OSU Developed Wheat Varieties Planted on More Than One Third of Oklahoma Wheat Acreage

Oklahoma State University (OSU) varieties continue to be the leading Hard Red Winter Wheat varieties planted in the state of Oklahoma as the top four wheat varieties planted in the state were developed by the OSU wheat breeding program. The roots of success continue to be firmly anchored with several other up-and-coming OSU varieties being used by Oklahoma wheat producers. The top hard red winter wheat variety was Duster, followed by Endurance, Gallagher and Ruby Lee. According to the March 2015 "Oklahoma Wheat Variety Report" from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, these four top varieties represent over 34% of the acres seeded to wheat in the fall of 2014 for the 2015 harvest season.


For the fourth year in a row, Duster continues to be the leading variety of all wheat seeded in Oklahoma, accounting for 14.1 percent of the state's 2015 planted wheat acres. Duster was the most popular variety throughout the central corridor of wheat production in the state. To review the entire Wheat Variety Report as released by the National Ag Statistics Service of USDA, click here.


Duster has been a consistent top performer in OSU wheat variety tests. It performs well in both grain-only and dual purpose systems and has above-average tillering ability which allows it to recover well from grazing.   It emerges well in hot, dry soil conditions and closes the canopy rapidly. These traits along with good forage production and medium-late first hollow stem make Duster a nice fit for dual-purpose production systems. Duster has effective resistance to several diseases common to Oklahoma, including leaf rust, stripe rust, powdery mildew, wheat soilborne mosaic, wheat spindle streak mosaic and barley yellow dwarf. Moderate susceptibility to tan spot and septoria means Duster should be monitored for these diseases in continuous no-till wheat production systems.

 

To read more about the other most used OSU developed varieties, click here.

Reps. Conaway, Walorski and Rouzer Express Grave Concern with Dietary Guidelines

Chairman of the Agriculture Committee K. Michael Conaway (TX-11), Nutrition Subcommittee Chairwoman Jackie Walorski (IN-2), and Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer (NC-7) Wednesday sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell raising concerns about recommendations received from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). The letter can be viewed by clicking here.


"Members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee greatly exceeded their scope in developing recommendations," Chairman Conaway said. "The Secretaries share responsibility for these flawed recommendations because they failed to keep the Committee focused on nutritional recommendations and away from areas such as sustainability and tax policy, which are outside of the Committee's purview. At a time when consumers are already subjected to conflicting and often contradictory nutrition and health information, the dietary guidelines must provide the public with realistic, science-based recommendations. Given the grave concerns that have been raised, more time is needed for public comment, and those comments should be fully reviewed and considered."  

Sanders Says Farmers Shouldn't Give Up on Canola Crop, Yet

Great Plains Canola Association Field Specialist Heath Sanders remains cautiously optimistic about the state's canola crop. The latest crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rated the crop mostly in fair condition with 46 percent. Sanders said the crop in northern Oklahoma hasn't greened up as much as the crop did in the southern part of the state. He said a lot of that has do with the moisture and temperature difference between regions. 


The crop had decent growing weather in early February. With warmer weather it began to perk up and started growing again. Since mid-February, the weather turned colder and winter returned bringing multiple snow events. Sanders is waiting for warmer temperatures that will allow for some good growing days, which will make it easier to evaluate this crop. Overall most of the crop has some really good stands to make a good canola crop.


Some farmers got their crop planted early, allowing the crop to take off. With the cold weather in November, Sanders said farmers lost some of their plants, but he think there is still enough out there to still make a decent crop. He recommends farmers wait and see how things turn out this spring before throwing in the towel on this crop.


"There's one thing about canola that I have learned, is you don't ever give up on it until the final count," Sanders said. "I mean it will hang in there, it will compensate for space and you can have a fairly thin canola crop still yield very good, so it will compensate for space."


Heath and I talked at this week's Oklahoma No Till Conferece.  You can read more or to listen to the full interview by clicking here.  

BASF Gathers Stakeholders From the Entire Value Chain to Discuss Future of Food

As part of the co-creation activities that landmark its 150th anniversary year, BASF hosted a two-day Creator Space jamming event in Washington, D.C. to discuss the "future of food." This event brought together more than 30 stakeholders from the entire food value chain including farmers, academics, food manufacturers and logistic companies. The attendees discussed long-term challenges and far-future trends that may impact the food value chain in the years to come.


During the jamming session, participants brainstormed ideas on topics such as affordability and access to food, personalized nutrition, transparency for consumers and food waste.


"The future of food is complex. The themes that have come out here are inter-related and interdependent, and the complexities associated with them are major. The jamming session is an innovative way of identifying and creatively approaching the dialogue around these issues," said Kyle Marinkovich, Assistant Vice President, Marketing, Cargill Specialty Seeds & Oils, who participated in the event.


All ideas were condensed into three future scenarios: Brazil without water, personal "food-print", and meat as a luxury item. This approach opens up a new dimension in understanding the needs related to food. The scenarios will be further discussed and refined to help find lasting contributions to society. 

To read more or to see a BASF video about the event, click here.  

Checkoff Uses Education To Share the Great Story of American Beef

Education is one of the key focus areas of the national beef checkoff program. Cattlemen's Beef Board Chief Executive Officer Polly Ruhland said that education is all about letting consumers know America's cattle producers are doing a great job of producing beef. She calls the message "appropriate transparency".


"It starts with the science and then it goes to the understanding of the consumer and what the consumer needs," Ruhland said. "And the education is pushing out that information in a transparent, appropriate kind-of-way."


With a shrinking cowherd along with inflation and higher costs for nearly everything, the Beef Checkoff Working Group has set out to increase the resources to the checkoff. Ruhland said since the beef checkoff program was established in 1985 that dollar per head investment is now worth 47 cents. In the last three decades, she has found the challenges facing the beef industry have changed and grown over time.


In looking at the future of the beef checkoff, Ruhland said cattlemen have to decide how much money they are willing to invest in marketing their own product. She believes that investment is returned back to the pockets of producers. Ruhland said if they had more financial resources, they could do some pretty amazing things for checkoff investors. 


This is our final segment with Polly as heard on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network through our daily Beef Buzz program. To read more or to listen to this Beef Buzz with Ruhland about the future marketing efforts of the beef checkoff, click here.   

AND- if you want to hear our complete conversation with the CEO of the CBB at the recent Cattle Industry Convention,

Free NRCS Webinar on Carbon Cycle, Soil Health, March 10

Find out how cover crops and proper grazing management can improve the carbon cycle and soil health.


Jay Fuhrer, nationally-known soil health expert and District Conservationist for USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, in Bismarck, North Dakota, presents a discussion of the carbon cycle in agricultural fields, the role of a healthy soil food web and the impact that various agricultural systems have on carbon levels in soil.


This one-hour webinar spotlights a case study on a hayland farm that follows a "no exporting policy" - a management technique in which hay that is grown is fed on the same field at some point in the year, covering all the acres during the winter feeding period. Uses of annual multi-species cover crops to rejuvenate an old pasture or hay field will also be discussed.


No pre-registration is necessary. Space is not limited. Please plan to join the webinar no more than 15 minutes early so that you can register and join in.  For more information, click here.

EPA Waters of the US Rule Could be the Greatest Blow to Private Property Rights Ever Seen in Modern Times- Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt

Oklahoma's Attorney General Scott Pruitt has authored an opinion piece with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul about the pending "Waters of the US" rule from the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers. The article first was seen on the website, The Hill earlier this week.   

Here are some excerpts:

"Respect and protection of private property rights sets the United States apart from other nations and has fueled the greatest expansion of economic freedom the world has ever known. Indeed, private property rights are among the foundational rights of any democracy, not just ours.


"President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency currently stands poised to strike the greatest blow to private property rights the modern era has seen, through a proposed rule that radically expands EPA jurisdiction by placing virtually all land and water under the heavy regulatory hand of the federal government.


"For years, the EPA's regulatory jurisdiction has been limited to the "navigable waters" of the United States, a term that has always been understood to include only large bodies of water capable of serving as pathways for interstate commerce. Regulation of all other waters was, rightly, left to the states.


"Unhappy with the limited scope of the jurisdiction given to it by Congress, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have simply redefined the meaning of "navigable waters" in an extraordinary way, to include virtually every body of water in the nation right down to the smallest of streams, farm ponds and ditches."

Read the full "op-ed" by clicking here.