From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 7:10 AM
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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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.
And 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.

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
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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
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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
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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."
Earlier, Terry had said that Oklahoma would go to Washington this weekend with an open mind about who they would support to be the next President of the national farm organization.

Click here for our Podcast of audio from the Roger Johnson teleconference announcing his intention to run for the President of the NFU.


Conservation's President's Award to Wadell Altom and the Noble Foundation
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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.

Several other awards were handed out by the Conservation movement last week- Mark Harrison has assembled a great overview of the meeting- click here to take a look!


We Get Insight on Riding the Margin with a Successful Stocker Cattle Operator- John Pendergrass
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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.

Click here for our Beef Buzz conversation with John Pendergrass on being a success in the Stocker Business.


Quick Words- Ethanol, Peanuts and Baxter Black
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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
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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:
The Thursday March 5th will feature
75 Limousin and Lim-flex Bulls
50 purebred Angus pairs
160 commercial angus pairs and opens.

On Friday March 6th, the sale starts at 10 AM and Express will be selling 522 Angus Bulls Fall Yearlings and Yearlings.

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.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Let's Check the Markets!
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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:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat and the why of that day's market.(not yet available for March 3 as we send this- check on this link later and see if they have added it or not.)
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. <
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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