~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday April 14, 2009
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Rest In Peace Dr. Joe
-- Wheat Freeze Damage Starting to Show
-- The Latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update
-- The Plant Disease Guru Speaks
-- The DoLittle Project Checks on Nervous Cluckers and How High
Pitched Those Clucks Get
-- From Our Twitter Files- Here's a Blog on One Animal Rights Crazy
Being Called a Hypocrite by a Young Farmer
-- Speaking of Twitter- and other stuff
-- 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 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. 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 handle, 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. | |
Rest In Peace Dr. Joe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After a long
battle with cancer, former OSU Extension Youth Livestock Specialist Dr.
Joe Hughes headed for Heaven at 6 AM on Monday morning. A celebration of
his life will be held this coming Friday morning at 9 AM in Stillwater at
the First Baptist Church, with burial to follow later that day at the Fort
Sill Military Cemetary.
Hughes was the first Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service 4-H livestock specialist, serving from 1971 to 1999."Joe Hughes made numerous innovative, outstanding contributions to animal science youth education programs, and was a tireless leader in strengthening ethics in livestock shows throughout the nation," said Rusty Gosz, current OSU Cooperative Extension 4-H livestock specialist. "He was been instrumental in almost every youth livestock judging event in this state, from the Oklahoma Youth Expo to the 'Big Three' OSU Beef, Sheep and Swine Field Days, a three-day event that has averaged more than 3,500 participants per year during the last decade," Gosz said. For Wayne Shearhart, longtime OSU Cooperative Extension director for first Lincoln County and then Muskogee County, Hughes was the little man with the big voice. "We Extension agents affectionately called him 'Little Joe,' and I had his back; we all had his back because he earned it," the now-retired Shearhart said. For Ron Kensinger, who left Penn State University to assume the
position of head of OSU's department of animal science in 2008, Hughes was
a positive presence who impacted the lives of OSU students and Oklahomans
across the state. "I was on the job for three months before I realized
that Joe was not on the job anymore," Kensinger joked. "Joe was so active
in our alumni association that I would see him all the time in our
hallways, rushing to do something for animal science students or programs
even though he had officially retired from the department in
1999." | |
Wheat Freeze Damage Starting to Show ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The latest
Oklahoma Crop Weather update shows a significant drop in the condition of
the 2009 winter wheat crop- from 37% poor to very poor a week ago to 50%
poor to very poor in the latest ratings as of Monday afternoon. The Crop
weather update indicates "Reported freeze damage to small grain crops was
mixed with mostly moderate to heavy damage reported in the West Central,
Southwest, and South Central districts and light to moderate damage
reported for the rest of the State."
We were in Woodward to speak to the Chamber of Commerce and their midday luncheon yesterday- and traveling back to Oklahoma City during the afternoon- we stopped at several wheat fields along the way- and we snapped a few pictures. We have some of those pictures from Canadian County and Kingfisher County to share with you on our website. Click on the link below to jump to the page with those pictures found on our website. AND- if you have pictures of some of your wheat fields- email a couple of them to us at the email link at the bottom of this daily report. We would love to share them with our email and web family. Click here for a vidual freeze update from Central Oklahoma. | |
The Latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma
received steady rainfall throughout much of the State late Saturday and
Sunday. The rains helped control and put out wildfires that caused major
damage earlier in the week. The State averaged 1.35 inches of rainfall
last week, however all but the Southeast and Northeast districts have been
below normal precipitation since March 1st. Additional moisture is needed
to revive the small grain crop. Western and central Oklahoma experienced a
hard freeze Monday night and early Tuesday morning with temperatures
reaching below 26 degrees for more than a few hours in some locations.
Reported freeze damage to small grain crops was mixed with mostly moderate
to heavy damage reported in the West Central, Southwest, and South Central
districts and light to moderate damage reported for the rest of the State.
At least six tornadoes were reported in eastern Oklahoma last week causing
minor injuries and some damage to residential areas. Topsoil and subsoil
moisture conditions improved from last week with topsoil rated mostly in
the adequate range while subsoil was rated in the adequate to short range.
Small Grain frost damage was present throughout the State last week. Moisture received late in the week helped limit the decline of small grain conditions. Winter wheat, rye, and oats were all rated mostly in the fair to poor range. Crop insect activities increased from the previous week but remained mostly in the light to moderate range. Winter wheat jointing increased six points from the previous week to reach 90 percent complete, two points ahead of normal. Preparing seedbeds for planting was the primary activity on row crops
last week although some additional corn acreage was planted. Work was
somewhat delayed due to the cold weather and precipitation. Corn seedbed
prepared increased 11 percentage points from the previous week to reach 82
percent, four points ahead of last year, and two points ahead of normal.
Corn planted was at 26 percent, up 10 points from the previous week, but
seven points behind the five-year average. Sorghum seedbed prepared was up
seven points to 35 percent. Soybeans seedbed prepared was at 43 percent,
equal to the five-year average. Seedbed preparation for peanuts was at 60
percent, 14 points ahead of normal. Cotton seedbed prepared was up one
point from the previous week to reach 71 percent, three points ahead of
last year and nine points ahead of normal. Click here for the latest Crop Weather update for the state of Oklahoma | |
The Plant Disease Guru Speaks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dr. Bob
Hunger- Extension Wheat Pathologist in the Department of Entomology &
Plant Pathology at Oklahoma State University offers these observations on
disease development in our 2009 wheat crop. "Most concern and efforts are
focused on assessing damage from the freeze of last week; however, the
weather over the last 7-10 days has been more conducive to foliar disease
development. So, although foliar diseases currently are at a low incidence
in Oklahoma, their prevalence may start to increase over the next couple
of weeks. On 10-Apr in plots around Stillwater, I saw mostly only powdery
mildew on lower leaves of susceptible varieties. Some leaf rust pustules
also were observed on lower leaves of susceptible varieties Jagalene and
Jagger, but I did not find pustules on any other varieties. The most
prevalent disease was barley yellow dwarf, which was fairly common in the
early-planted variety demo as well as in other wheat plots that were
planted in September or early October."
He adds that "From other locations in Oklahoma, Jen Olson (Plant Disease Diagnostician) has had samples come into the lab that have tested positive for barley yellow dwarf virus (panhandle and southwestern OK), high plains virus (panhandle), wheat streak mosaic virus (central OK), and Triticum mosaic virus (southwestern OK)." As far as specific regional reports are concerned- | |
The DoLittle Project Checks on Nervous Cluckers and How High Pitched Those Clucks Get ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Presently, the
only way to measure stress levels in poultry flocks is to measure cortisol
and adrenaline in blood samples. That is not practical or efficient. So
researchers, participating in a study called the Dolittle Project, hope
they can better understand stress in laying hens by applying
speech-processing algorithms to animal vocalizations.According to researchers at the University of Connecticut, understanding the vocal patterns of laying hens may reveal how stress affects meat yields and egg production and ultimately could help producers boost output. Dr. Michael Dare, an animal science professor at the University, says - alleviating stress in commercial flocks of laying hens and broilers is important - not only because it improves the overall welfare of the birds, but also because stress is a known enemy of production efficiencies. Darre says, so far, - vocalization patterns have been found to be different for stress due to handling and stress due to overcrowding. Dare points out that - chronic stress has been shown to reduce egg production, reduce growth and meat yields, and lower immune system function. The goal of the project is to develop a device that can be placed in chicken houses that allows farmers to remotely monitor the birds and notify them when it detects stress vocalizations. Here's a link to the Press Release on this research effort from the Poultry Science Association. | |
From Our Twitter Files- Here's a Blog on One Animal Rights Crazy Being Called a Hypocrite by a Young Farmer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a
constant flow of information flowing on a program that is called
TweetDeck- which is the program that I use to watch my Twitter account as
well as certain search words that i designate. I primarily watch "FARM"
and it is amazing how much stuff flows through from around the world. Some
of it is as simple as one farmer putting pictures up of planting tomatoes-
and then there are lots of links to various news stories, commentaries and
blogs about food and farming and more.
One such blog that was pointed to this morning on Twitter is from the FarmBureau Blog that primarily is made up of entries from various young farmers and ranchers who live all across the US. This blog entry says that an Undercover Animal Rights Investigator is a Hypocrite- James Schultz is the author and he was upset after reding an article in Time Magazine about one of the HSUS informants looking for dirt on an animal agriculture facility he was working in. Schultz writes "I am outraged. I can't believe that someone would say that they are so pro-animal rights, yet be so hypocritical. The individual in the piece, "Pete," admits that he has crossed the line and actually abused animals himself during the course of employment at some farms. He also expects us to feel sorry for him, because his chosen this line of work that causes him to be a habitual liar. He says he moves frequently and doesn't have a social life. Boo hoo." "As an employee of a poultry farm, I know that our employees go to great lengths to care for our animals. Every individual who works at the farm is advised of our animal care procedures during orientation and is required to sign guidelines on animal care that we call our "pledge of excellence." Each cage is checked on a daily basis to make sure the chickens have everything that they need. The chickens are our livelihood. If they are not happy, healthy, and well-fed, they will not produce." | |
Speaking of Twitter- and other stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can follow
us on Twitter- just click on the link below to take you to our stream of
stuff- we put up random postings- will Tweet several times usually when we
are covering an event- and will also Tweet when a story is posted on our
website.
We have added a couple of new links on our MARKETS page of our website to help those needing hog prices here in the US as well as sheep and goat market information. These links will get you right to some of the best information on those markets available from USDA. Of course, we have several audio reports there on an ongoing basis that get updated daily as well as important links for the cattle and wholesale beef markets. We continue to look for a few horses for the upcoming Southern Plains Farm Show- if you have already called and left me a mesage- don't worry, we will be getting back to you. However, if you have not let us know about a horse that you have that could use a session with Scott Daily during the show later this month- drop me an email or give us a call at 405-841-3675. | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill and KIS Futures 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A total of
6,200 cattle were reported at the Oklahoma National Stockyards on Monday
and the our market reporter writes of the Monday action "Feeder steers and
heifers 1.00-3.00 higher. Steer and heifer calves lightly tested and
steady. Demand moderate to good. Steady rains Sunday curtailed receipts
some." The five to six hundred pound steers brought from $109 to $117,
while the seven hundred to eight hundred pound steers cleared from $96.75
to $103.25. Click
here for the full Oklahoma City cattle market report from Monday.
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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