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It's Time for the Friday Farm Funny! Farming is hard and stressful, so enjoy a little laugh.. Maybe.. the jokes are always bad, so prepare yourself

Todd Neely, DTN Environmental Editor writes in his latest Article that The Trump administration has announced plans to move most employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of Washington, D.C., and relocate them to five regional hubs, USDA said on Thursday in announcing the first phase of an agency reorganization plan.

Most headquarters staff will relocate to five regional hubs in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

USDA said the move is just the first phase of a “multi-month” process and that agency senior leaders are expected to notify USDA offices on additional moves to the hubs. “As part of this reorganization, USDA is not conducting a large-scale workforce reduction,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a memorandum on Thursday.

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 conditions remain at zero percent, unchanged since the week of October 29, 2024.

Severe drought or worse conditions remain at zero percent, unchanged since the week of May 29, 2025.

Moderate drought or worse conditions remain at zero percent, unchanged since last week.

Abnormally dry or worse conditions have persisted this week in parts of Greer county, Beckham county and Kiowa county.

At the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting in San Diego, Senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays spoke with Erin Borror from the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Our Coverage from San Diego is powered by Farm Data Services of Stillwater.

Borror outlined the complexities of exporting U.S. beef to the European Union, citing high production costs and regulatory hurdles. “You’re looking at an incredibly expensive product, the never, ever type concept, right? So non-hormone-treated cattle,” she explained. Despite having a 35,000-ton duty-free quota, the U.S. is currently utilizing only 43% of it. “The costs of producing for Europe are tremendous, trying to pass on that beef price into the European market does just limit the total market potential.”

Borror also highlighted recent developments with the United Kingdom, noting that while access had been lost due to Brexit, some has now been regained. “It’s about 8,700 metric tons right now. It started on June 30. We’re honestly still trying to work out the mechanics of like, literally, how this quota can be utilized,” she said. Although the UK access comes with “zero tariff,” the beef must still meet all EU requirements, making it “that very high-cost product.”

Klobuchar statment on department of agriculture proposed reorganization plan:

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s plan to reorganize the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

A reorganization of this scale will impact USDA’s ability to provide critical services to Americans and undermine the Agency’s trusted expertise that farmers and families count on.

Ranking Member Angie Craig statement on USDA reorganization:

Today, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02) released the following statement regarding Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ planned reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“The planned reorganization announced by the Agriculture Secretary without notice or input from Congress or key stakeholders and constituencies demonstrates that this administration failed to learn the lessons from previous similar efforts and is willfully risking the effectiveness of the agencies and programs that support America’s family farmers.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) shared support for the withdrawal of the speed limiter rule by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), two agencies under the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“America’s livestock haulers know how to safely navigate our nation’s roads and putting an artificial speed device in the truck with them was only going to create safety hazards, increase risk to drivers and travelers, and push livestock haulers out of their jobs,” said NCBA Policy Division Chair Skye Krebs, an Oregon rancher.

“As the holder of a Commercial Driver’s License myself, I know how much training and licensing occurs before a hauler gets behind the wheel. We have full faith in the safe practices of our livestock haulers and appreciate FMCSA and NHTSA standing with drivers by withdrawing this rule. NCBA is committed to supporting livestock haulers and protecting the safety of our roadways.”

After an uncharacteristically wet spring, Oklahoma is now firmly entrenched in its typical hot summer pattern, with State Climatologist Gary McManus signaling a shift towards drier conditions and a watchful eye on potential drought development. While the state recently enjoyed a rare period of drought-free status, localized areas are now showing signs of stress.

“Not drought quite yet,” clarified Gary McManus in a recent conversation with Farm Director KC Sheperd, but he noted a “very precarious” situation. Specifically, far southwest Oklahoma, particularly in parts of Greer and Jackson counties (or possibly Roger Mills and Greer counties), has experienced “abnormally dry conditions” (D0 on the Drought Monitor) over the last 60 to 70 days. This yellow shading on the map “doesn’t signify drought, but it shows areas either going into drought or coming out of drought,” McManus explained. Despite some recent rainfall, it hasn’t been enough to alleviate the dryness in this region, making it “the danger point in the state to see that drought come back.”



The timing of this dryness is particularly challenging. “It’s summer. It is hot. It has been hot, and it looks like it’s going to be hot for a while,” Sheperd observed. McManus concurred, acknowledging that while 2023 saw a relatively mild and wet period until late July, “it’s Oklahoma, it’s the southern plains. So eventually that heat dome is going to set overhead and just camp there.” This has led to “lots of triple digits on the heat index,” making conditions “pretty miserable, even at times when it hasn’t been as hot on that thermometer.”

This week on SUNUP, OSU Agriculture Economist Dr. John Michael Riley discusses the winding down of the wheat harvest and its results.

As Oklahoma’s wheat harvest nears completion, Dr. John Michael Riley from Oklahoma State University says producers are seeing mixed results. “We’re finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, the train’s almost coming out of that tunnel,” he said, noting that the extended harvest season has led to some yield decline. “We dropped off about two to three bushels per acre through late June. Now we’re another two to three bushels below that,” putting the state average yield somewhere in the mid-50s. Despite these drops, he adds, “It’s still been a good harvest, but just not what we probably could have been had the rains not continued to fall.”

The rainfall, while helpful earlier in the season, ended up hurting yields as the harvest stretched on. “Overall, about four to six bushels per acre” were lost due to excessive moisture, Riley explained. While individual results varied, he emphasized that “it certainly could have been worse given the level of rainfall that we received over the heavy harvest period.”

President Trump’s call to eliminate production of the penny took a major step forward with the passage of Congressman Frank D. Lucas’ legislation – the MINT Act – passing out of the Financial Services Committee. The legislation passed as part of the Common Cents Act authored by House Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-MI), whose bill text was replaced by the MINT Act.

The Modernize and Improve our National Tender (MINT) Act would cease the production of the penny while ensuring that every penny still in circulation remains as legal tender. It would also allow the Mint to produce the nickel with nickel-plated zinc, giving greater flexibility to producer cheaper coins.

The MINT Act is supported by the United Steelworkers Union – which represents the 250 employees that previously manufactured zinc coin blanks for the penny – saying that the “bill preserves jobs, supports American industry, and delivers savings to taxpayers”.

Checking the Markets...

According to the Beef Read- This week’s cash trade has been slow to get underway. USDA shows 1.3K cattle sold in Texas Wednesday, 35% to 65% choice at $230, steady with last week and a few hundred in Kansas 65% to 80% choice at $230 also. Fed Cattle Exchange had a few trade Thursday morning in Texas at $231. Boxed Beef prices were modestly higher on Thursday. Choice cutouts edged up $0.57 to $368.09, while Select gained $1.61 to close at $347.00, narrowing the Choice/Select spread to $21.09, down slightly from $22.13 the day before.

Woodward reported 1,994 head of cattle on Thursday- Compared to last week: Feeder steers steady to 5.00 higher with the bulk of the run weighing over 850 pounds. Feeder heifers mostly steady on a light offering. 

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