According to the latest Oklahoma drought monitor report, exceptional drought remains at zero percent, unchanged from the start of the calendar year.

Extreme drought or worse remains at zero percent, we last had extreme drought numbers the week of October 29th when it was 41.57%.



Severe drought or worse is unchanged at 1.85 percent for the second week in a row.

Moderate drought or worse, is unchanged at 17.91 percent for the second week in a row.

Abnormally dry or worse is unchanged from 46.70 percent for the second week in a row.

As for our neighbors,widespread rains fell across eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Tennessee, while the rest of Texas, most of Arkansas, and Oklahoma remained mostly dry. Abnormal dryness was removed from west-central Kansas after conditions were reassessed following wetter-than-normal weather over the last couple of months.

Kansas Drought Monitor shows Moderate Drought unchanged from 28.94 percent last week. Texas Drought ratings saw a slight decrease from 50.38 percent a week ago to 48.95 percent.

Click here for the Kansas Drought Monitor Page and Click here for the Texas Drought Monitor Page.

Invenergy is committed to Oklahoma, having completed its first project in the state in 2006. Today, Invenergy operates three wind energy centers in our state, employs over 60 Oklahomans and continues investing in our project communities. We believe building relationships is the key to being good community partners and we work to develop relationships to benefit our landowners, our employees, and our communities.

We invest in Oklahomans, and we take pride in their success. Our energy facilities provide jobs, tax revenues, landowner payments and other sources of local economic development.

For more information, visit www.InvenergyOklahoma.com

Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays caught up with Oklahoma Pork Council Treasurer Tom Layne to talk about the Give-A-Ham Challenge campaign, which kicked off here in 2024 on Giving Tuesday. Joe Locke, Director of Sow Operations for Tyson’s Pork Group and Oklahoma Pork Council President, and Tyson Foods partnered with the Oklahoma Pork Council to distribute more than 1,200 free pork sandwiches on the OSU Campus in Stillwater on Giving Tuesday

While the Give-A-Ham campaign is a national effort to promote pork to consumers as those who participate are helping their neighbors and those who need help, Oklahoma’s Pork Council is going all out to spread the concept statewide.

“As pork producers, it gives us an opportunity to give back to those in our communities that are in the greatest need,” Layne said.

The campaign began with a pork producer giving a ham, and then challenging another to do the same; however, Executive Director Kylee Deniz took it to the next level by expanding to other pork products on a greater scale.

Ron was challenged by Layne to Give a Ham and challenge someone else. The hams in the picture above were headed to Grace Rescue Mission once the interview was done- and Ron's Challenge will be announced the first of this coming week.

How SenseHub® Monitoring Transforms Cattle Productivity and Health

Dr. Jason Nickell, DVM, PhD, DACVPM, Director of Insights and Outcomes for Merck Animal Health talks to Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays about how SenseHub® Cow Calf and SenseHub® Feedlot monitoring provide data and insights to help advance beef cattle health and productivity.

“At a high level, the SenseHub® platform provides individual animal monitoring, both at the cow-calf level and at the feedlot,” Dr. Nickell described.

The animals are monitored through technologically advanced ear tags programmed to capture different forms of information from the animal wearing it to improve the producer’s decision-making capabilities. At the cow-calf level, data is focused on estrus detection for artificial insemination and embryo transfer-based operations. The SenseHub® Feedlot technology hones in on early disease detection.

“On the cow-calf level, we are always trying to optimize our labor resources while maximizing our reproductive capabilities,” Dr. Nickell noted. “On the feedlot side, we are working with animals that don’t like to convey that they are ill. The system has been shown to communicate illness earlier in the disease phase with more accuracy than a human, which leads to improved treatment outcomes.”

The 31st Tulsa Farm Show is happening this weekend at the SageNet Center in Tulsa at the Tulsa state fairgrounds. Day one included our live broadcasts on affiliate radio station KGGF in Coffeyville (The Mighty 690 covering southeast Kansas, Northeast Oklahoma and as we were reminded on Thursday- Northwest Arkansas- a listener from there stopped at the booth and told us they listen to our reports daily on Coffeyville- and listens to our podcasts, too).

During the 12:30 to 1:00 PM segment on Thursday- we enjoyed our chat with John Riles, who is co-owner of Midwest Farm Shows with his brother Jason- they jointly operate the six shows they put on annually across the heartland- including the Tulsa and Oklahoma City shows.

The Midwest team just came from Peoria where Riles says the mood with farmers in corn and soybean country was "a little more tentative there" because of low crop prices versus the more upbeat feeling that strong cattle prices are delivering as 2024 comes to an end. You can hear Ron and John's conversation by clicking on the blue button below.

Friday and Saturday will be great days to head to Tulsa and check out the 2024 Tulsa Farm Show. Admission and parking are free- there are over 300 exhibitors to visit with- all kinds of farm equipment, goods and services to see- Horse Training Sessions are happening twice a day both days with Cole Cameron(Craig's son) and you can check out the Cattle Chute Demonstrations twice daily as well- they have nine chutes that you can watch be used to help you figure out which one might work best on your ranch operation.

In Thursday's email we had a list of our sponsors who are participating as exhibitors at this year's show- Official Show Sponsor Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Ag Credit, Stillwater Milling, National Livestock, Oklahoma Cattlemen and Arvest Bank. I did miss one in that list yesterday- our friends from Western Livestock Auctions have a booth here as well- be sure and stop by and say hello to those fine folks.

By the way- John Riles indicates that the Oklahoma City Farm Show will once again have April dates in 2025- but in 2026- they are planning on moving the show to March and will overlap the end of the 2026 Oklahoma Youth Expo for the first time.

The U.S. continues to benefit from solid economic growth, low unemployment and moderating inflation. From today’s vantage point, the U.S. economy seems likely to continue on that trajectory into 2025. However, the outlook for the rural economy is more volatile and uncertain. Rural industries are disproportionately exposed to federal policy, and the outcome of the 2024 election cycle promises to bring significant changes in the federal government’s approach to everything from international trade and immigration to energy exploration and rural economic development.

According to a comprehensive year-ahead outlook report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, the high level of policy uncertainty facing rural industries adds to their already long list of headwinds and challenges.

“The environment we enter in 2025 hasn’t fully defined itself yet, but many of the policies proposed by the incoming administration would likely have a negative impact on U.S. agriculture,” said Rob Fox, director of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. “Open access to export markets and labor availability are critically important for agricultural producers and processors. Depending on how policy plays out, those two areas could be big challenges in 2025 and beyond.”

The CoBank 2025 outlook report examines several key factors that will shape agriculture and market sectors that serve rural communities throughout the U.S.

The National Livestock Companies are pleased to announce their support, once again, for the All American Beef Battalion (AABB).

On Monday, December 16th, the Oklahoma National Stockyards will auction a calf for the benefit of the AABB, along with National Livestock providing lunch for those in attendance. The AABB crew is bringing in their cooker and will be preparing a ribeye lunch. Lunch will begin at 11:00 a.m. and the actual sale will take place at approximately 12:30 p.m. in the sale arena of the Stockyards.

The calf to be auctioned is again being donated by 3C Cattle Feeders and the Clyde Runyan family of Mill Creek, Oklahoma. A very special thanks go out to Penny, along with her sons Casey and Bear, who have donated the calf for 11 years. Clyde was with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam and always considered this as a privilege to be able to give back to the troops. Runyan passed away in 2019 and his family continues the legacy of donating the calf in his honor.

This is the 14th year for the National Livestock companies to be involved in supporting the AABB. With the 2023 auction bringing in more than $64,000, contributors to this event have raised over $651,100 from the annual auction of a

donated calf.

Many organizations and individuals have joined together for this worthy cause each year. The efforts of many have made this successful and we thank all our partners and friends for their help. Through these auctions, approximately 65,000 troops have been fed an American ribeye steak upon their return home from deployment or prior to their deployment.

Anyone may support this effort by calling 800-310-0220 and speaking with Debbie Wedel. If you are unable to attend but would still like to support the cause, you can call Debbie for your proxy bid or you may also visit the All American Beef Battalion web site (www.steaksfortroops.com) and make your donation. National Livestock will invoice bidders and contributors and will forward all funds to the AABB. All checks should be made payable to the All American Beef Battalion.

Ag. Secretary Vilsack to Speak at Grocery Retail for All Summit

Later today on Friday, December 13, outgoing U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will deliver remarks at the Grocery Retail for All Summit, hosted by the George Washington University, Food Systems for the Future, and José Andrés. During his remarks, Secretary Vilsack will underscore the significant progress USDA under the Biden-Harris Administration has made in transforming the nation’s food system over the past several years to make it fairer, more competitive, and more resilient, as well as the important role retailers and the food industry have in advancing access to affordable, nutritious food.

The remarks follow USDA’s initial announcement of this framework in June 2022, which came on the heels of the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.