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Oklahoma was in the path of another rain and snow making system as this week got underway on Sunday- helping push back against the extreme to exceptional drought the state has endured. And the storm of the last twenty four to thiry six hours hit squarely in the area that has been the driest- northwestern Oklahoma. The winter storm has brought as much as 22 inches of snow to parts of Oklahoma on Monday,

At the request of Gov. Mary Fallin, Monday afternoon, Lt. Governor Todd Lamb declared a State of Emergency for 56 Oklahoma counties due to the excessive snow and severe weather. The executive order allows state agencies to make emergency purchases related to disaster relief and preparedness. It is also a first step toward seeking federal assistance, if it's needed.

We have graphics on our website that detail the rainfall totals as of early this morning- and many of them are very impressive with Watonga surpassing two inches of liquid moisture- plus will have more as the snow they received melts this week. Courtesy of News9, we also have a snowfall graphic that shows the snow totals that were the largest in Woods, Woodward and Ellis counties.

Click here to check those graphics out.

Meanwhile- in a related story- the latest Crop Weather Update Summary was released by Wil Hundl and crew at NASS.  In their February monthly summary (out on the last Monday of the month), the report indicates "Some improvements to crop conditions were reported, with wheat, canola and rye moving from mostly poor to very poor in January to mostly fair to poor in February. This allowed for a small increase in the amount of the crop being grazed, though grazing was reported to be significantly less than normal."

The report shows the winter wheat crop at 54% poor to very poor, 37% fair and only 9% good- while winter canola checks in about the same- 57% poor to very poor, 40% fair and 3% good. Wheat grazing stands at 26%- versus the five year average of 36%.

Click here for our webstory on the report and a link to the complete summary.

Dewald Trades Top Post at Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association for Top Spot at Rural Enterprises Incorporated  

Scott Dewald has announced he will be stepping down as the Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association on Monday, April 1, 2013.

Dewald has accepted the Chief Executive Officer and President role at Rural Enterprises Incorporated headquartered in Durant, Oklahoma.

"I have been truly blessed to work for the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association for the past 17 years." Dewald said. "The OCA is an incredible organization with an excellent membership, Board of Directors, Executive Committee and staff," Dewald said.

Hesaid he has been extremely fortunate to work with such a dedicated staff and a tremendous staff of volunteers all across the state.

"Probably the thing that I've enjoyed the most is the opportunity to get to know these people from across the state who make a living in the beef business. And their main priority in life is to pass that on to their sons and daughters or grandsons and granddaughters. They run them like businesses and they want to preserve that for future generations. And that's been a real, real treat for me to have the opportunity to get to know those people." 

Dewald spoke at length with me about his years with the OCA and his new position at REI.  You can hear our conversation or read more of this story by clicking here.

Oklahoma Moisture is a Good Start But Much More is Needed, Derrell Peel Says

Writing in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter, Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, takes a look at how the recent precipitation is impacting producers.

Recent rain and snow in Oklahoma has provided valuable moisture and provides a spark of hope for Oklahoma cattle producers. Most all of Oklahoma has received significant precipitation in the past 30 days in a series of rain and snow events. The eastern half of the state has generally received between 2 and 4 inches; the southwest part of the state received 1.5 to 2.5 inches and the northwest part of the state up to 2 inches. Moisture was the lightest in some of the driest areas of the state including the north-central region west through the Panhandle which received less than 1.5 inches. At this writing, a winter storm is hitting much of the region with heavy snow preceded by rain which will add to that moisture total.

The most immediate benefit of the moisture is for winter wheat. Depending on the status of the wheat, the recent moisture may or may not help grain yield but will undoubtedly provide some forage growth, even for wheat that is just now germinating. This will provide some critically needed forage for cattle now and may provide some hay production later. Other cool-season forages, such as fescue and ryegrass, will likewise begin to respond with new growth soon. It will take continued regular additions to the current moisture in order to recharge soil moisture and support warm season forage production by May.   

Click here for more from Derrell Peel.

 

Oklahoma Ag Secretary Appreciates Rain, Ready for Winter Contingencies

Recent precipitation has everyone in the agricultural sector breathing a little easier and, perhaps, none more so that Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese. He spoke with me recently and will be my guest on this Saturday's "In the Field" segment on News 9 at about 6:40 a.m.

"We've had about two weeks of really wonderful agricultural weather," Reese said. "It's been such a blessing to come from where we were even three weeks ago. You'd read prognosticators how horribly dry it was going to be and this totally has reversed. You know, things change. It could turn dry again. The last two weeks have been absolutely wonderful for agriculture."

While this doesn't break the drought, it is encouraging nonetheless, Reese said. He said there hasn't been any runoff to recharge reservoirs yet, but this current precipitation event might begin that process.

Reese said that blizzard conditions in the Panhandle, western, and northwestern part of the state had some producers concerned that cattle might be stranded with little or no feed for a prolonged period of time.

"We are prepared for that. It takes the governor, the National Guard and all those people working together, but we're prepared to do that if the time comes."

Click here to read more or to listen to my interview with Jim Reese.

 

Agriculture Secretary Appoints Members to the NAREEE Advisory Board

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the appointment of 10 members--including one Oklahoman-- to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics (NAREEE) Advisory Board.

The Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 authorized the creation of the NAREEE Advisory Board, which is composed of 25 members and operates under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Research, Education, and Economics (REE) Mission Area.

Each NAREEE Advisory Board member represents a specific area of expertise related to agriculture. These areas include farming, ranching, food production and processing, forestry research, crop and animal science, land-grant institutions, non-land grant college or university with a historic commitment to research in the food and agricultural sciences, food retailing and marketing, rural economic development, and natural resource and consumer interest groups, and others.

Wathina Luthi, a farmer and rancher in Gage, Okla., will represent Food Animal Commodity Producers.

You can read more of this story by clicking here. 

 

New USGS Report Updates Decline of High Plains Aquifer Groundwater Levels

The U.S. Geological Survey has released a new report detailing changes of groundwater levels in the High Plains Aquifer. The report presents water-level change data in the aquifer in two separate periods: from 1950-the time prior to significant groundwater irrigation development-to 2011, and 2009 to 2011.

In 2011, the total water stored in the aquifer was about 2.96 billion acre-feet, an overall decline of about 246 million acre-feet (or 8 percent) since pre-development. Change in water in storage from 2009 to 2011 was an overall decline of 2.8 million acre-feet. The overall average water-level decline in the aquifer was 14.2 feet from pre-development to 2011, and 0.1 foot from 2009 to 2011.

The study used water-level measurements from 3,322 wells for pre-development to 2011 and 7,376 wells for 2009 to 2011.

 Click here to read more and to find a link to the full USGS report.

This N That- Big Iron, Commodity Classic and USDA Handouts

 This week's Big Iron on line auction will be closing at 10 AM Central time on Wednesday morning- a variety of Tractors, Round Balers, Grain Drills and even a set of concrete feed bunks are listed for this week's sale- click here to jump over to Big Iron's website to review the full list of what's available in these no reserve auctions.

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 We will be reporting from Orlando the second half of this week from the 2013 Commodity Classic, where corn, soybean, wheat and grain sorghum producers will be gathering- a highlight will be on Friday morning in their General Session when Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack will be offering comments on the first day of sequestration- assuming that Congress has done nothing to avert the mandated cuts in federal spending.  Click here for the Commodity Classic website to learn more about this year's event.

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We have a quick reminder of the effort by USDA to locate Hispanics or Women who feel they were discriminated by the agency in providing loans or other services.

"Hispanic and women farmers who believe they have faced discriminatory practices in the past from the USDA have 45 days left to file a claim in order to have a chance to receive a cash payment or loan forgiveness," said Secretary Vilsack. "USDA urges potential claimants to contact the Claims Administrator for information and mail their claim packages on or before March 25, 2013." 

Click here to read more about the USDA's efforts to put money in the hands of those who were wronged by USDA in the past.