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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest
farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron
Hays of RON for Thursday March 25, 2010 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Talking Health Care, Childhood Nutrition, EPA and More With
Congressman Frank Lucas
-- Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Unanimously Passes Senate Ag
Committee
-- OACD Disappointed with Move to take Money Away from Key
Conservation Program to Fund Childhood Nutrition
-- Climategate Shows There's No Global Warming Consensus- Senator Jim
Inhofe
-- Prospective Plantings Report Coming March 31- We Get Ideas on What
to Expect from Allendale
-- Did you know that almost one fourth of Oklahoma is covered by
Forest Lands?
-- People Notes- Jerry McKinley, Matt Gard and One to be Named
-- 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 proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555. We are also excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email
Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through
producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more
information on the oilseed crops they handle, including sunflowers and
canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and
sunflowers on the PCOM
website- go there by clicking here. 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. | |
Talking Health Care, Childhood Nutrition, EPA and More With Congressman Frank Lucas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We talked
about a variety of issues with the Ranking Minority Member of the House Ag
Committee, Congressman Frank Lucas in a phone conversation with the Roger
Mills County rancher on Wednesday morning.
Lucas believes that the Democrats are feeling their oats after getting the massive Senate passed Healthcare bill through the House on Sunday, and that could translate into other big policy pushes by the Obama Administration before the clock runs out in November on their substantial majorities in both the House and Senate. Besides discussing the ramifications of the Health Care vote, we talked with Congressman Lucas about the Child Nutrition measure in the US Senate Ag Committee, farm program spending and those who would love to move those monies to places they deem "better," EPA regulations on pesticides that might include a zero tolerance standard as well as the desire of the Obama Administration to achieve their Cap and Trade goals via regulation, since the efforts to move that measure through the Senate have been a failure. Click on the link below to go to our website and hear the complete conversation- about 13 minutes worth- with Oklahoma's man on the House Ag Committee. Click here for our Podcast with Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas | |
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Unanimously Passes Senate Ag Committee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Despite some
concerns - and discussion - about the budget offsets proposed to pay for
the bill - the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously approved the
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Wednesday. The bipartisan
legislation to reauthorize childhood nutrition programs would invest
4.5-billion dollars in new child nutrition program funding over the next
10 years. Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln called the committee vote a
monumental step forward. The Senators did not throw as much money at the
porgram as the Obama Administration wanted, which is ten billion dollars
in new spending.
Lincoln said she was proud her colleagues on both sides of the aisle voted to support this legislation that puts the nation on the path to ending childhood hunger and addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity. There was concern among some of the Senators that Lincoln chose to pay partially for the reauthorization of the measure with monies from the EQIP conservation program- and a measure to switch that over to the CSP program failed by one vote. Click on the link below to read more- and hear our audio wrap on the markup session and the argument over nutrition versus conservation. Click here for more on the Senate Ag Committee passage of an expanded Childhood Nutrition program. | |
OACD Disappointed with Move to take Money Away from Key Conservation Program to Fund Childhood Nutrition ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Oklahoma
Association of Conservation Districts has expressed their appreciation of
Congressman Frank Lucas and his comments about funding Childhood Nutrition
by taking away money from one of the most popular and useful conservation
programs offered by Uncle Sam- the Environmental Quality Incentives
Program- or EQIP.
In a news release from Wednesday evening, OACD President Trey Lam says "While we are very disappointed that the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee would advance a bill today that took money away from Farm Bill Conservation programs, we are very proud of the stand Congressman Lucas has taken in opposition to this legislation. We are hopeful his leadership can help slow this proposal down and help find a way to protect conservation funding." Click on the link below to read more of the OACD statement, as well as to hear the segment of our interview with Congressman Lucas on Wednesday morning that was specifically about the flap over nutrition versus conservation. Click here for more on OACD's reaction to Congressman Lucas Calling for No Cuts in EQIP | |
Climategate Shows There's No Global Warming Consensus- Senator Jim Inhofe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma
Senior Senator Jim Inhofe has authored an "op-ed" that has been published
in the magazine US News and World Report. Senator Inhofe continues on the
offensive about the "mess of errors, exaggerations, and deceit" that is
the state of those who are promoting manmade climate change at this time.
Senator Inhofe says in his "op-ed" that "The Obama administration said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the "gold standard" for climate science, yet now the Environmental Protection Agency administrator won't defend it. The IPCC and Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now the IPCC has retracted several false claims concerning, among other things, rain forests shrinking, crops dying, and sea levels rising. We've been told weather is not to be confused with climate, except when you have heat waves or blizzards. We've been told cap-and-trade would create thousands of green jobs, yet the Congressional Budget Office, Department of Energy, National Black Chamber of Commerce, and others say it would mean a net loss of jobs." We have the link below to the full article, which is the latest salvo fired by Senator Inhofe against those who the climate is being changed in a bad way by human actions. Click on it and check it out. Click here for more on the Jim Inhofe Opinion Piece from US News and World Report. | |
Prospective Plantings Report Coming March 31- We Get Ideas on What to Expect from Allendale ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joe Victor
with Allendale has given us a few ideas of what to expect from next week's
Prospective Plantings report which will sort out how many acres farmers
are expecting to plant to the major spring seeded crops. Allendale also
has their ideas about what to expect from the Quarterly Stocks report that
will be out that same morning.
The Allendale people believe that Corn planting will be the second largest since 1944. Corn stocks, left over as of March 1, will be the largest for that period in 23 years. A huge crop is normal and is needed to meet demand. Second quarter corn usage is the second largest ever. The Allendale guess is for just over 90 million acres to go into corn this spring, versus 86.5 million acres last spring. Soybean plantings are predicted to be a new record. Quarterly soybean
stocks on March 1 will be the smallest in six years. A new record for
second quarter usage was made. The Allendale number for soybean acres to
be planted stand at 79.1 million acres for 2010, up from 77.4 million
acres one year ago. | |
Did you know that almost one fourth of Oklahoma is covered by Forest Lands? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most people
know that Oklahoma has a thriving timber industry in eastern counties but
relatively few people realize that the state's forestlands combine for
more than 10 million acres or 23 percent of the state's total area.
Fewer still realize that there are nine distinct forest types across Oklahoma made up of over 150 tree species or that 90 percent of forest lands are privately owned. A new report, the Oklahoma Forest Resource Assessment, is the result of 18 months work by Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry's Forestry Services Division with input from a number of state, federal and private agencies and organizations, said Oklahoma State Forester, John Burwell. The report was mandated by the latest U.S. farm bill and will be the basis for a new strategic plan for Oklahoma forestry. "I think people will enjoy reading the assessment for the tremendous amount of unique facts and details about the state's forests," he said. "It not only identifies the forest resources but also details a complete list of threats, issues and opportunities facing those resources. "Some of the end products will be GIS maps showing the distribution of
forests in relation to threats such as insect or disease outbreaks,
wildfire or urban sprawl," Burwell said. "We are in the process of using
this data to generate a new strategic plan regarding forest resource
issues and opportunities for the next five years." People are encouraged
to review the assessment and take an online survey to provide comments on
the report's usefulness and leave other feedback. The report contains a
great deal of history and facts about the forest industry. | |
People Notes- Jerry McKinley, Matt Gard and One to be Named ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We say
Congratulations this morning to Jerry McKinley of Tillman County, who has
stepped down after serving 14 years as the Board Chairman of the Oklahoma
Boll Weevil Eradication Organization. McKinley was asked to be the
Chairman of the Board when it was formed in 1996- and has served ever
since. You
can read more about Jerry's efforts to help bring cotton back to Oklahoma
in a big way by clicking here.
We got word that our friend Matt Gard was out and about yesterday evening for the REI Legislative Reception last night in Oklahoma City. Matt was injured in a motorcycle accident several weeks back- and the last word we had from Matt was that feeling is starting to come back in the legs- and he continues to work to get full mobility once again. Your continued prayers are most certainly appreciated. As for the "One to be Named" from the headline- that would be the Ag Hall of Fame Announcement that comes at 1 PM today at the State Capitol. We'll have details for you tomorrow morning about who is getting this well deserved award that is being presented as a part of the Ag Day Celebration at the State Capitol. | |
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 $7.55 per
bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are
$7.55 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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