Champions Crowned at 30th Annual OCA Range Round Up

A large crowd was on hand Friday and Saturday night for the 30th Annual Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association Range Round Up. The annual fundraiser raises money for the Children's Miracle Network. Sixteen ranches competed in six events ranging from saddle bronc riding, stray gathering, wild cow milking, team branding, team penning, and the wild horse race.


The Top Horse Award was presented Joe Wayland of Davison & Sons Cattle Co. of Arnett, Okla. The Tough Hand Award went to Justin Peterson of Buford Ranches of Welch, Okla. The Top Hand Award was presented to Jeremiah Campbell of Davison & Sons Cattle Co. of Arnett, Okla.


This year's Champion Range Round Up Team went to Davison & Sons Cattle Co. of Arnett, Okla. Second place went to Alfalfa County Land and Cattle of Cherokee, Okla.   Third place went to McCoy Ranch & Beebe Livestock of Ada, Okla. Fourth place went to Hitch Ranch of Guymon, Okla. Fifth place went to Hall Ranch and Daube Cattle Co. of Comanche and Ardmore, Okla. Sixth place was Buford Ranches of Welch, Okla.


The championship team was made of Weston Givens, Jeff Wayland, Jeremiah Campbell, Joe Wayland and Garry Brown. After Saturday night's performance, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Associate Farm Director Leslie Smith caught up with Weston Givens to congratulate his team on the victory.  Click here to read or to listen to the full interview.

Cotton farmers had high hopes going into the 2014 growing season. With ongoing drought the last time Oklahoma produced a great cotton crop was in 2010, since then the crop has struggled pretty much every year. Oklahoma State University Research Director and Cotton Extension Program Leader Randy Boman said 2010 was one for the record books, but that's the only bright spot in recent memory. The 2011 crop was an absolute disaster for the southern plains, the worst in many decades, then 2012 and 2013 have gradually improved. 

We talked with Boman at last week's Oklahoma Ag Weather Symposium in Norman- you can hear our conversation here.

Going into the 2014 growing season there was a lot of concern early on due to having one of the driest starts of the year from January til May, then Oklahoma got into a wetter than normal pattern in May. Boman said that allowed more farmers to planting cotton in the southeastern part of the state.


"We actually had a lot of cotton go in, according to USDA NASS we're sitting at probably 240 thousand acres or so, which is up quite a bit from last year at 185 thousand acres," Bowman said.


The crop got off to a great start initially, but that optimism for a good crop has changed.


"Unfortunately the last week or two we just absolutely run out of gas," Boman said. "The moisture stress has hit the crop, we really haven't had much precipitation, I don't believe any precipitation thus far in August and so with the high temperatures triple digits, our evapotranspiration the crop use of the water has been really high, so we're just kinda hitting the wall."    

Click Here to read more about what this crop needs to finish strong and how the ongoing drought has impacted the cotton industry.

Summer Heat Sets In Across Southern Plains Region 

The summer heat across Oklahoma continued to deplete topsoil and subsoil moisture in areas still behind normal rainfall for the growing season. Oklahoma's corn was rated 73 percent good to fair. Maturity is running behind a year ago with 79 percent in dough stage and 53 percent dented. Sorghum condition was rated 78 percent good to fair. Sorghum headed reached 79 percent complete and 56 percent was coloring by the end of the week. Soybeans rated 86 percent good to fair. Soybeans are running ahead of last year as blooming reached 90 percent complete and soybeans setting pods reached 61 percent complete. The state's peanuts rated 94 percent good to fair. Peanuts mature reached 11 percent complete by Sunday, on track with the previous year. Cotton condition was rated 91 percent good to fair with 88 percent of cotton setting bolls and 10 percent of bolls were opening. Third cutting of alfalfa hay reached 88 percent complete, while a fourth cutting was 28 percent complete. Seedbed preparation was underway for all small grains with 27 percent of wheat seedbed preparation complete and canola seedbed preparation was 8 percent complete.  Click Here for the full Oklahoma report.

Hot and humid weather persisted across the state of Texas last week, with highs ranging between the high 90s and mid-100s. Most areas of the state received at least some measurable rainfall during the week. Seventy percent of the state's corn crop has reached dented and 46 percent of the crop has been harvested with harvest reaching completion in South Central Texas. Sorghum harvest was active in many areas of the state with harvest 61 percent complete.  Eighty-five percent of the cotton crop was setting bolls and 23 percent of bolls opening. Cotton harvest made good progress in areas of the Coastal Bend.  Peanuts progressed in areas of the Southern High Plains, while many fields in areas of South Texas were setting pods. Showers helped green pastures and rangeland in many parts of the state, while some deteriorated due to lack of sufficient moisture. In areas of the Edwards Plateau, livestock herds were being thinned due to continued drought conditions. Supplemental feeding continued throughout the state, due to lack of sufficient nutrients being found in pastures.  Click here for the full Texas report.

Temperatures were four to eight degrees warmer than normal across Kansas. Row crops and pastures that have been missed by the recent rains are stressed.  Corn was maturing close to average with 88 percent of the crop in the dough stage, 51 percent dented and 13 percent mature. Sorghum headed has reached 80 percent and coloring was 22 percent. Cotton squaring was 95 percent, setting bolls was at 55 percent and bolls opening was 11 percent. Soybeans setting pods was 78 percent, ahead of 70 last year, but near average. Third cutting of alfalfa reached 83 percent complete and fourth cutting was 15 percent complete.  Click Here for the full Kansas report. 

Pro Farmer Releases 2014 Crop Estimates, USDA Shows Crops Continue to Improve 

Pro Farmer pegs 2014 U.S. corn crop at 14.093 billion bu.; Average yield of 169.3 bu. per acre. Corn +/- 1% = 14.233 billion bu. to 13.952 billion bu.; 171.0 bu. to 167.6 bu. per acre.  Pro Farmer pegs 2014 U.S. soybean crop at 3.812 billion bu.; Average yield of 45.35 bu. per acre. Soybeans +/- 2% = 3.888 billion bu. to 3.736 billion bu.; 46.3 bu. to 44.4 bu. per acre.

Pro Farmer said these estimates are based on assumptions for normal weather through September, which would include a "slow cook" on the corn crop, allowing it to gain the weight needed to reach our estimates. Based on FSA certified acreage data and our observations on Crop Tour, we have decided to leave harvested soybean acres unchanged at 84.058 million and take 600,000 acres off of harvested corn acres - 500,000 acres off North Dakota and 100,000 off Minnesota - bringing it to 83.239 million acres.  Click Here for Pro Farmer's state-by-state Crop Projections.


MEANWHILE- The corn crop condition improved by slight margins according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Report released Monday. With 73 percent of the crop rated good or excellent (as of August 24), corn maturation remains on-pace overall while quality continues to far surpass that seen in 2013, when only 59 percent remained in good-to-excellent condition at this time.  Crop quality reports increased only slightly, with corn rated good adding one point and corn rated poor dropping one over the past week.  The crop progress report also tracks the stages of corn crop growth, with 83 percent in the dough stage and 35 percent dented, compared to a five-year average of 78 and 43 percent, respectively.

The nation's soybean crop also showed some improvement.  The latest USDA report increased the crop rating by one percentage point in the excellent category.  The report also dropped the crop good rating by two points and increased the very poor rating by one point with 18 percent of the crop in excellent condition, 52 percent in good, 23 in fair, five in poor and two in very poor condition. Soybean maturing is running on track with the five-year average with 90 percent of the crop setting pods. 

Overall pasture and range conditions remain unchanged over a week ago with eight percent in excellent condition, 40 in good, 32 in fair, 14 in poor and six in very poor condition. However, the national pasture and range conditions have slipped four points from the end of July in the good to excellent ratings- 52% to 48%. 

Click here for the latest USDA report on crop progress. 

Peel Says Cattle Markets Move Past Summer Highs

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, writes in the latest Cow/Calf Corner newsletter


About a year ago I wrote an article entitled "Cattle markets move past summer lows". The title of this article reflects how far we have come and serves as a reminder that the current cattle and beef market situation is the result of a market run that began over a year ago. Feeder and fed cattle prices increased through the second half of 2013 and were joined by boxed beef values early in 2014 to push on to the unprecedented recent levels. Fed cattle and wholesale beef markets have pulled back from summer highs; fed cattle ended last week at $152/cwt, down $12/cwt from daily highs three to four weeks ago and Choice boxed beef was at $249/cwt, down $14/cwt. from late July. There are questions of whether markets went too far, too fast and are due for a significant correction or whether current market levels are the new reality of market fundamentals. The answer to that has several components, some of which remain to be seen.


Tight supply is the main driver and supplies will continue to get tighter. The latest monthly Cattle on Feed report shows that the feedlot inventory of 9.837 million head was down 1.9 percent from last year, and was the smallest August 1 feedlot inventory since 2009. July placements were 1.56 million head, down 7.4 percent for one year ago and the lowest July placement total in the current cattle on feed data series back to 1996. Fall feedlot supplies will remain tight as feedlots are feeding fewer heavy weight feeders at the current time.


Slaughter numbers this year confirm the impact of tight supplies. Year to date steer slaughter is down 3.1 percent and heifer slaughter is down 8.5 percent leading to a 5.1 percent year to date decrease in yearling slaughter. Since July 1, steers slaughter has been down 9 percent and heifer slaughter was down 16.3 percent, leading to an 11.6 percent year over year decrease in yearling slaughter over the period. Combine that with a 14.4 percent decrease in cow slaughter so far this year (beef cow slaughter is down 17.3 percent year to date) and the fundamental reason behind record cattle and beef prices is apparent. The heifer and cow slaughter decreases are strong indications of initial herd rebuilding. 

Click here to read more from Dr. Derrell Peel on the outlook for feeder cattle prices.   

Box Beef Report Shows Retailers Prepare for Labor Day Grilling

Ed Czerwein with the USDA Market News Office in Amarillo releases a weekly boxed beef summary each Monday afternoon of the previous week- and he says this past week was all about getting the beef pipeline ready for Labor Day.

"The daily spot choice box beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $249.77 which was $5.77 lower than the previous week. There were 889 loads sold for the week in the daily box beef cutout, which was another big week as retailers buy product for Labor day and was about 11 percent of the total volume.


"The comprehensive or weekly average choice cutout which includes all types of sales was $251.91 which was 2.84 lower, and followed the daily cutout downward. However the big news again for the week was that the total volume jumped as retailers continue to buy product for the Labor day weekend. This was a very critical week for sales because very little product had been booked ahead for this holiday and there needed to be good last minute buying to take advantage of this major grilling weekend."

You can listen to Ed's full report (and read it as well) by clicking or tapping here for our complete story found on our website.

Really Good Reads About GMOs- and the Battle Over Labeling   

Forbes Magazine has provided two really good reads about GMOs and the battle over labeling- both released yesterday.

The first is entitled "Why Liberal Americans are Turning Against GMO Labeling" and the author (Jon Entine) says more than once that the scientific debate over GMOs is over- they are safe.

And he says that the outcome of labeling GMOs in this country could be bad news for consumer and for the environment- "Scientists, and increasingly independent liberal thinkers, are opposed to mandatory labels precisely because scientists don't want to replicate what's happened in Europe: a lack of choice of foods, consistently higher food prices, and an increase in the use of more toxic pesticides, all because GMO foods are shunned."

He points the finger of the GMO labeling drumbeat at mercenaries who stand to profit by selling high priced NON GMO food to the public- "The most prominent labeling supporters in the US-all backed by the large and growing organic food lobby, who know that the driver of consumer sales is the unsupported belief that organic foods are safer and more nutritious-have made it quite clear that the consumer choice is not top of their consumer rights wish list.

"If we have it labeled, then we can organize people not to buy it," notes Andrew Kimbrell, head of the Center for Food Safety. "GM foods must be banned entirely, but labeling is the most efficient way to achieve this," says Joseph Mercola, a wildly popular web based natural products entrepreneur whose income depends on selling alternative health products.

Read more about the battle over labeling as laid out by Jon Entine by clicking or tapping here.

AND- there's more.  In a second opinion piece at the same website- Forbes.Com- the point is made that food companies are both offering non GMO products to consumers but also doing a better job of offering the facts about the safety of GMOs.  Author Richard Levick, in his article "GMOs- A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down," says the key is that the companies are respecting the consumer's right to be concerned.   

About providing Non GMO products he says "This isn't a tactical retreat by the food industry; it's a smart shift in strategy that respects the ways in which anxiety overcomes logic in consumer behavior. GMOs aren't going anywhere; but until the public has had time to digest (pun intended) what they are, what they are not, and what they mean to the future of food production on planet Earth, food companies are now willing to meet the public halfway."

Levick concludes "The combination of greater "Non-GMO" product availability and intensified awareness campaigns is a smart approach that I believe will aid in the acceptance of GMOs. It respects consumers enough to meet them on their own terms and let them take their time in making an informed decision."

You can read his full article by clicking or tapping here.   

One Day- Two Articles- Both Offering a Real Time  Reality Check on where our society is going with GMOs.