From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 5:22 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 Monday December 20, 2010
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and Big Iron OnLine Auctions!
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-- Cattle on Feed Three Percent Up From December 1, 2009
-- President Obama Signs Tax Bill
-- Lucas Announces New Republican Members of House Ag Committee
-- OSU Economist Derrell Peel Peeks Into 2011- Where are Cattle Prices Headed?
-- Senator Jim Inhofe Explains Demise of Two Year Delay on GreenHouse Gas Regs in Congress
-- Remembering Bill and Wayne and Russell- and Best Wishes to Bill Phillips
-- SURE Signup for the 2009 Crop Year to Start in January
-- 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 welcome Big Iron Unreserved Online Auctions as our newest sponsor of the daily Email. Their next auction is Wednesday, December 22 - featuring Low Hour, Farmer Owned Equipment. Click here for their website to learn more about their Online Farm Equipment Auctions.

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.

And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the just concluded Tulsa Farm Show.. Click here for the Midwest Farm Show main website to learn more about their lineup of shows around the country, including the Southern Plains Farm Show next April in Oklahoma City.

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.


Cattle on Feed Three Percent Up From December 1, 2009
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The latest Cattle on Feed Numbers were out on Friday afternoon, December 17, 2010. On-Feed, Placements and Marketing numbers all showed an expected increase over year-ago numbers. The report is being looked at as neutral and these numbers should not have a big influence on the markets next week. You can hear an analysis of the latest Cattle on Feed Report from Tom Leffler of Leffler Commoditites by clicking on the LINK below

The November placements were 6% above a year ago- slightly ahead of the pre repor guesses of 5.1% while the marketings fell just short of the average expectations that were 10% greater than last November- the actual number from the Friday USDA count was a nine percent gain in marketings November 2010 versus last year.

Ahead of the report, John Otte with FarmFutures said that "last year's November placements were the lowest since 2004. Bad weather and health concerns about placing cattle in inclement weather depressed November 2009 placements.Cow-calf uncertainty is another reason for sizable placements. At current feeder cattle prices some cow-owners are converting heifers to cash, rather than speculating on what their calves might bring 2 years from now if they kept the heifers in the breeding herd."

Click here for details on this final Cattle on Feed Report of 2010- including the thoughts of Tom Leffler who talked with our one Ed Richards.


President Obama Signs Tax Bill
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On Friday afternoon, President Obama has signed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Among other things - the measure includes estate tax reform and extensions of ethanol and biodiesel tax incentives. Also of note - the legislation extends existing individual income tax, capital gains and dividend tax rates for two years and extends dozens of short-term tax breaks including the deduction for state and local income taxes.

As Congress debated the GOP-Obama tax deal, many in agriculture focused on the Estate Tax provisions. Colin Woodall of the National Cattlemens Beef Association says it's amazing that we were on the verge of a two year Estate Tax fix that includes a five million dollar per person exemption, indexed for inflation and with stepped up basis included. The tax rate for estates that exceed that threshold is 35%. This fix becomes reality with the President's signature- and while it does not match the zero rate of 2010- it's better than the 2009 levels and provides certainty for estate planning for the next couple of years.

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis was on hand for the signing ceremony and presented the President with a letter on behalf of the American ethanol industry and its supporters. The letter states that the one-year extension of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit sets the table for comprehensive, long-term energy policy - including reform of the American transportation fuels market as Growth Energy has proposed in its Fueling Freedom proposal.

The American Soybean Association was also pleased with the provision that raises the estate tax exemption level to five-million dollars per spouse and lowers the tax rate to 35-percent. ASA says this will strengthen the business climate for farm and ranch families and help ensure ag businesses can be passed to future generations.

Click here for other comments offered by various ag and bioenergy groups.


Lucas Announces New Republican Members of House Ag Committee
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House Agriculture Committee Chairman-elect Frank Lucas of Oklahoma issued the following statement this past week congratulating the new Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee for the 112th Congress.

"I am pleased to welcome our new members to the Agriculture Committee. They represent a broad slice of the country and will bring that perspective as we address the issues facing production agriculture and rural economies. The work of our Committee affects the lives of every American. We must work to ensure that there is proper oversight of the administration, that rural America has opportunities for job growth, and that our farmers and ranchers have the necessary tools and certainty they need to provide us with a safe, affordable, and abundant food, fiber, feed, and fuel supply," said Chairman-elect Frank Lucas

You can click on the LINK below and see the full list of new GOP folks that will be on the Committee with Congressman Lucas- and I suspect that we will see a list of Subcommittee Chairs fairly soon as well. Of the names on the list, the farm broadcaster who took the Democratic seat held by Marion Berry who did not seek reelection- Rick Crawford- is on the list as is the new member from Kansas, Tim Huelskamp, that will be representing the "Big First District" that has been represented by most recently Jerry Moran- and before that- by Pat Roberts- who are now the Senators from the Sunflower state.

Click here for the full list of new House Ag Committee members of the GOP as announced by Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas


OSU Economist Derrell Peel Peeks Into 2011- Where are Cattle Prices Headed?
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What's ahead for the new year when it comes to cattle prices? Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel says its hard to say that prices need to go even higher, especially when we find ourselves at historically very strong prices. However, based on tight supplies, Dr. Peel believes that stronger prices are needed- especially when you think about the need to start holding back females to rebuild the US cattle herd.

We have comments about the price outlook for 2011 with Dr. Peel- as well as his thoughts about the current state of beef demand. You can hear his thoughts that he verbalized with the folks at Kansas State University this past week by clicking on the LINK below.

Click here for our Monday Beef Buzz with Derrell Peel of OSU as we look at cattle price outlook for 2011.


Senator Jim Inhofe Explains Demise of Two Year Delay on GreenHouse Gas Regs in Congress
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Sen. Inhofe issued the following statement today on legislation to delay EPA's back-door cap-and-trade regulations for two years:

"When it comes to the demise of the two-year delay of EPA greenhouse gas regulations, the facts are these:
"We had an opportunity to put an end to EPA's job-killing cap-and-trade regulations when we voted on the Murkowski disapproval resolution-requiring 51 votes for passage-earlier this year. My friend's promise, however, to push for a two-year delay as an alternative contributed significantly to the resolution's defeat-a resolution, I would note, that he voted for.

"The senator who sponsored the two-year delay also had multiple opportunities to attach his legislation to various vehicles moving in the Senate over the last several months-which would have required 60 votes to pass. He chose not to do so. Moreover, when Republicans tried to move the 2-year delay, Democrats objected.

"On top of this, the sponsor waited until the last minute to attempt to suspend the rules-an action that would have required 67 votes for passage-by attaching his amendment to a massive, 2,000-page omnibus spending bill.
"In sum: the bar was raised each and every time, making it more difficult to pass the two-year delay. This, then, is how the bill failed to move.
"Now, as we have all along, Republicans look forward to working in bipartisan fashion to end EPA's job-killing regulations and restore balance and certainty to the regulatory process."

The process will have to start all over again in the 112th Congress- with the Republicans still in the minority in the Senate- but the ratio of Democrats to Republicans will be much closer in the new year.


Remembering Bill and Wayne and Russell- and Best Wishes to Bill Phillips
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We got several emails from folks with nice things to say about Russell Pierson, Wayne Liles and Bill Hare as we saluted these legends in Oklahoma agriculture this past week as we noted Russell's 99th birthday. Roger Ediger of Enid had one great remembrance of watching Channel 9 back in those days- " as a kid, dad and I would come in at noon and watch the farm report with Bill Hares and Wayne Liles- wow, that brings back memories! They had little slides that they'd move up and down when they'd announce the prices- like a stone age powerpoint graph! " He suggested that I see if there is any old footage around News9 from those days- I will work on that and maybe we can share some of that one of these days soon.

We wanted to say best wishes and thanks to Bill Phillips, who has retired as of this past Friday. Bill served 35 years as a research scientist at the USDA-ARS Grazinglands Research Lab in El Reno. The Ft. Reno facility has tremendous work over the years for cattle producers here in the southern Great Plains- and Bill Phillips has been a key player in those efforts to find answers for our ranchers when it comes to best use of our pastures and rangeland.


SURE Signup for the 2009 Crop Year to Start in January
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The sign-up period for the 2009 crop year Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) will begin January 11, 2011, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced this week. SURE is one of five disaster programs included in the 2008 Farm Bill providing assistance to farmers and ranchers who suffered losses due to natural disasters.

To be eligible, a farm must have at 10% production loss on a crop of economic significance; a policy or plan of federal crop insurance or the Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for all economically significant crops, and been physically located in a county declared a primary disaster county or contiguous county by the secretary of agriculture.

Oklahoma wheat farmers who suffered major losses in 2009- and that was a lot of our wheat producers- and who grew primarily wheat- may be in line to get a significant payment under the SURE program. You local FSA office will be ready on January 11 to start the process of accepting applications- you may want to contact them before then to get lined up with the details you will need to provide for your application. Click on the LINK below to jump to the FSA website and more details about what has been called the permanent disaster program under the 2008 Farm Law.

Click here for the Farm Service Agency news release with lots more info on the SURE program.


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 $9.55 per bushel- as of the close of trade on Thursday, while the 2011 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $10.30 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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