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 just concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City, 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.

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Joining Austin Akins on the new officer team are the following young people:
Secretary: Chelsea Clifton, Kingfisher
Reporter: John-Kyle Truitt, Jenks
Northwest VP: Cody Ott, Fairview
Northeast VP: Cody Nieman, Woodland
Central VP: Kassie Houston, Bethel
Southeast VP: Charlee Goodwin, Caddo
Southwest VP: Josh Lindsey, Grandfield

These young people will be under the veteran leadership of Kent Boggs, who continues to serve as the Executive Secretary of the Oklahoma FFA, but they will be working with a new State Advisor. That person who will be taking the spot vacated by the retirement of Eddie Smith is Jack Staats, longtime Ag Education Teacher and FFA Advisor at Alva High School.

Here in Oklahoma, the Daily Oklahoman quoted Jack Carson yesterday as saying the ODA has no indication that we have any hogs that have been fed any of the tainted feed. Late on Wednesday, we did get further confirmation that one of the major hog companies that are involved in the Oklahoma hog industry, Smithfield, believes that they are clean.

Smithfield offered the following statement on the feed issue on Wednesday:
Smithfield Foods said today that Murphy-Brown LLC, the company's hog production subsidiary, has conducted a thorough review of its sources of feed ingredient supplies and suppliers have discovered no feed ingredients in its swine feeding system which have been identified by the FDA to contain the chemical melamine. This review covered all feed ingredient suppliers, feed supplied to Murphy-Brown owned farms and contract growers who produce animals for Murphy-Brown, as of this date. "Our vertical integration model provides us with a mechanism to ensure feed quality, the ability to trace our sources of supplies and offers a means of protection against things such as tainted feed ingredients. The model also enables us to respond rapidly to our customers on such issues," said C. Larry Pope, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods. "We want to assure our customers that our products are safe to eat," he said.

The first of two events that will make up the Governor's Conference on Agriculture in 2007 happens this evening and tomorrow. The Oklahoma Farm and Ranch Summit for the western half of the state will be happening right along I-40 at the P-Bar Ranch near Weatherford. This evening, they will have an opening reception with several Agritourism Success Stories that will be shared. Friday, they will have an excellent program lined up that will include more on the Agritourism model that the P-Bar Ranch has followed, an Alternative Fuels panel, the future of Oklahoma water and how agriculture fits into that future and even a look at Animal ID with State Vet Dr. Becky Brewer. On Site registration will be available for $35 for both days- there is a break if you are attending just tonight or just tomorrow.

Also happening this evening is the next in those Future of Oklahoma Water Public Hearings and Listening Sessions- check our website for more on this event and of several other events that will be happening next week as well.

Click here for the Calendar on our website- www.oklahomafrmreport.com

Today, Jay talks with us about the cattle industry's view of what should be in the farm bill and things that should be dealt with in other venues- things like COOL and Concentration issues.

We have today's Beef Buzz linked below for you to hear- and we remind you that we have a large number of pervious Beef Buzz programs up on our web site for your to browse through and listen to at your convenience 24/7- check it out on our web site and look for the button on the left hand side of our main page that says Beef Buzz!

Listen to today's Beef Buzz with Ron and Jay Truitt of NCBA

As previously announced - the Conservation Title calls for 7.8-billion dollars in additional funding - and a restructuring of programs. Johanns says the consolidation is designed to make USDA's conservation programs easier to access and administer. He says the entire conservation plan - including the restructuring and funding - is a direct result of producer input at USDA's Farm Bill Forums.

The Secretary also contends that what the Bush Administration is putting forward is fiscally sound. Obviously, the question mark for everyone is exactly what a Commodity Title might actually look like that would be written by Secretary Johanns and his team at USDA. There are some in various Agricultural commodity and farm groups that probably don't want to see it.

Click here to be taken to the USDA site that lets you select either the Credit or Conservation titles to review

Shroyer says - yield reductions will vary considerably from one area to the next and even from one field to the next in a given county. He says - if the crop does re- grow from secondary and basal tillers - producers will probably notice that the crop has a very ragged appearance at harvest time.

Dr. Shroyer seems to be saying that McPherson- north of Wichita- may be ground zero. "There is significant damage to the stems and heads of the primary tillers in many cases. Lodging from stem damage is a serious problem in the middle of the state, especially in about a 60-mile radius around McPherson County," Shroyer said. "In general, freeze injury tends to be most severe in early-planted fields, and least severe in late-planted wheat. Western Kansas appears to have little freeze damage overall, and far south central Kansas has less damage than areas north and east of Wichita."

Click here for the complete story from K-State and Dr. Shroyer.

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