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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday July 23,
2008! A
service of American Farmers & Ranchers, KIS Futures & Johnston
Enterprises!
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-- Judges Receives Critical Feed Use Deal from Wildlife Federation
and USDA- Will Announce Decision Thursday.
-- Oklahoma Hosting Regional Agroterrorism Meeting Today and
Tomorrow.
-- Ag in the Classroom Continues on their Road Trip in Southwestern
Oklahoma.
-- Higher Costs Tighten Cow Calf Margins
-- RFS Waiver Ruling Postponed by and EPA Overwhelmed with Public
Response on Issue.
-- DOHA Dealings.
-- Itunes Anybody???
-- 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 KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Clic k here for their recent TV Commercial or call them at 1-800-256-2555. 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. Johnston Grain wishes our wheat
producers a safe and prosperous harvest this season- 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. | |
Judges Receives Critical Feed Use Deal from Wildlife Federation and USDA- Will Announce Decision Thursday. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Critical
Feed Use Program remains on hold until Thursday morning when the District
Judge in Seattle makes known his decision about the future of the program.
The two sides did come together with a compromise plan and submitted it to
the Judge on Tuesday before their twelve noon deadline. It seems the judge
will weigh the options between now and Thursday morning.
Here's the "Minute Order" that came from the Judge on Tuesday afternoon: "The parties are hereby ORDERED to appear before the Court at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 24, 2008. The Temporary Restraining Order previously issued (Dkt. No. 12) is hereby EXTENDED and SHALL REMAIN IN EFFECT until 10:00 a.m. that same morning." State FSA officials have been told little from USDA in Washington- for example here is what State Executive Jim Reese emailed his people across the state of Oklahoma late Tuesday. "The Court in Washington State postponed action on the Critical Feed Use of CRP until Thursday at 9:00 am Pacific Time. We have not been given any instructions. Our information comes from the Court docket which only shows the postponement. We will inform you further when we know more." | |
Oklahoma Hosting Regional Agroterrorism Meeting Today and Tomorrow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry will host agriculture and
emergency management officials from 13 states for a two-day Multi-State
Partnership for Security in Agriculture meeting Wednesday and Thursday.
State and national Homeland Security advisors will join the meeting at the
Oklahoma National Guard Regional Training Institute in Oklahoma City.
State Veterinarian, Dr. Becky Brewer, said the meeting will serve as an
orientation program for the partnership's response plans to protect
agriculture and natural resources in the event of disaster or terrorist
attack.
States making up the partnership include Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. We have more details on this meeting in the story you can find on our website- click on the link below for those details. Click here for more on the Multi State Security in Ag Meeting Underway in OKC. | |
Ag in the Classroom Continues on their Road Trip in Southwestern Oklahoma. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Ag in the
Classroom Program continues with their summertime road trip as they spent
the night in Lawton last night- and today- they have a full and exciting
day ahead of them. Jamey Allen with the Ag in the Classroom efforts that
are coordinated by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture emailed us some
of their plans for today:
"We hit the trail early with a look at sunflower biodiesel at the Doye place, close to the Hulen Methodist Church. The teachers will learn how to judge livestock, visit the Tri County Gin in Chatty, Cassidy Grain in Frederick, Van Der Laan Dairy in the Tipton area, Windmill Vineyard in Roosevelt and participate in a live auction hosted by Oklahoma Farm Bureau Women and auction items provided by Farm Bureau women statewide and commodity groups. After each stop, the teachers are familiarized with Ag in the Classroom lessons that connect their experiences with teaching resources. Some of the teacher favorites include: Fleece as White as Snow, Beef or Dairy, Chew It Twice, Wet and Wooly, Build a Better Burger, Genetics A List of Traits. More ag-adventures scheduled for Thursday." For more about Ag in the Classroom in Oklahoma- we have the link to learn more below. | |
Higher Costs Tighten Cow Calf Margins ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our headline
is no surprise to our Oklahoma cow calf operators- but Randy Blach of
Cattlefax says that the low cost operator of the last few years has likely
had enough cushion that he or she is still making some money as they raise
calves to send down the beef pipeline.
Blach does say that it is costing a lot more- $440 more per beef critter to raise and feed them to slaughter weights compared to 2005. Prices for most of our cattle- from calves to yearlings to fat cattle should move higher as we get closer to the end of the year and expected tighter supplies- especially of slaughter cattle. But Blach says the challenge then will be how well beef demand from consumers ravaged by high gas prices will hold up. Today's Beef Buzz is linked below- we remind you that you can hear the Beef Buzz on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network! | |
RFS Waiver Ruling Postponed by and EPA Overwhelmed with Public Response on Issue. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson says a final decision on
the Texas request for a waiver from the Renewable Fuels Standard will not
be completed by Thursday (July 24). He says too much work remains - and
additional time is needed to give staff the opportunity to adequately
respond to public comments and put a document together that explains the
technical, economic and legal rationale of the decision. According to a
statement issued Tuesday - the Administrator is confident he can make a
final determination on the waiver request in early August.
Texas Governor Rick Perry officially requested the RFS waiver in April. EPA then initiated a public comment period and received more than 15-thousand comments. According to Johnson - several of those comments raised substantive issues and included significant economic analysis. He says it's important to take the time to review and understand the comments in order to make an informed decision. Ethanol supporters, like Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, believe that the EPA will deny the request whenever they get around to a decision. However, Texas Governor Perry believes that things will (and should) go his way. In a statement, Perry (the former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture) said We still believe the solution to the unintended consequence of this federal RFS mandate is simple: a one-year, 50 percent waiver. The RFS waiver is an essential step toward decreasing the devastating statewide, national and international impact of skyrocketing feed and food costs." | |
DOHA Dealings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ U.S. Trade
Representative Susan Schwab expressed a strong U.S. commitment to the Doha
Round Monday. On Tuesday - she said the U.S. was providing a tangible sign
of that commitment with a forward-leaning offer- the offer to cut another
$2 billion from the previous US offer of a cap on US farm price supports
of $17 billion annually.
We have comments from both Susan Schwab as well as from Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau from Geneva- Stallman seems to be taking a "wait and see" approach on this latest offer- saying show us the market access and then we will decide if it's enough to make us happy. That audio overview on the activities in Geneva are found on our website- and we have that story linked below. Click here on the latest from the DOHA Discussions in Geneva. | |
Itunes Anybody??? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Three audio
products that we offer on our website are now available through Itunes. On
a regular basis, we have our Beef Buzz, our morning Farm and Ranch News
and our Ag Perspectives all updated for your Itunes service to grab.
For the Farm News and Ag Perspectives (which we will be updating several times weekly- based on what is going on in the world of agriculture), go to our website's front page and on the left hand side of the page- click on the "Listen to Ron" page. Scroll down on that page and you will see the listings of the shows that are currently available in both of these categories. You will also see an Itunes Icon that says beside it "Subscribe in Itunes." You will need to go through this process for each show you want to include on your Ipod. For the Beef Buzz, you do the same thing except instead of selecting "Listen to Ron" choose "Beef Buzz and follow the link found in the center column of that page to subscribe in Itunes. If you have problems with getting signed up- let me know and I will be glad to help walk you through the process. | |
Our thanks to Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures and American Farmers & Ranchersfor 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. | |
Looking at our Agricultural Markets... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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