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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday November 12,
2009 A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- Greetings from Kansas City!
-- Secretary Tom Vilsack Says USDA is Working on SURE
-- OSU Ag Communcations Major Grabs NAFB Scholarship
-- We Review the Stop Animal Movement Exercise with Ag Commissioner
Terry Peach
-- Creekstone Plant In Ark City, Ks to Be Inspected by Japanese
-- The US Geological Service Says Pesticide Levels Steady or Falling
in Corn Belt Waterways over the Last Decade
-- 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. | |
Greetings from Kansas City! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our email
today may be a bit shorter than normal as we are getting ready for a very
early start of a full day of interviews and more at the annual meeting of
the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. We have been a part of this
group since the 1970s- and each November, we have made the trek to the
Crown Center just a few blocks from downtown KC for this convention.
Our busiest day is today, with an event that is truly organized chaos. It's called Trade Talk- and it's a trade show designed to provide interview opportunities for myself and colleagues from around the United States. There will be over a hundred exhibits with farm group leaders and officials from various Agri-business companies standing in those booths- waiting for us to stop by and do a short interview with them. Before these people lose their voice after doing a couple of dozen interviews or in some cases, a lot more, we will have talked to folks like Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau, Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union, officials with the National Commodity Checkoffs, Certified Angus Beef, USDA Heads of Agencies like Rural Development, FSA and the like. We'll share with you a lot of the these interviews we get over the course of the day in the days and weeks to come- some stories are unfolding "hot" stories- others are also important, but more evergreen in nature- in other words, if we share an interview like that with you in a couple of weeks- it will still be relevant and of interest to many. | |
Secretary Tom Vilsack Says USDA is Working on SURE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack spent part of his Wednesday with the nation's farm
broadcasters, as he talked issues during a News Conference with the group
in Kansas City, and followed up by speaking at the group's annual
Scholarship Luncheon that opened the 2009 annual meeting of the National
Association of Farm Broadcasters. Vilsack spent much of his time with the
group with a thumbnail update on what is going on in the many different
mission areas of the USDA. He defended the need for Climate Change
legislation, and painted a bright future for agricultural interests in
providing carbon offsets for society.
The Secretary was asked to explain where USDA is in getting the SURE program online and open for business. SURE is what some people call the permanent disaster program that was put in place through the 2008 farm law. It has been a slow go in writing rules for SURE- with the 2008 Farm Law passed and signed by President Bush over a year ago. Vilsack says SURE is a very complicated program- and that they have had to do a lot of the calculations manually because of outdated computer systems in parts of USDA- including in FSA and RMA. Click on the link below and jump to our story that has audio with Secretary Vilsack on getting SURE working- as well as his thoughts on Ad Hoc Disaster that has been mentioned by Senate Ag Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln.- especially for farmers in the south for crop problems here in 2009. | |
OSU Ag Communcations Major Grabs NAFB Scholarship ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma State
University Senior Mattie Nutley has received one of three scholarships
from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Foundation during the
annual meeting of the NAFB that is underway in Kansas City.
She is pursuing a degree in Ag Communications- and hopes to be a radio or TV broadcaster once her college days are finished. This past summer, she went national with an internship with Fox Business News in New York City. She is the from the Elk City area- and the farm her folks operate and that she grew up on includes Angus cattle and alfalfa hay. Click here for our quick story on Mattie and the audio from an interview that we did with her. | |
We Review the Stop Animal Movement Exercise with Ag Commissioner Terry Peach ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma State
Secretary of Agriculture Terry Peach tells us that the recent Stop Animal
Movement Exercise held by Oklahoma and Kansas officials was a success.
Peach says that both states were able to discover strengths in their
emergency plans for a contagious animal disease outbreak- as well as
consider places in their plans that need more work.
You can hear our conversation with Secretary Peach on the Stop Animal Movement Exercise that Oklahoma and Kansas jointly performed by clicking on the link below- it's our Beef Buzz and we remind you that you can hear the Beef Buzz on a regular basis on great radio stations around the state. | |
Creekstone Plant In Ark City, Ks to Be Inspected by Japanese ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meatingplace.Com
is reporting that Japan's agriculture and health ministries have this week
that they will send officials for on-site inspections of nine U.S. beef
processing plants, including two facilities that have exported banned
cattle parts to Japan, according to the Japanese news service Jiji Press.
The two facilities in question are the Arkansas City, Kan., plant of Creekstone Farms Premium Beef and a Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Lexington, Neb Japanese inspectors will visit a total of nine plants in Wisconsin, California, Kansas and Nebraska. Based on the inspections, the Japanese government will decide whether to resume imports of meat processed at the Creekstone and Tyson plants. | |
The US Geological Service Says Pesticide Levels Steady or Falling in Corn Belt Waterways over the Last Decade ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A
recently-published study by the U.S. Geological Services found steady or
declining levels of pesticide in Corn Belt waterways from 1996 to 2006,
despite record increases in per-acre yields. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis
said the study shows that U.S. farmers can produce more corn using
environmentally- sustainable practices.
"With increasing frequency, farmers are using advanced practices to reduce runoff and protect water supplies. This report shows that each year we can advance those practices - both to manage the environment and increase yields of corn for animal feed and ethanol," Buis said. "We could have a record harvest with record yields, planted on seven million fewer acres than two years ago - using environmentally-sustainable practices. Ethanol is already a low-carbon, renewable fuel that cuts greenhouse gas emissions. Now we're seeing farmers growing more corn than ever for ethanol, and water quality is improving." The USGS study tracked 11 herbicides and insecticides frequently used for agricultural weed control in the Corn Belt, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio, but including parts of adjoining states. The study tracked those pesticides in 31 stream sites over two overlapping time periods: 1996 to 2002 and from 2000 to 2006. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was a big
run on Wednesday for the folks at OKC West, with a total of 9,014 cattle
being offered. The Calf market was called steady, while the yearling
market was steady to two dollars lower. Click
here for the full report from OKC West with a complete rundown of the
weights and actual prices being paid on Wednesday.Current cash price for Canola is $7.55 per bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $7.90 per bushel- delivered to local participating elevators that are working with PCOM. 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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