More storage in Eldorado, Oklahoma!
Thanks to the wonderful WWW, we were informed and given pictures about some new grain storage and handling in Eldorado and we wanted to share it with you.
To the left of the truck line, you can see the new bins. Each bin can store 503,00 bushels!
We are more impressed by this arial shot!
Here are the shiney new bins from the distance. A special thank you goes to Janice Miller, Eldorado town clerk/treasurer for getting these to our office.
Janice reported that they are loading one rail car every 5 minutes and 11 seconds!! You read that right!
Chew on and admire this facility while we make harvest calls. We will get back to you ASAP!
Events for wheat producers
We have had a couple of events come across our death and wanted to pass them along to you guys. If you are a wheat producers or simply an enthusiast, take a look at these two events. And, if you know of any other ones please let us know. Shoot an e-mail to okwheat@wheat.state.ok.us
First off we have something targeting both wheat and cattle producers and it is a cooperative effort between Oklahoma and Texas. The Cattle Trails Stocker Conference will be held in Wichita Falls on July 24. Your cost will be a mere $20 which you will gain back in knowledge. You can register by calling Karen Thompson at 940.552.9941 X217. See the flyer for more information.
Then in November, OSU and the crew at FAPC, will host a two-day conference called “After the Harvest.” Join us in Stillwater to discuss topics from milling and baking of Oklahoma’s wheat supply to how to improve wheat quality and an overview of wheat breeding. After the second day you will have a full understanding of wheat from field to family! Get more information and sign up online.
Three Men Nominated for District V Position
The Oklahoma Wheat Commission held an election within the District V, the area in the line of these counties: Grady, Jefferson, Kay, Logan, Noble, Oklahoma, Stephens and everything east of this line, to elect a producer to the Commission Board of Directors. The election took place May 19 at 3300 W. Ferguson Ave, Ponca City and the three men were: Don Schieber, Ponca City; Brady Cooper, Newkirk; and Curtis Vap, Newkirk.
All wheat producers within District V boundaries who are actively engaged in wheat production, marketed wheat, paid a check-off fee and left that fee with the Commission for the current year were eligible to vote.
Schieber has a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University, farms 1400 acres, which 500 are dedicated to wheat. Cooper, a 15 year farming veteran, operates on 3000 acres. Vap, a past chairman of the Two Rivers Coop, has been farming for 24years.
The three nominations made at the election will be given to the Governor of Oklahoma from which he will appoint one person to fill a five year term with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.
Every wheat producer in the district was urged to participate in the important election. For further information, contact the OWC office at (405) 608- 4350. 
PHOTO CAPTION: The three men nominated to the District IV five year term with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission are, from left, Brady Cooper and Curtis Vap, both of Newkirk and top vote getter Don Schieber, Ponca City.
Wheat Straw Sought for Mushroom Farm Compost
Please see the e-mail below. Contact our office at 405-608-4350 and ask for KC. We can help you out if you are interested in becoming part of this program.
Dear Keith,
I did not get a chance to talk to you yesterday about buying straw for our mushroom compost from Oklahoma wheat growers. As a member of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission you have contact with most of the growers here in Oklahoma and straw being an important part of our compost to grow mushrooms it would be good for our state if the straw came from our wheat farmers. Our system is set up for the supplier to deliver the straw to Miami OK. and he is paid a delivered price.
At present the price is running an average of $75.00 to $78.00 per ton at a moisture content of 10% or less (weight here) at the farm. This price will very a little from year to year because each supplier will send in his annual bid what he needs to deliver one ton of straw to the farm, once we receive the bid and the amount he wants to supply we list the bids with the lowest bid at the top and go down the list till we have the amount we need for a year, we issue a contract to each supplier.
We take bids in early April each year and buy approxely 19000 tons at that time. The delivery time is worked out with growing department through out the year. Many of our suppliers tell us the income is a good extra income during the winter months.
If anyone has an interest I would be happy to answerer their questions and if they would like to see the operation I would be glad to show them how mushrooms are grown.
Best Regards,
Virgil Jurgensmeyer
Forecast looks great to scout wheat and be on top of your crop
Last week, as I strolled up from the office to the outside world, I had to squint because my long-lost friend, the SUN, was out. My to my chagrin, it ISN’T permanently gone! I will take what I can get, how about you?
With this showing its face in the 10-day forecast…
and a few chances of rain, it looks like the crop might have some temperatures warm enough to do some catching up. However, the rain in the forecast is like a double-edged sword in Oklahoma. Our fields could use a chance to dry up and producers could use the time to get in those fields to scout for diseases, pests and FHS. BUT, we are all ready seeing instances of high fire dangers in various parts of Oklahoma.
These are the stats that the Oklahoma NASS put out- Soil Moisture Conditions by Percent (Month Ending February 28, 2010) Moisture Rating Topsoil Subsoil
Very Short 2 percent 7 percent
Short 9 percent 9 percent
Adequate 52 percent 60 percent
Surplus 37 percent 24 percent We have found some useful sites that can help you put together a plan on how to act from here to get the most of your crop. This link- http://osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/HomePage – has fact sheets that OSU has put together and contain all the information from their various tests, wheat plots and other educational pursuits.
Breaking report-New Study Shows 23-to-One Return on Producer Wheat Export Promotion
ARLINGTON, VA — U.S. wheat producers invested an average of about $10 million per year to promote their products overseas between 2000 and 2007, and for every one of those dollars they received $23 back in increased net revenue. That is the principal conclusion of a new economic analysis of wheat export promotion released today by U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), the wheat industry’s export market development organization.
USW commissioned the study with funding from the USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Market Access Program. Dr. Harry M. Kaiser, the Gellert Family Professor of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell and director of the Cornell Commodity Promotion Research Program (CCPRP), designed and conducted the research using established methods he and the CCPRP team developed.
“The study showed that U.S. wheat export promotion had a large and beneficial impact for producers and the economy that far exceeded its cost,” Dr. Kaiser said. “One of the econometric models we used showed that the overall average revenue benefit to the entire wheat industry from the combined producer and FAS expenditures was estimated to be about $115 for each dollar spent.” The study also predicted that increasing the promotion investment has the potential for even greater returns to wheat producers, the wheat supply chain, and the U.S. economy.
Dr. Kaiser quantified the impact of wheat export promotion through a model that accounts for several factors affecting commodity export demand. The study determined that cutting promotion by 50 percent between 2000 and 2007 would have reduced wheat exports by 17.1 percent, a total export loss equal to almost 1.4 billion bushels or almost 172.7 million bushels per year. The value of that loss was determined, then compared to total wheat export promotion cost to calculate a series of benefit-to-cost ratios (BCR). The producer BCR from the total promotion cost averaged 11.5 to 1. Because producers contributed about half the total in checkoff dollars and in-kind support, the BCR for their half of the spending averaged about 23 to 1.
“Our organization is accountable to wheat producers and other taxpayers who fund the market development work we do,” USW President Alan Tracy said. “Dr. Kaiser’s research methods are well respected, so we are very confident about the analysis and very pleased with the results.” Tracy said the findings were similar to results from a study USW commissioned five years ago showing that wheat exports would decline by 28 percent with no promotion investment, and to a study FAS conducted in 2006.
USW will use additional results from the study to help plan and manage its future activities. The organization has posted full study results on its Web site, http://www.uswheat.org.
U.S. Wheat Associates is the industry’s market development organization working in more than 100 countries on behalf of America’s wheat producers. The activities of USW are made possible by producer checkoff dollars managed by 19 state wheat commissions, in-kind support, and cost-share funding provided by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. To qualify for federal funds, USW is required to prepare and submit an annual, comprehensive Unified Export Strategy that details specific market development plans for every country and region. For more information, visit http://www.uswheat.org or contact your state wheat commission.
We survived Enid!
After 18 hours of serving over a two day period, we are alive and well at the office. As usual, the KNID Agrifest was a very well ran farm show drawing a huge crowd from around the state and even surrounding ones! People braved the “artic blast” to venture out and around the trade show booths. Fortunant for us, we were in our normal spot with control of the thermostat!
Waiting in line with baited breathe!
I just ran the numbers on some things from the weekend:
* We made 24 batches of dough- using 240 pounds of flour, half whole wheat and half baking flour.
We start early to get our dough going! This is our actual mixer and how we start each batch!
*We served 12 batches of cinnamon rolls or the equivilant of 1260 whole cinnamon rolls- we give out half rolls for samples so that puts us at handing out 2520 samples of our oooeeeyyy goooeeyyy cinnamon rolls.
This is only one half of one batch! We have to cut each batch in to two halves so it will work and fit on our table.
OH man!! Does all this heart healthy perfection make your stomach growl, too?!?!
*We shaped and baked 168 loaves of bread, handing out 1632 slices to everyone.
* Once again, we teamed up with the Buss family to serve samples of their Grandma Opal’s cookies. We served 150 pounds of their amazing whole wheat, pre- portioned cookie dough in chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. We were asked many times for the recipe, so I should stress their mission. They are protecting their grannies recipe by selling the dough in the freezer section of various food outlets. Give us a call if you are interested and we can get you the information on locations.
During our two days, we had plenty of help…..
We couldn’t do it without the help of our commissioners and their wives.
or their cute families! Their help and support to the state’s wheat crop is amazing and never failing.
Thank you, everyone! From the help we got to the converstations we had, it made for a great few days. Congrats!
Enid Full Steam Ahead!
The trailer is packed, the ingredients are purchased and the booth space is reserved. Sounds like we are on for another great KNID Agrifest this weekend. We hope you can make it to see us and the other great events, even if we never leave our booth and can’t tell you what they are! LOL.
This year, we will be doing our traditional serving of the rolls in the a.m then switching to samples of our whole wheat bread. As we have the past two or three years, we will fill the air with the aroma of whole wheat chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. The Buss family from the Hunter area will be on hand to sell you their product if you sample ’em and can’t get enough. Let us tell you- we don’t like “normal” cookies, but we can’t keep our pals off Grandma Opal’s whole wheat, preservative free little trip to heaven!
Our booth will also be full of cookbooks, lapel pins, educational materials and other recipes, too. Feel free to grab what you need, chat our staff up, tell us about your wheat or even your family. We work for you, you know;)
So, to prepare you for this wonderful weekend we will show you some snapshots from past events. And, if the weather is a chilly as they say, please stop by with a cup of coffee for KC! 
Current OWC Chairman, Don Schieber.
David Buss, Upper Redfork Innovations, talks to show goers about his family’s cookie product.
This is the type of reaction we LOVE to see when someone samples our cinnamon roll!
Much to be thankful for….
Tis the season to count your blessings. A few that I know our office is thankful for is the great report just put out by our NASS office! We have plenty of moisture throughout the state and have gotten 95 percent of our crop in the ground, with 85 percent of it emerged. That is slightly behind normal, but an encouraging progression from their last report. The report also shines a light on the fact that 80 percent of our crop is currently rated good to excellent, which is about a 20 percent increase from last year.
Our board member Jeff Krehbiel keeps progressing and updating his care pages site. Since it is the holiday season, we ask that you continue to keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. And, I know he enjoys to read all of the comments left on his care page, so cheer him on.
The Oklahoma Wheat Growers announced their annual convention. It is always a great gathering of wheat minds, producers and staff to help expand your horizons. Feel free to register and show up on Dec. 12, 2009. You will be thankful that you attended!
If you are setting here with me, cruising the Internet, than you should be thankful for your ability to make ends meet. I know at times I forget, but watching a segment on the news this a.m. about the Jesus House and the increase in the need for their services really hit home. Please take time to donate canned goods, loaves of bread or your time this season. Go to the store, buy some loaves of whole wheat bread and deliver to a church or shelter in your area. Do it because it is healthy for your heart and soul!
Be thankful that there are people out there trying to find a healthy alternative to Eggo waffles, in case their shortage hits home! HAHA. No, on a serious note, you can start providing a bit more whole grain nutrition to your family by reading this article and trying some alternatives. Your heart and brain will thank you! http://www.mnn.com/food/markets-groceries/blogs/taste-test-frozen-waffles
I could go on and on, but I am a bore! Please let us know what makes you thankful! Keep your loved ones in your thoughts and do good for others!
Have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving week and weekend! CHEERS!
Wheat Reps in Latin America
Watch out world! Oklahoma is going worldwide! Tim Bartram, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association is on a tour of Latin America with other US Wheat officials.
The group will tour Latin America; Colombia, Peru, and Mexico. The trip is sponsored by U.S. Wheat Associates. Before they left, they met with USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service officials and were briefed by Vince Peterson, VP, Overseas Operations (on Latin America market situation), and Rebecca Bratter, Director of Policy (on US-Colombia FTA status and other Latin American policy issues).
(Wheat Leaders Team Photo (L to R): Tim Bartram, Executive Director, Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association, Enid; Brian Linin, Goodland, KS, representing Kansas Wheat; Gordon Stoner, Outlook, MT, representing Montana Grain Growers Association; Scott Brown, Soda Springs, ID, representing the Idaho Wheat Producers Association; Rick Callies, VP, Marketing Programs, U.S. Wheat Associates, Arlington, VA; and Kody Bessent, Executive Assistant/Producer Relations, Texas Wheat, Amarillo, TX.)
Tim sent me some pictures from his hotel once they arrived. I hate to report I haven’t heard anything from him today! Here’s to hoping the objectives are being met and the world will see the value in our wheat.
If you have any questions about the trip, international purchases of Oklahoma wheat or any other oddity please ask:)
the Oklahoma Wheat Commission's Blog 
