John Boehner Announces Support for House Farm Bill; AFB President Optimistic at Chances for Passage 

Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday he would vote for the House's farm bill, despite reservations.

"I've got concerns about the farm bill, as I told our members," Boehner said after a closed House Republican Conference meeting. "But doing nothing means that we get no changes in the farm program, no changes in the nutrition program. And as a result, I'm going to vote for the farm bill to make sure that the good work of the Agriculture Committee and whatever the floor might do to improve this bill gets to a conference so that we can get the kind of changes that people want in our nutrition programs and our farm programs."

Passing the farm bill, which will come to the House floor this month, will be one of the toughest tasks for the Ohio Republican's leadership team. Members of leadership are already working to assuage concerns about several of the bill's provisions. In a sign of how difficult this legislation is, last year's bill didn't even make it to the floor for a vote.

Earlier this week, Boehner announced that he had "concerns about some of the dairy provisions" in both last year's legislation and this year's bill.

The Senate easily passed its version of the bill earlier this week.  (The article above is by Jake Sherman and is available at www.politico.com)

Bob Stallman, president of American Farm Bureau, said Boehner's support gives him reason to be optimistic about the bill's chances in the House.

"With his statement of support for the farm bill today, Speaker Boehner is giving all Americans, including the farmers who feed them and those concerned with nutrition programs, real optimism that Washington can get important work done in 2013. In return, today he has been attacked unfairly by those who want to make the bipartisan progress on a farm bill appear to be the work of party politics by President Obama or the speaker himself.

"The American Farm Bureau calls on Congress to work its will through a fair process and an open debate, to finish the House bill, leading to a conference committee, which can then produce legislation that reflects the will of the American people. It is time to put aside partisan bickering and get to work."  (You can read more from Bob Stallman by clicking here.) 

Farm Policy Facts Launches 'Real Farms, Real Families' Ad Campaign 

Farm Policy Facts, a diverse coalition of agricultural organization, today launched a new ad campaign, "Real Farms, Real Families."  The ad campaign, which will run during throughout the upcoming Congressional Farm Bill negotiations, will feature real photos taken by farmers and farming advocates illustrating what rural America means to them.

The first advertisement, showcasing a photo taken by Janelle Seedall of Bonneville County, Idaho, debuted Wednesday in Roll Call. The photograph is an image of Seedall's farm taken through the window of her family's farm vehicle.

"This particular picture was taken soon after we built our home ... the piece of land is very dear to us as I know many family farmers understand," Seedall told Farm Policy Facts when submitting her photo for consideration.

The second advertisement will appear in The National Journal on Thursday. This advertisement will feature a stormy farm horizon shot by Terry O'Donnell that he entitled "Heartland." The image was taken by O'Donnell during a trip to Iowa.

Click here to read more and to find links to the photographs.

Beef Improvement Federation Holding Annual Meeting in OKC- Where Profit and Progress Intersect

The 45th annual Research Symposium and Annual Meeting of the Beef Improvement Federation has come to Oklahoma City this week.

Themed "Where Profit and Progress Intersect," this year's program will bring together industry professionals, producers and researchers to discuss current issues facing the beef industry. Among those issues, speakers will tackle the crossbreeding vs. straightbreeding debate, as well as using genetic tools to address environmental challenges and cow herd efficiency.

We talked with the Executive Director of the BIF, Dr. Joe Cassady as these beef industry professionals were gathering on Wednesday afternoon from across the country as well as from Canada- and we talked about the BIF and where beef research is likely to take the beef cattle production in the days ahead.

Click here to hear our conversation with Dr. Cassady- and at that link- we have the link that the Angus Journal folks are making available that is a live video feed of the major presentations.

Oklahoma Winter Wheat Supplies Increased In Latest USDA Reports

The USDA raised its projected U.S. winter wheat supplies for 2013/14 in its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report and in its Crop Production Report. The overall increase is pegged to an increase in beginning stocks and higher forecast winter wheat production.

Beginning stocks are up with a 15-million-bushel reduction in 2012/13 exports as May shipments fell below expectations. Projected production for 2013/14 was raised 23 million bushels as higher yields boost forecast production of hard red winter wheat in the Southern and Central Plains and soft red winter wheat across the South and Midwest.

Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.51 billion bushels, up 2 percent from the May 1 forecast but down 8 percent from 2012. Based on June 1 conditions, the United States yield is forecast at 46.1 bushels per acre, up 0.7 bushel from last month but down 1.1 bushels from last year.

In Oklahoma, producers are expected to harvest 3.8 million acres compared with 4.3 million last year. The USDA did not change the estimated yield per acre from its May report of 30 bushels to the acre compared with 36 last year. Total production is expected to be 114 million bushels compared with 154.8 million last year. USDA raised the Kanssa wheat crop estimate slightly to 307.8 million bushels.

You'll find an audio analysis by Tom Leffler and links to the reports on our website by clicking here.

Nigerian Wheat Buyers Impressed With Their Oklahoma Visit

Nine representatives from the top milling and food companies in Nigeria are in Oklahoma. They are part of a team traveling to four states to survey the new wheat crop. Nigeria is the second-largest buyer of U.S. wheat. One of the companies, Flour Mills of Nigeria, is the world's largest importer of winter wheat, shipped from its own export elevator in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I caught up with the team on their visit to Oklahoma and spoke with Olumuyiwa Talabi. Talabi is a marketing consultant with U.S. Wheat Associates. He is based in Lagos, Nigeria. He says the hard red winter wheat grown in Oklahoma and the Southern Plains is very important to his country.

"It is because of the kind of bread Nigerians consume. We consume the big pan bread in which we use the hard red winter wheat to produce because hard red winter wheat is a hard wheat and it gives a very good gluten which rises. And Nigerians millers have found out that the hard red winter gluten is very suitable for the kind of bread they produce."

He said Nigeria has been the No. 1 importer of hard red winter wheat for the last seven years and he believes the country will continue to do so. 

Talabi also said the members of the team were most impressed with the friendliness of the Oklahoma farmers.

You can hear our full conversation or read more of this story by clicking here.

Beef Connection System Helps Producers Maximize Genetic Expression for Greater Profitability

At the recent Alltech International Symposium in Lexington, Kentucky, I spoke with Bob Sand. Sand is an Angus cow-calf operator, but he is also the owner of the Beef Connection. He says it is all about trying to dramatically improve the return on investment for cattle producers. He says that he wants them to prosper and be more sustainable at the same time.

The Beef Connection is Sand's data collection and analysis system that helps maximize producer profitability and sustainability. Sands' website says they system is based on two principles: hard data is a powerful tool and producers need to seize every opportunity to create value by following a marketing plan.

The data collection details not only genetics, but nutrition as well. He says that genetics are important, but they only go so far in producing consistently superior marketing results.

"I noticed that groups of cattle acted differently, but they were bred or A-Ied to the exact same bull. So, I knew I sorted the females off and made a production system on the farm, so what was the differentiation factor? I started going back into the nutritional profiles that they were on on the farm that would and that was the area where there was a lot of variability."

He says the differences were astounding and easily visible.

"If you look at a mineral program that a mama cow was on, you can see that you installed the semen but the genes were never turned on, say, for carcass merit or feed efficiency or whatever it is. And what I was able to do was trace it back to the use of proper micronutrients in the mineral and Alltech helped me do that through their nutria-genomics laboratory. Nutrition and genetics is what they study, so we pulled that all apart and we were able to figure out which genes needed to be turned on to make it happen. And that is done through nutrition."

Bob joins me on the latest Beef Buzz.  Click here to go there.

Lucas Talks Farm Bill Process at National Council of Farmer Coops Meet

Speaking to the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Wednesday, House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said he expects the farm bill to come up on the House floor next week. He expressed his hope that around Monday the Rules Committee would put out a call for amendments - which he expects hundreds of. Then on Tuesday - Lucas hopes the Rules Committee will sort through the amendments, realize redundancy isn't a good use of time and limit the number of amendments on each subject. Lucas is looking for an open but orderly process - and believes the House will likely vote on 30 to 40 amendments covering every area - including food stamps, sugar, dairy, conservation and crop insurance.

Once the House achieves consensus on the farm bill - Lucas isn't sure what the measure will look like. He said it will be a document that brings the farm bill to conference. Once the conference report comes to the House and Senate - it will not be subject to amendment. There will be up or down votes with a majority in each body required for passage.

We are scheduled to spend some time on the phone with the Chairman this morning- and we'll be fleshing out some of these concepts with him- as well as his analysis of the Senate passed Farm Bill from last week.  We hope to be posting that conversation with Congressman Lucas later this morning on our website- and will have full details tomorrow morning in our email report to you.