From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 06:36
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 December 5, 2006
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Burn Ban lifted from last four North Central Oklahoma Counties after last week's snow.
-- Source Verified Weaned and Vaccinated calves fetch an extra $2.50 per hundred.
-- Still Time to Sign Up for the Angus Boot Camp
-- 2008 Winter Wheat Crop IS covered under the 2002 Farm Law!
-- Senator Coburn takes aim at earmarks as he vows to keep 2007 Ag Appropriations tied up in the Lame Duck.
-- Check us out on KGGF- "The Mighty 690" on the AM dial this Thursday and Friday!
-- Consumer Reports bashes the safety of chicken found in U.S. grocery stores.

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.


Burn Ban lifted from last four North Central Oklahoma Counties after last week's snow.
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The snow of last week was considered adequate to allow Governor Brad Henry to call off the burn ban on the final four counties in the state that had been on the list. The Governor followed the advice given to him by the experts at the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture as he signed the executive order that removed the burn prohbitions for Garfield, Grant, Pawnee and Osage counties.

What a difference a year makes, as that leaves Oklahoma currently with no counties under a state mandated burn ban. The drought conditions have meant that Oklahoma has been under some sort of burn ban 11 of the last 14 months.


Source Verified Weaned and Vaccinated calves fetch an extra $2.50 per hundred.
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Monday's Oklahoma National Stockyards report shows calves that have graded Medium and Large Frame 1 that have come through as a commodity- and then have had the same quality and weight come through as a value added product. For both the five hundred pound steers, as well as some 650 to 700 pound steers, the premium for the value added animals was $2.50 per hundred.

That means those calves are bringing $12.50 to $16.25 per head of added value from those calves and the extra handling they have received. Is that enough to encourage cow-calf operators to do the extra work in handling those animals? That's a valid question and of course, the other questions is that if a calf is handled with the extra steps- does he or she stay on feed better and gain more pounds than the calf that is handled "normally."

The bottom line seems to show that the market is willing to reward producers with a slightly higher price for an animal that is considered "value added" and that may or may not be an adequate premium for the extra input costs and labor. It seems to be a close call, based on this week's real life example from the Oklahoma National Stockyards.

Click here for a look at the Oklahoma National Stockyards Monday report.


Still Time to Sign Up for the Angus Boot Camp
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There is still time to register for the Cattlemen’s Boot Camp, December 18-19 in Stillwater, Okla. The American Angus Association and Angus Foundation are sponsoring the event, hosted by Oklahoma State University (OSU). Industry experts will focus on all segments of the industry from production to meeting consumer demands. All producers are invited to attend the event.

This is the fourth Boot Camp conducted by the Foundation and Association at various universities across the country, and allows cattle producers the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of the industry and basic production skills. The Boot Camp begins at 1 p.m. on Monday, December 18 in the Animal Science Building on the OSU campus. An intense afternoon of discussion on end-product merit and consumer needs will kick off the event, and attendees will view actual carcass differences. A bull selection case study will fill the evening, giving the attendees an opportunity to use the information they have used in a mock sale. The Boot Camp continues on Tuesday, December 19 with presentations on nutrition and reproduction and creating value in the cow herd.

Cost of the Boot Camp is $75 and covers meals and materials. Register today by contacting Kris Sticken with the Angus Foundation at 816-383-5100 or by accessing registration materials at the Angus Association web site, which we have linked below.

Click here to go to the American Angus website.


2008 Winter Wheat Crop IS covered under the 2002 Farm Law!
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OSU Ag Economist Dr. Mike Dicks says he had to go back and read and re-read the current law a couple of times- but the take away message is that the crop we plant next fall for harvest in 2008 will be covered under the current farm law.

Dr. Dicks tells us that the 2002 law runs through the end of the calendar year- and any crop that is planted while it is in force is covered- thus the wheat planted int he fall of 2007 will be covered- even though it will be harvested for grain in 2008.

Likewise- if lawmakers fail to get a farm law enacted in 2007, don't extend the current law for a year or two and keep on working on new policy in the first part of 2008, crops that are planted then would be subject to the 1949 permanent farm law. Congress could always specify that new law would also cover them- but it gets confusing and lots of uncertainty takes root if there is no new farm legislation when we start putting seed into the ground and the calendar says 2008.


Senator Coburn takes aim at earmarks as he vows to keep 2007 Ag Appropriations tied up in the Lame Duck.
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Senator Tom Coburn has made agricultural headlines this week as he has stepped up and pledged to battle on the Senate floor the 2007 Ag Appropriations bill- if leadership decided to try to pass this measure separate from the expected Continuing Resolution that will fund much of our government at last year's levels through mid February- as the Republicans say to the Democrats- you're the majority- it's our turn to beat you up as you make budget choices.

Senator Coburn issued a statement and blasted the many earmarks found within the budget bill for agriculture saying "Between fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2006, the number of earmarks in the agricultural appropriations bill has increased by 92 percent. Among the more egregious earmarks in the 2007 spending bill are $3.7 million to study termites in Hawaii and $2 million to study seafood waste and its possible use as a pet food or other alternative products. Also, the legislation redirects hundreds of thousands of dollars in research funds for the Agricultural Research Service to the World Food Prize, a group which boasts $2 million cash on hand and another $14 million in stock assets. The bill also redirects funding for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) – the country’s front line of defense against everything from avian flu to ‘Mad Cow Disease’ – to an animal breeding program at the Chicago Zoo."

He also blasted the proposals for an across the board extra direct farm payment that would serve as a disaster aid measure- Dr. Coburn also noted that those farmers who took precautions, bought federal crop insurance but were unable to plant crops should be the primary recipients of disaster aid. “Once it’s paid for in the federal budget, emergency aid should go directly to farmers impacted by disasters rather than special interests groups in Washington,” Dr. Coburn said. It was already highly unlikely that Ag Disaster Aid had a chance of passing in the Lame Duck- and this makes those chances basically slim and none- and as Kansas Senator Pat Roberts loves to say- "and Slim just left town."


Check us out on KGGF- "The Mighty 690" on the AM dial this Thursday and Friday!
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We will be hosting a special live remote broadcast from the Tulsa Farm Show this coming Thursday and Friday from 11 to noon each day on KGGF Radio out of Coffeyville. Folks throughout northcentral Oklahoma and the northeastern quarter of the state can listen in to this special remote broadcast both days.

We'll be talking to some of the vendors and giving you a preview of what there is to see and do at this year's Tulsa Farm Show- so plan on tuning in Thursday or Friday at 11:05 for this live remote broadcast!

Of course, the Tulsa Farm Show does kick off Thursday morning at 9 am- running Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Expo Square at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds. The Radio Oklahoma Network, along with Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, will be hosting a breakfast for the participants of the FFA Livestock Handling Skills Contest that will be held on Friday- so we are looking forward to that as well.


Consumer Reports bashes the safety of chicken found in U.S. grocery stores.
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Consumer Reports says that 83% of the chicken they sampled in selected supermarkets around the country was found to have either campylobacter or salmonella- 525 tests were made on branded chicken from Perdue, Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson.

USDA calls the investigation "junk science" as they claimed the study was filled with flaws- including a very small sample size and uncertainty over the report's methodology. Consumer Reports claimed a similar study in 2003 found that 49% of the chicken packages they bought and sampled had one of these two bacteria- so the 2006 study reflects a sharp increase in the amount of bacteria found by the group.

The National Chicken Council said the report contained nothing new and "greatly exaggerated" the rate of bacteria in raw chicken. Spokesman Richard Lobb says the bottom line is "Consumer Reports says what every cook already knows, that fresh poultry may carry naturally occurring bacteria and should be properly handled and cooked."


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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