From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 07:01
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Wednesday April 11, 2007!
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Agritourism is now in the Dictionary! (And you can find it in more and more places across Oklahoma!)
-- Agritourism just one of the many things going on that we have in our current Ag Calendar!
-- Speaking of events- the first of more than 40 water hearings to be held tomorrow in Beaver!
-- The freeze of this past weekend will influence final grain yields of our wheat crop- but there are other factors still to be weighed!
-- Hope Springs Eternal when it comes to Reopening the South Korean Market to US Beef- just don't hold your breath!
-- Congress will write the 2007 Farm Bill- BUT USDA is writing their version of one as well!
-- Say a prayer...

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.


Agritourism is now in the Dictionary! (And you can find it in more and more places across Oklahoma!)
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This past Friday's workshop on Agritourism held in Vinita was a good one- and there are seven more still to come over the next month or so- that the word from Abby Cash, State Director of Agritourism here in Oklahoma.

She says one measure that Agritourism has arrived is the inclusion of the word in Webster's Dictionary in 2006- and she says more and more folks are looking at tourism venues as a way for them to survive and prosper out in the country.

The biggest problem that many operations face is getting over the idea that you are competing with another Agritourism venue just down the road. Cash tells us that you need other Agritourism spots in your area- so that there will be a cluster of stops for tourists to enjoy in the course of an afternoon. We have linked our full conversation with Abby below- check out here thoughts on where we are going with this exciting value added concept for Oklahoma's wide open spaces!

Click here to listen to Ron and Abby Cash talk Agritourism!


Agritourism just one of the many things going on that we have in our current Ag Calendar!
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We have a link on our website about the seven remaining Agritourism Workshops across the state to be held over the next few weeks. It can be found by clicking below and being taken to our Calendar page of WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

Besides those workshops, there are a lot of other big events coming up that we have information on. That includes the 2007 Oklahoma FFA Convention to be held later this month to the National Junior Angus Summer Conference and Show that will be held in Tulsa this summer.

Check back on our Calendar page from time to time- and when you have items that you want to share with folks- be sure and let us know about them- we will be glad to include them in our Calendar of Events!

Click here to be taken the OklahomaFarmReport Calendar webpage!


Speaking of events- the first of more than 40 water hearings to be held tomorrow in Beaver!
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The future is now for Oklahomans who live in and near Beaver County, as they will be the first state residents to have an opportunity to share their opinions about what should be included in Oklahoma’s upcoming 50-year water plan. The first of approximately 40 meetings across Oklahoma will begin at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 12, at the Beaver County Fairgrounds Pavilion, located at 1107 Douglas, which is the route for Highway 23.

“Oklahoma’s future depends in large part on the availability of clean water,” said Mike Langston, assistant director of the Water Research Institute. “Our government leaders need to know the concerns Oklahomans have about the state’s water resources.” The Oklahoma Legislature mandates that the Oklahoma Water Resources Board develop and periodically update a comprehensive water plan. The OWRB, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers and other organizations, is also conducting technical studies of projected water demands and water supply infrastructure needs. The Water Research Institute, located at Oklahoma State University but serving all of Oklahoma, is assisting the board with the planning process. The institute focuses on two major thrusts: citizen input and research to investigate identified issues and concerns.

“As a state, we’re facing difficult decisions on a variety of water-related issues that will affect us, our kids and their kids,” Langston said. “We strongly encourage all citizens to attend at least one meeting in their area; this is their opportunity to set the agenda for the state’s water plan.” The first of these meetings is set for Beaver this week- next week, a hearing will be held in Goodwell and the last Thursday evening of the month will find a third hearing in Woodward. Other hearings will be held over the next couple of months.

Click here for the Calendar that shows dates and locations of these water hearings statewide.


The freeze of this past weekend will influence final grain yields of our wheat crop- but there are other factors still to be weighed!
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Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission says at least two statements that have floated around since the freeze across the Southern Great Plains this past weekend should be kept in mind as we worry about the status of the 2007 winter wheat crop. First- “A measure of the production damage resulting from this event will be difficult to quantify and could well be minimal to nonexistent" and secondly- “May and June development conditions are far more important.”

Hodges adds in an email to us "Additionally, the last statement is always true in any year, however, the tillers the plant first develops always have the highest yield potential and many times the later tillers are “sloughed” off. When you have events that destroy the primary tillers and you must then depend on the secondary tillers for yield you have no safety net left for other adverse conditions. As was stated, the wheat plant has an amazing ability to compensate for adversity, at least to a point. The conditions from this point forward will magnify the freeze event. Consider this, if the conditions following the freeze of 97’ had existed without a freeze and the primary tillers would have then had maximum production, what kind of crop would we have had in Oklahoma- that 170 could well have been over 200 million. I also believe the “perfect” grain fill weather of 97’ was a function that included the late freeze."

Hodges concludes by adding "The bottom line is, freeze damage in wheat is far from an exact science and anyone that claims to know the extent of damage (or lack of it) with any confidence is not being honest. On the other hand, tell the guys in Southwest Oklahoma that had 2180(the wheat variety) a few years ago that when they ended up with blank heads- but the conditions were very different." I can only say Amen and Preach On to the statement that NO ONE really knows how much impact the freeze of this last weekend may end up having on this 2007crop. Actually, there is a Higher Power that does know- but that's a different verse and chapter there.


Hope Springs Eternal when it comes to Reopening the South Korean Market to US Beef- just don't hold your breath!
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In today's Beef Buzz, we welcome Kansas State University Ag Economist Dr. Jim Mintert as we discuss the latest mixed signals we are getting from South Korea as to the possibility of getting South Korea to honor the word of their President who says that they will recognize the expected ruling from the OIE next month of the U.S. being a "controlled risk" country when it comes to Mad Cow Disease measures. Their President says he told George W Bush that Korea will not contest that ruling but will move to open their markets to US beef in a "reasonable" amount of time.

However, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture is now being quoted in their media that South Korea will still do an independent evaluation no matter what the OIE says- and that may well take months.

Dr. Mintert says that based on the Korean track record- he holds out little hope of getting much if any beef into South Korea this calendar year. You can hear his thoughts on today's Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network by clicking below.

Click to catch the latest Beef Buzz with Ron and Jim Mintert of K-State!


Congress will write the 2007 Farm Bill- BUT USDA is writing their version of one as well!
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It is the job of Congress to actually write a new Farm Bill here in 2007- but it appears that Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns wants to impose his view of the world on the lawmakers as he says that USDA is now in the process of writing up their proposals in the form of actual legislative language.

The Administration has already unveiled their ideas for farm policy changes- but it appears that Johanns is looking for every opportunity to push the Administrations' ideas of tighter payments limits, a lessened Commodity Title and more money into nutrition, conservation and energy research.

Johanns has indicated this week in Washington that USDA is drafting their offering title by title- and could release the first of those titles on Conservation and Rural Development in a couple of weeks. Johanns adds that the USDA hopes to have all titles written in the next month and a half.


Say a prayer...
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For our long time friend Paul Jackson of Apache. He continues to face an uphill struggle against infection and other issues that have drug on for months. He has been in and out of the hospital in Oklahoma City over the last six months or so- but is now at home on the farm near Apache.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows for their support of our daily Farm News Update. Go to their website at the link at the top of today's email for more information on either the Tulsa Farm Show or the Southern Plains Farm Show.

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



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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