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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday December 15,
2008! A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Farm Credit Associations of
Oklahoma and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Back From Havana- Oklahoma Delegation Hopes Trip Results in
Oklahoma Wheat Being Sold to Cubans
-- Pawnee FFA Claims Top Honors in Tulsa Farm Show Livestock Skills
Contest
-- Mr. Wheat for 2008- Keith Kisling of Burlington
-- USMEF Calls the October Meat Export Numbers Very Positive for Pork
and Beef Producers
-- Bits and Pieces- Mark Hodges- Lite Emails and more
-- EPA Gives Livestock Producers Exemption
-- Calendar Updates
-- 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! 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. | |
Back From Havana- Oklahoma Delegation Hopes Trip Results in Oklahoma Wheat Being Sold to Cubans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An Oklahoma
agricultural trade team led by State Secretary of Agriculture, Terry
Peach, returned from Cuba this past week saying negotiations have begun
for future wheat sales as well as other commodities. Secretary Peach tells
us that this was his fifth trip to the island nation.
"In addition to wheat, the Cubans wanted to explore possible sales of forest products and dairy cattle," Peach said. "There are some logistical areas that need to be worked out but we're confident that we will make a delivery of wheat sometime in the coming months." We talked with Secretary Peach about the group going to Cuba and you can hear Terry's comments by clicking on the link below.. Accompanying the agriculture secretary, trade team members included Mark Hodges, Oklahoma Wheat Commission Executive Director, Keith Kisling, Thomas McCreight, Robert McClendon, Joe Neal Hampton, Rep. Don Armes, Sen. Charles Wyrick and Kent Prickett. Peach said the group was impressed with improvements the Cubans have made in terms of electrical power and mass transit since last visiting in 2006. "The changes we saw were significant and positive," he said. "After they had been hit by two major hurricanes earlier this year we weren't sure what conditions we would find." | |
Pawnee FFA Claims Top Honors in Tulsa Farm Show Livestock Skills Contest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A total of
nine FFA Chapters fielded teams on Friday for the Livestock Handling
Skills Contest at the Tulsa Farm Show. These thirty FFA members- three per
team- qualified by testing that was held last July at the Big 3 Field days
in Stillwater on campus at OSU.
Winning the Friday contest was the team that represented the Pawnee FFA Chapter and included team members Cole Collins, Chase Collins and Chris Griesel. Second place was claimed by the Dickson FFA- team members were Christy McGee, Julie Riner and Fed Chapman. Third Place was the first of two Crescent FFA teams- their team included Kendall Harsh, Davis Bradley and Koti Ford. The other Crescent FFA team in the competition placed fourth overall and was represented by Josh James, Zac tarrent and Corey Crick. Fifth Place was claimed by Oktaha FFA- their three team members included Dale Guthrie, Ariel Allen and Mikaela Crawford. | |
Mr. Wheat for 2008- Keith Kisling of Burlington ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 2008
Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association held their annual meeting this past
Saturday- and OWGA handed out several awards, including the annual Mr.
Wheat award, which is traditionally their highest award given during their
annual meeting. The 2008 Mr. Wheat is Keith Kisling from Burlington. Keith
is a past Chairman of US Wheat, a member of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission
and is now serving as the Chairman of Plains Grains.
Saturday night, the OWGA and Oklahoma Wheat Commission joined forces to hold a special salute to Mark Hodges, who is leaving the Wheat Commission after 15 years of service as their Executive Director. The OWGA handed out a new special award to Hodges they are calling the "Golden Loaf" award. This award is being created to salute special long time achievement that has impacted the Oklahoma wheat industry. Our own Ed Richards covered the OWGA meeting for us on Saturday- and he talked with Tim Bartram about these two awards and more- we have that conversation and more on the Wheat Grower meeting linked below on our website- www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Check it out. | |
USMEF Calls the October Meat Export Numbers Very Positive for Pork and Beef Producers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While the U.S.
agriculture community undoubtedly has been feeling the significant effects
of the global economic downturn, the export numbers for October continue
to show progress over the previous year. Pork exports in particular held
up extremely well, posting the third-largest monthly volume on record that
equates to a 46 percent volume increase over exports from October of 2007
and a 55.5 percent increase in value. Specifically, pork and pork variety
meat exports in October totaled 192,940 metric tons (425.4 million pounds)
valued at $487 million - a new record for monthly export value. Export
volume increased 18 percent over the previous month and trails only May
and June of 2008 for most pork exported in a single month. For January
through October, exports were up 67 percent to 1.7 million metric tons
(3.8 billion pounds), with value surpassing $4.1 billion.
The story for U.S. beef also remains positive. Although smaller than the summer peak, beef plus beef variety meat exports were relatively strong in October, exceeding October 2007 volume levels by 16 percent. U.S. beef and variety meat exports for the month reached 89,205 metric tons (196.7 million pounds) valued at $348.3 million, exceeding year-ago export value totals by 31.4 percent. January through October beef exports, including variety meat, increased 31 percent to 840,121 metric tons (1.8 billion pounds), with value surpassing $3.1 billion, an increase of 43 percent. We have a detailed analysis from Economist Erin Daley with the US Meat Export Federation- it's found on our website under today's Top Agricultural News. We have it linked below- click to check it out. | |
Bits and Pieces- Mark Hodges- Lite Emails and more ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We mentioned
earlier that the Wheat Growers honored Mark Hodges on Saturday evening
with their Golden Loaf award. On Friday evening, the ag organizations in
the state joined with State Ag Secretary Terry Peach to honor Mark with a
reception that was held at the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association building
in Stockyards City. At that reception- Mark was presented with a specially
engraved shotgun and the stuff that goes along with a shotgun- hunting
vest and lots of shells- enough according to one attendee that Mark should
be able to shoot at least a couple of birds.
Emails this week will be the "lite" variety- as my lovely wife and I are spending some time on the road- not at an agricultural event. I am writing this on a Sunday evening in south Florida- and later in the week- we will be flying from here to see family in my old state of Kentucky. We have some good stuff lined up for you this week on our daily emails- and I will be checking in to add in late breaking info as we have it. That may include word on a new Secretary of Agriculture- maybe. We have heard from more than one source that we could see the Obama team announce their choice for the USDA job by December 20- which would be this coming Saturday. We shall see. | |
EPA Gives Livestock Producers Exemption ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EPA is
announcing a final rule providing an administrative reporting exemption
for air releases of hazardous substances from animal waste at farms.
However, notifications must still be made to response authorities when
hazardous substances are released to the air from sources other than
animal waste, such as ammonia tanks, and when hazardous substances are
released to soil and water. Also, farms and other facilities are required
to report any releases of hazardous substances above an EPA-established
level to the Coast Guard National Response Center and state and local
emergency response authorities.
EPA has never initiated a response based upon a notification of a hazardous substance release to the air from animal waste at farms. A number of states and localities have also indicated that they do not expect to take response actions in these situations. Because of these findings, EPA is providing a full exemption to the reporting requirement under CERCLA and a limited exemption to the reporting requirement under EPCRA for releases of hazardous substances to the air from animal waste at farms. The limited exemption under EPCRA resulted from EPA receiving comments on the proposed rule from state and local officials indicating that, although they did not expect to respond to notifications of air releases of hazardous substances from animal waste at farms, some still wished to receive notifications from large concentrated animal feeding operations. EPA has addressed these comments by requiring large CAFOs to continue submitting emergency notification reports under EPCRA. | |
Calendar Updates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have added
several meeting to our calendar page at www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com-
including details of the monthly board meeting of the Oklahoma Wheat
Commission that happens later this week. We have also added several events
that will be going on in the early part of 2009- check back on a regular
basis and we will be adding stuff as we receive details.
We check various sources for our calendar information- but a very important source is what we get from our readers and listeners. Please make sure we have your event- and if we do not- pull together some information about the event- perhaps you have a website you can send us the link to for more information- when we get it- will do our best to add it quickly. We appreciate your help because with several thousand of you being our eyes and ears- that keeps us plugged into what is going on in Oklahoma agriculture and rural Oklahoma- and that allows us to be able to keep you better informed as well. Click here for our Calendar page as found at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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