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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oklahoma Back to Being Drought-Free After Record Rainfall in November, Gary McManus Explains

Oklahoma is currently free from drought, thanks to its wettest November on record.  State Climatologist Gary McManus said Oklahoma officially ended the month with 5.99 inches of rain.  That's the most rain received in a November since 1895.


In addition to the Sooner state being free from drought, the latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows only 14.19 percent of the state suffering from abnormally dry conditions.


Widespread precipitation in the form of rain and freezing rain in the last week improved soil moisture conditions and enhanced streamflow activity.  McManus attributed the extra precipitation to extremely strong El Nino temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.  He said this has created a warmer-than-normal temperature pattern across much of the northern U.S. that might mean more rain events for Oklahoma as opposed to snow events throughout the remainder of the winter season.

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Oklahoma's Pork Producers Wait for WTO to Announce Retaliation Over COOL

 

Oklahoma's pork producers continue to wait for a ruling from the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law. As early as next week, the WTO will issue the retaliation levels permitted by Canada and Mexico to execute. Canada and Mexico have said they are entitled to $3 billion in retaliation and the U.S. has claimed it's only $90 million. Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Director Roy Lee Lindsey said that's a big gap, so he thinks the next step by the U.S. Senate will be determined by the WTO's retaliation levels.


"My guess is that if numbers are on the bottom end of that, if it's closer to $90 million - the Senate's going to remain reluctant to make many changes," Lindsey said. "But if that number comes in closer to the top end, then I think the pressure on the Senate really gets ratcheted up to actually take a vote."


The House of Representatives in June voted 300-131 to repeal COOL. The U.S. Senate has delayed taking a vote to repeal COOL until these retaliatory levels are released. In response to repealing COOL, Former Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow introduced legislation to make COOL, a voluntary program. Lindsey said Canada and Mexico have signaled that they will not accept the Stabenow plan- and since they have already won the WTO case against the US- it's their call.  Both countries have indicated they will only back away from retaliation if the US repeals COOL.


"This is just going to drag on forever," Lindsey said. "The only way we're going to avoid retaliation at this time is repealing Country of Origin Labeling. 

 

You Can hear our full conversation with Roy Lee about COOL by clicking here. 

 

By the way- Roy Lee Lindsay is our guest for this weekend's In the Field segment that is seen on KWTV News9 in Oklahoma City- You can see Roy Lee and yours truly at 6:40 AM tomorrow morning.

Animal Ag Alliance Explains Why Antibiotics are Needed for Animal Health Care

 

One of the hotter topics animal agriculture has had to deal with in 2015 has been antibiotic use in animal production. Hannah Thompson of the Animal Ag Alliance said this is a challenging subject for most folks involved in livestock production. There are a lot of different production practices out there and it's very different between each species. Thompson said recently a lot of poultry companies made announcements about no antibiotics ever and phasing out antibiotics, but that's very different from beef or pork. Unfortunately, consumers don't understand those differences.


"Of course, antibiotics are a very critical tool to animal care," Thompson said. "So, I think a lot of people don't understand that. Even if a farm or a restaurant or a retailer has a no antibiotics ever policy, if that animal gets sick they need to be treated and usually they are, then they are sold in a different channel. So we need to make sure those alternative channels remain open, antibiotics remain a tool that farmers use to ensure animal health."


The Animal Ag Alliance also strives to monitor the efforts of animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), that want to see the end of meat consumption in the U.S. Thompson said HSUS has broken it down with an incremental changes approach. HSUS works to get certain practices phased out. One example is the egg laying industry's change to cage free production. Making those changes can require large capital investments and this will force more farmers to go out of business. As producer's have adopted the new requirements for producing eggs, Thompson said HSUS staff members have already said that cage free production isn't good enough because the chickens don't have outdoor access and that the chickens are too overcrowded.


"We're already starting to see those changes go into effect and the goal post is just going to continue to move until there is no production agriculture," Thompson said.


Click or tap here to listen to today's Beef Buzz- which is part two of a two day run on the Beef Buzz with Hannah.

OSU's Kim Anderson Cautiously Optimistic for Wheat Prices in 2016

 

U.S. wheat prices turned higher this week. Part of that can be attributed to the value of the U.S. dollar decreasing by a couple of points. On this weekend's edition of SUNUP, Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Specialist Kim Anderson said wheat prices rallied ten cents higher in the futures market than cash prices. He said some elevators in Oklahoma lowered their basis by a dime. That lowered the local cash price by ten cents.


SUNUP host Lyndall Stout asks Anderson about the outlook for wheat prices. While there isn't much volume in the market during this holiday time period, he said with fewer buyers there will be both rallies and declines in the market. He said farmers will have to wait to see where prices are in early January, because that will set the stage for the 2016 year.


In looking at 2016 harvest prices, Anderson said the wheat market has reached the floor and all the negative news has been accounted for in the market. He said right now the July Kansas City wheat futures contract is 20 cents higher than the March contract. Basis levels are also lower for July than March right now. That's a 40 cent premium, so that makes Anderson semi-optimistic for wheat prices for 2016.

 

 

Click or tap here to listen to the full interview and find the SUNUP show lineup.   

 

We are proud to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update. On both the state and national levels, full-time staff members serve as a "watchdog" for family agriculture producers, mutual insurance company members and life company members. 

 

Click here to go to their AFR website  to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!

American Soybean Association Hails Senate Acceptance of Transportation Bill Conference- Including Crop Insurance Fix 

 

 

The American Soybean Association hailed news last night that the Senate approved the conference report on the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, more familiarly known as the Highway Bill. The final legislation is formally titled the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, and will now head to President Barack Obama for signature.


Providing funding certainty for road and bridge construction and maintenance was a priority for ASA in the legislation, as well as reversing the $3 billion in cuts to crop insurance that were included in the bipartisan budget deal passed in October.


"The cut to crop insurance was a dealbreaker for soybean farmers and we're very relieved to see these cuts reversed," said Wade Cowan, ASA's president and a farmer from Brownfield, Texas. "Soybean farmers across the country rely on crop insurance in times of extreme weather to ensure they can stay in business to farm in the coming year. An ill-advised $3 billion in cuts would have severely hobbled the program, and we're happy to see them reversed." You can read the complete statement from he ASA by clicking here.

 

 

Meanwhile- opponents of the Crop Insurance program continued their campaign to keep the budget cuts.  The Environmental Working Group is the group that has led the attack on Crop Insurance since the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill - and they continue to claim that the proposed $3 billion cut in crop insurance subsidies in the recent federal budget deal would not "kill the crop insurance program- adding that it would merely cut the fat from the industry's cost of doing business, according to a new analysis commissioned by EWG.


The report by Dr. Bruce Babcock, agricultural economist at Iowa State University, is titled Cutting The Fat: It Won't Kill Crop Insurance. It shows that lowering the excessive rates of return enjoyed by the industry, as proposed last month in the budget agreement, would have no impact on the availability of crop insurance policies or the premiums paid by farmers.

 

Click here to read more about the report, Cutting The Fat: It Won't Kill Crop Insurance.

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USDA to Collect Final 2015 Crop Production and Crop Stocks Data

 

As the 2015 growing season comes to an end, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will contact producers nationwide to gather final year-end crop production numbers and the amount of grain and oilseed they store on their farms. At the same time, NASS will survey grain facility operators to determine year-end off-farm grain and
oilseed stocks.


"These surveys are the largest and most important year-end surveys conducted by NASS," explained NASS's Oklahoma State Statistician, Wilbert Hundl. "They are the basis for the official
USDA estimates of production and harvested acres of all major agricultural commodities in the United States and year-end grain and oilseed supplies. Data from the survey will benefit farmers and processors by providing timely and accurate information to help them make crucial year-end business decisions and begin planning for the next growing and marketing season."


The Oklahoma Wheat Commission is urging farmers to participate in the effort to gather information that will be compiled, analyzed and then published in a series of USDA reports, including the Crop Production Annual Summary and quarterly Grain Stocks report to be released January 12.  Click or tap here to read more about how responses to the survey will be utilized.

Behlen Country- A Featured Exhibitor at the Upcoming 2015 Tulsa Farm Show 

 

2015 brings to Oklahoma the 22nd Tulsa Farm Show, which has grown into the most successful farm and ranch show venue in the state of Oklahoma. 

 

 

One of the featured exhibitors at the 2015 Tulsa Farm Show is Behlen Country. Eric McVey says that Behlen will be showing off their Cattle Chutes and a lot more. He talked with Dave Lanning of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network ahead of the 2015 Tulsa Farm Show- and we feature his comments in a special audio report you can hear by clicking or tapping here.

 

 

By the way- we will once again have a booth at the Tulsa Farm Show- and look forward to having you stop by and say howdy.

Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, P & K Equipment, American Farmers & Ranchers, CROPLAN by Winfield, KIS Futures, Farm Assure, Stillwater Milling Company, Pioneer Cellular, National Livestock Credit Corporation and Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis- at NO Charge!

 

 

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