Oklahoma's Homegrown Disaster Rivals Hurricane Sandy, Climatologist Says 

While Hurricane Sandy may be grabbing all the headlines, Oklahoma is still in the middle of its own multi-billion-dollar disaster: the drought of 2010-2012, says Gary McManus of the Oklahoma Climate Survey. It has now been more than a month since much of northwest Oklahoma has seen more than a tenth of an inch of rainfall in a single day, and even longer since that area has seen a quarter of an inch.

The just-planted Oklahoma wheat crop is reaching a disaster point. When Woods, Alfalfa, Grant, Garfield, Kay and Noble counties go largely without rainfall in September and October, bad things happen come harvest time.

The new Plant Available Water maps from the Oklahoma Mesonet paint a rather bleak picture at this time. Plant available water is the amount of water (in inches) in the soil that is potentially available for plant uptake. Click here for a link to the 4-, 16- and 32-inch depth maps from across the state. 

The state has now dropped more than 2 inches below normal (and 35% of normal) for the month with a statewide average of 1.1", the 20th driest Oct. 1-29 since 1921. Cherokee is still awaiting its first drop of moisture for the month, as are several stations across western Oklahoma.

McManus says Oklahoma pastures that still had moisture to work with won't be making much of a contribution due to the very early statewide freeze that occurred over the weekend.

 

Northstar Agri Industries Announces Oklahoma Expansion Plan 

Northstar Agri Industries, a subsidiary of PICO Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:PICO) has announced plans to build a canola processing facility in Enid, Oklahoma. Subject to receiving all required regulatory approvals, commitment of debt financing, and completion of remaining due diligence, construction is expected to be completed prior to the canola harvest in June 2015.

Northstar's proposed facility would have the capacity to process 2,200 US tons of canola per day or 760,000 tons per year, and will include a full refinery capable of producing 580 million pounds of food grade refined canola oil and 450,000 tons of canola meal annually. This significant investment in Oklahoma will create approximately 55 permanent full time jobs with a total annual payroll of approximately $3.75 million.

"This project is a tremendous opportunity for Oklahoma's agriculture sector," said Brent Kisling, Enid Area Regional Business Development Manager. "The addition of a value-added canola processing plant in Oklahoma will provide regional farmers with a much needed local market to support continued acreage growth. I believe winter canola production is a game changer for Oklahoma agriculture, providing a much needed rotation crop, improving winter wheat yields and quality while increasing and diversifying farm income. We are excited to work with Northstar to bring a new canola processing plant to the Enid area."

To read more, click here. 

Livestock Economist Examines Dim Feedlot Prospects for the Future

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers some historical perspective in this week's Cow-Calf Newsletter on the feedlot industry and an outlook for its immediate future.

The latest Cattle on Feed report underscores the challenges feedlots face in the coming months. Not only are feedlots paying record prices for feed and essentially record prices for feeder cattle, increasingly the supply of feeder cattle will be inadequate to maintain feedlot inventories at any price. It is easy to identify a variety of factors that contribute to dim feedlot prospects for the future.   

Looking ahead, one of the biggest concerns is beef demand. Obviously, if demand were strong enough, the margin squeeze felt by feedlots (and packers) could be eliminated. The next two years will put beef demand in relatively uncharted waters so it is impossible to know exactly what to expect, but it seems likely that beef demand will continue to limit retail and wholesale beef prices relative to the input price squeeze that feedlots, as well as packers, will continue to face.

Drought is another culprit that contributes to feedlots' difficult circumstances. Two years of unplanned additional herd liquidation has pulled cattle supplies lower than market conditions appear to support. Moreover, without the 2012 drought, corn prices might be closer to$5/bushel instead of near $8/bushel. While these short run factors would have changed the feedlot picture somewhat, they do not change the fact that the role of the feedlot sector is changing and must change fundamentally in the future compared to how it has operated in the past.

You can catch more of Derrell's analysis by clicking here.

Aerial Survey Finds Higher-Than-Expected Prairie-Chicken Population

A multi-state collaborative effort finds a higher-than-expected lesser prairie chicken population, according to the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' Grassland Initiative.

The Grassland Initiative and the Lesser Prairie Chicken Interstate Working Group, composed of biologists from state fish and wildlife departments in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, the Bureau of Land Management and West Ecosystems Inc. of Laramie, Wyo., conducted a large-scale, helicopter-based survey of lesser prairie chicken leks across all five states from March to May, encompassing more than 300,000 square miles, and estimate just over 37,000 birds. The count showed the birds are thriving in northern areas, but declining where their range traditionally had been to the south on the Texas/New Mexico border in Andrews and Gaines counties.
     
The population estimate will be included in a plan being developed by five state wildlife agencies that is expected to be completed by next March and could influence the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision whether to designate the lesser prairie chicken as a federally threatened or endangered species.  

OSU Studies One- and Two-Pass Herbicide Programs for Italian Ryegrass Control

Joe Armstrong, OSU Extension weeds specialist, published the following article detailing his findings on controlling Italian ryegrass in winter wheat:

Italian ryegrass, also known as Marshall ryegrass, is a winter annual grass weed commonly found in winter wheat fields throughout Oklahoma. Italian ryegrass is very competitive with winter wheat for moisture and nutrients and can cause substantial reductions in yield and grain quality when not adequately controlled. Italian ryegrass is also a prolific seed producer, capable of producing several thousand seeds per plant. Furthermore, Italian ryegrass is an especially important problem in Oklahoma wheat production due to the widespread presence of herbicideresistant populations. ALS-resistant Italian ryegrass, resistant to commonly used herbicides such as Finesse, Osprey, PowerFlex, and Beyond, is present in at least 17 counties in central and eastern Oklahoma. 

To effectively control Italian ryegrass, many producers now rely on Axial XL (Group 1) since it is from a different herbicide mode of action than the ALS inhibitor herbicides (Group 2). However, as more and more Axial XL is used each year, there is concern that resistance to this herbicide will develop. Therefore, additional herbicide options are needed to properly control Italian ryegrass and lessen the dependence on a single herbicide active ingredient.

To read more about the results of the herbicide trials Armstrong conducted, please click here.

 

Choice Boxed Beef, Finished Cattle End Week Mostly Steady

In this week's beef report with Ed Czerwien, the choice cut market ended last week at $196.82 cwt, unchanged from the previous week, after being up to near record levels mid-week. The choice volume was a little over 800 loads. The total boxed beef volume for all cuts was 6,830 loads, 270 lower than the previous week.

The general trend in the finished cattle trade was mixed last week, anywhere from .50 lower to $1.50 higher, but mostly steady to firm. The live trade in the South was mainly at the $127.00 cwt mark. Dressed deals were mostly steady at $196 to $198 cwt.

The average live weight from the cattle harvested in the Texas Panhandle was 1,270 pounds which was seven pounds lower than the previous week.

You can hear Czerwien's complete weekly report by clicking here. 

AND- we remind you that we have market links on the left hand column of our daily email to help you stay on top of the twists and turns our agricultural markets are taking from day to day- those market links are a service of Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance- with offices in all 77 counties- an Oklahoma company- and always nearby. Click here for their website to learn about the comprehensive lineup of policies that they can offer.

 

This N That- Sandy Shutters Washington for Second Day, School Land Lease Auctions Conclude Today and the Impact on Meat Business of Sandy

For the second day in a row, official Washington is closed because of Sandy.  Washington was not hammered like several East Coast cities and much of the Atlantic Coastline all the way up to Maine. That includes USDA's headquarters- meaning more delays on reports coming out of the agency like the weekly Crop Progress report- normally, it would be released Monday afternoons- now, it looks like Wednesday will be the release day. Other reports this week could also get backed up- but that will be decided on a case by case basis.  

AND- if you have any business that you do with farm groups that have offices in Washington or in the nearby suburbs, they are very likely closed for the second day as well.  

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The final School Land Lease Auction for the State of Oklahoma is set for later this morning in Shawnee- at the Gordon Cooper Tech Center- start time is 10 AM.  Click here for details of this ninth and final Lease Auction of School Land for 2012. 

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And we conclude with another Sandy note- this coming from the Daily Livestock Report released by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange- Steve Meyer and Len Steiner write this daily update- and in today's overview of the meat and livestock markets pen their thoughts about how restaurant and supermarket meat sales will be impacted by Sandy- "It will take a few days to sort out the effects of the disruption but chances are that the storm will have
some short term impact on meat protein demand. This is particularly the case at the foodservice level. Lost foot traffic and sales will be hard to make up, especially in the current economic environment.

"As for retailers, the storm likely represents a shift in sales
rather than lost sales altogether. Consumers will probably deplete home refrigerated stocks and some product may be thrown away. In any case, following such disasters there is a rush to the retail store to replenish home stocks, resulting in higher sales in the following weeks."  Click here for today's full report from two very knowledgeable guys when it comes to the livestock marketplace in this country.