Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are proud to welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here!

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The statistics that they have on display at their world headquarters in Leverkusen is kinda like a tote board- with numbers constantly changing. When we were there earlier this week, the snapshot of the numbers that I wrote down included 6,704,921,035 people who live on this globe(going up like a gasoline pump as you put gas in the tank); calorie consumption in total also rising and standing at 7,730,599,238; the number of tons of meat that people consume annually also rising slowly at 263,489,300; and the amount of arable land available in this world figured on a per person in hectares figure- this one was falling and stood earlier this week at .261144164 or about a quarter of a hectare or about a half acre per for every man, woman and child of land suitable to grow their food and fiber needs. The way the leadership at Bayer see it- the amount of land drops as the population grows and that means more technology will be needed to grow our global food supplies. They believe that leaves them a place in helping farmers "get er done" in the years to come.

We are now coming down to our last day in Germany- and I have a few more factoids I thought I would give you that have just flown off the top of my head as we have traveled from the Cologne area south to Heidelberg and then are in Frankfurt as you read this on Thursday.
Number ONE- Now on my second trip to Germany, I finally saw a herd of beef cattle outside grazing in a field- one herd- actually , it was a pretty small herd of about seven or eight animals. You just don't see cattle out grazing in the fields like we do in our country!
Number TWO- One Bayer Crop Science official predicted at our meetings this week that there will be no GMO wheat solution until at least 2015- if even then.
Number THREE- the Europeans sure do need our grain fed beef here in a big way- they fed us an "Angus beefsteak" for lunch on Wednesday- and while it was tender and pretty good- a lot of the meat eaters that surrounded me were in agreement, it just lacked that distinctive great beef taste. We surmised that it was a grass fed piece of meat from South America.
Number FOUR- there most certainly are a BUNCH of castles in Germany- especially nestled high above the Rhein River.
and finally Number FIVE- as we drive south from Cologne towards Heidelberg, we saw a lot of Wind Powered Generators, including some really BIG units. The Europeans do like their "green" power.

A news report from Seoul gives hope for a successful negotiation. "South Korea may ease its restrictions on US beef imports since the meat poses no special health risks, the agriculture minister said Wednesday. "No experts say US beef poses health risks beyond international standards," Im Sang-Gyu told a radio programme. The World Organization for Animal Health gave the United States "controlled risk" status in terms of mad cow disease in May, allowing it to export beef except for some internal organs," according to the AFP news service.

The Yonhap News Service also quoted the Ag Minister on that same radio program. "While concerns are being raised about whether American beef is safe, most experts agree that risks do not warrant trade restrictions," he reportedly said. Im also said that although the recent discovery of a box of backbones in a Seoul-bound shipment of U.S. beef halted imports, it doesn't affect efforts to change South Korea's sanitary and phytosanitary standards.

Here's one of the news articles that describes the meetings as they get underway in Seoul between the US and South Korea

Nelson says that the program is designed to bring in everybody along the beef pipeline from the cow calf operator down to the packer to the processor to the food service and retailer of beef. The groups are walked through the path that takes the product from the pasture to the plate, and along the way gives these individuals within the various segments a chance to interact with folks from other parts of the chain.

The Oklahoma Beef Council funds the program, along with registration fees from industry participants, and they offer two of these Summit experiences each spring and and each fall. You can listen to Jake's ideas of the value of these encounters by clicking on the link below for the latest edition of the Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network. It will also be a part of our Beef Buzz archive to be found on our web site on the Beef Buzz page- it just kinda works out that way!

Click here to listen to Ron and Jake Beef Buzzing on the Beef Quality Summit!

Mike Spradling has been in production agriculture for his livelihood since the late 1960s and involved with Tulsa County Farm Bureau as well. He and his wife joined the Young Farmers and Ranchers in 1974 and was active with that group until they hit the age limit of involvement with that part of the Farm Bureau family.

Spradling sees the strength of Farm Bureau as being in the grass roots of the organization. He understands this is a time consuming job he is asking for- but he says he believes that the President of the group needs to reflect the values of the "rank and file" members of Farm Bureau- and that he has been told by many of those rank and file members he would be an excellent choice to lead the organization.

Mike Spradling tells us that he believes that the organization is doing well- he wants to build on that current success- emphasize getting young people more involved and encourage them to work to succeed in agriculture in the future. He acknowledges that there is a bit of apathy out in the country- and he hopes to energize the group by putting in place a Task Force to prepare a five to ten year strategic plan to take the general farm group forward into this next generation.

We have a long form interview with Mike linked below- we invite you to listen to this candidate to get a feel of who he is and where he sees the group headed. The group has decided not to have any sort of a debate or candidate's forum at their convention next month in Oklahoma City, so these interviews will be one opportunity to gauge how you believe each of these candidates handle themselves as they seek this high profile position for the next two years.

Click here to listen to Ron visit with Mike Spradling- Candidate for President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

Montie Soules and the Star Lake Hereford team have a great reputation for outstanding herd sire prospects- having won the Denver Show Carload Bull Competition for the past eight years!

You can check out their sale catalog on line at the link we have below- or you can give them a call for more information at 918-396-4322.

Click here to check out the Star Lake Fall Sale October 21st at the Ranch east of Skiatook, Oklahoma.

The inventory, officially called the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, is being made possible by a grant to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry from the USDA Forest Service. Bill Burkman, program manager for the Southern FIA program, said his agency is anxious to begin work on the project. "Nationally, Oklahoma is one of five states not yet participating in the national inventory plan," he said. "We're anxious to get started and will bring in federal crews to re-measure plots that were inventoried in 18 eastern Oklahoma counties in the early 1990s. We'll be working with ODAFF Forestry Services to initiate the program statewide."

The field inventory consists of on-the-ground measurements of trees and other vegetation on plots located roughly every three miles, Burkman said. Exacting statistical measurements and grids are used to select precise locations for ground crews to inventory. "Because most of these plots are located on private lands we want landowners and the public to be aware that inventory foresters will be working in the area and not be alarmed," he said. "We always obtain landowner permission before visiting a plot and we also promise that individual plot and ownership data will be kept strictly confidential." Information from the inventory will be summarized in data tables providing statistics on tree volumes, species, quality, distribution, health and other characteristics. For more information on the FIA program visit its website by following the link below.

Click here to visit the FIA website.

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