From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 06:57
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday November 21, 2006
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- LAGP is a done deal- at least as far as signup is concerned!
-- Soil Moisture Supplies keep on Sliding lower and lower!
-- Dr. Gary Smith of Colorado State says when it comes to the Asians taking our beef- count to a hundred and breathe deep!
-- Precision Ag Research Efforts at OSU Honored Nationally!
-- Russia about ready to accept US beef again.
-- It's a Holiday shortened week-

Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. Our email this morning is a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the Tulsa Farm Show December 7-9, 2006 and the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City April 19-21, 2007. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows 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.


LAGP is a done deal- at least as far as signup is concerned!
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No more applications will be accepted for the Livestock Assistance Grant Program that is being administered by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture. They have taken applications for the last sixty days for $6.5 million that comes from a federal block grant to help livestock producers with forage needs because of the drought conditions that have touched pretty well every county in our state.

As of late yesterday afternoon- ODAFF had about 1.2 million animal units logged into the computer coming from around 9500 applications. I suspect they had more applications to enter that were not processed as of close of business yesterday that will be logged in over the next couple of days. We were told they had seven trays of applications waiting for them in the mail on Monday morning. Then, there is the problem of a multitude of the applications that were filled out incorrectly or else were incomplete. Ag Department officials have been attempting to call applicants who are in those categories to reconcile their applications.

Jack Carson of ODAFF tells us that once all the eligible applications are in the computer- then they must go through the audit process which will take about two weeks. He adds they are still on track of getting checks issued and into the mail "somewhere very near the first of the year." If that 1.2 million animal unit number holds up-plus or minus a hundred thousand animal units- they will each be worth about five dollars when it comes time to writing the checks.


Soil Moisture Supplies keep on Sliding lower and lower!
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The latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update is out- one final weekly report comes out next week and we will be done with these reports for the season- and this week's report shows that topsoil and subsoil moisture supplies continue to dwindle. However, topsoil moisture supplies are actually in better shape this week compared to one year ago when you consider the state wide figures. The latest topsoil readings show 69% short to very short, four percentage points drier than a week ago- but well under the 87% short to very short reading of 2005. Subsoil moisture was in better shape last November than it is this year though- as it stood at 72% short to very short in 2005- this latest report pegs us at 86% short to very short on moisture at subsoil depths.

The 2007 winter wheat crop actually improved slightly in the latest reporting week- now at 45% good to excellent compared to 43% good to excellent a week ago. The 2007 wheat crop problem is mostly in north central Oklahoma-where it remains powder dry and many fields have not been able to get established this fall.

Our pasture and range ratings are horrid- they stand at 63% poor to very poor, 32% in fair shape and only five percent in good condition.

Click here for this week's Crop Weather Summary for Oklahoma.


Dr. Gary Smith of Colorado State says when it comes to the Asians taking our beef- count to a hundred and breathe deep!
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Dr. Gary Smith of Colorado State was one of the speakers at this past week's Beef Magazine Quality Summit held in Oklahoma City- and we sat down and visited with Gary about his topic on what quality really is for the beef cattle business today. We also talked with him about his dealings over the past three years with several teams from Asia in this post- BSE era we find ourselves in.

It's not really a new story- but Dr. Smith offers his insights into why the Japanese and now the Koreans are driving us to the point of distraction as they continue to be incredibly cautious now that BSE has been found in our U.S. cattle herd. It's immaterial that the incidence is about as close to zero as you can get it once it is discovered- or that the demands they have made on our beef suppliers are tantamount to being trade barriers- they remain stubborn and it flat out makes us mad.

You can hear Dr. Gary Smith talk about the need to counting to ten and well beyond in dealing with our Asian customers in today's Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network- there's a link to click below.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz with Ron and Dr. Gary Smith


Precision Ag Research Efforts at OSU Honored Nationally!
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Oklahoma State University researchers, extension specialists and students all were in the spotlight at the just concluded 99th International Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science and Soil Science Societies of America that was held last week in Indianapolis. Dr, Jim Stiegler, Head of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, says OSU was well represented at this gathering of Land Grant universities from across the country.

Precision Agriculture is cutting edge when it comes to crop farming these days- and OSU efforts in this arena were recognized. Bill Raun, Regents Professor and holder of the Melvin Jones Distinguished Professorship of Agronomic Sciences was the recipient of the Werner L. Nelson Award for Diagnosis of Yield-Limiting Factors. The award recognizes outstanding performance, acceptance, and/or implementation of diagnostic techniques and approaches in the field. Dr. Raun and others have developed spectral indices to predict wheat and corn yields in-season using sensor-based technology and subsequently applied them to adjust for fertilizer N rates. This fall there are over 500 RAMP Calibration Strips on producer wheat fields across Oklahoma.

In addition, Jeff Edwards, Extension Small Grains Specialist and several other faculty contributors received the ASA Educational Materials Award for the No-Till Wheat Production fact sheet. And on the student side of things- Anthony Ruiz, Sr. from Mannsville, OK won first in the Speech Contest with his talk titled, "Can Agriculture be both Productive and Environmentally Friendly." Jessica Sheffield, Sr. from Ft. Gibson, OK placed third in the Visual Presentation contest and Clint Wilcox, Sr. from Fairview, OK was named Chair, Research Symposium Section for next year.


Russia about ready to accept US beef again.
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The official signing of a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and Russia means U.S. beef has regained access to the Russian market, effective immediately pending a plant audit tour by Russian inspectors. Before BSE- Russia was the fifth largest market for US beef- and was the largest market when it came to buying beef livers!

After site visits from a Russian audit team, the market will immediately open to U.S. boneless beef, bone-in beef and beef variety meats from cattle under 30 months of age with an approved export certificate. The second step in this re-opening process should come in May 2007, when the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) General Assembly is expected to make its final decision on the United States’ risk-status for BSE. Pending the determination of the United States as an OIE-designated controlled-risk or negligible-risk country, Russia will reopen to all U.S. beef and beef products from cattle of all ages with the removal of OIE designated specified risk materials.

“Russian consumers devoured our beef products in the past, and it’s about time they got to enjoy our superior exports once again,” says Missouri cattlemen and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Mike John. “Cattle producers urge all nations to emulate Russia’s promise to fully re-open to all U.S. beef and beef products pending the OIE’s BSE risk designation.”


It's a Holiday shortened week-
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And the markets are all winding down for the Thanksgiving holiday. Most livestock auction markets that operate the second half of the week will likely be closed this week- so be sure to call ahead before you load up any livestock to take to town.

All U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday- and the futures markets will operate a limited schedule on Friday. We will have our final E-mail of this week tomorrow on Wednesday- and then will return on Monday, November 27th.

Our reports on the Radio Oklahoma Network will be on holiday this Thursday- but we will have radio reports as normal on Friday- so be sure to be listening to your local RON affiliate!


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows for their support of our daily Farm News Update. Go to their website at the link at the top of today's email for more information on either the Tulsa Farm Show or the Southern Plains Farm Show.

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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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