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A week after the Senate Agriculture Committee completed its work on the farm bill, more than 120 agricultural and other organizations--ranging from the American Farm Bureau Federation to the National Association of Wheat Growers and the U.S. Canola Association--sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. The letter advocated for floor consideration of the legislation as soon as possible to enhance prospects of completing the process this year instead of having to extend current programs.

"This is one piece of legislation upon which all Americans depend, urban as well as rural," the letter stated. "With limited time remaining before expiration of current program authorities, time is of the essence. While each of our respective organizations will continue to work to accomplish our key priorities, the farm bill must move forward. We urge your leadership in allowing the Senate to consider this legislation as soon as possible."

The Senate Agriculture Committee legislation reduces spending by $23 billion while maintaining a risk management program for farmers. The bill was passed out of committee by a 16-5 vote.

To read the letter, click here.
 

Drought and Stress Blamed for White Heads in Wheat 

As harvest draws closer, more and more white heads are appearing in wheat fields. Dr. Jeff Edwards and Dr. Bob Hunger looked at several fields and plant samples over the past couple of weeks and have found a few plants affected by take all and dryland root rot; however, the vast majority of white heads appearing in wheat fields are attributable to environmental (abiotic) causes. White heads caused by abiotic injury can be lumped into two categories: freeze injury and heat/drought stress.

Freeze
Given the very warm winter, one would not expect to see freeze injury this year, but some freeze injury has occurred. The picture to the right was taken in mid April in Stillwater and is definitely freeze injury. Many, including me, initially thought freeze injury was the cause of most of the white heads appearing in wheat this spring because the symptoms look very similar to freeze injury. Upon closer inspection and review of the literature, though, it has become apparent that most white heads are due to drought/heat stress.

Drought and/or heat stress
In Oklahoma it is nearly impossible to separate drought and heat. Much like an evaporative cooling fan in a greenhouse or shop, plants use water to cool themselves. Water is taken from the soil by roots, moved upward through the xylem, and transpired through the stomata in the leaves. When daytime temperatures soar north of 85F (optimal temperature for wheat is 77F) the plant has trouble transpiring enough water to keep itself cool, even if there is an ample water supply in the soil. Limited soil moisture and a larger number of tillers pulling water from the soil will compound the temperature effect and make the plant overheat even more quickly. Depending on when and where this overheating occurs, it can result in loss of whole tillers or green tillers with white heads.

You can read more about the effects of drought and stress on the wheat crop by clicking here.

NCBA's MBA Program Reaches Out to Younger, Tech Savvy Generation

With the potential for misinformation about the beef industry to be circulated far and wide by uninformed or intentionally malicious media members, the need for knowledgeable beef advocates is greater than ever.

Daren Williams of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association has been working with the organization's Masters of Beef Advocacy program for some time. The program was originally created as a self-paced online training program to equip beef producers with the tools necessary to speak effectively to the media and to the public about "hot topic" issues of importance to the industry.

We recently spoke to Williams at the Oklahoma State FFA convention about the program that is finding another willing and enthusiastic audience.

"We've been able to get a number of FFA students across the state to engage their students in this program.   I had an opportunity to talk to these young folks about their future and what's at stake in terms of their livelihoods in the beef industry and why getting involved in the Masters of Beef Advocacy program is an important part of securing that future."

Williams conducted a beef advocacy workshop that drew 125 FFA members at the convention. Prior to the convention, the Oklahoma Beef Council and the FFA participated in a pilot program in which 165 FFA members in five chapters received their MBAs. Oklahoma now has the largest number of MBA graduates in the country. The Oklahoma Beef Council plans to expand its program to all state FFA chapters next year.

You can catch our interview with Daren Williams on the current Beef Buzz by clicking here.

Oklahoma Farm Bureau Intervenes in Mississippi River Basin Case on Nutrient Runoff

The Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and 13 other state Farm Bureau organizations and 16 other national and regional agricultural organizations, filed a motion seeking to intervene in Gulf Restoration Network, et al. v. Jackson, et al., a lawsuit seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to establish federal numeric nutrient water quality standards for all states in the Mississippi River Basin. The resolution of the lawsuit could be significant for farmers, municipalities and others throughout the 31-state basin because numeric nutrient standards could lead to more costly and stringent limits on nutrient runoff to waters that ultimately contribute to the Mississippi River.

Under the Clean Water Act, states may use either "narrative" or "numeric" standards as a method for determining water quality. Most states in the Mississippi River Basin use narrative standards, such as "no nutrients at levels that cause a harmful imbalance of aquatic populations." However, if this lawsuit is successful, EPA would be forced to override existing state standards with federal water quality standards and to express those standards as specific numeric limits on nutrients.


Click here for more information on this lawsuit. 

Subcommittee Focuses on Specialty Crop & Nutrition Programs During D.C. Farm Bill Hearing

Rep. Jean Schmidt, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture, held a hearing to continue receiving input on agricultural programs in preparation for writing the 2012 Farm Bill. This hearing focused on specialty crop and nutrition programs.

The first panel of witnesses included growers and representatives of the specialty crop community to discuss the programs under Title X of the 2008 Farm Bill. They include the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, Pest and Disease Prevention, the National Clean Plant Network and others. Specifically, they explained how programs are working to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops from research to marketing and promotion, as well as how they are working to address plant threats such as disease, pests, and pathogens.

The second panel of witnesses, including Rodney Bivens from the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, discussed the various nutrition programs under the Subcommittee's jurisdiction. The nutrition title accounts for nearly 80 percent of the entire farm bill spending. The primary nutrition assistance program is the Supplemental Nutrition Assurance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. SNAP helps supplement the food budget of low-income households and is designed in such a way that it expands to help those households during economic downturns and contracts as the economy improves. 

You can find more on this story as well as links to all the witnesses' testimony, by clicking here.

New Webinar Tackles Misinformation About LFTB

A producer of videos for the food service industry is tackling the misinformation being peddled by opponents of Lean Finely Textured Beef.

Food Seminars International has created the video "Lean Finely Textured Beef 'Pink Slime': Separating Myths and Reality."

Aaron Brown of FSI said he chose the topic of LFTB because "it has been featured prominently in the news lately, and it is a topic laced with controversy."

He said most of the news coverage has been weak on facts. The initial photograph that accompanied the early news stories, for instance, was lean, finely textured poultry, not beef. The product descriptions tended to be overwrought and misleading. Social web sites latched onto the initial and factually incorrect reports and rebroadcast them extensively - going viral in a matter of hours.

The FSI video is presented by Dr. Keith Warriner of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Warriner is a professor of food science studying the safety of fresh produce and meat.

The video is long, but very informative.  It is well worth the time.  You can watch it, or read more about this story by clicking here.

This N That- Wheat Harvest, Canola Swathing, Uncle Sam Takes a Guess and Richard Gebhart reads Forbes!

The 2012 wheat harvest is underway- but the cool and overcast conditions have kept harvest from widely expanding across southwestern Oklahoma. According to the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, our latest 2012 WheatWatch report shows that the Altus area seems to have done the most thus far- OWC reports over 140,000 bushels have been taken in by coops in the county, plus more than 50,000 bushels have been received by the big Gavilon facility in Altus- yields thus far are in the 30s- click here for our latest wheat harvest info that comes from several directions, including the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.  

There is swathing and harvest of winter canola from border to border right now in Oklahoma, with some canola that was damaged by the storms of just a little over a week ago now being harvested in areas up around Pond Creek and over towards Kiowa, Kansas.  The canola we saw being swathed a week ago is now being harvested in central Oklahoma- and other fields in Canadian County have also been swathed and are about ready for the combine to try to work through the windrows. Click here for our set of Flickr canola photos- if you will scroll down to the bottom of the 2012 Canola Set you will see nine pictures of some gigantic windrows that have been piled up on the Jerry Lingo farm east of El Reno- these pictures courtesy of Canadian County Extension Agent Brad Tipton.   

USDA will release their first estimate of the size of the 2012 winter wheat crop this morning at 7:30 AM central time- we will be dissecting the numbers from this report, as well as the monthly supply demand data that will also give us the first guess about the potential size of some of our spring planted crops as well. Go to our home page of the website- OklahomaFarmReport.Com and we will be posting audio analysis, national and state numbers and more- a lot of it will be up by nine am- ahead of the opening bell of today's grain trade in Kansas City and Chicago.

Finally- a little more homework for you regarding LFTB- our friend and Oklahoma cattle producer Richard Gebhart has dug up and posted on his Facebook page a great article from Forbes Magazine about the real slimeballs from the Pink Slime controversy- those food activists and general media folks who have an agenda of wanting to stop modern beef production in this country. Forbes writes "Know-nothing food activists have had a field day.  The real (and ridiculous) agenda of many who are trashing LFTB is to get us all to go organic.  According to food activist Michele Simon, "Pink slime is just one of many problems with industrialized meat.  So let's hope this week's groundswell of interest in pink slime inspires Americans to demand labeling, buy organic or stop eating ground beef all together." If you want to read more- and it is a good read- click here.