Presented by

 

Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

Featured Story:

From the Oklahoma Youth Expo- Showmanship Becomes Life Lesson of Being a Role Model

The 2016 Oklahoma Youth Expo Swine Showmanship turned out to be more than just a contest to see how well the 4-H and FFA members involved could move their animals around the show ring. Judge Jordan Leatherman from the state of Indiana spent a lot of time with participants from all three divisions encouraging and instructing them in some of the finer points of handling their animals. And, for the top end of the Senior Division, he asked several of the young men and ladies to take the microphone, introduce themselves and tell a little about their involvement in the swine business, their youth organization and what their plans for the future might be.

He called on the participants in the Senior Division to accept their positions of Role Models for younger 4-H and FFA members- and after a rousing challenge- he picked his Swine Showmanship winners for the 2016 OYE

Top showman for 2016 was Blake Kennedy of the Tecumseh FFA, while Rachel Rumsey of Prague FFA was the Reserve Champion overall.

Click here for the full list of swine showmanship winners- and a chance to hear our visit with the judge about the life lessons he talked with the 4-H and FFA members about.

We have added more pictures to our OYE FLICKR album- it now has over 700 pictures- go and take a look at this year's event through these images of 4-H and FFA members involved in the World's Largest Junior Livestock Show.

Our thanks to ITC, Your Energy Superhighway for helping sponsor our coverage of the OYE for 2016- click here to learn more about their mission in the Great Plains.

AND- we have several more stories to post today in the Blue Green Gazette- check back regularly and see what is going on at this year's OKlahoma Youth Expo!

Ag Day 2016 is Here! 

 
Ag Day is a day to stop and celebrate the abundance of American Agriculture. National Ag Day is organized by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA).

Here in 2016, lots of events are planned around the country as well as in our Nation's Capitol.

In Oklahoma, we have traditionally moved our Ag Day celebration to a little later in the month- and this year, it will be March 31st at the State Capitol.

But, you can learn what all is going on nationally with Ag Day today by clicking here for the official Ag Day website.

AND- shortly after 7 AM this morning, we will have a special announcement of one of our young leaders in Oklahoma being honored nationally on this Ag Day 2016- we will be posting that on our website, OklahomaFarmReport.Com.  Go after 7 AM and check it out!

Senate Floor Vote Could Come Tomorrow on GMO Labeling Proposal 

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, announced Monday evening the Senate has proceeded to floor debate on his proposal to provide a uniform standard for bioengineering and an incentive to provide more information on biotechnology to consumers.(otherwise known as GMO Labeling)

Roberts' substitute language provides a national solution to a developing patchwork of state laws on biotechnology labeling before Vermont's state laws take effect in July. The proposal creates a voluntary national standard for biotechnology labeling of food and provides incentive for the marketplace to provide more information. To ensure consumers have multiple ways to access information about how food is grown, a mandatory labeling program would go into effect only if the voluntary program does not provide significant information after several years. Food companies would then have adequate time to utilize a variety of options to disclose information directly to consumers.

To read the text of the latest version of the GMO labeling bill- click here.

A vote on Cloture will likely occur on Wednesday- Agri- Pulse reports that Roberts is still searching for 60 votes to invoke cloture tomorrow.

Derrell Peel Laments Decision by USDA to Suspend Release of Mid Year Cattle Inventory Report

 

In his weekly analysis of the beef cattle marketplace, OSU's Dr. Derrell Peel looks at the USDA Decision to suspend the July Cattle report in 2016- and the problems that causes the decision making process for cattle producers.


"It is all too easy for producers and even more so for consumers to underestimate the value of the market data that helps ensure efficient agricultural markets and a steady supply of affordable food. Unfortunately, political decision-makers also increasingly see only the immediate cost savings from cutting data while overlooking the long-term consequences of less and poorer quality data on the nation's food and fiber sector. The result in recent years has been a constant battle to fend off repeated and pervasive attempts to chip away at a wide variety of agricultural data.


"The latest example is the recent decision by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to suspend the July Cattle report. The argument is made is that is only one piece of data, arguably of lesser quality than the January Cattle report; and even some industry participants would suggest that by itself is not that important. However, it is part a bigger set of data to help understand the enormously complex and dynamic cattle industry. How many struts can you knock out from under a bridge before it fails? The U.S. beef cattle industry is in the midst of the first significant herd expansion in over 20 years. Producers are desperately trying to assess the status of the expansion to anticipate market conditions in coming years. Producers need to expand enough to take advantage of market opportunities but not over-invest in herds and set themselves and the industry up for excess production and a market crash. The current NASS decision means that producers will get no update on the size of the 2016 calf crop, the status of heifer retention or feeder cattle supplies for nearly a year. Meanwhile decisions have to be made."

It's pretty clear that Peel believes that USDA made a mistake on choosing this report to dump- click here to read more of his analysis of why this is a bad decision.

Slight Improvement in Southern Plains Wheat Crop in Latest Crop Weather Updates

 

The latest crop weather updates were issued for several states on Monday afternoon- and that includes Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas- the heart of the southern plains hard red winter wheat belt.

And- it appears the wheat crop is unchanged to a little better in condition this past week- with a nice bump up in the improvement of the Texas crop ratings.

The Texas wheat crop jumps four percentage points in the good to excellent ratings- from 42% good to excellent a week ago to 46% this week.

The Oklahoma crop also showed a slight improvement, rising to 67% good to excellent and 31% in fair condition.  As the crop starts to rapidly grow, only two percent of the Oklahoma crop has been tagged as being in poor condition. (the report for Oklahoma is in  RTF format- the PDF link is not working on the USDA website)

Our neighbors in Kansas were unchanged compared to a week ago- with the crop standing at 56% in good to excellent shape, 37% in fair condition and 6% called poor.

Click on each state to see the complete Crop Weather reports issued on Monday afternoon.

Want to Have the Latest Energy News Delivered to Your Inbox Daily?

US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack Travels to Peru and Announces Full Access for US Beef to Peruvian Market

 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced on Monday that the U.S. government has reached agreement with the government of Peru to remove barriers for U.S. beef exports to Peru that have remained in effect since 2003, opening one of the fastest growing markets in Latin America to all American beef and beef products.


In 2015, the United States exported $25.4 million in beef and beef products to Peru. Since the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) entered into force in 2009, U.S. beef and beef products have grown substantially but have been hampered due to burdensome certification requirements installed by Peru in 2003. This agreement, reached Monday during Secretary Vilsack's trade and investment mission to Peru, removes those barriers - called the export verification program - and assures American ranchers of expanded market access.

Read more about this announcement made on Monday in Lima by clicking here.

Boxed Beef Prices Trending Higher This Past Week- Grilling Season Arriving

 

On a regular basis, Ed Czerwein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas offers a review of the previous week's boxed beef trade. Here is his report of weekly boxed beef trade for week ending March 12th. The daily spot Choice box beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $224.05 which was $3.08 higher compared to the previous Friday. There were 757 loads sold for the week in the daily box beef cutout which was almost 13% of the total volume.


The Comprehensive or weekly average Choice cutout which includes all types of sales including the daily spot cutout was $217.97 which was $3.45 higher apparently signaling the grilling season rally as retailers order to build inventories ahead of or early in the grilling season. Also recent warm weather has started the grilling in some areas.

Read more from Ed and you can also hear his commentary in our webstory by clicking or tapping here.

Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K Equipment,  American Farmers & Ranchers, Stillwater Milling Company, Oklahoma AgCredit,  the Oklahoma Cattlemens Association, Pioneer Cellular, Farm Assure 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 invite you to check out our website at the link below to check out an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe.   

 Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com  

God Bless! You can reach us at the following:  

Oklahoma Farm Bureau is Proud to be the Presenting Sponsor of the Ron Hays Daily Farm and Ranch News Email