Frank Lucas Addresses Livestock Disaster Assistance, Farm Bill Implementation and EPA Overreach 

The 2014 Farm Bill is now in its implementation phase and both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are carefully following the law's progress.


After he addressed members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting on Wednesday morning, Congressman Frank Lucas, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, sat down with yours truly in his House Ag Committee office and talked life about passing a farm bill. He touched on many things, but especially urged producers making use of the livestock disaster assistance program to get signed up soon to avoid any possibility of sequestration in late August. Some producers who signed up early have already received checks and Lucas said he was pleased with the USDA's handling of that program.

"It's good to know that the farm bill, in this stage, is working the way it is supposed to... This sign up will go way into September. There's lots of time, but in the way the sequestration language works if you sign up at the very end there's a potential that the sequestration deduction will occur. So this is a program to sign up sooner rather than later. Do it as quick as you can get your paperwork together. That's the prudent thing that I advocate to my neighbors back home."

Regulatory issues are also on Lucas's plate of late, including the APHIS rule concerning imports of Brazilian beef. A lot of livestock producers are very concerned about the possibility of foot and mouth disease being spread from Brazil to the U.S.

"I think that's a legitimate concern," Lucas said. "And I agree with my various groups that the comment period needs to be reopened and extended for another 120 days. That will give us time to look at the information that the federal government used to craft this rule that would allow it to happen. We're all in favor of free trade, but we've had such a good health record in fighting disease in the United States-in particular foot and mouth-that we just need to be very, very cautious."

Click here to read more of Lucas's comments, including his take on Gina McCarthy and the EPA's Waters of the U.S. Rule.  You'll also find our full audio conversation.  

Stabenow Conducts Hearing to Examine USDA's Ongoing Implementation of 2014 Farm Bill 

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, yesterday said the 2014 Farm Bill, which was signed into law in February, is a critical jobs bill that touches all Americans, and its swift and efficient implementation is essential to creating jobs, supporting the 16 million Americans already working in agriculture, and growing the economy. Chairwoman Stabenow's comments came during a Committee hearing examining USDA's ongoing implementation efforts. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack testified before the Committee.

"In many senses, the 'Farm Bill' is a bit of a misnomer, as we all know, because this bill affects all Americans in many different ways. This is a bill that takes critical steps toward changing the paradigm of farm and food policy," Stabenow said. "We worked hard to make sure the Farm Bill represents the diversity of American agriculture - from row crops to specialty crops to livestock to organics to local foods."

You can read Stabenow's opening remarks by clicking here.  You'll also find a link to the archived webcast of the committee's hearing.

 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Announces Continued Progress on 2014 Farm Bill Implementation

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday announced continued progress during the first 90 days of implementing the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill), which President Obama signed into law on February 7. The 2014 Farm Bill reforms agricultural policy, reduces the deficit, and helps grow the economy.

"The new farm bill supports the proud men and women who feed hundreds of millions around the world, and supports critical economic development in rural America. USDA has made this bill's implementation a top priority," Vilsack said. "I am pleased to report that our department continues to make tremendous progress getting new initiatives off the ground and making important reforms to existing programs."

Since the Farm Bill was signed, USDA has made progress throughout all Farm Bill titles including announcements on trade and marketing promotion, the establishment of conservation programs, the initiation of specialty crop and local food programs, funding for rural development programs, and more.

Click here for more.  

ASA Pushes for Broad Land Grant Coalition to Develop Farm Bill Implementation Tools

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday morning, the American Soybean Association (ASA) and six other national farm groups urged USDA to consider the needs of soybean growers and growers of all crops when awarding funds included in the 2014 Farm Bill to land grant universities for the development of websites and web-based tools to assist producers in deciding which of the new law's farm programs to sign up for.

"Given the complexity of choices in the commodity and crop insurance titles of the farm bill, these tools will be critical for producers in our organizations to make well-informed decisions," wrote the groups in the letter. "It is important that academic institutions representing different regional views on farm programs participate in this work. As a result, we urge you to select a lead institution possessing substantial experience with revenue-based risk management tools and representing a broad-based, national consortium of land-grant universities. In order to be effective, these web-based decision tools will need to come from institutions that have both the confidence of producers and a strong familiarity with the cropping practices and farm economics of the Midwest and northern Great Plains, which have the majority of acres subject to program decisions."

Click here to read more and to find a link to the full ASA letter.

 

Countdown to Quality Certifies Thousands of Producers

An astounding 7,732 producers from across the country recently received their Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certification during the open certification period thanks to a free offer from Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI). That is double the number from 2013 which makes more than 11,000 producers who have made a commitment to quality over the past two years through the free certification partnership.

The checkoff-funded BQA program is important to the cattle industry as it gives producers a set of best practices for producing a safe and high-quality beef product. It also gives consumers the assurance that the beef they eat is both safe and wholesome.

"BQA provides a solid foundation for animal welfare and disease prevention," says Dr. John Maas, extension veterinarian at the University of California-Davis, and 2013 BQA Educator of the Year. "Once we adopt the BQA attitude of cattle health, care and welfare, things just keep getting better naturally."

You can catch more of this story on our website by clicking here. 

Farmer Co-ops Called On to Blunt the Overreach of Government, NCFC President Says

Farmers cooperatives are a tremendously diverse set of businesses dealing with everything from fuel to grain to blue jeans. But, says National Council of Farmer Cooperatives President Chuck Conner, in survey after survey, they all have one thing in common.

"One thing unifies co-ops and our farmer members of all sizes and all regions of the country and that is overregulation. Those surveys come back, every one of them, number one priority: 'Do something about the overreach of government.' And there's no better example of that overreach than this Waters of the U.S. issue that the EPA is working on."

He recently spoke with Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays in Washington, D.C. Conner also served as the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture in the George W. Bush administration. He said that his group would like to see EPA bureaucrats scrap their current proposed rule and go back to the drawing board.

"They are headed down a path where we believe more and more farms and ranches in this country are going to be drawn into this notion of having to get approvals before going to the field and applying fertilizers or herbicides. Imagine the notion of having to get EPA to act on a permit before you could possibly go and make a decision on what to put on that field. The weather's coming in, the weather's changing, you're dealing with a by-the-minute sort of thing and the EPA, you know, they deal in years."

Click here to listen to my interview with Chuck or to read more of this story.  

This N That- Herefords, Milk Break and Cracking the Millennial Code

Coming up this Saturday is the Oklahoma Hereford Association Spring Time Bull & Female Sale.  The sale will get underway at 12 noon and will be happening at the Hartley's H2 Ranch & Cattle Company in Perkins.

A total of 128 head will sell- we have more details on our website- and you can check those details and be directed to a catalog on the National Cattle Website by clicking here. 

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You never know what might happen when you get off the couch- but in the case of our friend and State Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese, it has turned into miles and miles of running.  We're talking marathons worth of running.  And, in a guest blog for the DairyMAX folks, Jim explains that one of his training secrets (well, it was a secret) is a nice cold glass of chocolate Milk.   

In his explanation, he says "After a training run, I've been known to reach for a cold glass of chocolate milk. It refuels your muscles with carbohydrates, reduces muscle breakdown from the impact of running, and also helps rehydrate my body with fluid and electrolytes."

It gives Jim enough fresh fuel that he can show his pistols firing as he trots along the way.

Read about Jim's multi-tasking- running, drinking delicious chocolate milk and promoting Oklahoma dairy farmers by clicking here.

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We have changed meetings on this final day of our time in the Washington, DC area as the National Association of Farm Broadcasting's Washington Watch has wrapped up- and having moved across the river to Arlington, Va where we are taking in the Animal Ag Alliance Summitt today before heading for the house this evening.  

Their theme for 2014 is rather interesting- it's called "Cracking the Millennial Code."   

Kay Johnson-Smith, the Executive Director of the Animal Agriculture Alliance, believes that if the meat industry in the US wants to survive and prosper in the decades ahead- it needs to figure out how to best communicate with and market to this huge generation that is coming into its own.  Baby boomers are retiring and the Millennial generation- which is approximately 18 to 34 years of age- has to be talked to and reached in different ways than older Americans.

We will be tweeting today as we pick up insights  from the sessions- that Twitter handle is Ron_on_RON and here is a video talking about the conference.

Animal Agriculture Alliance 2014 Summit