Persistant Drought Makes Oklahoma Top Livestock Forage Program Recipient as Signup Continues  

Oklahoma is clearly number one- and it is not even close, at least when you are considering the payments received by ranchers across the country for the Livestock Forage Program. The LFP is one of four disaster programs that were not fully funded by the 2008 Farm Law- and expired a full year before the rest of the bill. Under the leadership of House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, these programs were reinstated and made permanent- and USDA began sign up for these programs April 15th.


Ranchers were able to make claims under the LFP program back to October first of 2011- and more than a half billion dollars has been paid to Oklahoma producers since mid April. That is far and away the most that has been paid out in any single state. Over $2.5 billion has been paid to ranchers nationally for the three fiscal years, with program sign up open until January 30, 2015.

According to State FSA Executive Director Francie Tolle, "We started the Livestock Forage Program, LFP, April 15th and really have been incredibly busy in our offices across the state."

"Payments have been significant, we're over $560 million dollars in Oklahoma and no where near finished right now," Tolle said. "While those payments don't make people whole, they are helping people rebuild herds and what they need to do to catch up."  

 We have several stories on LFP this morning to share with you- with the key to understand that if you are a rancher and have not yet signed up for drought disaster payments- you will likely qualify for that assistance if you have ranched in this part of the world.  IF you at least contact the FSA office and get on their "register" you are looking at full payments when you finally get your paper work complete- if you wait until Wednesday morning or later to contact FSA- those payments will still be there- but will be reduced by 7.3% because of sequestration.

Click or tap here to read more about Oklahoma's top spot as LFP recipient because of the persistent drought- this report includes the video with Francie Tolle from Saturday's In the Field.

Click or tap here for our full audio interview with Tolle on the subject.

And click or tap here for this past Friday's Beef Buzz with national FSA Administrator Val Dolcini regarding the race to get into the LFP queue. 

Discovery of GM Wheat in Oregon Stumps USDA- And Now There is a Montana GM Mystery 

After conducting a thorough and scientifically detailed investigation into the detection last year of genetically engineered (GE) wheat growing in a single field on a single farm in Oregon, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has concluded that the presence of the GE wheat appears to be an isolated incident. The GE wheat found on the Oregon farm was developed by Monsanto to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, also known as Roundup. APHIS closed the investigation after exhausting all leads. The agency also found no evidence of GE wheat in commerce. APHIS is releasing today its findings and full report of investigation and evidence file, with appropriate personal information and confidential business information redacted.


Additionally, APHIS has opened a new investigation into a regulatory compliance issue involving GE wheat found growing at a research facility that was the previous site of authorized field trials in Montana. GE wheat was field-tested under APHIS' regulatory approval at the Montana State University's Southern Agricultural Research Center (SARC) in Huntley, Montana, between 2000 and 2003. Genetic testing shows that the GE wheat at this research facility location is significantly different from the GE wheat found growing at the Oregon farm last year.


APHIS has not deregulated any GE wheat varieties to date, and thus, there are no GE wheat varieties for sale or in commercial production in the United States. Additionally, the genetic trait detected in the wheat in these two instances does not present a food safety issue because FDA completed a food safety consultation for this GE wheat in 2004 and expressed no food safety concerns.

 

Click here to learn more about the Oregon and the Montana investigation and what the next steps will be for USDA.

NACD Meets with EPA to Discuss Proposed 'Waters of the US' Rule

National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) leadership met with representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to express concerns on behalf of member conservation districts regarding the proposed "Waters of the U.S." rule. Unfortunately representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.


"We appreciate the opportunity to be at the table to represent conservation districts on this important issue," said NACD President Earl Garber. "Our goal in this meeting was to seek clarity on the proposed rule, and to articulate NACD policy developed through our member districts. We strongly believe that the best the way to accomplish the goal of clean water is through a voluntary, incentive-based approach, including the expansion of EPA's 319 and other federal and state programs."


In Thursday's meeting, NACD stressed a number of key requests.  First and foremost, NACD leadership conveyed that the association's policy does not support any increase in jurisdiction proposed by a final rule. NACD requested that EPA take additional time in drafting the rule, in order to incorporate more input from conservation districts and other local officials, and landowners and land-users at the local level.  NACD also asked that better definitions be used to achieve the outcome of clarity.  Click here to read more about NACD's view of the WOTUS proposal.  

Hog Numbers Up in Oklahoma Compared to Start of Summer- Well Below a Year Ago

PEDV continues to be clearly seen in the latest quarterly Hog and Pigs Report from USDA, although the disease was less prevalent during the summer months than over this past winter.

Oklahoma's hog herd was hit hard by PEDV last late summer and fall into the early months of 2014- but numbers have picked up in the latest report.

The September 1, 2014 Oklahoma hog and pig inventory, at 2.02 million head, was 9 percent lower than September 2013. However, that was up from the 1.89 million head reported on June first, a low water mark for Oklahoma hog numbers in recent years.

The number of breeding hogs totaled 430 thousand head, up 10 thousand head from last year. The September 1 market hog inventory was down 11 percent from a year ago at 1.59 million head, 79 percent of the total hog and pig inventory.


Looking ahead- during June through August 2014, 195 thousand sows farrowed in Oklahoma, up 3 percent from last year.   

To view the Oklahoma report  from USDA, click or tap here.

Oklahoma Beef Council Challenges Producers to Become BQA Certified

The Oklahoma Beef Council is challenging all Oklahoma beef and dairy producers to become certified through the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program.   For those who need to go through the program or need to become re-certified they can have the program paid for them. Oklahoma Beef Council Executive Director Heather Buckmaster said for the third year Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica will cover the cost of becoming BQA certified for producers who enroll before October 31st.


"Essentially what they are doing is they are picking up the $25 - $50 tab, a certification fee for beef and dairy producers who are interested in becoming certified and we encourage everybody to take advantage of this," Buckmaster said. 


Nearly 11 - thousand beef and dairy producers, educators, veterinarians, students and allied industry representatives became BQA certified this past winter. Buckmaster said the program has been designed to meet the needs of the individual. The BQA certification modules are customized to meet the needs of the specific producer whether they are a cow-calf producer, stocker-backgrounder, a feedyard operator or a dairy producer.


"I think it's very important that we are able to provide that information that is really relevant to that particular producer as far as producing safe wholesome beef," Buckmaster said. 


The first 30 Oklahoma beef producers that complete the online Cow-Calf BQA or Stocker-Background BQA program by September 30, 2014 will win a BQA gate sign.

Click here to learn why its important producers become BQA certified and how to become certified for free through October 31st.  

New Tools Encourage Conversation about Animal Agriculture

"Start the Conversation: Let's Talk About Animal Agriculture" is the first in a new series of resources the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is launching to foster discussion on questions consumers have about food production and agriculture.


Modeled after quick-reference subject-area cards found in bookstores, the single-page, front and back laminated cards feature questions, answers and suggested strategies for meaningful discussion.


"Our goal is to help connect consumers with the men and women who produce their food, fiber and fuel - while giving them an opportunity to confidently discuss issues most important to them," said Julie Tesch, executive director of the Foundation.


The cards feature "farmer spotlights," with real answers to important questions such as "Can animals be raised without antibiotics?" and "How are decisions made about animal care?"

Click here to learn more about the project and how these tools will start the conversation between ag producers and consumers.

Kayln McKibben of Wyandotte Selected as National Beef Ambassador for 2014-15

Kayln McKibben of Wyandotte, Oklahoma is one of five brand new National Beef Ambassadors for the coming year.  She competed against 29 other top notch young people to become one of the top five and win the right to help represent the US beef industry over the next twelve months.  

McKibben is joined on the team by  Will Pohlman (Arkansas), Rachel Purdy (Wyoming), Demi Snider (Ohio) and Alicia Smith (Texas).

McKibben won the Oklahoma Beef Ambassador Contest back in June to win the right to represent Oklahoma this past weekend that was held in Colorado.

We interviewed Kayln and the other contestants at the state contest as part of the competition that was held in Chickasha back in June.  We will be sharing part of that interview later this week on our Beef Buzz program- in the meantime- enjoy this picture picked up from the National Beef Ambassadors Facebook page of the Kayln and her teammates.