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 KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for their website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We also welcome 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!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show that is held each December, as well as the just concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

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There will be some cooler air filtering down across the state early next week- but Gary checked the various models that reflect where we will be next week- and he called me with the simple good news that "it's not gonna happen!" He was referring to temperatures that would have a "2" in front of them.

Right now, the coldest that the National Weather Service is calling for early Monday morning is around 40 degrees in Kay and Grant Counties- and that's as cold of a morning as we currently see here in the body of the state.
To take a look at Gary England's Weather Updates- click on the link below- and Gary will be glad to "Keep You Advised!"

Click here for the News9.Com Weather Site Featuring the Gary England Forecast!

"On April 22nd I looked at wheat in the area of Hinton (about 45 miles west of Oklahoma City on I-40), Hobart (south western OK), north to Watonga (central OK), and then along Highway 51 back into Stillwater for about 80 miles. Nitrogen deficiency (as indicated by green "pocks") was apparent is some fields, but for the most part, wheat looked good along this trip and ranged from in the boot stage to just starting to flower (Jagger field near Hobart). Overall, the wheat looked very good with many fields showing no or very little disease. The diseases I saw included powdery mildew, leaf rust, septoria/tan spot, and barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV). Of these, BYDV probably was the most significant. I also saw some fields where there was the indication of aphid activity and mummies, but no currently living aphids. In these fields, there were some widely scattered symptoms of BYDV, but no or very little stunting. I only saw large, widely scattered pustules of leaf rust on lower, yellowing/dying leaves. Powdery mildew, if present, was confined to lower leaves and was no higher than the third leaf below the flag. In one field south of Clinton found tan spot/septoria. This was a no-till field as indicated by the large amount of residue in the field. Tan spot/septoria was no higher than the third leaf below the flag."

The OSU Plant Pathologist also indicated that we are seeing something he is calling "physiological flecking" and he says we have seen this in Oklahoma in previous years- and was called the "Woodward Fleck" in the early 1980s. For more information on this development which is not really being traced back to one specific disease- go the link that Dr. Hunger has provided for us below.

Click here for the Details from this Wheat Disease Update of Dr. Bob Hunger of OSU.

Starting in the Panhandle- Tom Stevens of Guymon says the irrigated wheat crop is up and growing well- but that there will be virtually no dryland crop in those Panhandle counties this year. He adds that when you don't have conditions right for a dryland crop- usually the irrigated crop is not quite as good as normal either.
Moving down to the Woodward County area- JT Winters of Mooreland tells us that while the crop in his area is still on the small side- it's behind normal- that it is growing quickly now and with some rains, could produce a good crop here in 2008.

Keith Kisling from Burlington tells us that the wheat in his area of Alfalfa County and over into Woods County looks far better than that of a year ago- and the potential- if we can stay away from hail and other crop hazards- it will be a much better harvest result in 2008 than in 2007.
Don Scheiber of Kay County echoed those thoughts- adding he's hopeful that we won't get the solid days of rain at harvest this year that we endured in 2007- that we have some awfully good looking wheat- especially those fields that have enough nitrogen.

The Chairman of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission is Tom Glazer of Loyal- and he says that the wheat crop is a week or so behind normal in Kingfisher County- but things continue to look favorable for a much better harvest this season than in 2007.
Our sixth and final report from the Commission board meeting came from Jeff Krehbiel of Hydro- who also spoke of the crop being somewhat behind normal development- and worries some about hail knocking the potential of this year's crop- he's already had a bunch of acres that have likely seen their production cut by a third or more because of a hailstorm of a few days back.

We Have an Audio "Round the Horn" with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission that you can listen to by clicking here!

Among the Coops receiving these loans is Central Rural Electric based in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Central Rural Electric Coop will receive a loan totaling $9.75 million dollars from USDA for improvements they have identified.

"Investment in our nation's electric infrastructure is necessary to meet our future energy needs," said Schafer. "These loans will help expand and maintain access to reliable, affordable power by financing improvements for key generation, transmission and distribution service to rural electric consumers."

If you want to know more about this Central Rural Electric Coop- Click here for their Website.

In an expansion of the 1997 feed rule, the updated version will cover fallen cattle, and it will prohibit the use of the entire carcass of cattle over 30 months of age unless the brain and spinal have been removed. The infective agents for BSE - bovine spongiform encephalopathy - are most prevalent in the brain and spinal cord tissues, scientists say. Despite comments on the rule proposing it be broadened to include blood, FDA is not prohibiting the use of blood and blood products in animal feed "because we believe such a prohibition would do very little to reduce the risk of BSE transmission," the rule said.

National Renderers Association executive Tom Cook said today he is "disappointed that it appears trade policy is driving our regulatory arena." Cook was referring to the new protocol the U.S. Trade Representative signed last week with South Korea to re-open U.S. beef exports. That agreement makes exports of beef from animals over 30 months of age contingent upon the U.S. having the new feed rule in place. The National Renderers Association has fought the expansion of the rule to include removal of brain and spinal cord tissues from non-slaughter cattle over 30 months of age. Cook explains that requiring SRM removal from fallen, dead stock on farms will essentially mean that renderers will not pick up such animals -- resulting in disposal problems.
Cook says that he is surprised the rule got pushed through this quickly- and that he believes that it clearly a result of the arrangement negotiated with Korea over the last few weeks which dictated the final rule.

Click here for the final rule to be published in the Federal Register on Friday of this week.

This Saturday, their major Goat event of the year- the Langston Goat Field Day is front and center. This year's theme will be Innovative and Traditional Goat Marketing. There is a Baker's Dozen of workshops planned over the course of the day, with experts from Langston, OSU Extension, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and private industry are involved in teaching these sessions.

We have the link on our calendar page to learn more about the Goat Field Day at Langston happening this Saturday- AND we have lots of other events that we have added in recent days to the Calendar as well which we invite you to check out. Go to our Calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com which we have linked below- and consider what opportunities may be of interest to your operation.

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

It was found that the Australian Wheat Board paid kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein for wheat shipments made to Irag under the Oil for Food Program and concealed that activity. Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin called it - blatantly unethical and illegal. He said - so too was their unwillingness to acknowledge their misconduct until it was spelled out in great detail.

The Australian government has not yet undertaken criminal prosecution of the AWB officials involved in the misconduct. That too was recommended by the Cole Commission report. Harkin said - it is not enough for AWB to replace some of its top officials and proclaim that it has reformed its corporate culture; they must demonstrate a commitment to that reform in deeds as well as words.

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

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- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges and the why of that day's market.
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. Previous Day's Energy Market Recap- also from Country Hedging
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.