From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 06:58
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday March 13, 2008!
A service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, KIS Futures & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- $12 Cash Wheat in Oklahoma- Everywhere!
-- Twenty One Million Dollars Awarded to Poultry Farmers in Class Action Suit!
-- 2002 Farm Law (at least some of it) Extended to April 18.
-- Hallmark-Westland Executive Roasted Over An Open Congressional Fire.
-- Hollow Stem Is Here!
-- Glyphosate Resistant Johnsongrass Found in Arkansas and Mississippi.

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.

We also 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!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show that is held each December, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City this coming April! Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here.


$12 Cash Wheat in Oklahoma- Everywhere!
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The Kansas City Wheat Futures bulldozed through the $13 level yesterday, settling up some 67 cents per bushel and pulling up the cash grain bids across Oklahoma to numbers well above the twelve dollar mark. Early this morning, the overnight electronic trade has the May delivery of KC wheat down 13 cents, but most of the gains of yesterday are intact for the moment.

Obviously, these bids are for old crop wheat- but the July contract- which is what the new crop will be priced off of is only about fifty cents under the May delivery at this point- so we are being set up to have historically high wheat prices at harvest time here in 2008.

Wheat bids as of yesterday afternoon ranged from $12.48 to $12.84 a bushel- with the two highest bids coming from Miami at $12.84 and Stillwater at $12.67.
While on the OALP trip to China, we talked about this higher level of wheat prices with Joey Meibergen of W.B. Johnston, and we talked about the stress manifested by these higher prices in things like the Bond elevators have to have to do business in this country- and the credit lines that have grown because of the volatility of the market and the margins that currently exist. We plan on following up on some of these issues in the days to come- in the meantime, we have linked the latest grain elevator bids as posted by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture below- take a look!

Click here for wheat bids across Oklahoma as Wednesday afternoon.


Twenty One Million Dollars Awarded to Poultry Farmers in Class Action Suit!
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We have been trying to hook up for a couple of days with one of our regular readers of this email, Dr. Bob Fields of Wister, who was one of the Class Action Reps during the Class Action lawsuit that went to a jury trial in Muskogee in recent days. The jury did not take long in deciding in favor of the Poultry Growers against O.K. Farms to the tune of $21,141,975.

The lawsuit alleged that O.K. Foods violated the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 by unfairly wielding its buying power to the detriment of the growers' incomes. The farmers accused the company of exercising control over their farm upgrades, increasing the days between flocks and reducing the number of birds per square foot, resulting in millions of dollars in damages since 1997.

Newspaper reports indicate that O.K. Farms has not decided whether to appeal the award or not- but you would expect that to be likely. We'll be catching up with Dr. Fields and getting some additional perspective on this Class Action that was brought on behalf of some 300 poultry farmers.


2002 Farm Law (at least some of it) Extended to April 18.
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The Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Colin Peterson of Minnesota, told his colleagues in the House that some progress has been made- enough to justify another one month extension of the 2002 Farm Law in order to preserve the budget baseline for use in finalizing the 2007-2008 farm bill. The House passed the extension, as did the the Senate, so the lawmakers have until April 18 to finish the new bill.

The ranking Minority Member of the House Ag Committee, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, was less than thrilled with the extension, saying if we don't get a breakthrough before Congress leaves for the Easter two week recess- he thinks it's time to go a different direction.

That different direction could be falling back to a budget baseline bill- which could mean cuts in Direct Payments and a rethinking of tighter Farm Program Payments. If that course was selected- it would dodge the disputes of which budget offsets would be needed- of course you would likely gut existing farm programs to get it done.
We have the comments of both Peterson and Goodlatte on the floor yesterday on our Farm Bill webpage- and we have them linked for you below- take a listen.

Click here for the Peterson-Goodlatte Pitch for a Thirty Day Extension of the 2002 Farm Law.


Hallmark-Westland Executive Roasted Over An Open Congressional Fire.
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Our Beef Buzz today on the Radio Oklahoma Network features comments from the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing yesterday on the handling by USDA of the Downer Cow recorded by the Humane Society of the US.

The Hearing featured Steve Mendel, the President of Hallmark/Westland, the offending company- and he was grilled for two hours by the panel. In his opening statement, he claimed the animals in question did not enter the food supply- but later backed off that statement- saying meat from one or more downer cows likely did get into the food supply.

USDA's Food Safety Undersecretary, Richard Raymond, was also questioned for an extended period by the lawmakers- and he continues to maintain the reason that USDA is involved is because the company did not follow the rules and call the USDA Vet when an inspected animal fell down and would not get back up except under inhumane treatment.
We have comments from both of these gentlemen in capsule form on today's Beef Buzz- and have it linked below for you to take a listen to.

Click here to listen to Ron narrate how the Congressional hearing unfolded yesterday in Washington over the Downer Cow Incident.


Hollow Stem Is Here!
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We are in Guymon this morning as we write this- as we will be covering the Biofuels Conference being put in Goodwell later today. Yesterday morning, we were in Stillwater and had the chance to catch Dr. Jeff Edwards, our state wheat specialist from OSU as his office on campus in Stillwater.

Jeff tells us that we are at the point of First Hollow Stem over a significant part of the state- and that with wheat prices where they are in 2008- pulling cattle off sooner rather than just in time or late is the smart play. We also talked about the "to do" list for wheat producers over the next few weeks- including looking at weed control, insects and diseases.

We have our conversation with Dr. Edwards linked on the front page of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and we invite you to go there and get the interview- or we have it linked direct below- if you are one of those folks like the ones I saw between Enid and Woodward yesterday afternoon that still have cattle out there grazing- get a move on- you don't want to lose even a bushel per acre of potential here in 2008!

Click here for the OklahomaFarmReport website- scroll down to the March 13 posting to listen to Ron and Jeff talk wheat status


Glyphosate Resistant Johnsongrass Found in Arkansas and Mississippi.
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The University of Arkansas and Monsanto have confirmed glyphosate resistant johnsongrass in a field in southeast Arkansas. In a separate case, Monsanto and specialists at Mississippi State University confirm a case of johnsongrass resistance to glyphosate near Clarksdale, Mississippi. The two cases were investigated over the past several months. In initial greenhouse trials conducted by the University of Arkansas and Monsanto, johnsongrass was not controlled with labeled rates of glyphosate. Additional trials will be conducted in the field this season.

."We're looking at johnsongrass populations in a field where there has been a history of control issues," says Dr. Bob Scott, University of Arkansas Extension Weed Scientist. The field in question is owned by a grower near Crittenden County, Arkansas, and has been in continuous Roundup Ready soybeans. "Our greenhouse trials show differing levels of response including some plants that survive following application above labeled rates of glyphosate. Additional populations suspected to be resistant, were also tested but shown susceptible to Roundup in testing," says Scott. "The resistant populations are being controlled well with selective chemistry. We will continue working with the grower on control methods and recommendations."

Dr. Jennifer Ralston, US Chemistry Technical Lead for Monsanto agrees a program approach is best. "We are working with these university experts to provide growers with the best management practices. To maintain the efficacy of the herbicide and value of the technology, we recommend growers scout fields and utilize additional modes of action to control problem weeds while reducing the likelihood of developing performance issues."


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, KIS Futures and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahomafor their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis!

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