The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association presented a check for $25,000.00 to the Children's Hospital Foundation in a special ceremony this week at their headquarters in Stockyards City.


"In 1985, the OCA created the Range Round-Up, a ranch rodeo, to provide family entertainment, promote beef and raise money for charity. 2015 marks the 19th year in a row that the selected charity has been the Children's Hospital Foundation," said Tim Drummond, Chairman of the OCA Range Round-Up Committee.   "In that time, OCA has donated more than $426,000.00 and formed a strong connection to the charity and its work. This year's donation is the largest single donation we have ever given."


After the check presentation, we talked with Drummond about the Range Roundup and the years and years of support for the Foundation- you can hear our visit with Tim by clicking here.

And- with lots of smiles and a very large check- here's the Range Roundup Committee and Children's Hospital Foundation folks- including Jan Dunham, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Director. 

 

The Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Texas lawmaker Mike Conaway, was beating his drum Wednesday for both the Omnibus budget bill- all 2,009 pages of it- as well as the separate tax package.  Both measures will be voted on later today in the House and the Senate may follow suit as early as today.

Conaway contends that the measures have multiple benefits for ag- his complete set of arguments for the measures can be read by clicking here- at top of his list is the fact that the Omnibus does finally address repeal of COOL- "The bill repeals the country of origin labeling (COOL) regulatory regime on beef and pork products. Repealing COOL is critically important not just to our nation's livestock producers but also to the entire national economy because it lifts the threat of more than $1 billion in annual retaliation against American goods and services by Canada and Mexico due to COOL's violation of our trade commitments."

On the tax package- he points out the win for extending Section 179 expensing- "The bill permanently extends the Section 179 provisions and begins indexing them for inflation in 2016. The provision also extends bonus depreciation treatment for property placed into service through 2019."

 

 

According to the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association- they believe that the budget and tax bills to be voted on are the proverbial glass half full (or maybe two thirds full). In the only statement that we got from any of our state ag groups- they opine ""Today and tomorrow the House and Senate will be considering very important bills for the Oklahoma cattle industry. They include language that repeals country of origin labeling, more clearly defines the dietary guidelines process, limitations on USDA APHIS meat import guidelines, language that makes permanent the small business expense limits (section 179 tax policy) and extension of the bonus depreciation schedule. These provisions are good for Oklahoma cattle producers and OCA is encouraging our congressmen and senators to vote yes on these two important bills."

American Farm Bureau likes COOL Repeal and the Section 179 action- but still expressed unhappiness on Wednesday over the failure of getting defunding of WOTUS.   "We are truly disappointed that Congress did not include legislation to stop implementation of WOTUS," AFBF President Bob Stallman said. "The courts have already expressed serious legal concerns about the rule, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded that EPA broke the law with its covert propaganda campaign to drum up ill-informed support for it."

Other groups that want to see passage of the bill but who were not fully satisfied with the bills that the House and Senate will be voting on include the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association.

Click on the name of the groups above to read more about their thoughts on these two end of year "kitchen sink" bills.

 

Roger Johnson and Bill Bullard are in agreement over the move by the House negotiators to include the elimination of beef and pork from the mandatory Country of Origin bill- a part of the Omnibus budget deal that will be voted on today in the House.

Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union, is angry and frustrated. "Congress had a solution to make COOL compliant with our World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations sitting on their desks for 5 months," said Johnson. "Instead, they gave in to demands to completely remove most aspects of COOL for meat that provided meaningful information to the public," he said. "This is the type of legislative hocus pocus that has angered so many Americans," he said.


Bill Bullard of R-Calf USA may be even more upset than Johnson. "In the most underhanded way, Congress is depriving all of us of our right to know where the beef or pork we feed ourselves, our children and our grandchildren was born, raised and slaughtered.


"In secret and without debate, congressional leaders added the repeal of COOL in a must-pass spending bill knowing they could accomplish their self-serving ends without the risk of public input or debate. In the spending bill, the provision that destroys our COOL law cannot be amended or removed. This is government at its worst."

Click on the name of either group to read more about what they are saying about Congress and COOL.

One of the groups that did not immediately express strong support for the Trans Pacific Partnership after the final deal was announced back in November was the American Farm Bureau.  At the time, Bob Stallman signaled his group would likely be supportive and call on Congress to vote to ratify- but he said that his Board of Directors would have to meet in December and consider the trade deal before AFBF would be in the "yes" or "No" column.

Well- yesterday- AFBF released this statement- attributed to their President Bob Stallman:

"The American Farm Bureau Federation's Board of Directors voted this week to support the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. TPP promises to expand opportunities to some of the fastest growing markets around the world.

"We look forward to working with Congress and the administration to move this agreement forward. American farmers need improved access to markets around the Pacific Rim in order to generate growing demand for our products in the future. Our members recognize that the rest of the world is not sitting still. Other countries are trying to set trading rules in their own best interest. This agreement goes a long way in establishing a much more level playing field for our nation's farmers and ranchers."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized a rule this week to ensure that farm safety-net payments are issued only to active managers of farms that operate as joint ventures or general partnerships, consistent with the direction and authority provide by Congress in the 2014 Farm Bill. The action, which exempts family farm operations, closes a loophole where individuals who were not actively part of farm management still received payments.


"The federal farm safety-net programs are designed to protect against unanticipated changes in the marketplace for those who actively share in the risk of that farming operation," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "To ensure that help goes to those who genuinely need it, such as America's farm families, the Farm Bill authorized USDA to close a loophole and limit payments from those not involved on a daily basis in non family farm management."

Read more of this decision that came on Tuesday of this week by clicking or tapping here.

If you are an alum of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program- I wanted to put my OALP Advisory Board hat on for a moment and remind you of how you are double your money that you give to the Program through the generosity of the Noble Foundation.  The Noble Challenge, which has helped to fund OALP for many years is back for 2015- and the Noble folks are offering a match up to $20,000 for every dollar contributed by an Alum to the program. 

We are over halfway there- and traditionally we see a lot of the match come in these last few days of December- but DO NOT put it off- we need your support NOW. 

It has been my personal goal in recent years to see at least half of our alums give something back to the program.  Whether you give a little or a lot- your support is part of what makes OALP one of the best Leadership development programs in agriculture.


How do you give???  Well, we asked OALP Director Edmond Bonjour to explain that to us- and here are his suggestions:

"Checks made payable to OSU Foundation/OALP can be sent to Edmond Bonjour, 127 Noble Research Center, Stillwater, OK 74078 and must be postmarked by Dec. 31.  Donations can be given with credit card by calling the OSU Foundation at 1-800-622-4678 and designate your gift for the Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Fund 21-35700 or online at https://www.osugiving.com where you will have to: 1) click on the "Give" button, 2) click the orange "Search here", 3) type 21-35700 or Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Fund in the search box, 4) click the orange "GIVE" after the name and description of the fund, and 5) enter the amount and other billing information.  We appreciate your support!"

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We were in Stillwater yesterday for the last couple of sessions of the OSU Winter Crop School- enjoy seeing some of you there- and also enjoyed getting over to Ag Hall and chatting with OSU's Dr. Derrell Peel about the cattle markets- reviewing 2015 and previewing 2016. 

You will be hearing hunks of the interview over the next few days as Beef Buzz updates- but if you would like to hear our complete conversation with Dr. Peel now- click here and your wish will be granted!

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FINALLY this Thursday morning- we are a week away from Christmas Eve and we now have a early forecast from our friend and colleague Jed Castles for next Friday- What about a nice round number- like SEVENTY degrees for the high for Christmas Day 2015? 

Yep- that is what Jed has at this moment anyway- take a look-




Lots of time between now and then for this to change- so we will see what actually happens- but unless something dramatically changes- easy travel weather in and around Oklahoma anyway to get to Grandma's house!