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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday April 21,
2010 A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- House Ag Committee Begins Hearings on 2012 Farm Bill
-- Congressman Frank Lucas Is Ready to Hear From and Put Questions to
Secretary Vilsack
-- Brazil and the US Sign Memorandum Offically Delaying Brazilian
Sanctions Against the US
-- Cattle on Feed Report Comes Friday
-- Hops Helps Control Livestock Ammonia Production
-- Canola in the West- Beef and Poultry in the East
-- Express Ranches Grass Time Sale Set for Next Friday April 30
-- Let's Check the Markets!
Howdy Neighbors! Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are pleased to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America! It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across
Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston
Enterprises- click
here for their website! If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here. | |
House Ag Committee Begins Hearings on 2012 Farm Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ House Ag
Committee Chairman Collin Peterson has been signaling for several months
that he intended to start gathering information to be able to draft a new
farm bill if needed in 2011 when we might see budget reconciliation be put
on the table in Washington. It's anticipated if that process comes to the
forefront, agriculture might be facing major cuts in its baseline budget-
and Peterson says we need to look at how to do farm policy better with
likely less money to work with. He says what he wants to do is to "provide
a safety net for the average sized commercial production farmer."
As a result, the first of those 2012 Farm Bill Hearings is this morning in Washington- and only one witness will be before the panel- US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. There could be fireworks, as the Obama Administration would like to see less farm program spending, a deep cut in Crop Insurance spending and even limits on conservation- all to fund organic programs, nutrition and other things outside of the sphere of agriculture. Tough questions may asked of the Secretary as he attempts to defend the Obama Administration's position and attitude towards production agriculture. The Hearing is set to begin at 10 AM central time- we have the link below for you to go to the House Ag Committee website and listen to the events as they unfold between Committee Members and Secretary Vilsack. | |
Congressman Frank Lucas Is Ready to Hear From and Put Questions to Secretary Vilsack ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As we
mentioned in the story above, the House Ag Committee may spend a good part
of Wednesday hearing from and talking to US Secretary Tom Vilsack. And the
top Republican on the House Ag Committee, Oklahoma lawmaker Frank Lucas
says he is hopeful that we might hear some positive things about providing
a good safety net for production agriculture- but he really expects
attention to be paid to this part of the farm bill debate by the
Secretary- and instead will put most of his attention everywhere else.
We talked with Congressman Lucas on Tuesday afternoon and among the topics of discussion: what Secretary Vilsack may offer on Wednesday, a grade on the 2008 farm law, funding issues as it relates to the budget baseline and both production ag programs as well as Conservation programs, the attack on the viability of Crop Insurance, the future of several key Conservation programs and an agricultural perspective on the Wall Street Reform talk that is capturing most of the attention on the Senate side of the Capitol. We set this up as one of our Ag Perspectives Podcasts- and you can jump to our website and hear all 13 minutes that we got with Congressman Lucas on Tuesday afternoon- we covered a lot of territory in that amount of time. Click on the link below to hear our Q&A with the ranking minority member of the House Ag Committee on the eve of the start of Farm Bill hearings for a 2012-2013 bill. Click here for our conversation with Congressman Frank Lucas. | |
Brazil and the US Sign Memorandum Offically Delaying Brazilian Sanctions Against the US ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The United
States and the Government of Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) on Tuesday establishing a fund for technical assistance and capacity
building related to the cotton sector in Brazil. Under the MOU, the fund
may also be used for activities related to international cooperation in
the cotton sector in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, in Mercosur member
and associate member members, in Haiti, or any other developing country as
the parties may agree upon. The MOU also includes procedures to ensure
transparency and auditing of the expenditures made from the fund.
This MOU is part of the path forward for the Cotton dispute that the United States and Brazil reached earlier this month. With the conclusion of the MOU, Brazil has announced that countermeasures will not be imposed in the Cotton dispute for at least 60 days. The fund is scheduled to continue until the next Farm Bill or a mutually agreed solution to the Cotton dispute is reached. The MOU also provides that the United States also may end the fund if Brazil imposes countermeasures. Click on the link below for more on this continuing effort to work through the Cotton Dispute that Brazil won in the World Trade Orgnanization. Click here for more on the this MOU signed by the US and Brazilian Governments. | |
Cattle on Feed Report Comes Friday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joe Victor
with Allendale gives us some ideas of what may be ahead on Friday
afternoon when the next Cattle on Feed report will be released by USDA- it
comes at 2 PM central time. A smaller number of cattle on feed, and larger
marketing and placement numbers than a year ago are expected by Allendale.
The key number could be March Placements- which Allendale expects to be 9.7% larger than last year. Cash cattle prices in March averaged $5 higher than February levels. At the same time corn prices averaged six cents lower. Cattle placed in March will be marketed from late July through October. The email from Joe Victor adds "Allendale anticipates a Marketing total
5.5% larger than March of 2009. It would represent the largest March total
in seven years. This number is bloated by 4.4% due to the calendar
adjustment. There was one more weekday this year. Feedlots are near the
end of working off those higher placements made from July through October.
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Hops Helps Control Livestock Ammonia Production ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I know that
many of our readers enjoy the fruit of the vine- especially when that
"vine" is bearing Hops. We toured the Coors plant a year or so ago- and
they spent lots of time bragging about how carefully they choose their
Hops for brewing their products. Well, an agricultural researcher has
found that Hops have another highly useful talent- helping lower ammonia
output from Ruminants.
An Agricultural Research Service scientist believes he has found a way to cut the amount of ammonia produced by cattle, deer, sheep, goats and other ruminant animals. According to ARS microbiologist Michael Flythe, hops commonly used in brewing beer can be a significant player in reducing hyper-ammonia-producing bacteria. That's the bacteria that produces ammonia in ruminant livestock. Flythe explains cattle, deer, sheep, goats and other ruminant animals depend on a slew of naturally occurring bacteria to aid digestion of grass and other fibrous plants in the first of their four stomach chambers, known as the rumen. While other bacteria are helping their bovine hosts convert plant fibers to cud, HABs are breaking down amino acids, a chemical process that produces ammonia and robs the animals of the amino acids they need to build muscle tissue. Click here for more on this concept that the USDA researcher is tracking down. | |
Canola in the West- Beef and Poultry in the East ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two big events
are planned for tomorrow, April 22 here in the state of Oklahoma. In
Lahoma, a winter canola field day is planned by OSU extension and some of
their partners that have been promoting canola as a rotational crop for
hard red winter wheat. The Field Day at the Lahoma Stattion will begin at
9:00 AM. Click
here for more information about this winter canola event.
Meanwhile, the 2010 edition of the Eastern Oklahoma Ag Trade Show will be held once again at the Leflore County Fairgrounds in Poteau, featuring a couple of educational sessions- one on poultry production and the second on beef production. The poultry session will be tomorrow morning, while the beef session is set for after lunch. We have details on this event as well- click here for that information. | |
Express Ranches Grass Time Sale Set for Next Friday April 30 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Express
Ranches will be holding their Grass Time Sale on Friday, April 30, 2010 at
the ranch in Yukon The sale will begin at noon, selling 800 head
including:Angus Bulls Spring-Calving Reg. Angus Females Yearling Commercial Heifer Carrying AI Service Commercial 2-Year-Old Pairs Spring-Calving Lim-Flex & Limousin Females Fall-Calving Lim-Flex & Limousin Females Angus & Limousin Show Heifers In the sale catalog, the Express Ranch team talk about how they develop bulls for sales like this one coming up - "All bulls are developed on a high roughage ration from weaning until sale time in large traps allowing them to get out and be bulls! We feed to obtain optimum performance while not sacrificing longevity! While extreme weights are impressive, we feel keeping cattle sound and functional are equally important. We have spent countless hours developing a feeding program that not only allows us to amplify the genetic potential, but keeps the cowman in mind that purchases him." Click on the link below for more information about the Grass Time Sale at Express Ranches on April 30. On our Auction listing- we have the link to either the PDF version of the catalog or the web version where you turn the pages. Click here for details of the Express Ranches Grass Time Sale Coming Friday April 30 in Yukon, Ok. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis! We also invite you to check out our website at the link below to check out an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe. | |
Let's Check the Markets! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We've had
requests to include Canola prices for your convenience here- and we will
be doing so on a regular basis. Current cash price for Canola is $7.50 per
bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are
$7.65 per bushel- delivered to local participating elevators that are
working with PCOM.
Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click
on the name of the report to go to that link: | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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