Category: Top Ag News

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 16:06:36 CDT

Dry conditions this fall in the winter-wheat-producing Southern Plains are already taking a toll on the newly planted 2023 crop, USDA NASS reported in its weekly Crop Progress report. However, some pa…

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 13:34:53 CDT

Big agricultural groups say a proposal from the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring companies to report their carbon footprint could drive small farmers out of business.

Skeptics say it …

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 12:54:41 CDT

The 2022 U.S. HRS crop recovered from last year’s historic drought. This crop has many positive attributes, including higher supply levels, strong grading characteristics, little to no DON and s…

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 08:47:57 CDT

As Oklahoma’s severe drought continues, many farmers and ranchers are faced with tough business decisions, especially when it comes to selling off livestock earlier than anticipated.

With the…

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 15:00:06 CDT

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Karstyn Cantrell of the Skiatook FFA Chapter heard her name called on Saturday afternoon in the final moments of the 2022 National FFA Convention and Expo- and that meant that she will be one of six national officers for the National FFA organization over the next twelve months. Cantrell was selected this week to serve as the Central Region National Vice President of the 580,000 member organization.

Each year during the National FFA Convention and Expo, six students are elected by delegates to represent the organization as national officers. Delegates select a President, Secretary and Vice Presidents from the country’s Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Regions.
Throughout their year of service to the National FFA Organization, the officers will interact with business and industry leaders; corporate sponsors; government and educational officials; state FFA leaders; the general public and thousands of FFA members. The team will led personal growth and leadership training conferences for FFA members throughout the country and help set policies that will guide the future of FFA and the next generation of leaders.

After the final gavel of the convention- Senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays talked for a few moments with Karstyn- who said her heart was still beating fast from hearing her name called in the final conventions General Session. She added that she felt at peace throughout the week as she engaged with the nominating committee in a variety of settings. She had the advantage over other candidates in that she was a national officer candidate last year- and that experience allowed her to understand that she needed to prepare for a poential year of service instead of just preparing for the process of being interviewed and compared to the other candidates.

Cantrell says that she was able to show the Nominating Committee the “real me.” As for who that is- “I told the nominating committee that I’m Karstyn and that when you look at me you see someone who production agriculture and the ag industry has shaped into someone who is outgoing and professional and polished but also poised. You know, I walk with that purpose and that humble attitude because of the way that ag industry and the FFA have shaped me.”

She told Hays earlier that growing up on a fourth-generation cow-calf operation, that she feels lucky to have deep family roots within the agriculture industry. The transition to being involved in the FFA at a young age, she added, was seamless.

Early on in her FFA career, Cantrell said she learned the value of saying “yes” after listening to advice from a peer in her chapter.

“She told me to simply say yes,” Cantrell said. “Anytime there was a sign-up on the board asking if we wanted to participate in contests or camps or conventions, I always took that piece of advice and said ‘yes.’”

You can hear their complete conversation by clicking on the Listen Link below.

You can go back to just before the National Convention and hear their earlier conversation and read more by clicking here.

Click here for the National FFA release detailing information of all six national officers that will be serving together over the next year- taking a year off from college in the process.

The picture above shows Karstyn Cantrell second from the right as the new National Officers hold the gavel.

Ron Hays talks with Karstyn Cantrell about being elected as a National Officer of the FFA

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Fri, 28 Oct 2022 11:59:43 CDT

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At the American Society of Agricultural Consultants Annual Conference, Farm Director, KC Sheperd, got the chance to visit with the Senior Staff Attorney at the National Agricultural Law Center, Rusty Rumley, about energy leases and foreign ownership of agricultural land in the United States.

“Some of the hot topics that we are working on right now are the 2023 Farm Bill- we are looking at development there,” Rumley said. “We have had a lot of interest in environmental laws such as Waters of The United States. We are seeing movement for foreign ownership of ag land, and increasingly, we are seeing a lot of interest in solar developments.”

There has been quite a bit of development in Oklahoma, Rumley said, especially on the wind side in the last decade.

“We probably are going to be seeing a lot more solar going forward,” Rumley said, “With the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law back in August of this year, there is a lot of money out there for renewable energy.”

Over the next ten years, Rumley said he expects to see much further development of renewable energy, particularly solar.

“For the landowners, if you are careful in signing the contract and you put a lot of forethought, and you use a good attorney to make sure that you are signing a good deal, these can be pretty lucrative for the landowner,” Rumley said.

Rental rates for energy leases can range from 400 to 1600 dollars an acre, Rumley said, so over the course of many years a landowner can see a significant cash flow come in.

“These are long-term leases, so it is going to be really important that you look at all the potential ramifications before you sign it,” Rumley said.

With the average ag of the American farmer being around 58 years old, Rumley said in many cases, it will be the kids or grandkids that will be dealing with the lease in the future.

“It is really important that you think this through not just for your own sake but for your kids and grandkids sake as well,” Rumley said.

One important part of the lease to pay special attention to before signing, Rumley said, is who is paying for decommissioning the project at the end of the lease.

“A lot of the ones I have seen don’t have that kind of language in there, but there is nothing stopping the landowner from reaching out to the company and saying, ‘hey, there is nothing in here about cleanup- let’s figure something out on this type of language.'”

Rumley also talked about the increase in foreign ownership of agricultural land.

Long-term leases, Rumley said, fall under the umbrella of foreign-owned land, so many wind projects that have investors from the Netherlands or Italy are classified as foreign owned land.

“Those long-term energy leases are also considered foreign-owned land under the AFIDA (Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act) Statute, so we really don’t know how much of it truly is foreign-owned,” Rumley said.

Land may be owned and farmed by American farmers, Rumley said, but if there are a few wind turbines or solar panels on that property owned by foreigners, the land is classified as foreign-owned land.

There are many misconceptions, Rumley said, about who owns a majority of the foreign-owned land.

“A lot of the land here in the United States is owned by the Canadians,” Rumley said. “Specifically, forest land.”

With the modern economy we have, Rumley said it is hard to determine who owns what.

“Land is sometimes owned by individuals, but a lot of times it is owned by companies such as LLCs or corporations,” Rumley said. “Who is going to be shareholders of those corporations? Are there subsidiaries of those corporations? You know, you have a bank that takes a farm in foreclosure. Well, if some of the shareholders of that bank are foreign entities, now you have foreign-owned land because you have got foreign investors of the bank that hold it.”

Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear KC Sheperd and Rusty Rumley talking about the latest issues in ag law.

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Thu, 27 Oct 2022 19:06:02 CDT

Eight winners of the 2022 Agricultural Proficiency Awards were named during the third session of the 95th National FFA Convention & Expo on Thursday, Oct. 27, which is being held in Indianapolis

Ag…

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 14:59:38 CDT

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This Week on SUNUP is Oklahoma State University Extension grain market economist Kim Anderson. During this week’s edition, Anderson talks about the commodity markets, factors influencing prices and more.

Anderson said this week there have not been any big moves in the markets.

The wheat market is continually moving lower, Anderson said and is around 9 dollars now. Looking at the corn market, Anderson said prices are moving sideways.

“The range from $7.36 to $7.68, currently around $7.60,” Anderson said. “Really sideways corn movement.”

Soybeans are moving sideways as well, Anderson said, as soybean prices have ranged from 14 dollars to $13.30 in the past month.

“Those prices, again, are just moving sideways, and that just tells you not much movement in the market,” Anderson said. “Now with cotton, you go back two months, we had $1.18 cotton, we are down to around 76 cents now. You go back a week; we were around 85 (cents) and dropped off- came up just a little bit.”

43 percent of U.S. cotton acres are predicted to be abandoned, Anderson said, and cotton production is estimated to decline by 21 percent.

“But if you look at the world cotton production, it is right at average, so we have cotton in the world- we just don’t have it in the United States,” Anderson said.

Recent rains in many parts of the state, Anderson said, will not have any impact on prices or forward contracting, but it will make life easier for farmers.

“It increases the odds they are going to have bushels to sell, and it is going to let them sleep at night, and when you sleep at night, you make better decisions,” Anderson said.

Ukraine is still gaining some territory, Anderson said, and Russia is having some issues regarding Putin’s war efforts.

“November 19 is the deadline for allowing Ukraine to export agricultural products, and Russia has got the make a decision on that,” Anderson said.

This week, Anderson said there has been talk of a diesel shortage in the markets.

“They are talking about the levels of diesel in storage haven’t been this low since 2008,” Anderson said. “The reason for that is we were importing Russian oil that was coming into the gulf refineries, and they were refining diesel. That oil has been cut off, so we have less diesel being refined, and we are running into a diesel shortage.”

This doesn’t mean farmers and truckers cannot get diesel, Anderson said; it just means they are going to have to pay a higher price for it.

“If you need a large amount of it, you better plan ahead on getting that diesel,” Anderson said.

This week on SUNUP:

• Amanda De Oliveira Silva, OSU Extension small grains specialist, says the recent rain may have saved the wheat crop for a lot of producers.
• Wes Lee, OSU Extension Mesonet coordinator, discusses how the rain impacted the soil moisture map. State climatologist Gary McManus shows us the improvement in the drought picture.
• Derrell Peel, OSU Extension livestock marketing specialist, says even though the recent rain won’t help the hay situation, it could help with wheat pasture and other cool season forage prospects.
• Mark Johnson, OSU Extension beef cattle breeding specialist, discusses bull selection.
• Kim Anderson, OSU Extension grain marketing specialist, says cotton prices continue to take a hit.
• Becky Carroll, OSU Extension fruit and nut specialist, explains why the recent freeze could be a problem for a lot of pecan growers.
• Finally, Rosslyn Biggs, OSU Extension beef cattle specialist, discusses a program to address the veterinarian shortage in rural communities.

Join us for SUNUP:
Saturday at 7:30 a.m. & Sunday at 6 a.m. on OETA (PBS)
YouTube.com/SUNUPtv
SUNUP.okstate.edu

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Thu, 27 Oct 2022 05:20:44 CDT

The latest episode of the Road to Rural Prosperity takes us to Lawton, Oklahoma where the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association hosted a Guberantorial Forum ahead of the November General Election. According to a statement from the two groups that was read ahead of the event- “After the general election matchups were in place- the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association discussed the need to learn more about the positions on a variety of rural issues of the two leading candidates for Governor. The groups decided that a Forum with those candidates would help inform their membership and all of rural Oklahoma leading up to the November 8th general election. The groups extended an invitation to both the Republican and Democratic nominees for Governor on September 26th. The GOP nominee and incumbent- Governor Kevin Stitt replied and confirmed right away.”

However, Democratic Nominee Joy Hofmeister was a no show. The statement explained to the audience “The Democratic candidate, State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister was contacted at the same time as the Governor but was non committal- On the 10th of October- both campaigns were provided with a list of topics that we might cover in this Forum- topics that are important in rural areas of our state and in many cases- have not been front and center in other public conversations between the candidates- most notably the NonDoc KWTV online debate of a few days ago. Contacts continued with the Democratic nominee and were made via email, text, phone calls and in person- but no definitive answer came from the Democratic nominee until yesterday.   
“At that time, via email- the campaign signaled that Democratic challenger was busy today and that she would not be participating.”

Both groups were disappointed that the Democratic nominee was not there- but expressed appreciation that the Governor made time to talk rural issues with the farm and ranch community.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays was the moderator for the Forum- and today’s Podcast episode is the audio from the event- the conversation that Hays had with the incumbent Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt.

You can also click here for the link to Soundcloud where you can listen to the Forum- or look for the Road to Rural Prosperity whereever you listen to Podcasts.

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 10:18:33 CDT

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Associate Farm Editor, Reagan Calk, got the chance to visit with the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association’s Director of Communications and Special Events, Ashley Tucke…