|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday March 24, 2009
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Grand Champion Steer at the Oklahoma Youth Expo Sells for Record-
"Boy, Can You Grin?"
-- The other "Grand" sales were also good
-- Latest Crop Weather Update Shows Very Dry Conditions As We Hope
for Significant Rain
-- How Are We Doing in Moving Beef During the Recession?
-- God Wet his Finger and Drug it Across Oklahoma This Morning
-- A Spring Challenge from the Makers of IVOMEC
-- Oklahoma Senate Ag Committee Passes Four Measures
-- Let's Check 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 are proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555. We are also excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email
Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through
producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more
information on the oilseed crops they handle, including sunflowers and
canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and
sunflowers on the PCOM
website- go there 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. | |
Grand Champion Steer at the Oklahoma Youth Expo Sells for Record- "Boy, Can You Grin?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Auctioneer
Eddie Sims made the call (and you can watch it on our website) as he sold
the Grand Champion Steer as the lead animal to be sold in the Sale of
Champions at the 2009 Oklahoma Youth Expo. The Exhibitor, Ty Stierwalt of
Leedey FFA, led Dan the Steer around the ring as the bid was started by
Bob Funk of Express Ranches at $20,000- and Sims worked it to $50,000
without hardly taking a breath.
He urged the crowd to cheer the bidders and then when he got the bid for $53,000- he asked Ty the question in the headline above, "Can you grin?" and Ty responded with a very large smile. The $53,000 was a thousand dollars more than what the 2008 steer sold for at the Oklahoma Youth Expo- and shows the organizational skill of the OYE staff and volunteers versus other shows that have seen their support pull back in a major way with the current economic downturn. Earlier this year, we reported to you about several Oklahoma youth in the Champion sale at the National Western in Denver- and top animals there were seeing a fifty percent or more pullback in prices being paid versus last year. That fall off was not seen at the top of the OYE sale, with the Grand Champion pulling down this record bid. The winning buyers were a combine, as they were a year ago- and included in 2009 Express Ranches, Bank of Western Oklahoma, Robyn Printing, McAfee & Taft, Jarold and Jennifer Callahan, the Diamond Hats, Teners and the Choctaw Nation. | |
The other "Grand" sales were also good ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While the
Grand Champion Steer sold for a record, the Grand Champion animals in the
other species sold for slightly less than a year ago- but still saw solid
demand when it came to the support of the owners of these top animals. The
Grand Champion Market Hog was shown by Collin Listen of the El Reno FFA,
and his barrow was sold for $20,000 to a trio of buyers, the Oklahoma Farm
Bureau, Blue and Gold Sausage and the Choctaw Nation. We have a video of
that transaction as well- click
here to go to our website to see it.
The Grand Champion Lamb brought $22,000 here in 2009, selling to Touchstone Electric Cooperatives of Oklahoma and was shown by Charlcey Vinyard of Altus FFA. Click here for more details on the two top lambs- and a video look at that part of the Grand Champion sale. Another combine of buyers stepped in and bought the Grand Champion Meat Goat- shown by Mercedes Hardin of Hennessey FFA - and selling for $8,000 to Farm Credit Services, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, The Meat Goat Association, a group of members of the State House of Representatives, Farm Credit of Western Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Youth Expo. The word late last night from the OYE staff is that the 195 animals
were sold for approximately $710,000- that number may rise some with add
ons and the like over the next couple of days- but that does come in less
than a year ago- but still is a very strong number given the fragile state
of the economy. | |
Latest Crop Weather Update Shows Very Dry Conditions As We Hope for Significant Rain ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are writing
this as very heavy rain has fallen in some areas of the state- we will
have a link on that down lower in this email- but the latest Oklahoma Crop
Weather Update shows that we started this week very dry- top soil moisture
is at 85% short to very short- an increase in this dryness indicator by a
couple of percentage points from a week ago.
The report says that small grains showed signs of stress, due to lack of moisture and strong winds. Crop insect activities continued to range from light to no activity. Winter wheat jointing was at 45 percent, 10 points ahead of last year, and 2 points ahead of the five-year average. For our spring planted crops, seedbed preparations for most row crops were still running well ahead of normal. Just over two-thirds of corn seedbeds were prepared, 23 points ahead of the five-year average. Sorghum seedbed preparations increased slightly from last week to reach 21 percent, three points ahead of normal. Twenty-two percent of soybean seedbed preparation was complete by week's end, two points behind the five-year average. Peanuts and cotton seedbed preparation both increased from last week and were 20 and 22 points ahead of normal, respectively. Click here for the full Oklahoma Crop Weather Update for this week- as issued on Monday afternoon | |
How Are We Doing in Moving Beef During the Recession? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The weekly
newsletter from the Texas Cattle Feeders had an interesting piece on how
beef demand is doing and we wanted to share it with you this morning. The
TCFA newsletter says "Based on a batch of recent trade publication and
mainstream media articles, it appears that consumers are shopping more
carefully, getting some real good bargains, and, thankfully, staying loyal
to beef. Meanwhile, the industry is doing its utmost to make sure
consumers continue buying beef even if it is at a discount for the time
being. "At the Annual Meat Conference - a gathering of industry experts in Denver - data was released that showed beef sales volume climbed 3.9% from October through January when compared with the same period a year ago. Meatingplace.com reported that Conference attendees also learned that just as consumers have shifted from foodservice to retail in recent months, when they go to the grocery store they are increasingly choosing fresh meat over the more expensive heat-and-serve entrees. "As for the bargains available, CattleFax says the wholesale prices for some Choice rib cuts and strip loin subprimals in February were at their lowest levels since 2002, Nation's Restaurant News reported. And NCBA Chief Economist Gregg Doud told Reuters the industry is stepping up efforts to sell steaks through supermarkets. "You are seeing a lot of features for rib- eyes and T-bones at below $5 a pound," said Doud. "With the nation's economic decline providing a call to action, the
Beef Checkoff implemented an aggressive market response plan in November
to reach foodservice, retail partners and consumers and keep middle meats
moving. Included in the effort is communicating to retailers how to
promote bulk sales of beef. Consumers seem eager to save money through
large volume purchases as home freezers have become the top selling
appliance in the country." Click here to see what the Checkoff is doing to promote middle meats. | |
God Wet his Finger and Drug it Across Oklahoma This Morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the areas
from Jackson county up through Caddo County, Canadian County, Payne County
and into Osage County- the overnight rains have been significant. I know
that it stormed loud enough last night at our house that it was not easy
to get a lot of sleep and we had easily over an inch of rain in
northwestern Oklahoma County.
The Mesonet map shows the heaviest rainfall amounts in the overnight hours apparently were in eastern Kiowa County and western Caddo County. We have a link to an active Ag Mesonet map that shows precipitation over the last 24 hours on a real time basis. There may not be much more rain from this system, but apparently another system may arrive by Thursday and bring chances of rain even into west central and northwestern counties of the state- and it will get chilly enough that they have even used the words " rain mixed with snow" in the forecast. Click here for that real time map of current precipitation from the Oklahoma Mesonet. | |
A Spring Challenge from the Makers of IVOMEC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Merial Animal
Health contends that spring parasite control pays, and they are offering
cattle producers the chance to prove it to themselves - risk free- with
the IVOMEC Challenge. "For cows and their spring-born calves, benefits of spring parasite control can include increased weaning weights, improved reproductive performance and reduced pasture parasite loads. Those benefits all add up to increased profits for cattle producers," says Dr. Frank Hurtig, director, Merial Veterinary Services Team. And, these profits go beyond just covering the cost of treatment. University researchers conclude that of all the pharmaceutical technologies examined, parasite control in cow herds has the greatest impact on breakeven prices - providing a value of $201 per head. And this effect was derived using only weaning rates and weaning weights. To participate, cattle producers simply use any IVOMEC Brand Product on both their cows and spring- born calves in the spring then weigh the calves at weaning in the fall. If the increase in 205-day adjusted weaning weight versus the previous year does not cover the purchase price of the IVOMEC Brand Product used, Merial will provide to the producer an equivalent number of doses of any IVOMEC Brand Product. Merial officials says they are offering the IVOMEC Challenge with all four formulations of IVOMEC Brand Products. For more information, contact your local Merial sales representative or visit the website at the link we have below. Click here for more on the IVOMEC Challenge for your Beef Cattle Operation | |
Oklahoma Senate Ag Committee Passes Four Measures ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Oklahoma
State Senate Ag Committee, Chaired by Senator Ron Justice of Chickasha,
passed four House bills with little protest on Monday afternoon, including
two of high interest to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau. One of the measures was
HB 2151, the Livestock Preemption bill that is the companion to SB452 that
passed the Oklahoma House Ag Committee last week. The same amendment that
was put into SB 452 was inserted into HB2151 to protect cities and other
legal subdivisions from losing any of their rights to zone and regulate
what sort of animals folks inside their communities can have on their
property.
The other measure of interest, according to Lori Peterson of Oklahoma Farm Bureau, was HB1482, which has been dubbed the "right to Farm" bill and would strengthen the current laws on the books in this regard. We caught up with Lori Peterson last night at the Oklahoma Youth Expo's Sale of Champions- and we talked for a couple of minutes about the work of Senator Justice's Committee on Monday- click on the link below to get to that interview. Click here for more on the Senate Ag Committee Meeting from Monday | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill 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. | |
Let's Check the Markets! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Oklahoma
National Stockyards had a total run of somewhere around 11,800 yesterday-
and the market reporter tells us "Feeder cattle steady to 2.00 higher
except those weighing over 900 lbs 1.00 lower. Calves and stocker cattle
mostly 1.00-3.00 higher. Demand good for all classes, especially for those
suitable for grazing. Quality noticeably lower today with an increased
percentage of No 2 cattle in the mix." Click
here for the full report from Oklahoma City's historic stockyards from
Monday.
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
