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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

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Postponed! Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts Now Hopes for Mark Up of Voluntary GMO Labeling Bill Next Week 

Here is the brief statement released yesterday but the Senate Ag Committee on their website- "Due to changes on the Senate floor, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry's business meeting to consider the Chairman's Mark on Biotechnology Labeling Solutions is postponed until next week. A media advisory will be distributed once a date is scheduled."

Agri-Pulse is reporting that the Chairman, Pat Roberts of Kansas,  granted a request from the ranking Minority member because a bill she is sponsoring is being brought to the floor today. 

House Agriculture Committee Reviews State of the Rural Economy

The House Agriculture Committee held a hearing with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to review the state of the rural economy. According to the latest forecast from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), net farm income in the United States is expected to fall by 56 percent from 2013 to 2016, the largest three-year percentage decline in net farm income since the Great Depression. While members thanked the Secretary for his service, they also raised a number of concerns, including the impact that the continued outlook for depressed prices could have on America's farmers and ranchers. 


House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway said in his opening statement "As chairman of this committee, I am deeply concerned about the direction we are headed. With USDA projecting no relief in sight, it is more important now than ever that we hold the line on the Farm Bill and we push back against attacks on the risk management tools that are so vital to protecting our farms and ranches. 

More on the hearing is available here.  AND- look at our next story to get a feel of the argument over cottonseed that was embedded into the hearing at the front end- as the Chairman and the Secretary chewed on each other on this subject.

Chairman Conaway and Secretary Vilsack Continue The Argument Over Cottonseed 

The Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Mike Conaway of Texas, called out Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack over the USDA position that they cannot consider cottonseed as an "other oilseed" when it comes to defining this crop to be eligible to be a part of he PLC and ARC coverage from Title One in the 2014 Farm Law.


Chairman Conaway blamed the lawyers working for Vilsack at the USDA for not getting an interpretation of the 2014 Farm Law right in deciding that cottonseed would not qualify as an "other oilseed" based on the language found in Title I of the act. Vilsack pushed back on that claim- saying "it was not lawyers who prevent me from doing what you asked me to do- it's an oath that I took- it's an oath that I took at the time that I took this job- which was to follow the constitution and the laws of this country." Vilsack went on to say that cottonseed was not listed in Title One as being eligible to become an other oilseed and that he could not decided on his own to make it one. 


The paragraph that several members of the House and Senate Ag Committee are arguing over with the Secretary reads as follows:


Title I, Part II, Sec. 1111(12) of the 2014 Farm Bill:

(12) Other Oilseed. --The term ''other oilseed" means a crop of sunflower seed, rapeseed, canola, safflower, flaxeed, mustard seed, crambe, sesame seed, or any oilseed designated by the Secretary. Those last six words are the point of contention- and how they are intrepreted becomes the heart of the controversy of whether cottonseed should be allowed to be an "other oilseed" based on the 2014 Farm Law or Not. Conaway- and the Chairman of the House Ag Committee at the time the 2014 Farm Law was negotiated, Congressman Frank Lucas, clearly believe they are right. Secertary Vilsack clearly believes he is right. 

Click here to jump over to our website for a chance to hear the conversation between the Chairman and the Secretary.

Advocating for FFA in Our Nation's Capitol- Former Woodward FFA Member Riley Pagett is Living His Dream

A featured speaker at the 111th Annual Convention of the American Farmers & Ranchers was a home town boy, grown up and living a dream in our Nation's Capitol. Riley Pagett is the director of government and nonprofit relations for the National FFA Organization.   


In this role, Pagett has been establishing and strengthening relationships with government agencies, legislators and nonprofit organizations that provide support for key FFA and agricultural education initiatives. At the AFR Convention, Pagett spoke to members of the LEAD program that was established in 2015 by the farm organization, in an effort to provide leadership development activities for younger members of the group.  


Paget explained to the lunch crowd he addressed that he fell in love with the FFA organization while at Woodward High School in northwest Oklahoma, was elected to a state office of the Oklahoma FFA and eventually climbed to the very top of the leadership of the blue and gold- being named the President of the National FFA in the fall of 2010. 

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Soy Checkoff Leads Industry to Think Beyond the Bushel by Supporting Innovation

With a focus on building preference for U.S. soy, farmer-leaders of the soy checkoff met last week to continue implementation of the checkoff's long-range strategic plan. The checkoff is working in three areas to meet U.S. soy's end users' needs - meal, oil and sustainability.


End users of U.S. soy don't buy bushels of beans; they buy the components: meal and oil. And checkoff farmer-leaders have plans to improve these products, add value for farmers and build preference for U.S. soy among these end users.


"We have a dynamic plan and really set ourselves on the right track at this meeting," says Jared Hagert, United Soybean Board (USB) chair and farmer from North Dakota. "We're really looking at programs that make U.S. soybeans more than just a commodity and help us to better meet our end users' needs."  

Read more by clicking here.

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Express Ranches' Jarold Callahan Finds $Value EPDs Add to the Bottom-line

Expected Progeny Differences or EPD's have been around quite a while and they have proven to be very useful in helping determine the potential value of a herd sire to a set of mamma cows. We caught up with Express Ranches President Jarold Callahan ahead of their annual spring bull sale that happens next week- and will be featuring over 500 Angus bulls and 34 Hereford bulls. Callahan said one set of EPD numbers that may be very useful to producers are the dollar ($) value EPDs, known has bio-economic indexes.


For example, the Beef value index ($Beef) takes into account carcass weight, residual average daily gain (RADG), marbling and ribeye. Callahan said this is basically a terminal index. The Weaned Calf Value ($W) takes into account reproduction, as well as the weaning weight EPD. He thinks all bull buyers should be looking at ($W) and for those that take their cattle through the feeder and feedlot phase they should also be looking at ($Beef) as well. 

To read more- and to listen to today's edition of the Beef Buzz, click or tap here.

Tomorrow- Superior Sale in OKC, Oklahoma Pork Congress in Norman and Texoma Cattlemen's Conference in Ardmore

It's a crazy last Friday of February- as multiple things are happening that we wanted to call your attention to-

Click on the name of each event for more details as found in our calendar pages at OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

Superior Cattle Auction- Live from Embassy Suites on Meridian in Oklahoma City.  Auction starts at 8:00 AM central. 27,000 cattle will be offered in tomorrow's sale.

Oklahoma Pork Congress- all day- at the Embassy Suites in north Norman 

Texoma Cattlemen's Conference- Presented by the Noble Foundation- Ardmore Convention Center in Ardmore- the program begins at 9:00 AM- we will be emceeing and look forward to seeing lots of friends there tomorrow in Ardmore. The complete agenda can be seen by clicking here.

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