Weekly Boxed Beef Prices Continue to Climb 

According to the USDA's Ed Czerwien, boxed beef values continued their climb last week.  Growing demand for ground product also fueled prices for rounds and chucks to all-time record highs. 

The daily spot choice boxed beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $231.71, which was $16.37 higher than the previous Friday, but with only 577 loads sold for the week in the daily boxed beef cutout.

The comprehensive or average choice cutout which includes all types of sales including formula exports and out-front, was at $215.27 and was $8.28 higher and volume continues to be good.

The total reported boxed beef volume was 6,365 loads, which was 286 loads lower than last week, but still very good considering the dramatic jump in prices.

In the spot trade for the primal cuts, most items were dramatically higher again, but rounds and chucks were 14-22 higher, setting new all-time record highs.   Tremendous demand for ground product has no doubt contributed to the demand for rounds and chucks involving further grinding of cuts from those primals.

You can listen to Ed Czerwien's weekly audio analysis by clicking here.

One UPDATE on boxed beef values- the crazy day to day jumps have continued on Monday and Tuesday of this week- and we hit $239.72 on Choice Beef as of Tuesday afternoon- up $3.16 per hundredweight. 

 

Lawmaker Proposes Elimination of 'Farm Diesel' Tax

State Rep. Harold Wright said yesterday he wants to save everyone a headache - farmers, red-dyed diesel vendors and tax collectors.

"There is a type of diesel that is sold for off-road use, mostly for agricultural needs, that we tax, but very inefficiently," said Wright, R-Weatherford. "The federal government doesn't tax it, but the State of Oklahoma puts a sales tax on it, and there is a lot of paperwork for everyone involved because modern pumps aren't set up to track it electronically. I am proposing that we eliminate this sales tax. It's the kind of tax cut that everyone can get behind, no matter their political philosophy."

House Bill 2387, by Wright, would eliminate a tax on red-dyed diesel. Although the tax represents only a tiny portion of state revenue, it is one of the more costly taxes to collect because of the amount of paperwork involved, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

"For only a drop in the bucket, revenue-wise, we are saving farmers and businesses trouble and money," Wright said.

The Second Regular Session of the 54th Legislature begins February 3, 2014.

 

Research: Certified Angus Beef ® Brand Resonates with Consumers 

A nationwide study confirms that the premium quality of the Certified Angus Beef ® brand resonates with consumers. Seventy-five percent of those interviewed by Firebox Research & Strategy of Beachwood, Ohio, ranked the Certified Angus Beef ® brand logo as representing the highest quality Angus beef available. Moreover, they said they would pay more for it in restaurants and grocery stores.

The research builds on findings from 900 in-store intercepts in 2007 and focus groups in 2010. The latest information adds results from 900 U.S. store intercepts in 2013, as well as a Web survey of 1,100 consumers from the United States and Eastern Canada. Participants in the studies were age 35-54, 75% women and 25% men, with annual household income of $50,000 or more, who consume beef at least once or twice per week.

"The studies provide two very different views of the consumer," says Michael Schiller, managing director of Firebox Research & Strategy and the primary researcher on the studies. "The web survey allows us to look at the consumer market for premium beef, while the in-store survey gives us great insight into customers who shop at stores carrying the Certified Angus Beef ® brand in their meat case."

Click here to read the rest of this story.  

 

General Mills Getting Shoved Down the Slippery Slope of its Own Making- GMO Free Cheerios Aren't Really GMO Free

Two releases that caught my eye yesterday pretty well sum up the mess that General Mills is making for itself and for modern production agriculture with the announcement at the start of this month that they were going to remake Cheerios and declare them GMO free. We have posted both of them up on our website for you to review in full- but here's a USA Today style summation:

First into my inbox was a reprint of a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed that blows the idea that a GMO free oat product is even possible- if you understand the Food and Drug Administration guidance on what a GMO product really is.  You can CLICK HERE to read the Op-Ed, written by Harry Miller and Gregory Conko )Dr. Miller was the founding director of the US FDA Office of Biotechnology.   

General Mills is planning on sourcing corn starch and sugar from non GMO crops- which will be a trick given that the vast majority of those crops now are out of modern GMO varieties.

However, Dr. Miller points out that modern oat varieties have been genetically modified- and that happened years ago- "Yet essentially all oat varieties now planted commercially have been genetically modified in some way. Decades ago, breeders genetically modified oats using wide crosses between cultivated varieties and a number of different wild plants. Today's commercially planted varieties are almost all derived from those wide-cross lines."

As for that FDA guidance- "A 2001 Food and Drug Administration guidance document warns against using terms like "not genetically modified" or "GMO free," because " 'genetic modification' means the alteration of the genotype of a plant using any technique, new or traditional," and "consumers do not have a good understanding that essentially all food crops have been genetically modified."

But General Mills is plowing forward on GMO Free Cheerios- but said when they announced this decision that they would not be doing the same thing with flavored Cheerios.

Enter the second release I got on Tuesday- from an anti technology group that calls themselves Green America.  They claim they were the ones that MADE General Mills announce the Cheerios change- and they are now moving to what they call the next logical step- demanding that Honey Nut Cheerios go GMO Free as well. Click here to read their gameplan and  their desire to put the GMO genie back in the bottle and throw it away in the middle of ocean. 

It appears that General Mills is a classic case of a company trying to appease a group of consumers that are ignorant of the science- as well as being scared to death of it- and this GM is allowing these consumers to make decisions for all of us.  

Chinese Parent of Smithfield Changes Name to WH Group

The Chinese processor that last year acquired Smithfield Foods Inc. has changed its name and its corporate logo even as it reportedly looks to sell $6 billion in stock to investors in Hong Kong.

Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. is now known as WH Group Ltd. The new moniker is derived from the name Wanzhou Holdings, which comprises the Chinese characters representing "eternity" and "continents", respectively. The company also adopted a new logo depicting four streams representing the Earth's four major oceans, which are separated into five parts that represent the planet's continents, according to a WH Group release.

Officials at the Hong Kong-based company said the shift represents the global reach of its operations and symbolizes its ambition to be seen as a world-leading producer of pork and other food products around the globe. The company has stated its intent to focus on increasing its exports from the United States to Asia and to develop premium products from Smithfield for the Chinese market. WH Group closed its $7 billion acquisition of Smithfield - the largest purchase of a U.S. firm by a Chinese company - in September of 2013.

Click here for their website which has a brief explanation of the name change. 

Dr. Bob Weaber Demystifies Sire Selection for Calving Ease

Over the next several weeks, cow-calf producers will be going to bull sales as they prepare to rebuild their herds.  Kansas State University Beef Cow Specialist Dr. Bob Weaber says one of the prime genetic traits producers place on the top of their lists of selection criteria is calving ease.  He says there are a couple of ways to manage selection for calving ease.

"Particularly as we think about replacement females, we have two calving-ease EPDs.  One is called calving-ease direct or, simply, calving ease.   It describes the genetic variation in the ability of a sire's calves to be born so it's the direct component.  But there's also an important maternal calving-ease, typically either called calving-ease maternal or calving ease daughters or maternal calving ease.  It describes the genetic component of a dam or a cow to give birth to her calves.  So, as we think about building replacement heifers, we know that we'll be able to control some portion of calving ease and dystocia by the service sires we select for those replacement heifers, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that we can also augment calving ease by selecting for maternal calving ease in the bulls that we use to produce replacement females themselves."

Dr. Weaber joins me on the latest Beef Buzz.  Click here to listen in or to read more of this story.

This N That- Kingfisher FFA Wins National Western Meat Judging, More Cold Barrels Our Direction and Big Iron

The Kingfisher FFA meats judging team won the 2014 National Western FFA meats judging contest in Denver, Co. FFA Chapters from North Dakota, Texas and Kansas placed second, third and fourth.


Kingfisher team members were Lane Holt, Sydnee Gerken, Emmaly Helt and Colton Smith.  The team placed 1st in Beef Quality and Yield Grading, 4th in placings and edged out North Dakota by 2 points overall.  Individual honors was Colton Smith was 4th in placings, 7th in retail ID and 2nd high individual overall.  Lane Holt was high individual in beef grading and 5th individual overall. (our thanks to FFA Advisor Ryan Burns for giving us this update)

Speaking of the NWSS- the Grand Champion Lamb has been selected- and Oklahoma has grabbed the Grand and Reserve Grand honors- Destinee Johnson of Frederick has claimed top honors with the Grand Lamb- Reserve Grand Champion was shown by Beau Davis of Guthrie.  Both of these lambs will be in the Premium Sale of Champions Friday night in Denver.

 

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Oh baby- it's cold and going to get colder.  Colder air returns to Oklahoma for a short time before this weekend. Click here for the graphic that shows how cold things could feel Thursday morning.


According to Alan Crone with the News on 6- it will be a cold one- "A significant surge of cold air will arrive tonight knocking the temps back down into the cellar for Thursday and Friday. This arctic air mass will be short lived and a robust warm up is expected for the weekend with highs in the 50s Saturday and near 60 Sunday.

 

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It's Wednesday and this week's Big Iron auction features 316 items from farm equipment to construction and transportation items.  Sales begin closing at 10 a.m. 

Click here to check out the BigIron.com website where you can search for the type of items you are looking for.  The website features numerous pictures of each item, a thorough description and the owner's contact information should you want more details.  

The sales manager for this region is Mike Wolfe.  You can contact him if you'd like more information about participating in Big Iron's weekly auctions.  You can contact Mike at 580-320-2718.   

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