President Joe Biden Ends His Reelection Bid- USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Lawmakers React

President Joe Biden spent Sunday talking to members of Congress, governors and supporters after he announced that he is dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

After the announcement by the President, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the following statement:

“In the 38 years that I have known President Biden, he has consistently and selflessly put our country first—and today is no exception. As a result, he will go down in history as one of our most consequential American presidents. 

“I am immensely proud to play a role in the Biden-Harris Administration, under which USDA has advanced food and nutrition security for tens of millions, invested in new, better and more markets to create a fairer and better marketplace for all farmers, improved the health and resilience of our national forests and grasslands, made our food safer, and centered equity in all that we do. “This is an administration that embraces hope, optimism, and a forward-looking view for America—and our work is not done.”

Most of the Oklahoma Congressional delegation also weighted in on the news- click on the blue button below to see the comments from them that we have gathered.

At the OCA Convention in Norman, Oklahoma, Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with OCA President Dr. Troy Shelby to talk about the accomplishments and initiatives of his term thus far.

Before becoming OCA President a year ago, Dr. Shelby served as a District Director and then as Vice President.

On the policy front- Dr. Shelby says identification and traceability is a topic the group has spent a lot of time talking about- “We are going to radio frequency tags in November, and that policy is something that we have worked on a lot.” 

He was pleased by the demographics of the attendees at the OCA Convention, saying, “There are a lot of young families here, and that is good to see. We have a really good CLA class starting up. These young people are going to be the future of our organization.”

He also mentioned the OCA’s impressive tradeshow featuring more than 100 vendors.

His words of wisdom for OCA President-Elect Ford Drummond, who will take charge after 2025, were to “Be himself. Be true to his own thoughts and ideas, because he has a lot of good values, and I think he knows the direction we need to move.”



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The 2024 Oklahoma Cattleman of the Year is Angus rancher Jim Davis of Foss, Oklahoma. Davis was honored on Saturday evening at the concluding banquet of the 2024 Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association in Norman.

After the banquet, the Oklahoma Farm Report talked with Davis about the award, his decision several years ago to pivot away from cotton production and focus on the cattle herd, the importance of the family working together on the purebred Angus operation and how important he considers the work of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association. Davis told us that at their annual production sale each March- if a buyer of one of their animals is not an OCA member and lives in state- they buy a one year membership for them. He called it one of the best investments around for just a hundred dollars.

Click here to read more and to listen to Ron and Jim Davis talk about his award

Also honored at the 2024 OCA Convention by the Oklahoma Cattlewomen was Dr. Cheryl DeVuyst as their Cattlewoman of the year. After she was honored on Friday at the OCW awards luncheon- KC Sheperd talked with her about her recognitiion.

Cheryl has been active in working with the Collegiate Cattlewomen at OSU- and has served the industry as a member of the Cattlemen's Beef Board- and in her second term as a Board Member is now going thru the officer chairs- serving this year as the Secretary-Treasurer.

Click here to listen to KC and Dr. DeVuyst talk about this award at the Convention this past Friday.

OSU's Derrell Peel Sees No Signs of Heifer Retention in Latest Cattle on Feed Report

The latest USDA Cattle on Feed Report shows the on feed number slightly above a year ago- Placements off seven percent and marketings down nine percent. But OSU Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel tells Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays that the real key number may be the percentage of heifers in the steer/heifer mix in this quarterly report- it edges back higher compared to April to just under forty percent of the total cattle feedlot numbers.

Dr. Peel believes the report was a little on the bullish sign with the lower placements a call. As for the breakdown of heifers versus steers provided in quarterly reports- the heifer number suggests cattle producers are still sending a lot of their females to the feedlot. “Heifers were even with a year ago in terms of the number of heifers in the feedlots. When you look at heifers as a percent of the feedlot total…it actually went back up compared to the April quarter- so we are right at 40%- 39.6% of all the cattle in the feedlots on July first were still heifers, so we continue to feed a lot of heifers is the bottom line.” Dr. Peel also says that when heifers on feed as a percentage is above 39%- it suggests there are fewer heifers than are needed to start herd rebuilding being held back by cattle producers. When we were aggressively rebuilding cattle herds after the drought of 2012-14, heifers in feedlots were under 34% of the total numbers being fed.

The July Cattle on Feed Report showed a one percent increase of on feed numbers versus last July- Placements down 7% from a year ago and Marketings were off 9% from last June.

OCW Honors Our Own KC Sheperd as Their Honorary Cattlewoman of the Year

We are proud that the Oklahoma Cattlewomen honored our Farm and Ranch Director KC Sheperd at their 2024 OCW Awards Luncheon held during the 2024 Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association convention this past Friday.

Sheperd has worked with the OCW for the past several years in helping to interview the youth involved in their Beef Advocates contest held each spring.

KC Wrote on her Facebook page this thank you to the OCW-

What an amazing surprise and honor! Thank you so much to the Oklahoma CattleWomen for the Honorary Cattlewoman of the Year award! It’s so important to tell the story of our Ag producers and I’m fortunate to call this my job! So happy that my family could join this event, and thank you so much to Senator James Lankford for the special recognition and video! Thank you to everyone that had a hand In this, and thank you Cheyenne Sparks for the beautiful, thoughtful speech!

While attending the American Peanut and Education Society’s Annual Meeting, Farm Director KC Sheperd visited with Jimmy Emmons with the Dewey County Conservation District about soil health and conserving the rainwater when it does fall.

“It’s all about soil management,” he said. “Cover cropping to build aggregation in the soil so that when we do get these big rain events, we can catch most of it. We are seeing a lot of change, and there is a lot of opportunity in managing soil better.”

Using cover crops allows the ground to act more like a sponge when heavy rainfall occurs so that more water can soak in and less will run off. It also puts carbon back in the ground and helps protect against wind erosion.

As far as how to accomplish that, Emmons said that it’s about keeping the living root in the soil as long as possible by using cover crops between cash crops. He added that producers can capitalize on their Return On Investment figures by grazing livestock on the cover crops.

Supporting the New Frontiers campaign to build a new home for Oklahoma State University Agriculture was an easy choice for Clement and Miriam Ward of Stillwater.

Clem Ward said he hopes their contribution as major gift donors will help advance OSU Agriculture’s land-grant mission.

“Land-grant universities are directly responsible through teaching, research and Extension of constantly moving food production forward for the betterment of producers and consumers,” he said. “I spent 31 years, most of my professional career, in agricultural economics and Ag Hall. OSU Agriculture and the Department of Agricultural Economics were very good to me, so this is a way to benefit others.”

The new Agricultural Hall will help progress the land-grant mission at OSU by equipping students, faculty and staff with cutting-edge research facilities to continue their research efforts while attracting scientific leaders.

U.S. consumers are drinking less milk with each passing year, but overall dairy sales are on a multiyear winning streak. Cheese, butter and yogurt are fueling category growth, along with new dairy-based products designed to capitalize on convenience, health and snacking trends.

Data from market research firm Circana shows the refrigerated dairy aisle has been the largest category in retail grocery over the last year with $76 billion in sales. Over the last three years, dairy retail sales have notched a growth rate of 15.4% or $10.1 billion.

According to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, the outlook for retail dairy sales remains strong with additional room for growth as consumer preferences and purchasing behaviors evolve. Cheese and butter have even more upside potential, and dairy products tailored to meet consumers’ growing desires for healthy, protein-rich snack products have emerged as a new growth opportunity.

“Dairy products have a diversity of applications and innovative dairy processors are leveraging that to their advantage,” said Corey Geiger, lead dairy economist with CoBank. “The healthy snacking category is a growing megatrend that dairy products can capitalize on with a host of conveniently packaged solutions from low-fat cheeses and specialty yogurts to functional dairy drinks.”