Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has announced the appointment of 27 members to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board. Twenty-five of the appointees will serve three-year terms. Two appointees will serve the remaining one-year portion of vacant positions.

Two of the 27 will be representing Oklahoma on the checkoff board- Jimmy Taylor of Cheyenne and Blayne Arthur of Stillwater will be seated in the new year- replacing Barbara Jacques and Terry Wyatt who are rotating off. The other CBB Board Members from Oklahoma include two of the current Beef Board Officers- Chairman Brett Morris of Ninnekah and Secretary-Treasurer Chuck Coffey of Springer, Oklahoma. The fifth and final member of the CBB delegation from Oklahoma is Jean Lam of Pauls Valley.

Click here to read more about the newest appointees to the CBB- and to see the complete list as announced by USDA just before Christmas.

By the way- we featured the Jimmy Taylor cattle operation earlier in 2017- click here to learn more about his beef production philosophy out in Roger Mills County.

 

Agricultural producers interested in learning how to maximize their canola production and profitability should register now to attend the Jan. 19 Canola College in Enid.

"It's a great opportunity to learn from and speak with leading experts in the field, and interact with more than 200 new or veteran canola producers and industry members," said Dr. Ron Sholar, Great Plains Canola Association executive director. "This will be the premier canola education and training event in the region for 2018."

The annual Canola College is a joint effort of GPCA, Oklahoma State University's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Kansas State University and cooperating partners in the canola industry.

It's an all day event- and to learn more- click or tap here. (Registration details are in our story)

 

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding sorghum and advanced biofuels. Growth Energy says the release had to do with the life-cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions associated with biofuels that are produced from grain sorghum oil extracted at dry-mill ethanol plants. The agency says in evaluating the product, the GHG emissions of producing biofuels from distillers' sorghum oil results in no significant upstream agricultural GHG emissions. That means biofuels produced from sorghum oil would meet the GHG-emissions reduction threshold required for advanced biofuels and biomass-based biodiesel under the Renewable Fuels Standard Program.

Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says this is great news for a lot of ethanol producers who use grain sorghum as a feedstock because it opens up a valuable additional market for one of their more important co-products. "Our industry has a history of leading innovation in the production of clean, renewable fuel, and in creating value for associated co-products," Skor adds. "This is an exciting step for producers who are poised to provide more homegrown fuels to America."

 

Weekly- Dr Derrell Peel and Dr. Glen Selk publish on the world wide web Cow Country News- and in this week's article, Dr. Peel goes into depth on this past Friday's Cattle on Feed Report- diving into the why of the huge placements that the report documented- especially in Texas, where placements were huge.

Dr. Peel explains it appears to be all about poor pasture prospects here in the southern plains. "Texas placements under 600 pounds, represented 56.3 percent of all placements under 600 pounds and 29.3 percent of the total increase in placements. In total, Texas accounted for 35.2 percent of increased November placements while Kansas accounted for 19.5 percent; Nebraska, 13.7 percent and Colorado, 3.9 percent."

We have coupled our Tuesday Beef Buzz featuring comments with Dr. Peel with his commentary of this week- click or tap here to read more- and to listen to his comments on the placements as well.

 

The Center for Consumer Freedom filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding the Humane Society of the U.S. The non-profit CCF says the Humane Society is responsible for a deceptive advertising campaign, and they also passed along 77 donor complaints submitted through its website, Help Pet Shelters Dot Com. The Center for Consumer Freedom says HSUS drove traffic to a web page that contained false information back in November. The web page said only 19 percent of total donations went to fundraising. But, the Form 990 tax return filed in 2016 by HSUS shows that it actually spends 29 percent of its donations on fundraising.

The CCF says if joint cost expenditures that are allocated to management or program spending are factored in, the total fundraising number climbs to 52 percent. The Center points out that charities have been known to classify at least some of its fundraising as "educational" expenses in order to seem more efficient with donations. The CCF also says that, in spite of its name, the Humane Society of the U.S. is not affiliated with many of the pet shelters across the country. CCF points out that HSUS doesn't run a single pet shelter, in spite of solicitations suggesting otherwise.

To read the complaint filed by the Center for Consumer Freedom just before Christmas- click or tap here.

 

Through the work of dedicated staff in over 2,100 county and state offices, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides vital farm safety-net assistance to agricultural producers across America.


"We've seen recent challenges in farm income and commodity prices," said Dr. Robert Johansson, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for the Farm Production and Conservation mission area. "The 'safety net' provided in the 2014 Farm Bill has helped producers withstand economic losses as well as losses resulting from natural disasters. Loans for operating expenses, farm purchases and other purposes help current producers stay in business and allow a new generation of farmers and ranchers get their start."

FSA has been involved in billions of dollar worth of loans- but the Agency is perhaps best known for its efforts with the safety net payments to farmers, as well as payments under the Conservation Reserve Program.

According to the USDA release reviewing 2017 and the Farm Service Agency-

"USDA is issuing approximately $8 billion in payments under the ARC and PLC programs to agricultural producers who suffered market downturns in 2016.

"In 2017, FSA distributed $1.6 billion in CRP payments to over 375,000 Americans for doing their part in improving water quality, reducing soil erosion and increasing wildlife habitat."

Click or tap here to learn more

 

The subject of GMOs and the use of biotech in plant breeding in modern production agriculture continues to be contentious, even tho most of us knowledgeable in today's farming and ranching industry have a hard time understanding why there is still an issue- because we, for the most part, buy the science and believe in the safety of the technology.

BUT- consumers don't understand- and they are told by the Whole Foods crowd how dangerous GMOs are- and how much better ANYTHING that is Non GMO has to be.

Well- do you understand the why of GMOs?  Dr. Kevin Folta, Interim Chair and Associate Professor in the Horticultural Sciences Department at University of Florida has put together a pretty decent video that explains conventional breeding versus breeding of plants using biotech. It may give you a point or two that you can explain to your relative that prefers to shop at SPROUTS because things there are just...Better.