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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday September 19,
2007! A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers and
Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Wheat Growers Want Congress to Extend USDA's Ability to Write
Advance Direct Payment Checks for the 2008 Crop at the Start of the New
Fiscal Year.
-- Fifty Basis Point Rate Cut Helps Farm Economy Two Ways...
-- An Order Buyer Will Tell All at the Central Oklahoma Cattle
Conference Next Month.
-- No Date For Closing of Five FSA County Offices Set as of
Yet.
-- Sales Catalog for Express Ranches Bull Sale Now on Line.
-- Plenty of Seed Available for Fall Planting!
-- Anybody Expanding Their Cattle Herd Out There????
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! 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. | |
Wheat Growers Want Congress to Extend USDA's Ability to Write Advance Direct Payment Checks for the 2008 Crop at the Start of the New Fiscal Year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National
Association of Wheat Growers President John Thaemert of Kansas wrote
Members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Tuesday to officially request a provision in the upcoming continuing
resolution to temporarily extend the Department of Agriculture's authority
to issue advanced direct payments. The letter also reiterated NAWG's
policy priorities, chiefly the need for a strong direct payment program.
Authority for most farm policy programs will terminate with the 2002 Farm
Bill on Sept. 30 unless a temporary extension or new farm policy is
enacted. USDA officials have indicated that the Department does not intend
to request extension of authority to provide advanced direct payments or
other programs under the 2002 law in absence of new farm policy.
"Though most major commodity groups would like to see new farm policy as soon as possible, this probable series of events is particularly troublesome for wheat growers, who are planting their 2008 winter crops now with no certainty about the farm safety net for this crop," Thaemert's letter said. "Similarly, a number of bankers who serve our grower-members have called our office to inquire about the safety net, and we have no answer to give them." Thaemert also reminded Senators of NAWG's policy priorities, including
the continuation and enhancement of the direct payment program and
opposition to revenue proposals due to unrefined triggers, the elimination
of the nonrecourse loan and the likelihood that a revenue program would be
considered Amber Box by the World Trade Organization. Click here for the Full Letter sent by Kansas Wheat Producer and NAWG President John Thaemert. | |
Fifty Basis Point Rate Cut Helps Farm Economy Two Ways... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The most
obvious help that comes the Federal Open Market Committee deciding to cut
interest rates by a half percentage point to 4.75% is that farmers and
ranchers over the next several months should see their interest costs on
borrowed money decline- and USDA's Chief Economist Dr. Keith Collins says
that could save farmers millions of dollars.
At the same time, the rate cut has caused further weakening of the dollar, which effectively makes everything we buy with dollars more expensive overseas, but makes goods that we price in dollars cheaper in the worldwide marketplace. That means the 15 year low that the dollar experienced earlier today against a basket of currencies is a price cut for every bushel of grains and oilseeds we sell, every bale of cotton we offer and every pound of beef and pork we want to move beyond our borders. At a time when demand for our grains and oilseeds is already red hot, it's a little like pouring a little more gasoline onto the campfire. With additional foreign demand for our ag commodities, domestic prices will likely have more upward price pressure applied to them and raises the fears of inflation. But, the Tuesday announcement by the Fed means, initially anyway, help for the farm economy in the price of money and through a cheaper Yankee greenback- our farm commodities being priced more aggressively against other farm products around the world. Maybe the Brazilians will want to file a WTO grievance against Mr. Bernanke for hurting their farm economy through our Fed interest rate cut! On the Rate Cut- Here's a "cute" commentary on Dan Bernanke and his dancing friend, THE Market. | |
An Order Buyer Will Tell All at the Central Oklahoma Cattle Conference Next Month. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cattle
producers can get a peek inside the thought process of an experienced
order buyer at the Central Oklahoma Cattle Conference Oct. 25 in Chandler,
and that knowledge could potentially result in increased value for their
animals. "One of our goals with the conference was to clear up some
confusion producers can have about why their cattle don't bring the same
price as those of somebody else," said Kent Barnes, Oklahoma Cooperative
Extension Service area livestock specialist.
The order buyer that will share his insights is Jim Loftin, a highly experienced and respected order buyer and rancher from Tahlequah, as he will offer real- world evaluation of live feeder calves and cull cows. "It's going to be a live-animal demonstration that will provide producers with management ideas that can improve the marketability of their cows and calves," Barnes said. The 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. conference will take place at the Agri-Civic
Center, located at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds on Highway 66, west of
Chandler. Cost is $10 per person if pre-registering and $15 per person at
the door. Registration forms are available at all Oklahoma Cooperative
Extension Service county offices. Participants are asked to pre-register
by Oct. 18. Click here for our Calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
No Date For Closing of Five FSA County Offices Set as of Yet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Five County
Farm Service Agency offices will be closed in Oklahoma, with the last
"blessing" needed for this to become a reality offered by Secretary of
Agriculture Mike Johanns. State FSA Director Jim Reese says that letters
have now gone out to producers in the five counties, giving them their
options as to which offices they will have their records transferred to.
Reese says that a final closing date for each of the county offices
involved will be flexible based on local needs, but that he doesn't expect
the offices to close before they give producers ample opportunity to get
in and sign up for the Livestock Assistance Program that saw signup begin
on September 10.
The county offices in the bullseye are offices that have gotten down to being "parttime" offices because of the limited workload in them. Those offices include Cleveland, Delaware, Haskell, Pushmataha and Seminole. Jim Reese says the decision to close these offices was done in a very deliberate and painstaking process that involved a lot of people in the process of selecting these locations as the ones to eliminate. Producers will have the option of doing business with a county office designated for each county in question as the default office for those records to go to- or they may ask for their records to be set up at a different county office that may be closer to their home. | |
Sales Catalog for Express Ranches Bull Sale Now on Line. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The annual
fall bull sale of Express Ranches happens Monday, October first- 12 noon
central time at the ranch just north of Yukon. They have a great selection
of bulls ready to go back to the ranch and get to work- 250 Angus and 60
Limousin Bulls.
The Sale Book can be had by Calling the Express Ranch team in Yukon at 1-800-664-3977- and now they do have their catalog with full details of the offering on line at their website. We have that linked for you below- take a look! Click here for the Express Ranches Web Site where you can find the Annual Fall Bull Sale Catalog. | |
Plenty of Seed Available for Fall Planting! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Branded
Specialty Crops Manager for DeKalb that is working with their Winter
Canola Seed Technology, Jeff Koscelny, emailed us yesterday morning with a
request that we pass along the word to farmers that might be still
considering winter canola as an option that if you are having trouble
getting all the wheat seed you really need for this fall- you might want
to single out some of the acres that you have had major weed problems on-
and plant those acres with Winter Canola.
Jeff tells us that "DEKALB has a good supply of high quality Roundup Ready Winter Canola seed available and that the shortage of quality seed wheat this fall could be a sign that growers should be considering adding winter canola to their crop rotation. I have placed a good deal of information on my webpage regarding winter canola products and agronomics." If you want to check out the information on Winter Canola from the DeKalb folks, we have the website address linked below. Giving Winter Canola a try this fall could be considered taking the "long view" on cleaning up some of your worst weed problems from your continuous wheat acreage- pretty well every producer that has tried winter canola and has gone back to wheat on that ground says the next wheat crop is a lot better than BC- Before Canola. Click here for details on DeKalb Winter Canola for planting options yet open this fall. | |
Anybody Expanding Their Cattle Herd Out There???? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OSU Beef
Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel tells us on our Wednesday Beef Buzz that
he thinks we have little need to worry about Feeder Cattle prices getting
a lot cheaper anytime soon- the supplies of yearlings available for the
feedlot are simply too tight.
At the same time, Peel is not certain what is going to happen on herd rebuilding- something that we have been expecting for two or three years now in what is developing into one of the longest cattle cycles in recent memory. He does expect some rebuilding of the mama cow herd here in the southern plains this year based on the excellent pasture conditions we have in both Oklahoma and in Texas- but he adds that will likely be offset by herd liquidation in the southeast and in places out west where it is very very very dry. We work through these issues on today's Beef Buzz, heard on great Radio Stations across the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and archived on our website on the Beef Buzz page. We also have it linked for you below- check it out! Click here to listen to Ron and Derrell Buzzing on Cattle Herd Rebuilding on today's Beef Buzz. | |
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. | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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