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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday April 4, 2008!
A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers &
Ranchers and the Southern Plains Farm Show!
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-- The Farm Bill Clock Keeps Ticking...
-- Spradling Goes One on One with Secretary Schafer.
-- Monsanto Plans to Up their Glyphosate Production by 20% in
Louisiana.
-- Sue Kirk the Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year!
-- Oklahoma Beef Congress Coming April 16 at Limestone Feeders Near
Guthrie.
-- Stand By Your Ham!!!
-- The Grass to Grid Bull and Female Sale Happens Saturday April
12.
-- A Check of 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 proud to have Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here! We are also proud to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual
Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click
here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to
serve rural America! 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. | |
The Farm Bill Clock Keeps Ticking... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A friend of
mine that has served our country very well in the military sends out to a
group of folks a daily "Spark" which is sometimes a single thought- and
other times a lot more. He had a single thought a couple of mornings ago
that very well sums up the current mess with the Farm Bill as he offered
this quote from a gentleman by the name of William James; "Nothing is so
fatiguing as the hanging on of an unfinished task."
The Farm Bill "task" continues to hang on- the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee as well as the Chairman of the non existent Conference Committee between the House and the Senate, Tom Harkin of Iowa, has reduced his expectations from anticipating a "forward looking bill" to one that is "better than nothing." Harkin is accepting the framework deal that Colin Peterson and Kent Conrad have largely constructed that is projected to go $10 billion over budget baseline for a ten year scoring period- even though the bill itself will only be written for a five year period. The problem remains that there is no funding for the measure as we write this on a Friday morning, two weeks from the next deadline that is a second extension of the 2002 farm law that expired last October first. And, the funding for the measure seems to rest on the shoulders of New York urban lawmaker Charley Rangel, who is saying we need MORE money for nutrition- even after nutrition is boosted by over nine billion dollars in this proposal. To add insult to injury to the "preconference" conferees(the four leaders of the House and Senate Ag Committees)- now Ron Kind of Wisconsin is back on stage with a claim he has the blessing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in calling for more farm policy reforms as he complains of cuts from earlier proposed levels for conservation. The reforms that Congressman Kind would like to see might include a sharp lowering of the payment limits, means testing and perhaps a cutting of direct payments. We talk about the farm bill dilemma extensively in our Friday Morning Farm News as heard on the Radio Oklahoma Network- we have it linked for you below if you want to check it out. | |
Spradling Goes One on One with Secretary Schafer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As the
Oklahoma Farm Bureau Congressional Action Tour wrapped up in Washington
yesterday, Sam Knipp's long standing friendship with Dale Moore produced
the opportunity for new OFB President Mike Spradling to get time in the
"Cage" at USDA, meeting with Secretary Ed Schafer in his office.
In taking with Spradling after his face to face meeting with the former Governor of North Dakota turned Ag Secretary, the Tulsa County Pecan and Cattle producer tells me that the overriding point he took away from the meeting is that "President Bush really wants to get a farm bill done." Spradling says he was able to express the need for the farm safety net to remain in place- and that includes Direct Payments, something the Administration agrees with- and he also promoted the idea of a Permanent Disaster Program- which the Bush Administration is less enthusiastic about. | |
Monsanto Plans to Up their Glyphosate Production by 20% in Louisiana. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monsanto
Company announced this week its intention to make an investment of up to
$196 million over the next 18 months at its glyphosate manufacturing
facility in Luling, Louisiana. The planned development will increase its
global capacity to produce Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides.
Monsanto is focused on making improvements to the company's manufacturing processes at Luling over the next 18 months by continuing to leverage technology and capital improvements throughout the manufacturing process. These improvements have the potential to increase the site's manufacturing capacity of Roundup agricultural herbicide by approximately 20 percent once finalized, which would increase the overall global supply of glyphosate by more than 10 percent. Monsanto claims that Roundup is the largest selling herbicide brand in the world. Its active ingredient, glyphosate, was first developed and introduced in the 1970s. The herbicide was first marketed to farmers in 1973. Of course, what really gave Roundup it claim to fame and market dominance was the development of genetically modified plants that have the so called "Roundup Ready" gene inserted- that allows the plant to tolerate glyphosate while the plants around it are burned to the ground. Monsanto claims that the Roundup chemical lineup is now the most used ag chemicals by farmers around the world. | |
Sue Kirk the Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sue Kirk,
first-grade teacher at the Wayland Bonds Elementary School in the Moore
public school system, has been named 2008 Ag in the Classroom Teacher of
the Year. The AITC program provides core curriculum material that
incorporates agricultural information in studies such as math, science,
language arts, reading and social studies. Jamey Allen, Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry coordinator for the program
said Kirk uses agricultural themes in her class as well as the usual core
curriculum.
"When the students walk in to the classroom they are greeted by a big, red barn and a rooster puppet that crows to greet them to a new school day," she said. "Mrs. Kirk is one of the most dynamic and personable teachers in the state and we are thrilled to have her working with us in the Ag in the Classroom program." Kirk was recognized at the State Capitol during the Oklahoma
Agriculture Day celebration and receives a $500 honorarium provided by
Dosia Jackson in memory of Paul Jackson. The Oklahoma Farm Bureau Women's
organization will provide airfare for Kirk to attend the National Ag in
the Classroom Conference in Costa Mesa, California. | |
Oklahoma Beef Congress Coming April 16 at Limestone Feeders Near Guthrie. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Oklahoma
Beef Congress is set for Wednesday, April 16 at Limestone Feeders. This
event will showcase the steers that have been fed out in the OK Steer
Feed-Out.
The OK Steer Feed-Out Spring born steers are going to be market ready during April. OSU Extension Officials say they have chosen to use this opportunity to discuss the importance and use of information collected by the OK Steer Feed-Out for beef cattle producers. Management decisions and their effect on breeding programs, production efficiency and carcass merit are changing beef production and adding a variety of marketing options for today's producer. The program will start around the 9 AM time frame and wrap up by mid afternoon- and includes lunch. Speakers range from Dr. Brad Morgan of OSU to Dr. Stan Bevers of Vernon, Texas who is with the Extension service in Texas- and will offer his market outlook to the proceedings. We have the link below for our calendar page- scroll down to April 16 to get more information- or you can call Bob LeValley in Duncan at 580-255-0546 for more information. Click here for our Calendar Page at WWW.OkalhomaFarmReport.Com | |
Stand By Your Ham!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is really
beyond words- but there's a group of British hog farmers that have jumped
on YouTube and the Internet to take their plea of economic justice to the
public. The centerpiece of their effort- with tremendous apologies to
Tammy Wynette- is a little ditty called "Stand by Your Ham."
The lyrics include these lines- Barney Kay, National Pig Association (NPA) general manager and man
behind Stand By Your Ham, said: "It is a slightly tongue in cheek way of
raising awareness of a serious issue. Put simply, farmers need to receive
more for their pigs or many face the prospect of going out of business.
All they are asking for is a fair price. Click here to check out the British Price Protest "Stand By Your Ham" | |
The Grass to Grid Bull and Female Sale Happens Saturday April 12. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Grass to
Grid Bull and Female Sale, is featuring the genetics of Collins Cattle of
Frederick, Oklahoma and Griswold Cattle of Follett, Texas. The sale is to
be held in Follett, Texas on the 12th at 12:30 PM. Angus, MaineAngus and
SimAngus Bulls will be sold, along with 100 Commercial black bred and open
fancy heifers.
The Sale Catalog- available by going to the link below- talks about the genetics from these ranches- "These programs have a solid foundation as producers of moderate, efficient cattle that are backed by maternal traits. Our implementation of Maine Angus and SimAngus is a result for our demand for these type of females." The sale will be held on the west side of Follett, TX at the intersection of Hwy 15 and FR 2741, at the Jeff Bourquin sale facility. The bulls are on feed at Panhandle Feeders in Shattuck, OK. For more information, you can contact Christy Collins at 1-800-975-6313- or go to the link provided below for their full sale catalog. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahomafor 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. | |
A Check of the Markets... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We will be
doing some quick highlights about what's happening in the markets on an
ongoing basis here at the very bottom of the Email- that way, it will be
easy to find for those of you that want this information- and for the ones
that don't want it- and for those whp read this on a Blackberry- you won't
have to slug through the various HTML links that drive me crazy on my
phone as I scroll down.
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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