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The short lived one year extension of the 2008 Farm Law is dead, as Republican leadership pulled the bill as the Rules Committee prepared to meet on Tuesday evening to ready the measure for Floor consideration on Wednesday. Instead, it appears that House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma will now lead a hurry up effort to obtain Livestock Disaster Assistance for this crop year and next- the same livestock disaster package that was hooked up with the extension that was doomed from almost the start.


Tuesday evening, the House Ag Committee issued the following statement that is attributed to Chairman Frank Lucas:


"My priority remains to get a five-year farm bill on the books and put those policies in place, but the most pressing business before us is to provide disaster assistance to those producers impacted by the drought conditions who are currently exposed. The House is expected to consider a disaster assistance package on Thursday and I encourage my colleagues to support it. Beyond that, I will continue to work with my leadership, Ranking Member Peterson and our members to determine the best path forward. The challenges our farmers and ranchers are currently facing only underscores how important it is that we complete a five-year farm bill this year."

The Rules Committee has assigned a number to the proposal- and our Top of the Ag News story has a link to the full text of the bill that could be considered on Thursday.  Click here to jump there. It's fate in the Senate is unknown, as Chairlady Debbie Stabenow seems to be taking the position that she will oppose considering this measure for now- let the House get an earful back home in August and then hope for floor time for the full House Ag Committee five year plan. 

In fact, the Stand Alone package may have a hard time getting off of the House floor, as Collin Peterson is not a big fan either.  However, it just seems unlikely that he would vote no for this type of help for livestock producers in the face of such a broad based drought as we hit August 2012.

Making the Most of Cattle Marketing Opportunities When Production is Difficult

The drought poses many problems, one of which is that it compounds the difficulty of cattle-marketing decisions. In this week's Cow-Calf Newsletter, Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University extension livestock marketing specialist explores the topic and offers some recommendations on how to maximize profits.

It is often the case in the cattle business that "when production is easy; marketing is hard" and "when production is hard; marketing is easy". This makes sense because when production is easy and everyone can do it, prices often drop and marketing profitably is a challenge and when production is a challenge, there are often good market opportunities. Certainly the widespread drought is making production a challenge at this time for a great many producers. Many cattle producers are on the defensive trying to figure how to best use rapidly dwindling feed resources; what to sell and when to sell it; and ultimately how to survive the drought with minimal negative impacts.

However, current cattle prices reflect underlying market signals as well as the direct impacts of the drought. Most attention has been focused on how much cattle prices have decreased in the past two months. For feeder cattle, it is always important to consider changes in the price relationships across weights as well as the overall price levels. Recently, prices for lightweight feeder cattle, i.e., calves and stockers, have decreased more than prices for heavy feeder cattle. The decrease in heavy feeder prices reflects primarily the impact of high corn prices on feedlot demand for cattle combined with the general demand weakness reflected in boxed beef prices. Calf and stocker prices reflect all of those factors plus the lack of forage and limited opportunities for stocker based cattle production. As a result, the current price pattern is one in which feeder prices drop rapidly up to about 600 pounds (for steers) and then are relatively flat up to about 850 pounds. In fact, for the past two weeks in Oklahoma, the cheapest steer under 800 pounds is a 575 pound animal with higher prices for weights from 600 to 800 pounds. This type of "inverted" feeder price structure occurs rarely and reflects the combined impacts of high corn prices and a relative excess of animals at the current time due to the drought. 

Click here for more from Derrell Peel.

Animal Agriculture Alliance Ends 25 Year Relationship With Bank of America Over HSUS Support

Last month, the Animal Agriculture Alliance reached out to Bank of America with concerns about its public support of HSUS and asked the company to sever its ties to the extreme animal rights group. The bank indicated it would not discontinue its HSUS affinity card program, so the Alliance has made the decision to end its relationship with its bank of 25 years.

Bank of America's Agribusiness Executive emphasized in a phone conversation with Alliance CEO Kay Johnson Smith that the affinity card program with HSUS was not new and that HSUS received no preferential treatment. He emphasized his long time connections with agriculture and his sincere commitment to supporting agriculture through numerous sponsorships, research and service.

Bank of America does not consider the $60 from each affinity card as a donation, but rather a "fee" paid to HSUS (and other affinity program participants) for bringing in new clients. When told that HSUS spends a great deal of money on disparaging campaigns, as well as legislative and legal attacks against farmers and ranchers, yet it spends less than one percent on direct animal care, he recognized that statistic. He then discounted it by saying people believe HSUS helps animals and they enjoy having a card with cats and dogs on it.

You can read more about why the Animal Agriculture Alliance severed its ties with Bank of America by clicking here.

Oklahoma FFA Claims Two Star Finalists for 2012 Convention in Indy This Fall

The National FFA Organization has selected 16 finalists (four per award) for the organization's top awards: American Star Farmer, American Star in Agribusiness, American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience. These star awards recognize students who have developed outstanding agricultural skill and competency through their career development programs, demonstrated outstanding management skills, earned the American FFA Degree-the organization's highest level of accomplishment-and met other agricultural education, scholarship and leadership requirements.

Each star finalist receives $2,000 from the National FFA Foundation and earns the opportunity to participate in an international experience tour to Costa Rica. A panel of judges will interview the finalists and select one winner for each award at the 85th National FFA Convention, October 24-27, in Indianapolis, In. Winners will receive an additional $2,000 award. 

Oklahoma has two of the sixteen finalists (Only Georgia has more for a state- with three)- putting finalists into the Star Farmer and Star in AgriScience categories. The Star Farmer finalist from Oklahoma is Jeremy Weichel of Cordell FFA- and the Star in AgriScience is Taylor Runyan of the Atoka FFA. 

We are making plans for our 2012 coverage from Indianapolis- and will be there covering all of the Oklahoma angles once again when October rolls around.  

The Protect Interstate Commerce Act Offers State Trade Solution, U.S. Rep Says

In the following op-ed piece, Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) argues against domestic trade protection practices.

The food standards maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) keep food in our country safe. Imagine going to the grocery store, and instead of finding several varieties of food products, only certain brands are available and many are out of stock. This is exactly what is happening in Europe. The Wall Street Journal has reported that egg prices have jumped as much as 76.5 percent as of March of this year, and the price of eggs has more than doubled in the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2012, the result of costly over regulation of chickens.

Our Founding Fathers understood states would erect trade barriers against each other. That is why the enumerated power of Congress, to exclusively regulate interstate commerce, is enshrined in our Constitution. They knew that if states were left to themselves, the temptation to erect trade barriers in an effort to protect the interests of the producers within their borders would be hard to overcome. And they knew that, in doing so, the states would stunt the growth of our nation's economy and put America at a competitive disadvantage on the world stage. 

Click here for more of Rep. Steve King's editorial on domestic trade protection practices.

RFD-TV Makes Record $1 Million Cash Donation to FFA

A record-setting, unrestricted cash contribution of $1 million was given to the National FFA Foundation by RFD Communications.

Patrick G. Gottsch, founder and president of Omaha, Neb.-based RFD Communications, presented the donation to National FFA President Ryan Best at the FFA State Presidents' Conference at the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"When RFD-TV was launched in December 2000, our stated mission and charter was dedicated to serving the needs and interests of rural America," Gottsch said. "Our association with FFA has been such a rewarding experience and contributed much to the success now being realized at RFD-TV. We are so proud to be in a position to raise our level of support for the FFA, and we hope this contribution will encourage others to take note of the National FFA's outstanding track record with youth and the importance of investing in our future."

There's more about this unprecedented gift to the FFA on our home page.  Go there by clicking here.