Agricultural News
Scott Blubaugh Gives Update on Latest AFR Engagements to Benefit Producers
Mon, 08 Aug 2022 12:01:15 CDT
Farm Director, KC Sheperd, caught up with President of American Farmers and Ranchers, Scott Blubaugh, talking about the latest AFR news and struggles producers have faced in recent months.
Blubaugh talked first about the AFR Youth Leadership Summit which wrapped up last week. The summit is an opportunity for students to attend sessions focused on leadership, service, teamwork, and cooperative skills.
“Our leadership summit that we do annually- we have been doing it for a very long time,” Blubaugh said. “We had a record number of students this year participate again. We are actually outgrowing our facilities, but that is a good problem to have.”
The summit is a great opportunity for youth across the state to learn leadership skills they can take back to their schools and communities to implement immediately, Blubaugh said, so it is nice to see the students achieve success.
“We have a huge track record of superstars in Oklahoma that came from this youth program,” Blubaugh said.
Blubaugh also touched on concerns he has heard from producers recently regarding the impact of drought on their operations.
“The cow liquidation thing is huge,” Blubaugh said. “Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri are all kind of in the same boat- very dry, and little to no hay. We are seeing a lot of young cows and bred heifers that would normally be staying on the ranches being taken to town because there is no feed for them.”
In the short run, Blubaugh said that liquidation might lower the prices of beef for consumers for a few months, but in the long run, that is going to raise prices for the next 4 or 5 years because of reduced numbers in the cow herd.
“I haven’t seen any really good crops and I have been all over Oklahoma the last couple of weeks,” Blubaugh said.
The corn and most of the soybean crop in Oklahoma, Blubaugh said, look to be in poor shape.
“I have not seen one good sorghum field in the entire state of Oklahoma,” Blubaugh said. “It might be out there, but I can’t find it.”
Cotton yields, Blubaugh said, are looking to be down as well. It looks like only half the cotton crop may be out there, he added.
“The big thing right now facing us is the grass and the lack of hay supply,” Blubaugh said. “We have had wildfires and about everything you could mention. My Vice President, Ryan Plemmons is from McCurtain County, and they get about 60 inches of rainfall down there normally, and they haven’t had rain in two months.”
Blubaugh talked about the Oklahoma Certified Beef Program and progress being made in reaching out to more retailers and restaurants.
“It just continues to grow with both retailers and restaurants that are wanting the product and our membership keeps growing with ranchers,” Blubaugh said.
A few new ranches join the Oklahoma Certified Beef Program each month, Blubaugh said, and it continues to grow.
“I did have the opportunity this last week to meet with the Associated Wholesale Grocer’s president, David Smith up in Kansas City, and we were able to have some really good discussions on being able to get Oklahoma Certified Beef in all the independent grocers in Oklahoma, so we are working very closely with them trying to figure out all of the logistics to make it happen, but they are very much interested in having that locally grown beef in their IGA Independent Grocers stores.”
Blubaugh said he has been traveling a lot lately and working on the cattle market issues. He met with the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack at the White House and the Japanese Embassy.
“There is a lot of grant money available through USDA right now to do added value projects throughout the country,” Blubaugh said. “We are taking a really deep dive into that. There are over 50 different grants right now available for agriculture in added value products whether it be meat or some other kind of products.”
Blubaugh said he is focused on getting Oklahoma a share of the USDA grant money and figuring out the best way to do that. AFR is also promoting the enforcement of the Packers and Stockyard Act, Blubaugh added.
Each year, a group of Oklahoma farmers and ranchers make the trip to Washington D.C. for a three-day lobbying mission to meet with administration officials and members of Congress. This event, Blubaugh said, is coming up on September 11th through the 14th.
“From the 11th through the 14th of September, we will be doing the first fly-in in three years,” Blubaugh said. “Covid has kept us out of being able to do a fly-in, so everyone is really excited about being able to do one finally after three years. We are going to take about 20 of our members up to represent Oklahoma AFR there in September.”
Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear KC talk with Scott Blubaugh about all things AFR.
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