~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday July 23, 2009
A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- The Climate Change Debate Continues-
-- Our Regular Conversation with Congressman Frank Lucas- we talk Cap
& trade, Health Care and more
-- Talking Cotton- JC Banks Says It's All About Water
-- National Grain Sorghum Board Is One Year Old
-- Placements into the Feedlots Expected to Be Well Under 2008-
Again
-- Chicago Wheat Contract Problems- Senator Tom Coburn Weighs
In
-- Congrats to Don Schieber, New Vice Chairman of U.S. Wheat
Associates
-- 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. | |
The Climate Change Debate Continues- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the words
- our American way of buying and consuming energy is not only
unsustainable but dangerous to our future - Senate Ag Committee Chairman
Tom Harkin opened the ag committee hearing on legislation addressing the
role of agriculture and forestry in global warming. Harkin focused on the
importation of about 70 percent of the oil we use, much of that from
nations that are unfriendly or politically unstable, and our extraction
and use of coal which permanently alters landscapes and pollutes too many
of our lakes and streams.
During his opening statement, Ranking Minority Member Senator Saxby Chambliss outlined several concerns he has with the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act and - the tremendous costs associated with its provisions. Chambliss said the cap and trade program will undoubtedly raise production costs for farmers and ranchers. USDA and Texas A&M University are conducting economic analysis of the Waxman-Markey and Boxer bills, with special attention to the effects at the farm gate level and to consumers. Chambliss says - what we have seen of preliminary study results is that no farm will escape the effect of this bill. We have multiple stories that have come out of the Senate Ag Committee
hearing- here are the links to several of them: Bob Stallman of the American Farm Bureau says his group believes that
Climate Change Legislation as passed in the US House is a mistake- Click
here for his testimony. | |
Our Regular Conversation with Congressman Frank Lucas- we talk Cap & trade, Health Care and more ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Like many
folks in the farm community, the top Republican on the House Ag Committee
was watching the Senate Ag Committee hearing on Climate Change Legislation
with great interest. Congressman Frank Lucas says while he hopes the
Senate can make further improvements to the legislation that barely passed
the House, he almost certainly will not vote for the final product. Lucas
tells us in a Wednesday morning conversation that when you strip
everything else away, it is simply a massive energy tax of some $700
billion dollars annually and it will hurt agriculture across the country
badly.
We also talked about health care reform- he does not think that the Democrats will be able to move Health Care Reform through the House before the August recess, although he admits it is still possible for them to do so. On NAIS- the National Animal ID System- he believes that USDA will be
very hard pressed to develop a mandatory system, even with House Ag
Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro demanding that things be
changed- or there will be no money for the program in Fiscal Year
2010. | |
Talking Cotton- JC Banks Says It's All About Water ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With a thank
you to Vic and the folks at NTOK- we have the latest thoughts from Dr. JC
Banks, the Oklahoma State Extension Specialist for cotton. JC says that
the well being of this year's crop is tied to the availability of water.
Banks writes ""The recent hot weather has caused rapid growth of
cotton, if plenty of moisture is available. Irrigated cotton is just at
first bloom now, and other than the first fruit branch being about a node
higher on the plant than normal, the plant is progressing rapidly. The
number of nodes above white flower is a good indicator of plant vigor, and
usually, this number is seven or eight at first bloom. "One thing I have noticed when looking at dryland cotton is the vigor
is closely related to water availability to the plant. Of course, this is
normal for dryland cotton, but it seems like most of the vigorous fields
are no-till fields that have been planted into good residue cover. Most
conventional tilled fields have stressed cotton that has been damaged by
wind, and much of the moisture has been lost due to the tillage. With our
equipment and weed control solutions, no-till is becoming the best way to
produce cotton, especially on some of our highly erodible soils. Even on
irrigated soils, wind and blowing sand protection provided by the residue
will allow a much more vigorous plant prior to bloom. | |
National Grain Sorghum Board Is One Year Old ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The United
Sorghum Checkoff Program is celebrating its first year as - a year of
progress, - from the creation of the organization to the granting of
1.25-million dollars in research funding. The checkoff program was created
to address the issue of declining sorghum production and demand, which has
resulted in less private investment in sorghum, and thus fewer new seed
varieties and crop protection technologies compared to other crops.
The organization had to be build from the ground floor. Bill Greving, a sorghum grower from Prairie View, Kansas and current USCP chairman, says - the goal of every board member is to improve the profitability of sorghum producers. Without that unity of mission, we would not have been able to make as much progress as we have. Organized in July of 2008, the United Sorghum Checkoff Program has
developed a strategic plan to guide the board's decisions; established a
management contract with the National Sorghum Producers Association; and
hired staff to lead key program areas in research, market development and
communications. Some of the funded research projects will generate results
for use by growers relatively soon, such as the production handbooks,
while others are more intensive efforts that will produce more long-term
results. Click here for more information on the Sorghum Checkoff- this jumps you to NCSP website | |
Placements into the Feedlots Expected to Be Well Under 2008- Again ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joe Victor of
Allendale offers us his views on what he believes will show up Friday
afternoon when the USDA offers their regular cattle on feed report at 2 PM
central time.
Victor says the focus will be on the number of cattle placed into feedlots as he writes "June Placements are expected to be 8.0% smaller than last year. Keep in mind that this drop versus June of 2008 placements is on top of last year's 8.4% decline from 2007 levels. In fact, this is the smallest June Total in 13 years. Sharp losses in previous months of cattle feeding have created an equity drain for this sector which is inhibiting new placements. Cattle placed in June will be marketed from October through February." And Joe adds "Allendale anticipates a Marketing total 0.8% smaller than
June of 2008. This is the smallest Marketing total since USDA started the
current data series in 1995/96. There was one more day to market in this
year's June. Marketing will remain under last year's level through
August." | |
Chicago Wheat Contract Problems- Senator Tom Coburn Weighs In ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Senator Tom
Coburn offered his thoughts on convergence problems within the Chicago
wheat market during a Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington on
Tuesday.
Senator Coburn says that changes in the contract may be justified, but he cautions against making changes that could harm economic activity. The Oklahoma lawmaker says that he does not think that index funds are the problem, but rather the current structure of the CBOT wheat contract. We have Senator Coburn's comments on our website- click on the link below for that story and a chance to listen to what the Senator was saying regarding how to best balance an unfettered market versus government oversight that is in the best interest of the public. | |
Congrats to Don Schieber, New Vice Chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The U.S. Wheat
Associates (USW) board of directors installed new officers at its annual
meeting July 22, 2009, in San Diego, CA. Janice Mattson of Chester, MT,
was installed as Chairman, while Don Schieber of Ponca City, OK, became
Vice Chairman and Randy Suess of Colfax, WA, began his one-year term as
Secretary-Treasurer. Michael Edgar, of Yuma, AZ, will serve a one-year
term as Past Chairman and chair the USW Budget Committee.
During the U.S. Wheat meetings this week in San Diego, the group worked on International Trade and Biotech issues. Michael Michener, Administrator, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), addressed the Board and affirmed FAS' strong support for export market development. He also pledged that FAS will honor Congress' clear desire to continue investing in export market development on behalf of U.S. farmers. Wataru "Charlie" Utsunomiya, USW Country Director, Tokyo, Japan, introduced a team of Japanese milling executives who participated in the Board meeting. The team included: Mr. Masakatsu Yokozawa, President, Showa Sangyo. Co.Ltd., and Chairman, Japan Flour Millers Association; Mr. Masaaki Kadota, Senior Managing Director, Japan Flour Millers Association; Mr. Kenji Takihara, Manager, Operations Group, Nisshin Flour Milling Inc.; and Mr. Masayuki Tomitaka, Administration Team Manager, Nippon Flour Mills, Co., Ltd. Mr. Kadota described the Japanese wheat market while Mr. Yokazawa emphasized that it is in the best interests of the U.S. wheat industry to carefully consider the wishes of its customers as biotechnology traits in wheat are developed. Mr. Yokazawa also noted that there is likely to be significant change in the Japanese wheat importing process in the long-term. Click here for more on the US Wheat Board Meetings held this week in San Diego | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The runs
continue fairly heavy in our major feeder cattle markets- yesterday the
OKC West Market in El Reno sold 8,501 head of cattle for steady money
under very good demand. Most of the cattle coming to market right now are
heavier animals- at OKC West, supply included 84 percent over 600 lbs.
Seven to eight hundred pound steers sold for $$102.50 to $105.50 while
eight weight steers cleared from $97.50 to $102.50. Click
here for the complete OKC West report available from the USDA market
news website.
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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