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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday April 25,
2007! A
service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Goodbye Enid- Hello Blackwell! Oklahoma Ethanol Switches Plant
Sites for their Ethanol Plant.
-- Stars Over Oklahoma!!! Meet Desiree, Deston and Logan!
-- Add Barley Yellow Dwarf to the list of Diseases impacting our 2007
Wheat.
-- Eddie Smith Honored by Oklahoma FFA Tuesday night!
-- FFA Sweepstakes Claimed by Kingfisher and Elgin!
-- AFBF and NCBA Agree- US-Japanese "first steps" are positive.
-- Y'all Come! Oklahoma Senate tells Federal Government Commission we
would love to have new state of the art Animal Disease Facility!
Howdy Neighbors! Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. Our email this morning is a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the just concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show held each December. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here. 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. | |
Goodbye Enid- Hello Blackwell! Oklahoma Ethanol Switches Plant Sites for their Ethanol Plant. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A MOU
(Memorandum of Understanding) was signed yesterday by Oklahoma Ethanol
LLC, Oklahoma Sustainable Energy LLC and City of Blackwell that will
effectively move the proposed Ethanol Plant that was to be built in Enid
adjacent to the ADM Grain Elevator facilities to the Kay County community.
Groundbreaking could come as quickly as in three months- but sometime this
fall is more likely for this delayed project.
The Oklahoma Ethanol LLC plant was expected to be under construction by now- but one delay after another put off the final deal with Enid. In talking this morning with Terry Detrick who signed the MOU on behalf of the Oklahoma Sustainable Energy LLC- two important advantages swung the delayed deal over to Blackwell. Detrick says there will be more land available in Blackwell for them to build a labor saving double loop rail track configuration- which will then connect up to the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad which offers direct access to Wellington, Kansas where there will be access to both Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific lines. The second advantage is water availability and quality- we had been told earlier that Enid had adequate water and waste facilities for a first plant- but that a plant expansion down the road would have been difficult. We have linked below the morning news article from the Enid newspaper written from the point of view of the community losing the project. Click here to read more on the Oklahoma Ethanol LLC move to Blackwell. | |
Stars Over Oklahoma!!! Meet Desiree, Deston and Logan! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 81st
annual convention of the Oklahoma FFA continues in Downtown Oklahoma City
through this evening- and last night, it was a great time for three young
people who were named the highest performers in their categories for
Oklahoma FFA in 2007. As we have for more than twenty years- we produced a
portion of the Stars Over Oklahoma program last night at the convention-
and for the first time- we have it available up on the internet for you to
see- check our link out below.
The Star Farmer is the original Star Award- and has been handed out since 1939- and this year you have to go to Boise City to find the best farm program among all of the State Farmer Candidates. That program belongs to Logan Brakhage, who has a commercial and purebred cattle operation, as well as farming dryland wheat and milo in Cimarron County. Desiree Lynch of Wilson is the Star in Agribusiness. She started her Agribusiness six years ago by selling vegetables roadside- and now has grown to owning five greenhouses, as well as growing vegetables and flowers on an outside acreage. She sells both on a retail basis locally in Wilson as well as doing some wholesale trade. The Star in Ag Placement is Deston Shaw of Buffalo Valley FFA. Deston has worked with a local Ag Services Company and has risen to the position of Foreman for the company as he has helped them maintain contracts with several government entities across the state. | |
Add Barley Yellow Dwarf to the list of Diseases impacting our 2007 Wheat. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have been
talking about powdery mildew and leaf rust for a while now when it comes
to diseases on our 2007 wheat crop- now let's add another to the list that
is becoming more evident- Barley Yellow Dwarf.
Dr. Bob Hunger writes in his latest Disease Update on the 2007 crop "Looking at plots around Stillwater yesterday, I saw a lot of barley yellow dwarf and powdery mildew with leaf rust slowly building up in some plots but abundant in others (still not heavy on flag leaves however). Most of the wheat I saw was between heads half emerged to fully headed with flowering just beginning in a few plots. Reports I have received from across the state indicate powdery mildew and leaf rust present, but that BYDV is showing-up everywhere. Severity and symptoms indicate that the infection most likely took place through the later winter and/or early spring, which was circumstantially supported by Bart Cardwell (Extension Educator - Garfield County), who indicated that he and Roger Gribble (Agronomy Specialist - Northwest OK) had visited fields in January-February and saw numerous "hot spots" of aphids (bird cherry-oat aphids). It didn't seem to me over this past year that I heard a sufficient number of reports of aphids being present or spraying for aphids to give an indication that BYDV would be severe this spring. However, it seems that there is plenty of it over the state and there will be some losses from this aphid transmitted disease." We have Dr. Hunger's full update linked on the front page of our web site- and we also have it linked below for your review as well. Click here for the latest report from Dr. Bob Hunger of OSU on the 2007 Wheat Disease Situation. | |
Eddie Smith Honored by Oklahoma FFA Tuesday night! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He has been
the State FFA Advisor of the organization since 1988- and he has led the
way to keep Oklahoma Ag Education relevant over the last couple of
decades. Eddie Smith was honored with a G.O.P. Citation last night at the
1st annual convention of the Oklahoma FFA.
Smith and those who worked for him at Career Tech here in Oklahoma broadened the curriculum for Ag education in the state twice during his tenure as head of the Ag Education efforts in the state. He adjusted the study programs offered by Ag Education departments across the state in such a way that today, Ag Education is accepted as a "Science" credit when it comes to figuring core classes for graduation. That's key in being able to attract and keep the best and brightest of the students in many of our high schools across the state- given the fact that graduation requirements make it tougher and tougher to include very many electives in today's high school schedules. We talked with Eddie about his career "by the Owl" after the convention session last night- and we have it linked it for you below. Click here to listen to Ron and Eddie Smith from the 1st Oklahoma FFA Convention. | |
FFA Sweepstakes Claimed by Kingfisher and Elgin! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congrats to
the winners of the Sweepstakes Competition from this past weekend's OSU
Interscholastics Competition held in Stillwater. These awards are given to
the FFA Chapters that have the most success in the State Speech Contests
as well as the Career Development Events (Like Livestock Judging) that
were all held Friday and Saturday on campus at OSU. Many of the young
people that were winners this past weekend are being honored today at the
Oklahoma FFA Convention.
The Single Teacher FFA Chapter Sweepstakes award was won by Kingfisher FFA- their teach is Ryan Burns. The Multi Teacher Sweepstakes honors were claimed by Elgin FFA- including teachers Amy How, Jerry Renshaw and Chad Blocker. | |
AFBF and NCBA Agree- US-Japanese "first steps" are positive. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jay Truitt,
Vice President for Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association called them positive developments. Those positive developments
were in the details of an announcement by Secretary of Agriculture Mike
Johanns that the United States and Japan have agreed on two important
first steps to expand U.S. beef trade with Japan. Truitt says - NCBA is
pleased with the cooperation shown in recent days between senior officials
of the U.S. and Japanese governments toward resolving the beef trade
issue.
Secretary Johanns said he approved Japan's request to conduct additional audits of U.S. beef processing plants - as soon as arrangements can be made. This is part of Japan's verification process. And once that is complete, Japan will discontinue its requirement of inspecting 100 percent of the boxes of beef shipped from U.S. plants. Truitt believes additional positive developments will happen when the OIE votes on May 20th to change the BSE risk status for the United States to "controlled risk." That classification recognizes that OIE- recommended, science-based mitigation measures are in place to effectively manage any possible risk of BSE in the U.S. cattle population. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman is also encouraged with the steps U.S. and Japan have agreed on. He says they're a good start to expanding U.S. beef exports to Japan. Stallman says he's hopeful President Bush will discuss the matter with Prime Minister Abe this week. Click here to see the statement issued by Jay Truitt of NCBA on the latest US- Japanese developments | |
Y'all Come! Oklahoma Senate tells Federal Government Commission we would love to have new state of the art Animal Disease Facility! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The U.S.
Department of Homeland Security is searching for a site to replace its
aging, 60-year-old animal disease research facility and state lawmakers
want that site to be in Oklahoma. On Tuesday, the Senate passed Senate
Concurrent Resolution 33 welcoming the National Bio and Agro Defense
Facility project site selection team to the state and encouraging them to
select Oklahoma. The resolution is authored by Sen. Mike Johnson, Sen. Ron
Justice and Rep. Phil Richardson.
The new facility will conduct research on the interaction between animal, plant, and human diseases as the first line of defense against bio/agro terrorist attacks. Originally, there were 29 submissions for possible sites and that number has been decreased to 14. Senator Justice explained that among those is a proposed Oklahoma site in El Reno at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Grazinglands Research Laboratory. "El Reno would be the perfect location for this facility. It's centrally located near a major airport, major highways and a railroad. Plus, the USDA is already conducting agricultural research," said Justice, R-Chickasha. "It's also close to both the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, two schools with growing biotechnological efforts and established research programs on infectious diseases." The Oklahoma consortium that will serve as a resource to this site, should it be selected, is composed of eight universities from five states, three private research laboratories, two major federal contractors, and two private companies. The selection process for the site is being jointly conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the USDA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The selection team will be visiting Oklahoma this year to examine Oklahoma's research capabilities, resources, and infrastructure. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows for their support of our daily Farm News Update. Go to their website at the link at the top of today's email for more information on either the Tulsa Farm Show or the Southern Plains Farm Show. 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. | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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