On Friday- we caught up with Oklahoma Farm Bureau Vice President of Public Policy Steve Thompson as we talked about the latest deadline week activity at the 2024 state legislative session.

Thompson said some of the agricultural highlights from the session to date pertained to the poultry industry and water in the state. Thompson adds that the proverbial 1,000 pound gorilla in the room is how the early passage of the grocery sales tax repeal impacted the dynamics on both sides and changed the amount of money the legislature had available to spend in the appropriations process later in the session.

“When you drop 400 plus million dollars out of the budget picture in the third week of February, then that causes the dynamic to change a lot,” Thompson said.

On the agriculture side, Thompson said they are down to two major water-related bills- one in the House and one in the Senate, both authored by Representative Carl Newton and Senator Brent Howard. As the bills have developed- the focus is primarily on groundwater- although surface rights users have weighed in because "you never know when there is crossover in the policies there."

Midwest Farm Shows is proud to produce the two best Farm Shows in the State of Oklahoma annually- the Tulsa Farm Show each December and the Oklahoma City Farm Show each April. 

They would like to thank all of you who participated in their 2023 Tulsa City Farm Show. 

Up next will be the Oklahoma City’s premier spring agricultural and ranching event with returns to the State Fair Park April 4-5-6, 2024.

Now is the ideal time to contact the Midwest Farm Show Office at 507-437-7969 and book space at the 2024 Oklahoma City Farm Show.  To learn more about the Oklahoma City Farm Show, click here.  

The 2024 OYE Ag Mechanics contest landed in a new venue- the OKC Fairgrounds Pavilion Building and took up about 80% of the 70,000 square foot building. For the awards ceremony at one end of the building, it was a full house to honor the best of FFA and 4-H competitors who had worked hours and hours on their projects.

Following the awards ceremony, Farm Director KC Sheperd talked with the Grand Champion of the competition, Colten Jones from Shattuck FFA.. Jones built a hydraulic flatbed gooseneck trailer that was entered in the gooseneck lowboys and flatbeds category. 3 The trailer was a 6’ long deck gooseneck with Tandem duals, 10’ hydraulic beaver tail, hydraulic jacks & hydraulic brakes.

During the contest- I caught up with Superintendent Jerry Renshaw who says the event has grown steadily since the first contest in 2020, from 63 projects in the first year to 235 projects this year. This year’s numbers are up 35 entries from last year. He sees further growth in future years as this event includes a lot of FFA and 4-H members who do not show livestock- expanding the reach and impact of OYE across the state.

Click here to read more and listen to our visit with Jerry Renshaw

To see the full results from the 2024 Ag Mechanics and Engineering show, CLICK HERE.

Our coverage of the 2024 OYE is being powered by Hilliary Communications.

Rumensin Offers Beef Cows Extra Energy and Can Reduce Methane Emissions

At the recent CatleCon, I talked with Elanco Beef Cattle Technical Consultant Frank White about Rumensin for beef cattle by Elanco.

Since the 70s, White said Rumensin is a product that offers an array of benefits for beef cattle producers.

“How Rumensin works is whatever you are feeding that animal or that ruminant, you are going to get extra energy out of it, and it controls coccidiosis,” White said.

Regarding dosage, White said he recommends 200 milligrams of Rumensin per head each day. The label claim is to improve beef cows’ feed efficiency and control coccidiosis, and it will also increase average daily gain for heifers, and decrease days to estrus.

Another benefit of Rumensin is that because the cattle have more energy, they will voluntarily eat eight percent less feed.

“Most animals eat to meet their energy requirements,” White said. “If they have more energy, they will voluntarily eat less.”



White said Rumensin also decreases the amount of methane and carbon dioxide released into the environment.

Just over a thousand purebred breeding gilts were competing for breed and overall honors Thursday and Friday- and when it came down to the nine breed champs on Friday afternoon, Madison Walker of Red Oak FFA took the Supreme Championship. She showed the Champion Berkshire Gilt on Friday that was then selected as the 2024 OYE Supreme Champion Purebred Breeding Gilt. Madison’s gilt will be one of the first gilts that will sell on Tuesday evening at the OYE Night of Stars Gilt Sale.

The Reserve Supreme Purebred Gilt was the second best Berkshire gilt at OYE- shown by Ava Gilcrease of Turner FFA. (Pictured below)

You can view the spreadsheet from OYE listing all of the purebred gilts actually shown and the class and breed winners by clicking here.

Click here for the full schedule for the 2024 OYE. The Oklahoma Farm Report team will be snapping pictures from start to finish- and you can see them as we add them to our Flickr album for 2024- available here. If you want to look back to the 2023 OYE- click here for our pictures from last year’s event.

From 2021 through 2023, farmland values and then interest rates grew, raising interest expenses for crop producers. These higher interest expenses could considerably reduce returns for producers with high levels of land debt. These producers may need large cash down payments to reach profitability with new or refinanced debt.

Growth in agricultural real estate values surged during 2021 and 2022 alongside historically high farm incomes and low interest rates (Kauffman and Kreitman 2023). In 2023, farmland values held firm while interest rates increased alongside benchmark rates. Together, strong real estate valuations and higher interest rates have pushed up interest expenses on land loans, potentially squeezing profitability for crop producers.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), agricultural real estate accounts for more than 80 percent of U.S. farm sector assets, and real estate debt makes up more than 70 percent of all liabilities for the sector. Thus, an increase in interest expenses on land debt is likely to have a substantial influence on the sector. The steep increase in interest expenses is likely to be acutely burdensome for owner-operated farms with high leverage and may deter some farmers from refinancing or taking on new debt.

The Oklahoma Agricultural Cooperative Council has joined forces with its members to support the New Frontiers campaign, helping to build a new home for Oklahoma State University Agriculture.

“We wanted to ensure that the college had top-notch facilities to be able to recruit students from all over Oklahoma and around the world,” said R.J. Gray, president and CEO of OACC. “We also wanted to ensure the faculty and staff had top-notch facilities to train our industry’s future leaders and provide world-class research.”



The members collectively chose to name the Oklahoma Agricultural Cooperative Council Conference Room, which will be located on the third floor when the facility opens in the fall.

“With the location of the room, we hope it provides much-needed space for faculty and students to meet and collaborate for a better tomorrow,” Gray said. “I am proud of our members for stepping up and contributing to the future of our industry.”

New Frontiers Agricultural Hall will be a state-of-the-art facility that will advance OSU’s land-grant mission, elevate research capabilities and create opportunities for life-changing discoveries in the agricultural science and natural resource industries.

New Law Protects American Farmland and Food Security

In Washington, there is a little-known government board called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Its purpose is simple—review foreign transactions for their national security implications in the U.S.—but today this committee has new importance for protecting America’s farmland and food security.

The committee was first created by President Gerald R. Ford in 1975 and consisted of several cabinet officials including the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Commerce, the Attorney General, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. CFIUS was designed to be a central group that would review foreign investments, analyze developments, and make recommendations to the President. Over the years, the committee’s work would be shaped by changing legislation, but its core function makes a lot of sense. After all, we wouldn’t want a foreign power to buy out the American companies that build our military’s ships, planes, or tanks.

CFIUS is currently chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury and the U.S. Treasury Department is responsible for reviewing proposed acquisitions. If a purchase by a foreign company raises alarm bells, the President has the power to step in and block a transaction that might harm national security.