At the 125th Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association, which provides estimates of the size of the Oklahoma Wheat Crop, Farm Director KC Sheperd talked with Mike Schulte of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission about this year’s numbers and factors impacting the wheat market.

“Certainly, just not the numbers we really want to see for the state-wide averages for our wheat crop,” Schulte said. “We were expecting the numbers that were reported, but it certainly, I think, hits home that things are going to be a challenge for our wheat producers this year during harvest.”

Schulte said wheat producers are still facing the challenge of deciding what is going to be harvested and what will be used for hay going forward.

“The number that was put together for this 2023 year from our extension agents, our crop consultants, and area agronomists across the state came in at 54.3 million bushels is what they are estimating,” Schulte said. “They are saying that we are going to have a little over 2.2 million acres of wheat harvested, and they are giving that a 24.65-bushel average for the state.”

The number that came out from the ag professionals who went across the state this week, Schulte said, was much higher than those estimates from the group members at the meeting.

“Generally, that number is right on par,” Schulte said. “I have never seen that much of differentiation since I have been in my ten years at the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, but the group number right now, estimate, is 40.7 million bushels for the statewide average. They are saying we are going to have just a little over two million acres of wheat harvested across the state with a 22.2-bushel average.”

That 40.7 million bushel number could mean an even smaller crop than the 43 million bushel crop produced in 2014- a year that was also challenged with extreme to exceptional drought.



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At the 97th Oklahoma FFA Convention, I had the chance to visit with National FFA officer from Oklahoma, Karstyn Cantrell, about the difference FFA has made in her life, and the difference she hopes to make in the lives of others.

“Immediately after the National FFA Convention, we reported for some training, and our training actually continued through the month of January,” Cantrell said. “Starting in February, my teammates and I hit the road. We have been going all over. Since then, I have been to five state FFA conventions- 14 states in March, ten in April, and I might hit 11 by the end of May.”

By the end of the year, Cantrell said she will have visited around 40 different states.

“Something that I love watching is just the passion within every single student,” Cantrell said. “Everyone has such a different and unique story. For me, my story looked like agricultural communications and living on a farm, but I go to new places, and I see students who are incredibly passionate about welding and power structures. I see students who love veterinary science and have so many different projects and interests.”

Cantrell said it is humbling to see the number of students who pour into their communities in many different ways. These students, Cantrell added, are the next generation of leaders.

As Cow Herd Rebuilding Nears, Derrell Peel Sees Higher Cattle Prices

In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am speaking with Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, Derrell Peel, about profitability outlook and many other factors in this year’s cattle cycle.

“Prices obviously are going up, and they are really strong for feeder cattle,” Peel said. “We set new records for fed cattle early in April. We are really just getting started. We haven’t really started any rebuilding yet, although recent rains in the plains may actually put enough of a dent in this drought area that we can start to think about this rebuilding process.”

The rebuilding process should begin this year, Peel said, but it will probably be 2024 or 2025 before the bulk of the rebuilding is seen.

“That means there is a lot more ahead on the revenue side,” Peel said.

Costs for producers remain relatively high, Peel said, although some moderation has been seen in a number of areas, such as fertilizer, chemicals, and fuel to some extent in places where those are important inputs for forage and hay production.

“There are a lot of dynamics on the input side, typically with these forage conditions and these forage costs,” Peel said. “I think it is putting a little bit of caution in some producers. They are taking it a little bit more slowly. That is probably not a bad thing from the industry standpoint.”

Edmond FFA’s Gianna Nichols rose to the top of the prepared public speech world in Oklahoma FFA in Tulsa on Tuesday, as the High School Senior captured the State Speech Sweepstakes Championship at the 97th Annual Convention of the Oklahoma FFA.

Nichols won the Animal Science Division of the Prepared Speech Competition this past weekend in Stillwater- earning the right to be one of six state winners to deliver her speech again in front of a panel of judges. “Curbing Cattle Carbon” was the title of her winning speech, as Gianna defending the US cattle industry in the conversation over the industry’s role in greenhouse gas emissions.

I talked with Nichols after she was named the best Prepared Public Speaker in 2023 by the Oklahoma FFA- and she told him that when it comes to cattle burps and methane emissions “cattle are not the villain they’ve been made out to be” saying she started her speech talking about their methane emissions being considered incorrectly a super villain by many in the general public and that she considers that a real shame.

Nichols says “that “I want to stay up to date on all of this- it really interests me as I want to go into a career as a livestock veterinarian and it’s something that will grow bigger day by day.”

Grass Fever and Spring Checklist with OSU’s Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist, offers herd health advice as part of the weekly series known as the “Cow Calf Corner” published electronically by Dr. Peel, Mark Johnson, and Paul Beck. Today, Johnson is goes through a good checklist for this time of the year for cattle producers.

Much of Oklahoma has received a good rain this week. Soft, slow and 1 – 3 inches of quantity over much of the state. I am extremely bullish on the future of the cattle business. Low cow inventories are, and will continue to add value to all ages and classes of beef cattle. The key to capitalizing on the future value of cattle is run your operation as a business. Managing your operation like a business means making sound, prudent financial decisions regarding your cattle inventories, pasture management, herd health and the purchase of inputs like feed. At this time of year it is easy for me to catch “grass fever” as the pastures green up. I immediately want more inventory and look forward to not rolling out hay and supplemental feed on as daily basis. At this time of year I am forced to remind myself: “not so fast.”

If you find yourself in the same situation, take a deep breath, remember you are operating a business, and review the following checklist:

• Have my bulls undergone a Breeding Soundness Exam?
• Have I given pre-breeding vaccinations and dewormed my cow herd?
• Are my replacement heifers of adequate age and target weight to breed up quick and early ahead of my mature cow herd?  

Farm director, KC Sheperd is visiting with Keeff Felty of the National Association of Wheat Growers about the winter wheat crop in Oklahoma.

“In comparison to last year for sure, in southwest Oklahoma where I am from in Altus, it looks like we are going to have a better crop,” Felty said. “Not appreciably better, but it looks like it going to be a better crop.”

The conditions of this drought, Felty said, are comparable to the drought around the years 2012 and 2013.

“We learned that you do your best-case scenarios, and you see what happens with the weather and things,” Felty said. “Of course, we do have some different wrinkles this time with high input costs and commodity prices are higher, but nothing makes up for lack of production.”

Altus got a little rain last week, Felty said, but not a significant amount.

“Last year, we had no irrigation,” Felty said. “To date, it looks like we aren’t going to have any this year, but things can change in a hurry.”

Oklahoma Mesonet wins Online Learning Excellence Award

At this year’s 2023 Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit, it was announced that the Oklahoma Mesonet was named the winner of the 2023 Team Leadership Oklahoma Online Excellence Award by the Oklahoma Council for Online Learning Excellence (COLE). The award praises the Mesonet’s “great talent and expertise within distance learning throughout the State of Oklahoma.” Each nominee goes through a review process by COLE and the Online Consortium of Oklahoma. Those selected as winners receive, among other prizes, an award plaque from COLE, a digital credential, and a letter of recognition from State Regents for Higher Education Chancellor Allison D. Garrett.

The Oklahoma Mesonet has a long history of providing educational outreach, focused on teaching Oklahomans how to effectively use weather data in their individual sectors and communities. These efforts date back to 1992 and target the K-20, Public Safety, Agricultural, and Fire Management stakeholder communities. While most of those efforts were in-person activities, the Mesonet suddenly found itself cut off from those stakeholder communities due to the

COVID-19 pandemic. The Mesonet Outreach Team used their creativity and expertise to continue serving and educating this diverse community of users through a variety of initiatives. Mesonet staff trained 495 agencies across Oklahoma during the COVID-19 limitations of 2020-2022. These groups spanned the gamut from tribal organizations to public schools to city and county entities to state and federal agencies.