From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 23:32
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 Wednesday May 21, 2008!
A service of KIS Futures, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma and American Farmers & Ranchers.
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-- Farm Bill- the Final Hurdle May Come Today!
-- Don't Blame Ethanol!!! (per USDA)
-- The Panhandle View from Rick Kochenower- there will be some dryland wheat in the Panhandle!
-- Beef Buzzing with Gregg Doud- Talking Ethanol
-- Beef Checkoff Funding Continues to Shrink!
-- This Little Piggy Won't Have More Little Piggies- Birth Control for WIld Hogs!?!
-- Holy SpellCheck Batman!!!!
-- Checking the Markets...

Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We say thanks to Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for being 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 NEW AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!
We are also 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 "new look" website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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.


Farm Bill- the Final Hurdle May Come Today!
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We understand that the 2008 Farm Bill passed by both the House and Senate by veto proof margins has been transmitted to the White House- as of late yesterday. We could see a veto from President Bush before the day is out- and it is not inconceivable that the House could have a veto override vote late today.

We do understand it will be the House that will go after a veto override first, as this body could slip under the two thirds majority vote most easily- although with the margin in the House of 318 to 106- there is virtually no one that gives the White House a chance in the world of making a veto stick in either body.

If these events do unfold in this manner- the long and difficult road to get a farm bill will finally be at an end.
One of the most ironic things I heard at the end of this past week was the fact that the former Secretary of Agriculture that began the USDA/White House crusade to get major reform, Mike Johanns, expressed his support of the farm bill that passed the Senate by a wide margin- Mr. Johanns is hoping to be the next Senator from the state of Nebraska- and he definitely had a change of heart on farm policy between the time he resigned from USDA to now- when he sees farm policy from a much different perspective.

We will update our webpage on the 2007 Farm Bill as needed today- check back later in the day here for the latest.


Don't Blame Ethanol!!! (per USDA)
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Our Beef Buzz that we have a link to elsewhere in this daily email offers an indictment of ethanol when it comes to being a cause of high feed grain costs to the nation's cattle producers- but it appears that the USDA contends that any increase in grain prices because of ethanol is rather incidental.

The Ethanol industry is, understandably, very happy about that word from the Bush Administration. Toni Nuernberg, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, offers this statement after the word of encouragement regarding ethanol that came this week from USDA; "The total global increase in corn-based ethanol production accounts for only about three percent of the recent increase in global food prices. After the hype, hysteria and spin of the ongoing "food and fuel" debate, these facts from the Council of Economic Advisors provide further proof the ethanol industry has been made a scapegoat for global issues beyond our control.

"For many ethanol critics, it is easy to look past the primary factor that is causing a ripple effect throughout the global economy - namely exorbitant oil prices which have increased from $35 in 2005 to more than $125 today - nearly 300 percent. The growing outcry to relax renewable fuels requirements is ill-advised. Changing U.S. energy policy will not provide short-term relief on the food supply and decrease food prices as many expect. In fact, relaxing the renewable fuels mandate actually may escalate food prices now and in the future by driving fuel prices even higher."
Toni adds that "Corn-based ethanol is not a silver bullet, yet it is the pioneer of the renewable fuels industry. By contributing to research funding, it is opening the door for future advancements such as cellulosic ethanol made from non-food biomass such as switch grass and wood waste. It has created a production and delivery infrastructure, and it is used and accepted by millions of consumers, making the transition nearly seamless."


The Panhandle View from Rick Kochenower- there will be some dryland wheat in the Panhandle!
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There will be a dryland wheat crop in one of the three Oklahoma Panhandle counties- as Beaver may actually have some wheat that could push 40 bushels per acre. However, Rick Kochenower- OSU District Agronomist based in Guymon says you can forget about most of the dryland wheat fields in Texas and Cimmaron Counties.

There could be some of the failed wheat fields being plowed up at some point and replanted into grain sorghum. There are also a lot of corn acres that are now in the ground and looking pretty good- those are mostly irrigated acres.

You can hear all of our conversation with Rick by going to the link below and clicking on it.

Click here to listen to Ron and Rick on Panhandle crop conditions.


Beef Buzzing with Gregg Doud- Talking Ethanol
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The Chief Economist of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Gregg Doud, firmly believes that one of the reasons for high feed grain prices is the "ethanol first" government policy that has been put in place with the Renewable Fuel Standards that mandate ethanol will have a guaranteed place in the nation's fuel supply.

Doud talks about the concerns he has with this continuing policy of the Federal government on our Wednesday Beef Buzz- heard daily on great radio stations around the state. We also have many of our Beef Buzz shows archived on our website- and we have today's Beef Buzz available for you by clicking on the link below.

Click here to listen to Ron and Gregg Beef Buzzing for a Wednesday!


Beef Checkoff Funding Continues to Shrink!
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The Beef Promotion Operating Committee has recommended a $45.8 million Cattlemen's Beef Board budget for Fiscal 2009, reflecting a sharp 6.6 percent decrease from the $49 million budget for Fiscal 2008.

The 2009 budget for the Beef Board, which administers the national checkoff program, still must be approved by the full Beef Board and USDA, includes the following budget components:
Promotion ($19.97 million)
Research ($7 million) Consumer Information ($5.4 million)
Industry Information ($2.6 million)
Foreign Marketing ($5.8 million)
Producer Communications ($2.16 million)
Evaluation ($335,000)
Program Development ($125,000)
USDA oversight ($255,000)
Administration ($2 million)

"We faced some very difficult decisions last week as we tried to decide what areas to make cuts in," said Cattlemen's Beef Board Chairman Dave Bateman, a producer from Illinois. "This came on the heels of even steeper cuts last year, and costs keep increasing so it's getting extremely challenging to find more places to cut back without eliminating the checkoff's effectiveness in any particular area." The biggest cuts came in the areas of promotion (down 12.4 percent from 2008) and consumer information (down 13.3 percent), while producer leaders did recommend increasing checkoff investments in foreign marketing by 11.2 percent as overseas opportunities expand

Before making their recommendation on May 15, members of the Operating Committee - which includes 10 members of the Cattlemen's Beef Board and 10 directors from the Federation of State Beef Councils - spent several days with state beef council executives and leaders of the checkoff's joint checkoff committees, as those groups developed strategies for investing the limited checkoff dollars in the most efficient manner possible in Fiscal 2009. Members of the Joint Budget Committee and the Beef Board Executive Committee also weighed in on the week's discussions and recommendations. At the core of sometimes-emotional debates during the planning sessions was funding for consumer advertising, which has become increasingly difficult in recent years because of growing costs for all media advertising, at the same time that checkoff collections have decreased. "We struggled to figure out how to maintain a strong enough promotion budget to support a viable print and radio advertising campaign without cutting other important programs beyond recognition," said Beef Board Secretary/Treasurer Dan Dierschke, a producer from Texas. "While consumer advertising is definitely the most visible area of checkoff investments, we also understand that areas such as research and foreign marketing are extremely important if we are to stay ahead of disease and pathogen challenges and tap international markets, where the majority of our growth potential lies."


This Little Piggy Won't Have More Little Piggies- Birth Control for WIld Hogs!?!
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Texas A&M University may have a solution to the problem of wild hogs in Texas and other locals. Researchers think an oral contraceptive they are developing could help control the population explosion of wild hogs in states like Texas where the estimated population is now topping 2 million head. The Texas AgriLife Extension Service estimated that hogs cause 50 million dollars in damage each year in that state.
Of course, their neighbor to the north- that would be us here in Oklahoma- also have a tremendous problem with feral hogs and I suspect that we will have a lot of interest in how the Aggies develop this contraceptive.

.The contraceptive called a phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitor and in development for about a year and a half, is now in a capsule form and has been fed to captive pigs at the university's research facility. It prevents the females' eggs from maturing thus controlling birth rates. Duane Kraemer, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology says it does appear to be effective. He says - the animals continue to cycle and breed. Their behaviors are the same, except they don't get pregnant.

Still, Kraemer cautions, - the development of an oral contraceptive for an animal that people eat and is to be released into the environment is a complex issue, no question about it. It could be three to five years before the birth-control pill for pigs is readily available. The next step in the research is to test the contraceptive outside the lab.

Here's a story on the Feral Hog Control Concepts Being Tested by TAMU


Holy SpellCheck Batman!!!!
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Thanks to all those who pointed out- very correctly- that we murdered the spelling of several of the counties in the list of eight counties that make up District Three for the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. I suspect that I allowed my fingers to drift over to the change button from the Ignore button when I ran spellcheck- and while those four words were all spelled correctly- they simply were the WRONG correctly spelled words!

Of course, if I could hit four for eight everyday and worked in the Major Leagues, I'd be the winner of the batting crown every year- but enough of that. The correct list- we hope- (going east to west) includes Kingfisher, Canadian, Blaine, Dewey, Custer, Washita, Roger Mills and Beckham counties.

Wheat producers from those eight counties are invited to join the Wheat Commission at 2 PM this afternoon for their election/nomination of three wheat producers whose names will then be submitted to Governor Brad Henry for his final choice of a wheat commissioner for District Three for a full term that will begin July first.


Our thanks to American Farmers & Ranchers, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma and KIS Futures 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


Checking the Markets...
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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. Previous Day's Energy Market Recap- also from Country Hedging
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.



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