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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday August 21,
2008! A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Farm Credit Associations of
Oklahoma and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Ray Huhnke Excited About Biofuel Efforts at OSU- Especially in
Sorghum
-- Carbon Credit Deal Cut Between Western Farmers Electric
Cooperative and Oklahoma Conservation Groups
-- J.D. Strong to Replace Miles Tolbert as Top Enviornmental Officer
in Governor Brad Henry's Cabinet.
-- Monsanto Moves Away from Livestock Market with Sale of Posilac to
Elanco
-- Have Your Ever Watched the Survivor Shows on TV? If you have- you
know what to expect from the cattle business in the next few years!
-- Truck Weight Forum Set for Today at the State Capitol
-- Mark Labor Day on your Calendar as the Big Event- The Angus
Production Sale of Express Ranches.
-- 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 about rotating some of your winter wheat acres into winter canola 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. | |
Ray Huhnke Excited About Biofuel Efforts at OSU- Especially in Sorghum ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We caught up
with Dr. Ray Huhnke, biosystems and agricultural engineer who coordinates
OSU's multi-college, multi-institutional biofuels effort at this week's
International Conference on Sorghum in the Biofuels Arena- and he's
excited about the work that OSU has been doing in working with the various
types of sorghum. Dr. Huhnke says all three types of sorghum, grain
sorghum, forage sorghum and sweet sorghum, all bring positives to the
table when you start talking about biofuels.
He says that one line of research that OSU is pursuing would benefit small scale producers of a crop like sweet sorghum, which can be grown in most areas of Oklahoma. The OSU effort is looking at ways to grow the sweet sorghum, than harvest it and process it right in the field into some level of ethanol. The final distillation of the product will likely occur at a processing plant, but the steps of crushing the plant, extracting the sugar water from it and then adding yeast to ferment the juice and turning it into raw ethanol (think rum) is very doable at the farm level. We talked with Ray Huhnke while in Houston at the International Conference on Sorghum as a Biofuel- and that interview is featured today on our website- you can click below to jump to that story and then listen to the give and take we had with Dr. Huhnke on his group's most recent efforts. Click here for our story on Sorghum as a Biofuel with Ray Huhnke of OSU | |
Carbon Credit Deal Cut Between Western Farmers Electric Cooperative and Oklahoma Conservation Groups ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Western
Farmers Electric Cooperative will be formalizing an agreement to buy
"carbon credits" that are generated by farming practices in the North
Canadian Watershed in four central Oklahoma counties- Blaine, Canadian,
Dewey and Oklahoma. This is a first of its kind agreement in Oklahoma.
The purchase of carbon offsets through this program will also encourage landowners to change farming and ranching practices to participate in a Section 319 Clean Water Initiative being implemented by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) Water Quality Division in cooperation with local Conservation Districts in Blaine, Canadian, Dewey, and Oklahoma Counties. The ceremony that will formalize this arrangement is set for Thursday, August 28 at the Central North Canadian River Conservation District office in Geary, Oklahoma. Following that 10:00 AM ceremony, there will be a ribbon cutting on the banks of the North Canadian River itself in rural Canadian County. The Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts is coordinating this arrangement with the Electric Cooperative on behalf of the local conservation districts. | |
J.D. Strong to Replace Miles Tolbert as Top Enviornmental Officer in Governor Brad Henry's Cabinet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma
Governor Brad Henry today named longtime public servant J.D. Strong to his
executive cabinet, appointing him to the position of Secretary of the
Environment. He will replace outgoing cabinet officer Miles Tolbert, who
recently announced his resignation to take a position in the private
sector. Strong has worked in the Office of the Secretary of the
Environment for the past 12 years, most recently serving as Tolbert's
chief of staff.
"J.D. Strong has a proven track record of protecting the state's environment and preserving Oklahomans' most precious resources," said Gov. Henry. "I have no doubt that he will hit the ground running and keep the focus on our state's environmental priorities. I greatly appreciate his willingness to serve the people of Oklahoma in this important position." As a cabinet officer, Strong will also be responsible for overseeing a number of state environmental agencies including the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Wildlife Conservation, among others. | |
Monsanto Moves Away from Livestock Market with Sale of Posilac to Elanco ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elanco, the
animal health division of Eli Lilly & Co., announced Wednesday morning
that Lilly has signed an agreement with Monsanto Co. to acquire Monsanto's
Posilac dairy cow supplement for $300 million. Dairy demand is increasing
worldwide and is exceeding supply, while milk and other dairy product
prices to consumers are rising, Elanco president Jeff Simmons said. With
Posilac, Elanco not only can enhance its portfolio but can work with dairy
producers to provide them with more production options that will give
consumers more affordable choices, he said.
Elanco has marketed a generic form of Posilac outside the U.S. for more than 10 years, and the acquisition will give it exclusive rights to the U.S. market. According to the agreement, Lilly will acquire the Posilac brand, its manufacturing plant in Augusta, Ga., and its U.S. workforce. The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory clearance but is expected to be completed by the beginning of the fourth quarter, according to the announcement. Monsanto announced two weeks ago that it was selling Posilac to focus on its core platform in corn, soybean, cotton and vegetable plant seeds. | |
Have Your Ever Watched the Survivor Shows on TV? If you have- you know what to expect from the cattle business in the next few years! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Low Cost
Cattle Producer will have the best chance to survive the next few years in
the cattle business- so says Dr. Jim Mintert in our Thursday edition of
the Beef Buzz, a regular feature heard on radio stations across the state
on the Radio Oklahoma Network.
Mintert believes the cattle industry faces a period of shrinking- especially in the packing and feedlot sectors. And he says that will impact the yearling and calf markets as well. Currently, he says that cattle feeders are being too optimistic about the likely performance of cattle in the feedlot, the cost of producing a pound of beef and/or the likely price of finished pens of cattle later this year into early 2009. Mintert believes that we will have a hard time getting prices that will cover the breakevens on these cattle- and that the close outs on those pens of cattle will probably be very ugly. You can hear Mintert's thoughts on "surviving" the slimming down of the cattle business by clicking on the link for our Thursday Beef Buzz below- as found on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. | |
Truck Weight Forum Set for Today at the State Capitol ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congresswoman
Mary Fallin and Congressman Dan Boren are both scheduled to be a forum
planned by Fallin to highlight the efforts thus far to try to place
legislation into law that would mandate that farm truck weights for the
purpose of interstate commerce should be raised from 10,001 pounds to 26,
001 pounds.
Fallin and Boren are leading the way in truck weight reform by authoring H.R. 3098. Representatives Tom Cole, Frank Lucas, and John Sullivan are Cosponsors of the legislation, which would improve federal trucking regulations. Congresswoman Fallin has invited all of the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation to attend to the forum. This forum is set for today at 10:00 AM in the Blue Room at the State Capitol. | |
Mark Labor Day on your Calendar as the Big Event- The Angus Production Sale of Express Ranches. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Express Ranch
in Yukon considers their annual Angus Production Sale "The Big Event" and
the 2008 edition is their sixth annual renewal of this Labor Day Classic.
Some 600 lots of Registered Angus cattle will be offered on September
first, beginning at 10:00 AM- the sale to be held at the Express Ranch
facilities just north of Yukon.
The offering that day will include: We have the link for the catalog that is now on line at the Express Ranch website- click below to check out this outstanding offering that will be sold on September first. All heifers in the sale qualify for the Express Scholarship program, which has awarded over $2 million in scholarships to youth across the country. For more information on this year's "Big Event," call Express Ranches at 405-350-0044. Click here for the on line Sale Catalog for the 2008 Angus Production Sale of Express Ranches. | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prices for
yearling cattle at OKC West in El Reno were $1 to $2 lower on Wednesday,
as the auction had 2,493 cattle to sell. It was a lighter run than what
might have been otherwise as heavy rains closed some roads in the Canadian
County area earlier this week. If you want to review the OKC West Auction
report-
click here.
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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