EPA Releases Maps Detailing the Extent of WOTUS Proposal

The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology released maps on Wednesday of waters and wetlands the Environmental Protection Agency has to-date refrained from making public. After multiple requests, the Agency finally handed over the maps to the committee, which appear to detail the extent of the "Waters of the United States" proposal.


"Given the astonishing picture they paint, I understand the EPA's desire to minimize the importance of these maps," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Science Committee, in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. "But EPA's posturing cannot explain away the alarming content of these documents. While you claim that EPA has not yet used these maps to regulate Americans, you provided no explanation for why the Agency used taxpayer resources to have these materials created."


Knowledge of the maps came as the Committee was doing research in preparation for a hearing regarding the proposed "Waters of the United States" rule. The maps were kept hidden while the Agencies marched forward with rulemaking that fundamentally re-defines private property rights, said Chairman Smith.

 

Click Here for NCBA's view of the maps released by EPA or for links to the map of Oklahoma or other states.

Roy Lee Lindsey of OkPork Talks Labor Day Grilling, PEDv and COOL

Looking ahead to Labor Day weekend, this is the last major celebration for Americans to get out and grill. I sat down with Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Director Roy Lee Lindsey to talk summer grilling. Lindsey said the Labor Day holiday weekend is very important for the meat industry. 
 

"You think about going to grill and you're going to put burgers on the grill or you're are going to have hot dogs, bratwurst or other sausages, pork chops, maybe you're going to smoke ribs this weekends," Lindsey said. "Its something I don't know that I really appreciated before I started at the Pork council how much product the meat industry really moves on Memorial Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July kind of weekends."  


As consumers head to the grocery store, they will be paying a little more for pork due to the tightened supplies. Over the last year the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) has killed millions of baby pigs. Lindsey said the effect of PEDv has been minimal over the summer, but the pork industry is concerned the virus will make a resurgence this fall. 

"We just don't know what that answer is yet," Lindsey said. "We don't have a vaccine today that is a true preventative vaccine if you will, so we are struggling with what do we do."

Click Here to listen to my full interview with Lindsey or to read his concerns with PEDv and if the WTO rules against the US over Country of Origin Labeling law.
 

Oklahoma Genetics Variety Spotlight - Gallagher and Iba

As wheat planting plans come into focus, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and Oklahoma Farm Report.com want to help you consider how the genetics developed by Dr. Brett Carver and his Wheat Improvement Team may fit into your wheat production system. A profile of several of the major wheat varieties that have come from the Oklahoma State University program will be showcased.  Today we spotlight the varieties Gallagher and Iba. They are considered sister varieties because they have one parent in common with "Duster". Both of these varieties were released at the same time and they are both considered to be dual purpose varieties that are widely adapted to Oklahoma. 


Both of these varieties work well in a grazing environment, but something producers should keep in mind is that Gallagher has a earlier maturity pattern. That's important to keep in mind in putting cattle on wheat pasture.  

In the 2014 OSU Wheat Variety Trial, OSU Wheat Extension Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards said this year Gallagher was top variety in Lahoma. This year the variety was hit hard by the early April freeze in southern Oklahoma because it is a earlier maturing variety.  
   

In the 2014 OSU wheat variety trials, Iba has been a real bright spot.


"It has been first or second in many trials, its been in the top grouping in almost all of the trials that we've had across the state, which speaks to its area of adaptation," Edwards said. "So it had a very good 2014 and I look for people to adopt more Iba, maybe displace some of those Duster acres where they are leaning a little bit heavier towards the grain production, it will be a very good fit on those acres." 
 

Click Here for the full article or to listen to Dr. Carver and Dr. Edwards view of both Gallagher and Iba.

Canadian Ag Minister Offers Fix for COOL

The US beef industry continues to wait on a ruling from the World Trade Organization regarding Country and Origin Labeling. That decision on the revised COOL rule has already been handed down to three governments - Canada, Mexico and the United States. The WTO will make the ruling public in September. If in deed Canada and Mexico prevail, meaning the US loses, how should the situation be made right?


 I asked that question to Gerry Ritz, the Canadian Minister of Agriculture at the recent Summer Cattle Industry Conference in Denver, Colo. In finding a workable solution that will still provide Americans with the information that COOL provides while not hurting Canadian and Mexican producers, Ritz said there is a solution. 


"When its mandatory it creates that segregation and discriminatory price system," Ritz said. "If you do a voluntary label, which we do in Canada under product of Canada, you don't have that trade sanctioned problem."


Ritz said he is hoping for a voluntary solution rather that the current mandatory program.  He said an ideal outcome would be total repeal of the COOL legislation.

Click here to listen to Wednesday's Beef Buzz with Gerry Ritz or read about his solution to fix the US COOL rule.

BASF Study Highlights Need for Innovations to Feed the World

A majority of U.S. consumers and farmers agree that farmers are responsible for feeding the world and new technology and innovations are critical to achieving this goal.


These findings were uncovered in the latest BASF Farm Perspectives Study, conducted in early 2014, comparing consumer and farmer viewpoints on agriculture-related issues. More than 9,000 people located in seven different countries participated in the study.


"Farmers and consumers understand the importance of new technology in agriculture and the role it plays in feeding a growing world population," said AJ Woodyard, Technical Crop Production Specialist, BASF. "BASF recognizes the need for innovative solutions and continues to develop new tools and technologies to meet this important challenge." 

Click Here for the rest of the article, including the results of farmers from seven countries on how to feed the growing world population.  

Selk Offers Tips To Reduce the Risk of Calf Scours in Fall-Calving Herds

Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter. (Adapted from "Neonatal Calf Diarrhea Complex" by John Kirkpatrick, DVM)


Fall calving in the Southern Plains has several advantages. One of the least-discussed advantages to fall-calving is the reduction of risk to an outbreak of scours. Neonatal calf diarrhea (commonly called "calf scours") is one of the most costly disease entities in the beef cattle business. Fall-calving herds have the help of the hot, late summer sunshine to reduce the buildup and spread of the pathogens that cause calf diarrhea. However, whether you have spring or fall-calving cows (or both) there are some key management procedures that will reduce the likelihood of a scours outbreak in your calves. These procedures are meant to decrease the pathogen exposure to the newborn calf. Other measures will be discussed in a later newsletter that are intended to increase the immunity that protects the calf from the pathogens in his environment.


1)      Calve in clean and dry areas.

2)      Calve heifers earlier than the cow herd.

3)      Avoid congregating

Click Here for more tips on how to prevent scours in your cowherd.

Tyson Cuts Deal with the US Justice Department- Hillshire Deal is a Go

Tyson Foods has agreed to sell off its hog acquisition unit, Heinold Hog Markets, in order to win U.S. Department of Justice approval of its $8.5 billion purchase of Hillshire Brands. The proposed settlement needs approval from a federal district judge in Washington. 

The Justice department said it would require the sale of the sow purchasing business because the transaction with Hillshire would have combined companies that account for more than a third of sow purchases from U.S. farmers, thereby likely reducing competition for purchases of sows from farmers.   

Heinold Hog Markets buys sows at the end of their useful life in producing pigs and sells them to sausage makers. The division accounted for less than 1% of Tyson's roughly $34 billion in revenue last year, making the divestiture a small price to pay to complete the meat industry's biggest-ever deal.

The settlement follows criticism of Tyson's planned acquisition of Hillshire, announced in June, by a coalition of 82 farm, consumer and rural-community groups. They argued in a letter to the Justice Department in July that the deal would sharply reduce competition in the meat industry and harm hog farmers, consumers and other food manufacturers.  (See below for reaction from the National Farmers Union) 

Tyson, of Springdale, Ark., is the largest U.S. meatpacker by sales, and Hillshire sells leading packaged-meat brands including Jimmy Dean sausage and Ball Park hot dogs.

Tyson has indicated that they will move to sell Heinold in the next ninety days, with the acquisition of Hillshire expected to be complete by the end of September.  

As you might expect- there's lots of media coverage of this event- click here for the story as seen by the Chicago Tribune and go here for the Des Moines Register story- they give a little more detail about Heinold and their activities in the largest hog producing state- Iowa.

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After the announcement of this settlement between the DOJ and Tyson was made on Wednesday- National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson offered the following statement: "Anti-trust laws were put on the books to keep powerful industries - like the meat industry - from being overly consolidated.

"Yet nearly every merger request they file is approved by the Department of Justice. As a result, the meat industry grows more powerful by the day and the family farmer continues to get squeezed.

"This is because farmers are price takers not price makers, and when the number of buyers is decreased, the sales options left to farmers and ranchers are fewer and fewer and the ability of the buyers to dictate prices to producers continues to increase. The top four meat packers already control 80 percent of the market and now that number has just gone up.

"Once again, the Department of Justice has turned its back on family farmers."