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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday October 23,
2008! A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Farm Credit Associations of
Oklahoma and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Making Waves in Indianapolis
-- Livestock Groups Angry Over Idea of Bailing Out Poor Decisions
Made by Ethanol Producers
-- For Beef Cows- A Better Body Condition Score is a Very Good
Thing
-- Producers Cooperative Oil Mill Celebrates Canola Crush
-- Phil Seng Thinks Korean Supermarket Chains FINALLY Ready to Sell
US Beef Again
-- National FFA at 507,000 Members and Moving Higher
-- Kris Black Annual Bull Sale Happens this Saturday at the Ranch
North of Cheyenne
-- 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 annual Tulsa Farm Show scheduled for December 11-13 here in 2008, as well as the springtime 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! 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. | |
Making Waves in Indianapolis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 2008
National FFA Convention has jumped into road gear with the judging
yesterday afternoon of the 21 Proficiency Finalists that have come from
Oklahoma to compete- the most from any single state. They will learn how
they did on friday afternoon when the national winners will be announced
in the 49 different categories. We have a paragraph describing each of
these finalists- and we
would invite you to take a look at that story by clicking here.
Word came last night that our two state speech representatives, Sarah Reasnor for Prepared Public Speaking and Blake Jackson for Extemp both moved to the semis yesterday morning- but were unable to advance into the finals that happen later today. We did hear that Laila Hajii of Guthrie did make the first cut this year for consideration to be a National Officer- she will know if she will be one of the six late Saturday afternoon. Beyond that- we will continue to post stories through the day today from Indianapolis and would invite you to check out the stories posted thus far by clicking on the link below- and you can check back later in the day today to see what is new that has been posted- we will be adding updates later on in the day. | |
Livestock Groups Angry Over Idea of Bailing Out Poor Decisions Made by Ethanol Producers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Both cattle
and pork organizations are up in arms over comments made by Secretary of
Agriculture Ed Schafer this past Friday in Iowa about the need that USDA
sees to help ethanol plants struggling with the high and now low corn
price situation. The Oklahoma Pork Council, the Oklahoma Cattlemen's
Association, the Texas Cattle Feeders Association and the Texas and
Southwest Cattle Raisers have all spoken out and/or signed letters to Ag
Secretary Ed Schafer condemning the possibility.
We have a copy of the letter that the letter that was researched and drafted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association that says it is time to stop shoveling tax dollars into the ethanol hole. The cattle groups signing the letter told Secretary Schafer that "our members disagree with USDA plans and do not want more of their tax dollars spent to help instances of poor risk management within the ethanol industry." You can take a look at what else the letter says by going to our webstory linked below. | |
For Beef Cows- A Better Body Condition Score is a Very Good Thing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now is the
time to improve the body condition of the cows in your beef herd, before
winter hits. OSU Extension Beef Specialist Dr. Glen Selk says that if you
have some younger cows in your herd that are little too thin as we
approach winter, it will be worth your while to segregate those animals,
and have some extra feed and perhaps some protein supplement available to
them to increase their body condition score.
Dr. Selk contends that a cow carrying a higher body condition score will handle the winter better- and will rebreed more successfully next spring. His comments are a part of our regular look at our cow-calf operations through the eyes of experience that Glen Selk brings to us on Thursday on the Beef Buzz. Click on the link below to take a listen. The Beef Buzz is a regular feature of the Radio Oklahoma Network and is also available on our website www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. In fact, if you click on the Beef Buzz link on the left hand side of our web pages, you will be able to see a full listing of recent Beef Buzz shows that you can take a listen to. | |
Producers Cooperative Oil Mill Celebrates Canola Crush ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PCOM is
holding a Media Day today at their facility in downtown Oklahoma City to
help spotlight the advent of a new market for Oklahoma farmers who grow
winter canola. Up to this year- the main option for those who were looking
at growing canola on some of their wheat acres was to ship the harvested
crop all the way to North Dakota.
PCOM and POP (Plains Oilseed Products) announced last year that PCOM had agreed to be the entity that would step up and make a southern plains oilseed crushing facility a reality. The crop harvested this year is now being crushed at the facility in downtown OKC and we featured a story with Brandon Winters yesterday about that process. Today we wanted to link you to an interview that we did this week before we left Oklahoma City for Indianapolis with Gary Conkling, CEO and President of PCOM. We talk about the historic mission of the Coop- and where these relatively new crops will be taking the cooperative in the years ahead. Click below for that conversation. Click here for more on the PCOM celebration and our conversation with Gary Conkling | |
Phil Seng Thinks Korean Supermarket Chains FINALLY Ready to Sell US Beef Again ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DTN is
reporitng that U.S. beef may reappear on shelves in South Korea's big
grocery stores at the end of the month. "We have reason to believe that
would be the case," said Phil Seng, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat
Export Federation. Seng visited South Korea Oct. 7 to 11, where he met
trade representatives and retail chain executives, as well as visiting
butcher shops running USMEF beef promotions.
Butcher shops are the only places one can presently find U.S. beef in South Korea. The retail chains haven't been willing to touch the meat over fears consumers would not buy the product, preferring to play a wait-and-see game. It's not that the chains don't trust the quality and taste of U.S. beef, but they are afraid of the radical consumer groups that protested and slowed the latest reopening of the Korean market to US Beef by several months. According to Seng, the rate of U.S. beef shipments to South Korea is faster than the rate of consumption. "There is an accumulation of inventory," he said. A large amount of frozen U.S. beef has come in, and a major importer brought in 60 tons of chilled U.S. beef, on the expectation that the chains would start using the product. The problem is, nobody wants to go first, so the logjam continues- a logjam that Phil Seng will be broken sooner or later- and after this October visit, he thinks we are close to seeing that expansion of US product into one or more of the beef chains in the near term. | |
National FFA at 507,000 Members and Moving Higher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The National
FFA organization is at its highest membership level since the late 1970s-
and National Advisor Larry Case says he believes that the record
membership level set in 1977 will be surpassed in the coming year. The
National FFA now has just over 507,000 members across the US, and Case
says there are several reasons why membership remains robust in a group
that has its roots in rural America, down on the farms and ranches of
America.
Case says that Ag Education has diversified in recent years, expanding its content to reflect the diversity of jobs available in the agricultural arena here in 2008. He says that you add the leadership development component of the FFA organization to the mix- and you get a supercharged organization that is relevant today. We asked Case about the symbol of the FFA now and then- the FFA jacket. He laughed and said he often gets the question from onlookers, "why do you make those students wear those jackets?" He tells us "we don't make them wear them- you couldn't take them away from them." He says its a matter of wanting that jacket as a symbol of belonging and of the character of the young people that wear those jackets. It was a fascinating conversation that we had with Larry Case- and we have our story on that interview linked below- complete with the link to the interview. This is a good primer on why FFA is still relevant today and why that is important to rural and urban America as well as to ANYONE involved in hiring people in the business of agriculture. Take the time to listen to it- he has some really interesting observations to share with us. | |
Kris Black Annual Bull Sale Happens this Saturday at the Ranch North of Cheyenne ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The annual
Fall Bull Sale of the Black Hereford Ranch in Crawford, Oklahoma is set
for this coming Saturday, October 25. The bidding will begin at 2:00 PM
for the 90 Stout Composite and Major Club Calf producing herd sires.
Kris Black writes in the sale catalog "there are bulls to fit anyone's budget. We think there are several bulls that can and will be promoted and will sell semen. Many of the bulls in this stout set of fall yearlings will sire highly sought after club calves that will sell for a good premium." Lots of excellent genetics make this offering of ready to work bulls coming out of northwest Oklahoma. We have a lot of information linked on this sale below- including the full sale catalog, videos of the bulls that you can see online and details of how you can view and bid online the day of the sale if you cannot be there in person. Click below for more on Kris Black Annual Fall Bull Sale as he offers the Cream of the Crop. Click here for more on the Annual Bull Sale of Kris Black Saturday October 25 | |
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. | |
Let's Check the Markets! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The OKC West
Livestock Auction in El Reno sold slightly over 5000 cattle yesterday- and
prices for both yearlings and calves were mostly higher. In particular,
steer and heifer calves $4.00-10.00 higher with very good demand. To
see their full report from Wednesday, 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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