From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 06:10
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 March 8, 2007!
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Manure Compromise SB 709 passes Full Senate 38 to 8
-- Peterson and Lincoln lead the charge to sever any connection between Manure and Superfund!
-- Registration Deadline is Friday for Family Farming Workshops
-- The One Trick Pony has been overtaken by Swift Horses!!!
-- Coming later this month- the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Convention in Ft. Worth.
-- Sheep and Goats to show today through Sunday as the Oklahoma Youth Expo works around Fair Park Construction!
-- Big Cattle Runs this week at Regional Markets!

Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. Our email this morning is a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City April 19-21, 2007, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show held each December. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows 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.


Manure Compromise SB 709 passes Full Senate 38 to 8
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Classifying animal waste as nonhazardous is critical for the State of Oklahoma and its livestock industry. That's according to Sen. Ron Justice, R-Chickasha, author of Senate Bill 709 which declares manure as a nonhazardous material. Senator Justice is very pleased with the 38 to 8 vote in favor of his measure that will declare animal waste as non hazardous material.

Due to the controversy and misunderstanding surrounding the legislation, the bill was amended to include a definition of manure that was agreed on by representatives from the Attorney General's office, the Governor's office, various agriculture groups and the Department of Environmental Quality. Under provisions of the bill, manure is defined as any feces, urine, or other excrement from livestock and would include nonhazardous bedding, compost, or raw materials mixed with the excrement as well as any process water associated with the excrement or materials. Under the measure, individuals could still have manure classified as hazardous if they felt there were elements in the product that were hazardous, but it would be on a case by case basis. “This is simply to classify the materials so that if there are problems with it, if there are elements in the manure that someone believes are hazardous, then we can deal with those on a specific basis,” said Justice. “But it would protect the product so that it can be used, because to classify all animal waste as hazardous would have severe implications for our state.”

Scott Dewald with the OCA says his group, along with the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Farmers Union, Oklahoma Pork Council and others agreed with the Attorney General's office, the Governor's office and Secretary of the Environment Miles Tolbert's office to the definition. We have linked our conversation with Scott below and you can link to it to hear what Scott says our chances are to move this measure in the state House.

Click here to listen to Ron visit with Scott Dewald of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association about SB 709.


Peterson and Lincoln lead the charge to sever any connection between Manure and Superfund!
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The real threat to Attorney General Drew Edmondson's lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry companies may lie in the efforts in the U.S. House and Senate to clarify the intent of Congress over the use of CERCLA (the Superfund law) in hauling landowners and others into court because of the amount of chicken litter they have applied to their land.

The effort to pass such a clarification fell short last fall before the November General Elections- and now supporters of the measure must start over to gather signatures and get their day either before the appropriate committees- or obtain enough signatures to force a discharge petition for a floor vote.

That effort starts this afternoon, as lead sponsors for the Manure Clarification measure at the federal level include House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson and Republican Ralph Hall of Texas in the House- with Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas the lead sponsor in the Senate- with Pete Dominici of New Mexico joining her from the Minority side of the aisle. Lincoln has constituents under fire by the Oklahoma AG's office, as the companies that Drew Edmondson is suing call northwest Arkansas home. This measure would declare that manure was never intended to be considered a toxic material as defined by Superfund and that litigation using those rules and regs would have no standing when it comes to manure. It is CERCLA that the Edmondson lawsuit is built upon.


Registration Deadline is Friday for Family Farming Workshops
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Farm families contemplating the transfer of assets and management from one generation to the next should register now to attend Keeping the Family Farming workshops scheduled for later this month and then again in April. The workshop series is intended for Oklahoma and Kansas farm families, and will take place March 23-24 and April 27-28 at the OSU Extension Center in Enid, located at 316 Oxford. The workshops are sponsored by Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension and Kansas State University Research and Extension.

“To experience the full benefit of the program, participants should attend both workshops as a family to learn and work through the many dimensions of such a serious decision,” said Damona Doye, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service farm management specialist. Workshop sessions will help participants understand the potential tax repercussions and legal issues involved with selling and transferring assets, compare business entity options, estimate financial needs in retirement, evaluate alternative strategies for transferring the family farm, determine the family’s current financial position and identify productive ways of resolving potential conflicts.

Deadline for registration is this Friday, March 9. A registration fee of $200 per family of four participants is required, and will cover the cost of two workshop notebooks, meals and refreshment breaks for both two day sessions. Additional participants are $100 each, which covers both two day sessions . The registration is non-refundable. To register, send a check with your name, address, phone, e-mail and the names of family members who will attend to the Garfield County Extension Office, 316 Oxford, Enid, OK 73701. Make checks payable to Garfield County Extension. You can contact Damona Doye by telephone at 405-744-9813 if you want to make sure they will hold a spot for you. They have an online brochure about the conference and we have it linked below.

Click here for more information on the OSU-KSU Family Farming Financial Workshop.


The One Trick Pony has been overtaken by Swift Horses!!!
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It has to be one of the strangest string of events involving an agricultural group in recent memory- we are talking about the decision by the R-Calf USA board to remove their elected President and the resulting leadership implosion that has apparently followed. Details of how some members have seen this coup are recorded on a website that we have linked to below called Swift Horses.

We wrote about this a few weeks back- and I received one reprimand from a reader about calling this group a "single Issue" organization, focused on keeping cattle trade disrupted between the US and Canada at almost any cost. Well, since that time, we have been reading and talking to various people who concur that this group is focused almost totally on the Canadian Over Thirty Month rule at this time- and anyone who has wanted to rethink that stand has become an enemy of those who have seized control of the organization.

Our longtime colleague, Steve Cornett, has written on agweb.com in recent days that it is a shame that the group has fallen into such an incredible internal struggle, as the new Congress in Washington is very interested in doing many of the things that the group has been advocating in the areas of concentration and more.
There has been set up an anonymous website- so I make no claims of the honesty of those who are writing it- but there are lots of documents on their timeline to support what they are claiming- and it sure is an interesting read. We have linked it below- knowing that there are very few members of the group here in Oklahoma and no group that has risen up at the state level as they gained popularity in parts of cattle country. I suspect that their days are numbered- as it has gotten ugly. It does show that when you allow folks to run rough shod over parliamentary procedure and common courtesy, our society is not that far from anarchy.

Click here for the Swift Horses website about the turmoil within R-Calf.


Coming later this month- the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Convention in Ft. Worth.
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Cattlemen will gather in Cowtown March 23-26 for Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association’s 130th annual convention and 32nd annual trade show. “We’ve changed to a Friday through Monday schedule to make it easier for more ranchers to attend,” says TSCRA President C. R. “Dick” Sherron. “General sessions, committee meetings, the 250- plus exhibit trade show, entertainment events, and the School for Successful Ranching are open to any who wants to register,” he adds. “You don’t have to be a TSCRA member to attend.”

While the organization is dominated by Texas cattle producers, there are still a few Oklahomans who belong to the organization, who's most attractive reason to belong as an Oklahoman is their theft prevention/protection effort. However, that effort has just about gone to nothing in Oklahoma over the last couple of years, with only Joe Rector of Piedmont still in the employ of the TSCRA as a Special Ranger, covering counties in the central part of Oklahoma. Ranger positions in the districts serving all of eastern Oklahoma as well as south central Oklahoma are now unfilled, with western counties served by Rangers that live in Texas and serve counties in both states.

You can take a look at the schedule of the TSCRA convention by going to the link below.

Click here for the agenda of the TSCRA annual meeting in Ft. Worth.


Sheep and Goats to show today through Sunday as the Oklahoma Youth Expo works around Fair Park Construction!
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By the time you read this- the sheep that will be shown at this year's Oklahoma Youth Expo will be in place, with the first event slated for high noon today- Moormans/ShowTec Breeding & Club Lamb Breeding Ewe Show being held in Barn 3 Arena.

The Meat Goats must be in place by tomorrow afternoon at 1 pm, with the market lamb show beginning at 2 pm on Friday with the Dorset, Shropshire, Southdown and Specklefaced in Barn 3 Arena. Saturday morning, the sheep show continues with Natural Colored & Suffolk being shown in Barn 3 Arena.

Sunday morning, the wether goat show begins at 8 am, even as the market lamb show continues with the Hampshire & Crossbred lambs- all in the Barn 3 Arena. That same setting will be in place for the Grand Champion Selection for the Market Lambs at 5 pm Sunday afternoon and the Wether Goats to follow at 5:30 pm. Next week, the hogs and cattle will come in for their part of the Youth Expo- this year, the remodeling of facilities forced Youth Expo officials to spread out the event over these two weekends. If you want to check out the full schedule for both weekends- we have linked the lineup of events below for you.

Click here for the Oklahoma Youth Expo Schedule for the World's Largest Junior Livestock Show!


Big Cattle Runs this week at Regional Markets!
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Some of the largest runs of cattle that have been seen in many months have occurred over the last week. Jerry Nine and the folks at Woodward reported 11,330 last Friday; Apache had a run of 7,089; the Oklahoma National Stockyards had 16,388 on Monday and Tuesday of this week; Joplin reported 7,610 and last night the final total that we saw from OKC West El Reno was 10,426. Even with the large runs, we have enjoyed mostly higher prices as the demand for these cattle- both yearlings to refill empty feedlot pens as well as calves for spring pasture is solid.

The commentary from this week's Oklahoma National Stockyards summary reported that "Demand very good for the large run. Some cattle in thin and gaunt conditions and in buyers favor. The annual exit of cattle off wheat pasture is in full swing and running a week or two ahead of normal schedule. Demand very good for short supplies of thin calves suitable for grass that should be available in about 30- 45 days."


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows for their support of our daily Farm News Update. Go to their website at the link at the top of today's email for more information on either the Tulsa Farm Show or the Southern Plains Farm Show.

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



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