From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2009 9:45 AM
To: Hays, Ron
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 July 20, 2009
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS Futures!
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-- AFR Names Royce Meek COO for their Insurance Company
-- NCBA Continues to Advocate a Voluntary Animal ID System in the US
-- American Farm Bureau Task Force Calls for Federal Balance Budget
-- Sixteen Factors Help Consumers Choose Beef
-- Deadline Nears for County Committee Nominations
-- Podcasting with Phil Seng of the USMEF
-- Climate, Canola, Cattle, Pork 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 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.

We are also excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more information on the oilseed crops they handle, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.
And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the December 2009 Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Tulsa Show, coming up December 10,11 and 12, 2009.

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.


AFR Names Royce Meek COO for their Insurance Company
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The American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company Board of Directors named long time State Secretary/Treasurer, Royce Meek, as the new Chief Operating Officer of their insurance companies at the July 16, 2009 board meeting. Looking forward to the official elections which will take place at AFR's February 2010 convention, Meek also filed for Vice President of the organization to fill the position being left open by Terry Detrick's filing for President. Detrick was appointed by the Board as interim President in February 2009.

Bobby Green was appointed by the Board as interim Secretary/Treasurer filling the position left vacant by Meek in compliance with the organization's by-laws. Subsequently, Green has filed to run for the State Secretary position at the 2010 Convention. Meek has been an insurance agency manager for 26 years, served as General Manager of AFR Life from 2000-2004 and has served as Secretary and Treasurer of the American Farmers & Ranchers companies since 2000.

American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company and the general farm organization, Oklahoma Farmers Union, will observe its 105th annual convention at the Biltmore Hotel in Oklahoma City February 12-13, 2010. American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company and its subsidiary companies and the Oklahoma State Union of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Inc., (Oklahoma Farmers Union) are both headquartered in downtown Oklahoma City at 800 North Harvey. Detrick, Meek and Green have a combined experience of over 80 years in the Agriculture and Insurance industries. The AFR Board of Directors expressed strong confidence in the ability this new leadership team offers to the future of the organization.


NCBA Continues to Advocate a Voluntary Animal ID System in the US
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This past Saturday morning, the general business session of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was held, with several policy issues reviewed by Committees and then by the membership during the Summer Cattle Industry Conference in Denver. One major issue reviewed was NAIS- the National Animal Identification System.

NCBA's members voted to work towards an efficient national animal identification system (NAIS) that meets the needs of beef producers, while minimizing additional costs and maintaining confidentiality of producer, animal and premises information. NCBA will also work to ensure the system operates at the speed of commerce, integrates private-sector databases, and is phased-in within and between species. NCBA policy continues to support a voluntary NAIS and strongly encourages all producers to acquire premises IDs.

Members also approved a new policy to learn more about an emerging cattle virus with similarities to Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) recently discovered in South America and southeast Asia to determine if surveillance is needed in the U.S. The policy encourages the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to adhere to and implement strict international biosecurity measures for pestiviruses, addressing shipment of animals and animal products.

Click here to read more of the policy issues reviewed by the NCBA during their Saturday session.


American Farm Bureau Task Force Calls for Federal Balance Budget
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The federal government must learn to live within its means. That strong message was conveyed last week to the American Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors by an internal committee created to analyze the national deficit. The AFBF committee, known as the Federal Deficit Task Force, made a set of recommendations for Farm Bureau members to consider as they formulate policy for 2010.

"We must get control of federal borrowing before it consumes us, before other countries decide to stop lending and while we can get control of the problem," said Craig Lang, chairman of the task force and president of Iowa Farm Bureau.

The primary objective of the task force was to recommend ways to achieve a balanced federal budget by 2019. The task force looked at all parts of the budget, including healthcare and Social Security, from the congressional budget process to government revenues.

The task force said there are really only two ways to balance the budget: lower spending or raise revenues, or some combination of the two. All programs outside of national defense should be under serious review and after reductions are made, consideration should then be turned to enhancing revenues, with any revenue generated going to lowering the deficit, not creating new programs.

To read more about the findings of this task force, click here to jump to the AFBF website.


Sixteen Factors Help Consumers Choose Beef
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Consumers love the taste of beef- but with current economic conditions- they are always price conscious. So says Tom Ramey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion Board. He cites recent research that actually came up with some 16 factors that consumers say are important when they are shopping for beef or one of the alternatives like pork or poultry.

Ramey says that beef has a real advantage in that many consumers really like the taste of beef- and that proves to be a major positive in getting a consumer to pick up a package of beef and take it home to prepare for their family. However, price is a big deal since the economic downturn that began last fall- and in some cases, has pushed consumers to cheaper cuts of beef, and have pushed them to shop more to cook at home instead of dining out quite as often.

We have more on this story- and a part of the conversation that we had on Friday with Tom Ramey of the CBB about these factors featured on our Monday Beef Buzz. Just click on the link below to go and check out that visit.

Click here to jump to our Monday Beef Buzz with Tom Ramey of the CBB


Deadline Nears for County Committee Nominations
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Farmers, ranchers and other agricultural producers are reminded that they have until August 3rd to nominate eligible candidates to serve on local Farm Service Agency County Committees. These county committees help local farmers through their decisions on commodity price support loans, conservation programs and disaster programs.

FSA administrator Jonathan Coppess says - FSA county committees are essential to the delivery of federal programs. He also urges producers to help build a strong future for our next generation of agricultural businesses and communities by nominating beginning farmers and ranchers, minorities and women.

To be eligible to hold office as a county committee member, people must participate or cooperate in a program administered by FSA, be eligible to vote in a county committee election and live in the local administrative area where they are running. A complete list of eligibility requirements, more information and nomination forms are available at the FSA website link that we have for you below.

.Click here for more details on the Committee election process from the FSA website in Washington


Podcasting with Phil Seng of the USMEF
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We have a Podcast conversation with Phil Seng of the US Meat Export Federation that we have on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Our visit with Seng is a part of our coverage from Denver and the Summer Cattle Industry Conference.

Seng is just back from the Pacific Rim, where he spent time in both South Korea and in Japan, and we get a debriefing from him on the status of beef exports from the US to those important countries, as well as what needs to be done to increase access into both of these markets.

In addition, we spend time talking about several other evolving markets for US beef, including updates about Taiwan, China, the EU and Russia. Click on the link below to jump to our conversation with Phil Seng.
We remind those of you that use Itunes and listen to Podcasts- we have three Podcasts that we update- two of them daily and then special interviews like this one from Phil Seng as we have these interviews that we want to share with you. We have our Morning Farm and Ranch News, the Beef Buzz as well as these interview features that we call Ag Perspectives. You can search for them in the Podcast section of Itunes- or go to our website for details on how to subscribe.

Click here for our conversation with Phil Seng of the US Meat Export Federation.


Climate, Canola, Cattle, Pork and More
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This week's calendar of events includes a major hearing on Climate Change- the hearing called by Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, the 5th Annual Winter Canola Conference in Enid and the 57th Annual OCA Convention and Trade Show in Midwest City.

Also coming up on Tuesday is the National Pork Board's summer meeting at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri- they will be dealing with the coming year's budget as well as electing officers.

We have details of all of these events on the Calendar section of our website- we invite you to jump there to catch up with these events- and several others that are going on this week- and look ahead to the next few weeks and you will notice a lot of other great activities that you may want to check out.

Click here for our calendar pages found on our website- www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites 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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The Woodward Livestock Market had a total of 7,525 cattle that were sold this past Friday. Feeder Steers and Heifers were selling steady to $2 higher, while calf trade was about steady. Click here for the full rundown on prices at the Woodward market- they should be up on the USDA Market News site after about 8 AM central on Monday morning.

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.
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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