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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest
farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron
Hays of RON for Monday July 11, 2011 A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- HSUS and United Egg Producers Agreement Could Cause Problems for
Other Ag Industries
-- NCBA Pleased With Ethanol Agreement and End of Ethanol Tax Credit
But Concerns Remain
-- Oklahoma Farm Bureau Strongly Supports New Farm Truck Bill
-- Sustainability in Cattle Production is a Growing Consideration for
Producers
-- American Farmers and Ranchers Restructures and Welcomes New
Employees
-- Feed Additive Ractopamine Approval Fails Again
-- More From Drought Workshop of Last Week in Austin- You Can Hear
From the Man Who Predicts 5% Chance of Drought Ending This Summer
-- 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 is proud to be an
outlet for Trimble GPS Guidance and Precision Agriculture Solutions- Call
Derrick Bentz at 580-732-8080 for details. For more on Johnston
Enterprises- click
here for their website! We invite you to listen to us weekdays on the Radio Oklahoma Network
for the latest farm news and markets- if you missed today's Morning Farm
News (or in an area where you can't hear it) Click here to listen to
today's Morning Farm News with Ron on RON. | |
HSUS and United Egg Producers Agreement Could Cause Problems for Other Ag Industries ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Humane
Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers announce an
unprecedented agreement to work together toward the enactment of
comprehensive new federal legislation for all 280 million hens involved in
U.S. egg production. The proposed standards advocated by UEP and HSUS, if
enacted, would be the first federal law addressing the treatment of
animals on farms. The two groups will jointly ask Congress for federal legislation which would require egg producers to increase space per bird in a tiered phase in, with the amount of space birds are given increasing, in intervals, over the next 15 to 18 years. Currently, the majority of birds are each provided 67 square inches of space, with roughly 50 million receiving 48 square inches. The proposed phase-in would culminate with hens nationwide being provided a minimum of 124 - 144 square inches of space, along with the other improvements noted. We talked with Roy Lee Lindsey, Executive Director for Oklahoma Pork
Council, about how this could potentially affect the pork industry, as
well as other agricultural industries. Click on the LINK below to listen to our conversation with Roy Lee Lindsey about the potential for HSUS to begin targeting other areas of the agricultural industry. | |
NCBA Pleased With Ethanol Agreement and End of Ethanol Tax Credit But Concerns Remain ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National
Cattlemen's Beef Association President Bill Donald said cattlemen are
pleased the energy compromise reached by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) would repeal
the 45-per cent gallon Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) and
the 54-cent per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. However, Donald said
cattlemen are concerned the compromise would extend tax credits for
ethanol infrastructure. "We commend the senators for working on a compromise and especially Sen. Feinstein for her leadership on this issue by gaining support from 73 senators to level the playing field for a bushel of corn," Donald said. "While we're pleased the agreement would repeal the VEETC and the tariff, we are disappointed that it would continue to prop up an industry that should be able to stand on its own two feet." Director of Legislative Affairs for NCBA, Kristina Butts also weighed
in on the issue of VEETC and what it means to livestock producers saying
they are still concerned with $125 million still being allocated for corn
based-ethanol infrastructure. Click here to hear more from Kristina Butts on the ethanol tax credit | |
Oklahoma Farm Bureau Strongly Supports New Farm Truck Bill ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma Fifth
District Congressman James Lankford's bill allowing broader weight
restrictions on farm trucks is receiving strong support from Oklahoma Farm
Bureau. Lankford introduced the Farmers' Freedom Act July 7, to allow farmers to haul commodities across state boundaries without violating weight limits. Current law forces farm trucks to be covered under more restrictive federal regulations when loads exceed 26,000 pounds. This is especially burdensome when the trucks cross borders, even though the truck may be considered legal within each state. "We have many producers who live near state borders and transport grain
and livestock to the nearest market, which may be across the state line,"
said Mike Spradling, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau. "This bill
would make it easier to transport our goods to market and continue to
ensure a safe, affordable food supply." Click here for more information from Farm Bureau on the farm truck bill | |
Sustainability in Cattle Production is a Growing Consideration for Producers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many cattle
producers are aware of the increase in maintaining sustainability in beef
cattle production. Cattle producers are becoming more aware of the need to
take sustainablity into consideration while still providing quality
cattle. Bryan Weech, Director of Livestock Agriculture for the World
Wildlife Fund, recently spoke at the American Meat Science Association
Reciprocal Meat Conference on this growing idea. Weech said one of the biggest challenges is that the population and consumption of today does not equal what the world is able to produce on a long-term basis. The current population is consuming 1.25 times more natural resources than this world can offer, said Weech. Food security around the world is also a concern, along with water
security and access. The answer to these growing concerns is to produce
more, with less said Weech. Click here to listen to Bryan Weech with his thoughts on sustainability | |
American Farmers and Ranchers Restructures and Welcomes New Employees ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Farm and
Cooperative Organization component of American Farmers & Ranchers,
Oklahoma Farmers Union, has recently made changes to the organization
structure to streamline operations for management and operation
efficiencies. AFR President Terry Detrick, Ames, continues as the spokesperson and representative of the organization for major activities and functions. Day-to-day operations of the farm organization are now managed by 16-year employee Paul Jackson, Ringling, who has previously worked in management, membership development, legislative and outreach activities for the association. This move will free up Detrick to focus on representing the organization and conducting board activities. Joining the AFR cooperative team on June 1 was Steve Thompson as Policy
and Membership Development coordinator. Steve was raised in the rural
Lincoln County town of Carney, on a small cattle and hay operation his
family settled during the land run of 1891. After graduating from Carney
High School in 1995, he attended Oklahoma State University majoring in
agricultural education with a minor in agricultural economics. While at
Oklahoma State, Steve served as legislative intern for Oklahoma Farmers
Union in 1999 and in the same capacity for the Oklahoma Department of
Agriculture, Food & Forestry in 2000 and 2001. Click here to read more about the newest additions to the AFR team | |
Feed Additive Ractopamine Approval Fails Again ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ractopamine, a
feed additive used to promote leanness in both pork and beef recently
failed to be approved by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. This feed
additive, ractopamine, is used by Elanco Animal Health in feed for beef
and pork, with Optaflexx brand for beef and Paylean brand for pork. The
National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association were both disappointed with the failure of the feed additive
approval.Ractopamine, like all feed additives, was evaluated and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and has been approved for use in 26 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and South Korea. A Codex panel of international scientists, including scientists from the European Union, three times has confirmed the safety of ractopamine and reaffirmed the safety of the product at this week's commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Despite those findings and the support of the United States, Canada and
countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands for
adoption of the standard, opposition from the European Union, China,
Thailand and Russia blocked it for non-scientific reasons outside the
scope of the Codex. Except for Russia, those countries ban imports of pork
from pigs fedractopamine. | |
More From Drought Workshop of Last Week in Austin- You Can Hear From the Man Who Predicts 5% Chance of Drought Ending This Summer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The drought
conditions that Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana currently are
struggling with have been caused, at least in part, by the La Nina water
conditions in the central Pacific Ocean. Dan Collins with the National
Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center says that while we have
retreated from a La Nina earlier this year to a neutral set of water
temperatures in the Pacific waters- several models suggest that we could
swing back into a second La Nina this fall.
Meanwhile, it is highly likely that current drought conditions will not be broken the balance of this summer across Oklahoma and much of Texas, and the odds are not much better to see drought totally end in the region by the end of this calendar year. Collins predicts that we are looking at just a five percent chance of
the drought being totally broken between now and September 30th in
Oklahoma and North Texas- and adds that there is only a one in four chance
that drought conditions could be eliminated by the end of
2011. | |
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 $12.92
per bushel- as of the close of business yesterday, while the 2012 New Crop
contracts for Canola are now available are $12.74 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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