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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From I-40 to State Highway 51- the damage is also severe. OSU Wheat Plots in Kingfisher County showed freeze damage from 60% to 90%. North of State Highway 51, Edwards says that the freeze damage is more variable with the Lahoma test station reporting 40% to 70% injury. Other reports from the Enid area is that the later maturing fields have fared better, as is to be expected. Little freeze damage is seen in the northern tier of counties across the top of the state of Oklahoma. From Kay County west- damage is being assessed at 10% or less. Similar reports are coming from the three Panhandle counties.

We have more on this unfolding situation with our 2009 winter wheat crop. Click on our link below for the rest of this story- including an audio conversation with Dr. Jeff Edwards of OSU- and a link to the Power Point Presentation that he made on Wednesday to the Oklahoma Wheat Commission Board Meeting in Oklahoma City.

Click here for more on the freeze damage assessment to the 2009 Oklahoma Wheat Crop with Dr. Jeff Edwards.

AFBF President Bob Stallman says, - America's farmers and ranchers need viable rural communities for the goods and services required for their agricultural operations. They also need - affordable high-speed broadband service to access markets, weather reports, and government agencies.

The letter noted that unserved and underserved areas that lack access to a modern high-speed telecommunications infrastructure are predominantly in rural America and called for the vast majority of funds to be allocated to meet the needs of those communities. AFBF also noted retail price should be one of the primary considerations when awarding funding.

"An example of this would be a farmer who receives funds to purchase and establish permanent vegetative cover to prevent soil erosion, provide wildlife habitat or improve the nutrient content of the soil, all very important to environmental stewardship," said Robert W. Toole, director, Conservation Programs Division of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.
Equipment and supplies are needed to perform these practices, which the producer uses the grant money to purchase. Shideler's study shows that the $17 million from the project-based grants generated an additional $13.5 million of local economic activity throughout the state.
"Conservation practices relative to prescribed grazing and range planting consistently had the greatest economic multiplier effect of any practice across the state," Shideler said. "Each dollar spent on these practices created an additional 91 cents to $1.18 of economic activity."

The $76 million also included $39.2 million in direct payments to landowners in fiscal year 2008. Typically, these payments are reimbursements for lost income that happened as a result of implementing conservation practices.
"Examples of this would include the Conservation Reserve Program and Conservation Security Program reimbursing farmers for income lost due to leaving land fallow, as would similar payments for easements and riparian exclusion areas protecting stream banks," Toole said.
Shideler's research indicated that each dollar provided in direct payments generated 46 cents of additional economic activity. Thus, direct payments had a total economic impact of $57.2 million throughout the state. The remainder of the nearly $76 million - $19.3 million - was spent on administrative costs for local conservation districts and Natural Resources Conservation Service field offices. Included in administrative expenses are wages and salaries, including some benefits; operational expenses; and overhead costs.

Cyndi worked for me in Oklahoma City at the previous network that I established back in the early 1990s- she was a broadcast talent on the rise and felt the call to go back home to Illinois after spending a year or so in Oklahoma. She later went to work for Brownfield- first in Illinois and later took over their Farm Director position of the entire multi state network and moved to Missouri in the process. She fell in love and married a rancher in central Missouri- they have a farm operation and it was her play by play of a cow giving birth to a calf gone wrong that shows the care of livestock producers in this country.

The link below will take you to her story so very well told by Cyndi- but a paragraph at the bottom of this blog entry says a lot of about the battle that the US livestock industry finds itself in here in 2009. Cyndi writes "As HSUS and PETA spend millions of dollars to convince the unknowing public that those of us who raise livestock are irresponsible and barbaric, I ask again, where are the video cameras when we're checking cows in ten below zero temperatures in the middle of the night?"
If you don't check out any other link that we have in today's email- click on this one and read the whole story- you'll probably want to cry and then you'll want to scream out about how HSUS is doing their best to make sure that livestock producers are seen in the wrong way by the gullible public that wanna bid on Ellen's wardrobe to further aid the HSUS.

Click here to read Cyndi Young- Puyear's Calving Story

Mike Thralls of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission writes "Donna and I first met Joe when he was a graduate student and we were undergraduates. His spot in the basement of the old Animal Science building was the first cubby hole against the wall on the back row of desks. And Joe was there from early till late, as dedicated to that study as he was to his military service, his God, and his later career in extension. From the first, I came to appreciate that Joe was a person of integrity; he worked hard, was always the gentleman, and did not know how to tell a lie. As the years went by he had the same kind of positive impact on each of our five children encouraging their character development as they honed their livestock skills through various activities at which Joe was the constant presence. It has been our family's great honor to know and love Joe and have him as our friend. Certainly he has set the gold standard of service and character worthy for all of us to follow."

Angus Breeder John Pfeiffer also remembers his early encounters with Joe Hughes. "I still remember the first time that I saw Dr. Hughes and later met him. I was a senior in high school in 1971 and to this point all of the livestock judging contest had been run by Ray Parker they were organized but rather laid back. At the Oklahoma city spring show that year there was a new person in charge. This little short man was giving orders and lay out rules to be followed and whole different approach than what this senior with all the answers was use to. Later that afternoon at the awards presentation we met and it was a friendship that has lasted a life time for both me as well as my family."

They will be selling over 600 head- including
120 Angus Breeding Age Bulls
75 Registered Angus Spring Pairs
17 elite fall Angus show heifer prospects
107 Registered Limousin and Lim-Flex Spring and Fall Pairs
144 fancy Angus AI'd spring calving commercial heifers
and 25 commercial Angus spring pairs

For information you can contact the folks at Express Ranches at 1-800-664-3977. We also have the link to more on this sale as found on their website- click on the link below to jump there.

Click here for more on the Grass Time Sale of Express Ranch coming May 1, 2009

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.