To view the latest Oklahoma drought map, CLICK HERE.

According to the latest Oklahoma drought monitor report, exceptional drought remains at zero percent, unchanged from the start of the calendar year.

Extreme drought or worse remains at zero percent, unchanged from the start of the calendar year.

Severe drought or worse is now at zero percent, unchanged from last week.

Moderate drought or worse is now at 15.41 percent, up from last week’s 8.47 percent.

Abnormally dry or worse conditions are now at 50.21 percent, up from last week’s 37.86 percent.

According to the 6-to-10-day precipitation outlook map, the eastern half of the state is leaning above a 40 to 50 percent chance of precipitation through April 20, and the western half of the state is leaning above a 33 to 40 percent chance of precipitation through April 20.

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Farm Director KC Sheperd had the chance to talk with Allendale’s Rich Nelson about this month’s WASDE Report. Nelson said it is important to note that this month’s report only covers the old crop, as the new crop balance sheets will begin in next month’s report on May 10th.

Stocks for old crop corn were lowered by 50 million bushels, Nelson said, and soybean numbers were raised by 25 million bushels. Overall, Nelson said corn, soybean and wheat numbers were lightly disappointing in today’s discussion.

“On the wheat side of things, we did see a moderate increase in numbers today at 25 million bushels on this report,” Nelson said. “That was a little larger than the trade expected to see. Given the fact there is nobody really harvesting wheat right now except India, it looks like there were no production changes across the board there.”

While the numbers in this month’s report are very different what the trade expected, Nelson noted that this is a mid-year report and USDA does not have to provide the complete “truth” in this report.

USDA increased soybean ending stocks for the 2023-24 marketing year to 340 mb, up 25 mb from March’s estimate, reflecting changes to exports, seed and residual usage. USDA left production and beginning stocks unchanged, but trimmed its forecast for imports to 25 mb, a 5 mb cut. Crush was left unchanged at 2.3 billion bushels, while exports were trimmed by 20 mb from last month. Soybean use for seed declined by 2 mb to 100 mb, reflecting lower acreage estimates for the 2024 season. Residual use was cut from 22 mb to 13 mb.

Introducing Laney McAlester of the Wilburton FFA Chapter, Your 2024 Southeast Area Star in Agribusiness

This week, our coverage of the 2024 Oklahoma FFA Star Award Finalists continues with Agribusiness competitor Laney McAlester of the Wilburton FFA chapter representing the Southeast Area.

Farm Director KC Sheperd interviewed all 18 Star finalists recently in Stillwater after they were judged in their respective areas- and you can hear KC talk with Laney by clicking on the Blue Button at the bottom of this story.

McAlester’s project, a testament to her passion and hard work, involves stocker cattle management and operation. She purchases cattle weighing around 500 pounds and feeds them until they are ready for the next segment of the industry, the feedlot.

The operation is a family operation, McAlister said, and through her time, she has learned that some of the most important factors for success include a good vaccine protocol, a processing protocol, and keeping the cattle healthy in a stress-free environment.

Our coverage of the Stars and the 2024 State FFA Convention is powered by Hilliary Communications.

At the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Convention, I talked with Callahan Grund, the Executive Director of U.S. CattleTrace. Hays and Grund discussed disease traceability in the cattle industry.

Grund said U.S. CattleTrace started in 2018 with a few pilot projects before becoming one producer-led organization. The goal of the U.S. CattleTrace is to develop a national infrastructure for disease traceability and encourage private industry’s use of the infrastructure for individualized management practices.

“The premise behind it is a voluntary animal disease traceability system that can work on behalf of producers, built by producers, and managed by and for producers to work with animal health officials in case a disease outbreak ever were to occur,” Grund said.

One tool to help with disease traceability is electronic tagging, Grund said, as there has been some good momentum and progress on this front.

“It looks like with the proposed amendment at USDA, and some of the murmurs we have heard across the industry, that we are going to transition those to requiring EID tags for those classes of cattle,” Grund said.

Whenever that transition does take place, Grund said feeder cattle are not required to possess a form of EID, but other classes of cattle will. Grund also talked about the speed of commerce and said it is a necessity for a producer-led initiative.

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 crop markets. For all practical purposes, Anderson said prices are still trading in a relatively narrow range.

Wheat prices have been trading sideways, Anderson said, from $5.00 to $5.50 in the last couple of weeks. Anderson said wheat prices may go up in the next few months.

“Corn was trading at a $4.40 to $4.50 range,” Anderson said. “It widened that out a couple of weeks ago from $4.35 to $4.55, but that is still a narrow range, and sideways prices just like wheat.”

Soybeans are trading in an especially narrow range, Anderson said, from $11.00 to $11.25.

“Something is going to happen to get these prices moving again,” Anderson said.

Regarding the wheat crop conditions, Anderson said things are looking much better than last year, with slightly fewer acres planted. Anderson added that the 90-day weather forecast is calling for average to above-average temperatures.

“There is some talk in northwestern Oklahoma and western Kansas about it getting dry and the wheat under stress,” Anderson said. “One report said we were switching from El Nino to El Nina, switching from wet to dry, and some people are concerned about that.”

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall commented today on the Environmental Protection Agency’s final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, which sets maximum contaminant levels at 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS and 10 parts per trillion for PFNA, PFHxS and HFPO-DA.

“Rural America shares the goal of ensuring the water we use to raise our families and grow our crops is healthy. Unfortunately, EPA’s National Primary Drinking Water Regulation will disproportionally impact small communities, which lack the resources of large metropolitan systems, but will still be on the hook to pay the exorbitant costs of treating their water for PFAS chemicals.

“While we acknowledge the effort EPA has made in providing flexibility and support to small and rural systems, more needs to be done to lessen the burden of this rulemaking. We all want clean drinking water, but there are households that will not be able to afford this.”

Southwest Ranchers Bull Sale Happening Saturday April 13 in Chickasha

The Southwest Ranchers are hosting their sixth annual bull sale April 13 in Chickasha, OK. The sale will start at 12:30 p.m. at the Wheeler's Farm Sale Facility.

They're set to sell 148 lots total including 113 bulls and 35 females. The sale will be made up of 94 registered Angus bulls, 17 registered Hereford bulls, 1 registered red angus bull, 1 registered Charolais bull, 25 registered Angus open heifers, and 25 registered Angus open heifers.

Click here for the sale book.

Click here for the sale videos

Attend the sale in person or bid via LiveAuctions.TV

Featuring lots from:

Brink Angus

Terry & Ellen Brink

580.335.4126

Frederick, OK

Brookshire Farms

Johnny & Azalea Brookshire

580.515.0380

Cyril, OK

Wheeler Farms

Will Wheeler

405.274.1799 or

Joe Devine

918.557.9087

Chickasha, OK

Sale Management

Matt C. Sims Auction (MCS)

405.641.6081

P.O. Box 1219

Edmond, OK 73083

matt@mcsauction.com

www.mcsauction.com