Featured Story:

In a largely partisan vote, the House passed H.R. 2289, the Commodity End-Users Relief Act, by a vote of 246-171. Introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway and a pair of Georgia members of the Committee- Austin Scott and David Scott, this bill reauthorizes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has operated without Congressional authorization for nearly two years.   

Among other things, the measure would require CFTC to analyze the costs and benefits of all new rules and exempt grain elevators and other agricultural interests that are managing their own money from having to maintain records of all forms of communications that lead to a trade.


"It is now more difficult and more expensive for farmers, ranchers, processors, manufacturers and merchandisers to manage their risks than it was five years ago," said House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, calling the bill's regulatory changes "narrowly targeted."


The top Democrat of the House Ag Committee, Colin Peterson, issued a statement after the vote called it a costly measure that provides little benefit. "This bill will roll back important financial reforms, curtail negotiations with foreign regulators and make it more difficult for the CFTC to do its job. As this process moves forward, I hope that we can come together and see a simple reauthorization, that will provide protections for customers and certainty for the CFTC, signed into law." 

The measure faces an uncertain future in the US Senate, as well as a veto threat issued by the White House. 

MEANWHILE- House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway also was pleased that the House passed the following bills: H.R. 2051, the Mandatory Price Reporting Act, H.R. 2088, the United States Grain Standards Act Reauthorization Act, and H.R. 2394, the National Forest Foundation Reauthorization Act. All three bills were passed by voice vote.


"I am pleased to have the support of my colleagues on these bills that are essential to the agriculture industry," Chairman Conaway said. "As Chairman, my first goal was to have all reauthorizations taken care of before the deadlines passed, and that's what we accomplished today. In fact, this completes our work in cleaning up the books of the House Agriculture Committee, addressing every item on the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) list of unauthorized appropriations under the Committee's jurisdiction. These bipartisan bills will allow farmers, ranchers, and the National Forest Foundation to have the necessary resources to ensure operations carry on successfully.  

"H.R. 2051 and 2088 will promote competition and certainty in the global marketplace, and through H.R. 2394, the National Forest Foundation will be able to continue restoring and enhancing our national forests and grasslands. I am hopeful that the Senate will take up these bipartisan bills in a timely fashion so the U.S. agriculture industry is able to continue producing high quality food and fiber for the world." 

Support for COOL Repeal Keeps Growing

The COOL Reform Coalition Tuesday sent Congress a letter to express strong support for H.R. 2393, the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) Amendments Act of 2015. House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) introduced the bipartisan bill, along with several of his colleagues, and the House Agriculture Committee approved the bill on May 20, 2015.


The COOL Reform Coalition's letter is in our story on the website(linked below) along with the list of more than 100 groups supporting H.R. 2393.


Below is the letter written to the members of the U.S. House of Representatives:


As members of the COOL Reform Coalition, we write to express our strong support for H.R. 2393, the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) Amendments Act of 2015. Thanks to bipartisan leadership in the House of Representatives, this legislation, introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) and Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), would effectively respond to last month's World Trade Organization (WTO) final ruling against the U.S. COOL requirements for muscle cuts of beef and pork.  Click here to read more.    

Opponents of COOL Repeal Still Calling Congressional Action Premature- Urge a "No" Vote on Repeal  

National Farmers Union (NFU) Tuesday joined 282 other organizations representing farm interests, rural America, faith, environment, farmworker and consumers in urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reject the repeal of the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law and support commonsense food labeling.

The only group that has direct Oklahoma ties that signed the letter was the Murray County Independent Cattlemen's Association.  The nation's largest state affiliate of the National Farmers Union- American Farmers and Ranchers/Oklahoma Farmers Union- did not sign on.  To read the full text of the letter and to see all of the groups that did sign- click here.  

"Polls show that nine out of ten Americans support COOL," notes the letter, adding, "consumers continue to demand more and more information about their food and producers want to share that information."


The letter points out that although the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body has issued its decision on COOL, the U.S. has a sovereign right to allow the dispute process to proceed to its completion and decide how and whether to implement the adverse ruling.


"It is premature for the Congress to unilaterally surrender to saber rattling from our trading partners in the midst of a long-standing dispute," notes the letter.  Click here to read more.  

EWG Finds Farm Nitrogen Pollution Damage Costs Americans $157 Billion Annually

Op-Ed from the Environmental Working Group
Written By Anne Weir, Senior Analyst, Agricultural Risk Management


Nitrogen from fertilizers and manures washed off farmland costs Americans $157 billion a year in damages to human health and the environment.


That is the stunning conclusion an international scientific team published Feb. 17 in the journal Environmental Research Letters. According to the study, the median cost of nitrogen pollution damages inflicted by fertilizing crops, burning fossil fuels, manufacturing industrial products and all other human-induced sources is $210 billion a year. Agriculture accounts for roughly 75 percent of the problem.


Within the agricultural sector, corn production uses the lion's share of nitrogen fertilizer and manures and generates a lot of the nitrogen pollution. The authors calculate that the cost in human and environmental health problems caused by nitrogen pollution from agriculture is more than twice the $76.7 billion total value of corn produced for grain in the U.S. in 2011, when prices of corn and other agricultural commodities were high.


The researchers calculated that each kilogram of nitrogen used in the U.S. costs an average of $23.10 for increased incidence of respiratory disease and $16.10 for aggravating conditions that cause toxic algal blooms in waterways.  Click here to read more from EWG. 
 

BRD - A Complex and Deadly Blow for Cattle Producers

A disease that has been around for generations. A disease that some cattle producers say it's getting tougher to deal with, is Bovine Respiratory Disease or BRD. Bayer Animal Health Senior Technical Services Veterinarian Dr. Larry Hawkins said this is the toughest ongoing challenge producers deal with.


"Over 65 percent of the treatments given in the cattle industry are because of respiratory disease in cattle," Hawkins said.


BRD is a complex disease that combines virus', bacteria and stress . Hawkins said it's the number one disease for the cattle industry that causes a lot of economic losses and emotional impact to cattlemen.


"They do, it's their livelihood, it's their business, they're animal caretakers," Hawkins said. "They take it as a personal attack when their cattle get sick. They think they've done the best they can possibly do as far as vaccines, as far as purchasing the best cattle that they came up in many cases. Then those animals get sick, they want to provide for them in the best manner. So they treat them, they use the best antibiotics and still sometimes they are not as successful as they would like to be. Again, bovine respiratory disease is the number one killer of calves today in the beef industry."

 

I featured Hawkins on the Beef Buzz- as heard on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network. Click or tap here to read or have the opportunity to listen to today's Beef Buzz.    

Award winning broadcast journalist Jerry Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here to subscribe to his daily update of top Energy News.

What Do You Do with Your Bull after the Breeding Season?

Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter.


Maintaining a 60 to 75 day breeding and calving season can be one of the most important management tools for cow calf producers. A uniform, heavier, and more valuable calf crop is one key reason for keeping the breeding season short. Plus, more efficient cow supplementation and cow herd health programs are a product of a short breeding season.


However, many small producers lose all of these money-making advantages, just because they do not have a pen or trap that will hold the bull away from cows and heifers for 9 to 10 months of the year. In an effort to learn what others do to overcome this obstacle, we had an email conversation with a Clemson University beef cattle specialist who passed along the method of fencing that they use to separate bulls from their cows.


They use a minimum of 2 acres per bull for their bull pasture. Well fertilized introduced pastures (such as bermudagrass) in Eastern Oklahoma (with adequate rainfall) can stand this stocking density. However, native grass situations will require more acreages per bull unless the producer wants to feed a great deal of hay and supplement during much of the year.  Click here to read more about fencing for bulls.  

This N That - Heavy Rains Ahead, Angus Breed Looking for New CEO and It's Big Iron Wednesday 

While wheat harvest is still going strong- it may not be able to much longer- based on rain that is being forecast between now and the early part of next week.  

Best chances of rain in the northwestern half of Oklahoma seem to be Friday and Saturday of this week.  As we get each model from the weather folks- things keep looking wetter and wetter- this latest map shows huge rainfall totals- especially in west central Oklahoma where some of the heaviest rainfall amounts fell in the early part of May.  

Here's the latest projection- courtesy of our friend Bryce Anderson of DTN:

Meanwhile- today will be toasty- with Jed Castles of News9 saying we could have our hottest day of the year thus year- 95 degrees(or better) will be seen somewhere in Oklahoma later today.

Here's the forecast courtesy of News9- click here.

**********

Bryce Schumman has ended up in the same boat that a number of American Angus staff found themselves in a little over a year ago- without a job.  With no well wishes- the Angus Board of Directors informed Angus breeders in an open letter that he is no longer the CEO of the breed association.

They did use the phrase "dedicated employee" and also wrote "During his tenure as CEO, the breed experienced widespread adoption among producers of genomics technologies, expansion in communications and marketing programs, and record- setting growth for the Certified Angus Beef® brand."

The search is on for a new Exec for the Association.

********** 

It's Wednesday- and that means the Big Iron folks will be busy closing out this week's auction items - all 362 items consigned.  Bidding will start at 10 AM central time.                

Click Here for the complete rundown of what is being sold on this no reserve online sale this week.

If you'd like more information on buying and selling with Big Iron, call District Manager Mike Wolfe at 580-320-2718 and he can give you the full scoop.  You can also reach Mike via email by clicking or tapping here.