~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday July 1, 2009
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Indirect Land Use Language in Climate Change Bill is a "Fig
Leaf"
-- Oklahoma State Offers Tools to Help With Decisions About ACRE and
SURE
-- AFBF Economist Believes More Corn Acres Could Help Encourage
Increase in Ethanol Blend Rate
-- Oklahoma- the Land of a $100 Billion Wind Power Opportunity
-- Wayne Pacelle Dances With Mike Adams of Agritalk
-- USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack Will Be Point Man on Obama
Administration's Rural Tour
-- A Twitter Reminder- Come Follow Ron on RON
-- 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 handle, 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. | |
Indirect Land Use Language in Climate Change Bill is a "Fig Leaf" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The top
Republican of the House Ag Committee calls the language inserted into the
Climate Change bill by House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson "a fig
leaf." Congressman Frank Lucas says the delay on EPA getting to impose
indirect land use requirements on US farmers is simply a delay- one that
will take us into a possible second Obama term when EPA can turn their
full force and fury on how we farm in the United States.
We talked with Congressman Lucas about this aspect of the Climate Change bill that was approved by the House by a very narrow margin, as well as other aspects of the deal that Collin Peterson agreed to to vote in favor of the measure and get it through the House. Congressman Lucas had a total of four Town Hall Meetings on Tuesday, with four more scheduled for today. Click here for that calendar item that lists those locations. Our link below will take you to our complete exclusive conversation that we had with Congressman Lucas before the first of those town hall meetings yesterday morning in Guthrie. Click on it and take a listen- we talk Climate Change but also several other issues that may be ahead for the House Ag Committee, including Food Safety. | |
Oklahoma State Offers Tools to Help With Decisions About ACRE and SURE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma State
University Ag Economics Professor Dr. Michael Dicks has written to us this
week about the ACRE program as signup for this alternative farm program is
now underway and will continue until mid August. Here are some of Dr.
Dicks' comments:
"ACRE/SURE is the most complicated commodity program ever and one that is still not entirely understood. I have been analyzing the program on various farm situations for more than a year and continue to learn about the programs and their interactions with crop insurance. While each program is fairly simple for a specific crop in a specific field, the combination of fields, farms and programs quickly yields an extremely complicated decision matrix. "Originally the ACRE program did not appear to provide any real net benefits to producers, but because of the sharp decline in price over the last year (and thus sharp decline in revenue) the program may be a best option for some producers. However, each producer will have to determine that as there is no general yardstick with which to guide all producers." The OSU folks are telling producers that they need to wait as close as they can to the August 14 deadline when it comes to signing up for ACRE- to have the best handle possible on price and yield information. We have more with Michael Dicks on our website- as well as comments from Jody Compiche on the OSU software that is now available on line- we have the link for that as well. Click on the link below to jump to this important page of information. Click here for more on the ACRE Decision tools available from OSU (and more) | |
AFBF Economist Believes More Corn Acres Could Help Encourage Increase in Ethanol Blend Rate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two reports
released on Tuesday by the Agriculture Department show a big jump in both
planted acreage and stocks for corn, pointing to greater corn supplies
this year, which could encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to
increase its ethanol blend rate, according to Terry Francl, senior
economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation. The futures trade in
Chicago reflected the surprise in the market- as corn futures dropped the
daily trading limit of thirty cents, with soybeans dropping just two cents
per bushel.
"For the 2009/2010, the greater availability of corn supplies makes it more likely that the EPA will increase the ethanol blend rate from the current 10 percent to 12 percent or 13 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2010," Francl said. "That will in turn utilize some 400 to 500 million more bushels of corn in the 2009/2010 crop year and reduce corn ending stocks by 300 to 400 million bushels. It is also important to remember that about one-third of the corn that is utilized as ethanol comes back as distillers dried grain, which replaces corn and some protein meal." In the acreage report, NASS pegs corn plantings at 87 million acres, up about 1 million acres from last year and nearly 3 million more acres higher than the March estimate, which caught many analysts by surprise, Francl said. | |
Oklahoma- the Land of a $100 Billion Wind Power Opportunity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nearly 500
people gathered in Norman, Oklahoma last week for the Oklahoma Wind
Commerce conference on the 23rd and 24th of June. "We were pleasantly
surprised by the numbers," stated April Murelio, a marketing
communications specialist for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. "We
expected, initially, about half this many people."
One company that believes in Oklahoma and its potential in the wind energy arena is Acciona Energy, a 100-year-old company that is second in the world for owning and operating renewables, according to Tom Hiester, vice president with the company. He was the keynote speaker for the conference luncheon. Hiester had a simple premise for his speech, and that is wind is a huge business opportunity but that, like all opportunities, there are hurdles. First and foremost with these hurdles is transmission. "We need long-distance transmission. We need lots of it ... Wind is a fuel that must be used in place, unlike gas or coal," Hiester noted. This requires transmission lines. The building of transmission lines requires money. The bottom-line question is: Can Oklahoma bring in enough wind to offset the cost of the lines?" The computations that Hiester came up with and shared at the conference last week are staggering- he sees $100 Billion worth of wind energy being generated in Oklahoma once the industry matures and transmission lines are available. We have more on how he came to those numbers in the story on our website- click on the link below for that information. | |
Wayne Pacelle Dances With Mike Adams of Agritalk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Tuesday,
fellow broadcaster and long time friend Mike Adams of Agritalk devoted his
entire show to talking with the CEO of the HSUS, Wayne Pacelle. We have
the link below of the audio as found on the website of Agritalk for you to
listen to if you care to do so. We also have a link that you can click
on here where there is a transcript of the forty minutes or so that
Adams had with the avowed enemy of animal agriculture.
The Tweets found on the Social medium Twitter were very interesting-
here are a sampling of those that we found as we searched with "Pacelle."
TomQuaife writes "Wayne Pacelle, prez. of HSUS, denies on www.agritalk.com
that it is his intent is to shut down the livestock industry."
Perhaps one of the best Tweets of the day came from Chris Shinn, who has been active in the Young Farmers and Ranchers of the American Farm Bureau- "My Q for Pacelle: Why is HSUS' experience w/livestock better than someone who works daily w/livestock? How many farms does HSUS run?" | |
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack Will Be Point Man on Obama Administration's Rural Tour ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ President
Obama announced today that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will lead the
Obama Administration's Rural Tour. Over the next several months, Secretary
Vilsack will be joined by top administration officials, including several
Cabinet Secretaries, at discussions throughout the country about how the
USDA and other federal agencies are working to strengthen rural America.
Secretary Vilsack will join Vice President Joe Biden and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke at the launch of the Rural Tour in Wattsburg, Pa. later today, where they will discuss the issue of rural broadband. Vilsack is scheduled to attend all planned Rural Tour events. The participation of other top administration officials in the Rural
Tour, and the variety of topics that will be addressed reflects the array
of issues facing rural America, including broad-based rural health,
economic development, infrastructure, education, energy, natural
resources, and agriculture. Events will be held in Alaska, Louisiana,
Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
Wisconsin. Click here for more on the Rural Tours of the Obama Administration | |
A Twitter Reminder- Come Follow Ron on RON ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When we are
out covering events, we will make an effort to offer real time coverage of
those events. A good case in point was yesterday morning as we
participated in the Guthrie Town Hall meeting of Oklahoma Congressman
Frank Lucas. We "tweeted" several messages about the event- how many were
there, about 50, the subjects being covered and more.
In addition, we have our ag news headlines being published to Twitter, so when we update a story, a link to that story from our website will be tweeted. We are just north of 400 followers now- and would love to have you follow us as well- it's quite a community of folks that are out there interested in the world of farming and ranching- and we watch a lot of agricultural news unfold as it happens on Twitter, as well as add our stuff to the discussion as well. Click on the link below to be able to check out our Tweets- and sign up to follow us if you care to do so. One of the best things about Twitter is that, just like this daily email, it's free. | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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