This week, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur is hosted a group of her peers from across the region, highlighting some of the bright spots of Oklahoma's ag industry. Among those who have made the trek to our state is South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Kim Vanneman. Before her appointment to her current post, Vanneman served six years in South Dakota's Legislature as a State Representative. She spent all six of those years on the House Agriculture Committee, chairing it the last two years of that term. She spoke with us during her visit to Oklahoma this week, to share how her constituents in the ag industry of the Mount Rushmore State are faring in the current environment.

"Well, I'll tell you it's tough everywhere," she said. "I actually drove down here to Oklahoma City for this meeting and could not believe how much water is standing in fields all the way from South Dakota down to Oklahoma City. It's definitely a historic time but I know the producers in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska are just like producers in South Dakota - they're tough and they're resilient and they'll figure out ways to get through this tough cycle."

With South Dakota's legislative session over with for the year, Vanneman says producers there have loosened their attention on policy priorities for the moment to refocus on simply getting by until their collective situation improves, hopefully sooner rather than later.

You can listen to our complete conversation by clicking or tapping here to learn more about the state of South Dakota's ag industry and how it compares to our situation here in Oklahoma.

The latest USDA Cattle on Feed Report published at the end of this past week. According to it, placements as of June 1st were actually reported under a year ago but the on feed number came in above what the trade was expecting and above a year ago at 11.7 million head for June 1, 2019. This was 2 percent above the previous year and is the highest June 1 inventory since the series began in 1996. Despite that impressive claim, Kansas State University Extension Agricultural Economist Dr. Glynn Tonsor says, in his view there were still no big surprises coming out of this report.

"On balance there is no big surprises," Tonsor said, highlighting his key takeaways from the report. "The fact that placements were slightly down might be supportive but they're within the realm of prereport expectations. So, I honestly don't think this report will be a market mover."

One interesting trend to note though is an obvious effort to place heavier weight cattle with a noticeable drop in classes of 600 to 700 lb. cattle and an increase in 700 - 800 lb. groupings. This again should not come as a surprise, Tonsor says, given more expensive feed costs due to the uncertainty of the corn crop will drive people's preference of placing heavier cattle. Couple that with the ample supply of cattle currently in the pipeline - Tonsor says the industry is looking at some negative returns for at least the balance of the year.

Listen to Tonsor break down the numbers in this report on yesterday's Beef Buzz - click here.

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry, raised strong concerns this week over the reported suppression of research conducted by the USDA that suggests climate change is harmful to agriculture. In a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, Stabenow expressed her concern that stifling research on climate change would have a negative effect on farmers and the agricultural economy.

These claims stem from a Politico article published on June 24, 2019 which reported a number of instances where USDA leadership downplayed the public release of several studies containing significant findings related to climate change's effects on agriculture.

"USDA research, whether focused on climate change or any other topic, benefits farmers, ranchers, and families in rural America," Stabenow wrote in her letter to Perdue. "It would be deeply irresponsible for the Department to suppress research that helps USDA customers and the agricultural economy as a whole."

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry recently conducted a bipartisan hearing entitled, 'Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector,' where committee members heard about the impacts farmers and ranchers can expect from unchecked climate change. Stabenow has requested a thorough explanation of the decision not to publicize the research project in question and urged that any past and future studies on the topic be released. You can read more about this story, including the full text of Stabenow's letter on our website by clicking here.

According to official statistics by the Food and Agriculture Organization, African Swine Fever can be found in Cambodia, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam - and now in Laos. Experts predict the disease's relentless march will continue.

On June 20, the agriculture ministry of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) reported its first-ever cases of ASF to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Outbreaks were confirmed among seven small herds of village pigs, all from the same district of Salavan, a province in south-central Laos that borders Vietnam to the east and Thailand to the west. The source of the infection is unknown, but nearly all regions of nearby Vietnam are ASF positive.

Authorities in Laos report that movement controls have been put in place, and disinfection is being carried out in the affected area. Intensive surveillance there and across the country is to be stepped up, and a stamping-out policy will be followed.

Meanwhile, the disease's toll on Asia's hog production continues to reach epic proportions. Recent estimates of China's swine herd peg current and future losses related to ASF at more than 200 million pigs - nearly 20 to 30 percent of its herd in 2018. In Vietnam, officials report more than 2.5 million pigs have been culled from the national herd due to ASF. Farmers are reportedly reluctant to replenish their herds, on worries they could lose their stock again due to the disease.

However, integrators including New Hope Liuhe, Muyuan Foods and WH Group say they will increase production despite ASF, pinning their expansion hopes based on the reduced supply, which they see as profitable now and into the foreseeable future. Click here to continue reading for more details.

A newly updated online tool is providing a clearer picture of injuries in agriculture. AgInjuryNews.org enables users to search the largest database of publicly available U.S. agricultural injury and fatality reports, getting a near real-time snapshot of the distribution and nature of trauma incidents, both nationally and locally.

Insurers, lenders, agricultural employers, government statisticians, media professionals, educators, policy-makers and researchers are using AgInjuryNews.org to guide research priorities, safety initiatives, and public policy.

Anyone can set up a free account and search thousands of unique incidents, including more than 600 in 2018 alone. To create an account, visit www.AgInjuryNews.org and click "Register. For more information on this new online tool, click here.