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 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.

The workshops, which were first announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Aug. 5, 2009, are the first joint Department of Justice/USDA workshops ever to be held to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The goals of the workshops are to promote dialogue among interested parties and foster learning with respect to the appropriate legal and economic analyses of these issues, as well as to listen to and learn from parties with experience in the agriculture sector. Attendance at the workshops is free and open to the public.

Both USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Attorney General Eric Holder will be on hand for this workshop on Friday. A lot of the focus will be on the hog industry and contracting practices, as well as on the seed industry and the rapid move to seed that has protected technology inside the seed itself, often times from genetically modified practices.

We have the full schedule as released by the Obama Administration- and will have coverage of that event as it unfolds on Friday- our friends at Agri-Pulse will be on hand in Ankeny- and we will be "retweeting" many of their posts so information from this event will show on our Twitter updates that are found on the bottom right hand side of our webpages.

Click here for the full story and schedule of this first workshop on competition being held tomorrow in Iowa.

According to the report, U.S. wheat ending stocks for 2009/10 are projected 20 million bushels higher as a reduction in expected food use pushes ending stocks to 1 billion bushels. Projected food use is lowered 20 million bushels based on the latest mill grind data from the U.S. Bureau of Census. High flour extraction rates for a second straight year are reducing the amount of grain needed to produce flour. At the same time, declining per capita consumption is reducing demand for flour and wheat. Exports of all wheat are unchanged, but hard red winter wheat exports are raised 10 million bushels with an offsetting reduction for white wheat.

On the feed grains- U.S. feed grain supplies for 2009/10 are projected slightly lower with a downward revision in estimated corn production and a reduction in projected barley imports. Corn production is lowered 20 million bushels based on updated estimates of yields for Illinois and Minnesota, and harvested area for Michigan. U.S. corn production remains a record at the revised estimate of 13.1 billion bushels.

Click on the link below- we have the complete report linked there and we have a great conversation that we had with Dr. Kim Anderson of OSU about the market implications of having the burden of a billion bushels of wheat as an ending stock number overhanging the market in the weeks leading up to harvest. We talk about market strategy and more with Kim.

Click here to hear comments from Kim Anderson and more on the Supply Demand Numbers from the Wednesday report.

American Farm Bureau has policy on Estate Taxes that states "Farm Bureau believes that estate taxes should be eliminated permanently. If estate taxes are reinstated, there should be an exemption large to exclude farms and ranches from estate taxes, the exemption should be indexed for inflation and be transferable to a spouse. Farm Bureau opposes a retroactive restatement of the estate tax. Farm Bureau supports the continuation of “stepped-up” basis—which adjusts the value of property for inflation at death."

Click on the link below for more on the Estate Tax issue- and you can listen to our comments with Mary Kay from this past weekend on why she feels Congress will finally get off square one and deal with the Death tax- probably by setting an exemption level of three to five million dollars per person.

Click here for more on the Death Tax Tug of War that Continues in Congress.

"Yet again, R-CALF USA learned through the rumor mill yesterday that Canada had detected the country's 18th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 72-month-old Angus cow. Although Canadian officials were purported to have notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week, a phone call this morning to OIE revealed that Canada had not yet notified OIE of this latest discovery. However, R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson was told via telephone by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that Canada, indeed, had discovered yet another case of BSE. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) later verified CFIA's report."

The release goes on to say that "At six years of age, this particular animal would have been born in 2003 or 2004, making her the 18th Canadian-born BSE case and the 11th BSE-positive animal eligible to be exported to the United States."
You can read the entire release from R-Calf by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the latest case of BSE found in the Canadian Cattle herd.

DeHaven is also critical of the USDA announcement that cattle branding—an outdated form of theft deterrent—will be an acceptable form of animal identification in the new system. DeHaven says - it's hard for me to imagine how this ancient technology will fit into a modern, interstate system to trace animals.

A new proposed system will be administered by individual states and tribal nations. Each will be allowed to use its own system of identification. Dr. DeHaven questions if - these programs will be compatible with each other. He asks, - will we actually be able to trace animals as they move from state to state with different systems in each state or tribal nation?

Earlier this week- we had a Beef Buzz on this subject with USDA's Tom Vilsack selling the Administration's plan on a State based system- click here to hear that Buzz.

We have linked below information on the activities for both today and tomorrow- and we invite you to join us for this celebration of agriculture in one of the top ten counties in the United States in agricultural production and sales receipts- Texas County.

By the way- we have some exciting news about a new source of Oklahoma farm news for the Oklahoma Panhandle that will be starting soon- we will be making that announcement at the Ag Appreciation Days in Guymon and then tell our email audience about it the first of the week. As our friend Gary England says, we'll keep you advised!"

Click here for more on the Panhandle Ag Appreciation Days in Guymon this evening and tomorrow.

Selling will be: 75 Performance-tested Angus Bulls (Fall 2008 to Spring 2009 Bulls...Carcass and Ultrasound Data...Semen tested and fully guaranteed)
20 Registered Angus Females (10 Fall Pairs, 10 Spring Pairs)
50 Commercial Females (25 Bred Heifers, 25 Open Heifers)

Sale manager Eddie Sims is very impressed with the set of bulls that will be offered from the Blackjack herd, as well as from guest consignor Pfeifer Angus. "You will like the soundness and condition of this group of prospects. They are ready to go to work. They have been developed in large pasture traps on a high maintenance ration and hay."

For information on the sale, you can call Keith & Janet Grissom at 405-382-7678- or click on the link below for more information and a link to a dowloadable catalog with full information on the offering at this event.

Click here for more on the Blackjack Farms Angus Sale in Seminole this Saturday.

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

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.