AFBF President Bob Stallman Offers State of Agriculture Speech to American Farm Bureau Convention in Honolulu  

America's farmers and ranchers are more productive than ever and are providing a solid economic foundation for our nation, according to Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Playing off of the Occupy movement and their contention that the richest one percent in society owe everyone else- Stallman opened his speech "We are the 1 percent that is producing food and fiber for the other 99 percent," Stallman declared in his annual address to the approximately 7,000 Farm Bureau members gathered for AFBF's 93rd Annual Meeting. Just over a hundred Oklahoma Farm Bureau members are a part of the meeting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean this week. 

Farm and ranch families are growing more food with fewer resources than ever before, Stallman said.

"Over a 20-year period, corn yields are up 41 percent. Per bushel soil loss has fallen by 70 percent. Water use per bushel of corn is down 27 percent. All major crops show similar trends," said Stallman.

American agriculture's successes have come in the face of challenges, Stallman said, including droughts, and doubts about the future of agricultural policy, floods, and a deluge of government regulatory actions, storms, and an often tempestuous public conversation about the farmer's role in feeding our nation.

Read more about Bob Stallman's comments from AFBF's annual convention- and you can also listen to it as we have the complete audio of the speech in our webstory- just click here and jump to our top story for this Monday morning.    

US Wheat CEO Alan Tracy Expects Dramatic Marketing Changes With the End of the CWB in 2012  

In the weekly US Wheat Associates electronic newsletter- they offered up an opinion piece by the President of this organization that promotes US Wheat into the global market.  Alan Tracy writes of the big changes coming this year in Canada as it relates to the marketing of wheat produced in that country.  Here's a portion of the analysis offered by Alan:

"A dramatic change in North American wheat marketing will take place this year with the end of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) monopoly over sales of western Canadian wheat and barley. After nearly three quarters of a century of total control over milling wheat in the west, CWB's monopoly will end as of Aug. 1, 2012. Although several lawsuits are still pending, we expect that change to happen and are planning for the future.

"Canada's wheat and barley farmers will now have the freedom to market their grain to whomever they choose. We expect the marketing system will evolve quickly to return to producers the true value of their wheat and barley. On average, we expect Canadian wheat prices to increase at the farm gate, although locational differences will become more important and farmers may prosper or fail based on the marketing decisions they make. Some will choose to continue to pool their wheat, even with a newly reconstituted CWB, and accept an average price, while others will embrace the opportunity and personal responsibility to manage the risk and capture the potential rewards of individual pricing schemes."

Click here to read more of what the demise of the CWB means to US worldwide marketing efforts- at least in the opinion of Alan Tracy of US Wheat Associates.   

Monsanto Claims Progress Across Multiple Platforms This Past Year

A diverse group of projects across research and development (R&D) platforms aimed at making agriculture more productive and profitable for farmers, and more sustainable, were highlighted during Monsanto Company's annual pipeline update.

Using a combination of the latest breeding, biotechnology, and agronomic tools and solutions, Monsanto remains committed to developing and delivering products that can create the next wave of yield opportunity for farmers.

"We're excited about the record progress we've made this year across all of our R&D platforms, as the projects in our pipeline today will help us provide an even stronger toolkit of solutions to meet the needs of farmers in the future," said Robb Fraley, Monsanto chief technology officer. "Through the convergence of innovations in our breeding, biotechnology and agronomic solutions platforms, we're focused on providing farmers the total package that can maximize their yields sustainably." 

Click here for a full look at the multiple fronts where Monsanto claims considerable progress in over this past year- and our webstory includes a video that you can watch that showcases the Pipeline Update. 

Cow Chow: Video Exploring What Cattle Eat

"Cow Chow: Exploring What Cattle Eat" is a Beef Checkoff-funded, interactive game that shows how proper cattle diets help farmers and ranchers raise high-quality, great-tasting and nutritious beef you can feel good about. According to recent research funded by the checkoff, consumers are curious about what cattle eat. This subject is highly personal-people believe what cattle eat directly translates into the beef they ultimately eat and serve to their own families.

"Cow Chow" explores common questions about what cattle eat, such as "Do grain-finished cattle eat only corn their entire lives?" As you navigate through the 10-question game and corresponding videos, you'll test your knowledge about what cattle eat from birth to the feedyard. The first-of-their-kind "Cow Chow" videos were filmed almost exclusively by cattle in Kansas, South Dakota, Texas and Florida wearing specially-rigged GoPro cameras.

Click here for more details and a link to the game- and we have a YouTube Video that we share with you that offers a close up of what various beef cows are chowing down on.  

A Less Than a 50-50 Chance on Getting a Farm Bill Through Congress in 2012- So Says Mary Kay Thatcher of American Farm Bureau

One of the big jobs ahead for delegates of the American Farm Bureau who are in Hawaii this week for their 93rd annual convention will be making firm decisions on the farm policy stance of the largest general farm organization in the US. That process actually starts at the convention on Tuesday- but the conversation has been going on for more than a year.

Corn belt Farm Bureau members want a so called "shallow loss" program which will help them when they have relatively small losses compared to normal crop production- farmers in the plains and the south are more worried about deep losses caused by wide swings in the weather- such as the insane weather we have dealt with across Oklahoma here in 2011.

Mary Kay Thatcher- long time lobbyist for AFBF- says one of the options on the table for Farm Bureau delegates to consider is to take some of the savings from the elimination of direct farm program payments and have the government pay for more of the cost of crop insurance for deep losses for all crops across the country.

Thatcher is confident that Farm Bureau delegates will come together and establish a 2012 farm bill position- but she is rather pessimistic about Congress actually finishing a farm bill in 2012- she says the chances are something less than 50-50 that a 2012 Farm Bill will actually be done in 2012.  The key hurdle- lack of time for members of Congress to do hardly anything as they focus on the November elections.

Click here for our webstory featuring comments with Mary Kay Thatcher as well as from Mike Spradling of Oklahoma Farm Bureau from the 2012 AFBF meeting in Honolulu. In that webstory- we have a link that details the "Systemic Risk Reduction Program" being touted by Farm Bureau.     

Tree Seedlings Available from ODAFF   

Want to be a landowner with his or her own forest? Oklahoma Forestry Services, a division of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry can help. They are officially in the midst of tree planting season. Didn't know such a season existed? For Oklahoma trees the season is typically December through mid-April and you can get your own forest started by ordering trees and shrubs from the OFS nursery in Goldsby.

Trees like to start their lives during the cold winter months. For OFS the process involves planting seed one or two years ago, nurturing and growing over 35 species of trees and shrubs into a size that is ready for you to plant. Then as the New Year kicks off, OFS staff begin "lifting" the seedlings and bundling in anticipation of shipping them to your doorstep for planting.

"The colder temperature during lifting, packing and planting is critical to the seedlings survival because they remain in a dormant state until the spring temperatures arrive," said State Forester George Geissler. "This year we were a little concerned about having enough soil moisture, but things have improved over much of the state since we have received some significant rains this fall."

Click here for more on getting your very own tree seedlings from the ODAFF.  

This N That- OGSP, PASS and Judd Capper at International Livestock Congress

The Oklahoma Grain and Stocker Producers welcomes everyone to a legislative meet-and-greet at the Garfield County Fairgrounds in Enid on Friday, January 13. The event will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, January 13, in the conference room on the northeast corner of the Chisholm Trail Expo Center, 111 W Purdue Ave., in Enid. Click here for additional details. 

Dr. Bob Whitson of the Oklahoma State University Division of Ag has announced a change in interim leadership for that Plant and Soil Science Department.  Dean Whitson writes in an email "Dr. Hailin Zhang will be assuming the duties of acting department head from Dr. Don Murray beginning January 3, 2012.  Dr. Murray has done a great job as acting department head and now wants to return to his project full-time.  I want to thank Don for his leadership over the last six months, and we now look forward to working with Hailin in the new year."

Finally- this past Friday we spotlighted research advanced by Jude Capper of Washington State that shows we have an incredible shrinking carbon footprint when it comes to beef production in this country. Dr. Capper will be the featured speaker this week in Denver at the 2012 International Livestock Congress- and we have more details of that appearance and some info on her research on modern beef production being very good for the environment. Click here for our Beef Buzz from this past Friday that features highlights of Dr. Capper's December article in the American Journal of Animal Science.