You can read the full legal brief of the lawsuit against the EPA and the Judge Moss dismissal by clicking here.

Good News from Atlanta- the TPP talks have gone into "overtime" as negotiators are staying for an extra day and continuing their work today. According to a report in the Japan Times, "With differences on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact lingering, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative canceled a news conference planned for Thursday evening and said negotiations would continue on Friday."  It is now expected that a joint news conference will be held on Saturday.

Stumbling blocks include the level of duties on auto parts, dairy and biologic drugs.

Meanwhile, House Ag Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, along with 16 other members of the committee who supported Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), sent a letter to Ambassador Michael Froman, U.S. Trade Representative, addressing concerns about ongoing negotiations in Atlanta on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).


While members expressed hope that ongoing negotiations will yield an agreement they can support, one that will be good for the U.S. and all of American agriculture, they outlined several remaining concerns including improved market access for rice and dairy and expressed disappointment in a new carve-out proposal for tobacco that establishes a dangerous new precedent.


Click here to read the letter from the U.S. House Ag Committee.

Beef cattle herd expansion looks to continue in the Southern Plains as well as in the Midwest. Earlier this year, Rabobank Protein Analyst Don Close put out a report on the realignment of the beef cow herd for years to come. In speaking at the Kenneth and Caroline Eng McDonald Foundation Beef Symposium held recently in Oklahoma City, he shared how raising cattle in confinement may be the wave of the future.

"We expect to see confined and semi-confined cow programs to grow and become a more vital or viable part of the industry," Close said.

Raising cattle in confinement will not replace conventional cow-calf operations, but Close sees raising cattle in confinement will become an added component. There are a lot of different combinations of confinement options. Close said the easy one is raising cattle on corn stalks.

Close sees confinement systems working mostly in the Midwest, as the mechanics work out cleaner for that kind of system. With a pending lawsuit in Des Moines, Iowa over nitrate runoff, he said there is a need for planting cover crops on corn-on-corn acres. He said this will provide another avenue to graze those cattle for a portion of the year. 

For the southern plains- maintaining a beef cow herd in existing feedlot pens could also work in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and Western Kansas feedyards.

Click or tap here to read or to listen to today's Beef Buzz. 

  

By a vote of 7-15, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs soundly rejected an amendment offered Thursday by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to eliminate corn ethanol from the Renewable Fuel Standard. NCGA President Chip Bowling, a farmer from Newburg, Maryland, issued the following statement in response to the vote:


"Today, fifteen senators sent a strong message to the rest of the Senate: The RFS works. Today, America has cleaner air, greater energy independence, and stronger rural economies - all because of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Senator Toomey's amendment would have taken America backwards. His amendment would have taken away consumers' choices at the gas pump, increased our dependence on foreign oil, and left farmers and renewable fuel producers with less certainty in the energy market. The Committee was right to vote no.


Click here for the full release from the Corn Growers on this vote.

ALSO weighing in on the Senate vote supporting the RFS was our old friend Tom Buis with Growth Energy.  Buis hailed the vote and the implied support for biofuels saying "It is no surprise that Senator Toomey's amendment failed - it never had a chance of passing. Similar to legislation he has introduced before, it did not gain any traction and failed because this legislation only restricts consumer choice and attempts to dismantle a successful American industry that is creating jobs, improving our environment and reducing our dependence on foreign oil."

Wheat prices have crossed the five dollar threshold. On Wednesday, Kansas wheat futures prices closed above that resistance level- and in the early Friday morning trade- KC December contracts remain above that level- standing at $5.05. On this weekend's edition of SUNUP, Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Specialist Dr. Kim Anderson says the market has tried to break through that level for the past three or four weeks.


"I think what we have to pay attention to, is that we ground our way through it, we slowly came through it," Anderson said. "Often when you break a strong resistance point like $5, that it just crashes up and you'll get a 10 or 15 cent price move. I think that tells us that this market is just going to continue to grind itself higher."


As Australia and Argentina begin their wheat harvest in the next two weeks, Anderson said that has held down wheat prices. With 80 percent of the world's wheat harvested, he said traders will be watching how the crop turns out in having dry weather. With production problems, he thinks the market has lowered its expectations for wheat production in Australia and Argentina. Lower production could mean higher prices for wheat.


SUNUP's Dave Deken interviews Anderson about the current price situation and the cost of production.  Click or tap here to read more or to listen to hear all of Kim's comments on the wheat market ahead of the market close for the weekend.

Be watching Saturday morning at 6:40 AM for our weekly edition of In the Field- our guest this week will be Clay Burtrum with the Oklahoma Beef Council, who also sits on the Beef Industry's Operating Committee, the group of producers who decide the projects that will get funding from the beef checkoff. 

Later in the weekend- we will have the video of Clay and I up on our website- and we will be featuring his comments in our Monday email as well.

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Our Friday morning Farm and Ranch News on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network featured comments from an interview we did a few weeks back with Tim O'Connor, the President of the US Wheat Foods Council.  We zero in on the battle that the wheat industry finds itself in over Gluten and the Gluten Free movement that has gained more and more strength over the last couple of years.   Our treatment of this issue can be heard here- and our earlier full interview with O'Connor where we talk about not just Gluten Free but also the related issue of certain "experts" claiming that wheat breeding in recent decades has put bad things into the wheat available today- that full conversation can he heard by clicking here.

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We are glad to welcome back to Oklahoma one of the newest members of the AFR team.  Terry Detrick dropped us an email this week saying "Lin Fariss has rejoined our organization and will be my Administrative Assistant.  We are very happy and I am especially happy to have her back.  She is now Lin Fariss Zwilling.  Her husband, Dr. Jason Zwilling,  is a large animal vet with an interest in Bovine Embryo Transfer and will be joining Dr. Bruss Horn in the Verden Vet Clinic.