Joe Mayer Inducted into Oklahoma Ag Hall of Fame

Panhandle RancherJoe Mayer received the Governor's Outstanding Achievement Award in Agriculture Wednesday at the state Capitol. Mayer served as the District 1 Director from 1993-2002 on the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Board of Directors(the group that nominated him).


"We are so pleased a Farm Bureau member and former director has been honored for his contributions to agriculture," said Tom Buchanan, president of Oklahoma Farm Bureau. "Joe has contributed so much to the agriculture industry, and I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award." 


Mayer's Oklahoma heritage dates back to 1883 when his great grandfather settled in the Panhandle and his family has been there every since, where they raise cattle, corn and wheat. Mayer and his family are actively involved in all aspects of a prosperous grain and cattle business. His cattle operation has been involved in the Certified Angus Beef program for years- and he was named a few years back as the CAB Commercial Producer of the Year.


Just as important as his agricultural production skills is his strong commitment to serve his community. Mayer has benefited his home area by serving on the Texas County Farm Bureau Board, Texas County Election Board, Texas County Excise and Equalization Board and the Tri-County Electric Cooperative Board. He said his dedication to his community was how he was raised.


"You're supposed to make the world a better place for having been here," Mayer said. "I don't know if I did that, but I tried."

Click here to read more about Meyer or to listen to his interview with Sam Knipp of Oklahoma Farm Bureau.    

Teacher of the Year Brings Her Passion for Agriculture into Classroom

Barns aren't the only place for animals. A Coyle Elementary teacher believes they also belong in the classroom. Connie Whitmore, a 26-year veteran educator has been bringing agriculture into the classroom for more than a decade. She was honored Wednesday as the Ag in the Classroom 2015 Teacher of the Year during Ag Day at the state capitol.


For years Whitmore has taught Kindergarten but currently she teaches Pre-K. She said her class has a lot of fun as she often has live animals in their classroom and her class also dresses up as farmers. In her classroom, agriculture is not treated as a theme for a week or two, but is rather integrated into all subject areas. She finds this is a great age to work with as they don't have any preconceived ideas, her students are interested in agriculture and they really enjoy the hands on activities. 

Whitmore was honored for her ability to incorporate agriculture into lots of different activities in her classroom. I caught up with Mrs. Whitmore. Click or tap here to listen to the full interview.   

Written By Jon Biermacher, Josh Maples and B. Wade Brorsen


The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Rainfall Index Annual Forage Plan (RIAFP) in May 2013. The program offers castrophic risk (CAT) and/or buy-up coverage (BC) to producers who annually plant crops used for livestock feed or fodder, including grasses and mixed forages such as ryegrass and sorghum-sudangrass, and small grains like wheat, rye and oats. The forage insurance program relies on a rainfall index that is calculated using weather data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is designed to insure against declines in the index in each 0.25 degree latitude by 0.25 degree longitude grid. Premiums for CAT are subsidized 100 percent by USDA. Plus, producers have the option to purchase subsidized BC coverage for which they are required to pay only a portion of the premium.


Participation in RIAFP requires producers to make a series of choices that influence their premium cost and coverage level. First, the producer must choose the growing season. Growing Season 1 means the crop is planted between July 15 and Dec. 15 and has available index intervals from September through March. Growing Season 2 means the crop is planted from between Dec. 15 and July 15 with available index intervals from March through September. Producers can double crop and receive indemnities for two growing seasons within a year if they can prove they have double cropped for the past two years.


Click here to read more about the additional choices that a producer must make and why producers should consider this risk-management tool.  

Chairmen Conaway and Aderholt Commend Rep. Hartzler for Dietary Guidelines Letter

On Tuesday, Vickie Hartzler (R-MO) along with 70 Members of Congress, including House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) and House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-AL), sent a letter to Department of Health and Humans Services Secretary Burwell and Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack expressing concerns with the report issued by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) and certain recommendations for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).


In the letter, members raised concerns that the DGAC report exceeds the scope of its charge by straying from purely nutritional issues and venturing into areas like sustainability and tax policy. At a time when consumers are already subjected to conflicting and often contradictory nutrition and health information, providing the public with science-based, realistic and achievable information is more likely to contribute to improved public health outcomes, the letter states.


Upon signing the letter, Chairman Conaway said, "The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee significantly overstepped its bounds when it strayed from science-based nutritional recommendations and singled out certain industries. These unsubstantiated, pre-determined conclusions will have far-reaching effects, not just for industry, but for the American public. Again, I urge the Secretaries to commit to a process to fully review and consider the public comments before publishing new dietary guidelines, and I applaud Congresswoman Hartzler for leading this effort to ensure the public is not misled by these recommendations." 

Click here to read more, including a copy of the letter House Ag Chair Conaway and members of Congress. 

Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee Misses Mark on Beef Sustainability- Dr. Kim Stackhouse- Lawson

The latest national dietary guidelines proposed from an advisory committee has created quite the controversy. The committee of nutritionists decided sustainability should be included in consideration of your diet. According to Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, director of sustainability for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said this group decided that beef was not very sustainable. She said that's simply wrong, as the beef checkoff has spent more than $2 million dollars on sustainability research. "None of that research was referenced by the dietary guidelines committee," Stackhouse-Lawson said. 


She said one of the biggest environmental impacts for the cattle industry is the conversation of land from pasture to row crop farming. Marginal land allows cattle to convert grass into protein and that same marginal land also provides open space for wildlife habitat, improves biodiversity with grasslands, trees, and different plants. Open space also sequesters carbon and provides clean water. Stackhouse-Lawson said making a change in the recommended diet could have long term consequences.


"We don't understand from a scientific perspective what the impact is of that change in our diets," Stackhouse-Lawson said.  

Click here to read more or have the opportunity to listen to this Beef Buzz feature.  

Award winning broadcast journalist Jerry Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here to subscribe to his daily update of top Energy News.

House Chairmen: EPA Must Consider Impacts of Water Proposal on Farmers, Ranchers

House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX), House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy asking for documents to confirm whether or not the agency weighed the impact of the proposed "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule on farmers and ranchers.   


"The Committees are interested in ensuring that in the course of promulgating the definition of 'waters of the United States,' all stakeholder voices are being heard and taken into consideration. As part of this oversight initiative, we are writing to request documents and information related to the proposed rule," the Chairmen wrote. "Congress is obligated to ensure the integrity and transparency of the rulemaking process. The American people, including farmers and ranchers, have a right to be assured their voices are being heard by the Administration."


Click here to read the full letter with the eight questions. 

This N That- Enid Radio Stations Show Strong Commitment to Agriculture, Russell Pierson Services and Good Friday Upon Us

Her in the next couple of weeks- we want to remind you of some of our great radio partners that are affiliated with the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network.  We start this morning with the AM-FM combo that does a great job in north central Oklahoma.

KGWA is the information station at 960 on the AM dial in Enid, Oklahoma.  They have a great footprint across multiple counties across the region- and Alan Clapper, who programs both KGWA as well as KOFM, offers a very strong lineup of farm programming from RON that allows farmers and ranchers to stay in the know.

Each weekday on KGWA- you can hear our ag reports featuring yours truly, Dave Lanning and Leslie Smith at the following times:

7:25a      Morning Market Outlook

Market Updates are heard at 9:50, 10:50, 11:55, 1:50, 12:30, and 1:30

Midday Farm News Update airs at 12:03 PM

Stocker Feeder Review- our look at Feeder Cattle Markets is heard at 2:30 PM

On KOFM, the top rated Country Music Station in the Enid area- Market reports are heard from RON at 9:35, 10:35, 11:35,12:35, and 1:35PM. KOFm broadcasts at 103.1 on the FM dial.

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Services for long time farm broadcaster Russell Pierson will be held on Monday afternoon, April 6, at 2:00 PM at Quail Springs Baptist Church in north Oklahoma City.

Russell was on the air across Oklahoma with the big 930 AM Signal of WKY Radio daily for thirty years- and was seen on WKY-TV and later KTVY- Channel 4 in Oklahoma City as well.

Russell was larger than life for many that listened or watched him daily- and he served the farm and ranch community across Oklahoma faithfully during his decades of service.

He was known for his end of program poems that were always original and always relevant to that day.  After his retirement, he would, from time to time, offer a poem at a special occasion- one such time I remember came in 2010 when Duane Harrell retired from the State Department of Ag- here's Russell as he offered his best to Duane and read a poem written for that day:



Russell was 103 as he left this life for Heaven earlier this week.

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Tomorrow is Good Friday, as we come to climax of Holy Week and point to the day of victory that Easter is this coming Sunday- April 5th.

Ag Markets and the Equity Markets take the day off- It is NOT a holiday for the Federal Government of for the State of Oklahoma's offices.

We will have a daily email out for tomorrow morning- perhaps a little shorter than normal- and then back as normal on Monday.