From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 07:07
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 Friday September 14, 2007!
A service of Cusack Meats, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Let's Play "What If"- A friend of yours comes from Heathrow Airport into Oklahoma City and you take him to the State Fair of Oklahoma- Have you just spread FMD to our Livestock????
-- AFR headed back to Washington this coming week to talk farm policy with lawmakers.
-- NCBA Worries About Four Countries and Their Political Issues That are Holding Up Getting Improvements in Access for US Beef
-- Busy Weekend at the State Fair of Oklahoma in the Livestock Barns
-- Final Minimal-Risk Rule to be Announced Later This Morning
-- Major Crop Insurance Deadline of October First Nears- Time to Sort Through Your Options is Now!
-- American Farmland Trust Continues to Promote Revenue Assurance to Replace Countercyclical Price Supports in Next Farm Bill.

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!

The newest sponsor on our daily email service is Cusack Meats, starting their 75th year of service- saluting Oklahoma's Farmers and Ranchers! You can go to the Cusack website and select some great gift packs of meat for yourself- or for giving! And, our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show coming up December 6-8, 2007, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City next spring. 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.


Let's Play "What If"- A friend of yours comes from Heathrow Airport into Oklahoma City and you take him to the State Fair of Oklahoma- Have you just spread FMD to our Livestock????
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Well, probably not- but OSU Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel says, it's something to ponder with the latest case of Foot and Mouth Disease confirmed on a British farm in Surrey, FIVE miles from Heathrow! The cull that has gone on at this latest farm included both cattle and hogs. Dr. Peel pointed out to us that hogs are the really bad actors when it comes to being shedders of the virus that causes FMD- one piggy can generate up to 400 million pieces of infectious FMD material- it takes maybe 10 to 12 pieces of the FMD material to infect a cow

While we probably should not lose any sleep over the Heathrow Airport connection- it is something to consider- and you have to wonder if APHIS or Homeland Security or whoever is handling this at the airports these days are requiring folks to walk through foot baths or something similar on flights coming in from the major British airport.

We have this piece of our conversation with Dr. Peel linked below- take a listen and think a little about the biosecurity measures on your operation- maybe the next time you have guests on the farm or ranch- it wouldn't hurt to inquire if they have been overseas in recent days.

Click here to listen to Ron and Derrell talk FMD- this from our Three Minute Version of Morning Farm News on Friday.


AFR headed back to Washington this coming week to talk farm policy with lawmakers.
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A delegation from American Farmers and Ranchers had hoped to be in Washington while the Senate Ag Committee was marking up their version of the 2007 Farm Bill- that was expected to be happening this coming week- but now has been pushed back to the week of September 24.

The group from AFR will still be heading to Washington next week- and hope to get their ideas across in several key areas that may be a part of the Committee's farm bill product when they finally do their mark up. In particular, AFR is looking for more equity between commodities, specifically a better deal for wheat producers versus the other program crops. They are also very interested in a Permanent Disaster Program that has been touted by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baccus of Montana.

We will be previewing the group's travels to Washington on our Saturday TV Farm News Update, In the Field with Ron Hays that is seen on KWTV, News9 out of Oklahoma City at about 7:40 AM. Our guest will be Francie Tolle, their new Policy Analyst that is working directly with their Vice President, Terry Detrick. If you miss the Saturday morning feature, we will have a link to it available by midday Saturday on the front page of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We have that linked for you below- scroll down to the section, "Today's Agricultural News" and you will see the story link to that conversation between Ron and Francie.

Click here for our website OklahomaFarmReport.Com


NCBA Worries About Four Countries and Their Political Issues That are Holding Up Getting Improvements in Access for US Beef
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In their latest Capitol Concerns Email from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the industry group voices their worries about the slow going with four countries because of politics in those countries when it comes to reopening them partially or fully to US beef. They write "NCBA and the U.S. government have worked tirelessly to reopen and expand U.S. beef export markets. While we have seen progress, challenges still remain. Currently, major political developments in four important markets for U.S. beef are impeding movement toward fully re-establishing beef trade within these markets."

At the top of their list is Japan- "After less than a year in office, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned his post on September 12th. Over the past year, Abe was plagued by domestic scandals and low approval ratings. In July, his party suffered defeat in the elections of Japan's Upper House of parliament. Four of his cabinet ministers have been forced to step down, while another minister committed suicide over a financial scandal. Of specific concern to cattlemen is the fact that there have been five Japanese ag ministers over the past six months; with Abe's resignation there will likely soon be a sixth ag minister."

And there is very real concern about South Korea- that if we don't stop shooting ourselves in the foot with bones in boxes that are not supposed to have bones in them- this market could unravel. "The country's current president is stepping down and an election for the new president will be held in late December. Added to these developments is a resolution from members of the Korean parliament released this week calling for an outright ban on U.S. beef imports. This ban is also being supported by one of the candidates for President."

NCBA also says there is turmoil and uncertainty in both Russia and China, countries where we are still working to get them to open up to US Beef int he aftermath of the BSE found in this country back in 2003. Gregg Doud, Chief Economist for the group adds ""From a U.S. trade standpoint, these changes in leadership are incredibly frustrating to the process of fully re-establishing beef trade. As soon as you get to a working point between the interested parties, one of the parties changes causing further delays in the process."


Busy Weekend at the State Fair of Oklahoma in the Livestock Barns
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As we send this email- the Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Young Farmers and Ranchers are kicking off their annual Livestock Judging Contest for the Youth of our state. The results of the contest will be announced a little after midday today- we will have those names for you on Monday here in this email.

Seven Beef Breeds will be shown on Saturday and Sunday of the opening weekend of the Fair. On Saturday, the Chianina, Charolais, Braunvieh and Gelbvieh will show- then Sunday, Barn 3 will be the site of the Beefmaster, Saler and Simmental breed shows.

Also this weekend, hogs and sheep are showing- with Market Ewes Friday afternoon at 5 pm, Market Barrows, Commercial Gilts and Market Sheep on Saturday and then on Sunday- breeding sheep and breeding gilts are scheduled to run through the show ring in Barn 7.

We have the full Livestock Schedule of the State Fair of Oklahoma on our Calendar page- click here for a direct link to our Calendar listings.


Final Minimal-Risk Rule to be Announced Later This Morning
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This morning, USDA Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. John Clifford will announce and discuss USDA's final minimal-risk rule normalizing cattle trade with minimal risk countries. This rule is in accordance with international standards for countries that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Currently, Canada is the only minimal-risk country designated by the United States.

Dr. Clifford will be hosting a teleconference with this announcement- and we will be monitoring that for you with a report back on Monday.


Major Crop Insurance Deadline of October First Nears- Time to Sort Through Your Options is Now!
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With the October 1 deadline for insuring fall-planted crops fast approaching, farmers are faced with some major questions, not the least of which is "can I afford not to purchase crop insurance?" Oklahoma Farm Bureau's crop insurance manager Scott Bulling advises the risk is too high to go without protection.

"We're in such a risky area of the country, in terms of producing crops, it's definitely beneficial for farmers to have crop insurance," according to Bulling. "Over the last 15 years, for every 42 cents farmers paid for crop insurance they received $1.25. This shows crop insurance is a good investment and a good risk protection tool." Oklahoma farmers have taken notice. Bulling estimates that approximately 70 percent of the eligible crop acres are covered by some form of crop insurance.

Bulling says higher commodity prices this fall are forcing farmers to closely exam the amount they pay on crop insurance products such as Revenue Assurance, which is based on revenue, instead of production. "This may be the year to go ahead and lock in a price (using the futures market), guarantee yourself an income, rather than just using a multi-peril policy which only guarantees yield," Bulling said. The October first deadline for purchasing crop insurance applies to wheat, rye, oats and barley.


American Farmland Trust Continues to Promote Revenue Assurance to Replace Countercyclical Price Supports in Next Farm Bill.
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And the American Farmland Trust is saying "Such a Deal We Have For You" to wheat producers, as they point to an offer by the National Corn Growers Association that they would be supportive of moving some of the corn direct payment over to wheat producers if wheat producers would be willing to embrace their revenue assurance plan that is a part of and parcel of the Durbin-Brown Farm Bill Proposal- which seems to be one of three directions that the Senate Ag Committee might go when they do get around to writing their version of farm policy.

Idaho Wheat Producer Bill Floury (Past NAWG President) is on board with the American Farmland Trust and the NCGA on Durbin-Brown. He especially likes the idea of corn giving up some of their Direct Payments to help make this proposal a reality. It could amount to as much as $1.5 billion in additional Direct Payments to Wheat Producers.

Here is a link to an audio story on the American Farmland Trust website that describes this plan- with their pitch that wheat producers should be calling their lawmakers and clamoring for Durbin-Brown as their Farm Bill Preference. We have linked below an overview of their proposal.

Click here to review the Durbin-Brown Farm Bill Proposal.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Cusack Meats and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis!

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