Featured Story:

The National Park Service (NPS) has issued a feasibility study proposing to designate the Chisholm and Great Western Cattle Drive Trails as National Trails. According to Michael Kelsey, Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, "after reviewing the 160+ page study, OCA is concerned what effect this designation would have on property owners who have land along the trail."

Because of those concerns, the OCA has provided comments to the National Park Service opposing the designation. Kelsey says there are two key reasons why.  

"First, land owners, were not sufficiently notified. We, nor any other agriculture commodity organization representing land owners received any notification of this study.

"Second, most egregious, the study proposes to designate the Trails as National Historic Trails and then complete comprehensive management plans and further environmental compliance documents. This should be done BEFORE the trails are designated in our opinion." 

Our webstory, available here,  includes the full comment letter from the OCA, as well as the link to submit comments to the National Park Service.  DEADLINE to submit comments is this Friday, March 6, 2015.  

Fair to Good Sums Up the Oklahoma Wheat Crop- Talking Conditions with Jeff Edwards 

Oklahoma's winter wheat crop still looks better than a year ago, despite drought that is hanging on in the state.   The latest crop progress report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated one percent of the crop in excellent condition, 41 percent in good, 42 in fair and 16 percent in poor to very poor condition. Oklahoma State University Wheat Extension Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards said this report matches what he is seeing- "on the surface."


"What concerns me again is the lack of subsoil moisture," Edwards said. "If we continue to get rainfall, we are on our way to a good crop, but it won't take but a couple of weeks of 80 - 90 degree temperatures and 20 - 30 mile per hour winds for what little moisture to be gone and we could be in a world of hurt in a hurry, if that happens."


In comparing this year's crop to the dismal 2014 crop, Edwards said this is much better looking crop. He said this crop got off to a much better start in getting established. In most cases, he said the crop was planted a little late, so it is a little smaller than normal. With the recent snow and with warmer temperatures in the weather forecast, Edwards thinks this crop will come to life and will make up for lost time.


For producers that have been grazing cattle on wheat pasture, Edwards said the crop has reached or is reaching the critical stage of first hollow stem.  I caught up with Edwards at the No-till conference in Norman Tuesday.  To read or to listen to the full interview, click here.   

Beef Checkoff Creating a Bigger Beef Community and Love for American Beef

The nation's beef checkoff is targeting those that love beef in this country.   In recent years, the checkoff shifted from using traditional forms of media like radio, television and print to more actively engage directly with beef lovers through social media and digital platforms. At the recent Cattle Industry Convention, I caught up with Cattlemen's Beef Board Chief Executive Officer Polly Ruhland. 


In making this shift, Ruhland said the results have been more profound than just shifting from a traditional platform to a digital platform.   She said when the operating committee agreed to build a beef community that included beef eaters and they started engaging with customers in a way that hadn't been done before. Ruhland said they have had phenomenal success with a 360 percent increase in website traffic over the past year.


This is a result in moving from one media form to another, but Ruhland said it is also a philological shift in the way the checkoff reaches and engages consumers.   She said millennials especially appreciate that attitude change as much as the platform change.


"I really believe that in today's environment, consumers want to feel like they are part of the product," Ruhland said. "They don't want to feel like they are being sold to, they want to feel they are being included in. So when I talk about the beef community, to me the community involves people who make the food and people who eat the food. Shifting our thinking toward including our consumers, our customers and our eaters in our community, in what we do, is really important I think to the future of our product and especially to the future of the millennials way of thinking about what we do."  

To read or have the opportunity to listen to this feature, click here.  

Alta Seeds Looking to Offer Grassy Weed Solutions in Grain Sorghum Through New Varieties

Sorghum farmers can look forward to some new advances in seed technology that will help farmers control weeds. At the recent Commodity Classic, Alta Seeds Breeder Ben Beyer said multiple herbicide-tolerant grain sorghum traits will be released soon to farmers across country.

With DuPont Crop Protection, Alta Seeds will be one of two companies offering the Inzen herbicide tolerance trait, which has ALS resistance.


Alta Seeds also has their own proprietary and patented technology that will come to market in 2017 and 2018. Beyer said herbicide tolerance will allow farmers to apply IMI herbicides on their sorghum crop to control grass and broadleaf weeds. Having this new seed technology will boost sorghum yields. Beyer has seen grassy weeds rob farmers of upwards of 5,000 pounds of yield per acre.


"So grassy weeds are a big problem in sorghum," Beyer said. "We currently have ways to tackle the broadleaf weeds, but we feel that solving the grass weed problem is the biggest issue right now in sorghum."  

To read or to listen to my conversation with Beyer about how these new herbicide varieties will help sorghum farmers, click here.   

Super Times for Sorghum Farmers- OKlahoma Milo Producer JB Stewart Leads the Cheers at Commodity Classic! 

It's a great time to be a sorghum farmer. That's not an expression that has been used a lot, but passage of the 2014 Farm Bill coupled with strong global demand for the crop has made for exciting times. National Sorghum Producers Chairman J.B. Stewart said it has been an ideal time to be leading the organization. He remembers when sorghum was boring, but now the crop has gotten some real wins in the Farm Bill, through the checkoff and prices have been strong.


With strong demand for sorghum, the 2014 crop is in short supply and sales have already begun for the 2015 crop, which continues to help support prices. Stewart said the old crop is being priced at the Gulf at $2/bushel higher than the price of corn and the new crop is priced $1.50 over corn. 


During the General Session at Commodity Classic, Stewart got a gentle jab in at the Corn Grower leadership on stage.  Corn Growers were bemoaning low prices and large carryover of their crop- at which point, Stewart pointed out- grain sorghum has no carryover and has a really good price right now- maybe some of your corn acres should be diverted to grain sorghum.  There was laughter and the NCGA CEO says maybe that was good advice.

 

As for our conversation with JB in Phoenix- we caught up with him on the Trade SHow floor- you can read more of what he said or to listen to my interview with Stewart by clicking here.    

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.

Big Iron Wednesday is Going to be a Snowy One It Seems- The Prediction Map 

It's Wednesday- and that means the Big Iron folks will be busy closing out this week's auction items - all 783 items consigned.  Bidding will start 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.   

********** 

Winter Storm Thor has got the folks of Oklahoma really worked up- schools have closed in anticipation of the sleet and ice and snow that is ahead today.  As of 5:30 this morning- we have snow and some sleet in the Oklahoma Panhandle and far northwestern Oklahoma- but the promise is that a lot more is coming-

Here is the map of possible snowfall later today and tonight for the state- courtesy of David Payne and the News9 folks:

In northeastern Oklahoma, Travis Meyer has called this a "wait and see" kind of storm- as the forecast models still are not firm in telling us exactly who will get what kind of moisture and how much.

The weather teams at News9 and News on 6 are the best in the state- and they are grappling with old Thor as we write this- stay with them during the day and you'll have the best guess that anybody will have as it develops.

Be safe.