Today’s Beef Buzz is a special “best of” edition where Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is visiting with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Senior Vice President of Global Marketing & Research, Jennifer Nealson talking about what beef marketing priorities are looking like going into the second half of the year and going into 2023.


Post Covid, Nealson said they have learned that consumers are now doing more online shopping than before. One of the things NCBA is focusing on, Nealson said, is learning how to put beef in the minds of consumers as they are adding items to their cart online.


“We have been working with national programs and big brands such as Sam’s Club, Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and even McDonald’s, DoorDash, and things like that so we can really take advantage of that online platform when people are making choices for their protein and helping them be enticed to buy beef,” Nealson said.


Nealson said they have done some research over the last 5 years on the effectiveness of the “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner” campaign aimed to promote the consumption of beef.


“We have seen ‘Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner’ as a top-tier brand,” Nealson said. “In fact, 67 percent of all consumers find that brand to be recognizable.”


Nealson said they have found that consumption directly correlates with brand recognition with the “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner” brand.


“We know that investing in this brand and being upfront with our brand is driving the purchase of beef,” Nealson said. “When you look over the hood a little bit though, with brand recognition, we have discovered over time the 18 to the 34-year-old category has less awareness of that brand.”


NCBA is starting to turn its attention to not only expanding the awareness and keeping that equity broadscale, Nealson said, but also reaching into the hearts and minds of the younger generations so they can continue to depict beef as the older generation does.


The ‘Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner’ 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Nealson said, will be returning again this year for the third time.


Brand awareness for beef, Nealson said, means focusing more on broadcast and helping people have a fandom for beef.


“One of the reasons we believe that brand awareness has somewhat been depleted over time is that with all of the sophisticated ways we market now, it allows brands to get very targeted with their communications,” Nealson said. “So, we have done just that. What we are learning is that we need to be targeted and we also need to go broad.”


In addition to working with the Beef 300 at Daytona, Nealson said NCBA is working with Tony Romo as a spokesperson to help appeal to a broader audience and the younger generation.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Jennifer Nealson talking about brand awareness for beef.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is back with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Director of Animal Health and Food Safety Policy, Chase DeCoite, talking about animal disease traceback.

DeCoite said while electronic ID tags can be useful for tracing animal disease - there are additional applications that can help carry information for value-added traceback efforts.

“NCBA really is supportive of this program only from a perspective of animal disease traceability,” DeCoite said. “We want those other programs to remain on a voluntary basis and we want those to be market driven and continue to allow our producers to capitalize on what the market demands with some of the program-based electronic identification systems, electronic data transfer, and program cattle.”

NCBA supports the efforts by the USDA to move forward in a way that is solely focused on enhancing disease traceability of the tags, DeCoite said, but as an industry, the more these programs interact in the future to allow producers to comply with the law and do what is best for their operation is always on the table.

“Threats of foreign animal disease like foot and mouth disease, or a disease that we are watching right now such as lumpy skin disease which is occurring in the south pacific- those things are always threatening and, on our doorstep, but probably even more imminent today than it has been in the future as we watch our friends in Australia with their concerns over Indonesia and their outbreak of foot and mouth disease,” DeCoite said.

Australia is on high alert to safeguard their cattle herd, DeCoite said, and the U.S. is watching things closely too because many American citizens travel to Australia.

“We also have a lot of trade with Australia that could be impacted by foot and mouth disease or lumpy skin disease, so we are watching our international components as well,” DeCoite said. “Electronic ID in particular can limit the spread of disease and keep our producers and our nation’s cattle herd as safe as possible.”

Hopefully, DeCoite said, the Biden Administration will be releasing something on this issue sooner rather than later.

“We are looking forward to learning more based on their proposed rule that we expect before the end of the year and look forward to engaging with our agency partners to ensure that rule accurately reflects what the cattle industry really needs and is asking for,” DeCoite said.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Chase DeCoite talking about the future of animal disease traceback and electronic ID.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visited with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Director of Animal Health and Food Safety Policy, Chase DeCoite, to talk about a possible mandatory electronic ID system for cattle in the future.

“A few years ago, during the Trump administration, USDA APHS, rolled out a policy change that would have moved mandatory identification to an electronic ID system,” DeCoite said. “Rather than the current system that is underway, it would have mandated official ID tags that are necessary for interstate movements of animals over 18 months of age and those classes currently under mandatory ID transition to electronic ID.”

The idea of an electronic ID system, DeCoite said, was met with some resistance in the form of lawsuits and such, so instead the agency rolled back that policy change and decided to approach it from a rulemaking process.

“So, we have been awaiting a proposed rule that would transition the mandatory disease traceability identification to an electronic ID,” DeCoite said. “We have seen some movement in Washington on this. We are aware that this proposed rule is currently with the office of management and budget and that means its next step will be to become a proposed rule and announced in the federal register.”

DeCoite said NCBA expects it to become a proposed rule sometime between now and the end of the year.

“NCBA, through our grassroots policy, is supportive of electronic ID and one of the reasons we are is to reduce the amount of time that it takes to do a disease traceback,” DeCoite said. “That is vitally important because, in an event of a foreign animal disease or a disease that occurs every day within the cattle industry, the amount of time that it takes to do that traceback is critical. It means that we could return to commerce faster in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak.”

DeCoite said electronic ID also means the number of animals impacted by potential disease spread in the event of any disease impacting the cattle industry could be reduced.

“We are awaiting the next steps from USDA so we can put in our comments and be supportive so long as that proposed rule is as we expect it to be,” DeCoite said.

Any tag that does not support electronic data transfer will not be in accordance with the new rule that will come out, DeCoite said, so there is some question as to the date the program will go into effect.

“We are also going to be advocating that USDA continues its tag program where they supply a number of tags to the states to increase adoption and to help our producers with that investment to come into compliance with the mandatory identification rules,” DeCoite said. “We would hate to see USDA put out a new rule and a new mandate without having the support they have had for the program over the last several years.”

DeCoite said it sounds like things will move to electronic ID for animals moving forward at an effective date, but NCBA is not certain of what that date will be.

“We will actively be watching that, and we will really be making that ask of USDA to support tag programs that make sure the states and our cattle producers have access to the tags that would allow them to comply with the program,” DeCoite said.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Chase DeCoite on mandatory electronic ID for cattle.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from Oklahoma State University Livestock Economist, Dr. Derrell Peel, talking on K-State’s Agriculture Today about higher beef prices ahead.

“On a longer-term trend, one of the things that is pretty clearly built into the futures is the fact that we have got stronger prices ahead,” Peel said. “The really big picture for the next several months to beyond, even, is numbers get tighter, supplies get tighter, the supply fundamentals really become supportive, and that is priced into both feeder and fed cattle or live cattle futures markets at this point as you look out to the different contracts.”

Peel also talked about the stability of current wholesale boxed beef trade markets.

“Boxed beef is operated in a very narrow trading range really back to about April,” Peel said. “I interpret that to be really kind of a sign that beef demand has been sort of capped, or muted if you will, at the consumer level.”

Beef demand is still fundamentally strong, Peel said, but it has been capped a little because there has been some pressure on the consumers. The boxed beef market is operated in a very narrow trading range, Peel added, and we did not see some of the seasonal patterns that we normally expect coming into the summer grilling season.

“It has just been a very consistent, sideways, narrow trading range,” Peel said.

Regarding the most recent cattle-on-feed report, Peel said as you step back from the numbers and overall trends from the last few reports, you can see fewer heavy-weight cattle being placed and more lightweight cattle, which changes some dynamics.

“Over the last three months, we have placed a lot of cattle that are going to come out in that November and beyond period into the first quarter of next year, but we don’t have as many heavy-weight cattle,” Peel said.

Part of what is helping support the fed cattle market right now, Peel said, is that there are no indications that feedlots are not current, and supplies are seen to be relatively tight through the rest of the third quarter. We will get lighter-weight numbers, later on, Peel added.

“I don’t think it is necessarily a problem for the market, but I do think we have got a little bit of a gap here that is helping support the market,” Peel said.

In regard to cattle inventory numbers, Peel said cattle inventories peaked on a January basis in 2019 and the calf crop peaked in 2018.

“So, we would have predicted that we would actually get into some lower feeder cattle supplies and feedlot production by 2020,” Peel said. “Pandemic disrupted that and pushed some things off into 2021, so we were higher than expected last year.”

The year started with the idea that slaughter would be down, and beef production would drop about 2.5 percent, Peel said, but that had to be revised several times because we are still above a year ago at this point.

“We may come in at the end of the year down perhaps about a half a percent or maybe even with last year,” Peel said. “All of that sets up the idea that again, once we turn the corner, into these tighter numbers, then next year we are probably looking at three to four percent decrease in beef production minimally and it could be even higher than that.”

Peel said there is little doubt that the drought is accelerating the herd liquidation. Starting last year, Peel said we were already in cyclical liquidation again from that peak in 2019, but the drought last year accelerated it and the drought this year has accelerated it even more, so it is taking us lower than we want to be or need to be.

“Mother nature is in control here right now and until things change, we won’t be able to stop the liquidation, then we will stabilize, and we will try to turn around and try to rebuild this thing and that is all going to play out over the next one to three years,” Peel said.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Dr. Derrell Peel give an outlook for the beef market going forward.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from the administrator of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Zach Ducheneaux, at the recent R-CALF USA annual meeting in Deadwood, South Dakota during his Q&A with the audience where he spoke about livestock provisions from the 2018 farm bill and what the FSA has been able to do regarding disaster assistance for livestock and cattle producers.

“The things that we have done in the livestock segment- the resources that we offer producers through the ELAP (Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm raised Fish) program to haul feed and cows where feed or cows are needed, we were able to find that statutory authority within the existing farm bill and disaster programs,” Ducheneaux said. “The change we made to LIP (Livestock Indemnity Program) recently in recognition to the investment that you all make in a baby calf hitting the ground, instead of paying you $150, we have more than doubled that payment because we had the latitude laid out and the flexibility offered to us in the farm bill and in disaster statures.”

Ducheneaux said he is also proud of the fact that FSA now has the ability to pay some of the freight on hauling forage to producers’ cow herds.

“Secretary Vilsack went out there and charged us with addressing some of these things, so when we made that change to ELAP, after talking with Senator Hoeven’s office about how we could improve that for producers in North Dakota during the drought- well yeah, we can actually help pay some of the freight on getting the forage that isn’t in this place to work where your cows are,” Ducheneaux said.

Ducheneaux said his FSA team is working on ways to streamline applications for the Livestock Risk Protection Program.

“One of the things I envision us being able to do is work with cattlemen to get a better understanding annually of what your inventory is like,” Ducheneaux said. “Not RFID- you come in, sign a piece of paper, and say these are my numbers. When you hit eight weeks plus one day of the D3 drought, we can do a payment to you like we did ELRP (Emergency Livestock Relief Program). You have an acreage report in, we know how many cows you got out there, you are enrolled just like a farmer would be with their acreage and their crop so that the payments can automatically happen.”

The last thing producers need after an 8-week drought, Ducheneaux said, is a 6-month waiting period to receive the drought assistance they are entitled to.

“We are trying to find ways to streamline that for the betterment of producers,” Ducheneaux said.

Another question the Ducheneaux was asked had to do with the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program), somehow being tied into the Joe Biden 30x30 plan. The questioner wanted to know how to avoid such entanglement. Ducheneaux communicated to the crowd that these programs are voluntary.

“An important thing to understand is 30x30 or America the Beautiful or CRP- these are all voluntary incentive-based programs and it’s not about taking possession of the land- it is about enabling producers to have some access to conservation dollars on that land and help you all have an income stream for a rental payment for doing the conservation practices if you chose to, or access federal cost share dollars to help do the things that you can’t afford to because you are getting 11 cents for every food dollar to the farm gate,” Ducheneaux said.

While there is a lot of confusion about those programs and if they are voluntary, Ducheneaux said he is a big fan of the CRP program.

“I think we should do more of it and I think we should actually take a look at enhancing the working lands aspect of CRP which is what we do with our grassland CRP program where we have got a lot of acres enrolled to help producers do more thoughtful management of their grazing and receive some compensation for that as well,” Ducheneaux said.”


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Zach Ducheneaux on FSA assistance programs for cattle producers.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is back again today with Kansas State University associate professor and Beef Systems Specialist, Jaymelynn Farney talking about possible forage options for fall of 2022.

One option for some late season forage for those who get some rain, Farney said, is forage sorghum.

“I like the sorghum-sudan or forage sorghum the best for a cattle feed just because it does produce more biomass than pearl millet,” Farney said. “Pearl millet is your much safer grazer. Pearl millet doesn’t have prussic acid. If you want to turn out on that you are pretty good.”

If grazing management is practiced correctly on sorghum-sudan, Farney said prussic acid should not be much of an issue. Some rules of thumb to follow when grazing sorghum-sudan, Farney said, are to not turn out until two feet tall, do not graze it below eight inches and not for more than ten days.

“Typically, if we have normal, good rains, in about 28 days you can rotate back onto that sorghum-sudan, so when I designed some grazing paddock sytems, I like to have at least four paddocks,” Farney said. “In a perfect rain event, you graze each paddock for 10 days, then by the time you are back you are up to 30 days, hopefully you are up to a foot tall.”

Allowing your forage to go below two feet, Farney said, is a recipe for disaster.

“Immediately after a drought breaking rain, you can have high prussic acid because those plants are going to grow as fast as they can, especially if they are in shorter,” Farney said. “So, you do need to make sure that you implement those.”

Farney said in her own experience grazing sorghum-sudan, which is quite frequently, she has had minimal issues.

“I know in Oklahoma there has been some big outbreaks and negatives,” Farney said. “If you stick religiously to those rules of thumb, you are less likely to have an issue.”

The thing Farney said she sees producers struggling with the most is having so many different forage options, but not all of them have scientific data supporting their success.

“I still remember a few years ago okra was the thing everybody said you had to plant- it was the best feed for cattle,” Farney said. “I could not find a single publication anywhere that talked about cattle performance, cattle palatability, cattle preference or anything on okra.”

Farney did a preference study where she planted various summer annuals such as sorghums, pearl millet, mung bean, safflower, and also okra.

“In my set of cattle that year, they refused to touch the okra plant,” Farney said. “I’ve heard from other people that their cattle go out and that’s the first thing they pick out, so we just don’t know.”

With so many options for cover crops, Farney said it can be daunting for producers to decide what to plant.

“I use a tool called the Midwest Cover Crop Council decision tool and that was because I was part of that,” Farney said. “But you put in your operation’s objectives and it helps narrow that list down to a list of plants that meet whatever your specific operational goals are.”


To access the Midwest Cover Crop Council decision tool, click here.

Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Jaymelynn Farney talking about fall 2022 forage options and tips for managing them.

   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to visit with Kansas State University associate professor and Beef Systems Specialist, Jaymelynn Farney talking about planting strategies to improve soil health and forage quality.

“The concept and what we really looked at with the integration of cattle in cropping systems is the ability to reduce the risk within your operation,” Farney said. “By that, I mean strictly from an economic standpoint, it allows you to possibly raise two different crops.”

By raising two different crops, Farney is referring to a cow crop and a grain crop.

“There are several really good benefits to integration,” Farney said.

One of those benefits, she added, includes improved nutrient cycling.

“Typically, when your margins are really good in the cattle industry is when we have our lowest grain prices and vice versa,” Farney said. “So, it allows you to be able to stay within our agricultural community longer. It also has soil health benefits. Manure is one of the quickest ways to add organic matter to your operation, so there are several benefits.”

Planting an annual forage, Farney said, will help to reduce the amount of erosion and help hang on to benefited top soil.

In the southeast area of Kansas, Farney said they grow three crops in two years. The diversity in cropping systems, she added, benefits the soil by not planting the same crop two times in a row.

“We don’t see huge benefits just strictly from the cover crop itself,” Farney said. “We will see greater improvements in our soil properties with the manure. That is where we see a more readily usable form of soil nutrients and especially the organic matter.”

For cattle owners wanting to take the plunge, Farney recommends starting out with something simple.

“It is very complex,” Farney said. “We have got to figure out what your goals are and how to balance each of those components.”

An example of a simple starting approach, Farney said, would be planting sorghum-sudan grass and adding in sunn hemp. This mixture, Farney added, is great for putting nitrogen back into the soil system.   

Farney said is also important to graze these forages properly.

“If you don’t purposefully graze when it needs to be grazed, it can get woody and that does no good for the cattle,” Farney said. “A lot of these, especially the summer annuals, need some rotational grazing, so you need to do some staggered planting dates to be able to keep your quality.”

The bottom line, Farney said, for people wanting to start planting a cover crop is to start with something simple. That way it is not overwhelming, they can have a good experience, and they can learn and improve as time goes on.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Jaymelynn Farney on planting strategies to improve soil health and forage quality.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to visit with Bob Rodenberger, a partner with Stockman Oklahoma Livestock Marketing. Rodenberger and Greg Griffith have a commission firm at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and operate the Apache Auction market.

Rodenberger says that right now, the problem across their trade territory is dry conditions which are shutting down options for forage, and especially for hay.

“Some of your producers have got grass and water, but no hay,” Rodenberger said. “Our smaller operators depend on hay all the time and they will be probably overstocked when we’ve got good rainfall, but they always get through with buying extra hay and there is no hay available for them.”

Rodenberger said they haven’t seen too many young cows come to town yet and are mostly seeing older cows that should have been culled a few years ago come in to be sold.

“I have had very few just complete dispersals because of the drought, Rodenberger said. “Most of them are holding onto half their cow crop.”


In Texas especially, Rodenberger said producers are out of water, grass, and hay.

“I am seeing some of those completely disperse out,” Rodenberger said. “If you got on the phone, I don’t know where you could find hay right now in the state of Oklahoma.”

Even in the midst of drought, beef demand remains good, and cattle prices have been increasing because of that demand. Much of that can be credited to superior genetics compared to years past.

“We are in a premium-based market,” Rodenberger said. “You have got the CAB (Certified Angus Beef) putting a $100 to $150 premium on a carcass, and there are proven cows in genetics right now where I think the industry is around 5 percent on prime total, and you have got cow herds coming in that are 40 to 50 percent prime- there is a huge premium in those.”

Certified Angus Beef has helped drive much of the change in the beef industry.

“In the last five years, I have seen more change in the business then I have seen in the last 40 years I’ve been in it,” Rodenberger said.

Rodenberger said the premium on black Angus-based steers is tremendous compared to other cattle regardless of other factors.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Bob Rodenberger on today’s cattle market.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

   

   

Ron Hays, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, is back talking with Derrell Peel, OSU Livestock Market Economist on insights for cattle numbers going into 2023.

Because the latest cattle on feed report was not a quarterly report, breakdown information between heifers and steers was not available. Many replacement heifers this year have not been retained back into beef herds, which is something Derrell Peel has been watching closely, as it will impact the eventual beef cow herd number in the start of 2023.

“In terms of what is in the feedlots right now, we don’t get that data except quarterly, so it will be October 1 before we get that,” Peel said. “But we do get weekly slaughter data and so when you update that for the most recent data, heifer slaughter so far this year is up 4.2 percent while steer slaughter is down 2.2 percent.”

Peel said total yearling slaughter is just about unchanged from a year ago, but the increase is all in the heifer side.

“If you look at heifer slaughter plus cow slaughter this year, 51 percent of total cattle slaughter is due to female slaughter,” Peel said. “We have not had female slaughter represent more than 50 percent of cattle slaughter since about 1986. So, it is just one more way to see that we really are cutting into our factory, if you will, in terms of the herd of breeding animals and potential breeding animals that we are going to have to work with in the coming months.”

As Peel crunches the numbers throughout the year, he sees a significant decline in the replacement heifer numbers coming up.

“I think the net culling that we calculate, so when we take that beef cow slaughter divided by the herd size, we are going to set a new record on that,” Peel said. “It is almost inevitably at this point going to be over 13 percent, where it typically averages 9.6 or 9.7 percent on a long-term basis, so we are going to be well above that in terms of the net culling that we have done to the herd this year.”

As for beef cow inventory numbers on January 1, Peel said he sees a minimum of a 3 percent decline.

“It has the potential to approach 3.5 or even 4 percent on the upper end or at least 3.75 percent,” Peel said.

In terms of the overall fed cattle market, Peel said there are clearly going to be some limitations on cattle coming out of feedlots and that will help lever that market up.

“At the same time, what we have got going on the other end, of course, is that these feeder prices as we already said are moving up, they are very strong and we continue to see, of course, very high cost of gain, so there are issues on both sides,” Peel said. “I do think overtime that probably is a little bit better for the feedlots, but they are going to be in a little bit of a squeeze here because the other thing they have to do is try to maintain numbers in the feedlot.”

In the short run, Peel said placing these lightweight cattle helps feedlots maintain numbers because they are going to stay on feed a long time even though the turnover rate is going down.

“But, eventually, again, it will catch up with them at some point and they just won’t have as many animals to feed and that is going to add additional pressure,” Peel said. “That probably doesn’t hit now until maybe into early 2023.”


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Derrell Peel on insights for cattle numbers going into 2023.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Market Economist, Derrell Peel, about the latest cattle on feed numbers in the USDA August Cattle on Feed Report released this past Friday.

The August Cattle on Feed Report, Peel said, showed that placements in the month of July were 101.8 percent of last year’s level. Marketings, he added, were 96 percent of last year’s level.

“That gives us an August 1 cattle on feed inventory at 101.4 percent,” Peel said. “So, up one point for four percent year over year.”

With placement numbers being higher than a year ago, Peel said the expectations were for about 3 percent less.

“The fact that we’ve got such drought conditions, and this is really drought driven I think because the drought is forcing us to do things we don’t necessarily want to do, that is what we are seeing here is the drought forcing cattle to move into the market sooner than we planned,” Peel said.

If you look at the weight break downs, Peel said, it is the exact same pattern we have had for the last two months.

“Placements of cattle under 700 lbs. were up 9.5 percent, and placements over 700 lbs. were down 2.5 percent,” Peel said. “So, the net effect was that two percent increase in placements, and it is the exact same pattern we have been seeing with these lightweight cattle coming in and I think they just don’t have an option but to go ahead and market these cattle.”

By continuing the process of pulling cattle ahead and borrowing against the future, Peel said placing them sooner than later will imply that eventually low cattle numbers will result.

The report also reflects quality yearling cattle numbers are tight.

“We are seeing very strong prices for the heavier weight feeder cattle,” Peel said. “They normally go up through the summer, but they have gone up even more than that. I think that reflects the general tightness of cattle supplies in general, but specifically that weight group.”

Even the calves have gotten a little stronger, Peel said, kind of counter-seasonally in the last three weeks.

“We are also seeing on the other end of things, large numbers of cull cows still coming to town,” Peel said. “Cow slaughter is running big, and those prices have stayed quite strong through all of this.”

For about two weeks in the middle of July, Peel said it looked like we might overwhelm the markets. For a short-term basis, he added, the markets did become overwhelmed, but they bounced back.

“There have been some new buyers in the market snapping up these supplies, and so even though the volumes continue fairly strong, the prices bounce right back to really prior levels, and they have been remarkably strong for most of the year except for some of this volatility short term,” Peel said.


To view the August Cattle on Feed Report from USDA, click here.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and Derrell Peel on the USDA August Cattle on Feed Report.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   
   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visited with Chief Veterinary Officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dr, Kathy Simmons about an upcoming webinar to provide cattle producers, state animal health officials, veterinarians and other industry stakeholders interested in learning how to identify the Asian longhorned tick and how to better manage its associated diseases and spread.

It is not every day that a commodity group is able to partner up with USDA on a scientific webinar. Simmons says this is a great opportunity to get the government working together with the cattle industry in order to slow down this invasive pest as much as they can.


This tick poses an exceptionally dangerous threat to those in the cattle industry, Simmons said, because it carries harmful diseases such as Theileria orientalis Ikeda genotype, which is a disease that is an infectious bovine anemia similar to Anaplasmosis in its clinical signs.

Oklahoma is on the western border to where the tick is found. It has been identified in Washington and Benton Counties in northwest Arkansas on the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.

“We are excited about his upcoming webinar,” Simmons said. “It is taking place August 23 and 24, a half day each day in the afternoon. USDA APHIS and USDA ARS have partnered with NCBA, and we are going to talk about ticks in general including the cattle fever tick, but we are really going to focus on this new, exotic invasive tick, the Asian Longhorn Tick.”

During the webinar, Simmons said tick experts will talk about how to identify these ticks, talk about environmental control, and what producers can do to normalize a response.

“We have got the chief veterinary officer, Dr. Rosemary Sifford, talking about normalizing a response, and then we have a very interesting panel of five state animal health authorities in the states that are currently infected with this tick,” Simmons said. “We are going to talk about what they are doing to manage this tick in their state. I think it should be very informative and I encourage all producers to sign up for it, veterinarians to sign up, and anyone who is interested in these ticks- it is free.”

Simmons said increasing awareness is the only way to help stop the spread of this invasive tick species.

“We want people to be aware of this tick so they can report it and take appropriate actions,” Simmons said.

If the spread continues or worsens, Simmons said it could have implications for cattle movement domestically and possibly even overseas.

“It is one more challenge for us in pests and the diseases that they can carry, and we want to be fully armed with the knowledge to accept the challenge,” Simmons said.


Details and registration for this 2-day webinar symposium for anyone interested in learning more about ticks and the cattle industry here in the U.S. can be found by clicking here.

More information about the Asian longhorned tick can be found by clicking here.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and Dr. Kathy Simmons talk about the upcoming webinar to educate on the Asian longhorned tick.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visited with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Senior Director of International Trade and Market Access, Kent Bacus, giving an international trade update.

“I think for us, we are very excited about the growth we have had in 2022,” Bacus said.

Bacus said we are seeing plenty of record export numbers.

“We have got a bit of a bidding war between China, Japan, and Korea over U.S. beef and that is driving a lot of this growth,” Bacus said. “You’ve got tight global supplies. You also have a great image of U.S. beef.”

Global consumers know they can trust the U.S. beef product, Bacus said, and they trust the people behind it.

“It’s a high-quality product, it’s a competitive product, and even with inflation and high prices, consumers are still making that choice and that preference for U.S. beef,” Bacus said. “Overall, we feel pretty good about most of the importers with the exception of one, and most of our concerns with Brazil are based on their commitments to international standards

When you look at other trade policies, Bacus said the European Union driving a lot of issues that are a little more difficult to quantify such as climate and antibiotic restrictions.

“A lot of things are coming out of their Farm-to-Fork program,” Bacus said. “These are all things we are paying very close attention to. The EU is trying to restrict imports even more, even though they have massive food shortages due to the ongoing security issues in Ukraine.”

Instead of looking to trade more with trusted partners, Bacus said the European Union is tightening access and doubling down on the production of plant-based protein.

“We are looking ahead, we are looking for new trade agreements, new opportunities and we would like to see a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom,” Bacus said. “We think that trading with your trusted partners should be a priority. We need dependable trade partners, especially in this new world that we are in with supply chain disruptions and other geopolitical disturbances.”

Bacus said the NCBA is focusing on educating their grassroots so they can direct on how to engage in these trade policy issues.

“European Union uses the size of its economy to its advantage,” Bacus said. “The United States does that too, but we like to think that we are basing our trade standards off of objective science-based standards and really trying to have predictable rules of trade. We have a fundamental difference in how we view science and food production and technology and food production.”

As land becomes scarcer and the climate more vulnerable, Bacus said efficiencies in food production become more important.

“You can’t produce enough food to feed the world without advances in technology and without improvements in efficiency,” Bacus said.

While the United States is embracing the direction of advancing science in food production, Bacus said the European Union is taking a different approach.

“They are using punitive measures on other countries who don’t adopt the same approach,” Bacus said.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and NCBA’s Kent Bacus as he gives an international trade update.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from Kansas State University Extension Livestock Market Economist, Dr. Glynn Tonsor, talking about profitability and demand. Tonsor’s latest feedlot closeout numbers he has posted are showing better times ahead for the feedlot industry.

“Negative returns or break-even returns, small losses, are projected for cattle leaving here in August as well as September, but then starting in October all the way through currently April of 2023, the furthest out month that my projections look at, are all positive returns and real narrowly, the months of November through January,” Tonsor said. “So, cattle will be leaving feed yards- the returns are north of 100 dollars- that is the positive projected return I am talking about.”

Tonsor said is worth noting how those notably improved margins are developing.

“One, is these projections show a lower cost of gain, so corn prices and the like coming back some and moreover output prices,” Tonsor said. “So, the price you are going to get for your finished animal is projected to go up notably for animals leaving the yard.”

Tonsor said to remember that these are only projections and there is still a long way to go until November to see if they are realized.

“The market world is signaling currently that things are going to improve for the cash operators at least in the feedlot space,” Tonsor said.

One of the key factors for cash cattle prices to improve is the continued demand by the consumer. Tonsor said that is especially the case when you look at the retail beef demand.

“Retail- again, think grocery store demand, is actually up for every category I look at except for plant-based patties,” Tonsor said. “So, ribeye steak, ground beef, pork chops, bacon, chicken breasts, and those categories we are always looking at.”

The month of July had stronger grocery store demand than June, Tonsor said, but the story is flipped looking at food service. The willingness to pay to eat out, Tonsor said, was down compared to June with the exception of ribeye steak meals, which was only a two-cent difference.

“If you put a bow around that I think it is again ongoing evidence that consumers are tightening their belts,” Tonsor said. “A little bit less food away from home demand.”

Because over half the country is experiencing a net pay decline, Tonsor said adjustments have been made in household finances. Food demand and meat demand in general, Tonsor added, show this adjustment in spending.

“Nearly a third of respondents in our July survey say they are buying the same thing, but they are just buying less of it,” Tonsor said. “So, buying the same cut, brand, package, whatever, and just getting a lower volume.”

A separate 20 percent of consumers, Tonsor said, are saying they are buying different cuts, so for example, ham instead of bacon. A fourth of consumers, Tonsor added, is buying smaller packages.

“The vast majority of the U.S. public still has a strong interest in meat, but they are responding to the prices, and I just try to give us some flavor of how they are making those adjustments,” Tonsor said.

Beef, in particular, continues to have a really good story, Tonsor said, and the U.S. has had multiple months with over a billion dollars in sales on individual months.

“The month of June marked the 15th consecutive month that we have had year over year export demand growth, so foreign demand for U.S. beef is growing year over year,” Tonsor said.

There is a market for everything, Tonsor said, but sometimes that is a market in Japan, sometimes it is one in Mexico City, and sometimes it is one in Manhattan, Kansas. Even if it is in Manhattan, Kansas, Tonsor said it might be different in the restaurant versus the grocery store.

“Understanding product level mix is also really important here, but certainly on the beef side, there has been additional support from foreign buyers that is one of the reasons I believe you are having higher fed cattle prices,” Tonsor said.


To access Dr. Glenn Tonsor’s feedlot closeout predictions, click here.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Dr. Glenn Tonsor on his latest feedlot closeout numbers and demand in the beef industry.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, got the chance to visit with Kansas rancher and chairlady of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Debbie Lyons-Blythe, talking about individual’s roles in beef sustainability regardless of their place in the beef value chain.

“I think sustainability has been a conversation going on for a very long time,” Lyons-Blythe said. “It began as a very top-down from corporations pushing down regulations and expectations to cattle ranchers and I realized in some of the conversations that I have been a part of, that conversation wasn’t going to stop whether we were a part of it or not. I realized early on that if we were a part of it, maybe we can direct some of the information.”

In the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Lyons-Blythe said, producers make up more than half of the members and are involved in the entire decision-making process.

“I encourage everybody asking questions and trying to see for themselves to come to a meeting so they can see what we are up to,” Lyons-Blythe said. “The U.S. Roundtable gets to make their own decisions. We defined what sustainability is, we decided how we are going to measure it, and we also decided that we are going to measure it all along the value chain.”

The USRSB is not just taking about sustainability at the farm and ranch, Lyons-Blythe said, but also the part everyone along the value chain plays in making improvements that will impact beef sustainability.

“We have been working for a very long time deciding what we can measure,” Lyons-Blythe said. “Figuring out how we can truly communicate sustainability and what that really means. In our spring meeting we finally were able to roll out our industry-wide sustainability goals for the entire beef industry- the first of their kind.”

The sustainability goals for the entire beef industry, Lyons-Blythe said, have targets for every sector along the value chain including targets outside of the farm and ranch.

“A sustainable operation means that we take care of the land, we take care of the animals, we take care of the people, and we make money,” Lyons-Blythe said. “It doesn’t just mean legacy, it doesn’t just mean passing it on to our kids, but that has to be part of it, right. It also means that we are a viable business, and we are doing the right thing by the animals and the land. That is what is important and that’s what we aim to show.”

Online, the USRSB offers a self-assessment tool that introduces what sustainability can mean for an individual’s farm or ranch. This tool, Lyons-Blythe said, offers key factors to measure sustainability and provides self-assessments for different sectors outside of the farm and ranch such as a retail or food service.

“We don’t gather any of that information, so nothing is saved,” Lyons-Blythe said. “If you want to be able to compare it year to year, you have to be able to save that yourself, so we do not want to be the keeper of the data.”

The USRSB’s online self-assessment tool can be found at usrsb.org under the resources tab. To visit the self-assessment tool online, click here.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more about beef sustainability from Ron Hays and Debbie Lyons-Blythe.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   


     

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from Farm Director KC Sheperd’s visit with Dr. Rosslyn Biggs of OSU talking about the veterinarian shortage in rural areas across the country.

When it comes to the reason for the veterinarian shortage, Biggs said there is not one simple answer to the question.

“We have recently had some statistics from the American Veterinary Medical Association,” Biggs said. “This is across all practice types so companion animal, to large animal and everything in between. Something happened in the pandemic where we went from about 3.5 jobs available for every veterinarian looking to now 12.5 jobs for every veterinarian looking which is amplifying our need in the rural space.”

The underserved areas, Biggs said are defined as areas with farmers and ranchers that need services, but the demand in the particular geographic region cannot support a stand-along veterinarian for just a handful of counties.

Biggs also talked about the new Integrated Beef Cattle Program that offers intervention strategies for rural sustainability by expanding veterinary skills and knowledge of herd health, food nutrition, forage management, reproductive management, and other common needs of beef producers.

“We were very fortunate to receive a USDA grant first of all to start this program and we have 20 beef cattle veterinarians in Oklahoma sitting alongside in the same classroom as 20 current veterinary students,” Biggs said. “So, what they started out with was leadership, communication, education, curriculum, and building those relationships and building that network.”

The Integrated Beef Cattle Program is supported by the USDA, Biggs said, as well as through our other sponsors such as the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

Biggs recommends that current rural vets mentor relationships with vet students and invite them to shadow, for example, to encourage them to practice rural.

“Taking a little bit of time to help develop the next generation, inviting them into the practice, showing them what it’s all about and getting them some experience is a great first step,” Biggs said.

As community members, Biggs said to establish relationships with your rural vet sooner than later.

“That 2 a.m. calving call is not when you want to develop the relationship,” Biggs said. “You want to support them, and you want to have those conversations because in my mind, I am a veterinarian and I am a member of your team because I want you to be in business for a very long time and I want you to be profitable and so supporting each other is really key.”

Biggs said she is confident in the skills of the students enrolled in the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine.

“We have a tremendous advantage here in Oklahoma with our veterinary school and we turn out year after year practice ready veterinarians that I will put toe-to-toe with a graduate from any other veterinary school,” Biggs said. “We certainly have our challenges at the school, but I am encouraged with the leadership from the university standpoint as well at the college standpoint that we are making strides in those areas and continuing to turn out great veterinarians.”

With her space being in the large animal sector, Biggs said she likes to encourage students to take that path, but she would like to see successful veterinarians wherever they chose to land.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Dr. Rosslyn Biggs on the rural vet shortage across the country.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   


   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from the new Executive Vice President of Producer Owned Beef, Cassie Fish, talking about the LLC and cooperative for a new beef processing facility in the Texas panhandle.

The 670-million-dollar plant is proposed to be built just east of Amarillo on a 1,000-acre plot. It will have a 3,000 head a day capacity and 1600 workers, all owned by 100 to 150 cattle producers.

On August 10, Governor Abbot announced that 12.232 million dollars from the Texas Enterprise Fund will be awarded to Producer Owned Beef.

“When you think about it, we haven’t built a beef processing plant of this size that can harvest 3,000 head per day since 1992,” Fish said. “So, we can bring the latest building techniques, energy efficiencies, top quality air handlers so we don’t have any odor issues and a really advanced wastewater treatment facility that we are going to clean the water up beyond stream discharge.”

The cattle producers who own the plant come from all over, Fish said, as far as Hawaii and Canada. Regardless of where the cattle producer is from, Fish said they will be required to have the cattle fed in eastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle or in Texas.

“They can live anywhere, but the cattle need to be fed here a minimum of 100 days on feed,” Fish said. “So, this is going to bring some cattle on feed in the state.”

Fish said the majority of the producers live within a couple of hundred miles of where the plant will be.

“What our structure will allow is for the producer to capture that profit on the processing side and keep that money in the region and actually take that profit from the processing plant,” Fish said. “Just being able to capture that additional 100 to 200 dollars per head profit from the packing side- the processing side- and being able to benefit from that plant’s ownership.”

As far as the timeline is concerned, they are hoping to break ground in the first quarter of 2023 and be online buying cattle and processing beef, in the final quarter of 2025.

That will be a challenging time as tight beef supplies will likely be a part of the landscape in 2025, but Fish says they are hopeful to be online selling beef and selling a branded product down the road

“That link between the producers of the product and the consumers is much closer,” Fish said.


Once that regional brand is developed, Fish said they can gain the support of those in the region who enjoy supporting local products.



Thank you to James Hunt, the High Plains correspondent for the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network for providing comments from Cassie Fish.

Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Cassie Fish on the Producer Owned Beef processing plant coming to Amarillo, Texas.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visits with the Chief Veterinary Officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dr. Kathy Simmons as she talks about a new tick invading America that is causing problems for cattle producers and other livestock owners.

“The Asian longhorned tick was first identified in the United States in 2017,” Simmons said. “It was found on a sheep in New Jersey.”

While this tick is normally present in Eastern Asia, Simmons said it has become endemic in Australia, New Zealand, and a few other countries on the Pacific Rim. The Asian longhorned tick is different from other ticks in the United States because females can reproduce without a male, she added.

“It also has a very diverse host group of species,” Simmons said. “We have identified over 25 hosts here in the United States for this tick including birds, giving it greater mobility than some of the other ticks to move around within the United States.”

This tick poses an exceptionally dangerous threat to those in the cattle industry, Simmons said, because it carries harmful diseases such as Theileria orientalis Ikeda genotype, which is a disease that is an infectious bovine anemia similar to Anaplasmosis in its clinical signs.

Animals with an anemia, Simmons said, are weak, can have reproductive issues such as abortions and can even die.

“Theilerioses with this Ikeda genotype has no approved therapy in the United States and no vaccine, so it is very important to control this tick vector,” Simmons said.

Oklahoma is on the western border to where the tick is found. It has been identified in Washington and Benton Counties in northwest Arkansas on the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.

“Currently, it is mostly in the Eastern areas and Southern areas of the United States in about 17 states,” Simmons said. “USDA APHIS has a monthly stakeholder call of all the states where they will tell us what they are doing to try to identify ticks in their state.”

With the surveillance going on, Simmons said 17 states have confirmed cases of the Asian longhorned tick.

A webinar is being put together by APHIS of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Dr. Simmons and her team at the NCBA on August 23-24 from 12 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. to provide cattle producers, state animal health officials, veterinarians and other industry stakeholders interested in learning how to identify the Asian longhorned tick information about how to better manage its associated diseases and spread.


To register for the webinar, click here.
For more information about the Asian longhorned tick, click here.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and Dr. Kathy Simmons talk about the Asian longhorned tick.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is back talking with Oklahoma State University Extension Specialist for Rangeland and Ecology, Dr. Laura Goodman, about factors to consider when developing a plan for drought.

“If we can come up with our plans before we are in this state, that is ideal,” Goodman said. “Figuring out who we are going to cull and who we are going to keep.”

Having some variety in your herd, Goodman said, and not just running cattle is a good strategy for years when there is not adequate forage.

“Another option we are looking at is using multi-species grazing, so mixing goats in pastures with our cattle, and that kind of provides a two-fold benefit that we can use some of the woody plants that stay green during drought for much longer,” Goodman said.

Goats are profitable, Goodman said, and the five-year average for 40 to 60-pound kids is $2.80 per pound. There are many producers who want to integrate goats into their operation but face many questions such as how to deal with parasites, predators, fencing, and more, Goodman added, so OSU Extension can help answer these questions.

“There were a lot of folks thinking about starting this before we ever started talking about it and I think they knew well before we ever started saying anything that this might be a profitable way to manage their land and instead of having to pay for that woody plant control, they are getting something from it and having kids to sell,” Goodman said.

OSU extension research uses livestock guardian dogs such as the Akbash and Anatolian breeds to help protect their goats.

“They are an awesome investment,” Goodman said. “It is an investment, but they pay for themselves. They have really done a great job of protecting those nannies, our mamas, our does, and our kidding on pasture.”

For cattle producers trying to navigate the drought, Goodman said for those who have already sold quite a few animals, to start thinking about a restocking approach for when the drought is over.

“I think we can learn a lot from the 2011 and 2012 drought because it looks like things are going to be fairly similar and prices are going to be high again after we are out of this,” Goodman said. “Also just long term- trying to think about strategies for stockpiling so that you don’t have to destock to the same degree, and also just having flexibility in the number of animals that are on your pastures as much as possible.”

Goodman talked about a new tool called the Rangeland Analysis Platform, which is a webpage producers can visit to outline their pastures and identify where they are at relative to how much forage they normally produce. The webpage is free, Goodman added, and it is a great tool for those trying to make culling or restocking decisions.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and Laura Goodman talk about drought strategy.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

As dry conditions persist, many producers are struggling with sustaining their usual cow herd numbers. Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visits with Oklahoma State University Extension Specialist for Rangeland and Ecology, Dr. Laura Goodman, about pasture and range management strategies to optimize forage growth for the cow herd.

“With the patch burning, we are just burning one portion of the pasture at a time,” Goodman said. “We are allowing those animals to have access to the whole pasture immediately following the burn. Because of the regrowth that happens after the burn and the really high-quality forage that regrows, those animals are really attracted to that area.”

Burning one area at a time, Goodman said the animals can then be moved around and will naturally select the recently burned area to graze. By grazing the recently burned areas, other parts of the pasture are left alone so that forage can be stockpiled for a couple of years if needed, and can be utilized during drought for grazing, she added.

With burning, Goodman said many people worry about what will happen if it doesn’t rain. Goodman said it eventually will rain, and the grasses will be well adapted to burning and grazing.

“We know that the fire can help to stimulate some hormones in that plant that increases budding and tillering, so they grow more when they are burned versus when we only graze them,” Goodman said. “The main thing that is limiting our forage production in Oklahoma is woody plants and trees taking over areas that weren’t forests or woodlands previously. Historically, that is what happened across Oklahoma is that it burned really regularly. That was what killed our Eastern redcedar and kept it from growing in areas that were prairies.”

Burning is not only extremely important for the productivity of rangelands for livestock producers and the livelihoods of rural communities, Goodman said, but it is also important for many species of wildlife.

“We know that our grassland birds are just plummeting and that is because of these trees taking over,” Goodman said.

“Our ranchers that are keeping their pastures as grasslands are really doing us an amazing service,” Goodman said. “There has been some really interesting research from Oklahoma State finding that the water availability in the soil and then the runoff to feed our streams and our stock ponds and stuff is dramatically increased by as much as four and a half times as much water available when you cut all of those cedars off of your pasture.”

In many cases after a drought, Goodman said, we try to restock quickly by keeping a lot of our heifers and purchasing more bred cows or heifers. Research shows that building back the herd slowly and continuing to sell cows and heifers while prices are high immediately following the drought will make more money long-term, she added.

“If we are spending a lot of money when cows are expensive or keeping a lot of heifers when they are worth a lot, that can actually be detrimental to us over the long term versus trying to build our herds back more slowly and only keeping our normal number of heifers,” Goodman said.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Laura Goodman on optimizing forage growth to prepare for dry conditions.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.


   

   

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, talks about national policy issues pertaining to the cattle industry with the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s Executive Vice President, Michael Kelsey.

After attending the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s summer business meeting in Reno, Kelsey said all of the policy discussion was permeated with 2023 Farm Bill prospects.

“That was probably the biggest discussion in Reno, no matter the committee,” Kelsey said. “There are seven policy committees that NCBA has, and it really doesn’t matter which committee you are in; the Farm Bill was mentioned.”

Because of the November election coming up, Kelsey said it is difficult to develop hard policy right now. Most pundits indicate that the House will flip from Democrat to Republican, he added, which will change the leadership and therefore the priorities of the House Ag Committee.

“We are so blessed to have Frank Lucas,” Kelsey said. “He will be back on the Ag Committee and so we will be in excellent hands there. Now, he won’t be the chairman, but he will certainly be sitting right by the chairman.”

It is difficult to set core Farm Bill Policy at the moment without knowing who the majority in the Senate committees will have, Kelsey said, so at the meeting, they set priorities for policy.

“We looked at things like disaster assistance,” Kelsey said, “We need to make sure that we have good quality conversations on the conservation programs like EQIP, CSP, CRP, all the alphabet soup acronyms.”

It is critical, Kelsey said, that more producers know about these programs and use them. They are a safety net, he added, and need to be protected.

“The FMD bank, the vaccine bank, on the animal health side of the farm bill is very critical as well,” Kelsey said.

While the various risk management programs are authorized separately from the farm bill, they are all interconnected.

“It is such a challenge to try to make sure those things fit, make sure they are paid for, and make sure producers know about them and how they work and how they can work with true disasters such as the fire and some of those types of things that we have seen, plus those programs that you can sign up for like crop insurance, etc., and how they can offset some of the disasters, like drought- that we may see and so forth,” Kelsey said.

In Oklahoma, there are five state runoffs that Republicans will be participating in, Kelsey said, such as the U.S. Senate, Labor Commissioner, Treasurer, School Superintendent, and Corporation Commission.

“If you live in the second congressional district, you’ll have that one as well, and that is regardless of your local state runoffs,” Kelsey said. “Some senate districts or legislative districts and then I assume there is probably some county commissioners. I haven’t looked that far down into potential ballots.”

With the runoffs and elections coming up, Kelsey said it is important to show up and vote even if you think your vote won’t make a difference because you never know.

“When we get to that November election, obviously we will have the governor,” Kelsey said. “That will be the top of the ballot. Both Senate seats will be on the ballot. Both have Republicans and Democrats in those races.”
“It is a big year,” Kelsey said.


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ron Hays and Michael Kelsey talk upcoming runoffs, elections, and policy regarding the 2023 Farm Bill.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.