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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday February 7,
2008! A
service of National Livestock Credit, KIS Futures & American Farmers
and Ranchers.
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-- The Veto Pen is Full of Ink and President Bush is Eager to use
it!
-- American Farmers and Ranchers applaud Senator Coburn on Private
Property Rights Measure...
-- Praise for New Oklahoma House Speaker Chris Benge
-- Say So Long to the Cattle Cycle-it's going the way of the
mule.
-- The Livestock Industry Must Always be Thinking a Step Ahead of the
Activists- So Says Rob Cannell of McDonalds.
-- Ten Buck Wheat as Far as the Eye Can See!!!
-- Oklahoma Comes Up With a Goose Egg on Beef Board
Nominations.
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 KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for their website or call them at 1-800-256-2555. We are also proud to have American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual
Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click
here to go to their NEW AFR web site to learn more about their efforts
to serve rural America! 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. | |
The Veto Pen is Full of Ink and President Bush is Eager to use it! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The President
did use the ceremonial swearing in of Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer
to trot out the highest shout yet about a veto of the farm bill. It's one
thing when the President's advisors are calling for a veto- telling
everyone that will listen that they will tell the President to veto it-
it's another thing altogether when the President jumps out and provides
little wiggle room for negotiators as he proclaimed on Wednesday to
Congress (in effect) that it's my way or the highway. And the highway
leads right up Veto Boulevard.
In response to the veto threats from the Chief Executive himself, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas (one of the Democratic Senate Farm Bill Conferees) says it's time that the Administration should use the authority given to it and tighten the loopholes as described under the 2002 farm law- and the President should not be talking this trash until that is done. We have linked the President's comments on our Farm Bill page- which is linked below. Take a listen for yourself and judge how deep of a line in the sand that the President has drawn. Click here to listen to comments from President Bush on a farm bill veto option. | |
American Farmers and Ranchers applaud Senator Coburn on Private Property Rights Measure... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ American
Farmers & Ranchers (AFR) applauds Senator Coburn for guarding private
property rights. Senate Bill 2483, The National Forests, Parks, Public
Land and Reclamation Projects Authorization Act of 2007, is a bill that
threatens the freedom and rights of every property owner and Dr. Coburn is
offering several amendments on behalf of private property owners and
taxpayers. Last week AFR representatives were in Washington D.C. and had
the opportunity to visit with Dr. Tom Coburn's office on S. 2483. "We are
disappointed in the authors and other members of Congress that support
this taking of private property rights," said Ray L. Wulf, President and
CEO of American Farmers & Ranchers. Wulf went on to state that
"protecting property rights for farmers, ranchers and all citizens across
this great nation has long been a foundation for our organization and one
that will continue to be a major priority."
S. 2483 authorizes the creation of three new National Heritage Areas (NHA), increases the funding of eight existing "temporary authorizations," modifies five existing NHA authorizations, and initiates two studies for the creation of new NHAs. More and more private property is being designated as part of NHA by Congress, usually with little debate or public knowledge or input. The establishment of NHAs can have real impacts on private property and communities. The potential consequences of these areas include restrictive zoning laws, government oversight of private property management, and even federal acquisition of land. Although a private citizen may still own the land within a NHA, the ability to decide how to use the land may be compromised. Landowners could, for example, be forbidden from making basic decisions, such as whether or not trees can be cut down or whether certain crops may be planted. The Coburn amendments being offered include things such as: | |
Praise for New Oklahoma House Speaker Chris Benge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the
beginning of this week, House Republicans selected who they wanted as
House Speaker for this second half of this Legislative Session, with the
resignation of Lance Cargill over the embarrassment of his failure not to
file his income tax returns and not paying property taxes in a timely
manner. With four candidates running, they have turned to Chris Benge of
Tulsa, who has served as the powerful Chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee,
We touched base with several Oklahoma farm leaders by phone or by email- and heard back from both Ray Wulf of American Farmers and Ranchers and from Mike Spradling of Oklahoma Farm Bureau. Wulf told us that while he had not had a lot of dealings with Representative Benge up to this point, AFR looks forward to working closely with the Speaker on issues of importance to rural Oklahoma. Spradling, from Tulsa County, has had more opportunity to interact with the new Speaker. Mike tells us "I have known Chris Benge since he first ran for the house. Though there were several candidates we in agriculture could have worked well with, Chris Benge has from the beginning an open door policy along with an open mind to agriculture and rural issues. He was my Representative prior to redistricting. I have had a very positive relationship with Chris whether it be agriculture, rural electric, rural issues, or funding for the Department of Agriculture- he was very responsive. I feel very comfortable that agriculture, rural electrics and rural Oklahoma will get a fair hearing from Chris Benge as Speaker." | |
Say So Long to the Cattle Cycle-it's going the way of the mule. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We covered a
couple of the sessions of Cattlemen's College this morning- and heard from
Randy Blach of Cattlefax. on how to survive in this new world of the
cattle business.Blach told producers that "The cattle cycle that we all
grew up with is on life support. It may well be gone."
He adds we are producing more beef with fewer cows and calls today's beef production a result of a "technology cycle." He pointed out that cattle prices have lagged even as input costs have soared. Since 2000, Hay prices are up 58%, corn prices are 92% higher, the value of pasture is up 121%, crude oil is 152% higher but a 750 pound yearling steer ready to go into the feedlot is 23% higher. Blach says that the way to counter higher costs is better marketing and grabbing what he calls in some cases "free money" by doing the book keeping that qualifies you for animals that are age and source verified. He adds the premiums are real in providing performance history on cattle, pre-conditioning weaned calves and checking out natural and premium programs. This morning here in Reno, Blach and his team will present their annual Cattlefax Outlook Seminar and give their ideas about weather patterns for the year- as well as grain and cattle market outlook. We will have coverage of that on our Bovine Blog at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com, which we have linked below. Go back several times during the day- and get updated on some of the happenings at the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show. Click here for the Bovine Blog and our updates from the Reno Cattle Industry Convention. | |
The Livestock Industry Must Always be Thinking a Step Ahead of the Activists- So Says Rob Cannell of McDonalds. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cannell was a
part of a session during the Cattlemen's College yesterday in Reno and the
annual Cattle Industry Convention. He is responsible for procurement of
beef and pork for McDonalds USA, getting the supplies lined up for the
13,700 restaurants that rest beneath the Golden Arches all across this
country.
Dr. Cannell told the cattle producers here in Reno that while we can look at a picture of a couple of steers standing at the feedbunk in one of our feedlots- and think, "hey those are good looking steers- looks like they are about ready for the packing plant." Consumers that are removed from cattle production may other things- and their are those who would interpret that picture totally in a different way. As a result, the industry must be on its toes and be ready to answer the questions of savvy consumers. Cannell also answered a question that came up regarding cloning and McDonalds stance on this practice, which is undergoing its final blessing from the US Food and Drug Administration. Both of these subjects are covered in our Thursday edition of the Beef Buzz, heard daily across great radio stations in the state of Oklahoma. Besides hearing the Beef Buzz on great radio stations across the Radio Oklahoma Network, you can also check out our archive of many different Beef Buzz shows from the last year or so that reside on our website. AND- we have today's Beef Buzz featuring the comments of Dr. Rob Cannell of McDonalds linked below- check it out! | |
Ten Buck Wheat as Far as the Eye Can See!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's the
case as long as you are talking old crop hard red winter wheat, as
yesterday's futures gains take us to the point that all elevator locations
polled daily by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture are reporting a bid
for number one HRW wheat at $10.00 a bushel or higher- the range is $10 to
$10.34.
The old crop March delivery of Kansas City wheat settled at $10.80 per bushel on Wednesday afternoon- and early this morning, we find the KC March contract up another whopping thirty cents per bushel- another limit up with the overnight KC March contract touching $11.10 per bushel! Good export demand that has been caused by panic buying by international traders chasing that weak US dollar exchange rate, tight stocks here in the US and a tepid US HRW wheat crop- it has provoked a Panic Rally for available supplies of Hard Red Winter wheat. How much more up does it go? Tell me when we get an inch of rain across all of the HRW belt and I will tell you the top end of our wheat marketplace (Actually, I will call Kim Anderson and force it out of him!) | |
Oklahoma Comes Up With a Goose Egg on Beef Board Nominations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma is
the largest cattle producing state in the US that will have no
representation on either side of the Beef Board Operating Committee in the
coming year.. Half of the members of the Operating Committee come from the
Cattlemen's Beef Board, while half come from the Federation of Beef
Councils.
While Iowa gets three members on the Federation side of the Committee, and Texas will claim two members, Oklahoma is left without any voice on the body that makes a lot of the decisions that shape the direction of the checkoff. The Operating Committee Chair will be Dave Bateman of Illinois. New Beef Board officer candidates have also been announced, with Bateman to become Chairman of the Beef Board at the end of this meeting in Reno, Lucinda Williams from the Northeastern States will serve as Vice Chairman and Dan Dierschke of Texas has been nominated to serve as the Secretary/Treasurer. All of these nominations for these positions will be ratified Saturday by the full Beef Board membership. | |
Our thanks to American Farmers & Ranchers, KIS Futures and National Livestock Creditfor 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. | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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