Click here for a link to the complete brief.

The nation's cattle producers are answering the call from consumers for high quality beef, as reflected in recently released figures from the American Angus Association®. Registrations for Angus cattle grew by 4.5% and totaled 334,607 head in fiscal year 2016, which ended Sept. 30. That's the 15th largest number of registrations in the Association's 133-year history.


Also during fiscal year 2016, Angus breeders increased their sale offerings and participation in performance programs, and the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand achieved a major milestone following more than a decade of consecutive sales records.


"2016 was another outstanding year for the American Angus Association and its members," says Allen Moczygemba, Association CEO. "The past year was a story of growth and unprecedented success for the Angus breed and its leadership position within the beef industry." 


The Association and its four entities experienced outstanding growth across all business metrics, and total assets for the organization reached more than $60 million.

With the November 8th election just around the corner, I caught up with YES on 777 campaign leader Roy Lee Lindsey of the Oklahoma Pork Council, to get his last minute thoughts on the feverishly debated State Question 777 - Right to Farm, as voters begin to make up their minds on the issue. He boils his argument as to why Oklahomans should vote 'Yes' on SQ777 down to just a few points.


"From an agricultural perspective - no one knows better how to take care of their animals, no one cares more about their animals than the people that do it every day," Lindsey said. "For consumers that don't work on the farm - we hope that message resonates with you as well, but ultimately the Yes side is about preserving choices for you in the grocery store."


Lindsey asserts that should SQ777 fail, out of state activists such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the largest donor to the Oklahoma Stewardship Council, one of the two groups organized to oppose the Right to Farm proposal, will work to limit choices available to today's consumers.


"I think that's a notion contrary to what most Oklahomans believe," Lindsey said.


For voters still on the fence about the issue due to the large amount of contradictory information being spread, Lindsey says, that is because it has been the job of the opposition to confuse the public.


"They're not as concerned about being truthful," Lindsey said. "They're telling stories that just simply don't add up. It surprises me the lengths at which some of them would go to paint the rest of us in a bad picture when they're dependent on us to put food on their table every day."


Listen to Roy Lee Lindsey talk more about his thoughts on the State Question 777 - Right to Farm debate.

We have a resource page that links back to previous interviews and stories about State Question 777- and includes the actual ballot language that Oklahomans will be seeing as they decide yes or no on Right to Farm- click here to check that out.

The Oklahoma Beef Council is one of several state beef councils that allocates extra resources to the US Meat Export Federation, and OBC Executive Director Heather Buckmaster says 'it really pays off.'


"When you look at Oklahoma, we have 3.875 million consumers in the state of Oklahoma and 96 percent of the world's population lives outside of the US," Buckmaster said. "We represent 1.2 percent of the US population so we want to make sure we're making the most difference, so we made the choice to invest with USMEF."


According to Buckmaster, each dollar contributed is matched three to four times, effectively extending that original dollar amount, enabling participants to support a variety of promotional events. Buckmaster gave the results from two of these promotions that took place in Japan. At one event, 1.5 million pounds of additional US beef was moved through the system she says. At another, 90,000 pounds, an increase of 49 percent for US beef sales at the time. Buckmaster reports that the success of the promotions has prompted the host retailers to replace current beef programs with US beef inventory.


"It's all going to be US beef," Buckmaster said, "which should increase the volume of US beef purchases into next year by 70 percent.


"Being able to see that kind of success, knowing our dollars are getting matched and being able to provide results back to Oklahoma producers - we believe is very important."


Listen to Buckmaster talk more about the beef industry's success with promotional campaigns through the USMEF during the latest Beef Buzz.

Dr. Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, offers herd health advice as part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Derrell Peel and Dr. Selk. This week, Dr. Selk cautions producers on the risks of prussic acids and nitrate poisoning in cattle after light frosts as autumn weather begins moving across the Midwest.


"Although late October has been very warm and "summer-like", the average first frost date for much of the Southern Plains is here. Soon a cold front will bring near-freezing to sub-freezing nighttime temperatures


"It was discovered in the early 1900s that under certain conditions sorghums are capable of releasing hydrocyanic acid or commonly called prussic acid. Prussic acid when ingested by cattle, is quickly absorbed into the blood stream, and blocks the animal's cells from utilizing oxygen. Thus the animal dies from asphyxiation at the cellular level. Animals affected by prussic acid poisoning exhibit a characteristic bright red blood just prior to and during death. Lush young regrowth of sorghum-family plants are prone to accumulate prussic acid especially when the plants are stressed such as drought or freeze damage. Light frosts, that stress the plant but do not kill it, are often associated with prussic acid poisonings.


"Producers should avoid grazing fields with sorghum type plants following a light frost. The risk of prussic acid poisoning will be reduced, if grazing is delayed until at least one week after a "killing freeze". As the plants die and the cell walls rupture, the hydrocyanic acid is released as a gas, and the amount is greatly reduced in the plants. One can never be absolutely certain that a field of forage sorghum is 100 percent safe to graze.

A dozen leading U.S. grower organizations are hailing the collaborative efforts that led to the new AgGateway ADAPT framework for interoperability in precision ag systems - citing the many benefits to farmers, and are calling on Farm Management Information System (FMIS) companies to formally commit to integrating the ADAPT framework into their systems in the near future.


The support was expressed in a letter sent this month to AgGateway Chairman David Black from the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Barley Growers Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council, National Farmers Union, National Sorghum Producers, National Sunflower Association, U.S. Canola Association, U.S. Dry Bean Council, and USA Rice.


"Over the last decade, the most consistent concern raised by farmers using precision ag is that 'different systems won't work together,'" the letter states. "The farm and commodity groups are pleased that AgGateway member companies worked collectively to solve this problem by creating ADAPT.... As organizations representing producers of all commodities and in all 50 states, we offer our support to encourage FMIS companies to formally commit to integrating the ADAPT framework in the near future."