Governor Kevin Stitt Friday unveiled his proposed education reform compromise, the Oklahoma Education and Parental Choice Plan, after weeks of meetings with House and Senate leadership, Speaker Charles McCall, Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, and members of both chambers.



“After months of negotiations and meetings with both the House and the Senate, I am proud to present this plan and believe it is the best path forward to get education reform done this year,” said Governor Stitt. “Oklahomans elected us as leaders to come together and get something done to improve education for every student in the state of Oklahoma and provide parents options. This plan does just that. I am calling on the House and Senate to come together and get this across the finish line. Parents can’t wait another year for real reform. Let’s take another step forward to fund students, not just systems in Oklahoma.”

Governor Stitt’s Education and Parental Choice Plan calls for investing a total of $800 million in education, allocated in three main parts:



• $300 million to the Oklahoma Student Fund;
• $300 million into the funding formula, including Senator Adam Pugh’s Teacher Pay Raise plan, and;
• $200 million for the Oklahoma Parental Choice tax credit model for parents to send their child to a school that best fits their unique needs.



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Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Rodd Moesel released the following statement supporting Gov. Kevin Stitt’s proposed education reform compromise:

“Oklahoma Farm Bureau applauds Gov. Kevin Stitt for creating an education funding proposal that strikes a balance for residents of rural Oklahoma and our urban friends while incorporating key ideas from both the House and Senate education plans," Moesel said. "The governor’s three main allocation areas are an equitable solution that will help fund rural schools, reward our rural educators for the tremendous job they do while ensuring we can recruit and retain the next generation of Oklahoma teachers, and create a mechanism to provide school choice without removing funding from our rural districts..."

Mike Deering Corrects False Accusations of Cattle Industry Using mRNA Vaccines

In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am visiting with Mike Deering of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association about the rumors about the cattle industry using mRNA technology.

Deering clears up misinformation going around on social media about livestock industries using mRNA vaccines as a way to give the meat-eating population messenger RNA- or mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines through digestion.

“(House Bill) 1169 was put forward by an attorney in Ohio and sponsored by a state representative here in the state that happens to work for that attorney as well,” Deering said. “The bill is designed to be informed consent when it comes to vaccinations and those kinds of things, but it was poorly written and targeted at the agriculture industry, specifically targeting genetically modified organisms, so anything that would be fed corn or soybeans would have to be segregated and labeled separately, and vaccinations as well.”

Any livestock that receives vaccines, Deering said, is targeted by House Bill 1169.

According to the bill, any product that has been created to act as, or exposed to processes that could result in the product potentially acting as, a gene therapy or that could otherwise possibly impact, alter, or introduce genetic material or a genetic change into the user of the product, individuals exposed to the product, or individuals exposed to others who have used the product shall be conspicuously labeled with the words “Potential Gene Therapy Product” unless the product is known to be a gene therapy product.

Oklahoma Farm Bureau, along with national and state-level partners, is proud to launch the Oklahoma Grassroots Rural and Ag Business Accelerators, a rural economic development initiative designed to spur innovation, diversify opportunities for farmers and create jobs in rural Oklahoma.

The core of the initiative is two separate business development pipelines that will connect rural Oklahoma innovators and ventures with investment and business support, bringing the next generation of Oklahoma ingenuity to life.

The Cultivate Oklahoma agricultural innovation pipeline – powered by national partner AgLaunch Initiative working with Ag Ventures Alliance, a farmer cooperative that invests in ag tech startups – will focus on innovations and technologies that have on-farm or production agriculture applications to provide new opportunities for Oklahoma farmers. Cultivate Oklahoma is a farmer-focused pipeline building a network of innovative farmers to incubate and scale the next generation of agricultural technologies.

The Activate Oklahoma rural innovation pipeline connects rural entrepreneurs with Oklahoma-based resources through curriculum provided by Oklahoma Small Business Development Centers created to help innovators navigate the business landscape to bring their ideas and technologies to market.

Rain Predicted for the Driest Parts of Oklahoma This Week!

Northwest and west central areas of Oklahoma that are in the deepest of the current drought ratings may be getting two to three inches of rain this week- and while that's not enough to end the drought- it will roll back the intensity of the dry conditions- if realized.

In our interview with the Wheat Commission's Mike Schulte this past week- he lamented that many wheat fields are too far gone to get much if any help from rains that come in the latter days of April. He mentioned that crop insurance adjusters have already been looking at and zeroing out wheat fields in recent days- we heard the same from former National Wheat Grower President Jimmy Musick of Sentinel at the recent Oklahoma City Farm Show.

However, in the glass is half full scenario- this past Monday we had the Oklahoma Wheat crop at 13% Good to Excellent and 34% in Fair Condition- so almost half of the state's wheat acres might get some significant benefit from a soaking rain over the next couple of days.

And- the rain will help pasture and range conditions- and offer some hope for spring planting of crops as well.

As for our graphics- the one above is from the Norman National Weather Service showing some of the areas showing the worse drought- the graphic below suggests those areas north of Tulsa that are a part of the drought zone will also be getting two to three inches between now and Thursday- and no graphic from the Amarillo NWS- but they are suggesting a half inch of rain midweek in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

BRING IT ON!!!!

Pete Buttigieg Seeks Out Help from Congress to Better Enforce Railway Safety Measures

Farm Director KC Sheperd is featuring comments from the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, talking about the East Palestine Ohio train derailment, what the U.S. is doing for rail safety, and more.

“In terms of what we are doing, from day one, we have stepped up safety audits that were slowed down or withdrawn under the last administration because we think it is very important to look over the shoulders of these freight railroad companies and make sure they are compliant," Buttigieg said. "Since what happened in East Palestine, we have done additional supplemental inspections and safety advisories related to things like wayside defect detectors or hotbox detectors- those are devices that can sense temperature anomalies in the wheels as they pass by, hazardous materials, and how they are handled, and other things that we think deserve special attention right now.”

Buttigieg said that although he is taking part in supporting these safety measures, he would like to see Congress step in to help.

“Our hand would be a lot stronger if Congress would strengthen it,” Buttigieg said.

Right now, Buttigieg said, even if an egregious hazardous material-related violation by a railroad resulting in a fatality, the most he can assess by way of a penalty is in the neighborhood of 250,000 dollars.

Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy Confirmed in Horse at Tulsa Show

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry has confirmed a case of Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy (EHM), the neurologic disease linked to Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1), in a horse that was present at the National Reining Breeders Classic in Tulsa County on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

The horse showed signs of ataxia and other neurologic signs consistent with EHM when evaluated by a veterinarian. Since EHV-1 is contagious, horses determined to have direct, known exposure with the positive horse were moved to an area of isolation and testing is ongoing.

ODAFF State Veterinarian Dr. Rod Hall has asked NRBC participants to monitor horses for clinical symptoms of illness or fever while a complete investigation is being conducted.



“It is recommended that a horse’s temperature be taken twice daily,” Hall said. “Any temperature over 101 degrees should be reported to the show veterinarian.”