Chairman Dell Kerbs Offers Insight on Legislature’s Additional Dollars for Drought

At the latest meeting of the Emergency Drought Commission, Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with the Chairman of the Oklahoma House Ag Committee Dell Kerbs and talked about the new funds allocated to the drought commission.

After the legislature first allocated 20 million dollars to the Emergency Drought Commission, Kerbs said that when that money ran out, there was work to be done to make sure producers who did not yet receive funding had that opportunity.

“The legislative body did not want to stop there,” Kerbs said. “Out of that, there were some additional applications that were going to be unfunded from the 20 million dollars, so the legislative body added another 17 million dollars to take care of those existing applications that were already in the queue.”

Through the budgetary process, Kerbs said, the legislative body then saw the importance of those funds as drought will continue to be an issue.

“We added, in the budget, we put in 20 million dollars, additional into that,” Kerbs said. “So, over this last legislative cycle, it has been roughly around 57 million dollars that the legislative body has added to help mitigate drought issues all over the state.”



Great Plains Kubota is Oklahoma's family of full-line Kubota dealerships offering Kubota sales, service, and parts. As an Oklahoma Elite Kubota dealer, we have a large selection of Kubota Tractors, Kubota Mowers, Kubota Utility Vehicles, Kubota Construction Equipment and Kubota's line of Hay Tools. Give us a call today at 855-4KUBOTA or stop by any of our Kubota dealerships in Ada, Ardmore, Duncan, Edmond, Shawnee, Norman, Stillwater and our newest location serving western Oklahoma and beyond, Clinton. To schedule a DEMO with one of our Outside Salesmen, email gpsales@gpkubota.com Visit us and see why Great Plains Kubota is... the brand that serves! 



Oklahoma Drought Monitor Shows Drought Conditions Intensified Since Last Week

According to the latest Oklahoma Drought Monitor, exceptional drought remains at zero percent, unchanged for the past few weeks.

Extreme drought or worse has worsened just slightly from last week, moving from last week’s 1.60 percent to this week’s 1.69 percent.

Severe drought or worse has worsened, moving from last week’s 5.35 percent to this week’s 8.28 percent.

Moderate drought or worse has become significantly worse, moving from last week’s 12.75 percent to this week’s 28.14.

Abnormally dry or worse conditions have worsened quite a bit since last week, moving from last week’s 35.99 percent to this week’s 50.32 percent.

According to the 6 to 10-day precipitation outlook map, the left half of the panhandle is leaning below a 33 to 40 percent chance of precipitation through September 2. The rest of the state, aside from a large majority of northeastern Oklahoma, is leaning below 40 to 50 percent of precipitation. The northeastern part of the state and some surrounding counties are likely below a 50 to 60 chance of precipitation through September 2.

Click the Oklahoma drought map above to see this week's drought numbers.

R.A. Brown’s Donnell Brown Sees Sustainability as an Opportunity Rather than a Nuisance

In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am back talking with Donnell Brown of the R.A. Brown Ranch. For a part three, Brown and I look at the challenges and the opportunities in the beef cattle business.

“I think the consumer is going to demand us to be more sustainable, whether that is greenhouse gasses- cattle do produce methane, there is no doubt about it, so if we can make them more efficient and we can use breeding and technologies that will help them to produce more with less, then we are helping the environment, and we are doing our part to better feed a growing global population,” Brown said. “To me, it all fits together. I look at sustainability as a great opportunity.”

Some producers may look at sustainability as pressure that outsiders are putting on the industry, but Brown said it is about doing the right thing to produce more with less.

“I believe it is our responsibility to do that as stewards of all natural resources and all creation, to do more with less,” Brown said. “That is the way I define sustainability.”

Regarding the markets, Brown said the industry is seeing prices like never before, and he expects those to stick around for an extended period of time. As ranchers might be able to see some good profits, Brown said now is the time to think about how to reinvest those profits to make the business more profitable moving forward.

This Week on SUNUP is Oklahoma State University Extension grain market economist Kim Anderson. During this week’s edition, Anderson talks about the latest in the grain markets.

Since the middle of July, Anderson said wheat prices have dropped $1.75. Since a few weeks ago, Andreson said those prices have been between $6.70 and $7.10.

“You can forward contract 2024 harvested wheat for $6.70, and the current price is around $6.75,” Anderson said.

Argentina and Australia’s harvest will start in September and go through December, Anderson said, and both Argentina and Australia are projected to produce an average crop.

Canada’s harvest of hard spring wheat is starting up relatively soon, Anderson said, and they are projected to have an above-average crop, as is the European Union.

“Germany and France and the EU are the biggest wheat producers and exporters,” Anderson said. “They are having a wet harvest, and that has been reducing the yield and the quality of that product. Russia is projected to harvest the second-largest wheat crop ever. They came into this marketing year with above average ending stocks, and they have a tremendous amount of wheat to export.”

2023 Pro Farmer Crop Tour Concludes- Iowa and Minnesota Data Released

Day four of the 2023 Pro Farmer Crop Tour is now in the books- which brings the trip across the corn and soybean areas of the US to a conclusion.

Two states were surveyed on Thursday- the eastern two thirds of Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota. (The corn yield pic here is from near Walnut Grove, Minnesota- courtesy of Corey Hulke's Twitter Account)

Pro Farmer will release a full Corn and Soybean Crop estimate for the US on Friday- which will take into account their crop tour data- but goes well beyond just the areas surveyed.

The Iowa data from Wednesday was combined with Thursday to deliver the final Hawkeye state info. According to Karen Braun with Reuters- "Iowa #corn yields on #pftour23 come in a little below last year and the recent average. 182.8 is the tour’s 5th lowest of the last decade, and the west central district was hit the hardest by drought this year. Potential for #soybeans is above average, but rains are still needed."



Check Karen's graphic on Iowa below.

Meanwhile- Minnesota corn and soybean prospects seem to be significantly poorer than the 2022 crop. Again- from Karen Braun of Reuters: "Minnesota #corn yields on #pftour23 were lower than last year and the recent tour average. Numbers in the southeast district were particularly light, reflective of the dry season. Pod counts for Minnesota #soybeans were the tour’s second worst of the last decade."

Karen's graphic for Minnesota is below:

Southern Plains Perspective: Climate Change Impacting Insurance?

There is a new blog post out at the Southern Plains Perspective. Read below! The Southern Plains Perspective is authored by Clay Pope- who farms with his wife Sarah and is a contractor for the USDA Southern Plains Climate Hub in the area of outreach. 

Another week, another story about how the changing climate is impacting insurance.

Another Story hit the press this month about how the cost of natural disasters impacts the insurance industry.  It seems that companies that “reinsure” insurance policies—that is those companies that provide the financial backstop to the company that issues your home insurance—are getting more and more concerned about how major storm events are taking a bite out of their bottom lines.

When an area gets hit with a catastrophic event like a hurricane, wildfire, or tornado, reinsurance companies step in with cash (generally large amounts of cash) to cover the cost if the damage is too widespread and pricey for an insurance company to cover on their own. These companies are now raising their prices due to the losses that have continued to grow as extreme storm events become more and more common. 

In the weeks leading up to January 1, when about half of these reinsurance policies are generally renewed, it was reported that many reinsurers broke the news to the insurance companies they underwrite that their prices were going up. It seems that reinsurers have lost money over the last four or five years as they competed to offer the best terms to customers and still deal with disasters like the wildfires that devastated the Hawaiian town of Lahaina and the storms that tore apart roofs from Alabama to Massachusetts in early August. 

More Stories For Your Weekend Reading