It's a short day of trading on our Agricultural Futures- with the grains and oilseeds set to close at 12:05 pm midday today- and the livestock futures to follow at 12:15 pm. The Ag futures will reopen at 6 AM for a short pre opening time of trade on Wednesday morning- July 5th- then will reopen for that day as normal at 8:30 AM.

Most auction barns that sell cattle Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday weekly are out this week- that includes the Oklahoma National Stockyards, OKC West, Tulsa and the Joplin Regional Stockyards. I would suggest for others- check with them on their holiday week schedule before making plans on taking cattle to a market.

Uncle Sam is open for business today- and federal, state and local offices all will be closed on Tuesday for the 4th- people you do business with in the private sector- that's all on a case by case basis.

As for us- we will be skipping Tuesday when it comes to sending a email to your inbox- will be back bright and early on Wednesday. 

Enjoy some time with family and friends- but remember why we celebrate the Fourth of July- as we consider the freedom so many before us have given you and hopefully the generations that follow.

Just ahead of our ag stories for the day- take a look at this reminder of our birthday heritage!!!!

US officials Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Ambassador to China Terry Branstad were joined this past week in China, by National Cattlemen's Beef Association President Craig Uden. The group gathered in the nation's capital of Beijing, to welcome the arrival of the first airlifted shipment of US beef into the Asian country, officially, in more than a decade.

Also taking part in the special occasion, marking the historic trade agreement reached between our two countries, were NCBA President-elect Kevin Kester of California and Joel Haggard, USMEF senior vice president for the Asia Pacific, who emceed the event.

"On behalf of President Trump and the people of America, we want to say thank you to our great customers here in China," Perdue said. "We want to respect your market and assure you that these products coming in are safe, wholesome and very delicious."

Celebrations for the week included the ceremonial carving of the prime rib, and over the weekend - Secretary Perdue was on hand to help USMEF staff and beef exporters at the City Super supermarket in Shanghai to officially open the commercial selling of US beef in China. The group will distribute samples of American steak cuts and chuck eye roll to City Super customers and speak to the unique attributes of U.S. beef.

"Restoring U.S. beef access to China has been a top priority for many years, and we are excited to have the opportunity to provide Chinese consumers with safe, tender, and delicious U.S. beef once again," Uden said at the ceremony. 


NCBA has worked tirelessly to restore US access to China since the 2003 BSE case in the US that ultimately contributed to the closure of the Chinese market. This opportunity to again market to China puts US beef within reach of potentially 1.3 billion consumers.

With a growing appetite for beef products throughout Asia, Uden says this is a great step forward for the US beef industry, as NCBA continues to seek marketing opportunities around the globe for our beef producers back home.

To read more about Perdue's involvement with the grand opening of US beef sales in China, click here. To read moiré of Uden's remarks and to learn more about NCBA and China's markets, click here.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, are in China this week, to join US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad in welcoming the first shipment of US beef into the Asian country in over a decade. The load of beef is being airlifted into the nation's capital, Beijing last  week, where the ceremonial carving of the prime rib took place. Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel spoke with me recently about the significance of this event.


"We've dealt now with the traceability requirements, the prohibition on certain technologies and so on," Peel said, explaining the process of negotiation that happened prior to the agreement eventually reached by the two nations. "All of that is part of the political process that established the rules of the game."


Going forward, though, as we begin to source beef for China's marketplace, Peel says there will be some adjustment to the way things will need to work along the supply chain. Until things are more streamlined, he says supplying China with US beef will be done on a carcass-by-carcass basis, which he admits, will be costly.


"We're going to qualify these animals on a per animal or per carcass basis," he said. "Yet, we're not likely to sell the entire carcass on all of those products to the Chinese. So, we're going to be incurring costs on a carcass basis and getting some additional value from some of those products as they go into that particular market. But, the rest of those costs will have to be covered in some other part of the market.


You can listen to the entire conversation between Dr. Peel and I about the process moving forward to supply China with US beef, on Friday's Beef Buzz - click here.

With the cotton-planting window now closed for our state, I caught up with our state cotton specialist, Dr. Randy Boman, for an update on his observations for this year's crop.

According to the USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service's 2017 Planted Acreage Report, released last week, planted cotton acres in the state for this year are projected to be at 470,000. This is a 55% increase compared to last year's planted acres, which were 305,000. Total upland cotton acres in the U.S. were estimated at just under 12 million, up about 20% compared to 2016. If we have a good to excellent production season in the state, the bale volume could once again challenge ginning infrastructure.

"It has been a fairly challenging start for many producers, but we believe the overall crop is in good condition," Boman said. "We now have cotton ranging in development from cotyledon stage up through the late squaring stage."

Recent rains have been beneficial for dryland cotton in the region, but irrigation systems will soon be cranking up.

As producers tend their cotton fields this year, many of them this first time to plant cotton or returning to cotton in several years, are encouraged to pay attention to the threat of boll weevils and are asked to do their part when it comes to keeping this part of the cotton belt weevil - free.

To learn more about this year's cotton crop so far in Oklahoma, or to read the Cotton Comment newsletter featuring more of Dr. Boman's insights, click or tap here.

Oklahoma's Ag in the Classroom program has had some recent successes lately, with several honors bestowed upon stakeholders and educators from our state that attended the recent national conference for ag educators. State Coordinator Audrey Harmon, joined me in studio last week to talk with me about this success, as well as some of the activities the program has going on this summer as well.

For instance, each year, the AITC program here in Oklahoma offers a rolling bus tour for a group of teachers in the state to give them the chance to experience agriculture first hand so they can better teach it in their classroom curriculum. This year's tour happened earlier last month and concentrated on Northeastern Oklahoma, looking at several ranches, as well as berry picking and touring a mushroom farm in Miami, Oklahoma.

"We started at Kellyville and went to Miami and back to Kellyville over three days," Harmon said. "It just gives them the opportunity to have a real-life experience to make the lessons more meaningful when they present them to their students."

Teachers interested in attending this tour will have the chance next year, but in the meantime, Harmon is encouraging those interested to join more than 300 educators this week at the annual state conference for AITC, July 6 at the Moore Norman Technology Center. Attendees will have the chance to choose from 35 different workshops and learn how to further implement agricultural lessons into their existing curriculum.

Click here to learn more about the free programs, grants, resources and lesson plans available to teachers through the AITC program, or listen in on my full conversation with Harmon.

As part of a continuing series of stories on Significant Women in Oklahoma Agriculture, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry and Oklahoma State University are recognizing and honoring the impact of countless women across all 77 counties of the state, from all aspects and areas of the agricultural industry. The honorees were nominated by their peers and selected by a committee of 14 industry professionals. This week Jan Sebo of Spiro, Okla. is featured this week as a Significant Woman in Oklahoma Agriculture.


Near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border is the small town of Spiro, Okla., population of 2,167. Twenty two years ago, even Jan Sebo could not have imagined that it would become home to one of the largest sod farms in the region, and she would be a part of that operation.


Jan was raised on her family farm in Spiro where her father ran a small operation of Angus cattle. There was not a 4-H program in the area, and FFA was not an option for young women at that time.


It wasn't until marrying her high school sweetheart, Don Sebo, that Jan really had the opportunity to get involved with farming.


"We went to high school together," Jan said, "and now we will have been married 45 years next month."


The two were married in 1972, just a few months after high school graduation. Jan and Don began farming soybean and wheat on Don's family farm that he ran with his father and older brother. In 1985, Don's father retired and they bought his family farm. The early years of building their farm were full of long, hard hours.

Continue reading Jan's story about her life and influence in Oklahoma's agriculture, by clicking or tapping here.

  

Last week, Glenn Selk reminded producers to keep cattle up with adequate nutrition this summer, by supplementing their herd's protein intake, in his article for the Cow/Calf Corner newsletter.

According to him, forage quality in your pastures will begin to lessen once the heat starts to intensify as the summer drags on.

"Fall born replacement heifers have been (or soon will be) weaned and will be at a very critical growing period. It is important that they grow at about 1.5 pounds per day from weaning until the start of the breeding season," Selk said. "Currently summer pastures are green, growing, and adequate in protein content. However, warm season pastures such as native grass or bermudagrass can be expected to be declining in forage quality in the hot, dry days of July, August, and September. Also these grasses will be reaching plant maturity which accelerates the decline in protein content.


"The protein supplement will allow microbial digestion of the average quality late summer forage which in turn provides the energy needed to support the desired amount of gain. If forage quantity is very limited, the protein supplement alone will not produce adequate gains. In this scenario, a rancher first needs to decide if keeping more replacement heifers is really in his or her best interest."

You can click over to our website to keep reading Selk's article from last week, for more of his advice on feeding supplemental protein to your cattle during the dog days of summer.