The grain trade was all up in arms after the August Crop Production Report showed a higher corn crop yield than what the pre-report guesses were suggesting- Uncle Sam came in at a national yield of 169 bushels per acre while the trade was thinking more like 166 BPA. 

Well- to this point- three of the four states reported on the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour have come in about their three year average on the yield of the corn scouts have surveyed- and while it is no real proof that USDA might be right- it will make for some interesting conversations between now and September 12th when USDA will offer their next field survey "guess" on the size of the spring planted crops here in the US.

Monday night- we saw the east routes peg Ohio at 164.62 BPA versus the three year average of 159.81 bushels while the west scouts saw a smaller South Dakota crop versus the three year average- 147.97 versus 156.14.

Last night- the Indiana corn crop was seen yielding 171.23 BPA versus the 167.13 three year average. Out west- Nebraska checked in at 165.42 bushels per acre versus the three year average of 162.51. 

They only count pods on soybeans- moisture in late August and September will make or break the soybean crop in the midwest- and it was raining in Indiana and Illinois yesterday as the eastern tour rolled.  Pod counts did suggest Indiana was on track with a possible average yield while Nebraska pods were well under that of a year ago and the three year average.

Our Ohio farm broadcast colleague, Ty Higgins has a good report from the Eastern route- talking with Pro Farmer's Brian Grete about what was seen in Indiana and Illinois on Tuesday- take a look:

 

The Animal Agriculture Alliance recently published their annual report on observations made while monitoring the National Animal Rights Conference held not long ago in Alexandria, Virginia. Hannah Thompson Weeman of the AAA, spoke with me about some of those observations made at the conference and what tactics the anti-agriculture groups are encouraging their followers to utilize in their fight against the livestock industry.


"For the past several years, activist groups have been very aggressive and very focused on pressuring restaurants, retailers and food service companies to adopt certain policies," Hannah said. "Of course, these policies on their surface might sound like something good or positive for animal welfare, but I think at their core - what they're trying to do is get policies put in place that make production less efficient, that drive up costs, that force farmers to have the burden of changing production practices which unfortunately puts some farmers out of business."


Hannah uses cage-free eggs as an example. Many businesses have in recent years pledged to only source cage-free eggs. They've done this in response to the overwhelming pressure of activist groups that, Hannah says, have harassed these businesses into complying with their demands.


"Harassment was one word they used," Hannah said referencing speakers at this year's animal rights conference. "They had basically harassed a company into adopting a certain policy. They talked about going on to social media pages of restaurants and retailers and bombarding them with negative comments and reviews, forcing them to deal with the activists. Those companies are consumer facing so they do have a brand to defend and these activist groups know that. They're trying to pressure them, damage that brand and use a lot of aggressive harassment tactics to get those brands to cave to their demands."


Listen to Hannah offering more insights into the strategies being used by animal rights activists to hinder production agriculture, with me, on yesterday's Beef Buzz - click here.

In case you were planning to attend the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association 33rd Annual Range Round-Up, don't forget - it's happening this week at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, August 25 and 26. If you haven't already purchased tickets, not to worry. You can still purchase your tickets online, by phone or at the door. And the best part is, you'll be helping to raise funds for the Children's Miracle Network when you do. So, be sure to make it our this weekend and join in on all the fun as some of Oklahoma's top hands compete for first place at the OCA Range Round-Up Ranch Rodeo.

OCA's Dallas Henderson, spoke with me recently, promoting the event and talked with me about some of its games based on real, everyday ranching chores. She spoke to the history of this event as well, explaining how a dozen of our state's most historic ranches will be competing this year to represent the state at the World Finals competition later this year.

Henderson actually joined me this past weekend during our 'In the Field' segment on KWTV News9. If you missed it and would like to learn more about this year's Range Round-Up, watch the clip online, by clicking over to our website. While you're there, be sure to follow the link to purchase your tickets. We hope to see you there!

In a perfect world, all our cows and heifers would calve on their own, every time, without incident. But we know better than that. While it is always good for that to happen, and generally speaking it does - there are inevitably those cases that do in fact require a producer's attention and assistance in birthing a calf. With the fall calving season coming up, it's probably a good idea to start thinking about what preparations must be made on the farm before your new calf crop arrives. But one thing to consider, is when calves do start hitting the ground, when is the right time to actually lend a hand? Labor is an intense process for cows and heifers, but before we rush to help or before it's too late, we need to understand the time frame in which help delivering a calf is warranted, giving the female ample time to succeed on her own first.

Glenn Selk went into detail on this subject in his article for the Cow/Calf Corner newsletter this week.  

The U.S. swine industry is free of several swine diseases existing in other countries, and producers would like to keep it that way. To that end, an organization known as the Swine Health Information Center has taken steps to prevent foreign diseases from ever successfully infiltrating our domestic swine herd, through the funding of a real-time monitoring system for swine diseases around the world.

This system, being developed at the University of Minnesota, will identify potential hazards due to new diseases or changes in current diseases' status, screening steps to evaluate the information collected, and informing the U.S. pork industry through regular, timely reporting.

"Having a systematic way to monitor new or emerging diseases around the globe will help keep the U.S. pork industry informed of risks. Knowing the changes in risks will spur thinking about how to mitigate them," remarked Dr. Paul Sundberg, SHIC Executive Director.

The regular near real-time reports generated through this system, will be made possible through the collaborative efforts of national agencies such as the USDA/APHIS Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health and from private citizens, utilizing the reports of locals on the ground wherever and whenever possible. The risk of each report will be assessed and graded prior to publishing. Hopes are that this system will be up and running by early next year.

Click here to read more about the new innovative system being developed to better protect the US swine herd from the threat of foreign disease.

Lee Borck became a cattle feeder in 1978, after an initial career with the Farm Credit System. Feeding was attractive, but he learned to manage risk from the loan officer side.


"They were the folks that weren't afraid to try new things," Bork said. "They were taking more risk. They got more bumps, but they got more rewards at the same time. And one thing that I learned in being at Production Credit and on the financing side... I didn't learn so much what to do, but you could certainly see the mistakes people made in the way that they looked at their business plan and not thinking far enough out in front as to what might happen to them."

Not even the most cautious planners figured on 18% interest in the early 1980s, but Borck weathered that storm and later reflected, it's possible to be TOO careful.


"You've got to have a few failures to learn what not to do again... To be really successful you have to be able to make a decision when you have 65% of the information that is available of the 100% total information that's out there," he said. "If you wait till you get to 90% all the good deals are gone because everybody else has made that decision. But that also means that occasionally you're going to fail and you're going to go backwards. But if you can make seven or eight deals out of ten work, you're going to move ahead and you're going to move ahead pretty good."


One notable exception, where cattle producers cannot afford to fail, is in pleasing beef consumers.


To continue reading this article, courtesy of our friends at Certified Angus Beef, or to watch a video clip featuring Lee Borck, Manhattan, Kansas-based chairman of Integrated Livestock Systems and the Beef Marketing Group Cooperative, talk about risk and reward in cattle feeding for consumers, click or tap here.

 

The United States is moving forward with a World Trade Organization case against China regarding tariff-rate quotas for agricultural products. The WTO said this week that the U.S. is requesting that the WTO set up a panel to investigate the tariff-rate quotas, a move that Reuters says sets up a showdown between the two largest economies in the world. The tariff-rate quotas at question include tariffs for wheat, rice and corn.

The request was initiated by the Obama administration last year, and the Trump administration is moving forward with the format request. The U.S. Trade representative's office last year said global prices for the three commodities were lower than China's domestic prices, yet the country did not maximize its use of the tariff-rate quotas, which offer lower duties on a certain volume of imported grains every year.

USTR said the lack of action by China limited market access for shipments from the United States, the world's largest grain exporter, and other countries. Since then, Australia, the European Union, Canada and Thailand have joined the dispute as third parties. The WTO Dispute Settlement Body will consider the request during a meeting August 31st.

This is a case that has been pushed by the US Wheat Industry for the last several years- in September 2015- we featured a story with audio from Dalton Henry of US Wheat Associates on a study that shows these tariff rate quotas have cost US wheat farmers close to a BILLION dollars. Click here to see that story from 2015- and listen to our conversation with Dalton Henry at that time.