USDA Announces Conservation Incentives for Working Grass, Range and Pasture Lands

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday announced that beginning Sept. 1, farmers and ranchers can apply for financial assistance to help conserve working grasslands, rangeland and pastureland while maintaining the areas as livestock grazing lands.


The initiative is part of the voluntary Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federally funded program that for 30 years has assisted agricultural producers with the cost of restoring, enhancing and protecting certain grasses, shrubs and trees to improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and reduce loss of wildlife habitat. In return, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides participants with rental payments and cost-share assistance. CRP has helped farmers and ranchers prevent more than 8 billion tons of soil from eroding, reduce nitrogen and phosphorous runoff relative to cropland by 95 and 85 percent respectively, and even sequester 43 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equal to taking 8 million cars off the road.


The CRP-Grasslands initiative will provide participants who establish long-term, resource-conserving covers with annual rental payments up to 75 percent of the grazing value of the land. Cost-share assistance also is available for up to 50 percent of the covers and other practices, such as cross fencing to support rotational grazing or improving pasture cover to benefit pollinators or other wildlife. Participants may still conduct common grazing practices, produce hay, mow, or harvest for seed production, conduct fire rehabilitation, and construct firebreaks and fences.


With the publication of the CRP regulation, the Farm Service Agency will accept applications on an ongoing basis beginning Sept. 1, 2015, with those applications scored against published ranking criteria, and approved based on the competiveness of the offer. The ranking period will occur at least once per year and be announced at least 30 days prior to its start. The end of the first ranking period will be Nov. 20, 2015. 

Later this week, USDA will also announce state-by-state allotments for the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE). Through SAFE, also a CRP initiative, up to 400,000 acres of additional agricultural land across 37 states will be eligible for wildlife habitat restoration funding. The additional acres are part of an earlier CRP wildlife habitat announcement made by Secretary Vilsack. Currently, more than 1 million acres, representing 98 projects, are enrolled in SAFE.  Click here to read more.  

New Canola Varieties Developed by K-State for the Southern Plains Coming Soon

Canola farmers will have several new varieties to consider in the next couple of years. Three new Roundup Ready canola varieties developed by Kansas State University will be released in the next two years. One new variety will be released through Monsanto this fall and two Roundup Ready varieties licensed to Croplan will be available in 2016. Speaking at the 11th Annual Canola Conference in Enid Tuesday, KSU Canola Breeder Mike Stamm encouraged growers to look at these new varieties.


"They have been developed for our climatic conditions here in the Southern Great Plains," Stamm said. "They're definitely an option for them and we are excited to be able to do that because we've been in the business of canola breeding now for 20 to 25 years, so we're excited to have the Roundup Ready trait available in some of our commercial products."


Stamm says K-State also plans to release new conventional varieties that have enhanced survival. Those will come out in the next year or two.


In looking at varieties to plant, canola farmers in the southern plains may have more in common with European farmers than they realize. Stamm said KSU and Oklahoma State University are testing newer hybrid canola varieties from the European Union.   Click here to read more or to listen to the full interview about the OSU/KSU research plots across Oklahoma and Kansas. 

Curt Pate Teaches How to Work Cattle the "Right Way"

Curt Pate understands how to work cattle the right way and he goes around the country teaching audiences how to do that. He's from Wyoming and was in Oklahoma in earlier this year teaching a group at Oklahoma State University's Totusek Arena. In this "best of" edition of the Beef Buzz, Pate shares his cattle handling techniques. He said he doesn't like to refer to it as low stress livestock handling, but rather effective stockmanship.


"So, for whatever job I am going to do, whether it be working cattle in an auction market, in a feedyard or on a ranch, I want to be effective with my skills to get the job done in a way that is profitable, doesn't create a lot of stress on the animals and the consumer can accept," Pate said.


This involves handling animals at different stages of their life. With the cow-calf sector, Pate said producers are a trainer in getting animals where they learn how to work by moving away from pressure. Pate said if these animals aren't properly trained when they are a calf or when they are weaned, this can create problems when the animal gets in a stocker situation, goes to an auction market or through a big sale. Pate said cattle need to be prepared to go onto the next step, just like how youth are prepared to go onto to college.


"That takes stockmanship and stockmanship to me is a skill," Pate said. "Skills are learned and practiced and you get better with each time you do something."
 

We are featuring Pate on this best of edition of the Beef Buzz, as heard on great radio stations across the southern great plains. Click or tap here to listen to this feature.  
   

In the cattle business, most decisions impact more than the immediate year's profitability. Certified Angus Beef brand president John Stika gives some advice for long-term success.


"As producers look long-term, as they try to make sure they're positioned for profitability over the long haul. It's important to not only look at what's important to you and your business, but to also look what's important to your customer and ultimately the customer that we all serve is the customer," Stika said. "All new dollars that flow into the beef industry, that we all depend on, at some point originate from a consumer who is willing to invest their money in our business by buying beef at the meat case or on the menu."


Cattle feeders needing to fill pens create higher prices across the board, but many still recognize it pays to be discriminating, Stika says.


"Controlling risk on your investment, is never more important than it is today when you look at the total equity required to be invested in a steer from purchase at the salebarn to sale to the packer," Stika said. "Any animal that I have more predictability about his performance and carcass merit generates more value to me as a cattle feeder and someone further down the supply chain than a cow-calf producer." 

Click here to read more or to watch with video news release from the American Angus Association and Certified Angus Beef.  

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.

Cattlemen's College Provides Ranchers with Information & New Techniques Next Week at OCA Convention

The 62nd Annual Convention and Trade Show of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association (OCA) will take place on July 24-26 at the Reed Conference Center in Midwest City, Okla.


"Each year, the topics for the sessions are chosen based upon real challenges or situations that ranchers must work through daily. It is our goal to highlight specific issues and facilitate discussion," said Charlie Swanson, OCA President Elect.


Five Cattlemen's College sessions have been coordinated. Convention registration includes passes to all Cattlemen's College sessions. To view topics covered, register and learn more, visit www.okcattlemen.org. Pre-registration is encouraged, on-site registration available.  

National FFA Will Say Goodbye to Louisville This Fall- Agrees to a Nine Year Run in Indy Starting in 2016

When the National FFA organization made the announcement in the late 1990s that they were moving the National Convention from Kansas City to Louisville in 1999, there were a lot of folks very unhappy with that decision- but the seven years in Louisville saw the Convention grow annually- and that growth continued when the next move occurred from Louisville to Indianapolis- since that time- both cities have shared the event- first Indy and currently Louisville hosting over 50,000 FFA members and guests and most recently over 60,000 members and guests for the late October event.

However on Wednesday, the announcement was made that sure sounds like Indianapolis may become the permanent home of the National gathering of the Blue and Gold. FFA officials announced that the National meeting will be held, starting in 2016- for nine straight years in Indy.

"We are excited to be bringing the National FFA Convention & Expo back to Indianapolis," Dr. Steve Brown, the national FFA advisor, said. "The city has extended its very best brand of Hoosier Hospitality to our members in the past, and we look forward to spending the next few years in this city."

In talking with Oklahoma FFA leadership over the past several years- it has been said to me more than once that the FFA members probably prefer the big city feel of Indianapolis for the national meeting, while most FFA Advisors prefer Louisville for the ability to have their members all inside the confines of the KFEC- the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center.  

I'm a Kentuckian- so I will be sad to see the National FFA say goodbye to Louisville after this fall- but in future years as they return to Indianapolis- it will be easier to cover the national speech contests and other competitions that we report back to you on that Oklahoma FFA members are a part of. 

I suspect that unless someone in Louisville or another city really steps up with a HUGE financial windfall offer to the FFA- Indy will be the home of the National Convention for a long, long time to come.