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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In talking with Ray Wulf, President and CEO of OFU/AFR, he confirmed the resignation and expressed a bittersweet note as he said he was excited for the opportunity this position will provide Mason as he leaves OFU, but said he will be greatly missed by not just their organization, but by all of agriculture across Oklahoma as he is one of the most knowledgeable lobbyists representing rural interests. Wulf told us that Mungle represented OFU with tremendous experience and with integrity. Mungle showed great ability in being able to work across party lines and with a variety of farm groups and other special interest groups in order to best serve farmers and ranchers in the state. Ray added that he is glad that Mason continues to represent OFU/AFR at the Capital, as the last week of the Legislature is never one for the faint of heart- he adds that he knows that the interests of farmers and ranchers are in good hands with Mungle on the job these final days of the 2007 Legislative session.

Mason Mungle has served as director of legislative affairs for Oklahoma Farmers Union since 2000. He formerly served as Director of Farm and Rural Programs for the family farm organization. His roots began and remain in agriculture as president of Mungle Family Corporation and partner in MD Farms Partnership. At the Farmers Union, Mungle's duties have included managing programs and lobbying at the state and national levels for agriculture, rural and insurance issues.
I have known Mason for almost thirty years, as we both were a part of Class One of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program. His Dad, Jean Mungle, was a great dairy industry leader, and one of my favorite people that I met in my early days of covering agriculture in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mason Mungle has been- and continues to be one class act!

Dr. Royer reports "Oklahoma wheat growers are experiencing a full blown armyworm outbreak, with infestations ranging from 4-5 worms per foot of row to well over 14 worms per linear foot of row. It is extremely important for growers to check their fields for numbers. We suggest a threshold of 4-5 caterpillars per linear foot of row as a treatment threshold. This is a very conservative threshold, so if your fields are experiencing populations at that level, there is no need to panic."

He also talks about the difference between regular armyworms and the wheat head armyworm. We have linked the Wheat Production Newsletter below for you to check out.

Click here for this week's Wheat Production Newsletter from OSU.

He is especially pleased that several year to year items within the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture budget have become annualized- and won't be subject to the extreme scrutiny that year to year budget items face- especially those years when we are looking at budget shortfalls. Monies for the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program, the Oklahoma Youth Expo, the AgriTourism efforts and the Ag in the Classroom Program were among budget lines that have become an ongoing part of the ODA budget. One year to year appropriation that did not achieve that status this year were funds destined for the Tulsa State Fair Youth Livestock Show- but Dewitt is hopeful that can be dealt with next year.

He also indicated that the $2.9 million extra earmarked money for OSU Extension and the Experiment Station is a part of the Budget Deal- and is annualized as well. One time monies being handed out by the Lawmakers includes the $6.5 million for repair and construction of flood control structures all across the state- that money may be one of the best deals of the session as it will be matched with $13 million from Uncle Sam to do this long overdue flood control work- this to be coordinated through the Oklahoma Conservation Commission. We have our conversation with Chairman DeWitt linked below- take a listen.

Click here to listen to Ron and Natural Resources Chair Dale DeWitt dissect the 2007 State Legislative Session.

The OCA Range Round-Up is comprised of six events depicting day-to-day ranching jobs. These events include such things as the Saddle Bronc Riding, Cattle Doctoring, Wild Cow Milking, Team Branding, Team Penning, and the Wild Horse Race. In addition to these events, the committee includes various specialty acts throughout the performance in order to keep the crowd captivated and entertained.

The OCA Range Round-Up returns to the State Fair Arena on May 25th and 26th 2007, for it's 23rd Annual Event. The OCA Range Round-Up is sanctioned by the Working Ranch Cowboys Association and the Champion team at our event represents Oklahoma at the world competition each year. One of the great things about the annual event is its support once again of the Children's Miracle Network and Children's Medical Research. Over the lifetime of the Range Roundup, more than $375,000 has been raised for charity.

If you are wanting tickets for this year's event- the best number to get you lined up is the local Oklahoma City Tickets.Com number- that number is 405-948-6807.

You can read more about the 2007 OCA Range Roundup by clicking here.

Jennifer Terronez of Davenport in Lincoln County is the Northeast District State VP for Oklahoma 4-H- and she gives us the rundown on this year's Roundup. About a thousand 4-Hers from 70 counties will be involved this year- that number is down a little as many schools are still in session because of so many snow days back this past winter. One of the highlights for the 2007 Oklahoma 4-H Roundup will come on Lewis Field as the participants will be in Green and White- and will form the outline of the state and a 4-H Clover to Commemorate Oklahoma's 100th Birthday- and this picture will be used as Oklahoma 4-H gets set to celebrate 100 years of existence in 2009!

Our interview with Jennifer will be during the Saturday morning News9 local news between 7:30 and 8 am. Hope you can check it out. We will have it linked on our web site, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com later in the weekend- go to the Featured Audio page and we will link it there.

House Ag leaders - in a budget jam - have launched their opening salvo in writing a new farm bill by targeting the pet program of the Senate Ag Chairman Tom Harkin - the Conservation Security Program - better known as CSP. House Ag Chair Collin Peterson says his conservation subcommittee will start by proposing a nearly 50-percent cut in his Senate counterpart's favorite conservation program - one Harkin hoped to build on to boost energy feedstock production. But Peterson says there will be no new CSP sign-ups under the House plan until 2012- at least if the House Ag Committee Chairman gets his way. The subcommittee that Congressman Frank Lucas is ranking Minority member on is responsible for marking up this measure- and it will be interesting to see if Chairman Holden and Mr. Lucas are on board with Peterson next Tuesday as they begin the markup.

Here is the link to the news release that details the efforts of the Committee on Thursday and gives time and date of the first markup session that Congressman Frank Lucas will be a part of next Tuesday. Click here for that link. Below, we have a second link of the audio report that we have assembled about the plans of Mr. Peterson to use CSP monies from the 2002 authorization to put money into other Conservation priorities here in 2007- much to the dismay of Senator Harkin.

Click here for the audio report with Ron Hays on the plans of the House Ag Committee to pull monies from CSP.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef has opened the floodgates by stepping up- testing the South Korean inspectors and finding that they are not going to nitpick us into submission this go-round- and with that knowledge, sales of beef into South Korea is quickly moving picking up. USDA's Weekly Export Sales Report released Thursday confirms this by reporting that a remarkable 7,200 metric tons (mt) - equal to 15.9 million pounds or about 400 container loads - in reported beef sales was made to Korea during the May 4-10 time period.

The NCBA is reporting in their weekly newsletter out of Washington that "Korea's renewed interest in U.S. beef has already generated tremendous additional value. At a value estimated between $2.50 and $3.00 per pound, these reported sales to Korea are worth somewhere between $40 to $48 million, with the majority of these sales involving just three cuts: chuck rolls, brisket and (deboned) short ribs. Industry analysts knew significant sales were afoot because wholesale prices for these cuts rose dramatically over the past two weeks with Choice chuck short ribs currently going for $2.64/lb vs. $1.50 in April (in May '03 these were worth $2.45/lb) and short plate (short rib) at $3.06/lb vs. $1.76 in April. Industry analysts calculate that the reopening of the Korean market to deboned beef has added about $31 per head to the value of every finished steer marketed in the United States over the past 3-4 weeks. All indications are that Korea plans to begin the necessary steps to complete its regulatory process which would fully normalize U.S. beef exports once the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) grants a "controlled risk" status for the United States next week."

We talk about the Korean turnaround on today's Beef Buzz on the Radio Oklahoma Network- click here to take a listen!

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