From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 6:17 AM
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 Thursday January 29, 2009
A service of Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Catching Up In Phoenix
-- R-Calf, NFU and US Cattle All Like It- NCBA Waits on Stakeholders for Comment
-- CREP Help for Illinois River Watershed- on the Arkansas Side
-- OSU Promotes From Within for Entomology Department Head
-- A Pair of Oklahomans in Limousin Leadership for 2009
-- OSU's Food and Ag Products Center to hold 2009 Research Symposium
-- Watch the Website for Cattle Industry Coverage Today
-- 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 pleased 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!

It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And we are proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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.


Catching Up In Phoenix
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A day later than we had planned, we are on the scene here in Phoenix for the 2009 Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show. The Phoenix Convention Center is one of the biggest in the country- and it has tripled in size (or more) since the first time we came to Phoenix years ago for meetings of the National Cattlemen's Association.

One thing that does not change all that much is the upbeat attitudes that you find at this annual gathering. Even when the markets are bad and the political climate is uncertain- you still see a lot of smiling faces and receive positive greetings from folks as you pass them in the hallways.

One of the first folks we were able to catch up with to visit with as we navigated to the part of the convention center where the media works adjacent to the Convention Headquarters was Burton Eller- head of the Washington office of the NCBA. We talked with Eller about a variety of subjects including COOL rules that are now likely to be rewritten, the industry being able to block a whole herd dairy buyout in the Stimulus package that passed the House yesterday on a straight line party vote and how they are watching the fleshing out of the Obama USDA team (as well as the Obama EPA team) that continues to be worked on.
Our conversation with Burton is linked below- and we have it on our website under our Ag Perspectives Podcast listings. Click and take a listen.

Click here for more on our conversation with Burton Eller of the NCBA Washington office


R-Calf, NFU and US Cattle All Like It- NCBA Waits on Stakeholders for Comment
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We are talking about a measure offered by Senators Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Mike Enzi of Wyoming called the Foot and Mouth Disease Prevention Act of 2009. The measure would essentially declare Argentina a single entity when it comes to FMD and would not allow USDA to permit beef to be exported to the United States from regions of that country that do not have the disease.

One of the groups in favor of this measure is the National Farmers Union. Their President, Tom Buis, wrote a letter to the sponsors of the bill and says "the ban proposed in your legislation is necessary in order to prevent jeopardizing our own efforts to eradicate livestock diseases, and thereby protecting the food supply. "The legislation is needed to ensure this dangerous disease is not introduced in the United States and that Argentina regions are not an exception to the rule."

We asked Burton Eller about this piece of legislation and he says that the current policy of the NCBA supports USDA's concept of regionalization of Argentina when it comes to FMD issues- but that he expects the Animal Disease Committee to review that position this week and a new position is always a possibility(you can hear what Burton had to say by going to the interview linked in the story above)


CREP Help for Illinois River Watershed- on the Arkansas Side
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and the state of Arkansas have entered into a new Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) agreement to reduce nutrient, bacterial and sediment loading in the Illinois River Watersheds. "USDA is proud to work with the state of Arkansas to enroll up to 15,000 acres of eligible cropland and marginal pastureland to enhance the water quality, biological diversity and aquatic habitats of the Illinois River Watersheds," Vilsack said.

The Illinois River Watershed is ground zero for the fight that was started by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson as he has sued the Poultry companies that have contract growers in the Illinois River watershed- charging they are polluting the watershed with poultry litter. The lawsuit may finally be decided in court in the fall of 2009.

The CREP agreement announced on Wednesday is for the establishment of riparian buffers and filter strips on 15,000 acres of marginal pastureland and cropland with a goal of reducing 10,000 tons of annual sediment loading into local streams and waterways. The sign-up date for this voluntary program is expected to be announced soon. Farmers and ranchers will be able to apply for this program at their Farm Service Agency (FSA) service center.

Click here for the full story as released by USDA on Wednesday


OSU Promotes From Within for Entomology Department Head
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Oklahoma State University's Phil Mulder has been named head of the department of entomology and plant pathology, part of the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The department has teaching, research and extension responsibilities based on it being part of the division, which is comprised of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and two statewide agencies: the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system and the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.

As department head, Mulder will provide leadership for planning, developing, integrating and implementing departmental teaching, research, extension and international programs; diversity efforts of the department in recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty, staff and students; and the pursuit of competitive grants, research contracts, gifts and other special funding to include endowments for scholarships, fellowships, chairs and professorships.

Mulder joined the division in 1985 as an OSU Cooperative Extension area entomology specialist, first serving out of the Cordell office and then moving to the Duncan office in 1987. In 1995 Mulder joined the OSU faculty as an assistant professor in the department and began serving as an OSU Cooperative Extension state entomologist. Mulder was promoted to associate professor and then full professor status in 2002 and 2004, respectively.

You can read more about Phil Mulder and his new position within the Division of Agriculture at OSU by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the appointment of Phil Mulder as Department Head within the Division of Agriculture at OSU.


A Pair of Oklahomans in Limousin Leadership for 2009
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The 2009 Annual Meeting of the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) was earlier this month in Denver, Colo., in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show (NWSS).

With NALF President Bob Millerberg, Draper, Utah, presiding, the main order of business was the Board of Directors election. Millerberg will continue as president for the coming year, with Bob Mitchell, Wauzeka, Wis., serving as vice president. Lance Sennett, Waynetown, Ind., will continue as secretary; and Richard Hefner, Seminole, Okla., will be treasurer. The Board elected Smith as the member-at-large on the Executive Committee, and Wendell Geeslin, Platteville, Colo., (as the most recent past president) will serve as an ex officio member of both the Board and its Executive Committee.

The other 2009 Board members are Jack Glendenning, Lebanon, Mo.; Mike Hall, Ph.D., San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Brian Skaggs, Lexington, Okla.; Jay Straight, Logan, Iowa; Tom Vaughn, Cavalier, N.D.; and Jerry Wulf, Morris, Minn.


OSU's Food and Ag Products Center to hold 2009 Research Symposium
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The Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater and the Institute of Food Technologists-Oklahoma Section are holding a research symposium to highlight food and agricultural products research conducted by the FAPC and OSU. The symposium will be held Feb. 17 in room 201 of the FAPC from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and will feature a combination of oral and poster presentations, keynote speaker and tours/demonstrations.

The program will include discussions of current industry advances and presentations of current research on food technology, said Peter Muriana, FAPC food microbiologist and chair of the symposium. "The event will provide an opportunity for graduate students to make presentations of their work and for scientists and researchers to network with others in the food and agricultural field and possibly foster future collaborations among colleagues," Muriana said.

Keynoter of the event will be Michael Davidson, food science and technology department head at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Davidson also is a food microbiologist with a specialty in microbiological food safety and food antimicrobials. "We are very excited that Dr. Davidson will be our keynote speaker," said Chuck Willoughby, FAPC manager of client relations. "Food scientists play an important part in developing or improving food products. We look forward to his lecture in regard to food safety and future trends and needs in food science. Both large and smaller food companies can benefit from this topic."
More details on the event can be checked out by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the OSU FAPC Research Symposium Coming February 17.


Watch the Website for Cattle Industry Coverage Today
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We are headed shortly for the Convention Center here in Phoenix and will be covering the annual Cattlefax Outlook Seminar this morning- and will be catching up with lots of folks as the day wears on.

As we do that- we will be posting new stories on our website and invite you to stop by on our main page and check out what stories have popped up under the banner of Top Agricultural News. You can also scroll down and click on the graphic on the right hand side of the page that says Cattle Industry Insights and you will see all of the stories together that we have posted to date from this 2009 event.

By midday- we should have several additional stories up on the webpage- so be looking for those updates!

Click here for our front page of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Our thanks to KIS Futures, Johnston Enterprises and AFR 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.

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- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat 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.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.



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phone: 405-473-6144
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