FLOYDADA, TX – On a Monday morning 25 years ago, a radio station in Floydada tried something that was unusual at the time.
Agriculture. All day. Every day.
At 8 a.m. on November 5, 2001, the Morning Agri-Business Report opened a new format on 900 AM KFLP. All Ag, All Day! was on the air.
There wasn’t much fanfare.
The idea grew out of a changing radio business. Music listeners were increasingly moving away from AM, leaving stations like KFLP searching for something AM radio could do differently. The final choices reportedly came down to two formats – all agriculture or all comedy.
The staff decided none of them were funny enough.
Agriculture won.
The original idea was essentially a farm and ranch version of headline news. Markets, weather, commodity information, agricultural news, and interviews would repeat and update throughout the day so a producer climbing into a pickup or tractor at almost any hour could hear something useful.
The first schedule included the Morning Agri-Business Report, The Cotton Show, Agriculture Today, the Midday Agri-Business Report, and the Afternoon Agri-Business Report, along with market updates throughout the trading day.
The original announcement said the station hoped to serve producers across 42 counties, roughly one-sixth of Texas. Plans were already underway to put the station’s audio on the internet.
That sounded fairly ambitious in 2001.
The world surrounding that first broadcast looked very different.
The September 11 terrorist attacks had occurred less than two months earlier. American military operations were underway in Afghanistan. The nation was dealing with the anthrax attacks and a level of uncertainty that touched nearly every part of American life.
Farm country had plenty of its own uncertainty.
West Texas had been dealing with drought. Cotton prices were near historic lows. Congress was working on what would eventually become the 2002 Farm Bill under the leadership of House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest of West Texas.
Interest rates were a major story, too. One day after All Ag signed on, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate another half percentage point to 2 percent as policymakers tried to support an economy weakened by recession and the aftermath of September 11.
Some things really haven’t changed much.
Twenty-five years later, farmers are still talking about the Federal Reserve. Congress is still debating a Farm Bill. Weather remains capable of changing a crop in a matter of weeks. Energy prices still move farm margins. Trade still moves commodity markets. And every morning begins with somebody asking what corn, cattle, cotton, or crude oil did overnight.
The numbers, however, have changed dramatically.
When All Ag, All Day went on the air, December corn settled at just over $2.02 a bushel. Soybeans were $4.35. Hard red winter wheat was $2.92. Cotton was 30.58 cents a pound.
December live cattle settled at $66.43 per hundredweight. Feeder cattle were $85.60.
Crude oil was $20.02 a barrel.
Gold was $279.50 an ounce.
On Wednesday, the day before All Ag’s 25th anniversary, December corn settled at $4.44. November soybeans were $11.93. Hard red winter wheat was $6.33. Cotton was 78.11 cents.
December live cattle closed at $218. Feeder cattle were more than $332.
Crude oil settled at $88.12 a barrel.
Gold was $4,073 an ounce.
Yet perhaps the most interesting comparison is lean hogs. December hogs settled at $52.83 on November 5, 2001. Twenty-five years later, they settled at $57.55.
The numbers on the board may be larger today, but that does not necessarily mean agriculture became more profitable. The cost of land, equipment, fertilizer, fuel, labor, feed, seed, insurance, and credit climbed along with commodity prices. In many cases, the dollars required simply to put a crop in the ground or livestock on feed would have been difficult to imagine in 2001.
The technology changed even more.
In 2001, putting a radio station on the internet was still newsworthy. Today, agricultural programming moves through internet streams, websites, podcasts, social media, smartphones, connected vehicles and satellite radio.
What began with one AM station in Floydada eventually expanded beyond a single frequency and a single community. All Ag programming now reaches listeners through stations in multiple states, digital platforms and national satellite radio.
But the basic idea behind the format remains remarkably close to the one that went on the air that Monday morning.
Tell farmers and ranchers what happened.
Tell them what the markets are doing.
Tell them what Washington is doing.
Tell them what the weather may do.
And, when possible, explain what it all means to somebody trying to make a living in agriculture.
Twenty-five years ago, All Ag, All Day set out to cover one-sixth of Texas.
A lot has changed since then.
Agriculture still gives us plenty to talk about.
THEN AND NOW – THE MARKET BOARD
Market | Nov. 5, 2001 | Nov. 4, 2026 | 25-Year Change
Corn | $2.0275 | $4.4425 | +119.1%
Soybeans | $4.3550 | $11.9325 | +174.0%
SRW Wheat | $2.8425 | $5.9850 | +110.6%
HRW Wheat | $2.9225 | $6.3275 | +116.5%
Cotton | 30.58¢ | 78.11¢ | +155.4%
Live Cattle | $66.425 | $218.000 | +228.2%
Feeder Cattle | $85.600 | $332.025 | +287.9%
Lean Hogs | $52.825 | $57.550 | +8.9%
WTI Crude | $20.02 | $88.12 | +340.2%
Gold | $279.50 | $4,073.00 | +1,357.2%
Silver | $4.098 | $52.282 | +1,175.8%
U.S. Dollar Index | 115.250 | 101.425 | -12.0%
Dow Futures | 9,435 | 53,503 | +467.1%
Nasdaq Futures | 1,479.00 | 28,566.75 | +1,831.5%
S&P Futures | 1,103.75 | 7,720.50 | +599.5%