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 recently 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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Pope acknowledged that one of the reasons that the groundbreaking for the Hooker beef plant had been into a holding pattern was the interest that Smithfield had in buying Swift and Company. However, that opportunity has gone by the wayside with the announcement that a major Brazilian meat packer has bought the assets of Swift.

Pope says that Smithfield is not unhappy about not being the new owner of Swift- at least not at the price reported. He said that price was above the level at which Smithfield had been interested in buying Swift. If Smithfield decides to break ground in Oklahoma and build the Panhandle facility- it will be a state of the art plant, with a 5000 head per day capacity and the ability to cut those carcasses into the exact specifications demanded by both domestic and foreign customers.

I Think the first report we got back yesterday morning came from the Chattanooga area of Jagger wheat coming in 55 to 57 pounds test weight with a yield per acre of 30 bushels- wheat that this farmer was thinking had 40 to 50 bushel per acre potential.
The Apache Farmers Coop report that they started cutting wheat late Monday. Test weights are mostly 54 to 57 and guesses on yields are 15 to 28 bushels per acre.
Moving to a location west of Fairview, we are told of Jagger wheat that is 49 pounds test weight with a guess of 21 bushels per acre. The comment by the folks here is that you have to be careful and not run the fan too fast or you blow all the wheat out the back- it is that light!

In Alva- we get a report of starting yesterday and the fact it is really ugly- tests weights there at 53 pounds- the comment is that it is Jagger and that there is a lot more freeze damage than folks were first thinking.
We also got a report from the Miami area in far northeast Oklahoma which was not too bad- the producer there saying it was some of his better wheat this spring- a seventy acre field of 2174 that had a test weight of 54-56 pounds per bushel and he is guessing the yield at 25 bushels per acre. We also have a report from Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission who was out and about again yesterday- and in fact, Mark will be our guest on our Saturday morning TV update, In the Field with Ron Hays on News9. In the meantime, you can listen to our audio report by clicking below as summarize all the stuff we are hearing as harvest unfolds here in 2007.

Click here for our audio harvest update- and remember we will have further updates over the weekend at our website, www.oklahomafarmreport.com!

Peterson tells us that there are not enought votes to repeal COOL- or delay it again- so it will absoultely happen on or before September 30, 2008. He adds "deal with it."

We have linked today's Beef Buzz below from our Beef Buzz page on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and you can click on below to listen.

Click here to listen to Ron with the latest Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network

He expects the mark up of the Commodity Title of the 2007 Farm Bill to happen next Thursday, June 12- with the full committee to consider all the parts of the document the following Tuesday, June 19. I would guess it is possible that we might see that discussion spill over into Wednesday of next week as well. The timing is interesting for the Oklahoma Farmers Union/American Farmers and Ranchers as they have scheduled a lobbying trip to Washington the week of June 18- the week that the full committee will have their focus directly on the final draft of their version of the farm bill. We have been invited to accompany that group to Washington- and will be having the chance to give you a first hand report of the mark up of 2007 farm bill from an inside the beltway perspective.

Peterson also told reporters that the House Leadership has him penciled in for the week of July 17 to run the bill through the full House. That will be the real dog and pony show to watch- as it is expected that Congressman Ron Kind of Wisconsin and likely several others that will have amendments that would basically gut the work of the Committee and radically change farm policy as we now know it.

The first point is that Peterson is convinced that the political reality will force some trimming of Direct Payments will be needed to satisfy those urban members of Congress who don't like payments- especially when they perceive that actual farm prices are high.

The second point is that no extra money will be put into the Commodity Title if the Chairman has his way. He believes that you can move some money around within the Commodity Title to improve the safety net for farmers- but that new money is not very doable- in fact, he says it's a no win situation for Committee members, saying tongue in cheek in his deadpan way, "our goal is to make everyone equally unhappy" in this farm bill process- and he adds that we are off to a good start.

Click here and go to our Featured Audio Page where we will have a special report with Ron and Congressman Peterson on these farm bill issues- it should be available by mid morning Friday!

Their Educational meetings will happen on Monday, with a wide variety of topics planned for the day. They will discuss everything from establishing an orchard to fertilizing it with chicken litter to harvest- and will have the National President of the National Pecan Council, Tom Stevenson, on hand with this Crystal Ball to look at the changes ahead for the business.

Tuesday, they have a Field Day planned at the Montz Orchard in Charlie, Texas, just across the state line. You can still get their convention rate at the Best Western through this Sunday- and if you have questions about this event- contact Mike Smith at OSU at 405-744-6463.

And we have a website link for you to go from Collins Cattle that will give you more information on the entire offering to be sold this Saturday at the Kris Black Cream of the Crop Sale.

Click here for details on the Kris Black Cream of the Crop Sale planned for this Saturday.

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