Exceptional Drought Remains at Zero as Remaining Oklahoma Drought Categories Improve

According to the latest Oklahoma drought monitor, exceptional drought is now at zero, unchanged from last week.

Extreme drought or worse has improved from last week’s 3.23 percent down to this week’s 2.58 percent.

Severe drought or worse has improved from last week’s 7.31 percent to this week’s 6.64 percent.

Moderate drought or worse has improved significantly from last week’s 20.32 percent to this week’s 17.76 percent.

Abnormally dry or worse conditions have improved from last week’s 50.07 percent to this week’s 47.61 percent.

According to the 6-10-day precipitation outlook map, most of the state is leaning above a 33-40 percent chance of precipitation through August 5. The small southeast corner is standing at a near-normal percent chance of precipitation through that date, and the northwest corner of the panhandle is at a 40 to 50 percent chance.

Click the Oklahoma Drought Map above the story to see this week's Oklahoma drought numbers.



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Ag Appropriations Bill Process Sees Anti-Checkoff Amendment Surface

In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am back talking with the vice president of governmental affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane, about using the appropriations process to shape policy.

Our coverage from the 2023 Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in San Diego is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.

“At the beginning of this Congress, we watched the speaker fight where they were negotiating the rules, and some of the rules they negotiated were around how the amendment processes would work,” Lane said. “Open amendment process leads to the kind of appropriations process we are seeing now. They have got to pass an appropriations bill to find the government every year, but if you have that in a really open format, sometimes it draws some pretty wild stuff out of the woodwork in the form of last-minute, half-baked amendments, and certainly, we have seen a few of those this week, including this amendment from Victoria Spartz, this congresswoman from Indiana.”

Lane said Spartz is seeking to stop the use of federal funding in Beef Checkoff programs and any checkoff programs in general.

“We don’t use any federal funds to implement the Checkoff programs, so it is sort of an odd amendment, but unfortunately not necessarily out of character for what we see during these kind of wild open amendment processes,” Lane said.

Cattle Industry Leaders Focus on Clear Labeling and Consumer Protection for Cell-Based Proteins

At the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting, I caught up with the President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Todd Wilkinson, and talked about labeling and inspection of cell-based products.

Our coverage from the 2023 Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in San Diego is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.

“It is great to see the grassroots come together and understand that they need to give us policy and direction,” Wilkinson.

The good news, Wilkinson said, is that the urgency to act on the issues regarding cell-based products is great.

“Nobody wants the public misled into eating something that comes out of a bio refractor, I call it goop, and you know if down the road that stuff ends up in the meat counter and it is labeled as ground beef, we have lost the argument,” Wilkinson said. “We have got to fight the fight now, and we have to get both regulatory labeling clear, and we have got to get the consumer protection part clear.”

In their weekly grain market conversation, OSU’s Grain Market Economist Dr. Kim Anderson tells SUNUP’s Lyndall Stout that the latest escalation by Russia against Ukraine’s major grain export port, Odessa, has caused a lot of volatility in the global wheat market.

Almost thirty percent of total wheat exports globally historically come from Russia and Ukraine- and it’s over forty five percent of the wheat market for bread making coming from the two countries.

Dr. Anderson says that the war premium on the wheat prices here in the southern plains is roughly a dollar to as much as a dollar fifty. Currently average Oklahoma cash wheat prices have been living around the $7.80 level- and when it appears that wheat from Ukraine won’t make it into the global market-we have seen those prices as high as $8.50.

Anderson believes if there was no war and wheat from Russia and Ukraine had full market access- wheat prices this season in Oklahoma would likely be around $6.50 to $7.00 per bushel- Anderson says that’s his best guess.

Persistently High Retail Prices, Soft Demand Cloud Outlook for U.S. Pork Producers

U.S. pork producers are facing an increasingly challenging economic environment that is likely to persist through the remainder of 2023. The combination of elevated operating costs and depressed hog values are evaporating producer returns and limiting overall industry growth. While hog prices have risen this summer, they have not kept pace with skyrocketing costs for feed, labor, construction and other expenses, according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange.

Soft domestic demand for pork and a murky outlook for U.S. pork exports are compounding the market challenges. Persistently high retail pork prices and a decline in food-at-home spending in the U.S. are limiting domestic consumption growth. Globally, demand for U.S. pork has come under pressure as China’s hog supplies have rebounded from the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF). The totality of adverse market conditions, which include higher borrowing costs, will limit U.S. herd expansion and tighten hog supplies.

“Ultimately, these challenges all fall on the shoulders of pork producers,” said Brian Earnest, lead animal protein economist for CoBank. “In addition to pressuring hog and pork supplies, the current market conditions are derailing hog producers’ expansion plans. And even if the cost structure warranted additional production, demand is a part of the puzzle that needs addressing.”

Drummond Joins Brief Asking U.S. Supreme Court to Limit Power of Federal Regulators

Attorney General Gentner Drummond has joined a coalition of 27 states asking the U.S. Supreme Court to limit the power of federal regulators. 

The case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, will be a test of the legal doctrine known as Chevron deference. Long despised by conservatives for its empowerment of federal regulatory agencies, Chevron deference is the legal precedent that requires courts to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes. In fact, Chevron deference applies even if the court thinks that the agency’s approach is not the most faithful way to read the statute. This effectively allows agencies to expand their authority whenever statutes are the slightest bit unclear.

At issue in Loper is a regulation by the National Marine Fisheries Service that requires herring fishing boats to have an additional person on board to serve as a monitor, tracking compliance with federal regulation. The catch: The fishing companies must pay the monitor’s salary, which would cost around $700 per day.

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