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The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service (OCES) is kicking off its celebration of 100 years of extending knowledge and changing lives of Oklahomans. At the annual Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Conference which brings Extension professionals in from all 77 counties to the campus of Oklahoma State University, OSU President Burns Hargis signed a proclamation Wednesday to recognize the achievements of extension over the past century. 

"Extension's mission is to harness all the research and know-how of land-grant institutions like Oklahoma State University and use it to help Oklahomans live the best lives possible," said James Trapp, associate director of OCES. "We're proud of our history of putting that mission into action in Oklahoma." OCES operates offices in all 77 Oklahoma counties and provides programming and information on a wide range of topics such as lawn and gardening, health and nutrition, home and family, crops, personal and family finances, community development, and animal science.


Most OCES resources and activities, including a database of more than 5,000 downloadable, research-based fact sheets (www.osufacts.okstate.edu), are free or low-cost for participants.

We were there midday Wednesday as Burns Hargis signed the proclamation- we talked to him right after that- click here to jump to our webstory that includes a link to the actual proclamation as well as the audio of our conversation with Hargis.

Cattle on Feed Report Predicted to Show Tighter Cattle Numbers as 2014 Begins  

Our first USDA Cattle on Feed Report will be out on Friday afternoon at 2 PM central time- after the markets are closed for the weekend. Allendale's Rich Nelson is one of several analysts that weigh in on what they see coming from USDA- and here are his guesses about the three key numbers:

"Allendale anticipates a Marketing total 0.8% higher than December of 2012. The calendar day adjustment artificially added 4% to the actual number.

"Total Cattle on Feed as of January 1 will be 5.3% smaller than last year. This would be smaller than the December 1 survey which showed 5.5% fewer cattle."

New NRCS Report: Cropland Erosion Stable, Specialty Crop Acres Boom

A new report on the status and conditions of America's agricultural lands shows cropland erosion rates remained stable between 2007 and 2010, despite a growth in agricultural land use and more extreme weather events.

"We expected to see an increase in the erosion, but our numbers told a different story," said Dr. Patrick Flanagan, national statistician for USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

NRCS' latest National Resources Inventory summary report features data on how U.S. non-federal rural lands are being used. Data come from 800,000 sample locations across the country.

Among the report's highlights:  

- Fruit, nut and flower production acreage surged from 124,800 to almost 274,000.

- Cropland acres increased by 2 million acres, this following a steady decline over the previous 25 years.

- Acres enrolled in NRCS programs grew from about 17 million acres in 2007 to about 40 million in 2010.

Click here to read more of this story and to find a link to the full NRI summary.
 

R-CALF USA and 97 Groups Urge No Changes to COOL Law

Yesterday, R-CALF USA and 97 other groups representing cattle, farm, manufacturer, consumer and other rural interests sent an urgent letter to members of the Farm Bill Conference Committee urging them to make no changes to the country of origin labeling (COOL) law when they finalize the 2014 Farm Bill.

The groups sent their letter following reports last week that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the agency responsible for defending the United States country of origin labeling law before the World Trade Organization, was lobbying the Farm Bill Conference Committee to weaken the COOL law.

"The widespread reports circulating on Capital Hill indicated that the USTR was capitulating to the pressures by COOL opponents, primarily the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and their transnational meatpacker allies, to weaken, if not eliminate COOL," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

Specifically, the reports indicated that the USTR was pressuring the Farm Bill Conference Committee to replace current COOL requirements with either a "Product of North America" label for meat from animals imported into the United States, or a "Product of USA" label for meat from animals exclusively produced in the United States.

You'll find the rest of this story and a link to the groups' full letter on our website by clicking here. 

Angus Adds Value Beyond the Pasture Gate

Some parts are better left as byproducts says Art Wagner, vice president of cattle procurement for National Beef Packing.

"If they know they're going to spend $10, $12, $15 for a steak, they don't want a piece of shoe leather."

Wagner is both a cattle buyer and a beef seller. Being on that bridge lends a good perspective to seeing what consumers want.

"They know the price is higher than it was five and ten years ago, but the quality they expect equates to the dollars they are spending for that meal. And it's more important than ever today when they are looking at how much they're spending for the meal that they're getting a quality eating experience."

National Beef's Liberal, Kansas, plant was the first large processor to unlock the power of the Certified Angus Beef brand in its lineup. And, Wagner said, they haven't looked back since.

You can read the rest of this story or watch a video version of it by clicking here.

NCGA 'Tele-Town Hall' Brings Farmers Together to Ignite RFS Action

Tuesday night, thousands of farmers from across the country were dialed in for a town hall via telephone, hosted by the National Corn Growers Association. The teleconference highlighted the need to reverse the EPA's proposed reduction in corn ethanol volumes for 2014 under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The event, which lasted about 30 minutes, included remarks from NCGA President Martin Barbre, a farmer from Carmi, Ill.; U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley from Iowa; and Richard Childress, owner of NASCAR's Richard Childress Racing, who works closely with NCGA through the American Ethanol partnership. In addition to providing a diverse array of opinions and information on the subject, the event highlighted what farmers can do to speak out against the reductions proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in November.

Kicking off the event, Barbre explained in grave detail the impact that this proposal could have not only upon NCGA members, but upon all farmers and anyone who depends upon money generated through America's agri-economy.

"This ill-advised and unnecessary cut in required RFS ethanol volumes could have a devastating effect on all of us - farmers, our rural communities, our environment and our national security," he explained after pointing out that the reduction would leave a large portion of the record 2013 corn crop unused. "With corn prices already teetering below the cost of production, this decrease will put further downward pressure on the market. We simply can't afford to return to the days of two-dollar corn. Neither can our schools, hospitals, fire departments and roads."

You can read the rest of this story by clicking here. 

Coming Up in our Friday Email and on the Radio...

We have several things in the pipeline that we are planning on sharing with you tomorrow morning- including a look at the 4-H career of Charles Cox- it was a great gathering last night in Stillwater for Charles, who has announced his retirement from OSU here in 2014- and before the festivities began last night, we sat down with Charles and talked about his extension career and where 4-H was when he began, where it is now and where it may be headed.  I think you will enjoy the conversation we had with Charles and we invite you to check it out tomorrow morning.

Also on Friday- we will be talking Sustainability and Beef with NCBA's Kim Stackhouse- she has been our guest for a couple of days now on the Beef Buzz, we will have our weekly look at the wheat and corn markets with Kim Anderson courtesy of Lyndall, Austin and Dave at SUNUP and we will have details of the Grand Champions Sale of the Junior Market Show at the National Western Livestock Show in Denver- that sale happening tomorrow evening- we will provide details about how you can tune in on Friday evening on the world wide web- the Grand Lamb and the Reserve Gran Lamb were shown by Oklahoma youth and we will know later today if any of our kids had their animals selected at the top of the Barrow or Steer show.  

Finally- I wanted to say thanks to the Coop Extension folks for inviting me to be a part of their Conference Program yesterday in Stillwater- it was a lot of fun sharing my ideas on social media as well as radio- and interacting with the panel that I was a part of- especially enjoyed hearing from Dee Nash who is a gardening fanatic here in Oklahoma and has a blog and tweets and more- check her blog out by clicking here.