On this Tuesday morning- the 2017 Holiday season is now behind us- and we begin learning to write 2018 in the days ahead.

The Ag Futures Trade kicks off the new year at 6 AM central time- and one of the first auction barns that will be selling cattle in 2018 is the Joplin Regional Stockyards- they normally run on Mondays with their feeder cattle sale but have elected to have a feeder sale this week on Tuesday.

Meanwhile- word has come from OKC West that they will have their first sale of the year tomorrow- USDA Market News reporting "The OKC West Livestock Auction has decided to cancel it's calf sale for Tuesday January 02, 2018. They are combining the calf sale with the feeder cattle sale on Wednesday January 3, 2018."

Check our calendar for some of the first events of the year- including the Beltwide Cotton Conference that begins tomorrow and the American Farm Bureau convention that cranks up at the end of the week in Nashville.

 

The first Significant Woman in Oklahoma Ag that we get to share with you here in our email for 2018 is Brandi Herndon. When she worked her first Tulsa State Fair as a livestock entry coordinator, a coworker told her she would either love it or hate it.

Fifteen years later, she's still working for the Tulsa Expo Square, now as the agribusiness manager.

After graduating from Oklahoma State University with a degree in agricultural business, Herndon found the job opening for the position.

"I was like, 'You know what? That sounds really fun. I think that'd be a really fun job to have until I figure out what I want to do with my life,'" she said.

Now considered her dream job, Herndon said she had no idea at the time that it would lead to a career.

"I feel very fortunate," she said. "There's not a lot of people that can go to work and say, 'Wow, I love getting up and going to work every day.'"

Click or tap here to jump over to our website and read the complete feature on the well deserving Agribusiness Manager for the Tulsa State Fair-  Brandi Herndon.

 

The Arkansas Plant Board is scheduled to meet on January third, in order to consider possible revisions to previous proposed regulatory changes regarding dicamba application. The Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council requested the meeting. They'll discuss potential revisions to the proposed changes during a pesticide committee meeting that day and then a full board meeting will start after that.

The state's Plant Board voted on November 8 to approve changes to the state regulations on dicamba application, including no dicamba application from April 16 through October 31. The subcommittee then met in December and voted to hold the proposed rule and recommended that the Plant Board consider possible revisions based on a number of factors. They want the board to consider possible changes based on scientific-based evidence, a dividing line to create north and south zones, as well as ambient temperature and humidity applicable to temperature inversion during nighttime hours.

The Rules and Regulations Subcommittee will meet on January 16 to consider the outcome of the meeting with the Plant Board.

Arkansas was considered "ground zero" in 2017 when it came to the amount of damage due to Dicamba Drift- in all over twenty states had reports of drift problems and over three million acres of soybeans were impacted.

 

It seems like it has been forever since Melissa Morton appeared in federal court and plead guilty to embezzlement of funds she was responsible for at the Oklahoma Beef Council.  

 

In fact- it was just over seven months ago when that happened on May 24th- click here for our coverage of that aspect of this long and drawn out saga of $2.6 million dollars being stolen by Morton.  

It had been suggested that we might have sentencing by around Labor Day- but it has now stretched into the first days of 2018.

 

It's our understanding that the sentencing is now set for this Thursday afternoon- January 4th at the Federal Court House in Oklahoma City.  

 

The Oklahoma Beef Council already has a civil judgement against Morton- and a few weeks back- announced legal action they are taking against an accounting firm that audited the Beef Council books even as Morton was stealing money. According to our report that we posted December 11th- the Oklahoma Beef Council "filed a lawsuit today in the District Court of Oklahoma County against Edmond-based accounting firm Arledge & Associates, P.C. The lawsuit relates to the embezzlement of OBC funds by one of its former employees, Melissa Morton. OBC's management discovered the embezzlement in July 2016, and Melissa Morton pled guilty to charges arising from it in May 2017. Her sentencing date is currently set for December 28, 2017.

"The lawsuit alleges that Arledge was the accounting firm engaged to perform audits of OBC for fiscal years 2012-2015, and for each audited year, Arledge issued clean, unqualified opinions that the financial statements presented fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of OBC. The lawsuit further alleges that after a thorough investigation, it became clear that Arledge's audit opinions were incorrect and misleading, that Arledge had failed to reasonably and properly perform a risk assessment of OBC, that Arledge employed inadequate and flawed audit planning and testing procedures, and that Arledge failed to perform the audits in accordance with reasonable and applicable auditing standards. The lawsuit seeks to recover all damages caused by Arledge's conduct."

 

 

The U.S. Grains Council issued a report on this year's corn harvest quality, saying a good growing season resulted in record yields that had very good quality. The report says the majority of crop conditions in 2017 were good-to-excellent. That led to strong plant size, good kernel health, and a projected record yield of 370.3 million metric tons, or 14.58 billion bushels. If the projection turns out to be accurate, it would be the second-largest harvest on record.

The report says just over 95 percent of America's corn crop rated at U.S. grade number 2 or better. That result came from an extended planting period, a warm and wet vegetative period, a cool and dry grain-filling period, and a warm, wet, and slow harvest. The average test weight came in at 58.4 pounds per bushel, higher than the five-year average, and shows excellent kernel-fill and maturation.

Roughly 98 percent of samples tested below the Food and Drug Administration's action-level for aflatoxins, which is 20 parts per billion. 100 percent of the samples tested below the FDA-mandated advisory level for vomitoxins.

To read more about the report- and to get to a link to the complete review- click or tap here.

 

 

The Oklahoma State University Livestock Judging team kicked off the 2018 season with a high team victory at the Arizona National in Phoenix on New Year's Eve. The team is coached by Blake Bloomberg.

Individual Results:

Blake Goss - 1st High Individual
John Nelson - 2nd High Individual
Colton Pratz - 3rd High Individual
Jessica Juvinall - 4th High Individual
Haley Stark - 5th High Individual
Amber Wright - 6th High Individual
PD Miller - 7th High Individual
Cody Heavin - 8th High Individual
Hannah Lauffenburger - 9th High Individual
Caroline Hughes - 10th High Individual


ALSO At the Arizona National Junior Livestock Show- Oklahoma claimed one of the Grand Champions- Kyra Elliott of Calumet, Oklahoma showed the Grand Champion Market Lamb- it sold at their Premium Auction for $22.50 a pound for a total of $3037.50.