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United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the U.S. will appeal a World Trade Organization ruling against a law requiring country-of-origin labels on meat sold in grocery stores in America. Country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, went into effect in 2009. U.S. consumer groups and some farm groups favored the law saying it would allow consumers to make an informed choice.

Big meat packers said the law would hinder trade and boost costs unnecessarily.  Both Mexico and Canada had long been opposed to COOL saying it unfairly stigmatized their product.

America's north American neighbors filed suit with the World Trade Organization, calling COOL a technical barrier to trade. In their complaint, both countries said their exports to America had indeed dropped sharply after the law was implemented.  The WTO ruled in their favor last November, giving the U.S. until March 23, 2012 to appeal.  

Kirk's decision stirred up a hornet's nest among trade organizations representing various segments of the agricultural and food industries.  Reaction from groups supportive of and opposed to the decision to appeal came swiftly.

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson applauded the decision.  "U.S. family farmers and ranchers work each day to provide a safe, abundant food supply to our country and the world," said Johnson. "Not only are we proud of what we do, but consumers have made it clear they want to know where their food comes from. We should not deny them that right."  (Read his full statement by clicking here.) 

National Cattlemen's Beef Association Vice President Bob McCann expressed his disappoinment with the appeal.  "Instead of working diligently to bring the United States into WTO compliance, our government has opted to engage in an appeal process, which jeopardizes our strong trade relationship with Canada and Mexico."  (Click here to read NCBA's position.) 

Bill Bullard, President of R-CALF, supported the appeal, but came out swinging against groups that opposed it including the NCBA and the American Meat Institute alleging they were supportive of the WTO undermining the COOL law.  "These groups don't want U.S. consumers to know if they are buying beef produced exclusively in the United States or if their beef was produced in Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, or any one of the more than a dozen countries where U.S. corporations source their beef."  (Click here for R-CALF's full response.) 

 You can read the original story about the USTR's decision to appeal by clicking here. 

House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas Looking for Producer Input on Farm Safety Net( and more) at Field Hearings

The House Agriculture Committee convened another in its series of field hearings on the new farm bill in Galesburg, Illinois. It was the second of four hearings to gather input in advance of writing the 2012 Farm Bill.

In his opening statement, Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said three facets of the upcoming legislation were of particular importance: a wide range of options for producers in the commodity title, improving crop insurance, simplifying the conservation program process for producers.

Members took testimony from Midwest producers of corn, rice, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, specialty crops and beef. Witnesses were practically unanimous in stressing the need for an effective safety net and a choice of risk management tools.

"Crop insurance in its current form is the most effective answer to short crop years. Any producer who desires an effective risk management tool can purchase crop insurance. Agriculture will accept reductions in FSA programs for crop insurance to survive," said Craig Adams, a wheat, corn, soybean and beef producer from Leesburg, Illinois.

Wheat Watch 2012: Mike Schulte of the OWC Cautiously Optimistic About 2012 Wheat Crop

The recent rains and mild temperatures all across the state appear to be having a tremendous affect on this year's wheat crop. Mike Schulte, CEO of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission says in this week's edition of the 2012 Wheat Watch, reports coming in from all over reflect excellent growing conditions. Schulte says along with the good news, producers are also remaining somewhat cautious-with good reason.

"Moisture levels have really been helped out by these recent rains. We've come through the 13th wettest January through March period on record as far as moisture received throughout the state. They finally got some moisture in the Panhandle this last week. And up there where it's extremely dry and the wheat is far behind, we're hoping this might the thing that can help them come in with a crop if they could continue maybe and get one or two more rains before harvest time. Overall, driving through the state, things look to be very good right now. We're just hoping that we don't have any late freeze situations that are going to pop up since this crop is two or three weeks ahead of normal with the growing conditions we've had for the last couple of months," Schulte says.

He says indications are, if the weather pattern remains the same, that harvest could come very early this year.

Click here to read or hear Mike Schulte's rundown on what producers should be on the lookout for over the next several weeks as we close in on harvest time. We also have the video of our conversation with Mike on News9- KWTV from Saturday morning as he was our guest on our regular In the Field segment.  

U.S. Cattle on Feed Up Three Percent

The latest USDA Cattle on Feed report was released Friday afternoon, March 23, 2012, showing On Feed numbers and placements a little larger than expected with marketing numbers a little lower. The On Feed numbers came in 3 percent higher. Expectations were around 2 percent. This makes twenty-two months in a row the On-Feed number has been higher than the previous year. 

The report is looked at as slightly bearish but with other fundamental and technical news in the market, it may not have much of a bearing on the markets Monday morning.

Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on March 1, 2012. The inventory was 3 percent above March 1, 2011.  

Placements in feedlots during February totaled 1.71 million, 3 percent above 2011. Net placements were 1.62 million head. During February, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds were 400,000, 600-699 pounds were 335,000, 700-799 pounds were 469,000, and 800 pounds and greater were 510,000.  

Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 1.76 million, 2 percent below 2011.  

Other disappearance totaled 93,000 during February, 52 percent above 2011.

Click here for a link to all the numbers in the USDA Cattle on Feed Report and and you will also find an analysis by Tom Leffler.

Soy Checkoff Survey Looks at Importance, Value of U.S. Soy Components

As some U.S. farmers enter the fields this spring, their center of attention likely won't be on protein and oil. Meanwhile, that's exactly the focus of U.S. soy customers when deciding what to buy. According to a recent soy checkoff survey, nearly 70 percent of U.S. soybean farmers feel no need to worry about protein and oil content because they have no problem - at present - selling their soybeans.

"Most farmers see a price per bushel and see soy for the sum of its parts," says Marc Curtis, immediate past chair for the United Soybean Board (USB) and soybean farmer from Leland, Miss. "That value actually is calculated based on the value of meal and oil, minus the processing costs, but we don't get that sort of transparency."

The survey also helped measure soy farmers' receptiveness to a component value system, being fairly reimbursed based on the value of protein and oil in their harvested soybeans. Nearly 66 percent of U.S. soybean farmers responded favorably to this idea, and 35 percent believed it would impact their price positively. 

Read more about the soy bean checkoff survey by clicking here. 

Cross Breeding v. Straight Breeding:  A Systems-Based Analysis

Dr. Nevil Speer of Western Kentucky University recently authored a paper examining straight breeding and cross breeding strategies. His research, he says, emphasizes economics systems-based approach as opposed to a genetic-based approach.

"We have introduced new value-based systems into our industry. So, commercial cow-calf producers now have real price signals coming back at them that they didn't have 20 years ago. They're obviously responding to that in some form or fashion as they begin to make decisions about buying bulls."

Speer's study sought to be comprehensive, taking into account factors that will affect the profitability of the whole system.

Time management and the efficient utilization of resources plays a large role in determining the overall profitability of a breeding strategy.

Click here to read more or to see a video interview with Nevil Speer. 

Justin Lewis of KIS on Prospective Plantings Report that Comes Out THIS Friday

This coming Friday, the US Department of Agriculture will be releasing a pair of reports that the grain trade in the US and around the globe will be watching closely. At 7:30 AM central time, the USDA will release both a Grain Stocks report as well as the spring planted crops "Prospective Plantings" report. Justin Lewis with KIS Futures has prepared a pre report analysis of what the numbers may look like on Friday morning- and has provided us with a copy of his expectations. 

Specifically on the Prospective Plantings- here's the pre report rundown from Justin Lewis:


"The most important number in this report is the prospective plantings. The general estimates are that 94-95 million acres of corn will be planted, 75 million acres of soybeans, 58 million acres of wheat, and 12.5 million acres of cotton.

"My personal estimate is slightly different. Traditionally, the ratio of corn to soybeans has been 2.3. What does this mean? The current price of new crop soybeans divided by the current price of new crop corn is 2.4. Soybean prices are 2.4 times the price of corn. If you look at the historic ratio on a continous chart, current ratios favor planting soybeans instead of corn. Therefore I believe the actual numbers will be corn planting intentions will be closer to 94 million acres and soybeans closer to 76.5 million acres. 

Click here for the rest of Justin's view of what this coming Friday's report may look like- we have a PDF file you can find at this link which includes charts and more analysis. 

From the Web- Did Corzine Lie to Congress?- Pink Slime- Agfrica

We have written a little about the Pink Slime nonsense- and how single handedly one TV network is trying to demonize a safe meat industry process because they have one "expert" who does not like it. An excellent op-ed piece found on the Fox News site explains this smear campaign as it really is. "TV news loves a health scare. Think deadly Tylenol. Killer tomatoes. Mad Cow Disease. Alar in apples. And lots more. Sometimes, as with Tylenol, they are legit and important. Other times, like Alar, they are entirely bogus. Yet every time, the template is the same. Someone gets sick and the ravenous media tear at the company or industry for not being safe." Click here to read more of this piece written by Dan Gainor about how pink slime has gained traction it does not deserve.   

FINALLY- I wanted to point you to a blog that I enjoyed reading over the weekend- and perhaps by the time you click here to access the blog Agfrica, young Ashton Mese of Kingfisher will have updated with another entry.  I met Ashton a few years back as she was rising thru the ranks of the Kingfisher FFA- and got to knew her better as we worked with her in advance of her winning at the National FFA Convention in Indy a couple of years ago in the speech competitions there. She is now a Junior at OSU in Ag Communications- and has been in Uganda in recent days for an Ag Education mission- she offers some excellent insights about that country and the challenge of transferring how we do things over here over there.