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.

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 Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Southern Plains Farm Show, coming up April 15,16 and 17, 2010.

If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here.

Here's what several of the class members are saying about the trip: Scott Neufeld from Fairview- "Water is still king and issues about who has it, and how much they can have, are priority here too. Market access and competition are the biggest issues to profitability. We heard this as we visited a wholesaler, vegetable auction and packaging for distribution center today.
"Government red tape and policies are also challenges. Like us they deal with this issue.

Allen Entz: "The acres upon acres of greenhouses are obviously impressive. The marketing method of the vast amounts of produce is what got my attention. Some produce is sold through cooperatives with approximately 50 percent being sold by auction.
"As I am an auctioneer myself I was excited at our opportunity to experience a live auction. The rapid pace of the auction is very interesting, especially with the absence of an auctioneer!!! The price is shown on a screen and begins to descend automatically. When a bidder pushes the button located on their desk, they are the buyer. Pretty much opposite of what we in the States are used to. They sell anywhere between 200,000 and 380,000 kilos of produce in just a 30 minute auction."

Brandon Winters with PCOM took special interest in the Olive oil processing seen by the group- having as his point of reference the cottonseed, canol and sunflower seed processing done by the organization he works for. "While in Spain we visited an olive oil processing plant producing virgin olive oil. I was really amazed at the way the producers brought their olives into the processing plant. They used small single Axel trailers with manual hand pumps. "We learned that olives can have between 18 and 24 percent oil and that the remains or meal is sold as a burning agent and cannot be feed to any animals due to toxicity issues. I learned that they can mechanically press around 850metric ton per day. I learned that their vergin oil sells at what I would call a premium to most food grade oil. They run some of the same equipment as American processor's however in a little different fashion."

Click here for more from OALP Class 14 and their travels in Spain- including audio from one of the Class Members.

Dunn says that probably the number one, two and three things to do are one and the same- constantly control costs. We also talked with him about arbitrage- and how that can increase the pace at which your money will turn and allow you to accept smaller profit margins, and simply turn over your money more times in the course of a year, allowing those small returns to mount up.

We also talked about the future of the beef cattle business- and Dr. Dunn is optimistic about where the future will take progressive operators. You can click on the link below and learn more about his thoughts on where the beef business now stands and where he sees it going.

Click here for more on the future of the Beef Cattle Industry.

District 1, Kelly Chain, Canton; District 2, Alan Mindemann, Apache; District 3, Lee Leeper, Alva; and District 4, Brent Rendel, Miami. There were no nominations for District 5 and Peach will appoint someone to that board position in the near future.

The Oklahoma Oilseed Commission will collect an assessment from producers to fund research, market development, education, and enhance oilseed production.

Among the key numbers that will help put the in perspective- Rich tells us that he expects more than 7,000 young people to exhibit livestock at this year's event, showing more than 11,000 animals. They expect at least 25,000 people to take part in the show- kids showing, parents supporting, FFA Advisors and 4-H leaders and hundreds of volunteers that make the show a success. Rich expects about $800,000 will be spent on March 22 during the Sale of Champions, rewarding 205 young people for showing the very best in their category at the Oklahoma City show. Beyond that money, there will also be other prize money and lots of scholarship dollars handed out to young people over the ten day run of the Expo- and when you add up all the premium sale dollars, prize money and scholarships- the investment into Oklahoma youth will likely exceed $1.5 million.

We have a conversation on our website with Jeramy that goes into a lot more detail about how the show prep is going, how the facilities will be used this year, and even some info for those of you that might want to get involved and support Oklahoma's young people thru the OYE. Click on the link below and you can take a listen to this opening story of the 2010 OYE. (By the way- if you have interest in sponsoring our coverage of this year's Expo- call or email me and I will tell you more.)

Click here for the OYE Preivew for 2010 with Jeramy Rich.

"Because of its strong currency and financial stability, there has been a tendency to think of Japan as an oasis in the global economic downturn," said Philip Seng, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). "But make no mistake about it, Japan's retail and food service sectors have faced serious challenges in recent months. One of the keys to growing market share for U.S. beef and pork in this economic environment has been to meet these challenges with products that deliver tremendous versatility and value."

USMEF emphasizes the versatility of U.S beef for restaurants that want to attract price-conscious diners. Yakiniku (Korean barbecue) is one of the largest sectors of the Japanese foodservice industry with approximately 20,000 outlets across the country. To increase penetration for U.S. beef in these popular restaurants, USMEF is promoting alternative beef cuts such as chuck rib, boneless short rib, chuck eye roll, brisket, outside skirt and tongue. With support from the Beef Checkoff and MAP, these cuts were recently featured by USMEF at the Yakiniku Business Fair in Tokyo, where many key buyers from Yakiniku restaurant chains were among the 13,000 attendees. USMEF demonstrated several new menu ideas at the event, including sal ted beef tartar, beef roll rice ball, beef and gelatin noodle salad and beef meat ball.

Click here for more about the Japanese Success Story for US Pork and Beef

Oklahoma Beef Council Executive Director Heather Buckmaster tells us that "If you haven't been to this outstanding educational event hosted by the Oklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma State University, and the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Product Center, now is the time to do so." It is free to participants with a $250 refundable deposit. Please register by March 22. You can call the Oklahoma Beef Council at 800-235-5403 for information on signing up and you can go to our calendar listing for this registration on our website by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the Oklahoma Beef Quality Summit Coming in April.

Events include the huge Commodity Classic in southern California next week, the Oklahoma Youth Expo starting March 12 and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Annual Convention on March 19 thru the 21st.

You can check details of these items and a whole lot more by going to our calendar page as found at www.OklahomaFarmReport.com. You can also click on the link below and we will jump you to what we believe is the most comprehensive listing of rural and ag events important to Oklahoma you will find anywhere on the world wide web.

Click here for our Calendar page on OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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.