Vilsack Commends FFA for Embracing Global Challenges

US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack expressed his excitement for the future of agriculture. Vilsack addressed the more than 60 thousand FFA members at the 2014 National FFA Convention in Louisville Thursday morning. In his speech he commended FFA for their advocacy in getting the 2014 Farm Bill passed and their enthusiasm to take on global issues from hunger to climate change and developing the next generation of ag producers who will feed consumers around the world in the years to come.


"It's going to be important and necessary that you embrace this challenge," Vilsack said. "The world is depending on the United States and the United States is depending upon you to help us figure how we are going to continue meet the needs of a growing world population under this most difficult set of circumstances." 


Vilsack challenged FFA members to continue working with enthusiasm and energy to support and celebrate agriculture. He encouraged FFA youth to influence their friends and neighbors how each one of has the ability to choose whatever path in life because most have delegated the responsibility of feeding our families to the American farmer.


"It's created this great freedom for us to choose occupations and jobs beyond agriculture, but we can't do that without extraordinarily productive farmers and we need to support those who farm, those that support our families," Vilsack said. 

 

Our exclusive coverage from Louisville is a service of the Oklahoma FFA Association, the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association and your Oklahoma Ford Dealers. For more information about one of the premiere state FFA organizations- click here. 

Click here to listen to the brief remarks made by US Ag Secretary Vilsack.  

NACD Wants 'Waters of the US' Proposed Rule be Withdrawn 

The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) submitted comments Thursday on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Proposed Rule defining "Waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act (CWA).


"We support the mutual goal of clean water and acknowledge the successes of the Clean Water Act throughout its 40 year existence," said NACD President Earl Garber. "While we appreciate the opportunity to provide our input on the proposed rule, we are asking the EPA and Army Corps to take additional time to obtain local input for any rule making. To that end, we are requesting that the current version of the rule be withdrawn."


In its comments, NACD expressed concerns and requested additional clarification on the following definitions: tributaries, adjacency, other waters, and significant nexus. As drafted, the proposed rule would substantially expand CWA jurisdiction, granting EPA and USACE broad authority and discretion to regulate wetlands and other water bodies remote from traditionally navigable waters.   Click here to read why NACD opposes any measure that expands jurisdiction of the CWA.  

Bayer CropScience (Bayer) and DuPont Crop Protection (DuPont) announced Thursday the signing of an agreement for Bayer to purchase certain DuPont Crop Protection Land Management assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Closing of the transaction is expected in the fourth quarter 2014, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.


This acquisition will enable Bayer's Environmental Science business unit to offer a comprehensive portfolio of products for effective weed control for Industrial Vegetation Management (IVM). Furthermore the company will gain access to the growing Forestry and Range & Pasture business segments in North America. Under the agreement, DuPont will continue to sell its Land Management products outside the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand and its range and pasture products in Mexico and Latin America.


"We are a leader in the professional environmental science market globally and the planned acquisition underlines our ambition to further grow this position in the years to come," said Bayer CropScience CEO Liam Condon. "It allows us to provide our customers with first-choice solutions to protect and care for the environment in which we live, work and play.  Keeping our railways, railroads and infrastructure clean and safe and forestry plantations more productive is part of our mission - Bayer: Science for A Better Life."  

Click here to read more about the acquisition.  

Peel Says Strong Market Impacting Cattlemen Nearing Retirement

The United States is in historic times with the strength of the current cattle market. The industry continues to see record high prices and prices may go higher yet the next couple years. That's the opinion of Oklahoma State University Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel. One segment that is contemplating their future in the cattle business are older producers that thinking hard about hanging it up. Do they do it now with the current high prices or should they wait another wait another year or two? Peel said producers that are close to retirement age are contemplating those choices, but he thinks producers recognize this is a fundamentally strong market.  Peel said the bigger challenge exist for those producers who were forced to liquidate cattle during the drought.


"They are in a situation now where they can rebuild, but they are asking themselves sort of what is the time frame here, do have time to get in, is it worth the financial investment that it is going to take to get in at this point and its all relative to your expectations about the market as well as your personal time horizon on how much time you've got to work with this market," Peel said.


The demographic makeup of the cattle business changed some with the latest drought. Click here to read more on how high prices could be another tipping point for demographic change. 

Kale Parker of Indianola Makes Final Four in Creed- and More FFA Notes 

After being shut out in two of the National Speech Contests for 2014, Oklahoma landed a spot in the third of the major competitions that are an annual part of the National Convention scene- Kale Parker of Indianola advanced through two rounds on Thursday- and will be speaking in the Final Four of the National Creed Contest this morning at 11:30 AM Eastern Time.  The results will be announced this evening at the Friday night general session in Freedom Hall. 

The National Creed Contest is what it sounds like- and more.  Each contestant must recite the FFA Creed and penalties are accessed for every word inserted or deleted.  Following the recitation- each contestant will answer three pre determined questions that relate to some of the statements made by the author of the Creed, E.M Tiffany. 

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At a banquet for sponsors and other supporters of the National FFA last night, we caught up with Laila Hajji Down, former state and national FFA officer who came out of the Guthrie FFA Chapter.  She has recently switched employers- from Syngenta to Successful Farming Magazine and got married earlier this year.  Now living in Iowa, she says the reason for her success in her professional career is "the FFA- 100 percent."   

Laila was State FFA Secretary in 2006-2007 and was Central Region Vice President for the National FFA in 2008-2009. 

We turned the digital recorder on for a few moments with Laila and will be sharing that soon.

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We appreciate current state officers Cody Dean and Drake Boyce for spending some of their national convention time helping us out- taking pictures for our FLICKR album of the 2014 National FFA Convention.  With their help- we have eclipsed 500 photos through Thursday evening- with more to come on Friday and Saturday. 

Click here for the FLICKR album where you can see pictures from multiple vantage points- jump over and see who you might know that is at the 2014 National Convention.

Anderson Provides Cotton and Wheat Outlook

In this weekend's edition of SUNUP, Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Specialist Kim Anderson highlights the outlook for cotton and wheat production. In traveling to southwest Oklahoma, SUNUP host Lyndall Stout asked Anderson about the cotton market. Cotton has seen a lot of changes over the last ten years in price and production globally.


Global cotton production has drastically increased since 2004. In the 10 years prior to 2004 world cotton production averaged around 90 million bales a year. From 2004 to 2014 production increased by 28 million bales to average around 118 million bales of cotton.   


The United States did not experience that shift in cotton production. Anderson said there was higher production in 2004, 2005, and 2006, but overall there has been about a two million bale decline in US cotton production. Oklahoma's planted acres have declined since 2004 by about 15 thousand acres, but yields have increased so Oklahoma's cotton production has increased by about 76 thousand bales. 

Click here to read how cotton prices have shifted and Anderson's outlook for wheat prices.  You can also find the line up for this weekend's SUNUP's tv show.  

From the Calendar- McAlester Special Cow Sale, Diamond Hats Gala and Oklahoma Ag Expo

Coming up tomorrow at noon, it will be the McAlester Union Stockyards Replacement Cow and Bull Sale.  Julie and her folks will be selling over 700 head of Bred Cows, Pairs, Bred Heifers, Open Heifers and Bulls.

For information and to register as a buyer- call McAlester Stockyards at 918-423-2834.

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One of the coolest social events of the fall is the annual Diamond Hats Gala, set for tomorrow night at the Embassy Suites in Norman.  

There will be auctions that will raise cash for the Diamond Hats to support young men and ladies at the annual Oklahoma Youth Expo- at the Gala, they will also salute the Oklahoma All State Youth in Livestock that are honored annually at the OYE and they will be announcing their Oklahoma Woman iof the Year n Ag honoree.

Click here for more details about the Diamond Hats and their annual Gala.

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Coming up the first of the week is the annual Oklahoma Ag Expo- to be held this year at the Reed Center in Midwest City. 

The 2014 Ag Expo will include a variety of educational sessions that will allow Agri Business professionals and farmers to obtain CEUs. 

They also have planned a Farm Bill Informational Seminar on Monday afternoon.

To learn more- click here where we have more details and a link to the complete agenda.