Late Planting, Ample Moisture Should Boost Quality of 2014 Wheat Crop, Mike Schulte Says 

Hard red winter wheat planting continues across the state and Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission tells us that producers are making excellent progress. 

"I'd say we're at 90 percent," Schulte says. "Earlier in the week official statistics showed that 84 percent was planted with 61 percent emerged in the state.   I thought those numbers were a little bit high, but driving around central Oklahoma this past week, we're starting to see a lot of that crop emerging. It's extremely small because it's been planted later, but I think it's going to get up and we're going to, maybe, dodge a bullet on this wheat that was planted last week before the colder temperatures coming this next week."

Schulte says with ample rains in the summer, producers were expecting to plant early with expectations of wheat pasture. The rains didn't resume until October and many farmers planted their crop a little later than hoped, working around the rains, reducing the chances for wheat pasture. 

Looking back on the 2013 harvest, Schulte says the quality of the crop in Oklahoma was very good.

"The quality of this crop has been really good, especially for the baking industry and the foreign markets. They are really wanting this crop. We've had good mix absorption, good loaf volumes for breads-things that bakers would be looking for.

You can read more of this story or listen to the full interview by clicking here.  Mike will also join me on "In the Field" Saturday morning on News 9 about 6:40.    

NCFC Urges Farm Bill Conference Committee to Preserve Safety Net, Relieve Regulatory Burdens 

The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) sent a letter on Thursday to the leaders of the House and Senate conference committee on the farm bill outlining the top recommendations of America's farmer-owned businesses in the legislation.  

"Of primary importance, the farm bill must preserve the long-standing rural-urban alliance that reinforces the fact that food security, investment in rural America and a safety net for those in need are priorities benefitting the entire nation," the letter states. "Key to the success of this conference committee will be emphasizing those issues that unite producers, regardless of commodity or location, rather than those issues that divide agriculture."

The letter urged the conference committee to ensure that any final report include a meaningful and equitable safety net for producers across all commodities. In particular, NCFC urged support for the dairy reform provisions that are contained in the Senate version of the farm bill and that are supported by dairy farmers of all sizes and in all regions of the country. 

You'll find more of this story and a link to the NCFC's letter by clicking here.

One other group that we know has written the Farm Bill conferees is the National Association of Wheat Growers- at the top of their 'suggestions'- "Do No Harm to Crop Insurance."  

Click here for more details on their letter and a link to read the full letter as well.

Drought Monitor Catches Up; Conditions Show Continued Improvement

The newest U.S. Drought Monitor finally caught up on all the rainfall and the drought impacts that were improved due to that rainfall, says Associate State Ciimatologist Gary McManus. Now the state is about where it was going into mid-summer with most of central, north central, northeast and east central Oklahoma out of any sort of drought/dry designation.

That means 43% of the state is without any color on the drought map, leaving about 57% of the state still in D0-Abnormally Dry to D4-Exceptional drought. Most of the worst conditions are confined to the northwest in the Panhandle and also down to the southeast.

The latest improvements are due to that rainfall of more than a week ago now, but it had come after the 7am Tuesday morning cutoff point for last week's map. That's why there are improvements on this week's map despite any significant rainfall this week (although central Oklahoma saw a nice line of an inch or more, but that was in areas without drought already).

The reason drought hasn't gone completely away down in the southern reaches of the state are evident when you look at the longer-term rainfall maps and that magical Aug. 17 date when the great summer rains shut off and flash drought materialized across the area, McManus said.

Click here to read more and to see the latest Drought Monitor map.

Trouble in Argentina and Australia Could Boost Prices for U.S. Wheat, Kim Anderson Says

In his weekly preview to Saturday's SUNUP program on OETA, OSU Grain Market Specialist Kim Anderson talks to Lyndall Stout about how what's going on in Argentina and Australia could affect U.S. grain producers.

"The situation is lower expected production in both Argentina and Australia. But the big news is out of Argentina where the wheat prices are reported to be up around $17 per bushel. They exported a large percentage of their wheat, but their wheat stocks are extremely short. Their harvest isn't going to start for another two or three weeks. There are riots in the street because of the cost of bread and the cost of flour. Argentina may not export any wheat until we get into the January or February time period."

Anderson said drought and protein problems could hit Australia hard, lowering their yields and quality.

Back at home, Anderson says, "The Oklahoma wheat crop looks just excellent. The USDA released their crop conditions report, the majority of the wheat is in good to excellent condition, much, much better than we've seen the last couple of years."

You can listen to the full preview and see the lineup for this week's SUNUP program by clicking here.

 

Tyson Ends Purchases of Canadian Cattle for Their US Processing Plants- Blames mCOOL- Irks R-CALF

Because of the revised Country of Origin Rule that was put into place in May of this year, Tyson Foods has made the decision not to purchase cattle fed in Canada to slaughter in their US processing plants. Public Relations Manager Worth Sparkman with Tyson Foods at their northwest Arkansas headquarters has provided us with the following statement:

"Like many others in the North American beef industry, we're very disappointed by the changes made in the U.S. country of origin labeling rules. These new rules significantly increase costs because they require additional product codes, production breaks and product segregation, including a separate category for cattle shipped directly from Canada to U.S. beef plants without providing any incremental value to our customers. Unfortunately, we don't have enough warehousing capacity to accommodate the proliferation of products requiring different types of labels due to this regulation."  (You can read more of this statement by clicking here.) 

R-CALF USA President Bill Bullard called Tyson's move a ploy by Tyson to control Congress and the courts. 

"Tyson is flexing its muscle to demonstrate to our U.S. courts that it alone can literally devastate livestock producers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere if it doesn't get its way," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.  "This is blatant economic and political extortion."  (Click here to read more from R-CALF.)   

Okay folks- it's Soapbox time for a moment- Under the Jeopardy category of "The Irony of it All"- it's pretty fascinating that R-Calf is crying fowl (pun intended) over the Tyson announcement.  On one hand- Bullard and his folks have simply got to love the idea of no Canadian cattle coming into this country and competing with US beef- even though the genetics are largely the same- the are grain fed cattle and provide much needed tonnage when US beef supplies are so historically tight.  R-Calf is mad because Tyson has told people what they are doing and putting the blame where they see it- on a regulation that they don't have the ability to comply with- if they keep on buying those cattle.  

The R-Calf folks are worried that this might influence Congress to consider changes in COOL as they deal with the 2013 Farm Bill- they want USDA to have a free hand to keep their language intact- and that's why they are calling Tyson "bullies" in rocking the COOL boat. 

It sounds like from the R-Calf release that Bill Bullard simply wants Tyson to shut up and buy Canadian cattle and and lose money as they do all the extra work to obey the revised COOL rule. 

Brian Little Named Champion at LMA's 2nd World Livestock Auctioneer Championship Qualifier

Brian Little of Wann, Okla., proved his talent as a livestock auctioneer at the second qualifying event for the Livestock Marketing Association's (LMA) World Livestock Auctioneer Championship (WLAC). The qualifying event took place at Blue Grass South Livestock Market, Stanford, Ky., October 21.

Little, a 20-year veteran to the livestock auctioneer field, is no stranger to the WLAC. He has competed 13 previous years and earned the qualifying event champion title a few times. Little says he looks forward to the contest every year and enjoys the opportunity to "showcase his abilities and get to see great friends who are in the business, catch up on old times."

Also making a great showing were the Reserve Champion, Brian Curless, Pittsfield, Ill., and Runner-up Champion, Billy Younkin, Cecil, Ala.

Click here to read more.

 

This N That- Superior's Regular Sale, Jamison's First Sale and FFA Alert

We have been touting the Select Female Sale of Superior this week- that sale of 10,000 replacement heifers and cows happened yesterday- click here to see the results of that sale.   

In addition to that sale- Superior also has a regular every other week Friday sale as well- set to begin at 8:00 AM central time  today.

Click here for details- about 22,000 head of cattle will be on offer for this satellite and internet live auction.

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Coming up tomorrow in Beggs is the Jamison and Jamison Bull and Female sale- this sale features some excellent Hereford and courtesy of Express Ranches, Angus genetics.  

The bull part of this sale will include 48 Hereford Bulls and 23 Angus Bulls- the Angus bulls being brought in from Express Ranches of Yukon.  Several of the Hereford Bulls are guest consignments from Curry Herefords of McAlester.

Sale Manager Eddie Sims says he has gotten a lot of interest in the set of females that will be sold as well- that includes 150 commercial bred heifers.

To learn more about this sale- click here or call Eddie at 580-492-4590.

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Thousands of FFA members are getting ready this weekend to head the first of this coming week to Louisville, Ky. for the 2013 National FFA Convention.  Over a thousand FFA members from Oklahoma will be there- many of them either competing in National contests, being honored for achievements (like the National Chapter awards where Oklahoma has the second most Gold Emblem chapters in the country) or receiving their American FFA Degrees. In the old days- we called that the American Farmer Degree! 

We will be there all of this coming week reporting in a variety of ways- via this email, on our website, on our SKYPE video updates on News9 and News on 6 in the 5 am hour Tuesday through Friday, in our radio network reports, via Twitter, Facebook, and FLICKR as well on our smartphone App.  We do want to thank the Oklahoma FFA Association and the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association for sponsoring our reports again this year- and we invite you to check back often next week as we report from the city of my birth.

Click here for the Oklahoma FFA website's National Convention page to learn more about some of those who will be representing Oklahoma this coming week!