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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday March 31, 2009
A
service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS
Futures!
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-- Mike Schulte Named New Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat
Commission
-- HSUS Headed to State Capitol Today
-- Farm Program Signup A Major Pain- So Says Letter from Peanut
Producers to FSA
-- Soil Moisture Improves Dramatically With Spring Blizzard
-- OG&SP get a Crop Insurance Update from Senator Coburn's
Office
-- Planting Intentions Coming This Morning
-- Grass to Grid Sale Set for April 11
-- 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. | |
Mike Schulte Named New Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The
Commissioners of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission named Mike Schulte as their
new Executive Director. Schulte, the former marketing director, will begin
his new position April 1, 2009. The Okarche native has a strong background
in wheat promotion and agriculture.
"Agriculture production is something that I have been involved in my whole life, I feel it is going to become more important to create direct relationships in the marketing of our commodity crops," said Schulte. "I hope to create better interaction with foreign buyers to promote Oklahoma's high quality wheat products." Before coming to the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, he was employed by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and was in charge of the livestock market news and specialty crop programs for the state. Schulte graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2001, with degree in Agricultural Communications. As a member of the 12th class of the Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Program, Schulte experienced many career building experiences from his trip to South America to touring Capitol Hill. "My experience with the Ag Leadership Program taught me the importance of getting involved and advocating for what you believe in," Schulte said. "In agriculture we have a great story to tell and I plan on working hard to promote the story of the Oklahoma wheat industry." We have more on this promotion for Mike Schulte- including an audio interview with Mike on Monday afternoon after word came that he was the new Executive Director. Click on the link below for more on this story. | |
HSUS Headed to State Capitol Today ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Humane
Society of the US has planned what they are calling an Oklahoma Humane
Lobby Day later today at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City. They plan on
meeting at 10:00 AM in room 104 to talk about legislation that they hope
those that will be in attendance will go and talk with their lawmakers
about.
Livestock and other ag groups plan to be visible today at the Capitol- but have decided to wait and see what might be the talking points of those who will be participating in this event that is similar to other lobby days at state capitols all across the United States. One thing to keep in mind is that Wayne Pacelle, the President of the HSUS, is an enemy of animal agriculture in this country. The latest evidence of that comes from his blog in his own words. An entry from yesterday is about a book that is critical of modern livestock agriculture- and Pacelle wraps up the review by saying that it matches up well with the goals of the HSUS organization. He writes "We believe in the Three Rs-reducing the consumption of meat and other animal-based foods; refining the diet by eating products only from methods of production, transport, and slaughter that minimize pain and distress; and replacing meat and other animal-based foods in the diet with plant-based foods." Click here for the webpage that talks about the HSUS day at the Capitol in Oklahoma City today. | |
Farm Program Signup A Major Pain- So Says Letter from Peanut Producers to FSA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Oklahoma
Peanut Commission represents one of several peanut producing states that
have pooled their "farm policy" efforts via a collective voice under the
banner of the United Peanut Alliance. Mike Kubicek shared with us a letter
to the Director of FSA from the United Peanut Alliance "regarding all the
issues our producers are facing when "signing up" at the FSA office."
Mike adds that this letter- we have it linked on our website at the link that you can follow below- contains the same message that Oklahoma peanut farmers presented to members of the Oklahoma Congressional delegation during a visit to Washington earlier this month. He adds that "We garnered support from key Congressional folks while in DC and many have challenged the Secretary on his "interim rules" that many think deviates from the intent of Congress as passed in the Farm Bill. Congressman Lucas has become very active on this issue. We hope this letter will assist him and others in the on-going debate." Go to our link below for more on this letter and the concerns of this alliance of peanut growers from across the southern U.S. Click here for more on the letter to the FSA over Farm Signup Issues. | |
Soil Moisture Improves Dramatically With Spring Blizzard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's unknown
if the 2009 Oklahoma winter wheat crop sustained injury due to the
freezing conditions from this past weekend- but the crop certainly got a
moisture boost from the wet snow that fell, along with rains that
preceeded the snow in many areas. The topsoil moisture index improved by
34 percentage points in a single week, with the latest reading at 51% poor
to very poor, compared to 85% poor to very poor a week earlier.
The latest crop weather update gives us this report on wheat- "Most small grains showed signs of improvement from last week due to the recent moisture. Winter wheat was rated mostly in the good to fair range while rye and oats were rated mostly in the fair to poor range. Crop insect activities continued to range from moderate to light. Winter wheat jointing was at 62 percent, 14 points ahead of last year, and three points ahead of the five-year average." For row crops- "Row crop seedbed preparations and planting was postponed somewhat last week due to snow and rainfall, however most row crops were still running well ahead of normal. Sixty-nine percent of corn seedbeds were prepared, 14 points ahead of the five-year average. Sorghum seedbed preparations increased by four percentage points from last week to reach 25 percent, three points ahead of normal. One-third of soybean seedbed preparations were completed by week's end, three points ahead of the five-year average. Peanuts seedbed prepared was 42 percent complete, 15 points above normal. Nearly two-thirds of cotton seedbed preparation was finished by last week, 19 points ahead of normal." | |
OG&SP get a Crop Insurance Update from Senator Coburn's Office ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At their
annual meeting this past week, members of the Oklahoma Grain and Stocker
Producers heard from Matt Ball of Senator Tom Coburn's staff. Ball updated
them on an issue they had brought up to the Senator earlier this year when
they were in Washington- the Senator had taken an interest in this concern
and has been working with USDA since that time to try to get better
treatment for Oklahoma producers- leveling the playing field between
Oklahoma and Kansas on crop insurance eligibility.
The question raised by the OGSP- why Kansans can insure a double-crop following wheat graze-out while right across the border in Oklahoma, producers can't. Senator Coburn took a strong interest in the issue. Last week, he sent
a formal letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting a
rationale for the discrepancy. In his letter, Senator Coburn states: "I am
concerned that the RMA decision is arbitrary and places neighboring
Oklahoma counties at a severe economic disadvantage." He goes on to
request copies of the documentation and analysis RMA used in reaching
their decision. Click here for more on the questions raised by OGSP to Senator Tom Coburn on Crop Insurance | |
Planting Intentions Coming This Morning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Soybean acres
are expected to be up nationally when USDA releases their planting
intentions report at 7:30 AM central this morning- up by 3.5 million acres
based on the average of all guesses gathered by DTN, Reuters and others.
Corn acres could fall by 1.5 million acres. These numbers, even as USDA
release them- remain very much in flux with spring weather and planting
conditions will dictate the swings we will see on plantings as much as
anything.
We will also get a quarterly stocks report out from USDA this morning- and it may well show increased wheat and corn supplies, and somewhat tighter soybean stocks- none of these outcomes would be considered surprising. We will have details on the USDA numbers after the reports are out- be looking on our front page of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com for that coverage under the heading in the center of the page- Top Agricultural News. | |
Grass to Grid Sale Set for April 11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 2009 Grass
to Grid sale is set for April 11, 2009 at the ranch in Follett, Texas-
just across the Oklahoma state line and about an hour northwest of
Woodward. The sale will start at 12:30 pm and will feature 80 Angus bulls,
92 Maine Angus and 24 Sim Angus lots. It represents the best of the
Griswold and Collins cattle herds for 2009
In the sale catalog, they write "The impressive offering of the best
GCC Angus bulls are second to none The cow families represented through
this set of Angus bulls, mean lots of opportunity for the buyer, looking
to develop good Angus replacement females and breed leading genetics The
bulls, in all breed divisions, represent years of selecting for the same
practical traits." For more information, click on our link below for our calendar listing- which has the catalog download link or you can call Collins Cattle Company at 1-800-975-6313. Click here for more on the Griswold- Collins Grass to Grid Sale Coming April 11. | |
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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There were a
total of 3,584 cattle for the Monday auction at the Oklahoma National
Stockyards in Oklahoma City, with the receipts limited due to the snow and
rain of the weekend- prices were steady to $2 lower for yearlings and
calves on Monday. The five to six hundred pounders brought $$104 to
4112.50, while seven to eight hundred pound steer yearlings came in from
$90.75 to $99.50. Click here for a
full rundown of the Monday auction in Oklahoma City.
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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