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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday December 21,
2007! A
service of Cusack Meats, American Farmers and Ranchers & Midwest Farm
Shows
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-- Our Final Email Before Christmas!
-- A Business Plan Released for Animal ID
-- A Rather Dubious Anniversary Comes Up Sunday!
-- Catch Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Terry Peach In the Field
with Ron Hays
-- Chesapeake and Oklahoma's Conservation Districts Will Team Up in
2008 Again with Honors to Hand Out!
-- Coming on our website- a look at the Cattle on Feed
Report...
-- Futures Markets Will Trade a Half Day on Monday- Closed on
Tuesday
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. | |
Our Final Email Before Christmas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our next email
will be next Wednesday on December 26 as the world pauses to commemorate
the birthday of a baby born to a teenaged girl in a cave filled with farm
animals. It's also worth noting that among the very first to hear the news
of this child's birth- sheep herders watching their flock on a starry
night.
That little baby has had quite an impact on this world- our calendar revolves around His coming! And His life impacts humanity up to this very moment- and will into the future. My wish for you and yours as we approach this birthday celebration is that you will take time to consider this little child and the life He led, and His willingness to die for a sinful world. When someone has a birthday- you think of what gift you might be able to get for that person- well, here's a birthday where the gift comes from the person having the birthday- I hope you check out that gift here for this Christmas 2007! | |
A Business Plan Released for Animal ID ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Undersecretary
Bruce Knight says a gameplan for the National Animal Identification System
is essential, as USDA released a draft of a Business Plan for Advancing
Animal Disease Traceability on Wednesday of this week. Knight says the
plan is template for how NAIS will be managed for several years. "It shows
farmers and ranchers how they fit into the system and how the system
benefits them," Knight says. "A catastrophic disease outbreak is
unpredictable, we need to be prepared to handle it and a key is 48-hour
traceability."
"We are basically at 48-hour traceability of poultry because of the National Poultry Improvement Plan and were very close to it with swine," Knight says. "We're about 80% there in sheep due to the National Scrapie Eradication program. Cattle, both beef and dairy, is where we have a lot of work to be done." There are a lot of sectors within the cattle industry and the plan lays them out sector by sector to achieve 48- hour traceability. "Dealing with an estimated 1.4 million farms that have livestock is a big challenge," Knight says. "But it becomes much more doable when it's broken down by species and by sector." Many producers and groups have expressed concern about premise
registration and the possibility of it becoming a mandatory system. Knight
says that the draft of the business plan shows that it is clearly a
voluntary program. "I see no reason to make it mandatory," Knight says.
"We have a long history of success in the U.S. with voluntary programs.
We're relying on producers to see that it's in their best interests and
that it's the right thing to do." Click here to review the Business Plan for Animal ID as released this week by USDA. | |
A Rather Dubious Anniversary Comes Up Sunday! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This coming
Sunday is December 23- and that will be the fourth anniversary of the Cow
that Stole Christmas. It was December 23 when then Secretary of
Agriculture Ann Veneman announced that we had a "presumptive positive" in
a dairy cow that was originally from Canada and was found in a Washington
state dairy herd. That cow proved to be positive and marked the end of the
incredible market that we had that fall in southern plains feedlots.
Prices that fall touched as high as $116 for fat cattle and the closeouts were nothing short of phenomenal. I remember covering the annual meeting of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association that fall in Amarillo- and feedlot operators were sitting around at that meeting swapping tales of closeouts that they had in the weeks leading up to that meeting. A lot of this has occurred because of demand for US beef because the Canadian discovery of BSE back in May of that year. One of the problems we have faced since December 23, 2003 was the closure of foreign markets to US beef- especially the harsh treatment we have faced by our number one and number three markets at that time- Japan and South Korea. We are still had back to normal on those markets- and we review that issue today on our regular Beef Buzz radio feature heard on the Radio Oklahoma Network. Phil Seng is our guest today- and we talk about the clash between those two Asian governments who both want to take the reopening step by step- while the Bush Administration has decided to play hardball and demand that both adhere to the International Animal Health organization guidelines that say beef from the US is safe from BSE. We have this edition of our Beef Buzz linked below- take a listen and you will here Phil's take on this situation. Click here for the Friday Beef Buzz with Ron and Phil talking reopening key markets for US beef. | |
Catch Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Terry Peach In the Field with Ron Hays ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tomorrow-
Saturday December 21st- we welcome State Secretary of Agriculture Terry
Peach to our TV segment on KWTV News9 during their early morning news
segment between 6 am and 8 am.
We talk with Secretary Peach about the big events that have occurred in Oklahoma agriculture in 2007- and what's ahead for 2008. You can check out our TV conversation with the Mooreland farmer around 6:40 am and probably at 7:40 am as well on the Saturday morning news segment on KWTV News9. If you miss the video segment with Terry Peach- we will be linking it for you later in the weekend and will have it available for you to click and see if you go to our web site, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. | |
Chesapeake and Oklahoma's Conservation Districts Will Team Up in 2008 Again with Honors to Hand Out! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As part of
their continuing commitment to Oklahoma and the health of its environment,
Chesapeake Energy Corporation and the Oklahoma Association of Conservation
Districts (OACD) have once again teamed up today to announce the
"Chesapeake Energy Outstanding Oklahoma Conservation Educator Contest," a
statewide program that honors the Oklahoma school teachers who most
effectively incorporate natural resource conservation learning into their
class curriculum. The Chesapeake Outstanding Conservation Educator Award
will be presented to one teacher in each Oklahoma Congressional District.
Each winner will receive $3000 at the Governor's Conservation Awards
Ceremony during Conservation Day at the Capitol on March 19th.
"We are truly honored to again have Chesapeake, Oklahoma's most active driller and largest clean natural gas producer, as our partner in furthering conservation in Oklahoma," Scotty Herriman, President of OACD said. "The company's continued sponsorship of these awards and its commitment to protecting and conserving our natural resources is greatly appreciated. They are truly committed to the conservation and protection of our soil, water, air and wildlife habitats." The Chesapeake Outstanding Conservation Educator Award will be presented annually to the Oklahoma school teachers judged as having best incorporated information on the conservation of our natural resources into their lesson plans using inventive and imaginative techniques. "This is a great partnership between Chesapeake and OACD," Clay Pope, Executive Director of OACD said. "By working together we can help ensure that the next generations of Oklahomans, both rural and urban, have the productive base of natural resources we now enjoy while maintaining healthy soils, clean water, and abundant wildlife. We are proud to be working together to accomplish these goals." | |
Coming on our website- a look at the Cattle on Feed Report... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By late Friday
afternoon- we will have a look at the December Cattle on Feed report from
USDA as Tom Leffler will offer his view of the report with an audio report
we will link on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Look for this
under "Today's Agricultural News."
Coming next week- we will be updating our website's calendar page to update you on a number of events up and coming in 2008. We will have this update in place by Wednesday after Christmas. | |
Futures Markets Will Trade a Half Day on Monday- Closed on Tuesday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most of our
agricultural futures markets will trade a half day on Christmas Eve-
Monday- with the ag futures in both Chicago and Kansas City both to close
at twelve noon on Christmas Eve. These markets- our grain and livestock
futures will all be closed on Tuesday. They will repeat that schedule one
week later as we hit December 31 and January 1 a week from Monday.
The New York Cotton Exchange will be closed both days on Monday and Tuesday for the Christmas- so so that means our cotton trade will be happening today- three days next week- and that will close the books on 2007. Most of our livestock auction markets are done for 2007- if you have
any questions about a particular market- I would strongly suggest that you
call before you get your animals up that you had planned to market. It's
likely your next opportunity to sell live animals will be the early days
of 2008. | |
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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