Author Says Important Lessons of the 'Dust Bowl' All too Easy to Forget 

As the generation that lived through the Dust Bowl dwindles with each passing day, authors like Timothy Egan and filmmakers like Ken Burns endeavored to capture the flavor of the era and the lessons to be learned before they were lost to prosperity.

Egan, the author of the award-winning book "The Worst Hard Times," upon which the PBS series "The Dust Bowl" was based, spoke Friday at the National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. He spoke with me about the lessons learned from those hard times. 

Egan said the drought of the last few years in much of the Southern Plains raised some alarm bells, but the dissimilarity of the recent drought to the 30s has tended to allay concerns for others.

"The drought forces people to look at what we're doing, our limited resources, whether we're using water well. But in another respect it does not. We are not seeing dust storms themselves on the magnitude we saw because we have learned some things."

What really caused the Dust Bowl in the 30s?

"It's really simple, really, really simple. There's always been drought in this part of the country, so that's not the cause. There's always been high winds, so that's not the cause. But what was different? Ask yourself what was missing in the Dirty 30s. Well, they ripped up the grass. So, you had an area about the size of the state of Pennsylvania that used to have native grass on it, good for bison, good for cattle. It was gone. And so, when those winds came, they just took that exposed area and took it to sky."

Egan said a cowboy he spoke with who had seen the peak of the Dust Bowl put it most succinctly, "Wrong side up." 

You can read the rest of this story or listen to my interview with Timothy Egan by clicking here.

NFU President Roger Johnson Calls Grassroots Efforts of Organization Robust and Successful

The 2014 National Farmers Union convention is underway- and convention goers in Santa Fe, New Mexico heard a state of the organization message at their opening banquet on Saturday night from NFU President Roger Johnson. About two dozen Oklahoma members of the American Farmers & Ranchers/Okalhoma Farmers Union were at the Saturday night event, presenting the largest state affiliate of the NFU.


According to Johnson, Farmers Union has many successes to celebrate this year, with significant membership growth in key states; the passage of a new five-year farm bill that will positively impact farmers, ranchers and consumers; robust grassroots advocacy efforts across the country; and increasing participation in Farmers Union's education programs. These victories will set the stage for continued work centered on priorities set by the membership this week in Santa Fe.


Johnson told Farmers Union members in attendance that "thanks to your hard work and tireless advocacy, we have a 2014 Farm Bill." NFU achieved several key priorities in the bill, including safety net provisions that protect farmers from losses due to both natural disasters and price collapse; a disaster program for livestock producers; maintenance of the existing Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law for meat, seafood and poultry; and mandatory funding for renewable energy programs.

We have posted three stories with audio involving Johnson.  We talked with him about the farm bill success, implementation and also the Obama Administration proposal that would cut Crop Insurance- click here for our story that has that audio.

Then- we have a second part of the one on one that we had with Johnson that centered on COOL- which is what he calls a signature issue for NFU.  We really hit his "hot" button on COOL and you will be able to hear that as you listen to our give and take of more than 12 minutes on this one subject.  Click here for that- and on the same subject- we have the remarks he made to convention goers on Saturday night about COOL- and you can click here for that.

Livestock Producers Affected by Severe Weather Urged to Keep Good Records

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Juan M. Garcia, Friday repeated his appeal to livestock producers affected by natural disasters such as the drought in the West and the unexpected winter storm in the upper Midwest to keep thorough records. This includes livestock and feed losses, and any additional expenses that are a result of losses to purchased forage or feed stuff.

"The 2014 Farm Bill provides a strong farm safety net to help ranchers during these difficult times," said Garcia. "We'll provide producers with information on new program requirements, updates and signups as the information becomes available. In the meantime, I urge producers to keep thorough records. We know these disasters have caused serious economic hardships for our livestock producers. We'll do all we can to assist in their recovery."

Documentation of the number and kind of livestock that have died, supplemented if possible by photographs or video records of ownership and losses; Dates of death supported by birth recordings or purchase receipts; Costs of transporting livestock to safer grounds or to move animals to new pastures; Feed purchases if supplies or grazing pastures are destroyed; Crop records, including seed and fertilizer purchases, planting and production records; Pictures of on-farm storage facilities that were destroyed by wind or flood waters; and Evidence of damaged farm land.

You can read more of this article by clicking here.

 

Beef Quality Assurance Improves Consumer Experience 

Robert Wells, a livestock consultant with the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, writes in the latest Ag News and Views newsletter:

Ensuring a quality beef-eating experience starts at the ranch when the calf is born and continues until the steak is presented to the consumer as a cooked product. Every segment of the beef industry has a role in ensuring a final quality dining experience. A national program called Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) was developed over 25 years ago to help producers increase the quality of beef they produce by educating ranchers and their employees on the importance of proper management and adhering to industry-accepted guidelines. This program also raises consumer confidence by asssuring the public that USA beef is the safest and most nutritious beef available.

BQA starts at the ranch. Ranchers care for their cattle daily and strive to provide a healthy and safe environment for their livestock. Producers need to make sure that their employees and guests on the ranch also care about the cattle. One way to do this is for ranch workers to be BQA-certified and learn the importance of proper injection techniques, product handling and storage, and livestock handling and transportation, as well as the importance of documentation.

Click here to read more and to find a link to an offer by Boehringer-Ingelheim to pay for producers' BQA certifications.

 

NRCS Organic Initiative Applications Due March 21st

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist Gary O'Neill reminds potential applicants to contact their local NRCS office soon to find out if they are eligible for the agency's Organic Initiative. Applications for the final ranking period of 2014 are due at NRCS offices by the close of business on March 21, 2014. The NRCS office locator is available by clicking here.

O'Neill said that "there is increasing interest on the part of consumers to purchase organically grown foods, leading to increased demand for organic products." As State Conservationist for Oklahoma, "we are pleased to be able to offer these programs to Oklahoma producers and we encourage producers to take advantage of them."

In Oklahoma, NRCS has allocated substantial funds to make financial and technical assistance available to certified organic producers, those who want to make the transition to organic production, and producers who sell less than $5,000 in organic products annually.

Click here to read more and to find more links explaining the program.

The Oklahoma Plan for NFU- Pull Them Back to More Moderate Policy Positions- Terry Detrick of AFR/OFU

The National Farmers Union 2014 Annual Convention is underway in Santa Fe, New Mexico- and the largest state affiliate of the NFU, the American Farmers & Ranchers/Oklahoma Farmers Union, has a total of 25 delegates set to help make policy decisions for the group in the coming year.


According to Terry Detrick of Ames, Oklahoma- the President of AFR/OFU, Oklahoma is the largest state Farmers Union in the country by a large margin- with 26,000 more members than the second largest state Farmers Union, North Dakota. Together, Oklahoma and North Dakota have over half of the membership that is claimed by the national group. Detrick acknowledges that the national group has in recent years been a lot more liberal than is comfortable for most members of his organization- and one of his ongoing goals is to have Oklahoma pull the general farm organization back towards the middle of the policy road.

Click here to read more on the AFR strategy at the 2014 NFU meeting- as well as to have a chance to listen to our conversation with Terry Detrick.

The 7th Annual No-till Oklahoma Conference gets underway tomorrow at the National Center for Employee Development in Norman.  The aim of the two-day conference is to bring producers from the Southern Great Plains together to share ideas about no-till cropping systems and complement the discussion with specialists from universities and industries within Oklahoma and surrounding states.

Each session of the conference will highlight a particular aspect of no-till that is crucial for success. Topics include:  Wheat Management, Soil Health, Soil Health and NPK, New RMA Rules for Cover Crops, NRCS Soil Health Initiative, Cover Crop Water Use. A Producer's Experience with Cover Crops, Starter Fertilizer effects on Canola Stand establishment and persistence, Getting a good Canola Stand and Keeping it, Producer Panel on No-till Canola.  

Other presentations will include: Grain Sorghum Yield Potential in Rotations, Using On-Farm Data, Economics: No-till vs. Conventional Tillage, Weed Control in Continuous No-till Wheat and more.

Click here for more information and to register for the no-till conference.