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Evelyn Browning Garriss told cattle producers gathered in Ardmore on Thursday at the first ever Texoma Cattlemen's Conference "Welcome to the new normal." Garriss was speaking in climatological terms- saying the US can expect more heat waves and drier weather for not just the next year or two- but perhaps for the next few decades.


She considers herself a historical climatologist- and we talked with her after her presentation about a number of factors that are influencing the changing weather patterns of the last several years.


Garriss began by pointing out that the twenty year period from 1981 through 2000 was a very benign weather period- especially for the United States. Agriculture got used to relatively few growing challenges- espeically in the US Corn Belt- and that the weather of the last couple of years may be what "normal" looks like in the next several decades.


She bases her long term outlook on things like the water temperatures in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans as well as Volcanic activity. For example, she blames the record heat of last summer on a pair of large volcanic eruptions in the northern hemisphere that occurred in 2011. These volcanoes threw enough rock and ash into the air that it caused a huge amount of arctic air to get trapped up around the North Pole last winter- allowing the winter of 2011-12 to be very warm, and those warm conditions turned into the record heat of last summer. In addition to the volcanic effect- the Atlantic Ocean water has warmed up compared to the benign period of the 1980s and 1990s- and that added to the heating of the heartland. 

Click here to read more- and more importantly- to listen to our conversation with her- she is a fascinating lady when it comes to all things weather.

Inhofe Files Amendment to Delay EPA Action Against Farmers and Ranchers 

Senator Jim Inhofe has introduced an amendment to the Continuing Resolution that would delay the EPA's Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule to ensure Oklahoma's farmers and ranchers are not unfairly targeted by regulations that are intended for commercial energy industries. 

It had been expected the amendment could come up for a vote as early as yesterday.

Inhofe spoke about the amendment on the Senate floor Wednesday evening. Click here to see Inhofe's comments.  

Year-End Cattle Numbers Show Slippage In Net Value of Beef Exports

Land grant universities from around the country are all a part of the Livestock Market Information Center. They work together when it comes to discovering economic information about the livestock industry. Jim Robb is the director of the LMIC based in Denver. He has just released his year-end report, "The Net Value of U.S. Beef Trade for 2012."

Jim spoke with me in the latest Beef Buzz.  What do the numbers tell us?

"The net value really means we take the value of our beef exports, which includes the biggest factor-beef cuts that consumers eat, and that category was, on a dollar value basis, up slightly in 2012. Our tonnage of beef exports actually declined. Many of the other items we export in the beef complex, which includes hides and tallow and greases, variety meats, and even some cattle. And those categories, in many cases, were softer than a year ago. We put it all together--the export side was down slightly from a year ago, down about two percent."

Click here to read more from Jim Robb or to listen to our conversation in the Beef Buzz.

Soy Checkoff Helps Poultry and Livestock Farmers Track State Environmental Regs

A new state-by-state audit funded by the United Soybean Board (USB) aims to support poultry and livestock farmers by helping them keep track of environmental rules and regulations. The 2012 Environmental Regulatory Audit of Animal Agriculture helps poultry and livestock farmers by providing information about water-quality regulations, air-quality regulations, discharge restrictions and general permitting information plus facts about state and federal environmental assistance programs.

USB commissioned the audit to help fellow farmers involved in animal agriculture wade through what can be a complicated web of regulatory language and restrictions. Having this information will not only assist these farmers with their own operations, but could help them improve relations with their communities and neighbors.

"This report needs to be read by soybean farmers and poultry and livestock farmers," says Laura Foell, soybean farmer and USB director from Schaller, Iowa. "It's important for us as soybean farmers to understand what the impacts of these environmental regulations are for the U.S. poultry and livestock sectors, who are our No. 1 consumers of soy meal."

You can read more by clicking here. 

More is Better: Rain, Snow Improve Oklahoma's Drought Picture

The latest drought monitor map for Oklahoma shows the coverage of extreme to exceptional drought has decreased from 67 percent to 62 percent in the last week. The state now sees a significant amount of the state, 17 percent, that has improved to moderate drought conditions for the first time since December. Unfortunately, there was a bit of expansion in the exceptional category in far southwestern Oklahoma, which has missed out on the recent relief.

The latest changes are prompted by last week's storm system that hit the northwest and southeast after skipping much of the rest of the state.

Statewide, year-to-date rainfall averages 3.78 inches, about .61 inches above normal or 119 percent of normal. February 1st through March 14 ranks as the 14th wettest such span since 1921.

The forecast looks fairly dry for the next 5 or 6 days, but there is a storm system lurking a bit after that, just now starting to show up on the 7-day rainfall forecast.

Click here to see the latest Drought Monitor map.

Horse Slaughter, New Farm Bill, Free Enterprise Top Concerns for AFR President

At a recent news conference at the state capital, farm groups representing Oklahoma expressed their support for legislation to allow horse slaughter facilities to once again operate in Oklahoma.

I spoke about several issues with Terry Detrick, president of American Farmers and Ranchers. He will also be my guest on this Saturday's "In the Field" segment on News 9 Saturday morning about 6:40 a.m.

He said it is imperative that Oklahoma producers be allowed to care for their animals and to have adequate, affordable, and humane means available to them when it is necessary to dispose of them. He, along with representatives from other farm groups, took exception with national animal rights groups that have made the capitol a battleground over this fundamental issue.

He also said that, as the president of an insurance company, there are very important issues that they are tracking throughout the legislative session.

"There is a major issue with us as an insurance company in that the state-funded group that handles workers comp is now wanting to branch out into other areas of insurance. And it's hard enough to compete in Oklahoma just to make sure we keep our rates competitive and we're still there to pay the bills with all the storms we've had. The last five years in Oklahoma have just been horrible for insurance companies especially on the property insurance side. If we've got to compete with some government-funded company where they get assistance from the outside, that's not going to be good for free enterprise. It's just not going to work."

Detrick also spoke about the new farm bill and implementing COOL.  You can read more or listen to our interview by clicking here.

This N That- Goodbye Kathleen, Tweet Alert and This Week in Agribusiness 

Kathleen Merrigan has resigned as deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency's No. 2 job.

Merrigan, an organic-foods expert, "played a vital role in the department's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative," which focused on locally grown food, as well as the agency's budget cutting efforts, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday afternoon in an e-mail. No reason was given for her departure.

Exactly when she will leave and her future plans are not known at this time. Merrigan said she is hopeful that she was able to open USDA's doors a little wider during her tenure, inviting new and discouraged constituencies to participate in USDA programs. With Secretary Tom Vilsack at the helm, aided by very talented and dedicated USDA employees,  Merrigan said she can leave fully confident that USDA will thrive and continue to improve its service to the American people even during these difficult budget times. 

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We will be tweeting today from the Oklahoma Pork Congress at the Reed Center in Midwest City.  In addition- you might want to go to our twitter listing to see the many tweets we posted during the Texoma Cattlemen's Conference in Ardmore yesterday.  Click here to jump over to see what we are saying as Ron-on_RON. There's a lot of great information that we are able to pass along via this stream of tweets- and some fun as well- for example, we wondered via Twitter about the proper pronunciation of the word "libido" as Dr. Ron Gill of Texas Agrilife was making his presentation.  What do you think? 

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This weekend- we are pleased to make a return appearance on "This Week in Agribusiness" with Max and Orion. The program can be seen on Saturday and Sunday on RFD-TV- at 7:00 AM Saturday and then 5 AM and 5 PM central on Sundays.