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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday September 4,
2007! A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers and
Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- With Labor Day Done- Here Comes Congress!
-- With the Calendar now reading September- we are delighted to
Welcome Cusack Meats to our Email Family!
-- A Full Ban on a Swift Plant is Handed Out as South Korea is
planning yet another meeting to talk about a slightly wider opening of
their market to US Beef.
-- You Heard Right- NO More Water wanted for this year's cotton
crop!
-- Lots of Forage this Summer MAY Equal Lots of Wildfires Late Fall
and Winter!
-- Speaking of Fires- How About a Nice Controlled Burn???
-- WHEAT MARKET ALERT- UP UP AND AWAY!
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 new AFR 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. | |
With Labor Day Done- Here Comes Congress! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Congress
returns to Washington after a multi week recess, we will be watching the
Senate for several reasons in the next few weeks. First of all, we have
comings and goings. Over the weekend, Senator Larry Craig made it official
that he is quitting as of the end of this month, as he has felt the heat
from many different directions and has decided to get out of the kitchen.
While he currently is not on the Senate Ag Committee, he has had influence
over the last couple of farm bills that were written. He will be replaced
by a Republican who will then run as a short time incumbent next November.
The "coming" is the return of Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, who has
slowly recovered from a life-threatening brain hemorrhage suffered back in
December 2006. The Democrat has spoken out on farm issues, although he was
in the shadows most of the time when it came to farm policy to Tom
Daschle, who lost his seat to John Thune back in 2004. Johnson is still
recovering from the massive stroke and is limited in his movement and
speech- altho he pledges that he will continue to get better and plans to
run for reelection in 2008.
We will also be watching the Senate Ag Committee as they work on farm policy sometime this month. As we reported back last week, there are several major policy directions being floated by Senators, and with the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee being Tom Harkin, the Senate Farm Bill will possibly have a more "populist" look to it then the House Farm Bill that was escorted through the House by the more pragmatic Collin Peterson. Beyond farm policy, we will be watching this Thursday as the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee will have a pair of Oklahomans testifying on the issue of water quality and CAFOs- OSU Ag Policy Professor Dr. Mike Dicks and the State of Oklahoma's Attorney General, Drew Edmondson. That hearing is planned for first thing Thursday morning. | |
With the Calendar now reading September- we are delighted to Welcome Cusack Meats to our Email Family! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our fourth
sponsor that will be helping bring you this daily update of farm and ranch
news on alternate days is Cusack Meats, proud to be a seller of high
quality meats produced by Oklahoma's farmers and Ranchers for three
quarters of a century!!!
I think it is mighty interesting what Al Cusack has told our folks here at the Radio Oklahoma Network as to why they are interested in supporting this daily email- they want a venue where they can obviously tell folks about some of the great gift packs of Certified Angus Beef and other products they can offer for in store pickup, for giving and for shipment. But, they also wanted a place where they could give a "pat on the back" to farmers and ranchers for the tremendous job you do in raising a safe, high quality and dependable food supply! You will officially see them on the masthead of our daily email tomorrow- but if you want to check out their website today- it's not too early to start thinking about what you may want to give some special folks this coming holiday season- we have CusackMeats.Com linked for you below. | |
A Full Ban on a Swift Plant is Handed Out as South Korea is planning yet another meeting to talk about a slightly wider opening of their market to US Beef. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Officials in
South Korea said yesterday that it will convene a meeting of a livestock
quarantine consultation committee to receive advice on what changes could
be made to current U.S. beef import rules. The committee, which advises
the agriculture minister, is expected to meet within the week or early
next week at the latest, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said. It
met Friday and concurred on the need to retain the 30 month age limit on
cattle that can be butchered for export to South Korea. It also said the
current ban on specified risk materials (SRMs) should be retained. SRMs
are blacklisted because they pose the greatest risk of transmitting mad
cow disease to humans.
That seems to leave the possibility open that they might offer to the United States the "opportunity" to ship meat from beef cattle under thirty months of age- boneless as well as bone-in product. That would make it a lot easier to deal with keeping shipments of beef straight that would be headed for Seoul. However, the age restriction still places a blockade on beef from the US that does not follow the OIE International Animal Health Agency guidelines for a country that is a "controlled risk" nation when it comes to BSE. At this point, there is no indication when the South Koreans might come closer to the OIE standard that the US is demanding be met. Congress continues to express no interest in voting in favor of the Free Trade Agreement signed by both countries until the beef snafu is fully resolved. Meanwhile- the first plant to get the "death penalty" when it comes to selling beef to South Korea has surfaced- as the South Korean Ag Ministry reports that they have found more rib bones in a shipment from a Swift and Company plant. Previously, this plant shipped beef with bones in violation of the agreement between the US and Korea. The total shipment was fifteen and a half tonnes- it is being returned by South Korea to the US. Here's a link to a Yonhap News Agency Update on the US Beef Status in South Korea. | |
You Heard Right- NO More Water wanted for this year's cotton crop! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NO MORE WATER
is the unfamiliar advice being given by Dr. J. C. Banks, Oklahoma State
University Agricultural Extension state cotton specialist. "It is quickly
approaching the time producers need to consider termination of irrigation
on their cotton crop," Banks says. "Factors involved in this decision are
stage of the crop and the amount of water available in the soil profile.
Dr. Banks adds "Generally, our rule of thumb in the irrigation district is to have a full soil water profile near the first of September. This will allow the young developing bolls to finish their fiber development without encouraging late vegetative growth. In a normal year, we have about a 50 percent chance of maturing blooms that are on the plant Sept. 1. If the plant has a heavy boll load, that percentage decreases due to the stress the developing bolls have on the plant and the resulting shed of small bolls. "On furrow irrigation, the full profile of water Sept. 1 remains the best decision, but on circle irrigated or drip irrigated fields, the final irrigation date will probably need to be extended by approximately one week. Overhead irrigation normally is not heavy enough at each application to fill the soil profile. Drip irrigation has the plant trained to get water from the emitters. On termination of irrigation at these areas, the plant will stress for water much more quickly than when the profile is full." We appreciate Vic Schoonover and the folks in the NTOK coalition for keeping us update during this 2007 growing season- we have one of their websites linked below. Check out the Oklahoma Cotton Council website by clicking here. | |
Lots of Forage this Summer MAY Equal Lots of Wildfires Late Fall and Winter! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Oklahomans
sit and watch news video of the horrific fires in the American West or in
Greece, they need to realize that in about two months the situation here
could be as bad or worse. "The entire state is faced with as high a grass
fuel load as we've ever had," said Terry Bidwell, rangeland ecology and
management specialist with the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.
Oklahoma's excess of combustible plant life was caused by this year's near
record-setting rainfall, which also happened to be fairly evenly
distributed across the state.
"That fuel load isn't going to be reduced without some sort of harvesting through cattle grazing or mowing," Bidwell said. Bidwell added that the situation becomes even worse when cedar trees are added into the mix, creating "a disaster waiting to happen." The greatest danger is for those who live in what is termed the wildland-urban interface, the area where rural lands adjoin suburban housing and business development. "In that situation, the grasses aren't grazed and you have grass, cedars and houses coming together," Bidwell said. "If a fire gets started, it's hard to fight and even harder to contain without threatening homes and lives, including the lives of the firefighters battling the blaze." As Oklahoma moves toward frost, which generally occurs about November
first, the situation can potentially become much worse. "People need to
realize that these plants will burn at any time," Bidwell said. "Right now
they have a lot of moisture in them, so they will not burn as rapidly or
intensely, though they will generate a lot of smoke." Oklahoma's worst
time for wildfires is after frost during periods of low humidity, high
winds and a big, dry fuel load. "It can happen anytime, but it's most
prevalent in the late fall through the winter and into early spring," he
said. That is why Bidwell contends now is the best time to take steps to
reduce the dangers of wildfire. "If grassland isn't being grazed, it needs
to be mowed," Bidwell said. "Homeowners need to keep the grass mowed low
out to at least 100 feet from their house. Any cedar trees in that
100-foot radius need to be cut down and removed, or at the very least,
trimmed so that no branches are closer than six feet from the
ground." | |
Speaking of Fires- How About a Nice Controlled Burn??? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many of the
fields that were going to be burned after problems with wheat harvest this
year- have already been burned. But there may be a few folks that are
thinking about this subject even now into September- and if you are one of
those folks- or know of someone if your area that may be in that camp- you
may want to check out the latest newsletter put out by Laura McKay and the
folks at the Oklahoma Mesonet.
The Mesonet has several excellent tools to help you plan a controlled burn- or aware of various conditions that could affect fire conditions in your neck of the woods. We have this latest electronic newsletter in the PDF format linked below- it has some great advice on getting your facts straight and ducks in a row before that next urge to light the match. Click here for the latest AgWeather Newsletter from the Oklahoma Mesonet! | |
WHEAT MARKET ALERT- UP UP AND AWAY! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ European wheat
markets hit new highs early this morning across the Atlantic, as overnight
electronic US wheat futures have been sharply higher in advance of the
Tuesday open outcry markets that will be the first trading of September in
this country.
The overnight trade in Chicago has been as much as 28 cents per bushel higher than last Friday's trade, and currently less than a nickel away from the all time high Chicago wheat futures price of $8.07-3/4 per bushel. Why??? | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma 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
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