From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 7:20 AM
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
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 Thursday February 25, 2010
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS Futures!
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-- Like Don Quixote, the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Class 14 Continues to Journey Across Spain
-- Constantly Control Costs- A Key to Success on Today's Beef Cattle Ranch
-- Oklahoma Department of Ag Announces Oilseed Commission Election Results
-- The 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo Just Two Weeks Away.
-- Despite Tough Economy, U.S. Pork, Beef Faring Very Well in Japan
-- Signup is Open for April Sessions of Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit
-- Check the Calendar- lots of stuff coming in March
-- 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.

And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Southern Plains Farm Show, coming up April 15,16 and 17, 2010.

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.


Like Don Quixote, the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Class 14 Continues to Journey Across Spain
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Several of the Class 14 Members of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program have offered their thoughts on what they are seeing as they continue their travels in the south of Spain this week. AND, we have more pictures- a bakers dozen to be exact- for you to see- click here for out Flickr page with all of the pictures we have gotten from the class to date.

Here's what several of the class members are saying about the trip: Scott Neufeld from Fairview- "Water is still king and issues about who has it, and how much they can have, are priority here too. Market access and competition are the biggest issues to profitability. We heard this as we visited a wholesaler, vegetable auction and packaging for distribution center today.
"Government red tape and policies are also challenges. Like us they deal with this issue.

Allen Entz: "The acres upon acres of greenhouses are obviously impressive. The marketing method of the vast amounts of produce is what got my attention. Some produce is sold through cooperatives with approximately 50 percent being sold by auction.
"As I am an auctioneer myself I was excited at our opportunity to experience a live auction. The rapid pace of the auction is very interesting, especially with the absence of an auctioneer!!! The price is shown on a screen and begins to descend automatically. When a bidder pushes the button located on their desk, they are the buyer. Pretty much opposite of what we in the States are used to. They sell anywhere between 200,000 and 380,000 kilos of produce in just a 30 minute auction."

Brandon Winters with PCOM took special interest in the Olive oil processing seen by the group- having as his point of reference the cottonseed, canol and sunflower seed processing done by the organization he works for. "While in Spain we visited an olive oil processing plant producing virgin olive oil. I was really amazed at the way the producers brought their olives into the processing plant. They used small single Axel trailers with manual hand pumps. "We learned that olives can have between 18 and 24 percent oil and that the remains or meal is sold as a burning agent and cannot be feed to any animals due to toxicity issues. I learned that they can mechanically press around 850metric ton per day. I learned that their vergin oil sells at what I would call a premium to most food grade oil. They run some of the same equipment as American processor's however in a little different fashion."

Click here for more from OALP Class 14 and their travels in Spain- including audio from one of the Class Members.


Constantly Control Costs- A Key to Success on Today's Beef Cattle Ranch
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Dr. Barry Dunn of the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management joins us for this Beef Buzz, as we talk with him about being successful in today's beef cattle industry. Dr. Dunn was a presenter at the recent Cattle Industry Conference- and we caught up with him there, and we talked with him about some of the tools that help today's full time ranch operator survive and prosper.

Dunn says that probably the number one, two and three things to do are one and the same- constantly control costs. We also talked with him about arbitrage- and how that can increase the pace at which your money will turn and allow you to accept smaller profit margins, and simply turn over your money more times in the course of a year, allowing those small returns to mount up.

We also talked about the future of the beef cattle business- and Dr. Dunn is optimistic about where the future will take progressive operators. You can click on the link below and learn more about his thoughts on where the beef business now stands and where he sees it going.

Click here for more on the future of the Beef Cattle Industry.


Oklahoma Department of Ag Announces Oilseed Commission Election Results
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Oklahoma's new Oilseed Commission election results were confirmed Wednesday. State Secretary of Agriculture, Terry Peach, confirmed the following new oilseed commission board members.

District 1, Kelly Chain, Canton; District 2, Alan Mindemann, Apache; District 3, Lee Leeper, Alva; and District 4, Brent Rendel, Miami. There were no nominations for District 5 and Peach will appoint someone to that board position in the near future.

The Oklahoma Oilseed Commission will collect an assessment from producers to fund research, market development, education, and enhance oilseed production.


The 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo Just Two Weeks Away.
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The final preparations for the "World's Largest Junior Livestock Show" are in full swing- and Executive Director for the Show, Jeramy Rich, expects another great celebration for rural youth March 12-22 at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City.

Among the key numbers that will help put the in perspective- Rich tells us that he expects more than 7,000 young people to exhibit livestock at this year's event, showing more than 11,000 animals. They expect at least 25,000 people to take part in the show- kids showing, parents supporting, FFA Advisors and 4-H leaders and hundreds of volunteers that make the show a success. Rich expects about $800,000 will be spent on March 22 during the Sale of Champions, rewarding 205 young people for showing the very best in their category at the Oklahoma City show. Beyond that money, there will also be other prize money and lots of scholarship dollars handed out to young people over the ten day run of the Expo- and when you add up all the premium sale dollars, prize money and scholarships- the investment into Oklahoma youth will likely exceed $1.5 million.

We have a conversation on our website with Jeramy that goes into a lot more detail about how the show prep is going, how the facilities will be used this year, and even some info for those of you that might want to get involved and support Oklahoma's young people thru the OYE. Click on the link below and you can take a listen to this opening story of the 2010 OYE. (By the way- if you have interest in sponsoring our coverage of this year's Expo- call or email me and I will tell you more.)

Click here for the OYE Preivew for 2010 with Jeramy Rich.


Despite Tough Economy, U.S. Pork, Beef Faring Very Well in Japan
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Japan reinforced its position as a key trading partner for the U.S. beef and pork industries in 2009, clearly outperforming the market and either maintaining or increasing U.S. beef and pork imports even as total retail and foodservice spending in Japan slumped in the global economic slowdown.
In calendar year 2009, U.S. pork sales in Japan, our top market for pork export value, nearly matched the all-time value record set one year ago ($1.54 billion verses $1.545 billion in 2008). While that fact may not seem astonishing, consider that the global pork industry slumped 15 percent in 2009 versus the year prior, and Japan's supermarket sales dropped 4.3 percent, reaching a 21-year low of 12.83 trillion yen (about $142.6 billion). At the same time, Japan's foodservice sales dropped 1.5 percent, the first decline in the past six years.
In this same environment, sales of U.S. beef in Japan ended the year 23 percent higher than the previous year in both volume and value while the global market for all beef exporters fell 16 percent

"Because of its strong currency and financial stability, there has been a tendency to think of Japan as an oasis in the global economic downturn," said Philip Seng, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). "But make no mistake about it, Japan's retail and food service sectors have faced serious challenges in recent months. One of the keys to growing market share for U.S. beef and pork in this economic environment has been to meet these challenges with products that deliver tremendous versatility and value."

USMEF emphasizes the versatility of U.S beef for restaurants that want to attract price-conscious diners. Yakiniku (Korean barbecue) is one of the largest sectors of the Japanese foodservice industry with approximately 20,000 outlets across the country. To increase penetration for U.S. beef in these popular restaurants, USMEF is promoting alternative beef cuts such as chuck rib, boneless short rib, chuck eye roll, brisket, outside skirt and tongue. With support from the Beef Checkoff and MAP, these cuts were recently featured by USMEF at the Yakiniku Business Fair in Tokyo, where many key buyers from Yakiniku restaurant chains were among the 13,000 attendees. USMEF demonstrated several new menu ideas at the event, including sal ted beef tartar, beef roll rice ball, beef and gelatin noodle salad and beef meat ball.

Click here for more about the Japanese Success Story for US Pork and Beef


Signup is Open for April Sessions of Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit
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The next Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit classes are scheduled for Monday – Wednesday, April 5-7, and Wednesday – Friday, April 7-9 at the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater. (The program begins at 4:00 pm on the first day and concludes at 1:00 pm the last day.) Using the National Beef Quality Audit as the foundation, the Beef Quality Summit course offers participants the opportunity to see the causes and results of quality challenges facing the beef industry. Summit attendees from ranchers to processors evaluate live cattle in an effort to predict quality and yield then follow the cattle through the harvest and grading process. As an attendee you will actually fabricate a beef carcass into wholesale meat cuts.

Oklahoma Beef Council Executive Director Heather Buckmaster tells us that "If you haven't been to this outstanding educational event hosted by the Oklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma State University, and the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Product Center, now is the time to do so." It is free to participants with a $250 refundable deposit. Please register by March 22. You can call the Oklahoma Beef Council at 800-235-5403 for information on signing up and you can go to our calendar listing for this registration on our website by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit Coming in April.


Check the Calendar- lots of stuff coming in March
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We are down to one calendar item left for February- the OCA District Meeting in Woodward this evening. But in March, the list of events going on during the month keeps piling up.

Events include the huge Commodity Classic in southern California next week, the Oklahoma Youth Expo starting March 12 and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Annual Convention on March 19 thru the 21st.

You can check details of these items and a whole lot more by going to our calendar page as found at www.OklahomaFarmReport.com. You can also click on the link below and we will jump you to what we believe is the most comprehensive listing of rural and ag events important to Oklahoma you will find anywhere on the world wide web.

Click here for our Calendar page on OklahomaFarmReport.Com


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.

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 $7.55 per bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $7.70 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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