National Ag Day Celebrates 'Generations Nourishing Generations' 

The Oklahoma Farm Service Agency (FSA) suggests that we all take a moment in these turbulent fiscal times to celebrate agriculture and honor our hard-working farmers and ranchers. State Executive Director Francie Tolle announced the theme for National Ag Day, which is today, is "Generations Nourishing Generations".

"According to recent USDA studies, the agricultural sector right now remains a bright spot in terms of economic stability and growth and there is a strong demand for U.S. agricultural products," said Tolle. "Generation after generation of agricultural producers in Oklahoma are getting up early every day to provide the food, fiber and fuel that feed and clothe Americans and others around the world. "

Tolle further notes, "As research advances, the future may be even brighter. New uses for ag products are being found to utilize natural ingredients for life-saving medicines and supply the critical commodities required in a long list of manufacturing sectors."

Despite the onslaught of natural disasters weathered by farmers and ranchers this past year that created less than ideal growing conditions, producers still managed to grow the commodities that keep our economy moving forward. And they maintain our abundant supply of renewable resources in an environmentally sensitive manner. "For their life sustaining efforts, we honor Oklahoma's agricultural producers for their vital contribution," said Tolle.

Click here to read more.  

Crop Conditions Mark Slight Improvements in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas 

Weather conditions for small grains and livestock continued to improve last week across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, albeit at a very slow pace.

In Oklahoma wheat was rated mostly good to fair, with 37 percent rated poor to very poor. Canola condition ratings also improved, but were still rated mostly fair to poor. Only a few showers fell in Oklahoma over the past week, mainly in eastern Oklahoma. March is off to a dry start, and six of the nine districts have received less than half of normal precipitation for the period since March 1st.

 Conditions of pasture and range improved slightly, but continued to be rated mostly poor to very poor. The recent moisture and warm temperatures have allowed for some recovery, but the availability of pasture was still limited. Stock pond levels have improved somewhat but water is still a major issue as summer approaches. Livestock conditions were still rated mostly good to fair.  Click here for the full Oklahoma report.)

Small grains in the Blacklands and North East Texas made gains last week.  Irrigated fields in the Panhandle and South Texas also did well, but dry land wheat across the rest of the state was stressed by a lack of moisture.  Fifty-five percent of the state's wheat crop was listed in fair to good condition with 58 percent in the poor to very pour categories.  (The Texas Crop Progress and Condition report is available by clicking here.)

In Kansas, the winter wheat crop was rated as ten percent very poor, 19 percent poor, 42 percent fair, 27 percent good, and 2 percent excellent.  The condition of Kansas range and pasture was rated as 48 percent very poor, 30 percent poor, 18 percent fair, 4 percent good, and 0 percent excellent. Stock water supplies were rated as 39 percent very short, 30 percent short, 31 percent adequate, and 0 percent surplus.  (Read more from Kansas by clicking here.)

We've Got Pictures- WheatWatch 2013 and a Winter Canola Pictoral Update as Well

We were able to get our and grab some photos of both the 2013 winter wheat crop as well as the winter canola crop- updating our looks at some fields in northeastern Canadian County.

The two wheat fields we have been checking were able to get a decent stand before winter set in and have responded well to the rains received in the last month or so. However, it has been dry since the first of March- and the picture at the top of our story does show the crust of the soil looking dry.   

We also have a series of shots of the same field on our webstory that you can jump to- CLICK HERE to go and see our winter wheat pictures- our shots are from March 18 backwards to mid October when the field was mostly bare.  

Remember- WheatWatch 2013 is a service of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission- click here to learn more about how they are working hard for Oklahoma Wheat producers.  

For the Canola crop- we have been watching a field that looked pretty rough at the beginning of January- it is looking better now but is barely starting to have plants stand up and be ready to grow once we get several days of warmer temperatures.  Again, we have some comparisons on our web page story between the photos of March 18 and early January.  CLICK HERE for the photos and a link to our FLICKR set of 2013 Canola shots.  

Mexican Beef Market Impacts U.S. Beef Industry Greatly, Derrell Peel Says

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

The Mexican beef cattle industry has been severely impacted by the drought the past two years, much as the U.S. has been impacted. Additionally, changes in Mexican domestic beef consumption and beef trade have significant implications for the interaction of the Mexican and U.S. cattle and beef industries in the coming years.

Mexico emerged as a major customer for U.S. beef in 1997, replacing Canada as the second place export destination behind Japan. Mexico remained the number two market until 2004 when it became the number one export market for U.S beef following the first BSE case in the U.S. Mexico remained the top beef export market until 2011 when it dropped to number two behind Canada. In 2012, Mexico dropped again to third place behind Canada and Japan. Beef exports to Mexico have declined every year since 2008, with 2012 levels less than half of the peak exports in 2008. More disturbingly, beef exports to Mexico have declined while pork and poultry exports have continued to expand. U.S. pork exports to Mexico have increased 77 percent since 2008, while poultry exports have increased 31 percent over the same period. U.S. beef dropped from 36 percent of total meat exports to Mexico prior to 2009 to less than 13 percent of total meat exports to Mexico in 2012. 

Derrell Peel has more on our web page.  Click here to go there.

 

The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation welcomed Japan's request to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and urged the United States and other TPP countries to swiftly accept the Asian nation into the regional trade talks. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his country's intention to participate in the negotiations last week. 

"The addition of Japan to the negotiations will exponentially increase the importance of the TPP to pork producers and to other sectors of the U.S. economy," said NPPC President Randy Spronk, a pork producer from Edgerton, Minn.  (You can read more of his comments by clicking here.)   

OSU Livestock Well-Being Specialist Introduces Herself and Her Reasearch to Pork Producers

A recent addition to the faculty is Dr. Michelle Calvo-Lorenzo.  She is a Livestock Well-Being and Environmental Specialist in the Department of Animal Science.

She recently spoke at the Pork Congress in Midwest City to introduce herself and some of the avenues of research she hopes to pursue at OSU.  She spoke in more detail with me after her talk.  She said she was very excited to be named to the position at OSU.

"This is a position that is going to allow for me to achieve my personal goals.  In not coming from a farm background and getting involved in food production as a scientist has been so much fun.  It's been wonderful, so eye-opening, an appreciation for farmers and what they do to produce food and see all the challenges that they are dealing with every day.  So, by taking this position, I feel like I can give back to them and I can, essentially, provide that data that helps them defend their practices or help them improve those practices.  As a scientist my role is to remain as unbiased as possible so that everything we evaluated is fully evaluated in an unbiased fashion.  And, so, to be able to do that for farmers and to teach students about how we do that and why we do that and to teach them to communicate that to everyday consumers or to their friends or their families is tremendous."

Click here to read more or to listen to our full conversation.

This N That- Big Iron, CR and Furloughs and OYE 

The next regular weekly auction for Big Iron closes tomorrow morning at 10 AM central time- and there are several Oklahoma consignors that have some of the 641 items that you can check out.

Click here for the Big Iron website and the opportunity to review all of the items- the Big Iron folks have got some excellent search tools to help you zero in on the items that you have the most interest in- check it out!

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Even with Congress poised to pass a continuing resolution that would give agencies flexibility to address spending priorities - congressional, agency and union officials say furloughs are still likely. USDA spokesperson Courtney Rowe says more than 92-hundred meat inspectors will still be forced to take 11 unpaid days starting in July and spread out through the end of the fiscal year. She says the 53-million dollars in sequester cuts to the Food Safety and Inspection Service - which spends 87-percent of its budget on personnel - would not be offset by new flexibility.

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There's a lot happening today at the Oklahoma Youth Expo- the start of the Barrow show at 8 AM, the Doe Kid Show starts also at 8 AM and the Breeding Ewe show starts after lunch.  Also- after lunch- "This One's for the Girls" will be happening- and that includes News( KWTV's anchor Amanda Taylor as a special guest.  Finally- this evening- lawmakers will be out to participate in the 2013 edition of the Legislative Showmanship competition. Check out our calendar page to learn more.