Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company is 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!!!

We are proud to also 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. 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.

Senate Ag Chairman Tom Harkin accused Republican leaders of trying to kill the bill so the President wouldn't have the awkward position of vetoing the measure that's so important to conservative rural America ahead of the 2008 elections. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed those claims. He says Republicans were merely insisting on an opportunity to offer amendments of their choosing - including those that address taxes, immigration and other issues unrelated to the farm bill. McConnell says it's well known the Senate will pass a farm bill. Any statement to the contrary - he says - is laughable. He says a similar dance took place during the last farm bill debate in 2002. Once the games stopped - he says the Senate got back to work, had an open process for a week - and passed a bill. He says the Senate hasn't approved a bill at this point because the games haven't stopped. But he says they will - and that's when they'll finish the farm bill.

It appears that the "best case scenario" that is now floating around is that the Senate will be able to pull together a deal to allow debate and passage of a measure to occur in December before the Christmas break- with both bodies then appointing a Conference Committee and that group of lawmakers finishing a realistic measure before the end of January, with a final vote in both bodies to follow and a bill that is close to veto proof landing on the President's Desk before Valentine's Day. There may be some sort of a temporary extension of dairy provisions to take us past the first of the year- but this "best case scenario" gets us done before the 1949 Permanent Farm Law really becomes the proverbial naked elephant in the room.

Moran told us that he is concerned about how the process this year has been hijacked more than ever before- with more and more people simply looking for a way to capture the money that was a part of the 2002 farm law's budget baseline for their own purposes.

He believes that the way the process works is still the ally of Production Agriculture, in that the "real" bill will get hammered out by the House and Senate Conferees, who have a better grasp of the big picture of agriculture and the needs of farmers and ranchers. We have The Congressman's thoughts on the process and a concern that he has about the support that may or may not be there from the US Speaker of the House for the House passed Farm Bill proposal- click on the link below for that audio overview with Jerry Moran.

Click here to listen to Ron and Jerry Moran on the Farm Bill Process.

Grossi states "We need a new Farm Bill but time is running out. This is not, should not be a partisan issue. Both Republicans and Democrats want a new Farm Bill. The Senate Farm Bill was voted out of the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously with eleven Democrats and ten Republicans supporting it. I am speaking on behalf of farmers and ranchers, who are Republicans and Democrats and fiercely independent. They want to improve the environment, they are the stewards of the land, but they are turned away because our conservation programs don't have enough funding. For these farmers and ranchers, for fruit and vegetable growers, for consumers shopping at farmers markets, and many others-extension of the existing Farm Bill is not an option. Extension would be like driving into the future of U.S. agriculture policy while looking in the rearview mirror. Extension means missed opportunities to protect working farms and ranches, improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat. Extension means programs that protect wetlands and grasslands will be eliminated. Extension means more farmers and ranchers who want to help the environment will be turned away- and already two out of three are denied assistance."

The Democratic Senators involved were not only blasting the House Republicans for even thinking about a farm law extension- but also blasting the Senate Republicans for voting against cloture and how Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to manage the farm bill debate. Cloture, as we mentioned earlier, failed by a 55-42 vote- you have to have 60 Senators voting in favor of the cloture petition to get debate and discussion shut down on the Senate floor.

Fourteen MIO companies participated in this year's feed the hungry campaign including Advance Brands, Bar-S Foods, Chef's Requested Foods, Clements Foods, Daddy Hinkle's, Fields Pies, Griffin Food Company, Head Country, Hiland Dairy, Ken's Baker, J.C. Potter's, My Bigmama's Kitchen, National Steak and Poultry, and Shawnee Mills.

The MIO Coalition began its annual food drive to benefit the Regional Food Banks of Oklahoma in 2003 when enough food was raised to provide 12,613 meals. Since that first year the coalition has doubled or nearly doubled the amount donated each year.

The Grand Champion Steer sold for $23,000 and was owned by 17 year old Ky Stierwalt of Leedey, Oklahoma. In the Wether Lamb division, the Reserve Grand Champion was owned and shown by Kashen Urban of Roosevelt, Oklahoma. His animal sold for $11,000 and Kashen completes his youth career as a 21-year-old this year. Kashen also has the distinction of having been in the Sale of Champs four times during his youth career. That accomplishment is seldom equaled in livestock agriculture.

The total Sale of Champions this year grossed $90,000 for six animals. Each youngster receives 80% of the gross sale price of their animal. Another 10% is used to advertise and recognize buyers who have paid premium prices to the young people, and the final 10% is donated to Kentucky Harvest to fund a "Blessings in a Backpack" children's school program. Meat from the animals in the Sale of Champions is also donated to Kentucky Harvest and used to feed the homeless.
As the North American International Livestock Exposition drew to a close in 2007, the expo's claim as the largest purebred livestock expo in the world remained intact. Over 21,000 entries were featured in approximately 140 shows and sales.

On today's Beef Buzz heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network, we have Tom Leffler join us to talk about what the numbers may mean and whether they are really slightly bearish or not.

You can hear what Tom had to say about the Friday Cattle on Feed report- and where this may lead us on cattle prices- by going to our website and scrolling down to the November 19 edition of the Beef Buzz- we have the link to our page below- you can also scroll through recent Beef Buzz updates and listen to other industry leaders about some of the hot topics of the day within the beef cattle industry- all on our web site, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

Click here to go to our Beef Buzz page on the OklahomaFarmReport.Com and scroll down to November 19 to listen to Ron and Tom on the COF.

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