Our thanks Oklahoma Secretary of Ag Jim Reese for allowing us to travel along with him and several of his key staffers on Monday to Buffalo and the meeting at the Harper County Fairgrounds, where over 240 ranchers gathered to get information on resources available to them after the wildfires that burned so intensely two weeks ago.

After the meeting in Buffalo, we traveled north to the Smithfield Farms Plum Thicket Hog Farm which sits right on the state line just south of Ashland, Kansas. This area was part of the massive Starbuck fire that started in Oklahoma and burned into Kansas- they lost multiple sow barns and around 4,000 sows to the fire- one Smithfield employee remarked about the path of the fire- "it took whatever it wanted" on the property that sat due south of the Gardiner Angus Farm across the state line.

We then drove into Laverne and saw the marks of fire that encroached into Laverne to an extent- and I snapped this picture which inspired my headline above-



Notice the burned fencepost- but ALSO notice the green grass peeking up- this area really needs rain- PLEASE PRAY- but as we drove- we saw a good bit of green starting to make its presence known- evidence that God will allow the scorched earth to be green with life again- in the meantime- lots of work on those burned out fence posts- rebuilding cow herds where animals were killed and feeding hay and grain to many cows that survived on ranches that lost their ability to feed them for at least a season.

Lots of help will be needed- if you want to help the Oklahoma ranchers- several hundred of them- who lost a little or a lot- click here for the OCA website where they have a safe secure way to make an online donation- tax deductable.

 
The Governor's Agriculture Awards will be presented during a special ceremony hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry at 2 p.m. March 29 in Senate Assembly Room 535 in the state capitol. The public is invited to attend.

Virgil Jurgensmeyer will be honored with the Governor's Outstanding Achievement in Agriculture Award- signifying that Jurgensmeyer is being inducted into the Oklahoma Ag Hall of Fame.

In the late 1970s, Jurgensmeyer decided to leave his plant manager job in the Mushroom Division of Ralston Purina Corp. to start his own mushroom business. He needed a location with water, natural gas, access to wheat straw, labor and major highways for transportation. The answer was the northeastern Oklahoma community of Miami. The company, now known as J-M Farms, Inc., was founded in 1979 and the first mushrooms were picked on March 13, 1980 and the initial delivery was made the following day to Associated Wholesale Grocers of Spring?eld, Mo. At the onset, there were 40 employees and about 40,000 pounds of mushroom production per week.

Today, the company, overall, employs hundreds of Oklahomans and produces more than 27 million pounds of white button, Crimini and Portabella mushrooms annually. At Miami, they grow, harvest, pack and ship mushrooms daily with an annual sales revenue of more than $40 million. Their trucks deliver products to several states

Click here to read more about Virgil as well as the other three winners of special awards that will be handed out next Wednesday at the State Capitol.

Those other winners include:

Anna Belle Weidemann will receive the Governor's Outstanding Public Service in Agriculture Award.

Hal Clark will receive the Governor's Agriculture Environmental Stewardship Award.

The Governor's Outstanding Legacy in Agriculture Award will be presented posthumously to Floyd King of Hydro.

 
Over two hundred ranchers gathered at the Harper County Fairgrounds in Buffalo on Monday to learn about their assistance options two weeks after wildfires burned hundreds of thousands of acres of rangeland- killing cattle, destroying or damaging fences and water facilities and burning all available forage and hay.


The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association sponsored the meeting- and officials from the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation all offered information about programs that can help with cash to help offset the loss of cows and calves and fences and forage.


Jeff Jaronek with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation explained what the Foundation was doing in raising money that would be distributed to those who have lost livestock and infrastructure from the fires that started March 6th and have finally been contained. Jaronek told producers that funds were still coming in from individuals and groups wanting to help them- that $300,000 had been collected to date and that those funds would be distributed in an equiable manner to help fill in some of the gaps around federal assistance.


I talked with Jeff about their plan- you can read more and also hear my visit with Jeff by clicking or tapping here.

 

At that same meeting that we have also talked a good bit about- Lyndal Stoup, Acting State FSA Executive Director, talked with those gathered about several key programs- including one that can quickly provide cash to producers who suffered the loss of a large percentage of their beef cow herds.

Stoup described the threshold levels and requirements to qualify for the Livestock Indemnity Program- and members of his team provided details of other key programs available from the USDA through the Farm Service Agency.

Click or tap here for more on the LIP program- and others that can help ranchers get back on their feet.

 
The latest Derrell Peel Analysis talks about seasonal strength in our cattle and beef markets-


"Fed cattle and boxed beef markets have rallied nicely the past month. After a strong January, fed cattle prices dropped below $120/cwt. in February before the recent rally. Mid-March live fed cattle prices pushed up to $128/cwt. with some trades over $130/cwt. reported. Choice boxed beef has increased from a February low below $188/cwt. to a recent high over $223/cwt. There is no clear indication that the rally is over but a top or at least a plateau in these markets is likely soon before markets move seasonally lower in the second quarter.



"The rally has been all the more impressive given that we are in a growing supply situation. Cattle slaughter is up over 4.5 percent year over year with beef production up 3.7 percent for the year to date. The latest carcass weights for steers are down 12 pounds from the same date last year with heifer carcasses down 13 pounds from one year ago. Despite growing feedlot placements in recent months, aggressive feedlot marketings have kept feedlots current with beef moving crisply through market pipelines.

Read more from Dr. Peel on these current market conditions by clicking or tapping here.

 
Agribusiness Freedom Foundation Executive Vice President Steve Dittmer, authored the following Op-Ed article on what you might call some of the original "Fake News" that almost destroyed an agribusiness company- here's a bit of his opining on this subject:

"Nearly five years after ABC News and reporter Jim Avila almost totally destroyed BPI's business and reputation, the company is finally scheduled to get ABC News in the courtroom to answer for its actions.

"In the spring of 2012, ABC News and its anchor Diane Sawyer ran a series of reports from Jim Avila on lean finely textured beef (LFTB), a beef product Avila allowed a former meat inspector/food activist, Gerald Zirnstein, describe distastefully as "pink slime." Avila's reports led viewers to believe the LFTB was not beef, made ground beef that included it sound unwholesome and questioned the safety of the product. The use of ammonium hydroxide gas to kill pathogens and provide an absolutely safe product left some viewers thinking liquid household ammonia was used.

"On Monday, June 5, in district court in Union County Circuit Court, Elk Point, South Dakota, ABC News will have to defend its actions. Zirnstein had earlier been dropped from the suit and in recent rulings, Diane Sawyer was also let off the hook, because she was not the reporter doing the research on the story.

"Which leaves Avila squarely on the hook for, from the industry and BPIs standpoint, making up a story were there was none."

Click or tap here to read more from Dittmer on the mess created by ABC over their pink slime reporting of a few years back.

 
Peanut experts will provide updates on everything from variety and market type selection to industry insights at the 2017 Peanut EXPO on March 23, taking place at the Southwest Technology Center in Altus.


"It's a great opportunity to learn from and speak with leading experts in the field and to interact with other peanut producers and industry members," said Ron Sholar, Oklahoma Peanut Commission executive director. "This will be the premier peanut education and training event in the region for 2017."


Registration and exhibits open at 9 a.m. with the program starting at 9:50 a.m. and finishing at approximately 2:30 p.m. There is no cost to attend, and lunch will be provided thanks to the generosity of industry sponsors.

More details are available here.