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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday June 6, 2008!
A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, KIS Futures &
Johnston Enterprises!
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-- Another Day of Active Harvest
-- Storms March Through Oklahoma Thursday PM.
-- Senate Passes the Farm Bill
-- Rural House Leaders Face No Opponents This Fall.
-- Senate Ag Committee Leadership Facing No Opponents This Fall As
Well.
-- World Food Summit Comes Up with Big Bucks for Global Hunger
-- Monsanto Pledges to Work Toward a Doubling of Yields for Corn,
Soybeans and Cotton Before 2050!
-- 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 are proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for their website or call them at 1-800-256-2555. We welcome as our newest regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston
Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across Oklahoma and
around the world since 1893. Johnston Grain wishes our wheat producers a
safe and prosperous harvest this month- for more on Johnston Enterprises-
click
here for their website! 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. | |
Another Day of Active Harvest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ahead of the
storm- the word is that we have made good progress in getting a
significant part of this wheat crop out of the field and away from the
whims of Mother Nature.
Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission offers these percentages
of the wheat harvested as of last night: In the area that has seen limited harvest to this point- hopes remain
high. The Enid Newspaper quotes Tim Bartram- Executive Director of the
Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association. "Cutting began in the Enid area during
the past few days, said Tim Bartram, of Oklahoma Wheat Growers
Association, and what's been cut looks good. We're just starting around
Enid, and it was looking good," he said. "All the reports I've had on test
weights have been good - been 60 plus. Most of the yields have been
average to above average." Be sure to drop us an email on how harvest is at your place as of this Friday morning. Have you started yet? Give us some numbers from a typical field you have cut thus far- and we love pictures- we will share those on our Wheat Harvest Webpage! Send those emails to me at ron@oklahomafarmreport.com. Click here for the 2008 Oklahoma Wheat Harvest Webpage on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Storms March Through Oklahoma Thursday PM. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Strong
straight winds- heavy doses of rain in some select areas- and only small
hail greeted mostly the western half of the state yesterday afternoon and
last night. There are reports of straight line wind damage in many rural
communities- but the jury remains out on how much ripe wheat is lodged.
The strong line of thunderstorms moved across the state Thursday evening, dropping a lot of rain in a short time. The heaviest rainfall was in the northwest and north. Lahoma received 4.30 inches of rain, Medford received 3.39, and Blackwell and Newkirk got 2.59 and 2.31, respectively- all of these reports courtesy of the Oklahoma Mesonet. Looking at the wind gusts of Thursday- the maximum wind gust recorded anywhere in the state was found at Cherokee where the wind blew as fast as 98 miles per hour- amazing! Several locations in Custer, Blaine and Washita Counties had wind gusts in the 70s. | |
Senate Passes the Farm Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma
Senator Tom Coburn got twenty minutes on the Senate floor to make his
point that the 2008 Farm Bill is actually a very bad bill for farmers- but
no one bought any of his arguments- or the arguments of Senator Demint of
South Carolina who was granted thirty minutes to make the same argument.
At the end of the process- the final count this go round was 77 to 15-
which means the entire farm bill that everyone thought they were voting
for a few weeks ago will be sent up to the White House- this time
hopefully including Title Three- the Trade Title.
Senator Coburn did bring up the issue of the WTO decision against the US cotton program that was further confirmed this week- setting the stage for punitive actions against the United States by Brazil. Both Senator Chambliss and Harkin defended the bill- saying it's the same measure voted overwhelmingly just a few days ago. The Senator from Georgia admitted that it probably would not be the last vote on the farm bill- as it is likely that there will need to be a veto override measure in a few days. | |
Rural House Leaders Face No Opponents This Fall. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Representative
Dale DeWitt of Braman leads a group of several rural lawmakers that had no
one file against them earlier this week- which means that they will almost
certainly have another term secured in either the State House or Senate.
DeWitt represents District 38 which stretches over portions of Garfield, Grant, Kay, Noble and Osage Counties. He has served this past session as the Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. His Co-Chair of the full Natural Resources Committee, Skye McNeil of Bristow, also is unopposed for the fall. Two of his Subcommittee Chairs, Don Armes who served as Agriculture
Subcommittee Chair and Phil Richardson of Minco who was Environment and
Wildlife Subcommittee- also are unopposed for the fall. Other key rural
House Members that will be likely be returned to the Capitol as they drew
no opponent include Jeff Hickman of Fairview and Ryan McMillan of Burns
Flat. | |
Senate Ag Committee Leadership Facing No Opponents This Fall As Well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Both the
Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee in the State Senate will face no opponent in this fall's
election. Chairman Ron Justice of Chickasha has no challenger for his
District 23 seat that he holds as a Republican, while Democrat Vice Chair
of the Committee, Charles Wyrick of Fairland, will reclaim his District 1
seat with no one filing against him by the deadline.
Other names that jumped out at me as I looked over the Senate races for this fall include Susan Paddock of Ada and Patrick Anderson of Enid who will both run unopposed for their Senate seats; Auction Barn Operator Kenny Sherrill of McAlester will challenge Richard Lerblance of Hartshorne for the District 7 seat; while former OSU President Jim Halligan has decided to make a run for the Senate- and is the Republican who will wait for voters in District 21 to pick a Democratic foe- either Bob Murphy or Greg Wilson. Back in the State House- one other name that is familiar to Oklahoma agriculture is former Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Steve Kouplen of Beggs- and he will face Kathi Mask of Holdenville in the Democratic Primary for the right to represent District 24- there is no Republican challenger for the winner in that District. | |
World Food Summit Comes Up with Big Bucks for Global Hunger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Delegates to
the Rome Food Security Summit have increased their commitment to the fight
against hunger and for agricultural development. The money will benefit
countries hard hit by the current world food crisis, allowing them to grow
enough food for themselves in the coming planting seasons, and helping
them to achieve continuing food security through investment in agriculture
and research. The Summit in Rome was attended by representatives of 181
nations and more than 40 Heads of State and Government.
The new commitments totaled nearly 7.1 billion dollars from: African Development Bank; France; Japan; Islamic Development Bank; Kuwait; Netherlands; New Zealand; Spain; United Kingdom; Venezuela; UN CERF; and World Bank. The United States reaffirmed its commitment to combat global hunger of spending nearly 5 billion dollars over the next two years. Speaking from Rome, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said - the United States congratulates the countries who took an active role in securing this declaration, which, among other things, calls on countries to meet urgent humanitarian needs and donors and international organizations to support expanded food production, encourages the international community to continue its efforts toward trade liberalization, and recognizes the important role of investments in science and technology in ensuring food security in the long term. | |
Monsanto Pledges to Work Toward a Doubling of Yields for Corn, Soybeans and Cotton Before 2050! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monsanto
Company has announced a three-point commitment to help increase global
food production in the face of growing demand, limited natural resources
and a changing climate. The company pledged to work in new partnerships
with other businesses, citizen groups and governments to meet one of the
greatest challenges of the 21st century by doubling certain crop
production.
Monsanto Chairman and CEO, Hugh Grant explained - together, we must meet the needs for increased food, fiber and energy while protecting the environment. Grant says addressing the daunting challenges facing all of us - will require the efforts of a diverse group of organizations with many points of view to work together and take action. The global population is expected to reach nine billion people by 2050. To feed them Monsanto's three-point commitment to growing yields sustainably includes: Develop better seeds capable of doubling the yield of corn, soybeans and cotton. Conserve resources by developing seeds that will reduce by one-third the amount of key resources required to grow crops by the year 2030. And Monsanto has pledged to help improve the lives of farmers, including an additional five million people, in resource-poor farm families by 2020. | |
Our thanks to Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures 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. | |
Checking 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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