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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday January 24,
2007! A
service of Midwest Farm Shows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Huge Jump to 35 Billion Gallon RFS by 2017!
-- Dr. Robert Whitson officially welcomes new Head of the Ag
Economics Department, Dr. Mike Woods.
-- Here are those details promised on the Ft. Cobb No-Till Meeting
February 8
-- Implants are just a tool- they can be used positively- or
incorrectly in beef cattle production.
-- Cattle Industry Conference next week in Music City USA!
-- A slow recovery from the snow and ice.
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 Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City April 19-21, 2007, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show held each December. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here. Our E-mail the next few days is also being sponsored by Laura's Lean Beef- Laura's Lean Beef Co., a natural beef provider based in Lexington, KY, will hold a gathering 10:00 am Jan 24 at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center in Shawnee, Ok to introduce local producers to the benefits of raising the lean, heavily muscled cattle that will perform well on Laura's bonus grids. For more information on this meeting- you can can e-mail Beth Whiteford at bwhiteford@LLBcorp.com. Or click here to be taken to their web site for more producer information on Laura's Lean Beef! 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. | |
Huge Jump to 35 Billion Gallon RFS by 2017! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's the
proposal from President George W. Bush in his sixth State of the Union
address as he heads for the home stretch of his tenure as President of the
United States. As he announced his idea of calling for a upward adjustment
in the Renewable Fuel Standard number, he got a standing ovation and they
flashed to Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa who was clearly surprised and
pleased by the huge proposed increase.
How big of an increase would this be? Well, the current RFS is 7.5 billion gallons by the year 2012- a figure that will be achieved early- perhaps as early as next year. The Bush number is almost a five fold increase- very aggressive! He spoke of the need to continue to push research to make cellulosic ethanol a reality to be able to make ethanol from "wood chips, grasses and agricultural wastes." You can hear the President's comments on our need to reduce our energy dependence on the Middle East from last night by clicking below. Click here for the energy portion comments during the State of the Union from Tuesday evening. | |
Dr. Robert Whitson officially welcomes new Head of the Ag Economics Department, Dr. Mike Woods. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ His first
official day as the Head of the OSU Ag Econ Department was this past
Friday, according to OSU Ag Dean and Vice President Robert Whitson. Dr.
Whitson says “Dr. Woods brings a wealth of experience and an outstanding
record of teaching, research and extension accomplishments to the
position. We are very pleased that he is joining our leadership team of
unit administrators.”
You may remember that we had reported back in December that Dr. Mike Woods had accepted the position of Department Head, effective early here in 2007. The OSU release coming out this week says that as department head, Woods will provide leadership for planning, developing, integrating and implementing departmental teaching, research, extension and international programs; diversity efforts of the department to recruit and retain outstanding faculty, staff and students; and the pursuit of competitive grants, research contracts, gifts and other special funding to include endowments for scholarships, fellowships and chairs and professorships. Dr. Woods' strength is clearly in the rural development arena. Woods is currently a senior fellow with the Southern Rural Development Center. One significant activity related to this position has been to manage a national e-commerce initiative that focuses on development of curricula for e- commerce education across the United States. Woods served as state-provincial chair representing Oklahoma at the 2005-2006 Business Retention Expansion International and is active in the Southern Regional Program Leadership Network, a multi-state organization of Cooperative Extension professionals who foster and strengthen extension programs throughout the region to meet critical needs and issues of state residents. | |
Here are those details promised on the Ft. Cobb No-Till Meeting February 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A no-till
workshop is scheduled to take place at the Caddo Kiowa Technology Center
on February 8th. The workshop is scheduled to begin with both indoor and
outdoor displays and registration at 8:00 am. The first presentation will
begin at 9:00 am. Topics during the day will include no-till wheat for
grain and/or grazing, no-till cotton, soil quality, overcoming problems in
continuous no-till wheat, machinery management and joint ownership, and
new technologies. Lunch is included with program and provided by our
sponsors. The afternoon session will feature a producer panel of four
individuals with more than 50 years of combined no-till cropping
experience.
Four certified crop advisor continuing education credits are also being offered for the seminar for those interested. Please make your reservation by February 5th to help us with food preparation arrangements by calling the Caddo Kiowa Technology Center at 405-643-3273. The Southern Plains Agricultural Resources Coalition (SPARC) Annual Meeting will be held immediately following the seminar to elect one new board member and to discuss updates on market based incentives. SPARC is an organization that is working on developing market based incentives to promote conservation practices and sustainable agriculture. No-till conservation cropping systems have been identified to provide additional environmental benefits along with saving soil and money. Wright also stated that no-till producers are able to spend less time tilling fields and can leverage that time by managing their ecosystems. A growing trend is to recognize the environmental benefits and ecosystem services that are produced in sustainable agriculture production. The monetary value of the ecosystem services may have the potential to produce as much revenue as the conventional commodity crop. | |
Implants are just a tool- they can be used positively- or incorrectly in beef cattle production. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dr. Larry
Corah of the Certified Angus Beef program says the entire industry should
be concerned about the down trend in quality grades of slaughter cattle.
One culprit that research has identified and that has been discussed at
various meetings for years has been the use of hormone implants that boost
cattle gains, but apparently make it harder for the animal to marble and
as a result, it's a struggle to get carcasses to grade into the choice
grade.
Dr. Corah says that if you use implants at the wrong time- you can have that effect- but he tells us there are ways to minimize that negative of the implant regime. We talk with him about that today on our latest Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network- and we have that linked for you below. Click here for our latest Beef Buzz with Dr. Larry Corah of CAB. | |
Cattle Industry Conference next week in Music City USA! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The National
Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Cattlemen's Beef Board, and the American
National Cattle Women all will meet next week in Nashville for their 2007
Convention and Trade Show. "Get Er Done" is the theme of the 2007 meeting,
as the industry has several challenges in front of it that demand
attention.
With President Bush's call for a higher renewable fuel standard by 2017 that will mean more and more demand for ethanol- the cattle industry and the rest of the livestock industry face a major competitor for feed in the ethanol plants that are springing up all over the country. Plus, as we consider grassland for cellulosic ethanol, that could be a concern for the hay price outlook in the years ahead. So, how the cattle industry deals with these challenges from ethanol will be a topic of discussion in Nashville. There are other issues as well- beef trade to Asia (or lack thereof), animal ID, EPA and their dust standards, the definition of manure as a possible hazardous waste- lots of issues for the cattle producers to engage as they converge next week at Opryland. We will be there and will have coverage in this email, on the Radio Oklahoma Network and on our web site from Nashville- so stay tuned! Take a look at the Cattle Industry Convention schedule by clicking here. | |
A slow recovery from the snow and ice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The McAlester
Union Stockyards was closed again yesterday for the second week, as they
reported they had just gotten power back on at the sale facility on
Monday- and that many of their customers out in the country were still
waiting on power to come back on!
Shifting from east to west, we saw the same result for the Tuesday sale over in Amarillo, Texas with the snow from this past weekend the reason that they were not selling cattle yesterday. Temperatures were warm enough to promote melting of the snow and ice across the region yesterday- but much of January has been wiped out when it comes to cattle marketings and movement from ranch to town. | |
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. | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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