Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
From: Ron Hays <ronphays@cox.net>
Date: 4/7/2020, 5:49 AM
To: ron@ronhays.com



 
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We invite you to listen to us on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network weekdays- if you missed this morning's Farm News - or you are in an area where you can't hear it- click pr tap here for this morning's Farm news from Ron Hays on RON.
 

 
Let's Check the Markets! 
MarketLinks

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.

 
   
Today's First Look:
mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
 

OKC West in El Reno had their regular cow and bull turn on Monday- 204 head on hand and sharply lower cow prices- click here for the details from USDA Market News. 


At the Oklahoma Nattional Stockyards in Oklahoma CIty- 5,000 head of cattle were on hand- Compared to last week: Feeder steers 6.00-12.00 lower, feeder heifers were lightly tested but few trades 8.00-12.00 lower. Steer calves 3.00-6.00 lower- click or tap here for the complete report from USDA Market News

 
Each afternoon we are posting a recap of that day's markets as analyzed by Justin Lewis of KIS futures- click here for the report posted yesterday afternoon around 3:30 PM.
 
 
Okla Cash Grain:  
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- as reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture from Monday, April 6.
 

Joplin Regional Stockyards also held their regular Monday sale on April 6th- 5,534 cattle were at the market to sell- Compared to last week, steers and heifers 10.00 to 15.00 lower- Click or tap here for the full report from USDA Market News.

  
Futures Wrap:  
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network - analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day.
 
Feeder Cattle Recap:  
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
 
Slaughter Cattle Recap: 
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by the USDA.
 
TCFA Feedlot Recap:  
Finally, here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
 


 
Our Oklahoma Farm Report Team!!!!
 
Ron Hays, Senior Farm Director and Editor

KC Sheperd, Associate Farm Director and Editor

Sam Knipp, Farm Editor
 
Pam Arterburn, Calendar and Template Manager
 
Dave Lanning, Markets and Production

Oklahoma's Latest Farm and Ranch News
 
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON
   Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Howdy Neighbors! 

Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 










One Farm Bureau's Steve Thompson Offers Color Commentary of the Only Day in April Lawmakers Will Meet- and What's Ahead for Balance of the 2020 Session

Under strict health and safety measures, the Oklahoma Legislature convened for a historic special session on Monday, April 6 to respond to Gov. Kevin Stitt's statewide health emergency declaration.


Both the House and Senate affirmed the governor's unprecedented emergency actions as legislators entered the severely restricted state Capitol for the first time since March 17.


Now in effect, the declaration allows the executive branch to centralize state and county health department response efforts, let first responders know if they are responding to a location with a COVID-19 patient, and the governor to waive certain laws and rules for the purpose of the pandemic response, according to a release by the Oklahoma House of Representatives.


The House and Senate also briefly reconvened the 2020 regular session to stabilize the current fiscal year's budget. A combination of factors related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recent downturn in oil prices has led to a projected $416 million revenue shortfall. Three bills were passed that shift state funds from reserve accounts into accessible locations so that state agencies will be able to meet their obligations for the rest of fiscal year 2020.


At the conclusion of Monday's activity, the Legislature again adjourned to an uncertain future date. After the Monday session, I talked with Steve Thompson, Senior Director of Public Policy of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau about the day's events at the Capitol and what may lie ahead for the Legislature when they eventually do return to 23rd and Lincoln to set a budget for Fiscal Year 2021 and perhaps do a limited number of other bills that are singled out by leadership for consideration.


Click or tap here to take a Listen to our conversation with Steve and read more about the day at the State Capitol that included masked men and women- with social distancing shown as proper etiquette as the future of the state sits in an uncertain place as we watch the COVID-19 drama play out. 



Sponsor Spotlight
 

National Livestock was founded in 1932 in Oklahoma City. National's Marketing Division offers cattle for sale weekly at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City. The Finance Division lends money to ranchers across several states for cattle production. The Grazing Division works with producers to place cattle for grazing on wheat or grass pastures. National also owns and operates other livestock marketing subsidiaries including Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction in Ada, Oklahoma, OKC West Livestock Market in El Reno, Oklahoma, and the nation's premier livestock video sale, Superior Livestock Auction. National offers customers many services custom made for today's producer. To learn more, click here for the website or call the Oklahoma City office at 1-800-310-0220.



Mondays, Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry. This analysis is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Glenn Selk. Today, Dr. Peel examines the beef Market impacts from Covid-19.

Wholesale and retail beef markets have endured enormous upheaval since mid-March. Starting March 16, the surge in retail grocery buying put huge demands on retail supply chains resulting in dramatic and immediate spikes in wholesale beef prices. As shown in Table 1, the overall cutout jumped by nearly 19 percent in a matter of three days. Wholesale prices continued to push higher until March 23, peaking at $257.32 cwt., up 23.6 percent from March 13 levels. Since then, the cutout has dropped over 10 percent to $230.44/cwt. on April 3. It is not clear exactly where the boxed beef cutout will settle out in the coming days. At the same time, the demand for food service has dropped sharply leading to a diverse set of impacts on various wholesale beef cuts.

Table 2 shows the changes in weekly wholesale beef product prices since early March. Middle meats, which are dominated by restaurant demand, have dropped while end meats have surged on grocery demand. Prices for most steak items are lower including the tenderloin (189A), down 29 percent and ribeye (112A), down 7.7 percent since early March. Prices for the Petite tender (114F), a popular restaurant item, is down over 32 percent.   Short ribs (123A), a popular export item, are down 47 percent in price. Prices for loin strips (180), a popular summer grilling steak that is normally increasing seasonally at this time, is up over 22 percent. Top sirloin (184), is a multi-purpose steak is used in both restaurants and at retail grocery, is priced nearly 13 percent higher.   

At the same time, end meat prices, which are typically declining into the summer, are higher driven by grocery demand for value cuts and ground beef. Prices are sharply stronger for the shoulder clod (114A), up 49 percent and Chuck rolls (116A), up 32 percent along with Round items including the Top round (168), up 33 percent; outside round (171B), up 47 percent and eye of round (171C), up 25 percent.        

Fast food restaurant demand is down, despite drive-thru service remaining open, resulting in less ground beef demand. Prices of fresh lean 50 percent trimmings, mostly used for food service ground beef demand are down 50 percent to the lowest level in 18 years.   Fresh 90 percent lean trimming prices are up nearly 8 percent on indications that imported lean trimmings dropped in March. Grocery demand for ground beef is up as noted above; however, ground beef at retail more commonly uses chuck and round items rather than trimmings.




In the first major national crop progress report released Monday by the USDA's National Ag Statistics Service, we're seeing cotton and grain sorghum planting progress slightly ahead of normal. In the 15 major cotton states so far, progress is rated at 7 percent, compared to 5 percent last year. In the 6 major grain sorghum states, only Texas is showing any progress with about half of their crop planted.

Wet, cool conditions have delayed corn planting progress to the point of USDA saying it will publish that category next week. No states in the traditional corn belt are reporting corn plantings.
However, checking the individual state reports, we noticed Texas has planted 57 percent of their corn crop, compared to 5-year average of 49 percent. In Kansas, corn planted is 1 percent so far this spring, compared to near percent 2 percent last year and 4 percent for the five-year average.

Other states reporting corn acres planted included Arkansas at 3 percent, compared to 5-year average of 32 percent.

Oklahoma continues to lead the major winter wheat states with the highest rated crop at 73 percent in the good to excellent category. This compares to a national average in the 18 major winter wheat states of 62 percent.
Winter wheat jointing reached 62 percent in Oklahoma, up 10 points from the previous year but unchanged from normal.

In Kansas, the winter wheat condition rated 49 percent in the good to excellent category, 38 percent fair and 13 percent in the poor to very category.

For our neighbors to the south in Texas, the winter wheat is rated 62 percent in the good to excellent category, a 6 percent jump from last week. This week, 29 percent of the Teas crop is fair (about the same as last week), and 9 percent is rated poor to very poor (last week it was 18 percent).



Food animal veterinarians (FAVs) are vital for the health and well-being of our nation's food supply, but the profession faces challenges that are not well understood, which ultimately impacts the workforce's ability to recruit and retain professionals.

"FAVs are key to providing the world with a safe and secure food supply," says Dr. Christine Navarre, DVM, MS, DACVIM, of Louisiana State University. "They work directly with producers to ensure the health and welfare of food producing animals as well as working in food safety and other public health areas."

Navarre recently chaired a task force addressing the issue in a new paper published by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). She, along with other veterinary scientists and experts, focused on two themes affecting the profession: economic and social factors.

The authors describe economic challenges as changes in the agricultural industry that affect supply and demand. The latter are often informed by available databases, for example, the American Veterinary Medical Association's membership database, which represents 82 percent of U.S. veterinarians. However, it is difficult to determine how many individuals in the database work with food-producing animals due to missing or outdated self-reported information.

Other inconsistencies also cause issues in workforce studies that are often used to inform the amount of FAV professionals in the workforce and how many are needed. "A lack of detailed employment data, differences in methodology and an ever-changing animal agricultural landscape make predicting how many FAVs are needed difficult," Navarre says.

Social factors also influence students' and professional veterinarians' choices for where and what they practice. Among the top social challenges include the student's income-to-debt ratio, which is considerably high for FAVs. Many veterinarians also cite the lack of support in rural agricultural communities among the barriers that curb them from this type of work. For example, veterinarians with spouses tend to search for communities that are capable of providing a career for their significant other.

While there are challenges to building a strong FAV workforce, the CAST paper's authors outline strategies that may increase recruitment and retention for the profession.. 


Sponsor Spotlight

 
The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association is the trusted voice of the Oklahoma Cattle Industry. With headquarters in Oklahoma City, the OCA has a regular presence at the State Capitol to protect and defend the interests of cattlemen and cattlewomen.
 
Their Vision Statement explains the highest priority of the organization- "Leadership that serves, strengthens and advocates for the Oklahoma cattle industry."
 
To learn more about the OCA and how you can be a part of this forward-looking group of cattle producers, click here for their website. For more information- call 405-235-4391.



When the National Cattlemen's Beef Association launched a major digital marketing campaign more than 5 years ago, they had no way of knowing it would now be helping consumers deal with the COVID-19 crisis. I had the chance to visit with Alisa Harrison, senior vice president of global marketing and research for the NCBA about that strategy.

Harrison's experience as the Press Secretary for former USDA Sec. of Agriculture Anne Veneman during the BSE outbreak in late 2003, prepared her to handle the current COVID-19 situation.

Harrison said the NCBA digital marketing plan with ads on all the major social media platforms, reached more than one billion people in 2019. The digital campaign helps NCBA do a better job of targeting their message to specific segments of consumers.
There is no way we could afford to reach that many people with traditional advertising, Harrison said.

The NCBA official noted there is more competition for protein today and we need to help consumers make the right choices.

The digital advertising strategy can quickly adjust to help consumers make the right choices in buying and preparing the wide variety of beef cuts, Harrison said.

Part of the strategy was launching a new website, www.chuckknowsbeef.com, to help answer consumers' questions. 

To hear more from the Cattlemens Beef Association, click here: 


There's a new Southern Plains Podcast up that discusses soil health. Click or Tap Below to hear the latest episode

In this episode of the podcast Southern Plains, Clay Pope talks with Didi Pershouse, soil health educator and the author of our soil health classroom curriculum. Didi visits with Clay about the curriculum, how it was created, its use in the classroom and how it has been utilized throughout the world.




Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many businesses and schools have closed down to practice social distancing. Many parents are at home with their kiddos wondering, "What do we do now?" Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom has come up with some excellent daily activities you can do with your kids and family.

This week we are focusing on tasty recipes you can do with your children while at home. For lunch, gather the kiddos in the kitchen and serve up some Zucchini Boats, or a Broccoli Grilled Cheese Sandwich, and don't forget the desert... Apple Rings! Click here for all these delicious recipes:

Now is also the time to plant your garden at home. Ag in the Classroom offers a planning guide on their website that shows you what you will need to grow your own garden, including plants, tools, garden plans, and more. Early Spring is the time of rejuvenation. In early Spring, you can plant cool-season vegetables, e.g. peas, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, etc. from seed or transplants. You can enjoy beautiful bulb flowers and discuss their growth and development. Click here to learn more about planting your garden.

You can also have tasting lessons with your kids to increase the acceptance and enjoyment of new foods. Students can learn about locally grown foods in their communities, and give those a taste, and they can also find out where they can buy local fruits and vegetables in their home town. To Taste more, click here

If you need some excellent activity ideas with your kids this week, check out all the great information on okfarmtoschool.com

RRP
And FINALLY- Thanks For Checking Out Our OYE Recap Podcast- Next Road to Rural Prosperity Episode Coming Wednesday



Two of our most recent Episodes of the Road to Rural Prosperity focused on the Oklahoma Youth Expo- from the beginnings of the 2020 event and the first ever Ag Mechanics show- which by the way, continues in the form of an online auction of the top projects that were built by the young men and ladies for the 2020 OYE.  You can go and check out the latest bids by clicking here- BID YOURSELF- and support these young people in this auction that ends in 15 days. 

Top Bid on any item at this point is for the Flat Bed Trailer built by the Porter FFA- that current bid is $6,100. 

One of the young men that was a part of the team that built this trailer talked with us on our Episode 24- Tracy Criner- hear Tracy, Kody Munoz of Elgin and Wyatt Kappus of Union City along with Superintendent Jerry Renshaw by clicking here

It was a crazy next few days after the Ag Mechanics show at the Oklahoma Youth Expo just last month- and we attempted to capture the rapid unfolding of events that saw all the breeding animals being able to show- but none of the market animals as Coronavirus arrived in central Oklahoma and the show ended Sunday night, March 15th.  Tyler Norvell, Kass Newell and I talk thru the start and the ending of the OYE in Episode 27 by clicking or tapping here. 

These two episodes have become our most downloaded episodes to date- and we say thank you for your interest. 

Our next Road to Rural Prosperity will be out tomorrow- I think you will find it very interesting to say the least- details in tomorrow's email!!


Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K Equipment, AFR Insurance, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Great Plains Kubota, Stillwater Milling Company, National Livestock Credit CorporationOklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma AgCredit, the Oklahoma Cattlemens Association and  KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis- at NO Charge!


We also appreciate our Market Links Sponsor - OKC West Livestock! 
 
 
We invite you to check out our website at the link below too that includes an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe.   
 

 
God Bless! You can reach us at the following:  
 
phone: 405-473-6144
 

 



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