~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday October 31,
2007! A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers and
Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Corn Growers Are Outraged Over Accusation They Are Involved in
Crimes Against Humanity!
-- Oklahoma Farm Bureau Gets Ready for Convention Next Week in
OKC
-- Jonathan Edelson Moves from Entomology to Number Two Spot in the
OSU Ag Experiment Station Administration.
-- Pesticide Disposal Days Planned in November in Clinton and
Hooker.
-- Four Oklahoma Auctioneers Qualify for World Championships Next
June.
-- Will the Blue States Prevail in 2008?
-- Belated Congrats to Oklahoma Youth Grabbing the Big Three Grands
at the American Royal!
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. | |
Corn Growers Are Outraged Over Accusation They Are Involved in Crimes Against Humanity! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recent
statements by the United Nations independent expert on the right to food
Jean Ziegler has the National Corn Growers Association outraged and pretty
well coming unglued! NCGA says - among the egregious statements Ziegler
made is the claim that food crops for biofuels are a "crime against
humanity." NCGA CEO Rick Tolman was quick to point out that - genocide is
a crime against humanity. War crimes are a crime against humanity. Any act
of persecution to a large scale of people is a crime against humanity.
Finding solutions to a global energy problem while continuing to provide
food to the world is not a crime against humanity.
Ziegler is calling for a five-year moratorium on biofuels production. Tolman says if Ziegler were citing facts on biofuels and corn he would know the United States is harvesting 13.3 billion bushels of corn - more than enough to help meet the needs of global hunger, offset petroleum use, provide a nutritious feed for livestock and have more than an adequate corn supply on hand. Tolman added - it is a travesty when an official makes public statements that are so irresponsible, so inaccurate and so inappropriately damning. Tolman continued - the statements 'crime against humanity' and 'catastrophe of the massacre (by) hunger in the world' are not to be used lightly or in such an irresponsible manner. If this is an example of how Mr. Ziegler carries out his responsibilities, Tolman said, he should resign his post immediately. Tolman concluded - hunger is not something to trifle with and those in positions of responsibility need to be accountable in their statements. | |
Oklahoma Farm Bureau Gets Ready for Convention Next Week in OKC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The countdown
to the state's largest annual farm convention continues as Farm Bureau's
Resolutions Committee whittled down the long list of issues proposed for
discussion during the committee's meeting in Oklahoma City at the end of
last week. Over 500 issues or resolutions were submitted by the state's 77
county Farm Bureaus. Among the 95 issues making the final cut are
proposals to eliminate estate taxes, enhance protection for private
property rights and continue income protection under the new federal farm
law.
Several of the proposed resolutions address the increased oil and gas exploration. "Our members are concerned about the damage caused by seismic survey crews and the possible fire dangers associated with oil wells," according to Steve Kouplen, President of OFB. The need to improve the state's rural infrastructure also was voiced by the farm leaders. "We need to be able to efficiently transport our product from farms to markets," Kouplen said. The Beggs rancher expressed concern about the "information highway" bypassing rural Oklahoma. "To be competitive, our rural areas, especially schools and businesses, must have access to high speed Internet connections." Steve Kouplen will be stepping down as President of the Oklahoma Farm
Bureau during this year's meeting as he has hit a term limits trigger set
by the farm group. The election to replace Kouplen will happen on the
Saturday afternoon of the convention, with announced candidates Bob Drake
and Mike Spradling vying for the post. | |
Jonathan Edelson Moves from Entomology to Number Two Spot in the OSU Ag Experiment Station Administration. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma State
University's Jonathan Edelson has been named assistant director of the
statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system. OAES accounts
for approximately 40 percent of the university's research and is one of
two statewide agencies that are part of OSU's Division of Agricultural
Sciences and Natural Resources, along with the Oklahoma Cooperative
Extension Service. "We're mandated by state and federal law to target
issues and concerns of importance to Oklahoma," said Clarence Watson, OAES
associate director. "Jonathan is assuming a very key leadership role, not
only for the organization but for Oklahomans in general."
As assistant director, Edelson will work closely with Watson and division administration to plan and develop statewide research programs, develop and manage state and federal grants and contracts, and work with state commodity groups, legislators, government agencies, community leaders and university officials to ensure OAES research thrusts are addressing issues of importance to Oklahoma. Prior to accepting his new responsibilities, Edelson had been serving
as head of the OSU department of entomology and plant pathology since
October 2005. He also served as interim head of the department from
October 2004 to September 2005, and as interim head of the department of
biochemistry and molecular biology from February 2007 to July
2007. | |
Pesticide Disposal Days Planned in November in Clinton and Hooker. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The next
Unwanted Pesticide Disposals are scheduled for November 13, 2007 8:00 am
to 1:00 pm at Estes Inc in Clinton on Highway 183 South ( 3 miles south of
I-40 and 1/4 west) and November 15, 2007 8:00 am to 1:00 pm Hooker Equity
COOP, Hooker OK 200 E Highway 54 Hooker, Oklahoma.
This is for people in production agriculture (farmers, ranchers,
greenhouses, and nurseries), certified applicators, and pesticide dealers.
Please no homeowners at this time. For more information please click on the link below for the time and
locations, maps, transportation tips, and dealer registration form. There
is also a Frequently Asked Question section. You can also call Charles
Luper OSU Pesticide Safety Education Program at 405-744-5808 or Sandy
Wells Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry at 405-522-
5993. Click here for the website of the Unwanted Pesticide Program here in Oklahoma | |
Four Oklahoma Auctioneers Qualify for World Championships Next June. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four
auctioneers from Oklahoma locked up their place at the World Livestock
Auctioneer Championships next June that were originally scheduled to be
held in Durant, Oklahoma- but that have now been switched to Sioux Falls,
SD.
The four from Oklahoma that have qualified all did so this past Thursday in Dalhart, Texas at the Southwest Regional Championships put on by the Livestock Marketing Association. The four from Oklahoma include Lance Cochran of Medford, who finished second overall in the Regional; Brian Little of Wann, who finished third overall; Bailey Ballou of Lawson and Tracey Sullivan of Prague. We visited with John McBride of the Livestock Marketing Association about the Dalhart contest on today's end of the month Beef Buzz- and you can hear our daily Beef Buzz on great radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network, as well as catching it on our website on our Beef Buzz page. AND, we have it linked for you below as well. Click here to listen to Ron and John on today's Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network. | |
Will the Blue States Prevail in 2008? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the White
House turns Blue in 2008, it would likely be one of three candidates that
would lead the Democrats to reoccupying the White House in early 2009-
former Senator John Edwards or current Senators Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton. All three of them participated in a National Summit on
Agriculture and Rural Life sponsored by the League for Rural Voters in
Iowa this past weekend.
All three seem to be trying to outdo one another in touting populist views. All three Democratic candidates favor putting more federal money into the rural economy and education, and plugged their universal health care plans as beneficial for small towns as well as the rest of the country. When it comes to commodity programs - the three Democrats favor capping payments at 250-thousand dollars per farm. They also support country-of-origin labeling and a ban on packer ownership of livestock. Obama said, -when I'm President, I'll have a department of agriculture,
not simply a department of agribusiness. Edwards said - I think we need a
national moratorium on CAFOs. Obama and Clinton want better environmental
regulation of CAFOs and Obama wants to lower the 450-thousand dollar limit
on conservation program funds now used by CAFOs to manage livestock
manure. | |
Belated Congrats to Oklahoma Youth Grabbing the Big Three Grands at the American Royal! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I meant to
make mention of this last week early but failed to do so as we covered
first the Texas Cattle Feeders and then the National FFA convention- but
Oklahoma youth grabbed the Grand Champion honors in three of the four
market animal categories at the American Royal in Kansas City this month.
The Grand Champion Barrow was a crossbred shown by Jodi Brooks of Guthrie. Heather Glass of Elgin had the champion Suffolk that also claimed the prize as the Grand Champion Market Lamb, while the Grand Champion Steer was shown by Tiffani Pruitt of Tuttle, Oklahoma. Huge numbers of Oklahoma youth travel each year to the American Royal, who, by the way, is betting on the National FFA returning to Kansas City in a few years. Starting next year, they have announced that they will be moving the Livestock Show under the American Royal banner to the very end of October to coincide with that national gathering of the Blue and Gold. The National FFA organization is considering bids from Kansas City, as well as Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and Minneapolis for the national convention beginning in the year 2013. FFA plans to make their decision sometime in the first half of 2008. | |
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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