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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for June 11, 2009
A
service of Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures and American Farmers &
Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Rains Halt Mid Week Harvest Efforts
-- House Ag Committee Set for Climate Change Fireworks
-- Whether You Call it Hanging in There or Hunkering Down- It's Still
All About Survival Until Beef Demand and Market Prices Improve
-- In case You Missed It- Wheat Production for Oklahoma Called Nine
Percent Lower Than in May
-- Soybean Stocks Tight- and Likely to Get TIGHTER
-- From the Heritage Foundation- They Say For Farmers, Cap and Trade
is a Permanent Drought Season
-- Show Me State Turns Out Large Crowd of Animal ID Haters
-- 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 pleased 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! It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email
Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving 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. | |
Rains Halt Mid Week Harvest Efforts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was a line
of rain showers that stretched from border to border during the day on
Wednesday that kept combines from making much progress in cutting out the
2009 Oklahoma hard red winter wheat crop. We traveled the Oklahoma City to
Enid US 81 Route yesterday after lunch, and it rained on us pretty much
the entire way- and after the rains went through, we stopped and got a few
pictures on combines left standing still until we dry off a bit.
The amounts of precipitation are such that if we can stay dry at any one location for several hours today- harvest could well resume. One field we walked through near Waukomis was damp but not muddy at all. In fact, the ground still had some cracks in it. Click on the link below and you can see a few of the shots we took yesterday afternoon in that area. I thought it was interesting that the posted wheat price yesterday afternoon was several cents above the range of prices quoted by USDA from Wednesday that we link for you. The Waukomis elevator posted a price of $6.20, and that's about 18 cents above the top end of the range in the Oklahoma Dept of Ag roundup of local elevators. Click here for some Harvest at Rest Shots from the Garfield County area on Wednesday afternoon late. | |
House Ag Committee Set for Climate Change Fireworks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One thing is
for certain. After the hearing planned for this afternoon in Longworth at
the House Ag Committee's Hearing Room, there will be little doubt where
agriculture stands on the Waxman-Markey bill, also known as the Climate
Change Bill. The leadoff witness before the lawmakers will be Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and he will have some explaining to do to both
his Democrat and Republican friends about the intentions of the Obama
Administration and the treatment of agriculture under this massive
proposal. In particular, Republican Ranking member Frank Lucas of Oklahoma
wants to know if the Administration plans to push for USDA to be the lead
agency on matters directly tied to agriculture in this proposal- or will
it be EPA.
The second panel is kinda like Murderers Row from the great Yankees team in the Babe Ruth era- some of the major players in farm group circles and conservation. Bob Stallman of AFBF will raise questions about Climate Change, as will Roger Johnson of NFU. Johnson has been more hopeful than Stallman about agriculture ending up with a net gain with carbon credits, but is concerned that Waxman-Markey makes a point of ignoring agriculture when it comes to any benefits. The final panel of the day before Collin Peterson, Frank Lucas and the Committee bring in one major element of agribusiness and a former Oklahoma lawmaker who is the former holder of the district seat that Frank Lucas now sits in. The President of the Fertilizer Institute, Ford West, will testify, as will Glenn English, now the CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative based in Virginia. Whichever side you have chosen on this issue and this bill, it will be a most entertaining and probably lively dialogue that will be offered after lunch today- the hearing begins at 1 PM central time. Click here for the House Ag Committee site- and the full list of witnesses for this hearing. | |
Whether You Call it Hanging in There or Hunkering Down- It's Still All About Survival Until Beef Demand and Market Prices Improve ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We spent three
days this week on the Beef Buzz radio program with Dr. Derrell Peel of OSU
as we looked at the cattle market from several different angles. The third
of these Beef Buzzes focused on the strategies that might help cattle
producers survive until better market prices show up.
Dr. Peel and other economists believe those prices will eventually ride into town- the question is when.We talk about that timing with him on this third and final Beef Buzz with him of this week. The webstory linked below also has the previous two Beef Buzzes with Derrell linked, so you can go back and review his thoughts on Memorial Day Beef Movement, cash cattle prices and market outlook for the yearlings, stockers and calves we buy and/or sell. Click here for our Beef Buzz with OSU Cattle Market Watcher Dr. Derrell Peel. | |
In case You Missed It- Wheat Production for Oklahoma Called Nine Percent Lower Than in May ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USDA released
two reports on Wednesday morning that provided a lot of data. One of the
key pieces of information for us in the southern great plains was the size
of the US Hard Red Winter Wheat crop. The five key Hard Red Winter wheat
states show Oklahoma's crop smaller than the May estimate, Kansas and
Texas predicted at the same level as May and Colorado and Nebraska with a
higher production expectation than in May.
The numbers from these states are as follows: You can access the more details on the report by clicking on the link below- it has the rundown on both the Wheat Production report as well as the ERS Supply/Demand data that came out on Wednesday morning as well. Click here for more on the Wheat Production Numbers and Supply Demand Data | |
Soybean Stocks Tight- and Likely to Get TIGHTER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Terry Francl
of the American Farm Bureau Federation says the drop in Soybean Stocks is
the biggest news coming out of USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand
Estimates report released Wednesday. Farm Bureau says due to increased
domestic soybean crushings and higher projected exports, the Agriculture
Department reduced U.S. soybean stocks by 20 million bushels, to 110
million bushels. That 110 million bushel number figures out to be a two
week supply of beans available by the end of the current marketing year.
Terry Francl, senior economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, sees the potential for even lower U.S. soybean stocks due to improved exports. The economist points out that - many analysts were expecting an even bigger drop in soybean stocks due to strong crushing demand and a robust export picture. However, by the time the crop year ends on Aug. 31, Francl expects - projected soybean exports to increase another 20 million to 30 million bushels. The latest WASDE report made no adjustment to soybean yields, holding the number at trend line projections. Francl said - this appears to be a similar planting season as last year, where the average U.S. soybean yield came in three bushels below the current trend yield of 42.6 bushels per acre. As for corn and the late planting season, Francl said - concerns about acreage will continue to influence the market until the end of June. | |
From the Heritage Foundation- They Say For Farmers, Cap and Trade is a Permanent Drought Season ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Economists at
The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis are claiming that
farmers will be adversely affected by the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade
Bill(the bill we wrote about earlier- to be reviewed by the House Ag
Committee this afternoon)
The think tankers say the following impacts will hit farmers like a
jack hammer: And the final insult, according to the Heritage Foundation, is that everyone who eats will end up paying more even as farmers are slammed economically. The Foundation predicts with the Climate Change measure that passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee that "much higher food prices for consumers at the grocery stores" will result. Click here to read the blog on the Heritage Foundation website about Climate Change and Farmers | |
Show Me State Turns Out Large Crowd of Animal ID Haters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I did not have
a chance to get this in yesterday- but on Tuesday, it was another day of
USDA Listening on Animal ID- and About all they heard was "get rid of it."
The setting was Jefferson City, Missouri and a crowd of more than 250 was
overwhelmingly against Animal ID, especially Mandatory Animal ID. It was
mostly a Missouri crowd, altho several folks from Arkansas drove up to the
Missouri State Capital for the session.
Of the more than 50 individuals who spoke Tuesday morning only one spoke in favor of a mandatory program (a pork producer) and was met with vocal disapproval. In fact, one report said he was almost booed out of the building. It appears that the opposition forces to Animal ID are feeling their organic oats, and have used these listening sessions very effectively to demand USDA back away from a mandatory system- and perhaps from even a voluntary program- at least as it now is structured. Our friend Jason Vance wrote a good article on the Jeff City meeting- and we have it linked for you below- there is one more Listening Session that is within a day's drive of most of Oklahoma- and that will be next Tuesday at the Route 66 Casino & Conference Center, 14500 Central Avenue, SW in Albuquerque. Click here for the agenda that has been followed at all of these meetings. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OKC West in El
Reno had 6,250 cattle for their Wednesday sale this week. Feeder steers
steady to 2.00 higher, except over 900 lbs 2.00-4.00 higher. Feeder
heifers steady. Demand good with a few more buyers than the norm this
week. Stocker cattle and calves steady, instance 2.00 higher. Demand
improved, however several more long weaned cattle available.
Click here for the complete report, including a full rundown of
prices, from the USDA Market News reporter.
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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