~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest
farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron
Hays of RON for Thursday March 11, 2010 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Competition and Regulatory Issues Workshop Set for Friday in
Iowa
-- Wheat Ending Stocks Now Projected at One Billion Bushels- Kim
Anderson Explains ALL
-- Mary Kay Thatcher of AFBF Predicts Congress Will Finally Deal with
Death Tax This Year
-- R-Calf USA Mad About Slowness of Report from Canada of Latest Case
of BSE
-- AVMA Questions Dropping Animal ID Program
-- See ya in Guymon!
-- Blackjack Angus Farms Set for their Annual Bull Sale This
Saturday
-- 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. 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. 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. | |
Competition and Regulatory Issues Workshop Set for Friday in Iowa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Department
of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today
an updated schedule and panelists for the first joint public workshop,
which will be held on March 12, 2010, in Ankeny, Iowa, to explore
competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry.
The workshops, which were first announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Aug. 5, 2009, are the first joint Department of Justice/USDA workshops ever to be held to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The goals of the workshops are to promote dialogue among interested parties and foster learning with respect to the appropriate legal and economic analyses of these issues, as well as to listen to and learn from parties with experience in the agriculture sector. Attendance at the workshops is free and open to the public. Both USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Attorney General Eric Holder will be on hand for this workshop on Friday. A lot of the focus will be on the hog industry and contracting practices, as well as on the seed industry and the rapid move to seed that has protected technology inside the seed itself, often times from genetically modified practices. We have the full schedule as released by the Obama Administration- and will have coverage of that event as it unfolds on Friday- our friends at Agri-Pulse will be on hand in Ankeny- and we will be "retweeting" many of their posts so information from this event will show on our Twitter updates that are found on the bottom right hand side of our webpages. | |
Wheat Ending Stocks Now Projected at One Billion Bushels- Kim Anderson Explains ALL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The latest
Supply Demand numbers from the US Department of Agriculture were released
on Wednesday morning- and wheat supplies have now crossed a key
psychological barrier of one billion bushels. Corn supplies were slightly
less than a month ago in the report, while soybean stocks were reported as
being a little tighter than a month ago.
According to the report, U.S. wheat ending stocks for 2009/10 are projected 20 million bushels higher as a reduction in expected food use pushes ending stocks to 1 billion bushels. Projected food use is lowered 20 million bushels based on the latest mill grind data from the U.S. Bureau of Census. High flour extraction rates for a second straight year are reducing the amount of grain needed to produce flour. At the same time, declining per capita consumption is reducing demand for flour and wheat. Exports of all wheat are unchanged, but hard red winter wheat exports are raised 10 million bushels with an offsetting reduction for white wheat. On the feed grains- U.S. feed grain supplies for 2009/10 are projected slightly lower with a downward revision in estimated corn production and a reduction in projected barley imports. Corn production is lowered 20 million bushels based on updated estimates of yields for Illinois and Minnesota, and harvested area for Michigan. U.S. corn production remains a record at the revised estimate of 13.1 billion bushels. Click on the link below- we have the complete report linked there and we have a great conversation that we had with Dr. Kim Anderson of OSU about the market implications of having the burden of a billion bushels of wheat as an ending stock number overhanging the market in the weeks leading up to harvest. We talk about market strategy and more with Kim. | |
Mary Kay Thatcher of AFBF Predicts Congress Will Finally Deal with Death Tax This Year ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congress is
going to fix the Death Tax- that's what longtime lobbyist Mary Kay
Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau told us this past weekend while we
were both at the Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California. In 2010, the
Estate Tax rate at the Federal level is zero, but January 1, 2011, it
jumps back a decade and is a very high tax with a relatively low dollar
amount of an exemption. In 2011, the estate tax will be reinstated with a
$1 million exemption and a top rate of 55 percent.
American Farm Bureau has policy on Estate Taxes that states "Farm Bureau believes that estate taxes should be eliminated permanently. If estate taxes are reinstated, there should be an exemption large to exclude farms and ranches from estate taxes, the exemption should be indexed for inflation and be transferable to a spouse. Farm Bureau opposes a retroactive restatement of the estate tax. Farm Bureau supports the continuation of “stepped-up” basis—which adjusts the value of property for inflation at death." Click on the link below for more on the Estate Tax issue- and you can listen to our comments with Mary Kay from this past weekend on why she feels Congress will finally get off square one and deal with the Death tax- probably by setting an exemption level of three to five million dollars per person. Click here for more on the Death Tax Tug of War that Continues in Congress. | |
R-Calf USA Mad About Slowness of Report from Canada of Latest Case of BSE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ R-Calf USA
officials are upset about what they perceive as a "coverup" by Canada
regarding a recently discovered case of BSE. In a news release issued
yesterday, the cattle group says that case was apparently found February
25- but yet was not reported until this week.
"Yet again, R-CALF USA learned through the rumor mill yesterday that Canada had detected the country's 18th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 72-month-old Angus cow. Although Canadian officials were purported to have notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week, a phone call this morning to OIE revealed that Canada had not yet notified OIE of this latest discovery. However, R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson was told via telephone by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that Canada, indeed, had discovered yet another case of BSE. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) later verified CFIA's report." The release goes on to say that "At six years of age, this particular
animal would have been born in 2003 or 2004, making her the 18th
Canadian-born BSE case and the 11th BSE-positive animal eligible to be
exported to the United States." Click here for more on the latest case of BSE found in the Canadian Cattle herd. | |
AVMA Questions Dropping Animal ID Program ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A recent
decision by USDA to scrap a national animal identification system could
seriously hinder U.S. veterinarians' ability to track diseased animals and
prevent the spread of those diseases. Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief executive
officer of the American Veterinary Medical Association, says - by having
an animal ID program in place, we can more quickly contain and eliminate
disease. According to DeHaven - doing so not only minimizes economic
impact, but by minimizing the number of animals affected, we reduce animal
suffering.
DeHaven is also critical of the USDA announcement that cattle branding—an outdated form of theft deterrent—will be an acceptable form of animal identification in the new system. DeHaven says - it's hard for me to imagine how this ancient technology will fit into a modern, interstate system to trace animals. A new proposed system will be administered by individual states and tribal nations. Each will be allowed to use its own system of identification. Dr. DeHaven questions if - these programs will be compatible with each other. He asks, - will we actually be able to trace animals as they move from state to state with different systems in each state or tribal nation? | |
See ya in Guymon! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We will be
headed up Highway 3 later today for the 2010 edition of the Panhandle Ag
Appreciation Days celebration this evening and tomorrow in Guymon. We have
been asked to be moderator of their Thursday evening elected officials Ag
Forum, as well as emcee and moderator of their morning and lunchtime
events on Friday.
We have linked below information on the activities for both today and tomorrow- and we invite you to join us for this celebration of agriculture in one of the top ten counties in the United States in agricultural production and sales receipts- Texas County. By the way- we have some exciting news about a new source of Oklahoma farm news for the Oklahoma Panhandle that will be starting soon- we will be making that announcement at the Ag Appreciation Days in Guymon and then tell our email audience about it the first of the week. As our friend Gary England says, we'll keep you advised!" Click here for more on the Panhandle Ag Appreciation Days in Guymon this evening and tomorrow. | |
Blackjack Angus Farms Set for their Annual Bull Sale This Saturday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Blackjack
Angus Farms Annual Bull Sale is scheduled for Saturday, March 13, 2010 in
Seminole, Oklahoma. The sale starts at 12 noon.
Selling will be: 75 Performance-tested Angus Bulls (Fall 2008 to Spring
2009 Bulls...Carcass and Ultrasound Data...Semen tested and fully
guaranteed) Sale manager Eddie Sims is very impressed with the set of bulls that
will be offered from the Blackjack herd, as well as from guest consignor
Pfeifer Angus. "You will like the soundness and condition of this group of
prospects. They are ready to go to work. They have been developed in large
pasture traps on a high maintenance ration and hay." Click here for more on the Blackjack Farms Angus Sale in Seminole this Saturday. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures 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! 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. | |
Let's Check the Markets! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was a huge
run at OKC West in El Reno yesterday- just over 10,000 head of cattle were
reported. Yearling steers were called steady to $1 higher, while calves
sold steady to a couple of dollars higher. For the entire OKC
West report from El Reno on Wednesday, click here for the report from
Tina Colby and John Stacy at Market News. Current cash price for Canola is $7.75 per bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $7.85 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: | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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