~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday May 9, 2008!
A
service of KIS Futures, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma and American
Farmers & Ranchers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Final Jeopardy Answer- "Veto!!!"
-- Congressional Lovefest As Harkin and Peterson Co-Host Conference
Committee Farm Bill Announcement!
-- Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Woman's Committee Help Sponsor Mail Carrier
Food Drive This Weekend!
-- May First Wheat Crop Estimate Out at 7:30 AM This Morning.
-- Humane Society of the US Claims- NOT OUR DUTY!
-- Oklahoma's Ag Department Planning Electronic Custom Harvester
Directory!
-- J & J Cattle Set for Their Third Annual Production Sale.
-- Checking 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 say thanks to Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for being 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 NEW 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. | |
Final Jeopardy Answer- "Veto!!!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And the
question that was answered by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer in a
statement issued on Thursday afternoon- when it comes to the proposed 2008
Farm Bill now close to completion, is President Bush ready to sign it or
veto it?
Secretary Schafer says ""Today, the United States House and Senate
announced the completion of a farm bill that unfortunately fails to
include much needed reform and increases spending by nearly $20 billion.
At a time of record farm income, Congress decided to further increase farm
subsidy rates, qualify more people for taxpayer support, and move programs
toward more government control. We should not remove farm commodities from
market forces and make them dependent upon government support programs.
"Americans appreciate our farmers and ranchers and understand the
uncertainties and risks that farming presents. However, they do not
understand why their taxes should be used to provide payments to
individuals with adjusted gross incomes of $500,000 and higher, some of
the wealthiest people in America. We are also concerned about a lengthy
list of extraneous provisions that are not related to farm programs and
have no place in this legislation. | |
Congressional Lovefest As Harkin and Peterson Co-Host Conference Committee Farm Bill Announcement! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Representatives
and Senators, all farm bill conferees, stood side-by-side Thursday
afternoon as they gave details of the final Farm Bill conference agreement
and praised it as a great Farm Bill for America's farmers and consumers.
North Dakota Representative Earl Pomeroy said - this bill makes an
additional 10.3 billion dollar investment in nutrition programs to help
feed the hungriest in our country and those struggling with higher grocery
bills. And, he said, - this bill provides a strong safety net in the event
of crop failure or price collapse
Tom Buis , President of the National Farmers Union, called the new farm bill - a good farm bill. Buis said - conferees were challenged to write a new farm bill under the pressure of competing demands and a reduced budget. He said - they produced a good, fully paid for, bill that will benefit all Americans. A permanent disaster assistance program, a top NFU farm bill priority will be included in the bill. The NFU President said - we know a disaster is going to happen, each year, in some area of the country. He said - it only makes sense to have a program in place to confront the challenges presented by Mother Nature. The NFU is organizing a "war room" that will organize efforts to attempt to obtain adequate Republican support to override the Presidential veto that appears to be on the horizon. Three of the most important titles in the Farm Bill proposal for
agriculture revolves around the Commodity Title, Crop Insurance and
Conservation. In the Commodity Title- the Conference Report eliminates the
"three entity rule" and implements reformed payment caps for commodity
program benefits; provides producers of eligible commodities an option to
participate in a revenue-based counter- cyclical program; and includes a
newly created disaster assistance program. | |
Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Woman's Committee Help Sponsor Mail Carrier Food Drive This Weekend! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By now- you
may received a plastic bag from your postal carrier for their sixth annual
Letter Carriers Food Drive. In Oklahoma, for the first time, an Oklahoma
farm group has signed on as one of the sponsors- the Oklahoma Farm
Bureau's Women's Committee. Postal Carriers at many of our Post Offices in
Oklahoma are participating- and the plan is to have people fill those
plastic bags with goods and place them beside their mail box first thing
on Saturday morning.
Last year, the food drive brought in 400,000 pounds of non perishable goods that were given to the Central Oklahoma Food Bank and the Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank- the two regional distributors of food to local pantries, churches and other groups that get food into the hands of those that need help. We talked yesterday with Mike Spradling of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau
about the OFB's involvement in the Food Collection for the first time- and
you can hear our conversation about this part of their strategy to be
involved in the battle against hunger in our state and nationally. Click
on the link below and take a listen. Click here to listen to Ron and Mike on the 2008 Postal Carriers Food Drive. | |
May First Wheat Crop Estimate Out at 7:30 AM This Morning. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The winter
wheat estimate is the part of the report that we will be most interested
in- but there will also be a lot of data on the spring planted crops and
the stocks that we will be working with as we end the old crop year and
begin a new crop year on those commodities in a few months.
Yesterday- the Wheat Quality Council Kansas Wheat Crop Tour guessed the size of the Kansas wheat crop at 379.1 million bushels, well up from the actual production figure of 283.8 million bushels. It shows that these reports are only guesses- and that Mother Nature holds most of the cards in the process at this point- as the Wheat Crop Tour in Kansas guessed a huge crop of 392 million bushels. They were only off 109 million bushels. For Oklahoma- the number we will be comparing the USDA figures to is the 149 million bushels guessed by the Wheat Crop scouts that reported back to Oklahoma City on Wednesday of this week- and again that number is a lot better than the 98 million bushels that we ended up producing in 2007 in a harvest season most of our Oklahoma producers would like to forget. We have a preview audio report of the numbers linked below- and that same link will land you with a look at the numbers coming from USDA later today- we hope to have that audio REVIEW of the crop report online by around 9:00 AM central. Click here for the May Crop Report Winter Wheat Crop Production Info | |
Humane Society of the US Claims- NOT OUR DUTY! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On our Friday
Beef Buzz, we have some interesting comments from the President of the
Humane Society of the US, Wayne Pacelle, as he claims it is not the
responsibility of his group to report to authorities poor handling of
cattle or other animals when they see it- only when they decide the time
is right and they can properly embarrass those involved.
He says that when one of their supporters or staffers go undercover and shoot video of what they consider to be an abusive situation- they don't try to notify anyone at that time. On their website, the HSUS claims that this whole situation they are highlighting in these latest videos is "commonplace" across the United States. Meanwhile, the question keeps coming back- why wouldn't someone who
cares about animals in a practical way- not abstractly- why wouldn't that
person take his video, leave the premises and then call the auction or
local authorities to report the "abuse?" | |
Oklahoma's Ag Department Planning Electronic Custom Harvester Directory! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The state
agriculture department is asking custom grain harvesters planning or
willing to cut wheat in Oklahoma to be included in an online directory.
Wheat harvest is expected in about two weeks and the agency hopes to help
farmers locate harvest crews."Several producers have expressed concerns that they are having trouble getting commitments from custom harvesters this year," said Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture, Terry Peach. "This is due to a variety of factors including some harvesters leaving the business, high fuel prices and increasingly hard to find labor." Custom harvesters are encouraged to contact Glen Schickedanz at the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry at 1-800-580-6543 or by email at glen.schickedanz@oda.state.ok.us. The mailing address is Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, attn. Glen Schickedanz, 2800 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73105. The directory will be available online as soon as the agency begins receiving information. We have linked the web address below. Producers who do not have online capability may call the toll free number for information business days 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information listed will include the custom harvesters' contact information and number of combines available. Harvesters will automatically be removed from the list after 60 days. They can also ask to be deleted from the list at any time. Click here for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Website. | |
J & J Cattle Set for Their Third Annual Production Sale. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ J&J Angus
Ranch has their third annual Production Sale planned for this Saturday-
May 10 with the sale set to begin at 1:00 PM. Later today, May 9, the
Johnson family will have the cattle available for viewing beginning this
afternoon with refreshments and dinner available at the ranch. On
Saturday, juice and pastries will be available first thing in the morning-
with lunch offered at 10:45 am and the sale to begin at 1:00 PM.
Mark Johnson, who along with his wife Brenda, own J&J Angus Ranch-
tells us about the offering- There will be a total of 75 Angus lots
including J&J Ranch is located on the south side of State Highway 51, 1.5 miles west of Interstate 35 (exit 174), look for the red barn on top of the hill. If you want more information, you can call Mark or Brenda at 405-880- 5887. We have the sales catalog linked below- click and check it out. | |
Our thanks to American Farmers & Ranchers, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma and KIS Futures 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. | |
Checking the Markets... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Yearling
Cattle Market continues to be fairly strong- with steady to two dollars
higher this week reported at the Apache Livestock Market on Thursday-
while the Pratt, Kansas market also was higher on cattle from 750 to 1000
pounds- one to five dollars higher.On the feedlot scene- we continue to wait on cash cattle trade- with feedlot operators talking $93 or $94 as the number it will take to get cattle bought this week- that would be up from the mostly $92 seen a week ago. 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|