Anderson Finds Good and Bad News in the Wheat and Corn Markets

With the 2015 Oklahoma wheat harvest in the books, it's time to reflect on this year's crop. Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Specialist Kim Anderson said the price and quality of wheat in Oklahoma has been all over the board. On this weekend's edition of SUNUP, he address the challenges with the milling quality of the crop and the volatile prices in recent weeks.


The Kansas City wheat September futures contract had gotten above six dollars a bushel to a peak price of $6.11. Over the last week, wheat prices have turned lower. Anderson said the price has tested $5.50 and if the market breaks that level, he thinks it could lose another 15 to 20 cents.


In looking at the global wheat crop, Anderson predicts wheat harvest is about halfway complete. He said harvest has wrapped up in India and North Africa, China has about one-third of their crop left to cut, while the U.S. and European Union is past the halfway point. By late August into the fall, wheat harvest will get underway in Canada, Argentina and Australia.


In looking at marketing the 2015 wheat crop, Anderson doesn't think it will pay to store the crop.


"I think the odds are probably 60 percent that it's going to lower in December than it is now, but we're just going to wait and see what's going on," Anderson said.


 Anderson also address the bump in corn prices.  Click here to read more or to listen to the full interview with Kim Anderson.  You can also find the lineup for this weekend's edition of SUNUP. 
  

Talking JBS, COOL and WOTUS with Roy Lee Lindsey of the Oklahoma Pork Council

It had been known for much of 2015 that JBS was looking for meat industry assets to acquire globally. That apparently included looking at segments of the business that were not for sale. As a result, some pork industry observers were taken by surprise when Cargill agreed to sell its U.S. pork business to JBS earlier this month for $1.45 billion, a deal that would combine two of the country's largest pork processors. Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Director Roy Lee Lindsey said this acquisition gets JBS into pork production.

"So, they went from having no sow herd, if you will, no hog production to acquiring 160,000 head of sows from Cargill," Lindsey said. "Some of those are here in Oklahoma, the biggest farm of that is out in Texas, it's the old Premium Standard facility at Dalhart." The sow unit that is in Oklahoma proper is located in far eastern Oklahoma- between Poteau and Fort Smith, Arkansas.

With this purchase, Lindsey said JBS doubled their daily pork slaughter capacity in buying the Cargill's processing plants in Iowa and Illinois. Because the sale involves the number three and number four pork processors in the US, the sale is subject to regulatory review and approval by Uncle Sam. 

We also talked about where the Pork Industry stands on COOL Repeal and WOTUS litigation with the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Pork Council. Tomorrow morning on KWTV NEWS9's Saturday AM news block, Roy Lee joins me for our weekly In the Field segment at approximately 6:40 AM.  We invite you to tune in.

AND- you can hear our conversation with Roy Lee about JBS, COOL, WOTUS and more by clicking here.

Pate Says Consumers Should be Top of Mind When Working Cattle

Curt Pate is one of the leading cattle handling trainers in North America. He hails from Wyoming. In April, he was in Oklahoma training some folks both young and old on effective stockmanship. In this best of edition of the Beef Buzz, Pate said producers need to make sure what they are doing is also acceptable to the consumer.


"We are in the age of ....people really think about what they eat and if we can't look 'em in the eye and tell 'em that we are giving them what they require and what they want, I don't believe it's going to work, they are going to go other places to find something to eat," Pate said. "So, as a beef producer, I want to be able to go to church or to a football game and I want to be able to look my friends in the eye and shake their hands and say I'm doing everything I can to ensure these animals are raised in a way that you think is all right."


The term "properly treated" is very subjective. That's a challenge as often today's consumer will look at cattle or livestock like how they look at their dog or cat, so a lot of their expectations doesn't match the reality of raising livestock. 


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.   

Selk Breaks Down the "Positive Associative Effect" of High Protein Supplements

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


For the first time is several years, Oklahoma has substantial standing forage in most pastures as we go into late summer.   As the day length shortens, plants become more mature and lower in protein content. However, the protein requirements for growth, milk production, and body weight maintenance of beef cattle do not decrease as the "dog days of summer" arrive.


The micro-organisms in the rumen of beef cows and replacement heifers require readily available protein to multiply and exist in large enough quantities to digest the cellulose in low quality roughages. Protein supplementation of low-quality, low protein forages results in a "positive associative effect". This "positive associative effect" occurs as supplemental protein available to the "bugs" in the rumen allows them to grow, multiply, and digest the forage more completely and more rapidly. Therefore the cow gets more out of the hay she consumes, she digests it more quickly and is ready to eat more hay in a shorter period of time. The prairie hay used in this study was less than 5% crude protein. When the ration was supplemented with 1.75 lbs of cottonseed meal, retention time of the forage was reduced 32% which resulted in an increase in feed intake of 27%. Because hay intake was increased, the animal has a better chance of meeting both the protein and energy requirement without supplementing other feeds.


Because retention time was decreased, one should expect the protein supplementation in this situation also increased digestibility of the hay. This was shown clearly in another OSU trial that indicated that low quality roughage had an increase in estimated digestibility from 38% to 48% when the cattle were supplemented with 1.5 pounds of soybean meal daily.

Click here to read more about fall, and winter feed strategies from Dr. Selk. 
  

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.

Summer Cattle Industry Conference Underway as Industry Says Goodbye to CEO Forrest Roberts

More than 600 cattle producers are gathered for the Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver this week to help set direction for industry programs. The event includes meetings of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Cattlemen's Beef Board, American National CattleWomen and National Cattlemen's Foundation. Among the purposes of the yearly conference is to create a framework for checkoff and policy efforts on behalf of U.S. cattle producers for 2016. The conference kicked off Wednesday and will conclude with the board meetings on Saturday morning.

Cattle Industry officials are offering a freshening up of the Long Range Plan for the Cattle Industry- designed to guide beef industry groups from 2016- 2020.

During the Summer Conference, two separate sets of Committees will be meeting in Denver.  Checkoff committees and subcommittees representing Convenience, Freedom to Operate, Global Growth, Beef's Image, Market Research, Taste, Value and Nutrition and Health will begin this afternoon, and continue their discussions through Friday morning. At the same time, NCBA Policy committees, representing Agricultural and Food Policy; Tax and Credit; Cattle Health and Well-Being; Federal Lands; Cattle Marketing and International Trade; Property Rights and Environmental Management will be meeting.

In and around the sessions- this Summer Cattle Industry Gathering offers producers a chance to offer Forrest Roberts their best as he has announced his intention to vacate the CEO slot at the end of this month.  Plans are being worked on to search for his successor. In the meantime- long time NCBA staffer Kendall Frazier is serving as the interim Chief Executive Officer.