From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 06:53
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 Wednesday December 12, 2007!
A service of National Livestock Credit Corporation, American Farmers and Ranchers & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- First Amendment Voted on in Senate Farm Bill Debate
-- Coburn votes against the Lugar Amendment- but that doesn't mean he likes the Senate Ag Committee bill one little bit!
-- Tester Amendment offered by the Senator from Montana- would redefine the Packers and Stockyards Act.
-- The Ice is a Mess- but the Precipitation is Most Welcome- where received.
-- OFB is Lucky Number 13
-- Another price adjustment for Canola contracts for next June.
-- Alltech's Calf Country Profit Tour Continues!

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 just concluded Tulsa Farm Show, 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.


First Amendment Voted on in Senate Farm Bill Debate
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The first amendment that has actually been debated and voted on for the 2007 Farm Bill was Amendment 3711- dubbed the FRESH amendment by its authors. As we reported yesterday, this amendment would have stripped out direct payments immediately and phased out everything else in the Commodity Title, replacing it with a Crop Insurance Program- then taking the left over money and spending it on the priorities set by Lugar and Lautenberg.

The amendment failed 37-58- and that was it on recorded votes for the day- several other amendments were brought to the floor on Tuesday afternoon- and we would expect that at some point, the Senate may hold a series of stacked votes on a whole group of proposals.

Down the street at the National Press Club, the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee told the Farm Journal Forum underway that he sees the Dorgan- Grassley Payment Limitations proposal passing the Senate- he intends to vote for it- but after that it's a dead duck. He does not see it surviving the House- Senate Conference Committee. We have out Farm Bill page linked below- check there from time to time as we will update it as events unfold during the day on the floor of the Senate- it's possible once we get pass the Dorgan-Grassley debate- that things could go fairly quickly- but this is the Senate- so outguessing the pace here is a total impossibility.

Click here for the Farm Bill page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Coburn votes against the Lugar Amendment- but that doesn't mean he likes the Senate Ag Committee bill one little bit!
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Oklahoma's Doctor in the Senate, Republican Tom Coburn was one of those voting against the first amendment offered to the Senate Ag Committee's Farm Bill substitute. But the Senator has a bad taste in his mouth about the base measure- the Senator offered these comments after the vote: ""While I am grateful to Senator Lugar for offering a serious alternative to our broken farm policy, this amendment misses the mark. While overhauling our direct payment and crop insurance system is long overdue, this amendment redirected all savings to other federal programs, which are equally flawed and in need of reform. At the end of the day, taxpayers are still left with an out-of-control bureaucracy, with no real savings for their families."

The Senator says that the amendment would have simply shifted billions away from antiquated farm programs to monetary black holes like the food stamp program, which he says already wastes millions if not billions- as well as other programs that he calls "non priority spending."

The Senator adds in his reaction to this first vote on a 2007 farm bill amendment "USDA has over 100,000 employees, with 11,000 in Washington, DC alone. As long as that is the case, farmers in my state and across the nation will still be captive to a system that represents itself more than farmers. It is time to free farmers and ranchers from an outdated and bloated bureaucracy that cares more about paperwork than the future of American agriculture."

The Senator has three amendments that are among the twenty that the Republicans will be offering in this Farm Bill debate in 2007- and he hopes to put a few controls on government outlays through these measures.


Tester Amendment offered by the Senator from Montana- would redefine the Packers and Stockyards Act.
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As we talked with Jay Truitt of the NCBA yesterday, we talked about the fact that the so called Tester Amendment had not been introduced as of yesterday morning. Well, that was taken care of on Tuesday afternoon- as Senator Jon Tester of Montana offered 3666 (Conspiracy alert on the number on the bill!) that would mandate a redefinition of the Packers and Stockyards Act that has been on the books since the 1920s.

We feature the short comments that Tester offered on behalf of his bill on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon on today's Beef Buzz- our daily look at the beef industry on the Radio Oklahoma Network- heard on great radio stations across the state. In addition, we have many of our Beef Buzz shows archived on our website on the Beef Buzz page- good place, right?

And we have today's report featuring the latest farm bill doings from the beef perspective linked below for your listening on demand.

Click here for Ron on RON and the Daily Beef Buzz!


The Ice is a Mess- but the Precipitation is Most Welcome- where received.
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Some of our Mesonet locations are showing little moisture has been received in portions of the Oklahoma hard red winter wheat belt. Several of the Mesonet stations west of Oklahoma City have had some problems- for example the Hinton, Watonga and Weatherford locations have not reported data into the system- and how much moisture they have received will be most interesting to check. To this point, the El Reno location has gotten a minimal amount of rainfall reported- liquid or frozen. Woodward, Erick and Breckinridge also are reporting extremely small amounts of precipitation.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have multiple locations that have gotten at least two inches of precipitation since this winter weather has swept into the state- and three locations are now north of three inches of moisture- Inola, Miami and Talihina.

You can keep tabs on the rainfall totals- by going to the Mesonet site for agriculture that we have linked below- then click on current weather and then on rainfall- the choices I use mostly then include a look at the rainfall totals for today, for yesterday and something called "Recent Mesonet Rainfall."

Click here to check out the Mesonet site for Agriculture.


OFB is Lucky Number 13
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That's the rank of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau among the state Farm Bureaus that make up the American Farm Bureau Federation. In membership numbers released by the AFBF, total membership of their organization tops 6.2 million.

The Tennessee Farm Bureau continues to claim the title of the country's largest state Farm Bureau, with 629,027 member families. Joining Tennessee in the 2007 "top 10" Farm Bureau membership states are: North Carolina, 492,755; Kentucky, 462,494; Georgia, 437,734; Alabama, 433,700; Illinois, 419,934; Texas, 404,735; Indiana, 283,483; Ohio, 230,968; and Mississippi, 227,741.

As we mentioned, Oklahoma claims the number 13 slot at 167,888- just behind Arkansas and Michigan. The smallest Farm Bureau in the country is the Alaska group- with 337 members.


Another price adjustment for Canola contracts for next June.
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According to the Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, the price of new crop Winter Canola has increased to:
$.18 per Pound
$18.00 per Hundredweight
or $9.00 per Bushel

This price is delivered to an approved delivery Point. PCOM will pay handling, storage and freight from delivery point to crush plant. Call Brandon Winter for more information at 405-232- 7555.

Speaking of PCOM and Plains Oilseed Producers Coop- POP- we saw Gene Neuens and Brandon at the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Meeting this past Saturday and Gene tells us that they will start having some producer meetings on winter canola early in 2008- we will have details of those as the meeting dates are set.

For more info on the POP organization- here is a link to their webpage.


Alltech's Calf Country Profit Tour Continues!
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The lunch and dinner meetings being sponsored by Alltech- the company that has natural answers for the animal health issues you have with your beef cattle- those meetings continue today and tomorrow.

Lunch meetings today will be held in Beaver, McAlester and Muskogee from 11am to about 1 pm. The dinner meetings this evening will kick off about 7 pm in another three towns- Woodward, Durant and Adair.

There are also lunch and dinner meetings planned in El Reno, Duncan, Vinita, Clinton, Chickasha and Bartlesville on Thursday. For the exact location of these meetings in each town we have listed- call the Alltech folks- they will have a meal and some great information to pass along to you- that number for more information is 417-886-1000.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance and National Livestock Credit Corporationfor 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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