~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest
farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron
Hays of RON for Monday March 29, 2010 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Bullish Hog Numbers Issued by USDA on Friday afternoon
-- Oklahoma National Stockyards Getting Ready for World Livestock
Auctioneer Championship
-- AFR's Terry Detrick Worries About Attitude of USDA Secretary
Vilsack Towards Production Agriculture After Private Meeting With
Him
-- Obama Recess Appointments Announced Include Two of Interest to
Agriculture
-- Katie Couric Failed in Effort to Move Antibiotic Use in Livestock
Onto the Front Burner as a Washington Policy Priority
-- Commercial Cattle Grading Contest Offering Lots of Scholarship
Bucks on April 15 in Oklahoma City
-- Thanks for the Congrats on the Distinguished Service Award from
the OPC
-- 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. | |
Bullish Hog Numbers Issued by USDA on Friday afternoon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The USDA's
Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report offered bullish news for pork producers.
The all-hogs and pigs total is 63.98 million head. That's 2.8 percent
lower than last year and almost two percent below the pre-report estimate.
The breeding herd is at 5.76 million head, down 3.9 percent from one year
ago. For the market herd, the total is 58.2 million head. That's down 2.7
percent from last year.
University of Nebraska Livestock Marketing Specialist Dr. Darrell Mark says this is a very bullish report. The March 1st breeding herd is at a record low. He believes there should be fresh optimism in the pork business about profitability in the months ahead, and as a result, Mark believes most producers will drop their culling plans. The breeding herd in Oklahoma jumped three percent over the last year,
compared to a four percent drop nationally. The total Oklahoma breeding
herd now stands at 410,000 head, making Oklahoma the fifth largest
breeding herd in the US. Click on the link below for more on these hog and pigs numbers- we have an audio overview of the report, as well as a link to the full details released by USDA on Friday afternoon. Click here for more on the latest Hog and Pigs Numbers from USDA as of March First. | |
Oklahoma National Stockyards Getting Ready for World Livestock Auctioneer Championship ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The slate of
competitors is set for the 47th annual World Livestock Auctioneer
Championship this summer. Thirty-three of the best livestock auctioneers
in North America will head for the Oklahoma National Stockyards in
Oklahoma City to compete for the top title in their profession. Five of
the auctioneers that qualified call Oklahoma home.
The Stockyards is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and President Rob Fisher says they've been getting ready for the contest for several months - with hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into refurbishing and remodeling the facilities. The five from Oklahoma that have qualified for the 2010 Championship
include Bailey Ballou, Elgin, Okla.; Lance Cochran, Medford, Okla; Dustin
Focht, Stillwater, Okla; Brian Little, Wann, Okla. and Brian Marlin,
Inola, Okla. | |
AFR's Terry Detrick Worries About Attitude of USDA Secretary Vilsack Towards Production Agriculture After Private Meeting With Him ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ American
Farmers & Ranchers/Oklahoma Farmers Union(AFR/OFU) was successful in
getting several initiatives included in the policy statement of National
Farmers Union (NFU) during the NFU Convention which concluded earlier this
month. The policy becomes the lobbying direction for the organization for
the next year.
"We were able to get provisions included in both permanent policy and special orders which are relative to current national agriculture issues originating at our Oklahoma AFR Convention," said AFR/OFU President Terry Detrick. "While we did not get everything accomplished which we wished to do, we in fact were reasonably successful overall." We talked with Detrick about some of the highlights of what he saw at the NFU meeting, attended by just a handful of AFR delegates here in 2010, and you can listen to our conversation by clicking on the link below. In particular, he expressed a lot of concern about the attitude of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack towards production agriculture after meeting privately with the former Iowa Governor while there in Rapid City. "I want to compliment NFU President Roger Johnston for being very open-minded with respect to issues impacting producers in the southwest U.S. With almost an entirely new staff hired over the last year, they are very interested in representing the diverse interests and what is good for the future of all of agriculture," stated Detrick. | |
Obama Recess Appointments Announced Include Two of Interest to Agriculture ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The White
House issued a news release on Saturday that "President Obama announced
his intent to recess appoint fifteen nominees to fill critical
administration posts that have been left vacant, including key positions
on the economic team and on boards that have been left with vacancies for
months."
Two of the recess appointments that can be made only when Congress is
adjourned are of interest to farm and ranch interests. One is Islam A.
Siddiqui: Nominee for Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative. The White House News Release offers this "bio" of
Siddiqui, who has received generally good reviews from ag
interests. The other recess appointment that has agricultural ties is Jill Long
Thompson: Nominee for Member, Farm Credit Administration Board. Here's the
"bio" from the White House news release for Ms. Thompson. | |
Katie Couric Failed in Effort to Move Antibiotic Use in Livestock Onto the Front Burner as a Washington Policy Priority ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The battle
over antibiotics is currently not on the front burner in the US Congress-
and Colin Woodall says that the recent Katie Couric treatment of
antibiotics in the CBS Evening News had little impact in Washington to
move it into the limelight because the two segments were not even seen in
the Washington, DC market because of a snowstorm the days those segments
were aired on the evening newscasts.
Woodall says that the livestock industry has had a lot of success in recent weeks in having seminars for Congressional staffers in Washington that they have called Antibiotics 101- pointing out that meat reaching the consumer have no traces of antibiotics in them because of withdrawal times, and that antibiotics that are approved for use in livestock face as rigorous or even more rigorous approval process than antibiotics approved for human use. He says these seminars have been well attended and he believes have been helpful in offsetting negative comments from those who are seeking more restrictions on antibiotic use in animal agriculture. We have more on this story with Colin Woodall of the NCBA- and links back to the previous two Beef Buzz shows that were also with Woodall, where we talked about Estate Taxes, Animal ID and Beef Trade with Japan. Click on the link below to get to all of these Beef Buzz shows, as heard on great radio stations all across the state of Oklahoma on the Radio Oklahoma Network. | |
Commercial Cattle Grading Contest Offering Lots of Scholarship Bucks on April 15 in Oklahoma City ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the opening
Day of the 2010 Southern Plains Farm Show, a commercial cattle grading
scholarship competition will be a kick off event. The top scoring
individual overall will receive the Rick Jones Memorial Scholarship in the
amount of $2000.00. Rick Jones was a lifelong cattleman and a founding
partner of OKC West Livestock Market, Inc.; El Reno, OK. A total of over
$6000 in scholarships will be awarded.
Midwest Shows Scholarship Programs Inc. is presenting the competition that is open to all FFA and 4H members. Those participating will first attend a one-hour seminar on grading presented by Gary Bledsoe, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Consultant on Rural Development. and Glen Schickedanz Oklahoma Department of Agriculture News and Market Development Coordinator, Following the presentation, teams of 4 contestants will grade 15 head using the criteria covered in the seminar. Scoring will be supervised by OSU Extension/4H and Oklahoma Careertech Ag Education department district program specialists. This is a tremendous educational event for both 4-H and FFA youth interested in becoming more knowledgeable about how to select the best feeder calves for a backgrounding operation. And, the prizes are first class. Midwest Farm Shows wants to encourage both extension 4-H agents as well as Ag Education Teachers to gather some of your young people that are interested in the cattle business and bring them to both learn and then compete on April 15. | |
Thanks for the Congrats on the Distinguished Service Award from the OPC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I greatly
appreciate several of you dropping me an email about the Distinguished
Service Award given to yours truly by the Oklahoma Pork Council this past
Thursday evening during their Pork Congress Awards Banquet.
The great folks at the OPC produced videos of each of their winners, including a very nice overview of my growing up in the hog industry and then how we have been involved in building one, and now a second agricultural radio network to a number one rating in the state of Oklahoma. For those of you that would like to see that video, we have it up and available on our website. Our thanks again to Roy Lee Lindsey and Nikki Snider of the Oklahoma Pork Council for their work on getting this video assembled. Even my 21 year old daughter leaned over as it was playing Thursday night and asked, are you going to be able to get a copy of this dad? The answer is yes- and you can go to the link to see it for yourself. | |
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 $7.40 per
bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are
$7.50 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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