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 have 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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However, by the time the meeting was adjourned, subject to the call of the Chairman to be reconvened, those hopes were quickly brought back down to earth. After all the opening comments were made about how good it was to finally be in conference with all concerned, they got down to business and it was not pretty. We have some of the flavor of the meeting on our morning farm news from the Radio Oklahoma Network- Click here for that.

The House Leadership offered a stripped down $5.5 Billion over budget baseline proposal that does not include any of the tax credits that the Senate was proposing- and does not include the permanent disaster program proposed by several Senators. Senator Harkin thanked the House, said that his guys would work on it- and get a counteroffer back to the House "shortly." He did say it would be a ten billion over budget baseline bill and that he would not send anything back until a funding deal is set by the Tax writing Committees from the House and the Senate. Harkin and House Ag Committee Chair Peterson discussed how much over budget baseline is the right amount- and they both professed they were totally at the mercy of the tax writing panels. Bottom line, that's where we were several weeks ago. We have some of the comments made in the Conference Committee meeting of yesterday on our farm bill page- we have the link to that below. There will also be comments from Colin Peterson and his news conference of yesterday afternoon- he claims the farm policy issues are done- and that they wait on a funding deal.

Click here for the latest on the Farm Bill on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

And he tells us that all of this indecision does impact the decisions to be made by farmers. While the short term decisions are not that impacted- the longer term decisions that farmers need to be working on are impacted- equipment purchases, land purchases, multi-year crop rotations and other long-range decisions are more difficult to make with the farm policy process bogged down and now six months or more late.

We have our full conversation with Michael Dicks from yesterday that we had while we were on campus at OSU linked below- take a listen!

Click here to listen to Ron and Michael Dicks talk farm policy.

According to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab - changing the rules now only makes losers of American workers, farmers, and service providers. Proponents say the agreement would have brought fairness to U.S. workers by finally leveling the playing field for U.S. exports to Colombia. Colombia's exports to our market already enter duty-free. The Colombia FTA would have opened that market to the products of American workers, farmers and entrepreneurs.

Many Agricultural organizations were against the move to put off a vote. National Corn Growers Association President Ron Litterer said the Colombia Free Trade Agreement should be considered and voted upon this year - not sidelined due to procedural maneuvering. National Cattlemen's Beef Association President Andy Groseta, a rancher from Cottonwood, Arizona, said the maneuver completely circumvents the authority granted under TPA - and severely threatens the nation's ability to negotiate effectively for free and fair trade.

There are trade policy watchers who say this vote could also scuttle any movement by South Korea to reopen its market to US beef. It has been believed that the US has leverage with the new President of South Korea in a full and complete reopening of that market to US beef- with the carrot being movement in the US of the Korean Free Trade Agreement. President Lee comes calling on President Bush next weekend - and there had been hope a beef trade breakthrough would come just in advance of this Summit.

Click here for more reaction to the Democratic move to scuttle Trade Promotion Authority of the remaining Free Trade Agreements negotiated under the now expired law.

Accompanying the rate reductions is an increase in limits for personal property on some policies for no additional premium. "Some homeowners will see both lower rates and increased coverage," Sinclair said. Included in the rate savings will be a five percent increase in the companion policy discount. A companion policy means you have both an auto and homeowners policy with Farm Bureau.

Sinclair says homeowners should consult with their agent to make sure they are adequately covered for losses. "Often people insure their homes for the amount they paid for the house," Sinclair said. "They should consider insuring for the actual replacement value of the home."

We have a link on our website's calendar page to all of the details of this spring tour planned by OSU, Monsanto and John Deere- and we have that linked below for your convenience. Just scroll down to the April 15 date-and then click there to get specific locations.

Roger did mention one important person in the process- he writes "Most important person to mention is Edith at Western Equipment in Alva, who is taking reservations for both the Tuesday breakfast kick off and the lunch at Fairview at noon on Thursday. Her number is 580-327-0105."

Click here for our calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

"This is another example of an innovative new product designed for today's consumer. Checkoff-funded efforts continue to deliver easy-to-make, easy-to-eat, healthy beef options for family dinner tables, which only adds value to us, the producer," says Cattlemen's Beef Board member Mark Pendleton, backgrounder/stocker from Lawsonville, N.C., and vice chair of the checkoff's Joint New Product & Culinary Initiatives Committee.

"Response to the contest exceeded expectations in this, our debut year," says Ellen Gibson, executive director, New Product Initiatives for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "The Texas Hold'em is an innovative product that will bring convenience and flavor to consumers that crave the great taste of beef." This award, presented to Gene Gagliardi of Visionary Design, carries a top prize of $50,000 in advertising support to promote the new beef product. Gagliardi and the winning product are also being featured in print advertisements and on the BIG Web site.

Check out more on the Beef Innovations Group website!

The Sale Catalog- available by going to the link below- talks about the genetics from these ranches- "These programs have a solid foundation as producers of moderate, efficient cattle that are backed by maternal traits. Our implementation of Maine Angus and SimAngus is a result for our demand for these type of females."

The sale will be held on the west side of Follett, TX at the intersection of Hwy 15 and FR 2741, at the Jeff Bourquin sale facility. The bulls are on feed at Panhandle Feeders in Shattuck, OK. For more information, you can contact Christy Collins at 1-800- 975-6313- or go to the link provided below for their full sale catalog.

Click Here for the Grass to Grid Sale Catalog Online.

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

Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click on the name of the report to go to that link:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges and the why of that day's market.
Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.