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 welcome Big Iron Unreserved Online Auctions as our newest sponsor of the daily Email. Their next auction is Wednesday, October 27 - featuring Low Hour, Farmer Owned Equipment. Click here for their website to learn more about their Online Farm Equipment Auctions.

We are also excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more information on the oilseed crops they handle, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.

And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the upcoming Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more on the December 2010 Tulsa Farm Show, including information on how you can be an exhibitor.

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Let me offer a bit of historical perspective- then we have stories and lots of links to our interviews and more that made up our coverage- they will follow.
Oklahoma traveled to the 2010 National Convention with great expectations- after listening to several of our National Proficiency Finalists and our two older speech contestants- I was certain Oklahoma could go high in several categories. Early in October, we talked with National Officer Candidate Riley Pagett of Woodward- and discovered that this young man- who was making his second national officer run in as many years- was really at peace with himself and quietly confident about the possibilities that were ahead.

When the dust settled in Indy on Saturday afternoon- here are the highlights:

Third National Officer in the last six years (including Two Presidents- Travis Jett in 2005-06 and now Riley Pagett- let's not forget Central Region National Veep Laila Hajii in 2008-09.)

Fourth Year in a Row that we have claimed one of the American "Star" Awards- This Year it's Rusty Kenner of Cheyenne as Star in Agri-Business.

A Dominating win in the Livestock Judging Contest by the Kingfisher FFA Team- this same chapter won the National Title in 2006 as well.

For the first time EVER- Oklahoma had speakers in all THREE National Speech Contest Final Fours- and WON two of the three with Tara Newton winning the Prepared Public Speaking Contest- Second win in as many years for Oklahoma and for Kingfisher as McKenzie Walta grabbed that honor in 2009. Ashton Mese- also of Kingfisher- nabbed the Extemporaneous Public Speech National Title- and did it with an incredible speech in the National Finals on Death Taxes and Agriculture. Tyler Schnaithman of Garber placed third Nationally in the Creed Speaking Contest- I heard one observer note that this year's Creed Final Four was the toughest in the last several years and any of this year's group would have been in contention for first place in the last couple years.

Oklahoma had the most National Proficiency Award winners of any state in the US again here in 2010- eight this year out of 22 National Finalists. That group was led by Kassandra Pfeiffer of Mulhall- Orlando who became only the second Oklahoma FFA member in recent years to grab a second National Proficiency Award- winning in 2009 as well.

The final National Award handed out Friday night in Indianapolis to an Oklahoman was to an Ag Ed Teacher- Alan Smith of the Cushing FFA. Alan was declared the National AgriScience Teacher of the Year by the National FFA Organization.

AND- Oklahoma had the most "Three Star" Chapters of any state in the Union- 25 achieved this highest level of accomplishment!

We get to some of the details with lots of links below- Click here for our pictures from the 2010 National Convention as found on Flickr- and click on the LINK below for our Blue Green Gazette Page that has excellent coverage from the 2010 event- with more stories to be added in the next few days that we simply have not had time to write as of yet.

Click here for the Blue Green Gazette Page as found on OklahomaFarmReport.Com

The national FFA officer selection process is intense and represents an assessment of years of academic and extracurricular accomplishments made by each student running for office. Nominees must first qualify on the state level to represent their particular state FFA associations. They then submit a thorough application, detailing their accomplishments and contributions to the community, along with an essay explaining their desire to be elected to national office. Once at the convention, candidates participate in five rounds of interviews, take an in-depth written test on the organization and agricultural education topics and complete two writing exercises.
Click here to read our full story on the web about Riley and listen to an interview with him from Saturday afternoon.

For the fourth year in a row- Oklahoma has secured one of the four American "Stars." This year, it was Rusty Kenner's turn as he was named the American Star in Agri-Business on Saturday morning in advance of the American FFA degree being handed out to several thousand FFA members. Click here for our story with Rusty that includes an interview that talks about his twin businesses of water well drilling and hay baling.

This Kingfisher livestock judging team won their "triple-crown" as they were named National FFA Champions this Friday, racing ahead of second place Oregon by 69 points. High individual was Kyle Mueggenborg, 3rd high was McKenzie Walta, and 7th was Josh Lippoldt and Audrey Gruntmeir placed 16th nationally. They were also the high-placing team in the written exam and in sheep and goats.
This completes a long streak of national titles won by this particular team, including 2-time American Royal championships and the champion team at the National Western Livestock Expo in Denver. The team has been coached by Ryan Burns, who teaches Ag-Ed in Kingfisher along with his wife, Lori. Click on the LINK below to read more- and see s a picture of the winning team.

In the Horse Evaluation- the Oklahoma Union FFA Chapter was second in the Nation- the team including Whitney Gibson, Emily Handke, Rebecca Gagan, and Dylan Hammons. Emily was the second high individual in the US in this Career Development Event.

Click here for the story we have on the Blue Green Gazette about the Kingfisher Livestock Judging Team

In 2009- it was Green Eggs and Ham with McKenzie Walta. In 2010, it's Tara Newton who spoke on Animal Agriculture and Antibiotics. Tara's topic was perhaps a tougher subject, as she was dealing with a subject that has had a lot of time in the spotlight, evoking strong opinions from the judges the three times she spoke. She took it on- defended the need for antibiotics to be used in livestock production in this country and handled questions in a way that leaders of some of the major livestock groups could have learned a thing or two. We talked with Tara after her last presentation of the speech in Indy- click here to read that story and listen to our conversation with this remarkable young lady.

Equally remarkable this past week was the National winner in the Extemp contest from Oklahoma- Ashton Mese of Kingfisher. We talked ag issues with this young lady leading up to this contest- and she, like Tara, is sharp, articulate and has a unique ability to read about or discuss a subject- then be able to organize her thoughts and deliver a world class speech- on demand. Click here to watch and listen to Ashton's speech in the National Finals as she addresses Estate Taxes and Agriculture. All I can say is- Awesome.

Turf Grass Management- William Maltbie of Burlington
Sheep Production- Madison McGolden of Fairview
Diversified Livestock- Placement- Kassandra Pfeiffer of Mulhall-Orlando
Veterinarian Medicine- Emily McCullough of Lone Grove

Swine Entrepreneurship- Austin Kindschi of Mulhall-Orlando
Emerging Agricultural Technology- Taylor Runyon of Atoka
Nursery Operations- Joshua Conaway of Ringwood
Forage Production- Brandon Folger of Ringwood

The opening General Session will feature the annual Chairman's Address to the organization- this year being delivered by Chairman Mike Engler of Cactus Feeders, based in Amarillo. We talked with Mike after he arrived in OKC on Sunday afternoon about how his feedlot members are faring here in 2010- hint- it's been a pretty good year- as well as discussing the many challenges that have come from big government.

Click on our LINK below to hear our full conversation with Mike Engler- we have it as a PODCAST in Ag Perspectives series that is available on our website, as well as via Itunes.

Click here for more with Mike Engler- Chairman of the TCFA

On Tuesday, the auction moves to the Chisholm Trail Pavilion at the Garfield County Fairgrounds in Enid. The sale begins at 10 Am as well. Leases in Garfield, Grant, Blaine, Kay, Alfalfa and Kingfisher Counties will be offered.

This Wednesday- the third auction of lease auctions planned for this week will be happening at the great Plains Technology Center in Lawton- also at 10 AM. Leases in Comanche, Stephens, Cotton, Jackson, Jefferson and Tillman Counties will be offered.

Click here for the county by county listing of parcials to be offered for sale.

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.