From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 01:41
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday June 23, 2008!
A service of National Livestock Credit, American Farmers & Ranchers and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Wheat Harvest Hits 70% Complete as Custom Cutters Exit the State.
-- It's a Billion Dollars- and MORE in 2008!!!
-- Better than expected Marketings- Fewer Placements- It proves to be a friendly report!
-- Beef Buzzing with Glen Selk on a Monday...
-- Advance Foods Celebrates Facility Expansion Today in Enid!
-- State FSA Director Jim Reese Responds to CRP Dissatisfaction in the Panhandle
-- Korean Meat Importers Admit US Beef is Safe- But Ask Meat Exporters from the US to Send ONLY beef from Animals Under 30 Months of Age.
-- 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!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the annual Tulsa Farm Show held each December, as well as the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows 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.


Wheat Harvest Hits 70% Complete as Custom Cutters Exit the State.
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As the areas of the state of Oklahoma that still have substantial acres to harvest left became dry enough for combines to roll once again- the state saw harvest crank up again in some cases on Friday afternoon- but definitely as we hit Saturday and then Sunday. The biggest challenge now is that we are moving harvest forward without the benefit of custom harvest crews for the most part. The Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, Mark Hodges, believes we are now 70% harvested on a statewide basis.

He tells the Radio Oklahoma Network that we still have the following areas actively harvesting:
Plus or Minus a few miles of I-40 from Canadian County west to the State Line- 65 to 75% complete.
Immediate Enid Area- 65% Complete
North and East of Enid that received the heaviest rains last week- 15% complete (Most fields are still too soft to support combines)
Panhandle- Beaver County - wrapping up. 80% or more done
Texas County 50% Complete
and Cimarron County- Just beginning

Hodges adds that in the case of the Panhandle the dryland yield reports are twenty bushels an acre or less, while the irrigated wheat is only being reported at 50 bushels per acre or less.
We have Mark's full audio report on our webpage on the 2008 Wheat Harvest- and invite you to check there for that and check back later in the day as well to take a look at any additional reports we have to pass along to you.

Continue to let us hear from you. We would love to hear about your harvest experience here in 2008- Drop us a note at the email address at the bottom of this daily news update- and it will be greatly appreciated!

Click here for the Wheat Harvest Webpage found on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


It's a Billion Dollars- and MORE in 2008!!!
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The 2008 Harvest Season is not yet over- but assuming that we are able to get the last third of the Oklahoma Wheat Crop out of the field and into the bin- Wheat Producers have an unprecedented income year in sight. Dr. Kim Anderson, Extension Wheat Market Economist for Oklahoma State University, has crunched the numbers and tells us that we could see three times the ten year average total cash receipts for this 2008 wheat harvest. The ten year average is $447.4 million. Dr. Anderson says that we could be looking at total cash receipts for this year's bounty, based on the June Crop Production estimate of 157.5 million bushels and estimating an average cash price of $8.50 per bushel, of more than $1.3 BILLION!

The previous record cash receipts year was 1979, when we had a wheat crop worth $850 million. While returns are high- about $300 gross return per acre- so are input costs. It's likely that we could see the per acre variable cost of production- not including land- of $110 per acre. That means a return to land and management of $190 per acre is very possible for wheat producers, when you figure on just the average yield per acre of 35 bushels per acre. While this is a relative "windfall" for wheat producers this year- they can expect much higher variable costs of production when they put in the 2009 winter wheat crop- starting this fall when planting season gets underway.

Dr. Anderson expects producers to generally be selling at least some of their crop here at harvestime- and he thinks that is an excellent strategy. In fact, he says he is very comfortable with producers selling up to half of their production off the combine- or very soon thereafter. Space the remaining sales out at the end of summer and then again right around the November- December holidays- unless you need to hold off some sales for tax purposes into early 2009. We have our full audio conversation with Dr. Anderson linked below- click and take a listen!

Click here to listen to Ron and Kim on the dollars and cents of this 2008 wheat harvest!


Better than expected Marketings- Fewer Placements- It proves to be a friendly report!
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OSU Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel reports that "U.S. feedlots moved a lot of cattle through the system in April and May setting up tighter fed cattle supply fundamentals for the second half of the year. The latest USDA Cattle on Feed report indicated that fed cattle marketings in May were up nearly three percent from last year. There was one less business day in May this year so the increase on a daily average basis is about 7.5 percent above last year.

"Moreover, placements of feeder cattle in May were sharply lower, down 12 percent from last year. This reflects, among other things, the anticipated lack of wheat graze-out cattle in the southern Plains. With larger than expected marketings and smaller than expected placements, the June 1 on-feed inventory was lower than expected at 10.8 million head, down 4 percent from one year ago. Fewer cattle on feed, combined with carcass weights lower than past year, is pulling down total beef production.

In addition to these comments by Dr. Peel, we have Tom Leffler joining us this morning- convinced that this report is friendly to the market here in June- but not necessarily wildly bullish. We have Tom's analysis and how he breaks down this USDA report linked below- check it out!

Click here to listen to Tom Leffler on the Friday June 20 Cattle on Feed Report.


Beef Buzzing with Glen Selk on a Monday...
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On this Monday's Beef Buzz, we are pleased to welcome back Dr. Glen Selk, Beef Cattle Specialist at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Today- we zero in on what needs to be done to make sure your herd bulls are in dandy shape before their next breeding assignment.

Dr. Selk says assessing the body condition of your bull is especially important for those ranch operations that have both a spring and fall breeding season. Those bulls are probably just coming out of the spring breeding season- and they will likely need some supplementation to get them in shape for a fall breeding window.

Our Beef Buzz is a regular feature of the Radio Oklahoma Network- and can be heard on great radio stations across the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network. We also have a great library of the best of these showson our website on the Beef Buzz page- and we have today's show linked below- so that you can take an immediate listen to today's conversation with Dr. Selk.

Click here and go Beef Buzzing with Ron and Glen Selk on the Monday Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network!


Advance Foods Celebrates Facility Expansion Today in Enid!
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Advance Food Company will be holding a Grand Opening celebration for the new Enterprise facility on Monday, June 23. The program will begin at 10:30 a.m. with a ribbon cutting at 11:15. Advance Food Company's new Enterprise Facility is fully operational. The $84 million plant has five large- capacity production lines dedicated to making consistent quality, fully cooked products with a focus on food safety. The plant is approximately 223,000 square feet and has a projected weekly output in excess of two million pounds.

The process lines have a linear flow from the raw materials receiving area at the west end of the building. Finished product is conveyed directly into Advance's 248,000 square foot Distribution Center, connected to the east end of the building. The plant divides production into two different areas-the raw/formulation side and the fully cooked side. With this in mind, two separate employee entrances, two sets of locker rooms and two cafeterias were included in the plant's design to enhance food safety for fully cooked products.

Founded in 1973, Advance Food Company manufactures value-added beef, poultry, pork, lamb, veal and bakery items for the foodservice industry. The Company sells its product lines to more than 1200 distributor customers across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Click here to jump to a brochure on the Enterprise Facility of Advance Foods in Enid.


State FSA Director Jim Reese Responds to CRP Dissatisfaction in the Panhandle
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We had a story at the end of this past week about concerns that one Panhandle family is raising about the usefulness of opening CRP land to emergency haying and or grazing this year- starting July 2nd in the Texas and Cimarron County area. The family says that they were forced on the Cimarron County CRP land they own to mow off the forage earlier in the year- and that with the dry weather solidly in control- there has been no regrowth which means no forage- and perhaps even soil loss because of the required mowing. The family does have their main operation in Beaver County- and acknowledged that the Critical Feed Use opportunity to use CRP land after July 2nd will be very useful to them in Beaver County- because they have had forage growth in their home county.

The State Director of the Farm Service Agency, Jim Reese, saw the story and has provided us with a full page reply to this situation. Reese says it's important to remember that the CRP is not intended to be a livestock feeding program under normal circumstances. "CRP is a valuable asset that can be tapped in cases of emergency drought assistance and USDA/FSA has frequently allowed that. FSA has made parts of the Oklahoma Panhandle eligible for emergency grazing in 4 of the last 8 years in response to drought conditions. In addition, FSA created a Managed Haying and Grazing program that allowed CRP to be hayed or grazed 1 out of every 3 years under managed conditions. Finally, in response to the current droughts, USDA Secretary Ed Schafer recently announced a "Critical Feed Use" Program that allows haying and grazing of acres this year for only $75 per contract in counties that are experiencing drought conditions. This is the most lenient expansion of haying and grazing allowed in the history of CRP for drought relief."

Reese goes on to say that "The management activities that have been required since the 2002 Farm Bill do vary some from state to state. All states require management activities during the contract. Each state, with review by the State Technical Committee, develops required management activities designed to ensure plant diversity and increased wildlife benefits while ensuring protection of soil and water resources. In Oklahoma, the approved required management activities are mowing or prescribed burning of the CRP acres. Oklahoma determined that managed haying and grazing the year prior to the required activity may substitute as meeting the required management provisions. So, some of the required maintenance in '07 was haying and grazing. If a producer emergency hayed in 2006 or managed hayed in 2005 they would not be able to hay in 2007."
In communicating with both Reese and the Barth Family, it appears the severe drought in Cimarron County is the real culprit with all concerned saying that hindsight is 20-20 in this situation.


Korean Meat Importers Admit US Beef is Safe- But Ask Meat Exporters from the US to Send ONLY beef from Animals Under 30 Months of Age.
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On Friday, the Korea Import Beef Association released a statement declaring that while the importers believe that U.S. beef from cattle of 30 months of age and over is safe, as a transitional measure in response to current market conditions, they will only import U.S. beef from cattle less than 30 months. In the statement they also requested that U.S. beef exporters ask the U.S. government to verify that U.S. beef exported to Korea meets this request by the importers.

In response to this statement, three of the major organizations that represent beef interests in this country sent a joint letter to the US Government asking that the government cooperate with the Korean government to calm the fears of the people of that country- and that they would work with companies to offer beef from animals only under 30 months of age.

The three groups- the US Meat Export Federation, American Meat Institute and the National Meat Association told Uncle Sam in their letter "The U.S. beef industry respects and is responsive to the marketplace, consumer demand, and the principle of consumer choice. We value our relationships with our Korean customers and are committed to meeting their needs and addressing their concerns as U.S. beef returns to the Korean market."

On Saturday, the South Korean government announced a revised deal with the US government that signals they will be taking only beef from the US that comes from animals thirty months of age or less. The US government's role in this is that they have agreed to "certify" the age of the cattle that are processed. There was no time frame mentioned as ot when this revised agreement might be implemented- and US beef would be inspected by the South Koreans and allowed into the country once again.

Click here to read the full story- including the complete text of the letter to Ag Secretary Ed Schafer and Ambassador Schwab.


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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Let's Check the Markets!
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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:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges and the why of that day's market.
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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