From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 05:38
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 Monday September 17, 2007!
A service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers and Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Seaboard's Wakefield Farms Win National Environmental Award!
-- New Officers for Oklahoma Beef Council!
-- Over 700 Compete in 2007 Young Farmers and Ranchers Livestock Judging At Oklahoma State Fair
-- NCBA Gives Thumbs Up to USDA for Canadian Cow Rule- R-Calf is Disheartened.
-- AFR Heads Back to Washington
-- Cash Cattle Market Predictions with Dr. Derrell Peel
-- What Do You Get When You Stack Eight Genes?? a Monsanto/Dow Deal!

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 welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here!

We also welcome American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their NEW AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show coming up December 6-8, 2007, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City next spring. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows 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.


Seaboard's Wakefield Farms Win National Environmental Award!
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Today the national Pork Checkoff and National Hog Farmer magazine announced that the same producer named as Oklahoma's 2007 Environmental Stewardship award winner is being recognized as one of four National Environmental Stewardship recipients. Seaboard Foods' Wakefield Farm in Beaver was selected by a national panel of producers, academia and environmental organizations. Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture, Terry Peach, said the efforts taken by the farm to protect natural resources and support wildlife deserved being recognized.

Animal waste generated by the Wakefield farm is treated through a seven-stage system that deals with liquid and solid waste separately, said Don Owens, director of maintenance and construction for Seaboard Foods. "This is the only farm that I know of in the country that utilizes all the different components as one system," he said. "Managing these components is good for our employees and creates a good working environment. It also affects outside quality, which makes us a good neighbor." Wakefield Farm was evaluated on its manure management system, water and soil conservation practices, odor control, farm aesthetics and neighbor relations, wildlife habitat promotion, and innovative ideas used to protect the environment, according to the Oklahoma Pork Council. Other farms recognized for the award this year are located in Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota.

Wakefield Farm is the seventh Oklahoma hog farm to be awarded the National Environmental Stewardship award. Oklahoma has had more national award winners than any other state. In 2005, the Treadway Ranch in McCurtain, OK received the award. We caught up with Secretary of Agriculture Terry Peach to talk to him about this recognition of environmental excellence bestowed on Wakefield Farms- and we have linked below our conversation with Secretary Peach about Wakefield Farms and how they protect the environment as they enhance valuable by products from their primary production of high quality pork.

Click here to listen to Ron and Terry Peach on The Environmental Award given to Wakefield Farms.


New Officers for Oklahoma Beef Council!
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At the final Oklahoma Beef Council meeting for their Fiscal Year that ends September 30, 2007- they elected new officers for the new Fiscal Year. New Chairman for 2007-2008 is Brian Healey of Davis, Scott Dvorak of Perry is the Vice Chairman and the new man starting through the officer chairs is Brett Morris of Ninnekah- he will serve as Secretary- Treasurer. The Chairman over this past year has been Bobby Smith of Fairview.

At the board meeting, new projects for the coming year were reviewed and approved by the Council- and we will be highlighting some of those over the next few weeks.


Over 700 Compete in 2007 Young Farmers and Ranchers Livestock Judging At Oklahoma State Fair
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It was one of the largest livestock judging competitions held in years at the State Fair of Oklahoma, as more than 700 young people participated on the opening Friday of the fair at the event sponsored by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee.

Top teams at the 2007 event included Marshall County 4-H in the 4-H Junior Division and McCurtain County in the Senior 4-H Division. In FFA, top junior team represented Kingfisher FFA while Minco FFA's team claimed top prize in the Senior FFA Division.

High Individuals were Wesley Wegener of Minco as the Top FFA Senior Judger, McKenzie Wa Ha as high individual in the Junior FFA class- best individual in the Senior 4-H was claimed by Melissa Potts of McCurtain County while the Junior 4-H High Individual was Tanner Allread of Canadian County. We have more of the top placings on our web site- as we have the listings of the top teams and individuals linked below- check it out.

Click here for the rest of the top placings at the YF&R Judging Contest Friday at the State Fair of Oklahoma.


NCBA Gives Thumbs Up to USDA for Canadian Cow Rule- R-Calf is Disheartened.
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As expected, USDA has finalized its rule that will open trade with Canada to cattle born after March 1, 1999, and to beef from cattle of any age. USDA estimates the rule will go into effect on November 19, 2007, or 60 days from its upcoming publication in the Federal Register. "Once this rule enters into effect, the primary result is expected to be additional imports of Canadian non-fed beef - rather than live cattle - which will replace lean beef imports from other countries such as New Zealand and Australia," said Gregg Doud, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). USDA has adjusted its annual estimate of older live cattle imports pertaining to this rule from 657,000 head to only 75,000 beginning in 2008. Doud and other industry economists also do not expect this rule to vastly impact the U.S. cattle market.

The impact is likely to be minimal for several reasons- those reasons include 1) many older Canadian beef cows will not be imported for a lack of proper age documentation. 2) transport expenses, strength of the Canadian dollar, and surplus of packing capacity in Canada are disincentives to live cattle imports. 3) backlog of cull cows in Canada has been reduced. And 4) the Canadian cull slaughter is small, 13 percent of that of the U.S. It is widely expected that Canadian cull cow prices will appreciate to U.S. levels almost immediately after this rule goes into effect. It is also expected that U.S. cull cow prices will dip, but still stay above 2006 levels. It is predicted that during the next year U.S. cull cow prices could go down approximately one dollar per hundredweight.

NCBA says they believe that the rule is a reasonable one in that it's important that we get our rules lined up with what we will be asking other countries to allow when it comes to exports of both beef and live cattle from the United States- John Queen, President of the NCBA says "cattlemen win in the global marketplace when trade is based on internationally accepted guidelines."

Meanwhile, Bill Bullard of R-Calf USA has little good to say of the new Rule issued by USDA on Friday. Bullard says "the science suggests that we should be proceeding with far more caution than what USDA is exhibiting." Bullard says that the incidence of BSE is far higher in Canada than in the United States and that the USDA seems to be ignoring sound science in moving to allow live animals in from Canada after November 19th of this year.


AFR Heads Back to Washington
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American Farmers and Ranchers Vice President Terry Detrick along with their new Policy Analyst Francie Tolle will be jumping on an airplane for Washington today, heading to Washington as AFR continues to express their farm policy positions to key lawmakers as the Senate gets closer to working on the 2007 farm bill.

Francie Tolle appeared on our Saturday morning TV news segment on KWTV News9 and said that they want a better deal for wheat producers in the new farm bill- and are looking at all of the measures floating around the Washington Beltway to see what might enhance a safety net for wheat farmers.

They are also hopeful that a permanent Ag Disaster Proposal being championed by Max Baccus of Montana (among others) will get some traction in the days ahead. Francie expressed concern about the fact that the 2002 farm law will expire with no new deal in place- but is hopeful that lawmakers won't leave farmers hanging in limbo for an extended time.
We also did an audio interview with Francie on the AFR traveling to Washington- and we have that available for you by clicking below.

Click here to listen to Ron talk with Francie Tolle of the AFR on Farm Policy.


Cash Cattle Market Predictions with Dr. Derrell Peel
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The first few days of this week- we will be featuring on the Beef Buzz a conversation that we had at the end of this past week with Dr. Derrell Peel of Oklahoma State University on the Cattle Market.

Dr. Peel says that we are seeing an evolution of the slaughter cattle market that began last fall in that we have moved from lighter yearlings fed for a long time to heavier animals that are fed a shorter number of days. Peel says that high grain prices have moved cattle feeders this direction.

He adds that he sees the slaughter cattle market staying strong for the balance of 2007- with the "90s" a very likely trading range for the next several months. You can hear Derrell's comments on today's Beef Buzz on the Radio Oklahoma Network across the state as well as when you go to our website and click on the "Beef Buzz" button. We have also linked the audio from that webpage for today's Beef Buzz below so you can hear what Dr. Peel had to say- By the way- we will have more on the cattle market with Derrell Peel over the next two or three days on the Beef Buzz- and we will link that here for you.

Click here for the Monday Beef Buzz from the RON Network with Dr. Derrell Peel!


What Do You Get When You Stack Eight Genes?? a Monsanto/Dow Deal!
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Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences will develop a seed that offers eight different genes for herbicide tolerance and insect-protection. Called SmartStax, it will have Dow's Herculex I and Herculex RW along with Monsanto's YieldGuard VT Rootworm/RR2 and YieldGuard VT PRO, plus RoundUp Ready and Liberty Link weed control systems.

"By bringing together the two companies that have developed and commercialized the trait technologies widely used in agriculture today, we can provide farmers an 'all-in-one' answer to demands for comprehensive yield protection from weed and insect threats," says Carl Casale, executive vice president of strategy and operations for Monsanto. The agreement will expand growth of Monsanto's seeds and traits business while pushing forward Dow's plans to build a leading seed and biotechnology platform. "The combination of these trait technologies signals the start of the next generation of products with improved plant protection and yield increases for the farmer," says Jerome Peribere, president and CEO of Dow AgroSciences.

Results of collaborative tests on the feasibility of integrating the different genes are on on target. Regulatory submissions will be prepared from the tests and it is the goal of the companies to have SmartStax available commercially to farmers by 2010. We have more on this new technology deal that was unveiled this past Friday with a special audio report that you can listen to by clicking below.

Click here to get more information on the Eight Stack Technology partnered by Monsanto and Dow.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them 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



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