Lawsuit Filed Seeking To Stop Beef Checkoff Dollars to NCBA 

A lawsuit seeking to permanently prevent government agencies from giving further Beef Checkoff funding to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was filed Friday in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Colorado rancher Michael P. Callicrate and names as defendants the USDA, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, the Beef Promotion Operating Committee, and the Agriculture Marketing Service.

Callicrate's attorney, Dan Owen of Polsenelli Shughart, spoke at a the annual convention of the Organization for Competitive Markets which met in Kansas City on Friday.

"The lawsuit's very simple: Beef Checkoff dollars cannot be spent for lobbying. Beef Checkoff dollars cannot be spent to influence government policy," Owen said.

"We contend, based on public records, publicly-available documents that are described in the lawsuit, that NCBA has spent to influence public policy. We believe this because of a 2010 audit and the findings of that audit that are laid out there. We also believe it because of public records that are described in the lawsuit from 2012 which indicate that the oversight about how they are using this money still isn't there, that the questions about how they are using this money aren't even asked.

"We also put in there the facts which indicates this organization that does massive lobbying is getting 60-percent-plus of its budget from Beef Checkoff funds. And for the reasons we describe in the complaint, we believe that a logical inference is that they are using those dollars for lobbying and government influence-or at least cross-subsidizing their lobbying and government influence with these checkoff dollars."

You can read more about the lawsuit and the full lawsuit itself by clicking here. 

USDA Drops Corn Yields to 123 Bushels per Acre- Lowest Since 1995- Soybean Production Also Chopped While Cotton Rises Versus 2011 

The USDA released its latest Crop Production Estimates and Ending Stocks numbers Friday. According to Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities, the trade was a little surprised at the numbers, as the USDA came in with lower numbers than the average trade guesses.

The corn crop came in with a yield of 123.4 bushels per acre while the trade was looking for over 126 bushels per acre. Corn production came in at 10.779 billion bushels, also lower than expected. The USDA also cut harvested corn acres by one and a half million acres.

The soybean yield came in at 36.1 bushels per acre, soybean production was 2.69 billion. Both numbers were lower than expected.  

Meanwhile- Compared to the drought of 2011, farmers have done a lot better here in 2012 compared to a year ago in Oklahoma. The first production forecast of the year for the state's summer-grown crops, based on August 1 conditions, shows an increase from last year's production, according to the August Crop Production report issued by USDA-NASS Friday. Click here for the full rundown of the state production figures- as well as a conversation about the national numbers unveiled Friday morning by OSU Crop Marketing guru Kim Anderson.   

"There is an old saying in commodity markets that small crops tend to get smaller," said AFBF economist Todd Davis. "If this holds true, then future reports will show declining projected production for corn and soybeans and further reductions in projected demand. This will also mean higher projected prices and great volatility in the commodity markets as demand is rationed and more supply is encouraged worldwide."  

You can find more from Todd Davis and a link to the full USDA report by clicking here. 

Tom Leffler also has a complete analysis on our website. Click here to listen. 

House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas Updates Us on 2012 Farm Bill Efforts

What some people call the best one day beef cattle industry seminar in the country attracted the Chairman of the House Ag Committee and his wife on Saturday- Oklahoma's third district Congressman Frank Lucas traveled from Roger Mills County in far west central Oklahoma to southern Oklahoma, accompanying his wife Lynda, who is in charge of their family's beef cattle herd. The Lucas family showed up at the Symposium as cattle producers Frank and Lynda Lucas- and spent the day hearing about the challenges and opportunities facing the US cattle industry today.


While in Ardmore, Chairman Lucas talked with yours truly for a few moments about the pressure that is building on the US House to consider his Committee's 2012 Farm bill- the Federal Agricultural Reform and Risk Management Act. Lucas says he spent several days over the last week in the midwest- "I spent three days in Illinois reminding my colleagues and Congress about why it was so important we do a farm bill when we go back into session in September. But you drive up and down the roads, you look at the pasture conditions in central Illinois, you look at the corn fields, you look at the bean fields. Our producers there tell me they expect the corn harvest to come one month early and they're not very optimistic about what is going to go through the machines."


Lucas has remained consistent with his message since the House Ag Committee passed their farm bill in early July that the country needs action on a 2012 farm bill sooner rather than later. If regular order is maintained- that will mean there has to be consideration of the bill on the floor of the US House- something that GOP leadership has been unwilling to schedule to this point. Lucas told Hays "There are many options out there Ron, but I would tell you I have a feeling tremendous pressure is going to build and that the momentum will be there in September. 

You can read more as well as listen to our conversation with Congressman Lucas on where we stand in moving a 2012 Farm Bill- click here for that.

Friday Crop Production Numbers No Justification for Waiver of RFS- Renewable Fuels Association

Responding to Friday's corn crop estimate of 10.8 billion bushels from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Renewable Fuels Association released the following statement:

"This report shows what many already knew - this drought has taken a significant toll on American farmers. The persistently hot and dry weather have stressed crops as well as livestock and as a result there is expectedly to be less of each available.

"What this report does not do is provide justification for waiving the Renewable Fuel Standard for the rest of 2012. Given the abundance of RFS credits, ample ethanol stocks, and various other flexibilities, obligated parties under the RFS will have every opportunity to demonstrate compliance this year.

"Moving forward, the market remains the best option for rationing corn demand. The market has already begun taking advantage of the RFS' flexibility and will continue to do so into 2013. As the crop is not yet in the bin, we do not know the final harvest. Nor do we yet know how farmers around the world will respond or how American farmers will react next spring. Should unfavorable weather continue to plague American farmers and strain world supplies of grain, responsible discussions about appropriate targets for the RFS for the remainder of next year may be warranted. Until then, calls to indiscriminately waive the RFS for 2012 or 2013 remain premature." 

Click here to read more from the RFA. 

First-Half Results Encouraging for U.S. Meat Export Value

U.S. pork and beef exports concluded the first half of 2012 in solid fashion, with June pork exports 4 percent higher in value than last year on steady volume. Despite a 15 percent decline in volume, June beef exports were still slightly higher in value than a year ago. These results are based on statistics released by the USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

June pork exports totaled 165,065 metric tons valued at $468.3 million. This pushed the first half total to 1.13 million metric tons valued at $3.17 billion, which was 5 percent higher in volume and 13 percent higher in value than the record pace of 2011. June export value equated to $54.78 per head slaughtered, bumping per-head value for the year to $57.80 - more than 10 percent higher than in the first half of 2011. For the year, about 24 percent of U.S. muscle cut production has been exported and nearly 28 percent of total production (muscle cuts plus variety meat). Last year these ratios were 22.5 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Beef exports in June totaled 94,119 metric tons valued at $464.4 million. The results continued this year's pattern, with export volume significantly lower than last year's record pace but with an increase in export value. Through June, this year's beef export volume was down 11 percent to 550,462 metric tons while export volume was up 4 percent to $2.66 billion. June export value equated to $203.90 per head of fed slaughter, with per-head value for the year reaching $208.88.

Click here for more meat export numbers.

Oklahoma's Beef Quality Assurance Program At the Forefront of Producing Better Beef

No matter what facet of the food industry one looks at, the effort to improve quality seems to be job one. The beef industry is no exception.

Jeff Jaronek of the Oklahoma Beef Council has spent the last two years working with producers all across the state with the Beef Quality Assurance program. He said the program is as straight-forward as it can be.

"It's really a program to help producers better their management skills to make sure they're producing the highest quality beef that we can. Just really making sure we're doing things right. And, usually, what we find is that producers are already doing most of these things, but I always tell producers there's something that everybody can learn whether it's something they might have forgotten or something new they haven't heard of. It's really just to help them fine tune their management skills."

You can read more and listen to an interview with Jeff Jaronek by clicking here.  

Jeff was also our guest this past Saturday on In the Field- you can see that segment that was aired on KWTV, News9 in Oklahoma City by clicking here.  

President Obama Uses Radio Address Bully Pulpit to Push for Farm Bill Consideration

In his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama spent his weekly national broadcast time to discuss the 2012 drought and what his administration is doing to help. And, he called on Congress to pass a farm bill that includes disaster and drought assistance- adding to the pressure on GOP leadership to allow debate on the 2012 Farm Bill proposal that passed the House Ag Committee in July. He called on Americans to call or email their members of Congress to push Congress to action- in doing so, the President becomes an unexpected ally to House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas who has repeatedly called on leadership to give his bill floor time. 

Click here to see the video of the radio address from Saturday morning with the President of the United States.