A hearing to consider the nominations of Stephen Censky and Ted McKinney for the posts of USDA Deputy Secretary and Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, respectively, was held yesterday morning by the Senate Ag Committee.

During the hearing, Committee Chairman Pat Roberts expressed his confidence in the two nominees to perform their duties competently. Particularly in regards to Censky, who he mentioned would step in as Acting Secretary if Secretary Sonny Perdue were ever incapable of performing his duties.

Roberts also emphasized the necessity of filling these vacancies at the department, acknowledging the length at which Secretary Perdue has been without a complete leadership team to manage the business and activities of the USDA.

"Secretary Perdue and his team have hit the ground running to keep the Department working on behalf of the nation's farmers, ranchers, and other rural stakeholders," said Chairman Roberts. "But, we need to get his team officially on board."

While each nominee had his chance to speak and answer questions before the committee, no vote to confirm was made yesterday, per Committee Rules that stipulate the vote must be made during a separate business meeting.

To watch or listen to the hearing, including the opening remarks of Chairman Roberts, and remarks made by Censky and McKinney, click or tap here to jump to our website.

It is important for cattle producers to follow wholesale boxed beef prices on a regular basis, in order to keep a pulse on what sort of demand is out there in the market for their beef, as it gets closer to entering the pipeline. Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel spoke with me about the history of this year's choice/select spread which for the second time in 2017, has come very close together at the wholesale level.


"it's not uncommon to have kind of the second low," Peel said. "The most pronounced seasonal low in choice/select spread happens early in the year in February and March and we had that this year. Then it goes up."


But it has become more common, Peel says, to see the spread dip back down during the summertime now. He explains that has happened this year, but in an exaggerated way. In fact, at one-point last week, Peel reports that select price overcame choice by a few pennies. It has widened since then to nearly $4.00, but this confirms a tendency in the market this year to lean towards a weaker choice/select spread. There are several things at play here causing the spread to behave as it has. Among the many reasons, though, one stands out in Peel's mind as a major contributor to this situation - a weakness in the middle meats, where the choice market is stronger. Looking ahead, however, Peel believes the spread will continue to widen in response to normal seasonal pressures.


"Seasonally, we look for that choice/select spread to widen back out in the fourth quarter," he said. "There is more demand for some of the middle meats as we move into cooler weather, so we'll see some seasonal strength in those middle meats as we move into the fourth quarter."


Listen in as I discuss with Dr. Derrell Peel his interpretation of the dynamics of this year's choice/select spread and its reflection on the current wholesale meat market, on yesterday's Beef Buzz - click here.

Over the past 30 years, the US cotton industry has made great progress in improving its environmental impact. This week, however, the National Cotton Council formally set new goals in place to build upon the strides already made by the industry to further shrink its footprint.

"Our industry wants to be the supplier of choice for those who are committed to only buying cotton that is produced with sustainable and responsible environmental, safety and labor practices," said National Cotton Council Chairman Ronnie Lee, a Georgia cotton producer.

The goals were developed by the Council's COTTON USA Sustainability Task Force, chaired by Louisiana cotton producer Ted Schneider. The task force was created specifically for this objective in a resolution adopted by the council calling for increased industry wide sustainability.

The task force used science-based metrics and benchmarks developed by industry experts to assess cotton's environmental impacts and identify opportunities for improvement.

Among the specific goals being pursued by 2025 are:

• reducing by 13 percent the amount of land needed to produce a pound of cotton fiber
• reducing soil loss by 50 percent, in balance with new soil formation
• increasing water use efficiency (more fiber per gallon) by 18 percent
• reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent
• increasing soil carbon in fields by 30 percent
• reducing energy to produce seed cotton and ginned lint by 15 percent.

Opportunities in agriculture are starting to look up, according to AgResource President and market analyst, Dan Basse.

In an interview featured by Certified Angus Beef this week, Basse explained how agricultural opportunities seem to be bottoming out as bankers cut back their lending, while the attitude of the market steadily declines from bearishness seen over the last few years.

He says corn and soybean crops this year are expected to be smaller than the previous year and believes this will bring some levity to the markets. He also suggests that China's potential interest in beta-agonist-free beef could provide opportunity for producers as well during early 2018.

"That will provide an opportunity, along with strong consumer demand, domestic demand," he said, "to get some improving beef prices and cattle prices as we look forward to the first and second quarter of 2018."

He believes drought in the Northern Plains pushed cattle placements earlier and that means lower prices in the near-term will improve into next year.


"And that combination of seasonality and fewer supply should give us a run up to maybe a 124, 128 dollars per hundredweight and then thereafter, we should start to see prices easing down. But we're going to bottom, we think, in the fourth quarter somewhere between 100 to 104," Bass said. "So, it is a nice run to the upside as we look forward to 2018."

He advises cattle feeders to look for breaks in the market to secure feedstuffs, as he believes the markets will continue to improve with other countries cutting back numbers, and increased domestic and export demand.

Check out the latest video from Certified Angus Beef featuring Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co., talk about a prediction of an upward trend in cattle and grain prices he made at the recent Feeding Quality Forum, by clicking or tapping here.

In his article this week for the Cow/Calf Corner newsletter, Glenn Selk attempts to persuade producers to strongly consider temperament when making culling decisions in their herd, asserting that ill-tempered cattle can adversely affect profitability.

As we get into October, Selk points out that producers will begin to decide which cows in their herd are no longer helpful to the operation and which heifer calves will be kept for future replacements. He insists that selecting against ill-tempered cattle has always made good sense.

"Wild cattle are hard on equipment, people, other cattle, and now we know that they are hard on the bottom line," he writes.

To prove his point, Selk referenced a study conducted by Mississippi State University researchers that used a total of 210 feeder cattle consigned by 19 producers in a 'Farm to Feedlot' program to evaluate the effect of temperament on performance, carcass characteristics, and net profit.

He described how three measurements were used in the study including: pen score, chute score, and exit velocity, which is an evaluation of temperament that is made electronically by measuring the speed at which the animal leaves the confinement of the chute. Researchers found that exit velocity and pen scores were highly correlated. As pen scores increased, so did exit velocity. As pen score and exit velocity increased, health treatments costs and number of days treated increased, while average daily gain and final body weight decreased.

Ultimately, as pen temperament score increased, net profit per head tended to decline. Selk strongly advises producers to consider removing aggressive and excitable cattle from their herds in order to suppress the inheritable trait in their operation. Simply put, Selk states that, "wild, excitable cattle are expensive to own and raise."

Click here to read Selk's complete article in this week's edition of the Cow/Calf Corner up on our website.