After the Oklahoma Emergency Drought Commission meeting, Radio Oklahoma’s Dale Forbis caught up with Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur about the highlights from the meeting.

Highlights from the meeting include:

• An additional 17 million dollars from the legislature (to fund existing and Non funded projects), plus another 20 million for continuing projects and drought.
• 4025 applications have been funded so far, and 1683 applications have been funded but not completed out of a total of 6047 applications. (2022 unfunded applications remain)
• New members added to the commission: Pete Nichols of Washita County (appointed by the Speaker of the House) and Josh Emerson of McIntosh County (appointed by the Pro Tem)
• The commission is looking at simplifying the process for applicants.
• Discussion on making the Emergency Drought Commission permanent

Arthur is the Chairman of the Emergency Drought Commission and said there was plenty of discussion at the meeting involving making the Emergency Drought Commission permanent.

“I think that is a tremendous opportunity for our producers in the state,” Arthur said. “As many of the folks said today, there is always going to be some type of drought in the state of Oklahoma, depending on where you live.”



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In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am back talking with Donnell Brown of the R.A. Brown Ranch located in Throckmorton, Texas. Hays and Brown talk in more detail about the potential of gene editing in the cattle industry.

“Gene editing is a new frontier I am super excited about,” Brown said. “We are using a technology called precision breeding, where we are using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit an animal’s own DNA. All we are doing is switching their genetic code.”

Using this technology to rework an animal’s genetic code, Brown said, can change specific traits such as hide color and hair density to help cattle handle hotter climates better. This technology does not add to their DNA, Brown said, but simply edits the code that already exists.

“Seventy percent of the globe’s cattle are in the tropics and subtropics closer to the equator,” Brown said. “We can utilize the technology of the great genetics we have in America and export that to where those cattle fit so much better in those tropics and subtropics.”

Pro Farmer Tour Sees Illinois Corn and Soybeans Looking Awesome- Best Corn Yield Since 2014

Day three of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour gives us complete results on the 2023 Illinois estimates from the scouts- and a first look at western Iowa.

In the case of Illinois- the graph above comes from Karen Braun of Reuters who is on the tour- and she says on Twitter (now known as X) about Illinois- "Average Illinois corn yields on pftour23 were the 3rd highest in the last decade (high 197 bu/acre on 2014 tour). Pod counts for soybeans were the 5th highest in the last decade (high 1329 on 2018 tour). Forecast for Illinois is dry for at least the next week."

She goes on to say that if you look under the hood at the Illinois corn numbers "Looking at the corn yield components, avg ear population in Illinois was the tour's highest since at least 2015. Kernel rows (number of kernels around ear) were the lowest since/tied with 2019. Grain length was just under the three-year avg, but slightly better than last year.

As for western Iowa, the graphic above is also from Karen Braun who says "Mixed results for #corn in western Iowa on #pftour23. District 4 (west central) yield was the tour’s lowest in at least 9 years, but the NW and SW districts came in similar to the recent tour averages."

The full picture for Iowa will be painted on Thursday evening.

With misinformation being spread recently questioning the safety and quality of beef products sold in the United States, Associate Farm Editor Reagan Calk talked with Marination and Cured Meats Product Manager at JBT FoodTech, David Hayden, about the facts, and why it is safe to buy beef at the grocery store and directly from a farmer and rancher.

Hayden first talked about misconceptions regarding the color of beef at the grocery store as it relates to quality. Hayden said there is a scientific explanation as to why beef bought directly from the farmer or rancher may be a different color than the beef at the grocery store.

“The product you are buying from your farmer or rancher is typically packaged in what we call a ‘chub,’” Hayden said. “It is a plastic casing with a pound of ground beef and a clip on the end. That packaging is not oxygen permeable, versus the store package that has a nice film over the top…”

The product at the grocery store will typically be a bright cherry red color, Hayden said, while the product from the farmer or rancher will be more of a purple color.

“The reason being is that package at the grocery store is an oxygen permeable package,” Hayden said. “It allows oxygen to free flow through the film that you see over the top of ground beef. It allows the oxygen to actually bind to the myoglobin protein in the product, allowing it to bloom into a nice, bright cherry red.”

This means, Hayden said, that if you take ground beef in “chub” packaging and open it up, allowing it to sit and breathe for around ten to fifteen minutes, it will turn from that purple color to bright cherry red, just like the beef at the grocery store.

Cost Effective Late Summer Supplementation for Growing Calves

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 talks about late summer supplementation for growing calves.

From a moisture standpoint, the summer of 2023 has been good for many Oklahoma cattle producers. As a result, many of us have ample standing forage. This week we address the Oklahoma Gold and Oklahoma SuperGold supplementation programs as a means of adding profit potential. Both programs were designed to cost effectively improve the growth of calves and stocker cattle grazing pastures in late summer and fall. Both are based on limit feeding high protein supplements. Crude Protein (CP) content and digestibility of warm season grasses declines during mid-summer and fall. No doubt many Oklahoma producers watched green pastures turn brown during the past few weeks of intense heat and this corresponds with declining quality of standing forage. In late spring and early summer calves can gain 2 – 3 lbs./day on the same pastures that now may be limiting gains to less than half that amount, even with ample standing forage. Why? Because cattle’s growth performance is based on the most limiting nutrient in their diet. The same grasses that would have contained over 10% CP in May now are likely closer to 7% CP. A 500 lb. calf gaining 1.5 lbs./day requires a diet containing a minimum of 10% CP. Bottomline: at this point in the summer, CP has become the growth limiting factor in a calf’s diet.

Farmers Need Incentives to Overcome Risks of Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices

Change is not easy, especially when it involves financial risk. That’s the situation farmers and ranchers find themselves in when considering innovative, climate-smart agricultural practices. Sure, in the long run, many farmers find that adopting practices like cover crops, no-till and prescribed grazing build soil health and pay off. But, in the short term, when the unknowns—and the bills—pile higher than the knowns, it is no wonder farmers are hesitant to make changes in their operations.

That is why it is essential that farmers and ranchers have access to conservation programs that grant them funds to make climate-smart improvements on their operations. These programs make it possible for producers to take risks, to try new practices, and to work toward long-term land improvement and climate resiliency goals without sacrificing what they and their families need to survive today.

As part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law in August 2022, conservation programs received an additional $19.5 billion over five years for climate-smart agriculture.

Programs benefiting include:

• Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), $8.45 billion
• Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), $4.95 billion
• Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), $3.25 billion
• Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), $1.4 billion
• Conservation Technical Assistance, $1 billion

The Evolution of Precision Agriculture and Policy Implications

The American Farm Bureau has developed an in depth look at Ag Technology and how farming has changed over the centuries. Here is a piece of that look at agriculture from then til now:

Farming is truly a special walk of life. As the saying goes, “Man – despite artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and accomplishments, owes his existence to a 6-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” Farmers tap into biology, using soil, sun, water and nutrients that have existed for millions of years to produce food that sustains people all over the world.

One aspect of farming that is often overlooked is the evolution of agricultural technology. Advancements in knowledge, biology and technology have allowed farmers to produce more food with fewer resources for 12,000 years, though the technological advancements of recent decades make the gains of the previous 11,000 or so years seem small. When agriculture began at the end of the Stone Age, the world had approximately 5 million people to feed, and few, if any, farmers were feeding people beyond their extended family.

Farmers today use technology to plant and harvest mile-long fields with equipment guided by satellites for sub-inch accuracy, allowing them to feed nearly 8 billion people across the world with fewer resources than ever before. This Market Intel will dive into the evolution and importance of precision agriculture and how policy can help to continue the research, development and adoption of the technology farmers need to continue to feed our growing population using fewer inputs and conserving our natural resources.

Click on the blue button below to read the journey of agriculture and how far we have come since the days of feeding just our families.