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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 $12.45 per bushel-
2012
New Crop contracts for Canola are now available at
$12.64 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
Monday,
March 26,
2012 |
Howdy
Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch
news update.
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Featured
Story:
U.S.
Trade Representative Decides to Appeal WTO's
Ruling Against Country-of-Origin Labeling; NCBA,
R-CALF, NFU
Respond
United
States Trade Representative Ron
Kirk said the U.S. will appeal a World
Trade Organization ruling against a law requiring
country-of-origin labels on meat sold in grocery
stores in America. Country-of-origin labeling, or
COOL, went into effect in 2009. U.S. consumer
groups and some farm groups favored the law saying
it would allow consumers to make an informed
choice.
Big
meat packers said the law would hinder trade and
boost costs unnecessarily. Both Mexico and
Canada had long been opposed to COOL saying it
unfairly stigmatized their
product.
America's north
American neighbors filed suit with the
World Trade Organization, calling COOL a technical
barrier to trade. In their complaint, both
countries said their exports to America had indeed
dropped sharply after the law was
implemented. The WTO ruled in their favor
last November, giving the U.S. until March 23,
2012 to appeal.
Kirk's
decision stirred up a hornet's nest among trade
organizations representing various segments of the
agricultural and food industries. Reaction
from groups supportive of and opposed to the
decision to appeal came swiftly.
National
Farmers Union President Roger
Johnson applauded the decision.
"U.S. family farmers and ranchers work each day to
provide a safe, abundant food supply to our
country and the world," said Johnson. "Not only
are we proud of what we do, but consumers have
made it clear they want to know where their food
comes from. We should not deny them that
right." (Read his full statement by clicking
here.)
National
Cattlemen's Beef Association Vice President
Bob McCann expressed his
disappoinment with the appeal. "Instead of
working diligently to bring the United States into
WTO compliance, our government has opted to engage
in an appeal process, which jeopardizes our strong
trade relationship with Canada and Mexico."
(Click here to read NCBA's
position.)
Bill
Bullard, President of R-CALF, supported
the appeal, but came out swinging against groups
that opposed it including the NCBA and the
American Meat Institute alleging they were
supportive of the WTO undermining the COOL
law. "These groups don't want U.S. consumers
to know if they are buying beef produced
exclusively in the United States or if their beef
was produced in Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, or
any one of the more than a dozen countries where
U.S. corporations source their
beef." (Click here for R-CALF's full
response.)
You can read the original story about
the USTR's decision to appeal by clicking
here.
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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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House
Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas Looking for
Producer Input on Farm Safety Net( and more) at
Field Hearings
The
House Agriculture Committee convened another in
its series of field hearings on the new farm bill
in Galesburg, Illinois. It was the second of four
hearings to gather input in advance of writing the
2012 Farm Bill.
In
his opening statement, Committee Chairman
Frank Lucas said three facets of
the upcoming legislation were of particular
importance: a wide range of options for producers
in the commodity title, improving crop insurance,
simplifying the conservation program process for
producers.
Members
took testimony from Midwest producers of corn,
rice, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, specialty crops
and beef. Witnesses were practically unanimous in
stressing the need for an effective safety net and
a choice of risk management tools.
"Crop
insurance in its current form is the most
effective answer to short crop years. Any producer
who desires an effective risk management tool can
purchase crop insurance. Agriculture will accept
reductions in FSA programs for crop insurance to
survive," said Craig Adams, a wheat, corn, soybean
and beef producer from Leesburg,
Illinois.
Producers
and committee members expressed high hopes, but
were skeptical a new farm bill would be passed by
the time the old one expires at the end of
September.
You
can read more about the field hearing in
Galesburg by clicking here. Chairman Frank
Lucas's complete opening statement is
available here. You will
find his audio comments as well as his written
opening statement there at that link.
You
can click here and find the transcribed
testimony from all the witnesses.
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Wheat
Watch 2012: Mike Schulte of the OWC Cautiously
Optimistic About 2012 Wheat Crop
The
recent rains and mild temperatures all across the
state appear to be having a tremendous affect on
this year's wheat crop. Mike
Schulte, CEO of the Oklahoma Wheat
Commission says in this week's edition of the 2012
Wheat Watch, reports coming in from all over
reflect excellent growing conditions. Schulte says
along with the good news, producers are also
remaining somewhat cautious-with good
reason.
"Moisture levels have really been
helped out by these recent rains. We've come
through the 13th wettest January through March
period on record as far as moisture received
throughout the state. They finally got some
moisture in the Panhandle this last week. And up
there where it's extremely dry and the wheat is
far behind, we're hoping this might the thing that
can help them come in with a crop if they could
continue maybe and get one or two more rains
before harvest time. Overall, driving through the
state, things look to be very good right now.
We're just hoping that we don't have any late
freeze situations that are going to pop up since
this crop is two or three weeks ahead of normal
with the growing conditions we've had for the last
couple of months," Schulte says.
He says
indications are, if the weather pattern remains
the same, that harvest could come very early this
year.
Click here to read or hear Mike
Schulte's rundown on what producers should be on
the lookout for over the next several
weeks as we close in on harvest time. We also have
the video of our conversation with Mike on News9-
KWTV from Saturday morning as he was our guest on
our regular In the Field segment.
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U.S.
Cattle on Feed Up Three Percent
The
latest USDA Cattle on Feed report was released
Friday afternoon, March 23, 2012, showing On Feed
numbers and placements a little larger than
expected with marketing numbers a little lower.
The On Feed numbers came in 3 percent higher.
Expectations were around 2 percent. This makes
twenty-two months in a row the On-Feed number has
been higher than the previous year.
The
report is looked at as slightly bearish but with
other fundamental and technical news in the
market, it may not have much of a bearing on the
markets Monday morning.
Cattle and calves
on feed for slaughter market in the United States
for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head
totaled 11.7 million head on March 1, 2012. The
inventory was 3 percent above March 1, 2011.
Placements
in feedlots during February totaled 1.71 million,
3 percent above 2011. Net placements were 1.62
million head. During February, placements of
cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds
were 400,000, 600-699 pounds were 335,000, 700-799
pounds were 469,000, and 800 pounds and greater
were 510,000.
Marketings
of fed cattle during February totaled 1.76
million, 2 percent below 2011.
Other
disappearance totaled 93,000 during February, 52
percent above 2011.
Click here for a link to all the
numbers in the USDA Cattle on Feed Report and and
you will also find an analysis by Tom
Leffler.
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Soy
Checkoff Survey Looks at Importance, Value of U.S.
Soy Components
As
some U.S. farmers enter the fields this spring,
their center of attention likely won't be on
protein and oil. Meanwhile, that's exactly the
focus of U.S. soy customers when deciding what to
buy. According to a recent soy checkoff survey,
nearly 70 percent of U.S. soybean farmers feel no
need to worry about protein and oil content
because they have no problem - at present -
selling their soybeans.
"Most farmers see
a price per bushel and see soy for the sum of its
parts," says Marc Curtis,
immediate past chair for the United Soybean Board
(USB) and soybean farmer from Leland, Miss. "That
value actually is calculated based on the value of
meal and oil, minus the processing costs, but we
don't get that sort of transparency."
The
survey also helped measure soy farmers'
receptiveness to a component value system, being
fairly reimbursed based on the value of protein
and oil in their harvested soybeans. Nearly 66
percent of U.S. soybean farmers responded
favorably to this idea, and 35 percent believed it
would impact their price
positively.
Read more about the soy bean checkoff
survey by clicking here.
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Cross
Breeding v. Straight Breeding:
A Systems-Based Analysis
Dr.
Nevil Speer of Western Kentucky
University recently authored a paper examining
straight breeding and cross breeding strategies.
His research, he says, emphasizes economics
systems-based approach as opposed to a
genetic-based approach.
"We have
introduced new value-based systems into our
industry. So, commercial cow-calf producers now
have real price signals coming back at them that
they didn't have 20 years ago. They're obviously
responding to that in some form or fashion as they
begin to make decisions about buying
bulls."
Speer's study sought to be
comprehensive, taking into account factors that
will affect the profitability of the whole system.
Time management and the efficient
utilization of resources plays a large role in
determining the overall profitability of a
breeding strategy.
Click here to read more or to see a
video interview with Nevil Speer.
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Justin
Lewis of KIS on Prospective Plantings Report that
Comes Out THIS Friday
This
coming Friday, the US Department of Agriculture
will be releasing a pair of reports that the grain
trade in the US and around the globe will be
watching closely. At 7:30 AM central time, the
USDA will release both a Grain Stocks report as
well as the spring planted crops "Prospective
Plantings" report. Justin Lewis with
KIS Futures has prepared a pre report
analysis of what the numbers may look like on
Friday morning- and has provided us with a copy of
his expectations.
Specifically
on the Prospective Plantings- here's the pre
report rundown from Justin Lewis:
"The
most important number in this report is the
prospective plantings. The general estimates are
that 94-95 million acres of corn will be planted,
75 million acres of soybeans, 58 million acres of
wheat, and 12.5 million acres of cotton.
"My personal estimate is slightly
different. Traditionally, the ratio of corn to
soybeans has been 2.3. What does this mean? The
current price of new crop soybeans divided by the
current price of new crop corn is 2.4. Soybean
prices are 2.4 times the price of corn. If you
look at the historic ratio on a continous chart,
current ratios favor planting soybeans instead of
corn. Therefore I believe the actual numbers will
be corn planting intentions will be closer to 94
million acres and soybeans closer to 76.5 million
acres.
Click here for the rest of Justin's
view of what this coming Friday's report may
look like- we have a PDF file you can find at this
link which includes charts and more
analysis.
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From
the Web- Did Corzine Lie to Congress?- Pink Slime-
Agfrica
Emails can often
be so inconvenient for folks who want to adjust
the truth- even just a little. That's what former
Senator Jon Corzine may be
thinking this morning after the national news
media released details of a memo- email that came
from a Congressional Committee at the end of this
past week which seems to show that Corzine knew
about segregated customer funds being used to
cover a "hot check" that MF Global was attempting
to pass off on JP Morgan. He has earlier
testified to Congress that he knew nothing of the
sort. This is all about the MF Global
debacle, which was cost many livestock and grain
producers thousands of dollars which they are
unlikely to ever see again. Click here for the Politico story
that tells about this "inconvenient truth" for Jon
Corzine.
We
have written a little about the Pink Slime
nonsense- and how single handedly one TV network
is trying to demonize a safe meat industry process
because they have one "expert" who does not like
it. An excellent op-ed piece found on the Fox News
site explains this smear campaign as it really is.
"TV news loves a health scare. Think deadly Tylenol. Killer tomatoes. Mad Cow Disease. Alar in apples.
And lots more. Sometimes, as with Tylenol, they
are legit and important. Other times, like Alar,
they are entirely bogus. Yet every time, the
template is the same. Someone gets sick and the
ravenous media tear at the company or industry for
not being safe." Click here to read more of this
piece written by Dan Gainor
about how pink slime has gained traction it does
not deserve.
FINALLY-
I wanted to point you to a blog that I enjoyed
reading over the weekend- and perhaps by the time
you click here to access the blog
Agfrica, young Ashton Mese of
Kingfisher will have updated with another
entry. I met Ashton a few years back as she
was rising thru the ranks of the Kingfisher FFA-
and got to knew her better as we worked with her
in advance of her winning at the National FFA
Convention in Indy a couple of years ago in the
speech competitions there. She is now a Junior at
OSU in Ag Communications- and has been in Uganda
in recent days for an Ag Education mission- she
offers some excellent insights about that country
and the challenge of transferring how we do things
over here over there.
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God Bless!
You can reach us at the following:
phone: 405-473-6144
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