From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 1:43 PM
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday December 22, 2008!
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Signup Finally Begins for 2009 Farm Program
-- Interim Final Rule Issued by USDA on 2009 Payment Limits and More Found in the 2008 Farm Law.
-- Ginning in Altus Moving Well- Expectations are that the 2008 Cotton Crop Will be Ginned Out by Mid January
-- Right in Line With Expectations- the December Cattle on Feed Numbers Show Six Percent Fewer Cattle on Feed Than Last December
-- The FFA Rotate- National Organization Decides to Let Indianapolis and Louisville Share the National Convention- Three Years at a Time
-- Cattle Markets Look Forward to 2009
-- Soybean Performance Data Available from OSU
-- Let's Check the Markets!

Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the just concluded Tulsa Farm Show, as well as the April 2009 Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

It's also great to have the Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma with us regularly as an Email Sponsor- Financing Oklahoma is their business! Check out their website which shows their locations statewide by clicking here!
And we are excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more information on the oilseed crops they are crushing, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there 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.


Signup Finally Begins for 2009 Farm Program
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Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer announced Friday that enrollment for the 2009 Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment (DCP) Program for farms with base acres will begin Dec. 22 both online and at local USDA service centers and will continue until June 1, 2009. Producers are urged to make use of the eDCP automated website to sign up; however, producers can visit any USDA Service Center or their administratively assigned center to complete their 2009 DCP contract. The June 1, 2009 deadline is mandatory for all participants. USDA will not accept any late-filed applications.

We have more on this announcement made by Secretary Schafer from Friday- click on the link below for the full story and the link for info from USDA as found on our website at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

Meanwhile, Stewart Doan at Agri-Pulse reports that USDA is not writing Commodity Program checks anymore at the local FSA offices- all checks and direct deposits will be made from the FSA center in Kansas City. Doan was told by FSA officials in Washington that if a producer wants a FSA payment to fall in the 2008 calendar year for tax purposes- they have to get their request in no later than December 24, 2008- this Wednesday. Check with your local FSA office immediately if you have questions about this new policy now in place at FSA. Click here to jump to the Agri-pulse site- then click on the left hand side for what they call the news network- then click on the play button under the Thursday listing for Stewart's report about this change.

Click here for more on the Word from USDA that Ag Program Signup commences today- December 22, 2008


Interim Final Rule Issued by USDA on 2009 Payment Limits and More Found in the 2008 Farm Law.
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With the publication of an interim final regulation in the Federal Register this week, the United States Department of Agriculture announced changes to both Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) qualifications, program payment limitations, and direct attribution for Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) programs, which became effective in accordance with the 2008 Farm Bill.

"Changes to program participation rules and qualifying income requirements will make farm program payments more defendable to America's taxpayers," Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. "This is a step in the right direction to ensuring that program benefits are targeted to active qualifying farmers and ranchers."

More on this rule that finally made its way out of USDA and then OMB can be found on our website at www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Click here for more details on the Payment Limit Rules as Being Published by USDA


Ginning in Altus Moving Well- Expectations are that the 2008 Cotton Crop Will be Ginned Out by Mid January
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COTTON GROWERS Cooperative cotton gin, Altus, Ok., has ginned 71,000 bales so far during the 2008 season and will finish with approximately 92,000 bales, according to Mike Berry, cooperative manager.

"We ginned 85,000 bales last year," Berry said."While the start of the 2008 growing season had some problems with storms causing high winds and dashing winds, the end of the season was a good one."

From early September on, the fall season brought wam, dry days and cool nights, helping the cotton to mature well, he said. All of the cotton has graded well, too, he said. "The new cotton varieties really turn out high quality cotton," he said. Ginners at the Cotton Growers facility started processing cotton in early October, Berry said, and the gin has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week since to take care of the 2008 crop. "Actually, that should be 22 hours a day," he explained. "We take one hour in each 12 hour shift to clean up the gin and to check out the machinery. I think we will be done ginning by Jan. 15, 2009." A high capacity facility, recently the Cotton Growers gin processed 1,209 bales in one 22 hour period, Berry said.

Our Thanks to Vic with NTOK for this update- you can visit their website by going to the link we have below.

Click here to jump to the North Texas Oklahoma and Kansas cotton website.


Right in Line With Expectations- the December Cattle on Feed Numbers Show Six Percent Fewer Cattle on Feed Than Last December
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Friday afternoon, we got the last Cattle on Feed Report of the year- and it proved to be right in line with what the pre-report guesses showed. The report is considered to be neutral for today's live cattle futures trade.

Cattle and calves on feed as of Dec. 1 totaled 11.3 million head, 6 percent below Dec. 1, 2007. This number was equal to the pre-report average trade guess.
Placements in November totaled 2.02 million head, 5 percent below 2007 and slightly larger than the average trade guess.
Marketings of fed cattle in November totaled 1.58 million head, 9 percent below 2007 and greater than the average trade guess.

We have more on this report- including comments from Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities on his take on the cattle on feed numbers- click on the link below to jump to that audio.

Click here for more on last Friday's Cattle on Feed Numbers.


The FFA Rotate- National Organization Decides to Let Indianapolis and Louisville Share the National Convention- Three Years at a Time
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The National FFA Organization has announced that its annual convention will rotate between Louisville, Ky., and Indianapolis, Ind., for the foreseeable future. Starting in 2013, Louisville will share hosting duties with Indianapolis on a three-year rotational basis. Louisville will host the convention 2013 through 2015. The convention will return to Indianapolis for the years 2016 through 2018. Louisville will then be given the first right of option for the years 2019-2021; Indianapolis will have the option for 2022-2024.

FFA CEO and National FFA Advisor Dr. Larry Case was appreciative of both cities' efforts. "Both cities have welcomed FFA with outstanding hospitality," said Case. "Indianapolis and Louisville have both proven their ability to put on a world-class event for our members, advisors and guests." National FFA President Paul Moya said, "I'm confident that our members will look forward to experiencing both unique cities during their high school years."

For more on this decision- we have the story in our Blue-Green Gazzette portion of our website- and we have it linked below- AND- if your chapter or club would like to submit information that you would like to see us publish in the Gazette- drop me an email and we will do our best to get it included. Pics are welcome as well as the stories.

Click here for our Blue-Green Gazette as found at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Cattle Markets Look Forward to 2009
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We have comments offered by Dr. Derrell Peel of Oklahoma State University on how the cattle market is poised to enter the new year- here are his thoughts on the end of the year market outlook:

"2008 has been a challenging and rather exasperating year for cattle producers and nearly everyone else in the economy. Profitability was scarce for most sectors of the cattle industry as input prices and output prices in turn limited returns. The first half of the year was mostly characterized by sharply higher input prices as feed, energy, and fertilizer prices all soared to record levels driven by growing demand and uncertainty. The second half of the year saw the precipitous drop of the U.S. economy led by the collapse of the artificially inflated home mortgage sector and the resulting domino effect on general consumer spending and business retrenchment. For cattle producers, the positive effect of decreasing input prices late in the year was equaled or exceeded by the decrease in output prices and the collapse of Feeder and Live cattle futures prices.

"It seems that most everyone is ready to close the books on 2008 and move on to a new year. Consumer holiday spending will be the final measure of just how bad a year was 2008. While there is no guarantee that 2009 will be better, there are some positive signs for the economy and for the cattle industry. It appears that the stock market has stabilized into a trading range, albeit a wide one due to volatility. This at least provides a base from which to launch economic recovery. The Federal Reserve has pumped tremendous amounts of money into the economy, so far with little effect. The increase in the money supply has been matched by a decrease in the rate of money turnover in the economy as lenders have been reluctant to lend and consumers and businesses are reluctant to borrow. Eventually, this decreased velocity of money should return to more normal levels and the economy will be poised for a big economic stimulus.

"Likewise there are a number of positive cattle market factors that will set the stage for 2009 markets. Tight feeder and fed cattle supplies will help support cattle prices, especially in first half of the year. Decreased beef production along with reductions in pork and poultry production will support the meat complex in 2009. Uncertainty and risk will continue with many markets expected to remain volatile but, baring a new round of macroeconomic weakness, consumer demand should stabilize and offer some chance for profitable margins for beef sectors. Beef trade is expected to continue as a positive factor but exchange rate volatility contributes to the uncertainty of beef product and by-product trade. 2009 will be a new year and hopefully it will bring a new perspective as markets move forward and past the rollercoaster that was much of 2008."


Soybean Performance Data Available from OSU
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Dr. Chad Godsey of Oklahoma State University has information for those that want to see what soybean varieties have done the best in 2008 in Oklahoma. A total of ten locations were utilized in 2008 for the tests- some early season plantings and others were full season varieties that were planted.

Dr. Godsey has provided us the summary for the 2008 Soybean Performance Tests. Dr. Godsey says "Hopefully, you will find this information useful when making soybean variety selections in 2009."

Click below for the link on our website that will take you to the full report as issued by OSU.

Click here for more on the soybean variety info from test sites in Oklahoma for 2008.


Our thanks to Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill and Midwest Farm Shows 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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Let's Check the Markets!
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Just over 3,300 head of cattle were sold at Woodward this past Friday- with yearling steers up $1 to $2 per hundredweight, while steer calves jumped $3 to $4 higher. On what is one of the final feeder cattle auctions that will be reported for 2008- we saw five to six hundred pound steers bringing $102 to $106.75 while yearlings weighing from seven hundred up to nine hundred pounds checking in from $91 to $94. You can check the entire Woodward auction report out by clicking here- it should be available for the December 19th sale after about 8 AM on Monday morning.

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:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat and the why of that day's market.
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. <
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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