Global Roundtable Approves Sustainable Beef Principles 

The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) announced that its membership has overwhelmingly approved global Principles and Criteria for defining sustainable beef and sustainable beef production practices. Members of the global beef community, including representatives from every segment of the supply chain, have worked on this collaborative effort for more than a year-and-a-half to identify and define the core principles for sustainable beef production and delivery.


"Arriving at a common definition, which includes five core principles and detailed criteria for sustainable beef, has been a difficult task and one which took a lot of hours and a great deal of negotiation," said Ruaraidh "Rory" Petre, GRSB executive director. "Our members are to be commended for their commitment to finding common ground and identify a clear path forward as we work to improve the sustainability of the global beef chain."


GRSBdefines sustainable beef as a socially responsible, environmentally sound and economically viable product that pri­oritizes Planet (relevant principles: Natural Resources, Efficiency and Innovation, People and the Community); People (relevant principles: People and the Community and Food); Animals (relevant principle: Animal Health and Welfare, Efficiency and Innovation); and Progress (relevant principles: Natural Resources, People and the Community, Animal Health and Welfare, Food, Efficiency and Innovation). 

Click here to learn more about why the passage of a global definition for sustainable beef is an achievement for the entire global beef value chain.

Group Aims to Define Sustainability for Agriculture 

The word "sustainability" is everywhere these days. One group has set out to define sustainability within agriculture. For the past six years Field to Market has been working with row crops to begin to define sustainable outcomes. President Rod Snyder spoke last  week at the Texas Cattle Feeders Association Annual meeting in Oklahoma City. 

As the beef segment starts to look at sustainability, one component of that is the feed. Snyder said Field to Market has done a lot work the past five to six years working on the sustainability of feed grain. He said the beef industry will not need to recreate the wheel as a lot of consensus has already been achieved with major agricultural buyers like Wal-Mart and McDonalds. In 2014 several animal ag groups have begun to move forward to a develop a multi-stakeholder effort in developing their own sustainability program.

To-date the nonprofit organization Field to Market has gained wide ranging support with 60 members from grower organizations to agribusiness, food, fiber, restaurants, retail companies, conservation groups and universities. Snyder said at this point there is no financial incentive to be apart of the effort for producers. Participants are gaining new angle on their production practices in receiving comparisons and bench marks with state, regional and national averages.   

Our own Leslie Smith talked with Rod Snyder of Field to Market and you can hear their conversation by Clicking here- and you can also learn more about the 60 groups and companies that belong to the Field to Market Alliance.  

Harvest Active Across Southern Plains- and Nationally Has Largely Caught Up With 5 Year Average

Harvest was in full swing this past week across Oklahoma. In the latest crop progress report released by the US Department of Agriculture soybean harvest reached 60 percent complete by Sunday, eight points ahead of normal. Sorghum harvest reached 73 percent completion, up 11 points from last week. Corn harvest was 89 percent complete, still six points behind normal. Other row crop harvest continued in line with their normal averages. Sorghum was 73 percent harvested. Peanuts reached 62 percent harvested. Cotton harvest was 27 percent harvested.  As of the weekend, eighty-seven percent of  the 2015 wheat crop had emerged, up 10 points from the five year average. Canola reached 91 percent emergence.  Click here for the full Oklahoma report.

Harvest remains behind for many row crops in Texas. USDA reports corn harvest gained 11 points over the past week to reach 86 percent complete. That was ten points behind last year and the five year average. Sorghum harvest was 79 percent done. Cotton harvest gained one point to reach 31 percent harvested. Wheat planting was 86 percent complete with 69 percent emergence, ahead of last year and average. Producers in the Panhandle reported that early-seeded winter wheat and oats were off to a good start, but were in need of rainfall to sustain growth.

Harvest progress remains behind in Kansas, but average temperatures and little precipitation helped progress this past week. USDA reports sorghum harvest remains behind last year and average at 52 percent complete.  Wheat seeding was at 93 percent complete with 82 percent of the crop emerged, near last year and average. Click here for the full Kansas report.

Click here for the National Crop Progress report.  

Peel Addresses Marginal Thinking for Optimal Decisions

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


How should $300+/cwt. calf prices affect cow-calf producer decisions? The market signal is pretty clear; more calf production is needed and will be rewarded. For many producers, this may be a question of expanding the cow herd. In addition to potential herd expansion, producers should consider whether current market values should prompt management changes as well. Consider this question, for example: What is the optimal level of death loss for cows or calves? While we don't often think about it, the optimal level is not zero. Could we achieve zero death loss? Probably yes or something very close to it, but the last bit of death loss reduction would require extreme measures for which the costs exceed the benefits and thus is not optimal. However, the increase in calf values this year means that additional efforts to reduce death loss are warranted compared to what was optimal in the past.


This illustrates the economic principle that every producer should be examining now: adjust production activities until the marginal benefits equal the marginal costs. The sharp jump in revenues this year (marginal benefits) implies that producers should consider a host of marginal changes in production and costs. This may mean doing more of something you are already doing or beginning to do something you have not done in the past. 

With high calf prices are a motivation to sell more pounds of calf, but producers should also look at maximizing the value per acre and how that might impact cow reproduction.  Click here for more insight from Dr. Peel.  

Jody Campiche Addresses Farm Bill Program Options- Urges Farmers to Come to One or More Farm Bill Informational Meetings

As farmers are in the middle of harvest, they are also learning about the new options through the 2014 Farm Bill. Oklahoma State University, the Risk Management Agency and Farm Service Agency are hosting farm bill informational meetings across the state as farmers have several decisions to make.


Speaking at the Oklahoma Ag Expo in Midwest City Monday, OSU Assistant Professor Dr. Jody Campiche said farmers first need to understand yield update and base reallocation options. With the yield update, farmers will need to compile crop insurance information or elevator receipts to show their crop yields and decide if they want to update their yields or not. Wheat farmers will not be able to update their yields for their 2015 crop, but it will be in place for 2016. Campiche said there will still be benefits in updating wheat yields next year.


"If we are able to drop some of those low yields out, it will raise the overall coverage and APH for each farmer," Campiche said.


Earlier this summer FSA mailed out letters to farmers about base reallocation. The letter provided a landowner's planted acre history. Campiche said farmers will want to decide if there is a reason to reallocate acres to the crops that have been planted for the past four years.    

I interviewed Campiche at the Oklahoma Ag Expo. You can hear that conversation by clicking here as she addresses the three different tools developed to help farmers make those decisions for the duration of the 2014 Farm Bill.   

You can go to our calendar page on OklahomaFarmReport.Com and we have the Farm Bill Informational meetings listed that are planned for November and December.

Beef Advocacy Program Recruits FFA Members to Engage with Consumers

Consumers have a lot of questions about where their food comes from, meat in particular and beef especially.   One program is targeting FFA members to take a larger role in agricultural advocacy. At this year's National FFA Convention and Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Executive Director of Communications  Daren Williams was recruiting FFA members to go through the Masters of Beef Advocacy (MBA) program.


NCBA is ready to launch MBA 2.0, the next generation of the beef industry spokesperson program. This includes a whole series of five new courses on the sustainabilty of beef production, how beef is raised from pasture to plate, and how to talk to consumers about those issues. As the manager of the beef checkoff funded MBA program, Williams said when FFA members are out in public like at livestock shows they need to be ready to answer questions from consumers about the resources needed to produce beef and the concerns about the treatment of animals.


"The MBA program, Masters of Beef Advocacy (MBA) program, will help them, prepare them to answer those questions with facts and figures but also talks about the need to just listen and listen to their concerns and acknowledge concerns and do the best job they can to answer their question," Williams said.

 

We have spotlighted our conversation with Daren as a Beef Buzz- you can hear our visit with Daren by Clicking here and you will learn more about the MBA program.  

This N That- Rain Cometh, Oklahoma Ag Expo Underway and Election Coverage Ahead

There is a swath of Oklahoma that has received more than an inch of rainfall overnight into this morning- and that two to three county ban of rain is gradually shifting east and southeast.  Top rainfall totals as of 5:55 this morning include Watonga and Pawnee with both around 2.25 inches of rain- There are a bunch of places that have gotten north of an inch of rainfall- it has not been a hard fast rain- but rather- one that has had a chance to soak in. With the temperatures that are forecast for the next few days- the locations that get this rainfall are looking at moisture that will be fully beneficial with little evaporation to steal it away.

Click or tap here for the current real time 2 day rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet- that will capture for you all of the rainfall as it moves eastward.  

Here's a snapshot look at the rainfall across the state as of 5:45 AM:

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The Oklahoma Ag Expo is underway at the Reed Center in Midwest City- running through tomorrow- we will be bringing you highlights from this annual gathering of agribusiness folks from across the state over the next couple of days- starting with that Jody Campiche story in today's email.   

Click here for our calendar item on the Expo, which has a link to their full agenda.

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We will be posting on our website, on Facebook and on Twitter key observations about the 2014 General Elections tonight- and will pull together a "Morning After" overview of what the elections may mean for the farm and ranch and rural community here in our state- as well as the national implications that may have developed.

Follow us on Twitter- our handle is Ron_on_RON as that is where we will be most active.  

Remember- VOTE!!!!!!