Inhofe, Pryor Question EPA's Authority to Retroactively Enforce SPCC Rule on Farmers 

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), senior member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) sent a letter Thursday to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting clarification on the EPA's interpretation of its authority with regard to enforcing the Spill, Prevention, Containment, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule on farmers. In the letter, the Senators expressed concern for the EPA's intent to retroactively enforce the rule despite bicameral and bipartisan congressional support to delay implementation and ultimately exempt much of the agriculture industry from it.  

The Senators wrote in the letter, "It has come to our attention that the EPA is informing agriculture producers that it does have the authority to begin enforcing the SPCC rule retroactively beginning September 23. Congress has repeatedly raised concerns about the implementation of this rule within the agriculture sector, making these reports particularly unsettling."

Inhofe and Pryor have been leading the fight to protect agricultural producers from being unfairly targeted by the SPCC rule that is intended to regulate large-scale energy production. To comply with the SPCC rule, farmers would be required to install new double-walled engine oil and diesel storage containers, build expensive berms around their storage facility locations, and fill out volumes of paperwork that must be certified by professional engineers.

Click here to read more and to find a link to the full letter.

Cactus Feeders CEO Calls Zilmax a Tremendous Benefit to Feedlot Industry and Worth the Effort to Review and Retain  

Beta agonists have proven to be revolutionary as a feed ingredient for cattle in this country. They improves feed efficiency resulting in higher-yielding carcasses.   However, one of the two products approved for use, Zilmax, has been withdrawn from the market by its manufacturer, Merck, for further scientific review due to reports of lameness in some cattle going from feedlots to packing plants.  

Dr. Mike Engler, president and CEO of Cactus Feeders, said his operation has worked with both Optiflex and Zilmax. He spoke with me in advance of the announcement by Merck that they were suspending sales temporarily of the product- and said he hopes the issues with Zilmax are resolved quickly.

"This is not new technology. The most recent of these products on the market, Zilmax, zilpateral, has been approved in the United States and we've been feeding it for six years. So, we have a lot of experience with these products." 

He said if producers are having problems, those problems need to be fixed and they may or may not be not be due to the use of a particular feed additive. He said if the lameness issues seen in a few instances are not due to beta agonists, it is very important to get the product back to the market so that feeders can use it.

Mike Engler joins me on the latest Beef Buzz.  You can read the rest of this story or listen to our interview by clicking here. 

Report Examines Impact of Affordable Care Act on Rural Americans

The Center for Rural Affairs released a new report that examines how the Affordable Care Act will provide tax credits and subsidies through new health insurance marketplaces to make health coverage more affordable for many Americans. The report summarizes these provisions, how they will work and their importance to rural Americans.

"Beginning October 1, 2013, Americans will face a new world of health insurance purchasing," said Jon Bailey, Director of Rural Research and Analysis at the Center for Rural Affairs and author of the report. "Many individuals and families will have the opportunity to purchase health insurance from either state-operated or federally facilitated health insurance marketplaces. Millions of uninsured Americans will be purchasing health insurance for the first time, or the first time in awhile."

According to Bailey, a major calculation for many as they begin to research and purchase insurance through the health insurance marketplaces will be the cost - the amount in premiums individuals and families must pay for their choice of coverage.

"The affordability of insurance will determine the success of the primary goals of the Affordable Care Act - enrollment in health insurance exchanges to increase insurance coverage and reduce the nation's uninsured," Bailey added.

Click here to read the rest of this story or to access a link to the full report.

Oklahoman's New Canola Book Puts a Wealth of Information at Producers' Fingertips

The canola industry is growing rapidly across the Southern Great Plains. Exploding may be a more apt way to describe it. As more and more producers seek to add it to their rotations, Fairview producer Matt Gard says there's one thing that hasn't kept pace: information. 

"Being a canola producer myself, I've noticed the difficulties in trying to find accurate yield data and have it right underneath your fingertips. So my company, we pulled together all the information from the Oklahoma Oilseed Commission, the national canola yield trials, from Oklahoma State University, and from our good friends up north, the Kansas State University people. And we put all our yield data all in one book so it's one-stop shopping for all the yield data for our producers to be able to read."

As an entrepreneur, Gard said he saw the need to bring together all the information from all varieties which are acclimated to the Great Plains into one resource. He produced a book containing all of the information available about each specific variety. Gard's book contains a write up about each variety describing the traits and characteristics each exhibits.   It contains over 25 pages of tables and several guest editorials from producers, canola extension specialists, and certified crop advisors.

Click here to read more and to find a link to Gard's website, where you can purchase your copy of the book. 

Beef Research Needs to Focus On Flavor, OSU Animal Science Professor Says

Beef is known for its flavor, yet the industry may need to spend more time focusing on it. The most recent national Beef Quality Audit points out flavor's growing importance with consumers.

"We all know that palatability is important," says Deb VanOverbeke of Oklahoma State University, "and when we say palatability, it's tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. But the one interesting piece that I think came from the audit is that if you as those closest to the consumer-retailers and food service restaurateurs-they'd tell you that flavor is more important than tenderness. And if you ask everyone else in the industry, they think tenderness is more important than flavor. And so I think it gave us some insights on what factors we maybe need to focus on. And we've done so much research over the years on tenderness that now it's time to do some flavor and maybe combine the two and find out where we need to go from here to make sure we're meeting consumer demands."

Previous research has shown that USDA quality grades do a good job of predicting all three of those palatability traits. 

You can see the video version of this story or read more by clicking here.  

Oklahoma Forestry Department Conducting Inventory in Several Oklahoma Counties

What type of forest or woodlands is present in Oklahoma? What tree species? Is our forest healthy? 

These and many other questions will be answered as a Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) crew from Oklahoma Forestry Services begins collecting data on plots in Woods, Woodward,

Click here or here to read more.

This N That- Cattle on Feed Preview, Express and The Big Event and Thoughts About Steve Collier

Rich Nelson with Allendale expects a significant jump in placements in tomorrow's monthly Cattle on Feed Report from USDA.  Here's Rich's preview of the numbers he sees US coming up with:

"July Placements are expected to be 11.6% higher than last year. Cattle feeders are taking notice of cheaper corn coming this fall. Corn in western Kansas fell from $7.30 in June to $6.92 in July. This was despite terrible margin conditions on outgoing fat cattle (27 months of losses). Cash cattle prices fell from $121 in June to $119 in July. July placements will be marketed from December to March. There will not be abundant Q1 cattle slaughter. There was a severe shortfall in lightweight placements in May and June.

"Allendale anticipates a Marketing total 3.8% higher than July of 2012. There was one more weekday in July 2013 than in 2012.

"Total Cattle on Feed as of July 1 will be 1.8% smaller than last year. This would be smaller than the July 1 survey which showed 3.2% fewer cattle."

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Express Ranches are gearing up for their 2013 edition of The Big Event- a two day lineup of tremendous Angus genetics to add to your herd.  This is their annual female sale- and on day one- this coming Friday, August 23rd- they will offer approximately 150 Fall calving mature females.  Then Saturday morning- the Big Event features donor cows, fall calving 2-year-olds, bred heifers, fall opens, heifer calf splits with spring calving cows and, as always, show heifer prospects that are eligible for the Express Scholarship program that has paid out over $3 million in scholarships to youth across the United States and Canada.  

For more information- click here- or call Express Ranches at 1-800-664-3977.