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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday January 21,
2009 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, KIS Futures and American
Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- President Obama- Today will be his first full day in office.
-- Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack- Today is his First Full Day
as USDA Top Gun
-- Mother and Daughter Form a Winning Team at the Oklahoma Beef
Cookoff
-- Oklahoma Corn Growers Have a New Herbicide Now Approved for Use in
2009
-- Cattle on Feed Numbers May Show Smallest Total on Feed in Four
Years
-- The Great Grain Sorghum Road Show
-- A Quick Tutoral on La Nina- NOT Good for Oklahoma Climatic
conditions
-- 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 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! 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 are crushing, 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. | |
President Obama- Today will be his first full day in office. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He's the 44th
President of the United States- and Democrat Barack Obama now must live
the hype (the general media has certainly set the bar very high) and begin
the process of governing the only superpower on this globe. The process
has been under way since election day back in November when he defeated
Senator John McCain for the right to live at 1600 Pennsylvania for the
next four years.
The new President has six of his Cabinet officials now confirmed, with more likely to be okayed by the Democratically controlled Senate before the week is out. Our story just below this one is all about Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack being one of the first six approved by the Senate on Tuesday. It was pointed out by a colleague of mine that the official White House website has already been revamped and the positions of the Obama campaign are now his policy points as the President of the United States. That includes his ideas on what he sees as "rural" policy. The White House website calls for a Packer ban on owning livestock ahead of slaughter. It calls for a hard $250,000 payment cap and strict rules to keep the money only going to "family farmers." Beyond the farm policy issues, the rural policy page also addresses rural economic development and improving the rural quality of life. We have the "RURAL" agenda from the White House below- on this first full day of his Presidency, it probably would be a good idea to review what drum the President and his team will be marching to in the days ahead. Click here for the "rural" policy as listed on the official website of the White House. | |
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack- Today is his First Full Day as USDA Top Gun ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The U.S.
Senate confirmed former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as U.S. agriculture
secretary on Tuesday, a job he plans to use to promote renewable energy
including biofuels and put healthier food in America's school meals.
As secretary, Vilsack, 57, will face two tasks immediately -- working with Congress to renew USDA's child nutrition programs, which cost more than $15 billion a year, and deciding whether to tighten USDA's eligibility rules for farm subsidies. During his confirmation hearing last week, Vilsack said the child nutrition programs, which include school lunch and breakfast, could be a tool for ending childhood hunger by 2015, a goal set by Obama. He said he wanted to bring more fruits and vegetables into schools and more locally grown food. The related Women, Infants and Children feeding program, costing $6 billion a year, also needs reauthorization this year. A lawyer, Vilsack has no direct experience in agriculture but during two terms as Iowa governor, ending in 2006, was active on agricultural issues. The last farmer to serve as agriculture secretary was Jack Block, of Illinois, in the early 1980s, in the Reagan era. We have audio comments about the ascension of Tom Vilsack to the USDA by Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley. Click on the link below to jump to that page. Click here for more on Tom Vilsack now officially the USDA Secretary. | |
Mother and Daughter Form a Winning Team at the Oklahoma Beef Cookoff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eight amateur
chefs competed in the Oklahoma Beef Cook-off in three inspired categories:
"Kid Pleasers", "Small Plates, Big Taste" and a "World of Beef" at the
Oklahoma City Home and Garden Show on January 17, 2009.
The "Best of Beef" honors and $1500 cash went to Jane Ozment and her ten year old daughter, Mandy of Purcell with their An Apple a Day Burger entered in the "Kid Pleasers" category. The Ozments' recipe included an intriguing mix of lean ground beef, with a bit of applesauce topped with grilled sweet onions and Gala apples, pepper-jack cheese, and an applesauce-mayonnaise on whole grain buns. In the "Small Plates, Big Tastes" category winning $500 and first prize
was Leah Lyon of Ada with Greek Steak Salad Gondolas. Lyon's dish utilized
Top Loin Steaks, Greek seasonings, cucumbers, Romaine lettuce hearts, and
feta cheese. Our story on our website has more details on the winners- and the recipes for you to check out and try out. Click on the link below and enjoy some great beef ideas! Click here to see our Beef Cookoff Story- complete with the Winning Recipes. | |
Oklahoma Corn Growers Have a New Herbicide Now Approved for Use in 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma corn
growers now have access to a new herbicide option for their fields, as the
Oklahoma Department of Agriculture has granted state registration of
Balance Flexx herbicide from Bayer CropScience.
Balance Flexx controls more than 50 grass and broadleaf weeds, such as marestail, common ragweed and barnyardgrass, with the power of Recharge. As little as a half-inch of rain during the growing season reactivates Balance Flexx, which can be applied from early pre-plant burndown through the 2-leaf collar growth stage (V2). Balance Flexx will be labeled for use in field corn production, corn grown for silage and on tolerant seed-corn inbreds. To read more about the ODAFF approval of Balance Flexx, click on the link below. Click here to learn more about this new chemical choice for weed control in Oklahoma corn fields. | |
Cattle on Feed Numbers May Show Smallest Total on Feed in Four Years ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rich Nelson of
Allendale has provided us with these thoughts about this Friday's USDA
Cattle on Feed Report that will be released at 2 PM central Time.
December Placements are expected to be 2.0% smaller than last year. Losses on outgoing cattle in December reached extreme levels which is the primary reason for smaller placements. However, the drop was not as large as recent months. Optimism began to surface in December as cash cattle prices finally stabilized. Cattle placed in December will be marketed from May through September. Allendale anticipates a Marketing total 3.0% smaller than December of
2007. Marketings will remain mostly smaller in the coming months due to
the smaller placement pace since March. | |
The Great Grain Sorghum Road Show ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There will be
eight meetings over a three day period next week in north central and
northwest Oklahoma on all things milo.
Speakers and their topics will include Meeting locations will include Enid, Alva, Cherokee, Blackwell, Fairview, Perry, Kingfisher and Medford. Click on the link below for our Calendar pages on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.com and scroll down to January 26 and you will see the listing Grain Sorghum Production Meetings- click on that event and you will get more information. Click here for the Calendar Page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com | |
A Quick Tutoral on La Nina- NOT Good for Oklahoma Climatic conditions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I meant to
include this earlier this week- but did not, so courtesy of a reminder
from Gary McManus, our Assistant State Climatologist- here's a few words
from the Oklahoma Climatological website on a lady that we usually don't
like too much here in our state- La Nina.
"With drought continuing to intensify across Oklahoma, the state received unwelcome news from the eastern equatorial pacific region: La Niña conditions have returned, and are expected by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) to continue through the first half of 2009. While these cooler-than-normal pacific waters may be thousands of miles away, climate studies have shown the phenomena can still impact the weather in Oklahoma. "La Niña influences weather across the world, but it influences Oklahoma's weather by altering the jet stream's path over the U.S., pushing it farther to the north. The Pacific Northwest would then see increased stormy conditions while the southern sections of the U.S., to the south of the altered storm track, would experience precipitation deficits. Warmer weather is also a possible implication for Oklahoma during La Niña conditions. The
current drought monitor map for the US shows that a lot of Texas and
south central Oklahoma is already in the grip of a strong dry spell- and
La Nina may mean it will only expand further. | |
Our thanks to KIS Futures, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill and AFR 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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