Early Freeze Could Impact Portions of Cornbelt 

Freezing temperatures and rainfall will impact the cornbelt this weekend. Last week there were projections that the coldest air would reach into central Iowa ending the growing season. DTN Senior Ag Meteorologist Bryce Anderson said that outlook for the upcoming weekend has moderated substantially


"It does look like we're going to see some of that chill in the northern say quarter of the cornbelt, but not really getting into the higher production areas of the three I states there along Interstate 80 and because of that there's been more confidence that there's not going to be quick and painful end to what has been a long and drawn out crop season considering how cool its been," Anderson said.


In a interview with Leslie Smith of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network, Anderson said he is forecasting temperatures will fall down into the light freeze category will get into the northern portion of the cornbelt into the Canadian prairie. 


For much of the central US, Anderson is predicting a more of a normal first freeze date, but this approaching cold front will impact some crops that have not reached full maturity.


"I think we can see some impact on about 10 percent of the total corn acreage in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas," Anderson said. "The actual killing out of crops would be very scattered with only a 32 degree temperature. We would have to see those temperatures get into the 27 and 28 degree bracket Fahrenheit for a hard killing freeze to be in effect and because of that I don't there is going to be a real big crop loss, even through its certainly is colder." 

This front will also bring moisture across the Midwest and Southern Plains.  Click here to read or to listen to the forecast outlook from Anderson.

Reducing Insurance Subsidies for Wealthy Farmers Could Save Millions Annually

Reducing Crop Insurance subsidies for America's wealthy farmers could save hundreds of millions annually for taxpayers, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO's report examined the effects of reducing the federal subsidy for crop insurance revenue policies, and found possible savings of nearly $2 billion per year with little effect on farmers' total production cost per acre.


"This report provides us a blueprint on how to save hundreds of millions of dollars with little impact on our farm industry." Dr. Tom Coburn said. "The Federal Government needs to get out of the business of subsidizing the wealthiest farmers."


GAO's report notes that the cost to the federal government of the crop insurance program increased from an average of $3.4 billion per year from 2003 through 2007 to an average of $8.4 billion per year from 2008 through 2012, peaking at $14.1 billion in 2012, a new record. During this time period, the rate of premium subsidies provided by the federal government increased from 37 percent to 63 percent and the amount of acreage covered by the program increased dramatically, all while the farm industry was bringing in record profits. Click here to read more about the latest GAO report. 

US House Declares Their Desire to Ditch the Rule and Stop WOTUS on Bipartisan Vote  

With 35 Democrats joining the Republican members of the House, that body passed the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2014 Tuesday afternoon.  Passage is largely an attempt to halt the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposed Waters of the U.S. rule.  Senate action is unlikely however before the end of the year, or at all.   

The folks at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. have stepped up to pay for producers to become certified in the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program. Josh White, coordinates the BQA program for the beef checkoff, said producers can save from $25 to $50 fee during the open certification period.


"It's September through October, so the whole months of September and October you just go online to BQA.org/team, and that will get you to the right page to get the code you need to enter," White said. "We're partnering with the Beef Cattle Institute for this online training, and so you can also go to animalcaretraining.org to see all the modules that are available."


This is the third time Boehringer Ingelheim has supported this checkoff-funded program by sponsoring producer certifications. White says BQA certification elements have something for everyone in the cattle industry. 


"They're divided up so if you're a stocker backgrounder there's a module for you, if you're in the feedlot sector there's a great module there, transportation folks have assets online, especially, that you can resource there, and also the cow calf is, of course, online," White said.  

Click here to read more about the BQA Incentive Program.

Vilsack Appoints Members to Council for Native American Farming and Ranching

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has appointed three Oklahomans to the the Council for Native American Farming and Ranching. John Berrey, Chairman of Quapaw Tribe, (Quapaw), Sperry, Okla. is one of three new members appointed to the council. Henry Holder, Farmer/Rancher, (Choctaw), Soper, Okla. and Jerry McPeak, Farmer/Rancher and State Legislator, (Muscogee Creek), Warner, Okla. are among eight members to be re-appointed to the council.   The Council provides recommendations to the Secretary on changes to Farm Service Agency (FSA) regulations and other measures that would eliminate barriers to program participation for Native American farmers and ranchers.


"Over the previous two years the Council for Native American Farming and Ranching has provided recommendations meant to help tribal governments, businesses, farmers and ranchers partner with USDA to create jobs, drive economic growth and strengthen tribal communities, and I look forward to a continuation of their progress," Vilsack said.


The Council will continue to promote the participation of Native American farmers and ranchers in all USDA programs and support government-to-government relations between USDA and tribal governments. The Council is a discretionary advisory committee established under the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture in furtherance of the Keepseagle v. Vilsack settlement agreement, which was granted final approval by the District Court for the District of Columbia on April 28, 2011.


Click here to read more about the members of the Council for Native American Farming and Ranching. 

Oklahoma Law Firm Pushes for Implementation of Farm Bill's APH Adjustment

The following has been provided by the legal team at McAfee & Taft.

Farmers who insure their crops with an Actual Production History (APH) type of crop insurance policy - especially in areas affected by the recent severe droughts - received a welcome benefit in the 2014 Farm Bill known as the "APH Adjustment Option." As part of the Farm Bill, Congress gave farmers the right to elect the APH Adjustment Option for calculating their APH, which is a 4- to 10-year database of a farmer's historical yields used in setting insurance guarantees. The new option allowed farmers to exclude certain historical catastrophic years from their APH, thereby increasing their guarantee and potential indemnity payments.


However, on July 1, 2014, the Risk Management Agency (RMA) announced that it would not implement Congress' new option until the 2016 crop year, and it is anticipated that the private insurance companies that offer federal crop insurance policies to farmers may refuse to allow their farmer customers to exercise the APH Adjustment Option authorized by Congress.


Throughout the country, but particularly in counties in western Oklahoma, the panhandle of Oklahoma, southwest Kansas, southeast Colorado, the panhandle of Texas and west Texas, farmers have experienced substantial, multi-year droughts in the past 10 years that have effectively dragged down their APH. The APH Adjustment Option allows farmers to exclude any year of their APH database where the average yield for their county (or any contiguous county) dropped below 50% of that county's 10-year average. The elimination of these outlier years was clearly intended by Congress to benefit farmers by giving them a more optimistic baseline of historical production. The option also had a fairly simple application: insurance companies only had to identify the historical catastrophic years and allow farmers in the impacted counties (or contiguous counties) to exclude those years on their crop insurance documents.  Click here to read more about the implementation of the APH Adjustment Option.

This N That- Big Iron, Chapel Creek Makes the Best Wine and Superior's Labor XXXV

It's Wednesday- and that means the Big Iron folks will be busy closing out this week's auction items- all 625 of them- starting at 10 AM central time. (This week's sale is the biggest we have had this summer!)     

 Click Here for the complete rundown of what is being sold on this no reserve online sale this week.

If you'd like more information on buying and selling with Big Iron, call District Manager Mike Wolfe at 580-320-2718 and he can give you the full scoop.  You can also reach Mike via email by clicking or tapping here.