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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday January 7,
2010 A
service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind
Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance
Company!
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-- Taiwan Wants To Negotiate Beef Situation
-- NFU Has Goals for Health Care Reform
-- American Farm Bureau Ready to Roll Into Seattle for 2010
Convention
-- Monsanto R&D Advances Projects
-- OSU Video Places Third in Alpharma Contest
-- Congresswoman Slaughter Offers Odd Assessment of Why Russia is
Banning US Meat
-- Bitter Cold Roars Into Oklahoma- Many Locations Lose Power with
Ice and Wind as the Culprits
-- 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. For more on Johnston
Enterprises- click
here for their website! If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here. | |
Taiwan Wants To Negotiate Beef Situation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A day after
reinstating a ban on certain U.S. beef parts, Taiwan said it wants to
reopen talks with Washington on beef trade, according to a report by
Reuters. Taiwan said it will ask Washington when new negotiations can
begin, the report said, quoting Taiwan's Government Information Office.
Taiwan's parliament amended a food safety law on Tuesday, effectively abrogating a new protocol the two countries agreed to late last October. The change barred imports of U.S. beef offal, ground beef and certain cattle parts deemed a risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It kept in tact, however, U.S. bone-in beef. It remains to be seen whether Washington will be eager to sit down with Taipei, given that the US negotiators are dubious about Taiwan's credibility as a trade partner. In a joint statement released Tuesday, Deputy United States Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis and Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Jim Miller said, "The decision by Taiwan authorities to place domestic politics over science raises serious concerns. This action will also undermine Taiwan's credibility as a responsible trading partner and will make it more challenging for us to conclude future agreements to expand and strengthen bilateral trade and economic ties." The officials added: "In light of the continuing importance of our bilateral economic relationship, we urge Taiwan to honor its commitments and to implement the beef protocol as negotiated." Click on the link below to go back and see what our US meat industry had to say about the Taiwan turn around on relaxing their restrictions on US beef, going against the sound science that the global community has claimed they willing to follow. Gregg Doud of the NCBA said it well when he commented on Tuesday "To suggest that there are any safety concerns related to U.S. beef is outrageous." | |
NFU Has Goals for Health Care Reform ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National
Farmers Union President Roger Johnson has submitted a letter to Majority
Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi outlining four
provisions for the health care bill which the organization believes
require immediate attention. They are:
1. A publicly-run health insurance option to dramatically increase the
availability of healthcare to rural Americans and provide competition in
under populated areas. 3. The ability of self-employed individuals to deduct their health care
costs as a business expense before calculating their self-employment tax.
And, | |
American Farm Bureau Ready to Roll Into Seattle for 2010 Convention ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About 85
Oklahoma members of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau are trying to get ready to
leave home during this very rough cold weather for the 2010 edition of the
American Farm Bureau's annual convention. The Oklahoma delgation will once
again be led by Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling.
Climate change legislation, livestock care issues and social media tools will be at the forefront of topics discussed during conferences at the American Farm Bureau Federation's 91st annual meeting, Jan. 10-13, in Seattle, Wash. AFBF President Bob Stallman will deliver his annual address at 9:30 a.m. (PST) on Sunday, Jan. 10, during the general session in Seattle. It has been 58 years since the AFBF annual meeting was last held in the Emerald City. We talked OFB President Spradling about the upcoming meeting- and what he sees as the key policy issues for this year's meeting- including a couple of issues that have bubbled up from the grass roots in Oklahoma and that have made it to next Tuesday's delegates session of the AFBF. Click on the listen bar below for our preview story of the AFBF meeting- including the audio of our conversation with OFB President Mike Spradling. Click here for the AFBF Preview story on our website- www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
Monsanto R&D Advances Projects ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monsanto
Company reports a record 11 project advancements in its research and
development pipeline during 2009. The advancements include: the first
biotechnology product with a direct consumer dietary benefit and two of
the largest commercial product launches in the company's history.
Monsanto's chief technology officer, Robb Fraley, says - we have talked
before about being on the verge of a technology explosion, and this is the
beginning of it. Fraley says - this year you will see the first of those
game-changing products delivering on the farm.
Products moving forward include SDA omega-3 soybeans; Genuity SmartStax refuge-in-a-bag; and Monsanto's first insect-protected Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybeans designed for the Brazilian market. Genuity SmartStax corn and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans have graduated from the pipeline and are expected to arrive at farmer's fields this year through broad commercial launches. The most advanced projects, drought-tolerant corn and higher-yielding soybeans, are moving as expected toward market launch. The company is waiting for more weather stress data to generate the conclusive field research Monsanto requires to prove product performance. Click here for the Monsanto Pipeline Update Website for the latest as we begin 2010. | |
OSU Video Places Third in Alpharma Contest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Students from
the University of Missouri captured the most votes in the 2nd annual Reach
Teach Learn Student Video Contest that wrapped up last week. Teams from
Sam Houston State University and Oklahoma State University placed second
and third, respectively.
"We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the Student Video Contest and the participation we had," says Jeff Mellinger, Global Leader, Sales and Marketing for Alpharma Inc. Animal Health, the company that sponsors the Reach Teach Learn initiative. "Congratulations are due to the University of Missouri team-and all the others that participated in the contest. This is just a small but, we hope, significant step in improving consumer purchasing decisions." Throughout the fall semester students from across the nation have
participated in the Student Video Contest. The contest, consisting of
three phases, encouraged college students to tell their story of
agriculture. First, students were asked to upload short video clips to the
contest Web site. These clips were then made available to everyone
participating in the second phase, which asked teams to compile a complete
video from these clips and their own footage. Finally, the winning video
was decided by a combination of a voting phase held on the contest Web
site and a panel of judges' decision. Click here to jump to the website where the videos from this student competition can be seen. | |
Congresswoman Slaughter Offers Odd Assessment of Why Russia is Banning US Meat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rep. Louise M.
Slaughter (D-NY) said Wednesday that Russia's decision to ban imports of
American pork and poultry should be a "wake-up call" to U.S. farmers.
Slaughter's comments came in the wake of recent announcements that Russia
would block imports of U.S. poultry beginning this month because of
concerns that poultry here is frequently dunked in chlorine to kill germs
before it is sold to consumers. Russia also recently announced plans to
block imports of U.S. pork because of a dispute over standards for
antibiotic residue.
Slaughter said she would call upon Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to immediately revisit current laws with respect to livestock safety in order to ensure that American farmers are not further harmed by poorly considered rules. "These decisions by Russia should be a wake-up call that we can no longer continue to count on exporting livestock of dubious safety to other countries," Slaughter said. "The overuse of antibiotics has potentially serious trade implications as other countries decide that the risks are not worth it. And using chlorine to kill bacteria in our food supply is not a sane way to operate. We must move quickly to limit the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in our farm animals so that our farm industry is not hurt even more." The Congresswoman from New York claims that a recent study supports her theories as her Wednesday news release indicates "A December report from the Congressional Research Service confirms Slaughter's worries, "Growing concerns about antimicrobial resistance have caused some U.S. trading partners and competitors including the EU, New Zealand, and South Korea to implement restrictions and prohibitions on the use of certain antimicrobials for subtherapeutic or nontherapeutic purposes in animal production." | |
Bitter Cold Roars Into Oklahoma- Many Locations Lose Power with Ice and Wind as the Culprits ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A lot of
schools have elected to close today- and some have shut down already for
Friday as the Arctic Express has rumbled across Oklahoma and will be
pushing frigid conditions across a lot of the middle part of the United
States. The danger that has been raised for schools is where kids have to
stand outside for several minutes to wait for a bus- and/or have to walk a
ways to get to their bus stop. Even a short amount of time outside exposed
can be dangerous for those that don't dress right.
Farmers and ranchers are facing the same conditions that have taken wind chills to single digits and will likely push them to below zero in some locations this morning, as well as tomorrow morning and Saturday morning, before conditions moderate. Livestock will need to be checked- ice may need to be chopped and as Don Armes mentioned in one of his Tweets on Wednesday afternoon- you may need to add an extra heat lamp if you have young pigs or other livestock that may struggle with the bitter cold. It's also a good idea to check on neighbors, especially older folks who may have problems with heating systems, electricity or frozen pipes because of the cold. Checking on them may prevent a tragedy- I hope you will be thinking of who might need your help. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR 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! 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 $8.10 per
bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are
$8.30 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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