May is Beef Month in Oklahoma! At Beef Day at the Capitol in Oklahoma City, Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with the President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association Dr. Troy Shelby, and talked about the day’s event. At the Capitol, Shelby said beef producers have the chance to talk with legislators and enjoy ribeye steak sandwiches courtesy of the OCA. Shelby also advocated for Oklahoma’s ranchers because of their land stewardship and practices to preserve the land.

Oklahoma AgCredit supports rural Oklahoma with reliable and consistent credit, today and tomorrow. We offer loans for land, livestock, equipment, operating costs and country homes (NMLSR #809962) to farmers, ranchers and rural businesses across 60 counties. As a cooperative, we are owned by the members we serve. Through our Patronage Program, we have returned more than $74 million to our members since 1997.

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The Stars Over Oklahoma FFA shone brightly yesterday afternoon at the 98th Convention of Oklahoma FFA- and we are proud to present all four of them- the video with each thumbnail below represents more than thirty years that our senior Farm and Ranch broadcaster Ron Hays has been a part of the introduction of the Stars to the Convention attendees- our thanks to JD Rosman of the Oklahoma Youth Expo for his video production talents- Be sure and check out the story of each star on our website linked below- it includes the audio interview that KC Sheperd had with the Star after they faced the judges a few weeks back. Our parent company, Hilliary Communications, is proud to sponsor our coverage of the 2024 State FFA Convention- see all of our stories at the Blue Green Gazette on our website!

Connor Mack of the Drummond FFA chapter was announced as the Oklahoma FFA State Star Farmer during the fifth session of the 98th Oklahoma FFA Convention and Expo on May 8 at the BOK Center.

Mack’s supervised agricultural experience focuses on different crops and livestock within his family’s farm.

“I plant several different crops including wheat, canola, milo, corn and soybeans,” Mack said. “I run 50 standard Hereford commercial cows, 15 mini-Herefords, 47 stockers, and 35 dorper sheep.”

Mack said he’s a fifth-generation farmer, and agriculture has been part of his life from the beginning. He said he is most content when he can be in the field or with his cattle.

Ross Turner of the Oologah FFA Chapter won the State Star in Agribusiness award at the 98th Oklahoma FFA Convention and Expo on May 8 at the BOK Center.

Turner began his agribusiness, Turner Stockdogs, in 2021, when he trained and sold his first dog. Growing up on a multi-generation cow-calf and rope horse operation, Turner was exposed to working dogs at a young age, which lead to his interest in training and working cow dogs.

Turner Stockdogs focuses primarily on cow dogs of the Border Collie breed. Along with buying and selling, Turner also breeds his own dogs. After a 2022 sale, Turner slowly began training outside dogs too, expanding his kennel capacity to 10 dogs at a time.

Congratulations to FFA Stars Reagan Smith - Agriscience and Korbin Smith- Ag Placement

Reagan Smith of the Oologah FFA Chapter won the State Star in Agriscience award at the 98th Oklahoma FFA Convention and Expo on May 8 at the BOK Center.

The State Star in Agriscience represents the best of the best within FFA member-led research in Oklahoma.

Hailing from Oologah, Oklahoma, Smith has been an active member since her eighth-grade year. Smith discovered her passion for agriscience after joining FFA. Over the years, Smith has completed seven projects in agriscience.

She began by experimenting with storage methods for farm-fresh versus store-bought eggs to determine which provided a longer shelf-life length. She then became interested in pursuing animal reproduction after visiting Flying Cow Genetics in Welch, Oklahoma, with her agricultural education teacher.

Korbin Smith of the Hydro-Eakly FFA Chapter earned the title of State Star in Agricultural Placement during the fifth session of the 98th State FFA Convention and Expo May 8 at the BOK Center.

Smith’s supervised agricultural experience is working on his parents’ cow-calf operation, including wheat harvesting and producing forage.

Smith Farms has 2,200 acres and uses approximately 700 acres as cropland.

The cropland is used to grow rye, triticale, wheat and cover crops. The wheat produced is used to feed the farm’s cattle. Smith Farms practices rotational grazing with their cattle.

Earlier this spring- we talked with Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist, about the 2024 Cattlemen’s Conference, coming up May 22nd and 23rd in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Anyone in the cattle industry is welcome to attend this year’s event, as three main topics impacting the cattle industry will be discussed.

Johnson said the first panel of speakers on Wednesday, May 22nd will be discussing selection and mating relative to a marketing end point in a beef operation.

Johnson said the speakers invited to discuss this topic are extremely knowledgeable of the relationship between mating and one’s marketing endpoint, as they come from a successful background in different parts of the beef industry.

“Based on this topic, Dr. Peel and I are working with scientists from the meat animal research center and taking some of that data collected up there in Nebraska over time, and are going to do an economic simulation to look at how additive genetic merit, and hybrid vigor, relative to different marketing endpoints works,” Johnson said.

To see the full schedule of speakers for both days, CLICK HERE!

To learn more about the conference and register, CLICK HERE!

New item for spring to-do list: Set up a monitoring site to measure regenerative progress on your ranch

Noble Research Institute Senior Regenerative Ranching Advisor Jim Johnson says it’s not uncommon to have pasture with 30% bare ground, which means the increase in land capacity you seek may already be right under your nose.

“If you’re able to work toward management principles that will help cover that 30%, you just earned 30% more acres to operate on for free,” Johnson says. The problem is, “most people don’t realize they’re giving up that much production.”

The best way to manage for more is to measure where you are now and where you want to go, he says.

The first step to achieving that objective may start with adding a simple, five-minute task to your spring to-do list: setting up monitoring sites or “transects” to establish a consistent location to observe and measure your land management progress.

A monitoring transect is a line between two marked points, along which you measure or take samples up and down the length of a tape measure stretched between the points. Marking a single-point monitoring location will do, also.

Silo FFA Member Kayla Poling Elected to Serve Oklahoma FFA as State President

Kayla Poling (front center), member of the Silo FFA Chapter, will lead the more than 29,000 members of the Oklahoma FFA Association for 2024-25.

Members elected the 19-year-old to her presidential position during the 98th Oklahoma FFA Convention on May 8. An agricultural communications major at Oklahoma State University, Poling previously served as the 2023-24 Oklahoma FFA Southeast Area Vice President. She is the daughter of John and Daniela Poling.

Seven additional FFA members will join Poling on the 2024-25 Oklahoma FFA Association officer team: Cooper Kline (front left), North Rock Creek FFA, secretary; Aubrie McEndoo, Stillwater FFA, reporter; Titus Montgomery (back left), Red Oak FFA, southeast area vice president; Casyn Larman, Mulhall-Orlando FFA, northwest area vice president; Grace Wright, Stratford FFA, central area vice president; Anna Jo Helling, Inola FFA, northeast area vice president; and Caleb Ames, Duke FFA, southwest area vice president.