Senator Coburn Takes Shot at Popular Market Export Promotion Program 

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a new oversight report, "Treasure MAP: The Market Access Program's Bounty of Waste, Loot and Spoils Plundered from Taxpayers" highlighting more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars indirectly subsidizing the advertising costs of some of the most profitable agriculture companies and trade associations doing business overseas. You will recognize many of these company brands as household names, such as Welch's, Sunkist, and Blue Diamond.

Despite their combined $2 billion in sales in 2009, Treasure MAP shows how these companies received more than $6 million in 2012 from taxpayers for product promotion. Also receiving millions from taxpayers for private overseas advertising are the agricultural trade groups whose members include Tyson Foods, Purina, Hershey's, Georgia-Pacific and Jack Daniels. With a multitude of other agriculture, and fiscal priorities facing our nation, Coburn said this report shows it is time to reduce funding for the Market Access Program (MAP).

"At a time when we are cutting funding for our troops, taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the filming of Reality-TV shows in India, wine tastings for foreign journalists and even ads for pet shampoo," said Dr. Coburn. "We need to make tough choices."

You can read more about Senator Coburn's position as well as accessing a link to his full report by clicking here.

Ag Export Coalition Opposes Amendment to Cut Market Access Program Funding and Limit Activities 

Eighty members of the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports said they strongly oppose a proposed amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to S. 3240 (Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012) to reduce annual funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) by $40 million and prohibit the use of MAP funds for certain activities.   

"Reducing funding for MAP would seriously undermine U.S. agriculture's ability to compete in this highly competitive international marketplace," the organizations said in the letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Minority Member Pat Roberts (R-KS). "It is a very efficient, cost-effective program."

The letter also noted that under MAP, participants must carefully evaluate and adjust all export market development activities every year. The participants submit plans to USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), which reviews every promotional activity to determine their eligibility and likelihood of success in increasing demand for U.S. agricultural exports. This analysis, in conjunction with in-country feedback from FAS overseas officers, determines whether activities merit funding. 

Click here to read more about the AEC's response to Senator Coburn.  You will also find the full letter and a list of all the groups signing on.

Cattlemen's Association CEO Talks Legislative Highlights, Upcoming OCA Convention

Scott Dewald, the chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association sat down with us recently to discuss several issues including the outcome of the legislative session and the upcoming OCA events.

Dewald said the legislature put off many important issues like tax policy and budget issues until the waning days of the session, but that's nothing new. He said there were a number of issues being closely watched by the cattle industry, especially tax policy.

"I think the big one to us was the income tax issue and the possible elimination of or ratcheting down of the personal income tax. The offset to that, what happens when you lose that revenue, do you increase property taxes? Do you increase fees? What do you do to finance state government? It's one of those big deals that didn't happen that we were, quite frankly, concerned about because we didn't know what the other revenue sources were going to be. And we certainly didn't want it to be the ranchers of the state of Oklahoma or the farmers and landholders in the state of Oklahoma having to foot the bill."

You can preview our interview with Scott Dewald by clicking here. 

You can also catch Scott on our "In the Field" segment on News 9 this Saturday morning at about 6:40. 

USDA Seeks Comments on Changing Statistical Report Release Times

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting public comment now through July 9, 2012 as part of its review of release times and procedures for several major statistical reports. Due to recent changes in market hours by major commodity exchanges, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB)-the USDA entities responsible for the reports-are reviewing release times and procedures of the following statistical reports: World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, Acreage, Cattle, Cattle on Feed, Crop Production, Grain Stocks, Prospective Plantings, Quarterly Hogs and Pigs, and Small Grain Summary. The current USDA release times of 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET will remain in effect until further notice.

To submit an official comment via the Federal Register, click here, or comment directly by clicking here

NCBA Works to Put Estate Tax on Front Burner for Congress

The automatic reversion of the estate tax which will allow the federal government to take 55 percent of all estates over $1 million will happen at the end of the year if Congress fails to take action.

Kent Bacus, associate director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says it's an issue of incredible importance to his members.

"Without question, that's the biggest concern of farmers and ranchers all across America," he says.

"With land values increasing all across the country, with new investments in agricultural equipment in order to meet all that growing demand, there will be a lot of families who are going to be tripped up by that $1 million level."

Bacus says his organization is working hard to spur Congress into action.

You can hear more of what Kent Bacus has to say about the "death tax" on the latest edition of the Beef Buzz by clicking here.

Only Irrigated Wheat in the Panhandle Remains in 2012 Oklahoma Wheat Harvest- HRW Harvest Marching North

We have reports from both the Oklahoma Wheat Commission as well as from Plains Grains this morning- first we got the latest update on what was happening in the Oklahoma Panhandle with wheat harvest from Debbie Wedel of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, who says harvest in the Panhandle was slowed by rains earlier this week, but is still moving forward.

Rains on Tuesday of this week shut down wheat harvest in the Boise City area but the elevators are expecting producers to be in the field by 5pm yesterday afternoon (Thursday). Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were very busy as producers are finishing up the dryland wheat in this area. Test weights on the dryland wheat are ranging from 57 - 59 pounds. This area expects to get into the irrigated wheat in about a week.

Hooker Equity Exchange reports that producers are finishing up the dryland and getting into the irrigated wheat, so both are coming in. Irrigated is averaging 55 - 65 bushels per acre with test weights ranging from 62 - 63 pounds. Dryland wheat continues to yield 10 - 20 bushels per acre with test weights ranging from 54 - 59. You can catch the rest of Debbie's report by clicking here.

Meanwhile, Mark Hodges with Plains Grains reports the three southern plains HRW wheat states are rapidly concluding harvest- Oklahoma at 95% complete, Kansas 70% harvested and Texas 59% cut out. Mark writes in his weekly summary of Thursday evening "Yields continue to be impressive considering the dry hot weather most of the Southern Great Plains suffered during the most critical stage of water demand for plant development, pollination through grainfill.  Yields have ranged from the low 20's to well over 70 bushels per acre with commonly reported averages from 40 to 45 bushels per acre."

Hodges does have concerns about the quality of the 2012 crop- because of that hoit dry stretch of weather he references- you can read more about that and the entire Plains Grains report as released on Thursday evening by clicking here.

This N That- Stabenow Claims Progress in Farm Bill Efforts, Sorghum Board Adds Oklahoma Producer and Ag Does Hollywood Next Week

In danger of sinking under the weight of hundreds of amendments, the Chairlady of the Senate Ag Committee, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, issued a statement on Thursday evening to assure Farm Bill proponents that she, ranking member Pat Roberts of Kansas and the Senate leadership are working on a deal of what amendments to consider and under what sort of time constraints.  Her early hopes as the bill came to the floor was to get a final vote on the 2012 farm bill by the end of this month- which seems out of reach unless a deal can be reached quickly. (which is a word seldom uttered in the US Senate) Stabenow's statement reads:

Congrats to James Wuerflein of Kremlin, Okla., who has been appointed by USDA to the United Sorghum Checkoff Board of Directors. Wuerflein takes the at-large seat vacancy on the 13-member board. "We are pleased to have this seat vacancy filled, and we look forward to working with James as a valuable member of the Sorghum Checkoff board," said USCP Chairman, Bill Kubecka of Palacios, Texas.

Wuerflein has raised sorghum on his farm in north central Oklahoma for 20 years. He is a 1982 graduate of Oklahoma State University, a member of the Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Program Class VII, Farmers Grain Company board member, and a member of the Great Plains Co-op in Lahoma.

Finally- a quick reminder from our calendar pages- coming next week on Tuesday and Wednesday is a huge outreach by agriculture to tell our story- The US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance planning a second FoodDialogues June 19 and 20- Four separate discussions - being held over two days -that will bring together entertainment movers and shakers, chefs, academics, large restaurant operators, journalists, local leaders, farmers and ranchers for an in-depth conversation about food.  Click here for some more details- and we will talk more about this big event in Monday's email.