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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 $12.25 per bushel-
2012
New Crop contracts for Canola are now available at
$12.57 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,
February 24, 2012 |
Howdy
Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch
news update.
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Featured Story:
Irish
Animal Nutritional Innovation on Display at
Keenan
An
innovative approach to developing and mixing
rations for beef and dairy cattle was a part of
the Thursday February 23rd agenda for Class XV of
the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program. The young
agricultural leaders stopped at Keenan System Mix
operations in Carlow County- south of Dublin- in
the tiny village town of Borris. Keenan started in
1978- building mixer wagons- but their founder
wanted to be more than just a piece of equipment
on a dairy or beef cattle operation. He had
a vision that saw Keenan as "a leader in ethical
and profitable solutions for the food
chain."
Our group saw mixer wagons being
built from a few pieces of metal into the finished
product- and heard about the technology that this
company offers their cattle producer customers.
That includes "tweaking" cattle rations to achieve
significant improvement in the utilization of the
forage and grain fed- as well as more pounds of
milk on the dairy side of things- and more pounds
of beef for beef cattlemen.
We
have lots of pictures we have added to our set on
Flickr- click here to see those- and all
of our pictures to date from Scotland and Ireland-
and we also talked with their Business Innovation
Director, John McCurdy about how they offer cattle
producers not just a mixer wagon- but a feed
system that will make them more money. Click here for our complete story on
Keenan and a chance to hear our visit with John
McCurdy.
Perhaps
the take away for the Oklahoma group was the
reminder that companies that are passionate about
serving their customer- and offering them
solutions that will make them money- those
companies can thrive anywhere- even in a tiny
village like Borris, Ireland.
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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! Our congratulations to the AFR for a
great convention that concluded over this past
weekend in Norman!
Another long standing sponsor
that brings you this daily email is
Producers Cooperative Oil Mill.
Producers Cooperative Oil Mill has been providing
high quality cotton seed products since 1944. In
more recent years, they have been a key player in
helping wheat producers in the southern plains
make the switch from continuous wheat to a
rotation that includes winter canola- helping
clean up huge weed problems in those fields.
Click here for the PCOM
website- and you
can contact Brandon Winters to learn more about
canola and sunflower seed marketing opportunities
with PCOM.
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EPA
Ranks Oklahoma Second In Water Pollution
Reduction
Recent
analysis of nonpoint source pollution reduction
numbers from across the nation shows that Oklahoma
ranks as the number two state in the nation when
it comes to reducing nutrients from our streams
and rivers. This is the third year in a row that
Oklahoma has ranked in the top ten among states in
reducing non-point source pollution from our
water, moving from number eight, to number five,
to now ranking number two.
According to
Joe Parker, President of the Oklahoma Association
of Conservation Districts (OACD), this continued
improvement is a testimony to the success of the
dedicated work done by farmers, ranchers and other
landowners in partnership with the Oklahoma
Conservation Commission, local conservation
districts and the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS) to address these
issues.
"This success shows what can happen
when we work together to solve problems," Parker
said. "When we respect folk's private property
rights and when the state and federal governments
give landowners the financial and technical
assistance they need to make changes, we can
accomplish great things. Locally-led, voluntary
conservation works and it is a critical part of
our natural resource work in Oklahoma."
To read more about Oklahoma's
progress in water quality improvement, click
here.
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Court
Validates Cattlemen's Concerns on EPA's
Scientifically Shoddy Approach
The
Florida Cattlemen's Association (FCA) and the
National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) on
April 28, 2011, challenged the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) determination letter and
final rule establishing numeric nutrient criteria
(NNC) for Florida's lakes, rivers, streams and
springs. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of
Florida in Tallahassee, resulted in a mixed ruling
on Feb. 18, 2012. Judge Robert L. Hinkle
invalidated the criteria for streams as well as
certain aspects of the downstream protection
values for lakes ruling them "arbitrary and
capricious." This action ultimately prevents EPA
from implementing its proposed criteria for these
water bodies in the state of Florida. While the
Court upheld several of EPA's arguments, FCA and
NCBA are encouraged by the outcome.
"We
hope the recent ruling prompts EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson to pull back from implementing
federal nutrient criteria in Florida and properly
return the authority back to the state where it
belongs. It is clear that EPA's heavy hand will
have irreparable harm on Florida agricultural
producers if the agency's actions are not stopped.
Just as importantly, EPA must be stopped from
applying this flawed model to other watersheds
across the country," said NCBA Deputy
Environmental Counsel Ashley Lyon. "EPA's 'science
be damned' approach should be stopped. Criteria
must be based on science. EPA's approach is not
based on science and was rightly
invalidated."
You can read more about what this
ruling could mean to cattle producers by clicking
here.
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Kim
Anderson: Australian Wheat Bound To Affect World
Markets
Oklahoma
State University's Kim Anderson says wheat
producers need to keep an eye on global markets
and currency exchanges. He recently examined
Australia's wheat market and what influence it
will play on the world stage this year.
He
said the country is coming off two record
billion-bushel-plus years. Normal production is in
the 880-million bushel range, so substantial
surpluses are on hand to the tune of about 1.37
billion bushels.
While the Australians had
a great year in terms of production, they didn't
have a great year in terms of quality. They
produced a record percentage of feed wheat this
year, coming in at 31 percent. Anderson said that
sounds high, "but with two billion-bushel crops in
a row, they've got more than enough milling
quality wheat to meet their demand and export
demand."
Besides
Kim Anderson's comments on the wheat marketplace-
we also have our regular rundown on the weekly
SUNUP program for this weekend- you can find that
by clicking on the link for Kim's
analysis.
You can read more of Anderson's
analysis or hear an interview with him by clicking
here.
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National
Pork Board to Meet at National Pork Industry Forum
Now
nearing the halfway point of a five-year strategic
plan, the National Pork Board will meet in Denver,
Colo., with the chairs of its nine producer-led
committees on Feb. 29 and March 1 to assess
progress in meeting the goals laid out in the
plan.
The board is meeting prior to the
start of National Pork Industry Forum, the annual
meeting of the pork industry's two national
organizations. Pork Forum begins the afternoon of
March 1 and concludes March 3.
The National
Pork Board relies on producer-led committees to
advise board members on matters ranging from
product marketing to animal well-being, food
safety and environmental research. Each committee
includes pork producers and industry experts and
is chaired by a producer, who leads committee
deliberations. As part of the board's budgeting
process, the committees also propose tactics and
budgets to address the priorities established by
the board.
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Elanco
Partners With Heifer International To Defeat World
Hunger
At
the recent Cattle Industry Convention in
Nashville, Elanco Animal Health featured the
charitable organization Heifer International in
its booth. Radio Oklahoma
Network's Ron Hays interviewed Heifer's Marlene
Neu about the organization and its
impact.
"Heifer International is a
65-year-old-plus organization," Neu said. We are
about ending hunger and poverty. That's our
mission statement. Ending hunger and poverty while
caring for the earth. And the way we do that is we
provide animals and the care and training of the
animals to families all over the world. We're
currently in 40 countries but we've operated in 53
since its inception."
She said the
provision of animals is the first step in giving
families the resources necessary to establish
truly sustainable production even on the smallest
of farm plots. But providing animals is just half
the battle.
"There are small family plots,
most of them live on less than two hectares of
land and an animal can completely transform that
family and that life. We teach these communities
and families how to use the resources from these
animals to lift themselves, their families, and
their communities up out of
poverty."
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End
of the Week Rants and Rumblings
It's
been a great week as we have traveled with Class
XV of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program- we have
been told more than once that the Irish suffered
through a historic cold spell last winter, with
temperatures slightly below zero with a good bit
of snow. Not so this year- we were right at
60 degrees yesterday morning and midday before it
got cooler in the afternoon. Our final days
in Ireland are expected to low 50s which is just
fine, thank you.
One
of the stops that we had on Thursday was at the
Coolmore Stud- the world's largest breeder of
Thoroughbred horses- they have quite an operation
in the middle of southeastern Ireland in a tiny
village of Fethard- they may well be the major
employer of the community with 300 on the payroll.
Under the heading of "its a small world," they
have acquired a couple of farms in the US- in
Kentucky and one of them is the Ashford Stud
Farm. The name rang a bell to me- and yep, I
checked and it's located in my hometown of
Versailles, Ky. (which is the heart of racehorse
country in that state)
We
have put a number of stories up on our website-
you can see all of our stories to date from the
OALP International Travel Experience by clicking here.
While
we have a few more days to go in Ireland- we are
starting to get ready for several days in
Nashville, Tennessee as we head to the 2012
Commodity Classic. We will be reporting from
there for several days next week as wheat,
sorghum, corn and soybean growers converge on
Opryland Hotel- a week from today- all of those
folks will be hearing USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack
who will deliver a keynote address at their
General Session.
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God Bless!
You can reach us at the following:
phone: 405-473-6144
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