Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays features comments with Dr. Burke Healey, USDA’s APHIS Executive Director for VS’ Strategy and Policy division, about the New World Screwworm (NWS) situation in Southern Mexico. The parasitic fly is known for infesting open wounds on livestock, especially cattle, and poses a significant threat to other mammals, including humans, and occasionally, birds.

For context, the NWS had been eradicated from the continental United States (US) since the 1970s with partnerships between the US and Mexico pushing the pest to Mexico’s southern border by 1986; however, due to the pest’s ability to be unknowingly transported, there have been isolated incidents of NWS in the US such as the 2016 identification in the Florida Keys in Key deer, pets, and swine.

Last November, reports confirmed that the pest had resurfaced in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, and the U.S.-Mexico border was closed to animals moving North out of Mexico. In March, the border was reopened with stringent protocols to prevent potentially affected cattle from being moved.

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During the month of April, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and Oklahoma Farm Report are spotlighting the 19 Area Stars of Oklahoma FFA, who are among the highest achievers in the organization.

This week, our coverage of the 2025 Oklahoma FFA Star Award Finalists continues with Agribusiness competitor Hayden Taylor of the Ketchum FFA chapter representing the Northeast Area.

“My SAE started in the midst of COVID-19,” Taylor explained. “I sell high-quality cuts of beef. That is something that I noticed not a lot of people did, and I noticed that during COVID-19, there wasn’t… well, we all noticed the shortage of toilet paper. There was also a lack of beef in the supermarkets.”

He needed a project that would profit, but allow him the freedom to play sports, and seeing the need, he began this project in the eighth grade. He buys weaned steers, raises them for about 150 days, and feeds them out to processing. He then sells both retail and wholesale cuts of beef and prides himself on producing high-quality cuts with no synthetic additives before or after processing.

Farm Athletes: Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders Both on the Field and the Farm

A unique initiative is taking root across the United States, aiming to support and connect a special group of young individuals: college athletes with a background in agriculture. Farm Athletes, launched in August 2024 by Zach Bosle, the CEO of Tractor Tuesday and a sixth-generation farmer from Hastings, Nebraska, is designed to recognize and assist these student-athletes. 

Troy Stickels from Farm Athletes recently shed light on the organization’s origins and mission with Farm Director KC Sheperd. “Farm athletes really got started last August,” Stickels explained. The idea sprung from a desire to give back to the community through Bosle’s farm auction site, Tractor Tuesday. According to Stickels, Bosle “takes things and blows them up a lot bigger than I would ever dream of,” leading to the creation of Farm Athletes.



Initially, the focus was on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. “Essentially, what we started out doing was search the country for Division One, Division Two, NCAA athletes who grew up on farms or ranches and were playing college sports, and we wanted to give them a little bit of money through an NIL deal and have them promote Tractor Tuesday,” Stickels elaborated.

If you saw the Mesonet Ticker from Gary McManus last Friday- you may have been drawn to the map of rinafall totals that one model was showing huge amounts of rain in central and western Oklahoma- we got a down payment on that rainfall over the Easter weekend but remember that the map that McManus was showing included rain out to this coming Friday- and there are more significant rainfall chances coming mid week- so stay tuned for that.

As for this map above- it's clickable (so explore which Mesonet station got what amount)and it shows a lot of the wheat belt in Oklahoma getting one to two inches- very valuable for moving the 2025 wheat crop forward and providing some moisture for preparation to plant spring planted crops as well.

Eastern Oklahoma totals have resulted in flooding with at least three locations receiving 6 inches or more- Okemah, Holdenville and Newport the stations with those totals.

Sunshine today for most of Oklahoma- then storms and more rain will start building back in the days to follow.

Secretary Rollins Appoints Multiple Oklahomans to Key USDA Roles

US Secretary of Ag Brooke Rollins and her team at USDA are tapping multiple Oklahomans(and those with ties to the state via OSU) to be a part of the USDA team. That includes Dr. Jaye Hamby, who was recently named director of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and earned master’s and doctoral degrees at Oklahoma State University in agricultural education with a specialization in agricultural economics and was an active 4-H’er and a national FFA officer.  

Dr. Jaye L. Hamby was appointed as the USDA NIFA Director on March 20, 2025.  

Others who have recently joined the Rollins team at USDA include:

Riley Pagett – Chief of Staff for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. Most recently, Riley served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann. Previously, Riley served as Chief of Staff for USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement. He holds a Juris Doctorate from American University Washington College of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Communications from Oklahoma State University. Pagett is a former President of the Oklahoma FFA as as well as a Past President of the National FFA.

Alison Slagell – Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Farm Production and Conservation, and Immigration. Most recently Alison served as Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. Alison was born and raised in Hydro, Oklahoma, on her family’s fifth generation farm and is a proud graduate of Oklahoma State University.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) extend thanks to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for targeting the proposed Section 301 actions regarding Chinese maritime practices in ways that protect U.S. farm commodity export competitiveness.

We appreciate USTR’s understanding of the impact the original proposals could have had on wheat growers and the grain trade. The uncertainty about the proposals was already causing problems for overseas customers, who were hesitant to make purchases with additional port fees looming.

“This move means a lot to farmers and customers around the world,” said USW Chairman Clark Hamilton, a wheat farmer from Ririe, Idaho. “We want to thank them for their efforts to balance the need for action against these Chinese maritime practices with the potential for harm to our export competitiveness.”

The U.S. wheat industry and its customers depend on ocean-going vessels, especially dry bulk carriers, and exports are vital to this sector. About half of the U.S. wheat crop is exported each year. The reconsideration of the proposal, which would have significantly increased export costs for U.S. wheat, is a welcome relief for our industry.

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a memorandum to all state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), making it clear that states must ensure SNAP benefits are provided with the expectation that those who can work, do.

“Since my confirmation, I have reiterated the states are our partners, and this includes ensuring our nutrition programs are tied to putting Americans back to work,” said Secretary Rollins. “It is important to remind states that Congress conditioned the receipt of benefits by able-bodied adults without dependents on satisfying work requirements. Many states have abused the system by requesting work requirement waivers. Today marks the start of a new era for SNAP—prioritizing work, career and technical education, and volunteering rather than idleness, excess spending, and misapplication of the law.”

In June 2023, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 amended the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (the Act) to include in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) purpose statement that it “assist low-income adults in obtaining employment and increasing their earnings.” This pivotal legislation reaffirmed efforts to reduce dependency on public assistance programs and increase self-sufficiency.