Roger Gribble Says North-Central Producers Cautiously Hopeful About Winter Crop Conditions 

The latest Mesonet drought monitor shows extreme to exceptional drought continuing over more than 90 percent of the state.  Some areas have seen patchy rains from time to time over the last few months.  While that hasn't improved drought conditions overall, it has affected winter crop conditions in a patchwork fashion.  Over the next three days, the Oklahoma Farm Report will feature the observations of three Oklahoma State University Extension area agronomists from their respective regions of the state.

First up is Roger Gribble.  He is based in Enid and is responsible for the north-central and northwestern parts of the state.  He said overall, crop conditions are not promising, but there are a few pockets where they aren't doing so poorly.

 "The garden spot would be just south of Enid towards Kingfisher, between Watonga and Kingfisher, maybe south into Canadian County, there's some pretty good stands of wheat.  There's maybe a little grazing in that area.  Another area that we see some grazing is over around Fairview.  That wheat's pretty good.  But we're running out of pasture at that point because we just haven't had any rain."

Turning to canola, Gribble says producers were enthusiastic and have increased acres over last year.  Without moisture, however, the canola crop looks like it is taking a beating along with the wheat.

"The guys who started early in that planting window maybe had a little better success.  Again, early we had a little moisture to deal with.  The later-planted canola seems to be struggling and it's out of the ground and just kind of in a sitting pattern-still fairly small because of no rainfall.  I'm a little worried about, if we're talking about, poor weather conditions that may be the one I'm worried about a little more because a lot of those soils are really dry.  And you put a dry cold snap on that and I'm afraid that we may not have enough growth and development to survive maybe a really hard cold snap.

Click here for more of our interview with Roger Gribble. 

USDA Reports Wheat and Soybean Ending Stock Estimates Up, Corn Steady 

In the December 11, 2012 Ending Stocks report, USDA showed a larger than expected increase to the domestic wheat ending stocks estimate, soybeans were slightly more than expected with corn mostly unchanged.

The World Outlook Board projected in the report yesterday morning that the "U.S. feed grain supply and use projections for 2012/13 are unchanged this month, but price outlooks for corn and sorghum are lowered based on prices reported to date. The season-average farm price for corn is lowered 20 cents at the midpoint and the projected range is narrowed to $6.80 to $8.00 per bushel."

USDA projections show wheat ending stocks for the 2012/13 marketing year at 754 million bushels, compared to 704 million a month ago. The average estimate was 718 million bushels and a year ago, wheat ending stocks were at 743 million bushels. The projected 2012/13 season-average farm price for all wheat is lowered 10 cents at the midpoint and the range is narrowed to $7.70 to $8.30 per bushel."

Soybean ending stocks came in at 130 million bushels. The pre-report estimates were 135 million bushels. Even with soybean stocks tighter, projected prices into 2013 are lower.  "Prices for soybeans and products are all projected lower this month. The U.S. season- average soybean price range for 2012/13 is projected at $13.55 to $15.55 per bushel, down 35 cents on both ends of the range."

Click here for the full report as released by USDA on Tuesday morning.  

President Pro Tem Bingman Announces GOP Committee Assignments

State Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, announced committee assignments for Republican members on Monday. Committee chairs and vice chairs were announced last Thursday.

"There is a tremendous depth and breadth of experience and talent to draw from in the Republican Caucus," Bingman said. "We've worked to structure committee memberships that will enable us to build on an agenda dedicated to job creation and economic growth benefiting our state now and in the future."

GOP appointments for the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee:

• Sen. Eddie Fields, R-Wynona
• Sen. Ron Justice, R-Chickasha
• Sen. Mark Allen, R-Spiro
• Sen. Don Barrington, R-Lawton
• Sen. Larry Boggs, R-Red Oak
• Sen. Frank Simpson, R-Springer
• Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore

Click here for the full list of GOP Senate committee assignments.

Sandhills Calving System Drops Scours Mortality in Newborn Calves to Near Zero

Sanitation is imperative to the health of newborns at calving time. Kansas State Extension veterinarian Dr. Larry Hollis says the Sandhills Calving System makes use of rotating pastures to dramatically improve healthy outcomes during calving season.

"They've shown through many years of successful work with this system up in the Sandhills of Nebraska where it was developed that if we can keep the newborn calves away from the older calves, we can stop a lot of the different causes of scours whether it's viral, whether it's bacterial, whether it's protozoa, it doesn't matter what the cause is. Those older calves that pick this up either from the environment or from their moms serve as amplifiers. And they take in a few organisms and they pass out thousands to millions of them. And, so, like the term amplify means, that's what they do with those disease organisms. When these later-born calves hit the ground, say after the first two to three weeks of the calving season, they get exposed to that huge load of disease organisms that are being put out in the calving area by those older calves and so the younger calves are more susceptible and they're getting exposed to larger challenge loads and that's when we get into the huge scours wrecks."

Hollis says employing the Sandhills system is easy and effective. The pregnant cows are turned out into a pasture where they calve for seven to ten days. At the end of the period, the pairs are allowed to stay in that pasture and the pregnant animals are turned out on another pasture. The cows are allowed to calve for seven to ten days and pairs are allowed to stay and the pregnant females are moved to another pasture. This process continues, Hollis says, until all the cows have given birth.

Dr. Hollis joins us for the latest Beef Buzz.  Click here for more on the Sandhills Calving System.  

USDA Asks Producers to Help Count Noses for Cattle and Sheep Inventory Next Month

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is calling on nearly 50,000 cattle operations nationwide to report the latest and most accurate data on cattle inventories and calf production.

"During the first two weeks of January, Oklahoma producers have the opportunity to serve as the frontline source of accurate data on cattle in Oklahoma and the United States" said Wilbert Hundl, Jr, Director of the Oklahoma Field Office of USDA-NASS. "We will be contacting nearly 2,100 Oklahoma operations requesting their response to the January Cattle Report, which measures trends in beef and dairy cattle inventories, calf crop, and cattle operations." 

About 600 Oklahoma sheep and goat producers will be contacted for the sheep survey.

To make it as easy as possible for producers to participate, NASS offers the option of responding via a secure Internet connection, telephone, mail, or personal interview with a local NASS representative. "However producers choose to respond, they are providing an important service to the cattle industry and to U.S. agriculture as a whole," Hundl said. "Their responses will be compiled with those of their fellow producers nationwide, providing the only accurate and comprehensive estimate of the state of U.S. cattle production."

For more on the cattle inventory, click here.

Click here for more information on the sheep survey.

Glenn Selk Explores Cows' Increased Feed Needs During Cold Weather Events

This article from Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, was published in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter.

The major effect of cold on the nutrient requirements of cows is increased need for energy. As the magnitude of the cold increases, the cows' need for feed goes up as well.  

To determine magnitude of cold, the lower critical temperature for beef cows must first be estimated. For cows with a dry winter hair coat the lower critical temperature is considered to be 32 degrees F. In general, researchers have used the rule of thumb that cows' energy requirements increase 1% for each degree the wind chill is below the 32 degree lower critical temperature.

Research has indicated that the energy requirement for maintenance of beef cows with a wet hair coat is much greater. Cows that are exposed to falling precipitation and have the wet hair coats are considered to have reached the lower critical temperature at 59 degrees F. In addition, the requirements change twice as much for each degree change in wind-chill factor. In other words, the energy requirement actually increases two percent  for each degree below 59 degrees F. 

Feed requirements can then be calculated from these numbers.

You'll find more from Gleen Selk, including his calculations for estimating cows' nutritional needs in cold weather, by clicking here. 

Beef Battalion Fundraiser Returns to Oklahoma National Stockyards Monday December 17 

This coming Monday, December 17, will be the final feeder and stocker cattle sale of the year for the Oklahoma National Stockyards- and while it will be busy as folks try to get their business wrapped up for 2012- there will be a pause in the regular auction for a special calf to be brought into the sale ring solo. 

The calf is owned by Jessika and Ryan York. Jessika is a sophomore at Byng High School and Ryan is an eighth grader at Stonewall. They are both active in 4-H and FFA. These young folks are not selling this animal for last minute Christmas cash- but rather are donating the animal to be used as the fundraising object for the All American Beef Battalion.

Two years ago- a similar sale was held at the Oklahoma City market in early December- it netted about $27,000 for the project- a year ago, the auction almost doubled the proceeds from the year before- with Robert York of National Credit reporting to us that the calf was resold 29 times and that resulted in over $49,000 going to the AABB.  I never got a final number from Robert last year- but with additional donations- I suspect they got more than $50,000 generated from that one calf.

The plan is to do again this coming Monday- the hope is to sale the calf- then resell it and resell it and resell it and- well, you get the idea.

The All American Beef Battalion is a charity organization consisting of individuals and families that are part of the U.S. beef cattle industry and work to provide support for troops and their families. Some of the organizations main events are steak feeds where soldiers and family members are served a 16 to 18 ounce ribeye steak. 

Click here to learn more about the Beef Battalion efforts to honor those who serve us in the military.  And you can give Robert York a call at National Livestock Credit in Oklahoma City a call to learn more about the auction this year- and yes- you can most certainly pledge an add-on amount before the auction- call Robert at 1-800-310-0220.