From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 06:52
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 November 2, 2007!
A service of National Livestock Credit Corporation, American Farmers and Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- OCA Quarterly Board Meeting and Fall Cattle Drive
-- Senate to Spend Much of Next Week Debating Farm Policy.
-- Ag Preference Farmer-Rancher Forum Set for November 14 at Quartz Mountain!
-- Huge Changes in Factors Hitting the Cattle Industry- Randy Blach Tells All
-- OALP Continues as Class Fourteen Will be Organized in 2008.
-- Cattlemen hoping to Get Senators to Revisit Packer Ban in the Senate Ag Committee Version of the Farm Bill.
-- It's Election Day! (Now until December 3rd)

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 National Livestock Credit Corporation as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. National Livestock Credit Corporation works diligently to provide unsurpassed service to their customers in the area of livestock financing. Check out the National Livestock Family of Services website by clicking here.

We also welcome American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their NEW AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!
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.


OCA Quarterly Board Meeting and Fall Cattle Drive
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This morning, the fall quarterly Board of Directors Meeting of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association is planned for the Sale Ring at OKC West in El Reno- then after a Ribeye Lunch that is being sold by the Oklahoma Cattlewomen- you can check out the Fall Cattle Drive of the OCA- featuring several hundred replacement females from some of the best ranches in the state.

We offered a list of consignors earlier this week on this email- and we have a link below to that email- simply scroll down to the last story on that email and you will see the Consignor list that AJ Smith provided us from OCA.

Quality replacement females are in limited supply this fall- so you may want to head for OKC West this afternoon to check out the females available for your herd.

Click here for the Daily Email from earlier this week- go down to the last story to view the Consignment List from the Fall Cattle Drive of the OCA!


Senate to Spend Much of Next Week Debating Farm Policy.
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It's unknown how long it may take to work through all the issues that Senators will want to discuss in the 2007 Farm Bill debate- but Senate Ag Committee spokeswoman Kate Cyrul says she expects most of next week will be taken up with the Farm Bill debate.

Her boss, Senator Tom Harkin, the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, seems happier with the ACR amendment that was advanced by Kansas Senator Pat Roberts that wheat growers say improved the concept of the Average Crop Revenue Program. The Roberts amendment would divorce ACR away from direct ties to the Crop Insurance program and would not allow a producer to jump back and forth between the regular commodity program and ACR- once they jump to ACR- they are stuck there for the balance of the farm law. In both cases, ACR would not begin until the 2010 crop year. Senator Harkin did not like the amendment at the time- said early in the week that he would support efforts to get rid of the amendment- but now it appears that he loves it, since the CBO has scored it as saving another billion dollars which the Senators have promptly said will be shifted from the Commodity Title to Nutrition spending- we need to be more generous with Food Stamps!

We know of at least two major amendments that will be advanced- one will by put forward by Dick Lugar of Indiana that would scrap the current commodity title completely and replace it with a government paid insurance plan to provide farmers with 80% of their "usual" farm revenue.
Senators Dorgan and Grassley will be offering a hard cap Payment Limits measure that will bring down the ceiling on farm program payments to $250,000. Senator Grassley is predicting victory in getting his measure included in the 2007 Farm Bill- at least the Senate version.


Ag Preference Farmer-Rancher Forum Set for November 14 at Quartz Mountain!
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He's back with his insights and strategic recommendations about where this business is going and how we best position ourselves to be ready. I am talking about Dr. David Kohl from Virginia Tech- the keynote speaker once again here in 2007 for the Ag Preference 8th Annual Farmer and Rancher Forum.

The date for this year is November 14- and the forum is planned here in 2007 for Quartz Mountain Resort in southwestern Oklahoma. Ag Preference has brought Dr. Kohl in several times before- and his vision for what we are doing in agriculture is remarkable. The organizers of the event say that this event is designed for Farmers, Ranchers (and their spouses), Young Farmers, Senior Farmers, Farm/Ranch Families in Transition (Moving from one generation of management to another generation of managers), Farm and Ranch suppliers, Implement dealers, others interested and involved in farming and ranching.

For more information on this conference, we have a link on our calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com or you can call Diane Beach at Ag Preference- her contact number is 1-800-727-3276.

Click here for more information on the Ag Preference Farmer-Rancher Forum.


Huge Changes in Factors Hitting the Cattle Industry- Randy Blach Tells All
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Well, maybe Randy doesn't tell all- but we do discuss higher grain prices and the so called "ethanol effect" on the cattle business. Blach says it's more than just ethanol- with the cheapest dollar in memory, very low wheat stocks, bidding wars among commodities for acres to be planted and more make this current environment for cattle producers to operate in unlike anything we have ever seen.

We also talk with Randy about cow-calf outlook- and he thinks this is where the profits of the business continue to be- especially when it comes to solid low cost operators.

Randy and I discuss these areas in our Friday Beef Buzz, heard on great radio stations on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and available on our web site at www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We also have that link available below- so take a listen to Randy's thoughts on these key topics for cattle industry participants to digest.

Click to listen to Ron and Randy on the Beef Buzz for a Friday.


OALP Continues as Class Fourteen Will be Organized in 2008.
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At the Fall Board Meeting of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program Advisory Board, members unanimously voted to continue the program and begin the process of identifying and encouraging men and women in Oklahoma involved in farming, ranching, agribusiness or other service to agriculture to sign up for Class 14. Applications will be available around the first of the year, with the filled out applications likely to be due in early May of next year. Class 14 of the program will be starting in the August-September timeframe of 2008.

Class 13 of the OALP has two final in state seminars- before their international travel experience set for the People's Republic of China and South Korea in February of 2008. That will be the capstone on their two year program of leadership development that began in the fall of 2006.

During the Board Meeting of the Advisory Council, Dean Bob Whitson of the Division of Agriculture at OSU made a special presentation to Dosia Jackson and two of her daughters in honor of her late husband, Paul Jackson of Apache. Both Paul and Dosia were original members of the Advisory Board formed by OSU to help operate the Ag Leadership Program in the state after receiving a grant from the Kellogg Foundation to kickstart the program. We chatted with Dr. Whitson after the meeting about the tribute paid to Paul Jackson and his life of service- and also talked about the growth of the student enrollment in Ag at OSU and more- click below to take a listen to that conversation.

Click here to listen to Ron and Dr. Whitson talk about Paul Jackson and the impact he has had on OALP and agriculture in the state.


Cattlemen hoping to Get Senators to Revisit Packer Ban in the Senate Ag Committee Version of the Farm Bill.
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As the Senate prepares to consider their version of the 2007 Farm Bill next week, of greatest concern to cattlemen is legislative language which would place a ban on packer ownership. This language would prohibit packers from owning, feeding or controlling cattle more than 14 days before slaughter. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association opposes this language due to the larger unintended consequences it could have on consumer-driven, producer-led marketing alliances.

NCBA has had member policy for nearly ten years to oppose legislation that would alter the competitive structure of the cattle industry or limit cattlemen's marketing options. In communications to Senate offices last week, NCBA members voiced their strong opposition to the amendment. "If I want to sell my cattle as feeder calves, I want more buyers - not less - competing on the purchase of my cattle. In order to get paid more for a better product, we have found that working directly with a packer and sharing the risk on the performance of the cattle we, our customers, the packers and the consumers all benefit," wrote an NCBA member. "Those who claim to be shut out of the market by these mutually-agreed upon arrangements are upset that they can no longer pass off their 'Pig-In-a-Poke' low quality commodity cattle for the same cash price as received by more progressive and quality minded producers."

"This amendment hurts the entrepreneurial spirit of cattle ranchers by inhibiting their participation in marketing alliances which can add value to their cattle," says Colin Woodall, NCBA's executive director of legislative affairs. "The proponents of this packer ban want to put the government in control of the cattle producer's business instead of letting the market reward a producer for the work he's done to produce higher quality beef." NCBA will be working to strip this language from the final Farm Bill and urges cattle producers to aggressively communicate with their Senators about the consequences of this language.
This language was included in the Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill proposal without a fight, as it was included in the "Manager's Amendment" offered by Tom Harkin and adopted on a voice vote. There is no similar language in the House version of the Farm Bill passed out by the full House back in August.


It's Election Day! (Now until December 3rd)
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Elections for local USDA Farm Service Agency Committees have begun. On Thursday - Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner announced that ballots have been mailed to eligible voters and the elections begin as of today, Friday, November 2.

Ballots must be received at FSA offices or postmarked by December 3rd of this year. Newly elected committee members and alternates serve a three- year term beginning on January 1st of 2008.

Of the nearly eight-thousand county committee seats - about one-third are up for election each year. FSA Committee members oversee operations in more than 23-hundred local FSA offices throughout the U.S. - making decisions on disaster and conservation payments - establishing allotments and yields - and more.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance 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!

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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