Support Our
Sponsors!

|
 |
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.
Let's Check the Markets!
Our Market Links are Presented by Oklahoma Farm Bureau
Insurance
Today's First
Look:
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.
We
have a new market feature on a daily basis-
each afternoon we are posting a recap of that day's
markets as analyzed by Justin Lewis of KIS
Futures- and Jim Apel reports
on the next day's opening electronic futures trade- click
here for the report posted yesterday afternoon
around 5:30 PM.
Okla
Cash Grain:
Daily
Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- as reported
by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
Canola
Prices:
Cash
price for canola was $9.67 per bushel- based on
delivery to the Northern AG elevator in Yukon last
Thursday. The full listing of cash canola bids at
country points in Oklahoma can now be found in the daily
Oklahoma Cash Grain report- linked above.
Futures
Wrap:
Our
Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio
Oklahoma Network with Jim Apel and Tom Leffler-
analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous
Day.
Feeder
Cattle Recap:
The
National Daily Feeder & Stocker
Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Slaughter
Cattle Recap:
The
National Daily Slaughter Cattle
Summary- as prepared by the USDA.
TCFA
Feedlot Recap:
Finally,
here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from
the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
| |
Oklahoma's
Latest Farm and Ranch News
Your
Update from Ron Hays of RON
Monday, August 19,
2013 |
Howdy
Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch
news update.
| |
Featured Story:
House Ag
Chairman Frank Lucas Looks for September
Breakthrough to Complete Five Year Farm Bill
The
Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Oklahoma's
Third District Congressman Frank
Lucas, spoke at the summer picnic meeting
of the the Northwest Area of the American Farmers
& Ranchers on Saturday in Ringwood, Oklahoma.
Ringwood sits in eastern Major County, right in
the heart of the third Congressional District that
Lucas serves. As he arrived, we spent a few
minutes talking with the Chairman about what he
expects to happen as Congress returns to
Washington on September 9th- at least as it
pertains to a conclusion to the 2013 Farm Bill
process.
Lucas told us that he "hopes
to see action on whether there will be a
freestanding Nutrition Bill" soon after members of
Congress get back to DC- and once that decision is
made- a quick pivot into the naming of House
Conferees to work out differences with the Senate
on farm policy.
Lucas points out that
there is a huge difference in how the Senate and
the House are approaching a reform of Nutrition
programs in this country- as evidenced in the
dollar amount of savings
proposed.
Meanwhile, Lucas says rural
America is concentrating on the Commodity Title-
Title One- with the Senate and the House offering
different plans in the measures that have cleared
each respective body. Lucas says he has spent time
in the corn belt both last year and this year- and
the prospects of a bumper crop here in 2013 might
force especially the corn grower groups who have
strongly called for the shallow loss plan advanced
in the Senate to rethink what will help their
producers. Lucas told Hays that when you start
talking corn- "Now that we're bouncing around in
the four dollar range, depending on which weather
forecast you get- I would say there's a distinct
possibility that shallow loss revenue might not
work for them."
We also talked crop
insurance, a farm bill extension as called for by
the Conservative Political arm of the Heritage
Foundation and why mess with Permanent Law-
click here to read more and to
listen to the full conversation.
|
Sponsor
Spotlight
We are pleased to
have American Farmers &
Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor
of our daily update. On both the state and
national levels, full-time staff members serve as
a "watchdog" for family agriculture producers,
mutual insurance company members and life company
members. Click here to go to their AFR
website to
learn more about their efforts to serve rural
America!
We
are delighted to have the Oklahoma
Cattlemen's Association as
a part of our great lineup of email
sponsors. They do a tremendous job of
representing cattle producers at the state capitol
as well as in our nation's capitol. They
seek to educate OCA members on the latest
production techniques for maximum profitabilty and
to communicate with the public on issues of
importance to the beef
industry. Click here for their website to
learn more about the OCA.
|
Governor
Mary Fallin Appoints New Secretary of Energy and
Environment
Governor
Mary Fallin today announced the
appointment of Col. Michael
Teague to the position of secretary of
energy and environment. Teague will begin in his
new role on September 3 of this
year.
The position of secretary
of energy and environment is new, combining the
positions of secretary of energy, previously held
by Michael Ming, and secretary of
environment, previously held by Gary
Sherrer.
Fallin said
the two policy areas are linked, making it
practical to combine them under one cabinet
post.
"Strong energy
policy is strong environmental policy," said
Fallin. "In Col. Teague's new role, his mission
will be to help develop policies that encourage
energy exploration and production as well as
responsible environmental stewardship. His years
of experience dealing with energy production and
distribution, infrastructure development, and
water management will serve him well as Oklahoma's
first secretary of energy and environment. I am
proud to have him on my
team."
You
can read more of this story by clicking here.
|
Higher
Water Quality Means Greater
Profitability
The
Field to Market alliance is preparing to release a
water quality metric to its Fieldprint Calculator.
This update includes the integration of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources
Conservation Service Water Quality Index and can
help growers better understand how their farming
systems and practices affect the quality of water
flowing off their fields.
"The time,
landscape and community in which farmers grow
their crops, along with their management decisions
and skills regarding inputs and production
practices, all play a part in the profitability of
a farming operation," said Keith
Alverson, NCGA's board representative to
Field to Market. "No farmer wants to leave dollars
on the field, and the water quality metric in the
Fieldprint Calculator will help determine if we
are boosting yields enough to cover things like
extra fertilizer costs or soil loss. While
profitability is import, longevity is a greater
priority."
NCGA is involved in proactively
addressing potential water quality concerns to
avoid a one-size-fits-all regulation that will
inhibit the ability of farmers to have adequate
flexibility in managing issues unique to their
operation. In addition to working with Field to
Market, NCGA's Production and Stewardship Action
Team participates in the Ag Nutrient Policy
Council and Waters Advocacy Coalition, two
broad-based coalitions working to ensure the Clean
Water Act works for American agriculture.
Click here to read more.
|
Texas
Cattle Feeders Tackle Price Discovery
Problem
One
of the growing problems in today's feedlot
industry is price discovery. Fewer and fewer
cattle are going on the cash market to be
priced. I recently spoke with
Ross Wilson, the chief executive
officer and president of the Texas Cattle Feeders
Association, and asked him about how to solve this
problem.
"This is an issue that has been
cussed and discussed in this industry for years,
if not decades. As we have continued to evolve in
the way that we produce and market our cattle.
There's an interesting situation here: we talk
mainly about price discovery, but let's not forget
that a lot of this is also about value discovery
and those two are very closely related. And some
will argue that until you take the hide off and
you transact that trade, that exchange with the
packer and the beef, do you really know what the
true value is?"
He said the NCBA has
commissioned a study to determine how low
negotiated cash trade can go before you lose true
price discovery and what might the alternatives be
to live cash trade.
"No one is expecting a
silver bullet to come from this, but we're
hopeful. I'm optimistic there will be some
information and some light shed on this that we
will-at some point in the next year or two-be
pursuing some different ideas in marketing."
Ross
joins me on the latest Beef Buzz. Click here to go there.
|
Merck
Suspends Sales of Zilmax- Conducting Scientific
Audit Regarding Lameness
Concerns
Merck
Animal Health has decided to halt sales of
Zilmax, a beta agonist that
provides a significant boost to the formation of
lean meat versus fat in the final few weeks of the
feeding period for cattle in feedlots.
The
decision, as announced in a news release(click here to read the full
release) on the Merck site, comes in
connection with the announcement by Merck that
they plan a in depth scientific review of Zilmax
to determine what the connection may be to the
product and the reports of lameness of animals
arriving at some processing plants. It was
that lameness that had caused Tyson Foods to
announce they would not accept cattle fed Zilmax
after September 6th.
According to Merck,
the company "will conduct a scientific audit,
which will monitor the process of feeding of
Zilmax, and will follow identified cattle from the
feedyard to the packing plant to determine
potential causes of lameness and other mobility
issues during feeding, transportation, offloading
and staging at the processing facility. We also
will do a thorough review of potential compounding
factors-such as nutrition, transportation and
receiving facilities."
Until the results of
the study are known- "Merck Animal Health has made
the decision to temporarily suspend sales of
Zilmax in the United States and Canada. This will
allow sufficient time for the establishment of
valid study protocols, identification of feeders
and packers to participate in the audit, and
creation of a third-party team to oversee this
process and validate its results."
The Beta
Agonist issue was front and center during a five
and half hour meeting held right in front of the
actual Summer Cattle Industry Conference in Denver
earlier this month. One of the stories that we
posted on our website highlighted the Tyson
decision and an interview that we had with
Temple Grandin that showcased her
worry about these "tender footed" cattle that were
shown in a video by JBS's Lily
Edwards at the Denver meeting. Click here for that earlier
story.
|
Effective
Ag Communications Need to Connect Producers and
Consumers Ethically and
Morally
According
to Kevin Murphy, owner and
founder of Food Chain Communications, agricultural
producers are losing the battle. They are losing
the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans.
Murphy was in Oklahoma City Friday to speak to the
International Leadership Alumni Conference. He
spoke with me after his
presentation.
He says the
communications world has changed dramatically and
the agricultural industry needs to change with it.
While such campaigns as "Beef. It's what's for
dinner" may have worked in the past, they aren't
working now. Opponents of the modern food industry
have understood the change in the communications
paradigm and have been using that knowledge
successfully to turn the public against such
practices as gestation crates in the pork sector
and genetically-modified grains in the farming
sector.
Even before those
more recent attacks, Murphy saw an opportunity to
help agricultural producers.
"I started
Food-Chain Communications in 2007 with the idea of
helping people in food communicate. Now, the
reason I did that was there was a study done in
the late 1990s by Phillip Morris Corporation and
it had a graph that showed everybody in our food
system communicated to the person they sold to.
And then, after that, all communication ceased. My
job was to then seize that opportunity and to see
that there was now a chance for me to connect
farmers to, say, grocers because those people are
not speaking to each other in our normal food
system enough."
In 2009, Murphy launched
Truth in Food www.truthinfood.com a web site
devoted to addressing the political, social,
philosophical and theological issues that often
cascade around food. And that was just the
beginning. From building bridges where there were
none to fighting misinformation, Murphy has been
engaged in helping the food industry stand up and
deliver the truth.
Click here to read more or to
listen to my interview with Kevin.
|
Saluting
Farm Leader and Friend Jimmy Kinder
We
lost a good one this past Friday- and I was sad to
receive the news that James
Kinder of Walters had passed away this
past Friday, just one day after his 79th
birthday.
I
met him very soon after I came to Oklahoma back in
1977- he was involved in the group that preceded
the formation of US Wheat Associates- Western
Wheat- and a member of the Oklahoma Wheat
Commission. I knew him as Jimmy down through
the years- and he was one of those folks that I
would always keep my eye out for when I went to a
wheat meeting, or cattle meeting or Farm Bureau
event.
He
always had a word for me about the weather- or how
the crops were doing- or his opinions on farm
policy. And he always had a smile and a
"come see us" before the conversation would end.
It's
folks like Jimmy Kinder that have made my journey
across almost 35 years of being a farm radio
journalist here in Oklahoma so enjoyable and I
will miss seeing him.
Please
pray for the Kinder family, including his wife
Trudie and son Jimmy Wayne as services are held
later today at the St John Lutheran Church in
Lawton.
Click here for the Obituary from
the Hart-Wyatt Funeral Home.
|
|
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
God Bless!
You can reach us at the following:
phone: 405-473-6144
| | |