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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!
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- click
here for the report posted yesterday afternoon
around 3:30 PM.
Okla
Cash Grain:
Daily
Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- as reported
by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
Canola
Prices:
Cash price for canola was
$6.28 per bushel- based on delivery to Oklahoma
City (per Oklahoma Dept of
Ag).
Futures
Wrap:
Our
Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio
Oklahoma Network with Leslie Smith 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.
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Oklahoma's
Latest Farm and Ranch News
Presented
by
Your
Update from Ron Hays of RON
Thursday,
February 26,
2015 |
Howdy
Neighbors!
Here is your daily Oklahoma farm and ranch
news update.
| |
Featured
Story:
Julie Borlaug
Recommends Making the GMO Debate Personal to
Consumers
The
use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
continue to be debated. The dialogue has remained
strong over the last year. Julie
Borlaug is the granddaughter of the
legendary Norman Borlaug and she serves as an
Assistant Director of Partnerships for the Norman
Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at
Texas A&M. She believes there has been some
progress been made in talking about the role of
GMOs.
"I think we have done a lot of
training this year in the ag industry with the
private sector, with the farmers themselves, to
make them realize we need to change our
massaging," Borlaug said. "We need to be more
emotional, more personal and we have to engage
with social media. So, I think hopefully we are
going to start to see a
shift."
However, the perception of
GMO's have gotten worse. Borlaug said she thinks
the anti-GMO technology campaign has gotten
savvier. At public speaking events, she often
mentions how Whole Foods made more money than
Monsanto did last year.
"They are just
as market savvy," Borlaug said. "They want to
produce for their stockholders, just like everyone
else and I think you need to sit back and question
that and realize they have gotten a niche, they
are going to push it, but it's all about
dollar."
There is still a lot of
anti-GMO backlash going on, but there is a
positive aspect. Borlaug said there are more
people speaking about the topic, but she thinks we
need to get more people outside of agriculture to
talk about GMOs, such as moms and the once GMO
critic Mark Lynas, who has since come out in favor
of the technology. She thinks the public is going
to believe someone from outside agriculture, over
someone from the seed industry or someone with a
connection to farming.
In talking with
consumers, Borlaug said the important detail is
making that message personal and bringing the
conversation down to something that is important
to them. She often talks about how important
oranges are to their children in providing orange
juice each day. Then she gets into citrus greening
and what's going to happen if the U.S. losses its
orange trees.
Borlaug
also addresses federal GMO labeling. To read or
have the opportunity to listen to my full
interview with Borlaug from the 2015 Ag Issues
Forum in Phoenix, click
here.
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We
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daily update. On both the state and national
levels, full-time staff members serve as a
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mutual insurance company members and life company
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about their efforts to serve rural
America! |
Lucas,
Peterson Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen
EPA Independent Scientific
Advice
Congressman
Frank Lucas and Congressman
Collin Peterson Tuesday
introduced H.R. 1029, the EPA Science Advisory
Board Reform Act of 2015, legislation to ensure
the science guiding EPA's regulatory policy is
objective, independent and available for public
review. The bipartisan bill establishes guidelines
for membership to the Science Advisory Board,
which advises the EPA's regulatory decisions.
Companion legislation was also introduced in the
Senate by Sens. John Boozman and Joe
Manchin.
"I appreciate Congressman
Peterson joining me in this bipartisan effort to
ensure the best experts are free to undertake a
balanced and open review of regulatory science.
The Science Advisory Board (SAB) informs the EPA
on regulations that impact the lives of millions
of Americans," said Congressman Lucas. "The heavy
costs of these regulations warrant some degree of
public oversight to ensure SAB's findings are free
from bias or conflicts of interest and not simply
provided by a set of handpicked advisors. The EPA
Science Advisory Board Reform Act addresses these
issues by ensuring the science guiding EPA's
regulatory policy is open to review by the public
and requiring members who serve on this board to
disclose their professional
backgrounds."
To
read more, click here.
|
House
Agriculture Committee Begins Full Review of the
SNAP
The
House Committee on Agriculture began a full-scale
review of the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP). On Thursday,
the Committee heard from University of Maryland
welfare scholar Doug Besharov on
the past, present, and future of the nation's
largest program in the domestic hunger safety
net.
"SNAP has grown from a relatively
small pilot program to the second largest federal
welfare program, quadrupling in spending since
2001," Chairman Mike Conaway of
Texas said. "Everyone from recipients to taxpayers
deserves an efficient program with a clearly
defined mission. That's why the Committee, over
the coming months, will thoroughly examine this
program and gain a full understanding of its
purpose, goal, and participants. The program
itself has largely not changed in the last 30
years, despite significant changes in the nation's
economy and the socioeconomic makeup of the
American population."
"We can all agree
that no one ought to go hungry in America, and
SNAP is essential in protecting the most
vulnerable citizens during tough times. For many
it is a vital lifeline to keeping food on the
table. What we don't want is for this program to
hold people back from achieving their potential. I
believe there is a role for SNAP, but we need to
have a complete and clear understanding of its
mission and purpose."
To
read more or to watch the testimony given at the
SNAP hearing, click here.
And-
you can read Chairman Conaway's opening statement-
which is available here.
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West
Coast Port Labor Agreement Welcomed by Asian Meat
Buyers
Seven
billion dollars' worth of beef exports in 2014.
The U.S. beef export value averaged a record $300
per head in calendar year 2014. With those kind of
values, the U.S. cattle industry is very
interested when something is impacting beef
exports and the west coast dock slow down caused
millions of dollars of losses on a weekly basis.
With a settlement announced last weekend, it looks
things will be getting back on track fairly soon,
as far as beef exports and other shipments of
other U.S. meat related
products.
U.S. Meat Export
Federation Senior VP for the
Asian-Pacific region Joel Haggard
said the deal is being enthusiastically welcomed
by Asian meat buyers.
"Especially
those in Japan and Korea, where the volumes are
significant," Haggard said. "In 2014, the US
exported approximately $2 billion dollars of beef
and pork in chilled form to Asia."
The
chilled pork trade alone is worth approximately $1
billion per year. On average about 1,000
containers of chilled pork being shipped to Japan
monthly. If there is a delay in shipping product,
Haggard said chilled product can be frozen down as
it crosses the Pacific Ocean. That is not a
desirable option, due to price discount for frozen
product versus the chilled product. Product can
also be shipped by air, but that is a very
expensive option. During the labor dispute,
Haggard said air shipments to Japan and Korea did
increase.
Shipping
delays create the most headaches and most heart
burn for those involved in shipping chilled beef
and pork into the Pacific rim markets. At the same
time, those that were choosing frozen product also
experienced some real problems during the massive
slowdown. To read more or to
listen to this Beef Buzz feature, click here.
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Increasing
the Value of Calves Through Oklahoma Quality Beef
Network
The
Oklahoma Quality Beef Network
(OQBN) was established to aid producers in taking
advantage of "value added" marketing opportunities
in Oklahoma. To be able to accomplish this mission
a clear line of communication is need to all
segments of the beef industry. OQBN is that
communication system and it also is an educational
tool where all cattle producers can learn what
effects their price at marketing
and how their cattle need to perform from pasture
to plate.
One clear message cattle
buyers have been sending for many, many years is
that health of cattle when leaving the ranch
effects the industry as a whole. In fact, in 2001
it is estimated that Bovine Respiratory Disease
cost the industry 800-900 million dollars
annually. To help combat that huge loss, OQBN
started a Vac-45 program for cattle that have been
weaned and well managed for 45 days or longer,
(visit http://www.oqbn.okstate.edu/ for specific
requirements). These calves are then third party
verified on the ranch before
shipment.
In 2014 OQBN enrolled over
6,400 calves selling both at auction and private
treaty, increasing enrollments by 16% over 2013.
Several livestock markets hosted OQBN verified
sales selling almost 4,300 head at those verified
sales across Oklahoma. Records were recorded on
10,079 calves being sold at auction including the
4,300 OQBN verified calves. The premium for 2014
was $18.99/cwt for all OQBN calves as compared to
non-preconditioned cattle. Figure 1 illustrates
premiums broken out by weight and sex for
2014.
For
additional information on OQBN, click here.
Kellie
Curry Raper, Eric A. DeVuyst, Derrell Peel,
Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economics,
Gant Mourer, Oklahoma State University Animal
Science, all contributed to these comments
regarding the OQBN. |
Want to
Have the Latest Energy News Delivered to Your
Inbox Daily?
Award
winning broadcast journalist Jerry
Bohnen has spent years learning and
understanding how to cover the energy business
here in the southern plains- Click here jump over to the
Oklahoma Energy website where you can subscribe to
Jerry's daily update of top Energy News.
|
Power of
Social Media: Greg Peterson After 35
Million Views
One
of the biggest "stars" on You Tube when it comes
to the world of agriculture is Greg
Peterson (and his siblings), who
call the state of Kansas home. The Peterson
brothers videos have been seen millions of times
since they began their effort to show that
"agriculture is cool." Peterson was a part of a
Millennial panel in Phoenix at the Bayer Crop
Science Ag Issues Forum.
Peterson is a
2013 Graduate of Kansas State University- and his
interest in producing a video began in early 2012
when he observed that even his college friends had
little understanding or appreciation of what being
a farmer meant. As a result, that summer, Peterson
talked his brothers and little sister into helping
produce their first video called "I'm Farming and
I Grow It." Posted on YouTube, it went viral,
receiving over nine million views.
Since that time, they released six
more parody videos as well as other informational
videos about life on the farm. To date, the number
of views for all of their videos has topped thirty
five million.
I talked with
Peterson about his work in telling the story of
agriculture after his presentation at the Ag
Issues Forum- and you can hear their conversation
by clicking here. You can also
enjoy that first video which is embedded into our
web story- a video that has been seen now more
than 9.2 million times. |
This
N That- Oklahoma Folks Here at the Classic,
Superior Sells in OKC Tomorrow and Pork Congress
in Norman Tomorrow
We have several Oklahomans I am
trying to keep up with here at the 2015 Commodity
Classic- including JB Stewart who
serves as Chair of the National Sorghum Producers.
Stewart is in his second year of a two year term-
and will serve as Chairman of the NSP through
their fiscal year which restarts October
first.
On the wheat side of the ledger-
Jimmy
Musick of Sentinel is running for the
Office of National Secretary of the National
Association of Wheat Growers- he is past chair of
the National Wheat Foundation and past President
of Okla Wheat Growers. We will know if Jimmy will
jump into the national officer rotation for
NAWG later today.
And-
Karen and Brittany Krehbiel of
Hydro are here to represent NAWG at a special
Women and Minority Event being hosted by USDA
Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden.
**********
Superior
Livestock is on the road this week for their every
other week sale of feeder cattle- traveling and
setting up at Heritage Place on South MacArthur
Blvd in Oklahoma City.
We
featured auctioneer Charly Cummings earlier this
week who talked with us about the sale tomorrow-
click or tap here to jump back to
that story and a chance to hear his comments about
this week's offerings and what people will see if
they come to Heritage Place on Friday morning.
You
can also
jump over to the Superior website for more
details about this week's offering.
**********
Finally-
a quick reminder- the 2015 edition of the Oklahoma
Pork Congress is set for tomorrow at Embassy
Suites in Norman. We have details here.
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to Midwest Farms Shows,
P
& K Equipment,
American Farmers &
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Association, Pioneer Cellular ,
National Livestock Credit
Corporation
and KIS Futures for
their
support of our daily Farm News Update. For your
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