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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday March 9, 2007!
A
service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- CERCLA Never Meant to be oversight for Manure.
-- Class 13 of OALP heading for our Nation's Capitol!
-- Over a million acres of CRP land may be available for corn
production over the next four years.
-- Several Livestock Groups Express Concern over feed grain prices
because of ethanol
-- Things to do this weekend: Watch Sheep and Goat Judging in OKC;
Eat Hamburgers in Idabel.
-- Tulsa State Fair Scholarship Deadline is one week away!
-- Give a listen to KOFM- Hot Country in and around Enid!!!
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. 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. | |
CERCLA Never Meant to be oversight for Manure. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The House was
voting while the audio teleconference was on- so House Ag Committee
Chairman Collin Peterson spent only a few moments on line with reporters-
but the Senate sponsors of this legislation, Arkansas Democrat Blanche
Lincoln and New Mexico Republican Pete Dominici were on line the entire
conference call with reporters- and indicated that this is legislation
that is long overdue.
Senator Lincoln, who has companies in her home state being sued by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson over poultry litter in the Illinois River watershed- told reporters that she is not helping lead sponsorship of this legislation in response to the federal lawsuit- that she has heard from producers throughout her state from all species of livestock of their concern of being regulated out of business with the Superfund law. Senator Dominici says that the dairies that are relocating into this state from the West Coast and other parts of the country have a similar worry. Dominici says he is doubtful that this will be a stand alone measure that can make it through on its own merits- but they will be looking for a germane piece of legislation to attach it to at the "right time." He says for now- it's an education process within both the House and the Senate- with the idea of gaining as many co- sponsors as possible. There are already 8 Senators signed on to the legislation and 58 House members. We do know that Congressman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma's Third district is one of those 58- and we are checking on the rest of our delegation to see where they are here in 2007. In 2006, Lucas and now former Congressman Istook were House Co- sponsors, while Senator Coburn signed onto the Senate measure. | |
Class 13 of OALP heading for our Nation's Capitol! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Class 13 of
the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program heads east this weekend for a week long
seminar that will include everything from seeing how the Amish live to
meeting with several key power brokers in our Nation's Capitol.
I still have the photograph of many years ago when I was in Class I and a part of our group met with Congressman Glenn English while on our East Coast swing. That first group also had a session in the World Trade Center in New York City that year (early 1980s) as we met with the Cooperative Extension Service people that worked with folks in the various boroughs of New York City. This group will have the chance to have overnight farm stays with Pennsylvania farm families in Amish country, as well as do a day trip to Richmond, Virginia and meet with officials from Phillip Morris. A majority of their time will be spent in Washington, meeting with an impressive lineup of government and private leaders in the agriculture, environment and conservation arenas. On their agenda are give and take sessions with the new Under Secretary for Farm and Agricultural Service Mark Keenum (He took the spot previously held by JB Penn), Michelle Perez of the Environmental Working Group, Tom Buis of National Farmers Union, Ralph Grossi of American Farmland Trust and Greg Doud of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. One session that I will be interested to hear how it turns out is one with Lou DeBaca of the Department of Justice on "Human Trafficking Issues and Implications for Agriculture." | |
Over a million acres of CRP land may be available for corn production over the next four years. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Agriculture
Secretary Mike Johanns today announced new results of the recent
opportunity given to Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants to
re-enroll or extend their contracts, which are set to expire between 2007
and 2010. An estimated 23.9 million acres out of 28 million acres of
eligible CRP contracts are expected to be re-enrolled. An estimated 4.1
million acres in CRP contracts will exit CRP between 2007 and 2010. Of the
4.1 million acres, approximately 1.4 million acres are located in major
corn producing states.
The 4.1 million-acre estimate includes all general sign-up expiring contracts that were not extended or re- enrolled under last year's offer. It does not include acres under expiring continuous sign-up contracts, which will be eligible to be re-enrolled during the final contract year. For Oklahoma, 2007 will see 549,007 acres re-upped for CRP, 88% of what was eligible to do so. For the years 2008-2010, 303,117 acres will have contracts renewed, based on the intentions signaled by landowners to USDA. That is 83% of the acres eligible to do so in those years. The 2007 numbers for Oklahoma mirror the national average, and have a higher than national average staying in the program in the out years. A lot of the acres that are likely to come out of CRP in those "out" years will come from states like Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio- expecting to see two thirds to three fourths of the acres in those states staying in- leaving a larger percentage than the national average to come out. We have linked to USDA's web site at a point where you can access the news release on this subject as well as the tables for all of these figures. | |
Several Livestock Groups Express Concern over feed grain prices because of ethanol ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Texas Cattle
Feeders Association member Ernie Morales was one of several raising "red
flags" over the cost of feed because of the explosion of grain demand
because of ethanol production. As corn prices rise due to increased
demand, livestock producers across the country are hurting and struggling
to find reliable and affordable sources of animal feed. Morales told
members of Congress today how cattle producers are trying to deal with
impacts of drought, wildfires, winter storms, transportation challenges,
shortage of hay and forage, and soaring corn prices.
Of all the challenges currently facing U.S. cattlemen, rising corn prices due to increased demand for corn- based ethanol is top of mind. For cattle feeders, corn is the primary feed stock, accounting for about 85 of every 100 pounds of cattle feed. The livestock industry remains the largest consumer of corn by utilizing almost 58 percent of the total corn used over the past decade, says Morales. In the past year alone, cattle feeders have seen a 92 percent increase in cash corn prices." (January-February 2007 price of $3.68 per bushel, compared to $1.91 per bushel in 2006.) Morales was representing both the TCFA as well as the NCBA as he addressed the sub-committee hearing. J Patrick Boyle of the American Meat Institute also testified before Congress on this subject- and his take home message was to call on Congress to allow the current ethanol tariff to expire. "To aid consumer confidence in renewable energy and expand the market, it would be in Congressional interest to allow the ethanol tariff on imported product to expire in 2008. This would potentially expose consumers to more renewable energy and broaden the diversity of our energy sources." | |
Things to do this weekend: Watch Sheep and Goat Judging in OKC; Eat Hamburgers in Idabel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The World's
Largest Junior Livestock Show is underway at State Fair Park in Oklahoma
City- and they begin sorting through the hundreds of market lambs this
afternoon at 2 pm in Barn 3. That process will continue all day Saturday
and a good bit of Sunday, concluding with the selection of the Grand
Champion Market Lamb on Sunday Afternoon at 5:00 PM.
Wether Goats will also be shown this weekend, with that show set to begin first thing Sunday morning with the Grand Champion to be selected on Sunday afternoon at 5:30 pm. The 2007 schedule of the Oklahoma Youth Expo has been impacted this year by the construction and renovations going on in the livestock area of the fairgrounds- and that has meant for the first time ever- the market animal classes have been split up- sheep and goats this weekend and barrows and steers (as well as breeding animals in swine and beef) this coming week- with the Grand Champions in those species set to be slapped Sunday March 18. The Premium sale of all of the top animals- sheep, goats, hogs and cattle- still will happen as the grand finale on Monday March 19. In the southeastern corner of our state- there will be a cattle producer meeting hosted by R-Calf on Saturday in Idabel, with their national membership chairman, Joel Gill, in charge of the gathering. That meeting will include a free hamburger fry. R-Calf also has a second recruitment meeting planned in Woodward later in the month. Click here for the full schedule of the Oklahoma Youth Expo 2007! | |
Tulsa State Fair Scholarship Deadline is one week away! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Tulsa
State Fair Ringmasters awarded 18, $1500 scholarships in 2006 and in 2007
they hope to award 25. Scholarship applicants must be a graduating senior
and may attend any accredited college or trade school in the USA.
Deadline for your application is next Friday, March 16. If you want to call for more information, contact Brandi Herndon, Tulsa State Fair Livestock manager at 918- 744-1113, extension 2104. We have a link to the Tulsa State Fair web site where you can find the application form that can be downloaded and printed out. Click here for the Tulsa Fair Web Site where you can obtain their Scholarship application forms. | |
Give a listen to KOFM- Hot Country in and around Enid!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are very
proud of our Enid radio stations that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma
Network. Our FM choice, KOFM at 103.1 on the FM dial, was selected in 2005
as Station of the Year and has always done a great job in serving the
north central Oklahoma community with great country music, information and
fun. They are involved!!! For example, we have a link below to their web
site and pictures from this year's National FFA week!
KOFM offers a half dozen of our farm programs daily from RON- they
include: KOFM Our AM partner, KGWA at 960 on the AM dial also is heavily involved in
the local community and they offer nine shows a day of our agricultural
information in and around their news-talk format- which can be heard from
the Kansas border right down into the Oklahoma City metro. That lineup
includes: | |
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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