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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday December 10,
2008! A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Farm Credit Associations of
Oklahoma and Johnston Enterprises!
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-- Farms Groups to USDA- Delay NO More
-- Farm Service Agency Administator Teresa Lasseter Says "Soon"
-- Looking for Oklahoma Ag Hall of Fame Inductee Number 12.
-- BP Likes Their Ethanol Sweet
-- OSU Horse Judging Squad Outpaces the Competition at AQHA
Collegiate Judging
-- Limited Value Cattle Might Get a Pass on Paying the Beef Checkoff-
More with Tom Jones
-- Let's Check the Markets!
Howdy Neighbors! Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. It is wonderful to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website! It's also great to have the Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma
with us regularly as an Email Sponsor- Financing Oklahoma is their
business! Check out their website which shows their locations statewide 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. | |
Farms Groups to USDA- Delay NO More ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Virtually
every major commodity and farm organization joined in signing a letter to
convey serious concerns about the significant delay in publishing the
regulations implementing numerous commodity and conservation provisions of
the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. In a letter to Agriculture
Secretary Ed Schafer, copied to Office of Management & Budget Director
Jim Nussle and to Congressional leaders, the groups urged the
Administration to release the regulations immediately.
"We certainly understand the significant challenge of implementing the provisions of the new farm law, but it is critical that program provisions be announced in a timely fashion so that farmers can make decisions for the 2009 crop year," the letter stated. The letter reminded officials that the new farm law includes a requirement that implementing regulations be issued within 90 days of enactment. The statute also specifies that a 22 percent advance Direct Payment should have been offered to eligible producers beginning on December 1. "The rapid decline in commodity prices, the unprecedented volatility that still exists in commodities futures markets, the tightening of credit, and sustained increases in the cost of many inputs have strained the cash position of many producers," the groups stated. "The advance Direct Payments would help producers now, but they cannot request these funds until sign-up begins and sign-up can not start until the regulations are published." We have more on this letter and a full list of the groups that have signed, as well as the actual text of the letter courtesy of the National Cotton Council- one of those signing off on the concerns raised to the Bush USDA. That full link is below. | |
Farm Service Agency Administator Teresa Lasseter Says "Soon" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In response to
the concern expressed by farm groups that was seen in the letter we talked
about above- the head of the USDA's Farm Service Administration, Teresa
Lasseter, was in farm country earlier this week and expressed frustration
that the signup was not underway for the 2009 crop year- and that advance
direct payments were on hold.
The problem seems to be at the White House Office of Management and Budget, as they insist that USDA include in the rules some way to check who gets farm program payments with private IRS data. Most observers believe that will take a legislative fix- so OMB and USDA are at a standoff- at least a short term one. This problem and a report on Mrs. Lasseter's visit to Arkansas this week is at the top of today's Farm and Ranch news as heard on the Radio Oklahoma Network. This morning report is also one of those shows that we archive onto our website- and is a podcast that you can subscribe to- or simply go to at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com anytime 24/7 to listen to. To find the listing of those shows- go to our front page- scroll down and you will see the list of our latest podcasts- or you can use the button on the left hand side of the page "Listen to Ron" and you will see a more complete list of both the Ag Perspectives Podcasts as well as the daily farm and ranch news. | |
Looking for Oklahoma Ag Hall of Fame Inductee Number 12. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nominations
are being accepted for this year's recipient of the Governor's Outstanding
Achievement Award in Agriculture. The person selected will become the 2009
inductee into the Oklahoma Agricultural Hall of Fame. Nominations will be
accepted until close of business February 6, 2009.
Induction into the Hall of Fame will be held at the state capitol in conjunction with Oklahoma Ag Day on March 24. The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture distributes nomination forms and accepts the completed applications. An independent selection committee comprised of leaders from various agricultural organizations chooses each year's inductee. We have the direct link below to full information on the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture website- including the 2009 nomination form- as well as an audio conversation that we had with Jason Harvey about the nomination process this year. Click here for more on the Ag Hall of Fame Nomination Process for 2009 | |
BP Likes Their Ethanol Sweet ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a
story as well as a link to a great interview with Sue Ellerbusch,
president of BP Biofuels North America. She is leading her company's
movement into biofuels not through the corn field- but rather through the
sugar cane. And, who knows, they may have real interest in our sweet
sorghum into ethanol efforts that OSU is touting here in our state.
"Today's a good start," Ellerbusch said in an interview, referring to the current biofuels production system. "We're focused on creating better biofuels faster." BP Biofuels is focused on three key areas of biofuels development: sugar-based ethanol, butanol and cellulosic ethanol. You can read the full story- as well get the link to a full interview that Stewart Doan with Agri-Pulse did with Ms. Ellerbusch about how they are looking for ways to make ethanol work without subsidies- and based on oil as cheap as $40 a barrel. Click on the link below for more. Click here for more with Sue Ellerbusch of BP Biofuels and their view of how to make ethanol work. | |
OSU Horse Judging Squad Outpaces the Competition at AQHA Collegiate Judging ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma State
University's Horse Judging Team took top rank as the American Quarter
Horse Association Senior World Champion. Fifteen teams competed in the
senior college division and OSU won by 20 points. Places for the team
include first place in the Halter, Reasons and Overall; and second in
Performance.
Amanda Burrows placed fourth in Halter, fifth in Performance, third in Reasons and was the first high individual Overall. Kristi Wright-Burton placed second in Halter and was the fifth high individual Overall. Other individual highlights included Allison Bond placing second in Performance and fifth in Reasons, Sharon Thomas placing sixth in Reasons and McKenzie Nygren placing ninth in Reasons. Other team members include Ashley Schunk and Jennifer MacArthur. Steven Cooper is the Team Coach and has Sarah Kawcak as the team's assistant coach. Read more about this achievement and take a look at the team showing off some of their hardware for topping this event on our website- click on the link below. Click here for more on the OSU Horse Judging Squad and their success at the AQHA. | |
Limited Value Cattle Might Get a Pass on Paying the Beef Checkoff- More with Tom Jones ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The
recommendations that have been boiled down from a total of 359 suggestions
to the Beef Board's Administrative Subcommittee about the future of the
Beef Checkoff starts with a call for an increase in the checkoff from the
current one dollar up to two dollars. We heard Arkansas Cow-Calf producer
Tom Jones elaborate on that yesterday on our Beef Buzz program from the
Radio Oklahoma Network- and today we move on to a couple of the additional
recommendations advanced by his Committee.
One of those recommendations is to exempt cattle (mostly baby calves) that bring less than $50 per head from the checkoff assessment. Jones calls this a matter of fairness. He also says that a mechanism to have a referendum every seven years is
proposed which would be similar to other checkoff programs. That would
give producers the chance to get a vote if enough cattle owners from
around the country feel the need for that to occur. Click here for the latest Beef Buzz as heard on the Radio Oklahoma Network. | |
Our thanks to Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill and Johnston Enterprises 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. | |
Let's Check the Markets! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click
on the name of the report to go to that link: | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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