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We invite you to listen to us on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network weekdays- if you missed this morning's Farm News - or you are in an area where you can't hear it- click here for this morning's Farm news from Ron Hays on RON.
Let's Check the Markets!
OKC West is our Market Links Sponsor- they sell cattle three days a week- Cows on Mondays, Stockers on Tuesday and Feeders on Wednesday- Call 405-262-8800 to learn more.
Today's First Look:
mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
OKC West in El Reno reported 1,500 head of calves on Tuesday- Compared to last Tuesday: Steer and heifer calves sold with a lower undertone on limited comparable offerings. Click here for the report from USDA Market News.
Wholesale Boxed Beef Trade Just Keeps Rising- another day and another record seen on Tuesday as Choice Beef jumps $18.94 to $428.99 while Select beef ends up above $400 on the day as well- up $34.05 to $410.1. Click here for the full report from USDA Market News.
Okla Cash Grain:
Futures Wrap:
Feeder Cattle Recap:
Slaughter Cattle Recap:
TCFA Feedlot Recap:
Our Oklahoma Farm Report Team!!!!
Ron Hays, Senior Farm Director and Editor
KC Sheperd, Associate Farm Director and Editor Sam Knipp, Farm Editor Pam Arterburn, Calendar and Template Manager Dave Lanning, Markets and Production
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Oklahoma's Latest Farm and Ranch News
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
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Howdy Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update.
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 The 2020 Wheat Crop is holding on- waiting for a good drink of water. That seemed to be one of the key take home messages out of the 2020 Oklahoma Wheat Crop Report session that was held for the first time in years in a venue other than the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, that meeting was cancelled and Oklahoma State Extension teamed up with the Grain and Feed Association, the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association and the Oklahoma Wheat Commission to stage a ZOOM online version of the event.
Hosted by OSU State Wheat Specialist Dr. Amanda Silva, the Tuesday morning session heard over and over from Extension Personnel and Grain Industry experts that lack of rain has either already severely damaged the crop, as is the case in the Panhandle west of Hooker in Texas County or has the crop at a tipping point- needing rain and needing it soon.
Add to that concern the significant damage in many locations south of I-40 from the April 15th freeze event- and you end up with a prediction of a wheat crop that may be slightly under the ten year average for Oklahoma wheat production- 101 Million bushels.
As for the crop estimates- Scouts expect wheat farmers to combine 2,910,787 acres starting in just a few weeks across Oklahoma- harvesting 33.16 bushels per acre which adds up to a 96.524 million bushel crop for 2020.
Click or tap here to read more from the report session- plus we have the video of the complete session embedded in our story and the audio overview of the estimates that I recorded as well. |
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Sponsor Spotlight
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Today, Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-03) joined House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives Don Young (R-AK) in introducing The Universal Broadband Act. The Universal Broadband Act will ensure rural Americans have the opportunity to access reliable broadband services by expanding the Universal Service Fund (USF) contribution base to include broadband services, rather than the current outdated model that draws support solely from telephone services. The costs of building out service to areas without adequate broadband continues to rise, while the current base that contributes to the USF is declining. This has resulted in an increasingly growing contribution factor, overburdening those who are required to contribute.
"Access to affordable high-speed internet is essential to prosper in the 21st century economy. Thanks to the leadership of my friend and colleague Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Congress is expanding the investment to the Universal Service Fund to ensure all Americans have reliable access to broadband," said Congressman Lucas.
Lucas continued, "The Universal Service Fund can trace its origins back to Depression-era efforts to provide telecommunication services to low-income households and high-cost areas across the nation. As the USF's mission has evolved over time to include the expansion of broadband internet service to rural America, the contribution structure that supports the Fund has become more and more outdated."
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Coronavirus concerns, commodity price declines and supply-chain disruptions sink producer sentiment to a three-year low, according to the April Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. The barometer recorded a reading of 96, marking the first time the barometer has fallen below 100 since October 2016 registering 72 points below its record-high just two-months prior. The Ag Economy Barometer is based on responses from 400 U.S. agricultural producers and this month's survey was conducted from April 19-24, 2020.
Producers' expectations for current and future agricultural economic conditions also declined sharply. The Index of Current Conditions suffered its largest one-month drop, down 39 points in April to a reading of 72, and the Index of Future Expectations fell 18 points to a reading of 108. April's decline pushed the Current Conditions Index 53 percent below its all-time high set back in February, while the Future Expectations Index fell 39 percent over the same two-month time period.
"Over the past two-months, producers have felt the first shockwaves being created by the coronavirus," said James Mintert, the barometer's principal investigator and director of Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. "Disruptions in the supply-chain are causing many to look at ways they can mitigate risk in this uncertain environment and sharp declines in commodity prices have added significant financial pressure on many U.S. farming operations."
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Recognizing the importance of the food service industry, beef producers are working to help restaurants reopen, said Alisa Harrison, senior vice president of global marketing and research for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. I sat down with Alisa to talk about this specific issue.
"We've got a significant partnership ready to launch in June with a national steakhouse chain to promote beef," Harrison said. "Getting the word out to consumers that delivery and take out are still an option," Harrison said.
She said it's important to keep the food service industry preparing meals in some fashion, regardless of how the consumers gets the food.
Harrison said the Beef Checkoff program can continue to remind folks the great product and taste of beef is still available.
The good news is that consumers can still get beef, either from the food service industry or from farmers and ranchers.
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Sponsor Spotlight
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At P&K, we make it our mission to provide you with top-notch solutions and unbeatable customer service at a price you CAN afford. Visit pkequipment.com and you'll have it all at your fingertips: request a quote, schedule service, get a value for your trade, find current promotions, and shop for parts online. Stop by one of our locations today to meet the P&K team. You'll see why around here, John Deere starts with P&K.
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Rural electric cooperatives are forecast to lose $10 billion over the next several years due to the COVID-19 impact on the economy. This stunning announcement was made Tuesday during a teleconference for news media. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said the revenue loss was based on economic data from sources including Moody's and J.P. Morgan factoring in reduced GDP and unemployment rates.
Matheson said the $10 billion estimate consists of two major areas: unpaid electric bills account for $2.6 billion and reduced operating revenue accounts for $7.4 billion as electricity sales are expected to drop 5 percent through 2022.
Joining Matheson on the teleconference were electric cooperative leaders from around the country, including Jennifer Meason, CEO, Cotton Electric Cooperative based in Walters, Okla.
Cotton Electric Cooperative serves 22,000 meters with 5,200 miles of line in southwest Oklahoma, with the primary industries being oil and gas and agriculture.
Meason said they have 3,900 small to large commercial accounts amounting to about 50 percent of their total kilowatt hour sales. During the past month they have experienced a 10 percent drop in kilowatt hour sales from their top 20 accounts.
In addition, Meason said they have had requests from about 40 accounts to be disconnected.
If this continues, Meason said, they would experience a decrease in revenue of $3.2 million.
We have the complete audio of the comments from both Matheson as well as Meason as a part of our webstory- click here to read more and to have a chance to hear the comments.
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The Lahoma Field day is coming up on Friday, May 8th from 8:30am to Noon. Viewers can watch live on the OSU Facebook page.
OSU Specialists will be doing presentations live from Lahoma- which you will be able to see in real time on Facebook or will have the chance to view it later at your convenience.
*Wheat Varieties | 8:30 a.m. - Amanda Silva, Small Grains Extension Specialist
*Tank-Mixing Insecticide with Top-Dress N | 9:00 a.m. - Tom Royer, Extension Entomologist
*Wheat Breeding and Disease Update | 9:30 a.m. - Brett Carver, Wheat Breeder and Bob Hunger, Extension Wheat Pathologist
*Integrated Management of Bromus Species | 10:00 a.m. - Misha Manuchehri, Weed Science Extension Specialist
*Stratification of Nutrients and Soil Properties in the Long-Term Fertility Study | 10:30 a.m. - Brian Arnall, Precision Nutrient Management Extension Specialist
*Alfalfa Management | 11:00 a.m. - Alex Rocateli, Forage Systems Extension Specialist
*Cotton Management | 11:30 a.m. - Seth Byrd, Cotton Extension Specialist
To read more about the field day, click here: |
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many businesses and schools have closed down to practice social distancing. Many parents are at home with their kiddos, wondering, "What do we do now?" Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom has come up with some excellent daily activities you can do with your kids and family.
Today we are featuring Ag Tech Tuesday where the focus is on the crazy Oklahoma Weather! It is spring and we all know what that means in Oklahoma....storms and ALL different kinds of weather! Weather is important to all of us, but especially our farmers and agriculture. Weather forecasts and current data help farmers make the best decisions for their crops. Droughts, floods, tornadoes, hail, and even frost can be harmful to agriculture. Although we don't have much control over the weather, we do have great meteorologists, the National Weather Service, and mesonet stations all over Oklahoma.
You can sign up to complete the Oklahoma Mesonet Challenge! And more fun activities!
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COVID-19 Update- Tyson Tyson Pork and Beef Plant Updates
Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc. announced on Tuesday it will resume limited production at its Waterloo, Iowa facility on Thursday, May 7.
Team members have been invited to tour the facility Wednesday to view the enhanced safety precautions and protective social distancing measures installed throughout the plant.
The reopening of the facility follows a tour of the plant by Black Hawk County health officials, Waterloo Mayor Quinten Hart, Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson, UFCW Local 431 President Bob Waters and other local business leaders and a subsequent joint company and community leader review of the company's protocol to safely resume operations. The pork processing facility temporarily suspended harvest operations on April 22 to test its team members for COVID-19.
It is the largest pork plant operated by Tyson- and according to the National Pork Board rankings of the major pork processing plants- it is the 10th largest in the US.
Click here for the complete news statement from Tyson on the reopening plans.
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Meanwhile- Tyson is still sorting things out in Dakota City, Nebraska where their largest beef processing plant shut Meanwhile- Tyson is still sorting things out in Dakota City, Nebraska where their largest beef processing plant shut down last week for deep cleaning as well as to give them time to get testing down on the workers at the plant.
They had signaled last Thursday that the plant would be closed from May 1 to May 4 for the deep cleaning- but at the start of this week issued the following statement-
"The health and safety of our team members is our top priority, and we take this responsibility extremely seriously. We continue to work through processing the large amount of testing data for our 4,300 team members, and therefore have decided to temporarily delay the reopening of our Dakota City facility. We are notifying team members with report for work instructions based on individual's test results and care and will provide additional updates on our revised re-opening timeline shortly."
No word since then on when they would resume processing market ready cattle.
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Better news in the Pacific Northwest where Tyson Fresh Meats reopened its beef plant near Pasco, Washington, on Tuesday, resuming limited operations after a 12-day shutdown to test workers for COVID-19. Employees were expected to begin their shifts with a tour to see changes the company has made to keep workers apart and other measures that follow federal guidance for meat and poultry processors, according to the company. Click here for the statement from health officials and Tyson on the reopening of this key plant for cattle producers in the northwestern part of the US, as well as those in western Canada.
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Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K Equipment, AFR Insurance, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Great Plains Kubota, Stillwater Milling Company, Oklahoma Cotton Council, National Livestock Credit Corporation, Oklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma AgCredit, the Oklahoma Cattlemens Association and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis- at NO Charge!
We invite you to check out our website at the link below too that includes an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe.
God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
phone: 405-473-6144
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