Make no doubt about it. Rural voters provided the margin of victory for the Trump- Vance ticket as they have apparently won at least 277 Electoral College votes that will propel the 45th President of the US into the Oval Office again in 2025 as the 47th President. Fox News declared Trump the victor shortly after midnight central time after calling Wisconsin for the former President. Other news services agreed a couple of hours later and most are agreeing Donald Trump will be President again.

Rural counties in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina overcame the suburban and urban vote that went to Vice President Kamala Harris. Oklahoma contributed seven electoral votes to the Trump win with just over a million Oklahomans voting for the former President to give him 66% of the vote in the state.

Earlier this fall- according to the 2024 DTN/Progressive Farmer Pulse of Rural America poll, a survey of 1,393 rural Americans shows nearly 70% say they support former President Donald Trump.

If the results across the US stand- Robert F. Kennedy is hopeful that the President will give him a role in either the USDA or the FDA to fulfill his campaign rhetoric to “Make America Healthy Again.”

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Four of the five House members of the Oklahoma Congressional delegation drew opponents for the November General Election. The fifth- Congressman Frank Lucas did not. Lucas secured reelection in June when he received more than 73% of the vote in a three-way Republican primary, since no Democrat or independent ran for the seat.

The other four House members from Oklahoma cruised to victory Tuesday night- Tom Cole with 65% of the vote- Stephanie Bice with 61%, Kevin Hern with 60% and Josh Brecheen pulling 74% of the overall vote in his district.

It's unknown if our House members will be a part of the majority in the House or not- that's still to be determined as the GOP and Democrats battle for control of the House.

Neither one of Oklahoma’s US Senators were facing reelection this cycle- but both Senator James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin were winners Tuesday night- as the GOP will become the Majority in January for at least the next two years. Several races remain undecided early Wednesday- but the Republicans could hold as many of 54 seats once all the votes are counted in the days to come.

Senator Lankford told the Oklahoma Farm Report in a statement provided Tuesday evening that ““Lankford will head back to DC next week when they will vote on leadership and where he could end up the Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference (4th in Leadership). Depending on Senator Rand Paul’s decision to lead the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee or the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, Lankford could also be the committee Chair for Homeland Security.”

Nevil Speer on Modern Challenges Facing Beef Producers

On the sidelines of the American Angus Convention in Ft. Worth, Texas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays spoke with Nevil Speer, a beef industry consultant and influential columnist. They discussed herd rebuilding and increased carcass weights and the positive side of extended drought.

“It is definitely not your granddad’s cows anymore,” Speer said. “That is probably what is holding up herd rebuilding.”

He ticked off regulatory uncertainty, challenging interest rates, the cost of labor, and skyrocketing equipment costs as other reasons for producers to hesitate to increase their herds.

“Carcass weights have increased five to seven pounds per year,” he said. “Steer carcass weights last year were 960 pounds, and at one time, that was the upper limit. We know how to make cattle bigger through genetics, management, and knowledge. I’m not sure we are going to turn that back down very far.”

Tom Sell: Clean Farm Bill Extension or Farm Bill Extension Plus?

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with Tom Sell, managing partner of Combest, Sell & Associates, (CS&A) an agriculture-focused lobbying firm, for an update on the Farm Bill as today’s voting window nears its end.

Sell says big things are going on in agriculture in Washington D.C. “We have been working on these things for two years,” he said. “It all emanates from the need to adjust, update, and improve the farm safety net via the Farm Bill.”

The Bill was supposed to be approved in late 2023 or early 2024, but according to Sell, congress hasn’t been working well together and issues needing solutions are getting backed up.

“Unfortunately, this is the reality we live in today, so everything gets pushed to this final, lame-duck session when the current Congress comes back after the election,” Sell explained. “They will have from about November 13th until the new Congress is seated on January 3rd. The current Congress has to adjourn before the new Congress gets seated, so there is a lot of pressure on this lame-duck Congress.”

October provided a surprising pre-election bounce in farmer sentiment as the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer index climbed to 115, 27 points higher than in September. The biggest driver of the sentiment improvement was an increase in producers’ confidence in the future, as the Future Expectations Index jumped 30 points to 124. The Current Conditions Index also rose in October but by a smaller amount. With a reading of 95, the Current Conditions Index confirmed that farmers think economic conditions this year are worse than last year and weaker than during the barometer’s base period of 2015-2016, which was in the early days of a multi-year downturn in the U.S. farm economy. Producers this month expressed some optimism that economic conditions will improve and not precipitate an extended downturn in the farm economy. The October barometer survey took place from October 14-18, 2024.

The overall improvement in farmer sentiment is better understood by examining responses to the individual questions used to generate the barometer. Much of the sentiment improvement was attributable to producers possessing a less pessimistic view of the U.S. agricultural economy. For example, the percentage of producers who expect bad times for the U.S. agricultural economy in the upcoming year declined from 73% of respondents in September to 53% in October. Similarly, the percentage of producers who expect bad times for U.S. agriculture in the next 5 years fell from 48% to 33%. Looking at a related question, fewer producers this month said they expect their farm’s financial condition to worsen over the next 12 months, with just 23% looking for conditions to worsen compared to 38% who felt that way in September. However, despite the improvement in the main barometer indices, it’s clear producers financial situation deteriorated in 2024. For example, over half (56%) of the October respondents said their farm’s financial condition was worse than a year earlier. That was lower than reported in September but matches the response to this question in August.

After the heavy rainfall of the past week, Farm Director KC Sheperd spoke with Oklahoma State Climatologist Gary McManus about how it affected drought conditions and the future outlook across the state.

McManus detailed the rainfall amounts in various parts of the state saying that Northwest Oklahoma missed a lot of it, settling for only an inch or two of rain. Central Oklahoma, Northeast Oklahoma, and parts of East Central Oklahoma received 7 to 9 inches of rain.

“We see that a lot over the last thirty or forty years,” McManus said. “When we get a drought of some significance, it does tend to end in extremely heavy rainfall. I don’t think we are completely out of drought, but we have certainly alleviated some of those impacts we were seeing over the last three or four months.”

The concern for wheat farmers, now, is that the seed that was dusted in when it was dry is now washed away. The fields will have to be replanted.

“I know that bad things come with rain like this,” McManus admitted. “We get a lot of erosion, crop damage, flooding, and things of that nature, but we are certainly better off where we are now than we were before these big-time rains.”

According to the Denver Gazette- Denver voters rejected the proposal to shut down the city’s only slaughterhouse.

The results on Tuesday night showed voters resoundingly defeating the measure, which was losing by about 40 points.

Only about 35.6% of Denver voters supported it, compared to the 64.4% who voted against it, according to the latest tally.

Gustavo Fernandez, the general manager of Superior Farms Denver, released a statement Tuesday night.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am,” Fernandez said. “I and the workers at this facility just want to do our jobs and provide for our families. Now we can get back to that without this huge weight on our shoulders. Thank you, Denver!”

“We are eager for the campaign to be over regardless of the results. We feel like we’ve done what we can, learned what we can, and now we have to let go and see what happens,” said Olivia Hammond, a member of Pro Animal Future, the group that pushed both the fur and slaughterhouse bans. Initiated Ordinance 308, the “Fur Ban” proposal, was on track to be defeated by a significant margin, with initial results showing a 13 percentage-point margin.

Besides these votes in Denver- there was also a proposal in Sonoma County, California that would have banned all larger animal CAFO operations. Early returns show 85% of the voters rejecting Measure J. 

The citizen initiative would have changed the nature of animal farming in Sonoma County by phasing out or scaling down an estimated 21 animal farms, many of them legacy family businesses.