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 National Livestock Credit Corporation as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. National Livestock Credit Corporation works diligently to provide unsurpassed service to their customers in the area of livestock financing. Check out the National Livestock Family of Services website by clicking here.

We are also proud to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the annual Tulsa Farm Show held each December, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City coming up April 17-19! 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.

Hunger offers these details on the latest scouting efforts. "Stephanie Rogers and I traveled from Stillwater to Union City/Minco (just southwest of Oklahoma City) to Apache (north of Lawton) and then north to Watonga, Kingfisher and Hennessey. Primarily we stopped at variety trials. Wheat was mostly all at GS 9 (flag leaf fully emerged), but getting close to GS 10 (boot). At Apache, heads of Jagger were beginning to emerge from the boot. At all locations we found scattered pustules of leaf rust in Jagger and Jagalene, with the greatest incidence at Minco where rust was at about a 10-20% severity on the lower leaves up to about the F-2 leaf (second leaf under the flag leaf). Powdery mildew also was present at all locations, but with the exception of one spot in a field near Apache, the severity was light. Some septoria was found on lower leaves in a plot just east of Union City, and a field severely infected with wheat streak mosaic virus was found east of Kingfisher. Symptoms of barley yellow dwarf and mummified/parasitized aphids were observed at many of the locations, but seemed to be primarily in earlier planted wheat.

"Dr. Art Klatt walked his plots around Stillwater on April 15th, and reported seeing leaf rust and powdery mildew both on the increase. He saw some flecking on flag leaves and heavy flecking and some pustules on the leaf just below the flag leaf. He observed this on susceptible varieties, but also saw some flecking on Overley and OK Bullet."

We have linked below an interview that we actually had up for you last week on fungicides- it's with Randy Myers of Bayer Crop Science and he gives some insight into using fungicides on a timely basis- which is based on what Dr. Hunger is saying is NOW.

Click here to listen to Ron with Dr. Randy Myers of Bayer Crop Science on Using Fungicides Here in the Southern Great Plains on Wheat.

Terry Detrick, Vice President for American Farmers & Ranchers, was in the Committee Hearing Room yesterday as Conner appeared and was struck with how the Deputy Secretary acted- "During opening remarks, my main observation today was the smug, arrogant attitude of under secretary Conner every time there was mention that the President wasn't working with them at all. They have now invited him to the room where back room negotiations are taking place. Conferees were bipartisanly critical of lack of cooperation from the white house. It seems to be a continuance of "my way or the highway" regardless of overwhelming bipartisan support of most of the Farm Bill work to date."

The House Ag Leadership did go to the floor yesterday and got another week of extension for the 2002 farm law to next Friday, April 25. No word on when the Senate may act on that or if the Administration feels there is enough progress to justify having the President go along with the members of Congress for one more week. Talks are continuing between the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee- looking for a funding solution. That's what it will take to get a deal anytime soon. The fifth meeting of the Conference Committee will be happening late this morning.

Click here for audio and more on the Farm Bill Conference Committee- all on the 2007 Farm Bill Page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

A faculty member in the department of agricultural economics, Anderson serves as OSU Cooperative Extension grain marketing specialist and holds the Charles A. Breedlove professorship in agribusiness. "Dr. Anderson's excellence in his teaching, research and Extension activities has been recognized with many regional and national awards, but a teaching honor is always extra special when it is given by those who were or are actually taking his classes," said Robert E. Whitson, DASNR vice president, dean and director.

Anderson designed his Agricultural Product Marketing and Sales course - which averages an enrollment of 114 students each semester - from the ground up. "Students love his class- so says Dr. Phil Kenkel of OSU. "Kim spent time at a local implement dealer. He rode with other agri-sales professionals. He identified the best aspects of similar courses across the nation. The result was a course filled with hands-on experiences, industry interaction and a real-world focus."

Of course, Kim is a regular on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and on our website and this Email. He's well known to a lot of wheat producers for his advice to sell "one third, one third and one third" meaning that one mechanical strategy that works in marketing your wheat is to sell a third at harvest time, another third sometime in the early fall and a final third either right at the end of the year or early in the new year.
Our congrats to Dr. Kim Anderson- he's a Cowboy Dandy!!!

While our general farm organizations and crop commodity groups are mostly interested in the fate of the Commodity Title, the focus by the NCBA is different. They have more interest in the fate of mandatory COOL language, that was worked out last summer by both sides of that issue, the Senate's desire to include a Packer Ban on the ownership of livestock- as well as more money for key conservation programs like EQIP.

The Beef Buzz is heard on great radio stations across the state daily as fed by the Radio Oklahoma Network- and can also be heard on our website on the Beef Buzz page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We also have today's report with Terry Stokes linked below- take a listen!

Click here for the latest Beef Buzz with Ron and Terry Stokes of NCBA.

In Oklahoma, there is one watershed that will be eligible in 2008- but it's a big one. The Upper Washita watershed, complete with 1.7 million acres of farmland in the watershed, is on the list of 51 watersheds nationally that will be a part of this 2008 signup window.

Oklahoma is second nationally in the number of farmland acres that will be elgible for CSP signup, with South Dakota having 2.0 million acres in their elgible watersheds. Click below for more information from the USDA's NRCS website about the CSP Signup for this spring.

Click here for more details on the 2008 CSP Signup that Starts April 18.

We would invite our regular readers of this email to stop by and register for our High Definition TV giveaway at the Radio Oklahoma Network booth in Cox Pavilion at the west end of the building. We are hoping to gather in several emails of new folks to check out the daily email reports- but if you are already subscribed- that's okay- you can still enter and be in the running to win!

We have a 19 inch Westinghouse Flat Panel HDTV that we will be showing off and giving away- the winner to be announced next week in our daily email. We will also have two runnerup prizes- a family pack of four tickets to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum that are good for the balance of 2008! Come see us and say howdy at this year's Southern Plains Farm Show!!!

There are also a lot of other events going on this week and next )and the next) that you need to know about. Click on the Calendar Link below to jump to our webpage and check them all out.

AND remember that if you are involved with a group- we need to get those calendar items from you. We have received a lot of calendar items in recent days- but we have room for your event to publicize as well- just get that info to me at the email address listed below- and that's all there is to it!

Click here for the Calendar Page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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.
Previous Day's Energy Market Recap- also from Country Hedging
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.