Oklahoma’s longest-serving United States Senator James M. Inhofe passed away at 4:48 am after a stroke over the holiday. The family is very grateful for the extraordinary care staff and doctors of the 7th floor NeuroTrauma Intensive Care Unit of St. John’s Hospital in Tulsa.

Inhofe served as a United States senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023. He is the longest-serving U.S. senator from Oklahoma.

His family released the following statement after his death, “Oklahoma’s longest-serving United States Senator James M. Inhofe passed away at 4:48 am this morning after a sudden illness over the holiday. He passed peacefully, surrounded by his wife Kay, and his three surviving children, Molly, Jimmy and Katy. His son Perry passed away several years ago in a private airplane accident in Tulsa.

Inhofe served his beloved state in many capacities over the years. Including in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the Oklahoma State Senate, as Mayor of Tulsa, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate since 1994. He retired from the Senate in 2023.

Dating back to 1891, Stillwater Milling Company has been supplying ranchers with the highest quality feeds made from the highest quality ingredients. Their full line of A & M Feeds can be delivered direct to your farm, found at their Agri-Center stores in Stillwater, Davis, Claremore and Perry or at more than 125 dealers in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas. We appreciate Stillwater Milling Company’s long time support of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and we encourage you to click here to learn more about their products and services.

Several ag groups as well as multiple elected officials have have offered their comments on the life and legacy of Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe.

Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Rodd Moesel says "Sen. Inhofe was a remarkable leader and wonderful friend to agriculture and rural Oklahoma since his " He adds " His commitment to serving his fellow Oklahomans through his time in both the U.S. House and Senate leaves a lasting legacy for years to come, and we are forever grateful for his service to Oklahoma agriculture."

Michael Kelsey with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association writes "Senator Inhofe promoted and protected Oklahoma farmers and ranchers in so many arenas over his long and productive career. Perhaps it was because he could see, as he flew his plane over Oklahoma, the beauty and wonder of rural Oklahoma and he knew that farmers and ranchers work daily to take care of and improve the land."

Scott Blubaugh of AFR adds "Sen. Jim Inhofe encouraged economic stability for rural parts of our state as a bulldog for Oklahoma’s military bases and our veterans. He also fought for much needed investments in rural roads and bridges and served as a watchdog for regulatory overreach throughout the country."

And Jeff Hickman with the Oklahoma Feed and Grain Association and Oklahoma Wheat Growers remembers the Senator by adding "Sen. Inhofe loved Oklahoma – all of it. He was proud to represent our entire state and believed the only way to truly do that was to spend as much time as he could with Oklahomans in communities throughout the state, particularly in rural Oklahoma."

NCBA’s Ethan Lane Believes USDA Has Difficult Road Ahead in Finalizing Livestock Rule

At the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, I talked with the Vice President of Governmental Affairs of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane, about the Livestock fairness proposed rule released in June by USDA and championed by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Our coverage from the 2024 Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in San Diego is being powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.

Lane says that the proposal is more of the same from Vilsack. “This administration is not doing well in the polls. That leads to the Whitehouse looking inward and trying to figure out what is resonating with the consumers, or the voters. They really latched on to this as a means of lowering grocery store prices.”

As any cattle producer knows, there is much more that goes into that equation. Vilsack’s agency is trying to push the idea that by leveling the playing field and making it very difficult or impossible to get a premium on your cattle, unless your neighbor gets them too, will somehow lower prices at the grocery store. It might so just that by lowering the prices that producers receive for their cattle.

At a recent event in Washington, D.C., Farm Director KC Sheperd had the chance to visit with the Program Manager of NASA Applied Sciences, Water Resources and Agriculture Research, Bradley Doorn.  

NASA has been playing a role in agriculture since the 60s and 70s, Doorn said, prioritizing the earth science mission since the conception of the administration. Doorn explained that NASA data is used everywhere, and whether it is the WASDE report, USDA NASS statistics, or the U.S. drought monitor, NASA data and research directly impact American agriculture.

“We work with agriculture institutions like the drought monitor, USDA, or ag industry partners that we have,” Doorn said. “We work with them to help them tell us what the requirements are. One of the objectives in our program is ground-up requirements.”

By prioritizing ground-up requirements, Doorn said the solution to ag industry issues comes from talking with those directly involved. As there are differences in issues faced regionally, Doorn said NASA works to take solutions and mold them to be acceptable throughout the U.S.

Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist, offers herd health advice as part of the weekly series known as the “Cow Calf Corner” published electronically by Dr. Peel, Mark Johnson, and Paul Beck. Today, Johnson talks about using growth implants and protein supplementation to increase return on investment figures.

Return on investment (ROI) should be considered for inputs of feed, capital improvements and management in commercial cow-calf operations. This article looks at a couple of summer management practices for growing calves that offer a great ROI relative to time and cost.

Growth Implants

Data from over 2300 head of suckling calves collected by Merck Animal Health shows an additional 23 pounds of weaning weight gained as a result of zeranol growth implants. In the current market, assuming a conservative value of an additional pound of weaning weight at $3/pound, which is an additional $69 per head from an implant cost of less than $2 per head. Considering the cost of labor for time spent giving the growth implant (which easily fits a management schedule when giving the first round of vaccinations at two to four months of age), the return on investment is over $60 per head.

BASF is further expanding its Xitavo® soybean seed portfolio with the addition of 19 new products for the 2025 growing season. With these additions, the Xitavo soybean seed portfolio includes a total of 46 products covering relative maturities of 0.0 to 4.8.

For the 2025 growing season, growers will have more offerings with access to new genetics developed and sold exclusively by BASF in its Xitavo soybean seed portfolio. Previously, four companies comprised 98% of the soybean breeding effort for the US market. BASF is now bringing new and unique germplasm to the market, and with it, a new source of soybean varieties to meet farmer’s ever-changing needs. This new source of soybean seed germplasm delivers much-needed genetic diversity to help further enhance yields, reduce risk from increased climate challenges and help mitigate disease pressure growers have experienced in recent years. Products in the 2025 Xitavo soybean seed class will feature characteristics bred for yield performance and unique field conditions and pressures.

“BASF is committed to helping farmers doing the Biggest Job on Earth, and we are thrilled to show that commitment through soybean germplasm breeding in the United States,” said Marc Hoobler, U.S. Soybean Agronomy Lead for BASF. “We are not just launching new products, but a whole new pool of elite genetics farmers have not had access to until now.”

A few of the high-yielding new products that Hoobler encourages growers to pursue include:

ROI Study Shows Each Beef Checkoff Dollar Returns $13.41

From the Summer Cattle Industry Business Meeting- we heard from Dr. Harry Kaiser of Cornell about the latest return on investment study that the Beef Checkoff contacted with him on. USDA requires all checkoffs to regularly do research on how they are doing in serving those who pay into it.

This analysis of the national Beef Checkoff program found that each dollar invested in its demand-driving activities for the most recent five-year period (2019–2023) positively impacted domestic beef demand and U.S. beef exports, creating a total financial benefit of $13.41 for the producers and importers who pay into the program.

“We’re extremely pleased with the results of this latest study,” said Cheryl DeVuyst of Morrison, Oklahoma, chair of the Beef Checkoff Evaluation Committee and current secretary-treasurer of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). “The Beef Checkoff’s primary goal is to increase beef demand here in the U.S. and worldwide. The statistics uncovered by this study tell us that we’re achieving that goal and providing producers and importers with an excellent return on their national Checkoff investments.”  

We will feature Dr. Kaiser in our Beef Buzz report in tomorrow's email to offer his thoughts on the value of the Beef Checkoff to producers.