~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday March 13, 2009
A
service of Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers and
Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Crop Insurance Deadline is Monday March 16
-- Farm Groups to Congress- Don't Buy What the Obama Administration
is Selling on Farm Program Cuts
-- Trading of Bills Done at State Capitol- We Visit with Senator Ron
Justice
-- Dr. Ron DeHaven Argues Its Time for Mandatory Animal ID
-- Dr. Kim Anderson Says the "Twinkie Effect" Explains Wheat Useage
Fall-off
-- Oklahoma Youth Expo- Animals Starting to Arrive
-- Tomorrow- Saturday March 14- Blackjack Angus Farms in Seminole is
the place to be.
-- Looking at our Agricultural 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 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! We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served 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. | |
Crop Insurance Deadline is Monday March 16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We got our
annual reminder(actually twice a year- once in the fall and once in the
spring) from Scott Bulling of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau regarding crop
insurance this week. The deadline for signing up for spring planted crops
across a lot of the country, including here in Oklahoma is actually March
15- but because that's the Lord's Day- it moves forward to this coming
Monday, March 16. By the close of business on Monday- you need to have
signed up for crop insurance. That means you have stated the intention
that you plan to plant a particular crop and want insurance for it. If you
don't plant the crop or decide you are going a different direction, you
are not bound to have to pay- that payment comes due this summer.
There is a new wrinkle that comes from the new farm law- the so called permanent disaster program- known officially as the Supplemental Revenue Assistance (SURE) Program has specific requirements for the 2009 crop year. To participate in the SURE program producers must purchase a policy or plan of insurance under the Federal crop insurance program for all insurable crops planted on all farms they have an interest in. In addition, if insurance is not available on a crop, producers will have to file the required paperwork and pay the applicable fee by the deadline for the noninsured crop assistance program (NAP) for all uninsured crops planted on all farms they have an interest in to be eligible. Contact your local crop insurance agent today if you have not already done so to get your coverage lined up. Scott Bulling, who is the guru of Crop Insurance for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, will be glad to field questions as well- give him a call at 405-523-2438. | |
Farm Groups to Congress- Don't Buy What the Obama Administration is Selling on Farm Program Cuts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A total of 39
farm organization and commodity groups, including the nation's 2 largest
general farm groups, the American Farm Bureau and the National Farmers
Union, have sent yet another letter to Congress calling on the lawmakers
to reject the Obama Administration's desire to radically overhaul the 2008
Farm Law. The groups expressed strong opposition to the more than $16
billion in cuts to the farm safety net proposed in President Barack
Obama's 2010 budget.
In a letter sent Wednesday to the chairmen and ranking members of the Agriculture and Budget Committees in both the House and the Senate, the broad coalition of farm groups warned that the cuts "threaten, once again, to change the rules midstream on American farm and ranch families." The coalition letter emphasized that the producers are already
struggling to understand and comply with confusing, costly and unduly
burdensome payment and eligibility rule changes that were unanticipated
and far exceed what the farm bill required and Congress intended. | |
Trading of Bills Done at State Capitol- We Visit with Senator Ron Justice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By the end of
this week- the state legislative session was at the point where any bill
that was still alive had to be passed out of its respective body to the
other side of the building. In other words, Senate bills had to be passed
by the full Senate by the end of this week(Yesterday) and House bills had
to be passed out of the House by the end of this week. In both cases, the
bodies will begin sorting and considering the other chambers' bills this
coming week- and the committees that receive those bills will have three
weeks to accomplish that.
We sat down and talked about this process with Senator Ron Justice of Chickasha- and where the session now stands from his perspective as the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Two measures that came to mind for Senator Justice that his committee has heard and have moved on have to do with private property rights and animal care. SB 453 had to do with trespass and hunting without permission- and would allow a landowner to recover damages to crops and livestock. The animal care bill that came out of his Committee and passed the full Senate earlier this week was SB452, which would make the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry the state entity empowered to implement policy regarding the care and handling of livestock in this state. Also, the bill would not allow a municipality to make ordinances more restrictive in regard to the care and handling of livestock than those promulgated by the Department of Agriculture. There are companion bills from the House on both of these issues- and
they are likely to be assigned to the Senate Ag Committee and heard by
Senator Justice and his members over the next two to three weeks. Those
Senate measures are likely to be heard by House Ag Committee chairman Don
Armes in that same time frame. Click here for more on the "trade deadline" at the Oklahoma State Legislature | |
Dr. Ron DeHaven Argues Its Time for Mandatory Animal ID ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our end of the
week Beef Buzz takes us back to the hearing held this week by the House Ag
Subcommittee on the subject of Animal ID. House Ag Committee Chairman
Collin Peterson is strongly in favor of do a mandatory Animal ID program,
saying we have wasted money and time in pursuing the voluntary approach.
One group that says it is time for Mandatory Animal ID is the American Vet Medical Association. Their spokesperson this week was Dr. Ron DeHaven- who was the Chief Vet when we had the cow that stole Christmas back in December 2003- our first case of BSE found in this country (which turned out to be a dairy cow from Canada- but we still got whacked for the sun of her dying here in the US) Dr. DeHaven is the now the CEO and President of the American Vet Medical Association. Dr. DeHaven says that Mandatory Animal ID would save valuable time in
the case of a rapidly moving disease outbreak, would save millions if not
billions of dollars by minimizing the spread of an outbreak and would also
mean fewer animal involved results in better overall animal care- it can
even be twisted into an animal welfare issue. | |
Dr. Kim Anderson Says the "Twinkie Effect" Explains Wheat Useage Fall-off ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The grain
trade missed what USDA came up with earlier this week on US wheat ending
stocks. USDA has predicted a larger wheat ending stock figure than anyone
expected and part of that came from them lowering wheat for food usage in
the US by twenty five million bushels. OSU Grain Marketing Economist Dr.
Kim Anderson tells Clinton Griffiths of SUNUP this weekend that you might
call this the "Twinkie" effect.
Anderson says that with the slower economy, demand may be off a bit for some of the junk food products that use wheat flour. Anderson explains it by saying you go to the convenience store and buy gas- and you have a little bit of extra money and you reward yourself by buying a Twinkie. With the economic worries- you might not have the money so you don't buy the Twinkie. Even if you have the money- you might be too worried to buy the Twinkie- at least not as often. Consumption slumps a bit as a result. Dr. Anderson also talks about the current wheat crop in the ground and current wheat price projections- you can hear the audio from the SUNUP conversation and more on this weekend's SUNUP show by going to our story by clicking on the link below. | |
Oklahoma Youth Expo- Animals Starting to Arrive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Starting at
noon today- the barns will be open for Breeding Heifers and all goats to
be unloaded as the 2009 Oklahoma Youth Expo gets underway. Saturday
morning, the thousands of gilts that are entered can start arriving as
well.
The first show event of the 2009 show happens Saturday afternoon at 1
PM- the Goat Showmanship competition in the Super Barn Arena. Monday morning, things really start cranking up, with three species in
four venues are showing: Click here for more details on the Oklahoma Youth Expo- here's the link to their website | |
Tomorrow- Saturday March 14- Blackjack Angus Farms in Seminole is the place to be. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It should be
an excellent offering tomorrow in Seminole as the Annual Bull Sale for
Blackjack Angus Farms is slated for Saturday March 14 at the Farms. Keith
Grissom and the Blackjack team have an outstanding set of Angus Bulls- 75
of them that are performance tested and many ready to go to work in your
herd right away. All are semen tested and fully guaranteed- and all have
carcass and ultrasound data as well.
Guest consignor at the Sale for 2009 is Pfeiffer Angus Farms out of Mulhall. John and Kaye, along with their sons have some of their top animals that will be a part of this lineup as well. Besides the Angus bull offerings- they will also be selling 60 fancy commercial Angus females that you will want to consider. For more information, contact Keith Grissom at 405-382-7678- or go to our link below at National Cattle Services for the on line sale catalog. Click here for more information on this Saturday's sale at Blackjack Angus Farms. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers and Johnston Enterprises 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. | |
Looking at our Agricultural Markets... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There was some
cash cattle trade yesterday in the feedlots at $81, down a dollar from
last week. The Texas Cattle Feeders report almost 15,000 head at $81 in
the Texas and Oklahoma yards- and there was trade at that level in Kansas
as well. The Stockmen's Livestock Market in Apache saw their numbers fall back to a much more average week after big runs had been happening for the last several sales- this week, they sold 2,929 cattle on Thursday versus 5,301 a week ago. Prices for Steer Calves were steady to a dollar higher than last week, while yearlings over 750 pounds were steady to $2 up. Five weight steers brought $105 to $110, while seven to eight hundred pound steers came in at $86 to $94. Click here for their full report- it should be up and available from USDA after 8 AM central time. 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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