|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday August 20, 2007!
A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers and
Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Call it a Friend! Cattle on Feed Report Comes in with low
placements and marketings above 2006.
-- Should Wind Rights be the same as Mineral Rights?
-- Say Sesame Please!
-- Scholarships Available for Students Pursuing Careers in Beef
Industry
-- USDA Provides a Half Million for Ice Storms of this past
winter.
-- Consumers Love Their Beef- How do we translate that into more
sales and better demand???
-- Starting tomorrow- our emails will be in "lite" mode the balance
of this week and next.
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 welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here! We also welcome American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company
as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click
here to go to their OFU web site to learn more about their efforts to
serve rural America! 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. | |
Call it a Friend! Cattle on Feed Report Comes in with low placements and marketings above 2006. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tom Leffler of
Leffler Commodities says we have a winner of a report from USDA, as the
monthly Cattle on Feed Report showed better than expected numbers in all
three categories, at least if you are a bull.
The on feed number was five percent under the August first, 2006 feedlot number at 10.3 million head, with the real surprise being the placement number which was 17 percent under the July Placements of 2006- the trade was expecting about a thirteen percent placement drop. Finally, the third key number, the marketings number, came in about a half a percent better than expected, up three percent from July 2006. If you want to hear Tom's take on the report and how it will fit into the context of the cattle marketplace this week- click on the link below- we have his audio comments on our front page of our website and we have them directly linked below. Click here to listen to Tom Leffler and his Cattle on Feed Thoughts! | |
Should Wind Rights be the same as Mineral Rights? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's one of
the ideas floating around in the August Area Meetings of the Oklahoma Farm
Bureau- with about three fourths of those meetings now concluded. We still
have a few left this week and we have a link on our calendar page on the
website that offers details.
We had the chance to talk with Steve Kouplen of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau about that idea and several others that were being expressed by the grass roots of his organization. We talked with Steve about that for our Saturday morning television segment on Oklahoma Agriculture that is called In the Field with Ron Hays. We have that video segment linked below if you would like to watch and listen to what Steve and I talked about on KWTV News9 on Saturday morning. You can also go to our Featured Audio page and listen to an audio conversation that I had with Steve to flesh out a lot of the ideas that we touched on briefly on the TV segment. Here's the link to the Featured Audio page of our website. Click here to see the In the Field Segment with Ron and Steve Kouplen of OFB. | |
Say Sesame Please! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There will be
a couple of meetings planned for late this week where producers in
northwestern and northcentral Oklahoma will be able to take a look at
Sesame as it nears maturity. You may recall before his untimely death, our
friend Tedrowe Coulter was a tireless promoter of Sesame as an alternative
to continuous wheat in the drier areas of Oklahoma. Well, interest has
died down a great deal on this crop, but we got an interesting email from
Danny Peeper of Wheeler Brothers who says that we had more than 5000 acres
of Sesame under contract this year in Oklahoma- and that some of the
problems encountered previously with Sesame have been addressed.
Peeper adds "It is the most heat and drought tolerant crop you will find to grow in Oklahoma (actually grows best over 95 degrees), has very low fertility needs, not bothered by insects and diseases, and is a very high value crop." He adds that "Through decades of breeding by some very dedicated individuals, a novel gene has been discovered in the last couple years that enables the crop to be direct harvested without any fear of shattering. Many advances have been made in the variety selection to better provide for local adaptation that currently allows for some very high yield potential." "We have not harvested the '07 sesame yet this year. We expect to get started in about 30 days. The earliest planting dates for this region generally are in late May so we did not have to deal with the late freeze. I am very excited about the potential for this crop in Oklahoma due to the extreme heat and drought tolerance the crop provides. It prefers temperatures over 95 degrees and even under full irrigation you only need to provide 12 inches of water, compared to 35- 40 for corn. Also it only requires 30-40 pounds of nitrogen for an outstanding crop. I feel that with the current fertilizer prices and the ever tightening water supply that it offers a great option for producers to have the same income levels or better that they are used to while at the same time reducing their inputs costs." "Rotation is key when we think of adding more acres to no-till farming,
or even a well managed conventional system benefits from alternative
crops. Many of the invasive weeds such as ryegrass and feral rye that are
at an epidemic level in our wheat crop can be controlled with a rotation
that includes a winter fallow period to allow for cultivation or
glyphosate control of these weeds, then back to sesame in the summer, and
followed by wheat that fall." | |
Scholarships Available for Students Pursuing Careers in Beef Industry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Students
pursuing careers in the beef industry are encouraged to apply for the 2008
Beef Industry Scholarship Program. The National Cattlemen's Foundation and
the CME Group are sponsoring 10 scholarships of 15-hundred dollars each.
The program is designed to support talented and thoughtful students who have demonstrated a commitment to a career in the beef industry through classes, internships or life experience. NCF says the application process is open to graduating high school seniors or full-time undergraduate students enrolled at a two-year or four-year college for the 2008-2009 academic year. All applications must include a 750-word essay that identifies a key issue confronting the beef industry and suggests a solution - as well as a letter expressing future career goals and two letters of recommendation. For more information about the program and application requirements - visit the NCF website- we have it linked below- or call 303-850- 3345. Click here for details on the National Cattlemen's Foundation Scholarship Competition | |
USDA Provides a Half Million for Ice Storms of this past winter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Under
Secretary of Agriculture Mark Keenum today announced that USDA is
distributing $16 million in new Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)
funding to help farmers and ranchers in 18 states to rehabilitate land
damaged by natural disasters or drought. "Floods, tornadoes, drought and
other weather-related disasters have adversely affected agricultural land
in portions of the country this year," said Keenum. "These Emergency
Conservation Program funds will assist producers back on the road to
setting things right again."
Oklahoma's share of the sixteen million dollars is $543,200- designated for the ice storms we were hit with at the beginning of the year. The Emergency Conservation Program provides emergency funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters and for carrying out emergency water conservation measures in periods of severe drought. FSA county committees determine land eligibility based on on-site inspections of damage, taking into account the type and extent of damage. | |
Consumers Love Their Beef- How do we translate that into more sales and better demand??? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kim Essex
works on behalf of cattle producers in trying to stay one step ahead of
today's consumers. She tells us that they have developed several keys to
"positioning" beef to the consumers of 2007. Kim tells us on today's Beef
Buzz that consumers are in love with beef, but have some concerns about
"health" issues related to the product.
Essex says that while there are a lot of protein sources available to today's American consumer, but consumers have a belief that beef IS protein- and she says that is a driver that can help leverage a beef message successfully to that consumer. You can hear all of Kim's thoughts on this subject by checking out today's Beef Buzz on the Radio Oklahoma Network on radio stations across the state- or you can also click below and take a listen as well. By the way, we will have more with Kim Essex tomorrow on our next Beef Buzz! Click here to go Beef Buzzing with Ron and Kim Essex on the love that consumers have for Beef! | |
Starting tomorrow- our emails will be in "lite" mode the balance of this week and next. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The last two
weeks of August are the true Dog Days of Summer- and we are out of the
office taking some vacation time- and as a result this email will be a
"lite" version. The miracle of the Internet means that even though I am
thousands of miles from Oklahoma- I can still keep up with things that are
going on that affect our farmers, ranchers and those involved in
agribusiness.
We may well have a couple less stories each day- and with Congress out of Washington, that means little fresh information on things like the farm bill. That will all change right after Labor Day- and my time away will hopefully allow me to have my batteries charged and ready to provide you a ringside seat to all the action the next several months as Congress tries to assemble a farm bill. Thanks for your interest in this daily email- and while it will be shorter between now and September first- we still have some interesting things we will be passing along to you! | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma and American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them 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. | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
