CNBC Focuses on Grains and Rails
Watch the video of today’s interview on CNBC with Mark Hodges, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. Hodges was part of a group discussion titled “Grains on the Rails,” which focused on the rail infrastructure and its affect on grain movement this summer.
Here’s the link to the video of Hodges’ interview.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
National Exposure for State’s Farm Rail Challenges
Mark Hodges, Oklahoma Wheat Commission executive director, will appear on CNBC financial news network at 1:20 p.m. CDT on Friday to discuss the transportation challenges faced by state wheat farmers this year.
A lack of rail cars during harvest was cited by some grain elevator operators as a bottleneck in the delivery of grain this past harvest season to out-of-state shipping points. The situation became critical during late June when some elevators in the Fredericka and Altus areas were filled to capacity and grain was stored in the open ground.
So, CNBC officials asked Hodges to discuss the situation in Friday’s interview. Stay tuned.
Jim Stafford
Business Reporter
Ken Biddle’s farewell party
My favorite memory of Ken Biddle is not the times I saw him shooting photographs for the Oklahoma Agriculture Department or the ag-related events we shared in the mid-1990s when I was on the ag beat pretty much full-time.
Rather, it was watching Ken spend a Saturday morning policing the grounds and cleaning the facilities at his church, St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Edmond. I was there with my then-Cub Scout son for a soap-box derby event. Ken displayed a zeal for the drudgery that amazed me.
Anyway, Ken is retiring on Sept. 1 after 13 years as a public information officer with the ag department, and his co-workers held a retirement celebration for him this afternoon the foryer of the ag department building on Lincoln Blvd. I was privileged to attend and shot a photo of the event.
The picture above is Ken delivering some comments and acknowledging his family and co-workers. That is Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Terry Peach in the background.
Congratulations, Ken.
Business Reporter
Rain sets up wheat planting season
This map provided by the Oklahoma Wheat Commission’s Mark Hodges shows the amount of rainfall received nationwide in the past two weeks. Oklahoma has received quite a share, and rain continues to fall outside my window this afternoon. ”Oklahoma was in great need of this moisture prior to planting of our hard red winter wheat,” Hodges said.
Business Reporter
Oklahoma’s crop forecast
The story I wrote for today’s newspaper on the latest crop forecast focused on the surprising national corn estimate and the lack of trust in its accuracy.
Much of the nation’s prime corn growing regions were inundated with floods at the start of the growing season, and experts don’t believe that 12.3 billion bushels will be brought in this year. That’s only a 6 percent decline from 2007.
While Oklahoma is not a big corn growing the state, the issue is key to cattle farmers who use corn as a prime feed for their livestock. So, they were watching the forecast with interest.
Oklahoma’s wheat harvest — it’s largest grain crop — is forecast at 171 million bushels. That’s a whopping 74 percent over the weather-plagued 2007 crop. In fact, the two previous wheat crops were virtually wiped out by weather-related issues.
While the state’s wheat industry should celebrate the big harvest numbers, many farmers are concerned about the high cost of inputs — diesel fuel and fertilizer — as they plan for next season’s crop. There is always a black cloud behind the silver lining, it seems.
Here’s a stat that stood out in the state wheat forecast: 4.5 million acres. That’s one million more acres that were harvested for wheat than in 2007. That’s big.
Other state crops:
Corn: 41.6 million bushels, up 6 percent from 2007 and the largest in Oklahoma since 1932.
Cotton: 290,000 bales, up 3 percent
Grain sorghum: 12 million bushels, up 6 percent.
Peanuts: 53.2 million pounds, down 8 percent and the lowest production since 1956.
Soybeans: 7.13 milion bushels, up 70 percent
Hay production: 6.21 million tons, the second highest on record, although it is down 12 percent from 2007.
Peaches: 1,800 tons, up 80 percent.
Business Reporter
‘Plasticulture’ farming: see the video
Tuesday’s visit to the “Garden Spot” owned by Rochelle King in Spencer was a real eye-opener for me. There were two acres of lush, green vegetables that should yield hundreds of pounds of okra, tomatoes and peas befeore the summer is over.
King is a participant in the state’s “Plasticulture” farming program that provides small farmers with limited resources the tools to generate income from farming. King is the poster child for the program, said Micah Anderson, coordinator.
Anderson drives the Plasticulture program by personally laying down the plastic on most of the 45 participating farms, providing the tools and teaching them the most efficient ways to operate. He climbed on a tractor and demonstrated how he puts down the plastic for a group of visitors to King’s farm from the Kerr Center Small Farms conference.
Click on the video above to hear Anderson and King talk about the program. Below are some photos I shot at Kings farm on Tuesday.
Business Writer
