Oklahoma's Latest Farm
And Ranch News
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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update.
- USDA Crop Production Shows Drought Decimating Texas and Oklahoma Cotton Crop
- USDA Finally Satisfies on Cotton Numbers in August WASDE Report
- Producer Owned Beef Processing Plant to Break Ground in Early 2023 in Amarillo
- Oklahoma Producers and Retailers Experience Rewarding Benefits through Made in Oklahoma Program
- The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Passes House on Party Line Vote- Headed to President Biden
- Southern Plains Perspective: Climate Smart Agriculture- Hard to Define, but Easy to Recognize
- Soil Health Institute Announces Recommended Measurements for Evaluating Soil Health
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USDA Crop Production Shows Drought Decimating Texas and Oklahoma Cotton Crop |
All cotton production is forecast at 12.6 million 480-pound bales, down 28 percent from 2021. Based on conditions as of August 1, Upland cotton production is forecast at 12.2 million 480-pound bales, down 29 percent from 2021, based on 6.976 million harvested acres at 837 pounds of lint per acre. The yield is actually slightly higher than a year ago by 24 pounds.
Oklahoma cotton area harvested is forecast at 260,000 acres, down 41 percent from 2021’s area harvested which was 440,000 acres. In 2021, yield per acre in Oklahoma was recorded at 756 lbs. per acre. As of August 1, the USDA’s forecast for yield per acre in Oklahoma is 498 lbs. per acre, which is 34 percent less than last year. Lastly, Oklahoma cotton production is forecasted to be 270,000 bales, which is 61 percent less than last year’s number of 693,000 bales.
In Texas, the USDA predicts upland cotton area harvested for 2022 to be 2.2 million acres, which is 60 percent less than the 2021 harvested acreage at 5.56 million acres. Yield per acre is predicted to be 634 lbs. per acre in 2021, which is 5 percent less than in 2021 which was 666 lbs. per acre. Texas cotton production in 2021 was recorded at 7.72 million bales. For 2022, the USDA predicts Texas will produce 62 percent less than 2021 with 2.93 million bales.
Over in Kansas, the 2022 cotton crop is predicted to harvest 17.6 more acres than 2021 at 120,000 acres. Yield per acre for 2022 has decreased though and is estimated at 23 percent less than 2021 at 680 lbs. per acre. In 2021, Kansas yielded 880 lbs. per acre. Kansas cotton production is predicted to be 170,000 bales, which is 9 percent less than 2021’s number which was 187,000 bales.
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The Oklahoma Agriculture Mediation Program knows this is a hard time for farmers and ranchers. We want you to know we are still open, and we are still here for you. The Ag Mediation program is a free service that provides mediation to agriculture producers who may need help with ag-related disputes.
At Oklahoma Ag Mediation, we have been helping people in agriculture resolve conflicts since 1987. We know firsthand about working together to resolve conflicts, so you don’t have to go through the court systems. Let our professional mediators help you. Mediation is allowed for lease issues, farmer/neighbor disputes, family farm transitions, and more. These services are available at no cost for Oklahoma farmers and ranchers in all 77 counties. For more information, you can go to ok.gov/mediation, or give us a call at 800 248 5465.
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USDA Finally Satisfies on Cotton Numbers in August WASDE Report |
The August 12 monthly USDA report holds changes to crop demand, adjustments to new crop production, and new crop demand. This report is unique as it starts with a more intensive yield measurement estimate than May through July. The August report is derived from a nationwide farmer survey conducted July 25 – August 8 for general estimates as of August 1. This month's report included reports from 15,400 producers of all crops.
USDA released the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) and Crop Production reports that lowered crop acreage, yield, and overall production for corn and soybeans.
Farm director KC Sheperd had the opportunity to visit with Rich Nelson at Allendale, who said that traders were looking to see how USDA handled the Corn, Soybean, and cotton yield discussions after so many problems in the Western Plains.
Nelson said the Star of the report this time was Cotton.
"USDA did recognize both problems of harvested acres as well as yields and certainly brought the stock numbers down to quite low levels here with limit up trade here posted for futures," Nelson said.
Nelson said there have been discussions about both lower acres and lower harvested acres as well as discussions of lower yields at the same time.
"USDA did give the bulls what they wanted to see right now," Nelson said. The USDA June Acreage report showed an increase of planted acres in 2022 versus 2021 of almost 1.3 million acres- but drought has wiped out the bigger planted numbers and is now showing a sharp reduction from 2021 to 2022 of more than 3 million harvested acres in this first report of the season- with the lions share of that reduction happening in Texas and Oklahoma.
Nelson says they actually upped the yield per acre slightly here in 2022 vs 2021 to 846 pounds of lint, up 27 pounds year over year.
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Producer Owned Beef Processing Plant to Break Ground in Early 2023 in Amarillo |
In this episode of Beef Buzz, I am featuring comments from the new Executive Vice President of Producer Owned Beef, Cassie Fish, talking about the LLC and cooperative for a new beef processing facility in the Texas panhandle.
The 670-million-dollar plant is proposed to be built just east of Amarillo on a 1,000-acre plot. It will have a 3,000 head a day capacity and 1600 workers, all owned by 100 to 150 cattle producers.
On August 10, Governor Abbot announced that 12.232 million dollars from the Texas Enterprise Fund will be awarded to Producer Owned Beef.
“When you think about it, we haven’t built a beef processing plant of this size that can harvest 3,000 head per day since 1992,” Fish said. “So, we can bring the latest building techniques, energy efficiencies, top quality air handlers so we don’t have any odor issues and a really advanced wastewater treatment facility that we are going to clean the water up beyond stream discharge.”
The cattle producers who own the plant come from all over, Fish said, as far as Hawaii and Canada. Regardless of where the cattle producer is from, Fish said they will be required to have the cattle fed in eastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle or in Texas.
“What our structure will allow is for the producer to capture that profit on the processing side and keep that money in the region and actually take that profit from the processing plant,” Fish said. “Just being able to capture that additional 100 to 200 dollars per head profit from the packing side- the processing side- and being able to benefit from that plant’s ownership.”
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For our farmers who have either- always have had cotton on their farms- or those who have more recently have added the fiber crop to their operations- we have a daily report heard on several of our Radio Stations- It's Called Cotton Talk!
Click on the Button below to listen to our most recent report
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It was a lot of fun this past week to spend time with former Oklahoma radio and TV farm broadcaster Ken Root on his current Podcast project called Better Than Nuthin. He wanted to talk with me about drought conditions in our part of the world and beef cattle stuff beyond that.
This may be worth a listen just to remember the days when you heard or saw Ken on WKY Radio and KTVY Channel 4 in Oklahoma City- as a part of the team that was led by the legendary Russell Pierson!
Here's his description of our conversation:
"When you consume a steak or hamburger, you are biting into an industry that is as much politics as beef. It is also a huge part of the rural economy across the plains and cornbelt.
"I have known Ron Hays for over forty years. He is the consummate livestock reporter. He began as a radio farm broadcaster but his communications platforms are now on radio and internet. Ron knows the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) from the inside out. He also knows the workings of the beef packing industry.
"We talk about the current drought in the Southern Plains and then wade into the price disparities in cattle and beef prices. We also explore NCBA politics. He knows it all and a half hour of your time will give you Ron's take on whether small beef slaughter plants are going to be good for cattle producers and why the politics of the beef industry continue to be like a range war."
You can search for it where you get your podcasts- the link to this episode is below.
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We invite you to listen to us on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network weekdays-
if you missed this morning's Farm News - or you are in an area where you can't hear it- click below for this morning's Farm news from Ron Hays and KC Sheperd on RON.
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Sponsor Spotlight
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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.
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Oklahoma Producers and Retailers Experience Rewarding Benefits through Made in Oklahoma Program |
At the Women in Agriculture Conference, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Intern, Cheyenne Leach sat down with the Made in Oklahoma Program Coordinator, Jenna Brinlee and talked about the MIO Program and upcoming events.
“We really focus on economic development for our Oklahoma small businesses,” Brinlee said. “So, these could be startups, small businesses, and really those who grow, process or manufacture a product in our state. We just want to help promote them, help brand awareness, help generate income for them and just help our local economy by growing those small businesses.”
Anyone who grows, processes, or manufactures a product in Oklahoma is welcome to join the Program, Brinlee said, but they cannot accept companies operating under the Food Freedom Act.
The Made in Oklahoma Program includes more than just food and drinks, Brinlee said. They have everything from candles, soaps, lawn and garden items and more, she added.
The Made in Oklahoma Program also aims to benefit Oklahoma retailers as well. Required to carry up to three different brands of Made in Oklahoma items, Brinlee said retailers can join the program free of charge. This allows for product spotlights as well as MIO store branding, made available for them to use.
“It is just an application on our website they can fill out, and then we want to help promote them, so we will highlight them on our social media,” Brinlee said.
The store branding offered for retailers to use, Brinlee said, included items such as tabletop tins and window clings that say the products in the store are made in Oklahoma.
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The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Passes House on Party Line Vote- Headed to President Biden |
On a party line vote- the US House of Representatives approved the Senate version of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022- the scaled down version of Build Back Better that still has a pricetag of $739 Billion dollars.
The final vote in the House was 220 to 207.
The centerpiece of the bill is a giant allocation toward climate change and energy efforts. New York Senator and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has noted repeatedly that this bill “will be the largest action on climate change ever passed by the Congress.”
The last Senate holdout to getting this deal passed in that body as they circumvented a filibuster through the Reconciliation process was Senator Krysten Sinema. One way that leadership got her vote was some $5 billion to address the current drought in south central and southwestern states.
A few agricultural groups praised the House passage on Friday- as did USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. On the other side of the spectrum- Congressman Frank Lucas is typical of the statements coming from the GOP- who did not have the votes to stop this climate bill from heading to the President's desk.
Click on the names below to read their comments that came in Friday and Saturday
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Southern Plains Perspective: Climate Smart Agriculture- Hard to Define, but Easy to Recognize |
If you want to start an interesting discussion on social media, just put out a press release or flyer about a seminar discussing the economic benefits of climate smart agriculture.
I know this from experience.
Just last month the USDA Southern Plains Climate Hub hosted the “Economics of Adaptation” seminar in Enid Oklahoma. This event was designed to provide information to agriculture producers about how strategies designed to help farmers and ranchers deal with extreme weather events likes droughts, floods and wildfires can also help them save money and increase profits. Our speakers ranged from professors at Oklahoma State and Kansas State University to soil health specialists from state conservation agencies. The subjects they talked about covered such “controversial” practices as no-till, grazing cover crops after winter wheat, patch burning and multi-species (think running goats with cows to control invasive plants) grazing.
Really seditious stuff……
Still, you would be surprised at some of the responses that came back to us from some individuals concerning what they thought we were talking about when we mentioned “climate smart agriculture.” It seems that for many folks, preconceived notions can get in the way of understanding what people really mean when they bring up farming and ranching practices designed to help adapt to our changing climate…and in all honesty, I can kind of see why that is.
Climate smart agriculture can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. When I’m asked to define climate smart agriculture, I often fall back on the famous line about pornography used by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart- “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”
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Soil Health Institute Announces Recommended Measurements for Evaluating Soil Health |
The Soil Health Institute (SHI) today announced its recommended measurements for assessing soil health. These recommendations answer the No. 1 question about soil health that farmers, ranchers, and their advisers have been asking since the soil health movement began.
With support from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, and General Mills, the Soil Health Institute led a 3-year, $6.5-million project to identify effective measurements for soil health across North America. SHI partnered with over 100 scientists at 124 long-term agricultural research sites in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico where conventional management systems were compared with soil health-improving systems.
“This allowed us to evaluate over 30 soil health measurements at each site where they had the appropriate experimental design to allow us to come to the appropriate statistical conclusion about the effectiveness of each measurement,” said Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute. “Evaluating each measurement across such a wide range of climates, soils, cropping systems, and management practices also provided the scientific rigor we needed to identify which measurements could be widely used.”
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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.
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Today's First Look:
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101
mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
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Wholesale Boxed Beef Prices were higher- Choice Beef was up 27 cents and Select Beef was up $2.13 on Friday 08/12/2022.
Click on the Button below for the latest report from USDA Market News
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Oklahoma National Stockyards is estimating that they had 5,200 head on Sunday evening at the Stockyards in OKC. President of the ONSY, Kelli Payne, says that they expect to start Monday's auction with around 5,800 head- and anticipate a total of around 6,500 head for the Monday sale. They plan to begin the August 15th sale at 6:30 AM.
Compared to last week: Feeder steers unevenly steady. Feeder heifers steady to 3.00 higher. Steer calves unevenly steady. Heifer calves steady to 3.00 higher. Demand moderate to good. Quality average to attractive. Supply included several nice angus cattle offered that sold to good demand.
Click below for the complete closing report.
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Each afternoon we are posting a recap of that day's markets as analyzed by Justin Lewis of KIS futures - click below for the latest update on the Livestock and Grain Futures Trade..
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Okla Cash Grain:
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- as reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture- The report available after the close of the Futures Trade for that day.
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Our Oklahoma Farm Report Team!!!!
Ron Hays, Senior Farm/Ranch Broadcaster and Editor
KC Sheperd, Farm Director and Editor
Dave Lanning, Markets and Production
Reagan Calk, Farm News and Email Editor
Pam Arterburn, Calendar and Template Manager
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Rural Oklahoma is full of some of the greatest success stories throughout the entire state and is a big reason why Oklahoma is on track to become a top 10 state.
The Road to Rural Prosperity dives into these stories, bringing you stories covering rural life, agriculture, energy, healthcare, tourism, and politics affecting rural America.
The Road to Rural Prosperity is here to tell stories about rural America, for rural America.
KC Sheperd visits with Dakota Moss of Livestock Risk Services. When the pandemic hit in 2020 the cattle markets along with the rest of the world suffered. Many farmers and ranchers altered their marketing plans on crops and livestock to try and prevent a loss in the down Covid markets. This led to cattle being held months longer than planned hoping for a better market. Unfortunately for many farmers and ranchers they had no choice but to sell much heavier cattle into a down market. Resulting in a lower $/cwt price and profits lost. Sheperd and Moss discuss some alternative options for producers with the Livestock Risk Protection program.
Search for Road to Rural Prosperity and subscribe on your favorite Podcast platform.
To hear this podcast, you can click here or tap below:
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Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K Equipment, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Ag Mediation Program, Great Plains Kubota, Stillwater Milling Company, National Livestock Credit Corporation, Oklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma AgCredit, Union Mutual Insurance, 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 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.
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God Bless!
Reach Out To Us:
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Tim West
President/General Manager
Rural Oklahoma Networks
405-317-6361
***************
Mike Henderson
Director of Sales
405-615-4922
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KC Sheperd
Farm Director
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network
405-443-5717
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Ron Hays
Senior Farm/Ranch Broadcaster
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network
405.473.6144
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