~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday January 29,
2009 A
service of Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures and American Farmers &
Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Catching Up In Phoenix
-- R-Calf, NFU and US Cattle All Like It- NCBA Waits on Stakeholders
for Comment
-- CREP Help for Illinois River Watershed- on the Arkansas Side
-- OSU Promotes From Within for Entomology Department Head
-- A Pair of Oklahomans in Limousin Leadership for 2009
-- OSU's Food and Ag Products Center to hold 2009 Research
Symposium
-- Watch the Website for Cattle Industry Coverage Today
-- 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 pleased 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! It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across
Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. 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. | |
Catching Up In Phoenix ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A day later
than we had planned, we are on the scene here in Phoenix for the 2009
Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show. The Phoenix Convention Center
is one of the biggest in the country- and it has tripled in size (or more)
since the first time we came to Phoenix years ago for meetings of the
National Cattlemen's Association.
One thing that does not change all that much is the upbeat attitudes that you find at this annual gathering. Even when the markets are bad and the political climate is uncertain- you still see a lot of smiling faces and receive positive greetings from folks as you pass them in the hallways. One of the first folks we were able to catch up with to visit with as
we navigated to the part of the convention center where the media works
adjacent to the Convention Headquarters was Burton Eller- head of the
Washington office of the NCBA. We talked with Eller about a variety of
subjects including COOL rules that are now likely to be rewritten, the
industry being able to block a whole herd dairy buyout in the Stimulus
package that passed the House yesterday on a straight line party vote and
how they are watching the fleshing out of the Obama USDA team (as well as
the Obama EPA team) that continues to be worked on. Click here for more on our conversation with Burton Eller of the NCBA Washington office | |
R-Calf, NFU and US Cattle All Like It- NCBA Waits on Stakeholders for Comment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are talking
about a measure offered by Senators Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Mike
Enzi of Wyoming called the Foot and Mouth Disease Prevention Act of 2009.
The measure would essentially declare Argentina a single entity when it
comes to FMD and would not allow USDA to permit beef to be exported to the
United States from regions of that country that do not have the disease.
One of the groups in favor of this measure is the National Farmers Union. Their President, Tom Buis, wrote a letter to the sponsors of the bill and says "the ban proposed in your legislation is necessary in order to prevent jeopardizing our own efforts to eradicate livestock diseases, and thereby protecting the food supply. "The legislation is needed to ensure this dangerous disease is not introduced in the United States and that Argentina regions are not an exception to the rule." We asked Burton Eller about this piece of legislation and he says that the current policy of the NCBA supports USDA's concept of regionalization of Argentina when it comes to FMD issues- but that he expects the Animal Disease Committee to review that position this week and a new position is always a possibility(you can hear what Burton had to say by going to the interview linked in the story above) | |
CREP Help for Illinois River Watershed- on the Arkansas Side ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that USDA's Commodity Credit
Corporation (CCC) and the state of Arkansas have entered into a new
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) agreement to reduce
nutrient, bacterial and sediment loading in the Illinois River Watersheds.
"USDA is proud to work with the state of Arkansas to enroll up to 15,000
acres of eligible cropland and marginal pastureland to enhance the water
quality, biological diversity and aquatic habitats of the Illinois River
Watersheds," Vilsack said.
The Illinois River Watershed is ground zero for the fight that was started by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson as he has sued the Poultry companies that have contract growers in the Illinois River watershed- charging they are polluting the watershed with poultry litter. The lawsuit may finally be decided in court in the fall of 2009. The CREP agreement announced on Wednesday is for the establishment of riparian buffers and filter strips on 15,000 acres of marginal pastureland and cropland with a goal of reducing 10,000 tons of annual sediment loading into local streams and waterways. The sign-up date for this voluntary program is expected to be announced soon. Farmers and ranchers will be able to apply for this program at their Farm Service Agency (FSA) service center. Click here for the full story as released by USDA on Wednesday | |
OSU Promotes From Within for Entomology Department Head ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma State
University's Phil Mulder has been named head of the department of
entomology and plant pathology, part of the OSU Division of Agricultural
Sciences and Natural Resources. The department has teaching, research and
extension responsibilities based on it being part of the division, which
is comprised of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
and two statewide agencies: the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station
system and the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.
As department head, Mulder will provide leadership for planning, developing, integrating and implementing departmental teaching, research, extension and international programs; diversity efforts of the department in recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty, staff and students; and the pursuit of competitive grants, research contracts, gifts and other special funding to include endowments for scholarships, fellowships, chairs and professorships. Mulder joined the division in 1985 as an OSU Cooperative Extension area
entomology specialist, first serving out of the Cordell office and then
moving to the Duncan office in 1987. In 1995 Mulder joined the OSU faculty
as an assistant professor in the department and began serving as an OSU
Cooperative Extension state entomologist. Mulder was promoted to associate
professor and then full professor status in 2002 and 2004,
respectively. | |
A Pair of Oklahomans in Limousin Leadership for 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 2009
Annual Meeting of the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) was
earlier this month in Denver, Colo., in conjunction with the National
Western Stock Show (NWSS).
With NALF President Bob Millerberg, Draper, Utah, presiding, the main order of business was the Board of Directors election. Millerberg will continue as president for the coming year, with Bob Mitchell, Wauzeka, Wis., serving as vice president. Lance Sennett, Waynetown, Ind., will continue as secretary; and Richard Hefner, Seminole, Okla., will be treasurer. The Board elected Smith as the member-at-large on the Executive Committee, and Wendell Geeslin, Platteville, Colo., (as the most recent past president) will serve as an ex officio member of both the Board and its Executive Committee. The other 2009 Board members are Jack Glendenning, Lebanon, Mo.; Mike Hall, Ph.D., San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Brian Skaggs, Lexington, Okla.; Jay Straight, Logan, Iowa; Tom Vaughn, Cavalier, N.D.; and Jerry Wulf, Morris, Minn. | |
OSU's Food and Ag Products Center to hold 2009 Research Symposium ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Robert M.
Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center on the campus of Oklahoma
State University in Stillwater and the Institute of Food
Technologists-Oklahoma Section are holding a research symposium to
highlight food and agricultural products research conducted by the FAPC
and OSU. The symposium will be held Feb. 17 in room 201 of the FAPC from
8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and will feature a combination of oral and poster
presentations, keynote speaker and tours/demonstrations.
The program will include discussions of current industry advances and presentations of current research on food technology, said Peter Muriana, FAPC food microbiologist and chair of the symposium. "The event will provide an opportunity for graduate students to make presentations of their work and for scientists and researchers to network with others in the food and agricultural field and possibly foster future collaborations among colleagues," Muriana said. Keynoter of the event will be Michael Davidson, food science and
technology department head at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Davidson also is a food microbiologist with a specialty in microbiological
food safety and food antimicrobials. "We are very excited that Dr.
Davidson will be our keynote speaker," said Chuck Willoughby, FAPC manager
of client relations. "Food scientists play an important part in developing
or improving food products. We look forward to his lecture in regard to
food safety and future trends and needs in food science. Both large and
smaller food companies can benefit from this topic." Click here for more on the OSU FAPC Research Symposium Coming February 17. | |
Watch the Website for Cattle Industry Coverage Today ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are headed
shortly for the Convention Center here in Phoenix and will be covering the
annual Cattlefax Outlook Seminar this morning- and will be catching up
with lots of folks as the day wears on.
As we do that- we will be posting new stories on our website and invite you to stop by on our main page and check out what stories have popped up under the banner of Top Agricultural News. You can also scroll down and click on the graphic on the right hand side of the page that says Cattle Industry Insights and you will see all of the stories together that we have posted to date from this 2009 event. By midday- we should have several additional stories up on the webpage- so be looking for those updates! Click here for our front page of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Our thanks to KIS Futures, Johnston Enterprises and AFR 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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