~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday February 16,
2009 A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and Johnston
Enterprises!
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-- Equalization Board is Poised to Further Drop the Expected Revenue
Number for Oklahoma Tomorrow
-- Farm Program Signup for 2009- It Won't Be Easy- So Says Francie
Tolle of AFR
-- Economic Stimulus Package Passes- With the Help of Three
Republican Senators
-- National Cotton Council Expects a 14% drop in Cotton Acreage in
2009
-- President's Day Doings- Futures Markets Closed- Oklahoma Farm
Bureau Meets
-- The Word From NFU Chief Tom Buis
-- Big Cattle Sale Friday for Superior
-- 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. It is wonderful to have as a regular 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! 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. | |
Equalization Board is Poised to Further Drop the Expected Revenue Number for Oklahoma Tomorrow ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While the
revelation by Lt. Governor Jari Askins comes as no shock, it was still a
bit of sobering reality of the economic problems that our country and
state face this year and well into next year as well. Askins made her
comment during remarks offered to the American Farmers & Ranchers
banquet on Saturday evening. She offered no specifics- only that we can
expect the pot of money that lawmakers will have to spend is less full
than thought in December. The exact number comes tomorrow when the
Eqaulization Board meets.
With that news in mind- we talked to State Representative Dale DeWitt of Braman about money and ag related spending at the state level. DeWitt is the Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee that has oversight over the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and other Natural Resources efforts from the state. DeWitt told us he sees across the board cuts coming for Fiscal Year 2010- with the question being- will the Legislature honor the desire of Governor Brad Henry to not make cuts in education. Our story and the interview we conducted with DeWitt is our front page story of the morning on our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and we have it linked for you below. We note only talk about money- but also about the so called Right to Farm bill that DeWitt is carrying this session. It has already passed the full House- easily- and awaits action in the State Senate. Click here for more with Dale DeWitt on State Money Woes and a Right to Farm bill update. | |
Farm Program Signup for 2009- It Won't Be Easy- So Says Francie Tolle of AFR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the
Friday afternoon speakers at the 2009 AFR Convention was Francie Tolle,
Federal Farm Policy Analyst for the organization. She talked about a
variety of federal issues- from the Commodity Title of the Farm Law to
COOL to Truck Weights and even the Cow Tax.
We talked with Francie after her presentation about the signup problems
that farmers are running into for the 2009 Commodity program- problems
that have popped up because of interim rules issued by the Bush
Administration- especially the eligibility question of who qualifies for
farm program payments. USDA Secretary Vilsack says he intends to stay with
the Bush rules for the 2009 crop year- and a book of more than 300 pages
has gone out to the county FSA offices. We have also posted a couple of other stories from the AFR meeting that was held on Friday and Saturday- click here to listen to our conversation with State Senator Ron Justice after he spoke to AFR members at the Friday luncheon. AND- click here for our postmortem on the convention activities with President Ray Wulf of the general farm organization. We have other stories that will be coming over the next few days as well- keep reading our daily email and listening on the Radio Oklahoma Network for those. Click here for our review of 2009 Farm Program Signup with AFR's Francie Tolle. | |
Economic Stimulus Package Passes- With the Help of Three Republican Senators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The U.S. House
of Representatives took just minutes Friday to pass the Economic Recovery
Package. Even before the vote of 246 to 183 was announced, excitement was
apparent through the House Chamber. It is noted that not one Republican
voted for passage. The Senate vote took much longer - hours. Senator
Sherrod Brown was at his Ohio home on family business when the White House
sent a government airplane to pick him up so he could cast the final vote
- and it sealed the deal. Senate Democrats got the 60 votes needed for
passage with that vote. 38 Senators voted against the bill. Ted Kennedy -
battling brain cancer - missed the vote. President Barack Obama is
expected to sign the measure today on President's Day.
The Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, Tom Harkin, says the economic
recovery package contains key provisions that will direct crucial funding
toward rural development, nutrition and conservation initiatives, many of
which were included in the farm bill. Our story that is linked below includes the full statement from Senator
Harkin and his thoughts on how the Stimulus will help rural America, as
well as the disappointment expressed by Senator Coburn- and there are
comments from our interview with NFU President Tom Buis on the stimulus
package as well. | |
National Cotton Council Expects a 14% drop in Cotton Acreage in 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ U.S. cotton
producers intend to plant 8.11 million acres of cotton this spring, down
14 percent from 2008, according to the National Cotton Council's 26th
Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey.
NCC Senior Economist Dale Cougot emphasized that, "as growers look at expected returns when comparing prices for cotton against competing crops, they will be influenced by lower fuel and fertilizer costs along with agronomic considerations, such as crop rotation and weather conditions in Texas, California and parts of the Southeast. Growers will continue to monitor relative crop prices over the coming weeks. USDA's latest grain estimates, showing an increase in stock levels, highlights another major influencing factor this year. Also, the ratio of crude oil at $45 per barrel to corn at $4 per bushel does not foretell profitable ethanol production." In our part of the country, Texas growers expressed intentions of
reducing area by 9 percent to 4.5 million acres. The other regions'
reductions of relatively more acreage implies Texas' share of the total
upland area is expanding, now more than 57 percent, up from 54 percent.
"This will entail a wider variance in abandonment acres as crop estimates
are prepared for the season," Cougot stated. He noted that only modest
adjustments were in Kansas (+7 percent) and Oklahoma (-2 percent). | |
President's Day Doings- Futures Markets Closed- Oklahoma Farm Bureau Meets ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Ag Futures
along with the Equity markets join the Federal Government in taking this
Monday off for President's Day. However, our cash auction markets that
normally run will be operating today- and our market news reporters that
work for Uncle Sam will stick around and follow the markets as normal- so
we will have our midday markets updated as usual midday today- click here
for that report that will be available around twelve noon and heard on our
Radio Oklahoma Network stations- and linked on our website and available
on demand when you have time to listen to it.
The Oklahoma Farm Bureau has their annual State Legislative and Leadership Conference today and tomorrow. Scheduled to address the group are Lt. Governor Jari Askins, Congressman Tom Cole, Speaker of the Oklahoma House Chris Benge, and Senate President Pro-Temp Glen Coffee. Click here for more details on that event that starts after lunch today. | |
The Word From NFU Chief Tom Buis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We caught up
with the President of the National Farmers Union, Tom Buis, as he made an
appearance at the American Farmers & Ranchers annual meeting this past
Friday. Buis had no slot on the formal program- but was there to support
the largest state affiliate the NFU can claim- Oklahoma.
We talked about a variety of issues with Buis- from the Stimulus package to Farm Bill Implementation to COOL and a lot more. Our visit with Buis is a featured Podcast on our website- and available via Itunes as well. Click on the link below and that will jump you to our webstory on our site with a listen bar for the conversation we had with Buis. It's worth your time to take a listen as the President of the NFU is probably one of the most plugged in leaders with the Obama Administration of any farm group in America- that elevates the importance of his insights on today's farm issues. | |
Big Cattle Sale Friday for Superior ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This past
Friday- Superior Video Auction had a big sale day- and it originated in
Oklahoma City at the Holiday Inn on South Meridian. The final estimate
that was offered of the number of cattle being sold on Friday was 43, 900.
Click
here for the USDA market news report as issued on Friday afternoon.
Superior dubbed this sale the Prime Time Roundup sale- and had many drafts of cattle coming off wheat pasture- and various types of preconditioned programs with pens of cattle were offered for sale as well. We have our Friday midday updates that we posted on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- video of the action inside the room as a consignment of cattle were sold and then some audio with Ralph Wade as he talked about the mood of the market on Friday morning after the sale had been going for a couple of hours. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill and Johnston Enterprises 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Woodward had
another big run this past week for their Friday cattle auction- 8, 365
cattle. Yearlings were steady to two dollars cheaper and stocker and steer
calves were one to four dollars higher than a week ago. I would expect the
full report should be available by around 8 AM at
this link as the market news service gets that Friday report posted-
we have already reported it on our morning agri markets as heard on the
Radio Oklahoma Network- including K101 in Woodward.
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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