Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is visiting with Mark Nichols about Oklahoma’s cotton crop. Nichols is the President of Jess Mark Nichols Farms, Inc. and President of Hess Farms, Inc., a fourth-generation farm he has managed since 1980. He farms with his brother-in-law, son, and son-in-law, growing irrigated cotton, wheat, and milo. Recently, the Cotton Board elected a new slate of officers to serve one-year terms, including Nichols.

There is also a lot of focus on regenerative agriculture, Nichols said, and what that means to different people.

“We are not sure exactly what regenerative means,” Nichols said. “They are actually working on a definition of what that means right now.”

Nichols also talked about the condition of Oklahoma’s cotton crop.

“It is pretty tough out here, even when we have water, or had water, a lot of the wells in Tillman County, western Jackson County, Harmon County- a lot of those wells are starting to give out on guys,” Nichols said. “It is so tough because we had such a beautiful crop to start out with.”

With enough rain through the spring to help last year’s crop along, Nichols said that when it turned hot and dry, the crop collapsed in a hurry.



Dating back to 1891, Stillwater Milling Company has been supplying ranchers with the highest quality feeds made from the highest quality ingredients. Their full line of A & M Feeds can be delivered direct to your farm, found at their Agri-Center stores in Stillwater, Davis, Claremore and Perry or at more than 125 dealers in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas. We appreciate Stillwater Milling Company’s long time support of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and we encourage you to click here to learn more about their products and services.

Recently, Farm Director, KC Sheperd had the chance to visit with academic and animal behaviorist Temple Grandin about animal handling, education, and more.

Among other trades, including authoring many books about visual thinking and more, Grandin is also a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University.

Grandin said that in her classes, one thing she focuses on is teaching students how to apply tools such as scientific databases to their work.

“I am finding that the majority of students don’t know what the scientific databases are,” Grandin said. “I think it is a really big problem.”

Regarding her books on animal behavior, Grandin talked about some of the big takeaways.

“An animal lives in a sensory-based world, not a word-based world,” Grandin said.

In her new book on visual thinking, Grandin said she talks about how animals are visual thinkers, but also that there are many different types of thinkers when it comes to people, and each plays an important role in society.

R.A. Brown’s Donnell Brown Emphasizes Survivability and Sustainability on the Ranch

In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am talking with Donnell Brown, a past president of the National FFA Organization and rancher at the R.A. Brown Ranch out of Throckmorton, Texas.

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

At the recent Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association convention, Brown talked about survivability, sustainability, and the joy of life. Those three things, Brown said, must work together.

“In my 54 years, I have learned so many things, and the more I learn the more I realize there is less that I really know,” Brown said. “What I am really starting to understand better than ever before is that we need to look at a holistic approach to make sure that we are sustainable.”

Sustainability, Brown said, means doing more with less.

“When we do more with less, the land is better, the water is better, the livestock is better,” Brown said. “With that, we can increase profitability, while finding true joy not only in the workplace, but in our family. To me, that is essential.”

The second day of the 2023 edition of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour is in the books and from the western side of the tour- the Nebraska numbers were reported last night- showing the impact of drought and hot temperatures on the corn and soybeans grown in the eastern half of that state. As scouts made their way through eastern Nebraska, the state’s extreme-to-exceptional drought conditions (15%) were obvious in corn. Scouts on the eastern leg saw more of a mixed bag for corn, including disease.

The Nebraska Corn yield comes in at the 2nd lowest for the tour since 2017, but better than last year. Coming in at 167.22 vs last years 158.53 bpa

Bean pods below last year & 3 year average.

The Nebraska and Indiana charts below are from the Twitter post of Karen Braun with Reuters

According to Braun- the Tour finds "strong potential in Indiana soybeans with pod counts nearly matching the 2018 tour’s high. Corn results could suggest hesitation on USDA’s record yield forecast (tour found 193.5 bu/acre in 2021, Indiana’s record corn yielding year)." The tour predicts a 180.89 bushel yield for the Indiana corn crop versus 177.85 a year ago and the 2023 number is thee bushels under the three year average.

The pod counts were 1309.96- well above year ago and three year averages.

Several farm broadcasters are covering the multistate tour- one of our favorites is Todd Gleason who is with WILL Radio owned by the University of Illinois- one of his interviews from the tour is with Ted Seifried who is an analyst with the Zaner Group who offers Todd his take on Ohio and Indiana from the first two days of the tour- click here for that conversation they had.

Ag Women’s Night Out Coming up October 24th, 6:30pm

Women play a vital role in all agriculture farm and ranch operations, from bookkeepers to mechanics and everything in between. Hear from women who are overcomers in the ag industry and meet others who can relate to your struggles and achievements. This will be a night of innovation, encouragement and unification of women in agriculture in northeast Oklahoma.

Speakers:

• Carolyn Piguet, Piguet’s Prime Time Restaurant
• Martha Armitage, A- Ranch
• Alex Peschell, Coram Deo Flower Farm
• Heather Mills and Nichole Dorsey , D- Beef and Dorsey Processing

OKFB names Westwood senior public policy Consultant

Oklahoma Farm Bureau has named Kinsey Westwood senior public policy consultant in the organization’s public policy division.

Westwood will help implement OKFB’s member-driven grassroots advocacy efforts to support Oklahoma’s agriculture community. She will assist with the organization’s public policy efforts on the state and national levels in addition to planning and implementing a variety of advocacy-related programs.

“I am honored to be back home at Oklahoma Farm Bureau, serving my first love: agriculture and the community that encompasses it,” Westwood said.

Westwood returns to OKFB, where she worked in the public policy division from 2011-2012, after a wide and varied career in the public policy sphere. She worked most recently at the State Chamber of Oklahoma where she served as vice president of government affairs. Westwood is a graduate of Oklahoma State University where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural communications. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Westwood and her two daughters live in Piedmont.