Over the last few days the rainfall across Oklahoma has been widespread, substantial and at least a little unusual for the first half of August.  At least five Oklahoma Mesonet stations have topped six rainfall totals when you back up to the middle of last week- Chickasha, Minco(currently not showing in our snapshot below) and El Reno in central Oklahoma and Eufaula and Sallisaw in eastern Oklahoma. 

Here's the rainfall map from the Mesonet that shows not just those six inchers- but also three,four and even five inch rainfall totals from Slapout down to Erick to Elk City to Fairview and back up to Medford- to name just a few. You can also jump over to the Mesonet webpage by clicking here and look at the five day map in real time:




There's still more rain out ahead of us this week- as well as temps that began to look more like August- this nine day outlook courtesy of Jed Castles with News9:

 
And for Eclipse Watchers- next Monday shows hope it will be seen in central and western Oklahoma.

 

To read Moore's complete statement offering the ASA's support in solving the dicamba-drift issue, click or tap here.

 
As part of a continuing series of stories on Significant Women in Oklahoma Agriculture, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry and Oklahoma State University has been recognizing and honoring the impact of countless women across all 77 counties of the state, from all aspects and areas of the agricultural industry.

This week Rochelle King of Spencer, Okla. is featured as a Significant Woman in Oklahoma Agriculture.

Rochelle is one of the hardest workers you could ever know- running a daycare, a barber shop and deciding she wanted to grow vegetables for the kids in her daycare. 

Her drive to do things right has resulted in her farmers market enterprise she calls "The Garden Spot" producing certified organic fruits and vegetables that can be found in local Whole Foods and Natural Grocers stores in the Oklahoma City area.

Read her story in the feature found on our website- click or tap here to get to know this Significant Woman in Oklahoma Agriculture.

 
The National FFA Agriscience Fair is a key competition that is part of the annual National FFA Convention & Expo, Oct. 25-28 in Indianapolis. To qualify, FFA members working as individuals or teams in grades seven through 12 are required to conduct a scientific research project pertaining to the agriculture or food science industries and win their state's FFA agriscience fair.

Oklahoma will be well represented at the 2017 National FFA Agriscience Fair, with 13 Individuals and 15 Teams from Oklahoma having been declared National Finalists in their age and division. The forty three Oklahoma FFA Students that will present their research project in Indianapolis is second only to the 44 Texas FFA members who will be in the National Competition. Texas has a total of 30 research projects chosen for the National Agriscience Fair, Oklahoma has 28, followed by Georgia with 26 and Ohio with 25.

One Oklahoma team, William Clune and Bryant Alan Hague of Edmond FFA, won in the Junior Division of Animal Systems in 2016. They will return to Indianapolis this October as National Finalists in the 9th and 10th Grade team division in the Environmental Services/Natural Resource Systems contest. Here's William and Bryant in 2016 at Indy:




We have the complete list of Oklahoma FFA members that will be showing their stuff at the National Agriscience Show which is a part of the Career Show at the National FFA Convention in Indy this coming October- click or tap here to see that list and read more about the AgriScience Fair.

We will be there covering our dozens and dozens of Oklahoma FFAers who will be competing for national honors that week- our thanks to ITC, Your Energy Superhighway, for being one of our sponsors at the Convention- as well as the Oklahoma FFA Association and the Oklahoma FFA Alumni!.

 

The annual renewal of the August Area Meetings held by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau serve as the kickoff for the organization's grassroots policy development process.

"August is one of the most exciting times of the year because it signals the beginning of another year of fighting for agriculture and rural Oklahoma," said Tom Buchanan, OKFB president. "I look forward to hearing from our members as they cultivate ideas to lead agriculture into the future." 

All OKFB members are encouraged to attend their area meeting, which provides an opportunity to discuss organizational policy with fellow members and OKFB leaders. Members also will learn about the state of the organization and hear a review of the year's legislative and regulatory victories.

The 2017 meetings will also likely give the Board of Directors a lot of feedback on the recent managerial moves that resulted in the removal of Monica Wilke and John Collison from the staff of the general farm organization and the naming of Thad Doye as Interim Executive Director.

The first of the meetings are set for Pete's Place in Krebs at noon today- then at the McClain County Ag Services at 6pm this evening- meetings are planned tomorrow in Okarche and Enid.

We have all of the meetings listed on our calendar which you can check out by clicking or tapping here.

 
We wanted to offer a reminder this morning about the incredible opportunity that China can offer the US Beef Cattle Industry as that market is now open to US Beef Imports- officially through the "front door."

But one must be patient in order for that potential to be realized.

So says Phil Seng, President of the US Meat Export Federation. "It takes time and it's going to take, I think, some deliberate actions," Seng said. "We know from experience that a lot of times when we start up in these markets, there's growing pains."

He refers, of course, to the industry's need to simply adapt to all the new regulations and restrictions presented by China's government that allows our beef to actually pass through their customs - and all the documentation, relationship building and everything else that comes with it. He insists, the agreement is not perfect by any means and that there will likely be bumps in the road that will have to be figured out on the fly, but he says that comes with the territory. But with China's incredible pace as a trade nation, having gone from practically zero in beef imports to upwards of $2 billion in receipts, Seng is optimistic about the opportunities.

I think anybody would agree with that. But on the other hand, we do have access to China," he said. "We think through the work we can do, as far as working with the value chain, and qualifying customers and doing the type of work we do - that actually China will be a very important market. But it's a step by step process."

Click or tap here to check out what Phil Seng told me about the steps needed to ramp up our access into China

 
The Southern Plains Range Research Station in Woodward is one of three locations in Oklahoma that are a part of the Ag Research Service of USDA- the others in Stillwater and Ft Reno- and earlier this year it was one of eighteen ARS locations that were targeted by the Trump Administration to be closed- Congress quickly said no with the House Ag Approps bll that was approved last month signaling that no ARS facilities will be closed by Congress in the new Fiscal Year that starts October first.

With that in mind- it's good to see the Research Station teaming up with the Extension folks to do a "show and tell" Tuesday evening at the Woodward County Event Center.