President Barack Obama met with 18 business leaders on Tuesday in a one hour, closed door meeting at the US Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington.  Three of the eighteen came from the agricultural sector- with the President of the American Farm Bureau, Bob Stallman, strategically seated next to the President where he would be seen in many of the photos taken of the President during the meeting.

This meeting appears to have kicked off the push by the Obama Administration to sell the TPP to the business community, the general public and to Congress. 

After the meeting, the President spoke briefly and called TPP

"a new trade agreement across the Asia Pacific region that reflects American values and gives our working families and American businesses a fair shot, creates a level playing field."


"This agreement makes us more competitive by eliminating about 18,000 taxes, tariffs that are placed on America's products in these other countries. Just to give you a couple examples, Japan puts a 38-percent tax on American beef before it ever reaches market. Malaysia currently puts a 30-percent tax on American auto parts. Vietnam puts a tax of as much as 70 percent on every car American automakers sell in Vietnam.


"Under this agreement, all those foreign taxes will fall. Most of them will fall to zero. So we are knocking down barriers that are currently preventing American businesses from selling in these countries and are preventing American workers from benefitting from those sales to the fastest-growing, most dynamic region in the world."

Click here to read more of the remarks offered by President Obama.

The US Department of Agriculture hosted President Barack Obama on Tuesday, as the President met with a variety of stakeholders- including several from the agricultural community- discussing the benefits that the President sees in the just completed Trans Pacific Partnership. While the final text will take about thirty days to prepare, the President and his Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, are convinced that this trade deal will be very good for US farmers and ranchers.


According to the USDA website, "The agreement would eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs on our products and deter non-science based sanitary and phytosanitary barriers that have put American agriculture at a disadvantage in TPP countries in the past. Despite these past barriers, countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership currently account for up to 42 percent of all U.S. agricultural exports, totaling $63 billion. Thanks to this agreement and its removal of unfair trade barriers, American agricultural exports to the region will expand even further."


On Tuesday afternoon, Secretary Vilsack met with reporters in a teleconference to discuss the TPP. While not all the details are yet known about the trade deal, the Secretary predicted to reporters "We're gonna sell more ag products across the board with this agreement."


Click here to hear Secretary Vilsack's comments to the media.

On a Weekly basis, Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry- both the livestock sector as well as the wholesale and retail beef trade. This analysis is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Dr. Glenn Selk. In this week's analysis- Dr. Peel looks at beef imports here in 2015:


"U.S. beef imports were up 32.5 percent in the first seven months of 2015. This follows a beef import increase of 31 percent year over year in 2014. The 2014 beef import total was the highest level since 2007 and, at the current pace, total 2015 beef imports could be a new record high. The increase in beef imports was expected and is the result of several factors including: record high U.S. beef prices; declining U.S. beef production (especially relative shortages of processing beef); and a strong dollar making imports even more attractive. However, changes in the U.S. market and in countries that export beef to the U.S. suggest that beef imports will likely moderate in late 2015 and into 2016.


"A significant part of the jump in U.S. beef imports in 2014 and 2015 has been from Australia. A unique combination of the U.S. market circumstances described above and the situation in Australia created the ideal conditions for a dramatic increase in beef imports from Down Under. Australia has been severely impacted by drought across much of the country, including the major cattle production regions, since 2012. This has resulted in increased cattle slaughter and beef production; increased cattle exports; and increased beef exports. Australian cattle slaughter in 2014 was 9.91 million head, the highest level in more than 35 years. Live cattle exports (mostly to Indonesia, Vietnam and China) were another 1.3 million head, an all-time record level. Both beef production and exports were also at new record high levels in 2014. This level of production is not sustainable and 2016 cattle numbers in Australia are projected to be 26.3 million head, down over 10 percent from 2014 levels. If realized, this 2016 cattle inventory would be the smallest since 1995."
 

Peel explains that the combination of U.S. and Australian market conditions resulted in U.S. imports of Australian beef increasing 74 percent in 2014, accounting for 66 percent of year over year increase in total U.S. beef imports. However, Peel believes there are several reasons to expect U.S. imports of Australian beef to moderate in late 2015 and into 2016.

Click here to read more from Peel's  weekly update.

Dr. Jayson Lusk may be the most quoted of any university professor in the state of Oklahoma- as the OSU Ag Economist has been seen on TV Outlets like Fox Business Network, quoted in a wide variety of blogs and websites and has written opinion pieces for his blog that covers the world of food and modern ag production practices.

He's on the national agricultural stage this week- in a wide ranging interview with our farm broadcast colleague and friend Jeff Nalley that can be heard on the Open Mic segment of the Agri-Pulse website.

In this interview, Dr. Lusk discusses the consumer cost of mandatory food labels, the social and economic implications on agriculture research and technologies and the retailers reaction to consumer food buying trends.

He tells Jeff that  "GMOs are often used as a 'Stand In' for a whole host of other issues that have nothing to do with GM technology."  And he talks about his research with consumers regarding their interest in the food they buy for their families and how this national debate over GMOs impacts how consumers today view modern production agriculture.

Jayson also had a chance to tout an upcoming book project of his that will be out next spring- Unnaturally Delicious.  He told Nalley that this book will tell the story of innovation that is helping improve the food choices available to consumers in this country and around the world. 

You can listen to the entire conversation that Jayson Lusk had with Jeff Nalley- it's available here.

The 2015 National FFA Convention & Expo will celebrate its last year of its three-year run in Louisville beginning Oct. 28. More than 60,000 FFA members and guests from throughout the United States are expected at this year's event, which runs through Oct. 31. After this year, the convention and expo will move to Indianapolis from 2016-2024.


"Amplify" is the theme for this year's convention and expo. "With the opportunities we are given in our lives, we must take action and share the message of agriculture with others," said 2015-16 National FFA President Andy Paul, a student at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Georgia. "It's time we all amplify our voice when it comes to the message of agriculture, and boost our impact."


Well over a thousand FFA members from Oklahoma will be a part of the 2015 gathering of the Blue and Gold. The Oklahoma delegation will be led by the 2015-16 State Officer Team as well as two National Star finalists, Gatlin Squires of Kingfisher who is an American Star Finalist in the Agriscience Category and William Maltbie of Burlington, an American Star Finalist in the Agribusiness category. A complete list of Oklahoma FFA members and chapters that will be representing the state in Louisville in 2015 is available here.

Click here to read more about the 2015 National FFA Convention in Louisville.

Our coverage later this month from Louisville is being sponsored by ITC, Your Energy Superhighway.  Learn more about the efforts of ITC here in the Great Plains by clicking here.  Our reports on our website, this email, Facebook, Twitter, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and our FLICKR albul of photos are also being brought to you by the Oklahoma FFA Alumni and the Oklahoma FFA Association.

Entries are now being accepted for the first National Wheat Yield Contest in over 20 years. The National Wheat Foundation (NWF) announced the official contest rules and opened registration on their website Tuesday for the inaugural year of the contest. The highly anticipated yield competition, first unveiled at the 2015 Commodity Classic, is made possible by the generous support of National Wheat Yield Contest industry category partners BASF (crop protection), Monsanto (seed), John Deere (equipment) and Winfield (agronomic services).


"We have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the National Wheat Yield Contest and look forward to U.S. wheat farmers competing with the best available technology to demonstrate how they can increase productivity, drive innovation and enable knowledge transfer between growers," said NWF Chairman Dusty Tallman, a wheat grower from Brandon, Colo.


Wheat growers can compete in two primary contest categories - winter wheat and spring wheat. There will be two sub-categories for each category, respectively, for dry land and irrigated wheat production. Entrants must be a producer, at least 14 years of age, and member of their recognized state wheat grower association, or if from a state without a recognized state wheat grower organization, a member of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG).  In addition to recognizing some of the nation's most successful wheat producers and encouraging knowledge transfer between growers, organizers hope the contest will help boost innovation in the world's most widely grown crop.

"In 2014, we witnessed an all-time corn yield record at 503 bushels per acre," said Dr. Jeff Koscelny, Wheat Commercial Lead at Monsanto. "Improved farm management practices and technology in agriculture are helping farmers make the most out of their land and bring more grain to harvest per acre, and contests like this one provide an excellent environment for that innovation to take place."

All contest entries must use certified or branded, and currently commercially available, wheat seed.  Early registration deadlines are April 1 for winter wheat.  Click here for additional details. 

The 2015 Tulsa State Fair is having another excellent livestock show- and entries are up this year. General Beef Superintendent Blake Nelson told Leslie Smith over this past weekend that  cattle entries have grown for Simmental, Maine Anjou and for junior exhibitors showing heifers.

The market animal show for 4-H and FFA members is well underway, with the Barrow, Market Lamb and Market Goat shows kicking off yesterday afternoon- the Market Steer show begins this morning and the McDonalds Night of Champions will showcase the Grand Champions in all of the species- starting at 7:00 PM tonight.

That will be followed by the Gala that is planned for tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 PM when the top animals from this year's show will be sold in a premium auction. We'll be there this evening and tomorrow covering the Night of Champions and the Gala.  Click here for more details about this year's Livestock show events at the Tulsa State Fair.

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We mentioned that the Oklahoma Farm Bureau had offered to make room on their property that sits just west of the Oklahoma State Capitol for the Ten Commandments Monument that was ordered to be moved off of the state capitol grounds. 

The Monument has been removed- and now resides about a mile south of the Capitol at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.  It faces Lincoln Avenue- just down the street from the seat of Oklahoma government.

News9 in Oklahoma City had a video story on the move of the monument this week- you can see it here.