~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday March 4, 2009
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, KIS Futures and American
Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Seaboard Sees Sales Dollars Increase- But Profit Eludes the Pork
Integrator in 2008
-- Another Verse of 'How Dry We Are' Being Sung- This Time by Joe
Victor of Allendale
-- A Contender Emerges for the National Farmers Union Presidency-
North Dakota's Roger Johnson
-- Conservation's President's Award to Wadell Altom and the Noble
Foundation
-- We Get Insight on Riding the Margin with a Successful Stocker
Cattle Operator- John Pendergrass
-- Quick Words- Ethanol, Peanuts and Baxter Black
-- Express Ranch Ready for Two Day Spring Bull Sale
-- 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. | |
Seaboard Sees Sales Dollars Increase- But Profit Eludes the Pork Integrator in 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seaboard Corp.
reported a $45.9 million operating loss in its pork segment during 2008,
compared to operating income of $39.5 million in 2007. In its annual
report, Seaboard attributed the loss to higher feed costs, start-up costs
of its biodiesel plant and a $7 million impairment charge related to
Daily's trade name, partially offset by increased sales prices for its
pork products.
In its annual report, Seaboard said net sales from its pork segment increased to $1.126 billion in 2008 from $1.004 billion in 2007, which it attributed to higher pork sales for export and for domestic use. The increased sales were made possible by an expansion of pork processing plant in Guymon, Okla., to daily double shift processing capacity of 18,500 hogs from 16,800 hogs. Also in Guymon, the Seaboard biodiesel plant has been finished and is now operating. Seaboard uses as their feedstock for the biofuels plant vegetable oils and animal fats, including pork fat from the Seaboard Foods Guymon pork processing plant. We have more on the financials that are out for Seaboard for 2008- click on the link below for our full story on this major player in Oklahoma agriculture. Click here for more on the annual financial numbers out from Seaboard Farms | |
Another Verse of 'How Dry We Are' Being Sung- This Time by Joe Victor of Allendale ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Allendale Inc
is well aware of the fact two of the top four US winter wheat producing
state's crop condition ratings are far less than desirable. Both Texas and
Oklahoma are facing very dry conditions, with little chance of rain
hitting wheat fields in either state in the immediate future.
Weather conditions and forecast are less than optimistic for the Southern Plains as two week forecasted temps suggest swings of more than 25 degrees which may promote heaving while the present drought monitor suggest more than periodic rains will be required to dig out of harsh conditions. Principle key winter wheat producing states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Washington and Texas have a degree of abnormally dry to severe drought. Joe Victor with Allendale has assembled a one pager on the ramifications for the wheat market fundamentals- and we have the pdf file linked on our website. Click on the link below to take a look at this work. Click here for more on the status of our wheat crops across the southern plains. | |
A Contender Emerges for the National Farmers Union Presidency- North Dakota's Roger Johnson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It appears
that the first declared candidate for the job of President of the National
Farmers Union, taking the position that is being vacated by Tom Buis, is
the Ag Commissioner from the state of North Dakota, Roger Johnson. Johnson
has just wrapped up his term as the President of the National Association
of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and apparently, he has enjoyed
the Washington, DC part of that experience.
Johnson talked to reporters and others on a teleconference yesterday- and we have the audio of that event on our website- in fact we have it posted as one of our Ag Perspectives Podcasts, one of three podcast products that we offer on a regular basis. We got an email this morning from Terry Detrick on Johnson and he tells
us "I have talked to Robert Carlson. Roger has called and left word for me
to call him. I will ask for an opportunity to visit personally with Him
when we get to the convention and express the needs of Oklahoma
agriculture and what we will be looking for. I have visited with Terry
Peach who has worked with him as a fellow Commissioner of Ag and will be
talking to others." | |
Conservation's President's Award to Wadell Altom and the Noble Foundation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Samuel
Roberts Noble Foundation and Wadell Altom received the President's Award
from the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts during their
annual meeting this past week. OACD President Scotty Herriman presented
the award on Feb. 23 during the annual convention in Oklahoma City. Altom
serves currently as a senior vice president for the Noble Foundation and
is also director of its Agriculture Division. He has been with the
organization since 1966 and has announced his upcoming retirement.
"Thanks to Mr. Altom's leadership and commitment to conservation, the Noble Foundation has been a longtime supporter of the National Land and Range Judging Contest that OACD hosts annually in Oklahoma City," Herriman said. Herriman also said that since 2005 the Noble Foundation has sponsored one of OACD's major conservation awards - the Outstanding Conservation District Director Award. That award is presented, with other OACD Conservation Awards, in the Governor's Blue Room during Conservation Day at the Capitol each March. "He has shared his expertise in soil management and fertilization issues with Oklahoma farmers for over 40 years at the Noble Foundation," Herriman said. "So it is particularly fitting that we recognize Me. Altom and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation for their support of OACD's efforts and Oklahoma's conservation movement," Herriman said. | |
We Get Insight on Riding the Margin with a Successful Stocker Cattle Operator- John Pendergrass ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We continue
our conversation on today's Beef Buzz with John Pendergrass, the national
Stocker Cattle Operator of the Year, as honored at this year's recent
Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix. In our third installment with this
western Arkansas cattleman, we talk with him about how they are regularly
in the cattle market, buying cattle year round- which means that if they
take a hit with low yearling prices as they sell- they hope to replace
those cattle with lower priced calves to keep their margins in line to
give them a chance for profit.
One of his secrets of success is the fact that they keep their facilities working. Their goal is to turn stockers over as many as three to four times per year through strong management of their pasture resources. The link below to this Beef Buzz also has the link back to the two earlier segments that we have had this week with Pendergrass- as we learn about how he has built a solid year round cattle operation that depends on buying those calves in good shape, putting a couple of hundred pounds of gain on them- and then moving them on to the feedyards further west. | |
Quick Words- Ethanol, Peanuts and Baxter Black ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This morning,
Growth Energy will announce the findings of a new study examining the
impact of higher ethanol blends on the job creation and economic growth.
Researchers from North Dakota State University will show how increasing
the blend of ethanol in the U.S. gasoline supply from 10 to 15 percent
will boost the economy in these challenging times. Growth
Energy is an advocacy group for the ethanol industry, and will be
headed up in the near future by the soon to be ex- President of the
National Farmers Union, Tom Buis.
The Peanut Industry has headed to the Big Apple- and today and tomorrow will give New Yorkers the chance to Walk through a peanut field - right inside Grand Central Terminal - and have their picture taken with a USA peanut farmer. One of those farmers may be from Oklahoma- and the field is from Oklahoma- as grown and assembled by the Peanut researchers in Stillwater in cooperation with the Oklahoma Peanut Commission and Mike Kubicek. Your chance to laugh and be entertained by the premiere cowboy poet in America(and the world), Baxter Black, comes March 20 as he comes for an appearance at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. We have details on tickets- either with or without dinner that evening- click here to learn more from our calendar entry on that special night with Baxter. | |
Express Ranch Ready for Two Day Spring Bull Sale ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Express
Ranches Spring Bull Sale and Commercial Female Sale will be tomorrow,
March 5th and Friday March 6th at the ranch in Yukon, Oklahoma. There will
be more than 800 lots of Angus, Limousin and Lim-Flex bulls that will be
offered- and all of the bulls have been tested as AM free.
The Sale on Thursday starts at 12:30 pm with the Limousin bulls and
Angus females will follow: Click on the link below for the sale catalog on line at the Express Ranch website- or if you have last minute questions about the sale, you call the office at 405-350-0044. Click here for the Express Ranch Website and their catalog of the 2009 Spring Bull Sale | |
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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