The US Beef Industry called on the Trump Administration to talk beef with the Chinese President when he came to Florida- and President Donald Trump apparently did.  Since returning to Beijing, Chinese President Xi has announced that in order to avoid a trade war with the US, he will instruct his government to offer the Trump administration better market access for financial sector investments and U.S. beef exports. (the call by NCBA and the US Meat Export Federation came in late March- click here to read more and view the letter sent to President Trump)

China was poised last fall to move forward and allow US beef exports, but according to a Chinese official involved in the talks, these negotiations were put on hold during the transition between US presidential administrations.

We reported last September on the announcement that China was going to open up to US Beef- and we talked with Phil Seng about the word from China at that time- click here for that Beef Buzz of last September.


According to Meatingplace, "The opportunity for U.S. beef exporters could be significant. Global AgriTrends calculates the greater China region (China, Hong Kong, Vietnam) as a $7 billion market, according to Stephens Inc. analyst Farha Aslam.

"In a note to investors, Aslam cautioned, however, that China has twice before agreed to grant market access to U.S. beef but regulatory hurdles have prevented any real trade to materialize."

Click here to visit the original article on our website.

In his latest article included in the weekly Cow/Calf Corner newsletter, OSU's Dr. Derrell Peel examined the recent strength of beef exports and the positive effects it is having on the US beef industry.

According to Peel's analysis Japan and Mexico top the charts as our biggest customers and writes that, "US beef exports continue the 2016 trend with additional improvement so far in 2017. February total beef exports were up 19.3 percent and combine with the January total for a year to date increase of 20.1 percent year over year for the first two months of the year. This extends the annual 12.6 percent year over year increase in 2016."

On the flip side of the coin, the small amount of beef imports coming into the country is also alleviating pressures as well, allowing the domestic beef industry to expand even more.

"Beef imports are down 17.4 percent year over year in the first two months of 2017," Peel writes. "This follows a 10.5 percent year over year decrease in 2016. Australia, historically the largest source of U.S. beef imports, is down 45.5 percent so far this year following a 39.0 percent year over year decrease in 2016. In fact, Australia is currently the fourth largest beef import source so far in 2017. Australia is in roughly the same relative position as the U.S. beef industry was in 2014/2015, with drought-reduced animal inventories restricting production and herd rebuilding further restricting beef production at the current time."

For Peel's complete analysis regarding the unprecedented strength in the beef market right now, click here.

In the latest crop progress report released Monday April 10, 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture rates the US winter wheat crop condition at 53 percent good to excellent, with 34 fair, 11 poor and 3 very poor. Winter wheat headed was 9 percent. For the complete USDA Crop Progress report, click here.

According to the weekly crop progress report from USDA, Oklahoma winter wheat jointing reached 84 percent, up 2 points from normal. Winter wheat headed reached 8 percent, down 2 points from normal. To view the complete Oklahoma Crop Progress and Condition Report, click here.


In Kansas, winter wheat condition rated 4 percent very poor, 13 poor, 35 fair, 43 good, and 5 excellent. Winter wheat jointed was 43 percent. Headed was 1 percent. To view the complete Kansas Crop Progress and Condition Report, click here.


In Texas, winter wheat condition was rated 79 percent fair to good with some fields heading in the Plains, the Blacklands and North East Texas. To view the complete Texas Crop Progress and Condition Report, click here.


To sum up the current winter wheat crop condition here in the southern plains- here's the Good to Excellent Ratings for this week and the change from last week:


Oklahoma 45%   +4 percentage points
Kansas     48%   +5 percentage points
Texas       41%    +2 percentage points


The drop in the poor to very poor categories also reflect the benefits of moisture:


Oklahoma   17%    unchanged from a week ago
Kansas       17%    -3 percentage points
Texas         15%     -2 percentage points

When it comes to tenderness as a trait in your beef cattle herd, nobody's more knowledgeable than Dr. Ty Lawrence of West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. I caught up with Lawrence at the recent Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers convention in San Antonio, where he shared some of his ideas with producers, on how to improve the tenderness of their end product through careful genetic selection.


"It's not easy," Lawrence admitted up front. "The interrelationship of palatability and how it's flavor and juiciness and marbling - they're not independent of each other. They're interrelated based on genetic selection."


Lawrence says that with years of compiled EPD data, plus the data's recent genomic enhancements, producers today can hone in on improved marbling in their herd and see a direct increase in the flavor profile of the beef they produce.


But, rather than chasing direct tenderness in your herd, Lawrence suggests perhaps starting your endeavor to improve your herd, by culling the bottom ten percent of your herd that is likely to produce tougher beef. He says by not allowing the genetic replication of those animals, that is a big step to improving product industry wide that all producers can participate in.


Listen to Lawrence and I talk about his concept and model for targeting tenderness as a trait in your herd, on yesterday's Beef Buzz - click here.

Former USDA Secretary and current CEO and President of the US Dairy Export Council Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, will have made arrangements to join Denver Water and Colorado State University in advisory roles.

As a strategic adviser, Mr. Vilsack will be responsible for forming and chairing the Board of Counselors to advise CSU, Denver Water, and the National Western Stock Show on priorities around the interface of food, water, energy, the environment, and human health. He will also help formulate the vision of the new joint CSU-Denver Water facility at the National Western.

Mrs. Vilsack will also join the Colorado State University System as Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for Educational Access and Presidential Visiting Scholar of Educational Access, drawing from her extensive experience in the field of education.

"The challenges that are facing our globe will need all of our best efforts and all of our best thoughts to identify sustainable solutions," Colorado State President Tony Frank said. "We are excited to add these two incredibly qualified national leaders to our team and to continue to elevate the conversation, and collaborate to create great impact for our state, our country, and our world."

Click here to read more about this new opportunity for the Vilsacks as they pick up their post-Washington careers.

We began this week's salute to our District FFA Stars in Agriscience with Yukon FFA Chapter's Nicole Stevens, who is representing the Southwest District in her category. Stevens has complete more than ten agriscience projects since first joining the FFA her 8th grade year. Her favorite experiment that she's conducted is one that examined the efficiency of organic insulation.

Stevens recalls that one day working in the shop of her ag-mechanics class, a piece of insulation from the building fell from the ceiling and onto her partner's head. This spurred Stevens to take note of the condition of the insulation throughout the building finding most of it in bad shape, and close to 60 percent of it actually missing.

"We tested three types of insulation soybean spray-foam based insulation, recycled cotton and man-made fiberglass insulation," she said. "We found out that the soybean based spray-foam insulation was not only the most efficient, but it would save our school money in the years to come."

While Stevens and her agriscience experiments have contributed to the success of her FFA chapter, she says the stream of success flows both ways.


"FFA means the world to me," she insisted. "It's gotten me where I am in life and it's helped me develop skills like public speaking and it's really helped me come out of my shell."



American Farmers & Ranchers is the proud sponsor of our District Star spotlights this month. Be sure to visit the AFR website by clicking or tapping here to learn more on how AFR supports the young people of Oklahoma, and how AFR can provide you with quality insurance for your home, auto, farm, and life.

Producers interested in maximizing canola crop productivity should plan now to attend one of 13 free and open-to-the-public Oklahoma Winter Canola Spring Field Tours taking place this month- starting next week.

Each county event will take between 90 minutes and two hours, with refreshments provided at each location.

Tours of different county farms will happen between April 17 and April 24. For a complete schedule of dates and locations, click here and view the original post on our website. 

"Each field tour will provide a detailed look at varieties," said Josh Lofton, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist. "We will be discussing variety performance, insect management decisions, harvest management, fertility, the latest updates about canola diseases and management practices growers need to be thinking about going into the 2017-2018 season."

An ideal way to check out not just the Canola Tour locations- but also the wheat plot field days planned in the weeks ahead is to head over to our website- click or tap here for the calendar and you can see the tour details on a day by day basis- and we have info on other events of spring- like the 2017 Oklahoma City Farm Show and the 2017 State Convention of the Oklahoma FFA.