National Wheat Foundation Celebrates Year of Growth Following Restructure 

Leaders of the National Wheat Foundation met this past Saturday at the Commodity Classic to review the last year's progress and plan the continued growth of the organization's fundraising and programming.

NWF was formally restructured at the 2012 Classic, making what has historically been known as the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Foundation a membership organization with NAWG as the sole member and reducing the size of the board of directors to nine from 21.

"We are very pleased with what we've been able to do in the last year, and we know there's much more to do in the years to come," said Jimmie Musick, a past president of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association from Sentinel, Oklahoma and NWF chairman. 

"We are very dedicated to making this foundation something that serves the whole wheat industry, especially wheat farmers and their family businesses, in a wide variety of ways."

The board of directors has focused on getting the word out about the Foundation; fundraising to allow the foundation to do more work; developing new programming where logical partnerships exist; and planning to address the physical state of the Foundation's chief asset, the Wheat Growers Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Click here to read more.

 

Cattle and Beef Markets Find Some Footing

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

Cattle and beef markets weakened throughout January and February as a combination of weak demand and looming drought weighed heavily on feeder, fed and boxed beef markets. Beef demand has no doubt been negatively impacted by a series of storms, dating back to Hurricane Sandy, which impacted population centers in the northeast. Choice boxed beef dropped from roughly $194/cwt. in early January to a late February low of $182/cwt. Fed cattle likewise dropped from $128/cwt. at the beginning of the year to a recent low under $122/cwt. Oklahoma prices for both stocker calves and heavy feeder cattle dropped through February as well.

However, market conditions appear to be improving in several different areas. Low boxed beef prices finally spurred sales and combined with recent slaughter reductions and decreasing carcass weights to push Choice boxed beef prices up to $188 by Friday, up over $5/cwt. from the previous Friday. Fed cattle prices also jumped last week buoyed by stronger boxed beef prices and winter storms that disrupted cattle shipments and caused production losses and increased death loss in central and southern plains feedlots. 

You can read more of Derrell Peel's analysis by clicking here.

 

OSU Animal Ag Advocacy Group Receives Positive Response from its 'Surviving Without Ag?' Display

The FARM Theory hosted their "Surviving Without Ag?" event on Feb. 28 and March 1 at Oklahoma State University. The new agriculture advocacy group held the event to educate students, faculty and staff on the impact agriculture has on everyday life. One of the group's founders, Megan Bryant, spoke with Sam Knipp of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau about the significance of the event. 

"We're here to inform people that agricultural products are a part of your everyday life, or animal agriculture products are, whether you're eating them as a meat source or if you're doing your laundry or if you're driving a vehicle. Animal byproducts are a part of the things we use every day and a lot of times we don't even realize it."

The demonstration took place just north of the Classroom Building near the library lawn. The FARM Theory group was set up near a group from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Bryant said her message was being well-received on campus and they are considering expansion to other colleges.

You can read more or listen to the audio version of this story by clicking here.

 

ICYMI- Oklahoma Secretary of Ag Jim Reese on Our In the Field Segment This Past Saturday- Touting Ag as Wealth Creator 

Rain and snow in the last two weeks have been a blessing for Oklahoma farmers and ranchers says Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese. He says the states ponds and lakes could certainly use more, but the weather patterns seem to be changing for the better. He joined me on the latest "In the Field" report on News 9.

Reese said another positive factor for Oklahoma producers is the inclusion of the agriculture sector as a wealth creator in a recent study on Oklahoma's economy carried out by the state's Secretary of Commerce Dave Lopez.

"We all know, those of us in agriculture, know that we're the second largest industry in the state of Oklahoma, with oil and gas probably having more of an economic impact. But agriculture is second. Some people look at it as kind of a static industry and this study looked at every job code, every job in the state of Oklahoma, and look at all aspects of it, about 50 different data codes and determined that agriculture is one of the top five industries-agriculture and biosciences--to change and improve the wealth of the state of Oklahoma and Oklahomans."

Click here for a chance to see the video visit that we had with State Secretary Jim Reese.

 

USDA Chief Economist Says Crop Production Up, Prices Down

USDA's chief economist says U.S. crop production should increase in 2013 and that could lead to lower prices for farmers.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief Economist Joe Glauber told the annual Agricultural Outlook Forum held near Washington, D.C., that record production of some crops is a possibility this year.

" We're expecting record crops for corn and soybeans this year, again dramatic improvement particularly for corn. Remember last year between our May estimate, our May projections and what we ended up with at the end of the year we lost four billion bushels. We're expecting to rebound on that, up about that amount this year. We've seen the eastern Corn Belt look a lot better than what we saw just four or five months ago as a percent of total area in drought, we've seen some improvement, five to ten percent improvement over the last couple of months," Glauber said.

Click here for more.

 

This N That- Big Iron Wednesday, Wheat Commission Meeting Thursday and Latest Crop Weather Updates Out Now

It looks like a big auction on Big Iron this week- and the list of agricultural stuff is long and varied- including a lot of clean Alfalfa Hay from Nebraska- about 7 tons worth.  There's also tractors, hay balers, grain drills (including a Great Plains unit located in Harper, Ks), combines and more.  To check out the list of items that will start closing Wednesday morning  at 10 AM central time- click here for the Big Iron website.  It's easy to bid and buy on Big Iron- and on their website, you can also learn more about how you can consign your items as well.  

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Thursday- the regular monthly Board Meeting of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission is set for the board room at the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture- we have their full agenda on our Calendar pages on our website OklahomaFarmReport.com.  

We note that the Commissioners will be hearing from film producer Conrad Weaver from the Great American Wheat Harvest- who will be telling them about his project of following wheat harvest from the south to the north this year- he apparently is looking for some sponsorship bucks- as a listed agenda item is a $5,000 sponsorship for this project.   Click here for the calendar listing that we have for the meeting- which includes the latest agenda for the meeting.

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While the National Crop Progress updates won't start until April first- the Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Crop Weather updates are now up and running on a weekly basis.  

The key items include the wheat and canola crop conditions in Oklahoma (and wheat in Kansas and Texas as well as the Pasture and Range conditions for all three states.  

Wheat crop conditions have improved a bit- with Oklahoma now rated 47% poor to very poor, 37% fair and 15% good- Texas at 45% poor to very poor, 37% fair and 17 rated in good condition and finally Kansas- 35% poor to very poor, 41% fair and 23% good.

Click here for Oklahoma's latest crop weather update.  

Click here for the Kansas crop weather update.

Click here for the Texas crop weather update.