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 $11.61 per bushel-
2012
New Crop contracts for Canola are now available at $11.84 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
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Howdy Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and
ranch news update.
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Featured Story:
Wheat Industry Takes Next
Step in Biotech Journey- Develop a Message
There was another step forward unveiled by the wheat
industry in the effort to commercialize biotech wheat. At the winter
wheat industry meetings in Washington the last few days, it was
announced by the Wheat Industry Biotech Council that they have
retained a communications and public relations firm to help develop
the message that the industry will carry forward to potential
customers, end users and even opponents in the next several years.
The firm retained by the WIBC is Global Prairie, a group that has
offices in several mid america locations, including Kansas City, Ft.
Worth and Denver.
Caitlan Coffrin with the group made a presentation to
the US Wheat- National Association of Wheat Growers Joint Committee
Session on Friday, and spoke of how the group would be helping the
players in the wheat business work to develop a unified message on
genetically engineered wheat, educate the industry regarding that
message and then enter a phase of moblization, where that message
would be taken beyond just the wheat industry, to other stakeholders
that will determine the success or failure of biotech wheat.
Click here for our full story on
where we stand right now with biotech wheat- including an audio report with comments from Alan
Tracy of US Wheat and Jane Demarchi of the National Association of
Wheat Growers- providing us a look into where the wheat industry
hopes to go in getting acceptance for GM wheat.
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Sponsor
Spotlight
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 website to learn more about their
efforts to serve rural America! Remember, the annual convention of
the American Farmers & Ranchers comes up in February at the
Embassy Suites Hotel in Norman.
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Talking Farm Policy and Regulatory Overreach and More
with AFBF Lobbyist Mary Kay Thatcher
While in Washington for the winter wheat industry
meetings, we sat down in the offices of the American Farm Bureau and
talked at length with AFBF lobbyist Mary Kay Thatcher- and we covered
just a small amount of the waterfront on policy and regulatory issues
that confront the general farm organization that she represents in
our nation's capitol. We began our visit with Thatcher discussing the
AFBF farm policy that evolved out of the group's recent convention
held in Hawaii. From there, we talked about a multitude of other
issues- including:
- The status of a budget score on the Farm Bureau farm policy proposal-
Thatcher says nothing yet- but hoping to get it scored after January
budget baseline numbers are released this coming week.
- Mary Kay Thatcher believes if Farm Bureau's proposal became a key
part of the 2012 Commodity title- crop farmers would see cheaper crop
insurance premiums going forward.
- Opponents of farm program spending in Washington have grown
stronger since the writing of the 2008 farm bill.
- Thatcher expressed skepticism about the ability to move forward in
this election year and complete a farm bill.
To read more or hear more about Mary Kay Thatcher's views
on policy and regulatory issues, click here.
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Pioneer Hi-Bred Releases 17 New Drought-Optimized
Hybrids
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, is releasing 17
new Pioneer® brand Optimum® AQUAmaxTM hybrids in the 96- to 116-day
comparative relative maturities (CRMs) for drought-stressed
environments, helping growers match the right product with the right
acre.
Combined with products already introduced last year, Optimum AQUAmax
hybrids offer 25 total hybrid choices for growers in the 2012
planting season.
During a drought-stressed 2011 growing season, the first class of
Optimum AQUAmax hybrids provided strong yields compared to
competitive hybrids. In nearly 8,000 on-farm trials, Optimum AQUAmax
hybrids yielded 7.1 percent higher in drought conditions and 3.4
percent higher in favorable weather conditions than competitors.*
Growers can expect similar results from the new class of hybrids.
"Optimum AQUAmax hybrids delivered strong yields for growers in
a trying year," says Monica Patterson, Pioneer marketing
manager. "Hybrids performed well in areas of drought as well as
geographies that encountered adequate moisture throughout the growing
season."
Optimum AQUAmax hybrids are equipped with strong agronomics and the
latest technology package. Drought tolerance is controlled by a large
number of genes and heavily influenced by environmental factors (for
example, heat, water stress, soil types). There is no one single
solution for drought tolerance.
To read more about Pioneer's new
hybrids, click here.
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January 1 Cattle Inventory Down 2 Percent-
Oklahoma Cattle Numbers Drop 13 Percent
The latest USDA Cattle Inventory report is out today,
January 27, 2012 and showed more herd decline as was expected in
pre-report estimates. The numbers showed cattle inventory down 2
percent. This report is seen as not having a huge impact since there
was no big surprises and could even be supportive to the market
Monday morning. You can hear Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities
analysis of USDA's Cattle Inventory report by clicking on the
listening bar at the bottom of the page.
All cattle and calves in the United States as of January 1, 2012
totaled 90.8 million head, 2 percent below the 92.7 million on January
1, 2011. This is the lowest January 1 inventory of all cattle and
calves since the 88.1 million on hand in 1952.
All cows and heifers that have calved, at 39.1 million, were down 2
percent from the 40.0 million on January 1, 2011
. * Beef cows, at 29.9 million, were down 3 percent from January 1,
2011.
For Oklahoma-
the numbers clearly showed the impact of the historic drought we
battled over this past year. Inventory of all cattle and
calves in Oklahoma, at 4.50 million head, was down 600 thousand head
from the January 1, 2011 inventory. This is the
lowest inventory of all cattle and calves since 1968. All cows and
heifers that had calved, at 1.78 million head, were down 14 percent.
This is the lowest inventory for all cows and heifers since 1961. The
January 1,
2012, beef cow inventory, at 1.73 million head, is the lowest since
1962.
To read more about January cattle
inventories, click here.
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Food Stamp Roll Explosion Sure To Figure In Election
Campaign
As the presidential campaign season heats up, one
issue that is sure to gain more and more traction is the growth in
food stamp rolls.
According to the USDA's own numbers, more than 46 million American's
will receive food stamps this year. That's 15 percent of the
country's population. That's 45 percent higher than when President
Obama took office and more than twice as high as the average for the
previous 40 years.
Many economists attribute the surge in food stamp recipients to the
recession, but part of the program's growth was an increase in
supplemental nutrition benefits pushed as part of President Obama's
stimulus plan approved by Congress.
In an article published by Investor's Business Daily, John Merline
argues that the dependency of the public on government programs in
general has been increasing since President Lyndon Johnson's
"Great Society" programs of the 1960s. Merline says that
trend has rapidly accelerated since President Obama took office.
To read more about skyrocketing
food stamp rolls and their impact on farm policy, click here.
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Can Angus Cattle Be Big And Efficient?
Over time, the average size of beef cows has increased
by 200 pounds or more. To keep up with feed costs-even today's feed
costs-that just means she needs to wean 50 more pounds of calf,
according to South Dakota State University animal scientist Ken
Olson.
He says big does not always mean inefficient. In 1990 the average cow
weighed 1,200 pounds. Now the average is 1,400.
Olson studied the amount of feed consumed by cows weaning calves at
different weights. His calculations showed that older formulas which
based weaning weights on a ratio between the weight of the cow and
the calf are not economically efficient.
Olson says his numbers show that if a 1,200-pound cow weans a
500-pound calf, a 1,400-pound cow needs to wean a 550-pound calf for
maximum efficiency.
To hear the full interview with Ken
Olson, click here.
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Coming This Week- the 2012 Cattle
Industry Convention and Trade Show in Nashville
The 2012 Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show
opens in just a couple of days from now at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel
and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. It appears that there
will be an excellent group of Oklahoma Cattle producers who will be
there later this week.
The meeting will feature joint and individual meetings
by five industry organizations:
National Cattlemen's Beef Association
Cattlemen's Beef Promotion & Research Board
American National CattleWomen, Inc.
CattleFax
National Cattlemen's Foundation
On today's special digital version of the Beef Buzz, we have Scott
Dewald of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association talking to us and
providing a preview of the 2012 meetings- as we talk about Oklahomans
who will be involved, including Tammi Didlot, who will be installed
as the President of the American National Cattlewomen. We also talked
with Scott about key issues that will be talked about both in the
hallways as well as in the meeting rooms
Click here to jump over to our
interview/conversation with Scott Dewald to get a feel about what is ahead in Nashville this
year. We will be covering this year's activities once again- and will
do so in several ways. We will have regular radio updates on
the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network- we will be posting stories on our website,
wwww.OklahomaFarmReport.Com, we will have stories right here in our daily email
and we will be "tweeting" a bunch- follow us on twitter- our
"handle" is Ron_on_RON.
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Happening This Week in DC- Trains and
Farm Policy
Later this morning, wheat industry leaders from several states-
including Oklahoma- will be meeting with the three members of the
Surface Transportation Board about rail transportation concerns
within the wheat industry.
The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate and service issues-
and some of the issues that the wheat industry leadership want to
bring up include higher rates than they feel are justified in areas
where there is no competition from multiple rail lines as well as
adequate service during harvest season. All five board members
of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission will be a part of the meetings with
Chairman Daniel Elliott, Vice Chair Francis Mulvey and Board member
Ann Begeman.
Also- this week- a large number of farm organizations will be meeting
in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday- hearing from several experts
about where we are on the budget ahead of drafting the next farm
bill- as well as a feel of what is politically doable in this
election year. Those groups will each present their current
ideas and then the hope is to figure our where the common ground is among
the groups. There is also hope that there will be less
disagreement being seen publicly among the groups as a result of
these sessions.
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God
Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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