~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest
farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron
Hays of RON for Wednesday February 24, 2010 A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- A Whole Lotta Salad Growing Going On! We Detail OALP Travels
-- Senator Inhofe Continues to Cry "Hoax" Regarding Global Warming-
Chats with EPA's Lisa Jackson
-- Peterson Introduces Bill to Widen Ag Trade with Cuba
-- Antibiotics 101 Offered to Congerssional Staffers on Tuesday
-- OSU Livestock Judging Team Continues Strong 2010 Performance
-- Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Suing HSUS for
Racketeering.
-- Express Ranches Set for Two Sale Days March 4th and 5th for Annual
Spring Bull Sale and More
-- 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 pleased to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America! It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across
Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston
Enterprises- click
here for their website! 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. | |
A Whole Lotta Salad Growing Going On! We Detail OALP Travels ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We got some
quick emails this morning from OALP Class 14 member Michael Marlow that
supplements the excellent reports we have been getting from Clinton
Griffiths as the class continues its international travel experience in
Morocco and Spain. Michael wrote early this morning(Oklahoma time) that
"Today we travel across the southern coast of Spain. In every corner and
on every hill side we see another greenhouse. The houses are covered in a
sea of plastic sheeting. As you traverse this rocky coastline every turn
brings you more vegetable production. Our guide has called this coast the
"salad bowl of Europe." This has become a high tech irrigated production
area. The green houses are so numerous there is rarely a minute goes by
without 50 or more are within sight of our bus. They can get three seasons
of produce per year in these houses. Protected by mountains in the north
and the coast- at this location, it never freezes."I think from Michael's description even our friend Rodd Moesel would be impressed. We also have Clinton's report from yesterday's travels that we have as our top story of the morning on our website- the link is below. Griffiths talks about the contrast of seeing the oldest building in Europe, the Alhambra, versus seeing the high tech greenhouse vegetable production that Michael Marlow spoke of in his quick emails to us early this morning. You can read Clinton's recap of the Tuesday travels of OALP- and he provided us with an interview that he did with Michael Marlow of Monsanto about the travels, the impact being felt by OALP members and a word to both the current supporters of OALP (a big thank you) as well as a bit of encouragement to those who might want to be a part of Class 15 of the program. All of this can be had by going to the link below- and jumping to www.Oklahomafarmreport.com. Click here for more from the OALP travels in Southern Spain. | |
Senator Inhofe Continues to Cry "Hoax" Regarding Global Warming- Chats with EPA's Lisa Jackson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The latest
salvo on attacking the Climate Change claims of the Obama Administration
comes from the the Minority Staff of the Senate Committee on Environment
and Public Works as they released a report on Tuesday titled, "‘Consensus'
Exposed: The CRU Controversy." The report covers the controversy
surrounding emails and documents released from the University of East
Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU). It examines the extent to which
those emails and documents affect the scientific work of the UN's IPCC,
and how revelations of the IPCC's flawed science impacts the EPA's
endangerment finding for greenhouse gases.
"This EPW Minority Report (click here to download the full report) shows that the CRU controversy is about far more than just scientists who lack interpersonal skills, or a little email squabble," said Sen. Jim Inhofe, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "It's about unethical and potentially illegal behavior by some the world's leading climate scientists. Senator Inhofe also was busy yesterday in questioning EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson about Climategate and whether EPA has a leg to stand on
regarding their Endangerment Finding that Greenhouse Gases are a dangerous
and toxic substance. Click on the link below to jump to the EPW Minority
Blog, where you can read the full transcript between Inhofe and Jackson-
and they have Youtubes of all of it as well. | |
Peterson Introduces Bill to Widen Ag Trade with Cuba ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ House
Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson has introduced legislation
to expand U.S. agriculture exports to Cuba. H.R. 4645, the Travel
Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, is co-sponsored by 30 other
Members of Congress. If made into law, the act would eliminate the need to
go through banks in other countries to conduct agricultural trades. The
bill would also require agricultural exports to Cuba to meet the same
payment requirements as exports to other countries. Presently, payment in
advance is required.
The National Corn Growers as well as the National Farmers Union support the bill. NFU President Roger Johnson says - even though U.S. firms offer reliable trading partners, quality products and competitive prices, current U.S. policy hampers their ability to supply the Cuban market. Johnson says – if the United States is not the supplier, the European Union or Brazil will be happy to take our place. You may recall that Oklahoma ag interests have made a couple of trips into Cuba, promoting Oklahoma farm products. In fact, we have sold several barge loads of wheat to our neighbor just off the tip of Florida. | |
Antibiotics 101 Offered to Congerssional Staffers on Tuesday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Tuesday,
livestock and poultry groups hosted educational briefings on Capitol Hill
to share the facts about the importance of tools like antibiotics in
raising healthy food animals. The informational sessions were co-hosted by
the National Cattlemen's Beef Association through beef checkoff funding,
the National Chicken Council, National Pork Producers Council, National
Milk Producers Federation, National Turkey Federation, American Meat
Institute and National Meat Association.
“Prompt and judicious use of efficacious antibiotics is critical for the successful treatment and, at times, control of specific bacterial diseases in cattle. Certain FDA-approved antibiotics also enable us to significantly improve the efficiency of beef production,” said Dr. Guy Loneragan, an epidemiologist and associate professor at West Texas A&M University, and presenter at today's briefings. “Maintaining access to FDA-approved safe and effective technologies, including animal health products, helps ensure both the health and resource efficiency of U.S. herds and flocks.” Read more about this story- and hear comments from one of the Vets that spoke at the event on Tuesday- click on the link below to jump to our coverage on www.OklahomaFarmReport.com. | |
OSU Livestock Judging Team Continues Strong 2010 Performance ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A couple of
weeks ago, the OSU Livestock Judging team blew away the competition at the
Dixie National Livestock Show in Jackson, Mississippi. This past weekend,
the Livestock Judging Team won the contest at the San Antonio Stock Show.
In winning the contest by 27 points OSU had four students finish in the
Top Ten Overall.
For the second week in a row, Jett Eder was 2nd high individual of the entire contest, Garret Knebel was 5th, Clint Mefford was 7th and Kaylee Kerbs was 9th(She won High Individual honors in Jackson a week earlier). OSU was the high team in the Sheep and Beef Cattle divisions en route to winning the contest. The team's next competition and final contest of the spring is next month at Houston. | |
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Suing HSUS for Racketeering. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David
Martosko's website that is putting a lot of light and heat on the Humane
Society of the US is reporting that the holding company for the major
circus company of the United States is taking HSUS and a lot of their
friends to court. In its February 16 lawsuit, Feld Entertainment leveled
bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice, and money laundering charges
against HSUS and two of its corporate attorneys; three other animal rights
groups; the Washington, DC law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal;
and all three of that firms named partners.
The central claim of the lawsuit is that "Defendants have perpetrated and continue to perpetrate multiple schemes to permanently ban Asian elephants in circuses, to defraud FEI of money and property and/or to unjustly enrich themselves, with the ultimate objective of banning Asian elephants in all forms of entertainment and captivity. To carry out these schemes, defendants conspired to conduct and conducted the Enterprise through a pattern of, among other things, bribery and illegal gratuity payments (in violation of both state and federal law), obstruction of justice, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering." The website, HumaneWatch, has the lawsuit linked on their site- and more details about how this challenge to the HSUS and partners, if allowed to go forward, could be a multi million dollar drain to the HSUS bank account. Click on the link below to see and read more about these charges against Wayne Pacelle and company. Click here for more on the Racketteering Charges Leveled Against HSUS. | |
Express Ranches Set for Two Sale Days March 4th and 5th for Annual Spring Bull Sale and More ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Express
Ranches invites you to their 2010 Spring Bull Sale and Commercial Heifer
Sale. This Thursday, March 4 at 12 noon- 60 Limousin and Lim-Flex Bulls
will be offered, along with 225 females. The female offering will include
Angus Pairs, Open Angus Heifers and Commercial Angus Pairs.
The featuring of great Express genetics continues on Friday, March 5th, as the Angus Bull sale will get underway at 11:00 AM. Five hundred Angus Bulls will be up for sale, highlighted by the Express Ranches National Western Carload and Pen Bulls. For more details, call 1-800-664-3977. You can also click on the link below for more information from our calendar listing on our website- and a link to the Express Ranches Website, where you can either download a PDF version of the catalog that can be printed- or you can browse through the interactive version of the catalog that is also available on the Express Ranches website. Click here for more on this week's sales planned in Yukon at Express Ranches. | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 $7.45 per
bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are
$7.55 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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