From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 07:18
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 March 26, 2008!
A service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, American Farmers & Ranchers and the Southern Plains Farm Show!
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-- Farm Bill Progress is Nil.
-- Oklahoma Farm Bureau Delegation Set for Washington Next Week.
-- US Border States with Mexico in Revolt Over Canadian Cattle Heading South of the Border.
-- OSU Animal Science Alums Plan Spring Reunion April 4!
-- Glance n Go Plan for Greenbugs Described in the Latest Newsletter from Tom Royer
-- Beef Promotion to Utilize YouTube in an Effort to put "More BEEF in More Places!"
-- A reminder- Send us your calendar items and feedback...

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 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!

We are also 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!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the annual Tulsa Farm Show held each December, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City coming up this April! 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.


Farm Bill Progress is Nil.
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There was a great deal of hope leading up to the Easter recess by Congressional farm leaders and even several key farm lobbyists that we would be able to get a framework, and allow the staff to fill in many of the blanks during the two weeks leading up to April Fools Day. But it appears that day is living up to its name as progress has been close to zero since early last week when Senators Baucus and Conrad took one look at the House and Senate Ag Committee's latest framework deal- based on ten billion over budget baseline and promptly declared- Ain't Gonna Happen.

What got these two northern state lawmakers screaming "DOA" was the idea of slashing funding in half to what Conrad has championed as a permanent disaster program. The House/Senate Ag Staff had proposed to cut that program in half and the good Senator from North Dakota will have none of that. Since he has been named as one of the Senate Farm Bill Conferees and is also the Chairman of the Budget Committee, what he says has stroke- and has chilled the talk and possible movement since the middle of last week.

As to where the process goes from here- there appear to be only two avenues. NOBODY seems serious about the 1949 Permanent Law and allowing it to be set into place- so that is out. There is the chance that Congress will finally get some "farm bill religion" and will compromise on all of these issues and a bill will emerge- probably not by April 18 but perhaps by early May.

The other viable option is one that various lawmakers trot out from time to time and then it's called a bad answer- and that is a one to two year extension of current law. I remember that Congressman Frank Lucas has called on his leadership to move this forward a couple of times- as early as last fall in fact. Of course, with Congressman Lucas representing a major southern plains winter wheat district, he has felt the need to get something in place for his constituents a lot longer than someone like Colin Peterson(the Chairman) who calls Minnesota home.


Oklahoma Farm Bureau Delegation Set for Washington Next Week.
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OKlahoma Farm Bureau's leadership, including President Mike Spradling, will have an opportunity to visit with the Oklahoma Congressional delegation during the 2008 OFB Congressional Action Tour, March 30 - April 3. The Oklahoma delegation includes Senators Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe as well as Congressmen John Sullivan, Dan Boren, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and Congresswoman Mary Fallin.

The group will get a farm bill update, which continues to be a subject of great disappointment to all who are looking for a deal to be put in place- but there are other issues that the group will be carrying with them to Washington. For example, OFB leaders will be asking the delegation to support efforts in the U.S. House and Senate to clarify that Congress never intended animal waste to be classified as a hazardous substance under the federal "Superfund" law. Lead sponsors of the animal waste clarification measure include House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Chairman, Collin Peterson and Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, the lead sponsor in the Senate. Congressman Lucas signed on to the measure as an original cosponsor.

OFB members will be thanking Congressman Dan Boren and Congresswoman Mary Fallin for authoring H.R. 3098, an American Farm Bureau priority piece of legislation that was originally requested by OFB. H.R. 3098 would change the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations definition of a commercial motor carrier from 10,001 lbs to 26,001 lbs. The bill would also prevent the U.S. Department of Transportation from requiring State Departments of Transportation to enforce certain requirements on agricultural producers hauling their own commodities in intrastate commerce.


US Border States with Mexico in Revolt Over Canadian Cattle Heading South of the Border.
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The Mexican government raised the ire of Texas Ag Commissioner Todd Staples when they announced they had a deal in place to allow Canadian breeding cattle to come into their country while keeping tight limitations on US breeding cattle in the aftermath of that Canadian dairy cow being found in the United States back in December 2003.

Texas promptly announced they would not allow Canadian breeding cattle to cross into Mexico from Texas- and the other states that border Mexico- and followed suit- including New Mexico, Arizona and now even California.

In the meantime, US and Mexican officials have been meeting to try to work this issue out- and we have an update on where we stand with Greg Doud, Chief Economist of the NCBA on today's Beef Buzz. The Beef Buzz is heard daily on great radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and we have many of our shows archived on our website on our Beef Buzz page- we have our conversation with Greg Doud linked below.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz with Ron and Greg Doud of NCBA.


OSU Animal Science Alums Plan Spring Reunion April 4!
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That's one of the new items we have just added to our calendar page of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. The Reunion is set for Friday, April 4 on campus at Oklahoma State University with special recognition planned for a lot of folks, including former members of the OSU Judging teams.

We also have details linked for a couple of big cattle sales this week- the OBI Bull Test Sale set for this Thursday as well as the Purvine Farms Production sale planned for this coming Saturday and Sunday.

There's also links for the State FFA Convention coming the end of April, as well as the last few POP meetings planned for this week and early next week- where you can learn more about the Winter Canola option for next fall. Go to our calendar page and take a look at these and other events- the link is below.

Click here for the Calendar page of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.


Glance n Go Plan for Greenbugs Described in the Latest Newsletter from Tom Royer
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Greenbug pressures are rising- but we have a beneficial predator of the greenbug that has also had a population jump in many locations- so says Dr. Tom Royer, Extension Entomologist for OSU in their latest Plant and Soil Science Newsletter that has been released by the Department.

The lead story tells not just of the greenbug pressure- but also about the new tracking system that OSU is working on that will help producers know the economic threshold of spraying for these critters. Dr. Royer says that while we have hit economic thresholds for greenbugs in some locations, the parasitic wasps that are the natural enemy of the greenbug have in many cases, taken care of the greenbug problem for us without the need for an expensive spray.

This newsletter also has an article about the potential of Sunflower production in the state, as well as a few tips on controlling alfalfa weevils here in 2008- we have the full newsletter on our website and linked for you below.

Click here for the latest Newsletter from the OSU Plant and Soil Science Department.


Beef Promotion to Utilize YouTube in an Effort to put "More BEEF in More Places!"
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The 2008 Beef Ambassadors are taking their promotional ideas onto the world wide web and the global website YouTube in order to promote and share ideas about how to prepare beef, launching a "More BEEF in More Places" video contest to bring out the best tips for beef lovers worldwide. The National Beef Ambassador Program, funded in part with beef checkoff dollars, encourages today's youth to get and stay involved in their industry by sending them to the front line to promote beef and educate consumers about the beef industry. During the last couple of years, the Ambassadors have taken their message to the Web, building and responding to beef messages and sharing accurate information where they find misinformation. This contest combines technology and sheer beef enjoyment to bring those messages home.

The Grand Prize winner of the contest will take home an iPod Touch, and five other finalists will each win a "More BEEF in More Places" T-shirt. The news relase about the project says "Videos submitted should show you and your friends enjoying "More BEEF in More Places," so get innovative and fun - and let your creativity run wild. Or focus on the simple things in life - maybe enjoying a meatloaf dinner around the table with your family."

We've got the rules and other information for those of you that might want to see how this contest is set up and how the younger demos see beef promotion in cyberspace working- the link for that is below. The post we are linking to is written by Beef Ambassador Michelle Wiggley of California.

Click here to learn more about the "More Beef in More Places" YouTube Competition!


A reminder- Send us your calendar items and feedback...
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We always enjoy hearing from you- and I encourage you to drop us an email from time to time and let us know how we are doing and what we can do better.

One suggestion that has been made by several of you is to provide some market information in one form or another in this daily email. We are working on how to best do that- and hope to have something in place that can be useful to you in the near future. Your ideas as to what you want in this area will be useful in helping us in coming up with some answers here.

I also greatly appreciate it when you send us calendar items about events that your organization or group may have planned. I get a lot of information flooding through everyday and we sometimes will miss an item- but an extra reminder or two is very helpful.
I am thankful for the response to this email that we started about two years ago- it continues to grow and the reason is that you have let others know about it. Share this daily update with whoever you feel can benefit from getting a quick update of the latest farm and ranch news that has impact on folks here in Oklahoma- we would love to add them to our subscriber base.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahomafor 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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phone: 405-473-6144
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