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AFBF President Bob Stallman Talks Policy Charted by Delegates as 2015 Meeting Comes to a Close 

Farmer and rancher delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation's 96th Annual Convention approved resolutions on Tuesday that will provide the organization grassroots authority to ask Congress to finish many measures that remain unsettled at the start of 2015.


"Our delegates are the men and women growing the food and fiber for our nation and much of the rest of the world every day," said AFBF President Bob Stallman. "They have made great strides over the last decades in improving their environmental performance, in adopting cutting edge technologies and taking actions to make sure they can pass their farms and ranches on to the next generation." You can listen to all of Stallman's comments from the Closing News Conference of the 2015 Annual Convention by jumping over to our Top Ag Story this morning on our website- go there by clicking here.

Some of the key decisions made by the delegates include:

Reaffirmed that farmers' proprietary data remain strictly the property of the farmer or rancher when submitted to third parties for analysis and processing;
    
Agreed that farmers and ranchers must have the right to remove their data permanently from the systems of agricultural technology providers. Members feel especially strongly about this point given the exponential growth of agricultural data systems and the double-digit productivity gains they have generated in just a few short growing seasons;
    
Opposed state efforts to dictate out-of-state, farm-level production practices;
    
Reaffirmed support for producer-led and -approved checkoff programs;
    
Reaffirmed support for country-of-origin labeling provisions consistent with World Trade Organization rules;
    
Called for a state-led, voluntary pollinator stewardship program to address concerns over recent declines in the populations of honey bees and butterflies;

and Called for common-sense reform in endangered species protection legislation.

The nation's largest general farm organization has one of the most best agricultural lobbyists inside the Washington beltway.  In assessing the new Congressional look of 2015, American Farm Bureau Senior Director of Congressional Relations Mary Kay Thatcher looks for there to still be some gridlock in Washington, but is hopeful Congress will be able to pass several key pieces of legislation through the Senate and the House. She said the big unknown will be how many bills President Barack Obama will veto this next year.


"I don't know of a single piece of legislation now that the Obama Administration would veto, that we have 67 or two-thirds majority to override," Thatcher said. 


In looking at the new Congress, Thatcher anticipates several fiscal cliffs starting with the first one the end of February when the Department of Homeland Security has to funded, which includes immigration, the Highway Trust Fund comes up in May and the nation will reach the debt limit this summer, along with expiring tax provisions. With a Presidential election in 2016, that is going to compress the Congressional session. Thatcher looks for much of the activity to take place before the August recess.


"So it's going to have to be a pretty action packed next seven months, if we are going to get a lot of those big ticket items done," Thatcher said. 

I talked with Thatcher at the 2014 American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in San Diego. Read more and have the opportunity to listen to the full conversation by clicking or tapping here.  

The American Farm Bureau Federation has honored Dr. Temple Grandin with its Distinguished Service Award at the 2015 Annual Convention in San Diego, California. AFBF honored the professor of animal science at Colorado State University for her lifetime of service in improving animal well-being. 


Grandin had high praise for at least one segment of animal agriculture as far as the things that have been done to improve animal welling and that is the beef cattle industry.


"A lot of ranchers are doing a great job and we need to be showing the public things that ranchers are doing for land conservation," Grandin said. "Grazing done right can actually improve the land. That is a message that we need to get out there. They maintain water sources that wildlife drink out of too. That is something that a lot of people just don' get it.   Yes, they do take a lot of land, but I live in the West,   I get in my car and I drive up to Laramie, Wyoming and I drive up further north, there is land up there is no way you can grow crops on that land, you can only grow grazing animals of various kinds on that land."


In telling the story of agriculture, Grandin said the public likes talking with individual farmers and ranchers. She said ranchers are great stewards of the land and we share that story through websites and such and find ways to reach young people.


I interviewed Grandin after the award presentation.  Read more and have the opportunity to listen to this Beef Buzz by clicking or tapping here.   

OSU Offers Social Approach to Redcedar and Woody Plant Encroachment

Driving south on Interstate 35 in the Flint Hills of Kansas, passersby notice few eastern redcedar trees. Continuing down the road into Oklahoma, the landscape warts begin to appear more frequently. By the time people are crossing into Texas and getting deep into its heart, there are areas completely covered up by the water-sucking fire hazards and other woody plants.


This is not because the extremely invasive species can not grow in Kansas soil. Rather, the practice of prescribed burning is much more widely accepted as you travel north. Why is that? Researchers at Oklahoma State University's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources have teamed up with several partners to delve into the social acceptance of prescribed fire.


"We know quite a bit about cedar and the process of increased woody plant encroachment, and we know how to manage for it. But, the bottom line is, why do some people do that and some not," said Sam Fuhlendorf, Groendyke Chair for Wildlife Conservation and endowed professor in OSU's Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management. "The idea is to sort of couple ecology and sociology."
 

More details are available here about this three-year research project.  

Sorghum farmers can look forward to some improvements in how the crop is treated in the 2014 Farm Bill. Congress made improvements to crop insurance for the crop and the sorghum reference price was raised to $3.95. This gives farmers more reasons to consider sorghum this year.


National Sorghum Producers spokesperson Chris Cogburn  commended House Ag Chairman Frank Lucas for the improvements as these changes are allowing sorghum to compete on a more level playing field with other crops. Cogburn said sorghum is able to compete with spring seeded crops and even better with wheat through the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) coverage. He said SCO yields for wheat in southeastern Colorado and the Texas panhandle were extremely low and the premiums were high. 


I caught up with Chris Cogburn at SorghumU held recently in Enid.  To read or to listen to more about the price outlook for sorghum click or tap here.   

Award winning broadcast journalist Jerry Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here to subscribe to his daily update of top Energy News.

Livestock Producers Urged to Enroll in Disaster Assistance Programs Before Jan. 30 Deadline

Francie Tolle, State Executive Director of the Oklahoma Farm Service Agency (FSA), is encouraging livestock producers who have suffered eligible disaster-related losses to call their local FSA office and schedule an appointment before the upcoming Jan. 30 deadline. Producers must be placed on an appointment register before the deadline in order to receive program benefits.   


The Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) compensates eligible livestock producers for grazing losses due to drought, or fire on federal lands between Oct. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2014. Producers forced to liquidate their livestock may also be eligible for program benefits.


"In the eight months since disaster assistance enrollments began, our staff has been working diligently to process over 69,000 applications, making a significant impact for Oklahoma's livestock producers who continue to suffer losses due to the drought," said Tolle. "We want to stress the importance that all producers who have not already done so, call their local office and get on the register before the Jan. 30 deadline."  

Click here to learn more about the Livestock Indemnity Program and disaster program signup.   

This-N-That - Snow Today- 60s by the Weekend, Big Iron Auction and Farm Bill Info Meetings 

We have snow this morning in western and northwestern Oklahoma- and at least a few locations have had it coming down fairly hard- One to two inches has been reported in western counties of Oklahoma from Hobart northward to Woodward.  News9 Storm Tracker Marty Logan sent in a picture from Arnett where it looks like winter (of course it is)

The snow track is across the northwestern third of the state- MEANWHILE- by this weekend- it will be significantly warmer, with temperatures in the 50s on Friday and Saturday and Jed Castles at News9 talking low 60s by Sunday and Monday.

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It's Wednesday- and that means the Big Iron folks will be busy closing out this week's auction items - all 305 items consigned.  Bidding will start at 10 AM central time.                  

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.  

There are some more Farm Bill Informational meetings planned this week by OSU, FSA and RMA.  One of these meetings will happen this evening at 6 PM in Enid, while another is planned for Cheyenne tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM.