Farm Foundation Offers Regional Workshop on Antibiotic Utilization in Animal Agriculture 

Stewardship of medically-important antimicrobial drugs in food animals is the subject of workshop coming September 11 targeted to livestock producers, their feed suppliers and veterinarians in five states of the Southern Plains of the United States.


This free workshop is an opportunity for participants to gain a comprehensive understanding of two Guidance for Industry (GFIs) issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the use of medically-important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals, as well as FDA's revised Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD). The workshop is also an opportunity for other stakeholders, such as state and federal agencies, colleges of veterinary medicine and university extension personnel, to gain insights into the changes needed to meet the requirements.


Led by Farm Foundation, NFP, this workshop is targeted to pork, cattle, poultry and sheep producers, veterinarians and feed suppliers in Texas, Eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Southeastern Colorado. Advance registration is requested and can be completed online. This is one of 12 regional workshops Farm Foundation will host across the nation in the next three months. A complete list of workshop locations is available on the Farm Foundation website.
 

To gauge awareness of the changes being put in place by FDA on the use of medically-important antimicrobial drugs in food animals, Farm Foundation, NFP is asking stakeholders to complete a brief survey.  Click here for more information about this effort.  

Peterson Leads Call for Continued Avian Flu Assistance

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson on Friday led a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack commending him for the department's efforts to combat the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak and urging additional steps be taken to assist impacted poultry growers.


"Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District has been ground zero for the avian influenza outbreak," Peterson said. "I appreciate the work done by both USDA and Minnesota officials thus far but as summer turns to fall, there is concern that we could see a reoccurrence. We need to do everything we can to be prepared should the disease return in the future."


The letter urged continued assistance in three areas - complete biosecurity research in a timely manner to ensure industry can take immediate steps before fall, complete bilateral trade talks with international partners to ensure vaccine usage will not harm export sales, and complete research and development of a viable commercial vaccine.

Peterson was joined by 28 other members of Congress in his letter to the Secretary. Click here to read the full text of the letter.

Syngenta Offers Two New AgriPro® Winter Wheat Varieties for Plains Growers for 2015 Planting

Just in time for the 2015 planting window for hard red winter wheat- Syngenta has announced a pair of new HRW wheat varieties from their Agri-Pro brand.

"SY Llano and SY Monument are both top performing winter wheat varieties well-suited for the Central and Southern Plains," said Greg McCormack, Plains region key account manager, Syngenta. "Both varieties are excellent options for planting this fall as they have excelled in yield trials across the region and offer tolerance to leaf and stripe rust, diseases many wheat growers experienced in 2015."


* SY Llano: High yields and good fall grazing makes SY Llano an excellent dual purpose graze and grain wheat. Due to its early maturity, this is a good choice for growers double cropping. SY Llano has excellent test weights and good disease tolerance traits, including tolerance to leaf and stripe rust, as well as soil borne mosaic virus. SY Llano is best suited for the central corridor of Texas and Oklahoma into south central Kansas, up to Wichita.


* SY Monument: SY Monument is a widely adapted variety with good drought tolerance and a good disease package, including tolerance to leaf and stripe rust, barley yellow dwarf virus and soil borne mosaic virus. SY Monument has good winter hardiness and very good test weight patterns. SY Monument is best adapted to the central and western high plains of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and the Panhandle of Texas.

Click here to read more about these new varieties.  

AFR/OFU Leadership Summit Focuses on Life Goals

American Farmers & Ranchers/Oklahoma Farmers Union (AFR/OFU) hosted its 2015 Leadership Summit July 26 - August 1. More than 160 students participated in leadership development activities that will benefit them far into the future.


This year marks the second year for the summit to be held at Big Cedars Camp near Wanette, Okla. The central location has made the AFR/OFU Leadership Summit equally accessible to both sides of Oklahoma.


"We are excited to continue the tradition of the AFR/OFU Leadership Summit and to be more accessible to students from all corners of the state," said AFR/OFU Youth & Education Coordinator Blaire Boyer. "This year, our attendance continued to increase, making this one of the largest Summits ever."


The annual retreat develops leadership skills in junior high and high school youth that will prepare them for future educational and professional experiences. Attendees learn such skills as setting and achieving short- and long-term goals and working in teams. They also learn the value of service leadership, community development and many other positive attributes.  Click here to read more about the Leadership Summit.  

R-CALF Says USTR Briefs Contend COOL Losses Overstated by Billions

In a 41-page brief to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States Trade Representative (USTR) demonstrated that Canada and Mexico inappropriately overstated their losses related to the U.S. mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) law by billions of dollars.


Using its own partial equilibrium economic model to more accurately estimate the true trade effects of mandatory COOL on Canada and Mexico, the USTR determined that the maximum amounts that Canada and Mexico can possibly claim as a result of the United States' implementation of mandatory COOL is less than $91 million annually.


"This is a far cry from the more than $3 billion that Canada and Mexico have been claiming as damages arising from our mandatory COOL law," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.


Bullard said the USTR's estimate of less than $91 million in damages resulting from COOL reinforces the message that 142 groups sent to the U.S. Senate last month to urge the rejection of any effort to repeal COOL or to weaken it by converting it to a voluntary program. The groups made their request in part because, "Canada and Mexico have threatened an absurdly high penalty designed to frighten the U.S. Congress into rashly repealing COOL."  Click here to read more about USTR's brief.  

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.

NCBA VP Says 'WOTUS' Top Concern for Beef Producers and Urges Congress to Act on 'COOL'

Government regulations have become a top concern of the cattle industry, as the Obama Administration has published many regulations that could impact producers. This includes everything from the nation's dietary guidelines to fresh beef imports from South America to the "Clean Water Rule" that will be implemented at the end of August. Craig Uden of Elwood, Nebraska is the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Vice President. He is a cattle feeder and a rancher. Speaking at the recent Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association annual convention, he said his top concern is the "Clean Water Rule". He said NCBA continues to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to go back and revisit the regulation.


"Anytime you formulate a law without rules, you're asking for issues," Uden said.


As a feedlot owner, his operation is considered a Confined Animal Feeding Operation or "CAFO". Uden said it is a great challenge to operate your facility under regulations that change periodically. He said this final Clean Water Rule is a big intrusion that leaves room for interpretation.


The cattle industry also continues to watch for action on the nation's COOL law. Uden is hopeful Congress can address COOL before retaliation sets in from Canada and Mexico. He said both countries are ready to file tariffs on U.S. products totaling $3 billion dollars. Uden said some believe the U.S. will have to work to trade beef and other products somewhere else, but that will be big task as Canada and Mexico represent 30 percent of U.S. beef exports. If the U.S. had to consume that amount of beef that could have a huge impact on the market and could derail growth of the nation' cattle industry.

Read more- and take a listen to Craig Uden's comments by clicking here for this edition of the Beef Buzz. 

This N That - El Nino Strongest Since 1997, August Rains and Big Iron Wednesday

According to DTN's Bryce Anderson, the readings out in the Pacific Ocean show that we have the strongest El Nino since the huge one of 1997.  He writes in his Ag Weather Blog "El Nino continues to intensify. Eastern Pacific temperatures logged by my colleague Mike Palmerino came in at 2.7 degrees Celsius above normal for July. Those departures were +2.7C in June. Mike's records go back to 1949. In that time, the only other year that had a July departure warmer than this was the great El Nino of 1997-1998. The departure in July 1997 was +3.3C."  

The southern plains and parts of the midwest could be facing a wetter than normal fall- which could be bad for corn and soybean harvest in parts of the midwest and also difficulties in getting the 2016 winter wheat crop into the ground.

Read Bryce's latest blog on what this historically strong El Nino might mean for ag producers- it's available here.  

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Rains thus far in August have areas that were in significant drought last year at this point continuing to enjoy this summer season- here's the map that shows western counties where the rains we have had thus far in August have shown up:

Click here to jump over to this map in real time which allows you to scroll over a number and see which Mesonet station has which amount- that three inch plus rainfall in the Panhandle is proudly claimed by Boise City.

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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 406 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.