It's hard to believe that we have arrived at Thanksgiving Eve- as we continue to roar through 2017. It's been a busy and productive year and your support is one of the things I am most thankful for.  I have contemplated what I might share on this Wednesday morning before the holiday sets in- so first a bit of housekeeping.

Our livestock auction markets are pretty well done for the week- of the markets that USDA reports in our part of the world- only the Monday markets were open this week- Oklahoma National Stockyards, Tulsa and Joplin. 

Ag futures will be closed tomorrow and there will be a shortened day of trading on Friday for the holiday weekend.

Our daily email will take a pause- no report on Thursday or Friday and back on Monday.

Some of our radio station partners will be taking limited programming from us tomorrow- we will have a regular schedule of programs on Friday on our Radio Oklahoma Ag Network.

With all that said- let's ponder being thankful.  Two tweets caught my eye this morning as I looked ones with the hashtag #Thanksgiving. 

The first one reminds us all of the need to direct your thankfulness- "Thank" is a transitive verb. You don't get to just be "Thankful". Grammatically and theologically, you need to be thankful TO something/one.

The second one is a favorite verse for many- and so appropriate for this time of the year- "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 107:1"

To you and yours- from my family and the families of our RON team- Have a wonderful and safe and happy Thanksgiving!

AND- if you have a moment- drop me an email and let me know what you are thankful for here in 2017!

It's a great honor to get to attend the National FFA Convention and be there to watch deserving young men and women realize their dream of becoming a National FFA Officer, especially when it is someone from your home state. It's an even greater honor when that person takes time out of their incredibly busy schedule, to sit down and share their experience with you. I had that privilege this week with Piper Merritt of Owasso, Oklahoma who was recently named to Central Region Vice President on the National FFA Officer team this year at the organization's national convention. She joined me in studio to talk about what FFA means to her and how she is preparing for this year ahead of her.

While Merritt has had about a month to adjust and mentally prepare for the busy road ahead, it is really not fair to say. The fact is, since the moment her name was called that Saturday evening of National Convention, Merritt has been pulled in multiple directions, and at an incredible pace.


"Immediately after we're elected, we're pulled into a media room where we do about nine interviews and then we go into a reception with the past National Officer team," she said. "From there, we went into four days of training - and then, we were sent home to wrap up our college in... about two weeks."

Thankfully, Merritt says her professor at OSU have been most cooperative and supportive in helping her sew up loose ends so she can take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

The next several weeks and months will be filled with lots of planning, training, rehearsing, travel, meetings and public appearances. It's Merritt's hope that during this time, she will have the opportunity to learn something from everyone she meets and spends as much time as possible with members to learn not only how she can serve them now as a National Officer, but beyond this year as well.

I certainly thank her for her time this week and we wish her the best of luck this next year, serving the members of the FFA.

Find out more about what lies in store for Merritt and her teammates this year and be sure to catch her visit with me this Saturday morning on KWTV-News9, or click here to read the full story on our website and listen to my complete off-camera interview with her as well.

Earlier this year, the authors of the most recent National Beef Quality Audit released their findings on a study conducted to better understand where improvements can be made in the industry, and ultimately raise the bottom lines for those in the beef supply chain. Oklahoma State University's Dr. Deb VanOverbeke is one of those authors, and has been involved in many of the past audits. She shared some of the highlights of this report with our own Carson Horn during the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Convention in Kansas City recently.


According to VanOverbeke, the audit is conducted in three phases that include face-to-face interviews with packers, purveyors, retailers and restaurants to gain an understanding of what quality issues end users might have; a review of holding pen and harvest floor quality; and strategy workshops in which the information collected is condensed and summarized. Altogether, the most recent audit yielded some enlightening results.


"One of the things we took from the face-to-face interviews was that our end users sometimes define terms differently than we do as producers," VanOverbeke said. "When we say genetics in production, that means something different when you say genetics to an end user - so some of those definitions don't carry forward."


This finding suggests an opportunity for producers to develop better ways in which to communicate with consumers and become more transparent about how beef is produced. In terms of quality, though, VanOverbeke says carcass weights have continued to improve and are grading with more prime and upper two-thirds choice than ever before. She says, too, that some of the hot button issues from the 90s, such as excess fat and injection site lesions, are no longer an issue at all in today's marketplace. In her view, producers have been fully accepting of the information in these reports, released every five years, and have witnessed the huge impact that small changes can make.


Listen to VanOverbeke and Horn discuss the details of this report more in-depth, on yesterday's Beef Buzz - click here.

This week on SUNUP! - Oklahoma State Grain Market Economist Dr. Kim Anderson joins host Lyndall Stout, talking cotton production this time.


According to Anderson, cotton farmers have had an exceptional year here in the state as well as the nation and even globally, with record or at least near-record production. He says production this year has greatly exceeded expectations from two to three months ago.


With such good production, Anderson says one would expect the price of cotton to be tanking, but in fact it is actually faring with some steady resilience. Anderson reports that cotton futures are running mostly $67-70/cwt. currently and has continued to move sideways in that range for some time now.


Compared to wheat growers, those that have cotton in the ground stand to be more profitable right now. However, Anderson cautions farmers considering a rotation out of wheat into cotton. He says that while there is some money to be made at the moment, the current trend looks as if the number of acres rolling into cotton from wheat will likely grow. His advice is that cotton markets will probably not sustain a profitable price level in the long term. He encourages producers to put pencil to paper and figure out if such a move makes sense for their operation - with the understanding that cotton is much more expensive to produce, has more associated risk and requires the use of expensive equipment.


On a final note, Anderson says that if weather cooperates and more acres are planted in cotton, the price of the commodity will go down - it is just a question of when.


You can watch their visit tomorrow or Sunday on SUNUP - or you can hear Kim's comments right now and see what else is on tap for this week's episode, by clicking here.

In an announcement released yesterday morning, Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Todd Lamb revealed a list of ag leaders in the state, appointed to advise him on issues related to the agriculture industry.

"Agriculture has been a long-standing backbone of the Oklahoma economy, and strengthening it as governor will be one of my top priorities," Lamb said. "There is no better time than Thanksgiving week to reflect on how important agriculture has been to our state, and how we can maximize its continued positive impact."

Among the 21 individuals listed, was Tom Fanning of May, Oklahoma. Lamb noted in his statement that he has invited Fanning to serve as the chairman of this committee.

Fanning commented, "I am looking forward to assisting Todd Lamb with an advisory committee that will singularly focus on creating more agriculture-based economic development opportunities throughout Oklahoma and beyond. Todd Lamb is the only candidate with a broad, statewide vision for promoting agriculture business, and he understands the challenges farmers and ranchers face every day."

The committee is the second citizen advisory committee formed by Lamb, following the creation of his Oklahoma Economic Diversification Committee. More committee appointments are expected in the near future.

Click here to view a complete list of those invited to join Lamb's agricultural advisory committee.

 

A bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter this week to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, asking the administration to collect a "robust economic analysis" to evaluate how changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement would affect agriculture. The letter says, "It's imperative that before any changes are made to NAFTA or any other free trade agreement, that economic analysis illustrating the impact on the full supply chain of the industries involved gets looked at. As such, we request an economic analysis that evaluates the impacts to crop and livestock sectors as a result of any change to NAFTA."

America is the world's top exporter of food and agricultural products. U.S. agriculture depends on access to international markets in which to sell their goods. As the fifth round of the NAFTA negotiations wrapped up on Tuesday, the senators clearly stated that any changes to U.S. trade policy must be positive for agriculture.

As we mentioned- the latest round of negotiations among the three countries wrapped up yesterday. According to Politico- Canadian negotiators haven't been making many counteroffers to U.S. proposals. Instead, they're using closed-door meetings to challenge American proposals with data and to ask for explanations of why the U.S. feels the need for certain things to change. The strategy is reported to be increasingly irritating to U.S. negotiators, who say it does little to advance progress in negotiations.

On the last day in Mexico City, negotiators focused on agriculture, technical barriers to trade, auto rules of origin, dispute settlement, and investment. The agriculture industry is still working to convince officials of just how negative the effect on agriculture would be if America withdraws from NAFTA.

Russell Boening, Texas Farm Bureau president, spoke before a Senate Finance Subcommittee hearing in San Antonio. He told the officials that exports helped to offset a serious drop in farm income over the last several years. "Due to the current state of the farm economy, a full withdrawal from NAFTA would devastate the entire American Ag community and our nation," he says. "We must make sure that doesn't happen."