From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 6:57 AM
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Friday October 10, 2008!
A service of Johnston Enterprises, National Livestock Credit and American Farmers & Ranchers!
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-- Secretary Schafer on ACRE Decision and More
-- Farm Bureau Responds to John McCain's Call to End Ag Subsidies
-- Crop Production and Supply Demand Numbers Out This Morning
-- Red Meat Equals the "Good Calories."
-- Water Quality Forum Held Earlier This Week Talks "Cooperative Conservation"
-- This Weekend- and Into Next Week
-- Final Reminder for the Parker Ranch Angus Sale This Coming Monday
-- Looking at our Agricultural 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 proud 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!

We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
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Secretary Schafer on ACRE Decision and More
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A much-anticipated decision by USDA on which two years' prices will be used for calculating payments under the farm bill's new average crop revenue election - or ACRE - program could be announced next week. Ag Secretary Ed Schafer told the Association of Equipment Manufacturers at a meeting in St. Louis Thursday that he met with his senior aides Wednesday to discuss whether to use 2006 and 2007 crop prices - which were lower - or the higher prices of 2007 and 2008.

Schafer said he's learning toward using '07 and '08 prices because that's what farm-state lawmakers want. However , using that set of crop years according to Schafer would cost taxpayers 1.2-billion dollars. As designed by Congress , ACRE was supposed to save 250-million.

Schafer told the Equipment Manufacturers Ag Summit that as many midwestern farmers go to the field, they find input costs high and prices for their crops falling. And, he says unless we see a return to higher commodity prices by next spring, the farm economy could slow substantially.
Schafer's comments are at the top of our farm and ranch news this morning on our Radio Oklahoma farm and ranch news. We have today's update linked below for you to hear Secretary Schafer's comments on the ACRE program. And, we remind you that we have this daily update, our daily Beef Buzz as well as periodic feature length interviews and audio clips available as Podcasts on our website- you can click on the link found on our website or go to Itunes and subscribe that way.

Click here for today's Farm and Ranch News with comments featured from Secretary Ed Schafer.


Farm Bureau Responds to John McCain's Call to End Ag Subsidies
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Earlier this week, Washington reporter Jerry Hagstrom reported that several agricultural groups are pushing back on statements by Arizona Republican John McCain that he believes that cheaper food prices would result from the elimination of farm subsidies- something that he says he supports.

One of the groups that has responded to the McCain comments is the American Farm Bureau. Mary Kay Thatcher responded to Hagstrom on behalf of the organization and we have a copy of the email that she sent to him. She says "Senator McCain needs to understand that eliminating subsidies pits American farmers against farmers around the world AND their governments. The average Producer Support Estimate for the developed countries around the world is 29 percent. In comparison, the U.S. only subsidizes our farmers at 16 percent. The primary way we support our farmers is through subsidies. Eliminating those subsidies means we have less leverage to use to convince other countries to reduce their supports to farmers. If Senator McCain wants a successful completion of the World Trade Organization talks, he may want to consider the fact that without the negotiating leverage provided by agricultural supports, it will be impossible to convince other countries to open their borders to fair trade.

"Senator McCain needs to understand that farmers receive only 19 cents out of every dollar spent on food. The rest goes for costs beyond the farm gate like transportation, processing and marketing. Senator McCain needs to understand that more than 50 percent of farm commodities in this country don't receive any subsidies - commodities like fruits, vegetables, beef, pork and chicken. Elimination of subsidies will impact the price of those commodities by an extremely small amount, if at all.

"Lastly, Senator McCain needs to understand that without ethanol, gas prices would be even higher than they are today. According to USDA, if ethanol was eliminated, gas prices would rise 10-12%. At today's price of around $3.50 per gallon, that means it would rise at least 35 cents. If Senator McCain is elected President and still pushes forward with these ideas, farmers and ranchers will re-double their efforts to ensure Congress understands the implications of those policies on farmers, ranchers, and consumers."


Crop Production and Supply Demand Numbers Out This Morning
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We will have coverage of the major crop production numbers that will be out at 7:30 AM central time later this morning on our website- in fact to make it easy for you to find details of the numbers- we will make it our top agricultural story on our front page- so be looking for that to appear by around 9:00 AM this morning. We will include a look at the actual crop production forecasts for our spring planted crops, as well as analysis of the supply demand figures.

Ahead of the report, DTN writes "One of the most notable features of the pre-report guesses is how closely the yield and production estimates still cling to the numbers USDA published in September. No one is expecting the corn or soybean yields in the October report to be more or less than 3 percent away from the most recently published estimates: 152.3 bushels per acre for corn and 40 bushels per acre for soybeans. Given how variable the actual yield reports have been from farmers out harvesting fields, it's very possible that the final average yield figure months from now will be considerably further from those September numbers, in one direction or another. However, traders are well aware of USDA's tendency to be conservative with its changes and make several small steps throughout a number of months, rather than one big leap that would have to be corrected later."

By 9:00 AM, we plan on having details of the USDA Friday morning reports available as our Top Ag Story- here's the link to our front page to easily grab the Top Ag Story link


Red Meat Equals the "Good Calories."
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Red meat is often blamed for heart disease, obesity and a host of other diet-induced conditions, but carbohydrates and low-fat diets may be the real culprits. That's according to scientific journalist Gary Taubes who spent six years researching the topic of his book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories." Taubes will speak at next month's Feeding Quality Forums in North Platte, Neb., and Amarillo, Texas. It is the contention of this researcher that red meat may well be the "good calories."

We have more on this with Taubes on our Friday edition of the Beef Buzz, and on our website story about today's report heard on great radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network is a link to the conference where he will be speaking in Amarillo next month.

We also talk about the upcoming Quarterfinals of the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship that is planned for the end of October in Texhoma. You hear our Friday Beef Buzz as well as check out the related links by going to the link for today's program found on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Click here for the Friday Beef Buzz from RON


Water Quality Forum Held Earlier This Week Talks "Cooperative Conservation"
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The efforts to improve water quality by the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma prompted Arkansas Congressman John Boozeman and Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren to co-host a water quality forum Monday, October 6 on the campus of John Brown University. Over 100 participants from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri attended the day-long forum. The forum featured presentations from EPA Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles, as well as presentations from Dr. Tom Simpson from the Chesapeake Bay Program, Paul Pinault from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and Ted Collins from the USDA Farm Service Agency.

"This forum featured some of the nation's most respected voices in the quest for water quality improvement," commented Dr. Delia Haak, administrator of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership.
Grumbles emphasized the importance of cooperative conservation efforts and told the audience that the measure of success is defined by an attitude of "common gains and pains, a written framework of principles, increased water monitoring, and more investment in public outreach and education to involve all stakeholders.

Those in attendance indicated that while the Illinois River Watershed is tiny compared to the Chesapeake Bay, the lessons learned about working cooperatively there could be very positive for the Illinois River Watershed. We have more details of that meeting on our website- the link below is to this story.

Click her for more on the Arkansas-Oklahoma Joint Meeting on Water Quality.


This Weekend- and Into Next Week
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On Monday here on our daily email, I will have more from the John Deere Media Event that we were a part of this week in Sarasota, Florida. Deere is making a real effort to aim squarely for a market that they are calling the "Property Owners." We will explain that on Monday.

This weekend, we have the National Beef Ambassador Contest underway, being hosted by the Oklahoma Cattlewomen in Oklahoma City. The five national Beef Ambassadors for 2009 will be named at a banquet Saturday evening- we'll let you know first of the week who those five winners are.

This coming week, there are a lot of things on the calendar for you to check out- beginning with the big Biofuels Field Day in Chickasha and ending with the many different activities around the campus of OSU on Homecoming weekend. We invite you to check out our calendar page- we have added several more events in the last day or so- and will be adding even more this weekend as we have time to do so- so check back on this calendar on a regular basis to see what is going on in and around Oklahoma Agriculture.

Click here for the Calendar of Events found at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Final Reminder for the Parker Ranch Angus Sale This Coming Monday
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It's the last call from Eddie and Karen Parker who want to extend an invitation to their Annual Fall Production Sale on this coming Monday, Oct. 13, 2008. Selling will be 100 spring-calving bred cows and heifers plus fall-calving bred heifers and open yearling heifers. Also selling will be 100 18- to 20- month-old performance-tested, carcass-evaluated Angus bulls.

These bulls are ready to go to work for you- they are semen tested, PI-BVD tested negative, carry a one year breeding guarantee; have been raised in large pastures--no hot rations and are Merial Igenity DNA tested. They have the right EPDs- 24 bulls have 9's and 10's for Tenderness. And a Parker Angus Ranch bull is affordable- previous sales show that 56% are in the $2,000-$3000 range.

We have the Parker Ranch website linked below- you can go there and find the sale catalog for this offering now available. The Sale can be viewed October 13 on the internet at www.liveauctions.tv . Contact Brad Fahrmeier prior to auction at (816) 392-9241.

Click here for the Parker Angus Ranch Website and their Sale Catalog for their Annual Production Sale.


Our thanks to National Livestock Credit, American Farmers & Ranchers and Johnston Enterprises 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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Looking at our Agricultural Markets...
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Cattle numbers at local auctions continue to be light- as we saw Stockman's Auction in Apache with only 1471 cattle yesterday versus 2,080 a week ago. Prices at Apache were steady to a dollar lower. Five to six hundred pound steers brought $98 to $109, while seven weight steers were in the $95 to $97.75 range. The full Apache report from their Thursday sale should be up at this link by around 8 AM or so on this Friday morning.

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:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
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.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges and the why of that day's market.

Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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