Lucas, Stabenow Kick Off Final Phase of Farm Bill Effort 

Senator Debbi Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and Frank Lucas, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today convened a conference committee made up of Senators and Representatives from both parties and from both chambers of Congress to iron out details on a final bipartisan Farm Bill. This marks the beginning of the final phase in the effort to complete a five-year barm bill.

"Americans want Congress to work together to create jobs and reduce the deficit. The Farm Bill does both," said Stabenow. "I'm looking forward to sitting down around a table with my House colleagues, like we did in the Senate, to develop a final bipartisan Farm Bill that reforms agriculture programs, provides certainty for farmers and saves taxpayers billions. This bill is the most significant reform to agriculture policy in decades, it's critical for the economy and it's long-past time to get it done." (Click here to read a transcript of Stabenow's opening remarks.)

In his opening remarks, Lucas urged conferees to set aside their differences and quickly hammer out a final bill.

"I hope we are keenly aware of our responsibility to put policy in place that is good for our farmers, ranchers, consumers, and those who have hit difficult times. This takes place despite considering a complicated bill in an environment where the political battles can be loud and unhelpful. Consensus has proven to be an elusive goal at times in Congress, but it is a word that underscores the work we do in the agriculture community every day."   (You'll find Lucas's full opening remarks by clicking here.)

You can read more of this story as well as listen to some of Lucas's and Stabenow's remarks by clicking here.

Advice Continues to Flow to Farm Bill Conferees 

As the first meeting of the Congressional conference committee charged with hammering out a final farm bill, advice from various sectors continued to flow into the capitol.

Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said he was pleased that the meeting was underway and it "has renewed our optimism that we truly are nearing the end of a three-plus year trek.

"Farm Bureau's two overarching goals with the Senate-House conference are ensuring that permanent law is not repealed and a complete, unified farm bill continues."  (You can read more from Stallman by clicking here.)

Elise Young, vice president of policy and government affairs at Women Thrive Worldwide, urged conferees to giver consideration to how the final farm bill will impact women farmers not just in the U.S., but worldwide.

Tyler Advances as Does Kingfisher- Brandon Waits- The Latest from Louisville and the National FFA Convention 

Several Oklahoma FFA members have done well thus far at the National FFA Convention here in Louisville.

Tyler Schnaithman of Garber has advanced to the Final Four of the National Prepared Public Speaking Contest- he will compete first thing on this Thursday morning- will learn the results of that contest on Friday evening during the General Session.

Kingfisher FFA is doing well in the Ag Issues contest again this year.  They reached the Final Four a year ago- and are in the Semis as of this morning- will compete this morning with the Finals of that contest set for this afternoon.  

Brandon Baumgarten is pretty well done with the interview process to be a National Officer.  He will learn if he made the team of 6 national officers for the coming year on Saturday morning- he seems to feel good about things- click here to check out our story on the web  where we get a debriefing from him on the process.

Creed contest starts this morning- Breckin Horton of Spiro represents Oklahoma in that contest- many of the other CDE contests also are happening today as well.  Ag Profiency Contests are also today- results on most of these will be known on Friday.

Click here for our FLICKR set of photos from the National FFA convention  thus far- more to come. 

Our thanks to the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association for helping sponsor these reports from the National FFA Convention- click here for more coverage of the FFA from Louisville as found on the Blue Green Gazette of our website.  

Rebuilding U.S. Cow Herd Going to be 'Very Tough,' AFBF Economist Says

The FFA Convention continues in Louisville, Kentucky, this week and I caught up with Bob Young, chief economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation at the Young Farmers and Ranchers booth. We talked about agriculture issues and farm policy including rebuilding the nation's cow herd.    Young says that process will not be easy and it will be a slow process in light of the high price of heifers.

"It is going to be very tough and I think you're talking about a long time for this herd to come back or, for that matter, even kind of hold its own. Most of the numbers on those replacement heifers-or just heifers, period-are very strong at this stage of the game. And, again, we thought last year folks were going to hold some of those back, but once we got out to the spring they just managed to know that they were a lot better off going ahead and putting them in the lot and move on forward."

"I think we've got a lot of producers that are looking at that again this year. You may have better forage supplies available to you, though, next spring, so we may have some folks that are going to say, 'No, I want to put grass through those animals and let's hold on to them and build back.'

"I'm a little bit more optimistic that we are going to start building the herd back next year as opposed to it kind of continuing to draw down we saw this year."

Bob Young joins me on the latest BEEF BUZZ.  Click here to read more or to listen to our interview.

 

Haskell Woman Arrested After Selling Stolen Cattle

A Haskell, Okla., woman was arrested today on the felony charge of knowingly concealing stolen property. Christen Allen, 31, was arrested after she knowingly sold stolen cattle at the Durant livestock auction. If convicted she could face up to five years in prison or one year in the county jail.

Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) Special Ranger Bart Perrier is heading the investigation into two separate thefts of registered cattle from the Langford Hereford Ranch located in eastern Okmulgee County. The thefts occurred weeks apart and involved 19 head of cattle worth more than $100,000.

On Oct. 11, TSCRA put out an alert seeking information on the thefts. Further investigations found sale records from Oct. 10 that indicated 10 head of cattle sold by Allen matched the description of the stolen cattle. The sold cattle have since been located and were positively identified as part of those cattle stolen.

Click here for more.

Salmonella Prevalence on Chicken Decreases 34 percent: FSIS Quarterly Report

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) "Quarterly Progress Reports on Salmonella and Campylobacter Testing of Selected Raw Meat and Poultry Products" released on October 25, 2013, the prevalence of Salmonella on raw young chicken carcasses is down 34 percent over the first quarter of 2013 and represents a decrease of over 120 percent during the past five years.

This report contained testing information from April 1 through June 30, 2013. Specifically for young chicken carcasses, 2,955 samples were collected and analyzed with a positive rate of only 2.6 percent for Salmonella - a fraction of the USDA FSIS performance standard of 7.5 percent for young chicken carcasses. The same samples were also analyzed for Campylobacter and while the percent positive remained unchanged from the first quarter of 2013, it represents a decrease of almost 50 percent since FSIS began testing for Campylobacter on post-chill young chicken carcasses in 2011. 

You'll find more of this story on our website.  Click here to go there.     

Mineral Feeding Can Reduce the Risk of Grass Tetany Next Spring, Glenn Selk Says

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

Much of Oklahoma and the Southern Plains will have wheat pasture to utilize as winter feed for stocker cattle, replacement heifers, and in some cases for adult cows. At, and after calving time next January, February, and March "grass tetany" could occur in a few situations.

Grass tetany, caused by magnesium deficiency does not seem to be a major problem in Oklahoma although occasional cases are reported. It typically occurs in beef cows during early lactation and is more prevalent in older cows. The reason is thought to be that older cows are less able to mobilize magnesium reserves from the bones than are younger cows. Grass tetany most frequently occurs when cattle are grazing lush immature grasses or small grains pastures and tends to be more prevalent during periods of cloudy weather. Symptoms include incoordination, salivation, excitability (aggressive behavior towards humans) and, in final stages, tetany, convulsions and death.

Click here to read more of this article by Glenn Selk.