United States Cattle on Feed Down One Percent- Report Predicts Tight Beef Supplies in 2013 

The latest USDA Cattle on Feed report was released last Friday and it showed On Feed numbers slightly lower than what the trade was expecting.  The report came in at 99 percent with pre-report estimates at 99.9 percent. Placements came in at 89 percent, lower than expected and Marketings were also lower than expected at 95 percent.  

Analysts say the smaller placement numbers point to tight beef supplies in 2013- perhaps even tighter than had been earlier expected.

The cattle on feed number is the fourth largest September report in the last 17 years. The latest report is looked on as slightly friendly to the markets. 

Last week- in advance of the monthly report- Jim Robb, Director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC) predicted that the August numbers in Friday's report  "will be an important barometer for the beef industry because it will provide insight on how three forces are shaking-out: drought, smaller calf crops, and huge red ink on recent feedlot closeouts." 

You can hear Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities breakdown all the numbers and how they will affect the markets going forward by clicking here. 

Beef Checkoff Sets FY2013 Plan of Action, Cuts Budget Nearly $3 Million

The Cattlemen's Beef Board will invest about $40.3 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications in Fiscal Year 2013, a cut of almost $3 million from last year. 

In action concluding its two-day meeting in Denver last week, the Operating Committee - including 10 members of the Beef Board and 10 members of the Federation of State Beef Councils - approved checkoff funding for a total of 42 "Authorization Requests," or proposals for checkoff funding in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2012. The committee also will request full Board approval of a budget amendment to reflect recategorization of the FY2013 budget in accordance with the programs approved.

"We really had a tremendous task before us," said Beef Board and Operating Committee Chairman Wesley Grau, a cattleman from New Mexico. "We had to find ways to cut nearly $3 million from the proposals presented to us for checkoff funding in the coming year."

Among the cuts in program proposals was a $300,000 cut from consumer advertising; $100,000 from nutrition research; a $275,000 proposal for programming about the beef industry on America's Heartland on PBS; a $100,000 cut from the national Beef Quality Assurance program; and a total of more than $811,000 in cuts from various foreign-marketing proposals.

You can read more about the Beef Checkoff budget by clicking here.

Oklahoma Canola Industry, 2013 Season Shaping Up Well, Neuens Says

The 2013 winter canola planting window is now open and producers across Oklahoma are getting the crop in the ground or making final preparations to do so.

Gene Neuens of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill has been at the forefront of helping to grow this new industry in the Southern Plains. Over the past seven or eight seasons Neuens has watched as canola acreage has expanded, and he is keeping his eye on how this season is shaping up.

Recent rains in some parts of Oklahoma have nudged producers to begin planting, but some are waiting to see if they'll get a little bit more moisture before the planting window starts to close. But, in Kansas and Texas, some producers are way ahead.

"We have a guy in Haskell, Texas, that's quite a ways south, already has canola up. So we have canola. Planting date starts Sept. 1st in Kansas, so they have quite a few more acres planted in Kansas than we do. Kansas sounds like they'll have 30- to 35,000 acres this year which is going to be a very big increase for Kansas."

Neuens anticipates Oklahoma farmers will plant about 250,000 acres of canola this year. Texas will have about 30,000. He says some seed companies have run out of seed this year, giving them more incentive to increase stocks for next year.

Click here to read more or listen to our full conversation with Gene about how the canola industry is now beginning to hit its stride.

Capital Gains Tax Precludes Farmers from Passing Torch

The American Farm Bureau Federation urged Congress to reform the capital gains tax because of its detriment to young and beginning farmers. In a statement submitted to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees' joint hearing on tax reform, AFBF said the cumbersome tax makes it difficult for current farmers to pass the torch to a new generation of agriculturalists.   

Capital gains taxes apply when land and buildings from a farm or ranch are transferred to a new or expanding farmer while the owner is still alive. This occurs most often when a farmer wants to expand his or her farm or ranch to take in a son or daughter, or when a retiring farmer sells his or her business to a beginning farmer.

"Since approximately 40 percent of farmland is owned by individuals age 65 or older, capital gains taxes provide an additional barrier to entry for young farmers and ranchers at a time when it is already difficult for them to get in to the industry," said the AFBF statement. "Capital gains tax liabilities encourage farmers to hold onto their land rather than sell it, creating a barrier for new and expanding farms and ranches to use that land for agricultural purposes." 

Click here to read more.

R-CALF Strikes Back at USDA, Beef Industry Checkoff Group Over Meeting Ban

R-CALF USA is fighting a letter it says it received banning the group from participating in the Beef Checkoff Industry Input Group meeting which starts today in Denver.

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said he received a letter on Sept. 17 signed by all eight members of the Industry Checkoff Group stating that no R-CALF USA representatives were allowed at the meeting. Bullard said the letter falsely accused his organization of stating in a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that R-CALF would join the Mike Callicrate v. USDA, et al., lawsuit.

"The joint letter falsely and maliciously accuses R-CALF USA of making a statement R-CALF USA did not make, and then used that statement as their basis for attempting to ban R-CALF USA from meeting with the USDA," Bullard said. Click here to read more about Bullard's complaint.

Quick-Acting Treatment Necessary For Drought-Stressed Calves

With a second year of drought behind us, its effects continue to linger. One of the areas in which that stress is most pronounced is in cattle. Radio Oklahoma's Ed Richards spoke with Dr. Mark Campbell, veterinary services manager for Merial Animal Health. Dr. Campbell says cattle, especially calves, are facing a number of challenges this fall after two years of pasture-killing dry conditions.

"A lot of time their immune system isn't functioning properly because they're either nutritionally deficient or mineral deficient. They may not have received either adequate or good quality colostrums when they were born because their mothers were probably mineral and nutritionally deficient also. That can stay with them the rest of their life if they didn't get that good colostrum when they were born. And we're probably having to wean them lighter. And these lighter calves become more of a problem.

"When these cattle are nutritionally stressed, minerally deficient it makes it even more important to treat them early. The earlier you treat a calf, the better your response usually is. And, in this hot weather, they lack enough lung tissue to begin with, but when we destroy some lung tissue by pneumonia or BRD then it puts that calf further and further behind."

You can listen to more from Dr. Campbell in the current Beef Buzz by clicking here. 
 

Late Breaking From Saturday- President Obama and Secretary Vilsack Take Aim at House Republicans for Pushing Farm Bill Into the Lame Duck

Both President Barack Obama and his Secretary of Agriculture took a swing at the Republican leadership in the US House over the weekend for not moving forward and getting a 2012 Farm Bill done in September before heading home to campaign. President Obama used his weekly radio address to take his jab- including the farm bill in a list of several things that were left undone as Congress scrambled to get out of town in advance of getting down to non stop campaigning in advance of the November general election.


Regarding the stalled out efforts to get farm policy renewed, President Obama said "if Congress had gotten its act together, we would have a farm bill to help farmers and ranchers respond to natural disasters like the drought we had this summer. And we'd have made necessary reforms to give our rural communities some long-term certainty. But so far, Republicans in Congress have dragged their feet."

As for Secretary Tom Vilsack- he majored on the concept of "certainty" as he released a statement on Saturday morning following the release of the Obama Radio Address- blaming the GOP as he claimed that  "the House Republicans have added new uncertainty for rural America."  

Click here for the full Vilsack statement from Saturday- Congress is finished until the November elections- and it is very much unknown if the lack of a completed farm bill before November will harm Republican hopes of taking the Senate and holding the US House.