~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday June 13, 2008!
A
service of National Livestock Credit, American Farmers & Ranchers and
Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Wheat Harvest Rolled in Many Locations- Others Wait.
-- Spain Buying US Grain Sorghum- a Boatload a Month!
-- National Ag Groups Say Its Time to Get the Complete Story on
Escalating Food Costs!
-- USDA Offers First Announcements on Farm Bill Implementation
Specifics.
-- Waiting Til Next Week On Final Farm Bill Action.
-- Mexican Cattle May Be Worth More in Mexico Than Here in the
US!
-- Happening this weekend- the Cream of the Crop Sale, Ben Johnson
Steer Roping and More!
-- 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. We are proud to have National Livestock Credit Corporation as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. National Livestock Credit Corporation works diligently to provide unsurpassed service to their customers in the area of livestock financing. Check out the National Livestock Family of Services website by clicking here. We are also 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! 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. | |
Wheat Harvest Rolled in Many Locations- Others Wait. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the
better reports we got yesterday evening came from Woods County and the
Manager of the Dacoma Coop Elevator, Joe Royster. He wrote us about dark
an email after we had inquired early afternoon about the status of their
harvest- "I am on supper break and just reading my e-mail. I would say the
Dacoma area is close to 70% done with our yields from 45 to 60 with early
test weight 62 to 64 and after the rain 58 to 60. We will cut three times
more wheat (bushels) in this area than we have cut in the last 2 years."
As usual, Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission checked in with us early this morning- and he reports that we saw cutting all over the place yesterday- even in some fields north and east of Enid- where it remains muddy. Mark also reports on some of the quality factors seen thus far in this 2008 crop- and we have his audio update on our Wheat Harvest webpage that is linked below. As we write this early Friday morning- we thought we could be seeing a lot of rain in much of that north central area of the state where we still have a lot of acres of wheat to harvest. As of 5:30 AM, the storms have stayed mostly north in southern Kansas- with the development in Oklahoma happening east of I-35. Newkirk reports about a half inch of rain since midnight- and heavier amounts are being reported in Osage County as the tail of the Kansas storms swings through northeastern Oklahoma this morning- it looks like Tulsa may get some of this rain this morning. Perhaps we have dodged this bullet which will get us a long ways toward harvesting a bunch of acres over the next couple of days. We would love to hear your harvest updates- you can report and we can credit you- or you can report anonymously- it's your choice. We would love to hear from farmers, Elevator Managers and /or extension folks. Speaking of Extension folks, we plan on having Dr. Jeff Edwards on our Saturday morning TV report on KWTV News9- In the Field with Ron Hays. It will air around 6:40 AM tomorrow morning! Click here for the Wheat Harvest Webpage found on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Spain Buying US Grain Sorghum- a Boatload a Month! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Even as many
Oklahoma producers have made the decision to plant grain sorghum earlier
this spring- or in many cases, as a double crop following wheat- we have
been told of a real success story in moving significant amounts of US
grain sorghum into Europe. Following an overseas sorghum promotion mission
late last fall, Abengoa Bioenergy in Spain has begun to use large amounts
of U.S. sorghum in their European ethanol production facilities. The new
usage comes as a result of a mission to Spain, Morocco, Germany and France
during which NSP and U.S. Grains Council leaders met with executives at
Abengoa and cleared up some misconceptions about using sorghum for ethanol
production.
"They (Abengoa) were importing Argentine corn for their ethanol plants in Spain because they were afraid to use sorghum in fear that end-users of sorghum- based DDGS (distiller's dried grains with solubles) would have concerns with color and overall quality," said Ken Hobbie, USGC president and CEO. "We spent considerable time sharing research with them provided by the National Sorghum Producers to address their concerns and fill the knowledge gap that existed." According to a more recent meeting between Abengoa and USGC executives, Abengoa has been importing one vessel (1.2 million bushels or 30,000 metric tons) of sorghum per month since February as a result of the information they gained during the USGC/NSP meeting, and are contracted for a total of 9.5 million bushels, or 240,000 metric tons, through September. "We are very pleased that our mission to Spain last winter has yielded such positive results," said NSP CEO Tim Lust. "NSP looks forward to continuing to work with the U.S. Grains Council, Abengoa Bioenergy and others who find that sorghum is, in fact, a high quality, viable alternative to other ethanol commodities." | |
National Ag Groups Say Its Time to Get the Complete Story on Escalating Food Costs! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A broad
coalition of agriculture interests today called on Congress to investigate
ALL the reasons for rising food prices. Critics, citing biofuel production
and higher commodity markets, have wrongly blamed record high food prices
on farmers. "With 80 percent of the consumer retail food dollar occurring
off the farm, I believe congressional hearings will find rising food
prices the result of numerous factors," NFU President Tom Buis said. "Food
companies are trying to pass the blame on to farmers while many are
enjoying record profits."
The groups recognized the affect higher food prices are having on consumers but reiterated the importance of studying the larger picture. With farmers receiving 20 cents of every food dollar consumers spend, other factors, such as labor and energy costs, financial speculation, increased demand, weather production losses, the weak dollar and even excess profiteering, have a more significant impact on food prices. American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, the National Farmers Union, American Soybean Association, National Sorghum Growers Association and National Association of Wheat Growers signed on to the coalition letter. The letter was sent to several Committee Chairmen and their ranking members- including the Agriculture Committees as well as the Energy Committees of both bodies. We have the letter for you to take a look at- linked below. | |
USDA Offers First Announcements on Farm Bill Implementation Specifics. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture Ed Schafer today announced USDA has delivered its first
actions implementing the new farm bill. Within three weeks of commodity
title enactment in the 2008 farm bill, USDA is implementing marketing
assistance loan and loan deficiency payment (LDP) provisions.
Secretary Schafer adds "The Department of Agriculture is putting into action the thousands of pages of new farm bill law for crop production, research, marketing, nutrition, conservation, food aid and rural development. Expect more follow-up on farm bill results from USDA." USDA also announced that county loan rates for 2008 crop of wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, soybeans, and other oilseeds (sunflower seed, flaxseed, canola, rapeseed, safflower, mustard seed, crambe, and sesame seed), State loan rates by class for 2008 crop of rice, and regional loan rates for 2008 pulse crops (small chickpeas, dry peas, and lentils) were posted today on the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Web site- we have that linked below. As far as some of the specific loan rates- here they are: (note how far
below current cash prices these support levels are- it's like being
hundreds of feet above your safety net- the net may catch you but the fall
may still prove to be deadly!) Click here for the FSA Web Site Location with More Information on these 2008 Loan Rates. | |
Waiting Til Next Week On Final Farm Bill Action. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A clerical
error omitting the Trade Title from H.R. 2419 necessitated full re-passage
of the 2007 Farm Bill. The House of Representatives quickly voted on the
new bill, passing it by a vote of 306-110. The Senate followed suit last
week by re-passing the Farm Bill by a margin of 77-15.
This cleared the way for the bill to be sent to the President - this time complete with all 15 titles. But with President Bush out of the country, no further action on the bill is expected this week. The President will likely veto the bill when he returns, setting the stage for another override vote in each house of Congress. However, no matter what- everyone seems to agree that 14 of the 15 titles are now the law of the land and that would not change even if the impossible happened and Congress did not override the expected veto. The only problem would be with the Trade title- and that would impact several key areas- including food aid internationally. | |
Mexican Cattle May Be Worth More in Mexico Than Here in the US! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That might
surprise some folks- but the demand for beef in Mexico is very real- we
have learned as they have become our top export market in the aftermath of
the Cow that Stole Christmas back in December 2003 when BSE was found in
this country and the Asian markets kicked us out.
Our Friday Beef Buzz- as heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- features the grand finale of our conversation with OSU Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Dr. Derrell Peel. Peel is a real expert on the Mexican cattle market- he has spent a good bit of time south of the border and has studied their system at length- I would daresay that he is the authority on the Mexican cattle industry here in the United States. Peel says that the Mexicans are not happy with the prospect of possible discrimination against beef that may end up labeled as a product of the U.S. and Mexico because of Mandatory COOL. He says that the Mexicans will pick their time when its best for them politically to embarrass the US- and then they may cause a stink over COOL. In the meantime, their cattle are worth just about as much south of the border as they are being brought into the U.S. You can hear Dr. Peel's explanation on this Friday the 13th Edition of the Beef Buzz- click below to check it out! Click here for the Friday Beef Buzz with Ron and Derrell Talking South of the Border Beef! | |
Happening this weekend- the Cream of the Crop Sale, Ben Johnson Steer Roping and More! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saturday the
14th is Flag Day- a time to fly with pride Old Glory! And if you are
interested in some of the finest bloodlines in the Club Calf business- you
need to check out a sale happening in western Oklahoma Saturday midday.
Kris Black's 7th Annual Cream of the Crop Female Sale- at the ranch near
Crawford, Oklahoma. We have details you can link to on the Calendar page
of our website- that link is below.
Saturday and Sunday will find the cattle industry in Osage County celebrating with the annual Osage County Cattlemen's Convention- complete with a Saturday morning ranch tour and then the Sunday Ben Johnson Steer Roping event- again go to the Calendar page of our website for details. Finally- jumping out to the first of the week- the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers have their summer meting planned down south of Dallas a ways near Bastrop at the Lost Pines Resort. They have a most interesting lineup of speakers at this year's event- including our friend Gregg Doud, Chief Economist of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance 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. | |
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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