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 "new look" website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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The planned limits in the new five-year farm bill are complex. Farmers who have more than 750-thousand dollars a year in non-farm income would no longer be eligible for crop subsidies in 2009. The income ceiling would drop to 500-thousand by 2011. That cap is intended to prevent so-called hobby farmers from collecting subsidies.
Different caps would apply to agriculture-related income. Farmers who make less than 950-thousand a year from agriculture would still be able to collect federal dollars. But for every 100-thousand a year they make above that amount, they would lose 10 percent of their direct payments, which farmers get no matter what crop prices are like.

We will have a chance to talk with Congressman Frank Lucas early this morning- and we will post his comments to our Farm Bill website page- which is linked below. And- we will be following the direction of the farm bill saga during the day today- and will update that page several times as needed- so drop by and check in from time to time.

Click here for the latest on the Farm Bill scene on our Farm Bill 2007 Website.

Seven additional FFA members will join Clifton on the 2008-09 Oklahoma FFA officer team: Chasity Beasler, Wellston FFA, secretary; Carly Schnaithman, Garber FFA, reporter; Stasha Harp, Kansas FFA, northeast district vice president; Riley Pagett, Woodward FFA, northwest district vice president; Blake Matlock, Tecumseh FFA, central district vice president; Amy Peel, Wetumka FFA, southeast district vice president; and Sarah Reasnor, Elgin FFA, southwest district vice president.

Chelsea has a great deal of success as a speaker in the FFA- and was one of the leaders of the Kingfisher FFA Livestock Judging Team that simply ran away from every other team in the United States the fall of 2006 at the National Convention!
Meanwhile, I judged at least two of the other new officers on Tuesday- and Sarah Reasnor of Elgin was the winner of the Prepared Public Speaking contest at this year's Convention- so she will be an asset to this team for sure.

For cattle producers, ground beef is an important way to market a lot of our beef carcass. Recognizing that not all ground beef goes to making the perfect burger, however, two years ago the checkoff-funded ground beef initiative kicked off with these things in mind: improving consumer perceptions of ground beef's nutritional value and health benefits; increasing availability and access to ground beef and ground beef products; communicating positive messages about ground beef; and, adding value through processing improvements and product innovation. One component of the ground beef initiative included testing consumer appeal of an extra lean burger patty, where it received extremely high consumer marks.

And the ground beef initiative nutrition message is resonating with consumers: consumers bought an additional 85 million pounds of 78 percent lean (or better) ground beef at the grocery store in 2007 when compared to 2004. The fastest growing subcategory during this period was 85 to 89 percent lean beef. And, a 95 percent extra-lean patty now is available to school foodservice and households where leanness is an important buying consideration.
Still, no matter how you slice it, hamburgers still are the most popular beef item for consumers. Americans consumed approximately 11.9 billion burgers in 2007. Forty-one percent of Americans eat burgers at least once a week and 85 percent eat burgers once a month.
So thanks to our beef producers who do their part to produce that perfect beef patty that helps make a great hamburger to enjoy here during National Hamburger Month!

One more Hamburger note- our colleague at Griffin Communications in OKC- Doug Werner of KWTV News9- gobbled down seven burgers from the seven establishments that are listed from Oklahoma in a new book listing the best burger joints in America- well actually he was nibbling at the end, but he has a great video piece that we have linked below- and he mentions that there is a "Burger" celebration tomorrow and Saturday in El Reno that you may want to go check out!

Click here for the Doug Werner Story on Seven Burgers in Seven Hours across Oklahoma!

Farm Bureau analysis of the costs of food production and marketing shows petroleum-based energy is the primary factor driving domestic food prices. Farm Bureau says - forty-four percent of rising food costs is due to energy costs. Stallman points out that - after many commodities leave the farm gate, high costs for energy, fuel and transportation are added and passed onto the consumer. He added - increased retail prices can especially be seen on highly processed foods.

As for a food shortage - Stallman says - I want to assure everyone that in the United States of America, there is not a food shortage. He says - our nation's productive and efficient farm families continue to produce a full range of healthy and abundant foods and we will continue to do so. Stallman said world food prices are escalating because of other complex issues such as growing world demand, particularly in nations such as China and India, as well as lower supplies due to droughts elsewhere in the world. The Farm Bureau President cautioned against governments enacting policies that would intervene in markets, saying such measures would be counterproductive to securing prices that are more moderate globally.

I think Mr. Detrick is missing the key reason that livestock producers are struggling with corn prices. He contends that the "feeding industry is having to pay what the rest are willing to give." That simply is not accurate. Livestock producers are not getting blenders tax credits and we don't have tariffs in place to keep out foreign meat products.

"I believe most livestock producers are supportive of biofuels and the efforts to create greater on-farm income for all agricultural producers. However, we cannot compete in a system where the price we pay for grain is not subsidized and the price the ethanol manufacturers are paying is highly subsidized.
We are not opposed to competition for grain. We are opposed to unfair competition where one side has a huge financial advantage through tax credits and tariffs on imports.
If this is truly about simple competition for grain, then I would encourage the ethanol industry to allow the blenders tax credit to expire and to eliminate the tariff on imported ethanol. When that happens, we'll stop blaming ethanol for increasing our cost of production."

One of the afternoon speakers at the Eastern Oklahoma Ag Trade Show that attracted some 500 to Poteau was Dr. Dave Sparks, Extension Vet for OSU. We talked with Dr. Sparks about not so much what he was visiting with the cattle producers in Poteau yesterday- but about this series of Agroterrorism Meetings that he has helped set up that are now underway at locations all across the state. We have our conversation with Dr. Sparks linked on our website and that link is provided below.

It's a fascinating topic and one that we will be spending more time on next week as we travel to the APHIS facility in Maryland and meet with USDA and Homeland Security officials- along with a select number of other ag trade media- to talk about FMD scenarios and how the ag media could help in a response if we ever should have Foot and Mouth Disease rear its ugly head here in the US. We look forward to reporting more on that event the middle of next week.

Click here for Ron and Dr. Dave Sparks talking Agroterrorism.

Ken Holloway of Coyote Hills Ranch writes in his welcome for the catalog to this sale that "the Kervin- Hall-CHR Female Sale represents a cross section of what the program is striving to produce. You will find a strong offering of Limousin genetics that are bred to perform under what some would call less than ideal conditions - namely the hot, arid conditions of southwest Oklahoma with an annual rainfall of 27 inches or less. Many times it all comes the same weekend in May. You will find females that wean a high percentage of the weight in high quality weaned calves annually. You will find genetics that represent some of the breed's most popular proven sires as well as some of the new sires. You will find fullbloods, purebreds and Lim-Flex females all performing under similar conditions. If they do not perform they have already taken their place in America's food chain."

We have details linked below for you about this upcoming sale on May 3. Click below to be taken to the Kervin-Hall-Coyote Hills website where you can either look at the online catalog or download a print version of the catalog in PDF format that you can print out if you care to do so.

Click here for details about the Kervin-Hall-Coyote Hills Female Sale Set for THIS Saturday May 3.

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.