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 welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here!

Our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the springtime 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.

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.

Now USDA has added Atoka and Payne Counties to the list as having confirmed cases of the disease. The national US Soybean Rust website of USDA reports that "Weather conditions have been favorable for rust development in many parts of the south and to the states just north of the gulf states. Soybean rust monitoring continues throughout the soybean growing areas."

Here in Oklahoma, we wait on Dr. John Damicone's latest word on what he has found in these two latest counties as well as where we may find Asian Soybean Rust next. Hotter, drier conditions should help limit the spread of the disease here in the state.

On Monday night, authorities began slaughtering a new group of about 50 cattle suspected of being infected, Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said. The cows were within the initial 2-mile radius protection zone officials set up Friday around the Surrey farm. This morning, we now have confirmation that this herd also had positive tests for FMD. About 120 cows were destroyed after the virus was first detected last week. Test results from the new group were expected Tuesday, but the precautionary slaughter had already begun, Reynolds told Sky News.

The investigation that focuses on the animal disease labs near the farm that first found FMD continues- with most finding it close to impossible to believe that the Merial Animal Health Lab did not have some role in the exposure of the disease outside of its walls. The strain of the disease found in the country is the same as one that spread across Great Britain in 1967, and is the exact same strain that the lab has been working with recently. At this point, many British farmers, especially in southern England, continue to watch and wait on signs that their animals either have the disease or have passed the incubation time frame without problem.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz which features comments by Jim Robb of the LMIC reminding us that if we should ever get FMD in this country- we are seeing an example of the types of disruptions to the livestock industry that would occur!

That's part of the opening page of the latest Mesonet newsletter on their Agweather site, which has tools on it that allow you to track the number of degree days that your location anywhere here in the state has received.

The August newsletter from the Mesonet folks walks you through their tools on temperature information and the special interactive pages they have to help figure actual degree days for various crops you are growing. They also point out a couple of "Gee whiz" thoughts about the raininess of 2007 thus far- for example, Stillwater has received more than 46 inches of rain thus far in 2007- normal rainfall for the entire year in Stillwater is around 36 inches. We have linked the latest Newsletter below- check it out!

Click here for the latest AgWeather Connection from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

"Because of the waterlogged soils, these fields developed a shallow root system with very limited taproot development. When the soils started drying out, the only roots the plant had were in the quickly- drying upper soil layer. At this time, the upper lateral roots are attempting to grow deeper, but growth will not be as deep as a root system with an active taproot.

"These plants will be at a disadvantage the rest of the season, especially if we have drying conditions. Fortunately, these spots are normally in only a small part of the total acreage of the field. Since dryland cotton is growing so well, we have had questions on use of Pix (or ethephon type growth regulators) on the crop. If the crop is well-fruited and is not on extremely fertile soils, it will likely not need a growth regulator. The best growth regulator is a good fruit load. Carbohydrate demand by the developing bolls should keep vegetative growth under control."
Comments from Dr. Banks are provided through NTOK, which is a cooperative effort of the cotton industry folks in North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

With the exception of possibly a few remaining fields, producers had the majority of wheat harvested by Sunday. Nearly two-thirds of the State's wheat stubble has been plowed. Seedbed preparation for wheat had begun on a limited scale. Rising fuel costs are prompting some producers to consider no-till in their operation for the 2008 wheat crop. Farmers had 93 percent of oats and 94 percent of rye harvested by the end of the week.

Irrigation systems were in full swing across the drier parts of the State. Corn growers had begun harvesting their crop in a few isolated areas. Ninety-eight percent of the corn crop was silking by the end of last week and 80 percent of the State's acreage had reached the doughing stage of development. Sixteen percent of corn was mature, 11 points behind normal. Half of the sorghum acreage was headed. Ninety-five percent of peanuts had reached the pegging stage and 67 percent of the crop was setting pods, both behind normal. Seventy-nine percent of the cotton acreage was squaring, and 27 percent was setting bolls, both behind the five-year average. Soybeans were 95 percent planted by the end of last week and 89 percent had emerged, both behind normal. With the exception of soybeans, our spring planted crops are generally in good condition, with 50% of the soybean crop being rated in fair shape. We have the complete Oklahoma report linked below- check it out.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update.

"Kim has always been on the cutting edge of program delivery, recognizing early in his career the numbers reached through radio, television and the popular press," said Mike Woods, head of OSU's department of agricultural economics. A fixture on television and radio as well as in newspapers and agricultural magazines throughout the region, Anderson has even been featured on "Good Morning America," the ABC national morning television news program. More importantly, he has talked to us regularly on the Radio Oklahoma Network and his longform pearls of wisdom have been linked from our website on this daily email.

Woods said Anderson has established an outstanding Extension program in grain marketing and risk management that has benefited producers, agribusiness owners, agricultural cooperatives, agricultural lenders, commodity brokers, students and other Extension personnel throughout Oklahoma, around the nation and beyond. "Kim has taught countless producers that their most valuable piece of equipment is not their combine or tractor, it is the pencil they use to develop plans because successful marketing and risk management determine profit, which collectively impacts the economy and quality of life for all Oklahoma," Woods said. A faculty member in the department of agricultural economics since August 1982, Anderson is also a Cowboy alumnus, having earned his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and doctoral degrees at OSU in 1974, 1976 and 1980, respectively. He served on the faculty of the University of Kentucky from 1980- 1982. ( I had forgotten that Kim had served in God's Country for a couple of years- I knew there was a reason that I always liked the boy!) Our Congratulations on well deserved honors that have gone to our friend Dr. Kim Anderson!!!

Among the events we have linked on our calendar are Town Hall Meetings for Congressman Boren and Lucas, as well as Senator Coburn, Water Planning Listening Sessions for the next several months, the Ag Technology Day in Chickasha this Thursday, The Grazing Lands Conference, the Southern Plains Beef Symposium in Ardmore and the Wheatland Stocker Conference in Enid.

We have lots of additional things we will be posting this week- so check back regularly. One thing that we will be posting in the next day or so are a couple of the major Winter Canola Producer Meetings that are being put together by Monsanto and local partners at various locations around the winter wheat belt.

Click here for the Calendar page at our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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