From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 5:56 AM
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 Tuesday November 25, 2008!
A service of Johnston Enterprises, KIS Futures and American Farmers & Ranchers!
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-- Final Weekly Crop Weather Update of the Season Shows Wheat Crop and Pasture Conditions in Fair to Good Shape
-- Oklahoma State Senate Committee Chairs Named by Republicans
-- What to Expect from the Obama Administration- Jim Wiesemeyer Weighs In
-- Revolution: The 2008 Oklahoma Wind Power Expo Blows into Oklahoma City Next Week
-- Wheat Grower Leaders Just Back from China- Compliments of Monsanto
-- On the Road Again- To Taloga!
-- In West Central Oklahoma- a Great Way to Hear Ron and Ed on RON is the Coyote- 95.5 FM
-- Looking at our Agricultural Markets...

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 have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!

We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And we are proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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.


Final Weekly Crop Weather Update of the Season Shows Wheat Crop and Pasture Conditions in Fair to Good Shape
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It is the final weekly Crop Weather Update of the year for the NASS office in Oklahoma City- and they report the 2009 Hard Red Winter Wheat Crop as being in 12% excellent condition, 51% good condition, 31% fair and only 6% in poor to very poor shape. We have a 75% fair to good condition read on the pasture and ranges of the state- with 19% of the pastures being rated in poor to very poor condition.

As far as harvest goes- Producers were able to increase the harvest pace with the past week's dry weather conditions. Sixty-nine percent of the sorghum in the State was harvested by the end of the week, a 15 point increase from the previous week but 14 points behind normal. Ninety-one percent of soybeans had been harvested by week's end, a 13 point increase from the previous week and three points ahead of the five-year average. Virtually all of the peanuts were harvested by week's end, increasing five percentage points from the week prior and up three points from the five-year average. Cotton harvested reached 56 percent by week's end, up 12 points from the previous week but 12 points behind the five-year average. Cotton conditions remained mostly in the good to fair range.

We have the full report linked below- it is noted in this final weekly report of the season that they will begin the monthly reports on Oklahoma crop conditions January 5, 2009.

Click here for the final weekly crop weather update for Oklahoma in 2008.


Oklahoma State Senate Committee Chairs Named by Republicans
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Oklahoma State Senate President Pro Tempore Designate Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, announced Monday that he is reducing the number of Senate committees and subcommittees by two, from 22 to 20. Coffee also named the Senate's new committee chairs on Monday.
Changes to the Senate's committee structure include:
1. The elimination of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
2. Combining two Appropriations subcommittees - Health and Social Services, and Human Services - into a single Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.

Nineteen Republican senators who each served as a committee co-chair the past two years will serve as chairmen in the GOP-controlled Senate. One new senator - former OSU president Jim Halligan, R-Stillwater - is being tapped to chair the Appropriations subcommittee on Education. Coffee plans to announce committee vice-chairs and other committee members within the next two weeks.
"This is one of the most intelligent and talented groups of committee chairs I have seen during my tenure in the Senate. They'll play a critical role in advancing the Senate Republicans' agenda of fiscal responsibility, job creation, government reform, and traditional values," Coffee said.

The Agriculture and Rural Development Committee will be chaired by Senator Ron Justice of Chickasha while the Tourism and Wildlife Committee will have Senator Mike Schulz of Altus as its Chairman. We have the full news release and the full list of Chairman linked below.

Click here for the news release detailing Senate Committee chairs for the coming Legislative Session


What to Expect from the Obama Administration- Jim Wiesemeyer Weighs In
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It may well be a battle royale over the most vulnerable part of the 2008 Farm Law's Commodity Title- and that is the pot of money know as Direct Payments. It is a total of just over $5 Billion annually- and Jim Wiesemeyer, Vice President of farm and trade policy at Informa Economics, believes that the almost inevitable Budget Reconciliation coming in 2009 or at the latest in 2010 will give farm bill foes the perfect chance to take away at least some of the Direct Payment funding as "agriculture's contribution" to pay for these huge bailouts and stimulus packages that President Elect Obama is saying will be needed to "jolt" the economy back to life.

Wiesemeyer talked about how a deal may come about regarding the paring back of Direct Payments in the coming year- as well as speculating on who might be the next Secretary of Agriculture- and his anticipation that we will see the antagonism towards trade with Cuba washed away with the Obama tsunami headed for Washington January 20.

We have the link to this story on our website- and we invite you to check out our audio overview of Wiesemeyer's comments that he offered in Jonesboro, Arkansas at the end of this past week- that link is below.

Click here for more on the Wiesemayer take on Obama and Agriculture.


Revolution: The 2008 Oklahoma Wind Power Expo Blows into Oklahoma City Next Week
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A wind-inspired revolution is taking place in Oklahoma and to help everyone in the state better understand the multitude of challenges and possibilities of this exciting new industry, Oklahoma's Secretaries of Energy and Environment will present REVOLUTION: The Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference, December 2 and 3, 2008, at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. "Wind projects are emerging across our state," said David Fleischaker, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy. "Clean, sustainable and affordable, wind is at the forefront of America's new energy plan. At the same time, we need to move forward with wind in a conscientious, deliberate and balanced manner. There are a number of issues that need to be thought about and discussed, which is the whole intent of Oklahoma's first-ever wind energy conference."

The Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference's two keynote speakers illustrate Secretary Fleischaker's point. The luncheon keynote speaker on December 2 is T. Boone Pickens, the author of "The Pickens Plan" and undoubtedly America's most outspoken advocate for America's wind energy future. The luncheon keynote speaker on the second day is Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy. While Pickens will discuss the critical need for America to remain committed to wind energy solutions, Tercek will provide a perspective on wind energy development that emphasizes the importance of environmental stewardship.

This 2008 Wind Energy Conference is one of several events happening the first couple of weeks in December before activity winds down for the Christmas holidays. We have more details in our calendar section of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We have the info on this conference linked below- check it out.

Click here for our calendar info on the Oklahoma Wind Energy Conference in Oklahoma City.


Wheat Grower Leaders Just Back from China- Compliments of Monsanto
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NAWG President David Cleavinger and CEO Daren Coppock returned last weekend from a two-week study mission in China as part of Monsanto's Grower Advisory Council (GAC). The GAC includes elected and staff leaders from national commodity organizations for soybeans, corn, cotton and wheat as well as representatives of the American Farm Bureau. It meets three times annually with Monsanto representatives to exchange information and provide feedback.

The China study mission marked the second overseas study mission of the GAC in its seven-year existence. The group's travel itinerary included visits in and around Shanghai, Beijing, and Nanning and Guilin in southern China's Guangxi Province, with goals of assessing economic growth and conditions; trends in the agriculture and food industries; and the status of biotechnology research and commercialization in China.

Coppock and Cleavinger came away with a lot of "take home messages" but here are a few of their impressions:
Anything times a billion is a lot - everything in China happens on a huge scale, and incremental changes have immense ripple effects far beyond China's borders.

The top priority for the central government is stability. Part of this strategy is a desire to be essentially self- sufficient in production of staple crops, particularly rice and wheat.

China's government is investing large sums in biotechnology research, but only allows very limited production of biotech crops. Since it is very unlikely that the government will invest significantly in biotechnology and not use the results, commercialization is likely a matter of time.


On the Road Again- To Taloga!
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We are planning on heading up the Northwest Passageway into Dewey County and catch up with Oklahoma Conservation officials who will be doing "show and tell" this morning with Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas.

Clay Pope with the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts hopes to show the Third District lawmaker areas of Dewey County still recovering from severe flood damage in 2007 and 2008. The idea is to focus on the needs of the National Resource and Conservation Service watershed dam program and its funding needs at the federal level.

Lucas has served when the Republicans were in control of the House as the Subcommittee Chair of the Conservation Subcommittee of the full House Ag Committee- he helped from that position in the writing of the 2002 Farm Law- then in 2008 as the ranking member of the same subcommittee- he once again had a hand in drafting language within the Conservation title of the 2008 Farm Law.


In West Central Oklahoma- a Great Way to Hear Ron and Ed on RON is the Coyote- 95.5 FM
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KWEY AM and FM are a couple of the most listened to radio stations in western Oklahoma-and the Radio Oklahoma Network is pleased to be heard at 95.5 FM and 1590 AM daily in Coyote Country!

You can hear our agricultural news and market reports ten times a day on KWEY- and we are proud to have Wright Wradio as a part of our RON team. We also salute owner Harold Wright for his willingness to step forward and make a run for the state legislature in 2008- and Harold will be filling the slot vacated by James Covey who term limited out this year.

We have details on the times you can hear our RON reports on KWEY- complete with links to their website and to the coverage maps of both the AM and the FM signal- all linked below and found on our website. We continue to develop our full list of stations with all of these links on our site and will be spotlighting our stations in the weeks ahead to remind you where you can hear Ed and Ron on RON!
AND- if your local stations still does not carry our programming- take a copy of this email to the local station manager and tell him, here's the best source for daily farm news in the state- you need to jump on board! Let us know when you do that and we'll be sure to follow up and tell them more about being a part of team!

Click here for more on the Coyote- KWEY AM and FM in Clinton/Weatherford.


Our thanks to KIS Futures, American Farmers & Ranchers and Johnston Enterprises 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


Looking at our Agricultural Markets...
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At the Oklahoma National Stockyards- it was another down day for feeder cattle and calves with an estimated 5, 500 being sold. The Market reporter tells us "Feeder steers and heifers 2.00-4.00 lower. Steer and heifer calves 3.00-5.00 lower. Demand mostly moderate but improved some towards the end of the sale as buyers were filling out loads. This late demand forced some improvement in prices as well. Monday price levels were mostly comparable to last weeks late auctions around the state that saw sharp down trends. Light run due to the holiday week, next Monday expected to be large again." To check on the Monday prices in Oklahoma City- click here.

Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click on the name of the report to go to that link:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat Country and the why of that day's market.

Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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