Kim Anderson Says Market Prices Point to Benefits of Adding Canola to Wheat Rotations 

With harvest over and Oklahoma's winter crops now in the ground, producers and economists are going over the numbers and determining just where we stand. Kim Anderson, Extension grain marketing specialist with Oklahoma State University was among those attending the Fall board of directors' meeting of the U.S. Canola Association taking place in downtown Oklahoma City. I caught up with him and we talked about the recently-released USDA reports and the impact of canola on Oklahoma producers.  

Anderson said that one thing that surprised him following the release of the USDA's Crop Production report and the World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimate report after the federal government shutdown was the closeness of trade estimates to the official numbers. He said the markets responded early with slightly higher prices, but as the reports are digested, those increases may not hold.

"Looking at the market reaction, you've got a 30-plus cent increase soybean prices, you've got a 20-plus cent increase in corn prices, but reading the trade's response to the report, especially with corn, the trade thinking right now is that corn price increase may be short lived, that we haven't seen the bottom in corn prices yet, that in the near future corn prices will probably come back down lower than their level of before the report."

With canola gaining ground as a truly viable crop in rotation with wheat in Oklahoma, Anderson said that will definitely impact the bottom lines of producers.

"I think the opportunity is here now for a rotation crop with wheat. We needed it for a long time. We needed to break that disease cycle. We needed to break that weed cycle. And what we've seen over the last two years in wheat-we've seen a well-above-average basis that gives us a higher price than we would have had otherwise because we had a good protein, high-quality product to sell on the world market."

You can listen to our conversation or read more of this story by clicking here. 

Regional Crop Planting Nears Completion, Progress and Condition About Average 

Planting of small grains was almost complete across Oklahoma and the emerged crops were rated in mostly good condition according to the latest Crop Progress and Condition report issued yesterday. Wheat planting was 97 percent complete, and 90 percent of the crop had emerged by Sunday, six points ahead of the five-year average. Condition ratings of canola improved and were rated mostly good, with 17 percent rated as excellent.  (Click here for the full Oklahoma report.)

Precipitation across Kansas averaged about half an inch, preventing some remaining crops from being harvested and hampered some farmers in getting their wheat seeded.  Winter wheat emerged was 92 percent, near 91 last year but ahead of 87 average. Wheat condition rated three percent poor, 33 fair, 58 good, and 6 excellent.  (You can read the full Kansas report by clicking here.)

Winter wheat planting continued in Texas, but was was suspended in parts of East Texas due to wet field conditions. In the Plains, small grain irrigation was active and additional rainfall was needed. Some producers reported light fall armyworm pressure.  Seventy-two percent of the state's wheat crop was listed in fair or good condition with 20 percent listed as poor or very poor.  (Click here for the Texas report.)

Lessons Learned in Growing Oklahoma Canola Industry Shared at US Canola Meeting

A panel of growers and industry representatives of the Oklahoma canola industry talked about how Oklahoma has grown the winter canola business from a few thousand acres to approximately 300,000 acres for the 2014 crop. The panel was a part of the Fall Board of Director's meeting of the US Canola Association, meeting in downtown Oklahoma CIty this week.

One of those on the panel was the Assistant Manager for the Kingfisher Wheel Brothers Grain Elevator, Randall Varnell. Varnell explained how Kingfisher County farmers embraced canola with some reluctance in the early days- with the relationship warming up rapidly in the last couple of years.

Varnell said that one or two producers in an area would try a few acres, then the next year they would expand their acres with their neighbors watching and the next year would often see those neighbors giving canola a try in one or two small fields. Now, up and down the major roads in the county- you find field after field of what has been wheat planted to canola.

Varnell says it has been a learning curve- and the thing that has kept many farmers in his community on the sidelines is the need to swath canola before running the combine through the field. Varnell says if we could get canola to a point where it could be straight cut- many more farmers would step up and include canola in there operation.

Click here to listen to our conversation.  

Unbalanced Reporting Damaging to Future of Domestically Produced Fuel, NCGA President Says

The following is a statement from National Corn Growers Association President Martin Barbre on the Associated Press's story today on corn ethanol and land use:

"Today's controversial story on corn ethanol and land use appears to simply be based on a complete misunderstanding of modern agriculture generally and the Conservation Reserve Program specifically, but unfortunately, the problem is much deeper. It is discouraging that the Associated Press appears to be following a political agenda which clearly targets our only renewable alternative to imported petroleum. Even the headline is a colorful but inaccurate indictment. - 'The secret, dirty cost of Obama's green power push.' Secret? There are no secrets in how land is used, as their own reporting shows. Acres are tracked, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantees a high level of transparency. No, these watch words 'secret' and 'dirty' show clearly that the reporters were sensationalizing the issue to a high degree, which is conduct unbecoming a true journalist."

"The fact is, farmers are doing a better job every day of meeting the dual challenges of productivity and sustainability. Land use per bushel is down 30 percent and soil loss is down 67 percent since 1980. Thanks to renewable corn ethanol, we're using 465 million fewer barrels of oil each year. Thanks to corn ethanol, rural economies are improving. And, yes, the air is getting cleaner. We have no regrets about these outcomes." 

New Rules Allow Aerial Hunting of Predatory Animals in Oklahoma

Aerial hunting of depredating animals is now legal in Oklahoma under emergency rules recently approved by the governor. The rules were adopted by the state's Board of Agriculture October 1 and were approved by Gov. Mary Fallin on October 29.

The aerial hunting rules establish regulating and permitting requirements of hunters and their aircraft. Under the law, hunters who have a permit may kill feral hogs, coyotes and crossbreeds between coyotes and dogs from an aircraft.

Permits for aerial hunting cost $200 and will be issued by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. Hunters will also need to submit proof they own the land on which a hunt is to take place or to submit proof from the landowner that they have permission to hunt. Proof will also have to be submitted that the hunter has $300,000 worth of liability insurance. Permits will be good for one year.

Click here to read more of this story. 

How Much Hay Will a Cow Consume? - Glenn Selk Wants to Know

Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter:

Estimating forage usage by cows is an important part of the task of calculating winter feed needs. Hay or standing forage intake must be estimated in order to make the calculations. Forage quality will be a determining factor in the amount of forage consumed. Higher quality forages contain larger concentrations of important nutrients so animals consuming these forages should be more likely to meet their nutrient needs from the forages. Also cows can consume a larger quantity of higher quality forages.

Higher quality forages are fermented more rapidly in the rumen leaving a void that the animal can re-fill with additional forage. Consequently, forage intake increases. For example, low quality forages (below about 6% crude protein) will be consumed at about 1.5% of body weight (on a dry matter basis) per day. Higher quality grass hays (above 8% crude protein) may be consumed at about 2.0% of body weight. Excellent forages, such as good alfalfa, silages, or green pasture may be consumed at the rate of 2.5% dry matter of body weight per day. The combination of increased nutrient content AND increased forage intake makes high quality forage very valuable to the animal and the producer. With these intake estimates, now producers can calculate the estimated amounts of hay that need to be available.

You can read more from Glenn Selk by clicking here. 

This N That- Big Iron Wednesday, Snag Surrenders and  Slumming with the NAFB

Items on the weekly BigIron.com auction begin closing at 10 o'clock this morning.  There are 347 items up for sale today and you can check them all out by clicking here. 

Remember- you can give Big Iron District Manager Mike Wolfe a call and he will be delighted to answer your questions and walk you through either the buying or selling process on the Big Iron website. Give Mike a call at 580-320-2718.

*************** 

Suspected cattle thief Larry G. (Snag) Smith, Jr. surrendered to the Pontotoc County Sherriff's office in Ada yesterday. Smith appeared with his lawyer to turn himself in. He is being held on $500,000 bond. Smith is being held in connection with the theft of 99 cattle belonging to Jet McCoy. The theft occurred the first week of October in Allen. 

The Oklahoma Department of Ag's law enforcement division worked with local authorities and the special agents of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers to work this case.

Earlier- the agents previously arrested David Wallace of Atwood in connection with this case. Wallace and Smith face charges for cattle theft and conspiracy.   

**********

We are in Kansas City for the next couple of days for our annual rubbing of elbows with other farm broadcasters from across the United States- along with several hundred farm and agribusiness leaders who like the idea of having a microphone and/or camera stuck in their face over and over again to get their insight on the agricultural news of the day- or to provide information about their new and better than ever product or service.

This is an organization that has been around since the late 1940s even though farm radio broadcasting goes all the way back to the inception of commercial radio in the 1920s.  The big boomer radio stations in the 20s, 30s, 40s and even into the 50s were all about providing a lot of great farming and ranching information to their listeners scattered across the countryside. 

In the 50s- TV was added to that mix- and several famous personalities from the 60s and 70s preceeded me on the airwaves in Oklahoma and as leaders of our farm broadcast group.  You may remember some of the names- Wayne Liles and Bill Hare on KWTV News9, Russell Pierson on Channel 4 in OKC as well as on WKY radio before it turned to Spanish programming. For many Oklahomans in the southwest part of our state- the rich vocal tones of Earl Sargeant were heard over the 620 AM signal of KWFT- a station that has these days disappeared into the Dallas metroplex as the Disney radio outlet.

Helping Russell on WKY for several years was our friend Ken Root- who continues as a veteran farm broadcaster in the state of Iowa.  I look forward to seeing Ken and many other friends within the industry over the next few days- and I hope we can find a nugget or two to share with you when it comes to the latest farm and ranch news as generated from this 2013 annual meeting of the NAFB.