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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured Story:

Freezing Temps Saturday and Sunday Raise Red Flags Over Status of 2016 HRW Wheat Crop

 

 
Temperatures across Oklahoma on Saturday morning and Sunday morning fell well below freezing in much of the winter wheat and winter canola growing areas in the state. The graphic here from the Mesonet shows the number of hours below freezing as of Sunday afternoon that reflects the total number of hours from both mornings that temperatures were below 32 degrees.




The 2016 winter wheat crop is somewhat behind normal development, based on the March 14th Crop Weather Update, which showed just ten percent of the Oklahoma wheat crop had reached jointing at that point. However, the numbers of hours below freezing and how cold it got will figure into what the damage. Mark Hodges, with Plains Grains, Inc, told us Sunday that "I have significant concern- probably most concerned about the areas below 25 degrees for several hours where wheat was in the most advanced stages (the southwestern quarter of Oklahoma). Like always, it will likely take several days to assess any damage.

"On the positive side, we have generally very good root systems, very good tiller development and with favorable weather from here on out(relatively cool with adequate moisture), there is still in most cases time to recover." Mark adds a good example of that kind of recovery happened in the April freeze of 1997.

We also talked with Mike Schulte of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission- and he says we will have to wait for about a week before freeze damage will become evident- and there are a lot of factors that will determine how much damage there is on almost a field by field basis.

Click here for our complete story with additional maps and thoughts from others in the wheat industry about what the below 32 degree temps may have done over the Palm Sunday weekend.

$1.1 Million Dollars Generated by Sale of Champions at OYE- Including $75,000 for 2016 Grand Champion Market Steer 

 
The Sale of Champions that helped conclude the 101st Annual Oklahoma Youth Expo this past Friday afternoon turned out to be the second best premium sale ever for the Oklahoma City spring show. OYE officials estimate that $1.1 million dollars was invested into the lives of 211 Oklahoma 4-H and FFA students that qualified market animals for the sale.

At the top of the sale, the Grand Champion Market Steer brought the second highest total ever- $75,000. The Steer, owned and shown by Baylor Bonham of Newcastle FFA, was purchased by a buyers consortium that included Express Ranches, Livestock Nutrition Center, Lopez Foods and Bank of Western Oklahoma.

The Grand Champion Market Barrow was second to sell- and a consortium of buyers also pooled their money and paid $30,000 for the Barrow shown by Karli Schwerdtfeger of Stratford 4-H. Her barrow was the Grand Champion Hampshire market hog- and the buyers groups included Oklahoma State Fair, the Tom Gilliam Family and Stockman Auction Oklahoma.


The Grand Market Lamb was the Crossbred Champion and Makensie Goggin of Bethel 4-H owns and watched with excitement as her lamb brought $21,000. That bid came from yet another consortium of Touchstone Energy, Cusack Meats and the Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma. In the case of both the Barrow and the Lamb, the price received by the owner of the Grand saw a price for their animal under that of the record 2015 Centennial but higher than the prices for the Grand Champion of that species in 2014.


The Grand Champion Market Goat owned by Megan Greathouse of Ft. Gibson FFA ended up with a bid of $12,000 that was paid by a group that included Show Rite Feeds, McDonalds and the Diamond Hats.


Click here for our complete webstory that also details the sale of the Reserve Grands and the Bronze Medallion winners.

Our thanks to ITC, Your Energy Superhighway for sponsoring our 2016 reports about the OYE. 

AND- we remind you that our FLICKR album of OYE pictures is online for you to check out- we have over 2,000 photos up there and we still have a few more to add from the day of market animals being shown last Thursday. 

 

Cattle on Feed Placements Jump Ten Percent Above a Year Ago- Tom Leffler Calls Report Negative

 
The March US Department of Agriculture Cattle on Feed Numbers came in higher than a year ago- and according to Tom Leffler with Leffler Commodities, the numbers "came in a little larger than expected- that's real negative part of this report."


According to USDA, Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.8 million head on March 1, 2016. The inventory was one percent above March 1, 2015. Leffler says that this is the largest March first on feed number of the last three years and the largest on feed number thus far this calendar year.


Placements in feedlots during February totaled 1.71 million head, 10 percent above 2015. Net placements were 1.65 million head. Pre report guesses were 8.5% above a year ago, so the placements at ten percent higher than March first of 2015 is somewhat bearish.

It's worth noting that we have seldom seen placements larger than a year ago- as this is only the fourth time in the past two years we have had placements above the placement figures of a year ago. One of the reasons that Placements ended up above a year ago- Texas placements spiked twenty one percent above that of a year ago.

Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 1.59 million head, 5 percent above 2015- the marketings were close to what traders were expecting.

Click here to read more and a chance to listen to Tom talk with us about the Cattle on Feed numbers for March.

Jimmy Emmons Talks No-Till, Cover Crops and Soil Health with Yours Truly In the Field

 

Soil Health is developing into a movement that many farmers across the country are buying into- using practices like no-till, crop rotation, cover crops and more. And one of the leaders of this movement in Oklahoma is Dewey County wheat and canola farmer Jimmy Emmons.

Emmons, currently serving as the Vice President of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, started incorporating no- till into his farming operation in 1995- and now has a complete no-till operation, defining that as "a compelete no till operation is zero till- it would be no tillage, no vertical tillage and you would be just opening a small slot in the ground to place the seed in the residue and the dirt."

We recently sat down and talked with Jimmy about his No Till efforts- and how that is a foundational part of the Soil Health efforts being promoted by many in the Conservation movement. Click here to both see our conversation with Jimmy that was aired this past Sunday morning on KWTV, News9, as well as the chance to listen to our more in depth audio Q&A.

 

 

If You Are a Monarch Butterfly- It's ALL About the Milkweed- So BASF Has Established the Living Acres Initiative

 
It's all about the Milkweed. At least, it is if you are a Monarch Butterfly. The Monarch is one of the most beloved insects in the United States- and the annual journey that Monarchs take from Mexico up into the United States and eventually to Canada is nothing short of amazing. According to Dr. Harold Coble, that journey is totally dependent on Monarchs finding Milkweed along their flight paths. And in recent years, that has become problematic.


Dr. Coble, a Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University, has worked with BASF on research that has considered the best ways to establish milkweed plots in non crop areas along the traditional fight paths that Monarch Butterflies take from Mexico across the United States- including in Texas and Oklahoma. The Monarch will only lay its eggs on a Milkweed plant- and the number of Monarchs that are able to make their journey northward each year is dependent on finding milkweed plants to establish their next generation.


Click here to learn more about the need for Milkweed by the Monarch Butterfly- and how BASF is promoting planting of Milkweed patches along the normal migratory path of the Monarch to rebuild the numbers of the popular insect.

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Southern Plains Wheat Disease Update- Dr. Bob Hunger of OSU

 

Ag Groups Unite to Support EPA in Lawsuit Seeking to Ban Seed Treatment

 

An industry coalition consisting of CropLife America, the American Soybean Association, the American Seed Trade Association, the Ag Retailers Association, the National Cotton Council of America, the National Association of Wheat Growers and the National Corn Growers Association, asked a federal court on this past week to allow them to join the lawsuit Anderson v. McCarthy, case no. 4:16-cv-00068 (N.D. Cal. filed Jan. 6, 2016).

The suit, brought by a number of plaintiffs including environmental activists, requests a court order requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate seeds treated with neonicotinoids as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which provides authority to EPA to regulate pesticides. The coalition seeks to join the lawsuit to defend EPA's current regulation of neonicotinoid seed treatments and to ensure that the court and EPA understand the vital importance of treated seeds to American agriculture.

Both the American Soybean Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers have issued statements about this lawsuit- click here to see their comments and read more.

This n That- Pecan Vote, Horses Needed and Sorghum Growers to Meet

 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service is conducting a referendum among pecan growers to determine if they support a proposed Federal marketing order for pecans grown in 15 states.

 

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The Oklahoma Sorghum Association will hold their Annual Producer's Meeting in Enid At the Chisholm Trail Expo Center Pavilion Meeting Room 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 24.

The meeting will provide valuable information informing producers' on a range of topics including: Host Plants and Sorghum Resistance to Sugarcane Aphid by Scott Armstrong PhD ARS Research Entomologist,  Variety Trial Update and Sugarcane Aphid Control Tracy Beedy, PhD Area Agronomy Research & Extension Specialist at OPREC, the use of Starter Fertilizers in Sorghum Production by Brian Arnall PhD Soil Fertility Extension Specialist, Sorghum Economic Update  Trent Milacek Area Ag Econ Specialist, and Spotlight on Sorghum Jesse McCurry Regional Director of Sorghum Checkoff.

Interested attendees are encouraged to RSVP to Jordan Shearer OSA chairmen by emailing Jordan or calling him at 405.612.2843

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