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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday December 30,
2008! A
service of Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers and
Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- US Beef Flying Out of Large Korean Retailers
-- Hogs and Pigs Quarterly Report Due Out This Afternoon
-- Dairy Checkoff Helping Provide Breakfast for Bethel High
Schoolers
-- R-Calf Claims Credit for USDA Backing Away From Call for Premise
ID for Those Participating in Federal Disease Management Efforts
-- OSU Beef Cattle Specialists Tout New Website
-- Mexican Meat Import Stoppage from the US Will Be Shortlived
-- Looking at our Agricultural Markets...
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 have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America! We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across
Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston
Enterprises- click
here for their website! 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. | |
US Beef Flying Out of Large Korean Retailers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meatingplace.Com
is reporting this morning that US Beef has quickly become the beef of
choice among South Korean shoppers at several major chains that have just
recently begun to sell the product once again. "U.S. beef has beat out
other imported and even domestic product in sales at South Korea's three
largest supermarket chains, according to local media reports. On Sunday
E-Mart, Homeplus and Lottemart reported combined sales of nearly 1,300
tons of U.S. beef since Nov. 27, when they resumed sales of U.S. beef."
"In the same period, sales of Australian beef reached slightly more than 1,100 tons, down some 17 percent from the same period a year ago. Meantime, sales of homegrown hanwoo cattle product grew 5 percent to about 712 tons. "The resurgence of U.S. beef in a country that once was the third-largest market for the product is partly why Seoul is taking steps to protect domestic beef producers. The government said this week it will spend $415.5 million in 2009 to help them cope with cheaper imports and fluctuating livestock numbers. Among other goals, the plan calls for a set number of hanwoo cattle to be raised and for a minimum domestic market share to be secured to ensure consistent profit levels." | |
Hogs and Pigs Quarterly Report Due Out This Afternoon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's the last
major livestock report of the year from Uncle Sam- and the porker count
will show about one percent fewer hogs and pigs as of December first
compared to last year- if the pre report guesses are right.
The kept for breeding numbers may be the most important part of this upcoming report- with the analysts that follow the hog industry all looking for a three to four percent reduction in the numbers of females kept for breeding- that would suggest tighter pork supplies later in 2009. The kept for marketing numbers that are predicted by the hog market watchers are all about even with last December first- which might be pointing to not much change in pork supplies in the first couple of months in the new year. The report comes out at 2 PM Central time- and we will have details on the report on our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com later in the afternoon once the numbers are released. Go to our front page and look for the headlines on those numbers. | |
Dairy Checkoff Helping Provide Breakfast for Bethel High Schoolers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An alternative
breakfast service- known as "Expanding Breakfast" has received startup
grant funding from Dairy MAX, the local dairy council. Dairy MAX has
worked with Bethel High School on a pilot basis last spring and now has
the program rolling this school year.
The idea is to offer a quick and fun way to offer breakfast to teenagers that might otherwise go without. "We saw an increase of 35-40% in participation at breakfast during the trial run of the Grab & Go breakfast program," says Karalisa Duncan, Child Nutrition Director at Bethel Public Schools. "This is exactly what our wellness policy encourages. Teachers indicated that their students were more alert and complained less frequently of headaches." We have more on this success story from Bethel on our website- and it's linked below- check it out. Click here for more on the Grab and Go Breakfast Concept Promoted in part by Dairy Checkoff Monies | |
R-Calf Claims Credit for USDA Backing Away From Call for Premise ID for Those Participating in Federal Disease Management Efforts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The activist
R-Calf USA organization claims the USDA has been forced to back away from
Premise ID that is associated with the National Animal ID concept as the
USDA first called for premise ID registration for producers engaged in
interstate commerce and who participate in any one of the dozen or more
federally regulated disease programs.
R-Calf cried violation of privacy- and USDA has backed away from that initial call for premise ID registration in a Memo dated December 22. R-Calf leaders say that Animal ID should not be mandatory- and goes further as they urge their members and others not to register their premises under the program which is now being promoted mostly at the state level. In a news release, the organization says " R-CALF USA advocates that USDA should use and improve existing disease traceback methods including state-sanctioned brand programs that do not require individual producers to register their property under a national premises registration program in order to improve USDA's disease traceback capabilities. " | |
OSU Beef Cattle Specialists Tout New Website ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cattle
producers now have a new tool in their "resource toolbox". Oklahoma State
University extension animal scientists have launched a new educational
website designed to be a "one-stop shopping" destination for Oklahoma beef
cattle producers. The website is BeefExtension. Com (we have it linked
below)and contains access to many useful pieces of information for
cow/calf, stocker, and feedlot managers.
Downloadable record forms for Beef Quality Assurance record-keeping, Country of Origin Labeling affidavits, and OSU decision-making software are found on this website. The left-hand menu allows producers to choose specific topics that would be helpful to them. For example, a "cow-calf producer" could click on that link, then scroll down the menu items to "nutrition" and find fact sheets about feeding ideas for beef cows. One of the most useful features of the website is the "search" box found at the top of the main page. For instance, a producer wishing to learn more about "nitrate toxicity" could type those words in the search box and find a listing of all of the items related to that topic found within the OSU Beef Extension publications. | |
Mexican Meat Import Stoppage from the US Will Be Shortlived ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mexico's
suspension of imports from 30 U.S. meat processing plants could be ending.
The plant suspensions went into effect December 23rd. A USDA spokeswoman
said, - the suspensions were prompted by miscellaneous findings including
a range of issues at port of entry inspections including general condition
of product, sanitation and possible pathogen findings.
In fact, late word on Monday afternoon is that USDA officials are saying that 19 or 20 of the plants will be allowed to start exporting to Mexico again right away- and the others may follow suit in a matter of days. USDA's Amanda Eamich says, - right up to and including the Christmas holidays, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has been working with industry and Mexican authorities to resolve their concerns. Eamich disputed trade talk that the suspensions were connected to Mexico's action to join Canada in filing a complaint to the World Trade Organization opposing U.S. mandatory country of origin labeling. She said, - speculation by traders about COOL would not be accurate. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers 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. | |
Looking at our Agricultural 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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