Support Our Sponsors!
|
We invite you to listen to us on
great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network
weekdays- if you missed this morning's Farm News - or you are in an
area where you can't hear it- click
here for this morning's Farm news from Ron Hays on RON.
Let's
Check the Markets!
mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where
the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Each afternoon we are posting a recap of that day's
markets as analyzed by Justin
Lewis of KIS futures- click
here for the report posted yesterday afternoon around 3:30 PM.
Our
Oklahoma Farm Report Team!!!!
Ron Hays,
Senior Editor and Writer
Pam Arterburn,
Calendar and Template Manager
Dave Lanning,
Markets and Production
Macey Mueller,
Email and Web Editor
|
|
Oklahoma's Latest Farm and Ranch News
Presented by
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON
|
Howdy Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch news
update.
|
|
Featured
Story:
Oklahoma FFA
Hunger Challenge Provides "Priceless Gift"- Providing
Protein Meat Sticks for Backpacks for Kids Program
Oklahoma FFA
members donated 511 animals between May 1, 2015, and
April 1, 2016, to benefit the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and the
Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.
Members of 205 FFA chapters donated the animals or cash as part of
the FFA Hunger Challenge presented by the 2015-16 Oklahoma FFA
Association officer team. The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma made 764,702 protein sticks
from the animals donated, an increase of 247,702 protein sticks
compared with last year. Additionally, chapters donated $4,868.50,
which was matched by the Oklahoma Beef Council for a total of
$9,737.00. These funds will provide 48,686 meals for
neighbors in need of food. Of the match by the Oklahoma Beef Council,
OBC Chairman Tom
Fanning of Buffalo Feeders called the decision to
help both the FFA in their Hunger Challenge and to support the Foods
Banks "an easy one" with their donation that will provide
meals to thousands of Oklahoma residents.
On the second day of the 2016 Oklahoma FFA Convention this week,
those 205 Chapters were honored by the Food Banks with a special
recognition- and just ahead of that ceremony, we talked with Lisa Perry,
the Director of Giving for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma about
the challenge and what she called "the priceless gift provided by
FFA students to hungry children across Oklahoma."
Click
here for our complete story on the Hunger Challenge- and for a
chance to hear our conversation with Lisa about the importance of
this gift in the fight against hunger in the state of Oklahoma.
Simply put-
Oklahoma FFA members are heroes as they model generosity for the rest
of us. Period.
|
Sponsor Spotlight
It's
great to have one of the premiere businesses in the cattle
business partner with us in helping bring you our daily Farm and
Ranch News Email- National
Livestock Credit Corporation. National
Livestock has been around since 1932- and they have worked with
livestock producers to help them secure credit and to buy or sell
cattle through the National Livestock Commission Company.
They also own and operate the Southern Oklahoma Livestock Market in
Ada, Superior Livestock, which continues to operate independently and
have a major stake in OKC West in El Reno. To learn more about how
these folks can help you succeed in the cattle business, click here for
their website or call the Oklahoma City office at 1-800-310-0220.
|
Landowners Continue
Lesser Prairie-Chicken Conservation Efforts Amid Uncertainty on ESA
Listing
Ethan Lane,
executive director of the Public Lands Council and NCBA Federal
Lands, says that despite the litigation battle over listing - and
then delisting - the lesser prairie-chicken as a threatened species,
farmers and ranchers have continued to make great strides in
conservation efforts.
"Landowners and ranchers across the prairie chicken range have
been working to conserve the species, and the numbers on the ground
are reflecting that." Lane says. "We're seeing rebounding
populations and health prairie chicken counts."
Reduced drought conditions across the LPC habitat have also helped
increase the population. Lane says drought has been the primary
factor affecting the LPC, but officials with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service were not taking the severely dry conditions into
account when originally attempting to list the bird as threatened.
"Unfortunately, with the Endangered Species Act, we see
political considerations and outside influence start to press on
these issues," he says. "We've spent a lot time focusing on
reforming the Endangered Species Act and getting back to a place
where the Fish and Wildlife Service can focus on recovery and
delisting species rather than being stuck in the rut they are right
now on just the listing process."
|
Oklahoma
Efforts Vital to Three-Year Conservation Strategy for Lesser
Prairie-Chicken
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced
Thursday the release of a three-year conservation strategy that will
guide the voluntary restoration of 500,000 acres of habitat for the
lesser prairie-chicken, an iconic grassland bird of the southern Great
Plains. The bird has historically suffered from population declines,
and this strategy is part of an ongoing science-based strategic
effort by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to
restore grassland and prairie ecosystems while enhancing grazing
lands in five states. Historic lesser prairie-chicken habitat in
Oklahoma extends from the central region through the panhandle.
"Across the country, we're seeing firsthand how farmers,
ranchers and forest landowners are voluntarily stepping forward to
aid wildlife species," said Gary O'Neill, NRCS state
conservationist in Oklahoma. "By adopting conservation systems,
agricultural producers in Oklahoma can restore top-notch lesser
prairie-chicken habitat while also making working lands more productive
and resilient to wildfire and climatic extremes."
Through the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative (LPCI), part of the
agency's Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) partnership, LPCI has
conserved more than 1 million acres of high-quality habitat in Oklahoma,
Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas since 2010.
By the end of 2018, this strategy will guide the restoration of
another half-million acres by focusing on five key threats to the
bird-degraded rangeland health, invasive redcedar trees and mesquite,
cultivation of grazing lands and lack of fire in grassland habitats.
In Oklahoma, NRCS will work with farmers and ranchers to address
these threats by implementing prescribed grazing plans, removing
invasive eastern redcedar and conducting prescribed burns.
Read
more about lesser prairie-chicken conservation and habitat
restoration efforts.
|
Kim Anderson Talks Crop Conditions
and Gives Current Price Rundown
OSU
Grain Marketing Economist Dr.
Kim Anderson says Oklahoma wheat production will be
only slightly less than last year despite a 9 percent decrease in the
number of acres planted.
"Our crop conditions are significantly better, and I think that
is going to mostly offset that reduction in production," he
says.
According to Anderson, harvest-delivered wheat bid off the July KC
contract will bring anywhere from $4 to $4.15 a bushel, based on a
-$.65 to -$.80 basis.
Producers with 2015 wheat still in the bin can expect $3.80 to
$4/bushel bid off the KC July contract price of $4.80.
Canola is a flat price of about $6.25/bushel.
He also told SUNUP Hostess Lyndall
Stout recent rains mean summer crops should be off to
a good start in Oklahoma.
Click
here for Anderson's rundown of those current crop prices. AND- we
have the rundown of this weekend's SUNUP program as well in our
writeup of Dr. Anderson's comments.
|
Sponsor
Spotlight
For nearly a
century, Stillwater
Milling has been providing ranchers with the
highest quality feeds made from the highest quality
ingredients. Their full line of A&M Feeds can
be delivered to your farm, found at their agri-center stores in
Stillwater, Davis, Claremore and Perry or at more than 100 dealers in
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas. We appreciate Stillwater
Milling's long time support of the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and we
encourage you to click here to learn
more about their products and services.
|
Op-Ed: Old Data and
Misleading Tactics Still Used to Generate Anti-Farmer Headlines
Farm
Policy Facts is a coalition of farmers and commodity groups created
to educate members of Congress and Americans about the importance of
agriculture and its contribution to a strong and vibrant United
States. The organization recently release the following op-ed about
farm subsidy mistruths.
Last week, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) sent out a report
with this headline: "The Rich Get Richer: 50 Billionaires
Got Federal Farm Subsidies." The piece was meant to draw
attention to the "problem" of well-known billionaires and
celebrities pocketing farm subsidies.
The only problem is, there isn't a problem.
Martin Vandepas, the lone person to comment on EWG's webpage about
this report, innocently asked: "Is there any more recent data
available? The chart doesn't show any crop subsidies after 2007. That
was 9 years ago."
To date, Martin's question has gone unanswered by EWG.
That's because the inconvenient answer is "no."
Billionaires haven't received farm payments in a really long time
because lawmakers closed that loophole in the 2008 Farm Bill.
Click
here to read more about EWG's efforts to thwart the farm
safety net.
|
Want
to Have the Latest Energy News Delivered to Your Inbox Daily?
Award winning
broadcast journalist Jerry
Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how
to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here to
subscribe to his daily update of top Energy News.
|
Inhofe Secures Victories for
Oklahoma Water Infrastructure
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe
(R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW)
Committee, praised the committee passage of the Water Resources
Development Act (WRDA) of 2016, which was reported out of the committee
by a 19-1 vote, and announced provisions in the legislation that will
directly benefit Oklahoma.
"In 2014, Congress passed the first WRDA authorization in seven
years, providing much needed reforms and advancing critical Oklahoma
water resources priorities. We are now working to get back on the
regular schedule of passing a WRDA every two years," Inhofe
said. "WRDA 2016 ensures that Oklahoma projects, including the
McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System and the Tulsa and
West Tulsa Levee System, continue to receive support and
prioritization.
WRDA 2016 also includes a number of provisions that
empower local sponsors of our water transportation system to keep our
inland waterways and ports strong and functioning. By cutting red
tape and empowering project sponsors to get things done using their
own money, ports like the Port of Catoosa and the Port of Muskogee
will be able to help maintain navigation infrastructure so locks
don't shut down costing shippers millions of dollars in delays.
In the water and wastewater infrastructure portion of
the bill, we lend a helping hand to communities that need to update
their infrastructure to meet standards under the Clean Water Act and
Safe Drinking Water Act but face affordability concerns. As Robert
Moore of Marshall County Water Corporation recommended to my
committee, we target grant assistance where it is needed the most,
including small and disadvantaged communities and those needing
assistance for lead service line replacements. We also empower local
communities to meet EPA mandates on a schedule that is affordable by
letting them address the greatest health threats first.
Focusing
on drought and water supply needs, like we face in Western Oklahoma,
WRDA 2016 promotes new technologies to better address these issues. I
am proud that WRDA 2016 received broad bipartisan support in the
Senate EPW Committee, and just as we did with the FAST Act, I will be
working hard to ensure this legislation is sent to the president's
desk this year."
Read
about the Oklahoma projects included in the Water Resources
Development Act of 2016.
|
Saying Goodbye- Services
for Phil Klutts are Saturday; Word from Montana of the Death of
Senator Conrad Burns
In much of the 1990s- the public face of the Oklahoma Farmers Union
was Phil Klutts,
as he served as President of OFU from 1991 to 1999. Word has come
that he passed from this life on Wednesday of this week. Here
is a statement from the American Farmers and Ranchers on Phil Klutts:
"It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of
former OFU/AFR President, Phillip Klutts. Phil passed away Wednesday,
April, 27, 2016 at his home in Okemah, OK at the age of 80. Phil was
elected to the OFU Board of Directors in February 1986 and held that
position through 1991, at which time he was elected as OFU President
and CEO and served in that capacity until February 1999.
"There will be public visitation today, April, 29, 2016 from
8:30 AM to 8:00 PM at Parks Brothers Funeral Home, 301 N. 3 rd
Street, Okemah, OK.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 10:00 AM at
the First Baptist Church, 120 S 6th Street, Okemah, OK."
AFR President Terry
Detrick offers a personal note on the life of Phil
Klutts- "We have lost a true leader. This is a loss to his
family, community, state, nation and Farmers Union. And, a loss
to me personally as he was my mentor."
**********
Former Montana Sen.
Conrad Burns, a former cattle auctioneer whose folksy
demeanor and political acumen earned him three terms and the bitter
disdain of his opponents, has died. He was 81.
Conrad was also a farm broadcaster- and one who never forgot his
friends in the farm broadcast world as he served as a United States
Senator.
The Senator was in Oklahoma City a few years back- touring Tinker
Airforce Base- and that morning- I got a call at the office- picked
it up and I heard his booming voice- "Hays, it's Conrad- have
you got time to meet up?" He wasn't calling to promote his
current position on anything- he just wanted to catch up- find out
how the cattle market was doing and connect with a farm broadcast
colleague.
The Senator was one of those broadcasters who had the vision of
bypassing the major market radio stations- and establishing a network
of small town radio stations to supply them with farm and ranch news
and market information- he helped establish the Northern Ag Network-
serving Montana and more out of Billings.
Conrad
was a character- BIGGER than Life and loved by many- hated by some
and always speaking his mind. I miss him and those who were
like him that made such a big impression on specialized part of
the broadcast business that we call farm broadcasting.
Connie Burns-
Rest in peace.
|
In the Field- We Talk
Home Stretch for the Oklahoma Legislature with LeAnna McNally
Tomorrow morning on KWTV, News9 in Oklahoma City- we plan to have as
our guest LeeAnna
McNally of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau- as we talk about
the month of May and the challenges ahead for the 2016 Oklahoma
Legislative Session.
We'll talk with LeeAnna about how the final days of the session may
play out- how she and Farm Bureau see the hard choices of what to cut
to reach the balanced budget status the lawmakers must achieve- and
what Farm Bureau priorities remain alive as we approach the end of
the session.
Our segment will be seen at around 6:40 AM during the morning news
block- and then soon after- we will post on our website the video
from that Q&A.
|
|
God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
|
Oklahoma Farm Bureau is Proud to be the
Presenting Sponsor of the Ron Hays Daily Farm and Ranch News Email
|
|
|