From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 7:08 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 January 15, 2010
A service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Cattle Groups Tell USDA and Congress- Dump Mandatory Animal ID- We've Got a Workable Voluntary Solution
-- Mark Clancy Farms in the Oklahoma Panhandle One of the National Winners in the Grain Sorghum Yield Contest
-- Cash Cattle Trade Done with Active Movement This Week- Steady to Higher Money Seen
-- Investment Firm Head Sees Strong Agriculture Ahead
-- Oklahoma Originated Issues Approved by American Farm Bureau Convention Delegates
-- Wheat Prices Nearing Another Support Level After Losses of Forty Cents a Bushel This Week
-- Bits and Pieces- In the Field- RON Affiliate Salute and Looking Ahead.
-- 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!

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Cattle Groups Tell USDA and Congress- Dump Mandatory Animal ID- We've Got a Workable Voluntary Solution
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Believing that the discussion of a national animal identification plan had moved away from those most affected by it - cattle producers and marketers - eight cattle industry organizations have agreed on a statement of 12 principles, in the development of a cattle disease traceability identification system.

The organizations, representing the beef, dairy and marketing sectors, developed the statement of principles during a meeting in Kansas City, Mo., last November. The groups include the Livestock Marketing Association, the American Angus Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, Dairy Farmers of America, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, R-CALF USA, Texas Cattle Feeders Association and the U.S. Cattlemen's Association

The meeting's goal was to work toward a common understanding and approach to enhancing current cattle identification (ID) and traceability systems for animal disease surveillance and control in the United States. The organizations agreed that an ID plan for the cattle industry should be specie-specific because of the diverse way cattle are raised, marketed and processed. The plan was presented Dec. 18 to U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Edward Avalos, and other agency officials and transmitted to members of Congress earlier this week.

Key elements include minimal cost back to the producer, the ability to operate at the speed of commerce, no liability to the producer if a disease is found further down the marketing chain, control of the data at the state level and a system that would use some of our historical programs developed for Bangs Disease and TB for ID and traceback. We have the details of the 12 principles that these groups have settled on- click on the link below to dive into greater detail.

Click here for the 12 Principles Being Pushed by 8 Livestock Groups as an Alternative to NAIS


Mark Clancy Farms in the Oklahoma Panhandle One of the National Winners in the Grain Sorghum Yield Contest
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The National Sorghum Producers (NSP) has announced winners of its 2009 Sorghum Yield and Management Contest. These sorghum growers are the cream of the crop, representing yields as high as 216.14 bushels per acre and showcasing some of the nation's best management practices.

Gerald Simonsen, chairman of the NSP Board of Directors, congratulated the winners, saying that each farmer who entered the contest brought a great value to the competition. "These winning yields represent high personal achievement for these farmers," said Simonsen. "Every producer who entered the contest was measured against a county average yield, which levels the playing field and ensures that the contest honors the best yields compared to local averages and conditions. Producers who choose to enter the NSP Yield and Management contest represent a commitment to this crop and the business of farming."

Among the national first place winners are Little B Farms of Ochiltree County, Texas, in the Reduced-Till Irrigated category with a yield of 210.45 bushels. In the No-Till Non-Irrigated category, Mark Clancy Farms of Texas County, Okla., placed first with a yield of 175.15 bushels. First place in the Mulch-Till Non-Irrigated category with a yield of 188.61 bushels went to F Three Inc. of Johnson County, Neb. In the Conventional-Till Non-Irrigated category, Ray Haseloff of Parmer County, Texas, won first place with a yield of 140.94 bushels. Greg Methvin of Hockley County, Texas, won both first place in the Conventional-Till Irrigated category and the Irrigated Bin Buster Award and with a yield of 216.14 bushels.

More details on the winners and a full listing is available by clicking here for our story on the Yield Contest.


Cash Cattle Trade Done with Active Movement This Week- Steady to Higher Money Seen
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Cattle prices have started 2010 with a rally, with slaughter cattle prices priced from $85.00 to $85.50 with good volume on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, while both yearling and calf prices at auction barns in the region have been trending higher in the first two weeks of trade for the new year. For example, the OKC West in El Reno market this week say yearling prices one to three dollars higher than a week earlier, while calf prices jumped $3 to $5 up. Demand was called good for all classes.

On today's Beef Buzz, we talk about this price strength with OSU Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel. Dr. Peel sorts out these early 2010 price trends for us, as well as talks with us about whether feedlots are at profitable levels in the mid 80s for cattle ready for slaughter.

Click on the link below for this end of the week Beef Buzz- featuring comments from an interview that we did with Dr. Peel on campus at OSU on Thursday- we will share more of that conversation first of the week on future Beef Buzzes.

Click here for more on the current cash cattle markets as we Beef Buzz with OSU's Derrell Peel


Investment Firm Head Sees Strong Agriculture Ahead
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Murray Wise, Founder and CEO of Westchester Group believes the decrease in 2009 farm income, will have very little impact on agriculture for the long-term. He says - agriculture is a strong industry. He says - there is so much capital looking for a home in agriculture that this will have little impact. According to Wise, even today many investors are turning to agriculture as a viable investment.

Wise says, the main driver for agriculture is growing populations and rising incomes. As global populations continue to grow, demand for food and fiber also increases. Wise points to China, the most populated country in the world. China has had pay increases of 100 percent in the last three years. Savings deposits have increased and more families have moved into the middle class. With more disposable income the first thing that families do is improve their diets, directly affecting worldwide demand for food, especially protein.

Wise also notes continuous improvements in seed technology and food production. Wise concludes, - the industry simply needs to use these times as a learning tool for the future. He says "I see agriculture prevailing for generations to come. Times like these are when farmers should be the most optimistic and positive about the future. No one can predict investment futures, but I am confident that agriculture and farmland is a strong investment for the future."


Oklahoma Originated Issues Approved by American Farm Bureau Convention Delegates
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Crop insurance reform, correct use of H1N1 terminology and a change in Department of Transportation rules were among the slew of issues pushed by Oklahoma Farm Bureau delegates at the American Farm Bureau convention earlier this week in Seattle, Wash. "It was a good convention and I believe all of our issues received great support from farmers and ranchers all over the country," said Mike Spradling, OFB president.

On crop insurance, the AFBF voting delegates adopted a resolution stating farmers should be able to purchase double crop insurance for crops that were planted and harvested on the same acreage in the last four years. They also passed a resolution saying the history of crop loss "may" be spread over the past 10 years instead of five years. The compromise in the organization's policy is that either five or ten years could be used, depending on the circumstances in that part of the country. "It would be devastating to Oklahoma producers if we had to use a 5-year base for claim loss," Spradling said. "Our weather is extremely volatile and giving us 10 years to spread the loss history over is more meaningful."

We have more on several issues pushed by Spradling and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau delegates- click on the link below to check this followup on their annual national meeting.

Click here for more on the Oklahoma Originated Issues that were a part of the AFBF Meeting in Seattle.


Wheat Prices Nearing Another Support Level After Losses of Forty Cents a Bushel This Week
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Wheat prices have tumbled forty cents or more since the release of the multiple reports by USDA on Tuesday morning- and Clinton Griffiths of SUNUP has bad news and good news coming from a conversation with Dr. Kim Anderson for the wheat producer in the aftermath of that data.

Anderson says that the negative aspects of these reports overwhelmed the positive aspects of the lower wheat seedings that were indicated by Uncle Sam. The Economist points out that wheat farmers are market savvy and correctly pulled back on wheat acres in this country to try to bring supply and demand into balance. Dr. Anderson says current support levels are around $515. to $5.20 a bushel, basis the March Kansas City wheat futures. If we break those levels, we could have another twenty five to thirty cents per bushel of downside ahead in the short term.

We have the audio of that conversation on our website- click on the link below- and the listing of the SUNUP show for this weekend is there as well. Clinton and his team have assembled another good show for this Saturday morning that will be seen across the state on the OETA.

Click here for more on the wheat market with comments from OSU Wheat Marketing Guru Dr. Kim Anderson


Bits and Pieces- In the Field- RON Affiliate Salute and Looking Ahead.
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Saturday morning, we will have as our guest Scott Dewald of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association on our In the Field Segment that is seen on KWTV, News9 in Oklahoma City. The 6:40 AM conversation will include a preview of what Scott sees as the big issues for the cattle industry nationally that will be top of mind as cattle producers gather week after next for the Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio. We'll also spend some time with Scott on the challenges of the soon to begin Legislative Session here in the state for 2010.

We have a lot of great radio stations that are a part of our Radio Oklahoma Network family- and on Fridays in the weeks to come, we will be saluting affiliates and letting you know a little about them and details on what programs they carry from the RON agricultural network and when those shows air. Today, we spotlight one of our newer affiliates, KZLI Radio at 1570 on the AM dial. They are licensed to Catoosa and cover the eastern side of the Tulsa metro area and the rural countryside on the east side of Tulsa. They have a conservative talk show format- and carry a bunch of our agricultural reports every weekday. Click here for our affiliate page on KZLI- and tune them in to catch Ron Hays and Ed Richards daily!

By the way, if your local radio station does not include Ron on RON in their daily programming mix, give them a call and ask them to include our agricultural radio network on their airwaves.

This coming week, we will be on the road for a few days for a special international conference being sponsored by Bayer Crop Science on Weed Herbicide Resistance Issues- we'll have radio reports from there as well as stories in this daily email and a few Tweets along the way, too.


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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We've had requests to include Canola prices for your convenience here- and we will be doing so on a regular basis. Current cash price for Canola is $7.50 per bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $7.70 per bushel- delivered to local participating elevators that are working with PCOM.

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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