From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 7:38 AM
To: Hays, Ron
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday December 7, 2010
A service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Obama and the Grand Old Party Do a Tax Deal
-- The Modern Day Version of Cattle Rustling- I'll Send ya another check and this one will be good.
-- AFR Honors Top Youth at 2010 State Speech Contest
-- USDA & DOJ Workshop on Competition Issues in Agriculture Set for Wednesday
-- Cattle Market Signals Become More Pronounced
-- Late Bits and Pieces
-- Sea Minerals from Arkansas Invites You to Stop by Their Booth at the 2010 Tulsa Farm Show
-- 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. One of the great success stories of the Johnston brand is Wrangler Bermudagrass- the most widely planted true cold-tolerant seeded forage bermudagrass in the United States. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their brand new website!

And we are proud to have P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy as as one of our regular sponsors of our daily email update. P & K is the premiere John Deere dealer in Oklahoma, with ten locations to serve you, and the P & K team are excited about their new Wind Power program, as they offer Endurance Wind Power wind turbines. Click here for more from the P&K 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.


Obama and the Grand Old Party Do a Tax Deal
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For perhaps the first time in his Presidency, Barrack Obama has come to the bargaining table and has been willing to give Republicans a significant part of what they are wanting. The so called Bush tax cuts will be extended for two years for all taxpayers, not just for those that make less than $250,000 annually. There will be a one year cut in the payroll tax that will save workers two percent in 2011- which the President believes will help stimulate job growth- not sure how that has anything to do with job creation except it could mean a few more dollars for consumers to spend.

The biggest news for farmers and ranchers is the Death Tax deal that Republicans demanded of the President. It's essentially the Kyl- Lincoln plan that calls for a five million dollar exemption per person- with a tax rate of 35% on everything above that. I say that Republicans demanded it- that seems to evident based on the quote that comes out of the President's remarks on the "deal"- "In exchange, the Republicans have asked for more generous treatment of the estate tax than I think is wise or warranted. But we have insisted that that will be temporary." Click here for the full set of comments from President Obama.

The thing that the Republicans gave up is a significant and potentially costly extension of unemployment benefits. A program of extended benefits for the long-term unemployed, which lapsed last month, would be revived for 13 months, the White House said. The jobless benefits would be financed by federal borrowing instead of spending cuts.

Ten major agricultural groups held a joint news briefing early last week at the National Press Club calling for movement on the Death Tax- and that included the standard bearers for this issue that American Farm Bureau and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Click here for our coverage of that event last week- and then click on the LINK below for one of the better reviews of the total deal that has been cut between the White House and Congressional Republicans- essentially leaving the Democrats from Capitol Hill outside peaking through the window. The review is from Jamie Dupree, who you can hear on Neal Boortz's daily talk show on Radio Oklahoma Ag network stations like KGWA in Enid and KOKC in Oklahoma City.

Click here for a review of the White House- GOP Deal on Tax Policy Extension- including the Estate Tax Fix desired by Congress.


The Modern Day Version of Cattle Rustling- I'll Send ya another check and this one will be good.
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Eakly, Oklahoma rancher Mike Loula is one of more than 700 ranchers who have been taken to the cleaners by Eastern Livestock this fall. Loula thought he was getting top dollar by selling a couple of loads of cattle to Eastern in early November, but apparently the only thing he got is a hot check, suitable for framing, for just over $56,000.

Loula talked to DTN and indicates that he had two conversations with the owner of Eastern Livestock, Thomas Gibson. The first conversation was after the check bounced. Loula says that Gibson said "give me two or three days and I'll get another check in the mail to you." Loula heard more and more about the problems with Eastern, based in New Albany, Indiana, so he called again. Gibson returned his call and this time the words were ominous- "He told me to apply for the bond money and assured me that he would pay the difference of what the bond money paid and what he owed me."

Loula has hired Caddo County attorney Tony Burns and has filed in state court a lawsuit against Eastern Livestock. They indicate they may add the bank who seems to have gotten in front of the line- ahead of those who own livestock and have gotten stuck with bad check- that bank is Fifth Third Bank based in Ohio.
Loula says that he has contacted the buyer of his cattle- Cactus Feeders- and they claim they have already paid Eastern Livestock for the cattle and they have no intention of paying for them again.

The one piece of new information from this latest story is that Thomas Gibson and his wife this past week have apparently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Indiana.
Mike Loula says he has calculated he might get one penny on the dollar based on the bond that GIPSA had required of this huge order buyer. This huge loss for him could take twenty years to dig out of- so he's decided to be the squeaky wheel, hoping to get a little out of the eventual settlement.

Click here for more on this story- and our audio account of Mike Loula and his efforts to get his cattle or money back.


AFR Honors Top Youth at 2010 State Speech Contest
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The state speech finals of the American Farmers & Ranchers was held this past weekend on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. The top placing young 4-H and FFA members from five district speech contests gathered at the state finals in novice, junior, intermediate and senior divisions and in a total of five different topic areas. Top winners received savings bonds for their work in advancing from their district to the state competition and placing at the contest in Stillwater.

Two winners in their age divisions of last year returned and won in the Sweepstakes category at the 2010 event. Chelsea Richardson of Depew won the Division I Sweepstakes, while Chacey Schoeppel of Fairview FFA won the Senior Division of the Sweepstakes contest. Chacey is also is a part of the AFR Youth Advisory Council that is selected each year by the young people involved in the AFR Leadership training efforts.

Click on the link below for a full list of the top winners in each age and category- these are the survivors of district and state competition in this long standing youth contest sponsored for decades by Oklahoma Farmers Union- and now the American Farmers & Ranchers.

Click here for the full list of winners at the 2010 AFR State Speech Contest held at OSU.


USDA & DOJ Workshop on Competition Issues in Agriculture Set for Wednesday
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The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the agenda and panelists for the Dec. 8, 2010, joint public workshop on margins in agriculture. This workshop, the last in a series of five, is focused on the margins at various levels of the agricultural supply chain.

The workshop will begin with opening remarks by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Following the introduction, there will be four panels composed of producers, academics and other industry stakeholders. First, Secretary Vilsack, Attorney General Holder and Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division Christine Varney, will moderate a discussion that includes participants at each level of the agricultural supply chain. Second, a panel on margins in the dairy industry will look at the costs and profits from farmers to retailers. The third panel of the day will look at issues in the retail sector, examining concentration, margins and similar trends. The final panel will discuss margins in the livestock and poultry industries. The workshop will conclude with remarks from Assistant Attorney General Varney.

No one from Oklahoma has been invited to be a part of this final workshop on competition issues within agriculture. Even though it is being held in a facility that could provide easy web streaming of audio and/or video- that won't be made available.

Click here for more details of the final USDA-DOJ Workshop on Competition Issues


Cattle Market Signals Become More Pronounced
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OSU Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel offers his latest thoughts on the cattle market- we have the full read up on our website- you can click down below to get that- but here are a few of the highlights:

"If allowed to work freely, markets will provide whatever signals are needed to take care of any market situation. Right now, cattle markets are providing increasingly dramatic signals to address several needs in the industry. Cattle and beef markets across the board have jumped sharply in the past two weeks and both Live Cattle and Feeder Cattle futures prices suggest that we are in for an extended period of largely unprecedented cattle prices.

"The signals are quite obvious. Calf prices will go higher and higher until there is sufficient incentive to increase cow-calf production. The predicament that we find ourselves in now is that current feeder values are very high and going higher, which makes it difficult to retain heifers and yet we have to push calf prices overall high enough to make the value of future production enough to encourage heifer retention. This process is typical of every cattle cycle but never before have we been in such limited numbers that the tradeoff was quite so dramatic."

Click on the link below and read more on how Peel sees this current market unfolding.

Click here to read the rest of the cattle market story this week with OSU Cattle Market Watcher Derrell Peel.


Late Bits and Pieces
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As we got ready to send this email out- we got delayed a few minutes as we got Farm Bureau reaction to the Death Tax deal.
One of the major agricultural groups that has called for the elimination of the Death Tax for years is delighted that the GOP and President Obama have agreed to a deal to fix the Death tax for the next two years. Mary Kay Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau calls the announcement "pretty amazing" as she adds that "I never would have bet that we could get two year extension with 35% rate with a five million dollar exemption per person." Click here for our quick audio conversation with Mary Kay this morning.

If we get all our chores done this morning- we're off to Canadian County and the Weeds in Wheat Plot Tour being put on by the Canadian County Extension team- Brad Tipton says more than a hundred have RSVP'd and it looks like the weather won't be bad. Hope to see a few of you out there shortly- Click here for our calendar listing of what is planned.

Go check our Beef Buzz from today- it will be posted right after I send out the email- our guest today is Erica Rosa and we do a few oohs and aahs for the strength of the cattle market- and one of the unsung heroes of the market right now- the drop credit. Click here for the Beef Buzz home page and look up Erica's Beef Buzz later this morning.


Sea Minerals from Arkansas Invites You to Stop by Their Booth at the 2010 Tulsa Farm Show
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Sea Minerals from Arkansas will make a return to the Tulsa Farm Show later this week as Dr. Lynn Buhr is excited about the chance to visit with farmers and ranchers at this year's event. He has a product that can either be mixed with water and used as a spray on pasture and crops- or can be fed as a mineral for cattle.

Their website offers this description of Sea Minerals- "SEA MINERALS works as a soil fertility supplement that re-mineralizes the soil. SEA MINERALS comes from very clean sea water.Tests have shown that this product contains all the minerals in the same proportions that those same minerals occur in the blood of healthy animals. Anyone who wants to improve the mineral content of their soil and vegetation can do so by applying SEA MINERALS."

This will be their third time at the Tulsa Farm Show- and they hope to see you at this year's event. Sea Minerals from Arkansas will be in booth 145 at the 2010 Tulsa Farm Show, that runs December 9, 10 and 11.
If you would like to call Lynn Buhr and talk with him about Sea Minerals, the number to call is 479-524-8921. Click on the LINK below to jump to our webstory with Lynn about his ranch near Siloam Springs and how he has worked to develop a market for SEA MINERALS.

Click here to learn more abour SEA MINERALS- and remember to stop by and say hello at the Tulsa Farm Show.


Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers, KIS Futures and Big Iron Online Auctions 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- FREE!

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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Let's Check the Markets!
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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 $9.40 per bushel, while the 2011 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $10.00 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:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat and the why of that day's market.
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. <
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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