From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 06:14
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 Monday June 11, 2007!
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- USDA Crop Production Report- Wheat Numbers to be updated at 7:30 am this morning!
-- Wheat Harvest Slowed by Sporadic Showers over the weekend
-- South Korea reopens to US Beef- again!
-- Osage County Cattlemen's Annual Convention later this week!
-- House Ag Committee Markup Marches On- Peterson hoping to finish Committee work this month.
-- Biodiesel Workshop Set for Tuesday and Wednesday of this Week.
-- Farm Bureau works with OSU on Demographic Research of the Farm Community

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 recently concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City, 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.

We continue to want and need your harvest reports!!!! Let us hear from you- your test weights, yields on what kind of wheat- lots of elevator operators continue to say they think we will be getting into a better quality wheat as we go into harvest- give us some idea of what YOU are finding as you continue to cut out this 2007 crop!!! Email us at the address provided below!

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.


USDA Crop Production Report- Wheat Numbers to be updated at 7:30 am this morning!
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It is widely anticipated that USDA will reduce the size of the US Hard Red Winter Wheat crop- especially in the three key southern Plains states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The 64 dollar question is how pessimistic the NASS people may turn out to be- based on survey work on or around June first.

The May estimate was considered optimistic by many- although a lot of our veteran wheat crop watchers seemed to be buying into those numbers which included 361 million bushels for Kansas, 161 million bushels in Oklahoma and 132 million bushels for Texas. Based on how harvest has moved thus far- it really seems to be a matter of how quickly they want to reduce the size of the crop as we could easily be ten to twenty percent less than the predictions made back in May.

Click below for a preview of the report that will turn into details about the report later on Friday morning- after about 9 am.

Click here for the Preview/Review of the Wheat Crop Production Numbers for the 2007 Hard Red Winter Wheat Crop.


Wheat Harvest Slowed by Sporadic Showers over the weekend
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The Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, Mark Hodges, is reporting that harvest is nearing completion in the far southwestern corner of our state- the area south of US 62. Mark adds that rain slowed but did not completely shut down harvest over the weekend.

It appears the heavier rain showers came to central and north central Oklahoma over the last couple of days, with the Oklahoma Mesonet reporting several locations getting close to an inch or more- some of those locations in that category included Minco (1.01"), Erick (.98"), Guthrie (.96"), Fairview (1.24"), Alva (1.07", Cherokee (.99") and Newkirk (a combined 1.71" Sunday and early Monday).

Mark adds one encouraging note. Test weights in the Panhandle are reported at 62 pounds from early cuttings. We talked with Mark about the Panhandle on Friday and he indicated that they did not have nearly as much of an issue with rust as the rest of the state did- and they were not as far along back at Easter when we saw so much damage in the north central and northeastern part of the state. That area may be a "salvation" for giving us a good quantity of high quality hard red winter wheat to blend with the lighter wheat from other parts of the wheat belt to enlarge the supply of a marketable wheat for food use- otherwise, many of the bushels we have harvested may be pushed into the feed wheat marketplace- a much better place this season compared to many years because of the building demand for ethanol that is competing with corn for feed usage.

Go to the front page of our website for continuing comments on wheat harvest- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


South Korea reopens to US Beef- again!
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The government of South Korea announced that it has lifted the quarantine it had imposed on U.S. beef imports after product intended for U.S. domestic consumption - which contained bones - was mistakenly exported to them. South Korea, once the third-largest buyer of U.S. beef, agreed to resume imports of the meat in January of 2006 - while restricting them to boneless cuts from animals aged 30 months or younger.

Department of Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary Chuck Lambert said he hopes the temporary disruption won't impede progress on fully opening South Korea to all U.S. beef. He said - we're pleased to have trade back on track. The disruption briefly threatened a U.S. and South Korea free-trade accord reached in April valued at as much as 29-billion dollars per year.

Illinois cattleman Steve Foglesong, the Policy Division chairman of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), says he's pleased that the situation was resolved much more quickly than past disputes. Foglesong says the Korean market is critical to American cattlemen's profitability, and export mistakes like the one made earlier this week cannot be tolerated. "Looks to me like we dodged a bullet," Foglesong said. "That's an important market for us." Foglesong's comments are a part of our Monday morning Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network- and we have it linked for you below.

Click here to hear the latest comments on the South Korea re-opening to US Beef as of Friday afternoon.


Osage County Cattlemen's Annual Convention later this week!
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The annual Osage County Cattleman's annual convention which includes trade show, noon luncheon and barbecue and dance on Friday June 15. That will be followed on Saturday morning with the annual ranch tour and barbecue with stops including Drummond Land & Cattle: Reed Brothers: Stierwalt Cattle Company; Briggs Cattle Company: Sooner Land & Livestock and the barbecue at the Nature Conservancy headquarters, formerly the headquarters of Chapman-Barnard Ranches.

On Saturday afternoon at 1:00 pm will be a women's ranch rodeo and at 5:00 pm the men's ranch rodeo and then on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 will be the annual Ben Johnson Steer Roping.

For more information on this year's Osage County Cattlemen's Convention and more- give Jeanne Strom a call at 918-287-4170.


House Ag Committee Markup Marches On- Peterson hoping to finish Committee work this month.
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A week from tomorrow, the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management of the House Ag Committee will hold a markup of the Commodity Title of the 2007 Farm Bill- and everyone is waiting to see what Colin Peterson's proposal is going to look like when it comes to a possible cut in Direct Farm Payments- and a move towards a "better safety net" which has been the mantra from the Chairman in recent weeks.

Two weeks from tomorrow (June 26th) is the markup at the full Committee level of the 2007 Farm Bill by the House Ag Committee. That schedule is another week later than what Peterson told reporters just this past Thursday, when he indicated that the Subcommittee would work on the Commodity Title this coming Thursday and the Full Committee would be meeting next week.

Peterson also told reporters this past Thursday that the week of July 16th- there has been time allocated to begin debate of the 2007 Farm Bill on the floor of the US House- and that will really tell the tale of what this farm bill will really look like for the next five years. If Peterson convinces leadership, including Nancy Pelosi, to back him and the Committee version of the measure- that could be enough to turn back attempts by the radical reformers of farm policy that want to seize control of the proposal on the floor and slide their substitute into the place of the Committee proposal.

Click here for the House Ag Committee's farm bill page to review what has been assembled at the subcommittee level thus far.


Biodiesel Workshop Set for Tuesday and Wednesday of this Week.
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The Food & Agricultural Products Center on the campus of Oklahoma State University is holding a biodiesel workshop on June 12-13 in room 201 of the FAPC. "The biodiesel industry is expanding dramatically in the U.S. and around the world," said Nurhan Dunford, FAPC oil/oilseed chemist and workshop chair. "High petroleum prices, concerns over long-term availability of fossil fuels and environmental issues have escalated the demand for alternatives fuels."

The interactive biodiesel workshop topics will include feedstock selection, preparation, biodiesel production techniques and quality issues. "We are fortunate that nationally recognized experts in the field agreed to come to the FAPC and speak at this workshop," Dunford said. "I believe that this workshop is a tremendous opportunity for Oklahomans who are interested in biodiesel production to learn about the economics and technical issues involved in biodiesel production directly from experts in the field."

Registration Deadline is past- but if you want to check to see if any spots might still be open for this workshop, you can call the folks at OSU. The contact person is Karen Smith (405) 744-6277. We do have more information on this workshop on our Calendar page of our website- you can take a look at that additional info on this event- as well as several other events happening here in the month of June by going to the link provided below.

Click here to be taken to our Calendar page of WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Farm Bureau works with OSU on Demographic Research of the Farm Community
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In an effort to determine the financial health of Oklahoma farms and ranches, Oklahoma Farm Bureau joined forces with Oklahoma State University to distribute a survey to the state's producers. "We felt like we needed to know statistically the financial shape of our farmers and ranchers," said Steve Kouplen, Oklahoma Farm Bureau president. "This will help us formulate policy decisions as we work with Congress on developing a farm program that works for everyone."

There were no major surprises, said Michael Dicks, OSU agricultural economist, but a brief summary of the demographic results are interesting.
* The average age of the survey respondents was 59. According to 2002 Agricultural Census figures the average age of Oklahoma farmers is 56.
* Average owned acres was 718. Census data indicates 404 acres is the average size.
* Average distance to a town with a population of 10,000 was 27 miles.
* 70 percent of the respondents have a college degree.
* 65 percent reported their spouse works off the farm.
* 54 percent reported the operator works off the farm. Census data shows 2002 percentage was 44 percent.

We talked with Dicks about the survey work- and he was disappointed in the number of responses they got from the 1200 surveys that were sent out to Farm Bureau members in this research effort- less than 5% were usable in putting together data. He does say that he is hopeful that this might be a starting point in helping establish a farm management database that could help legislators and other policy makers in understanding the financial health of the farm community.


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 and make plans to be an exhibitor at either the Tulsa Farm Show this December or the Southern Plains Farm Show next spring!

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



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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