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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest
farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron
Hays of RON for Tuesday July 12, 2011 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Rebuilding the Cow Herd Takes a Cycle of Producers and Cows
-- Following the Lead of CBB Executive Tom Ramey, Beef Board Chairman
Tom Jones Resigns
-- Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Hopeful About Passage of Free
Trade Agreements
-- The Beef Carbon Footprint is Significant- The Key for the Future
is to Produce More with Fewer Resources
-- Environmental Working Group says Biofuels Policy is Going Down the
Wrong Road
-- 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 have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555- and their IPHONE App, which provides all electronic futures quotes is available at the App Store- click here for the KIS Futures App for your Iphone. 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. | |
Rebuilding the Cow Herd Takes a Cycle of Producers and Cows ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Much has been
written in recent months about the need to rebuild the beef cow herd and
why it taking so long to jumpstart herd expansion this time. While the
general economic signals for expansion seem to be in place, there are a
variety of structural factors at work as well. Of course, the question is
moot for 2011 as the drought in the south will trump cyclical expansion
signals in other regions and ensure additional herd liquidation, according
to OSU Extension Livestock Market Economist, Dr. Derrell Peel. However, at
some point, the question of what it takes to rebuild the herd will emerge
once again. By itself, a cattle cycle operates mostly on expectations of profitability and historically that has meant that cycles of cattle prices were the principal drivers of herd expansion and contraction. Cattle prices are historically high but that is not enough to spark herd expansion because it has not yet translated into to widespread expectations of sufficient profitability to warrant heifer retention. For some producers this is the result of skepticism about how long high cattle prices will last. It is also suggested that increased input costs means that profitability is not yet high enough to support herd expansion. Efficient producers with relatively low costs appear to be amply profitable now but high cost producers, who typically rely more heavily on purchased feed, fertilizer and fuel, continue to struggle with profitability. To top it all off, increased volatility of output and input prices means that there is more risk and producers struggle to identify and adopt effective risk management strategies in this new economic environment. Along with the basic market factors, a variety of structural and
demographic factors are uniquely important in the current situation. Land
use factors appear to be playing a more important, though regionally
varied, role in the ability of the industry to expand. In more and more
areas, direct competition with other agricultural production is limiting
or reducing land available for pasture and hay production. In other areas,
more pasture land is being diverted to recreational use or for
development. Crop and pasture land values and rental rates are increasing
rapidly adding an additional challenge to expansion, particularly for
young producers. Click here to read more from Dr. Derrell Peel on rebuilding a cow herd | |
Following the Lead of CBB Executive Tom Ramey, Beef Board Chairman Tom Jones Resigns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Under pressure
after admitting wrong doing earlier this year as a part of the Executive
Committee for Cattlemen's Beef Board, Arkansas Cattle producer Tom Jones
has stepped down from the Chairmanship of the Cattlemen's Beef Board. In a
statement released by the CBB, Jones cites his father's illness and the
need to pay more attention to his farm as key reasons for the decision to
quit both the Chairmanship of the CBB, as well as to resign from the the
CBB itself.
In a letter sent to members of the Cattlemen's Beef Board, Jones
expresses some of his feelings over his very contentious tenure as a Beef
Board officer. He calls the beef checkoff program a "broken program" and
that he has "never in my life seen such public defamation and
misrepresentation as I have seen lately." He also adds that his top
priorities have suffered enough from his time as a Beef Board officer-
including the comment that "my wife has had to put up with all of this
crap going on- and she deserves better." Here is the statement released by the CBB on Monday regarding the Jones
resignation: Click here for our full webstory of the Tom Jones resignation from the Cattlemen's Beef Board. | |
The latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update leads off with a review of the extreme weather farmers and ranchers in our state have been facing- "Extreme heat continued across the state over the past week. The average high temperatures for all nine districts reached 100 degrees or higher and multiple temperature records were broken across the state. On Saturday, the high of 110 in Oklahoma City not only broke the record for July 9th, but was tied for the third highest temperature ever recorded at that location. The high for the state over the past week was 114 degrees at Freedom in north central Oklahoma. Grass fires continue to be reported and 54 of the state's 77 counties are currently under burn bans. The heat is affecting even the irrigated crops, while the production of hay and availability of grazing and forage continue to be limited. The extreme heat is also affecting Oklahoma's ponds and lakes with reports of fish kills and toxic blue-green algae. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor rates the drought intensity for almost 94 percent of the state as moderate or higher. The average rainfall for the state was an abysmal 0.07 of an inch, with a few Mesonet locations in eastern Oklahoma recording more than half an inch." For our spring planted crops- "Crop conditions continued to worsen from the expanding drought, with none rated excellent and only peanuts rated mostly good. Corn silking reached 86 percent complete by week's end and 14 percent of the crop had reached the dough stage. Sorghum emerged reached 91 percent complete and 20 percent of the crop was heading by Sunday. Soybean emergence was 95 percent complete and 24 percent of plants were blooming, both ahead of the five-year average. Peanut emergence was completed and 39 percent of plants were pegging by week's end, 27 points behind normal. Cotton emerged reached 75 percent complete by Sunday while cotton squaring was 16 percent complete, both significantly behind the five-year average." Click on the LINK below for the complete Crop Weather Update for the state of Oklahoma as issued yesterday afternoon. Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update from NASS of the USDA | |
Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Hopeful About Passage of Free Trade Agreements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The movement
of the three free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea
hasn't been quick enough according to Roy Lee Lindsey, Executive Director
for the Oklahoma Pork Council. Ron Hays and Roy Lee Lindsey sat down to
talk about the free trade agreements and what they would mean for Oklahoma
pork producers."The hold up on the free trade agreements is the Trade Adjustment Assistance, which is essentially training dollars for people that may lose their jobs due to provisions in the trade agreements," said Lindsey. "The trade agreements themselves are not a problem." For the U.S. pork industry, the deals with Colombia, Panama and South
Korea would add more than $11 to the price producers receive for each hog
and generate more than 10,000 jobs, according to Iowa State University
economist Dermot Hayes. Click here to listen to Roy Lee Lindsey and his comments on the FTA's | |
The Beef Carbon Footprint is Significant- The Key for the Future is to Produce More with Fewer Resources ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The knowledge
of a carbon footprint in the beef production industry is growing more and
more everyday. And according to Bryan Weech, Director of Livestock
Agriculture for the World Wildlife Fund, agriculture and beef production
takes a significant carbon footprint across the world. Weech says this
makes sense because everyone has to eat, however, we need to start using
resources more efficiently.Currently, agriculture uses 33% of the earth's land resource for crops, grazing or other food production methods. This makes up 58% of the inhabitable land in the world, says Weech. Weech also says with the increase in population, this will become more and more important. Weech says the impacts from agriculture that are acceptable with 6.9
billion people won't be acceptable when there is a population of 9.1.
billion people in 2050. Weech says we need to use resources more
efficiently and need to intensify production through a variety of methods
such as improvement in genetics, improvements in production, use of
technology, increasing the yield of underperforming land, decreasing waste
and decreasing over consumption. | |
Environmental Working Group says Biofuels Policy is Going Down the Wrong Road ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For almost two
decades, the Environmental Working Group has advocated for protecting
vulnerable people from toxic contaminants, ending crop subsidies that
encourage environmental harm and investing instead in conservation and
sustainable development.And over the last half decade, EWG has analyzed the available scientific data and concluded that the nation's biofuels policy is going down the wrong road. This week The Washington Post took a similar stand in an editorial that called on Congress to end its expensive habit of protecting corn ethanol with three expensive, taxpayer-funded giveaways: "A $6 billion-a-year tax subsidy to those who blend it into gasoline, a
tariff on competing imports and a mandate that billions of gallons enter
Americans' fuel tanks every year." Click here for additional information from the Environment Working Group on biofuels | |
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, 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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