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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday April 13, 2010
A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- Do You Remember What the 2009 Wheat Crop Looked Like Mid April
Last Year?
-- Corn Planting Underway in Oklahoma
-- U.S. Ethanol Industry to Launch First-Ever National TV Ad
Campaign
-- AFR to Hold Interscholastics Competition at Redlands on Tuesday-
Then Commercial Cattle Grading on Thursday
-- Cattlemen Continue to Call for Estate Tax Fix This Year
-- Water Planning Process Continues- Next Step in May
-- Shorthorn Breed Gathering for Oklahoma Coming Saturday April 24 in
Duncan
-- 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. Johnston has opened up four
million bushels of additional storage space for the 2010 wheat crop. 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. | |
Do You Remember What the 2009 Wheat Crop Looked Like Mid April Last Year? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was April
13th of last year when we were driving out in the Canadian and Kingfisher
County area- taking pictures of a wheat crop that looked absolutely awful.
White heads were starting to show up- the crop was thin and short and way
ahead of normal development because of the drought stress over the winter.
We had also endured at least two weekends of very cold temps by this point
and all signs were pointing to a very very bad wheat crop. That was 2009.
(Our top story of the morning on our website shows a picture we snapped
one year ago today in Canadian County in central Oklahoma where you could
see the gloomy outlook for that wheat field- short, already headed, thin
and some of the heads already totally white.)
The 2010 winter wheat crop is in far better shape this spring versus one year ago, based on the latest crop weather update numbers released by USDA on Monday afternoon. USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says overall winter wheat crop condition for this season is the best in some time, with only some of the late planted wheat in soft red country showing serious problems. In Oklahoma, Small grain crop progress increased due to warm temperatures over this past week. Seventy-six percent of wheat reached jointing by week's end, up 14 points from the previous week, but nine points behind normal. The crop is being rated 71% good to excellent, 25 % fair and only 4% of the crop is rated poor to very poor. In Kansas, the 2010 crop also is looking better and better as it breaks
dormancy. "Ninety-seven percent of the wheat crop has broken dormancy. Of
that, 25 percent was jointed by Sunday, behind 35 percent for last year
and 47 percent for the 5-year average. Wheat condition was rated as 1
percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 26 percent fair, 56 percent good and 13
percent excellent. | |
Corn Planting Underway in Oklahoma ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dry fields and
warm weather permitted progress of row crop seedbed preparation. Corn
seedbed preparations reached 67 percent complete, up 15 points from the
previous week, but still 13 points behind normal. Seventeen percent of the
2010 Corn crop is now planted in the state. Sorghum seedbeds prepared are
30 percent complete, up two points from the week earlier but one point
behind normal. Soybean seedbed preparations continue to run behind normal
with only 32 percent complete. Peanut seedbed preparations continue to run
ahead of normal with 61 percent completed, up two points from the previous
week. Preparations for cotton seedbeds reached 57 percent complete, up
seven points from the week earlier, still 14 points behind last year but
only 4 points behind the five-year average.
Pasture and range conditions were rated mostly in the good to fair range. Grasses are expected to continue to green up as a result of warm temperatures. Click on the link below to jump to the Oklahoma Crop Weather Update as released on Monday afternoon from NASS. | |
U.S. Ethanol Industry to Launch First-Ever National TV Ad Campaign ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ America's
ethanol supporters launched the industry's first national TV ad campaign
on Monday to promote what they say is the only renewable, domestic fuel
that is an alternative to imported oil, which makes up nearly 60 percent
of the nation's fuel supply.
"Ethanol is America's fuel: it's made here in the U.S., it creates U.S. jobs, and it contributes to America's national and economic security. This ad campaign is designed to reach beyond the Beltway to communicate those facts about ethanol to the broader American public - people who until now have only heard one side of the story," said (Ret.) Gen. Wesley K. Clark, Co-Chairman of Growth Energy, the coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters that is airing the "America's Fuel" campaign. Click on the link below to learn more about this campaign and how Growth Energy and others hope that this will help the perception about ethanol both inside the Washington Beltway as well as all across the US. Click here for more on the new National TV ad campaign being seen on major Cable News Channels. | |
AFR to Hold Interscholastics Competition at Redlands on Tuesday- Then Commercial Cattle Grading on Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's a busy
week for the folks at American Farmers & Ranchers as they are helping
sponsor two big youth events on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday, AFR will be sponsoring Speech Contests at Redlands Community College in El Reno, which is a part of the Ag Interscholastics that is held annually at Redlands as a final tuneup before the state interscholastics contest for Oklahoma FFA in Stillwater April 23-24. On Thursday, AFR is helping sponsor the 2010 Commercial Cattle judging Contest on the Opening Day of the Southern Plains Farm Show. Registration begins at 8 AM, with the activities set to begin at 9AM on Thursday. Over $6300 of scholarships will be given to young people in this competition. | |
Cattlemen Continue to Call for Estate Tax Fix This Year ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The National
Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the Public Lands Council (PLC) and a
coalition of national organizations representing family farmers, ranchers
and growers are joining together in the fight for meaningful and permanent
estate tax reform. On Jan. 1, the estate tax temporarily zeroed out for
the year 2010, but unless Congress takes action, the tax will come back
next year at its staggering pre-2001 levels. The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the coalition on Monday to Senate Leadership: "If estate taxes are allowed to be reinstated at the beginning of 2011 with only a $1 million exemption and top rate of 55 percent, the negative impact on our industry will be significant. We support permanently raising the exemption to no less than $5 million per person and reducing the top rate to no more than 35 percent. It is also imperative that the exemption be indexed to inflation, provide for spousal transfers and include the stepped-up basis. "We strongly support estate tax relief as outlined above, which provides the greatest relief and certainty for agriculture. We respectfully request your leadership in reforming current estate tax laws to strengthen the business climate for family farmers, ranchers and growers while ensuring agricultural businesses are passed to future generations." | |
Water Planning Process Continues- Next Step in May ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The statewide
Oklahoma water plan has been cussed and discussed for several years- and
still has a couple of major meetings ahead before we reach the point where
a plan will be laid out for all to see.
In late May of this year, the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals will conduct a special Town Hall meeting. The results then will be presented to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB). The OWRB will then begin to draft the water plan. Beginning in the spring of 2011, 11 regional meetings will be held across the state to get feedback and implementation ideas on the plan. Once the results of those meetings are relayed to the Water Board then a final proposal will be made and sent to the Oklahoma Legislature for consideration of the 50-year water policy plan. This Town Hall Meeting will be held May 23-26 in Norman. Agricultural
groups continue to be engaged in the process, as we get closer to an
actual proposal that will be sent to the Legislature for their
consideration in 2012. | |
Shorthorn Breed Gathering for Oklahoma Coming Saturday April 24 in Duncan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 2010
Oklahoma Sooner Classic Shorthorn Sale is set for Saturday, April 24, 2010
at the Stephens County Fairgrounds in Duncan. The sale will begin at 1:00
PM
Among the lots that will sell will be Fancy Show Heifer Prospects,
Bulls, Bred Females and Cow/Calf Pairs. For more information, contact Sammy Richardson, Chairman of the
Oklahoma Shorthorn Association at 580-658-2709 or 580-467-8267. You can
also call Steven W. Crow, State Association Secretary at
405-820-9725. | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We've had
requests to include Canola prices for your convenience here- and we will
be doing so on a regular basis. Current cash price for Canola is $7.50 per
bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are
$7.70 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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