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.

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We got a report from a farmer who is also a crop adjuster for one of the major players in the crop insurance business here in the region- his company has hundreds of open claims in just Oklahoma. He reported that he had been from Kremlin to Tonkawa to Billings and then back to Covington and south to Hennessey. In this area- it has been the exception rather than the rule to have had a chance to harvest any wheat, with many of the fields in this area being estimated at TWO bushels per acre or less. Remember- the area that this adjuster mentions is the heart of Oklahoma wheat production most years- but in 2007, it's disaster, pure and simple.

He did offer a slightly better report in west central Oklahoma- out in the Thomas to Putnam area- yields and test weights are fair in that region- but there are still a lot of acres to cut. We do invite folks to give us their latest on harvest progress- or lack of progress in your situation if that applies. We are not using names- we are just looking for a feel of what the crop is really looking like.

Click here later in the weekend (after midday Friday) and we will attempt to have further updates on harvest activities on this front page of our website.

Dr. Carver writes "Ron, I want to share some very exciting news with you -- straight from the combine operated by Wayne Whitmore, project manager for the OSU wheat improvement program. He is in Goodwell, OK, at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center. While harvesting the regional performance nursery this afternoon (Thursday), Wayne discovered an OSU advanced line that hit 132 bushels/ac under irrigation....120 bushels/ac yields are not uncommon in this nursery, which contains elite lines on release-track from private and public breeding programs throughout the region. We will be sure to enter the OSU line into the 2007-08 OSU wheat variety trials conducted by Dr. Jeff Edwards, just to give folks a chance to see it under farmer-field conditions. "

The group had the chance to be in Washington the day of the Commodity Title Mark Up by the House Ag Subcommittee for General Farm Commodities- but that event caused a couple of top USDA officials to cancel their meetings with the Oklahomans.

The group did have the chance to meet with the Oklahoma Delegation- and promoting their views on some general issues like the Farm Bill- but also on some Oklahoma specific issues. Ray Wulf and the group he led expressed their deep concerns about allowing the federal government to build a biosecurity animal and plant disease laboratory within the confines of Ft. Reno, urged lawmakers to support the Dan Boren/Mary Fallon bill that would raise the minimum weight level for a commercial truck in this country and asked for continuing support on getting a federal clarification on the fact that animal manure is not a hazardous waste to be regulated under the Superfund laws. You can hear our conversation with Ray Wulf that we captured with him as we had a stopover in our flight on Thursday in northern Kentucky at the Cincinnati Airport- it is linked below.

Click here to listen to Ron and Ray talk about the just concluded Washington trip for AFR/OFU.

For more information on this sale- we have linked to the website from Collins Cattle Services that has this information- or you can call Christy Collins at 1-800- 975-6313 OR 580-335-3000. The sale is planned for June 23rd at the Ranch just outside Vinita.

Click here for details and a sale catalog of the Paw Paw Creek Ranch Dispersion on June 23rd

More disappointment came to the Secretary as USDA issued a statement from Johanns and USTR Ambassador Susan Schwab about the failure of talks in Europe this week to get the Doha Round of the WTO talks back on track.

In a joint statement, Johanns and Schwab lament the failure of talks this week "The United States is deeply disappointed with the outcome of this week's negotiations. For the past six years we have pursued an agreement in the Doha Round that will spur economic growth and development - especially in the world's poorest countries - by creating new trade flows and disciplining subsidies. To meet the Doha Round's promise, developed and advanced developing economies need to open their domestic markets for agricultural goods, industrial products, and services. We came this week with the commitment to make significant progress towards a successful Round. Unfortunately, this week's negotiations could not generate political consensus to meaningfully open markets to new trade - particularly in manufactured goods."

We feature comments with Mark Dopp of the AMI on that letter- and what he says is their obligation to make sure that people understand that animals born this spring and summer are likely to have to comply with mandatory COOL- even though the comment period has just been reopened for the program and that the final rule for COOL for red meat and fruits and vegetables is still months away.

Mark Dopp is featured in today's Beef Buzz on the Radio Oklahoma Network- heard across the state on great radio stations! We also have the program on our website- and you can take a listen to it- or a bunch of our best Beef Buzz shows over the last several months- just choose the program you want to listen to- click on it and the MP3 file will download quickly and easily.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz on COOL coming- get ready for it!

Harkin told reporters that a straight extension of the Commodity Programs and Payment Limits from 2002 "would never survive the floor" of the House of Representatives. He says that the Committee took a "very narrow view of farm policy" and added that he thinks supporters of southern crops upped the ante in the markup session on Tuesday- knowing in the end they will have to give quite a bit in order to save commodity programs in the end.

Peterson reiterated his desire to reform the current measure by cutting direct payments and using more of that for a revenue based countercyclical program, which he contends will be a better safety net and more defendable on the House floor, where a variety of challenges are very possible. We will spotlight one of those challenges on Monday as we share with you a conversation we had with Congressman Ron Kind of Wisconsin, the author of FARM21, a measure that would phase out the Commodity Program, put some of that money in savings accounts for farmers, but the bulk of it would be sprinkled across a variety of programs that Kind and his supporters envision.

Here's a link of a Wisconsin article on the Ron Kind plan- and it's interesting the first reader comment to this article is a guy for wants no part of Animal ID- people who hate that concept can make that argument work almost anywhere these days!

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