Oklahoma's 2014 cotton crop is much better than what was predicted earlier this year. According to National Cotton Council harvest estimates, Oklahoma will gin 95,250 bales this year in comparison to only 55,000 bales ginned in 2013.


Harvey Schroeder, executive director of the Oklahoma Cotton Council, said September rains and a warm, dry October allowed the crop to mature to its full potential. Much of the crop's plants were loaded with green bolls which needed time to mature, he said. The "heat units" created by the warm, sunny October did a good job of bringing the crop to its potential, he said.


"Cotton is a very important crop for southwestern Oklahoma," Schroeder said. "But even more importantly, whether or not we have a good cotton crop has a ripple effect on the state's economy. If there isn't any cotton to harvest as we have seen recently due to the worst drought on record, no one buys new pickup trucks or tractors and home improvements are put on hold.
"We are really happy to see a good crop being harvested and ginned at the cotton gins in the area."


Jeannie Hileman, manager of the Carnegie Cooperative cotton gin, affirmed the economic point made by Schroeder. "Successful crops and harvests are important for Oklahoma agriculture's infrastructure," she said. "I am happy to know both dryland and irrigated cotton yields are been good. "We have just ginned 20,000 bales here at Carnegie. It is almost unheard of to gin 20,000 or more bales here this early before Christmas. I expect we will have a season total of 38,000 bales this year." Hileman said dryland cotton yields of a bale to a bale and a quarter to the acre have been reported to her. Irrigated cotton yields have really been good, she said. "Most of our irrigated cotton yields have been in excess of three and three quarter bales to the acre," she said. "There have been several fields of four bale to the acre irrigated cotton reported." 

Click here to read more about this year's cotton crop from the Red River cotton gin and Humphreys Cooperative as well as the dryland cotton crop.
 

USDA Observes Kick Off of the International Year of Soils 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) begins its celebration of the International Year of Soils to highlight the importance of healthy soils for food security, ecosystem functions and resilient farms and ranches.


"Healthy soil is the foundation that ensures working farms and ranches become more productive, resilient to climate change and better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during an event today at USDA headquarters. "We join the world in celebrating this living and life-giving resource."


With an increasing global population, a shrinking agricultural land base, climate change and extreme weather events, the nations of the world are focusing their collective attention to the primary resource essential to food production-the soil. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), working within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, spearheaded the adoption of a resolution by the UN General Assembly designating 2015 as the International Year of Soils. The year of awareness aims to increase global understanding of the importance of soil for food security and essential ecosystem functions. 

Click or tap here to read more about USDA's involvement in the International Year of Soils.  

Jim Robb Says Cattle Prices Bouncing Back After December Downturn

Jim Robb of the Livestock Marketing Information Centeris our guest for the next couple of days on our daily Beef Buzz radio feature, which is heard on many of our radio stations that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network.  He serves as Executive Director of the group that works with land-grant institutions across the country. Robb talks with us about the momentum seen in the cattle market for much of 2014- saying that he sees it continuing in the early days of 2015.


"We actually gained some momentum, we had some winter weather that fed into the story, along with a holiday shortened processing schedule by packers," Robb said. "We had slaughter down 14 percent year to year. Again, don't read too much into that in terms of holiday shortened week. Importantly though USDA also reported that dressed steer weights fell rather precipitously in mid - December and we're down in one week by seven pounds and we are now down to the steer dressed weights that we posted back in mid-September. So we are also getting the seasonal and maybe some weather induced pull back in steer weights, which is probably a bit of a supportive factor in this cattle market too on the fed cattle side."
 

You can listen to this first installment with Robb as featured on the Beef Buzz by clicking or tapping here.  

Advanced Biofuel Production Capacity to Double By 2017

Advanced biofuel companies in the U.S. and Canada are poised to more than double production over the next few years with the right policies in place, according to a new market analysis by the national nonpartisan business group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2).


The report, "E2 Advance Biofuel Market Report 2014," was released Tuesday. With a focus covering the U.S. and Canada, the latest E2 report is especially relevant to three states with clean fuels standards either on the books or under consideration: Oregon, California, and Washington state.


The report also includes the biofuel production forecast through 2017.  Click or tap here to read the E2 Advance Biofuel Market Report 2014.  

Selk: When Do We Intervene and Assist a Cow or Heifer in Labor?

Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist, writes in the latest Cow-Calf Newsletter.  

Before the spring calving season commences, now is the time to put together and post a protocol for family members and hired employees to follow when they find a cow or heifer starting in the process of calving. An issue facing the rancher at calving time, is the amount of time heifers or cows are allowed to be in labor before assistance is given. Traditional text books, fact sheets and magazine articles stated that "Stage II" of labor lasted from 2 to 4 hours. "Stage II" is defined as that portion of the birthing process from the first appearance of the water bag until the baby calf is delivered. Research data from Oklahoma State University and the USDA experiment station at Miles City, Montana clearly show that Stage II is much shorter, lasting approximately 60 minutes in first calf heifers, and 30 minutes in mature cows.



In these studies, heifers that were in stage II of labor much more than one hour or cows that were in stage II much more than 30 minutes definitely needed assistance. Research information also shows that calves from prolonged deliveries are weaker and more disease prone, even if born alive. In addition, cows or heifers with prolonged deliveries return to heat later and are less likely to be bred for the next calf crop. Consequently a good rule of thumb: "If the heifer is not making significant progress 1 hour after the water bag or feet appear, examine the heifer to see if you can provide assistance.   If you cannot safely deliver the calf yourself at this time, call your local large animal veterinarian immediately.

Click or tap here to read more insight from Dr. Selk.   

Award winning broadcast journalist Jerry Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here to subscribe to his daily update of top Energy News.

Sorghum U will be offered this month in Enid, Oklahoma; and Perryton, Texas. The event will be held in Enid at the Enid Convention Center on Friday, January 9th and the Texas Panhandle will host the event in Perryton at Frank Phillips College on Wednesday, January 28th.

Industry insiders are set to present information on a wide variety of topics and farm-level practices that will help increase producer profitability.  Sessions will include discussion on best management practices that lead to increased profits and yield. Curt Thompson, Ph.D., Kansas State University, will also present on weed management specific to sorghum production.


Rodney Jones Ph.D., Oklahoma State University, will present the economics of sorghum production in Enid, and Rick Kochenower will discuss weed management specific to sorghum. Regional marketing and crop management sessions will also be available to attendees.


At the Enid Session, I will be moderating a producer panel about sorghum crop production in the state of Oklahoma.  Click or tap here to read more about Sorghum U.   

This-N-That - Big Iron Auction Next Week, Grain Mites Chomping on Wheat in North Central Oklahoma and a Call for Quail Lovers

The next Big Iron Auction will be held on Wednesday, January 14th.  The auction has 305 items consigned.  Bidding will start next Wednesday starting at 10 AM central time.                  

Click Here for the complete rundown of what is being sold on this no reserve online sale this week.

If you'd like more information on buying and selling with Big Iron, call District Manager Mike Wolfe at 580-320-2718 and he can give you the full scoop.  You can also reach Mike via email by clicking or tapping here.  

OSU State Wheat Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards offered up a Blog posting at OSUWheat.Com on Tuesday afternoon- talking Grain Mites. "Jeff Bedwell forwarded reports of winter grain mites in Major and Alfalfa counties over the past week. This does not appear to be a widespread problem, but growers should check wheat fields to see if winter grain mites are present."

Edwards says you have to really have a lot of Mites to justify spraying- "There are no established thresholds for winter grain mite. Healthy, well-fertilized wheat plants can generally outgrow injury, so it takes large numbers to justify control. If there is injury present AND large numbers of mites (~10 per plant) present in grain only wheat this time of year, you might consider control. If the wheat is to be grazed, I would simply monitor the situation in most cases and only spray if injury became severe."

Click here for the full article from the OSUWheat website.

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On Thursday evening in Enid, there will be a Quail Forever/Pheasants Forever organizational meeting to start a Quail Forever Chapter in the Enid and surrounding area. 

For more details- click here for our calendar entry for the Thursday meeting- and there will also a similar organizational meeting for Kingfisher County later in the month- details are here.