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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday January 7,
2009 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Congressman Frank Lucas- Officially the House Ag Committee's
Ranking Minority Member
-- Harvey Schroeder Steps Into Leadership Role for Oklahoma Cotton
Producers
-- Lots of Concern About Equine Disease
-- Beltwide Cotton Conference in Road Gear- NCC Unveils Vision 21 at
the Event
-- Latest Calendar Addition- Oklahoma FFA Stand and Deliver
Conferences
-- Oklahoma Department of Ag Jumps into the Blogosphere
-- Another Internet Site for Farm Related Weather-
-- 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 are proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555. We are also excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email
Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through
producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more
information on the oilseed crops they are crushing, including sunflowers
and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and
sunflowers on the PCOM
website- go there 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. | |
Congressman Frank Lucas- Officially the House Ag Committee's Ranking Minority Member ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the
swearing in of the 111th Congress on Tuesday, Rep. Frank Lucas from
Oklahoma assumes the position of Ranking Member of the House Agriculture
Committee. Republican leadership selected Lucas to serve in this position
last month. He succeeds Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) who served as the
ranking Republican on the committee for the past six years including four
as Chairman.
"I am honored to serve as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Agriculture. As a lifelong farmer from Oklahoma, I have lived the real world challenges farmers face across the country. I will continue to be a strong voice for rural America and, in particular, for production agriculture. I look forward to this new leadership role and will strive to work together with Chairman Peterson and the entire committee to resolve the challenges facing America's ranchers and farmers," said Ranking Member Lucas. "Frank Lucas has a strong record as an advocate for farmers and ranchers. He is a good friend and a respected colleague. I look forward to working with him to address the important food and farm policy issues we face in the coming Congress," commented Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN). We have more on the Congressman's move into this key leadership position on the House Ag Committee- click on the link below for more. | |
Harvey Schroeder Steps Into Leadership Role for Oklahoma Cotton Producers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Frederick,
Oklahoma farmer Harvey Schroeder is now Oklahoma's alternate director to
serve on the board of directors for Cotton Incorporated, the international
promotional organization serving U.S.cotton growers. Schroeder, executive
director of the Oklahoma Cotton Council, was chosen at a recent Cotton
Inc. meeting in California. Steven Clay, Carnegie, Ok., farmer, serves as
Oklahoma's Cotton Inc. board of directors member. Schroeder replaces Steve
Kellogg, Sentinel, Ok., in the alternate director position.
"This is a real honor to be chosen to serve more closely with the Cotton Inc. effort," Schroeder said. "Cotton Inc. is internationally-recognized for its vigorous and successful promotion of U.S. cotton. From agricultural, fiber and textile research, market information nad technical services, to advertising and public relations, fashion forecasts and retail promotions, Cotton Inc. has one goal in mind: to ensure that cotton remains the first choice among consumers in apparel and home products. On the next frontier, Cotton Inc.intends for the cotton industry to be green and growing with a three-pronged definition of sustainable agriculture by minimizing the environmental footprint, enhancing the quality of life and being economical and profitable. | |
Lots of Concern About Equine Disease ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma
agriculture officials are warning horse breeders of a rare, contagious
disease that can result in infertility in mares. Contagious Equine
Metritis was confirmed last month in Kentucky and one Oklahoma mare has
been identified as having been in contact with an infected stallion. The
mare is under quarantine and is not considered a health threat of any
kind.
"This is a disease that poses no threat to humans but it could potentially pose a serious economic threat to our state's horse industry," said State Veterinarian, Becky Brewer. "It is transmitted between animals during breeding and at this time we have no documentation that it can be spread through artificial insemination." Infected stallions can carry the CEM bacteria yet show no clinical signs of the disease. She said detecting the disease is difficult and requires multiple tests over a period of about a week to determine if a horse is infected. Infected horses can be successfully treated with antibiotics. We have more on this rare disease and the concerns being raised by USDA and Oklahoma officials. Click on the link below to learn more about CEM. Click here for more on the CEM story- including a link on to the APHIS page on the disease | |
Beltwide Cotton Conference in Road Gear- NCC Unveils Vision 21 at the Event ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dr. Mark
Lange, President and CEO of the National Cotton Council has announced a
new Cotton Foundation Program at the Beltwide Cotton Conference in San
Antonio called "Vision 21."
This is a program that is designed to look at the "Big Picture" and try to address challenges to grow the US cotton industry with a long term view of five to ten to fifteen years. Dr. Lange says that Vision 21 will especially look at the realities that the textile industry in this country continues to shrink and that more and more of the US cotton fiber grown will have to be exported. You can hear a special audio update on this story that is found on our website from the Beltwide Conference. The link is below. | |
Latest Calendar Addition- Oklahoma FFA Stand and Deliver Conferences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our friend
Rhett Laubach operates a world class motivational and Speaker training
company called Your Next Speaker. But Rhett has never forgot his FFA
roots- and each winter in recent years he has operated a series of
workshops for high schoolers involved with FFA that he calls "Stand and
Deliver."
Those conferences- five of them, start next week in Lawton on January 15. We have all five of the conferences linked on our Calendar pages of our website including the Lawton event, January 16 in Atoka, January 20 in Moore, January 22 in Tulsa and January 27 in Fairview. Go to the Calendar link below and scroll down to those dates- click on the Conference in your district and you can learn more about signing up for this Conference designed to help rookies or veteran speakers in their quest to the best they can be in speech contests on the horizon. There are also a ton of other events on our calendar right now- with over two dozen January events currently listed with a few more to be added- and the months to follow are starting to get more listings all the time. Click on that link below and check out the listing- we are stiving to make it the most comprehensive calendar listing for rural Oklahoma that you will find anywhere. Click here for our Calendar page found on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Oklahoma Department of Ag Jumps into the Blogosphere ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Providing
rural Oklahomans with timely updates about agricultural programs and
opportunities is a priority of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture,
Food, and Forestry. The agency has begun a new agricultural blog to help
people who have no access to a daily newspaper or who rely on the internet
for news and other information. Secretary of Agriculture, Terry Peach,
said the new internet site will be updated regularly about programs,
agricultural issues and news of events and items of interest to
agriculturists and consumers.
"This is a project that will continue to evolve and grow throughout the future," he said. "I hope people will visit the site and offer suggestions for things they would like to see added or changed. We hope this will be a tool that supplements other news sources and provides coverage to people in locations with limited access to agricultural news," Peach said. "It is our obligation to keep our citizens as informed as possible." Wildfire conditions, training programs, grant and loan programs and licensing announcements are a few examples of the sites beginning content. A Made in Oklahoma recipe will also be posted each Wednesday. | |
Another Internet Site for Farm Related Weather- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There's a new
weather site being promoted for farmers and ranchers- assembled by The
Weather Channel and sponsored by Monsanto and their various brands. We
have the link at the bottom of our story for you to check out.
The new Farmers Forecast adds farming-related alerts in addition to the severe weather alerts already available through the weather.com site. These will alert consumers to warnings with freeze, frost, high wind or hail indicators for each forecasted day. With precipitation being critical for the farming community, not only does the page include the percent of precipitation, but it also includes an actual projection of the amount of rain that is expected. In addition to 36-hour and 10-day forecasts, the new section also includes an almanac that allows users to compare the forecast with typical and historical weather conditions. Farmers can reference past weather conditions and plan for their crops accordingly using information such as daily and monthly averages, as well as actual reported conditions from the day, week and month to date. Click here to take a look at the Weather site being promoted by Monsanto taht is geared for farmers. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill 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. | |
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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