Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
From: Ron Hays <ronphays@cox.net>
Date: 2/13/2018 6:36 AM
To: ron@ronhays.com



 
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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 Carson Horn on RON.
 

  
  
Let's Check the Markets!  
Marketlinks


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.
 
 
   
FedCattleExchange.com has 255 head of cattle on their showlist for the Wednesday, February 14th sale of finished cattle - click here to jump to the website.
 

OKC West sold slaughter cows and bulls 2.00-5.00 higher on Monday compared to the last sale - click or tap here for details.


Oklahoma National Stockyards sold an estimated 6,000 head on Monday- Steady to Higher Money- Click or Tap Here for Details

Joplin's Numbers were down because of Icy Conditions limiting cattle coming in ahead of Monday- click here for their Monday Report.


Today's First Look:
mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
  
  
Each afternoon we are posting a recap of that day's markets as analyzed by Justin Lewis of KIS futuresclick or tap here for the report posted yesterday afternoon around 3:30 PM.
 
  
Okla Cash Grain:  
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- as reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture on Monday, February 12th.
  
  
Futures Wrap:  
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network - analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day.
  
Feeder Cattle Recap:  
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
  
Slaughter Cattle Recap: 
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by the USDA.
  
TCFA Feedlot Recap:  
Finally, here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
  


  
Our Oklahoma Farm Report Team!!!!
  
Ron Hays, Senior Farm Director and Editor
 
Carson Horn, Associate Farm Director and Editor

Pam Arterburn, Calendar and Template Manager
  
Dave Lanning, Markets and Production

Oklahoma's Latest Farm and Ranch News

 
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON
    Tuesday,  February 13, 2018

Howdy Neighbors! 

Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 








-- Click Here for Our MarketLinks- Monday Livestock Markets, Cash Grain and More

StepUpFailsFeatured Story:
Revenue Portion of Step Up Oklahoma Fails- Steve Thompson with AFR Talks About What Follows 

If Only...

If only the StepUp folks could have figured out a way to snap their fingers and have gotten State Question 640 rolled back from 75% to 60% majority needed to pass tax increases- the 63 votes in favor of the Revenue Component of the Step Up Proposal would have passed muster.

But the reality is that roughly equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats said no- and that was enough to sink this rapid fire effort to pass this revenue proposal.

Most everyone knew the fate of the bill by a little after 5 pm- but the Leadership left it open until late in the evening with warnings that no other revenue plans would be advanced.

As it became clear what the vote would be- we got on the phone and talked with Steve Thompson, who is handling lobbying duties these days for the American Farmers and Ranchers- and we talked about the bill being defeated, what comes next in the effort to fill in the revenue hole for state government, what this vote could mean for the State Ag Sales Tax Exemption and will the Step Up Reform Proposals have any traction after this setback.

By clicking or tapping here- You can can hear Steve's comments from Monday afternoon late- as he offers excellent insight into where lawmakers are after this latest attempt to find a way to pay for the current level of state government spending needs.


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Talk to a local team who understands agriculture. Talk to Oklahoma AgCredit. Financing rural Oklahoma. Equal housing lender.

ReactionAg Community Winces at Release of President Trump's FY2019 Budget Proposal 

This week began with the release of President Donald Trump's FY2019 Budget Proposal, which included major cuts to federal programming which his administration described as an effort to achieve a "long-term vision for an effective Government that better achieves its missions and enhances key services on which the American people depend."


According to a fact-sheet released by the White House in tandem with the budget, the Trump administration claims that the people's trust in the federal government is waning to historic lows due to the government's failure in recent years to provide for its citizens in accordance to its core mission areas.


In order to correct this situation, the fact-sheet states that the "Government must transform its outdated approaches, technology, and skillsets so that Federal programs, capabilities, and workforce can meet today's mission demands and public expectations. Rather than pursue short-term fixes that quickly become outdated once again, this Administration will pursue deep-seated transformation. But it will not happen in one or two years. The Budget makes important down payments on this work and foreshadows efforts still to come."


Among the cuts to federal spending included in this budget proposal are several pertaining to the Farm Bill - which again shrinks the parameters within which our ag-policy leaders in Washington have to work with to write a viable Farm Bill. However, the chairmen of both the House and Senate Ag Committees, Mike Conaway and Pat Roberts, respectively, released a joint statement in response to the President's budget reaffirming their commitment to crafting a Farm Bill that serves producers and provides financial certainty.


"This budget, as with every other president's budget before, will not prevent us from doing that job. We are committed to maintaining a strong safety net for agricultural producers during these times of low prices and uncertain markets and continuing to improve our nation's nutrition programs."
 
 
Others showed more frustration with the President's decisions, like the National Association of Conservation Districts, which released its own statement to air its concerns with budget as proposed by the White House.


"Once again, this administration is calling on American producers to do more with less," NACD President Brent Van Dyke said. "The President's budget proposes cuts to almost every area of USDA's discretionary and mandatory budgets, including nearly $15 billion in cuts to farm bill conservation programs and over a 20 percent reduction to Conservation Operations.


"Proposing extreme cuts to technical assistance programs at a time when the administration is asking for greater customer service just doesn't add up. The President's budget proposal is a reminder that we must continue educating our lawmakers about just how important locally-led conservation efforts are to this country now and for future generations."



Last week, OSU's Dr. Derrell Peel studied the numbers in the Cattle Inventory report released at the end of last month by the USDA for his article in the Cow/Calf Corner newsletter. This week, he picks back up where he left off with a closer look at the numbers in this report and what they can tell us about the current trends that have developed in today's cattle industry. He has concluded based on these numbers, that there have been "several interesting changes in major beef cow states."
 
 
For instance, he points out that while drought had a negative impact on producers and their operations this past year, particularly across the northern plains, little year-over-year net herd liquidation happened as a result. In fact, several states saw their beef cow herds grow.
 
 
In our neck of the woods, Texas has generally recovered more slowly from drought than other states, Peel reports. Beef replacement heifers were down a scant 1.2 percent in Texas, perhaps suggesting potential for additional herd growth in the coming year. Oklahoma, which had previously recovered to pre-drought levels, added another 1.7 percent to the beef cow herd inventory year over year, and at 2.131 million head was at the largest state herd level since 1983. Beef replacement heifers were down 5.7 percent in Oklahoma. 
 
 
Missouri, according to Peel, added the third largest number of beef cows to the herd (behind South Dakota and Texas) pushing the 2018 beef cow inventory up 5.4 percent to 2.166 million head. This moved Missouri slightly ahead of Oklahoma to once again rank as the second largest beef cow state in the country. Beef replacement heifers in Missouri were down a modest 1.4 percent year over year. Meanwhile, Kansas, decreased its beef cow herd by 4.0 percent in 2017 to a January, 2018 total of 1.507 million head. Beef replacement heifers in Kansas were down 9.7 percent and may suggest additional herd decrease in 2018.
 
 
Click here to read Peel's full analysis of USDA's latest Cattle Inventory report for more insights to the state of the beef industry.

Obviously, it's been a tough winter for farmers in Oklahoma and across the Plains with little to no precipitation seen since this past fall. And with long-term forecasts suggesting current drought conditions will continue and even intensify for the next several weeks and months at least - many producers are meanwhile scratching their heads, wondering whether or not to topdress their wheat fields. We reached out to Oklahoma State University Extension Associate Professor Brian Arnall for his advice to farmers.


According to Arnall, if you are able to apply your own topdress - wait. Even if it doesn't start raining until hollow stem, he says, farmers will have an opportunity post-hollow stem with sprayers and applicators to get over the crop, get the response they need and be the most efficient with their nitrogen.
 
 
On the other hand, if you rely on someone else to administer the application - that complicates things. Arnall says if rain were to unexpectedly show up in the forecast, custom applicators will be inundated with calls and the likelihood of you getting your topdress down in time plummets. In this scenario, Arnall suggests farmers go ahead and topdress their best stands to hedge their bets on the weather.


Also, Arnall recommends for farmers utilizing conventional tilling, to use a liquid application and for no-till, go with a dry application.
 
 
Click here to hear Arnall and I talk more about what farmers should consider as they make up their minds to topdress or not right now.

Sponsor Spotlight
 
 
The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association is the trusted voice of the Oklahoma Cattle Industry. With headquarters in Oklahoma City, the OCA has a regular presence at the State Capitol to protect and defend the interests of cattlemen and cattlewomen.
 
Their Vision Statement explains the highest priority of the organization- "Leadership that serves, strengthens and advocates for the Oklahoma cattle industry."
 
To learn more about the OCA and how you can be a part of this forward-looking group of cattle producers, click here for their website. For more information- call 405-235-4391.


The National Pork Producers Council yesterday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to schedule confirmation votes on four long-languishing Trump administration nominees for positions important to U.S. pork producers and American agriculture.



In a letter to the two leaders, NPPC asked the Senate to fulfill its "vital role in ensuring that our federal agencies are adequately staffed by moving quickly to schedule votes and confirm" Gregg Doud as chief agricultural negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Bill Northey as undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stephen Vaden as USDA's general counsel and Andrew Wheeler as deputy administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.



"All four candidates are highly qualified, and the positions they will fill are extremely important to the U.S. pork industry and American agriculture," wrote NPPC President Ken Maschhoff, a pork producer from Carlyle, Ill. "The nominees will oversee policies and programs that farmers and ranchers depend on."



Continue reading this article by clicking or tapping here to learn more about these nominees still waiting to be confirmed by the US Senate.

Want to Have the Latest Energy News Delivered to Your Inbox Daily?
 

Award winning broadcast journalist Jerry Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here to subscribe to his daily update of top Energy News.

 


Texas AgriLife Extension Specialist Ron Gill was recently honored at the Beef Quality Assurance Awards as the 2018 Educator of the Year. Gill travels across the Plains offering cattle handling seminars and BQA training to producers throughout cattle country who wish to become better stockmen. We caught up with Gill after he accepted his award to talk about his life's pursuit to improve animal welfare on the ranch.


"We were doing BQA training before we actually had a BQA program for cow/calf and stocker guys, but the one at the feedlot level was developed in Texas and Nebraska back in the '80s. So, it's been around for a long time," Gill said. "It's a great honor to get that recognition. It's been a life career doing quality assurance trainings and I appreciate it."


The formal BQA training program all came about, Gill says, due to injection-site lesions on cattle that started drawing the negative attention of consumers. That prompted the animal welfare community to develop the BQA Guidelines for producers. The whole process is designed to raise healthy, unblemished cattle that yield a high-quality product. He says it not only reduces the stress level for cattle but also the producer. At the end of the day, Gill says it reduces animals' need for antibiotics allowing the industry to be more judicious in its use of vaccines which all plays into the ongoing sustainability movement. The BQA is also about getting out in front of potential problems. It monitors this with an industry-wide audit conducted every five years. Gill believes it is better to identify areas of concern, before they become an issue. Some of the latest hot-button issues the BQA program has tried to address includes the transportation component of production and environmental stewardship as well.


"We don't want to go back to that and try to fix problems," he said. "We want to try to be a little bit more proactive and the BQA program is a proactive approach."
 
 
Hear Gill and I discuss the value the Beef Quality Assurance program brings to our beef industry and how it can help producers become better stockmen, by clicking here to listen to yesterday's Beef Buzz.

In case you missed it - The National Cotton Council released a report showing a few key factors that will influence the cotton industry's 2018 outlook.


Cotton prices have maintained a strong appearance in spite of an increase in global production. The current supply and demand fundamentals do appear bearish. However, strong U.S. export sales, a weaker U.S. dollar, heavy speculative buying, and large mill fixations have supported prices.


Looking ahead to the coming year, projections of record ending stocks in China may bring pressure on world cotton prices. The longer-term outlook points to some positive factors over the next few years. The world economy is improving. World cotton demand is on the rise, with estimates calling for an increase of five percent in 2017, more than doubling the previous five-year average.


Dr. Jody Campiche, the NCC's vice president, Economics & Policy Analysis, told delegates at the NCC's 80th Annual Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas this weekend during the release of this report that, "World mill use is expected to exceed world production in the 2018 marketing year, and global cotton stocks are projected to decline by 5.4 million bales in the 2018 balance sheet." In the NCC's annual Economic Outlook, she noted the global stocks decline is due to reduced inventories in China. China's stocks are declining with USDA estimating a drop of 8.0 million bales in 2017. In 2018, an additional 10.0 million bale reduction in total stocks is expected, which might make China a large importer of cotton again.


On the domestic side, 2017 U.S. mill use is estimated at 3.4 million bales, 100,000 higher than the previous year. The NCC is projecting a modest increase in mill use totaling 60,000 bales in 2018.  


In her analysis of the NCC Annual Planting Intentions survey results, Campiche said the NCC projects 2018 U.S. cotton acreage to be 13.1 million acres, 3.7 percent more than 2017. With abandonment assumed at approximately 15 percent for the United States, Cotton Belt harvested area totals 11.1 million acres. However, due to the dry conditions that currently persist across the Cotton Belt and the forecasts of abnormally dry conditions throughout the spring, particularly in the Southwest, the final abandonment rate could be higher.

 

 

For more of Campiche's insights into this year's potential cotton crop, click over to our website to read a full break down of her analysis.

 


 

CalendarFrom the Calendar- EPA Mandated Dicamba Training Sessions in Enid and Blackwell This Week- Plus AFR and OACD Meetings Coming


We regularly add items to our calendar found here on our website, Oklahoma Farm Report. I would encourage you to go and check what has been added from time to time- you may find events that you need to be a part of!

Among the events going on this week- there are a pair of Dicamba training sessions in Enid this afternoon and in Blackwell on Thursday

At the end of the week- we will be covering the 2018 edition of the American Farmers & Ranchers convention and trade show- they are returning to the Embassy Suites on the north side of Norman- click or tap here for our calendar listing for that event. 

At the end of February- the 80th Anniversary Celebration and Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts is planned- they are meeting again this year at the Embassy Suites just a few blocks south of the Capitol just off Lincoln- click here for the Sunday calendar listing for them.

Many other events are planned for the balance of this month- and we are starting to get things added in a big way for March- if you want your event on our calendar- drop me an email by clicking here and we will be glad to get it added as well! 

 
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K EquipmentAmerican Farmers & Ranchers, Livestock Exchange at the Oklahoma National Stockyards, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Stillwater Milling Company, National Livestock Credit Corporation, 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 also appreciate our Market Links Sponsor - OKC West Livestock! 
 
 
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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