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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

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Fire and Rain- Woodward Fire Keeps Burning But Rain Chances This Weekend  

 

As a new day starts, the news is the same for that Woodward Fire that is being called the 350 Complex Fire. Oklahoma Forestry Services' Incident Management Team is working in unified command with the Woodward Fire Department to battle the 55,308 acre blaze, utilizing firefighting task forces, heavy equipment and very large air tankers to suppress the fire. High winds have created the perfect recipe for fire danger, resulting in 115 personnel working this fire, with more resources being ordered to assist.

As of this morning, fire officials are calling this fire ten percent contained.  Fire danger continues high in that area and points eastward remain extreme today- Woods County has a Red Flag Warning- along with 22 other counties that extends into northeastern Oklahoma and south down to I-40- Oklahoma County is on the southern edge of the Red Flag Warning.

Read more on where we stand with the fire in northwest Oklahoma by clicking here. 

NOW- let's talk rain chances for this weekend- by Saturday night and into Sunday- rain chances will jump up in southwest Oklahoma- and then by Sunday night, the chances of rain look like this, according to Jed Castles with News9, KWTV:

Meanwhile, Alan Crone with the News on 6 offers some additional details about the current weather status- including the Red Flag Warnings and the potential for gulf moisture streaming northward this weekend to make the map above come alive- Click here for his Thursday morning blog.

Beef and Pork Export Volume Steady with 2015 in February- Value Sharply Lower

Click here to read more about the beef and pork details in the  February numbers compiled by USMEF.

United Sorghum Checkoff Board Needs Producer Board Members- Including One from Oklahoma 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is seeking sorghum producers to serve on the United Sorghum Checkoff Program Board.


Four producer member vacancies will occur for the upcoming board term. Kansas has two vacant positions and Texas has one vacant position. In addition, the board will have one newly created position for Oklahoma. This is the first time that Oklahoma will control a dedicated position on the sorghum checkoff board- the state has moved into the third largest sorghum producing state, based on recent acres planted.


Any U.S. sorghum producer that owns or shares in the ownership and risk of loss of sorghum can be considered for nomination. All eligible producers are invited to seek nomination no later than May 5, 2016.

To read more and to learn about applying for a position on the USCP Board, click here.

An Online Tool to Help Your Cattle Marketing Decisions- Beef Basis.Com

 

Because strategically marketing cattle could mean a vast difference between profit and loss these days, decision support tools like BeefBasis.com are especially helpful in managing that risk. The site offers comprehensive market data, various calculators and forecaster tools.


Dr. Glynn Tonsor, associate professor of agricultural economics at KSU, says the website is a great resource for determining the right time to sell cattle you are backgrounding. Specifically, the Value of Gain forecaster may help producers who are considering the value of additional weight gain versus what is cost to put those pounds on. The tool is tied to the feeder cattle futures market and allows producers to look at prices in specific locations.

Tonsor talks about the online tool in our latest Beef Buzz.  Click here to hear his explanation of how to best use the website as a part of your marketing strategy.

Senator Inhofe Joins Pat Roberts in Blasting EPA Over Anti Farmer Ad Campaign

 

Oklahoma's Senior Senator Jim Inhofe, chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, sent a letter this week to Arthur A. Elkins, Jr., the inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requesting an audit and investigation of an EPA grant to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission used to support an anti-farmer advocacy campaign in Washington state. The campaign included billboards and a website that support increased regulation of agriculture in Washington state.


"We are troubled to learn that EPA's financial assistance appears to improperly fund an advocacy campaign in Washington state that unfairly targets and demonizes farmers and ranchers. According to a recent news report, the EPA-funded advocacy campaign includes multiple billboards, bus placards, and an interactive website urging the public to contact state lawmakers. The website assists the public in contacting lawmakers by providing a pre-written email criticizing the actions of agricultural producers and blaming them for polluting local waterways. Further, the billboards and placards do not cite EPA as a funding source of the campaign. According to an EPA Region 10 official, the failure to attribute EPA as the source of the funding 'looks like a violation'," the Senators said.

Click here to read more about the "What's Upstream" campaign and what the Senator's are asking of EPA.

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Researchers Contend Benefits of Beef Justify Small Amount of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

 

A recent article published in Beef Issues Quarterly discusses the negative impacts of removing beef from the human diet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Oklahoma State University researchers who wrote the article said the focus instead needs to be on using natural resources even more efficiently, thus increasing beef production without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The authors also suggest reducing consumer waste is key to improving beef sustainability.

Overall, the study shows the beef industry continues to make advances in reducing its environmental impact while meeting the protein demands of a growing population, meaning beef's nutritional value and accessibility outweigh the small percentage of overall emissions produced.

Click here to read the complete article from Beef Issues Quarterly that shows the Beef GHG is less than two percent of total GHGs in the US.
 

This N That- Dirt Storm Pics (Amazing), Monsanto Earnings and DuPont Doing Deal with Chinese

 

Earlier this week, a cold front pushed a huge amount of dirt from Colorado and Kansas into the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles-Oklahoma Panhandle residents faced a wall of dirt late Tuesday afternoon- and Randy Schreiner of Texhoma shot a series of pictures that he shared with us. The picture below was the wall headed for Texhoma:

Click here to see the other pictures that Randy shared with us from the dirt wall that stretched up to a 100 miles wide as it moved southward.

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Monsanto Wednesday reported a drop in second-quarter earnings as expected. The St. Louis, Missouri-based company told investors Wednesday net income attributable to the company fell to $1.06 billion in the quarter that ended February 29th, from $1.43 billion, a year earlier. Meanwhile, the company effectively pulled away from the mergers and acquisitions flurry in the industry, according to Reuters.

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said the company now sees its best deal-making opportunities in smaller acquisitions, licensing deals and partnerships. Monsanto was making an offer to acquire Syngenta roughly this time last year. However, after turning down Monsanto's offers, Syngenta in February agreed to be acquired by ChemChina for $43 billion. Monsanto also approached Bayer AG last year.

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DuPont will work with Chinese seed producer Origin Agritech to develop new biotech traits for China. It appears that the Chinese company is awaiting approval of corn varieties to control insects and tolerate herbicides. The two companies in a statement said the partnership will bring much needed new seed options for China's farmers. DuPont's Pioneer seed unit has operated in China for almost 20 years and is the largest multinational corn seed company in the country.

China's President has urged the country to take the lead in developing genetically engineered crops. Syngenta could also enter the Chinese market with biotech traits once the proposed acquisition by ChemChina is final.

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