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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday April 1, 2009
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, KIS Futures and American
Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Prosepctive Plantings Signal Record Acres of Soybeans and Fewer
Acres of Corn and Cotton
-- Animal Science Weekend in Stillwater This Friday Through
Sunday
-- USDA Expands Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Area in Oklahoma
-- Farm Program Signup Extended as ACRE Program Still Not Ready for
Signup
-- Vilsack says Mandatory Animal ID- Maybe
-- Is Carbon the new, hot ag commodity?
-- Snow Report and Happy Retirement to Wadell!
-- 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 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 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. | |
Prosepctive Plantings Signal Record Acres of Soybeans and Fewer Acres of Corn and Cotton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The soybean
intentions of 76 million acres is well under the pre report average guess
of some 79 million acres, while the corn acreage number was about where
the trade anticipated that it would be. The cotton plantings number is
larger than what traders were expecting, but cotton futures not seem to
care as they went higher and stayed higher through the session. After the
report was issued yesterday, Ed Richards talked with Tom Leffler about the
report- you
can click here for Tom's take on the numbers.
Perhaps the most interesting number from the Tuesday morning USDA Prospective Plantings report is the number that was not reported- how many acres were not committed by farmers to one crop or another. One analyst says that "The top 11 crops lost 7.66 million acres this morning. Where did the acres go?" He adds that he suspects that these acres will be planted, but farmers are simply not sure to which crop at this point. For Oklahoma, the acres are all there. Accumulated crop acreage for 2009 is up 1 percent from last year, according to the USDA-NASS Oklahoma Field Office. Wheat, oats, and hay are expected to increase in acreage. Wheat acreage, which accounts for most of Oklahoma's crop acreage, has increased 4 percent from 2008. Results are based on March 1 probability survey data obtained from Oklahoma farmers and ranchers. The crop in Oklahoma that showed the biggest drop off is peanuts, with
farmers saying they will plant 21% fewer acres of peanuts this year versus
last. Oklahoma producers will plant just 15,000 acres of peanuts this
spring, versus 19,000 last year. That sharp drop is in keeping with the
steep falloff in peanut acreage seen nationally, with a 27% drop seen at
the national level. Click here for the Oklahoma Prospective Plantings Report from Tuesday. | |
Animal Science Weekend in Stillwater This Friday Through Sunday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have got
details of this weekend's Animal Science Reunion activities that are
planned for Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Stillwater. Dr. Brad Morgan of
OSU dropped us a note about the events and he is especially pumped about
the Friday night lineup. Brad writes "The Friday Night Gala kicks off the
weekend with a wonderful meal, lots of time for fellowship and is a lot of
fun. We are having an auction again this year which raises monies for
animal science student scholarships and support for all of the judging
teams. Take a peek at the poster of big ticket items. The Friday event is
open to the public and cost $25 per ticket. In addition to the big ticket
live auction items, several smaller silent auction items will be
available. We are also asking for support for the purchasing of a arena
chair back in honor of a wonderful man, Dr. Joe Hughes. Friends of Joe
Hughes can contribute to this great happening."
The auction items they have for the raising of money for scholarships and the Judging Teams are fabulous- we have details on our website- and that link is below. Saturday, several events are planned, including the annual Animal Science banquet. Sunday will feature the Cowboy Classic Cattle Sale that will be held out at the Beef Cattle Center. | |
USDA Expands Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Area in Oklahoma ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The USDA
Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has named 12 additional
counties to the list of counties under a state and federal Imported Fire
Ant (IFA) quarantine. The new counties include: Atoka, Coal, Cotton, Garvin, Jackson, Jefferson, LeFlore, Murray, Pontotoc, Pushmataha, Stephens, and Tillman. Counties previously included in the quarantine include Bryan, Jefferson, McCurtain, Marshall, Carter, Choctaw, Comanche, Johnston and Love. Sancho Dickinson, Director of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry's Consumer Protection Services Division, said the quarantine includes soils, plants with soil attached, grass sod, used soil moving equipment, hay and straw, and anything else deemed a threat by any authorized agent of ODAFF or USDA. "No movement of these regulated articles will be allowed intrastate or interstate," he said. "These items will have to be certified by either federal or state inspection before being shipped out of the quarantine area." Other states with counties under quarantine for IFA include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. The entire states of Florida and Louisiana are under IFA quarantine as is the entire territory of Puerto Rico. | |
Farm Program Signup Extended as ACRE Program Still Not Ready for Signup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced on Tuesday that USDA has extended the
sign-up deadline from June 1, to Aug. 14, 2009, for both the Direct and
Counter-cyclical Program (DCP) and the forthcoming Average Crop Revenue
Election (ACRE) Program. This action extends the sign-up deadline by 10
weeks to give producers ample time to decide whether to participate in
ACRE or remain in DCP. Click
here for the news release from USDA on this extension.
Sign-up for ACRE is expected to start in late April, with an official sign-up announcement to be made in the coming weeks. Producers can elect ACRE at their FSA county office after the sign-up period commences. The original June 1 deadline may have forced producers to rush their decision, which is why this extension gives producers more time to make an informed decision about staying with DCP for 2009 or participating in ACRE for crop year 2009 and beyond through 2012. Our lead story on our Wednesday morning farm news is about this announcement by the Secretary- and the signal that he gave to reporters that we would see ACRE signup in a matter of days- not weeks. Click on the link below for today's Farm and ranch news from the Radio Oklahoma Network to hear Secretary Vilsack's remarks on this subject. | |
Vilsack says Mandatory Animal ID- Maybe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ag
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro questioned Secretary
Vilsack on whether USDA plans to force livestock and poultry producers
into the National Animal Identification System. Currently, participation
in the system is voluntary. Vilsack's response created the impression that
he supports a mandatory approach.
In a telephone press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, the Secretary attempted to clarify his position. Vilsack says that before Animal ID goes mandatory the concerns over confidentiality, the use of animal ID on public lands versus private lands. He adds that he does not want to make it mandatory- then have people spending time trying to figure out how to get around participating. Vilsack's comments are a part of our Wednesday Beef Buzz- a regular feature of the Radio Oklahoma Network as well as a regularly updated feature on our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Click on the link below for today's report with the Secretary- and be sure to check out previous Beef Buzz shows for other topics that are of interest to you. | |
Is Carbon the new, hot ag commodity? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A colleague of
ours has done an interesting story on the comments in Washington of a
Brazilian Sugarcane official, who says that "carbon is the new
agricultural commodity" and that "our incentive is to produce less of it
and get paid for it."
Chuck Zimmerman is the reporter at a bioenergy conference in Washington- and the Brazilian official is Joel Velasco of the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association. Zimmerman writes from this conference "Joel wanted people to know that biofuels can not only help mitigate climate change but build energy security. In Brazil they've managed to increase the use of ethanol from sugarcane to where they've displaced fifty percent of their liquid gasoline. They don't have gas stations anymore he says, they have "fuel" stations. He says price is the key to the development and use of ethanol and today ethanol is half the price of gas in Brazil." We have the link to Chuck's story below- including an interview that he conducted with Velsaco. Check it out- there are things we can learn from the Brazilians when it comes to renewable fuels. Click here for more on the Brazilian point of view when it comes to ethanol. | |
Snow Report and Happy Retirement to Wadell! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We got a snow
report email from Mary Chris Barth who lives near Slapout in Beaver
County- and they had quite the snowstorm this past weekend. Mary Chris
writes "Here in eastern Beaver county it appears that we got between 20-22
inches of snow. The drifting was not as bad in this area as out toward the
middle of the county. The entire width of Beaver county north to south and
about 5 to 10 miles east of Beaver is where we are hearing of real
drifting. 412 was finally opened Sunday evening numerous 25ft drifts. It
was an unusually wet snow. Stayed on the fields in the eastern part of the
county pretty well. Today as it is going off you can see sprigs of green
coming through were the wildfire was a couple of weeks ago.We had given up
on a rye crop, this snow gives one hope. I have not heard of any
significant cattle losses, it did not blow long enough for them to drift.
Then again we have had so many days of high winds they may be used to it."
Congratulations to Wadell Altom, who has served in recent years as the
head of the Ag Division at the Noble Foundation in Ardmore. Wadell has
retired as of today, with Billy Cook taking the reins of the Ag Division
of this most unique Ag Foundation. Wadell writes in the
monthly newsletter we get from Noble "Reflecting on changes observed
during more than 42 years of employment at the Noble Foundation can be
overwhelming. By the time you read this, I will be enjoying retirement.
Observing the success of cooperators, collaborators and staff has
definitely been rewarding; however, the long-lasting friendships developed
with many of you and my fellow employees are the greatest reward." A reminder that we appreciate your feedback to us- let us know from time to time how your farming operation is going, any event that we need to post to our calendar pages or anything that we need to be doing better. I like this job the most when it is not a one way communication- hearing from you makes it a lot more fun! | |
Our thanks to KIS Futures, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill 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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