Latest / Farm Tales Unplugged - Daily Farm Brief / $300 Farm Whiskey, Fruit-Picking Robots & Draconid Meteors | Daily Farm Brief

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$300 Farm Whiskey, Fruit-Picking Robots & Draconid Meteors | Daily Farm Brief · Farm Tales Unplugged - Daily Farm Brief

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Farm Nation, and hello, Truck City.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is FarmTales Unplugged Daily Farm Brief for Thursday, October 8th.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Brought to you by World TradeX, empowering farmers.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rick Portonova.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Coming up this morning, a New York farmer's buckwheat is finding a new market in the milk aisle.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: A Nevada farm couple is putting a grain usually grown for livestock into a$300 bottle of whiskey.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll check the grain markets in the middle.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then a fruit-picking robot with arms that bend like elephant trunks, and the fruit travels right through them.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: We'll finish with the old farmer's almanac and something to watch in the sky tonight.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So grab your coffee, fire up whatever you're driving, and let's find out what was happening while you were busy actually working.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: First up, a crop you might plant to control weeds is turning up in a milk carton.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Buckwheat.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Paige Hansen developed a milk alternative from it, and New Barn Organics is bringing it to selected whole food stores.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: An associated press report published Wednesday follows that effort back to the farmers.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: One is Klaus Martins in Penyan, New York.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's been growing buckwheat for about 40 years and has worked with Hansen.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is a fast crop and can produce seed in 10 to 12 weeks.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Farmers also use it between other crops to cover the ground and help keep weeds down.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Hansen wants more customers buying what comes off those fields.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Her partnership has allowed her to triple the amount of buckwheat she buys from farmers, according to the AP.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's a development to watch.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: A new drink has to win over shoppers, but if it does, growers could gain another buyer for a crop they already know how to raise.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now to Fallon, Nevada, where Ashley and Colby Frey have found a very different customer for their grain.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whiskey drinkers.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Their family's farming history in Nevada goes back to 1854.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: They grow their whiskey grains on the ranch, and the distilling and bottling happen there too.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Their latest announcement includes Triticale.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's a cross between wheat and rye, commonly grown for feed or as a cover crop.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: The release is called Third Harvest.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to meet these people.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like a fun farm.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: The suggested price is$300 a bottle with tasting room sales starting November 7th.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Growing the grain gives the phrase a way to experiment with the flavor before it ever reaches the distillery.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Colby oversees farming and production.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Ashley works on the business branding and visitor experience.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's a long wait while whiskey ages, and a bottle's price doesn't tell us the farm's profit.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Still, this is quite a destination for a crop often grown to feed livestock.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Quick market watch using Wednesday's clothes.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: December corn fell six cents.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: November soybeans dropped five and a half.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: December Chicago wheat lost nearly eight cents.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Wheat had the bigger move of the three.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's the market check onto technology.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Picture a robot that reaches into a fruit tree with an arm that bends like an elephant's trunk.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like the robot on Lost in Space.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then picture the fruit sliding down the inside of that arm.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what an Israeli company called Picker Egg Robotics is developing.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: The arm is hollow.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It reaches around branches, cuts the fruit's stem, and lets the fruit travel through the arm into the collection system.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: The company calls it Snip and Roll.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a sushi roll to me.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Cameras and software help it find the fruit and decide what's ready to pick.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The team started with avocados.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's a difficult target.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Green fruit tucked among green leaves in a big, basically green tree.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: In an interview published Tuesday, co-founder Yossi Rosenblum said the company has been testing its equipment in orchards.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Customer pilots are planned for January, beginning in Israel, with California among the intended next locations.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So this is still equipment being developed and tested.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Harvest speed, fruit damage, and cost will matter when growers try it.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the idea is easy to picture.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The picking arm becomes a shoot.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Once the stem is cut, the fruit has a route straight to the bin.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think there'll be any aliens landing in these fields.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want crop circles that bad.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And now the old farmer's almanac.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight, the Draconid Meteor Shower approaches its peak.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: The almanac lists October 9th.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: NASA puts the viewing window on Thursday evening into early Friday.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: That means tonight is worth a look if your sky is clear.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the useful difference with this shower.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Evening is a good time to watch.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to set an alarm for three in the morning.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: The meteors come from debris left behind by a comet.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: As Earth passes through that material, little pieces burn up in our atmosphere and make those streaks a light.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The moon will be close to new, so there's little moonlight to wash them out.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Find a dark spot away from yard lights, give your eyes time to adjust, and keep the phone screen dim.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a telescope, a wide view of the sky works better.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: This usually produces only a handful of meteors an hour, so expect some time waiting between sightings.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you're already outside after dark, which you probably are, take a few minutes and look up.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: You might catch a piece of comet debris arriving overhead.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: This morning, a new buyer for Buckwheat, a Nevada farm's unusual whiskey grain, and a robot that sends fruit through its own arm.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, a quick grain check and tonight's meteor shower.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: How could you miss this show?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And there you have it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's your FarmTales unplugged daily farm brief for Thursday, October 8th.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Brought to you by World TradeX, empowering farmers.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rick Portonova, and we'll see you Friday morning.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you enjoyed this podcast, please follow us.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Give us a share, a like, a review.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: That'd be fantastic.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you tomorrow morning.