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Commodity groups representing cotton, rice, peanuts and grain sorghum are urging the development of a farm bill that maintains equity among all of U.S. agriculture.

"The leadership of these commodity organizations is pleased with efforts by the Agriculture Committees to craft a responsible set of farm programs that maintains balance and ensures that deficit reduction is equitably shared across commodities and regions," said NCC Chairman Charles Parker, a Missouri cotton producer. "All of us in agriculture need to work together to achieve the best possible policy. Policy must be crafted to recognize differences in costs of production and avoid the disproportionate impacts of a one-size-fits-all policy."

The commodity groups reiterated support for a farm policy structure that recognizes the inherent differences in production practices across the major crops and urged the Committees to develop a set of programs that will best serve all commodities. While supporting policy that promotes market-oriented and flexible cropping decisions, the groups urged the Committees to be mindful of the potential imbalance and disproportionate effects of payment limits.  

Parker said the NCC leadership has been working hard to assist in the development of a farm bill that's balanced among all of agriculture, as well as fiscally responsible, because that's the type of legislation that will best serve this nation. 

Click here for more from these commodity groups on the Farm Bill.

Senator Jim Inhofe Requests Fee Reduction for CRP Participants 

Following this year's severe drought in states including Oklahoma and Texas, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) requested U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas Vilsack to reduce or eliminate fees to Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants who participate in emergency grazing and haying during periods of severe droughts. Inhofe was joined on the letter by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas).

In previous years, the USDA has reduced payments to CRP participants by up to 15 percentage points during stretches of severe weather. This last reduction occurred in 2008.

"Like many times before, the USDA must once again help our livestock producers and CRP participants by reducing emergency grazing and haying fees after this year's drought," said Inhofe. "This is a simple way to assist the agricultural community during their time of need. The current assessment fee for CRP participants of 25 percent is simply too high considering the actual economic value of the haying and grazing. In previous years, the USDA has reduced this fee, and they must act again to help our nation's livestock producers recover from this devastating drought." 

Click here for more on this request by Senator Inhofe and a link to a copy of the letter.

Congress Halting Work on GIPSA Rule- USDA Secretary Calls That Disrepect for the Process

Even though US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is on the other side of the world- in Vietnam on an agricultural trade mission- reporters asked and he responded in a teleconference on Wednesday to the move by the Appropriations Conference Committee that has finalized their work and has sent back to the House and the Senate the FY2012 Ag Appropriations Bill this week that includes language to restrict USDA from continuing implementation work on the GIPSA rule that will impact the marketing of livestock in this country.

Appropriators blocked USDA from working on implementation of the GIPSA rule if it has more than $100 million worth of impact on the economy. USDA contends that the "final rule" and the "interim rule" released by USDA in recent days fall under that threshold. The disappointment that was expressed by Vilsack comes from USDA's desire to craft further rules from the original rule from the sections of the proposal that dealt with competitive injury. USDA conducted a cost benefit analysis- but has chosen not to release that work by USDA's Chief Economist Joe Glauber and his staff- so there is no way of knowing what the cost to the industry might be on the parts of the GIPSA rule that were left to be worked up and re-released by the agency. Now, it appears that Vilsack and USDA will have to drop plans to move forward with further work on GIPSA.

The Secretary is not happy with that move- and his comments can be heard by clicking here for today's Beef Buzz with Secretary Vilsack- a regular feature heard on many of our radio stations across the Radio Oklahoma Network.  You can also go to our website and click on the Beef Buzz button on the left hand side of any page- and see and hear previous Beef Buzz shows that are archived there.    

National Farmers Union Laments Defunding of GIPSA and Dodd-Frank

National Farmers Union (NFU) sent a letter to all members of Congress expressing concerns with the Fiscal Year 2012 (FY 2012) agriculture appropriations language in the conference committee report for H.R. 2112.

The conference committee included a policy rider that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from making any further progress on the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule. The rider effectively prohibits USDA from issuing any other rules related to GIPSA beyond what was sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Nov. 3. As a result, only some of the poultry provisions included in the original GIPSA rule will be published as a Final or Interim Final rule, and none of the pork or beef aspects of the rule will be finalized.

"The report is disheartening for the fate of U.S. family farm agriculture," said NFU President Roger Johnson. "The policy rider that precludes implementation of the GIPSA rule is upsetting. Political pressure and disingenuous economic studies paid for by meatpackers and processors have stopped the rule that would have returned basic fairness and competition provisions to farmers and ranchers."

Click here for a link to the letter and more from Roger Johnson.

Can Wheat Pasture Be Used for Pregnant Heifers?

Last week's rain showers give some Oklahoma producers hope that wheat pasture may be available in late November or early December. According to Dr. Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State Univerity Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, wheat pasture (if adequate rainfall produces growth) can be used as a supplement for pregnant replacement heifers.

Using wheat pasture judiciously makes sense for pregnant heifers for two reasons. Pregnant heifers consuming full feed of wheat pasture will gain at about 3 pounds per head per day. If they are on the wheat too long, the heifers can become very fat and cause calving difficulty. Also the wheat pasture can be used for gain of stocker cattle or weaned replacement heifers more efficiently.   

In the early 1990's, a two year study was conducted with bred replacement heifers on three different wintering diets. Group 1 was placed on wheat pasture full time from the first week of December until the first week of February. Group 2 heifers were given access to a self-feeder with a growing ration that was developed to mimic the growth of the wheat pasture heifers. Group 3 heifers were wintered on native range and fed 3 pounds per day of 40% protein cube. At the beginning of calving (February 7) and until spring all heifers were on native range and fed the 40% protein supplement.   

Click here for more from Dr. Glenn Selk on utilizing wheat pasture.

Strong Demand for U.S. Soybean Abroad

Federal government figures show U.S. soy continues to be in strong demand among international customers.

Buyers outside of the United States purchased 1.5 billion bushels of whole U.S. soybeans in the latest marketing year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That makes U.S. soy one of the largest agricultural exports. And U.S. agriculture continues to lead all economic sectors with a positive balance of trade.

"Increasing demand for U.S. soy abroad has been the cornerstone of the soybean-checkoff-funded marketing efforts for the past 20 years," says Jim Call, a soybean farmer from Madison, Minn. Call also chairs the United Soybean Board (USB) International Marketing program. "We focus not just on China, but on increasing sales in other international markets, as well."

Soy users in China weighed in as the top international customers of whole U.S. soybeans buying 895 million bushels, up from 825 million bushels during the 2010/2011 marketing year.

Click here for more on the U.S. soybean international demand. 

Has Drop Dead Time Arrived for a Farm Bill Deal? 

The 2012 Farm Bill negotiations continued to have more story lines than a top rated soap opera- but at least one DC observer says the time for a deal is right now if the Ag Committee Leaders want to catch the Super Committee Train as it leaves the station next week.  

Keith Good with AgPolicy.Com quotes David Rogers of Politico in this morning's diatribe on the Farm Bill discussions- Rogers has talked with Oklahoma Lawmaker and House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas. Lucas told the political reporter "This is like the ocean - you pitch up, and you pitch down and you pitch up. And right now, we are on the upside of a wave. The devil's in the details here, but I am more optimistic now than I have been in several days."

The Politico article added that, "Twenty-four hours before, the outlook appeared much darker given fresh cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office showing that the commodity title in the draft farm bill was at risk of overshooting the spending target by as much as $7 billion to $8 billion over 10 years. The chief culprit was the Senate's insistence on a more generous structure for a new revenue insurance program for farmers, and as a result, Lucas and Agriculture Committee leadership have been pitted against powerful Senate Democrats from Great Plains wheat country."

We had also heard from one respected farm lobbyist that it's still just Lucas and Stabenow and their staffs- Roberts and Peterson have yet to have been brought in on a final deal- and the two Ag Committees will have to be briefed before a deal will be sent on to the Super Committee.  That lobbyist adds it appears that the "shallow loss" program is the culprit when it comes to the horrible CBO score that the draft proposal received.  

Keith Good picks up tidbits from several other articles- click here for his latest work on the ongoing but soon to end Farm Bill  Follies.