Mike Dain (First Oklahoma Ag/Voice of Southwest Agriculture/Yancey Ag Network, Oklahoma City, OK) reports busy times in January and February on the Southern Plains. Events he’s covered include: “Sorghum U” (Perryton, TX), Agrifest Farm Show (Enid, OK), Red River Crop Conference (which alternates between Altus, OK, and Childress, TX), Canola College (Enid, OK), Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts Oklahoma City, OK), and Oklahoma Pork Congress (Norman, OK). Mike was in El Reno, OK, January 30, to interview Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Former House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas when they celebrated the one-year anniversary of the signing of the 2014 Farm Bill.
About crop conditions, Mike said, “We learned the canola crop in Oklahoma and Kansas has come through the winter at this point in fairly good shape, with some variability in stands and condition depending mainly on planting timeframe and moisture availability. The hard red winter wheat crop areas are still in the worst drought conditions in north Texas and southwestern Oklahoma.” He adds surface moisture is good in most areas, but subsurface in many areas is deficient. Timely precipitation is still needed to increase stored moisture for spring to make a crop. “Many producers have pulled their stockers from dual-purpose wheat fields as the first hollow-stem growth stage has been reached. On the plus side, there was a normal percentage of wheat acres being grazed during the fall and winter. 
(Right, Mike Dain interviews Travis Snaithman, a young farmer from North Central Oklahoma about diversification of crops).
