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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It also pushes what is likely to be a bitter debate to a mid-term election year, potentially making it harder to corral some of the swing-vote Senators needed to ensure passage of the bill. The US House bill calls for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050. The Senate's slightly more ambitious bill calls for a 20-percent cut by 2020.

Both bills would create a cap-and-trade regime, the government would set the total level of domestic emissions allowable and then allocate quotas to companies.

Two of Oklahoma's lawmakers have been among the loudest opponents to Congressional action that includes Cap and Trade language. Senator Inhofe has battled from his ranking minority position on the Environment and Public Works Committee, while the Ranking Minority Member of the House Ag Committee, Frank Lucas, has said multiple times that the bill would be a massive tax hike on those involved in food and fiber production in the US.

We talk Estate Taxes with Woodall on today's Beef Buzz- and he sees a couple of possible solutions. One is a bill introduced in the House that would gradually bring the top rate down to 35 percent, and push the exemption up to 5-million and index it for inflation. This House proposal legislation mirrors a plan supported by a bipartisan group of senators during the budget debate earlier this year. Woodall also mentions a second possible answer for those in agriculture, a full exemption as long as the land stays in place as a farm or ranch.

It does appear that some liberal lawmakers may try to block a Death tax resolution, as they think only the wealthiest Americans benefit. You can read more on this and hear our Wednesday Beef Buzz with Colin Woodall on this issue by clicking on the link below.

Click here for our Beef Buzz with the latest on Estate Tax Reform- featuring comments from Colin Woodall of NCBA

Chef Gayland Toriello representing the Museum Café took the evening's top honors placing first in the competition. For his efforts, Chef Toriello received $1,000 from the Oklahoma Pork Council and an opportunity to represent Oklahoma at the National Taste of Elegance next spring. "This is my first time to compete so I was very surprised that I won," said Toriello who has worked at Museum Café for one and a half years and has been lead chef for six months. Toriello's named his winning creation "Pork 3 Ways." The dish featured a pork belly salad with huckleberry sauce, a pork chop with apricot poppy-seed sauce and pork rillets. It was garnished with English pea gelee, parsnip and pickled beet relish and a thin sweet potato.

Chef Vince Howard of Bolero placed second with his "3 Pork Cassolet with White Beans" and received $500 from OPC. Marc Dunham of the Rancher's Club placed third with his "Pork and Beans" and received $250 from OPC. Chef David Sullivan of the Oak Tree Country Club received the People's Choice award and $250 for his "Ginger Braised Pork with Port Wine Reduction." Chef Jakub Heartlieb of Elements Steakhouse and Grill in Tulsa won the wine pairing award for pairing his "Braised Pork Shoulder Tart and Pork 'Crème Brulee' with Roots and Mushrooms" with Deloach Pinot Noir.

Click here to read more about the Oklahoma Pork Industry's Taste of Elegance results

"The grade and quality of the cotton we are getting was affected by the cold weather and the time required to wait until we could get into the field to harvest it," she said. On the other hand, she reports top yields for both irrigated and dryland cotton througout their client service area. "We are getting reports of three bale/acre irrigated cotton and dryland cotton yielding two bales to the acre," she said. "Around here in the Carnegie area, the last days of the growing season found the cotton hurt by too much rain. Farther west on I40, in the Elk City area, the opposite effect took place with not enough rain. Even so, our clients in the Elk City region are seeing yields of dryland cotton in the 800-900 pounds per acre figures." Hileman's facility has a full complement of cotton modules waiting on the yard to be ginned and more are being hauled in each day.

Farther north and east, Gene Overton, manager of the Bi-State Cooperarive gin at Minco, Ok., explains his season is just starting. "We are just getting started ginning," he said. "We have ginned two bales today, but we have enough modules on the yard to keep us busy." Overton believes the Minco gin will process approximately 3,000 bales in the 2009 season. He sees some quality and grade problems due to the recent cold, wet weather, but he is pleasantly surprised the quality is still good. The Minco gin is owned by the Bi-State Cooperative headquartered by Blackwell, Ok. The Blackwell gin processes cotton from both north central Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

"Given your attention to science and the facts, I am disappointed by the treatment of ethanol and other biofuels in your new book, Our Choice," wrote Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen in a letter sent this week to Vice President Gore, "Many of your characterizations of today's American ethanol industry are out of date or simply wrong. With 10.5 billion gallons produced and sold this year, ethanol is a major factor in America's motor fuel supply and is helping eliminate the need for increasing environmentally damaging sources of crude oil."

Read more of Bob Dineen's letter to Vice President Gore on what Dineen says is a more positive story that can be told about biofuels today, as opposed to what Mr. Gore claims in this latest book. Click on the link below and check out the rest of our webstory- and we have a link to the full letter if you want to review that.

Click here for more on the RFA's Rebuttal of Al Gore's Latest Look at Ethanol

Dr. Dan Stein, assistant professor, livestock production, Oklahoma State University, will present "Making Sense of the DNA-based/Molecular Technologies available to Beef Producers." He earned his doctorate degree from OSU in animal breeding and reproduction. Gene Parker, DVM, will present "Comparison of Current Antibiotics to Treat Diseases in Oklahoma Beef Cattle." Parker is a food-animal quality & health specialist for the OSU Cooperative Extension Service.

A trade show is also a part of the event. Click on the link below for some more details- or call the number listed above and make plans to attend.

Click here for more on the Cameron Beef Cattle Conference in Lawton

If you want to nominate your horse, please email me at the address listed at the bottom of this email and tell me about your horse- age, breed etc. Be sure and give me a phone number in addition to your email as a way to contact you. You may also call and leave me a phone message at 405-841-3675.

You will be responsible for getting your horse to Tulsa for the Farm Show- the training sessions are invaluable to those that are chosen and can get their animals to Tulsa for this event. The link below is for Craig's website- you can see he is a world class trainer and handler of horses- so this is a great opportunity- so get your nomination requests to me ASAP.

Click here to jump to Craig Cameron's website- the official Horse Trainer of the 2009 Tulsa Farm Show

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.