Presented by

 

Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured Story:

GMO Labeling Compromise Measure Set for Senate Vote Next Week- After the Fourth of July

 
The U.S. Senate Wednesday night cleared a procedural vote on the GMO labeling compromise by Senators Pat Roberts and Debbie Stabenow. The Senate voted 68-29 in favor of the vote, clearing the way for considerations on the Senate floor. Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, says the bill "will have the votes" to pass the Senate, likely next week. Senator Roberts, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, echoed Stabenow's comments saying "I'm pleased with the outcome of tonight's procedural vote," said Roberts. "The Senate stood up for America's farmers, ranchers, consumers, and sound science. I look forward to the Senate acting next week."

Industry groups continue to push lawmakers to get this done in July before the lengthy recess hits mid month. Earlier this week, BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood, sent a letter to the Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives urging them to support the Roberts-Stabenow GMO labeling agreement. Greenwood tells Congress preemption of the Vermont law is essential- "The Congress must pass the Roberts-Stabenow agreement and send it to the President without delay. Vermont's mandatory GMO labeling law takes effect on July 1. That state's law is already generating chaos in the food chain and will, if not replaced with a uniform federal program, raise food prices for consumers.

"In the absence of such a national standard, many food companies already have been forced to undertake costly measures to comply with Vermont's law, either through special labeling or sourcing more expensive non-GMO ingredients, and many more will face such choices as more and different state labeling laws proliferate across the country."

Click or tap here to read our Top Ag Story with more on this letter- more on the procedural debate of last night and links to the actual legislation and the letter sent by BIO to Congress.

 

Report Shows Solid Environmental Achievements and a Greater Focus on Supply Chain Sustainability

 

Following the first installment of Smithfield Foods' 2015 Sustainability & Financial Report, the report's Environment section is now available. This section highlights environmental goals and practices that improve Smithfield's performance while promoting supply chain efficiency.

This year's report shows solid improvements in reducing our natural resource demand and our leadership in advancing sustainable farming practices.

These highlights include:

- Surpassing our normalized greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target and nearly meeting our energy use reduction target four years ahead of our 2020 deadline.

- Reduced our normalized water use by 2.6 percent due in part to several new water management projects implemented at facilities and farms.

- Achieving zero-waste-to-landfill status at two additional facilities, bringing the total to six.

- Reducing our normalized solid waste generation, despite an increase in production in 2015.

- Expanding our collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to establish fertilizer optimization and conservation practices on grain farms supplying feed for our animals.

- Teaming with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to launch the agency's Nutrient Recycling Challenge, a competition to develop affordable technologies that recycle nutrients from livestock manure.

Wrapping Up Our Conversation with NFU's Roger Johnson - Talking Farm Policy Issues

 

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson says the fundamental purpose of farm policy has always been to provide a safety net for agricultural producers during difficult times - whether it's a natural disaster or a market collapse - but he's concerned programs in the current farm bill are not designed to protect farmers during the current down market.


Johnson says net farm income has decreased by more than half in the last three years. He compares it to a salaried employee taking a 50 to 60 percent pay cut, but he says he would argue it's worse for farmers.


"That net farm income isn't just what farmers have to use for their family living, which would be sort of like what you'd use a salary for," he says. "It's also what they have to use to pay debt back with, and it's what they have to use to make improvements in machinery, equipment, buying new assets, etc. to keep the farm operating into the future."


Johnson admits agricultural producers had been experiencing a "boom period" where crop and livestock prices were very strong. He says when those prices go up, input costs - fertilizer, chemicals, seed - go up immediately behind the market, but they are much slower to decrease when the market price falls.


"Those costs get really sticky; they stay high for a long while, and then they grudgingly, gradually come down" he says. "That's the painful process that we're going through right now."


Farmers are no strangers to this type of boom and bust cycle, but Johnson says this one is different.


"We've always had a farm bill that was sort of countercyclical in nature," he says. "If we had too much production out there that was depressing prices, we had incentives for farmers to reduce production. We don't have that anymore."


I spoke with Johnson during his recent trip to Oklahoma. Click here to listen to our conversation about farm policy and how the current political climate could impact the next farm bill.

Oklahoma State Officials Agree- The Illinois River is Cleaner Than It has Been for Decades 

 

On our website, courtesy of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, we have a good overview of the work being done in western Arkansas and eastern Kansas to reduce the amount of phosphorous in the scenic Illinois River.

It profiles our friend Ed Fite, who has spent a lot of this life working on the water quality of this river well known for hundreds of people floating portions of it on a hot summer day.

And- they talk about the joint efforts of land owners, the poultry industry and several government agencies that have resulted in water quality improvements.

They quote Shanon Phillips is the Water Quality Director for the Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC).

"Although Oklahoma and Arkansas haven't always agreed on the sources of the problem or what the ultimate goal should be to protect the river, that didn't stop them from working on the river," Phillips said.

She added that cities improved wastewater treatment, the poultry industry sponsored poultry litter transport out of the watershed, partners provided bathrooms and trash bags to reduce impacts of recreation, commercial nurseries collected and recycled irrigation water, and ag producers and other landowners partnered with conservation districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), tribal and state programs, and the EPA to improve land management.

"If it was possible that some type of activity was affecting the river, then someone, somewhere in the watershed has worked to reduce the impact," Phillips said. "Both states and their local and federal partners have concentrated on monitoring the watershed so we could better understand if, where and what was causing water quality problems, but also whether our efforts were resulting in positive changes for the river. As a result, many partners on both sides of the state line agree that we're seeing significant decreases in phosphorus in the river. Although we still have more phosphorus in the river than a scenic river should have, according to Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission reports, we've cut concentrations at the state line by at least half since the 1980s."

Click or tap here to read more about the turnaround that Oklahoma can be proud of when it comes to the Illinois River.

 

 

Texas A&M's Ron Gill Talks Tips for Loading and Unloading Cattle

 

When it comes to loading and unloading cattle in a stock trailer, Dr. Ron Gill, professor and extension livestock specialist at Texas A&M, says there are several things producers can do to ensure the safety of both the cattle and handlers.


Whether loading in a set of permanent pens at the ranch or a portable corral in the middle of a wheat field, Gill says it's important to find a spot where the trailer is lowest to the ground to avoid cattle having to jump on or off. 


"We see a lot of cattle try to jump off a trailer where their back feet will slip out from under them and can injure themselves, or fall and something else runs over the top of them," he says. "The higher it is, the more they're going to jump."


Gill was a speaker at the recent International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare in Manhattan, Kan. He says most cattle are hauled at least five times in their lives and handling them in a calm manner during loading and unloading can make a big difference in the welfare - and ultimately the probability - of the cattle.


"If we handle them quieter, flow through the system better, they shrink less and that's more money in everybody's pocket," he says. "We have less bruising, less trim loss - everything we talk about in welfare of livestock all starts with how we handle them.


"It's a huge component in the welfare of cattle and in the overall life of that animal to do it and do it right," he says.

Click or tap here to hear Gill talk more about properly loading and unloading cattle during the latest Beef Buzz.

Want to Have the Latest Energy News Delivered to Your Inbox Daily?

Stockmanship Expert Dr. Noffsinger to be Featured at Upcoming OSU Extension Cattle Conference

 

International cattle handling and stockmanship expert Dr. Tom Noffsinger will headline a slate of speakers at the Merck Animal Health and Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Cattle Conference set for this summer.


Free and open to the public, the conference will be 1-7 p.m., July 16 at the Grady County Fairgrounds and Event Center, 500 East Choctow, in Chickasha. Dinner will be provided in part by the Beef Check Off and The Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance Program.


"This is the first time we've offered this conference," said Gant Mourer, OSU beef enhancement specialist. "This event is for anyone who is interested in increasing the efficiency of their operation while cutting down on the stress on both their cattle and themselves."


Dr. Noffsinger will discuss low-stress cattle handling and stockmanship as well as offer a live cattle demonstration. Other topics covered during the conference include the Beef Quality Assurance program and optimizing cow-calf and stocker profits.

 

 

Click here for information on registering for the conference.

This N That: USDA Reports Cometh, Fed Cattle Exchange Suspends Sales and Sesame Double Crop- Not Too Late

USDA will release a couple of key reports for the grain industry at 11:00 AM Central time this morning- a quarterly grain stocks report and the spring Plantings Report- updated from their March numbers.

The industry will be looking closely at both reports- but especially at what Uncle Sam has come up with regarding the final acreage numbers planted to corn and soybeans.

We'll have coverage of both reports on our website later this afternoon.

**********

The folks operating the FedCattleExchange.Com website have put a temporary hold on weekly sales of finished cattle.  In a statement on the site dated June 29th(yesterday)- they state "Effective June 29th, 2016, the Fed Cattle Exchange website will not be hosting auctions for an indefinite period of time."

The explanation that has been given indicates "We encountered some technology obstacles that were in part, due to our attempt to quickly address a long recognized need of cattle producers. We have also received valuable input from buyers, sellers, and registered sellers that have not yet sold through the Exchange, which we will be sorting through and implementing.

"Our sincere thanks are offered to the buyers, sellers and industry leaders who have had the faith to be trailblazers during this testing period. The Exchange will be back in a stronger and more reliable format in the future."

Click here for the website home page to see their full explanation and their intentions to return with a fresh effort to be a price discovery point for finished cattle in the US.

**********

Finally- if you have finished wheat harvest- and have not made any decision on what to do with some of your fields- you might take a look a Sesame production.  We talked earlier this month with Jarold Johnson of Sesaco- click here for our story and a chance to listen to our conversation- and Jarold told us then that as long as you get going with Sesame by around the Fourth of July in northern Oklahoma and the 20th of July in southern areas of the state- you can make a decent crop.

Many areas have the moisture- and with the deep roots that Sesame will drop down into your soil- it can really bust up any hard pan you may have. 

You can call Jarod if you have questions- (405) 531-7840.

 

Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K Equipment,  American Farmers & Ranchers, Stillwater Milling Company, Oklahoma AgCredit,  the Oklahoma Cattlemens Association, Pioneer Cellular, and  KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis- at NO Charge!

 

 

We also invite you to check out our website at the link below to check out an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe.   

 Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com  

 

 

God Bless! You can reach us at the following:  

 

 

 

Oklahoma Farm Bureau is Proud to be the Presenting Sponsor of the Ron Hays Daily Farm and Ranch News Email