Mike Dain (First Oklahoma Ag, Voice of Southwest Agriculture and Yancey Ag Network, Oklahoma City, OK) traveled to Fort Knox, KY, where his son-in-law is Command Sergeant Major of Army Cadet Command (ROTC). On his return, he reports that it rained all the way from Kentucky to Tennessee then across Arkansas and into Oklahoma. “Goliath (storm) dropped immense amounts of rain in Arkansas and in the eastern half of Oklahoma. Flooding was big concern because of 6-12 inches of rain while blizzard conditions, an ice storm, and winter storm conditions covered western Oklahoma and down into Texas. Oklahoma’s statewide average for total precipitation is almost 54 inches, a new yearly record.” Mike reports big losses in the heart of Texas dairy industry which is home to more than a third of the state’s dairy cows. “Assessments are ongoing to measure losses. Due to blizzard conditions west of Lubbock to Muleshoe and north to Friona, lots of milk was dumped. Some estimates of death losses for mature cows, heifers and calves are upwards of 49,000 head, but those are just early guesses. Feedlot beef cattle losses are fairly small.” Mike added, “Oklahoma rural areas lost power poles causing outages, but the good news is that crop conditions in most areas of wheat and winter canola country are looking good. Pastures and rangelands are faring pretty well.” Mike concludes, “The two-week cattle auction downtime for the holidays found active buying activity as we kicked off the new year. Oklahoma National Stockyards on January 4 had feeder cattle and calves trending 10 to 20 cwt higher.”
