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We
invite you to listen to us on great radio stations
across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network
weekdays- if you missed this morning's Farm News - or
you are in an area where you can't hear it- click
here for this morning's Farm news
from Ron Hays on RON.
Let's Check the
Markets!
Today's
First Look:
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.
Okla
Cash Grain:
Daily
Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- as reported
by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
Canola
Prices:
Current
cash price for Canola is $11.90 per bushel at the Northern
Ag elevator in Yukon-
2012
New Crop contracts for Canola are now available at
$11.90 per bushel- delivered to local
participating elevators that are working with PCOM.
Futures
Wrap:
Our
Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio
Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler-
analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day.
KCBT
Recap:
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap-Two
Pager from the Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all
three U.S. Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on
Hard Red Winter Wheat and the why of that day's
market.
Feeder
Cattle Recap:
The
National Daily Feeder & Stocker
Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Slaughter
Cattle Recap:
The
National Daily Slaughter Cattle
Summary- as prepared by the USDA.
TCFA
Feedlot Recap:
Finally,
here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from
the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
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Oklahoma's
Latest Farm and Ranch News
Your
Update from Ron Hays of RON
Friday,
June 1,
2012 |
Howdy
Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch
news update.
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Featured Story:
House
Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas Cheering On
Senator Stabenow as She Pushes for Farm Bill
Passage in Senate
With
Senate debate to begin as early as next week on
the Senate Ag Committee's 2012 Farm Bill proposal,
the Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Oklahoma
Congressman Frank Lucas, says
that he is hopeful that Chairlady Debbie
Stabenow will be able to shepherd some
version of her Committee's proposal through the
full Senate, setting up a path for a possible
conference between the House and Senate Ag
Leadership later in the summer to finalize a new
five year farm bill- what he calls "the real farm
bill- the ultimate farm bill."
Congressman
Lucas, in talking with us on Thursday from
his office in Washington, says that he has as his
next goal to get a proposal through the House Ag
Committee before the Fourth of July recess. If
that happens and the Senate passes their version
of farm policy, Lucas believes that gives him an
argument for floor time with the Speaker of the
House, John Boehner of Ohio.
Lucas
addressed the rocks being thrown at policy ideas
that are being considered for the 2012 Farm Bill
by a variety of groups that don't want money to be
spent on agricultural subsidies. One group that
was decrying the federal government investment
into Crop Insurance earlier on Thursday, is the
Environmental Working Group. The EWG believes that
the subsidies paid on behalf of producers by the
federal government to give them incentive to buy
crop insurance should be identified on an
individual basis- a public record established that
shows how much every farmer receives. EWG contends
too many dollars have been allowed to go to Crop
Insurance subsidies with no oversight or
transparency, no program payment caps and no means
testing. Lucas says that it's important to
establish the biggest possible pool of production
to spread the risk out over more acres. Lucas adds
that producers who may be receiving larger crop
insurance premium subsidies are farmers who are
stepping up and paying more themselves as they
insure more acres of production, as they provide
food and fiber for America and the world.
You can listen to our conversation by
clicking here as well as reading more from our
visit with Frank Lucas.
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Sponsor
Spotlight
It is great 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. Service was the foundation upon
which W. B. Johnston established the company. And
through five generations of the Johnston family,
that enduring service has maintained the growth
and stability of Oklahoma's largest and oldest
independent grain and seed dealer. Click here for their website,
where you can learn more about their seed and
grain businesses.
We are pleased to have
American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual
Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of
our daily update. On both the state and national
levels, full-time staff members serve as a
"watchdog" for family agriculture producers,
mutual insurance company members and life company
members. Click here to go to their AFR
website to learn more about their efforts to
serve rural America!
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Environmental
Working Group Says Crop Insurance Transparency
Should Shape Farm
Bill
In
a conference call with the media, executives of
the Environmental Working Group announced the
release of data regarding crop insurance obtained
from the federal government through a Freedom of
Information Act request.
EWG called it the
most detailed disclosure of federal crop insurance
benefits to date, tracking subsidies across
686,273 insurance policies issued to 486,867
policyholders last year, when the program's costs
exceeded a record $11 billion.
"This is the
kind of analysis and information that should have
formed the foundation of the debate on a proposal
to dramatically expand and increase the funding
for federal crop insurance," said Ken
Cook, president of EWG.
Cook said
his group was very concerned about how funding
will be allocated in the new farm
bill.
"We're very concerned about cuts to
the SNAP program. We're very concerned about cuts
to the conservation program. We feel that healthy
food, healthy eating, could be dramatically
improved by some investment of very promising
programs already in the farm bill."
Click here to read more or hear
extended remarks by EWG officials on their take on
crop insurance and the 2012 Farm
Bill.
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Plains
Grains Calls Oklahoma Wheat Harvest 65% Done,
Texas 41% Done and Kansas 25% Complete
Mark
Hodges with Plains Grains says that the
2012 Hard Red Winter wheat harvest continues to
expand northward- and reports that Oklahoma stands
right at the two thirds complete- 65% of harvest
now in the grain bin. Texas and Kansas also have
progressed well with harvest- Texas now at 41%
complete and Kansas 25% complete before June has
even arrived.
According
to Hodges in the Plains Grains Thursday evening
update- "The 2012 HRW wheat harvest is expanding
rapidly northward with cutting now within 2
counties of the Nebraska state line in Kansas. All
areas currently harvesting are a minimum of 2
weeks ahead of normal harvest dates. Harvest is
winding down in north Texas northward to I-40 in
central Oklahoma. However, combines are just
beginning to cut dryland wheat in the High Plains
(Amarillo northward), while irrigated wheat in
that area is still green."
The
Plains Grains report goes into detail on the
latest quality test results- click here to jump to our story
for more on their latest wheat harvest update.
Meanwhile-
we do have an update from the Kansas Wheat groups-
click here for the Day Six report
which focuses on what is going on in several
western Kansas locations- there is no update from
the Oklahoma Wheat Commission from Thursday.
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Selecting
Against Poor Reproduction 'Painfully Slow, But
Necessary'
Culling
decisions aren't always easy to make, especially
when it comes to open heifers. Glenn
Selk, Oklahoma State University extension
animal scientist emeritus, writes in the latest
edition of the Cow/Calf Newsletter it's a decision
that needs to be made and will, over time, make a
difference.
"Heritability" is that portion
of the difference in the performance of cattle
that is due to genetics. The remainder of the
differences is presumed to be due to differences
in the environment (i.e. management, pastures,
weather, etc).
Previous estimates of the
heritability of pregnancy rates in heifers ranged
from 0 to 0.28. Iowa State University scientists
studied records of 3144 heifers from six herds in
five states. In the Iowa State study, the
heritability of pregnancy rate was 0.13. Pregnancy
rate is the percentage of the heifers exposed to
artificial or natural breeding that were diagnosed
pregnant after their first entire breeding season.
First service conception rate is the likelihood
that the heifer became pregnant on the first
artificial insemination attempt to breed her. The
heritability of first service conception rate was
even lower at 0.03. This implies that 97% of the
differences in the first service conception rate
are due to the management environment in which the
heifers were raised. (Source: Minick and
co-workers. 2004 Iowa State University Beef
Research Report.)
These low heritability
estimates suggest that painfully slow progress
could be made by selecting sires that produced
heifers with greater pregnancy rates. This data
also reminds us that in any one year, management
is still the key to successful pregnancy rates in
replacement heifers. Remember, 87% of the
differences in pregnancy rates were due to the
"environment."
Read more from Glenn Selk by clicking
here.
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On
Thursday, McDonalds USA released a statement to
the media- signaling their intention to "to source
all pork for its U.S. business from producers that
do not house pregnant sows in gestation stalls by
the end of 2022."
Dan
Gorsky, senior vice president of McDonald's North
America Supply Chain Management says that
"Our approach seeks to build on the work already
in place, and we are also sensitive to the needs
of the smaller, independent pork producers in
phasing out of gestation stalls."
Everett
Forkner is the current President of the National
Pork Board and owns about 500 sows in the state of
Missouri. He says that he is disappointed in
the announcement earlier in the day by McDonald's
Corp. that sets a 10-year timeline for sourcing
all of its pork from farms that do not use
individual stalls to house pregnant pigs.
"I've
been in this business a long time," Forkner said.
"I know on my own farm I moved from open pens to
stalls many years ago because too many sows were
being injured or denied feed. When sows are thrown
together they can become very aggressive. Dominant
sows physically attack the others, bite them and
steal their food. The housing used by most farmers
was designed to protect sows from this bullying
while they are most vulnerable, during their
pregnancies.
"We fully support continuing
to explore new and better ways to protect pregnant
sows," Forkner said. "Farmers are adopting
improvements all the time as they study their
farms and their animals."
Click here for more from both
McDonalds as well as from the National Pork Board.
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Wheat
Prices Feel Pressure and Start Falling- Kim
Anderson Explains All on
SUNUP
Wheat
harvest is, once again, the centerpiece of this
week's SUNUP program with a visit to the Wedel
family farm near Cordell. With a few delays for
rain, harvest is progressing rapidly, and OSU
small grains specialist Dr. Kim
Anderson explains why prices have
dropped.
"We had that rally of over a
dollar for a couple of weeks and what we had was
the index funds, they were record short on the
wheat contracts. Over that week, a little over a
week and a half time period they bought over
57,000 contracts, almost 300 million bushels of
wheat. So we got a big rally strictly based on
short coverage, not based on changes in supply and
demand.
"Then we've got things going on
like the harvest pressures. As
our wheat moves north our yields are coming in
slightly less than what was anticipated at the
crop tours, but relatively good yields, good
quality wheat.
"We've
got the problems in the European Union and the
Euro and because of those problems the value of
the dollar is going up. That's making our wheat
more expensive. You've got corn prices falling
about 90 cents. All of those things are weighing
heavy with pressure on the wheat for lower
prices."
You can hear more of Kim Anderson's
analysis and see the full SUNUP lineup by clicking
here.
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This
N That- Kris Black Cream of the Crop Sale
Saturday, Cocina De Mino Sale Starts Today and a
Tip of the Hat to Fellow OALP Class One Alum Jim
Shelton
Tomorrow,
Saturday, June 2nd, it will be the
Kris Black Cream of the Crop Sale- The
sale will be held at the ranch, just north of
Cheyenne, Oklahoma on Highway 33.
Featuring 500 head of fall calving heifers
and young cows, plus a stout set of service age
bulls. Click here for more details of this
outstanding offering that may be the right
kind of genetics for your beef cow- calf
operation.
*****
Later
this morning- at 8:30 AM central time- you can
grab $50 worth of grub for just $25 from one of my
very favorite Mexican restaurants in the OKC
metro- Cocina De Mino. Click here for details about this
Legendary Deal that goes on sale on this first
of June.
*****
We
say congrats to fellow Class One Alum of the
Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Jim
Shelton of Vinita- selected to serve on
the American Farmers and Ranchers Board of
Directors. Click here for more details on
his selection- Terry Detrick of
AFR speaks highly of Jim and his wife
Sara- "They have a successful ranching
operation that specializes in premium quality
grass-fed beef production for that niche market.
Jim has a lot of background experience valuable to
AFR/OFU and I look forward to serving our
membership along-side him."
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God Bless!
You can reach us at the following:
phone: 405-473-6144
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