From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:49 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 Thursday February 11, 2010
A service of Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, Midwest Farm Shows and KIS Futures!
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-- Katie Couric Part Deux- Denmark is Good- US is Bad.
-- Oklahoma is Ready, Willing and Able to Do More in Animal ID
-- HB 3202 Marches Toward the House Floor at the Oklahoma State Capitol
-- Oklahoma Pork Congress rescheduled for March 25
-- Oklahoma Carbon Program Accepting Applications
-- 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.

And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the recently concluded Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Southern Plains Farm Show, coming up April 15,16 and 17, 2010.

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.


Katie Couric Part Deux- Denmark is Good- US is Bad.
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Katie Couric used another six minutes on Wednesday CBS Evening News to promote the idea that antibiotics should not be allowed to be used as a production tool for animal agriculture in this country. A good bit of the report last night had to do with a visit to the country of Denmark where they no longer use antibiotics to help promote growth in their swine. She found a farmer who survived that government mandate and has increased his operation to where they grow more than 30,000 pigs annually. Of course, he is just a pig farmer, not a part of industrialized farming.

The problem is that the Danish move in this direction has not really helped human health along the way. Dr. Lyle Vogel, Assistant Executive Vice President of the AVMA in the summer of 2008 testified before a Senate Committee about the moves in Denmark and pointed out the lack of results in that country.
"While the total quantity of antimicrobials used in food animals in Denmark has decreased by 27%, the increase in disease has resulted in a 143% increase in the quantity of antimicrobials used for therapeutic purposes. And the antimicrobials now used more frequently are in classes which are also used in humans, such as tetracyclines.
"Even though the results of the Danish ban are very mixed, proposals within the United States go beyond the Danish example by proposing to ban uses for the prevention and control of disease in addition to uses to promote growth."
Click here for his complete testimony which was about moves then (that continue now) for a ban of antibiotics in animal agriculture.

In response to the Couric story- the CBS affiliate in Tulsa responded to an email from an Osage County rancher complaining of the unbalanced nature of the report and looked for the Oklahoma angle. They turned to Mike Spradling, President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and did a report from the Flying G Ranch in Tulsa County- Click here for that story put together by the News on 6.

In addition, this morning, News9, KWTV in Oklahoma City talked with us about the story- and was also turning to Roy Lee Lindsey of the Oklahoma Pork Council for his reaction during their morning news.

Click here for the Second Segment from CBS Evening News on Antibiotics in animal agriculture.


Oklahoma is Ready, Willing and Able to Do More in Animal ID
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Oklahoma State Veternarian Dr. Becky Brewer appears to be okay with the announcement last week by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack that his agency is going to move away from the NAIS concept for Animal ID- and embrace a more decentralized approach.

The framework, announced last Friday at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Mid-Year meeting, provides the basic tenets of an improved animal disease traceability capability in the United States. USDA's efforts will:
Only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce;
Be administered by the States and Tribal Nations to provide more flexibility;
Encourage the use of lower-cost technology; and
Be implemented transparently through federal regulations and the full rulemaking process.

You can click on the link below for more on this conversation that we had with Dr. Brwer- it's being heard on our Beef Buzz report on great radio stations around the state that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click here for more on the decentralized approach to Animal ID with State Vet Dr. Becky Brewer.


HB 3202 Marches Toward the House Floor at the Oklahoma State Capitol
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HB 3202, authored by Rep. Don Armes, would protect a livestock owner's right to perform traditional animal husbandry practices as well as utilize equine dentists, chiropractors and farriers at the discretion of the livestock owner. According to the According to the blogsite, OkAgPolicy.org, this is a priority issue for Oklahoma Farm Bureau this session. Last week, the bill passed House Ag Committee chaired by Armes on an 11 to 3 vote. Those legislators voting for the legislation where Reps. Don Armes, Dale DeWitt, John Enns, Eddie Fields, Steve Kouplen, Leslie Osborn, Charles Ortega, R.C. Pruett, Todd Russ, Mike Sanders, and Harold Wright. Legislators who voted against the Farm Bureau-supported legislation were Reps. Brian Renegar, Phil Richardson and Dennis Bailey.

There is a companion measure in the Senate- SB1999. The lead for that measure is Mike Schulz of Altus. It has also cleared the Senate Ag Committee with little opposition.

It appears that the measure may be considered as early as next Tuesday by the full House. On the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Facebook page- they are calling on their members to flood the capitol on February 16- "OFB is calling all members to the Capitol at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16 to rally for private property rights. Join us in our efforts to protect the rights to care for our livestock and hire whom we choose to care for our livestock. Legislators need to hear from you!"
We have talked to Don Armes about HB3202- and you can click on the link below to hear that conversation.

Click here for more on HB3202 and our visit with Don Armes about the measure on Equine Dentistry.


Oklahoma Pork Congress rescheduled for March 25
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The 2010 Oklahoma Pork Congress and Annual Meeting has been rescheduled for March 25. The event will be held at the Express Event Center in Oklahoma City. Approximately 200 pork producers from across the state are expected to attend. Due to a winter storm that brought ice and snow to most of Oklahoma on January 28 and 29, the event was postponed from its original date of January 29.

"We apologize for the inconvenience of having to reschedule our event. We anticipate many pork producers will still be able to join us on March 25," said Roy Lee Lindsey Jr., executive director of the Oklahoma Pork Council.

To get an accurate meal count, OPC is asking those who plan to attend to preregister by March 18. If you registered for the original date, we ask that you register again. There is no cost to attend Pork Congress. The registration form can be found at the Oklahoma Pork Council website- and we have it linked below.

Producers will hear from the Oklahoma Pork Council, the National Pork Board and the National Pork Producers Council about local and national programs and issues. Bob Brown, a market analyst from Edmond, Okla., will share with producers what he thinks will happen to the pork industry economically in 2010.

During the awards banquet, the 2010 OPC Hall of Fame Award will be presented to John Thomas, vice-president for Tyson Foods and general manager of The Pork Group, and Myrl Mortenson, managing partner of Hanor, which oversees the Roberts Ranch of Oklahoma swine operations in Hennessey, Ames and Mooreland. The 2010 Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Ron Hays, director of farm programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click here for the OPC website for registration details


Oklahoma Carbon Program Accepting Applications
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The Oklahoma Carbon Program is now accepting applications from aggregators and verifiers of Oklahoma agricultural and forestry carbon offsets. Oil and gas companies who want verification of downhole injection of carbon dioxide are also invited to apply. Applications and details are available on the Oklahoma Conservation Commission website, which we have linked below in the full story on our website.

“There are definitely benefits from participating in this voluntary program,” said Stacy Hansen, Carbon Program director for the Conservation Commission. “For example, oil and gas companies can now get formal recognition with a certificate if they are capturing greenhouse gas emissions from a source and pumping them underground to recover oil,” she said. “Even though they may have been injecting underground for years, the program's third party verification of the carbon storage now provides companies the credibility that is necessary to claim the injected carbon dioxide as a carbon offset and trade it as a commodity.”

One goal of Oklahoma's carbon program is to connect the interested public with screened companies that handle carbon offset contracts. “We will publish on our website the names of approved aggregators and verifiers. We will also refer to them in program publications that are distributed at events where the carbon program exhibits,” said Hansen, noting that the program was promoted at 20 Oklahoma events reaching around 700 people in 2009.
You can read more about this program by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the Oklahoma Carbon Program.


Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites 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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We've had requests to include Canola prices for your convenience here- and we will be doing so on a regular basis. Current cash price for Canola is $7.55 per bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $7.75 per bushel- delivered to local participating elevators that are working with PCOM.

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.
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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