Oklahoma's Latest Farm and Ranch News

Howdy Neighbors! 

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has a new Speaker. The 72 House Republican caucus members yesterday selected Jeff Hickman of Fairview to replace outgoing Speaker T.W. Shannon. The full House voted along party lines 69-29 to confirm Hickman.

"I think it's a great deal for Oklahoma," says John Collison of Oklahoma Farm Bureau. "Jeff Hickman's been around a long time from up in northwest Oklahoma. He's been a massive friend of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and we look for that friendship to continue."

Governor Mary Fallin applauded Hickman's selection to the top House post.

"Jeff Hickman is a dedicated leader who has earned the respect of his colleagues," said Fallin. "I am confident he will be an effective and hardworking speaker of the House. I look forward to working with him in his new role as we continue to pursue commonsense conservative policies that will help create jobs and eliminate government waste."

Hickman was elected to represent House District 58 in 2005. The district covers Alfalfa, Major, Woods and Woodward Counties in northwest Oklahoma. He was born in Alva in 1973 and graduated from Cherokee High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma in 1996.

Collison said his organization is excited about the prospect of having another speaker from rural Oklahoma. He said representatives of other farm organizations seem equally pleased with Hickman's selection.

Click here for more of this story and to hear more comments from John Collison.  

Sponsor Spotlight 

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U.S. cotton producers intend to plant 11.26 million acres of cotton this spring, up 8.2 percent from 2013, according to the National Cotton Council's 31st Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey

Upland cotton intentions are 11.04 million acres, up 8.1 percent from 2013, while extra-long staple (ELS) intentions of 225,000 acres represent an 11.8 percent increase. The survey results were announced today at the NCC's 2014 Annual Meeting being held in Washington, DC, February 7-9.

In the planting intentions survey, Oklahoma cotton farmers showed optimism in the face of another year without irrigation water coming from Lake Altus Lugert- as they indicated that they would plant 201,000 acres in 2014, up 8.4% from the actual acreage planted in 2013. Texas cotton acreage is predicted to be 6.508 million acres, up from 5.8 million acres actually planted in 2013- that's a gain of 12.2% in potential acreage for the largest cotton producing state in the country.

Click here for more of this story.

 

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter:

After starting with considerable promise last fall, winter wheat grazing conditions deteriorated dramatically in January. Although some areas of the state did receive snow that carried beneficial moisture, the majority of the state has received less than 40 percent of normal precipitation since the beginning of the year including a large portion of the central and north-central part of the state receiving less than 20 percent of normal precipitation. As a result, dry conditions have spread from the already dry western region back into central and eastern areas of the state. The area of the state with some drought conditions (D0 or higher) increased from less than 50 percent of the state to over 70 percent of the state on the latest Drought Monitor map. Expanding drought conditions is mostly a threat of what can happen in another 60-90 days if conditions do not improve.

The biggest immediate threat is to the winter wheat crop, with grazing all but exhausted in many areas, especially the region north of Interstate 40. Grain yields are threatened now with dry conditions and cold temperatures increasing the potential for winter kill. 

Click here for more from Derrell Peel.

For the second year in a row, Boehringer Ingelheim Vet Medical is sponsoring the opportunity for individuals to get certified in Beef Quality Assurance. Dave Korbelik spoke with me at the recently-completed Cattle Industry Convention. Korbelik says his company is pleased to once again help producers pay for their Beef Quality Assurance certification.

"We're proud to be the sole animal health partner with BQA on their national efforts. BQA has such a strong history, almost three decades of commitment at the grassroots level and state organizations. But, it has evolved and now there's technology. There's an opportunity to go online and have customized modules. A rancher can go online and have a customized module designed for ranchers or a customized model designed for feedlots or dairies or stocker operators.

Korbelik says that allows producers to go online anywhere they are at their convenience and gain their BQA certification. Normally the cost is $25 for the online modules, but Korbelik says Boehringer Ingelhiem is picking up the cost of that training through April 15th and producers will pay nothing.

You can click here to read the rest of this story. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates released today lowered ending stocks estimates by 150 million bushels on increased export estimates for the record 2013 corn crop. This change resulted in an upward revision of the average farm price by 10 cents per bushel at both ends of the spectrum.

"It is clear that America's farmers have the ability to produce an abundance to meet all needs," said National Corn Growers Association President Martin Barbre, a farmer from Carmi, Ill. "Given this ability, it is imperative that we maximize markets for this essential national resource."

Average yield estimates for the crop are 158.8 bushels per acre while harvest area estimates are 87.7 million acres. The resulting yield broke previous records with 13.9 billion bushels of U.S. corn produced in 2013.

Click here for more of this story and a link to the full WASDE report.  

What does the cow say? Third-graders in Kingfisher know the answer. They also know where their food comes from, how to eat a healthy lunch and what farmers do for their community. This is all part of the fun of being in Lisa Storm's class at Heritage Elementary.

Storm has been named 2014 Teacher of the Year for the statewide Ag in the Classroom program coordinated by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Dept. of Education.
 

Storm has become such a fan of the online Ag in the Classroom lesson plans for Smartboards that she regularly shares her own ideas with other teachers at annual AITC conferences.Her popular sessions are usually standing-room only as she shows other educators how to communicate basic agricultural knowledge.

You can read the rest of this story on our website by clicking here.

Joey Meibergen with Johnston Enterprises has sent an open letter to customers of W.B. Johnston Grain with assurances that services they have come to expect from the company will continue- and only get better as a result of an acquisition in the works between Johnston and CBG Enterprises for the Grain Company part of their business.  

Meibergen says that in CGB Enterprises, W. B. Johnston believes they have found a company that lines up with the philosophy of the Miebergen family "when it comes to our focus on customer success, employee success and growth goals going forward."

Click Here to read more from the Meibergen family- including the complete letter sent at the end of this past week.  

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Our friend and colleague (and native Okie) Ken Root talked with the Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Congressman Frank Lucas for this week's Open Mic feature as heard on the website Agri-Pulse. The interview offers more details of several provisions of the bill plus implementation and potential government exposure if commodity prices fall. Chairman Lucas also responds to news media mockery of the bill over obscure provisions and discusses his political future in Oklahoma after compromising on several key provisions to gain passage of the bill.

You can hear Ken's conversation with the Roger Mills County rancher by clicking here.  

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Wisconsin Dairy Farmer/Blogger Dairy Carrie has responded to Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS who recently wrote an open letter of his own complaining about those who contend that HSUS is not white as the driven snow regarding their intentions about caring for animals first and foremost- and are concerned about HSUS driving their agenda down the throats of every citizen in this country.

Carrie Mess basically offers a rebuttal in her blog that has over 13,000 followers and is widely read by rural and urban folks.   

She didn't try to respond to the full letter that Pacelle released- but here are a couple of highlights that I enjoyed-   

"It's quite obvious that you don't care for Rick Berman and Humane Watch. If I was in your current position after years of being fast and loose with the facts and I suddenly had a group calling my organization out, I wouldn't like them much either. I find it funny that you call out Rick Berman for being a lobbyist when HSUS spends millions on lobbying each year."

Dairy Carrie goes on and talks about the fund raising efforts of the HSUS- saying "commercials you use to solicit donations show dogs and cats being rescued from horrible situations. You seem to think that's alright because you feel certain that the people who give your organization money to save the puppies and kitties also want to end the use of lead bullets and whaling. Maybe they do, but it's pretty presumptuous to guess that the little old lady who loves her cats and wants to help other cats also wants to change how farmers raise their pigs. You know what they say about people who assume... Your organization has 41% of it's budget devoted to fundraising, Almost half of the money you take in is used to ask for more money!"

Well- you get the idea- to read her full posting dated yesterday- click here. 

It's worth your time! 

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