While in Washington, D.C this past week, Farm Director KC Sheperd had the chance to hear from Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow of Michigan about the 2023 Farm Bill.

“The good news is, we have additional money in conservation that our farmers have been wanting for a long time,” Stabenow said. “So, we don’t need to try to find dollars within the farm bill to do that.”

With those additional dollars, Stabenow said high-demand programs like EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) can be utilized by more farmers.

“In terms of commodities, crop insurance, other areas, it is pretty much flat funding,” Stabenow said. “The challenge for us has been because of the trade challenges, because of Covid, because of a number of things for years, we have put almost 90 billion dollars in ad hoc funding through appropriations into supporting agriculture.”

Stabenow said that even though commodity prices are up, input prices are also up, so strengthening parts of the farm bill, such as crop insurance, is going to be important.

“There is always this debate about nutrition,” Stabenow said. “We have a farmer safety net and a family safety net. We are not breaking those up, nor should we, nor do our major agricultural groups want us to do that as well.”



The Oklahoma Agriculture Mediation Program knows this is a hard time for farmers and ranchers. We want you to know we are still open, and we are still here for you. The Ag Mediation program is a free service that provides mediation to agriculture producers who may need help with ag-related disputes.

At Oklahoma Ag Mediation, we have been helping people in agriculture resolve conflicts since 1987. We know firsthand about working together to resolve conflicts, so you don’t have to go through the court systems. Let our professional mediators help you. Mediation is allowed for lease issues, farmer/neighbor disputes, family farm transitions, and more. These services are available at no cost for Oklahoma farmers and ranchers in all 77 counties. For more information, you can go to ok.gov/mediation, or give us a call at 800 248 5465.

Editor's Note-Rains this week will most likely be reflected in next week’s drought monitor

According to the latest Oklahoma Drought Map, Exceptional Drought is unchanged from last week’s 20.62 percent.

Extreme drought or worse is virtually unchanged from last week, moving from 43.03 percent to this week’s 43.19 percent.

Severe drought or worse is unchanged from last week, remaining at 49.87 percent.

Moderate drought or worse is unchanged from last week, remaining at 54.07 percent.

Abnormally dry or worse conditions have increased slightly from 63.57 percent to 64.52 percent.

According to the 6-10-day precipitation outlook map, the panhandle and southwestern Oklahoma are leaning above a 33 to 40 percent chance of precipitation through May 6. The remaining parts of the state are sitting at a “near normal” chance of precipitation through May 6.

To view this week's Oklahoma drought numbers, click on the Oklahoma drought map above the story.

Introducing Brant Failes of the Cherokee FFA Chapter, Your 2023 Northwest Area Star in Agricultural Production

During the month of April, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and Oklahoma Farm Report are spotlighting the 17 Area Stars of Oklahoma FFA that are among the highest achievers in the organization.

The stars come from the five areas in four categories- Star in Ag Placement, Star in Agriscience, Star in Agribusiness, and Star in Agricultural Production.

One Star Finalist featured in the coming days from each of the categories will be named the State Star Award Winner during the 97th Oklahoma State FFA Convention coming up on May 2nd and 3rd in Tulsa, Okla.

This week, our coverage of the 2023 Oklahoma FFA Star Award Finalists continues with Agricultural Production competitor Brant Failes of the Cherokee FFA chapter representing the Northwest Area.

“I have 120 acres of farm ground that is mainly wheat,” Failes said. “I run stocker cattle across that wheat as well as have a herd of commercial cows.”

Failes said he was lucky to catch some good rain on part of his wheat crop, but the other part of his crop did not receive as much.

“I got my first bottle calf when I was four years old,” Fails said. “I kept that bottle calf as a cow, and that is kind of what kicked off my operation. Since then, I have bought some replacement heifers. The cow side of it is kind of what started my operation.”

Some of the hurdles Failes said he faced this year included the drought and finding good help. Failes said he is thankful for the help of his family for always giving him industry knowledge and advice when he needs it and helping him along the way.

“I plan on going to Northwestern and getting an ag business degree, then coming back and continuing to grow my farming and ranching operation,” Failes said.

It's been a remarkable week of rain across the southern plains- and both Kansas and Oklahoma have gotten more rain than at any time in recent memory.

In the case of the Oklahoma Panhandle- where it's raining again early this morning- we had not seen significant rainfall for over 200 days.

The map above is the five day rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet- it's clickable so you can go and review rainfall totals since Sunday on your favorite locations.

We have incredible coverage from this week's storms- rainfall amounts above 2 inches from Kenton in Cimarron County to Valliant in McCurtain County. The totals are less impressive from the northeast and southwest corners- but even those locations have gotten over a half inch this week(except for the Miami mesonet site in Ottawa County with .46 inch of rain as of early this morning.

The Drought Monitor story of this week shows virtually no impact yet- but state climatologist Gary McManus says the story will be better in next week's report when all the rain seen in the map above is reflected in the first Drought Monitor issued in May of this year.

And Gary adds in his latest Ticker “A lot of those short-term drought impacts will be alleviated. The biggest of which we should now see a pretty nice statewide green up once the sun comes back, along with a little bit of heat. And that will end our prolonged critical-to-extreme fire danger for a while.”

The rain is not over yet- Rain falls this morning in the Panhandle and the far northwest corner as we write this- and another system will add to our soil moisture later today into tonight and early Saturday before we get several days of drier weather.

Lots of farmers and ranchers will be headed for Chickasha this morning for a look at the latest wheat variety trial plots there- but there's a lot more on the program than just that.

This event, which starts at 9 AM is at the South Central Ag Research Station for OSU Ag Research. The Chickasha event will focus on selection and management research for grain and forage production as well as the use and management of perennial forages. OSU specialists like Dr. Brian Arnall, Dr. Amanda Da Silva, Dr. Brett Carver and Dr. Derrell Peel are on the program- which will include lunch courtesy of one of our Email sponsors- Oklahoma AgCredit.

Also happening today is the GrassTime Sale at Express Ranches in Yukon- Over 600 head will sell- they start at 12 Noon- the Sale Book and Videos of the animals and more details are available here- and you can listen to our visit with Jarold Callahan about this year's sale here.

This weekend- Oklahoma State University is hosting the state Interscholastic Contests for the Oklahoma FFA- all leading up to the 2023 State FFA Convention and Career Show in downtown Tulsa May 1-3.

Click here for the 97th Oklahoma FFA Convention highlights for the details of the largest state FFA Conventions in the US. It will include a Wednesday morning General Session Address and Wednesday afternoon Workshop by National FFA Office Karstyn Cantrell of Oklahoma.

ALSO next week- the 125th Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association is happening- May 1-2 in downtown Oklahoma City. That will include the annual Oklahoma Wheat Crop Reporting Session on Tuesday morning- which will give us that first estimate of the 2023 Oklahoma HRW crop- which is likely to be one of the smallest in recent memory- given the drought we have been living through.

This Week on SUNUP is Oklahoma State University Extension grain market economist Kim Anderson. During this week’s edition, Anderson talks about the latest in the grain markets. 

“What a difference a week makes,” Anderson said. “Look at this rain. It is just spectacular.”

Wheat prices have fallen about 77 cents this past week, Anderson said.

“You go up to Medford and look at what you can forward contract harvest delivery today- around $7.55 cents,” Anderson said. “That is 77 cents lower than it was last week when we were taping this show.”

Corn is down 28 cents, Anderson said, now sitting around $5.23.

“Bean prices are down about 50 cents,” Anderson said.

Looking at the crop condition report, Anderson also talked about how wheat crop conditions have declined considerably over the last couple of weeks.

More Stories for Your Weekend Reading