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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday April 25, 2011
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures
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-- And the Rains Came- In Select Locations
-- Before the Rains- We Checked West Central Oklahoma Wheat
Fields
-- Oklahoma Farm Bureau is Beating the Drum for HB 1381
-- Iowa State Study Shows Subsidies for Ethanol Were Not Needed for
Expansion in Recent Years
-- Eastern Livestock Bill Ready for the Governor
-- Panhandle State Brings Home National Honors in Crops Judging
-- This Week- Town Hall Meetings, Canola Field Day and State FFA
Contests
-- 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 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. 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. | |
And the Rains Came- In Select Locations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Easter's
Weekend Rainfall event has dumped large amounts of precipitation on large
areas of eastern Oklahoma, while central and western counties have
received much less. Amounts of over two inches of rain are very common
east of Interstate 35, while the largest rainfall recorded since the end
of last week appears to be in Adair County with just under 10 inches of
rainfall.
Much of northeast Oklahoma continues under flood alerts from the
National Weather service. Flood warnings are in effect for Adair and
Cherokee counties as the water level in the Illinois River near Watts was
expected to rise to 22 feet by dawn Monday. Flood stage there is 13
feet. Along the I-35 corredor, good rainfall has been reported, but in more
moderate amounts. Garvin Cunty had a big Mesonet rain gauge number of 4.43
inches, while McClain, Cleveland, Oklahoma and Logan Counties all had
rainfall totals in excess of an inch. Click on the LINK below for a snapshot from early Monday morning of current rainfall totals going back to the front end of the Easter Holiday weekend. It shows that a lot of wheat country has received limited amounts of rainfall(or in several cases- none) from this current system that has gone a long way towards alleviating drought conditions in the eastern half of the state. Click here for our rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet as of early Monday morning. | |
Before the Rains- We Checked West Central Oklahoma Wheat Fields ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Friday,
Farm Director Ron Hays spent the day looking at powder dry wheat fields in
west central Oklahoma. Several common themes emerged as stops were made to
look at fields in Custer County, Caddo County and Canadian
County.Fields that were grazed for wheat will not produce any wheat for grain this year. The lack of moisture means those fields have more brown dirt showing than green wheat plants. Many wheat fields are spotty, with many spots that have little or no
wheat growing. We have a couple of ways you can review our pictures from Friday- BEFORE the rains came. We have all of the pics we took both last Wednesday as well as those on Friday now on Flickr- and we also have some audio play by play commentary to go with several of the Friday pictures in a YouTube video. We have the links to both at the link below. Check out our pcitures of wheat fields in Custer, Caddo and Canadian Counties. | |
Oklahoma Farm Bureau is Beating the Drum for HB 1381 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mike
Spradling, President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau offers an op-ed article
regarding a piece of legislation that the Farm Bureau is hoping to see
passed in the latter days of the 2011 legislative session. Here is a portion of Mike Spradling's editorial piece: According to the latest Medicare cost reports, 57 percent of Oklahoma's
81 rural hospitals operated at a loss. More striking is that one out of
five of them had losses in excess of 10 percent. This is simply not a
sustainable model. Spradling and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau contend that it does not have to be this way- one solution lies within HB 1381. You can read more about this measure and the support that Oklahoma Farm Bureau has for the measure by clicking on the LINK below. Click here for the complete Op-Ed from Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling. | |
Iowa State Study Shows Subsidies for Ethanol Were Not Needed for Expansion in Recent Years ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The proponents
of ethanol are pointing to a study released last week by Iowa State
University that contends that ethanol has not really caused food prices to
rise. But, they probably don't like the part of the study that states that
"the general pattern of corn prices that we saw in the historical
period-increasing prices in in 2006 and 2007, a price spike in 2008,
followed by a sharp price decline in 2009-would have occurred without
ethanol subsidies or even if corn ethanol production had not expanded.
Second, investor fervor for corn ethanol in 2005, 2006, and 2007 would
have occurred even without subsidies because a combination of cheap corn,
a phase-out of MTBE, and higher crude oil prices made ethanol profitable.
Thus, ethanol production would have expanded quite rapidly even without
subsidies."
The study also contends that ethanol has only a relatively minor player in the rise of corn prices in the second half of this past decade. "Using the 2004 corn price of $2.06 per bushel as a reference, actual corn prices increased by an average of $1.65 per bushel from 2006 to 2009. Only 14 cents (8%) of this increase was due to ethanol subsidies. Another 45 cents of the increase was due to market-based expansion of the corn ethanol industry. Together, expansion of corn ethanol from subsidies and market forces accounted for 36% of the average increase that we saw in corn prices from 2006 to 2009. All other market factors accounted for 64% of the corn price increase." So when it comes to food prices, the authors contend their economic
analysis shows that "the contribution of ethanol subsidies to food
inflation is largely imperceptible in the United States." Click here to review the full report from ISU on Ethanol and its Impact on Food. | |
Eastern Livestock Bill Ready for the Governor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This past week
at the state capitol, the Senate advanced SB 530, the Livestock
Lienholders bill to the Governor for her consideration. Ag Groups expect
the Governor to sign this bill into law in fairly short order. The purpose
of this bill is ensure producers selling livestock retain a security
interest in the livestock until the sale proceeds from the sale clear the
bank.
The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association is pleased with lawmaker's efforts to get this bill through the process- "We appreciate Representative Don Armes and Senator Sean Burrage for their leadership on this issue. The measure grants every livestock owner a lien in all livestock for any unpaid portion of the livestock in order to secure the obligations of the first person that purchases livestock, either directly or through a sales agent, under an agreement to sell. The owner's lien attaches and is perfected immediately to all livestock and continues uninterrupted in all livestock and proceeds. The lien exists until the full amount of the sales price has been received and is not dependent on possession of livestock. Any security interest or mortgage lien of the owner's lender will attach to the livestock owner's right to the owner's lien. While this bill will not help those harmed by the bankruptcy of Eastern Livestock from the end of last year, it will offer a level of protection to livestock producers who sell their livestock in the future, give up control of their cattle as they get a check- then later find out the check bounced higher than the new Devon Tower in downtown Oklahoma City. Click on the LINK below to read the full bill that is likely to be signed by Governor Fallin as early as this week. | |
Panhandle State Brings Home National Honors in Crops Judging ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kansas State
University, Iowa State University, the University of Illinois, and-
Oklahoma Panhandle State University? The 2011 Crops Judging team won 4th
place in the nation just behind the three much larger schools, and Dr.
Curtis Bensch, Assistant Professor of Agronomy and the team's coach, said
many of the people attending the awards banquet were surprised when his
students were named the 4th place team.
Bensch took Casey DeBock, Kala Belson, Johnathan Bentley, and Camron Nisly to Modesto, Calif. recently to compete at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) contest, realizing his dream of restarting a competitive crops judging team. Out of four parts of the contest, the team placed in the top five in three of those, taking second in the plant/seed identification portion. Bensch said, "Our new greenhouse helps immensely. It's very useful to grow our own plants so students can see them at every stage of growth." Only in his 3rd year as head of the OPSU agronomy department, Dr.
Bensch gives plenty of credit to his mentor and friend, Kevin Donnelly
from OSU. He also said that OPSU alum, Duane Schafer and his wife Grace,
ag producers from Texhoma, have donated generously to the crops judging
team. | |
This Week- Town Hall Meetings, Canola Field Day and State FFA Contests ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are a
whole host of town hall meetings with three of our Oklahoma Congressmen
planned for this week after Easter- Oklahoma lawmakers Dan Boren, Tom Cole
and Frank Lucas all will meet multiple times with citizens in their
districts. Click on the LINK below for the calendar section of our website
to review who is meeting with whom and where.
Oklahoma State University will be holding a Canola Field Day on Thursday of this week at the North Central Research Station in Lahoma- lots of information on variety, weeds, pests and marketing will be available at this event- click here for the specific calendar listing for the Canola Field Day in Lahoma. The 2011 Oklahoma FFA Convention is next week- and a big lead in to the
convention are the state contests that will be held on the campus of
Oklahoma State University this coming Friday and Saturday. More than
10,000 Oklahoma FFA members representing 354 high school chapters across
the state are expected to attend the 85th Annual State FFA Convention, May
3-4, at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers 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- 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. | |
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 $11.30
per bushel- as of the close of trade on Thursday, while the 2011 New Crop
contracts for Canola are now available are $11.45 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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