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 KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for their website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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There will be a means test based on the AGI from the person's tax form- it appears that it will be $900,000 as a hard cap for those involved in farming, with a lower level- $300,000 for those not getting most of their income from farming or ranching. Limits will include conservation payments. The proposal is a ten year plan- and in year nine, they pay for some of the non commodity title goodies by zeroing out direct payments for one year- in year nine of the ten year plan.
The framework that Peterson and Goodlatte are working off of would cut the authorized number of acres for the CRP back to 32 million acres, and it would require a small cut for nutrition programs of about three billion dollars.

We hope to visit with Congressman Lucas on these ideas later this morning- and Peterson and Goodlatte have a teleconference set with reporters at midday today- we should have a lot more information to pass along by then- so I have linked our farm bill page from WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com where we now have links to a couple of articles on this "framework" and will be putting more stuff as it becomes available today at that site. So- check back from time to time and we will keep you in the know on this effort to get a farm bill by March 15.

Click here for our Farm Bill 2007 page from WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Minneapolis will follow suit with expanded limits of 90 cents per bushel, but Chicago did not meet the requirements to expand from 60 cents to 90 cents and will remain at the lower number.

The sharp fall in the KC and Minneapolis markets reflect a monster correction from the highs of Friday and early Monday. It shows the extreme volatility and uncertainty that grips this market and is likely to continue to do so. After approaching eleven dollars per bushel as we began the week for cash wheat locally, the local grain elevator bids have fallen hard, with Oklahoma grain elevator bids now ranging from $9.65 to $10.00 per bushel.

As we get ready to send this email out- electronic trade for KC wheat shows another set of SHARP drops- July is off 43 cents and May is down 48 cents, while nearby March is off 20 cents. Now, where did I put that air sickness bag?

Click here to review the full set of local grain prices as reported by the ODA...

They heard from University and Extension folks from not just Oklahoma but other states as well- but they also heard from farmers who have taken the plunge into no-till and were willing to share their life experiences as they converted to the practice.

Two of those farmers who told the good, the bad and the ugly about their no-till lives were Jay Franklin of Vinita and Jimmy Kinder of Walters. We have conversations with both of these gentlemen on our main page of our web site- and we invite you to follow the link below- and close to the top of the page- you will see an entry under "Top Agricultural News" for February 13- we have both Jay and Jimmy's conversations with us linked there as they tell us about their years and years of no-tilling.

Click here to go to the page where we have interviews with Jay Franklin and Jimmy Kinder on No-Till

Jeri Fleming with the Oklahoma Water Research Institute says in the newsletter "We are beginning preparations for the eleven Regional Input Meetings. Dates and locations of the regional meetings should be announced by the end of March or the first of April."

Please take a look at the newsletter that we have linked for you below- you will see that there are more nominations being south in three districts especially- the districts that cover about the western one third of Oklahoma as well as the northeastern corner of the state. Let's get involved!!! Take a look and get busy- deadline for nominations is the end of February!

Click here for the February newsletter of the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan.

Oklahoma commercial and non-commercial applicators and pesticide dealers may participate as well as Oklahoma farmers and ranchers. There is no cost for the first 2,500 pounds of pesticides brought in by a participant. Participants will however be charged $1/pound for anything over 2,500 pounds except in the case of mercury based pesticides. Mercury based pesticides will cost participants $2.22/pound for disposal.

The first of these collection points will be operating next Tuesday, February 19 from 8:00 AM until 1:00 PM in Frederick at the Tillman County Fairgrounds. Next will be Thursday, February 21, 2008 in Carter County at the City of Ardmore Operation Pride Drop-off Center. The following week, a dropoff is set for February 26 in Canadian County at Helena Chemical, 310 East Jensen in El Reno.
The final of the February dropoffs will happen February 28 in Pryor at the Mayes County Fairgrounds.

Here's the website to check out for more information on the Unwanted Pesticide Collection Program.

There will be a total of 120 Black Polled Limousin and Lim-Flex Bulls to be offered (Lim-Flex are Angus Hybrid that are 25 to 75% Angus). The 2008 Denver Reserve Grand Pen of Three Lim-Flex Bulls will sell on that Saturday.

For details contact the Coyote Hills folks at 580-597- 3006 and they will get you a catalog- or you can go online to get via cyberspace- we have the link for you below.

Click here for details on the Kervin-Hall- Coyote Hills Limousin Bull Sale coming March 8th.

The applications for Class 14 have just been posted on the OALP website, and I have that linked below. There is commitment- and a small tuition fee- but the Oklahoma agricultural community has come together to fund the bulk of the cost of the program, understanding how today's young leaders can benefit from getting to work with a diverse group of 29 other classmates for two years in a series of in-state seminars, a national travel experience to our nation's capital, as well as an international travel experience in year two of the program.

I am biased- but I really believe that the men and ladies who have come through this program have learned how to work across traditional group and commodity lines, have learned how agricultural fits into the context of the big picture in our nation's economy, political structure and social fabric. Two classmates of mine from Class I of the program have just been elevated in a leadership role- Don Schieber of Kay County has just been elected as an officer of US Wheat Associates, while Mike Spradling of Tulsa County was elected last fall as the new President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.
The link below will take you to the OALP website- look for the flashing icon for the Class 14 application- take a look and either consider applying yourself- or make it a point to pass it along to someone you believe can make a positive impact in Oklahoma's agricultural future.

Click here for details on Class 14 of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program.

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