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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday November 9,
2007! A
service of Cusack Meats, American Farmers and Ranchers & Midwest Farm
Shows
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-- Oklahoma Farm Bureau 66th Annual Meeting Underway through the
Weekend
-- Peru Free Trade Deal Approved in the House- a Senate Vote to
Follow.
-- AFR's Detrick on Packer Ban as we wait on Farm Bill Movement in
Senate
-- Farm Bill Deal COULD Happen and Allow Debate to Move
Forward.
-- AgPreference Farm and Ranch Forum Set for Next Week
-- Grain Stocks Report Out This Morning
-- Thanks for your support- and let us hear from you!
Howdy Neighbors! Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. One of our sponsors on this 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! 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. | |
Oklahoma Farm Bureau 66th Annual Meeting Underway through the Weekend ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Among the
highlights of today's events- breakout sessions with OSU Livestock
Marketing Specialist Dr. Derrell Peel and OSU Grain marketing Economist
Dr. Kim Anderson- a farm policy analysis with Dr. Mike Dicks- greetings
from Washington by Oklahoma Congresswoman Mary Fallin and a big Awards
Celebration this evening where the Farm Family of the Year, YF&R
awards and more will be handed out.
On Saturday, the delegates get to work on reviewing current policy and establishing new positions for the organization's policy manual. On Saturday afternoon, the election of a new President for the general farm organization will be held, with the two candidates vying for the spot vacated by Steve Kouplen (who is being term limited out ) being Mike Spradling and Bob Drake. Speaking of Steve Kouplen, we talked with Steve yesterday about some of
the policy issues that the group will be dealing with- as well as some
reflections of his eight years as President of the general Farm
Organization. You can listen to that interview by clicking on the link
below. | |
Peru Free Trade Deal Approved in the House- a Senate Vote to Follow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Peru Free
Trade Agreement has passed the U.S. House with flying colors. The bill
implementing the agreement passed 285 to 132. Fewer than half of the
Democrats on hand voted for the measure. The bill now heads to the Senate,
which has 15 legislative days to act under fast-track trade negotiating
rules. President George W. Bush says - I encourage the U.S. Senate to
quickly approve this agreement, and for Congress then to move promptly to
consideration of our free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and
South Korea.
A whole host of agricultural groups have praised the House vote- American Farm Bureau, US Grains Council, National Pork Producers and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association are among those who are pleased with the positive vote in the House. For beef cattle producers- there are immediate and longer term
benefits, including: | |
AFR's Detrick on Packer Ban as we wait on Farm Bill Movement in Senate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our end of the
week Beef Buzz features comments with Terry Detrick of American Farmers
and Ranchers as we talk about one of the elements of the Senate Ag
Committee Farm Bill that falls under their Livestock Title. The Beef Buzz
is our daily radio report on the Beef Cattle Industry- heard on radio
stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and archived on
our website at the link below.
The Packer Ban on the owning of livestock more than 14 days before slaughter is one of those issues that several of the more populist lawmakers in the Senate have been pushing since before the last farm bill debate. The biggest supporters seem to be in some of the more traditional areas of hog production, where small independent hog producers have felt at a disadvantage to the large integrated hog companies. There are also cattle producers who feel strongly about the issue- with that postiion being articulated by R-Calf USA among others. As for the American Farmers and Ranchers, Vice President Detrick tells us that a packer ban on livestock ownership has merit- but his bigger concern is to make sure that we do NOT restrict the ability of the individual cattle producer from having every option in being able to sell his or her cattle. Detrick says that could mean that cattle processors may have control of cattle earlier than 14 days before slaughter- but that could be the best deal for the individual independent cattle producer. Listen to Terry's comments on this subject by clicking below. | |
Farm Bill Deal COULD Happen and Allow Debate to Move Forward. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The key word
from Senator Harkin at a News Conference in Washington yesterday was the
word "could" as there is still NO DEAL between Majority Leader Harry Reid
of Nevada and his Minority counterpart, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The
problem is that Senator Reid has proposed to limit amendments on the Farm
Bill to those he believes are relevant and the Republicans have objected.
This has effectively ground consideration of the bill to a complete halt.
If no deal is reached by first of the week- it is possible that Senator Reid might call for a cloture vote to break the impasse- but it's very uncertain that he could come up with 60 votes to get his way. One of the amendments that Senator Reid has said he will not allow is a Renewable Fuels Standard elevation in the Farm Bill- he says the place for that is over in the Energy Bill, which has been bogged down for weeks. There seems to be support for including it in the Senate Farm Bill on both sides of the aisle, with Pete Dominici of New Mexico the Senator that has proposed this path. The lack of progress this week lessens the chances of finishing the Farm Bill on the Senate floor before the Thanksgiving Recess- now just a week away. That pushes back the formation of a Conference Committee until mid December at best- if the Senate would work at light speed upon returning to Washington in early December. A final farm bill still seems to be months away. | |
AgPreference Farm and Ranch Forum Set for Next Week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He's back with
his insights and strategic recommendations about where this business is
going and how we best position ourselves to be ready. I am talking about
Dr. David Kohl from Virginia Tech- the keynote speaker once again here in
2007 for the AgPreference 8th Annual Farmer and Rancher Forum that comes
up November 14 at the Quartz Mountain Resort.
AgPreference ACA has brought Dr. Kohl in several times before- and his vision for what we are doing in agriculture is remarkable. The organizers of the event say that this event is designed for Farmers, Ranchers (and their spouses), Young Farmers, Senior Farmers, Farm/Ranch Families in Transition (Moving from one generation of management to another generation of managers), Farm and Ranch suppliers, Implement dealers, others interested and involved in farming and ranching. Dr. Kohl will address the group in the morning- a lunch is planned that is included in your registration and then an afternoon panel of some innovators in production agriculture as well as in ag lending will help bring the day into focus. For more information on this conference, we have a link on our calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com or you can call Diane Beach at AgPreference- her contact number is 1-800-727-3276. We have provided our calendar page link below- scroll down to the November 14th note on the AgPreference Forum- and click there for more information on this year's vent. Click here for more information on the Ag Preference Farmer-Rancher Forum. | |
Grain Stocks Report Out This Morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USDA's monthly
Stocks and Production Reports will be issued this morning at 7:30 am
Central time- and we will have details of the report and some reaction
from our friend Tom Leffler by mid morning on our web site's front page-
we link that for you below.
This report will give us an update about corn stocks after the US farmer has produced a staggering amount of corn here in 2007- more than thirteen billion bushels- that number to be fine tuned by Uncle Sam as well. We'll also get a sense of the size of all of our spring planted crops- so this is one of the bigger crop reports of the season from USDA- check on our web site and we will have coverage for you later this morning. | |
Thanks for your support- and let us hear from you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As we send
this email this morning- we pass another round number as more than 1,600
folks will be getting this Friday morning report. Thank you for your
interest and many kind words about the usefulness of this daily update. It
is our desire to offer you the best agricultural information as it relates
back to Oklahoma day by day- some days we may have news and information
coming out of our ears- other days may be more challenging- but we
constantly are looking for story ideas that may have interest to you and
your peers in this business of agriculture here in the state and beyond.
Along those lines- I do appreciate your emails with feedback on stories that we do- that helps us so often to have a better understanding of the story- and that is very helpful as we do any followups on stories. Keep sending that feedback! I also am delighted to get information on events going on in groups you are affiliated with or in the area where you live- I will make sure that we help you publicize the event- and in many cases- we will try to cover the event as well. I can't be everywhere at once- but you can be my eyes and ears- so keep those reports coming- just email them to me at the address found elsewhere in today's update! | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Cusack Meatsfor 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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