From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:48 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 Wednesday September 1, 2010
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS Futures!
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-- Net Farm Income and Export Numbers Look Great
-- As People Read the Rule, Opposing Views of What It Says Emerge
-- NCBA Raises Question of Why the Strange Bedfellows Regarding GIPSA.
-- Significant Work Still Needed to Really Crack Wheat's Genetic Code
-- Trichomoniasis Testing of Breeding Bulls is the Law in Oklahoma
-- Coalition of groups gathers 180,000 letters on antibiotics issue
-- 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. When you call them- ask them about their brand new Iphone App which provides futures quotes for your Iphone.

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 upcoming Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more on the December 2010 Tulsa Farm Show, including information on how you can be an exhibitor.

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.


Net Farm Income and Export Numbers Look Great
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According to the Economic Research Service of USDA, net farm income is forecast to be up 24 percent this year to 77.1 billion dollars. That number is 12.3-billion above the average of 64.8-billion dollars in net farm income earned annually in the previous 10 years and is the fourth largest amount of income earned in U.S. farming. Cash receipts are expected to increase 6.5 percent, due mainly to higher livestock receipts.
Farm business equity, assets minus debt, is expected to rise by 3.5 percent, largely due to an expected 2.9-percent increase in the value of farm business real estate and a 4.2-percent decline in farm business debt. The farm business sector's debt-to-asset ratio is expected to decline to 11.2 percent and debt-to-equity is expected to decline to 12.6 percent in 2010, indicating an improvement in the farm sector's solvency.

US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is pleased with the net income numbers- saying that indicators point to a sustainable recovery sector-wide. While an increase in the value of livestock production accounted for much of the upward movement, the value of dairy production rose by 26.2 percent; the value of meat animal production is up 14.6 percent, and the value of poultry and egg production rose 8.4 percent. And commercial farms and intermediate farms are all expected to have higher average net cash income in 2010 than they did in either 2009 or 2008.

The Secretary was also upbeat about the export numbers coming from the agency. "Another factor driving this recovery is an increase in income from exports. Today, USDA is excited to announce that we are raising our forecast for agricultural exports for Fiscal Year 2010 to $107.5 billion - the second highest year on record. This a $3 billion increase from the May forecast, and an $11 billion increase over last year. And Agriculture is one of the only major sectors of the American economy with a trade surplus - expected to be $30.5 billion this year.
"What's more we expect to sustain this important progress. The outlook going forward into Fiscal Year 2011 is even more promising, showing $113 billion in agricultural exports.

Click on the link below to read more about these reports- and we have links on our webstory for the full reports if you want that much detail.

Click here for the story on Net Farm Income Rising here in 2010.


As People Read the Rule, Opposing Views of What It Says Emerge
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As people read the proposed GIPSA Rule, they come up with different views of how this will impact the beef cattle business. On one side, you have people like Jerry Bohn of Pratt Feeders, who sees the fear of litigation driving beef processors into not offering more than one price daily- then sorting for quality in their facility and capturing any added value for themselves.

Allen Sents, who along with his wife owns a cattle feedlot near Marquette, Kansas strongly disagrees. He says "I can think of nothing more unreasonable" than to expect packers to stop buying cattle based on the value they have in their carcass. He dismisses the requirement of the rule that packers will have to have documentation of why they pay more for one set of cattle versus another as something they already have and will be able to produce without fear of litigation.

In this Beef Buzz, as heard on great radio stations around the state of Oklahoma via the Radio Oklahoma Network- you can hear both viewpoints, which provides some insight into how divisive this proposal is. Click on the LINK below for this audio look at a couple of feedlot operators and their views on the GIPSA Rule.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz with Jerry Bohn and Allen Sents


NCBA Raises Question of Why the Strange Bedfellows Regarding GIPSA.
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The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund and Food and Water Watch are joining forces to support the Department of Agriculture's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration's proposed rule on livestock marketing. Representatives of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association are questioning the partnership between the animal rights and environmental activist groups.

NCBA President Steve Foglesong says well-funded activist groups, like Food and Water Watch, are working to obstruct the success of U.S. agriculture and its efforts to feed a growing global population. He said Food and Water Watch, a lobbyist group, - has a longstanding history of lobbying for stringed agricultural regulations that are devoid of science. Foglesong says - as a cattle producer, it is concerning that an organization in my industry is admittedly partnering with a group that spreads fiction as fact to 98 percent of the population removed from production agriculture.

Foglesong said the lack of science-based information is a red flag on the credibility of this activist group. He said, according to USDA, 98 percent of all U.S. farms are family farms. USDA reports 91 percent of farms in the United States are considered "small family farms," which is contrary to Food and Water Watch reporting that "the work of producing our food has been replaced by large corporate enterprises." Foglesong said innovation, profitability and a commitment to consumers have driven expansion of family owned operations throughout the United States, not agribusiness.

Click here to read more about the NCBA concerns about this group that R-Calf is hanging with.


Significant Work Still Needed to Really Crack Wheat's Genetic Code
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You might call this the "rest of the story." We reported a couple of days ago about the breakthrough on partially mapping the genome of wheat. Now, a US based group says to those who read the story from England- hold the phone. The International Wheat Genome Sequence Consortium, an international consortium of wheat growers, public and private breeders and scientists, strongly disagrees with implications that the sequence reads made available by a UK team, led by Professor Neil Hall, represent in any way the sequence of the wheat genome or that this work is comparable to genome sequences for rice, maize, or soybean. An Associated Press (AP) story published on 27 August 2010, in London, entitled "Scientists: We've cracked wheat's genetic code", reports that Neil Hall's team has "decoded the genetic sequence of wheat" and implies that this information is equivalent to the genome sequences available for the rice, maize, soybean, and the human genomes.

The AP story and the claims in that story by Neil Hall are in direct conflict with the BBSRC announcement released the same day and are a complete misrepresentation of the value of the work to breeders and scientists. Regrettably, the AP story and its headline that the wheat genome has been sequenced has been repeated in stories by all major media outlets around the world.

The truth is that according to this consortium- "this is an important step but significant work remains to be done to achieve a complete genome sequence" and the "full sequenced genome requires further read-throughs, assembly of the data into chromosomes and significant work to fully annotate the sequence data".

The IWGSC concurs wholeheartedly with the statement that the complete genome sequence of wheat will usher in a new era of wheat improvement. And, we agree with the press comments that the complete sequence will be a "scientific tour de force" that will be "the most significant breakthrough in wheat production in 10,000 years". Unfortunately, however, this is far from being the case at present and this premature claim is jeopardizing the ongoing international efforts to truly achieve a genome sequence with high utility for wheat in the next five years. The IWGSC remains committed to continuing our collaborative, international effort and look forward to the day when we can indeed announce that the "wheat genetic code has been cracked".

Click here to read up on the Consortium Working on the Wheat Geni


Trichomoniasis Testing of Breeding Bulls is the Law in Oklahoma
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Dr. Gene Parker, Area Extension Food Animal Quality and Health Specialist for OSU writes about this cattle disease that we are all still learning more about. Dr. Parker tells us that most states in the western part of the United States have developed "Trich" regulations to help control the disease. Many other states are recognizing the seriousness of the disease and are currently developing or implementing regulatory programs. Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry worked with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, Livestock Marketing Association, veterinarians, producer groups, and lab personnel to develop Oklahoma Trich regulations. The new rules took effect on July 1, 2010. Enforcement of the new regulations will not begin until Jan 1, 2011 to allow sale barns and producers time to become familiar with the new rules. Although the primary impact of Trichomoniasis is on female cattle, these cows can spread Trich infection to bulls. Oklahoma Trich regulations focus on breeding bulls, the reservoir or carrier of the disease.

Effective January 1, 2011, any bull changing ownership within the state of Oklahoma by private sale, public sale, lease, trade, or barter must have a negative test for Trichomoniasis within 30 days of change of ownership. Exceptions are:

· Bulls that are less than 24 months of age and can be certified as virgin bulls.
· Bulls that are being sold directly to a slaughter establishment
· "Cutter Bulls" that will be castrated and put on feed within 10 days of purchase.
Untested bulls consigned to livestock markets can be sampled at the market at the buyer's expense and transported to the buyer's premise under quarantine until negative test results have been reported. The livestock market will not be liable for bulls that test positive after the sale. Those bulls must be castrated or sold for slaughter only within 10 days of notification. If a bull tests positive he must be sold directly for slaughter or castrated within 10 days of notification. The herd of origin will be notified that a bull from the herd tested positive for Trich. The herd owner will be advised to contact their veterinarian for assistance in managing and eradicating the disease from the herd.

Bovine Trichomoniasis (Trich) is a venereal disease of cattle caused by the protozoan Tritrichomonas foetus, which is about the size of a sperm cell. Infected bulls carry the protozoan on their penis and prepuce. As a bull ages the conditions on the surface of the organs become more favorable allowing the organism to survive and multiply.
Trichomoniasis, or "Trich", is transmitted to cows through breeding. Cows usually abort early in the pregnancy and become temporarily infertile. Cattle producers can lose valuable income from the resulting extended breeding season and diminished calf crop. In a herd with a compact breeding season, decreases in calving percentages can reach 50%.
You can't tell by looking! Infected breeding bulls continue to appear and act normally. Only testing will confirm the presence or absence of the disease causing protozoa. Once infected, bulls remain infected and capable of spreading infection.

Click here for more on this disease from a blog entry of a few days ago at the ODAFF website.


Coalition of groups gathers 180,000 letters on antibiotics issue
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A group of organizations delivered more than 180,000 letters to the Food and Drug Administration Thursday in response to the agency's request for comments on proposed changes to agricultural antibiotics usage. The groups in the coalition that collected the letters include The Humane Society of the United States, Center for Food Safety, Center for Science in the Public Interest, CREDO Action, FamilyFarmed.org, Farm Aid, Food & Water Watch, Food Democracy Now!, Organic Consumers Association and Union of Concerned Scientists.

In a joint statement, the groups called on the FDA to "heed the overwhelming scientific evidence and outpouring of citizen concern by (1) strengthening the agency's [Veterinary Feed Directive] guidelines and (2) making mandatory, rather than voluntary, its June guidance to ensure that antibiotics only be used under veterinary supervision to treat sick animals, thus protecting human health."

You might notice that one of the groups that is listed above is the Food and Water Watch- the group that has joined up with R-Calf in their support of the GIPSA Rule. Click on the LINK below and you can go to their website as they have a news release on these letters that have been sent to the FDA in support of much stronger oversight of antibiotics in animal agriculture.

Click here for one of the news releases on these letters going to the FDA.


Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers, KIS Futures and Big Iron Online Auctions 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- FREE!

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 $7.65 per bushel, while the 2011 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $8.05 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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