The Oklahoma Farm Bureau recently introduced a program designed to empower rural entrepreneurs: Launch Rural OK. OKFB’s Rural Economic Development Coordinator Amarie Bartel was excited to tell Oklahoma Farm Report’s KC Sheperd all about this collaborative effort that brings together various rural entrepreneurship resource providers to support and foster the growth of small businesses in Oklahoma’s rural communities.

Launch Rural OK is a centralized website, offering rural entrepreneurs a one-stop shop for essential resources and information. Through this program, entrepreneurs gain access to a comprehensive network of support, empowering them to navigate the challenges and opportunities unique to rural businesses.

“If someone owns a small business or wants to start a small business, rather than scouring the internet to find the right folks, they can go to LaunchRuralOK.com to learn about all of the resources that are out there to support their small business,” Bartel said. “Rural Oklahomans value relationships and that is really important to us as resource providers so we realized that we didn’t just need a website that folks have to find. We needed to go out and be available.”

National Livestock was founded in 1932 in Oklahoma City. National’s Marketing Division offers cattle for sale weekly at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City. The Finance Division lends money to ranchers across several states for cattle production. The Grazing Division works with producers to place cattle for grazing on wheat or grass pastures. 

Dakota Moss with Livestock Risk Services is also a part of the National Livestock Family.



National also owns and operates other livestock marketing subsidiaries including Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction in Ada, Oklahoma, OKC West Livestock Market in El Reno, Oklahoma, and the nation’s premier livestock video sale, Superior Livestock Auction. National offers customers many services custom made for today’s producer. To learn more, click here for the website or call the Oklahoma City office at 1-800-310-0220.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with National Cattlemen’s Association executive director of government affairs, Kent Bacus, about the roller coaster surrounding the Corporate Transparency Act.

In early December, the Corporate Transparency Act was halted to determine its constitutionality, then on December 23, it was reinstated with its original January 1, 2025, deadline. Then, once again on December 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed that decision and reinstated the preliminary injunction against the federal government’s enforcement of the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting rules under the Corporate Transparency Act.

“Now, the preliminary injunction is back in effect, which led the Treasury Department to issue a statement saying that they are not going to enforce the Corporate Transparency Act while this injunction is in place,” Bacus explained. “So, for now, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief because it looks like this injunction is going to hold and that January 1 deadline is not going to be enforced.”

NCBA will continue to monitor the situation closely because the Department of Justice will likely appeal to the Supreme Court.

Watcha Listening To? 2024 Favorites and Ideas for 2025

Many of you enjoy Podcasts- we have several ideas for you at the bottom of the daily email that are perma-linked- so that's a reference that can always be checked out.

Over the last year or so- there are a couple of podcasts that we have been involved with that we enjoyed doing. One is our retirement podcast on our Ag Perspectives Platform that we did with Dr. Kim Anderson, who was the long time extension grain market economist at Oklahoma State. We called it "A Third, A Third and a Third- the Life and Times of Kim Anderson." It's a great reminder of Kim's impact on the business of ag here in the region- and offers some special insights into a career that was well done as he headed into retirement. Click here to jump over to that podcast and take a listen.

Another that we did just over a year ago is our conversation with the now late Jarold Callahan with Express Ranches. We lost Jarold last December but we captured a lot of what made him tick in that converation that is a part of podcasts we have been doing for a couple of years called Cattlemen's Congress Conversations. Click here for our visit with Jarold.

Our friends Dave Deken and Brian Arnall do good work with what is called their Red Dirt Agronomy podcast. They tells us that their top listened podcast of 2024 was with Sheri Glazier, the Dirt Road Dietician- click here to take a listen.



KC Sheperd caught up with David Misener of U.S. Custom Harvesters to discuss their annual convention coming up from January 30 – February 1 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Misener is happy that the event could return to Des Moines as it has not been held there since 2021 when attendance was much reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Convention will include many speakers, a live auction, entertainment, meals, and an awards banquet. Associate members make up the trade show comprised of 14,000 square feet.

“Before Convention, the Board is going to be there a few days early to revamp our safety videos for our membership,” Misener said. “We definitely want to teach good practices for our employees. We’ve been planning that for over a year already.”

Positions certified for the use of seasonal agricultural visas – known as H-2A visas – grew in fiscal year 2024 (October 2023-September 2024) by less than 2% for the second year in a row, according to recently released Department of Labor data. There were, however, notable decreases in certified positions in top H-2A employer states. Rising costs and new regulations have slowed the explosive growth we have seen over the last decade. Continuous growth in the program at large reflects a shift in the domestic workforce away from agriculture, despite a continued need for reliable farm labor.

Domestic Workforce

The American labor force available for agricultural employment has grown limited. We continue to see lower workforce participation than before the pandemic and a low unemployment rate. While the U.S. labor force has grown more than 12 million people in the last 10 years, declining fertility rates and large retirement pressures have slowed the labor force growth rate from 1.3% per year to only half a percent in the past 20 years. The official U.S. unemployment rate was 4.1% in October 2024, less than a percentage point higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 3.5%, and lower than the 5% unemployment rate a decade ago.

Registration is now open for the 2025 Cattle Raisers Convention & Expo taking place April 11-13, 2025 in downtown Fort Worth.

The three-day event hosted by the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association features educational sessions by top industry professionals, keynote addresses, live cattle demonstrations, student opportunities, entertainment and an expo with over 260 exhibitor booths. This year’s event is expected to draw more than 4,000 attendees from around the Southwest including landowners, wildlife managers, ranchers and anyone with a passion for the cattle industry.

Registration packages can be customized including full registration, single-day passes, individual add-ons and expo-only access. Attendees can also book hotels with exclusive rates through the registration site. Attendees save up to $65 per registration when purchased prior to Feb. 15.

Learn more and register at cattleraisersconvention.com.

Looking Back at the 2024 Cow-Calf Corner Newsletter

Weekly, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Nutrition Specialist Paul Beck offers his expertise on the beef cattle industry.

According to Beck, It has been a great year for the Cow-Calf Corner Newsletter! We shared Beef Cattle Marketing and Management in 53 newsletters and 171 individual articles.

The topics covered in the 53 Cow-Calf Corner Newsletter releases included:

1. livestock marketing (59 articles) – discussing the impacts of the increased numbers of heifers in feedlots on herd expansion, the changes in cow markets and culling rates, import and exports in the beef markets, among many other topics.
2. Cow calf production and management (58 articles) – describing proper calving and breeding season management, veterinary management and parasitology, bull selection, heifer retention, and nutrition.
3. Stocker cattle production and management (25 articles) – including forage management, wheat pasture conditions, wheat pasture bloat, summer supplementation, and the impacts of pre-finishing management on feeder cattle production.
4. Other topics such as Emergency management, Extension Programming, and Beef Quality Assurance.

There were 15 authors contributing to the Cow-Calf Corner Newsletter.

Of course, Derrell Peel shared his analysis on the livestock markets every week, but he also gave insights into an international study abroad class he took to Scotland and Ireland in 4 articles.



Mark Johnson had his weekly cow-calf corner tie-in with the Sun Up television program covering timely topics in cow-calf management along with articles on beef quality, advocacy for beef, and Beef Quality Assurance.