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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday October 30,
2007! A
service of Cusack Meats, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma &
Midwest Farm Shows
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-- After Getting No Love from Lawmakers- R-Calf is Back to Suing USDA
Over the Canadian OTM Rule
-- Progress Made in Planting 2008 Wheat Crop- But We Still Remain
Behind Normal.
-- Oklahoma Cotton Looking Mighty Fine This Harvest Season.
-- This Afternoon- the Meat Industry is Front and Center on Capitol
Hill
-- Crossroads of America Ag Conferences planned in November &
December.
-- A Quarter of a Billion Dollars in CSP Payments Ready to Go.
-- Oklahoma Cattlemen Plan their Fall Cattle Drive Replacement Heifer
Sale this Friday Afternoon!
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! The newest sponsor on our daily email service is Cusack Meats, and Al Cusack wants everyone to know that he APPRECIATES Oklahoma's Farmers and Ranchers! You can go to the Cusack website and select some great gift packs of meat for giving- or for yourself! 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. | |
After Getting No Love from Lawmakers- R-Calf is Back to Suing USDA Over the Canadian OTM Rule ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several months
ago, USDA announced their "Over Thirty Month" rule that will allow older
Canadian cattle into this country for slaughter as of late November. The
group that has been the main opposition to allowing any Canadian cattle
into the United States is R-Calf, and initially, it appeared they had
decided to go the direction of trying to persuade lawmakers into delaying
the USDA decision because of their fears of the safety of Canadian beef as
it relates to BSE.
They have apparently decided that they have little chance of succeeding in that effort- so now they are back to the litigation route, as a lawsuit against USDA over the "OTM" rule was announced yesterday in a news release from the group. Various groups and coalitions have partnered with R-Calf, including a group that has little love for production agriculture in this country, the Consumer Federation of America. Their court case has been filed in the Federal District Court in South Dakota- and they are looking for a judge that might force USDA to halt their current plans for the border reopening next month. "The OTM rule creates an unjustified and unnecessary increased risk of
infection of the U.S. cattle herd with BSE, and of importing beef
contaminated with BSE into the U.S., which will expose U.S. consumers to
increased risk of a fatal disease," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "By
USDA's own analysis, it is a virtual certainty that the OTM Rule will
result in the importation of Canadian cattle infected with BSE, the meat
from which will enter the U.S. food supply, and that the OTM Rule also
will result in the importation of billions of pounds of meat from OTM
cattle slaughtered in Canada, which almost certainly include products from
cattle infected with BSE. There also lies the possibility of contamination
of U.S. cattle feed caused from the use of Canadian cattle products, like
blood, in the manufacturing of cattle feed. | |
Progress Made in Planting 2008 Wheat Crop- But We Still Remain Behind Normal. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We remain
behind the five year average pace of getting the 2008 wheat crop into the
ground and emerged. We are now at 84% planted in Oklahoma- eight points
behind the five year average- with 63% of the crop emerged- sixteen points
behind the average. The crop that is in the ground and growing is in fair
to good shape, with 78% of the total crop in those two categories.
Harvest of our spring planted crops improved by four to seven points in this latest report. With the corn harvest pretty well complete- we are now past halfway on the grain sorghum and peanut harvest, with one third of the soybeans harvested and about one fourth of the Oklahoma cotton harvest now under our belt. (See the next story down on some further details on cotton harvest here in the state) As we head into the cooler weather of fall and towards the winter season- our subsoil moisture levels are almost 180 degrees opposite of last fall. A year ago- we had 18 percent of our subsoil rated in good shape- none in surplus while this year as we end October, we are standing at 65 adequate to surplus on subsoil moisture readings in this latest report. Click below and you can pull up all the other details of the report that was issued on Monday afternoon. | |
Oklahoma Cotton Looking Mighty Fine This Harvest Season. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GOOD YIELDS
and grades are being realized in early season cotton harvesting by members
of the Tillman Producers Cooperative located at Frederick, Ok., according
to David Lingle, Tillman Producers gin manager. "Early season harvest
grades are better in 2007 than they were this time last year," Lingle
says. "Yields so far for irrigated cotton here is one and a half to two
bales per acre. And we are seeing dryland cotton yielding one to 1 1/2
bales per acre.
"We have ginned 4,800 bales so far and we are expecting to gin 25,000 bales for the 2007 season. The best cotton we are getting is that planted early before the big rains came last spring. Our farmers are talking about the quality and yield of Stoneville 4554, a picker variety both dryland and irrigated farmers planted. "The cotton this year has a very high quality. One farmer received 50
1/2 cents in loan value for his cotton; the highest I have ever seen.
"Oklahoma cotton has really good quality cotton now; its quality can be
compared to that grown in the Midsouth of the U.S. Better prices for
cotton are expected. While Oklahoma and Texas had plenty of rain this
season, there has been severe drought in the southeastern and midsouth
U.S. Arizona has had drought problems and Australia, a big competitor in
the international cotton market, has suffered from drought problems. A
smaller crop could mean better prices." | |
This Afternoon- the Meat Industry is Front and Center on Capitol Hill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The House Ag
Committee will be holding a Public Hearing to review the technologies in
the meat industry after lunch today in Washington.
Among those testifying this afternoon are Dr. Phil Minerich, Vice President, Research and Development, Hormel Foods Corporation, Austin, Minnesota, Scott Eilert, Vice President, Research and Development, Cargill Meat Solutions, Wichita, Kansas Rick Roop, Senior Vice President, Science and Regulatory Affairs, Tyson Foods, Inc., Washington, D.C., Dr. Joseph Sebranek, Professor, Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, and Alfred V. Almanza, Administrator, Food Safety Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. We have linked to the House Ag Committee website, where you can find a streaming audio feed of this Hearing starting at 12:30 pm Central time today. | |
Crossroads of America Ag Conferences planned in November & December. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 29,
December 6 and December 13 are the dates for the 2007 Crossroads of
America Agriculture Conference Series to be held in Slaughterville, Norman
and Lexington. In previous years, there has been a Beef Cattle Conference
with this name held annually in Cleveland County- and these meetings are
the next generation of those efforts.
There is an exciting new format for the Crossroads of America Conference. To meet the needs that have been addressed in the Agriculture community in central Oklahoma, the Crossroads of America Cattleman Conference has been diversified. The new format will continue to address beef cattle issues but also give an extra emphasis toward forage management, fertilization, herd health, weed control, wildlife propagation, an introduction to organic agriculture production and estate planning/tax consideration for producers. The Agriculture Conference Series will be conveniently held each Thursday night from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. beginning Nov. 29th through December 13th at various locations throughout Cleveland County. We have details in a flyer on our calendar page of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. You can click on the link below and find out more about these conferences and what they will offer producers in the central region of the state. | |
A Quarter of a Billion Dollars in CSP Payments Ready to Go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USDA is about
to send out nearly 257 million dollars in Conservation Security Program
payments to nearly 20-thousand eligible landowners and producers. The
payments are for current contracts in all 280 CSP watersheds. CSP contract
holders will receive payment in full for the current Fiscal Year 2008
contract obligations and will be given the option of receiving their
payment in calendar year 2007 or 2008. CSP program participants should
contact their local Natural Resources Conservation Service office so their
payments can be processed.
With these payments, Agriculture Department Acting Secretary Chuck Conner says USDA is recognizing good stewardship practices and offering incentives to increase conserving uses through the Conservation Security Program. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service anticipates the next CSP signup will take place in early 2008 in 51 eligible watersheds. CSP is a voluntary program established as part of the 2002 Farm Bill to
support ongoing conservation stewardship on private agricultural working
lands and enhance the condition of the nation's natural resources. | |
Oklahoma Cattlemen Plan their Fall Cattle Drive Replacement Heifer Sale this Friday Afternoon! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Friday at
OKC West Stockyards in Canadian County, cattlemen, their ladies and some
great bovine females will be gathering. After a board meeting of the
Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association followed by a ribeye steak dinner being
offered by the Oklahoma Cattlewomen, the Fall Cattle Drive of the OCA will
feature 500 head of spring calving Bred Heifers- fall calving pairs and
spring calving Bred Cows. Most are Angus, Baldy or Hereford Genetics. The
heifers are bred to known calving ease sires and 150 head are AI bred to
Image Maker, the leading ABS calving ease sire. The Sale offering will
represent the Top Genetics available to the cattle industry.
As of late Monday- here's a current consignors list from the OCA
office: For Additional Information contact: | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Cusack Meats 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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