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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It all started with word that came late Tuesday night from the House Ways and Means Committee as to how they planned to fund four billion dollars promised by Charlie Rangel to Colin Peterson to pay for more Nutrition spending in the bill- four billion dollars worth over the five year life of the bill. Immediate Heartburn set in among the Republican members of the House Ag Committee and then Johanns lit the fuse and threw his bombs into the mix on Wednesday morning. The Secretary said the last minute "tax increase" to pay for this farm bill was totally unacceptable and then also said it was the Bush Administration's position to VETO the House Ag Committee version of the 2007 Farm Bill if it ever reached George W. Bush's desk.

Shortly after that, the House Ag Committee Republicans issued a statement that they would oppose the bill because it had been "highjacked by forces outside our control" and called the Democrats "underhanded" in their efforts to bypass the Committee with these changes. Almost immediately, the Chairman of the Committee, Democrat Colin Peterson fired out his own press release that says the Democrats are playing their own brand of partisan politics and claims they are "mischaracterizing the offset that will expand nutrition benefits" and calls on the Republicans to come home and support this farm bill. We have links to multiple statements on a new page that we have placed on our web site to keep up with the Farm Bill Debate- click below to see the statements of both the Republicans and the Democrats- and an audio piece on what the Secretary was saying yesterday as well in what is the strongest push by a Secretary of Agriculture to get his will imposed in the farm bill process.

Click here for the special page on the Farm Bill Debate on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been on that side of the argument before - backing an approach that cut commodity payments and shifted money to conservation and nutrition programs. But this time around - she's endorsed the measure that takes what she calls a critical first step toward reform with an Adjusted Gross Income cap of one-million dollars. The Speaker is catching a lot of grief from groups within her home district over supporting Colin Peterson and the House Ag Committee, and Ag Secretary Mike Johanns did a guest shot on a San Francisco talk radio show and fired several salvos at the Speaker over that support of the Peterson bill.

Many see an amendment from Representatives Ron Kind and Jeff Flake as the biggest threat to the committee's bill. Kind came close to winning adoption of a similar proposal in 2002. But that was with the support of Pelosi and Hoyer - without it - many question if he'll have the votes needed this year. If he does - Arkansas Democrat Marion Berry says it will be tragic. He says the Kind-Flake amendment - now dubbed the fairness amendment - destroys the whole farm bill. It is our understanding that Berry may offer an amendment that substitute the Commodity Title of the 2002 Farm Law intact as a substitute for the Commodity Title of the House Ag Committee's Farm Bill. At this point, the measure is still on the schedule to be debated today- the House begins their day at 9 am central time and could pick up the House Ag Committee Farm Bill shortly after that.

Krehbiel is a wheat producer in the northeastern corner of the District- and the immediate past President of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association.

Still to be announced by the Governor's office- the District Two Seat that has been held by Tom Stephens of Guymon. Stephens was one of three names that was nominated by producers in the District and has been sent to the Governors' office. At the most recent Oklahoma Wheat Commission meeting, only three of the five Districts were represented as the two open seats had not been filled by the Governor. So with the Krehbiel appointment, it's one down and one to go.

"Even though reproductive traits are recognized as being lowly heritable, this research allows us to provide a genetic value to commercial producers in an area of high economic importance," says Sally Northcutt, genetic research director for the Association. (and yes, that's "our" Sally who was at Oklahoma State University a few years back)

The Fall 2007 heifer pregnancy research report contains HP EPDs and accuracies for 429 sires. The release of HP EPDs is in the form of a web-based research report found at the link we have provided below containing sire EPDs with a minimum 0.30 accuracy. Printed copies are available on request. If you have questions, contact the Performance Programs Department at 816-383-5100.

Click here for a lot more information on the Heifer Pregnancy EPD database.

American Farmland Trust worked with Senators Durbin and Brown as well as the National Corn Growers Association to develop the revenue-based protection program included in the Act. Because it adjusts with the market - rather than politically set target prices and loan rates - Grossi says the safety net better protects farmers when they need help. He says it also reduces the need for ad hoc disaster assistance.

Since the new program is linked to market indicators - Grossi says it will also cause less market and trade distortions. He says current signals are artificial - encouraging farmers to overproduce by planting for the program rather than market demand. The changes suggested by Durbin and Brown - he says - should help to liberalize international trade and reduce incentives to produce on marginal land. That - Grossi notes - will result in environmental benefits. It's uncertain how much interest that Senator Tom Harkin, the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, has in this concept and if he would entertain this plan being a part of his mark up during the 2007 farm bill process. Of course, we still don't know when Harkin will get around to a Farm Bill Markup- it now looks like that won't happen until September as he continues to tell reporters that he is waiting on getting floor time before moving forward with mark up.

To be competitive in the global market, it is important that the U. S. wheat industry delivers a quality product to the customer. The Wheat Quality Summit will help the producer understand what quality means to the milling and baking community and how that quality is affected by the varieties they plant.

The 2007 Wheat Quality Summit is on Tuesday, August 14 at the FAPC in Stillwater, Okla. Sign-in, coffee, and donuts will be from 8:30 -9:00 followed by morning speakers and afternoon tours. Lunch will be provided and there is no charge for attending. For more information on the agenda and for registration, you can call Karen Smith at 405-744-6071 by Friday, August 10th- or check out the link that we for you below.

Click here for more information on the Wheat Quality Summit August 14 in Stillwater

Saturday, the Association will have their annual business session and will elevate a new President into position as Jim Birdwell ends his term and Ray Heldermon will step up. Also on Saturday, Congressman Frank Lucas is scheduled to speak and the convention wrapup will be the annual market outlook session- to be handled this year by K-State's Jim Mintert.

We talk with Ross about the market and how it has responded with more acres of corn to help meet the demands of the export markets, domestic feeding and the ethanol industry. We have the program linked below and we invite you to check it out.

Click here for the Beef Buzz with Ron and Ross talking farm policy from a feedlot perspective.

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