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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

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Oklahoma Farm Bureau Delegates Set Policy for 2016- Water, Feral Hogs, Section 179, Beef Checkoff Among Proposals Adopted 

 

With Harvest Nearing Completion, Winter Winds Blow Harvest to a Halt 

 

The 2015 corn and sorghum harvest has reached near completion according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Monday. With 96 percent of corn acres harvested, only Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin reported harvest corn acreage less than 90 percent.


"While it may seem that harvest is over, there is still activity on un-harvested acres that should be of interest to those involved with the corn industry," said National Corn Growers Association President Chip Bowling, a grower from Maryland. "Colorado, as well as many parts of the nation, are experiencing an early, unexpected snowy spell. These conditions can impair farmers' ability to operate and, in the end, may impact the overall number of bushels that make it into bins. Much like in baseball, it isn't over until it's over in farming. The final estimates may still be impacted by the wintery weather in these states."


The nation's sorghum was 91 percent harvested. Peanuts were 82 percent harvested. That's 12 points behind average. Cotton harvest was 64 percent complete. That's also ten points behind average.


The US wheat crop showed more improvement, but not enough to surpass last year's crop conditions. USDA reported 52 percent of the crop was in good to excellent condition, 38 percent fair and 10 percent poor to very poor. That's up one percent in the excellent rating from last week. A year ago this week, 60 percent of the crop was in good to excellent condition.   


Click here for the full National Crop Progress report.


Click here for the full Oklahoma report.


Click here for the full Texas report.


Click here for the full Kansas report.

EPA Cancels Registration of Transform- Tom Royer Explains Impact on Oklahoma Producers

 

At the end of this past week- we saw a tweet that the EPA had just issued an order to stop the use of Transform in the US.  The active ingredient that is being banned for at least the time being is Sulfoxaflor- marketed by Dow AgroSciences. We contacted Dr. Tom Royer, OSU Extension Entomologist about this decision- and he has provided us an overview of this product- and how not having it will impact crop producers in our state.


Dr. Royer writes that  "Dow AgroSciences is not abandoning this product but "will work diligently to support renewed U.S. EPA Sulfoxaflor registrations."


"The EPA issued this cancellation response to a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that vacated these registrations over concerns that there was not enough research required to
insure protection of pollinators. The cancellation indicates that "all sales and distribution" of sulfoxaflor products must cease. The order did not cancel current tolerances on registered
crops, or use of existing stocks "in the hands of users" if label directions are followed and the producer has the accompanying label, but distributors cannot sell or distribute their inventory
of existing product.


"In light of this ruling, I would like to outline how it affects our Oklahoma growers. Sufloxaflor is an insecticide that controls aphids, fleahoppers, plant bugs and other insects that feed on plant  sap through their straw-like mouthparts. The products of interest to Oklahoma growers are marketed as Transform or Closer. Closer was registered for use in a number of vegetables
and fruit crops. Transform was registered for use in cotton, canola, soybean and wheat. "

Dr. Royer offers a crop by crop rundown of the impact of losing this chemical- including what alternatives are out there with this decision from Uncle Sam- click or tap here for his complete analysis.

Three Factors Erode U.S. Cattle Market in 2015, Rabobank's Don Close Explains

 

After an incredible 2014, the year 2015 has not been nearly as kind to cattle producers when you take a look at the cattle markets. The feedlot sector has dealt with losses and red ink. For the cow-calf end of the business and for stockers, the volatility has been tough to stomach. I caught up with Rabobank Protein Analyst Don Close at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting in Kansas City, Missouri last week. He said it's been a tough year.


"This market has absolutely been as rough as it gets, certainly for the margin operators, there just hasn't been a fair shake really at any point through the year," Close said.


The downturn started in August when the market began to trade sharply lower. Close agrees with the position of many analysts in attributing the fall in prices to the large carcass weights, but the situation is bigger than that. He said three big components caused the erosion in the market. First being the increase in beef tonnage. Second being consumer pushback over retail beef prices and lower prices for competitive protein sources. The third element was the U.S. beef import and export situation. With the strength of the U.S. dollar, Close said that has attracted massive amounts of beef imports into the U.S. That has been compounded by the drought situation in Australia and New Zealand. The strong dollar has also hurt the U.S. beef exports. Overall, this was a tonnage issue instead of a numbers issue. Close said U.S. cattle on feed numbers were still very manageable. 


Don is our guest for the next couple of days on our beef industry broadcast feature- the Beef Buzz- click here to read more and to listen to part one of our three day Q&A with Don Close.

National Farmers Union Says "No" to TPP Agreement

 

One national agricultural organization won't get behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The National Farmers Union has come out in opposition of TPP. NFU Sr. Vice President of Programs Chandler Goule said NFU opposes TPP largely because there is no retaliation or dispute mechanism in place for countries that manipulate their currency. He said that makes the playing field un-level for the nation's family farmers and ranchers.


"That makes their products, good and services cheaper than the U.S. and we're going to see an increase of imports from them and a decrease in exports from us," Goule said.


The TPP is an agreement between the United States and 11 other countries. This includes Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore and New Zealand. Goule said TPP includes three currency manipulators in Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Before the trade agreement was complete, he said Malaysia manipulated its currency and Vietnam is in the process of manipulating theirs.


Our Leslie Smith interviewed Goule at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Convention in Kansas City, Missouri this past week. Goule also addressed the status of Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) and provides a Congressional outlook for 2016 with a Presidential election. Click or tap here to hear the interview.

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Peel Analyzes World Beef Trade: Imports

 

Mondays, Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry. This analysis is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Dr. Glenn Selk. In this week's analysis- Dr. Peel focuses on the prospects of beef exports in the coming year.


"Beef imports among major world importing countries are expected to increase in 2016 year over year but will remain slightly lower than 2014 record levels. The U.S. is the largest beef producing and consuming country and often the largest importer of beef. In the 27 years since 1990, the U.S. has been the largest beef importing country 20 times. Australia and Canada are typically the top two sources of U.S beef imports, with Australia being the largest in recent years. New Zealand is typically the third largest source of U.S. beef imports though year to date imports in 2015 have New Zealand in second place, ahead of Canada. Mexico has been a rapidly growing beef exporter in recent years and has been the fourth largest source of U.S. beef imports since 2010.


"Russia has exceeded the U.S. as the largest global beef importer seven times since 1990 and has been the number two beef importing country since 2004. Russian beef imports have been variable over time in terms of both quantity and sources due to changes in Russian policy. Russian beef imports are projected lower in 2015 and by 2016 may drop to levels similar to Japan. Japan has historically been the number two or three beef importer (alternating with Russia) but was briefly eclipsed by the European Union from 2004-2006 before returning as the third largest beef importing country since 2007. Japanese beef imports dropped after bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in Japan (2001) and later in the U.S. and Canada (2003) and have slowly rebuilt but remain lower than pre-BSE levels."

Click here to read more from Dr. Peel on beef trade prospects for 2016.

Weekly Sales, Exports and Out-Front Sales Jump in Latest Boxed Beef Report

 

On a regular basis, Ed Czerwein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas offers a review of the previous week's boxed beef trade. Here is the weekly boxed beef trade for week ending November 14th The daily spot Choice box beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $209.30 which was $6.36 lower compared to previous Friday. There were 754 loads sold for the week in the daily box beef cutout compared to 693 loads last week. It was about 11 percent of the total volume.


The comprehensive or weekly average Choice cutout which includes all types of sales including the daily spot cutout was $213.78 which was $2.33 lower. There were 6,608 total loads sold which was 634 loads higher than the previous week. The formula sales were at 3,295 loads which was 70 loads lower than last week but was 50 percent of the total loads sold this week.


Exports as reported on the boxed beef report represent primarily muscle cuts and they really jumped higher than they have been in some time and were at 1,128 loads which was 556 loads higher than the previous week. North American Free Trade Agreement neighbors bought 164 loads and 964 loads were shipped overseas.

Click here for more of Ed's report- as well as the chance to listen to his audio analysis of this week's numbers.

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