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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday March 10, 2008!
A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers and
Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Farm Bill Deal Has Almost Certainly Slipped to April- as early
Easter Recess Looms.
-- Oklahoma Youth Expo Kicks Off Today!
-- From the State Capitol- The Farm Bureau Watch List From Lori
Peterson.
-- Oklahoma Wheat Grower Exec Tim Bartram in Washington this past
week Promoting Research Dollars for Wheat.
-- Wheat Diseases Remain at a Standstill in Oklahoma Wheat
Fields...
-- POP Meetings Underway...
-- To Get Ron on RON- and Ed to Boot- Check out our Great Radio
Stations in Enid- KGWA and KOFM!!!
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 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! 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 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. | |
Farm Bill Deal Has Almost Certainly Slipped to April- as early Easter Recess Looms. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Senate Ag
Committee and Senate Finance Committee are locked in a major dispute over
who has control of spending for the farm bill- and the negotiations are
ongoing over which "offsets" will be acceptable to all concerned. The
offset issue of how the additional spending above the budget baseline has
been the major stumbling block in getting a farm bill completed here in
the early months of 2008.
As it stands now, the arguments between the various players sound no different than they did a week ago- or in many cases, even a month ago. The real issue being raised now by Senator Conrad, Chairman of the Finance Committee in the Senate, is that he wants to use tax credits in lieu of cash rental payments for the Conservation Wetlands and Grassland Reserves- they would total $3.8 Billion- and he wants to use a similar tactic of tax credits totaling $1.8 Billion for compensation to landowners who take steps to aid in the survival of endangered species. It has been the contention of Senator Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, that Conrad should just find the money and let the Ag Committee, of which Senator Conrad is a part of, actually dictate how that money will be spent. With Congress ready to leave Washington for a two week recess at the
close of business this week- it remains very much in doubt whether even a
framework can be assembled for the staff to work on during this very early
Easter break. About the only thing that may get done is another thirty day
extension of the 2002 Farm Law, which supporters say will help preserve
the Baseline to mid April. | |
Oklahoma Youth Expo Kicks Off Today! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We had the
chance to visit with the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Youth Expo
this past Saturday morning on our video segment seen on KWTV News9, In the
Field with Ron Hays. Jeramy Rich says things are ready to go for the 2008
event- and that they expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000
exhibitors that will represent every county in the state- showing almost
14,000 animals total.
The Meat Goat show will kick off the 2008 Youth expo, and then we will have some of the breeding stock quickly follow over the next few days. The barn situation is more problematic this year than last- as several barns that have been major parts of the Expo for years have been either torn down and are being replaced- or are being renovated. One bright spot in the barn picture is the availability of the brand new "state of the art" Super Barn that sits adjacent to the Arena. Many of the animals for the show this year will spend time in that brand new facility. The dollar amount of the 2008 Show is expected to surpass the 2007 Youth expo, with more than one million dollars in prizes and scholarships to be handed out between now and the close of the Premium Auction on Thursday afternoon/Evening- March 20. We have the video segment with Jeramy linked below- take a look and get the word on the startup of the 2008 Oklahoma Youth Expo. Click here for Ron and Jeramy "In the Field" from Saturday on KWTV News9! | |
From the State Capitol- The Farm Bureau Watch List From Lori Peterson. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We talked
Friday afternoon with Lori Peterson, the Vice President for Public Policy
of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, about how the 2008 Legislative session is
going in the opinion of this general farm organization. We talked about
Senate Bill 2024- which had Sunset dates on all of the ag sales tax
exemptions now in place in the state of Oklahoma. Peterson says that the
ag groups have been united in their concern about this measure.
Peterson says that while the Senate author, Mike Mazzei of Tulsa, has indicated to ag interests that he is not trying to eliminate any specific sales tax break- he thinks all tax breaks given by the state should be reviewed regularly by lawmakers and thus should have a sunset date. Lori adds that work continues with the Senate on this issue- and it's possible that we could see most of the agricultural tax exemptions taken out of any measure that moves forward- if the measure is able to survive. We also talked about private property rights issues, trespass and money for projects like the Department of Ag lab equipment. You can hear our conversation by clicking on the link below- we also have it posted on the Front Page of our website, WWw.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Click here to listen to Ron and Lori talk State Legislative Issues on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. | |
Oklahoma Wheat Grower Exec Tim Bartram in Washington this past week Promoting Research Dollars for Wheat. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tim Bartram,
along with past Oklahoma Wheat Growers State President Kent McAninch, were
part of a group of growers, millers and researchers from the wheat
industry who were in Washington this past week to offer a bit of urgency
to research funding needed for the US wheat industry. Tim says that the
main message he and Kent, along with officials from Agri-Pro and K-State
delivered was the need to try to find some answers quickly for the fast
moving ug99 Stem Rust that has jumped from Africa into Asia very quickly
and is expected in the United States in a matter of just a few years.
Funding for the research programs at the International Research Organization CIMMYT comes from the USAID budget, which provides $25 million for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research centers, including $5 million in base funding for CIMMYT that is at risk of being zeroed out. CIMMYT provides much of the germplasm used for resistance screening and facilitates much of the international exchange of material between wheat breeders, and wheat representatives emphasized at their meetings that a cut of 30 percent to CIMMYT's base budget would be catastrophic, particularly as the world prepares for the spread of Ug99. There's a ton of concern here in the US from our research community and others about the spread of Ug99 to Iran, placing it on the verge of entering important wheat production regions in Pakistan, India and China. With the majority of wheat varieties in production today susceptible to Ug99, work needs to ramp up immediately to find and deploy new resistance sources. Industry representatives pointed out that some preventative investment now could alleviate both a humanitarian and political crisis in Asia and even here at home. | |
Wheat Diseases Remain at a Standstill in Oklahoma Wheat Fields... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A quick report
came out Friday from Dr. Bob Hunger, Extension Wheat Pathologist for
Oklahoma State University. The bottom line is that we have no significant
wheat disease issues in the state that have been observed as we move into
the middle of March. Dr. Hunger writes "Samples received during the last
two weeks have included a couple from southwestern Oklahoma from which
septoria was isolated and a couple from northern Oklahoma that tested
negative for WSMV, HPV and BYDV. Disease progression and observations have
not progressed much over the last two weeks because of below normal
temperatures."
Dr. Hunger did share that he now has reports from Louisiana and his counterparts there that report leaf rust is active in that state. Dr. Stephen Harrison of LSU says "I have received a number of calls about leaf rust from around the state and growers are starting to apply fungicides to some varieties. I expect leaf rust to be a significant problem this year given the warm temperatures and frequent rainfall." To our north in Kansas, Extension personnel have found some left over leaf rust still surviving the winter near Manhattan, Kansas. They report that the next four weeks will be critical in determining whether leaf rust is able to over winter and move from old leaves to the new rapidly growing leaves that will grow on our wheat plants in the days ahead. | |
POP Meetings Underway... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gene Neuens of
the Plains Oilseed Products Coop has updated us on the meetings the POP
and Producers Coop Oilseed Mill have been having on Winter Canola and the
possibilities diverting some wheat acres over to canola for a year in
order to clean up some of the tough weed problems that many wheat
producers have been facing over the past few years.
Gene writes us "The meetings have been very good. The people attending are interested in the info about POP, PCOM and the production Info. The info On The Great Plains Canola Association and the National Sunflower Association has been well accepted." Gene has two meetings planned for this week- March 12 in Medford- they will begin at 10:00 AM and go through lunch which is provided at no charge- this meeting being held at the Medford Civic Center. On March 13, they have a meeting planned for McPherson, Kansas from 9:00 Am till 3:00 PM, again with lunch provided. We have added the POP meetings to our calendar on our website at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- and we have the dates they have through the end of the month listed and a link to their website as well. Click on the link below to get to our calendar page and check for a POP meeting in your area. Click here for the Calendar page of WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. | |
To Get Ron on RON- and Ed to Boot- Check out our Great Radio Stations in Enid- KGWA and KOFM!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are proud
of all of our Radio Oklahoma Network stations- and over the next few
weeks- we plan on sportlighting several of them for you and let you know
the times they carry RON agricultural updates. We have pages on our
website for several of our stations- and we will be improving those in the
days to come with links to the stations websites, a coverge map that shows
where the stations can be heard and a lot more!
In North Central Oklahoma, our original flagship stations for the old Quinstar Network that has become Radio Oklahoma Network are KOFM FM at 103.1 on the dial, and the Information Station for Enid and surrounding areas, KGWA Am at 960 on the AM dial. KGWA carries our agricultural updates nine times a day across north central Oklahoma, from 7:45 AM with Morning Farm News to 5:20 PM in the afternoon with our Market Update. Hot Country KOFM at 103.1 carries seven reports weekdays- again throughout the day!. We have a link below to our page saluting KOFM and KGWA, with specific times they carry our reports featuring Ed Richards and Ron Hays- check the times out and tune in this week- you'll be glad you did! | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahomafor 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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