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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday December 23,
2008! A
service of Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers and
Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Going Down- Fertilizer Prices
-- Corn Yield Contest Winners Announced by National Corn Growers
Association
-- Good Results from the UnWanted Pesticide Collections
-- Cow Killer Wanted- Reward Has Been Posted.
-- Falling Car Sales Hurts Cattle Market
-- Calendar Continues to Be Updated
-- Triple Play Sports- Great Radio Partners for RON
-- Looking at our Agricultural Markets...
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 have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America! We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across
Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston
Enterprises- click
here for their website! 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. | |
Going Down- Fertilizer Prices ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prices for
corn, soybeans and other commodities have declined 50 percent or more from
their summer peaks - and now wholesale prices for fertilizer are dropping
as well. Still, prices at the retail level have yet to fall. American Farm
Bureau senior economist Terry Francl points out that the wholesale
fertilizer price drop began about two months ago, generally after the time
farmers had applied fall fertilizer to their crops.
Francl offers these comparisons. Wholesale prices for anhydrous ammonia have declined from the one thousand dollar per -ton- plus range to the 500 dollar range. Urea has dropped from the mid-800s to the mid-300s. Diammonium Phosphate has declined from 11-hundred dollars to 600 dollars per ton. But, the decline in potash prices has been less notable, dropping from a little over 900 dollars per ton to slightly over 800. As an explanation, Francl says - The reasons for the decline involve much more than just crop prices. Natural gas prices have declined from more than 11 - dollars to around six dollars per million BTUs. Natural gas is the primary input utilized to manufacture anhydrous ammonia and typically accounts for 80 percent to 90 percent of all input costs. Francl warns that fertilizer dealers with large, high-priced inventories could be in a difficult position this spring due to indications by farmers that they plan to plant less fertilizer-intensive crops, such as corn and cotton and plant more soybeans which don't use nitrogen at all, and as legumes actually add nitrogen to the ground. Of course for our wheat producers who did not fertilize heavily up front- and plan on making the decision how much to apply as a spring top dressing- the lower prices will help keep their breakevens for this 2009 crop closer to where farmgate prices are likely to be at harvest next June. | |
Corn Yield Contest Winners Announced by National Corn Growers Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The results of
the 2008 National Corn Yield Contest are in - and according to the
National Corn Growers Association - the nation's growers shattered yield
records despite weather challenges. The 24 national winners in eight
production categories had verified yields averaging more than 310 bushels
per acre.
Top yield in the country was grown by a Texas Panhandle farmer- Steven Albracht of Hart, Texas- with a yield of just over 368 bushels per acre. By the way- for those of you familiar with fellow farm broadcaster Chris Albracht that is the mouth of the morning show at the big radio station in Amarillo, KGNC, Steven is the brother of Chris- and if I remember right, has placed high before in both the corn yield contest as well as the grain sorghum competition. Here in Oklahoma, it was actually two farmers from other states that
were growing corn in our state that came away with the best yields for
2008- Mike Hartman of Stratford, Texas can boost of an Oklahoma Panhandle
yield of 278 bushels per acre in the Irrigated corn category, while Ed
Keezer of Clayton, New Mexico came up with a 270 bushel per acre yield on
a farm in Cimarron County that he operates. Click here for more on the National Corn Yield Contest Results for 2008 | |
Good Results from the UnWanted Pesticide Collections ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Earlier this
month, there were a total of four sites where you could haul unwanted
pesticides and other ag chemicals that were just sitting around- waiting
for an accidental spill to occur.
Dr. Charles Luper with the Pesticide Safety Education Program at OSU
offers these preliminary totals from the Unwanted Pesticide Disposals held
this month: Luper tells us in an email that he "wanted to share the totals to help show the success we are still seeing in the collection sites." | |
Cow Killer Wanted- Reward Has Been Posted. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is a
pretty big payoff for someone who provides information leading to the
arrest and conviction of whoever killed a decapitated a Logan County man's
pet cow. "Both the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and the U.S. Humane Society are
offering rewards for the conviction of the criminal or criminals who
committed this crime," said Col. Mike Grimes, Oklahoma Department of
Agriculture, Food, and Forestry Investigative Services Director. "Farm
Bureau is offerings up to $5,000 and the Humane Society is offering up to
$2,500."
The crime is believed to have been committed somewhere around December
6-8. Grimes said the mixed breed Angus cow had unusual horns and this is
probably why she was killed. "First, it is unusual for an Angus type cow
to have horns as this breed is normally polled," he said. "This animal had
horns about six inches wide and they were about six or eight inches tall
making the configuration rather unusual." Polled cattle are cattle born
without horns. Oklahoma Farm Bureau officials said the victim was a member of their
organization and as such qualified for the reward. "This is a horrible
crime and we want to do everything possible to catch the perpetrator,"
said Mike Spradling, OFB president. "We are pleased to offer this reward
as a Farm Bureau member benefit." | |
Falling Car Sales Hurts Cattle Market ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On today's
Beef Buzz, we focus today on how the beef industry has been affected by
the credit crisis that has meant it is very difficult for many different
companies to get credit- and it has also meant that falling sales of
automobiles has translated into falling cattle prices. We have comments
from Gregg Doud, Chief Economist of the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association.
Doud tells us that poor auto sales have translated into less demand for leather to make car seats like you see here- and that has hurt the "drop credit" that is a component in determining how much that slaughter steer or heifer is worth at the packing plant. You can jump to our Beef Buzz site and check out Gregg's thoughts on this subject- as he explains how the price of that slaughter animal is impacted by the rising and falling of the value of the Drop Credit. The link is below. | |
Calendar Continues to Be Updated ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We continue to
add items to our website Calendar pages- and we invite you to jump there
as we get closer and closer to the end of the year to see what's ahead for
2009.
One item that we added yesterday was a Women's Conference that is planned for January 9 in Enid- go to the link below and you can click on that event for full details and who to call if you have questions. Click here for our Calendar Page as found at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Triple Play Sports- Great Radio Partners for RON ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are
thankful for all of our excellent radio affiliates- and three of our
stations fly under a common banner- Triple Play Sports. These stations
fill the north central Oklahoma airwaves from Blackwell, Perry and
Stillwater and offer great sports talk- especially about the Oklahoma
State Cowboys, as well as five farm news and market updates a day from the
Radio Oklahoma Network.
You can catch our morning farm news from RON at 7:00 AM on these stations- and four more times through the day- they offer market updates. You can go to the webpages for these stations on our website that include the times they carry our farm reports, as well as links back to their website and a link to a map of the coverage they have on these three radio stations. For the Blackwell area in Kay and Grant Counties- Click
here for learn more about KOKB AM at 1580 on the AM dial. Click here for our Affiliate Information Page on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers and Johnston Enterprises 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. | |
Looking at our Agricultural Markets... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feeder Cattle
Auctions are pretty well done for 2008- check with your auction barn
operator to see when they plan on resuming activity at your market. For
the most part, the auctions plan on taking two weeks off- and will return
the first full week of the new year- on or after January 5, 2009.
Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click
on the name of the report to go to that link: | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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