Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. Our email this morning is a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City April 19-21, 2007, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show held each December. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

Our E-mail the next few days is also being sponsored by Laura's Lean Beef- Laura's Lean Beef Co., a natural beef provider based in Lexington, KY, will hold a gathering 10:00 am Jan 24 at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center in Shawnee, Ok to introduce local producers to the benefits of raising the lean, heavily muscled cattle that will perform well on Laura's bonus grids. For more information on this meeting- you can can e-mail Beth Whiteford at bwhiteford@LLBcorp.com. Or click here to be taken to their web site for more producer information on Laura's Lean Beef!

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.

As far as this past weekend's blast- ground zero is clearly in and around McAlester where thousands still do not have power- and the situation for our rural friends in that area is just as bad or worse- some estimates having it take three or four weeks to get power back on in rural areas served by Rural Electric Coops- such as the Kiamichi Rural Electric. Hundreds of power poles were lost in this pelting of ice that ended up coating everything with more than an inch of the frozen water.

Now- looking ahead to this Saturday and Sunday- it's still just a weather model they are trying to get their arms around at the National Weather Service in Norman- but we might see another round of snow and sleet in southeastern Oklahoma- with just snow from southwest Oklahoma across the central counties into the northeast- amounts are very tentative but the National Weather Service Forecast Discussion says we might be looking at 3 to 6 inches of the white stuff on Saturday. Click below for that current Forecast Discussion and how things may be shaping up.

Click here for the National Weather Service's Forecast Discussion looking ahead to the weekend.

We have an audio feature that we wanted to share with you this morning from fellow farm broadcast Todd Gleason out of Illinois. He is talking with long time University of Illinois grain marketing economist Dr. Darrel Good about current demand- what the higher prices may mean in the number of acres of corn for this growing season and where prices seem to be heading.

Go to the link below for that report with Todd and Dr. Good. While we grow a limited amount of corn in our state- we have lots of critters that consume lots of bushels and that adds up to MAJOR concerns for those in the animal protein business.

Click here to listen to Todd Gleason and his report with Dr. Darrel Good on corn prices rising.

The Outstanding Conservation District Director Award is given annually to a Conservation District Director, chosen from the 440 directors from throughout Oklahoma for doing the most to help landowners conserve our soil, water, air and wildlife habitats through education, assistance and support. This award is presented each spring at the Governors Conservation Awards Ceremony at the Blue Room of the State Capitol during Conservation Day.

“Our founder, Lloyd Noble, created the Noble Foundation because of his concern for the land and those who manage it”, said Wadell Altom, Senior Vice President and director of the Noble Foundation Agricultural Division. “It is very appropriate for us to help recognize those who are assisting land mangers at the local level and to promote partnerships with all who work to conserve our natural resources.”

Grassley and other members of Congress (mostly Democratic colleagues) have attempted to pass this ban in previous sessions- saying that it provide livestock producers better market options. If this proposal becomes law- "captive supplies" would become a thing of the past and Grassley contends that packers would have to bid up prices to secure slaughter supplies of hogs and cattle from independent producers.

The Senator calls this proposal a part of his "concentration" agenda that he believes will help livestock producers stay in business. We have linked below the news release from Senator Grassley's office so you can see what the Senator is up to.

Click here for the News Release on the Bill to Ban Packer Ownership of Livestock.

In our final day of talking with Monte Reese of the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion Board- we hear from Monte their plans to evaluate everything as a part of their winter meeting to be held in Nashville the first few days of February. One thing that Monte brought up that I thought was very interesting is the idea of improving the Beef Demand Index. This was an index that was originally put together by Dr. Wayne Purcell of Virginia Tech(and an old OSU Ag Economics Professor as well)- and is now computed by the folks at Kansas State under the direction of Dr. James Mintert. Reese says it only measures retail beef movement- and it needs to include food service and perhaps some other factors as well. You can listen to what Monte as to say on the subject by clicking on the link below.

Ron talks with Monte on the Wednesday edition of the Beef Buzz- and that's a feature that we offer to our radio stations across Oklahoma on the Radio Oklahoma Network. We also have an archive of many of those shows on our website, www.oklahomafarmreport.com- go there and click on the Beef Buzz button on the left hand side of the page to check it out.

Click here for our Beef Buzz with Monte Reese of the Cattlemen's Beef Board.

The message being delivered through these workshops is "no-till is not no-management." Larry Wright, RC&D Coordinator, stated that this statement has too many negatives for proper English but it does convey the misconception among some of the general populace. Wright also explained that SPARC is an organization that is working on developing market based incentives to promote conservation practices and sustainable agriculture. No-till conservation cropping systems have been identified to provide additional environmental benefits along with saving soil and money. Wright also stated that no-till producers are able to spend less time tilling fields and can leverage that time by managing their ecosystems.

The Southern Plains No-Till Seminar scheduled for Hollis on January 18th will feature No-till Cotton, No- till Wheat/Cattle grazing, Recognizing soil improvement that accompanies no-till, Herbicide application techniques for no-till, and Zone-till/Strip- till techniques. The seminar will begin with both indoor and outdoor displays and registration at 8:00 am on Thursday January 18th at the Hollis Civic Center, 2nd Street and West Jones Street. Last minute information is available by calling the Harmon County Conservation District at 580-688- 3456, ext. 3. More details on the Ft. Cobb event will be available later this month.

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