Heath Sanders Offers Lessons Learned from 2014 Canola Crop as Growers Look to 2015 Growing Season 

The 2014 crop year will be one that will forever standout in the mind of Oklahoma canola farmers. Speaking at the 10th Annual Canola Conference in Enid, Great Plains Canola Association Canola Field Specialist Heath Sanders said the year brought a plethora of problems throughout the growing season.


"It's definitely one that I want to always have it to reference and remember, but I don't want to see one like this for a long time," Sanders said. 


In looking ahead to the 2015 crop, Sanders said it starts with selecting multiple varieties and seed bed preparation. Farmers should consider calibrating their seed drill prior to planting. Sander said farmers need to be cautious about moisture availability.


"If it's going to be a wet year, then we don't need to planting it very deep in order to get that crop out of the ground," Sanders said. "If it is going to a little more challenging year, a little drier year, and rain is going to be sparse like it has been in recent years, guys may want to think about planting it a little deeper."  

Click Here to read or listen to our conversation with Heath Sanders about the 2014 canola year and recommendations for the 2015 crop year.

Summer Cattle Industry Conference Jumps into High Gear Today- Domestic and International Demand (and More) on the Minds of Cattlemen  

As cattle producers from across the nation gather in Denver this week for the Cattle Industry Summer Conference, domestic and international demand are two of the things that are making folks in the business smile.  

The midyear meeting for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the American National Cattlewomen and the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion Board allows cattle industry leaders to meet and plan strategy for the coming year.


Beef exports are a key component to the prosperity of the beef industry right now. Larry Pratt owns a cow-calf and stocker operation near Eliasville, Texas and serves as chairman of the Global Growth Committee. This committee is set to meet this afternoon- and is one of about a half dozen issue specific meetings that will be going on concurrently.


Pratt says that 2014 is a year where we have building on the records set in 2013.  "We're still looking at a good year on exports, we're still looking at China coming on board at some point and time. The US is still dealing with ractopamine as far hogs are concerned, but we don't know how that is going to effect beef."


Click Here to read or listen to more of Pratt's comments from Wednesday's Beef Buzz.  

AND- be watching for our updates on the web and on Twitter from the Summer Cattle Conference today and tomorrow.  The hashtag to follow everyone tweeting from this conference is #beefmeet.  Get our Twitter feed here- and follow us anytime on Twitter at Ron_on_RON.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, senior member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, introduced two bills today to address the listings of the American Burying Beetle (ABB) and the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).


The American Burying Beetle Relief Act of 2014, S. 2678, would remove ABB from the list of endangered species under ESA. The ABB population has grown significantly and appears to exist in far more areas than it did prior to its listing in 1989, yet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has not changed or removed ABB from its listing. At the time of introduction, cosponsors of the bill included Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). Text of the legislation is available by clicking here.


"The American Burying Beetle's population growth has occurred despite very limited recovery projects by the Fish and Wildlife Service, underscoring how little we actually know about the Beetle and its risk of extinction," said Inhofe. "The Endangered Species Act is designed to protect species that may go extinct, and the ABB is showing increasing resiliency. Delisting the ABB is an appropriate step given the expansion of the population since 1989 and the lack of understanding about what may pose a risk to the species' health."

Click Here for the rest of article on the two bills introduced by Sen. Inhofe.

House Passes Bill to Modernize Endangered Species Act

Today, the House passed H.R. 4315 the Endangered Species Transparency and Reasonableness Act by a vote of 233 to 190. The Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen's Beef Association strongly support the legislation, which combines four bills previously marked up by the House Natural Resources Committee, and will be beneficial to updating and improving the Endangered Species Act of 1973.


"The ESA, while designed to protect species from endangerment of extinction, has proven to be ineffective and immensely damaging to our members' ability to stay in business," said Brice Lee, PLC president and Colorado rancher. "During the nearly 40 years since the ESA was passed and over 25 years since Congress last reauthorized the law, our industry has come to recognize the Act as greatly flawed and outdated. Less than two percent of species placed on the endangered species list have ever been deemed recovered."


H.R. 4315 will require data used by federal agencies for ESA listing and proposed listing decisions to be made publicly available and accessible. The bill also requires the Interior Secretary to report and comprehensively track all litigation costs associated with the Act. Furthermore, the bill caps hourly fees paid to attorneys that prevail in cases filed under ESA, consistent with current law.

 

Click Here to read more how this bill would modernize and change the Endangered Species Act.

Oklahoma Genetics Variety Spotlight -
Ruby Lee

As wheat planting plans come into focus, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and Oklahoma Farm Report.com want to help you consider how the genetics developed by Dr. Brett Carver and his Wheat Improvement Team may fit into your wheat production system. A profile of several of the major wheat varieties that have come from the Oklahoma State University program will be offered for the next few weeks. Today, we showcase the variety
Ruby Lee.


Ruby Lee's parentage goes back to Endurance and an experimental line from the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service laboratory located in Manhattan, Kan. This combination provided the variety with wide adaptation along with its ability to produce yields and improve on the end quality. In looking at the potential for Ruby Lee, Carver sees this variety has the potential to replace Billings in terms of quality.


"Some of the characteristics we rely upon in bread making are much stronger in Ruby Lee," Carver said. "In fact we consider Ruby Lee our gold standard now for bread baking."


Ruby Lee carries on better protection from pests like barley yellow dwarf and also protection for Spindle Streak Mosaic. Carver says the one covet to Ruby Lee is that it can be overwhelmed by an epidemic of stripe rust. He said this variety can handle a light infection of stripe rust, but with a heavy infection it will not have the same level as protection, as a variety such as Gallagher. 

Click Here to read or to listen to Dr. Jeff Edwards talk about how Ruby Lee performed in the 2014 wheat variety trials.  

Earlier this week, we showcased Duster.  Click Here to read or two listen to our feature on Duster.

Coburn Takes Another Slap at Federal Farm Programs 

"Wealthy farmers are harvesting subsidies from sixty similar, overlapping and duplicative federal programs," U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. said in response to a newly released report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) entitled, "Farmers Have Been Eligible for Multiple Programs and Further Efforts Could Help Prevent Duplicative Payments," which reveals that many of the largest and wealthiest farms in America benefit from multiple, overlapping farm program payments.


GAO's report notes that national net farm income increased from $83.7 billion in 2008 to $113.8 billion in 2012, and is forecast to have reached a record of $130.5 billion in 2013. During the 2008-2012 time period, seven USDA agencies obligated $173 billion in farm payments through sixty programs. The report further highlights the sprawling bureaucracy across farm support programs and identifies several areas where duplicative payments are occurring or at risk of occurring in the future. Finally, GAO stated "Larger farms or farms producing cash grains such as corn were more likely to receive payments from multiple programs than small farms or farms producing other crops. Larger farms also received more crop insurance premium subsidies than other farms."


"I am disappointed that Congress recently missed a historic opportunity with the Farm Bill to ensure a robust and efficient farm safety net. Instead, it made only cosmetic changes to the extensive system. With a national debt that now threatens the future well-being of all Americans, Congress has a responsibility to address GAO's findings and ensure the safety net for our nation's farmers is functioning as efficiently and effectively as possible, not merely providing benefit to those who need the least assistance." Dr. Coburn said.


GAO concluded there was sufficient evidence of overlap between the sixty USDA programs available to farmers, and recommended controls be put in place to avoid duplicative payments in the future. 

Frederick Drummond Named Cattleman of the Year by the OCA- Plus a List of Other Honorees from the 2014 OCA Convention 

At the 2014 Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association Convention this past weekend, a number of awards were handed out- including the highest award that the organization gives to one of it's own members- the OCA Cattleman of the Year.  

Former OCA President Frederick Drummond of Pawhuska was selected as the honoree in 2014.

After the presentation, we talked with Frederick about his years in the Osage and in the cattle business. He told us about the changes he has seen in the US cattle industry over the years- saying he has had cattle that were small in type and then a few years the "right kind" of cattle were huge- but that he is proud that the industry today is really focused on providing the consumer a great product for their families to enjoy.

Get our story that includes our audio conversation with Frederick here.   

The story also gives you a list of other award winners from the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association 2014 meeting in Midwest City.