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.

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.

It was interesting to note that we have a lot of interest right now in calves that can back out to spring pasture, as the market reporter covering Apache noted that "grazing cattle were being met with high demand."

U.S. House members don't have to fly back to Washington this week- as Congress is in recess today but will see the Senate return to work tomorrow on the 10th while the House does not return to Washington until the 16th. Several of our Oklahoma Congressional delegation continue to hold Town Hall Meetings this week- we have Congressman Lucas' schedule up on our website of Calendar items and we have that linked for you to take a look at below.

Click here for the Calendar of events coming up- including the Town Hall schedule this week for House Ag Committee member Frank Lucas.

Using Mesonet stations- we see that many locations hit those targets for multiple hours one or both mornings. Saturday morning- here are a few of the temperatures we noted that are alarming:
Newkirk- over 8 hours at 28 degrees or colder.
Cherokee- almost 6 hours 28 degrees or colder.
Lahoma- three hours of 28 degrees or colder.
Weatherford- three and a half hours of 30 degrees or colder.
Bessie- two hours of 30 degrees or colder.
Cheyenne- 6 hours of 30 degrees and below.

Sunday morning we saw temperatures stay at 32 degrees or better in central and southwestern Oklahoma portions of the wheat belt- but northcentral Oklahoma got very cold again.
Stillwater- 8 hours at 28 degrees or below with 2 hours around 24 degrees (Wheat Research plots may be toast!)
Red Rock- five hours below 28 degrees.
Blackwell- 6 hours below 28 degrees.
Breckinridge- over five hours below 28 degrees.

We are linking below the Oklahoma Mesonet site- once you get there- you will need to click on "Current Weather"- you will then see "Air Temperature" as one of your choices- click there and select next "Air Temperature" Graphs" and at that point, you will see a state map with points in all the counties. Select the location you want to see- then select under the map the number of hours you wish to track- to get the full weekend, select 72 hours. You can then see how the location nearest you fared from high to low over the entire weekend.

Click here for the Oklahoma Mesonet site- follow the directions above to get to Air Temp Graphs.

There is almost certainly some damage to our 2007 wheat crop- how much is simply a question that will have to be assessed at a later point in the growing season.

We did talk about the variables that determine if we end up with freeze damage in a particular field or not- and one of the variable is the variety you have planted. It appears one of the varieties most vulnerable is Jagger, which unfortunately is the variety that we have the most acres planted to statewide here in 2007.

Click here to listen to Ron visit with Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

Cargill spokesman Mark Klein said the Wichita-based company has changed its packaging and storage procedures to ensure that the mistake is not repeated. He said product intended for a U.S. domestic shipment was inadvertently placed in boxes pre- labeled for shipment to Japan and made their way to outbound pallets. Klein said the company expects to be re-listed as approved for shipping to Japan in the near future. Cargill contends that no material that violated Japan's safety standards for meat imports were found in the shipment.

Last month, Japan suspended beef imports from California-based Jobbers Meat Packing Co. after finding packages of beef sausage in a shipment, the government said Friday. Japan bans the import of U.S. products such as sausage that contain processed beef because of what Japan considers are risks of mad cow disease. In February, Japan stopped beef imports from a Nebraska processing plant operated by Tyson Foods Inc. after finding boxes of beef that had not been verified as from cattle 20 months old or younger.

Sessions are planned this year for Altus, Clinton and Enid, beginning May 8th. There will also be a single Canola Grading School during the sessions in Enid- the Canola session planned for the afternoon of May 16.

For more information, contact Dr. Kim Anderson at OSU in Stillwater at 405-744-9817, or go to the link provided below for a couple of pages of information on this opportunity.

Click here for the 2007 OSU Grain Grading School dates and locations.

Click here for the Composite Bull Sale Info from Collins Cattle out of Frederick!

Telemedicine technology makes it possible for doctors to examine and direct the treatment of patients from remote treatment centers. The technology gives rural residents access to medical specialists not often available in remote areas. The distance learning program finances equipment to expand educational resources to students and educational institutions in isolated rural areas.

Applications for the $15 million in distance learning and telemedicine grants must be received by June 8, 2007 and will compete nationally for funding. Applications for loans and loan and grant combinations will be accepted year round. Interested parties should contact their Rural Development state office. In Oklahoma, that would be Brent Kisling and his team headquartered in Stillwater. We have linked their website below or you can call them at 405-742- 1000.

Click here for the Oklahoma USDA Rural Development office web home.

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