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The National Farmers Union withdrew from three years of discussions for reform of the beef checkoff as the general farm group called the exercise "a waste of time and resources." Over the weekend, the NFU board said it was up to the Agriculture Department to respond to beef producer demands for reform. "It is our recommendation that USDA consider rewriting the beef checkoff program under the 1996 generic research and promotion act," said a resolution adopted by the board.  

The board action was not unanimous as the largest Farmers Union state (by membership), Oklahoma, voted not to pull out of the talks. The President of the American Farmers and Ranchers, Terry Detrick, says it makes no sense to get mad and take your toys and go home, losing your chance to influence any plan developed by the industry in the days ahead.

AFR, the Farmers Union affiliate in Oklahoma, represents about forty percent of the NFU membership nationally. We talked with Detrick on Monday evening from Washington- and he offered his reasons why Oklahoma voted no and also talked about the possibility that USDA and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack might jump into the arguments over the operation of the Beef Checkoff and make changes without the direction of Congress. 

Click or tap here to read more- and to listen to our overview of Comments offered to us by Detrick as we talked with him on Monday evening. 

Rains Slow Harvest and Fall Wheat Seeding Across Southern Plains

The cool front brought nice precipitation totals to parts of Oklahoma including the panhandle, central and western regions.  In the weekly crop progress report from the US Department of Agriculture the state's corn crop rated in 75 percent good to fair condition with 88 percent of the crop dented and 39 percent mature. Sorghum rated 78 percent good to fair.  Seventy percent of the crop was coloring and 33 percent mature.  The soybean crop rated 86 percent good to fair with 87 percent setting pods and seven percent dropping leaves.  Peanuts rated 93 percent good to fair with 24 percent mature.  Cotton crops in the far Southwest District were showing signs of stress with 40 percent rated good compared to 54 percent rate good one week ago.  Thirty percent of cotton bolls were opening.

Seedbed preparation continued for all small grains. Fifty-two percent of wheat seedbed preparation was complete as of Sunday, while canola seedbed preparation was 70 percent complete by week's end, well ahead of normal.

Conditions of pasture and range continued to be rated mostly good to fair.  Livestock were rated 60 percent in good condition with 27 percent rated as fair.  Click Here for the full Oklahoma report.

Texas also received heavy rainfall this past week.  Corn harvest reached 57 percent complete. Sorghum harvested across the state reached 65 percent complete and 30 percent of the state's soybeans have been harvested.  Click here for the full report.

Thunderstorms also brought rain to much of Kansas, which delayed corn harvest.  As of Sunday harvest 12 percent complete. Crop conditions continue to look favorable with corn rated 70 percent good to fair, sorghum at 77 percent, soybeans at 79 percent and cotton receiving a 87 percent good to fair rating.  

Click here for the full Kansas report.  

Click here for the National Crop Progress report.  

USDA Provides $328 Million to Conserve Wetlands and Farmland

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that $328 million in conservation funding is being invested to help landowners protect and restore key farmlands, grasslands and wetlands across the nation. The USDA initiative will benefit wildlife and promote outdoor recreation and related sectors of the economy.


"Conservation easements help farmers and ranchers protect valuable agricultural lands from development, restore lands that are best suited for grazing, and return wetlands to their natural conditions," Vilsack said. "These easements are making a dramatic and positive impact for our food supply, rural communities and species habitat."


The funding is provided through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), which was created in the 2014 Farm Bill to protect critical wetlands and encourage producers to keep lands in farming and ranching. Approximately 380 projects nationwide were selected to protect and restore 32,000 acres of prime farmland, 45,000 acres of grasslands and 52,000 acres of wetlands. Click here for a summary of ACEP funding provided to each state. Oklahoma will receive $1.3 million dollars in funding.  Click here to read more about ACEP funding.   

 Opponents Unfairly Target Gluten, Carver Says

The gluten free craze continues to be a major concern for the US wheat industry. One of the key spokesman that has been utilized on a national level by wheat organizations is Oklahoma State University Wheat Breeder Dr. Brett Carver. Recently I visited with Dr. Carver about the battle over gluten food products in the US.  He said the hysteria over gluten free is based on myths. Carver said the primary myth being the gluten or protein that we eat that comes from wheat is not healthy or has been changed. Another myth is that wheat varieties today are gluten rich and that  our diet's are overwhelmed with gluten.


"Nothing can be further from the truth," Carver said. "It's really a difficult proposition for us to improve yield and increase protein at the same time."


Carver said the gluten or protein content in wheat has not changed because they are trying to keep it at a certain level, but that has been one myth that has been difficult to dispel. Another myth is that the kind of gluten or protein present in wheat has changed.  Click here to listen to my interview with Dr. Carver as he dives into the facts about gluten in today's wheat being produced here in the US.

 

Top Pork Countries Want Tariffs Eliminated In TPP

In an open letter to negotiators on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, organizations representing hog farmers in Australia, Chile, Mexico and the United States called for a "comprehensive, high-quality" agreement that eliminates tariffs on nearly all products, including pork.


The TPP is a regional negotiation that includes the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which account for nearly 40 percent of global GDP.


Australian Pork Limited, the Canadian Pork Council, the Asociación Gremial de Productores de Cerdos de Chile, the Confederacion de Porcicultores Mexicanos and the National Pork Producers Council pointed out that the agreed-upon objectives of the TPP are: that it include trade in goods - including agricultural ones - services, investment, e-commerce, competition policy and intellectual property; that there be no product or sector exclusions, especially in agriculture; that all tariffs and other market access barriers such as Japan's Gate Price be eliminated by the end of the negotiated transition period; and that all transition periods have "commercially meaningful" timeframes, which should be short and not back-loaded.  Click here to read more about TPP negotiations. 
 

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, writes in the latest Cow/Calf Corner newsletter.


International cattle and beef markets are reacting as expected to record U.S. market prices. The latest monthly trade data for July confirms that beef exports are declining; and beef and cattle imports are increasing as markets adjust to shrinking U.S. beef and cattle supplies.   While U.S. cattle and beef prices are not the only factors that affect international trade but the price influence is strong and likely to be a major determinant of trade flows in coming months. The discussion below focuses on quantity adjustments in trade flows. Trade values, of course, reflect the high prices that are resulting in trade flow adjustments.


After increasing the first half of the year, beef exports are decreasing year over year to most major U.S. beef destinations with July total exports down 13.5 percent leading to a slim 1.4 percent year to date beef export increase compared to the first 7 months one year ago. Beef exports to Japan were down 9.5 percent in July and are down 7.8 percent for the year date compared to last year. Beef exports to Hong Kong are still up 36.2 percent for the year to date but were down 32 percent in July compared to last year. Hong Kong, which emerged as the fourth largest beef export destination in 2013, had sharp year over year increases through June before dropping dramatically in July. Mexico, likewise, changed from year over year increases each month the first half of the year to an 11.2 percent decrease in July compared to last year. Beef exports to Canada have been down each month this year with July down 25.9 percent and a year to date total down 21.8 percent compared to one year ago. Among major U.S. beef export destinations, only South Korea is still increasing, with the July 22.2 percent year over year increase, the fifth consecutive monthly increase, leading to a year to date 21.6 percent increase compared to 2013.    

Click or tap here for more from Dr. Peel as he explains about levels of US beef and live cattle imports.  

Retailers Restocking Meat Shelves After Labor Day

On a regular basis, Ed Czerwein of the USDA Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas offers a review of the previous week's boxed beef trade. Here is the weekly boxed beef trade for week ending September 6th.  The daily spot choice box beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $248.67 which was $2.37 higher than the previous week. There were 925 loads sold for the week in the daily box beef cutout, which was another big week as retailers bought product to restock shelves after Labor day and was about 13 percent of the total volume.


The comprehensive or weekly average choice cutout which includes all types of sales was $247.74 which was 48 cents higher with good volume


The total reported box beef volume of 7,165 loads was 587 loads less than the previous week.   That makes three weeks in a row of large load counts which really points to good movement for the Labor day grilling weekend.  Click here for the rest of the report or to listen to Ed Czerwein's report.