From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 7:19 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 Friday April 10, 2009
A service of Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Easter Holiday Weekend Means Markets Are in a Three Day Weekend
-- We Finally Have an ACRE Signup Start Date
-- Conservation Bond Measure Passes Oklahoma House
-- Seaboard Farms Honored for Export Savvy by Governor Brad Henry
-- The Wheat Marketing Word from Dr. Kim Anderson-
-- Animal Agriculture Must Step Up Educational Efforts of Consumers
-- Great News on a Good Friday
-- Looking at our Agricultural 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 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!

We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the just concluded Tulsa Farm Show, as well as the April 2009 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.


Easter Holiday Weekend Means Markets Are in a Three Day Weekend
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We are into holiday mode for our futures markets as we begin the Easter three day weekend on this Good Friday. There will be cash market information out from USDA, as this is not a federal government holiday- but we have already sold cash cattle this week- so about the only fresh cash market info that we will be getting is the wholesale boxed beef trade at midday and then again in the afternoon.

We will have a somewhat lighter email than normal today- altho there sure is a lot of news to be reporting- some of it will be carried over to our Monday email. We do have our regular radio reports as normal on great radio stations all around the state- you can check out the listing of stations that are in your area by clicking here and taking a look at our station list- we are getting closer and closer to 40 stations- and we are easily the largest ag radio network in Oklahoma, with the most staff dedicated to covering the farm news scene specifically for Oklahoma. (Okay- I'll get off my soapbox now)

By the way, we have asked the brand new Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, Mike Schulte, to join us for our In the Field TV segment Saturday morning on KWTV News9. We'll be talking with Mike about his new role at the Wheat Commission, as well as the unfolding story of a wheat crop facing severe freeze damage here in 2009. You can watch us around 6:40 am on Saturday morning on News9.


We Finally Have an ACRE Signup Start Date
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that producers can elect and enroll in the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program beginning April 27, 2009. ACRE is a provision of the 2008 Farm Bill.
Producers have until Aug.14, 2009, to make their decision for the 2009 crop. USDA will not accept any late-filed applications.

Producers who elect the ACRE program for a farm agree to:
forgo counter-cyclical payments;
accept a 20-percent reduction of the direct payments; and accept a 30-percent reduction in loan rates for all commodities produced on the farm.
Commodities eligible for ACRE payments are wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, long grain rice, medium and short grain rice, peanuts, soybeans, sunflower seed, canola, flaxseed, safflower, mustard seed, rapeseed, sesame seed, crambe, dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas and large chickpeas.

We have more on this announcement from yesterday from Secretary Vilsack- including a link to the USDA info page about ACRE found on their website. Click on the link below for the lowdown on this next generation of farm program concepts- ACRE.

Click here for more on the ACRE program announcement from USDA.


Conservation Bond Measure Passes Oklahoma House
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The State of Oklahoma is one step closer to repairing the damage caused by the record floods of 2007 with the reauthorization of the $25 million Conservation bond today by the Oklahoma House of Representatives according to Trey Lam, President of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts. The measure passed the House by a vote of 79 to 12. It now awaits final Senate action- the upper chamber needs to accept the House amendments.

"The reauthorization of the Conservation Bond by the Oklahoma House of Representatives gets us closer to really being able to repair the damage our state has seen these last few years from record flooding." Lam Said "We are very appreciative of the leadership the State of Oklahoma is showing in getting these funds on the ground to make sure the property and lives of our citizens are protected."

According to Clay Pope, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts,this measure moving forward in the state legislature comes just in time to match new Federal dollars being generated by the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the Stimulus Plan. "Oklahoma is in line to receive over $14 million for flood control dam rehabilitation from the recently passed stimulus plan," Pope Said. "To get these funds, however, we need state match. This bond will provide the funding we need to insure that these dollars come to our state to help us repair this damage to our flood control infrastructure. With the help of our Federal Partners at the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, our local Conservation Districts will have the resources they need to start the repair work. We are extremely happy that the House took this action today and we look forward to working with the Senate and the Governor's office to see that this act becomes law." Click here for our earlier story on that $14 million being allocated to Oklahoma projects.

Click here for more on the OACD reaction to the House passage of SB238 on Thursday.


Seaboard Farms Honored for Export Savvy by Governor Brad Henry
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Seaboard Foods received the 2009 Governor's Award for Excellence in Exporting this week at the 26th Annual Oklahoma World Trade Conference. Natalie Shirley, Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Tourism, presented the award to Duke Sand, Seaboard Foods vice president of international sales.

"From the beginning, our goal has been to find export markets where we can add value to our existing pork products and to develop new products which can add incremental value versus our domestic sales alternatives," said Rod Brenneman, Seaboard Foods president and CEO. "Our strategy in accomplishing this goal has been to provide export customers products they want, the way they want them and at prices that are of mutual value."

We have more on this story on our website- click below to check it out.

Click here for more on Seaboard Farms Being Honored by Oklahoma.


The Wheat Marketing Word from Dr. Kim Anderson-
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Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Economist Dr. Kim Anderson says that he thinks this week's action in the wheat pit at the Kansas City Board of Trade reflects the classic idea of buying the rumor and selling the fact of the southern wheat belt freeze. Dr. Anderson also reminds producers that while we suspect their is significant damage to the 2009 wheat crop in our region- what weather does going forward will help determine how many bushels we will be able to harvest.

Kim's comments are a part of the weekly TV production known as SUNUP- from the Division of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University. We have his full conversation that he had with Clinton Griffiths of SUNUP- click on the link below to jump to that story.

We also have the full lineup of features that SUNUP will be airing on Saturday morning in their regular OETA slot at 7:30 AM time frame. On the program this week, they will have Dr. Jeff Edwards showing and telling how to detect freeze damage in your wheat plants as well as a lot more. Click on our story for that complete lineup.

Click here for Kim Anderson's end of the grain marketing week comments- plus the SUNUP program lineup.


Animal Agriculture Must Step Up Educational Efforts of Consumers
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Livestock producers across the country are being targeted by activists and groups who make it their goal to put those producers out of business. Kay Johnson Smith is the Executive Vice President of the Animal Agriculture Alliance and she tells us on our end of the week Beef Buzz that one of the most prominent of those groups is the Humane Society of the US- HSUS.

Johnson contends that with a multi million dollar budget- HSUS aims a lot of their efforts at reshaping animal agriculture in the US- with the eventual goal of making it less efficient and more costly to produce meat and milk in this country- and forcing people closer to becoming vegetarians.

She believes that education is the best tool that animal agriculture has- to help overcome the incorrect assumptions and misleading pictures that HSUS and other groups use to portray all of animal agriculture as inhumane and harmful to the well being of the animals being raised for meat in the US.
You can hear her comments on today's Beef Buzz- click on the link below to check it out.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz with Kay Johnson Smith of the Animal Agriculture Alliance


Great News on a Good Friday
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While the secular world works on this April 10th- Christians around the world remember the ultimate sacrifice of 2000 years ago. It was a day that a Father willingly permitted His Son to be brutalized and killed on a cross. For a mortal, that would have been the end of it- but as the late great Paul Harvey said it so well- Now the REST of the story.

As I was growing up, I remember hearing the guy they called the Chaplain of Bourbon Street, Bob Harrington, talk about his life before he met Jesus face to face. He joked that he thought that John 3:16 was the bathroom on the third floor. But that verse that so many learn as they go to Sunday School as a child sums up the rest of this story. It says simply that God so loved this world that He was willing to let His only Son be killed on this earth in order to defeat death and establish the opportunity for everyone since that time to have fellowship and a relationship with the Father.

The climax of that love is seen in a very odd symbol for a religion of any kind- the cross. It was an instrument of death, yet it has become a symbol of hope for millions since that one cross stood on a hill outside of town two thousand years ago. It somehow can remind us that while life is not always easy- and often unfair- God offers us a way to handle the ups and downs of life. We have folks in Oklahoma suffering this morning because of the fire storms of yesterday- and of course, we have farmers who had expectations of a wheat crop that now may have nothing because of the cold of earlier this week. Through all of this bad stuff- God is still there- and He wants to help see each of us through these dark valleys that come up in our lives. That's what Easter is really all about.

One of my favorite writers when it comes to putting Christian Concepts into Practical Life is Max Lucado- here's a piece he has written in recent days on the cross- enjoy and Happy Easter.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers and Johnston Enterprises 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


Looking at our Agricultural Markets...
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We sold cash cattle a dollar higher than last week on Thursday- with 25,872 head of cattle selling for $86, according to the Daily Volume Price report from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association- we have the link to this story at the very bottom of our list of regular market links we provide to you- you can go and see the other details of the cash cattle trade on Thursday of this week.
Meanwhile, the Apache Stockman's Livestock Auction sold 2,702 cattle on Thursday for 42 to $4 higher on the yearlings- and $4 to $7 higher on the calves. Click here to grab all of their prices from the Apache Thursday trade.

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.



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