Drought Relief Continues Moving West Across Oklahoma 

Getting a wetter than normal summer is bringing drought relief to Oklahoma. The state's drought ratings were cut nearly in half in the most severe drought ratings over the last week, a culmination of the ongoing summer moisture. In the weekly US Drought Monitor report released Thursday, Oklahoma saw improvement in all drought categories with 2.63 percent in exceptional drought (D4), 16.74 is in extreme drought (D3), 48.08 is in severe (D2), 72.56 is in moderate (D1), 83.5 percent was abnormally dry and 16.5 percent did not receive a drought rating.


That's a vast improvement over the last three months when 28.85 percent was in exceptional drought, 48.86 percent in extreme, 65.94 in severe, 80.65 in moderate, 93.33 abnormally dry and 6.67 was not classified in a drought rating.   


In the weekly Oklahoma Climatological Survey Mesonet Ticker, State Climatologist Gary McManus said most of the drought impacts we see now are long-term impacts, such as surface water deficits, deeper soil moisture deficits and ground water levels. The effect of the drought continues to linger across western Oklahoma where lakes are still below 50% of normal capacity.


Oklahoma has been dealing with deficits of 20-30 inches since the beginning of the drought in October 2010, and also from the beginning of this year. The state experienced a deficit of close to five inches from January one to August sixth, as the 19th driest since at least 1921. McManus said this is definitely a long-term drought impact needing a long-term drought remedy. 

Click Here to read about the weather outlook for the next 14 days and the outlook for El Nino this fall.
 

Amid Record Prices, USMEF Promotes Value of US Beef 

Record beef prices and tight US beef supplies, a combination that makes it tough to sell US beef internationally. That's a challenging job for US Meat Export Federation President and Chief Executive Officer Phil Seng. We visited with Seng at the Summer Cattle Industry Convention held last week in Denver. Seng said they are letting customers around the world know that, without a doubt, US beef still needs to be on their shopping list.


"One of the things we are doing internationally is we're trying to explain to a lot of our valued customers overseas why you're paying more for our product than you ever have before," Seng said. "We're trying to show this value - price relationship."


Other than Korean beef and Japanese beef, US beef is the most expensive beef in the world. Seng said in working with Australia, India or other competitors they are doing a lot to demonstrate the value of US beef.


"We're doing a lot to try and extol really the virtues of US beef and our US beef production and the deliverables you get with US beef, that's probably one of the key things we are doing at this point and time," Seng said.  

The underlying issue is the small US beef supply and growing international demand for US beef.  Get More on This Story here  which includes our Beef Buzz audio about  how China is impacting global beef demand and the potential for the US to export to China in the future.

A team of researchers has come one step closer to showing that broadband is an engine for growth in rural U.S. communities, especially when a large segment of the population adopts the technology. Their findings are among the first to provide evidence to support a long-held assumption that rural economies are boosted by broadband.


"When broadband first came out, there were all sorts of claims that it would be great for rural areas, but until now we really hadn't seen any firm evidence on whether broadband impacts economic growth in these areas," said Brian Whitacre, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension economist, and leader of this study. "We found that rural counties that did a good job of adopting broadband had higher rates of income growth and lower rates of unemployment growth."


The researchers used 2010 U.S. county level data to compare all non-metro counties in terms of their broadband availability and adoption. Then they compared these counties in terms of their economic growth between 2001 and 2010, using indicators like household income, employment growth and number of firms. When they analyzed the two data sets together, they found a significant relationship between broadband adoption and economic growth.

View more of this story here about how broadband adoption impacts income growth and unemployment.    

Written By Kristen Devlin, Penn State University  

AFBF Releases #DitchTheRule Animated Video

A new animated video produced by the American Farm Bureau Federation is part of the organization's popular Ditch the Rule campaign. The two-and-a-half minute animation explores how the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposed "Waters of the U.S." rule is regulatory overreach and unnecessary.


"This video offers a fresh take on a serious subject of concern to farmers, ranchers and other landowners," said Mace Thornton, AFBF's executive director of communications. "It is time to get animated, share the video and join the movement to Ditch The Rule," he urged.


If adopted, the new rule would enable the agencies to micro-manage farming and impose unworkable regulations on farmers and other landowners. It would grant federal agencies - EPA and the Corps - rather than state and local governing bodies, primary oversight of land use, exposing farmers to penalties for common farming practices of up to $37,000 per day.


Farm Bureau, together with dozens of other agricultural and land-use groups and hundreds of members of Congress, is fighting EPA's attempt to redefine the Clean Water Act through the overreaching waters rule.  Click Here to watch the animated video from AFBF.
 

Ag In The Classroom Connecting with Teachers

The Ag in the Classroom (AITC) program is connecting thousands of Oklahoma students and teachers to the state's farmers and ranchers. During the school year the program educates student grades K-12 about their food. In the summer months the program works to connect with teachers. Coming up on our In The Field segment tomorrow morning will be  AITC Coordinator Dana Bessinger, who will talk about the program's activities.   


"We work with educators and besides the three road trips that we have taken with teachers connecting them up close and personal with agriculture and our lesson in resources, we've had a state conference," Bessinger said.   "We did four workshops at Vision 20/20, which is the state department of education state conference."


This summer AITC offered the "The Rolling Classroom" that took a group of teachers out to the country to visit a ranch and feedlot. The Oklahoma Beef Council surveyed participants view points before and after the event to see if the program had a impact.


"We try to dispel some of the misinformation and on those trips they hear the flat out facts and they get to visit with the ranchers," Bessinger said.  

You can View and Listen here to more about the AITC summer activities.  Also be sure to watch Saturday's In the Field segment with Bessinger and I on KWTV News9 during the Saturday morning news block around 6:40 am.

OCA Range Round-Up Celebrates 30 Years of 'Riding' with Ford

The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association (OCA) and Oklahoma Ford Dealers invite you to attend the 30th Anniversary OCA Range Round-Up on Aug. 22 and 23.


The Range Round-Up takes place at the State Fairgrounds Jim Norick Arena in Oklahoma City. Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m on Friday, Aug. 22 and Saturday, Aug. 23. Tickets can be bought at the door or reserved early by calling 405-948-6800 or visiting the Oklahoma State Fair website. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. to allow time for attendees to visit the trade show.


"We are excited for our 30th Annual event and honored that The Oklahoma Ford Dealers have been the event's presenting sponsor since the very beginning in 1985," said Tim Drummond, OCA Range Round-Up Chairman.


Twelve teams consisting of 16 ranches of 'real ranch' cowboys will compete in the 30th Annual OCA Range Round-Up. These cowboys will compete in events that mirror many of the activities they do on the ranch.


"2014 will mark the 18th year that our selected charity has been the Children's Miracle Network. In that time, the OCA has donated more than $441,500.00," said Drummond.   "We like to call the event, 'Cowboys Helping Kids'."   "We are proud of this event," Drummond continued, "And we appreciate the ranches, sponsors, fans, and volunteers who help us with this important mission."

Click Here for the full list of ranches competing in this year's Range Roundup.

CME Group Looking for Your Input on Trading Hours for their Livestock Futures Contract

The CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced it has begun the process of conducting broad outreach to customers, producer groups and other market participants to review existing CME livestock trading hours on CME Globex.

"Livestock customers and industry participants have asked us to review the current electronic trading hours for our CME livestock products to ensure we are providing the most effective risk management and price discovery tools possible," said Tim Andriesen, Managing Director, Agricultural Commodities and Alternative Investments, CME Group. "This survey is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure our products continually reflect the changing needs of our customers and the market."

An online survey of CME Globex trading hours for CME Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle, and Lean Hog futures and options products will be made available to participants on CME Group's website now through Tuesday, August 19.

You can access the survey on the CME website here.