A recent visit to Lahoma Wheat Field Day saw Farm Director KC Sheperd speaking with Dayton Lambert of Oklahoma State University (OSU) about a comprehensive impact analysis conducted on the university’s wheat breeding program. This extensive project aimed to quantify the program’s contributions to the Oklahoma economy and wheat producers.

The findings of this analysis revealed a substantial return on investment. “We found that over 16 years, about $78 million returns to that wheat breeding program. If you look at that every year, it’s about $4.6 million,” Lambert stated, underscoring the consistent annual economic benefit generated by the program.

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. 



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.

Rabobank, a premier global food and agribusiness bank founded 125 years ago and a leading financier of the energy transition, released the annual BBQ Index ahead of grilling season. The basic premise of the BBQ Index is to determine the cost of a BBQ for ten people ahead of the summer grilling season.

Rabobank’s senior beef analyst, Lance Zimmerman, told Oklahoma Farm Report's Ron Hays that the BBQ Index shows that for a group of ten adults- it will cost about $103 to have a full blown cheeseburger and chicken sandwich BBQ- complete with the sandwiches, all the fixings, ice cream and soda and beer. That's about four percent higher than the same celebration was costing a year ago.

Oklahoma Conservation Commission Launches “Crossroads on the Road” Soil Health Bus Tour

No Till on the Plains is partnering with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) in an innovative initiative this summer, taking its popular “Crossroads” soil health event on the road with a multi-day bus tour. Trey Lam, Executive Director of the OCC, shared details with Farm Director KC Sheperd about the “Crossroads on the Road Soil Health Bus Tour,” emphasizing its hands-on approach to educating farmers and ranchers about sustainable land management.

– Learn about soil and water resiliency.

– Observe soil health considerations in the Southern Plains: Crop rotations, cover crops, pasture cropping, native pastures, grazing, stacked enterprises, and more.

– Regenerative Agriculture in action

Rep. Preston Stinson, R-Edmond, and Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, commented Wednesday on the governor’s veto of House Bill 2048.

Stinson and Howard issued the following joint statement:

“Today, rural Oklahoma lost to Big Pharma. Out-of-state and foreign drug companies and the dark money interests working for them successfully derailed the most important legislation introduced this year to help the health care providers who serve our most vulnerable communities. By lobbying for a veto of House Bill 2048, these deep-pocketed interest groups effectively undermined protections for essential medical services, including cancer treatments and obstetrical care, across our state..."

It’s been a quality-rich season in the fed cattle business with added days on feed and heavier weights continue to push quality grades higher. The last confirmed steer carcass weights indicate a sharp single-week pullback of 8 lb., pulling the year-over-year increase for that week down to just 15 lb. compared to the 29 lb. averege year-to-date.

The more updated formula, grid and forward contract weight information indicates a quick reversal, back to heavier weights. The historic annual trend of the lightest carcass weights being posted in early May has been replaced with a trend pushing the annual lows out into mid-June.

Farm Reporter Maci Carter recently had the chance to speak with Brad Doorn, Agricultural Program Manager for NASA. For NASA, Doorn develops the strategy and implementation plan to enhance the value of NASA Earth observations and science for water resources and agriculture applications, which includes seeking out partnerships and funding for applied research that will result in more active use of NASA capabilities to solve water resource challenges and agriculture/food supply decisions.

Decades ago, when the U.S. began to trade globally, Doorn’s team began trading information to the USDA about global food supply for the WASDE Report. The work has evolved to include yield forecasting, wildfire reports, and is now providing data directly to farmers.

Big Beautiful Bill Closer to Passage- Including "Down Payment" on 2025 Farm Bill

As of 4:45 AM Central- the House is nearing a vote on HR 1- the Big Beautiful Bill on the floor of the House of Representatives. As we send our morning email out- Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn is speaking o the House floor- it's expected that Speaker Mike Johnson will follow with the final word and then the House will vote on the measure.

According to Politico- "House Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” is one step closer to passage after clearing a key procedural hurdle that sets up a floor vote later Thursday morning.

"Republicans stayed overwhelmingly united on a test vote to advance the massive domestic-policy measure shortly before 3 a.m., paving the way for a vote on final passage later in the day — just in time to meet Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline.

"The 217-212 vote bodes well for Johnson, who can’t, with his razor-thin majority, afford more than a couple GOP defections on a bill that isn’t expected to garner any Democratic support. In the end, only one Republican joined all Democrats in voting against the rule: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is expected to oppose the underlying bill as well."

The overnight debate continues.

Here's What the Down Payment on the 2025 Farm Bill Includes

According to DTN- "The Congressional Budget Office detailed farmer safety net provisions such as increasing reference prices under the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and boosting the bandwidth of Agricultural Risk Coverage would increase spending for those programs $52.3 billion over 10 years. Spending for USDA trade promotion programs would increase $2 billion over 10 years.

"Under conservation, the bill would increase budget authority by $3.2 billion, but actual outlays would decline by nearly $1.8 billion.

"Also under agriculture, the bill cuts spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $294 billion over 10 years. The bulk of those savings, $128.3 billion, would come by requiring states to provide 5% to 25% cost share for SNAP benefits, depending on the state's error rate for payments. Tightening up work requirements in the bill for able-bodied people without dependents nationally would also cut $92.4 billion in spending over a decade. Overall, the House Agriculture Committee's contributions to the bill cut spending by a net of $238 billion over 10 years."

"The social account on X for the House Agriculture Committee GOP highlighted the bill would reduce taxes on farmers by more than $10 billion over the next decade. The House Ag GOP also pointed out the bill "includes critical investments in the farmers and producers who feed and fuel this country."