While attending the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays caught up with one of the four Oklahoma Star finalists, Rylee Smith, from the Oologah FFA Chapter. She specializes in Agriscience.

The American Star in Agribusiness will be awarded to the FFA member with the top nonproduction agribusiness supervised agricultural experience in the nation. The member must demonstrate outstanding achievement, active FFA participation, and an exemplary scholastic record.

Smith began her projects in eighth grade when she still hadn’t found her place in the school. Her dad served in the military, so her family moved a lot, but she knew she would be in the Oologah school district for longer than usual. At the time, though, she wasn’t sure what that would mean for her. Her ag teacher saw her passion for science and agriculture and led her to agriscience competitions.

She competed at various capacities in various competitions for the next five years of school, then in college at Oklahoma State University, she presented projects at two symposiums and took her research from the university student farm to the American Society of Horticulture Science (ASHS) Conference during the summer after her Freshman year.

Our coverage of Oklahoma FFA engaged at the National FFA Convention is being powered again in 2024 by Oklahoma Farm Bureau. Watch for our stories and interviews from Indianapolis on our Website, Daily Email, our statewide Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and our Social Media Channels. Click here for the OKFB website to learn about how they are making a difference in the lives of Oklahomans. 

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Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays features comments from Colorado Cattlemen’s Association Executive Vice President Erin Karney Spaur as she goes in-depth about Pro Animal Future, a group trying to end animal agriculture beginning with banning fur sales and slaughterhouses in the city and county of Denver, Colorado.

Yesterday, her featured comments covered the group’s ballot initiatives that agricultural groups are trying to garner opposition to: Initiated Ordinance 309 to ban slaughterhouses and Initiated Ordinance 308 to ban fur sales. Initiated Ordinance 309 would shut down the only remaining slaughterhouse in Denver which happens to be one of the largest lamb processing plants in the country. Listen to those comments here.

Pro Animal Future is an animal extremist organization that is exceptionally dangerous to animal agricultural producers. “The leaders of Pro Animal Future are radical animal activists,” Karney said. “While on the surface, it looks like they are only trying to ban one slaughterhouse in the city of Denver, when we dug deeper and listened to interviews and podcasts that they have recently been featured in, they make it very clear that it is not just about one slaughterhouse in Denver. They are ultimately trying to test their message to build intelligence on us as an industry, our message, and how the slaughterhouse employees will respond. More importantly, they are learning how to build and refine a campaign to replicate in other cities.”

Brian Whitacre Sheds Light on Rural Broadband Expansion

The Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economics Department hosted the Rural Economic Outlook Conference at the ConocoPhillips Alumni Center on the OSU campus last week, and Farm Director KC Sheperd had the opportunity to talk with OSU Extension Specialist for Rural Economic Development Brian Whitacre to get the latest update on broadband development in rural areas.

Whitacre said that there are three main broadband funding efforts in Oklahoma: the Capital Project Fund with more than $380 million, and the ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund with $374 million, and Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) with nearly $800 million.

“We estimate that there are around eighty thousand households without broadband service,” Whitacre said. “We are hopeful that last bucket of $800 million from BEAD will get all of those households connected.”

The Oklahoma Broadband Office has a map on its website for people to check if they are in a zone without broadband access. If a person finds that they don’t have broadband options, they can reach out to providers in their area and let them know that these grant dollars are available to help them extend their service.

The state of Oklahoma is blessed to have four Star Finalists at the national level being recognized at the 2024 9th National FFA Convention this week. One of the four is Gage Slagell of Hydro- Eakly, Star Finalist in Ag Placement. You can listen to Gage and Ron Hays talk about his career on his grandfather’s farm that has already brought him success at the state and national level- including being named as the 2023 Oklahoma State Star in Ag Placement.

Slagell’s supervised agricultural experience has beenworking for Triple S Farms in Hydro, Oklahoma. Triple S Farms focuses on producing watermelons, sweet potatoes, potatoes, cantaloupe, wheat, soybeans and peanuts. They produce roughly 360 acres of watermelons and 40 acres of cantaloupe. 

Triple S Farms is owned by Slagell’s grandfather and his great-uncle. Slagell said he is grateful for the help he has received with his project, especially from his dad and grandpa.

“They are constantly pushing me to do better,” Slagell said.  

Oklahoma will be very much in the spotlight Friday night on the convention stage in Lucas Oil Stadium- Slagell, Rylee Smith(profiled above), Allyson Arthur of Chickasha and Larahmy Blakley of Oologah all will be honored as Final Four champions in their respective categories- we are rooting that Oklahoma will bring home multiple American Star honors before Friday night is done.

On today’s Cow-Calf Corner, Kellie Curry Raper, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics writes about making decisions concerning cull cows.

In Financial Opportunities of Cull Cow Marketing (Cow-Calf Corner – 9/23/24), Mark Johnson discussed the cull cow market, the importance of cull cow revenue to cow-calf operations, and the potential of adding value based on seasonal patterns in cull cow prices. As Dr. Johnson discussed, cull cow prices tend to bottom in the fall and peak in the spring, presenting a range of opportunities. Let’s take a deeper dive into the culling decision along with post-culling management and marketing with a focus on spring-calving herds.

Cow-calf producers with spring calving herds typically wean calves in late summer or early fall and subsequently make decisions about culling cows from the herd. The culling decision is based on many factors related to fertility, productivity, management ease, and health.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that it will begin issuing more than $2.14 billion in payments to eligible agricultural producers, and landowners—providing much needed support through key conservation and safety-net programs. Producers should soon receive payments from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) for their participation in these programs aimed to conserve natural resources and keep family farms economically viable. 

Specifically, program participants are expected to receive more than $1.7 billion through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and CRP Transition Incentive Program (CRP TIP) and more than $447 million through the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Prices Loss Coverage (ARC/PLC) programs. Additionally, FSA is announcing an investment of $21 million for projects to better measure the effectiveness of CRP.

“Conservation and safety net program payments are significant investments in preserving and protecting our valuable and vulnerable natural resources and they provide protection for producers impacted by market volatilities,” said Steve Kouplen, FSA State Executive Director in Oklahoma. “These programs support voluntary land stewardship and provide agricultural producers with risk protection and production stability, keeping them in business and feeding the world.”  

Oklahoma Speakers Advancing in National Contests at 97th Convention of the FFA

We have had one Final Four performer from Wednesday- and two more of our speakers representing Oklahoma in the semis waiting to see if they will be in the Final Four of their respective contests today.

Cierra Simpson of Frederick FFA advanced to the Final Four in the National Creed Contest Wednesday night- and that Championship Round was immediately held last night. We will learn who won in Creed this evening at the General Session at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Both Coy Davidson of Elgin and Cooper Kline of North Rock Creek spoke in their semi finals on Wednesday afternoon- and we will learn this morning if they have advanced to the national Final Four or not- Coy in Prepared Public Speaking and Cooper in Extemporaneous Public Speaking.