From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 07:08
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 Thursday June 12, 2008!
A service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, KIS Futures & Johnston Enterprises!
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-- Harvest Resumes- Test Weights Fall.
-- South Korean Trade Minister Coming to Washington Friday Wanting New Deal on Beef!
-- Derrell Peel to Cow Calf Producers- Manage Costs to Survive!
-- Is It 3% or 30%??? (There is a difference)
-- Pork Producers Warn the Democrats- Pork Prices Have to Rise- and Likely Will.
-- Kris Black's Cream of the Crop Sale Set for Saturday!
-- Cash Wheat Markets Jump Back Above Eight Bucks- that and More Market Information!

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 website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We welcome as our newest 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 month- for more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And finally, we are glad 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!

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.


Harvest Resumes- Test Weights Fall.
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We got at least a partial restart to the 2008 Winter Wheat harvest in Oklahoma on Wednesday- although the counties that have the most wheat yet to harvest were largely on the sidelines again on Wednesday as they wait for the fields to firm up enough to support the weight of a combine as well as for the wheat to dry down to a moisture level that is acceptable to the elevators.

We got one report that we posted Wednesday midday from southeast of Enid of one producer that harvested a small amount of wheat on Tuesday afternoon- it was high in moisture but he was prepared to run some air through it and dry it down to a more acceptable level instead of watching it drop further in quality if more rains come here at the end of the week. As we write this on Thursday morning- there is a fifty to sixty percent chance of thunderstorms in those north central counties of Alfalfa, Garfield, Grant, Kay, Major and Noble that need dry weather to restart the combines.

Mark Hodges with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission tells us that there was some elevator activity in southwestern Oklahoma where the harvest is winding down- at least some harvest in spots- and that we also had combines rolling in the El Reno and Okarche areas. Shattuck also reported taking wheat on Wednesday afternoon- test weight have slipped to 58.5 to 60 pounds per bushel after the rains- but indications there at Shattuck and a few other places is that protein is now testing a little higher. We have Mark's audio report on our Wheat Harvest Webpage- along with several reports you gave us yesterday.
Continue to send us your reports- and pictures- of harvest as you work to get this 2008 crop into the bin!

Click here for the latest harvest information- remember we update it through the day- at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


South Korean Trade Minister Coming to Washington Friday Wanting New Deal on Beef!
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The AFP news service is reporting on its Internet site that South Korea is still hoping for a revised deal that would limit beef from animals over 30 months of age from entering their country. South Korea's trade minister said on Thursday (Korean time) he would visit the United States this week for more negotiations on a US beef import deal which has sparked massive street protests in Seoul. Kim Jong-Hoon told a press conference he would leave Friday and expected to meet US Trade Representative Susan Schwab the same day, to discuss additional safeguards against mad cow disease.

He said he planned "additional negotiations- to seek ways not to bring in cattle more than 30 months old, to dissipate public concerns amid massive protest rallies."
The South Korean government is seeking a voluntary agreement not to export older US cattle which are seen as carrying a greater risk of exposure to the disease. "My mission is to discuss how a voluntary agreement among private companies would be implemented practically and efficiently," Kim said. "In the process of doing so, I think the government should play a role in one way or another."

Here in this country- Deputy USDA Secretary Chuck Conner says that while USDA has no problem with "deals" between private companies on both sides- there will be no renegotiation of the deal struck with South Korea back in April that calls for full compliance with OIE standards regarding beef and BSE. Under those guidelines- the US is considered a "limited risk" country- and beef from our country is safe to be shipped into the international marketplace.

Here's a link to one of the latest stories on these expected meetings on Friday with Susan Schwab.


Derrell Peel to Cow Calf Producers- Manage Costs to Survive!
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We continue to talk with OSU Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel about the current cattle market- today from the calf market perspective. At many markets in recent weeks- it has been hard to get much of a test on younger calves- and the tight supplies are likely to continue- so says Dr. Peel.

He does think that calf prices won't be at record levels- but that they will remain strong for the much of the rest of 2008. He does see the big challenge for cow calf operators- and really everybody in agriculture right now- as being the high costs of the inputs to produce crops or livestock on our farms and ranches. Manage costs as best you can is his advice- which with sky high diesel, fertilizer and more is tough advice to be able to follow.

Our visit today with Dr. Peel is a part of our regular radio feature- the Beef Buzz- which is heard on great radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network. We have our Beef Buzz shows- many of them from the last couple of years- archived on our website- and we have today's Beef Buzz on that archive page. We have the link to our Beef Buzz page- and we invite you to click there- scroll down to the bottom of the page to today's date and take a listen to today's visit with Derrell Peel. While you are there- you can listen to Derrell's comments from Tuesday and Wednesday as well about where we stand with the slaughter cattle and yearling markets.

Click here for our Beef Buzz page on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Is It 3% or 30%??? (There is a difference)
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The supporters of a new coalition that is calling itself the "food before Fuel Partnership" claims that biofuels are the major culprit for higher food prices- and the number they like to cite is that biofuels is causing thirty percent of the global food price increase. However, defenders of bio-fuels scoff at that number citing studies that show that ethanol, biodiesel and the like have only had a three percent impact on food price increases. Somebody has defiinitely got problems with their facts and figures.

More than 20 organizations ranging from retail to environmental groups and restaurants to livestock associations have formed the Food Before Fuel Campaign, an effort to change U.S. policy on biofuels. The group claims that biofuels are the major culprit behind higher food prices. According to the Campaign's statement of principles, the members will encourage policymakers to revisit and restructure policies that have increased our reliance on food as an energy source, and to carefully address how to develop alternative fuels that do not pit our energy needs against affordable food and environmental sustainability.

Several groups have voiced opposition to the coalition, saying that many of there claims are false. "With oil prices up more than 100% in the last 12 months, it is wrongheaded for groups to attack biofuels which represent one of the few components of US energy policy that is actually working," says National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe. "Biofuels are currently contributing over 8 billion gallons of fuel to our fuel supply, without which fuel prices, and consequently food prices, would be even higher than they already are."

Click here and we will jump you to the brand new "Food Before Fuel" website.


Pork Producers Warn the Democrats- Pork Prices Have to Rise- and Likely Will.
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Retail prices of pork will rise and some pork producers will go out of business because of current crop conditions and subsequent feed availability issues, the National Pork Producers Council today warned the U.S. Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee during a meeting on rising food prices. NPPC CEO Neil Dierks joined representatives of crop commodity organizations, hunger and food groups, labor unions, religious groups and renewable fuels organizations in a discussion with several Senate Democrats on the global and domestic impact of rising food prices, the factors contributing to the trend and possible solutions to the problem.

"Food price inflation for pork will be a reality," said Dierks, the only representative from the livestock industry to attend the meeting, which was presided over by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Projections are that just to allow producers to break even pork retail prices will need to increase by at least 17 percent next year because of the recent rise in feed costs, which account for 70 percent of the cost of raising a hog. Corn prices have increased by 124 percent and soybean prices by 94 percent since September. From October through April, pork producers lost an average of $30 on each hog marketed, and many producers since have been forced to quit the business.

The two-year run-up in crop prices - corn was about $2.60 a bushel in July 2006 compared with around $6.70 a bushel for July 2008 delivery - is due several factors, including the new increased demand from corn-based ethanol plants. Additional pressures on prices and availability now are being felt because of weather conditions in much of the Corn Belt. USDA earlier this week revised down by 390 million bushels its forecast for the 2008 corn crop.
One solution to the need for more corn Dierks offered the committee: release of non-environmentally sensitive acres from the Conservation Reserve Program to crop production. NPPC previously has asked USDA to consider such a proposal. NPPC also previously has urged lawmakers to strike a balance between food, fuel and feed needs when considering energy policies, including the recently approved mandate that by 2010 15 billion gallons of renewable fuel come from corn-based ethanol. Additionally, NPPC has policy that calls for the expiration of the ethanol blender's tax credit and the tariff on imported ethanol.


Kris Black's Cream of the Crop Sale Set for Saturday!
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The Seventh Annual Kris Black's Cream of the Crop Annual Female and Bull Sale is set for this Saturday June 14 at twelve noon at the ranch in Crawford, Oklahoma. Kris writes in their sale catalog that you can see online at the link provided below that this is the "stoutest and deepest set of club calf producing females and bulls that we have offered to date."

This annual Cream of the Crop sale is the largest annual club calf producing female sale in the country. Kris and his family will be featuring nearly 500 club calf producing and commercial females. All are fall bred and A.I. Serviced. Also 35 herd bull prospects will sell. A Free Bar B Q lunch will be served.

For more information, you can contact Collins Cattle Services at 1-800-975-6313- or go to the link we have provided below.

Click here for more details on the Kris Black Cream of the Crop Female Sale on Saturday June 14.


Our thanks to Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures 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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Cash Wheat Markets Jump Back Above Eight Bucks- that and More Market Information!
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Our cash wheat prices in Oklahoma at local elevators have all jumped back higher than eight dollars- driven by a limit up day on the July Kansas City Wheat Futures Contract. Corn futures were surging yesterday on fears of the corn crop facing major damage in the midwest with the floods and soggy conditions setting the 2008 corn crop further and further behind. One trader said that it will be almost impossible for wheat to retreat as long as corn is moving higher.
In the overnight electronic trade- KC Wheat futures retreated a bit- off 13 cents as we emailed this report to you- but still most of the 60 cent rise of yesterday is intact as we get ready for the open outcry session on Thursday.

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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