Featured Story:

The effects of last summer's drought continue to unfold and will continue for some time yet to come says Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel. In this week's Cow/Calf Newsletter, Peel looks at how far beef cow slaughter rates have to decrease until an expansion in the cow herd can take hold.


In the aftermath of last year's drought, it is taking some time to determine where the industry is with respect to stopping herd liquidation and beginning the process of herd rebuilding. The first consideration is that the drought continues in force in the Southwest; in parts of the intermountain Rockies; and in the Southeast. Some additional drought forced liquidation is occurring in these regions, though the magnitude of the impacts on the broader market is much smaller than last year. The aggregate numbers suggest that an 18 to 20 percent year over year decrease in beef cow slaughter, combined with the slight increase in beef replacement heifers reported on January 1, will be needed to stop beef cow liquidation in 2012. Even sharper decreases in beef cow slaughter will be required before any beef cow herd expansion is possible.

Beef cow slaughter is currently down 6 percent from last year, not enough to stop additional liquidation. However, the drop in beef cow slaughter has been much more pronounced lately. In the last 4 weeks or reported slaughter data, beef cow slaughter has averaged nearly 18 percent less than the same period last year. In the most recent data, weekly beef cow slaughter was 26 percent less than one year ago. If the current reductions in beef cow slaughter persist for many weeks of the year, stabilization of the beef cow herd inventory, or even fractional growth in beef cow numbers, is possible in 2012. 

Please click here to read more from Derrell Peel.

Small Grains Remain Way Above Average in Latest USDA Crop Reports 

Above average temperatures and wind continued to dry out the soil, especially in the Panhandle, where extreme drought conditions were still present. Wheat continued to develop ahead of normal with the high temperatures, and limited subsoil moisture from the past year remained a concern in some areas.

Conditions continued to be rated mostly good for all small grains, and all stages were ahead of normal. Wheat heading was

97 percent complete by the end of the week, 17 points ahead of last year and 33 points ahead of normal. Forty-one percent of the crop had reached the soft dough stage of development, far in advance of the five-year average.

Fifty-three percent of the winter wheat crop is in good condition, 22 percent is excellent, 20 percent is in fair condition, and only 5 percent is listed as poor or very poor.

Forty-nine percent of the canola crop is reported in good condition, 23 percent in is excellent shape, 23 percent is in fair condition and five percent is in poor or very poor shape.

Texas reports 34 percent of its winter wheat crop is in poor or very poor condition, 30 percent is reported as fair, 28 percent is good, and eight percent is excellent.

Forty-eight percent of the Kansas wheat crop is in good condition, 33 percent is fair, 11 percent is excellent, and eight percent is poor or very poor.

You can find the full Crop Condition Report for Oklahoma by clicking here.

Farm Loan Volumes Rise, Finances Strengthen According to Agricultural Finance Databook

Non-real estate farm loan volumes rose in the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve System's Agricultural Finance Databook.

Survey data from the week of Feb. 6, 2012, showed that loans for farm machinery and equipment held at high levels with a sharp jump in the volume of intermediate-term loans made for unspecified purposes. With low cow inventories lifting feeder cattle prices, banks also made larger short-term loans to the livestock sector. However, strong farm income for crop producers kept operating loan volumes relatively flat heading into planting season. Farm loan portfolios at small and mid-sized banks increased by almost a third compared to last year, and farm loan portfolios at large lenders grew by more than 20 percent.

Though loan volumes rose at both large and small agricultural lenders in the first quarter, the composition of their farm loan portfolios varied. Large banks made more intermediate-term loans that were typically rated as moderate risk. Small and mid-sized banks had a larger share of short-term operating and livestock loans that were generally rated as low risk. However, small and mid-size lenders also had a higher concentration of long-term farm real estate loans in their farm loan portfolios compared with large lenders, heightening their exposure to a potential correction in the farmland market. Still, farmland values continued to climb in the fourth quarter even with more farmland for sale at year-end. 

You can read more about the rising volumes in farm loans and find a link to the full Kansas City Fed report by clicking here.

NPPC Praises Domino's For Rejecting HSUS Pressure On Sow Housing

Domino's Pizza shareholders last Wednesday rejected - by a majority vote of 80 percent - a resolution from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) requiring its pork suppliers to stop the use of gestation stalls. The National Pork Producers Council hailed the move as a vote for common sense.

"The vote to reject the HSUS resolution was a vote for common sense," said NPPC President R.C. Hunt, a pork producer from Wilson, N.C. "We appreciate Domino's belief that America's farmers, veterinarians and other animal agriculture experts are better suited than activist groups to determine what the best animal care practices are."

Animal activist groups recently have influenced several prominent foodservice companies, including McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, to make poorly informed decisions on sow housing. 

Click here for more on the push back delivered to HSUS in its efforts to bully livestock producers.

CanolaTV- The Art of Swathing As Described by Heath Sanders of PCOM

On our latest episode of Canola TV- we consider the "art" of swathing your winter canola. To help explain this and other choices for the harvest of this year's crop, we call on Heath Sanders as he talked during the recent Spring Canola Field Tours held by OSU Extension and several industry partners, including PCOM.

Agronomist Heath Sanders of PCOM talked with producers at one of the Canola Field Tour stops this sprng about harvest options for the 2012 winter canola crop. One that seems to have gained a lot of favor is swathing. Sanders goes into detail about how to know the crop is ready for swathing, equipment for swathing and finally how to know the windrow is ready for harvest.


Once the crop has been cut, Sanders says it can take from two to six days depending upon weather conditions for it to dry down. A typical moisture content of less than ten percent means it's time to roll the combine. Sanders told producers that he had seen canola ready for the combine in three days and sometimes up to ten days after the swathing has occurred.

Heath does an excellent job of explaining the options of harvest- and if you have canola this season- click on the link and take just a few minutes to get out in the field with Sanders learn more about this "art" of swathing your canola for maximum harvest. Our Canola TV features are found on our website, as well as on the WinterCanolaTV channel of YouTube, and these reports are a service of PCOM.

 You can catch all of Heath Sanders' suggestions about swathing on Canola TV by clicking here.  

Choice Boxed Beef Prices Up, Finished Cattle Prices Down--Ed Czerwien Tells Us Why

In this week's beef report, according to Ed Czerwien, USDA Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas, said we saw the choice cut market end the week April 28, 2012 at $190.27 cwt last Friday which was $2.00 higher than the previous week, however it plateaued out by the end of the week. It was supported by a $12.00 increase in the 50 percent trimmings price. The spot trade volume however was the lowest in quite a while.

The general trend in the finished cattle trade was $1.00 to $3.00 lower last week with live sales mostly at $119.00 cwt to $120.00 cwt in the South.
Dressed sales were $4.00 to $6.00 lower with most sales at $194.00 cwt.

The average live weight from the Texas Panhandle was 1,228 pounds, up a pound from the previous week.

Click here to go to Ed Czerwien's weekly audio report analyzing the beef markets.

This N That- FFA, Wheat Harvest, Weather Worries

The 86th annual convention of the Oklahoma Association of the FFA kicks off with their first general session of the 2012 convention set for 10:00 AM this morning.  One of the events that we have had the opportunity to be a part of for a lot of years is the Stars Over Oklahoma Pageant- and the naming of the three Stars of Oklahoma Agriculture for 2012 has been relocated from Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon, happening at the same time as the proficiency awards are handed out.  Our videos are ready and we will post them on our website as soon as the young people who are being honored hear their names called in the Cox Business Center. By the way- we now have the video of our visit with State President Courtney Maye up on our website- this from Saturday on News9, KWTV- Click here to take a look. 

According to Mark Hodges of Plains Grains, Inc- "The 2012 HRW wheat harvest will reach the Blacklands/Hill Country (south of Dallas) next week.  Wheat development is some 2 to 3 weeks ahead of normal for most areas of the central and southern Great Plains."  Mark recaps the fall and winter growing season of this year's crop- and begins the season of wheat harvest reports that we will be receiving from him- read the full report by clicking here. 

For the second night in a row, areas of Oklahoma were pounded by high winds, heavy rain and hail.  There was also damage out in the country in Grant County because of tornadoes.  First light this morning will give folks a chance to get out and assess what damage is out there- both to out buildings but also the 2012 winter canola and winter wheat crops.   Email or call us if you get a chance and let us know how your crops made it through the night- we are so close to a tremendous harvest in our canola and wheat fields- we are praying like many of you for a chance to get those field successfully harvested in the near future!  Email me by clicking here or call me at 405-473-6144.