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Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news update. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tightening the Belt and Smarter Marketing May Help Offset the Burden of Abundance Facing Farmers 

 

American farmers may be too good at what they do, says Bob Young, American Farm Bureau's chief economist.

Above average yields over the last few years have driven down commodity prices, and combined with decreased growth in domestic demand and exports, Young says farmers are now teetering on the brink of a real crisis. 


"Agriculture has a long, long history of basically producing the profit out of any situation, and here we are again," he says. "If commodity prices stay where they are and we do not become very shrewd marketers, we could be facing a challenge in 2017."


Young says corn and cotton stocks entering the market from China are adding to an already abundant world supply.


"I don't think anybody knows how many corn stocks or how many cotton stocks the Chinese are sitting on at this stage of the game," he says. "So the challenge now becomes as those bleed out - and you want them to bleed out - that's just that much additional supply that we've got to suck up for as long as it takes to get that supply sucked up."

 

 

I caught up with Young last week during the National Farm Broadcasters Washington Watch. Hear him talk more about the issues facing American farmers in our interview.

Day One of the Wheat Tour Shows Average Yield of 47.2 Bushels Per Acre- 37% Better Than Seen in 2015

 
As anticipated, the Kansas Wheat Crop is looking a lot better than at this time in 2015, even with disease, bugs and limited freeze damage being observed by those involved in the 2016 edition of the Hard Winter Wheat Tour. Twenty two vehicles with 78 participants headed west from Manhattan, Kansas, today on the Hard Winter Wheat Tour 2016. Scouts stopped in 306 locations on the six routes between Manhattan and Colby.


The wheat tour is held every year to get an idea of the yields and production of the crop. Crop scouts take measurements in fields across their routes, using a formula developed by USDA/NASS to estimate the yield for each field. These estimates are averaged in each car, and then combined with all cars to get a yield estimate each day. The average calculated yield for day 1 was 47.2 bushels per acre, compared with only 34.3 bushels per acre along the same route last year.

A small group of scouts from Colorado began the tour there and headed east to Colby. They reported an average yield of 39 bushels per acre in Colorado and estimated production at 78 million bushels for the state.

Nebraska reported that 95% of the state's crop is currently rated good to excellent, with an average yield of 55 bushels per acre. They are estimating 70.4 million bushels of production this year, up from only 46 million bushels last year.

Chris Kirby with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission is participating in the tour on the Yellow Route that will dip southward into Oklahoma and travel along the northern tier of counties today.  We have her insights from Day One online in our summary of the first day of the Wheat Tour- that's available here.

Later this morning- the annual Oklahoma Wheat Crop Estimate will be computed- as extension and private industry scouts report on all corners of the state- much like Kansas- the Oklahoma crop appears to be a lot better than at this point a year ago- with the biggest unknown how many bushels we may have lost to hail this past weekend in several counties.

Once the Oklahoma prediction is finished, it will be carried to the Wichita report session of the Wheat Tour tonight, with Mike Schulte of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission to carry the results. 

By the way- a really good overview of the Tweets from the Wheat Tour has been assembled by the Beeson company- you can take a look at the Tweets all in one place by clicking here.

Purdue, CME Group to Take Monthly 'Barometer' of Confidence in Agricultural Economy

 

Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture and the derivatives marketplace CME Group are partnering to produce the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly nationwide measure of the health of the U.S. agricultural economy.


The introduction of this new economic indicator underscores the importance of the agricultural economy and its participants - food producers and agribusinesses - to the overall U.S. and global economies, Purdue and CME Group said Tuesday in announcing the partnership.

"Agriculture is a critical component of the global economy and has been the cornerstone of CME Group's business for nearly 170 years," said CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy. "By providing financial tools to help producers and agribusiness participants manage the risks they face, they are better able to focus on what they do best - feeding the world. We believe this collaboration with Purdue University to create the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer will provide an essential resource for monitoring the health of the food industry and vital insight into the global economy."


"Purdue's College of Agriculture has a long tradition of pushing us toward better food security, safety and sustainability with their cutting-edge research," said Purdue President Mitch Daniels. "We can imagine no better partner than CME Group to help us analyze and report the real-time economic health of U.S. agriculture, on which literally every citizen and the rest of the economy depends."

 

 

Click here to read more about efforts to measure the health of the U.S. agricultural economy.

Beef Industry Continues to Fret Over Fundamentals Being Ignored by Cattle Futures

 

The volatility - and viability - of the live and feeder cattle futures markets continue to concern producers, and Colin Woodall, vice president of governmental affairs with National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says his organization is actively involved in finding a solution. Early this year, NCBA sent a letter to the CME Group and has since instituted a working group with the company to address volatility in the cattle markets. 


"This issue of market volatility, especially given where we have seen the markets go over the last eight to nine months, is extremely concerning," he says. 


Woodall says that despite outcries over erratic price movements without market news, the CME Group has not engaged to a satisfactory level for the cattle industry.


"We have not had enough response by CME to put some things in place that we feel would be able to help us," he says. "Ultimately, they are going to have to take some pretty drastic action to ensure that we don't just completely lose the futures contracts as an effective risk management tool."


OSU Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Dr. Derrell Peel recently weighed in on the volatility issue and analyzed the non fundamental nature of today's feeder cattle futures. Click here to read Peel's comments or listen to the latest edition of the Beef Buzz.

 

Oklahoma Students Among 2016 Pork Checkoff Scholarship Recipients

 

 

 

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Claremore Man Arrested for Cattle Theft

 

A Claremore, Okla. man was arrested Saturday in Rogers County on a felony warrant for two counts of larceny of livestock after stealing six calves from a rancher in Rogers County. 


TSCRA Special Ranger Bart Perrier led the investigation. TSCRA Special Ranger John Cummings, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Agent Ricky Rushing and authorities with the Rogers County Sheriff's Office worked with Perrier throughout the investigation. 


According to Perrier, the investigation began in the fall of 2015 when the suspect, Robert Luis Rulo, Jr., 43, Claremore, Okla., stole six calves from a neighboring rancher near the Tiawah Hills area in Rogers County. Rulo sold them at local livestock auctions in Tulsa and Collinsville, Okla. 


Perrier arrested Rulo and took him to the Rogers County Jail where he was held on a $10,000 bond. 

 

Read more about TSCRA's recent cattle theft arrest.

 
The Oklahoma Grain and Feed Assn. based in Enid, Okla., assumed the management of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Assn. on May 1, 2016. By virtue of the agreement, Joe Neal Hampton has become their Executive Director.

"The staff of the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Assn. look forward to the opportunity to serve the needs of our state's wheat growers" said Executive Director Hampton. "We will begin an aggressive membership campaign as well as determining and implementing the needs of the organization."

After a lot of years of having a struggling Wheat Growers Association in the state- sounds like a hopeful new beginning for the organization that wants to represent the major grain crop grown in the state of Oklahoma.

Read more from the announcement by clicking here.

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Ed Czerwein's latest report on the Feedlot Cattle markets shows a lower trade again this past week.

"The finished cattle trade live prices were $2-3 lower and dressed prices $2-4 lower.

"The weekly weighted average cash steer price for the five area which includes TX, NE, CO, KS and IA feeding areas was $2.66 lower at $123.79 and compared to $126.45 the previous week."

You can read the his full report- and listen to his commentary by clicking here.

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The pace of the OSU Wheat Field Days is picking up- with four more Field Tour stops the balance of this week- and nine scheduled for next week- including the annual OSU North Central Research Station Field Day in Lahoma on Friday, May 13th.

You can see details of each stop by going to our calendar page for May by clicking here.  For directions to the plots closest to you and exact start times, etc- we have the phone number of the Extension office in that county for you to call.

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