The Sale of Champions that helped conclude the 102nd Annual Oklahoma Youth Expo on Friday afternoon turned out to be the second best premium sale ever for the Oklahoma City spring show. OYE officials estimate that $1.15 million dollars was invested into the lives of 213 Oklahoma   4-H and FFA students that qualified market animals for the sale. The 2017 total is several thousand dollars over the numbers of last year- and is second only to the record $1.25 million paid out in 2015 as the OYE celebrated it's one hundredth birthday.


Leading off the 2017 Premium Sale was the 2017 Grand Champion Steer shown by Tommy Glover of Elgin 4-H- Glover's Steer was the Champion Chianina and was purchased for $75,000- the same price paid for the Grand Steer in 2016.

The Grand Champion Market Barrow was shown by Adison Thompson of the Noble 4-H- and Adison saw her pig fetch a final bid of $25,000.

The Grand Champion Market Lamb was led into the sales ring by Lydia Straka of Yukon FFA- Lydia got a final bid for her Champion Crossbred Lamb of $15,000.

The Grand Champion Market Goat was owned and shown by Bree Taylor of Kingfisher FFA- The sophomore student from Kingfisher High School got a $15,000 payday for her goat at the top end of the Sale of Champions.

More details of the sale- including the sale prices for the reserve animals and the buyers of all of the champs can be seen by clicking or tapping here.

Our sincere thanks to ITC, Your Energy Superhighway, for sponsoring our coverage of the 2017 OYE.

AND- we remind you that we have finally gotten all of our pictures uploaded to our FLICKR album- go browse by clicking here and any of the pictures are downloadable for your personal enjoyment at no charge.

 
The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Sonny Perdue as Agriculture Secretary THIS WEEK. The hearing Thursday, March 23rd, marks the next step in confirming Perdue to the President's Cabinet.

The Former Georgia Governor, Perdue, was announced as the nominee on January 19th. The formal nomination of Perdue was sent to the Senate Agriculture Committee by the White House March 9th. Financial documents that show Perdue will step away from his business interests, along with an FBI background check, were forwarded to the Senate panel earlier this month.

Politico reports that Senate Democrats have signaled they will not block the nomination of Perdue, as they have with other Cabinet nominees by Trump. The hearing adds to a busy agriculture schedule in Washington, D.C. for the week, which includes a farm bill summit at the National Press Club and National Ag Day events.

American Farm Bureau's Dale Moore expects a speedy process- now that we have a date for the Committee to meet with the Nominee- although it could "robust" questioning of the nominee with all the untangling he is going to have to do from his businesses to become Ag Secretary- he will likely be facing hard questions on the Trump Budget will proposed significant cuts to discretionary spending in the USDA budget.

Last week, Senator Jim Inhofe, made it clear to the EPA that it should work hastily to finalize their registration review of the herbicide glyphosate following an announcement that glyphosate is not a carcinogen made by the European Chemicals Agency

"Yesterday, the European Chemicals Agency concluded that glyphosate is not a carcinogen," Inhofe said. "This finding is consistent with many other government regulators, including the EPA's own cancer assessment review committee. Even though the EPA's science advisory panel has not released their review of glyphosate's carcinogenicity, I believe EPA can safely move forward and complete their registration review soon."


Tom Buchanan, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, also praised ECHA's announcement:


"Farmers have used glyphosate products with great success for over 40 years," Buchanan stated. "We hope the EPA, under its new leadership, will finalize its long overdue review."

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry has recognized for ODAFF Deputy Commissioner and current Oklahoma 4H Foundation Executive Director Blayne Arthur, as a Significant Woman in Oklahoma Agriculture.

"Having the opportunity to work with anyone in the ag industry is a great place to be," said Arthur. "I have so much respect for ag producers because of the nature of what they are doing every day. I've been very fortunate that through my professional career I've been able to work on and focus on different areas that are helping our ag producers. Even though some days are busy days, when you know what you're doing is having a positive impact in others' lives, and especially in the lives of youth and people in the ag industry in general, it makes you feel like you're doing good things every day."


Arthur has earned the respect of many in the agricultural and professional world. There is no denying her experience and expertise in the field, from her background on the farm, to her numerous certifications and awards, and from her many group affiliations, to her impressive career in the industry.

"Blayne is one of the most dedicated people I've ever worked with," said Oklahoma State Representative John Pfeiffer. "Her passion for agriculture was evident in her every day work at the capitol."

"I can think of few if any people who have benefited Oklahoma agriculture more than Blayne Arthur," said Michael Kelsey, Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. "Her positive and professional talent, rooted deep in her own personal agriculture upbringing, presents a passion for Oklahoma agriculture that is outdone by no one."

To read more about Arthur's contributions to Oklahoma's ag industry and her impact on peers and colleagues from her various professional positions, click here.

Meat markets have had a good year thus far, in terms of beef exports, which were up almost 20 percent in January compared to the same time last year. The big question everyone is asking though is, 'can we hope to keep up this momentum and a strong 2017 going? Executive Director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver, Jim Robb, says that while markets are unexpectedly strong right now, some pullback in the coming months wouldn't be a surprise.


"The seasonal pattern is very strong in beef exports, much like our seasonal pattern in beef production," Robb said, but points out that we are coming up on the typically peak months for beef exports - July, June and August. "So, we are in the time of year where we're really going to have to watch whether these year-over-year increases can persist."


Robb says forecasts are projecting solid gains regardless what happens this year, but believes it unlikely that those gains will sustain this 20 percent average as we come off this peak period. Still, while there may be great potential for 2017, there are nevertheless a couple wildcards that could create kinks like political uncertainty and even the impacts of avian influenza among other things.


Listen to Robb and I discuss the early success in the export markets for 2017 and what prospects of continued success remain, on Friday's Beef Buzz - click here.

On Wednesday of last week, an individual heifer, donated by OKC West Livestock Market, was auctioned 105 times. The heifer was initially sold for $5,000.00, then donated back and auctioned again and again and again for a grand total of $115,449.50.

"The proceeds from the sale will go to the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation Fire Relief Fund to help ranchers who have been affected by the recent, devastating wildfires," said Bill Barnhart, President of OKC West. "After experiencing our own disaster with the May 31, 2013 tornado, people rallied around us with tremendous support. Many were friends of our market but most were just good neighbors helping those in need. Several were from Northwest Oklahoma. It is in this spirit we wish to help those cattlemen in their time of need."

Get the full story included a response from the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation and find out how you can contribute your own donation to ongoing fire relief efforts, by clicking here.

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Last week and this week on regular auction days- Monday and Tuesday- the Commission Firms that make up the Livestock Exchange of the Oklahoma National Stockyards are asking their customers to consider giving a donation to the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation to aid those ranchers hit hard by the wildfires- checks may be made out to the OCF- which makes it a fully tax deductable gift.

Ken Goodnight, regional manager of local government and community affairs for ITC Great Plains, represented the nation's largest independent transmission-only utility company at the Oklahoma Youth Expo this week, during the presentation of scholarships prior to the grand drive.

I spoke with Goodnight that evening and he told me that ITC knows and understands the importance of being involved and supporting youth, especially when it comes to great agricultural programs like 4H and FFA, that teach responsibility and work ethic, and also develops character and leadership skills.

"We as a company rely on engineers - those type of kids coming up and receiving higher education, we're wanting to promote them into the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities and encourage them to continue on with their education," Goodnight said. "It's good for us to be here and share that."

Listen in on the conversation we had during the grand drive at the Oklahoma Youth Expo this last week and check out some photos we took of the evening's events as the champions competed for top billing at the Sale of Champions, by clicking or tapping here.