From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 06:35
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday September 28, 2007!
A service of Cusack Meats, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma & Midwest Farm Shows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- This morning- USDA's Small Grains Summary- This afternoon- Hog and Pigs Report.
-- This morning- Hormone Herbicides at the State Capitol.
-- Latin American FTAs promoted by Chuck Conner and Agricultural Groups.
-- Next Week- Beef Quality Seminars Happening in Stillwater
-- US Sorghum Grabs the Attention of many Grain Buyers in Europe as Feed Grain Costs Skyrocket!
-- Nice Article in the Journal Record on Agritourism Here in Oklahoma.
-- Services Planned Tomorrow to Celebrate the Life of Anita Kouplen.

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 welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here!

The newest sponsor on our daily email service is Cusack Meats, and Al Cusack wants everyone to know that he APPRECIATES Oklahoma's Farmers and Ranchers! You can go to the Cusack website and select some great gift packs of meat for giving- or for yourself! And, our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show coming up December 6-8, 2007, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City next spring. 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.


This morning- USDA's Small Grains Summary- This afternoon- Hog and Pigs Report.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Folks in Oklahoma will be paying attention to the USDA report out this morning at 7:30 am central time that could show a further downward adjustment in the size of the Oklahoma Hard Red Winter Wheat Crop for 2007. There has been a dialogue between the industry and the government employees at NASS as to the actual number of acres harvested in what turned out to be a very stressful and elongated 2007 harvest season. That final harvested number will likely be less than the 4.3 million acres that USDA has shown for Oklahoma in their July and August reports. The number of bushels produced are likely to be reduced as well.

Later today- after the markets close for the week- we will have the USDA quarterly Hog and Pigs report, with the expectations being that we could see as many as two percent more hogs compared to one year ago nationally, as producers have been responding to the profitability of the hog sector over the last several years.

We will provide you an update of both of these reports later. On the Small Grains Summary- we have a preview now linked below- and that preview at that link will turn into a report on what USDA decides to do(and will be available by mid morning). Ont he Hog and Pigs number, please go to our front page of WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and we will have a story or two there by later Friday afternoon on what the report tells us on hog production and supplies.

Click here for the Small Grains Summary with an update on the size of the Oklahoma Wheat Crop.


This morning- Hormone Herbicides at the State Capitol.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, they won't be spraying down the State Capitol or anything else in the area- but agri business and ag producer groups will be offering their positions on the use of hormone herbicides here in the state. The informal hearing is being hosted by state Senate Ag Committee members Justice and Wyrick, and is an effort to try to sort out what is one of the more contentious issues within the agricultural industry here in the state.

The problem has been these potent chemicals drifting onto adjacent land from the fields being sprayed- causing damage. How much damage and how to best deal with the drift will be at the heart of what is to be discussed by lawmakers and the industry in this morning's session.


Latin American FTAs promoted by Chuck Conner and Agricultural Groups.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The name of the coalition is "Agriculture for US-Peru Trade." A good many of the major farm groups were at a media event planned by the coalition yesterday at the National Press Club- and they were joined there by Acting Secretary Chuck Conner from USDA.

One of those speaking was the President of the American Farm Bureau, Bob Stallman. Stallman urged Congress to pass the Peru, Colombia and Panama Trade Promotion Agreements. Farm Bureau's goal is to increase U.S. agriculture exports and increase market share in the net food importing countries of Latin America, which would increase U.S. agriculture's competitive advantage with third-country competitors in the three markets. Stallman predicted - these three agreements would increase U.S. agricultural trade by almost 1.5 billion dollars once fully implemented. And gains would be spread across all sectors of U.S. agriculture.

Also speaking to reporters was Jay Truitt, Vice President for Governmental Affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Truitt told the gaterhing that the US-Peru trade deal, as well as the deals that have been cut with Columbia and Panama would prove to be very positive for US agriculture. "This agreement presents a great opportunity for cattlemen," said Truitt. "Not only does it allow immediate duty-free access for our Choice and Prime beef, but this agreement also sets the precedent for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) terms."


Next Week- Beef Quality Seminars Happening in Stillwater
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next week, two more sessions of the Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit will take place. These are two and half day seminars where those interested in producing a high quality product for the end user come together to consider cattle from how they look when they are standing in the feedlot to how the end product is received by the end user- consumers here and around the world.

These sessions are unique in that you have much of the beef pipeline represented by those in attendance. And there is ample opportunity for producers, processors and others in the chain to sit down and exchange how they see the beef business from their perspective.

We are looking forward to helping that process in the second session as we will be leading their Thursday evening Bull Session, exploring where the beef business is today, what the competition is doing and how we can position beef to be at the center of the plate in the years to come.


US Sorghum Grabs the Attention of many Grain Buyers in Europe as Feed Grain Costs Skyrocket!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unpredictable weather events and a European Union ban on biotech products have caused many European countries to turn to the U.S. sorghum industry to sustain livestock operations. Western Europe is experiencing extreme flooding, and Eastern Europe is dealing with extreme drought. This is coupled with depletion of European grain reserves, which were already low after a disappointing harvest last year.

U.S. sorghum is a reliable, available feed grain for the European livestock industry. Just within the last three weeks, 25.4 million bushels (646,000 metric tons) of U.S. sorghum has been traded to Europe. The largest buyer is France. Other buyers include Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

For some of these countries, especially France with their paranoia over bio-tech, the decision by the grain sorghum industry in this country to not pursue a genetically modified path gives them a source to turn to when they want to buy GM free feed grain. And the US grain sorghum industry has seen a nice bounce back in 2007, as production has jumped here in 2007 by some 71% from 2006- helping our milo producers have enough grain sorghum to market their product into the European market and other locales as well.


Nice Article in the Journal Record on Agritourism Here in Oklahoma.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In case you missed it- there was an excellent piece in the Journal-Record Newspaper earlier this week on agri-tourism, farm and ranch style in the Ponca City area. The article talked about three ranches in the area working together to become a tourist destination- the "Cherokee Strip Land Run Farm and Ranch Tours."

The Big V Ranch, Silvertop Farm and the Blubaugh Angus Ranch are the three operations that are coming together under this banner. They are all within five minutes of each other and will be able to show what it was like all the way from statehood to how agriculture operates today.

"A lot of the tourism things are just that, more tourism things," said Scott Blubaugh, one of the operators of the Blubaugh ranch. "We wanted to have an experience where you'd actually come to a working farm and see what goes into actually raising the crops and the animals, the real deal. I think that's what's unique about the whole thing."

We have a link below to the full article- and it help proves the old adage, we are better together than what we have separately.

Click here to read about Agri-Tourism efforts in the Ponca City area.


Services Planned Tomorrow to Celebrate the Life of Anita Kouplen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Services are planned tomorrow for Anita Kouplen, the wife of Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Steve Kouplen. Anita died a week ago while on an out of state trip.

Two services will be held Saturday, September 29. The first service will be held at 10 a.m. at the Forest Hill Christian Church, 2121 N. Macarthur, Oklahoma City, OK, followed by a second service at 3 p.m. at the Crossroads Baptist Church, 6962 Happy Camp Road, Beggs, OK.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made in Anita Kouplen's name to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Legal Foundation or a charity of your choice. Donations to the legal foundation may be sent to Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Attn: OFB Legal Foundation, 2501 N. Stiles, Oklahoma City, OK 73105


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Cusack Meats and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them 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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com



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

Forward email

This email was sent to ronphays@cox.net, by ron@oklahomafarmreport.com

Oklahoma Farm Report | 10700 Whitehall Blvd | Oklahoma City | OK | 73162