U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Tuesday announced the award of $20.5 million for 45 projects to develop and advance the conservation of natural resources. These projects include efforts to increase habitat for pollinators, develop new ways to attract private investment in natural resource conservation, give agricultural producers greater access to greenhouse gas markets, and help farmers and ranchers make their operations more resilient to climate change.


"This year's slate of projects is truly outstanding," Vilsack said. "Our partner awardees are progressive and forward-thinking and looking to solve natural resource problems, and also engaging with underserved farmers and ranchers."


Oklahoma will receive more than $1.6 million dollars to fund three projects with the Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and Oklahoma State University. The funding will provide support for outreach projects to remove red cedar trees, soil health efforts through cover crops and pasture management, along with improving irrigation management.


Seven of the approved grants support conservation technologies and approaches to help farmers and ranchers who historically have not had equal access to agricultural programs because of race or ethnicity, who have limited resources, or who are beginning farmers and ranchers.


Approximately half of this year's funding supports environmental markets projects in three categories: water quality trading, greenhouse gas markets, and-for the first time-impact investments in working lands conservation.  Click here to read more about projects that are being funded in Oklahoma and other states.

The amount consumers are willing to pay for a range of meat products dropped this month, with deli ham dropping the most - about 21 percent - from levels a month earlier, according to Oklahoma State University's monthly Food Demand Survey. The Survey project is now in its third year and is being led by OSU Ag Economist Dr. Jayson Lusk.


Steak saw only a slight decrease from last month, down about 2.5 percent. However, consumers' willingness to pay for steak, chicken breast, deli ham and chicken wings are all higher now than at this time a year ago, the survey showed. The Willingness to Pay number for Steak dropped back below eight dollars after hitting $8.03 a pound in August of this year. The $7.83 Willingness to Pay for steak is sixty five cents higher than in September 2014.


Especially interesting to me this month were the "Ad Hoc" questions posed by Dr. Lusk and his team. This month, the survey polled consumers' level of satisfaction "with the decisions and management practices of farmers these days." But the survey used the phrase "of farmers" on only one-third of the surveys, used the phrase "of agricultural producers" on another third, and used the phrase "in agriculture" on the rest.


Respondents were most likely to give the high score possible (a 10) when the phrase "of farmers" was used, with 10 percent rating farmers that highly. However, when the phrase was "agricultural producers," only 5.8 percent gave a "10" rating. And when the phrase "of agriculture" was used, only 5.5 percent rated their opinion a "10." The group asked the question with the phrase "of farmers" saw only fifty percent of those polled giving a seven or higher score for their level of satisfaction. The phrase "of agriculture" received a rating of seven or more from less than forty percent of those responding.

More details about this month's Food Demand Survey are available here.

At the beginning of this year, Australian beef production and exports were expected to drop well below 2014 levels, as the industry began to rebuild its breeding herd after more than two years of drought-induced liquidation.The Aussies have been dealing with a situation similar  to what  the United States faced, when drought of 2010 and 2011 drew down in the U.S. beef cow herd to under thirty million head.


At the start of the year, Australia was still liquidating historically large numbers of cattle. The meat industry has known those kill numbers were not sustainable and had forecast a 14 percent drop in production and a 20 percent drop in beef exports. U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Economist Erin Borror said they anticipated Australian beef exports were going to slow down in 2015, but that hasn't happened until recently.


"So, far in the first half we haven't seen any slowdown materialize and exports continued to outpace last year's record levels," Borror said. "But, finally in July we saw their exports come in line with last year and then in August they were actually down about five percent from last year's strong pace. This coincided with a decrease in Australia's kill numbers, which have slowed since June, which are running well below last year."


The U.S. meat industry hopes these numbers seen in July and August in Australia will continue. This will tighten supplies from Australia into the export marketplace and help narrow the price gap between U.S. and Australian beef in the Pacific Rim.


"So, as we look at smaller Australian supplies going forward, we do expect our competitiveness to improve in the Asian markets," Borror said. "Especially places like Korea and Taiwan, we are already gaining market share. But where Australia has advantages is, Japan with their Economic Partnership Agreement, they'll see more than a 10 percentage point tariff advantage. Next year, the other place where they will keep their advantage is China, as they have direct access and they are China's largest supplier and of course U.S. beef still remains out of that market. So, two key areas where they maintain significant advantages, more on the policy side, but across the markets, where we do have access, even though we'll still expect the strong dollar disadvantage, we know that our competitiveness on the advantage of cuts is already improving."


I featured Erin Borror on the Beef Buzz, as heard on great radio stations that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network. Click or tap here to listen to this Beef Buzz looking at the Australia situation regarding beef supplies.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has released data showing that global food prices have experienced the steepest monthly drop since 2008, casting doubt upon concerns about the impact of ethanol production in food price increases. The recent decline in food prices has coincided with a period of record ethanol production expansion, reaching a high of 94 billion liters in 2014 from 83.5 billion liters in 2012, a 10% increase over this period. This contrast clearly demonstrates that increased ethanol production has not driven up food prices.


The UN FAO Food Price Index averaged 155.7 points in August, down 5.2 percent from July, representing the steepest monthly drop since December 2008 with virtually all major food commodities registering marked dips. This drop coincides with a fall in crude oil prices in July of 19 percent, closing at $48.25 USD per barrel on July 31.


The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) has for several years argued that the price of oil and energy inputs are the single most influential drivers of food and commodity prices. A number of international institutions including the World Bank, International Energy Agency (IEA) and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) have also recognized the strong relationship between oil prices and food prices.  Click here to read more about long-term drivers of food prices.

Preconditioning programs adhere to the old cliché that you have to spend money to make money. Dr. Robert Wells with the Noble Foundation contends that when evaluated on a return to investment, or net margin basis, preconditioning ranch-raised calves are still one of the most lucrative phases and safe investments of cattle production available to the cow-calf producer. The 2014 cattle market may have been the high of the present cycle; however, 2015 still looks to be a favorable marketing year for cow-calf producers. One of the best ways I can think of to add value to your calves is to enroll them in a value-added calf program such as the Integrity Beef Alliance's preconditioned calf program.


The Integrity Beef Alliance is a comprehensive beef production system that produces the highest quality calves possible for the next supply chain owner and consumer while improving returns for ranchers through value-added traits. Integrity Beef Alliance emphasizes progressive management methods, ranch stewardship and humane care of all livestock. The Alliance includes a terminal production system that uses a VAC-60 preconditioning program. Through uniform and elevated standard management practices, Integrity Beef producers' cattle far surpass industry standards for performance, quality, health and behavior.


Large and small ranches benefit equally from participating in Integrity Beef Alliance through implementation of best management practices and increased marketing venues, replacement cattle and ranch supply procurement support.  Click here to read more from Dr. Wells.

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture released a new educational app, "All About Beef," funded in part by the Beef Checkoff.


App versions of "The Steaks are High" and "Grocery Grab" are STEM-based games funded by the Beef Checkoff Program and geared toward students in grades 3-5. In addition to teaching nutrition and environmental facts, the apps also feature kid-friendly beef recipes.


The My American Farm games, including "The Steaks are High" and "Grocery Grab" are available on the iTunes store for iPhone and iPad, at Google Play for Android devices, on Amazon for the Kindle Fire and on www.MyAmericanFarm.org.


The Beef Checkoff Program funded development of this game and supporting resources. The Beef Checkoff Program (www.MyBeefCheckoff.com) was established as part of the 1985 farm bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. In states with qualified beef councils, states retain up to 50 cents of the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.


The My American Farm educational resource is a special project of the Foundation. The site and resources are made possible through the generous support of title sponsor, DuPont Pioneer. To take advantage of the free My American Farm resources, games and activities, visit www.MyAmericanFarm.org.

The start of the State Fair at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City is just hours away- and while Day One of the Fair looks clear and hot- the weather appears to be headed cooler and wetter for the first weekend of the 2015 event.  Jed Castles with News9 has provided us with a nine day outlook- which offers hope for rainfall to aid with planting the winter canola and wheat crops- but forcing fairgoers to dodge raindrops- here's the graphic- courtesy of Jed:

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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 643 items consigned.  Bidding will start at 10 AM central time.                

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The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers have a pair of their "Ranch Gatherings" planned for this week in Oklahoma- tonight in Guthrie at  Guthrie High School- 6 pm is the start time.

Thursday evening, September 17, is the other Oklahoma TSCRA event- this time in Okmulgee at the Okmulgee County Fairgrounds, also at 6 PM. 

A free beef dinner will be served at both locations- details are available by clicking on the name of the town where the Ranch Gatherings are planned.