Farm Director KC Sheperd spoke with Hally Parks with the Oklahoma Cattleman’s Association to talk about the third annual Oklahoma’s Best Beef Competition to be held in Stockyards City in Oklahoma City, during the Stockyards Stampede on October 19. Tasting will be between 11 am and 4 pm.

The competition is between twelve Oklahoma cattle producers who will grill steaks and offer samples to attendees. The steaks will be judged by a panel of Oklahomans, and awards will be presented for the top three steaks and a People’s Choice Award winner.

The OCA is currently taking applications for cattle producers to compete at the event. Interested ranchers can check the requirements and enter at OklahomaCattlemansFoundation.com. Parks said to click on Events, scroll down, and click on the Best Beef tab to find the application. Applications will close on August 19.

The Oklahoma Agriculture Mediation Program knows this is a hard time for farmers and ranchers. We want you to know we are still open, and we are still here for you. The Ag Mediation program is a free service that provides mediation to agriculture producers who may need help with ag-related disputes.

At Oklahoma Ag Mediation, we have been helping people in agriculture resolve conflicts since 1987. We know firsthand about working together to resolve conflicts, so you don’t have to go through the court systems. Let our professional mediators help you. Mediation is allowed for lease issues, farmer/neighbor disputes, family farm transitions, and more. These services are available at no cost for Oklahoma farmers and ranchers in all 77 counties. For more information, you can go to ok.gov/mediation, or give us a call at 800 248 5465. 

Earlier this summer- we had the chance to talk with Joel Leftwich, the Chief Strategy Officer for Kansas Farm Bureau, about a fund created to help tell the story of modern production agriculture, especially animal agriculture. This is the second in a two-part discussion on our daily Beef Buzz report, click here to access yesterday’s story about staying ahead of activists against animal agriculture.

The 501c4 fund known as the US Ag Partnership Fund partners with state and local food and agricultural groups to educate the voting public in the key states and jurisdictions where there is anti-animal agricultural activity.

“For example, we are involved in the city and county of Denver to help defeat a ballot initiative there that would shut down a particular slaughterhouse,” Leftwich offered.

The funds are used to educate the public about the importance of a particular issue in food and agriculture affordability and availability. It helps pay for ads, polls, and anything else that falls under the umbrella of public education activity.

Oklahoma Wheat Growers Give out Awards at Annual Meeting

The Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association held its annual meeting this week with several amazing speakers who had the opportunity to provide updates on the latest regarding wheat breeding, the Wheat Taps program, best management practices, and research being conducted at Oklahoma State University.

OWGA was pleased to present 3 awards to Oklahomans who have invested their time in Oklahoma Agriculture and the wheat industry over the years. The “Service to the Industry Award” was given to Dr. Kim Anderson.

“Mr Wheat Award” was given to Michael Peters.

Lastly, “Wheat Promoter of the Year” Arleen James.

Please help us in congratulating these outstanding award winners.

County Farm Bureaus across the state of Oklahoma are gearing up for another year of county annual meetings over the next few weeks.

These meetings give members the opportunity to celebrate the year, discuss agriculture issues and create grassroots policy for the next year.

For complete information about your county meeting, contact your county Farm Bureau office.

Click here to see the alphabetical listing of Where/When Meetings will be held.

A new Land Use Change Initiative (LUCI) is leading efforts to resolve inconsistencies in definitions, metrics and methodologies for quantifying land use change. Funded by the United Soybean Board (USB) in partnership with Carbon A List, this multistakeholder initiative seeks to unite every step of the value chain in developing a unified solution to these challenges. Farmers play an essential role in protecting our land’s natural resources through sustainable farming and conservation planning.

“Farmers have often been left out of conversations regarding land use change and its collective impact on agriculture. We weren’t at the table, so we had to build our own table through this land use change initiative,” said Steve Reinhard, USB Chair and Ohio farmer who presented keynote remarks at LUCI’s recent Land Use Change Summit. “North American agriculture and the half-million soybean farmers who represent 90 million acres can have a huge impact on climate solutions. Progress is a priority on our farm not only when it comes to conservation but improving land management. For example, the grids for monitoring our fields started at 5 acres, then dropped to 2.5 acres, and now we’re seeing it down to the acre and even half-acre to make input adjustments for soil health and crop productivity.”

LUCI started two years ago to proactively drive collaboration and advance sound science. The goal aims to achieve a better understanding of land use change that’s more representative of today’s farming practices, the role of grasslands in our agricultural system, and ensuring system resilience.

The internet is an essential part of daily life for many Americans. For farmers, it allows them to get up-to-date prices, discover available farm programs, or get information from places like Southern Ag Today. Agriculture is seeing many technological advances with tools such as precision agriculture and autonomy. Reliable access to the internet is increasingly necessary to take full advantage of these newer technologies. To that end, there have been several government programs initiated to provide more access to the internet across the U.S. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) was announced in 2019 and is focused on improving internet access for rural Americans with $20.4 billion in funding in a ten-year period. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program has provided $42.45 billion to increase high-speed internet access across all 50 states in the upcoming years. Every state now has a state broadband office that deals solely with improving internet access in their state. For example, Mississippi has the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM). 

Internet access for producers has seen modest improvements from 2017 to 2022 based on U.S. Census data. Across the U.S., the percentage of farm operations or operator residences with internet access increased from 75.4% in 2017 to 78.7% in 2022. While many of the southeastern states still lag behind the U.S. average, most of the states had significant increases in producers’ internet access over this time period. Of the 14 southeastern states examined, 10 had a higher percentage increase than the U.S. average. Arkansas had the highest increase of 8.3%, followed by Louisiana with an increase of 7.5%, and then Mississippi with an increase of 7.3%. Even so, there is still a surprisingly large number of producers, 21.3%, who do not have access to the internet. This is important for government agencies and universities to understand and make sure that the information they provide is available to all producers.

Express Ranch Big Event Sale Set for Friday and Saturday at the Ranch in Yukon

The 28th Annual Big Event Sale is set for this Friday and Saturday at Express Ranches in Yukon.

Day one of the sale begins at 1:00 pm on Friday and will feature more than 300 fall calving females and spring calving pairs.

On Saturday, the sale continues at 11 AM with another 300 head of the best genetics to be found featured.

Click here for the Sale Book

Click here for the Sale Videos

Click here for the Express Ranch website