Oklahoma Farm Bureau is hearing from members this month about the issues that are impacting their livelihood. It's a tradition for the organization's public policy staff to visit each of the districts in the state for its annual August area meetings. Oklahoma Farm Bureau Director of National Affairs LeeAnna McNally said this is the start of public policy development for the upcoming legislative session. In visiting with the state's farmers and ranchers, she said they are thankful for the return of precipitation, but they also remain cautious that the drought will return and she said there is still a need to update the state's water policy.

"So our members want to be prepared as best they can and really develop a policy that is beneficial state wide," McNally said.

The August meetings also allow the grassroots organization to discuss State Question 777, known as the 'Right to Farm' amendment. Oklahomans will be voting on the ballot initiative in November 2016. If approved by a vote of the people, it would make farming and ranching a constitutional right. McNally said the effort has agricultural and commodity organizations united. Agricultural leaders have already started speaking at numerous meetings and community gatherings across the state. She said they are explaining what 'Right to Farm' does and why Oklahoma Farm Bureau believes this protection in the state constitution is needed.

We also talked with LeeAnna about other state and national issues on the minds of members as they gather for the August Area Meetings- our story that features the audio conversation with her is available here.

We also featured LeeAnna on our In the Field segment that was seen on KWTV News9 this past Saturday morning. Click here to jump over to our website to see our TV visit as aired Saturday morning.

All Oklahoma Farm Bureau members are encouraged to attend the August Area Meeting for their district. Five districts will be meeting this week- today through Thursday.  Click here for our August Calendar to read more about the meetings in Guymon, Woodward, Hobart, El Reno, Krebs and Ada. 

 

The latest FooDS survey conducted by the Ag Economics Department in the Division of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University saw a remarkable jump higher in the willingness to pay for all of the categories of food they have surveyed over the last three years. FooDS stands for Food Demand Survey and is conducted by Dr. Jayson Lusk and his team of analysts at OSU. The monthly survey was developed and started in May 2013.


In the August 2015 survey of of at least 1,000 individuals, weighted to match the US population in terms of age, gender, education and region of residence, the core question of the "willingness to pay" jumped from twelve to seventy eight percent higher in the eight products brought up by the survey. In percentage terms, the $3.07 that consumers say they would spend for rice and beans is 78.48% higher than in July of this year. The smallest of the percentage gains was for beef steak- up 12.78% to a willingness to pay of $8.03 per pound, up almost a dollar from the $7.12 willingness to pay figure in July. Last August, the willingness to pay for steak was $7.01 a pound.

Dr. Lusk and the Food Demand Surveyors also ask Ad Hoc questions each month- questions they ask one time to get a glimpse into what is inside the mind of the consumer on various hot topics of the day.  I find the question this month about antibiotic use by the owners of livestock very interesting- and it reminds Animal Agriculture that most consumers "get it" when it comes to taking good care of our animals.  Eighty percent of consumers surveyed supported a policy in which "The farmer can use antibiotics to treat sick animals".

To read more from the FooDS survey released this past Friday by OSU- click here.

Oklahoma ranchers are see more pinkeye this year than normal. Pink eye is a bacterial infection that causes irritation in the eyes of cattle and other livestock. State Veterinarian Dr. Rod Hall said pinkeye causes an animal's eye to water, which can lead to the infection being transmitted to other animals.


"Flies can get on the skin below eyes, where the tears carried the bacteria and then they can go land on another animal," Hall said.


Pinkeye seems to be more prevalent from time to time. The wet spring and summer across much of the state has lead to more pinkeye cases this year. The wet weather causes higher than normal fly populations and Dr. Hall said having more flies can spread the infection.


Grass conditions have been better than average this summer. By this time of year, the grass resources begin to deteriorate. Dr. Hall said cattle become pickier as the taller grass gets tough and it becomes less appealing to cattle, so cattle will often graze closer to the ground eating the younger, tenderer grass.  Click here to read more or to listen to the full interview.

After weeks of no drought in Oklahoma, the drought has returned.


"It's back barely in the far southeast corner of the state-southern McCurtain County," explained Gary McManus, State Climatologist with the Oklahoma Mesonet. The newest drought area doesn't make up much of the state, only 1.32 percent of the state. Nonetheless, it's dry in southeast Oklahoma.


"This week with the continued lack of rainfall and also extreme temperatures down in that area, we went ahead and bumped that up to moderate drought which is the lowest drought category."



Oklahoma had been without a drought category since May 26.


At the same time, the latest Drought Monitor showed a spreading area of abnormally dry conditions in the southeast and now 9 counties fall under the condition or 12.04 percent of the state.  Click here to read more.

The number one problem for the cattle producers is Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). Bayer HealthCare LLC is rolling out a new way to fight BRD in introducing Zelnate to the US beef cattle industry. Bayer Technical Services Veterinarian Dr. Larry Hawkins said one of the reasons Bayer is excited about Zelnate is the seriousness of BRD.


"Over 65 percent of the treatments given in the cattle industry are because of respiratory disease in cattle," Hawkins said.


The disease often referred to as "shipping fever" is a complex disease. It comes from a combination of a virus, bacteria and stress. Hawkins said BRD has become the number one disease for the cattle industry. BRD causes economic losses, as well as emotional hardship for cattle producers.


"It's their livelihood, it's their business," Hawkins said. "They're animal caretakers, they take it as a personal attack when their cattle get sick. They think they have done the best they can possibility do, as far as vaccines, as far as purchasing the best cattle that they can come up with in many cases, then those animals get sick and they want to provide for them in the best manner."

With BRD being such a serious problem, Bayer Animal Health is really excited about this new product they are able to offer cattle producers with Zelnate.  Click here to read more or to listen to this Beef Buzz feature.

POET, one of the world's largest ethanol producers, released its first-ever economic impact study, revealing the significant impact POET made to national economic growth and job creation in 2014, including:


-- Generating a total of $13.5 billion in sales for U.S. businesses;


-- Adding $5.4 billion in national gross domestic product;   


-- Supporting an estimated 39,978 full time jobs; and


-- Contributing $3.1 billion in income for American families.


The report further details POET's contribution to the economic prosperity in each of the seven states where it operates - South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. POET, which is headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D., operates a total of 27 dry mill corn ethanol plants with an annual capacity of 1.7 billion gallons - more than 11 percent of the total U.S. ethanol output.


"Ethanol provides us the means to produce our own clean fuel and keep the enormous economic benefits within America's borders," POET CEO Jeff Lautt said. "The impact flows from the plants to farmers, communities, throughout the states in which they operate and across the nation."

To read more about the study, including the full report and find additional information on state-level data, by clicking here.

 

 

The week long Big Horn Sale for Superior Livestock cranks up this morning on DISH Network Channel 232 and on Superior Click to Bid.Com.   

 

It's calves and calves on cows today from our part of the world- from the southeast and the midwest.  

 

Tomorrow- the focus will be on yearlings from across the US- including here in the south central part of the US- and then Wednesday through Friday- the sale focuses on cattle north and west of us.

 

Details on the Superior Web Site are available here.  

 

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Tyson Fresh Meats shook up the cattle futures trade on Friday as they announced the immediate closure of their beef packing plant in Dennison, Iowa.  We have details by clicking here on our website- and the overall line of thinking from the cattle trade is that there is adequate slaughter capacity in the Eastern Nebraska- Western Iowa region to deal with this loss of what was started as an IBP plant back in the 1960s.

Tyson says that the reason for the closure is simple- it was "due to a continued lack of available cattle."

Cattle futures dropped a couple of dollars early- but recovered and finished just a dollar lower on the day this past Friday afternoon.

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The 2015 edition of the ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour is getting underway this morning- there will once again be two legs and Chip Flory has told reporters that while scouts will likely be skeptical about the USDA estimates released last week for corn and soybeans- the kernel and pod counts will tell the story and he adds "at the end of everything- you have to trust the numbers. That's the bottom line." 

With everyone expecting the Iowa crops to look great- the eastern corn belt reports should be really interesting- those that come out of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois- it's those states that may end up determining whether USDA is in the ball park or not with their 168.8 bushel corn yield and 46.9 bushel soybean yield nationally.

If you like Twitter- you can stay on top of tour all day by watching hashtag #pftour15.