Last week, our Associate Farm Director Carson Horn, covered the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association Convention in El Reno, Oklahoma. During the day's events, Horn had the chance to speak with vice president of the National Association of Wheat Growers and wheat farmer from Sentinel, Okla., Jimmie Musick, who offered a brief update on NAWG's recent activities regarding trade and general ag policy.

Obviously, with both the NAFTA renegotiations and 2018 Farm Bill talks soon to begin, Musick says trade and the farm economy have dominated discussions as of late.

However, he believes there is a spirit of cooperation among the talks that he finds encouraging. He cites Mexico and the US having common ground regarding their respective NAFTA priorities and the entire ag community's cohesive approach this year to Farm Bill discussions.

In addition, Musick's expectations of a successful negotiation of both the NAFTA treaty and the next Farm Bill are bolstered, knowing that our new Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, is at the helm - setting the pace and taking the lead.

"I think we have a Secretary of Agriculture that's on board with those issue and those challenges and I think he's going to be able to step up to the plate and make things much better for our export markets," Musick said. "We're looking forward to our Secretary setting down with us and going over the issues," he said, "as we work towards the problem of solving those issues. They're out there and we know they are and we want to be a part of the solution, not part of the problem."

To hear Musick brief Carson on all of NAWG's recent policy activities regarding NAFTA and the Farm Bill, click here.

Since 1929, there have been no confirmed cases of Foot & Mouth Disease in the US. But, experts say it is only a matter of time before a potential economically devastating FMD outbreak might occur in our nation's livestock industry. To thwart such an event, the pork and beef industries have come together ahead of the 2018 Farm Bill, to request that Congress include monetary provisions over the course of five years, that would be set aside for the development of an FMD vaccine bank. In addition, FMD preparedness exercises are being conducted among industry leaders and emergency managers, like the one hosted this week by the Oklahoma Pork Council. Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, was invited to the tabletop exercise, to represent the state's beef industry, in this "what if" exercise, to help key players understand the challenges that could arise in the event of a FMD outbreak.


"I think the biggest challenge, is communication," Kelsey said, describing the given scenario of a confirmed FMD case discovered in a hog barn with cattle grazing nearby. "Pretty quick the hog farm was completely quarantined, but you start reaching out and those cattle are grazing right next to that barn. Well, they probably need to be quarantined as well, at least until we understand what we're dealing with. That is going to be a big, big issue and we need producers to understand that and be patient and work through that - God forbid this ever happens."


The disease itself is not lethal for an infected animal. Given proper medical attention and vaccination, an infected animal can go on to recover and even reenter the food chain as FMD is not infectious to humans, only cloven-hoofed animals. But the effects of an outbreak could be devastating to the industry and could negatively impact the ag-sector significantly as a whole. And while nature is unpredictable enough - Kelsey says the human threat, via agro-terrorism, is a major concern as well.


"That's scary and that is very real," he warned. "Oklahoma is such a prime agricultural state with our wheat pasture, our cattle, our pork... That's going to be a major red STOP zone, if this should ever happen. It's just unthinkable, but we have to be prepared and we have to be real about what the potential is."


Listen to OCA Executive Vice President Michael Kelsey and I, discuss the measures being taken to prepare Oklahoma's farmers and ranchers for the potential threat of an FMD outbreak, on Friday's Beef Buzz - click here.

In the story above, we spoke with Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President Michael Kelsey, for a cattlemen's perspective on a tabletop exercise designed to train participants in managing an Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak in Oklahoma. We also had the chance, the day of the exercise, to speak with Roy Lee Lindsey, executive director of the Oklahoma Pork Council, who hosted the event. He explained why such an exercise is so important.

"We're shipping 6 million plus weaned pigs a year out of Oklahoma to other states," Lindsey stated. "We are so dependent on our ability to move animals throughout the country - anything could impact that. And, an animal disease is one of the things that could limit our ability to move animals."

Since FMD affects everything from hogs, cattle sheep and goats; anything with a cloven hoof, Lindsey insists getting everyone that an event like this could involve, should come together, and develop a cohesive plan of action.


"What we've learned from this is, if and when we get to that point, the plans are going to change," he said, acknowledging the unpredictability of such a situation. "But at least you've started down the process today. To me, the real positive is when the county emergency manager says, 'You're going to ask me to do what?!' - you will have the ability to explain to him whatever supplies, whatever services you may need, and understand what that operation will look like - who's in charge, who is not. That's the real positive of today and we all have the chance to work together."

You can listen to our full conversation as Lindsey describes the imperative nature of fostering preparedness for disease containment among the livestock industries, by clicking or tapping here.

A panel comprised of three Significant Women in Oklahoma Agriculture honorees, Gaye Pfeiffer, Blayne Arthur, and Katie Plohocky, discussed numerous aspects of what it means to be a woman in today's agricultural world, during last week's Women in Agriculture conference.

The panel discussion was one of the highlights of the Oklahoma Women in Ag and Small Business Conference, hosted by Oklahoma State University and held at the Moore-Norman Technology Center Thursday and Friday. The two-day conference, held annually, equips women in agricultural operations or small businesses through numerous workshops led by experts in their fields such as pest management, weather considerations for farming, cattle size, soil health, tips for specialty crop growers, beekeeping and aquaponics.

Despite hailing from totally separate segments of the ag industry, all three women share a common passion for agriculture and advocating and uplifting women in the business. Together, the panel's collective message urged women to get involved in the industry and take advantage of every opportunity they find to educate others inside and out of the ag community on women's role in agriculture.

You can learn more about the panel at this year's Women in Agriculture conference, hosted by OSU, by clicking here.

My guest over the weekend, for our 'In the Field' segment on KWTV News9, was Ron Sholar of the Great Plains Canola Association. He visited with me about this past year's canola crop and the many challenges farmers faced during what he describes as a "rough" growing season in 2016-2017.

According to Sholar, this past year's crop showed a lot of promise in the beginning with planted acres in the state up by 25 percent. However, after a tumultuous growing season, farmers nearly lost their crops before moderating temperatures in early summer made a quick save.

"We'll call it an average crop," he said. "We had growers who made 40-50 bushels an acre which is very good for this year. But we also had a lot of 20s, too."

With yields like that, Sholar says it is difficult for farmers to make their money back. He points out, that canola is a relatively new crop for Oklahoma, and says farmers are still getting familiar with it, trying to better understand it. Despite some of the disappointment, he says farmers realize the weather is beyond our control and strongly believes there will be a continued canola presence in Oklahoma next year.

"They're committed to the crop and we know they're going to stay with it," he said.

You can listen to our off-camera conversation from that visit, by clicking over to our website.

During the Oklahoma Wheat Growers' Association conference this past week, in El Reno, fourth-generation diversified farmer Keeff Felty, of Altus, was elected president of the association.

In addition to serving on the Oklahoma Wheat Growers' Association Board, his involvement in the ag community also includes his service on the National Association of Wheat Growers Board, Cotton Incorporated State Support Committee, President of the Jackson County Farm Bureau, past member of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau State PAC Board, past National Cotton Council Delegate and previous Chairman of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers. Keeff is also active with the Western Oklahoma State College Agricultural Advisory Committee. 


Felty grew up helping his father and grandfather with the family business and became personally invested right after high school. Keeff received his bachelors and masters in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University. Today their operation consists of wheat, cotton, cattle and sesame.

To learn more about Felty, and to see a complete list of all the officers installed at this year's OWGA meeting, click or tap here.

 
Coming this Thursday- USDA will be offering two important reports for the grain industry- the first field based survey for spring planted crops in the Crop Production Report based on August first information- and the regular WASDE Supply Demand Report.

Joe Vaclavik, founder and president of Standard Grain in Chicago, says the row crop numbers will be the "big ticket" items in the upcoming report- total acres that USDA expects to be harvested, yields per acre and total production. The acres harvested will be especially important for spring wheat because of drought conditions in central and western North Dakota and South Dakota- as well as in Montana.

I have posted on our website an audio preview of the Thursday report- you can click or tap here to listen to Joe's comments on what he is expecting from USDA at 11 AM this Thursday.

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Is it really August???  It may be hard to tell based on the weather that our buddy Jed Castles has assembled for our review in his latest nine day forecast- well below average highs for this time of year- and chances of rain for central and western Oklahoma start on Wednesday and go ALL THE WAY to the end of the nine day- Here's his graphic for you to peruse for this Monday AM:



Alan Crone with the News on 6 echoes what you see in the graphic for Eastern Oklahoma- he explains in his Monday morning BLOG posting which you can read by clicking or tapping here.