API Files Suit Against EPA Ethanol Requirements; RFA Chairman Calls Suit 'Frivolous' 

The American Petroleum Institute (API) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volume requirements for 2013.

Harry Ng, API vice president and general counsel, said that the EPA's unrealistic ethanol mandates for 2013 are bad public policy. He said the EPA issued this year's requirements nine months late and mandated that refiners use significantly more cellulosic ethanol than is available in the marketplace.

'The 2013 mandates are an example of why EPA can't be relied upon to implement the RFS effectively and in the interest of consumers', Ng said. 'Ultimately, Congress must fully repeal this unworkable and costly mandate'.

The requirements were issued in August of 2013 when the statutory deadline was November 2012.  Ng said that the EPA has ordered refiners to blend four million gallons of cellulosic ethanol despite the fact that there have only been 142,000 gallons produced so far.

Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association said, "This is another frivolous effort by API to abuse the court system in their slavish effort to repeal a public policy that is working for farmers, gasoline marketers, and consumers"

You can read more of Bob Dinneen's comments by clicking here.
 

NCBA Seeks to Get Farm Bill Back on Track Despite Government Shutdown 

The 2013 farm bill is still in limbo in Washington, D.C., and it is leaving livestock producers in South Dakota in limbo as well. An early blizzard has left tens of thousands of cattle dead and the lack of a farm bill has left producers without the livestock disaster assistance safety net.

Kristina Butts, executive director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says that not only are South Dakota beef producers trying to pick up the pieces without government assistance, so are ranchers hit hard by drought and wildfires in many areas of the country. 

Even with portions of the federal government shut down due to an impasse in Congress, Butts says she and her colleagues are still working to get a farm bill back on track on Capitol Hill.

"The one thing that NCBA continues to talk about and continues to support even today and this week on Capitol Hill is that we need to get a five-year farm bill done. Even though the government is shut down, we're still pressing those conversations on Capitol Hill. We're hearing that the House should be appointing their conferees this week so that actually start moving the farm bill conversation in a positive direction for America's cattle farmers and ranchers."

Kristina joins me on the latest Beef Buzz.  Click here to listen or to read more of this story.
 

Get to know the OSU Wheat Variety Testing Program

Oklahoma State University Extension Wheat Specialist Jeff Edwards writes in his latest World of Wheat blog:

It occurred to me the other day that although I have publicized the forage, grain, and quality results from the OSU Wheat Variety Testing Program, I have never really given much effort to publicizing the day to day activities required to produce these results. So, over the next year I hope to write a few blogs to provide a little more insight into the workings of the system.

Our program will have replicated trials at 23 sites in 2013/2014. These sites cover the state from Afton to Altus and McLoud to Keyes and some sites (e.g. Apache, Lahoma, Chickasha, Goodwell) have multiple trials. The location of trials are decided upon by throwing darts at a map (just kidding). We pick trial locations according to many factors including: visibility, uniformity, production history, local support, and cooperator involvement. Some locations (e.g. Lamont) have been in the system from the start, and others (e.g. McLoud) are fairly new additions. Given the miles between locations and a finite number of planting and harvest days, 23 locations is about the maximum we can handle and still complete operations in a timely fashion.

In addition to the small, replicated plots we organize and distribute ten-pound demonstration bags for County Educators. We typically have about 40 sets of 15 varieties for these ten pound "demo sets".

Click here to read more from Jeff Edwards. 

Dow AgroSciences Wins Second Case Over Bayer CropScience Involving Enlist™ Technology

Dow AgroSciences LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), has won a second lawsuit involving its Enlist technology. In a 28-page decision issued Monday, the federal court ruled that Dow AgroSciences has the right to sell Enlist E3™ soybean seed and that Bayer's lawsuit seeking to prevent Dow AgroSciences from doing so must, therefore, be dismissed. In reaching its decision, the Court indicated that it was unable to find objective evidence supporting Bayer's arguments.

The lawsuit, initially filed in January 2012 by Bayer CropScience AG, alleged that Dow AgroSciences' intention to sell Enlist E3 soybean seed infringed several of its glyphosate tolerance patents. Yesterday's decision comes just five weeks after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed Dow's summary judgment win over Bayer in the first case initiated by Bayer involving Dow's Enlist 2,4-D tolerance technology.

You can read more by clicking here.  

Glenn Selk Talks About Interval Feeding of Protein Supplement to Cows on Range

Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter:

Dry, pregnant beef cows grazing low quality warm season pastures in late summer, fall, and early winter are usually supplemented with high protein supplements. It would be desirable to feed the supplement at less frequent intervals (than daily) to reduce labor, equipment, and gasoline costs. A study done at OSU in the 1990's has indicated that cows fed the same amount of total 40% crude protein supplement either 3 or 6 days per week perform similarly. Interestingly enough, similar research was reported almost 40 years ago with similar results. Below in Table 1 are the key results of this experiment. Cows were fed 21 pounds of protein cubes per week from November 17 until March 9. From March 10 to April 22, cows were fed 28 pounds of supplement per week and only 17.5 pounds per week from April 23 to May 15. Cows were provided free choice grass hay when snow or ice covered the standing forage, or when the temperature was less than 40 degrees and raining or was less than 25 degrees at noon. Cows were exposed to bulls for 75 days beginning May 17 and palpated for pregnancy 90 days after the breeding season. In this trial, the cattle performance was virtually identical and was not affected by the interval at which the cows were fed the protein supplement.  

Click here to read more of Glenn Selk's analysis.  

Food Issues Highlight Next Profiles and Perspectives Event

The United States has issues with food, and Dr. Jayson Lusk knows how to solve them.

On Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, Lusk, professor, researcher and author, will present "The Future of Food" as part of the Noble Foundation's 2013-2014 Profiles and Perspectives Community Enrichment Series. Sponsored by the Noble Foundation, each Profiles and Perspectives event is free of charge and open to the public. All programs begin at 7 p.m. and are held at the Ardmore Convention Center.

Lusk will discuss America's national "eating disorder" and the role of food technology in the future. He is one of the most cited food and agricultural economists of the past decade. His research focuses primarily on predicting and understanding consumer behavior as it relates to food. 

Click here to read more of this story. 

This N That: How to Help South Dakota Cattlemen, Farm Bill Conferees and the Congrats to the OSU Livestock Judging Team 

The South Dakota Cattlemen's Association, South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and South Dakota Sheep Growers Association have joined together and established the South Dakota Rancher Relief Fund Oct. 8, 2013 with the Black Hills Area Community Foundation to provide support and relief assistance to those in the agriculture industry impacted by the blizzard of Oct. 4-7,2013.

The fund will be administered by the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association and the South Dakota Sheep Growers Association for the direct benefit of the livestock producers impacted by this devastating blizzard.


Click here to donate online. Donors can also mail checks to Black Hills Community Area Foundation/SD Rancher Relief Fund made out to the "Rancher Relief Fund." The mailing address is PO Box 231, Rapid City, 57709. 

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We have heard from more than one direction this week that before the week is out- we could have House Farm Bill Conferees.  

Based on calls we have made and things we have read and the magic eight ball that I can shake and get answers from- "The future is uncertain."   

Speaker John Boehner may know- but he's not telling.  

Stay tuned- we will get shaking our magic eight ball.

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Finally- the latest word on the OSU Livestock Judging team is a good one- The Oklahoma State University Livestock Judging Team finished a successful day at the Tulsa State Fair this past Saturday by fielding both the 1st and 3rd place teams, The Cowboys had four students finish in the top ten overall division and were the high team in the Reasons, Beef, Sheep and Swine divisions.