Joint KSU, OSU Study Shows Little Effect of mCOOL on Consumer Behavior 

A joint study conducted by Kansas State University and Oklahoma State University looked at the impact of mandatory country of origin labeling of meat products on the retail level. The study was published last month. Its lead author, Kansas State Livestock Economist Dr. Glynn Tonsor said the study was trying to determine the exact costs and the exact benefits of mCOOL.

"An unknown before the policy was implemented and, to be fair, still an unknown, is what are the exact benefits and what are the exact costs? There was quite a bit of work done before hand trying to estimate what those benefits might be, what consumer-demand increases might be, but nothing was done afterwards. That was the main purpose of our study, to try to understand and estimate what consumer-demand response there has been. Now that we are in a post-implementation period, we can do that. We can compare pre- and post-implementation to assess how-or if-demand has increased."

mCOOL requires grocery retailers to provide country-of-origin labeling information for fresh beef, pork, lamb, chicken, goat, wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish, peanuts, pecans, ginseng, and macadamia nuts

Tonsor says only 20-25 percent of consumers are even aware we have country of origin labeling on meat products. He says that, as a result, there is no increase in demand for meat based on the geographic origin of the product.

"There's obviously other things like price effects, income effects, recession effects, those kinds of things that show up in those assessments, but for the issue at hand of mCOOL, we did not find demand impact."

Dr. Tonsor joins us on the latest Beef Buzz. Click here to listen or to read more.   

Oklahoma Farm Bureau Names John Collison to Spearhead Public Policy efforts

As we mentioned in yesterday's email, Oklahoma Farm Bureau has announced the hiring of John Collison as its new vice president of public policy.

"John comes to us with a wealth of political and agricultural policy knowledge and experience that is acknowledged at both the state and federal level," said Monica Wilke, OFB Executive Director. "He has a vision for our legislative voice that will inspire and excite our members as we move into the future."

Collison is the former state director for U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, where he spent the last thirteen years covering the state of Oklahoma representing and advising the Senator. Collison will be joining the public policy department prior to the upcoming legislative session.

"I look forward to continuing Oklahoma Farm Bureau's position as the leading and most powerful voice in Oklahoma for agriculture," Collison said. "I know firsthand what it takes to move our issues forward on both a state and federal level. I am ready and excited to serve the hundreds of Oklahoma farmers and ranchers who are affected by decisions from our legislative bodies.

Click here to read more.

 

CME Group Completes Acquisition of Kansas City Board of Trade

CME Group announced it has completed its acquisition of the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT), the leading futures market for hard red winter (HRW) wheat. The completion of the acquisition will provide both CME Group and KCBT customers with greater capital efficiencies, new trading opportunities and additional products to manage their global wheat price risk.

"We're pleased to complete this transaction, combining KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat products with our deep and liquid CBOT Soft Red Winter Wheat futures and options markets," said CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy. "The integration of these two global wheat benchmarks will provide new trading opportunities to commercial grain market participants, wheat traders and customers who continue to rely on these tools to manage their price risk."

"The addition of KCBT to CME Group will provide significant value to the customers, shareholders and members, beginning on day one," said CME Group CEO Phupinder Gill. "Starting today, we're integrating hard red winter wheat futures and options into our suite of already deep and liquid grain and oilseed products. Moving forward, we'll work with customers to grow existing KCBT and CBOT Wheat futures and options, while developing new and innovative products that will benefit customers of both varieties of wheat." 

You can read more by clicking here.

 

Derrell Peel Says Forage the Key in Rebuilding the US Beef Cow Herd  

In the second of a three-part series published in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter, Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, continues his discussion on the challenges to rebuilding the nation's cow herd.

"A dramatic jump in demand for corn, which began in late 2006, has resulted in sharply higher prices for all crops in the U.S. A simple average across the eight major cultivated crops shows that 2012 crop year prices are expected to be 165 percent higher than in 2005. This has provoked intense competition among crops for land resources with crop market prices doing short term battle each year for acreage to plant. The epicenter of this crop frenzy is naturally in the Midwest and is reflected in the phenomenal jump in land values and rental rates in the region.   

"Longer term impacts on land use are also expected as a result of this new agricultural environment. Though data is limited, there are strong indications that these long term changes have begun and they have significant implications for the beef cattle industry."  

Dr. Peel believes that the market is clearly saying land that can grow crops will go that direction- and away from forage land that will carry beef cows on it. High grain prices are the reason. "As a result, an increasing share of the total beef cow herd will be located in drier regions of the country in the future. Interestingly, this same phenomenon is occurring in other major beef producing countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and for the same reasons."  

Click here fore more of Derrell Peel's analysis. 

Competitive Enterprise Institute Says Rachel Carson Got it Wrong on Agrochemicals

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the book credited with launching the modern environmentalist movement. Carson famously warned man-made chemicals, particularly pesticides, were a significant threat to human health.

In a new study Angela Logomasini, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argues history has proven Rachel Carson wrong. Agrochemicals have not caused the "sinister" ills Carson predicted. Logomasini concludes the benefits of agrochemicals outweigh the dangers predicted by Carson.

Among her conculsions: 

• The incidence of pesticide-related health problems is low. When the Centers for Disease Control investigated the health effects of widespread spraying to control mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus during 1999-2002, they found only two cases of definite health impacts and 25 probable cases.

• Agrochemicals enable farmers to grow more crops per acre for longer periods, increasing global food supply. Russian farmers have increased marketable yields on apple orchards by as much as 90 percent after beginning pesticide applications. In Zimbabwe, farmers were able to grow tomatoes during rainy seasons by using fungicides.

Click here for more of Logomasini's findings.

Ed Czerwien of the USDA Market News Office in Amarillo says the boxed beef and finished cattle markets trended lower last week with the choice cut market ending at $195.03 cwt which was $1.30 lower than the previous week. The weekly total for the daily spot volume was 857 loads. The total volume moved in all cuts, trims and grinds last week was 7, 755 loads.

The general trend in the finished cattle trade was mostly $2.00 lower on live deals with most trade at $125 to $125.50 cwt.  Trade volume was very light as most sellers passed on buyer's bids. Dressed prices were at $199.00 on a light test.

The average live weight from the cattle harvested in the Texas Panhandle was 1,271 pounds, three pounds higher than the previous week.

You can hear Czerwien's complete weekly report by clicking here.

Rainfall East of Tulsa Has Come and Gone- Alan Crone from the News on 6 Weighs In

Westville was the rainfall winner early this morning in eastern Oklahoma- with a mesonet rainfall total of 1.39 inches of the wet stuff. A couple of other locations got around a half inch of rain before the clouds scampered east into Arkansas.   

Our colleague Alan Crone offers a daily weather overview on the News on 6 website- and he says this morning that we have a chance for more raindrops falling from the sky as we head into the weekend- better chances are clearly in the eastern portions of the state. He also sees COLD air on the horizon- perhaps as early as Monday of next week- he calls it a potentially major outbreak of polar air.  

About that cold weather- he pens "As the upper air flow amplifies by the end of this week, the colder air mass across the Yukon will dislodge and slide southward. While the exact timing and trajectory of the cold air is yet to be known with high confidence levels, we are seeing run to run consistency in the data suggesting the cold air is likely to move near our area by early next week.


"The data is also suggesting the potential for some wintry precipitation across the state Monday as the upper level low slides across the southern plains. The EURO and GFS both suggest the colder air will be likely, but the models do have some differences on the magnitude of the colder air and the precipitation possibilities for wintry weather."

Click here for the graphic showing who got rain last night in eastern Oklahoma- and a chance to read the rest of Alan's weather overview.