It's been several months since we have seen choice wholesale boxed beef prices above the two dollar a pound mark- but that happened at midday yesterday- and it stayed above two dollars a pound into the afternoon report.

The afternoon Boxed Beef Cutout Report from USDA showed choice beef up $3.30 from the previous day to $201.84 per hundredweight.  These are prices not seen since summer.

Meanwhile, the FedCattleExchange.Com sale of Finished Cattle on Wednesday was steady to higher- with 4,464 sold and a weighted average price of $115.38 the result- that was $2.70 higher than the previous Wednesday. Best prices in the lineup were southern plains pens of cattle from Texas bringing $116.75.

Our cash cattle prices are rebounding from lows just under $100 which we saw in early October.

The futures market liked the strength in the fundamentals- and finished trade yesterday higher for both the Live Cattle and the Feeder Cattle futures.

The final trades of 2016 happen today and tomorrow on the futures- with a resumption of feeder and stocker cattle sales happening as early as next Tuesday when the Joplin Regional Stockyards is one of the first sales to happen in the new year.

 

The question for the Trump Administration- does the incoming President have any authority to reverse these designations- the outgoing administration says no- but most legal scholars believe that if President Elect Trump declares a reversal of the Obama actions- the Supreme Court will have the final say.

A good read on this latest land grab by President Obama is the article found on the Washington Times website- click here to check it out.

 

The Executive Director of No Till on the Plains, Steve Swaffar, talked with me on Wednesday about the 2017 No Till on the Plains Winter Conference that is now less than a month away. The 2017 Winter Conference is set for January 24th and 25th in Salina, Kansas.


Swaffar says that the 2017 conference will be the 21st annual renewal of farmers committed to no till gathering in Salina. This year's event will offer a lineup of more than 37 continuous no-till experts and top line producers, 55 breakouts (more than double from last year!), a special Q&A session with speakers and new one-day beginner's session preceding the conference.


There are three Oklahoma No Till Producers who are featured on the 2017 program- Jimmy Emmons of Leedey, Alan Mindemann of Apache and Tom Cannon of Blackwell. Two Oklahoma State University extension specialists are also a part of the No Till faculty- Dr. Brian Arnall and Dr. Jason Warren.

Early Bird Pricing is still in place through next Monday- for details about the 2017 Conference and how you can register to attend one of the top No Till Conferences in the United States- click or tap here.

 

Dr. Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, says that "It is generally accepted that adequate supervision at calving has a significant impact on reducing calf mortality. Adequate supervision has been of increasing importance with the higher price of live calves at sale time. On most ranching operations, supervision of the first calf heifers will be best accomplished in daylight hours and the poorest observation takes place in the middle of the night.



"The easiest and most practical method of inhibiting nighttime calving at present is by feeding cows at night; the physiological mechanism is unknown, but some hormonal effect may be involved. Rumen motility studies indicate the frequency of rumen contractions falls a few hours before parturition. Intraruminal pressure begins to fall in the last 2 weeks of gestation, with a more rapid decline during calving. It has been suggested that night feeding causes intraruminal pressures to rise at night and decline in the daytime.



"The concept is called the Konefal method. A Canadian rancher, Gus Konefal reported his observations in the 1970's In a follow-up Canadian study of 104 Hereford cows, 38.4% of a group fed at 8:00 am and again at 3:00 pm delivered calves during the day, whereas 79.6% of a group fed at 11:00 am and 9:00 pm. In a more convincing study, 1331 cows on 15 farms in Iowa were fed once daily at dusk, 85% of the calves were born between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm."

Dr Selk adds that there is additional research that seems to back up what this Canadian has discovered- click here to read more from his regular electronic blog on cattle herd managment- Cow Calf Corner.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) launched a New Year's campaign on Wednesday to help Americans turn their resolutions into real solutions for healthy eating in 2017. This campaign is supported by new and existing MyPlate, MyWins resources available on ChooseMyPlate.gov, which are designed such that Americans can decide where to start on the journey to healthy eating.


"As Americans begin thinking about setting goals for the New Year, MyPlate, MyWins is the place to start," said Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. "With the new resources available on the MyPlate, MyWins webpages, Americans can set small, attainable, healthy eating solutions to incorporate into their lifestyle now and into the future."

Click or tap here to learn more about the campaign that is being rolled out in the first couple of days of 2017 by USDA.

 
Forbes has on their website an article that is calling Barbara Streisand on the Hunts tomato folks- they are one of the two national ketchup companies in the US.