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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday April 22, 2008!
A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers &
Ranchers and Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Back to the Farm Bill Negotiations- And Perhaps Some Votes!
-- A Majority of the Oklahoma Wheat Crop is in Good to Excellent
Condition!
-- A Little "SAFE" CRP Being Offered in Northwest Oklahoma.
-- The American Meat Institute Looking for Consumers to Check Out
Their YouTube Channel!
-- Beef Buzzing the Details of the Korean Beef Trade Agreement!
-- Lila Watkins of Claremore Saluted by National Farmers Union.
-- Thanks to Don Scheiber-
-- Lower Wheat-But Higher Cattle Prices in Oklahoma City!
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 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 are also 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! 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. | |
Back to the Farm Bill Negotiations- And Perhaps Some Votes! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Senate farm
bill conferees presented another farm bill proposal to House conferees
Friday. Harkin described the offer as the 10-billion dollar package that's
basically been agreed to by both sides - and a 2.4- billion dollar tax
package offset by farm tax reforms. Senator Chuck Grassley, the Ranking
Member of the Senate Finance Committee, backs the latest Senate plan. The
Iowa Senator says the Senate put together a good-faith compromise that was
chock full of incentives for conservation, renewable energy and reform.
He's hopeful the House negotiators will finally take a look at the actual
policy instead of throwing it down the drain without seeing the good
things in the package. But the House attacked the tax plan Friday - saying
it was more like a 10-billion dollar package than a 2.4-billion dollar
package.
The Senate's proposal will likely come up again during the next conference meeting - now apparently set for this afternoon at 3:30 PM on the House side- while there is no meeting notice on the Senate Ag Committee website- there is one on the House site that provides the room in the Cannon office building and the time. Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa warned the Conferees that if there was not a "deal" done among all concerned- including the Ag Committees, Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committee, he will start calling for votes- and see what can pass muster in public votes by those on the Conference Committee. It's not certain that when you start getting into tax credits and the like who exactly Harkin would allow to vote- only full Conferees or the numerous other players who have been named as partial conferees. It remains very much a nebulous process- at best. | |
A Majority of the Oklahoma Wheat Crop is in Good to Excellent Condition! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The latest
Crop Weather update is out- and it now shows that 55% of the Oklahoma
wheat crop is either in good or excellent condition- 46 of the 55 points
are the good condition rating points. We continue to see the crop lag
behind the five year average development with only 11% now at the heading
stage of development- compared to 39% by this point a year ago and 37% for
the five year average.
Regarding our row crops- the weekly update says "Fieldwork was halted in many counties throughout the Southeast and Central districts due to large amounts of rainfall. Seedbed preparation for most of the State's row crops was running behind normal. Corn seedbed prepared increased six percentage points from the previous week to 85 percent, 10 points behind last year, and six points behind normal. Corn planted was at 36 percent, up seven points from the previous week, but eight points behind the five-year average. Fifteen percent of the corn had emerged by week's end, 11 points behind normal. Sorghum seedbed prepared was up 15 points to 42 percent. Soybeans seedbed prepared was at 43 percent, 12 points behind the five-year average. Seedbed preparation for peanuts was at 59 percent, four points behind normal. Cotton seedbed prepared was up 10 points from the previous week to 79 percent, 17 points ahead of last year, and five points ahead of normal." The weekly Update tells us that when it comes to our Pasture and Range
Conditions "Pasture and range conditions were mostly in the good to fair
range. Pasture and grassland were improving with summerlike conditions in
areas." | |
A Little "SAFE" CRP Being Offered in Northwest Oklahoma. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While the
Conservation Security Program signup is now underway for the Upper Washita
Watershed- there's a special Conservation Reserve Program signup that will
start in a few northwest Oklahoma counties the first of May. Jim Reese,
State Executive Director of the Oklahoma Farm Service Agency, has
announced a May 1, 2008 signup for a special State Acre for Wildlife
Enhancement (SAFE) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for specific
watersheds in northwestern Oklahoma. The SAFE program targets the
restoration of mixed grass prairies to benefit the Northern Bobwhite
Quail, Cassin's Sparrow, and Lesser Prairie Chicken populations.
Oklahoma has been allocated 15,100 acres for SAFE enrollment. The SAFE was developed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Fish and Wildlife Services. Producers with land located in the Mocassion Creek, Persimmon Creek, Traders Creek, Huston Creek, Anderson-Redhorse Creek, Upper Salt Fork, and Lower Wolf Creek watersheds of Dewey, Ellis, Harper, Woods, and Woodward Counties may be eligible to enroll cropland in this program. Eligible land for SAFE must be cropland that was planted or considered planted in four out of the six years 1996 through 2001 and is currently being actively cropped. Producer incentives include $100 per acre signing payment paid when the SAFE contract is approved, up to 50 percent cost share for establishment of the vegetative cover, a practice incentive payment representing 40 percent of the total eligible cost of installing the vegetative cover, $2 per acre maintenance payment, and an annual CRP SAFE rental payment. Managed grazing may be conducted on the SAFE acres. Contracts are for a 14 to 15 year period. Producers, in the designated counties, may receive additional information and eligibility requirements from their local Farm Service Agency County Office. | |
The American Meat Institute Looking for Consumers to Check Out Their YouTube Channel! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The American
Meat Institute has released additional information on the launch of the
YouTube channel, "Meat News Network". AMI President and CEO J. Patrick
Boyle mentioned the program during testimony last week in Washington.
Boyle says - the Meat News Network will convey consumer-focused
information about the meat industry in an accurate, visual way.
First up on the channel is a three-part video on animal welfare. It features Dr. Temple Grandin and other members of the AMI Animal Welfare Committee. The channel also includes videos on food packaging, food safety, the World Cancer Research Fund Report, meat nutrition and environmental concerns. AMI plans to continue expansion of the Meat News Network on YouTube to provide consumers and the media with the most credible information about these and other issues of importance to the meat and poultry industry. Here is the link to Part One of the Three Part series on Humane Handling in the Meat Industry. | |
Beef Buzzing the Details of the Korean Beef Trade Agreement! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The standard
cliche is that the devil is in the details- but according to the Chief
Economist of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Gregg Doud, the
details look pretty good in the deal negotiated by the US and South Korea
that will allow US beef to start to reenter the South Korean market around
the middle of May.
Doud says that the reopening will be in two stages- the first stage is beef from any animal under thirty months of age- bone in or boneless product. After an expected "tweak" in our US Feed rules, the second stage will see beef from older animals allowed into Korea as well. You can hear Gregg's thoughts on some of these details of the US-Korean Beef Trade Deal on our Tuesday Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network. The program is heard on great radio stations around the state- as well as archived on our website on the Beef Buzz page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We also have the direct link for today's show linked below. Click here for Ron and Gregg Doud on the Details of Sending Beef to Korea on Today's Beef Buzz! | |
Lila Watkins of Claremore Saluted by National Farmers Union. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In their
weekly newsletter update, the National Farmers Union has saluted a
lifetime member of the Oklahoma Farmers Union, Lila Watkins of Claremore.
Lila has made friends over the years from across the country as the nurse
for the All-States Leadership Camp run by the NFU.
From their NFU blog- "To watch and follow the development of our young people throughout the country has been a great joy for me," Lila said. "I am so grateful to be part of this organization and to be able to help our youth learn about Farmers Union." We have linked from the NFU blog the full article on this lovely lady who has given of herself for decades- both to the NFU as well as to groups back here in Oklahoma. Check it out below. Click here for more on the spotlight article from NFU on Lila Watkins of Claremore. | |
Thanks to Don Scheiber- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last night was
a late night for this early riser, as we traveled to Kildare, Oklahoma and
the farm home of Don & Cecilia Scheiber. Don is a current member of
the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and will officially step into the officer
chain of US Wheat Associates this summer.
Don is also an Alum of Class One of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program- in fact we were roommates as Class One traveled through China, Taiwan and Japan in the early 1980s. Don asked several folks in his area around Kay and Grant Counties to come out last night and enjoy a meal, some fellowship and learn a little more about applying for Class 14 of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program. A similar session was held over this past weekend in Major County as well. While most of you were not at the Scheibers last night, you can consider being a part of Class 14 of the OALP. Or, you may know someone who could use the Leadership Development opportunities that the Ag Leadership Program brings. I would invite you to check out the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program website which we have linked for you below and learn a little more about the program and the opportunities that are ahead in Class 14. Deadline for getting application materials in is May 16- it's time to get started now to build your application to be a part of the OALP. Click here to jump to the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Website. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahomafor 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. | |
Lower Wheat-But Higher Cattle Prices in Oklahoma City! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We took
another twenty five cents off wheat prices on Monday, with corn and
soybean futures also getting beat up along the way. Overnight electronic
trading shows some rebound on soybeans, a lesser amount for the corn
contracts and flat with yesterday on the wheat losses.It was a very good day at the Oklahoma National Stockyards- as yearling prices were a couple of dollars higher- calf prices steady and demand for the right kind of cattle seemingly very good. We have the link for the close of yesterday's Oklahoma City market for you by clicking here. 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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