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Senior Farm And Ranch Director Ron Hays talked with Ethan Lane, senior vice president of governmental affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, who warned that a potential government shutdown poses serious risks for cattle producers. “There’s always a big risk when we have a shutdown like this,” he said, noting that meat inspection, quality grading, APHIS staffing, and market news all depend on federal workers being deemed essential. He added that prolonged shutdowns could also shift consumer behavior: “If they start to get nervous, is that going to change their buying behavior, or whether they go out to restaurants?”

Turning to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ recent proposal to revitalize the beef industry, Lane acknowledged the excitement it generated but suggested producers see it differently. “I think most producers would feel like we’re not necessarily need a revitalization, but certainly continuing to look for opportunities to make our supply chain more resilient,” he explained. Lane stressed that current prices have allowed many producers to recover from pandemic hardships, while pointing out that younger farmers and ranchers need more access to opportunities.

Lane would welcome a focus on “Product of the USA” labeling. “We certainly would like to see some efforts to finish the Product of the USA labeling,” he said, adding that NCBA is ready to assist the Secretary wherever possible. He emphasized that creating a stronger and fairer supply chain remains a top priority for the cattle industry.

Farm Director KC Sheperd and USDA-NASS’s Troy Marshall discussed the final figures for the small grains year following the latest quarterly reports from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The data, which includes quarterly grain stocks and agricultural production reports, highlights significant yield boosts in Texas and Kansas, compensating for the overall lower harvested acreage, according to Marshall.

Final Wheat Production numbers in Oklahoma: Despite a slightly better weather year, many areas saw a decrease in harvested acres, largely due to rain delays during harvest and a lack of adequate rain during the earlier growing season.



• Yield: Remained steady at 38 bushels to the acre.
• Production: Overall winter wheat production saw a small decline, dropping from 110 million bushels (2024) to 106 million bushels (2025).
• Harvested Acres: The decrease in production was primarily due to a decline in harvested acres, which went from 2.9 million to 2.8 million acres.

Oklahoma State University (OSU) is hosting its annual Rural Economic Outlook Conference on October 8, with this year’s theme focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture. According to OSU’s Brent Ladd, the conference is designed to provide valuable insights and information to producers, agricultural lenders, and policymakers.

Ladd highlighted the event’s keynote speaker, Heather Hampton-Knodle, a producer who also served on the FCC Precision Ag Task Force. She will speak on “transforming Food and Rural economics” with AI. In addition, the conference will feature an AI technology panel with OSU faculty and a co-op manager who will discuss practical applications like drones and wireless fencing. Ladd noted that AI is “coming” to agriculture, and the goal of the conference is to show attendees “what’s available and how actual producers are using it” right now.

The all-day conference will be held on October 8, with registration and breakfast starting at 8:00 a.m.. The conference will conclude around 3:30 p.m.. Early bird registration is $50 per person and ends on October 1; after that, the price increases to $75. Ladd emphasized that it is essential to register early to save money and facilitate planning. The easiest way to register is to search for “OSU Ag Econ” and follow the link on the departmental website.

Hale reported that the final September auction at the Oklahoma National Stockyards saw about 4,800 head, compared to 5,800 a year ago. “They called it a little softer on the feeder steers and heifers, steady to three lower,” Hale said, noting that one strong load of black steers sold well but overall softness was likely tied to weather and the October transition period.

He emphasized the importance of weaning and vaccinations at this time of year. “In the 575 weight steers, weaned and unweaned, there’s about $40 to $50 a hundred difference,” Hale explained. “On the heifer side of it, on them four weights, kind of a $30, $40 a hundred. So there is a spread in them.” He added that despite the costs, “these guys are still dollar and outweigh more than they ever have.”

Buyers remain cautious when cattle are unweaned or unworked. “We do get into this time of year and a lot of them are unweaned and still bulls,” Hale said. “Some of them guys get kind of hesitant on bidding when they know it’s going to be tough keeping them alive.” He stressed that buyers “would love to have them worked” and that vaccinations “would sure help them.”

Senator James Lankford said the government is once again on the verge of a shutdown as funding is set to expire tonight. “We’re right up against a government funding deadline,” he explained, noting that the House has already passed a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open for seven more weeks while negotiations continue.

Lankford argued that Senate Democrats are blocking that approach. “They don’t want to vote for just keeping the government open,” he said. “They want a trillion dollars in new spending, including bringing back COVID bonus payments free health care for illegal immigrants and new climate programs.”

According to Lankford, Republicans have pushed for a simpler plan. “Republicans have just said, Hey, let’s just keep it open. Let’s keep it going. Let’s not shut the government down, and let’s just keep negotiating all the different issues for the next several weeks.”

Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist says Early culling of open breeding heifers has several benefits to your cow-calf operations bottom line. Pregnancy can be diagnosed by palpation at 60 days and by ultrasound as early as 30 days, so now is the now is the time to take action and cull the open heifers. In addition to reducing grazing pressure on pastures there are several other long-term benefits. Typically, we should expect well developed yearling heifers, at 65% of their mature weight, going into their first breeding season to conceive in a fairly short (45- 60 days) breeding season. The easiest time in a beef breeding females’ life to get bred, should be as a well-developed yearling heifer. Because of this, culling open heifers as soon as possible leads to:

Improving the long-term reproductive performance of your cowherd. Reproductive traits are low in heritability; nevertheless, culling open heifers will improve the genetic potential for reproductive performance in your cowherd by eliminating the sub-fertile heifers. From a business standpoint, reproductive success (percent calf crop weaned) is of critical economic importance in the cow-calf sector.

Culling open yearling heifers right now still gives them the potential to be marketed as yearlings. At this age they still have the potential to finish out while in the A maturity group and harvest as fed cattle reaching the most valuable Quality Grades (Choice and Prime).

Declining labor availability has been affecting the agricultural sector for many decades. Limited interest in physically demanding jobs by domestic workers, as well as a reduction in the supply of undocumented farmworkers, have been some of the major reasons behind this pattern (Gutierrez-Li, 2025). As a result, demand for foreign workers coming under H-2A visas to perform manual tasks in agriculture has risen steadily for more than a decade (Gutierrez-Li, 2021 and 2024), making the program very popular among growers of labor-intensive crops. A lesser-known non-immigrant visa program, the H-2B, has been a lifeline for many employers associated with food production in the United States.

The H-2B program originates from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, when the H-2 visa category for manual labor foreign workers was created (Gutierrez-Li, 2024). In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act divided the program into two subcategories: H-2A for agricultural workers and H-2B for non-agricultural work.

Both allow workers from a list of countries to come for a season (of less than one year), but with the possibility of holding the same visa for up to three years in a row. The H-2B program covers a variety of industries, including resort and hospitality services, retail sales, landscaping, groundskeeping, food processing, and construction. Employers interested in hiring either type of worker need to convince the government that they cannot find enough American laborers able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary tasks they need.

While attending the Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City, Farm Director KC Sheperd sat in on a talk from U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS-03), a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Davids has centered her legislative focus on core issues impacting Kansas’s agricultural and rural communities, advocating for pragmatic, bipartisan solutions in a politically divided climate.

Davids, a first-generation college graduate raised by a single mother who served in the Army for 20 years, connects her upbringing to a commitment to public service and the work ethic she observes in the ag community. She noted that her district has grown to include more rural and agriculturally driven communities, driving her desire “to just be the best representative that I could be” on the Agriculture Committee.

Davids outlined her main legislative priorities for the Farm Bill and the broader agricultural sector, emphasizing the need for stability and economic support.

Farm Bill and Bipartisanship: Davids stressed that bipartisan cooperation is “an essential and necessary piece of getting policy done” in agriculture. She stated, “I continue to believe that, particularly when it comes to agriculture, that this is one of those areas that we have to continue to manage to get bipartisan work done.” 

Checking the Markets...

Choice Boxed Beef finally snapped its 18-session losing streak on Tuesday, with Choice cutout values edging up $0.35 to $371.03, while Select dropped $1.64 to $347.25, widening the spread to $23.78 on 122 loads.

OKC West had 2,500 calves for their regular stocker and calf sale on Tuesday, September 30, 2025. Compared to last week: Steers 10.00-15.00 lower. Heifers 10.00-20.00 lower. Their Wednesday sale of yearlings will feature 4,500 head.

Beaver County Livestock reported 5,397 head of cattle on Tuesday- Compared to last sale: Feeder steers and heifers 8.00-13.00 lower. Steer and heifer calves over 450 lbs. unevenly steady, under 450 lbs. too light of test for comparison. Demand good. Quality mostly plain with a few fancy drafts

OKC West is our Market Links Sponsor- they sell cattle three days a week- Cows on Mondays, Stockers on Tuesday and Feeders on Wednesday- Call 405-262-8800 to learn more.

Click here for our Markets Page on OklahomaFarmReport.Com- there you will find many of the reports we have linked on the right hand column found on the previous format of our email.

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