~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday September 16,
2008! A
service of American Farmers & Ranchers, Johnston Enterprises and KIS
Futures!
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-- The Texas Coastline Cattle Roundup- Racing Against Time
-- The Rains of Last Week Keep Farmers on the Sidelines
-- Nationally- Corn and Soybeans Lag Badly as we Hit Mid
September
-- Caviness Beef Packers to Consolidate in Hereford
-- Oklahoma Wheat Producer Curtis Vap Selected for Wheat Industry
Leadership Training
-- The Incredible Shrinking Brain- Courtesy of a Vegan
Lifestyle!
-- A Tip of the Hat to the Coyote!
-- 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- Click 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. 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. | |
The Texas Coastline Cattle Roundup- Racing Against Time ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thousands of
head of cattle in Texas were lost due to Hurricane Ike and thousands more
are running loose in search of feed and water. Texas AgriLife Extension
Service and a number of state of Texas agencies and associations have
joined to create a resource staging area, feed collection and
transportation network to address the immediate needs of cattle and horses
victimized by Hurricane Ike.
"As we understand it, Chambers and Jefferson counties have about 20,000 head of cattle and some horses that are still in the flood surge zone and haven't had anything to eat or drink since that storm surge hit on Friday," says Dr. Ed Smith, director of Texas AgriLife Extension Service. "Those animals have got to get some water and dry hay fairly quickly and nearly all the fences are down. It's important we act quickly." Chambers and Jefferson Counties are the counties on the coast of Texas from the Louisiana state line over to Galveston Bay. We have more on this story on our website- including an audio update of the situation and a link for people to go and donate money to help in the rescue efforts. There is also a toll free number where ranchers can call and offer hay as a donation through the Texas Department of Agriculture. The link to that story is below. Click here for more on the mess left by Ike in cattle country. | |
The Rains of Last Week Keep Farmers on the Sidelines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ According to
the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update, "Oklahoma received its second
straight week of heavy rainfall. Eight of the nine districts received over
an inch of rain last week. The major wheat producing North Central
district received slightly above 4.75 inches of rain which delayed small
grain seedbed preparation and planting. Row crop conditions remained in
the mostly good to fair range despite the heavy moisture and reported
insect activity. Hurricane Ike did not cause as much damage as originally
predicted but still caused flooding in southeast Oklahoma."
"Small grain seedbed preparation and planting almost came to a complete halt last week due to the heavy rain and saturated fields. Winter wheat seedbed preparation increased one percentage point from the previous week to reach 71 percent complete. Eleven percent of wheat had been planted by week's end." For our row crops- "Rains delayed row crop harvest in some areas for
the second week but conditions still were rated mostly good to fair with
double-cropped corn and soybeans expected to benefit from the recent
rains. About half of the State's crops were reporting light insect
activity with some isolated areas reporting moderate to heavy
activity." | |
Nationally- Corn and Soybeans Lag Badly as we Hit Mid September ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The
development of the 2008 corn crop continues to lag far behind the five
year average pace. The most telling numbers lie in the percent of the corn
crop now being called mature. By this date, the five year average says we
have historically have been at 44% mature- in 2007, we were at 58% mature-
but this year we stand at just 11% mature. States across the corn belt
that really stick out include Iowa with 11% mature versus the five year
average of 45%, Illinois at 16% mature versus the five year average of 58%
and Missouri at 30% mature versus the five year average of 82% mature by
this date.
The maturity figure for the soybean crop is based on the percent of the crop now at the stage of dropping leaves. The five year average is 41%- we were at 48% last year but have just 21% of the crop dropping leaves as of Sunday. Illinois lags badly with 7% of the crop now dropping leaves versus the five year average of 39%, Iowa at 16% versus the five year average of 44% and North Dakota checking in at 30% versus the five year average of 52%. The first numbers of the year that have been offered for the percent of
the winter wheat crop planted are out- and they show that nationally we
have 11% of the expected crop planted this year- versus a five year
average of 16%. Oklahoma has 11% now planted- the first figure we have
seen this season- normally by this point we would have 17% in the ground.
That could be a signal that fewer farmers are very interested in planting
wheat primarily for wheat pasture. beyond our state- we have Texas at 8%
planted- the five year average is 20% and Kansas comes in at 5%- the five
year average is 9%. Click here for the September 15 Crop Progress Numbers from NASS | |
Caviness Beef Packers to Consolidate in Hereford ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most of the
fabricating of carcasses for Caviness Beef Packers will be consolidated at
their expanded facility in Hereford, Texas- about 60 miles down the road
from their fabricating plant in Amarillo. About 200 employees are moving
to the Hereford location from Amarillo, where the processing has been done
and where the company continues to produce ground beef under the Palo Duro
name.
The expansion, which adds 60,000 square feet of processing floor to the existing 80,000 square feet in Hereford, is intended to resolve a bottleneck in the company's operations, Caviness said. It also will allow the company to save on transportation costs of carcasses between the Hereford and Amarillo locations. Caviness is a major buyer and processor of cull cows and bulls in the southern plains. Their website says "Our products are marketed extensively to food service, retail and further processing customers. We also market a large portion of our ground beef to the USDA, AMS, Federal School Lunch Program." | |
Oklahoma Wheat Producer Curtis Vap Selected for Wheat Industry Leadership Training ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eleven growers
and grower representatives have been selected to attend the 2008 Wheat
Industry Leaders of Tomorrow (WILOT) leadership training program in
October. The 2008 class will include:
Kody Bessent, Texas Wheat, Amarillo, Texas; WILOT, which is sponsored by Monsanto, is targeted at producers who are
interested in becoming more involved - or involved for the first time - in
their state wheat grower associations. Program curriculum focuses on
personal leadership styles; dealing effectively with the media;
agricultural policy; advocacy; technology issues in wheat; and the NAWG
structure. Friendships made between growers during program training are
another important element of WILOT. | |
The Incredible Shrinking Brain- Courtesy of a Vegan Lifestyle! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was
reported last week that scientists at Oxford University in England have
discovered that a meat-free diet may be bad for your brain. Researchers
found that people who adopt a vegan or vegetarian diet are six times more
likely to sustain brain shrinkage than meat eaters due to the former's
lack of Vitamin B-12, which is found in meat, fish and dairy products
including cheese.
"Many factors that affect brain health are thought to be out of our control, but this study suggests that simply adjusting our diets to get more vitamin B12 through eating meat, fish, fortified cereals, or milk may be something we can easily adjust to prevent brain shrinkage and so perhaps save our memory," says study author Anna Vogiatzoglou, MSc, with the University of Oxford. In looking through some of the Google results as we researched this story- it was amusing to see one blogger making the comment that this study explains the intelligence of PETA very nicely. I guess you could say "A little red meat does a body- and a brain- good." | |
A Tip of the Hat to the Coyote! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are pleased
to spotlight one of our great affiliates that we partner with on the Radio
Oklahoma Ag Network- KWEY in Clinton and Weatherford. They call themselves
the Coyote- and Harold Wright and the gang at KWEY do a great job serving
western Oklahoma on both sides of I-40 from Hinton out to the state line.
KWEY's country music, local news and farm and ranch news and markets with
Ron Hays and Ed Richards can be found at 1590 on the AM dial and 95.5 on
the FM dial.
KWEY offers our RON ag updates throughout the day- Their sister station, KCLI- AM at 1320 on the AM dial also carries
several of our RON ag reports daily. | |
Our thanks to Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures and American Farmers & Ranchers 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. | |
Looking at our Agricultural Markets... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The commentary
was most interesting coming out of the Monday close for the Oklahoma
National Stockyards- the market reporter commenting on the attitude's of
the day- "Feeder cattle and calves 1.00-3.00 lower, instances 4.00-5.00
lower on planer, fleshy or stressed offerings. Demand moderate at best
with some buying interests out of the market. Many cattle buyers with a
wait and see attitude. Uncertainty in the financial, grain and futures
markets adding to the pressure on cattle prices. Lighter runs showing up
now as many of the summer yearlings get cleaned up and the fall calf
season not yet in full swing. Heavy rain in Western and Eastern areas of
the state has also slowed cattle movement some. Sale barns and commission
companies continue to make plans to request documentation from owners on
the origin of cattle arriving at the markets." A total of 6500 cattle were
consigned for yesterday's auction- click
here for the full Oklahoma City report.
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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