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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

 

 

 

 

-- Oklahoma Wheat Commission Sets Election for District One on May 17 in Cherokee

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Farm Debt Levels Creeping Higher- KC Fed Calls it Worrisome  

 

Oklahoma sits on the lower side of the territory served by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank- and the Bank's latest look at Ag Credit conditions are worrisome.

According to the quarterly Survey of Ag Credit conditions- loan demand continued to rise, repayment rates continued to weaken, and almost all District bankers in the seven-state region reported that farm income declined in the first quarter of 2016.

Bankers noted that poor cash flow prevented many borrowers from paying off loans from the previous year, causing them to carry outstanding debt into the first quarter. Moreover, bankers specified that more than 18 percent of loans made in the first quarter involved restructuring existing debt to meet short-term liquidity needs. To mitigate their exposure to risk in this environment, District bankers raised collateral requirements somewhat and increased their use of government guaranteed loan programs.

The report says the general slide in the farm economy can be traced back to the decline in prices for the products that farmers and ranchers are producing. In the first quarter, 86 percent of survey respondents reported a drop in farm income from a year ago.

Click here to read more on our website- and we have a link there to take you to even more details as released yesterday by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.



 

Senator Charles Grassley Back with Another Run at Banning Packer Ownership of Livestock  

 

Senator Chuck Grassley has introduced legislation to ban packer ownership of livestock after seeing continued consolidation within the livestock industry.

"An effective and efficient marketplace is one where packers that control all harvest capacity of the industry do not also own a majority of the animals to be processed," Grassley said. "The fact of the matter is that the market continues to become less competitive. It's time to see if ending packer ownership of livestock will reverse that trend."

Click here for more details...

MEANWHILE, the National Farmers Union was quick to praise the Senator for this proposal.

NFU President Roger Johnson offered a statement that says this is the right thing to do:

"The livestock market today is heavily concentrated among a handful of conglomerates, and our family farmers and ranchers are forced to compete in an increasingly uneven playing field in the marketplace. I applaud Senator Grassley for championing this important piece of legislation that places the family farmer first."

Click here to read Johnson's full statement in support of Grassley's proposal.

Kim Anderson Talks Grain Grading As 2016 Wheat Harvest Nears This Week on SUNUP

 

Just ahead of wheat harvest each year- Oklahoma State University Extension Grain Marketing Specialist Dr. Kim Anderson teaches a grain grading school at several locations around the state.  This week, SUNUP reporter Dave Deken caught up with Dr. Anderson at one of his grain grading events- and they discussed the school and what the participants may be seeing this year as they prepare to check the quality of the wheat as it is delivered to local elevators across the region in the next forty five days.


Dr. Anderson says the wheat industry really needs a good quality wheat crop this harvest season, to help blend with some of the lower quality wheat left over from last year's harvest.  He tells Deken that in talking with a good number of grain elevator officials- there is a real worry about having enough room to store the 2016 winter wheat harvest, with a large portion of last year's crop still in storage. 

Deken and Anderson also talk about current basis levels- and how much downside risk may be in the basis as harvest approaches and hits.

You can hear their conversation by clicking here for our SUNUP preview story- and in our story- we have the full lineup of what you will be seeing on the OSU Ag Communications produced program on OETA.

Westbred Wheat Varieties Among Those to See at Lahoma Today

 

Earlier this week at the Wheat Plot Session in Kildare, I caught up with John Fenderson of Westbred, the wheat breeding program owned by Monsanto.

John is excited about how several Westbred lines are looking this spring- three were a part of the Kildare trial and more are available to be seen at the Lahoma Wheat Field Day that kicks off at 9:00 AM this morning.

There are two varieties that John spoke to us about- click here to jump over and listen to our visit about the Westbred program- one is WB4458, which is a variety that will have seed available for growers to buy this fall- he believes it will have strong yield results when harvest arrives.  The second one that John wants farmers to watch won't be available this fall- but in 2017- and that is WB4303.

Both of these varieties are a part of the Lahoma Variety Trial that will be on display today at the Field Day.

REMEMBER- the Field Day activities will start at 9:00 AM with the dedication of the Raymond Sidwell Facility- the new headquarters building for the OSU Lahoma Ag Research Farm. First tours will start at 9:20 AM.

 

Farm Bureau Survey: Farmers Want to Control Their Own Data

 
Farmers and ranchers want to control the information their equipment collects every time it passes through a field, a survey released this week by the American Farm Bureau Federation shows. Farmers also believe that creating a cooperative-style central repository for their data is the best way to enhance its security and maximize its value.


"We asked our members what they thought about data, and it is clear that boosting farmer confidence in security and data management will be critical to unlocking the potential this technology holds," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. "This survey also shows that we are on the right track with various ag group initiatives designed to improve data integration and promote transparency about how the data is collected and used."


AFBF is a founding member of the Ag Data Coalition, an organization created by several leading agricultural groups and companies to help farmers better store and manage their information in a central location. The ADC will establish a co-op-style repository for agricultural data, with farmers having a governing role over the group.


More on the ADC and this survey from AFBF can be read by clicking here.

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Oklahoma Wheat Commission Sets Election for District One on May 17 in Cherokee

 
The Oklahoma Wheat Commission will hold an election to fill the District 1 board seat opening. The election will be held Tuesday, May 17, 2016, commencing at 1 p.m. at the Alfalfa County Fairgrounds building; located at 602 West 5 th Street, Cherokee, Oklahoma.


District 1 consists of Alfalfa, Garfield, Grant and Major counties. All wheat producers within District 1 boundaries who are actively engaged in wheat production, have marketed wheat, and have paid a check-off fee and left that fee with the Commission for the current year are eligible to vote. It will be the responsibility of the producer to prove their eligibility to vote by providing a dated grain elevator receipt including the producer's name and amount of wheat sold, and a driver's license or some other form of identification.

More details about the election can be read by clicking here.

Blayne Arthur Goodbye Party Set for Next Week as She Transitions from ODAFF to the Oklahoma 4-H Foundation

 
It's not really a Goodbye party but her friends at the Oklahoma Department of Ag are hosting a reception next Thursday afternoon, May 19th, for Blayne Arthur as she nears the end of her time as the Deputy Commissioner at ODAFF. 

Earlier this spring, word got out that Blayne was going to shorten her commute by taking on the position of the Executive Directorship for the Oklahoma 4-H Foundation. That means an office in Stillwater instead of Oklahoma City.

Blayne leaves the Oklahoma Department of Ag at the end of the month- and then starts in early June at the 4-H Foundation.

I'm looking forward to working with Blayne as she works to raise money for Oklahoma 4-H and raise the profile of the program at the state level.

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!

 

 

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