The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday revised farmworker rules.  According to EPA, "Each year, thousands of potentially preventable pesticide exposure incidents are reported that lead to sick days, lost wages and medical bills but with changes to the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard the risk of injury or illness resulting from contact with pesticides on farms and in forests, nurseries and greenhouses can be reduced. "

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy adds in the EPA release  "We depend on farmworkers every day to help put the food we eat on America's dinner tables-and they deserve fair, equitable working standards with strong health and safety protections. With these updates we can protect workers, while at the same time preserve the strong traditions of our family farms and ensure the continued the growth of our agricultural economy."

These revisions will publish in the Federal Register within the next 60 days. For more information on the EPA's Worker Protection Standard, click here.

The Agricultural Retailers Association believes justification for revision of WPS is based on unfounded assumptions and deliberately misleading cost analysis.  In a letter submitted by the Pesticide Policy Coalition, of which ARA is a member, provided a comprehensive analysis of technical problems with the EPA proposed rule. Most of this input has been disregarded in EPA's final rule.


"Agricultural retailers pay a lot of attention to worker safety because they care about their employees, and accidents are costly for both employees and employers," said ARA President and CEO Daren Coppock. "The final rule overlooks improvements made in worker safety by the industry over the preceding 22 years, most significantly through development and adoption of precision agriculture and drift reduction technologies. It also discounts the significant efforts of state pesticide regulators."

Click here to read several areas of concern ARA has with the new rule.

The American Farm Bureau Federation is reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency's final revisions to the Worker Protection Standard, in hopes that the agency veered to a science-based approach in guarding against risk.


"Farm Bureau shares the agency's desire to protect workers, but we are concerned that the agency is piling regulatory costs on farmers and ranchers that bear little if any relation to actual safety issues," said Paul Schlegel, director of environment and energy policy for AFBF.  Click here to read more from AFBF.

Monday afternoon the House passed H.R. 2051, a bill to reauthorize the Mandatory Price Reporting Act, the United States Grain Standards Act, and the National Forest Foundation Act. The Mandatory Price Reporting Act and the Grain Standards Act authorities were set to expire on this Wednesday, September 30.


Legislative language to reauthorize each of these was introduced, reported by the House Agriculture Committee, and passed by the House on voice vote as standalone measures on June 9. The Senate passed the bill September 21 and sent it back to the House. It now awaits the President's signature.


Both Chairs of the Agriculture Committees were quick to praise their colleagues in both the Senate and the House in getting this package of legislation across the finish line very quickly. 


The National Cattlemen's Beef Association applauds the House in reauthorizing Mandatory Livestock Price Reporting through 2020. NCBA President, Philip Ellis, a Wyoming cattle producer, said this action will ensure cattle producers have access to critical market information.

However, both the Cattlemen and the nation's pork producers are not pleased that the fact that the final version of this legislation does not include  an "essential government service" designation, which the House had included in the version they passed back in June.

NCBA's Colin Woodall explained to us why that is a real disappointment and a worry- especially since the country is seemingly always just a few hours, days or weeks away from the next government shutdown over the budget.

We have his explanation for that concern as our latest Beef Buzz- which you can read more about and listen to as well by clicking or tapping here.

Harvest was progressing for the nation's corn, sorghum, soybean, cotton and peanut crops and winter wheat planting was nearly one-third complete. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported corn harvest was taking place in the top 18 reporting states, with 18 percent of the corn crop harvested, as of Sunday. That's behind the average of 23 percent. Crop condition holds steady with 68 percent in good to excellent condition. As expected, the Southern corn states were the furthest along, as Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, all report more than half their crop harvested. By contrast, Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota have seen the fewest acres harvested.


Sorghum harvest was running ahead of average with harvest 36 percent complete, four points ahead of the five-year average. Harvest has wrapped up in Louisiana and Arkansas was at 91 percent, while Missouri was at 24 percent. The crop condition fell slightly with 65 percent in good to excellent condition.


Soybean harvest surged to 21 percent complete, five points ahead of average. Harvest was taking place in the top 18 states for soybean production. Harvest in Arkansas was at 35 percent, Missouri was at eight percent and progress was the furthest along in Louisiana with harvest 75 percent complete. Crop condition lost one point with 62 percent of the crop in good to excellent condition.


Cotton harvest was near the five year average with 11 percent of the crop harvested. Louisiana leads the nation at 32 percent. Harvest in Arkansas was nine percent complete. The condition of the crop dropped two points with 50 percent of the crop in good to excellent condition.


Nationally, winter wheat planting was 31 percent complete and seven percent of the crop has emerged. Planting progress was recorded in 17 of the top 18 wheat producing states in the nation.


Click here for the full national crop progress report.

Wheat and canola planting has quickly progressed in Oklahoma. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports 21 percent of the wheat crop has been planted and one percent has emerged. Canola planting reached 33 percent, five points behind normal. Sorghum harvest was 39 percent complete, that's 11 points ahead of normal. Peanuts were ten percent harvested, well ahead of normal. Soybean harvest has gotten underway with one percent of crop in the bin. Cotton bolls opening reached 48 percent, that's 22 points behind normal. Click here for the full Oklahoma report.


The Texas corn and sorghum harvest continues to track in tandem. USDA reports both crops were 63 percent harvested. Soybean harvest was 46 percent complete, 19 points behind average. Peanuts were 17 percent harvested, nine points ahead of normal. Cotton was 16 percent harvested, slightly ahead of average. The winter wheat crop was 24 percent planted, ten points behind the five-year average and two percent of the crop has emerged. Click here for the full Texas report.


Wheat planting in Kansas made good progress with above normal temperatures and light rain. USDA reports the state's winter wheat planting was 24 percent complete, near the five-year average. Corn harvest has reached 42 percent, near the five-year average. Sorghum harvest was 15 percent complete, running ahead of normal. Soybean harvest was five percent complete and cotton was at three percent harvested. Click here for the full Kansas report.

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, writes in the latest Cow/Calf Corner newsletter.


Fed cattle prices dropped over $9.00/cwt last week to about $125/cwt. Prices for pens over 80 percent Choice made up most of the volume and had a lower average price than lower grading pens of cattle. This has been the situation for several days are reflects the large supply of extremely heavy fed cattle. There are anecdotal reports of fed cattle in the Midwest with live weights up to 1900 pounds. These cattle are finally being marketed. The estimated weekly cattle slaughter last week was 574 thousand head, up fractionally from 573 thousand head one year ago. Estimated cattle carcass weights last week were 843 pounds, up 25 pounds from the same week last year. Estimated weekly beef production was up 2.6 percent year over year. The extra carcass weight is equivalent to adding over 17, 500 head to the weekly slaughter total at last year's carcass weights.


The most recent actual slaughter data (for the week ended September 12) showed record large steer carcass weights of 919 pounds, 13 pounds over last year's seasonal peak weight of 906 pounds in November. Heifer carcasses averaged 826 pounds, slightly below the record 830 pound level in November, 2014. With beef cow slaughter currently making up a larger proportion of total cow slaughter, cow carcass weights are falling; the current level of 638 pounds is down from the May peak of 660 pounds.  Click here to read more from Dr. Peel on the boxed beef market and the fed cattle markets. 

In late summer, Bayer Animal Health officially released a new product that is designed to help a beef calf's immune system battle a billion dollar problem that the US cattle industry faces- Bovine Respiratory Disease. I participated in a media preview for the product earlier in 2015.


The product is Zelnate, which is based on a totally new approach to help fight Bovine Respiratory Disease in Beef Cattle. Bayer HealthCare LLC is now introducing Zelnate to the US Beef Cattle industry- explaining that it is a DNA Immunostimulant. Zelnate is effective in treating BRD due to Mannheimia haemolytica. Developed in alignment with Bayer's pursuit of 'Science for a Better Life,' Zelnate is the first immunostimulant that effectively reduces mortality and lung lesions by enhancing the animal's own immune system to help fight this infectious disease, potentially reducing the need for antibiotics.


 I talked with several Bayer officials at the preview for Zelnate that was held on the Perry Ranch in northeastern Kansas. He features comments from Dr. Jim Sears, Dr. Jason Nickell and Todd Firkins on today's edition of the Beef Buzz, which can be heard by clicking here.

When Walmart does it- it has impact.  Other grocery chains have been working on this concept of allowing consumers to shop online and then pickup their orders, including Homeland, who has it in place in several of their stories- including their flagship store at May and Britton in Northwest Oklahoma City.  But- it appears that Walmart is moving forward to make this a reality in more and more of their locations around the country and that's a game changer.

In a blog post released this morning- we learn that "With 70% of the U.S. population living within 5 miles of an existing Walmart store, this is an idea that simply makes sense for us."

What is the idea?  Allow a consumer to go online- select the groceries they want- Walmart will pull them off the shelves, bag them and have them ready to put them in your vehicle when you stop by.  No service charge is part of the deal.

The blog adds "This new, easy shopping experience is an innovation that's helpful for anyone with a busy schedule - particularly moms with small children. They can shop online and choose the pickup time that works for them, and they never have to unbuckle anyone's seat belt."

The blog, which is available here, mentions a half dozen markets they are rolling this service out to this week- and they say more will be added quickly. 

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It now appears that when we welcome October this coming Thursday- we will also be welcoming cooler weather and rain chances for our state. The rain is welcome news for those planting wheat and canola- and to help our pastures prepare for the winter season ahead. 

Jed Castles with News9 sees rain opportunities as early as Wednesday night- and those chances continue right into the weekend- they seem to peak on Saturday. 

Here's his Tuesday morning graphic for central and western Oklahoma:



Meanwhile, Alan Crone with News on 6 in Tulsa concurs with Jed on the cooler air coming- especially by Saturday- he writes in his Tuesday morning blog that by early Saturday  "another disturbance will move across the state providing the best chance for showers for northern OK.   The additional cloud cover combined with another surge of cooler air should keep temperatures around 50 for the low and lower 60s to mid-60s for highs.   I'll also keep these cooler readings in the forecast for Sunday with a few early morning showers remaining near part of northern OK Sunday morning."

Read his full blog for the next few days by clicking here.

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Congrats to Dr. Blake Bloomberg and his Oklahoma State University Livestock Judging Team for winning the Livestock Judging Contest at  the AKSARBEN Stock Show in Omaha this past Sunday. 

OSU won the cattle division and overall reasons - and beat second place Colorado State by 30 points.

Kansas State placed third, Texas Tech was fourth and Arkansas was fifth in this national contest.