News Update
March 29, 2012
Forages Nearing Critical Maturity Stages
After an extremely warm winter, many forage grasses and small grains used for forages are quickly nearing the stages where they need to be cut to maintain optimum feed quality, according to Ray Smith, extension forage specialist in the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture.
Smith said this is the earliest forages have matured in the seven years he's been at UK. Depending on the area of the state, this is two to three weeks ahead of schedule.
"Alfalfa and small grains lose nutrient value as they get to the later growth stages," Smith said. "However, nutrient values in small grains drop much quicker than in alfalfa."
Small grains, like wheat, rye and barley are cut for high-quality silage used to feed dairy cattle. Producers should harvest them at the late boot stage to get the highest quality. Much of the wheat used for silage could reach this stage by mid-April.
For optimum quality and yield, alfalfa should be cut at bud stage, before the blooms are open. Orchardgrass needs to be cut at boot stage before the seed head emerges.
"Alfalfa in many areas of Southern Kentucky is ready to be cut now," Smith said. "Alfalfa in Central and Northern Kentucky is probably one to two weeks from being ready for its first cutting. Some parts of Kentucky will have orchardgrass at boot stage within one to two weeks."
Before harvesting, he suggested alfalfa producers scout their fields for damage from the alfalfa weevil. If damage is significant on stands that are ready for harvesting, producers should cut the alfalfa to control the insect. Producers should check their fields about five days after cutting to see if normal regrowth is occurring. If present in high enough numbers, surviving weevil larvae and adults can damage regrowth. If the alfalfa isn't ready for harvest and there is a significant amount of weevil damage, producers need to spray their fields with an insecticide. UK entomologist Lee Townsend said producers need to check the "days to harvest" section of the label when selecting products to see how long to wait between application and harvest. This interval varies with products and application rates.
In addition, other cool-season forages like tall fescue will be ready for cutting earlier than normal this spring.
"Ideally, producers make a first cutting by mid-May to get a good quality feed, but this year, harvesting in late April may be too late to get high-quality grass hay," Smith said. "Because a first cutting is needed earlier than normal, there's a very good chance for producers to get a high quality second cutting before the hot temperatures of summer set in."
Since producers are harvesting high-quality forages of all types, a lot of nutrients are going to be removed from the soils with the cuttings. Producers will want to follow fertilizer recommendations for replacing the lost nutrients found in UK extension publication AGR 1: Lime and Nutrient Recommendations. It is available online at http://www.ca.uky.edu/
agc/pubs/agr/agr1/agr1.pdf or at the local office of the UK Cooperative Extension Service.
R-CALF USA Urges Congress to Adopt a
National Trade Strategy
In more than 70 meetings this month with congressional members and their staffs, Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) joined with domestic manufacturers and workers to urge Congress to adopt a national trade strategy that has, at its core, a national goal of achieving net exports with which to rebalance the nation's mounting trade deficit.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the United States' 2011 trade deficit in goods and services was $560 billion and the deficit for the month of January 2012, at $52.6 billion, was the highest monthly deficit since 2008.
"Our nation's overly simplistic trade goal of achieving more exports is the very goal that has crippled our nation's economy," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "It does us no good to continually reach new export records when those records are continually overshadowed by new and ever larger import records. We must focus on the net, otherwise we lose."
R-CALF USA is a founding member of the newly formed and unique trade group Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), a nonprofit coalition representing the interests of 2.7 million households through its representation of agriculture, manufacturers and workers. Bullard serves as a director of CPA, which organized the Washington, D.C., meetings.
During their meetings with Congress, Bullard and other CPA participants introduced the principles of a "21st Century Trade Agreement," a project CPA has been working on since early December. The principles are intended to provide the foundations for a formidable national trade strategy for the United States.
In addition to establishing a new goal of net exports, the principles include the urgent need to stop foreign countries from manipulating their respective currency values, restrict foreign countries' use of state-owned enterprises to circumvent their own promises to grant market access, and to make all future agreements temporary with a sunset clause, so Congress can evaluate the performance of the agreement and make needed changes after the agreement goes into effect.
In addition, the principles establish the new objective of fully optimizing domestic supply chains. Bullard explained that the need for this objective is obvious in the U.S. cattle industry where the trade focus is exclusively on beef.
"U.S. farmers and ranchers raise and sell live cattle. However, with an exclusive trade focus on beef, which is produced and sold by meatpackers, the domestic live cattle supply chain can be seriously damaged by a policy that both enhances beef exports and grants meatpackers expanded access to cheaper supplies of live cattle or beef from foreign countries," Bullard said, adding, "We need more depth in our trade strategy that recognizes the important contributions healthy and profitable supply chains make to our overall economy in both our agriculture and manufacturing sectors."
Another principle the group advocates is a change to the current rules of origin. The group suggests that rules that define the origins of products must maximize benefits for U.S.-based producers and minimize free ridership by third parties.
Bullard explained that current trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would allow live cattle from Nicaragua to be imported into Mexico for immediate slaughter and the resulting beef exported duty-free to the United States. In this example, the Nicaraguan cattle industry is a free rider, benefiting from NAFTA without ever entering the contract.
"It is shortsighted for the U.S. to continue perpetuating this loophole as it has done in the many trade agreements the United States has entered since NAFTA," Bullard said.
Along with introducing the principles for a "21st Century Trade Agreement," the group expressed support for The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (HR 639), currently co-sponsored by more than half the members in the U.S. House of Representatives and The ENFORCE Act (S 1133, HR 3057) that would ensure more aggressive enforcement of trade laws to prevent cheating by importers.
Legislation Introduced to Curtail Obama Administration's
Land Grab
U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) March 28 introduced the Preserve the Waters of the United States Act. The legislation, which is strongly supported by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and the Public Lands Council (PLC), would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) from using their clean water guidance to expand the regulatory regime under the Clean Water Act (CWA). NCBA President J.D. Alexander said the legislation puts up a roadblock to EPA's intentional end-run around the rulemaking process and Congress.
"EPA has an obsession with avoiding accountability. This administration has made clear its preference to use guidance documents as opposed to going through the rulemaking process. This allows the activists-turned-government officials to avoid public scrutiny and bypass the consideration of legal, economic and unintended consequences," said Alexander. "This is a clear violation of the Administrative Procedures Act."
The document that triggered this legislation was the CWA jurisdiction guidance. The draft, which was proposed by EPA and the Corps April 26, 2011, is expected to be finalized soon. The guidance essentially attempts to give EPA and the Corps jurisdiction over all types of waters under the CWA. The guidance claims to provide clarity and certainty to landowners. According to PLC President John Falen, if the guidance is finalized, the only thing livestock producers can be clear and certain about is that any wet or dry stream, ditch and pond on their land could easily be subject to federal regulation and costly permits.
"This is a direct hit on the private property rights of farmers and ranchers across this country," said Falen, who is a Nevada rancher. "We will fight hard against this administration's ongoing efforts to curtail the private property rights of farmers and ranchers by regulating them to the brink of bankruptcy. We commend the senators for standing up for private property rights and the preservation of American agriculture."
Alexander said despite three Supreme Court rulings and a letter from 170 members of Congress opposing the guidance, EPA and the Corps have "crowned themselves kings" of every drop of water in the country. He said this bill is the best path forward in preventing the guidance from becoming reality.
Cattlemen Supports Senate Bill on Permanent Estate
Tax Repeal
The NCBA strongly supports legislation introduced March 28 that will fight for full, permanent repeal of the estate tax. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) introduced the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act (S. 2242) to abolish the federal estate tax, which, according to NCBA President J.D. Alexander, is an unnecessary tax on small businesses and farm and ranch families across the country. The bipartisan legislation is identical to the bill (H.R. 1259) introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Kevin Brady (R-Texas).
"By once again introducing legislation to repeal this onerous tax, lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill have demonstrated an understanding and appreciation for the immense burden this tax places on American cattle producers who are hoping to pass their operation on to the next generation," said Alexander. "The death tax is detrimental to the farmers and ranchers who live off the land and run asset-rich, cash-poor, family-owned small businesses."
Reducing the tax burden on ranchers has always been a top priority for NCBA and the beef cattle community. For decades, NCBA has urged full and permanent repeal of the estate tax.
"Our priority is to keep families in agriculture, and this tax works against that goal," said Alexander. "The appraised value of rural land is extremely inflated when compared to its agricultural value. Many cattle producers are forced to spend an enormous amount of money on attorneys or sell off land or parts of the operation to pay off tax liabilities. This takes more open space out of agriculture and usually puts it into the hands of urban developers."
In December 2010, Congress passed temporary estate tax relief effective through December 31, 2012. For now, estates worth more than $5 million per individual, $10 million per couple are taxed at a rate of 35%. Unless Congress acts to provide permanent relief, the estate tax will revert back to pre-2001 levels, where estates worth more than $1 million will be taxed at a rate of 55%. The Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act would completely stop the federal government from considering death as a taxable event.
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