Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Class 16 Tours South African Beef Feedlot 

Class 16 of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program continues its travels in South Africa and one of their stops on Tuesday was at the Chalmar Beef Company. Class member Chris Hitch of Guymon provides his take on the feedlot they toured, based on his knowledge of the US feeding industry.

"The feeding operation we visited was Chalmar Beef Feedlot. This is a medium sized feeding company of about 18000 one time head capacity separated into 2 yards of about 9000 head per, but they are a mostly vertically integrated enterprise with the ability to pasture 10,000 light calves (less than 450 lbs) as well as slaughtering capacity of 15,000 head annually. They have set themselves up in a niche market of focusing on premium eating experience for their customers. This means selectively buying calves of breeds that are more docile and likely to produce tender, flavorful beef.

"The most popular breed of cattle in the Chalmar lots is the Bonsmara, a local composite breed. Many other breeds are available but most are Brahman influenced. Chalmar avoids these cattle as they are wilder and produce tougher, less palatable meat. Also of note is that while much of the beef in S.A. is grain fed, the cattle are killed around 950 lbs. That means the meat leaner and more susceptible to toughness. Therefore, it is much more important to Chalmar Beef to be very selective about the cattle they source for feeding in their yard, and the Bonsmara cattle are very gentle and easy to handle as well as producing a nice tender meat.

"The feedlot system they have is very similar to the US system, but with some important differences. The primary difference is that the two yards feed two distinct weight classes of cattle," Hitch says

Click here to read the rest of this story.

 

DuPont, University of Missouri and USDA-ARS Collaborate on Grower Productivity, Sustainability 

DuPont, the University of Missouri and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) have announced an innovative new collaboration to pool soil mapping resources, predictive technologies and expertise to help growers more sustainably improve crop yields through better nitrogen application management and other field input planning.

The public-private effort aims to enhance sustainable crop production through field and crop modeling that targets the specific soil, climatic, water-shed and production conditions within producers' fields with real-time information.

The three-year exclusive agreement among DuPont Pioneer - the global seed and advanced plant genetics business of DuPont - the University of Missouri and USDA-ARS will bring together the respective strengths of each party in precision agriculture sensors and soil mapping, including the characterization of soil types, topography and water-sheds.

You'll find the rest of this story on our website by clicking here. 

Next Few Weeks Crucial For 2014 Wheat Crop, Jeff Edwards Says

For the most part, Oklahoma's 2014 wheat crop got in an up in good shape. Fall rains and a few snow events during the winter have brought it this far, but where does it go from here? Oklahoma State University Small Grains Extension Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards says the next several weeks are crucial if farmers hope to harvest a bumper crop.

"We're coming out of dormancy right now in the Southern Plains and this is a time of year when moisture is critical. We can get by on very little moisture during the winter months, but when we come out of dormancy and we're starting reproductive growth, we have to have that moisture available. Temperatures are warming, evapotranspiration increases and it's a critical time.

"Also, we're starting to form that grain head deep in the plant and we need moisture to ensure that we don't start aborting grain sites on that grain head when the plant is this small, so it's very critical that we have moisture right now."

You can read and listen to more from Jeff Edwards on the condition of this year's wheat crop by clicking here.  

RFA Chief Calls on Washington to 'Keep Your Word'

Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, addressed more than 1,000 people at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Fla. In his annual "State of the Industry" speech entitled "Falling Walls, Rising Tides", the RFA leader touted the strength of the ethanol industry.

2014 will be the year the "blend wall comes crashing down," "the cellulose wall is cracked," "the trade wall erected by Europe will be breached," and "the octane wall crumbles."

Tying the remarks back to the theme of "Falling Walls, Rising Tides", Dinneen stated that "a rising tide lifts all boats" and noted "the notion of a rising tide aptly describes the economic reach of the American ethanol industry."

Click here to read more of Bob Dinneen's remarks and to find a link to his full presentation.

 

Oklahoma City Farm Show Features Latest Technologies, Livestock Demonstrations and More

The Oklahoma City Farm Show is just around the corner. Known previously as the Southern Plains Farm Show, the event has a ten-year history at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City.

Farm show manager Ron Bormaster with Midwest Farm Shows spoke with me recently and says this will be Oklahoma City's biggest and best farm show yet.

"We've got a great amount of vendors coming this year-a lot of new vendors coming in. We're also going to do outdoors as we've done in the past and taking three buildings.

"The show's going to be a shade earlier this year. It will be on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of April. We want everybody to come out and see us."

Bormaster says the name of the show was changed to bring it in line with the other shows his company produces.

"Most of our shows have the proper name of the city we're in and we thought that would be a good change for this in calling it the Oklahoma City Farm Show and we gave it a lot of thought and we're really happy with what we've done."

Click here to listen to my conversation with Ron Bormaster and more of his preview on this year's show.

 

NCC Applauds Timely Honey Bee Varroa Mite Forum

The National Cotton Council (NCC) Wednesday applauded USDA for holding its "Varroa Mite Summit" saying the forum is a key step for stopping honey bee health decline.

The February 18-19 meeting in Riverdale, MD, resulted from the American Honey Producers Association's urging after it recognized the valid Varroa mite threat. The NCC also recognized the threat and supported the honey producers' summit request by joining 15 other agricultural organizations in October on letters to EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and USDA's Office of Pest Management Policy. The letters urged them to participate in a Varroa mite summit -- as USDA is charged with the responsibility of bee health research and EPA reviews and registers pesticides.

During the summit, scientists and stakeholders with significant knowledge about this pest shared insights, reviewed research progress and discussed ideas for developing and implementing an effective Varroa mite management program. The summit also served as a forum for building collaborative efforts to improve our understanding of what causes bee losses.

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

This N That- Superior Video Livestock Sale on Friday, GMO Trash Talking Pushback and Pork Board Announcement

This Friday's Superior Video Livestock Market auction will be featuring 29,000 head of cattle- starting at 8 AM Central time. As usual, the Superior Livestock Auction will be broadcast on Rural TV, Dish Network, Channel 232 and the internet, live from the Superior offices & studio in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards in Fort Worth, TX.

Click here to visit the Superior website for more details or call Superior at 800-422-2117. 

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It seems to me that there are more people than ever talking trach about GMOs and how evil they are and how dangerous they are for your families, etc etc etc.  While there is not enough pusback- I have noticed some really good blog postings and other responses on Facebook and other outlets.

One I want like to recommend to you this morning is authored by a farm wife from Illinois, Katie Pratt.  Her blog is called Rural Route 2- the life and times of an Illinois Farm Girl.  

Katie responded in a powerful way to the blathering of Dr. Oz on GMOs as seen on his syndicated TV show about a week ago.  The good Doctor spouted all of the usual stuff about GMOs being dangerous- and then trashed the use of pesticides and wrapped up with all the reasons why consumers should be demanding labeling of any food product that has any trace of GMO in them.

Click here and you can read for yourself Katie's point by point destruction of each argument put forward by Oz- I learned several things in her analysis- and it's a shame that Oz used Scott Farber of the EWG instead of Katie as a on camera expert- it's easy to tell which one of these folks actually live in the country and understand the facts of GMOs and Pesticides and modern production agriculture.  

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Finally- here is a public notice and invitation asking those who raise hogs to consider getting involved in the Pork Board:

"Public notice by Oklahoma Pork Council And the National Pork Board:

"The election of pork producer delegate candidates for the 2015 National Pork Producers (Pork Act) Delegate Body will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, February 28, 2014 in conjunction with the Oklahoma Pork Congress and Annual Meeting which will be held at the Reed Conference Center, 5750 Will Rogers Road, Midwest City, Okla. All Oklahoma pork producers are invited to attend.

"Any producer age 18 or older who is a resident of Oklahoma and has paid all assessments due may be considered as a delegate candidate and/or participate in the election. All eligible producers are encouraged to bring with them a sales receipt proving that hogs were sold in their name and the checkoff deducted.

"If you are interested in being a candidate, please prepare a short (1/2 page) biography telling about yourself and send it to the Oklahoma Pork Council, ATTN: Election Committee, 901 N. Lincoln Blvd., Suite 380, Oklahoma City, OK 73104-3206 to arrive by February 21, 2014. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor.

"For more information, contact the Oklahoma Pork Council. Telephone: 888-SAY-PORK (729-7675) or 405-232-3781."