House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas Cheering On Senator Stabenow as She Pushes for Farm Bill Passage in Senate 

With Senate debate to begin as early as next week on the Senate Ag Committee's 2012 Farm Bill proposal, the Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas, says that he is hopeful that Chairlady Debbie Stabenow will be able to shepherd some version of her Committee's proposal through the full Senate, setting up a path for a possible conference between the House and Senate Ag Leadership later in the summer to finalize a new five year farm bill- what he calls "the real farm bill- the ultimate farm bill."

Congressman Lucas, in talking with us on Thursday from his office in Washington, says that he has as his next goal to get a proposal through the House Ag Committee before the Fourth of July recess. If that happens and the Senate passes their version of farm policy, Lucas believes that gives him an argument for floor time with the Speaker of the House, John Boehner of Ohio.

Lucas addressed the rocks being thrown at policy ideas that are being considered for the 2012 Farm Bill by a variety of groups that don't want money to be spent on agricultural subsidies. One group that was decrying the federal government investment into Crop Insurance earlier on Thursday, is the Environmental Working Group. The EWG believes that the subsidies paid on behalf of producers by the federal government to give them incentive to buy crop insurance should be identified on an individual basis- a public record established that shows how much every farmer receives. EWG contends too many dollars have been allowed to go to Crop Insurance subsidies with no oversight or transparency, no program payment caps and no means testing. Lucas says that it's important to establish the biggest possible pool of production to spread the risk out over more acres. Lucas adds that producers who may be receiving larger crop insurance premium subsidies are farmers who are stepping up and paying more themselves as they insure more acres of production, as they provide food and fiber for America and the world.

You can listen to our conversation by clicking here as well as reading more from our visit with Frank Lucas. 

Environmental Working Group Says Crop Insurance Transparency Should Shape Farm Bill 

In a conference call with the media, executives of the Environmental Working Group announced the release of data regarding crop insurance obtained from the federal government through a Freedom of Information Act request.

EWG called it the most detailed disclosure of federal crop insurance benefits to date, tracking subsidies across 686,273 insurance policies issued to 486,867 policyholders last year, when the program's costs exceeded a record $11 billion.

"This is the kind of analysis and information that should have formed the foundation of the debate on a proposal to dramatically expand and increase the funding for federal crop insurance," said Ken Cook, president of EWG.

Cook said his group was very concerned about how funding will be allocated in the new farm bill.

"We're very concerned about cuts to the SNAP program. We're very concerned about cuts to the conservation program. We feel that healthy food, healthy eating, could be dramatically improved by some investment of very promising programs already in the farm bill."

Click here to read more or hear extended remarks by EWG officials on their take on crop insurance and the 2012 Farm Bill. 

Plains Grains Calls Oklahoma Wheat Harvest 65% Done, Texas 41% Done and Kansas 25% Complete

Mark Hodges with Plains Grains says that the 2012 Hard Red Winter wheat harvest continues to expand northward- and reports that Oklahoma stands right at the two thirds complete- 65% of harvest now in the grain bin. Texas and Kansas also have progressed well with harvest- Texas now at 41% complete and Kansas 25% complete before June has even arrived.

According to Hodges in the Plains Grains Thursday evening update- "The 2012 HRW wheat harvest is expanding rapidly northward with cutting now within 2 counties of the Nebraska state line in Kansas. All areas currently harvesting are a minimum of 2 weeks ahead of normal harvest dates. Harvest is winding down in north Texas northward to I-40 in central Oklahoma. However, combines are just beginning to cut dryland wheat in the High Plains (Amarillo northward), while irrigated wheat in that area is still green."

The Plains Grains report goes into detail on the latest quality test results- click here to jump to our story for more on their latest wheat harvest update.  

Meanwhile- we do have an update from the Kansas Wheat groups- click here for the Day Six report which focuses on what is going on in several western Kansas locations- there is no update from the Oklahoma Wheat Commission from Thursday.

Selecting Against Poor Reproduction 'Painfully Slow, But Necessary'

Culling decisions aren't always easy to make, especially when it comes to open heifers. Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University extension animal scientist emeritus, writes in the latest edition of the Cow/Calf Newsletter it's a decision that needs to be made and will, over time, make a difference.

"Heritability" is that portion of the difference in the performance of cattle that is due to genetics. The remainder of the differences is presumed to be due to differences in the environment (i.e. management, pastures, weather, etc).

Previous estimates of the heritability of pregnancy rates in heifers ranged from 0 to 0.28. Iowa State University scientists studied records of 3144 heifers from six herds in five states. In the Iowa State study, the heritability of pregnancy rate was 0.13. Pregnancy rate is the percentage of the heifers exposed to artificial or natural breeding that were diagnosed pregnant after their first entire breeding season. First service conception rate is the likelihood that the heifer became pregnant on the first artificial insemination attempt to breed her. The heritability of first service conception rate was even lower at 0.03. This implies that 97% of the differences in the first service conception rate are due to the management environment in which the heifers were raised. (Source: Minick and co-workers. 2004 Iowa State University Beef Research Report.)

These low heritability estimates suggest that painfully slow progress could be made by selecting sires that produced heifers with greater pregnancy rates. This data also reminds us that in any one year, management is still the key to successful pregnancy rates in replacement heifers. Remember, 87% of the differences in pregnancy rates were due to the "environment."

Read more from Glenn Selk by clicking here.

McDonalds Sets Timeline on Gestation Crate Elimination- Pork Board President Believes Sows At Risk With Decision

On Thursday, McDonalds USA released a statement to the media- signaling their intention to "to source all pork for its U.S. business from producers that do not house pregnant sows in gestation stalls by the end of 2022."   

Dan Gorsky, senior vice president of McDonald's North America Supply Chain Management says that  "Our approach seeks to build on the work already in place, and we are also sensitive to the needs of the smaller, independent pork producers in phasing out of gestation stalls."

Everett Forkner is the current President of the National Pork Board and owns about 500 sows in the state of Missouri.  He says that he is disappointed in the announcement earlier in the day by McDonald's Corp. that sets a 10-year timeline for sourcing all of its pork from farms that do not use individual stalls to house pregnant pigs.

"I've been in this business a long time," Forkner said. "I know on my own farm I moved from open pens to stalls many years ago because too many sows were being injured or denied feed. When sows are thrown together they can become very aggressive. Dominant sows physically attack the others, bite them and steal their food. The housing used by most farmers was designed to protect sows from this bullying while they are most vulnerable, during their pregnancies.

"We fully support continuing to explore new and better ways to protect pregnant sows," Forkner said. "Farmers are adopting improvements all the time as they study their farms and their animals."

Click here for more from both McDonalds as well as from the National Pork Board.    

Wheat Prices Feel Pressure and Start Falling- Kim Anderson Explains All on SUNUP 

Wheat harvest is, once again, the centerpiece of this week's SUNUP program with a visit to the Wedel family farm near Cordell. With a few delays for rain, harvest is progressing rapidly, and OSU small grains specialist Dr. Kim Anderson explains why prices have dropped.

"We had that rally of over a dollar for a couple of weeks and what we had was the index funds, they were record short on the wheat contracts. Over that week, a little over a week and a half time period they bought over 57,000 contracts, almost 300 million bushels of wheat. So we got a big rally strictly based on short coverage, not based on changes in supply and demand.

"Then we've got things going on like the harvest pressures.   As our wheat moves north our yields are coming in slightly less than what was anticipated at the crop tours, but relatively good yields, good quality wheat.

"We've got the problems in the European Union and the Euro and because of those problems the value of the dollar is going up. That's making our wheat more expensive. You've got corn prices falling about 90 cents. All of those things are weighing heavy with pressure on the wheat for lower prices."

You can hear more of Kim Anderson's analysis and see the full SUNUP lineup by clicking here. 

This N That- Kris Black Cream of the Crop Sale Saturday, Cocina De Mino Sale Starts Today and a Tip of the Hat to Fellow OALP Class One Alum Jim Shelton

Tomorrow, Saturday, June 2nd,  it will be the Kris Black Cream of the Crop Sale- The sale will be held at the ranch, just north of Cheyenne, Oklahoma on Highway 33.

Featuring 500 head of fall calving heifers and young cows, plus a stout set of service age bulls. Click here for more details of this outstanding offering that may be the right kind of genetics for your beef cow- calf operation.   

***** 

Later this morning- at 8:30 AM central time- you can grab $50 worth of grub for just $25 from one of my very favorite Mexican restaurants in the OKC metro- Cocina De Mino.  Click here for details about this Legendary Deal that goes on sale on this first of June.

*****

We say congrats to fellow Class One Alum of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program  Jim Shelton of Vinita- selected to serve on the American Farmers and Ranchers Board of Directors. Click here for more details on his selection- Terry Detrick of AFR speaks highly of Jim and his wife Sara- "They have a successful ranching operation that specializes in premium quality grass-fed beef production for that niche market. Jim has a lot of background experience valuable to AFR/OFU and I look forward to serving our membership along-side him."