Beneficial Moisture Balanced by Freezing Temperatures--Regional Farmers Still Assessing Latest Weather Effects 

A storm front and a cold front came across Oklahoma last week bringing rainfall, but also ice and plunging temperatures. All of central and western Oklahoma dropped below freezing, with a hard freeze over most of northwestern Oklahoma. Beaver County spent more than 40 hours below freezing, and Boise City tied the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded on April 11th in Oklahoma, at 15 degrees. The extent of the freeze damage on small grains was still being assessed, but the latest Crop Progress and Condition report indicates some level of damage to 69 percent of small grains. Precipitation for the week averaged 0.86 of an inch for the state, with topsoil moisture conditions now rated mostly adequate.

Wheat jointing was 78 percent complete by Sunday, 10 points behind the five-year average and 17 points behind this time last year.

Half of canola was rated poor to very poor and half was rated excellent to fair. Forty percent of canola was blooming by the end of the week, compared to 100 percent of canola blooming at this time last year.  (Click here for the full Oklahoma report.)

Most of Texas benefited from rains last week, but the Plains recorded another hard freeze land producers were still assessing the damage.  Some producers in the Cross Timbers and the Blacklands noted significant damage to small grains from the previous week's freeze.  Thirty-three percent of the state's wheat was listed in fair condition with 50 percent of the crop in poor or very poor shape.  (The Texas report is available by clicking here.)

The wheat crop in Kansas is lagging far behind last year's with 35 percent jointed, behind 89 percent a year ago and 47 percent average. The condition of the crop was rated as 12 percent very poor, 21 percent poor, 37 percent fair, 27 percent good, and 3 percent excellent.  Farmers are still assessing possible freeze damage.  (Click here to read the Kansas report.)

Drought and Regional Cropping Changes Impact Hay Production 

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter:

Lingering winter weather this year is exaggerating the impacts of limited forage supplies for beef producers. Drought in 2011 and 2012 reduced U.S. hay production and increased hay demand leaving the country with very limited forage supplies at this time.

On December 1, stocks of all hay were down nearly 28 percent from a 2001-2010 average prior to the drought. States with the biggest decrease in hay stocks are (in descending order); Texas, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, Michigan, and Minnesota. These 11 states all had reductions in hay stocks of 1 million tons or more and accounted for 72 percent of the total decrease in December 1 hay stocks compared to the 2011-2010 average. Decreased hay stocks for Texas, South Dakota, Missouri and Kansas all exceeded 2 million tons.   

Drought reduced hay production in many states in either 2011 or 2012 or both. The 2011-2012 average all hay production for the U.S. was down 16 percent from the 2001-2010 average. 

Click here to read more.

Farm Show to Feature Gentle Horse Trainer Scott Daily

One of the highlights of this year's Southern Plains Farm Show at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds April 18-20 will be the daily clinics given by Gentle Horse Trainer Scott Daily. Daily will be giving horse training seminars twice a day for the length of the Farm Show.

Daily is originally from Inola, Oklahoma, where he began working with horses in 4-H. He completed a degree in equine management at Northeastern A&M College in Miami, Oklahoma, and has perfected his training techniques over the last 15 years. He and his wife own and operate Daily Horse Training in Arkansas City, Kansas. Daily trains about 200 horses per year and works a lot of the farm shows.

For Daily, training horses was never something he planned on doing as a career; it was just one of those things that he walked into.

"I started out by riding some horsed for some friends and helping them out and everything", said Daily. "They had show horses and race horses and just started from there. The next thing you know, I went to college and then got into the horse management program and it worked out pretty good. I never thought I would be doing what I'm doing now but I kind of started training horses for a living. A guy saw me working some horses and asked me about doing a clinic. I did one and then did some state fairs. I then started working the farm shows and it's been great."

Click here to read more of this story.

Remember as you watch Scott Daily- you have a chance to win the Priefert Round Pen he will be working his horses in- you can sign up for your chance to win at our booth inside the Cox Building at this year's Southern Plains Farm Show!!!

Environmentalists Distort Antibiotic Use Data to Blame Farmers, NPPC Says

Just days after the release of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report showing that medical doctors annually are prescribing enough antibiotics to give them to 80 percent of Americans, a group today is set to issue its own report, claiming that antibiotics use in food animals is the main cause for people developing antibiotic-resistant diseases.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is using selective and incomplete 2011 government data on retail meat samples to blame America's livestock and poultry farmers for the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant illnesses in people, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says.

Data from the 2000 to 2010 federal National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System show a very low incidence of pathogenic bacteria on meat and stable-to-declining rates of those bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

You can read more of this story by clicking here. 

Oklahoma Ranchers Explore Different Segments of the Beef Industry at Cattlemen's Leadership Academy

The fourth and final session of the 20th annual Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association's Cattlemen's Leadership Academy class took place on April 8 and 9. During the two-day event, CLA class members, all Oklahoma Ranchers and members of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, were exposed first-hand to different segments of the beef industry.

AdvancePierre Food Company located in Enid, Okla., gladly welcomed this group of beef producers to their facilities. AdvancePierre Food Company is a fully integrated manufacturer of value-added proteins, Philly steaks and handheld sandwiches. The group of ranchers toured AdvancePierre's Enterprise Facility, a premier manufacturing facility for "ready-to-eat" foods.

"During the plant tour we saw hamburger being made into patties, and then cooked, frozen and packaged for shipping - all a process to add value to beef," said Matt Crosthwait, CLA member and rancher near Stillwater, Okla. "As Ranchers, we are always seeking ways to add value to our product - beef. It's comforting to know that different segments of our industry our working hard to do the same."

You can read more by clicking here.

Where Have the Faces of Farming and Ranching Winners Been?

Since the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) Faces of Farming & Ranching winners announcement more than ten weeks ago, Chris Chinn (Mo.), Will Gilmer (Ala.), Katie Pratt (Ill.), and Bo Stone (N.C.) have been on the go representing agriculture in the mainstream media and to consumer audiences. From blogging, tweeting, and conducting numerous interviews, they have vigorously stepped into the role as the Faces of Farming & Ranching.

"What I find most exciting about the Faces of Farming & Ranching program is we are connecting directly with those who are raising questions about how we grow and raise their food," said Katie Pratt. "It is bringing together a diverse group of agricultural voices. We are all talking about what we can do together to further our conversations with consumers." 

On March 19, Pratt participated in a USFRA National Ag Day educational briefing session and tweet chat on Capitol Hill followed by numerous briefings with Washington media. Recently, she also took part in a tweet chat with mommy food bloggers and a radio media tour with 17 national and state radio stations. Both discussed commonly-used, but little-understood food terms.

Click here to learn more about what the winners have been doing.  

Spring Producer and Industry Meetings Abound

Over the next couple of days, we will be covering the 2013 meeting of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture- with several hot button topics on the agenda- biotechnology and animal ag, antibiotics and FMD.  Watch for our Tweets today and tomorrow- and we will offer a couple of stories from this event in tomorrow's email. Click here for more on this meeting of the Animal Ag industry.

Meanwhile a group of Oklahoma Farm Bureau members are rolling through Washington, DC this week- State President Mike Spradling is leading 40 OFB members in meetings with the Oklahoma Congressional delegation and more.  Mike also posted on his Facebook page that they had caught up with the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Encounter as they are spending a few days in Washington as well.

Also in Washington this week- the spring board meeting of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association- click here for details on their plans- and later in the week- several Oklahoma wheat leaders and others across the Hard Red Winter Wheat belt will gather in Bozeman, Montana for the Plains Grains, Inc meetings.