Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are pleased 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!

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Senator Inhofe noted that this was the first time he had heard from Senator Boxer that she would be using the Waxman-Markey measure that passed the House as the basis for legislation that she plans on marking up in the Committee this September. Inhofe concedes that whatever Chairlady Boxer wants- she will likely get within the Committee, but he remains convinced that any measure that looks remotely like the House passed bill will not pass the U.S. Senate.

He took part of the Senate hearing on Tuesday, building on a statement made by the Administrator of the EPA a week earlier before the same Senate panel. Lisa Jackson admitted that even if the U.S. should adopt the Climate Change legislation touted by the Democrats- the U.S. going it alone with such efforts would not decrease global warming indicators at all.

Click on our link below for our full conversation from Tuesday afternoon with Senator Inhofe, as well as a link to a Youtube of the Senator interacting with Bob Stallman of the American Farm Bureau during the hearing.

Click here for our visit with the Senior Senator from Oklahoma on the Climate Change Legislative battle that continues in Washington

AFBF is opposed to H.R. 2454, the House-passed climate change bill being examined by the Senate and that will serve as the basis for writing a Senate companion bill. "Unilateral cap-and-trade legislation will have little or no impact on the climate because greenhouse gas emissions require a global response," said Stallman. "A ton of GHG (greenhouse gases) emitted in China is the same as a ton of GHG emitted in Virginia. Regulating emissions in Virginia without regulating emissions in China will have little or no effect on the environment."

AFBF also contends that the bill will raise food prices for consumers unless an offset program is put into place to defray production input costs. An agricultural offsets program administered by the Agriculture Department is an essential cost containment measure, but revenues from offsets will only partially defray increased costs and not all agriculture sectors will benefit from offset opportunities.

We have more on the comments offered by the Texas farmer and President of the AFBF as he spoke to the Senate Committee yesterday morning- including the audio of his statement to the Committee- click on the link below to head that direction.

Click here for the webstory on Bob Stallman in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday

The Oklahoma Wheat Commission depends on checkoff monies for their budget- so a short crop means a short budget. OWC Executive Director Mike Schulte and his board decided to wait on final budget decisions for the fiscal year that began on the first of July until they had a good handle on the real size of the 2009 wheat crop. The USDA July first projection of a 75 million bushel wheat crop means one of the smallest budgets ever for the checkoff organization.

In addition to the budget decisions, the new officers for the coming year will be formalized. It is expected that Don Schieber of Kay County will rotate into the Chairman's slot- a position that has been held over the last year by Jeff Krehbiel. We have the complete agenda of the Commission linked on our calendar page- and the direct Calendar link to the OWC meeting today is below.

Click here for the Oklahoma Wheat Commission Agenda for July 15

"The U.S. wheat industry has come together to call for new technology investment, and we believe we have game-changing technologies - like our drought- tolerance and improved-yield traits - that can meaningfully address major challenges wheat growers face every season," said Carl Casale, executive vice president of global strategy and operations for Monsanto. "Through WestBred, we'll be able to deliver advances in breeding and biotechnology to deliver a step-change in yield while creating a springboard for new partnerships and collaboration opportunities that create additional value for farmers."

We have the rest of this story linked below- as well as reaction on our website from US Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers, who are delighted with the news. Click here for the Wheat Industry reaction, and follow the link below for the full Monsanto story- and we point you to their website's wheat pages that are now set up and available to be seen.

Click here for more on Monsanto Sliding Into the Wheat Business

Jeff says that producers need to produce more yield with the same inputs. This can be done through better management. That is, most Oklahoma wheat farmers are NOT taking full advantage of their crop inputs. Easy things to do in 2009-10 to increase profitability and yield include:

1. Soil Test - without a soil test you are guessing at your fertility needs and are probably losing money by either leaving yield on the table or applying fertilizer you may not need.
2. Switch to a higher yielding variety - Variety test results are now in county offices or you can click here for the report that we have issued.
3. PLANT QUALITY SEED!!! - Poor quality or weed- infested seed puts you behind the eight ball from the start.
4. Check on EVERY field on a WEEKLY basis and make decisions based on what is happening in your field, not what the neighbors are doing - If you don't have time to do this, hire a good consultant.
5. Know what weeds you have and spray in a timely fashion - taking care of point number 4 will help with this. Weeds rob yield and reduce selling price through dockage.
6. Use N-Rich strips and Sensor Based Nitrogen Management to determine how much topdress is needed - Dr. Arnall's in field trials showed that some farmers left yield on the table by under fertilizing last year while others applied nitrogen they did not need. These were large-scale in-field trials with yields verified at harvest, not small plots.

Again, the key is to produce more yield with roughly the same inputs. As I travel around the state, the farmers with the best yields are not always they ones that spend the most money on their crop. They are, however, generally the ones who pay close attention to their wheat crop and give it what it needs.

Click here for the complete PASS Newsletter as found on our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

NFU offered several short- and long-term options. The short-term options include the establishment of a safety net, maintain standards, deploy low-interest and emergency loans, and allow producers to label milk as free of artificial growth hormones. Long-term: passage of the Milk Import tariff Equity Act is sought, as well as the efficient transmission of price signals.

The monthly all-milk price has been steadily declining since the summer of 2007, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects the price will decline later this year to its lowest annual average since 1979. USDA Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) Under Secretary James Miller appeared on the second witness panel to discuss the Department's market forecast for the short- and long-term as well as policies in place to assist dairy producers.

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.