter and get more creative with how they manage,” Malone says. “This is a good opportunity to take a step back and think about what the strategy needs to be moving forward.”

Davis emphasizes relationships are solidified during these periods: “Farmers are going to remember the folks who were around when they were in the bottom of the cycle, and who were there to support them. The best farmers will continue to get better ... I get excited about what we can look like as we come out of this cycle.”

So Is This Ag Cycle Different?

These experts say yes as every cycle presents its own unique reshaping of future opportunities.

To download the full report on why this ag cycle is different and what it means for your operation, click here .

Is China a National Security Threat to U.S. Agriculture?

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 14:28:15 GMT

It’s been more than a decade since China made very public, very large investments in its future to feed its own people and gain greater control over international agribusiness.

In 2013, WH Group (then known as Shuanghui International) purchased Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion, which was a U.S. company with 25 U.S. plants, 460 farms, and contracts with 2,100 producers in 12 states. A year later in back-to-back months, COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation) bought two major agricultural trading companies: Noble Agri and Nidera. Then in 2017, ChemChina acquired Swiss-based Syngenta for $46 billion.

These acquisitions highlight the production and power China has amassed, and it’s being called into question by policy thinktank America First Policy Institute (AFPI).

“We know that many of these state-owned enterprises have an obligation to the CCP, and that is to report in and turn in all of the intellectual property they collect around the world or trade secrets and turn it in the Chinese Communist Party, giving them an edge and their ability to offshore a lot of our production from the United States,” says Ambassador Kip Tom, Indiana farmer and AFPI expert.

In a recent report, AFPI spotlighted the following vulnerabilities for U.S. farmers and consumers:

Smithfield controls 23% of U.S. pork processing
The U.S. market accounts for 23% of The Syngenta Group’s revenues
DJI drones are used by U.S. farmers to collect field data

One policy recommendation from AFPI is for Syngenta and Smithfield Foods to “divest to a domestic company or, at a minimum, a company not principally managed by an adversary of the United States.”

“Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party pose a threat to American farmers and U.S. food security,” says Congressman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. “They’re engaged in economic aggression against the United States. We must protect our farms, feed mills, processing plants, and slaughterhouses. The CCP strategy is two-fold, undermine U.S. food security while siege-proofing their own.”

The full report is available here.

Ambassador Tom says in addition to direct or majority ownership by the CCP, global supply chains have evolved over recent decades resulting in U.S. farmers being more susceptible to negative impacts.

“We’re going to need to do everything we can do in our regulatory regime to make sure we can bring back these supply chains,” Tom says. “With the amount of sourcing that we’ve done in chemistries around the world, our fertilizer production, computer chips that run our tractors, everything, we are very vulnerable.”

Another aspect of Chinese ownership that has come into focus is foreign owned land in the U.S. The most recent reports peg a minimum of 35 million acres of farmland (3.4% of all U.S. ag land) is foreign owned, with Chinese companies owning around 350,000 acres. Of that, Brazos Highland owns 102,345 acres, and Smithfield owns 97,975 acres. The topic garnered attention at the state level with more than a handful of states passing legislation limiting foreign farmland ownership.

“Farmland is critical in the United States,” Tom says. “We know that the Fufang Group tried to place a [corn milling] plant up near Grand Forks, North Dakota, near an Air Force base, that was a strategic problem. That same group came to Indiana, and we stood up and said the same thing, ‘no, this shouldn’t be allowed.’ So it comes back to the states to get involved and make sure we put the measures in place to not allow this to happen.”

AFPI applies a skeptical eye on DJI drones, a Chinese company currently the largest manufacturer of drones worldwide.

“I would be very supportive, and I hope many of us farmers would be, to see the DJI drones go away. We should never underestimate the Chinese ability to use any information that they gather from the United States,” Tom says. “But we need to make sure that we shore up the production of drones here in the United States with American parts and information that’s processed here in the United States.”

In addition to their agribusiness investments, China has ramped up its public-funded research . Since 2008, China has outspent the U.S. in comparable public sector spending for agricultural research, and furthermore, since 2019, China has spent twice as much, or double, as the U.S.

“This is all part of the BRICS initiative, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. And we know that actually the Brazil has fast forward their agriculture development in their nation,” Tom says. “We know that now they are leading suppliers and a lot of the commodities that are produced in the world today, whether it’s corn, soybeans, wheat, beef, hogs, and they’re getting into the biofuels. Because of the theft of some of these intellectual property products that we had here in the United States, namely genetics, corn genetics, we know that China in a few years here will probably be self -sufficient on corn.”

FBN Spins Out Its Crop Protection Business, Focuses on Marketplace and Technology

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 15:24:44 GMT

Last week, just a few hours after Corteva announced its spin out dividing seeds from crop protection, Farmers Business Network (FBN) announced it is separating its businesses. Moving forward FBN will focus on its digital marketplace for farmers, and the newly launched Global Crop Solutions will be an independent supplier of crop protection products.

FBN leaders say the timing is coincidental. Their motive for the timing was brought about by the new fiscal year. But they offer both of the announcements together could be a sign of a trend of vertical integration getting unwound in the name of efficiency and focus.

“We’re doubling down, allotting capital on digital innovation for FBN’s future,” says Diego Casanello, CEO of FBN. “FBN’s core business is a digital commerce and fintech platform. We want farmers to be able to buy, finance, and market everything they need while sitting in their combines. These are technology challenges, so the core competence you need to be successful at FBN is different from managing the supply chain of the crop protection business.”

In the past 14 months, FBN has been refocusing its business. First, it spun off its insurance business, then its Gradable business into a joint-venture with ADM. Now with its crop protection business spin out, Casanello says the FBN marketplace will feature GCS products, such as Willowood USA branded products, via a strategic partnership, and GCS products will explore distribution beyond the FBN marketplace.

“The big unlock for GCS is the opportunity to serve the entire retail and co-op industry,” Casanello says. “It frees GCS of any channel conflicts and hits the ground running with one of the largest portfolios of products in the industry. And it frees FBN from similar constraints as we move to an open marketplace architecture. We are onboarding new sellers and their portfolios every week. We provide them the tools to manage pricing, marketing, and placement. FBN is open for business and we’ve had significant interest from additional partners before and after the announcement.”

FBN’s Marketplace Strategy

Currently, FBN says it has 120,000 farmer members in the U.S. and Canada. The business provides a marketplace with farm inputs and supplies, financial services and data-driven intelligence.

FBN co-founder Charles Baron says the FBN marketplace has expanded its product range to include crop protection, seed (with additional partner news coming soon), fertilizer, livestock products, veterinary pharmaceuticals, farm supplies and more.

“To farmers, there’s no change in their experience. And over time, we’ll bring an even broader assortment of goods,” Baron says. “You’ll be seeing announcements from us every two weeks or so about the suppliers coming on the platform. It’s one of the most exciting times in our history.”

The leaders say farmer use of e-commerce has increased every year since they launched, and in 2025 FBN served a record number of customers. “Farmers are really focusing on value right now and maximizing every dollar,” said Baron. And per their analytics roughly 35% of U.S. farmers visit FBN.com to browse inputs, apply for financing, or look for information.

The Future of GCS

As a newly formed independent crop protection supplier, GCS has a portfolio of 250 registrations on post-patent products. The company will specialize in sourcing, managing first mile logistics, developing new products and regulatory aspects.

To lead the business and its team, Amy Yoder, most recently EVP of FBN’s livestock division, is incoming CEO.

“Global Crop Solutions launches today as an independent powerhouse,” said Yoder, in a press release. “For the first time, our extensive portfolio and efficient global supply chain are fully available to all partners— from retailers, to distributors, to co-ops. Our independence unlocks immense growth potential and allows us to be the most reliable and collaborative partner to the entire agricultural industry.”

MAHA Policy Announcement Delayed, Agriculture Waits For Any Implications From Earlier Report

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 14:57:58 GMT

In late May, farmers and the agricultural industry were bracing for the release of the Make America Healthy Again report, which was to focus on children’s health and chronic diseases. Then came the 68-page report, which was responded to by farmers and  more than 300 agriculture organizations  sharing their concerns. Per the President’s executive order establishing the timeline for the MAHA report, policy recommendations were to be given to the president by Aug. 12.

Today, the White House said to not expect MAHA policy recommendations to be announced tomorrow. The Commission will deliver its recommendations by the deadline, per the executive order, however, per White House spokesman Kush Desai schedules of the President and cabinet members need to be coordinated for the public announcement.

Particularly in focus for the agricultural groups in their response to the MAHA movement has been any references to three crop protection active ingredients: glyphosate, atrazine and chloripyrifos. These three were included in the MAHA report as a list of products that can contribute to chronic disease in children.

In its response to the MAHA report, National Corn Growers Association said its findings show that if the three pesticides were to disappear completely, crop yields could decrease by more than 70% due to pests, weeds and disease.

Politico reported on unnamed sources saying the White House has been meeting with stakeholder groups leading up to the policy announcements.

Global Power Balance: Do BRICS+ Countries Still Need U.S. Agriculture?

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 20:52:38 GMT

The good news: BRICS+ is still a net ag importer.

The bad news: all signs are pointing toward the alliance of countries moving away from the U.S. and the West.

Who are the BRICS+ countries?

First formed as an alliance in the early 2000s, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the original countries which then expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. In addition to the official members, there are partner and observer states as well as a long of countries who have applied for membership—so in all more than 30 countries.

Together, this alliance totals more than 30% of the global GDP, and 64% of the world’s population.

What should U.S. agriculture be focused on?
After hearing questions from farmers, Matt Clark, an economist at Terrain, published a report to answer those inquiries about the next world superpowers: BRICS+.

Clark says there are three questions he had repeated from farmers across the countries regarding the BRICS+ alliance.

Can they dethrone the U.S. dollar?
How much U.S. debt do they own?
Can they avoid buying U.S. commodities?

Clark’s responses are centered on a handful of observations and data about the BRICS+ countries.

With more than 30 countries involved, while it’s a large group in terms of scale it’s also difficult to have all countries agree on policy.

“The difficulty of coordinate is enhanced by the fact that the countries in BRICS+ are historically less ‘economically open,’” Clark says.

He adds the group meets annually, and directionally, they have been outspoken on creating their own monetary system and being less connected to the West.

However, in Clark’s analysis, the countries aren’t self-sufficient to feed their own population, and for the foreseeable future they can’t move completely away from U.S. agriculture.

“The group has the economic size and population base to wield global influence,” Clark says. “However, the influence of BRICS+ is likely to play out over the long term due to the relative youth of the group and lack of coordination between many countries that are geographically and geopolitically diverse. In the immediate term, BRICS+ is unlikely to displace the U.S. dollar as the standard-bearer of global currency, nor can BRICS+ produce enough agricultural goods to be a self-sufficient trade bloc.”

Measures of agricultural growth.

Anderson Nacaxe, CEO and Co-Founder of Oken Finance released analysis of the global crop protection market showing Brazil in the No. 1 spot.

Brazil’s market for crop protection products reached $14.3 billion in 2024.

The U.S. was in the second-place spot at $13.3 billion.

China is third with $10.8 billion.

Other countries showing growth and increases in use of crop protection and ag technologies included Argentina and India.

Former Ambassador to China Shares His Thoughts on Trump's Trade Tactics

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:26:07 GMT

As President-elect Donald Trump builds his stable of cabinet officials, it’s clear a strong stance on fair trade remains a key focus. Leaders from his last administration know farmers and the ag industry are uneasy about facing another trade war.

“I know people are concerned about the tariffs, but the fact is, [Trump] looks at tariffs as a way to get their attention and eventually to get better and reciprocal trade agreements,” explained Ambassador Terry Branstad at the Agricultural Retailer Association’s (ARA) annual meeting in Houston, Texas.

The former Iowa Governor served as Ambassador to China during the first Trump administration. He had a front-row seat to the uncomfortable trade negotiations that ultimately yielded a Phase 1 agreement.

“I believe Trump will try to do as he did before — get [China’s] attention through tariffs (he’s doing the same thing with Canada and Mexico) but then try to work out a trade agreement that’s fair and reciprocal,” Branstad said. “The key there is it has to be a win-win situation.”

Trump appears to be following a similar playbook for his second term, including nominating Jamieson Greer to U.S. Trade Representative. Greer served as chief of staff to Trump’s former U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. Trump has also tapped Peter Navarro to serve as senior counselor for Trade and Manufacturing.

“During my first term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules: buy American and hire American,” said Trump in a press release. “He helped me renegotiate unfair trade deals like NAFTA and the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and moved every one of my tariff and trade actions fast.”

Could A Phase 2 Trade Deal With China Be Next?
Branstad says he expects the administration to continue its focus on trade with China, including taking steps beyond the Phase 1 deal.

“I think we’ll see talk of a Phase 2 deal, as that was the intent when we agreed to phase 1,” Branstad said. “The problem was there wasn’t the support in China to go the extra mile and do the other things. I know the Trump team wanted to do Phase 2 and had he been re-elected at that time, I think they would have pursued it.”

Not only was China the largest market for U.S. ag exports in 2023, comprising 17% of total exports, according to USDA-ERS , they’re also a significant supplier of inputs, such as fertilizer and crop protection products. Leaders with ARA admit trade is high on their list of things to watch in the new administration.

Impact of Tariffs On Crop Protection Products
“If we start applying tariffs to any imports, we suddenly make our crop protection products much more expensive,” said Daren Coppock, president and CEO of ARA. “I don’t know if everybody has thought through all the impacts of what that might mean.”

His heightened concern follows an expanding downturn in the agricultural economy driven by falling crop prices, high production costs and interest rates making it more expensive to borrow money. Regardless of the concern, Coppock knows the industry shouldn’t expect the status quo.

“Biden did nothing for four years, so I think we’re going to see a much more aggressive approach taken [under Trump],” Branstad admits. “Some people are fearful of that, but I actually think it’s a good thing. I think it will lead to more fairness and reciprocity in terms of trade.”

While the former I-state governor admits Trump might not have had farmers top of mind early on in his last administration, he stresses that’s not the case today.

“I come from an ag state that produces ethanol and biodiesel, and we had to work very hard to get his support,” Branstad said. “We got his support, but we also had some challenges with some of the people who worked for his administration, including the EPA.”

Between Secretary of Agriculture nominee Brooke Rollins and Branstad’s son, Eric, serving in Trump’s 2016, 2020 and 2024 campaigns, Ambassador Branstad is confident of agriculture’s voice within the inner circle.

“We feel that Donald Trump will continue to be an advocate and supporter of agriculture and rural America,” Branstad said.

Your Next Read — The Scoop Podcast: Insights For The Future of Ag Trade With Former Ambassador Terry Branstad

Meet the Rat Buster, YouTube Sensation and Grim Reaper of Farm Rodents

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 15:36:28 GMT

The Rat Buster cometh. In the pitch-black of a barn at midnight, surrounded by hundreds of tiny pairs of glowing orbs—rat eyes illuminated by the wonder of a thermal scope, Jeff Pybus squeezes a rifle trigger and fires a .22 pellet 25 yards through the head of a 1-lb. rat. With the soft click of a sidelever, he stays on the scope, zeroes on a second rat, and sends another pellet into its brain. Simple math and steady rhythm: one shot per kill, for a tally of 200 rats within hours.

Against the scratching and chattering of a rodent horde reaching biblical numbers, Pybus is an invisible reaper, racking up prey in the dark as he cocks, shoots—and films. His role as a one-man pest control service has exploded into a first-person-shooter YouTube channel, featuring addictive, no-frills footage of rat hunts on farming operations. Fish in a barrel; rats in a barn.

“My adrenaline starts to pump hard when the thermal turns the night into day and I see countless rats all around me that sometimes run up my leg, jump on my shoulder, or move across my feet,” Pybus describes. “It’s a hunt from another world.”

Down the Rat Hole

A lifelong small game hunter in northeast England, Pybus was unexpectedly pulled into the rat realm by the cancer-related death of a close friend and brother-in-arms, Colin Mann. From a hospital bed two weeks prior to his death in 2015, Mann gave Pybus a parting gift.

“Colin was a very, very good mate for my entire life,” Pybus explains, his voice coated in a thick north Yorkshire accent. “Right before he died, Colin told me, ‘Go to my house and get something I want you to have. It’s in the cupboard behind the refrigerator. It’s a rifle and it’s yours now.’”

(Farm Journal)

Pybus declined the gift of a BSA Supersport: “No mate, I can’t take it. I’ll sell it for you, but I can’t take it.”

Mann insisted: “You take it. You use it.”

Treasured by Pybus today, the BSA became the doorway to a wild chapter in his life. He went down a rat hole and never emerged.

Body Count 480

Roughly twice a week at dusk, Pybus arrives at a given farm to set up for a shoot. Wearing cargo pants, lightweight mud boots, and a dark, collared shirt emblazoned with a “Rat Buster” logo, Pybus, 54, conducts a quick recon, checking for equipment or livestock impediments. “You’ve got to take a look around every time, even if it’s a familiar barn, because if it’s been loaded with equipment and you’re dealing with hundreds of rats, there won’t be enough room to make kills in high numbers,” he notes.

His current weapon of choice is a Weihrauch HW100 rifle set at 11.7 foot pounds of pressure—German engineering at its best. The gun slings a .22 pellet clean through a rat—the rough equivalence of a fist-sized cannonball blasting through the human body. “Each magazine holds 14 pellets and sometimes I shoot six magazines in 10 minutes. My recharge bottle is converted for 300 shots per fill, and that way I don’t have to go back to my vehicle for extras except on an extremely heavy night.”

(Farm Journal)

On most evenings, Pybus enters a barn, turns on the thermal, and waits a full 10 minutes in a standing position, rifle resting on a shooting stick. When he pulls the trigger, the streak of a pellet flashes onscreen and a rat drops. “The most consistent question I get is whether I’m shooting bb’s,” he says with a chuckle. “People see the tiny flash and are convinced it’s a bb, but I’m most definitely shooting .22 pellets, plenty powerful to kill two rats in one shot.”

“I’m very quiet, waiting in the dark,” Pybus continues. “If the rats see you right at the beginning, they’ll move along. But once the shooting starts, I’m looking first for a headshot, with a body shot as second choice, but either way, they’ll drop whether they run or not because the pellet causes decimating trauma to the rat’s body.”

The majority of Pybus’ kill shots range between 15-20 yards, sometimes extending to 40 yards, depending on the size of the farm building. “I’d say 15-20 yards is optimal for the camera focus for YouTube viewers. Closer is difficult to capture and further is not clear enough.”

Once the shooting gets hot, Pybus loses sense of time—a genuine problem he remedies by setting an alarm several hours into a hunt. “I literally don’t notice the clock because everything happens so fast, especially on a new farm where there’s a serious infestation and I can go five or six hours,” he laughs. “If I don’t put on the alarm, sometimes the whole evening rolls by and I’ve forgotten to go home.”

What is Pybus’ biggest one-night tally? 480 rats on the nose, killed at a recycling plant. “I’ll never forget that night,” he says, “where I was surrounded by thousands of rats. I started with a 500-pellet tin that I’d used exactly 20 from the previous night. Therefore, I knew I had 480 pellets going in. I never missed, right down to the last pellet.”

Game of Trust

Rats have a penchant for survival and proliferation, and agriculture provides easy pickings. Rat presence is near-ubiquitous at some level on agriculture operations of all types, and the creatures possess a stunning capacity for reproduction, with a single female potentially capable of setting off a chain of 15,000 offspring in a single year, dependent on food resources.

(Farm Journal)

Females can copulate hours after giving birth, ovulate once every four days, and produce litters throughout their entire lives. (Life span in the wild is roughly 7-10 months.) Brown rats can start breeding at 8 weeks of age (roughly 12 weeks with limited food)—10-12 pups with plenty of food, and 4-5 pups with less food.

The rat math is alarming and highlights a vital service provided by Pybus. “The public thinks you can toss out poison on a farm and kill all the rats. No way. Some farmers pay big money for poisons and bait stations on the farm, but over the years, I’ve learned so much about the intelligence of rats—incredibly clever animals. If you put something new where they’ve been walking and running, they don’t touch the bait stations, because they have natural food sources inside the farm buildings. You can certainly kill some of the rats, but the big majority already have plenty of food to keep them busy.”

“The younger farmers think they have no rat problems because the bait stations are relatively untouched,” Pybus explains. “But when you go around at night with a thermal, you’ll see rats like you never imagined in the smallest of places. Rats certainly move in daytime as well, but not in numbers. The big mistake farmers make is by judging according to what they see during the day.”

On farms with high rat infestations, Pybus needs roughly 10 visits stretched over five to six weeks to decimate a population. After every shooting, he bags the kills for deposit at an incinerator. “For some of these farmers, they’ve no other reliable means to tackle their rat problem and it’s a privilege to help.”

Pybus operates on a 40-plus farm circuit—a mix of hog and dairy operations—along with two waste recycling centers. His popularity with farmers is massive—and growing. “I don’t get paid and this is just a hobby, but people need to realize these farmers put their trust in me on their properties to clean out their rats as fast as I can.”

“The game I’m in is a game of trust. If you earn a farmer’s trust then you’ll have a fantastic relationship, and farmers are my genuine friends, far beyond pest control. They are wonderful mates and I never have to buy beef, pork, lamb, or eggs.”

Nightmare

When Pybus first began rat hunting in 2015, he targeted infestations on the farms of several friends. Hoping to maximize hunting access to a nocturnal rodent, he built a night vision kit. “I took a 5” reversing camera, the same as you’d use on a vehicle. I had a tube running over my scope with a camera fitted inside. Basically, I wired the camera and screen together, and put a battery on it. That was my start.”

Two years later, Pybus performed a DIY overhaul with a better camera and bigger screen, and started filming videos and posting the content to Facebook. “One day, this random guy asked me if he could put one of my videos on YouTube. Sure; I sent him the clip and it got 3.5 million views. A few weeks later, I was driving with my daughter and the guy called again, asking for more footage. My daughter asked me the question that started me on YouTube: ‘Why are you sending him videos instead of making your own channel?’”

The Rat Buster was born. Twenty million views later, Pybus is a rat’s worst nightmare.

Call the Rat Buster

Pybus’ controlled chaos is filmed with an ATN X-Sight 4K Pro, drawing in millions of YouTube views. (By itself, a 13-minute shooting clip Pybus posted in December 2021 has 7.7 million clicks.)

His video uploads are big meat on the bone with little fat—heavy on shooting footage and lean on narration. “I don’t waste anyone’s time by needless introductions, and I get straight to the point. I had no clue people would go crazy and I never dreamed people would be fascinated by my videos. My subscribers sometimes jump by 1,000 in a single week.”

With 100,000-plus subscribers and counting, who are the watchers? “From the emails and comments, there are loads of farmers from around the world following my channel, but there are also people from all walks of life who want to see into a hunt. I suppose that in the way the hunt is filmed, the viewer feels like they are in the barn with me.”

Pybus sometimes tacks Rat Buster advertisement flyers at key locations around his farm circuit, always on the lookout to expand his network. Recently, placing a flyer while wearing a hunting jacket stamped with a Rat Buster logo, Pybus was approached by a fan: “This man walked up and said, ‘My God, you’re famous.’”

(Farm Journal)

“The man told me he’d been pheasant hunting with a group of farmers the day before, and that one of the farmers was complaining about his rat problem and wasting money on pest control. Another farmer spoke up and told him, ‘Call the Rat Buster.’ It was surreal, but it was one of those moments where I realized the Rat Buster is far more well-known than I’ll ever be.”

Rat Buster videos once were strictly hunting footage, but after heavy demand from subscribers, Pybus stepped from behind the lens and now appears briefly on camera in some episodes. “The subscribers are fascinated, and they want to know more than my voice. They want to see who the Rat Buster is.”

After passing the 100,000-subscriber benchmark, Pybus is quick to credit his family. “I want to thank my wife, Sue, for putting up with me talking shooting and guns all the time, and letting me go shooting. I want to thank my daughter, Megan, and my granddaughter, LailaSue, for picking the channel’s name and for making the channel for me.”

Genuinely appreciative and humbled by his channel’s explosion, Pybus places emphasis on two pillars of his success: Colin Mann and a host of farmers.

“One, even in the middle of a hunt, my mind goes back to Colin. He was a lovely lad that got me into shooting full-time.”

“Two, I can’t operate my channel without a fantastic group of farmers,” Pybus adds. “I’m truly grateful for their help and I want to help them in return.”

To read more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com — 662-592-1106), see:

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.

Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man

How a Texas Farmer Killed Agriculture’s Debt Dragon

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Where’s the Beef: Con Artist Turns Texas Cattle Industry Into $100M Playground

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History

US Farming Loses the King of Combines

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming’s Greatest Show on Legs

Misfit Tractors a Money Saver for Arkansas Farmer

Government Cameras Hidden on Private Property? Welcome to Open Fields

Farmland Detective Finds Youngest Civil War Soldier’s Grave?

Descent Into Hell: Farmer Escapes Corn Tomb Death

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Grizzly Hell: USDA Worker Survives Epic Bear Attack

Farmer Refuses to Roll, Rips Lid Off IRS Behavior

Killing Hogzilla: Hunting a Monster Wild Pig

Shattered Taboo: Death of a Farm and Resurrection of a Farmer

Frozen Dinosaur: Farmer Finds Huge Alligator Snapping Turtle Under Ice

Breaking Bad: Chasing the Wildest Con Artist in Farming History

In the Blood: Hunting Deer Antlers with a Legendary Shed Whisperer

Corn Maverick: Cracking the Mystery of 60-Inch Rows

Against All Odds: Farmer Survives Epic Ordeal

Agriculture’s Darkest Fraud Hidden Under Dirt and Lies

Unlock The Door To Higher Corn & Soybean Yields

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:05:58 GMT

Many of today’s corn hybrids have the potential to reach 500-bushel-per-acre yields—that is, until the seed is poured out of the bag and planted. Likewise, most soybean varieties possess tens-of-bushels of untapped yield potential.

Why the big disconnect between yield potential and harvest results? Some of the reasons have to do with geography and weather—things you can’t change. Others have to do with agronomic practices and technology factors you can manage, often in transformational ways.

Farm Journal wants to help you address your agronomic management and technology use this season with its 2018 Yield Tour program. The Tour is scheduled for three locations this summer:

June 7 in Ft. Collins, Colo.
August 7 in Seymour, Ill.
August 16 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Each of these three events is designed to help you unlock the door to higher corn and soybean yields and features Farm Journal Field Agronomists Ken Ferrie and Missy Bauer, as well as leading agronomy and technology experts at AgriGold, Trimble and Valent.

Topics covered at each event include:

Large or Small Farms, Technology Can Benefit All
How ISOBUS Can Take Your Precision Farming to The Next Level
New Strategies for Achieving High, Consistent Corn Yields
Variable Rate & Multi Hybrid Planting: How to Make Them Work for You
Leverage Your Soil: Build a Stronger Root System with a New Technology

Along with great seminars and some hands-on training, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in a live U.S. Farm Report taping with host Tyne Morgan and/or an AgriTalk segment with host Chip Flory.

Each event is $49 per person and includes lunch and materials. Go to Farm Journal events to learn more about the sessions and to register, or call (877) 482-7203.