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Oklahoma School Land Lease Auctions Coming Up 

Oklahomans will have an opportunity to lease over 500 tracts of land through the state's land office in the coming weeks. The state government agency will be offering leases for mostly agricultural production land for the benefit of the state's public schools. Commissioners of the Land Office Secretary Harry Birdwell said federal government gave land to the state to manage for the benefit of public education in the state.


"Even 100 and some years after statehood we manage nearly 750 thousand acres of land in the state and a million 100 thousand mineral acres for the benefit of all the school districts in the state and several of the higher education institutions in Oklahoma," Birdwell said.   


In Fiscal Year 2014 the Commissioners of the Land Office distributed over $126 million in support of public schools and higher education in Oklahoma. Land can be leased for farming or recreational activities and funds generated from the land leases are distributed to schools, a win-win opportunity for the state.

"To use our assets to help the economy of our state as farmers, ranchers and recreationalists use our land for their private uses while under lease with the CLO," Birdwell said.


Approximately one-fifth of the state's school land leases come up for auction annually. This year 501 tracts of land will be offered for a five year lease in 42 Oklahoma counties.  Auctions will be held October 20, 2014 through November 4, 2014 in nine locations.   Find auction details by clicking here.


I will be joined by Birdwell on the "In the Field" segment this Saturday morning at 6:40 on KWTV News9 in Oklahoma City. Harry and I also talked in more detail once the cameras were turned off about the purposes of the School Lands- and how the professional staff at the School Land Office manage the land and work to sustain its value for future generations- click here to hear our audio conversation.

Study Finds GMO's Safe for Livestock 

A recent study reviewed prior research on animal health and genetically modified materials in regards to genetically engineered animal feed. A few studies have seen a lot of the attention lately suggesting genetic engineering or ge products are dangerous. So the study looked at the last 30 years of research. University of California-Davis Corporate Extension Specialist for Animal biotechnology and Genomics Alison Van Eenennaam said the studies that are highlighting some of the so-called dangers of GMOs don't line up with what she has seen in real life.


"There's been a lot of media coverage of a handful of highly controversial studies suggesting highly egregious health effects of genetically engineered feed on animals causing them to be infertile or develop tumors to suggest there's something dangerous about these products," Van Eenennaam said. "That just didn't gel with my field experience cause I am often in slaughter houses and haven't noticed health problems with the animals coming through." 


Van Eenennam says the Journal of Animal Science requested she do the review study. She says the data collected shows no abnormal trends in the health and production data collection on commercial livestock, which included billions of head of livestock.


"The broiler set is the most powerful because we have such a large number....about nine billions birds a year that are inspected and slaughtered in the US," Van Eenennaam said. "And again we are not seeing tumors in the postmortem examination, there has been decreased rates of postmortem condemnation, improved feed to gain ratio and age to market is decreased, all of which does not suggest these animals are suffering ill health and that really agrees with the much more controlled scientific literature where you have controls and appropriate experimental design to do a very fair comparison between the two. Although this is field data it really supports the wealth of scientific studies that have shown no deleterious effects from consuming genetically engineered feed in our livestock population."   

Click here to listen to this part one of a two part beef Buzz as Dr. Van Eenennaam talks about her study.

Rep. Mullin Hosts House Transportation Chair in Muskogee

Congressman Markwayne Mullin hosted the head of the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this week in Muskogee. On Tuesday, Chairman and Congressman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania came to Oklahoma to tour the Port of Muskogee and meet with port and transportation leaders on state and federal partnerships. Shuster said he came to Oklahoma to learn more about the inland port system.


"I know its extremely important for industry around here to be able to ship by water and if we don't make the investments in our infrastructure on the river, its costs us in jobs, its going to cost our economy," Shuster said. 


Shuster came to see the Port of Muskogee at the request of Congressman Mullin. He said seeing the port first hand was important, so he can reiterate to Congress the importance of maintaining the nation's infrastructure and the likely economic impact if the port were to close down for 50 to 100 days due to failure of a lock.  Click here to read or to listen to comments from Congressmen Mullin & Shuster.  

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will improve farm loans by expanding eligibility and increasing lending limits to help more beginning and family farmers. As part of this effort, USDA is raising the borrowing limit for the microloan program from $35,000 to $50,000; simplify the lending processes; updating required "farming experience" to include other valuable experiences; and expanding eligible business entities to reflect changes in the way family farms are owned and operated. The changes become effective Nov. 7.


"USDA is continuing its commitment to new and existing family farmers and ranchers by expanding access to credit," said Harden. "These new flexibilities, created by the 2014 Farm Bill, will help more people who are considering farming and ranching, or who want to strengthen their existing family operation."


The microloan changes will allow beginning, small and mid-sized farmers to access an additional $15,000 in loans using a simplified application process with up to seven years to repay. These efforts are part of USDA's continued commitment to small and midsized farming operations, and new and beginning farmers.
 

Click here to read more about Farm Service Agency loan program.  

Environmental Defense Fund Initiative to Reduce Fertilizer Pollution

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has launched a new, collaborative initiative to eliminate fertilizer pollution as a major environmental concern in the United States. The effort will engage farmers and businesses throughout the supply chain to transform the way fertilizer-dependent grain crops are grown and sourced.


"If we're going to meet food demands for a growing population, we've got to decouple production from pollution as soon as possible," said EDF vice president David Festa. "The most promising way to accomplish this essential task is by collaborating with decision makers at every point in the U.S. grain supply chain - from retailers and food companies to agribusiness and farmers."


Fertilizer is the engine of agriculture, but its inefficient use is one of the biggest threats to a stable climate and clean water. Nitrogen not soaked up by crops emits a heat-trapping gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Phosphorus and nitrogen run-off from fertilizer causes toxic algal blooms that contaminate drinking water supplies and create dead zones.


The initiative is already gaining traction with key players throughout the supply chain, including retailers, suppliers, agribusiness and farmers.  Click here to learn about the goals of this initiative lead by the Environmental Defense Fund.  

Selk Finds Key Factors Influence Cow Cycling at Start of Fall Breeding

Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter.


The breeding season is only weeks away for those herds that have a fall calving program. The most important factors that determine if, and when, a cow returns to cycling activity were analyzed by Kansas State University physiologists. Over a period of 6 years, Kansas State scientists used more than 2,200 beef cows in estrous synchronization studies. As a part of these studies they determined which cows were cycling before the start of the breeding season both before and after synchronization treatments. They then looked at the previous data about each cow and determined the major factors that influenced the likelihood that she would have returned to heat by the start of the breeding season. The research indicated that three main factors were the most important determinants as to whether the cow would recycle before the breeding season began. Body condition, age of the cow, and the number of days since calving were the biggest influences on incidence of cycling activity before breeding.


Body condition: Cows ranged in body condition score from 1 (extremely emaciated) to 7 (very fleshy). As body condition score increased the percentage of cows cycling increased in a linear fashion. The Kansas data reported that there was an 18% increase in percentage cycling for every 1 full condition score improvement.   

Click here to read more about the factor that influence cow cycling.  

ICYMI- Beef Checkoff Teams Up With Ibotta App

In cooperation with Ibotta, the 16th most frequently used app in the United States, the beef checkoff recently encouraged customers at two national retailers to choose beef at the meat case. Ibotta shared educational information about freezing beef and about beef nutrition, in addition to sharing the checkoff's Easy Lean Beef Burger and DIY Taco videos. By engaging with the content, Ibotta users earned a cash rebate for their purchase of Top Sirloin Steak or Ground Beef.


"This app partnership really provided the checkoff with a way to get beef education to the consumer - how to cook, how to freeze ground beef, and nutritional facts," said Cevin Jones, vice chairman of the Beef Promotion Operating Committee and beef producer from Eden, Idaho. "It also gave us the opportunity to have access to rich consumer data that showed us who is buying, where they are buying, what else they are buying when they buy beef, and the additional purchases that buying beef adds to a consumer's shopping cart."

According to Jones, there are several highlights that have come out of this partnership- you can read about this beef checkoff success story by clicking or tapping here.