The return of hot, dry weather over larger portions of the central U.S. late last week halted the recent rise in corn and soybean conditions, USDA-NASS reported in its weekly Crop Progress report on Monday. And with record heat forecast from Texas to Minnesota to Maryland to Florida this week, crop conditions appear likely to take another hit.

Hardest hit seems to the the US Cotton crop- with both the Texas and Oklahoma cotton crops heading downhill- the Texas crop goes from 14% good to excellent to 10% this week and Oklahoma falls from 27% good to excellent last week to 14% this week. (Pic above is from the Texas High Plains this past week)

OKLAHOMA:

Corn dough reached 72 percent, up 11 points from the previous year and up 4 points from normal. Corn conditions rated 74 percent good to excellent, 18 percent fair, and 8 percent poor to very poor. Last week’s conditions rated 74 percent good to excellent, 20 percent fair, and 6 percent poor to very poor. 

Soybeans setting pods reached 44 percent, up 4 points from the previous year and up 5 points from normal. Soybean conditions rated 69 percent good to excellent, 24 percent fair and 7 percent poor to very poor. Last week’s conditions rated 66 percent good to excellent, 26 percent fair, and 8 percent poor to very poor. 

Peanuts conditions rated 98 percent good to excellent and 2 percent fair. Last week’s conditions rated the same.

Cotton conditions rated 14 percent good to excellent, 21 percent fair and 65 percent poor to very poor. Last week’s conditions rated 27 percent good to excellent, 10 percent fair and 63 percent poor to very poor. 

Range and pasture conditions rated 49 percent good to excellent, 31 percent fair and 20 percent poor to very poor. Last week’s conditions rated 48 percent good to excellent, 32 percent fair and 20 percent poor to very poor. 



National Livestock was founded in 1932 in Oklahoma City. National’s Marketing Division offers cattle for sale weekly at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City. The Finance Division lends money to ranchers across several states for cattle production. The Grazing Division works with producers to place cattle for grazing on wheat or grass pastures. 

National also owns and operates other livestock marketing subsidiaries including Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction in Ada, Oklahoma, OKC West Livestock Market in El Reno, Oklahoma, and the nation’s premier livestock video sale, Superior Livestock Auction. National offers customers many services custom made for today’s producer. To learn more, click here for the website or call the Oklahoma City office at 1-800-310-0220.

Oklahoma Forage Production Rebounds

Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry as part of the weekly series known as the “Cow Calf Corner” published electronically by Dr. Peel and Mark Johnson. Today, Dr. Peel talks about forage production in Oklahoma.

Although drought persists north and south of Oklahoma, forage conditions have improved greatly in the state this summer. In late April, at the peak of drought this spring, over 64 percent of Oklahoma had some degree of dry or drought conditions with about 50 percent of the state in D2-D4 drought in the Drought Monitor. In mid-August, just 5.35 percent of the state had D2 or worse drought. 

In May, the first seasonal NASS conditions report for 2023 showed that 54 percent of Oklahoma range and pastures were in poor or very poor condition. July was the seventh wettest July on record in Oklahoma. Most of the rain fell in the first half of July and by mid-July just eight percent of ranges and pastures were rated poor to very poor.  By mid-August, hot, dry summer weather decreased range and pasture ratings in Oklahoma pastures to 20 percent poor to very poor.

In the August Crop Production report, USDA-NASS provided estimates of alfalfa and other hay production for major hay producing states. Oklahoma total hay production in 2023 is estimated to be up 58.2 percent year over year from the drought-reduced levels of 2022 and up 18.3 percent over the twenty-year average from 2002-2021. Total U.S. hay production is up 5.3 percent year over year. 

National Beef Quality Audit Helping Deliver High Quality Product to Consumers

In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am featuring comments from Farm Director, KC Sheperd’s interview with Oklahoma State University’s Morgan Pfeiffer about the National Beef Quality Audit.

The National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) is a comprehensive survey that evaluates beef industry efforts to improve beef quality. Conducted every five years since 1991, the checkoff-funded Audit assesses progress the industry makes on a variety of production issues that ultimately affect consumer demand for beef. Pfeiffer is one of the researchers who aided in the 2022 National Beef Quality Audit.

“It actually started with a research paper that was released in 1990 that was talking about all of these lost opportunities in the beef industry and the millions and millions of dollars that we were not capturing that we could,” Pfeiffer said. “From there, they decided, ‘We really need to know where we are at.’”

During this time in the 90s, Pfeiffer said individuals came together to assess what changes could be made in the industry to improve on the value that was not being captured.

“From there, they set those five benchmarks,” Pfeiffer said. “The number one benchmark from the federal side was that we had to improve quality. Now, if we look at the data, that is our biggest positive in the industry, is our quality."

On the second night of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s Annual Ranch Rodeo at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Associate Farm Editor Reagan Calk caught up with announcer Dr. Lynn Phillips and talked about the event.

Phillips has been in the announcer’s stand for all 39 years of the OCA Ranch Rodeo.

“All of these ranches are members of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association,” Phillips said. “They are some of the oldest, largest, and most historic ranches in the state of Oklahoma. There are a lot that come back year after year, but we always add new ranches to bring in because a lot of ranches want to compete, but we only have 12 ranches that can compete.”

After the Friday night performance, Phillips said Daube Cattle Co. & 3C Cattle Co. were in the lead. Fast forward through the Saturday night performance, the overall winner of the ranch rodeo was awarded to the Whitmire Ranch & Sumner Cattle Co.

Aside from the fellowship the OCA Ranch Rodeo provides for ranchers and working cowboys across the state, Phillips also talked about how the event is put on to help raise funds for the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

“Since its inception, the proceeds for this event go to the Miracle Network- the Oklahoma Children’s Foundation,” Phillips said. “Over the years, they have raised $630,000 for the Miracle Network, and that is a big part of it.”

The 2023 edition of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour is underway- and Monday was the opening day of travels by crop scouts starting in the eastern and western parts of the corn and soybean belt.

In the west- scouts were checking corn and soybean fields in South Dakota. The 2023 corn yield prediction for South Dakota was 33% higher than a year ago- coming in at 157 bushels per acre versus 118 in 2022.

The soybean pod count was also higher than in 2022- up 16% year over year- but below the three year average.

At the easternmost part of the tour- scouts were busy looking at fields in Ohio with corn yield projections were five percent over the 2022 levels- 183.94 BPA versus 174 in 2022. The three year average for Ohio from the crop scouts is 175 bpa.

One comment on the Ohio Corn crop on Twitter- “Ohio is, generally, a hit-or-miss state. There’s a good-quality corn crop here this year, and it’s looking like a hit,” says Brain Grete- one of the tour leaders with Pro Farmer.

The soybean pod counts in Ohio were then percent over a year ago at 1252.9 versus 1131.6 year over year. 2023 was also higher than the three year average pod count for Ohio of 1160.

Tuesday- the scouts continue their routes and by this evening- we will have estimates for Nebraska and Indiana.

Biden Administration Invests More Than $67 Million to Expand Rural Oklahoma Broadband

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development and Oklahoma State Director Kenneth Corn announced today $67.6 million in grants and loans to connect thousands of rural residents, farmers and business owners across rural Oklahoma to affordable high-speed internet through the ReConnect Program, funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This program is uniquely designed to fund the most difficult high-speed internet projects in the nation, which are the most rural, remote and unserved communities. In total nearly $700 million is being utilized to provide high-speed broadband to rural and tribal communities across the Nation.

Connecting all communities across the United States to high-speed internet is a central part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and middle out by rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. This agenda is driving more than $500 billion in private-sector manufacturing investments, rebuilding America’s infrastructure, lowering costs, and creating good-paying jobs. And it’s transforming our country for the better – reaching communities in every corner of the United States, including those that have too often been left behind.

“Ensuring our rural and tribal communities can connect with the same high-speed internet resources as their counterparts in more populated regions of the state is absolutely critical for the long-term success of small towns across Oklahoma,” Corn said. “Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration this expansion of broadband will mean more Oklahomans will have improved access to vital sectors such as healthcare, banking and education services.”

Family honors loved one’s memory in new home for OSU Agriculture

As avid Oklahoma State University fans, the Poindexter family spends most weekends wearing orange and supporting OSU Cowboys at athletic events.

After the late John Poindexter, a 1980 OSU agricultural economics graduate, and his wife, Karen, married in 1984, they followed the Cowboys wherever they went.

“When we had our three kids, there was no question that they would go to OSU,” Karen Poindexter said. “When they were younger, they understood that’s what their mom and dad do – go to OSU football and basketball games.”

All three of their children ­–– Jacob, Kirstin and Kara –– followed in their dad’s footsteps, graduating from OSU.

Karen Poindexter said education was always important to her husband, and they made sure to instill that in their children.

Because of her husband’s devotion to education and agriculture, she decided to become a major gift donor to the New Frontiers campaign to build a state-of-the-art teaching, research and Extension facility for OSU Agriculture.