From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 7:37 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 Monday February 2, 2009
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and Johnston Enterprises!
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-- Future of the Beef Checkoff Discussed in Phoenix
-- Overview of Cattle Industry Convention Coverage
-- Stimulus Includes Bucks for USDA Modernization and Biofuels
-- This Week- Superior Deadline, Soybean Expo and 50th Pork Congress
-- USDA Issues Action Plan to Minimize Impact of Ug99
-- Cattle Herd Smaller than Expected- Oklahoma is now the Second Largest Beef Cow State in the US
-- New on the Calendar- the Monthly Oklahoma Wheat Commission Meeting this Wednesday
-- 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. It is wonderful to have as a regular 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!

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 are crushing, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.
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Future of the Beef Checkoff Discussed in Phoenix
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The future viability of the dollar per head beef checkoff talked about at the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show in Phoenix, with the Beef Board voting in favor of forwarding a report developed by its Administrative Subcommittee to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on possible changes that the industry would like to see happen.

We have told you about those changes before- and they include a recommendation to up the checkoff from a dollar to two dollars- to allow groups that were not around in the late 1980s to be able to submit funding proposals to the Beef Board's Operating Committee and a mechanism be put in place to allow state beef councils to go together and merge to form regional beef councils in order to be more efficient with checkoff dollars- saving overhead by combining state councils in lower cattle population states.

There was also discussion by some Beef Board members that led to a recommendation that the Federation of State Beef Councils break its ties with NCBA and become a separate entity. I heard anger in the voices of some NCBA members over that proposal- saying it's an attempt to "undo" the merger that occurred in the mid 1990s within the cattle industry.

Colleague Chris Clayton of DTN penned an excellent piece that summarizes a lot of what we heard in Phoenix on this issue- and we have that linked for you below.

Click here for more on the Beef Board's Move to Recommend Checkoff Changes


Overview of Cattle Industry Convention Coverage
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We have more than a dozen reports that we have posted on our website from the Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix- with several more features to be added to that list.

We have a series of reports that are on the link we are providing below from the Cattlefax Market Outlook Seminar- covering almost everything that was reported during that session last week. Those various stories on the grain market, international beef trade, market outlook with prediction of prices, etc feature audio of the presenters.

We also have audio with Dr. Jim Mintert on this ugly cattle market, Wesley Batista of JBS Swift on their negotiations with the Department of Justice to buy National Beef, a look at some of the policy issues that were approved by the cattlemen on Saturday- and more. The link below is to our special feature page called Cattle Industry Insights. That's where we house our reports from various cattle industry meetings as they happen throughout the year.

Click here to jump to our full listing of reports from the Cattle Industry Convention just concluded in Phoenix.


Stimulus Includes Bucks for USDA Modernization and Biofuels
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An $819 billion stimulus package made some progress in Congress this past week, passing the House on Wednesday by a 244-188 straight party vote. Despite calls from both sides of the aisle and the Obama Administration for quick action, it was only Democrats that voted for the huge outlay, and there's considerable concern about the package on the part of many Senators, especially Republicans.

The Senate's version of the stimulus package is set to be considered this week but that timeline might slip. Included in H.R. 1, the House version of the bill, were a number of funding items for agricultural priorities.

The bill included $245 million for Farm Service Agency information technology systems considered necessary to implement the 2008 Farm Bill and $209 million for Agricultural Research Service facilities across the country. ARS has a list of deferred maintenance projects at its facilities worth roughly $315 million.

Other funding items included $500 million for pilot or demonstration biofuel projects; $100 million to guarantee $2 billion in loans for farming, ethanol production and other rural business activities; $8 billion to guarantee up to $80 billion in loans for proven renewable and transmission technologies; $2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy research, development and deployment; and $1.5 billion to support $3.8 billion in grants and loans to help rural communities fund drinking water and wastewater treatment systems.


This Week- Superior Deadline, Soybean Expo and 50th Pork Congress
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The Superior Livestock Primetime Roundup sale will actually be originating from Oklahoma City on February 13, with some 30,000 head of cattle likely to be sold that day on Satellite via the RFD channel. Today is the deadline to get cattle consigned that will be a part of the catalog listings. Click here for more details from our auction page on this Superior Livestock event.

This coming Thursday will be the 2009 Oklahoma Soybean Expo- being held in Claremore. It's an excellent program for those interested in the soybean industry- and more information is available by clicking here.

Finally, this Friday- it's a real celebration being planned for the Oklahoma pork industry, with the 50th Oklahoma Pork Congress on tap. There will be a report from the National Pork Board CEO Chris Novak followed by an update from the National Pork Producers Council by their CEO, Neil Dierks. The state legislative scene will be covered by McSpadden and Associates as a part of the afternoon sessions. Click here for more on the upcoming Oklahoma Pork Congress this coming Friday at the Northwest Express Events Center.


USDA Issues Action Plan to Minimize Impact of Ug99
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USDA has released a 27-page action plan intended to help coordinate efforts to minimize the effect of Ug99 on U.S. crops. The plan's executive summary says in part:

"An integrated research, communication and outreach approach is needed to combat the threat of the new virulent Ug99 stem rust mutant for U.S. wheat and barley production...The structure of this Action Plan provides both a program and a scientific focus to ensure that the wheat and barley research, extension and outreach communities attains planned results in an effective and timely manner to minimize the impacts of these new virulent races of stem rust."

Ug99, so named because it was first discovered in Uganda in 1999, can cause 100 percent yield loss in infected plants. The disease, which is primarily spread through wind, has traveled as far as Iran. A large but still unknown portion of wheat varieties around the world are highly vulnerable to Ug99, including an estimated 80 percent of wheat varieties in Africa and Asia, nearly all spring wheat varieties planted in the U.S. and 75 percent of winter wheat varieties planted in the U.S.
Details of the report are linked below from the USDA website.

Click here for the USDA Action Plan Report on Dealing with the Ug99 Disease in Wheat.


Cattle Herd Smaller than Expected- Oklahoma is now the Second Largest Beef Cow State in the US
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According to the USDA report issued on Friday afternoon, All cattle and calves in the United States as of January 1, 2009, totaled 94.5 million head, 2 percent below the 96.0 million on January 1, 2008.
All cows and heifers that have calved, at 41.0 million, were down 2 percent from the 41.7 million on January 1, 2008.
The calf crop was also smaller than expected at just over 36 million head- off two percent from a year ago. The prereport guess on the size of the calf crop for 2008 was 37 million head.

Looking at the state by state numbers, Oklahoma saw it beef cow herd drop one percent to 2,038,000 head, which pushes us ahead of Missouri which saw its beef cow numbers drop by four percent. Texas remains the largest beef cow herd state in the US with 5.17 million beef cows- roughly the same number as they had at the beginning of 2008.
The total cattle population numbers show that Oklahoma is now the fourth largest cattle state inthe US- up from fifth a year ago as our overall cattle herd remained at 5.4 million head, and California saw its numbers slip by four percent. The three states with larger cattle population numbers include Texas, Nebraska and Kansas.

While the percentages were about what the trade had predicted- the drop in the previous data suggests even fewer bovines are around than had been expected and this could be a bullish development for cattle futures when they open on this Monday morning.
We have the full USDA numbers linked below- click and take a look.

Click here for the Friday Cattle Inventory Report from USDA


New on the Calendar- the Monthly Oklahoma Wheat Commission Meeting this Wednesday
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Check our calendar for a variety of events that will be happening here in the month of February- including the monthly Oklahoma Wheat Commission board meeting that will be held Wednesday morning at a new location- the Cameron Office Building at 2915 N. Classen in Oklahoma City. Click here for more details.

A link to our complete Calendar listing is below- we invite you to jump there and check it out.

Click here for our Calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill 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


Let's Check the Markets!
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We sold cattle on Friday in the southern Plains- and according to the Texas Cattle Feeders- over 23,000 were purchased by packers for $82, near steady with the previous week. This was after we saw some limited sales on Wednesday of last week in Kansas at $80.50. Go to the link at the bottom of this listing of market reports for the TCFA Daily Volume report for the details.
Meanwhile, the Woodward livestock auction had a run of 3,010 head of cattle, with the calf market steady, light feeder cattle under 750 pounds steady to $2 lower and those steers over 750 pounds steady to a $1 higher. Five to six hundred pound calves brought from $103.75 to $113, while the yearlings weighing from 750 to 900 pounds came in from $89.50 to $93.50. Click here for the full Woodward report from USDA Market News- it should be available for the January 30 sale after 8 AM central.

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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