From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 07:20
To: ron@ronhays.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 Thursday May 3, 2007!
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- President Bush Vetoes Iraqi War Supplemental- what's next for Ag Disaster Aid?
-- Senator Tom Coburn remains convinced ag disaster should only be funded with an offset.
-- Kansas sitting on a 380 million bushel wheat crop- so says Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission
-- Oklahoma Wheat Commission needing to fill two slots here in May.
-- Number Ten BSE Case Found in Canada- another critter born well after their feed ban.
-- Federal Bucks headed to Woodward and Guymon.
-- Panhandle Native coming home to work for OSU.

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.

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.


President Bush Vetoes Iraqi War Supplemental- what's next for Ag Disaster Aid?
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We were in the office of Third District Congressman Frank Lucas yesterday- and talked with him about a wide variety of topics important to rural Oklahoma. At the top of the list, given the news of the day from the White House, was the Ag Disaster Aid package that has been lumped in with the emergnecy money for the troops in Iraq and other locations.

The scenario continues to play out- and Congressman Lucas is now a spectactor like the rest of us- albeit that his seat is certainly a lot closer to the action than the cheap seats we sit in. President Bush has vetoed the measure saying he will not accept a measure that puts a date out there where troops are supposed to be coming home.

As we talked with Congressman Lucas yesterday in his office- he was most interested in the fact that we were there and covered Speaker Pelosi's comments to the National Farmers Union back in March. He says that he is counting on her to follow through on that pledge and keep ag disaster aid attached to this emergency spending measure. He thinks money for the war is badly needed by June- so in Congressional terms, time is short. You can link below and hear the comments that Frank Lucas shared with us as we reported it this morning on the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click here for the Thursday farm news from Ron Hays on RON featuring Congressman Frank Lucas.


Senator Tom Coburn remains convinced ag disaster should only be funded with an offset.
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While in Washington and in the Russell Office Building, we had time to stop by and say hello to Senator Tom Coburn, who was on his way to talk about earmarks with CNN. For those of you that don't know, our junior Senator is the lawmaker most insistent on stopping the "drunken sailor" attitude of many in Congress when it comes to spending money that the country does not have.

He applies that line of logic right down the line- including the issue of ag disaster relief. He says we need the ag disaster package, but it should not be emergency spending and needs to be offset before being passed. The Senator says there's plenty of money lying around in various accounts around town that could make ag disaster spending work- including at USDA- but that most members of Congress are "chicken" about making hard choices and not passing more debt down the line to future generations.

We had a quick conversation with the Senator about this issue- and you can click below to hear that exclusive conversation from Wednesday in Senator Coburn's office.

Click here to listen to Ron and Senator Tom Coburn with his take on Ag Disaster Aid.


Kansas sitting on a 380 million bushel wheat crop- so says Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission
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Day two of the Kansas Wheat Quality Council tour of the HRW crop in the Sunflower State came to a close yesterday and the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, Mark Hodges, continued his travels with other crop scouts. They saw about the same thing that was reported from the Oklahoma Panhandle a week ago for Oklahoma- that the potential for western Kansas wheat is much greater than a year ago- and that it is likely that the western Kansas yields will go a long way in offsetting the losses in Central Kansas from the acres wiped out because of the Easter freeze.

Ben Handcock, who is in charge of the annual Kansas wheat crop pilgrimage, says it looks like yields have "flip flopped from last year," when Central Kansas fields were in good shape and western areas were suffering.

You can hear what Mark was thinking about the size of the Kansas wheat crop after the first two days of the Kansas wheat crop tour- we have that link up on the Featured Audio page of our website and also linked directly below.

Click here for the latest on the Kansas Wheat Crop tour with Mark Hodges of the OWC


Oklahoma Wheat Commission needing to fill two slots here in May.
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With the death of Paul Jackson of Apache, the Oklahoma Wheat Commission is needing to get names for Governor Henry to consider for two of the five district seats here in the month of May. Jackson served District Four, while the seat for District Two now held by Tom Stevens of Guymon is also up for re- appointment.

The Oklahoma Wheat Commission is entirely producer-controlled. Oklahoma wheat producers elect their fellow producers to serve as commissioners in district elections. Each district has an opportunity to elect a commissioner every 5 years. Producers may select up to three nominees- those names go to the Governor for his selection of one per district. Once selected, commissioners are appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma to serve a 5-year term. Five Oklahoma wheat producers make up the board of commissioners.

The District Four Election by wheat producers comes up May 9th in Apache. The speaker will be Shelly Stricklen Vice President of Operations Plains Grains INC. The meeting will start at noon at the Apache Community center, with lunch being provided by the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association- the election will happen at 2 pm. In District two- the date for the regular election in Guymon is May 24 at the Texas County Fairgrounds. OSU Wheat Breeder Dr Brett Carver will be speaking around noon. OWGA will be serving lunch. The election is at 2 pm. You can contact the Oklahoma Wheat Commission offices if you have questions about this election process at 405-608- 4350. We have linked below the OWC webpage that shows the map of the districts and that will let you know which counties are in these two districts.

Click here for that map of the district lines drawn up for the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.


Number Ten BSE Case Found in Canada- another critter born well after their feed ban.
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Mad-cow disease has been found in a dairy cow in British Columbia, but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says no part of the animal entered the human food or animal feed systems, the Canadian Press reported Wednesday. According to CP, the agency said it appears the 5 1/2- year-old cow was exposed to a small amount of infected material, likely during its first year of life.

The agency is checking other animals born about the same time and trying to find out how the infection happened, the report said. In April 2006, another dairy cow in British Columbia was found with mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The FIA said that case was caused by contaminated feed.

In the late 1990s, Canada followed the lead of the US and put in place a "ruminant to ruminant" feed ban. A more stringent ban on using feed that may contain animal products takes effect in Canada in July, but the agency has said it still expects to find a small number of BSE cases over the next 10 years as the country works toward eliminating the disease entirely. If you count the cow that stole Christmas, the Canadian Dairy cow that was found in the US December 2003, the Canucks have now found 11 cases of BSE this decade.


Federal Bucks headed to Woodward and Guymon.
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Northwestern Electric Cooperative in Woodward, Oklahoma will be awarded a $300,000 Grant through USDA Rural Development's Rural Economic Development Grant program. A ceremonial check will be handed over by Brent Kisling, State Director of the USDA's Rural Development agency at 11 am today.

On Friday, the show heads to Guymon, with monies being awarded in Texas County as well. Guymon Utilities Authority in Guymon, Oklahoma will be awarded a $99,500 Grant through USDA Rural Development's Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. That ceremony is set for Friday morning at 8:30 am.


Panhandle Native coming home to work for OSU.
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Garvin Quinn has been appointed director of the Oklahoma State University Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (DASNR) agricultural communications services unit, effective July 2. "Dr. Quinn brings an outstanding portfolio of experience to DASNR in the areas of marketing, communications and leadership from his present position as director in the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Tennessee," said Robert E. Whitson, vice president, dean and director of agricultural programs at OSU.

As director, Quinn will provide leadership for planning, developing, integrating and implementing departmental teaching, research, extension and international programs and continue with the unit's primary goal - to make available needed information to various target audiences that cross community, county, state, regional, national and international boundaries.

A native Oklahoman, Quinn served as a county Extension educator in Oklahoma after he graduated from Oklahoma Panhandle State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy in 1971. He then went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in communication from the University of Kentucky in 1977 and a doctoral degree in communication from UK in 1994. Quinn was active in the Oklahoma 4-H program as a youth. He was named the Outstanding 4-H boy in Oklahoma in 1968 and was a National 4-H agricultural winner in 1966, as well as Oklahoma State First 4-H vice-president in 1967-68. We had dinner Tuesday night in Washington with Garvin's older brother, Larry Quinn, who is one of the key players in the USDA Communications Division- and has served at USDA for 40 years! Larry was excited that Garvin was getting this opportunity to head home- as we are- and Larry indicates that his younger brother will bring a lot of passion to this new position in Stillwater. The Quinn family and yours truly share several points from down through the years- Larry got his media start at KGYN in Guymon, a station that we were associated with for many years- and Garvin spent several of his years at our old school, the University of Kentucky so it will be nice to have someone to talk tobacco and UK hoops with in Stillwater!


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



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