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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday August 1, 2008!
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Farm Credit Associations of
Oklahoma and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- OCA Convention Underway in Midwest City!
-- Ag in the Classroom Shoveling Lots of Info Out to State Elementary
and Middle School Teachers
-- Oh Happy Day- Beef Exports Finally Hit Pre BSE Levels!
-- Another Vote on the Market Transparency Act in the US House?
-- Oklahoma Agriculture Needs to be WELL Represented in Water
Meetings Coming Across the State.
-- Oklahoma Hay Directory STILL Current as the Interest and Need
Remains.
-- Survey Suggests that Consumers Are Supportive of Biodiesel and
Soybean Farmers.
-- 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 are excited to have as one of our new 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 growing Nu-Sun Sunflowers this year- and check out the full story on PCOM on their website 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! 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. | |
OCA Convention Underway in Midwest City! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We will be
having coverage through the day today from the Reed Center in Midwest City
as the 56th annual Convention and Trade Show of the Oklahoma Cattlemen
gets rolling full speed ahead. It seemed like a pretty good crowd had
gathered for their annual meeting as the opening of the trade show was
celebrated yesterday afternoon/evening.
It is their biggest trade show ever- and one of the reasons that the
OCA made the move from the Marriott in Oklahoma City to this new venue.
Using the entire Reed Center- the trade show is really spread out over two
levels, with ample meeting space available. The other committee action was to go on record in favor of allowing cattle producers a chance to vote on an increase of up to two dollars for the beef checkoff. Our event coverage from the OCA is brought to you in part by Hudson Livestock Supplements, and we have a link below that will take you to our webpage where OCA coverage will be housed on our website- and where you will find our updates as the day goes by. Check back in from time to time to see how the meeting is going! Click here for our Cattle Industry Insights Page with Coverage of the OCA Convention. | |
Ag in the Classroom Shoveling Lots of Info Out to State Elementary and Middle School Teachers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There have
been several road trips this summer where the Ag in the Classroom program
has taken a group of teachers out and showed them a little bit about
Oklahoma agriculture. Today, the teachers are coming to Oklahoma City- 185
of them- to learn more about the AITC curriculum and how it can fit into
their soon to be opened classroom for this fall.
Dana Bessinger is one of three Ag in the Classroom coordinators for Oklahoma- working out of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture- and Dana took time of her busy week in advance of that conference today to visit with us in studio yesterday. We talked with here about the AITC efforts here in Oklahoma and that is our most recent podcast to be found on our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We have that podcast page linked for you below to let you link to and take a listen to our conversation with this Watonga school teacher turned AITC trainer. AND- Dana will be our guest for our In the Field segment on KWTV, News9 on Saturday morning August 2 around 6:40 AM- tune in and see Dana with some of the Ag in the Classroom Materials. The Ag in the Classroom program in Oklahoma is a joint effort of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Oklahoma Department of Education and OSU Extension. Click here to jump to the audio link with Ron and Dana talking Ag in the Classroom. | |
Oh Happy Day- Beef Exports Finally Hit Pre BSE Levels! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The latest
stats from USDA shows that this past week, we shipped 13,900 metric tons
of US beef into the international market- the most in a week since
November 2003. You remember that December 23, 2003 was the date that is
burned into the memory of the US cattle industry as the day that then Ag
Secretary Ann Veneman announced that we had a "presumptive positive" for
BSE- and our cattle industry has lived with that every day since.
The last two weeks have also had very good beef sales numbers(different than the shipped numbers) as we saw 21,900 metric tons shipped two weeks ago- and 17,900 metric tons this past week. The jump in sales these past two weeks is the reopening of the South Korean market as orders are coming in- and Korea purchases stood at 6,100 metric tons two weeks ago and 8,100 metric tons this past week. A lot of the interest in US ag exports in general and beef and pork specifically is the weakness of the Yankee greenback. Erica Rose of the Livestock Marketing Info Center calls the weakness in the dollar a "huge contributing factor." In addition, with higher feed prices, livestock herds in other countries are facing liquidation which may leave us more opportunity in the days to come. | |
Another Vote on the Market Transparency Act in the US House? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The official
name of the measure is the Commodity Markets Transparency and
Accountability Act- and we may see another vote on this bill that came up
about nine votes short in getting a super majority earlier this week in
the US House. House Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson believes the
votes would be there this time if another vote is held before Congress
leaves town for the month of August.
The National Corn Growers Association, the National Sorghum Producers, the National Cotton Council, the National Farmers Union and a bunch of other commodity groups have joined to press Congress for legislation to curb excessive speculation in the energy markets. In a letter to Congress the organizations wrote - production
agriculture relies on smoothly functioning futures markets for risk
management and price discovery. Unfortunately, in recent months concerns
about agricultural futures market performance have grown, and the ability
of producers and processors to use those markets for hedging has in some
cases been seriously compromised. Click here for more on the Market Speculation Bill that the House Might Revote on Today. | |
Oklahoma Agriculture Needs to be WELL Represented in Water Meetings Coming Across the State. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mike Spradling
of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau says as Oklahoma's largest user of water,
farmers and ranchers are strongly encouraged to participate in a series of
regional water meetings beginning August 7. "We need to make sure
agriculture is well represented in any discussion about water," said
Spradling. "This is important because we're talking about the future
management of Oklahoma's water resources."
Approximately 60 Farm Bureau leaders have been selected to participate in the meetings, but Spradling said anyone can attend and discuss their vision of a future water plan. "It's a simple fact that without water we cannot produce food, so farmers and ranchers need to be in the front row at these meetings," Spradling said. State water officials have planned the meetings as a step toward
developing a comprehensive water plan in 2011. During each of the 11
regional meetings, participants will categorize and prioritize their
region's issues, which will set the agenda for the next phase in the
process, the planning workshops to be held in 2009. | |
Oklahoma Hay Directory STILL Current as the Interest and Need Remains. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Both hay
buyers and sellers are reminded that the online hay directory maintained
by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry is
available. The agency is receiving numerous calls from both buyers and
sellers who do not know about the directory.
"Since we began deleting entries after 60 days unless the sellers tell us they still have hay for sale we haven't had complaints about our directory being out of date," said Glen Schickedanz, Market News Coordinator with ODAFF. "This is an excellent tool for locating supplies or letting people know you have hay for sale." His office is receiving about an equal number of calls from both buyers and sellers, he said. The Oklahoma hay directory is online at the link below and the hay hotline is still open at 1-800-580- 6543. When you get to the ODAFF website- look down on the right side column to a listing called Directories. There you will see a link to an in-state directory and an "out of state" directory. Both have recent listings of hay available. Click here for the Oklahoma Hay Directory to be found on the Oklahoma Department of Ag's website. | |
Survey Suggests that Consumers Are Supportive of Biodiesel and Soybean Farmers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A recent
nationwide survey conducted by the United Soybean Board and soybean
checkoff revealed that U.S. consumers strongly back U.S. soybean farmers
and biodiesel. The "National Agriculture Image Survey" indicated 82
percent of consumers agree foreign oil-producing countries and the high
cost of fuel impacting farming and processing, packaging, storing and
shipping food are to blame for food price increases, not U.S. farmers.
"In a time when we all are feeling the pinch of high energy and food costs, it's encouraging to know the American public realizes the benefits of soy biodiesel as a clean-burning, renewable, homegrown fuel," says USB Vice Chairman and Nebraska soybean farmer Chuck Myers. "The soybean checkoff believes it's important that consumers understand the rising cost of petroleum represents the major reason for higher consumer food prices and that biodiesel represents a viable, useful and beneficial alternative to imported oil." Myers says that many consumers may not understand how soybean prices affect food costs. "Demand for soy biodiesel has very little impact on the price of food," states Myers. "A soybean consists mostly of protein-rich meal, and 98 percent of that meal is used to feed animals that produce food such as poultry, pork, beef and fish." In addition to serving as a major source of feed to animals, U.S. soy also provides the world with food such as soymilk, tofu and other primary sources of human protein. Biodiesel production, Myers explains, does not have an impact on the production of soy- based foods. "A soybean checkoff study found that demand for biodiesel made from soybean oil increases the supply of soybean meal, which will be largely used to produce more food - not less," Myers explains. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma and Producers Cooperative Oil Mill 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. | |
Let's Check the Markets! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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