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 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.

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We also talked about the Obama budget- and he says that OMB and others within the White House for the Obama Administration that continue to push for dramatic change in farm policy in this country need to back off, allow USDA to fully implement the still new farm law that was passed in 2008- and debate these issues in 2013 at the end of the life of this current piece of legislation. He also is amazed at how the OMB does not understand the difference between gross and net- and believes that members of the House and Senate Ag Committees on both sides of the aisle will continue to stand up to the President on this issue. Along these lines, he told farmers in Canadian County later after we spoke that the Obama Administration and the Democratic Leadership seem to want to cut in only two areas of federal spending- defense and agriculture.

While speaking to the wheat farmers at this field day- Brad Tipton probably had some 200 present even with the muddy and drizzly conditions- the Congressman also spent a good bit of time talking about what he called the 100 ton gorilla, the Climate Change legislation being discussed by Democratic leaders as well as the rules and regs that the EPA is wanting to strangle much of our economy with. We visited with the Congressman briefly about those subjects as well.

Click on the link below to jump to our lead story of the morning- our visit on these topics with the top Republican on the House Ag Committee in Washington, Congressman Frank Lucas.

Click here for our conversation from Monday with Third District Congressman Frank Lucas

We have some computer challenges today that we are working around- so we hope to be able to record our comments with Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities on this report- and will have that as well as a rundown of the overall wheat estimates on a state by state basis- we have the link to our front page below- click there and check out the stories under the center category called Top Agricultural News.

Click here for the front page of our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

"I'm grateful not only that this great Oklahoman is being honored in this manner but that his name is being lent to our state agricultural complex," said Scott Dewald, Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. "I have never met anyone who actually knew Clem McSpadden that didn't like and respect him. That is the kind of person we want to memorialize agriculture in this state."

We have more on this vote that places the McSpadden Name on the current Department of Agriculture building, which now includes the new state of the art ag lab facility attached to the southeast corner of the older triangle building. Click on the link below for this story as found on our website.

Click here for more on the move by the State Legislature to Name the Ag Department Complex the Clem McSpadden Agricultural Complex.

"The new congressional district profiles provide a snapshot of agriculture at a local level," said Wilbert Hundl, Jr., Director of the NASS Oklahoma Field Office. "This information will help elected officials in Oklahoma make decisions based on current and accurate information and they are a useful tool for farmers and others interested in American agriculture at the local level." The congressional district profiles show changes in key areas since the last Census was taken in 2002. They include data on such things as the number of farms and acres in farmland, the demographics of local farmers, livestock inventory and crop production, and total sales of agricultural products.

We have looked just briefly at the Districts thus far- but have noticed that while Oklahoma's largest district in terms of land mass has a huge amount of farmland, almost 20 million acres, the fact that we grow wheat on many of those acres in Congressman Frank Lucas' district means the overall farm gross receipts level is not as high as in some of the other heavy ag Congressional districts. We will offer an analysis of our Oklahoma Districts tomorrow and look at the National picture later in the week.

Click here for more on the breakout of US Ag Census data by Congressional District- as found on our website.

Click on the link below and jump to our Tuesday Beef Buzz- and remember, you can go and check out previous Beef Buzz reports on the archive pages of our website. Click on the left hand side of any page of our website on the Beef Buzz button and go exploring for previous shows that may be of interest to you.

Click here for our Tuesday Beef Buzz with Jim Mintert of K-State- talking Cash Cattle Markets

The most notable factors in the above table are the strong growth in dollar terms recorded by all the leading companies in the industry, and also that Syngenta overtook Bayer to regain the leading position in the industry. In addition to organic growth, several medium sized companies were again involved in a number of acquisitions during both 2007 and 2008, which has also enhanced their sales performance in 2008 in comparison with the previous year.

Agri-Marketing Magazine's website has the numbers for 2007 and 2008 in a review of the top players- including the very impressive 42% increase in sales for Monsanto from 2007 to 2008. Click on the link below to see the numbers and where the firm you do business wit (or perhaps work for) is ranked.

Click here for the Top Ten List of the Ag Chem Companies in the Global Farm Chemical Arena

For Oklahoma's small grain crop- the report tells us "The recent rainfall has slightly improved small grain conditions and may help in the development of secondary wheat tillers to produce heads. Crop insurance adjusters continue to evaluate freeze, hail, and flood damage to small grain crops. Wheat and rye was rated mostly in poor to very poor condition while oats were rated mostly in fair condition. Nearly all winter wheat had headed by the end of the week. Twenty-eight percent of wheat had reached the soft dough stage of development, nine percent behind normal. Sixty percent of rye was in the soft dough stage by week's end, one percentage point ahead of normal."

Regarding our row crops, the rain has caused delays- "Row crop seedbed preparations and planting slowed down considerably this past week as weather conditions kept many farm operators out of the fields. Corn seedbed prepared was virtually complete at 97 percent, three percentage points behind normal. Nearly three-quarters of the State's corn crop was planted by last week, nine percentage points behind the five-year average. Corn emerged increased to 45 percent, 16 points behind normal. Sorghum seedbed prepared was at 64 percent, three points ahead of the five-year average, while sorghum planted reached seven percent. Soybeans seedbed prepared increased one percentage point from last week to reach 60 percent, nine points behind normal. Soybeans planted increased to 16 percent. Seedbed prepared for peanuts increased to 82 percent, 10 points behind normal while peanuts planted were at 29 percent, equal to the five-year average. Cotton seedbed prepared reached 80 percent, 12 points behind the five-year average."

Click here for the complete Oklahoma Crop Weather Update as released by USDA yesterday afternoon

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- 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 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.