Featured Story:

It was truly a night of Destinee Thursday evening at the 2013 Oklahoma Youth Expo- for the first time in history- one exhibitor won a pair of the Grand Champion trophies- Destinee Johnson from Tipton FFA pulled the trick off by winning both the Grand Champion Market Goat title as well as owning and showing the Grand Champion Market Lamb.  We talked with Destinee after her historic performance- and you can hear that plus see the full list of Breed Champions in the Market Lamb show and the Division Winners in the Wether Goat Show- click here for all of that.

Meanwhile, the Grand Champion Market Steer was shown by Myhla Tsterman, a high school freshman and a FFA member from Hollis.  Click here for the full rundown this Grand Champion (with pictures) and the list of Breed Champions in the steer show of 525 animals here in 2013.

Finally- we salute the Grand Champion Barrow winner- Kate Jackson of Mountain View- Gotebo 4-H.  Click here for more on her story- a picture and the full rundown of the breed champions and reserves for the huge market barrow show- about 2,400 were seen by the two judges over a three day period.

We remind you that we took lots of pictures last night- and a bunch of the entire week of the OYE to date- click here for our photo set for the 2013 OYE as seen on FLICKR.

We understand that the Sale Order for the Sale of Champions will be out by around 10 AM this morning- we will post a link to it on our website on the Blue Green Gazette,  The Sale of Champions is today at 4 PM at the State Fair Arena.

Tyler Schnaithman of Garber Leads All State Academic OYE Team

Eight top FFA members were honored as Academic All Staters by the Oklahoma Youth Expo on Thursday evening, The Acadmeic All State Program is designed to model athletic all state programs in which a select few are recognized for their outstanding achievement and dedication to success. Each of the eight Academic All State members were awarded a $5,000 educational scholarship.


Ranked first among the eight All State Winners was Tyler Schnaithman of the Garber FFA. We talked with Tyler last night- click here to listen to our conversation- and a chance to see a picture of the full group of Academic All State Winners.

NCBA Applauds House Passage of Continuing Resolution Funding FSIS Inspectors

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) applauds the action of the House and Senate as the House passed H.R. 933, the continuing resolution which contained a similar amendment to that which passed the Senate yesterday. The amendment, authored by Senators Roy Blunt of Missouri and Mark Pryor of Arkansas would shift $55 million from the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) accounts to pay Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors through Oct. 1, 2013, when the new fiscal year begins. The bill now heads to the President's desk for his signature.

"This is great news for every segment of American agriculture," said NCBA President Scott George a cattleman from Cody, Wyo. "With this shift of finances, Congress was able to avoid the crisis created by the administration and keep FSIS inspectors in the plants where they belong. While cattlemen and women were disappointed Secretary Vilsack threw in the towel on his agency's 107-year-old duty to provide federal food safety inspections, we sincerely thank Senators Blunt and Pryor for ensuring the nation's food supply will not be limited by politics." 

Click here to read more.  

Finally, A Positive Drought Forecast, Gary McManus Says

Oklahoma has been faced with a "drought to persist or intensify" forecast from the Climate Prediction Center each few weeks since last summer, or at least it seems that way, that the latest forecast brings much better news, at least in the long run, says Associate State Climatologist Gary McManus.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report is basically the same as last week, save for a bit more relief showing up in northwestern Oklahoma. Portions of Woodward County and the surrounding area went from Extreme (D3) drought to Severe (D2) drought on word of an improved soil moisture profile.

With the spring rainy season just around the corner, the latest U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook for the current period through the end of June has good news for the northeastern half of Oklahoma. Far northeastern Oklahoma is entrenched in the "drought likely to improve" area, while to the southeast, they get the "drought ongoing, some improvement" label. 

Click here to read more and to see the latest drought monitor maps.  

Canola College Presents 'Fantastic Opportunity' for Growers, Ron Sholar Says

Agricultural producers interested in learning how to maximize their canola production can register now to attend the March 28 Canola College in Enid.

"It's a fantastic opportunity to learn from and speak with leading experts in the field, and interact with more than 200 new or veteran canola producers and industry members," said Ron Sholar, Great Plains Canola Association (GPCA) executive director. "This will be the premier canola education and training event in the region for 2013."

Sholar will appear with me on this Saturday's "In the Field" segment. It will air about 6:40 a.m. Saturday morning on News 9. 

Sholar just returned from Washington where he met with representatives of canola producers across the U.S. He said there is tremendous optimism about the canola industry right now.

"We have become the second leading producing area in the country here in the Great Plains, led by Oklahoma. And that's not going to change in the foreseeable future. There's tremendous potential for this crop." 

You can listen to our conversation and read more about Canola College by clicking here.

Wheat Prices Jump on Short-Covering, Kim Anderson Says

This week old-crop wheat jumped 40 cents and new-crop wheat jumped 26 cents. Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Specialist Kim Anderson explains why in his preview to this week's SUNUP program:

"I think we're seeing a rise because funds are covering their short positions. We've been talking about that for the last six or eight weeks that they had near-record short positions in wheat. They're covering those positions by buying both old crop and new crop. It's driving the prices higher."

He says the difference in price rise between the old and new crops is mainly due to who is purchasing in the markets currently.

"I think we're seeing the higher new crop because-and we've talked about this in the past, too-wheat is being used as in the ethanol plants. There's some concern in the markets about relatively tight wheat stocks moving into that, plus wheat exports have been good over the last month or so."

You can read more of this story or listen to Anderson's audio analysis as well as seeing the full lineup for SUNUP by clicking here.  

Signup Deadline for Stocker Receiving Management Conference is TODAY- and Magness Cattle Sale is Set for Sunday

Our friend Greg Highfill is now the Extension Educator for Woods County- and he has a quick reminder about a cattle conference planned in Alva on Monday- Greg tells us "Friday is the last day to sign up for the 2013 OSU Stocker Receiving Management Conference in Alva.  Fee can be paid at the door - just need meal count. Call 580-327-2786 to sign up."

**********

This Sunday- it's the Magness Land and Cattle Company spring production sale at the ranch in Miami, Oklahoma. This sale will feature 100 plus Registered Limousin and Lim-Flex Bulls- for details click here for their website and catalog of this weekend's sale.

**********

We apologize for the lateness of today's email- some technical challenges have pushed us a little later than normal. We do remind you that we will be covering the Cattle Raisers Convention in Ft Worth on Saturday- look for our Tweets from the 2013 event- they always have a dandy!