For the second time in January- the Oklahoma State University Livestock Judging Team was named the Champion Team at the 2024 National Western Stock Show. Earlier in January- they were named the Champions at the 2024 Jarold Callahan Memorial Livestock Judging Contest at the Cattlemen’s Congress. Click here for our story from Congress about the Cowboys taking the championship.

In Denver- the OSU team bested Texas A&M by 55 points to claim top honors. OSU was led by Ashlyn O’Brien who came to Stillwater from Ohio by way of Butler Community College- she was the high individual overall at the NWSS- besting teammate Braylon Spears by three points. She matched her score in Denver that she racked up in Oklahoma City a few days earlier- 942- that earned her a fourth place finish at Cattlemen’s Congress- she was the high individual on the team for the second contest in a row. Spears also duplicated his score in both the Oklahoma City and Denver contests.

OSU Coach Parker Henley says in a Facebook post that OSU wants to thank the staff at both the Cattlemen’s Congress, and the NWSS, for putting on high quality contests.



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. 

The newest addition to the National Family is Dakota Moss- and Livestock Risk Services.

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.

At the 2024 Superior Livestock Bellringer Sale held live in Oklahoma City last week, I caught up with the President of Superior Livestock, Danny Jones, and talked about the year 2023 and what 2024 holds for the cattle industry and Superior.

This year’s Bellringer Sale has been a success, Jones said, and about 110,000 cattle were included in the sale. The year of 2023 was also a big success for Superior Livestock, Jones added.

“It has been the third year in a row we have had significant growth,” Jones said. “We were up 205,000 cattle in 2023. In a year that had fewer cattle to be sold, we had a nice increase.”

Superior has not only seen growth in the number of cattle sellers and buyers who are willing to utilize an online sale, but also in the value-added programs.

“The programs started as kind of a niche market, but it has turned into a bigger deal,” Jones said. “As the programs have grown, obviously you are going to go specifically after those program dollars, then you have to put them in front of an audience where all those buyers can find those cattle. At Superior Livestock, we feel like we do a good job of accomplishing that for our customers.”

Farmer Protests in Germany Growing

German farmers are pushing back against increased government regulations and taxes with massive protests and tractor convoys across the country that have been going for a week. The protests have moved from the major highways to now into that country's capitol- Berlin.

The proverbial last straw was the plan to eliminate the diesel fuel tax refund and increase taxes on machinery as the government struggles to fill a huge budget shortfall.

In search of money to fill the budget gap, it was decided (as of January 9, 2024) that the tax refund for diesel in the agricultural sector will no longer be paid. Furthermore, a tax should be levied on all agricultural equipment. The plan by the government will sharply escalate costs for farmers and make them unable to compete with food producers in other European countries. German farmers feel that this plan is a continuation of the government’s war on food and farms.

A really good overview of what has happened across Germany as farmers have turned out by the thousands is online- published by the Tri State Livestock News- click here to read it.

Noble “Essentials” Courses Deliver New Ideas and Practices Plus a Regenerative Network

Farmers and ranchers share what they learned in Noble’s first year of regenerative courses as the initial 2024 class offerings are announced, starting with New Braunfels, Texas, this February.

As Noble Research Institute expands its educational programs this year, with a wider range of regenerative courses delivered across several states in the Southwest, Midwest and Great Plains, we wanted to share what participants are saying about the first two courses in the curriculum.

In 2023, farmers and ranchers attended the two-day Essentials of Regenerative Ranching course in Oklahoma and Texas and the three-day Essentials of Regenerative Grazing course offered in Ardmore and Miami, Oklahoma, both debuting that year.

There will be two courses held in Oklahoma. The first is an Essentials of Regenerative Ranching Course on April 3-4, 2024, in Edmond, OK, and the second is an Essentials of Regenerative Grazing Course on April 16-18, 2024, in Ardmore, OK.

“We’re pleased to be expanding our geography to reach people interested in regenerative ranching in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, with plans to offer courses in the Dakotas as well,” says Hugh Aljoe, director of ranches, outreach and partnerships at Noble. In addition, he says to watch for news of new course topics and locations during the year.

Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is talking with the head of sales and service at the Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS), Jeff Bahr. Bahr talks about what producers need to be aware of in 2024 and the RCIS Apprenticeship Program.

RCIS is a crop insurance provider, insuring farms across the country. RCIS works directly with crop insurance agents who travel to farms to deliver policies.

“What we encourage them to do is to start looking at all of these different risk management plans that are available, talk to their RCIS agent in advance, and start putting that together to make sure all of their crops are going to be protected in 2024,” Bahr said.

When it comes to volatile weather patterns, Bahr said crop insurance is the best protection method that a producer can invest in.

“We have the federal crop insurance program that 90 percent of farmers actually take advantage of, so most all of them do that; however, there are also some private products like a revenue protection policy through RCIS that provides coverage beyond what the federal crop insurance program does, and it also can have a claim on that without having a federal crop insurance claim,” Bahr said.

Prop. 12 Now in Full Effect; NPPC Continues to Look for Solutions

What happened: California Proposition 12 (Prop. 12) has come into full effect as of Jan. 1, mandating that all covered pork shipped to California must abide by the state’s arbitrary production standards. Pork producers across the country continue to voice their concerns over how California’s overregulation could negatively impact family farms and are looking to Congress for a solution.

Three Illinois pork producers, including former NPPC board member Phil Borgic, have weighed in on Prop. 12, with a letter to the editor that ran in The Pantagraph of Bloomington, IL. In the letter, the producers highlighted: “If we want to continue farming, Proposition 12 will undoubtedly raise the cost of producing pork for us and other hog farmers, which jeopardizes an Illinois industry that contributes $3.3 billion in economic value and supports nearly 34,000 jobs.”

Prop. 12 requires pork to be from hogs born to sows that are provided both a minimum of 24 square feet per sow and are not housed in individual pens. In the United States, the industry average for sow breeding pens is 16 to 18 square feet.

The current IRS tax code is 74,600 pages long. In book form it would stretch 36 feet high, in case you want a climbing challenge! But according to Tyler Bruch, founder and CEO of Boa Safra Ag, there’s one paragraph in that code that has the potential to save some farmers thousands of dollars through tax deductions. But most landowners have never heard about it before.

RELATED: The IRS Farmer’s Tax Guide, Publication 225, can be accessed here. 

So, what are we talking about here? This must be something new, right? As a matter of fact, it’s been around for a long time. The little-known code was written and passed by Congress in 1960. According to Section 180, the IRS allows owners of agriculture land to deduct the residual fertility value of nutrients in their soils at the time of acquisition.  

RELATED: The University of Nebraska Center for Agricultural Profitability explains Section 180 and how it works. Read that here.

That means purchasers of agriculture land can depreciate the value of fertilizer ingredients that are present in the soil at the time of purchase in the same way as other capital items such as fencing, equipment or structures. To capture these deductions, owners need to put a number on the volume and value of these nutrients in their farm soil. That’s where Boa Safra Ag comes in.