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One of the organizations that is meeting this week in Nashville for the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show is the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion Board. Their CEO is Polly Ruhland- and we caught up with her on Wednesday morning as producers begin several days of meetings.

We talked about a variety of issues with Polly, including the highs and the lows of 2011, a new study that looks at sustainability of the beef cattle business that is being funded by checkoff dollars and a look at both short term and longer term goals that the CEO has for the dollar per head checkoff.

Click here to jump to our website for this audio conversation that we have posted as a Podcast in our Ag Perspectives series.

Department of Labor Backs up on Proposed Rule on Ag Jobs for Teenagers- to Reissue Rule 

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today applauded the U.S. Department of Labor's move to go back to the drawing board on a controversial farm labor rule that would have prevented many young people from working on family farms. After the Department first proposed the new rule, Senator Stabenow encouraged the Department to reconsider and solicit public input before making any new changes to the "parental exemption" of its rule related to child labor in agriculture. Today the Department agreed with Senator Stabenow, stopping its plans to implement the new rules and agreeing to open a new dialogue with family farmers on the issue.   

The Department of Labor announced on Wednesday afternoon that it would re-propose a portion of a regulation regarding farm labor which would have imposed serious restrictions children whose families work in agriculture.

In a news release explaining its decision, the department said its Wage and Hour Division would re-interpret the portion of the regulation defining "parental exemption."

The statement said its decision to re-propose the regulation was due to a flood of comments it received from the public.

Here in Nashville at the Cattle Industry Convention- the cheers were loud and long as President Bill Donald reported to the Opening General Session that the the DOL had made this move to jump back to almost square one on this child labor in ag rule. Click here to see the written statement from NCBA- AND to listen to our Thursday morning farm news which features the comments of Bill Donaldand the cheers generated by the crowd in response to this move by the Department of Labor.

We talked with Kristina Butts of the NCBA's Washington office about this change of heart- and you can read our coverage of our visit with Christina and listen to her comments by clicking here.

The Chair of the Senate Ag Committee, Debbie Stabenow, weighed in quickly on the announcement- read her reaction by clicking here.

Also weighing were the American Farm Bureauand the National Farmers Union- click on their name to jump over to their statements attributed to their Presidents.

USDA Announces CRP General Sign-up

Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) Michael Scuse announced today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will conduct a four-week Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general signup, beginning on March 12 and ending on April 6. CRP has a 25-year legacy of successfully protecting the nation's natural resources through voluntary participation, while providing significant economic and environmental benefits to rural communities across the United States.

"It is USDA's goal to ensure that we use CRP to address our most critical resource issues," said Scuse. "CRP is an important program for protecting our most environmentally sensitive lands from erosion and sedimentation, and for ensuring the sustainability of our groundwater, lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. As always, we expect strong competition to enroll acres into CRP, and we urge interested producers to maximize their environmental benefits and to make cost-effective offers."

CRP is a voluntary program available to agricultural producers to help them use environmentally sensitive land for conservation benefits. Producers enrolled in CRP plant long-term, resource-conserving covers to improve the quality of water, control soil erosion and develop wildlife habitat. In return, USDA provides participants with rental payments and cost-share assistance. Contract duration is between 10 and 15 years. Producers with expiring contracts and producers with environmentally sensitive land are encouraged to evaluate their options under CRP. Producers also are encouraged to look into CRP's other enrollment opportunities offered on a continuous, non-competitive, signup basis.

To read more about the CRP sign-up, click here.

Farm Bill Hearing Schedule Announced

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, announced the Committee's Farm Bill hearing schedule for February and March, noting that the Committee will continue examining Farm Bill principles and evaluating policy solutions to develop a 2012 Farm Bill. Below are the details of the next series of hearings (dates and topics are subject to change- note that the last of the four hearings is reserved to deal with Title 1- the Commodity title.

Wednesday, February 15
Title: Energy and Economic Growth for Rural AmericaA hearing to evaluate policies that make investments in jobs and opportunities for farmers and rural businesses through new markets, entrepreneurship, regional strategies and energy innovation.

Wednesday, February 29
Title: Strengthening Conservation through the 2012 Farm BillA hearing to explore the Conservation title's important investment in America - the nation's fundamental resources of our water, soils and other natural resource infrastructure - through policies that help farmers maintain soil health, keep our water clean and available, our food abundant and safe and our wildlife plentiful so as to protect the basic principles of farming and our way of life for future generations. 

 To see more hearing dates and topics, click here.

You Cannot Starve a Profit Into a Cow

Most cattle producers in Oklahoma and Texas had a difficult 2011. The drought prevented an adequate amount of hay from being harvested or purchased for a reasonable price. Thus, most producers are trying to survive winter 2012 by stretching forage and feed resources. This can be accomplished with careful thought and consultation with a nutritionist to ensure that each cow's nutrient requirements are still being met for the stage of production it is in. If corners are cut to save money now, it can have long lasting repercussions.

The first consideration when pasture quality and quantity are low during winter is that a spring calving cow's requirements are increasing through late gestation and continue to increase after calving and early lactation. Table 1 (click here to view table) demonstrates this trend and shows that a cow reaches its highest nutrient requirements two months after calving. This table also lists the quality of the total diet the cow must consume in order to meet her requirements, including maintenance and development of the fetus. If the cow is able to consume an ad libitum forage diet in the last month of pregnancy, she would need to eat hay or pasture that was at least 56.2 percent total digestible nutrients (or energy) and 8.8 percent crude protein.


Following drought, most ranchers do not have the luxury of enough pasture or hay to allow the cows to consume all that they want. This is when you should use the total pounds of each nutrient that the cow must have to meet her nutritional requirements. Many times, we can meet her nutrient requirements with more nutrient-dense feeds such as alfalfa hay and by-product feeds without meeting the cow's dry matter intake requirements. The cow may still be hungry because of lack of rumen fill, but she will not suffer from malnourishment.

To read more about the Noble Foundation's report, click here.

Groundwater Withdrawals Increase in High Plains Aquifer

Groundwater withdrawals for crop irrigation have increased to over 16 million acre-feet per year in the High Plains Aquifer, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study.

The USGS study shows that recharge, or the amount of water entering the aquifer, is less than the amount of groundwater being withdrawn, causing groundwater losses in this already diminished natural resource. Crop irrigation is the largest use of groundwater in the aquifer, and, over the past 60 years, has caused severe water-level declines of up to 100 feet in some areas. The new USGS findings address concerns about the long-term sustainability of the aquifer.

"The High Plains Aquifer is Nature's nearly perfect water storage system: self-recharging, safe from natural disasters, readily accessed over a broad area, and with copious capacity," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "And yet in less than 100 years we are seriously depleting what took Nature more than 10,000 years to fill." 

To read more about groundwater withdrawals, click here.

Coming Up This Saturday- a Pair of Cattle Sales to Check Out

The Roger Mills County Cattlemen's Association 34th Annual All Breed Bull Sale is scheduled to begin at noon this Saturday on February 4, 2012 at the Cheyenne Ag Pavilion in Cheyenne, Oklahoma.   

Selling at this year's Roger Mills Bull Sale will be  Composite Bulls (Simmental/Angus, Hereford/Semmental and Angus/Maine/Simmental, Angus Bulls, Horned Herefords and Red Angus Bulls

Click here for contact information about their 2012 sale coming February 4th- this coming Saturday.

Also happening February 4th is the oldest annual production sale in the state of Oklahoma- the Messner Ranch 2012 Production sale. Their 51st Annual Production Sale is scheduled to begin at 12:30pm at the ranch, Slapout, Oklahoma.

The Messner family will be selling 120 Service Age Hereford and Angus Bulls along with 60 Spring Bred Angus and Hereford Heifers.  Click here for more detailsand a link over to DV sales where you can see the complete sale catalog for the sale coming up this Saturday.