From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 06:27
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 Friday May 2, 2008!
A service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma, KIS Futures & Midwest Farm Shows!
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-- Farm Bill Conference Committee Nighttime Session
-- Packer Ban Rejected by Senate Conferees- House Did NOT have to weigh in
-- What About the Commodity Title???
-- Panhandle Crop Conditions Described by Cimarron County Producer- and It's Not Pretty.
-- Chilly Weather This Weekend- But Temps with a "2" in Front of Them Won't Be Seen in Oklahoma.
-- Coming Up- See Chelsea Saturday Morning!
-- J & J Angus in Orlando Has Production Sale Set for Saturday May 10.
-- Checking the Markets...

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.

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 just concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. 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.


Farm Bill Conference Committee Nighttime Session
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The "Principals"- mainly the House Ag Committee Chairman and Ranking Minority member, the Senate Ag Committee Chairman and Ranking Minority member- along with the House and Senate Leadership appointees. These insiders finally cobbled together a "deal" late Thursday afternoon and right at 5:30 PM central time- the public Conference Committee opened up with the intent by the "Principals" to steamroll through the entire measure before the end of the evening.

One fight arose over Crop Insurance- as House Republicans offered a strengthened Crop Insurance plan that would take some of the money away from the Permanent Disaster and use it for the combining of a couple of crop insurance programs that give fuller protection to a producer. Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas offered the amendment- and he had Congressman Moran of Kansas and Congressman Lucas of Oklahoma speak in support of his plan that offered money also to restore Direct Payments to the 2002 Farm Law levels. It failed straight across party lines in the House- so the Senate avoided a vote on it.

We have the audio on this debate on our Farm Bill webpage on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- which we have linked below.
ONE OF THE LATEST THINGS WE HAVE JUST ADDED IS THE CONVERSATION THAT WE HAD WITH CONGRESSMAN FRANK LUCAS AT 12:30 am ON FRIDAY MORNING AFTER THE 6 AND A HALF HOUR TOTAL SESSION- CHECK THAT OUT AS WELL!

Click here for the 2007 Farm Bill webpage on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.


Packer Ban Rejected by Senate Conferees- House Did NOT have to weigh in
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About four hours into the marathon session of the Farm Bill Conference Committee- they arrived at the Livestock Title with one outstanding issue to deal with- the so called Packer Ban on Livestock Ownership. The crusade leader for many years on this issue and on Payment Limits is Senator Charles Grassley, the Republican from Iowa. Grassley cited the need to save competition in the beef cattle business before we end up with one packer.

One of those rebutting Senator Grassley was Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas- who said he did not want to get to the point where he had to tell a cattle producer wanting to partner in some way with a meat processor in a value added plan that he could not sell his cattle in that way. Roberts urged a no vote.

When it came to a vote, the two Iowa Senators found themselves pretty much by themselves as Senator Harkin admitted the votes were not there on a voice vote- so the Packer Ban failed on the Senate side of the Conference Committee without the House having to even consider it. We have the audio comments of both Senators Grassley and Roberts on our Farm Bill Webpage- which is linked below.

Click here for the Farm Bill Page of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


What About the Commodity Title???
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The Conference Committee kept chugging along late last night into early this morning- and they finally arrived at the Commodity Title. The first debate of the Commodity Title surrounded the restoration of Direct Payments to 2002 Farm Law levels. Kansas Congressman argued passionately in favor of the restoration- Kansas Senator Pat Roberts also spoke in favor as did Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas.

However, Colin Peterson got close to being ugly about the idea- ridiculed the supporters for not willing to give up the two percent for the greater good- and at the end of the day- it was a party line vote- with Moran losing 7 to 9. As a result the Senate was spared having to go on the record.

There are still several Commodity Title Issues to be dealt with. Payment Limitations is a very complicated proposal by the Principals- and they are waiting on a CBO score. The Beneficial Interest matter is one where they are hopeful to get closer to the Administration- and they need a budget score on this as well. Peterson says one final issue concerns grain storage issues. They are hoping to pull these issues together by Monday- and I would suspect that the "Principals" will assemble what they want and will force feed the rest of the Conference Comittee.

The question remains- is it enough for the White House? At about 10 PM last night, Deputy Chcuk Conner offered this statement ""The president wants to sign a farm bill that meets his criteria.
"If sent to him without meeting his criteria, he would be forced to veto the bill.
"We encourage the conferees to produce a bill which will gain his signature by reducing the cost and implementing real reform."
We have some of the comments from the Direct Payment debate on our Farm Bill 2007 webpage- click to take a look and listen on the link from either of the two stories above.
The Session ended pretty quickly after the Commodity Title was considered at around 12:30 AM central time- Senator Harkin indicated the next Conference Committee meeting would be no sooner than 1:00 PM washington time on Tuesday.


Panhandle Crop Conditions Described by Cimarron County Producer- and It's Not Pretty.
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Earlier this week when we briefed you on the Crop Weather updates from across the state- we provided you the ratings as compiled by USDA's National Ag Statistics folks- but those ratings don't tell the story in the western Panhandle according to Cherrie Brown of Boise City who write us this email-

"Your report this morning indicated that in Oklahoma, the pasture ratings are 81% in the fair to good condition rankings. Although this may be representative of most of the counties in Oklahoma, it isn't the case in Cimarron County. I have concerns that the state is unaware of climatic conditions facing the panhandle, especially those in Cimarron and Texas counties.

"I certainly understand the plight of producers who have been inundated by recent rains, but as another concern, drought is affecting this area. In Cimarron County, few dryland wheat acres will be harvested this year. By Mesonet data, wheat acres in Cimarron Co. have received .81 inches of rainfall since October 2007. We are historically dependent upon winter snows to assist in filling soil moisture profiles and those were not forthcoming. Little to no acres have been available for grazing. The Mesonet shows that we are experiencing a deficit of 8.21". Many producers are also reconsidering their number of corn acres to be planted under irrigation this season due to depleted soil moisture, higher gas prices and seed costs.
Much of the rangeland acres in the northern and western areas of the county have received less than .1 of an inch of moisture in over a year. Conditions in those areas are promoting erosion from wind for the first time in years. Virtually little to no grazing acres are left unaffected from forced deferment or herd reduction. The plight of farming and ranching producers in the panhandle is also critical."
Cherrie- thanks for this current look at conditions in this important part of the state.


Chilly Weather This Weekend- But Temps with a "2" in Front of Them Won't Be Seen in Oklahoma.
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Just like last weekend, we have colder temperatures that are filtering down from Canada toward the state of Oklahoma. We are expecting temperatures right around freezing in the Panhandle and above that level by a couple of degrees in the body of the state early Saturday morning.

If we stay at those levels, we expect no damage to the 2008 Oklahoma wheat crop. More damage may have ocurred Thursday evening from the round of severe weather that we had across portions of the state. The hail that rained down in some locations- including around Stillwater and points north- likely damaged some acres of the 2008 wheat crop.


Coming Up- See Chelsea Saturday Morning!
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We have plans to have Chelsea Clifton of Kingfisher to make one of her first media appearances as President of the Oklahoma FFA on our In the Field segment on KWTV News9 tomorrow morning on Saturday, May 3. Our segment will air around 6:40 AM on the morning news.

We will also have this interview linked on our website over the weekend- so if you happen to miss the live segment- you'll be able to take a look at it on our hme page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. (we have that linked below)

Click here over the weekend and go to our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com where we will have the Chelsea Clifton interview after it airs Saturday morning on KWTV News9!


J & J Angus in Orlando Has Production Sale Set for Saturday May 10.
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J&J Angus Ranch has their third annual Production Sale planned for a week from this Saturday- May 10 with the sale set to begin at 1:00 PM. The day before, May 9, the Johnson family will have the cattle available for viewing beginning in the afternoon with refeshments and dinner available at the ranch. On Saturday, juice and pastries will be available first thing in the morning- with lunch offered at 10:45 am and the sale to begin at 1:00 PM.

Mark Johnson, who along with his wife Brenda, own J&J Angus Ranch- tells us about the offering- There will be a total of 75 Angus lots including
- Over 30 cow-calf pairs with spring calves sired by Raven, TC Total, Moneymaker, 263c, Franchise, 1I2, Prime Star and Double Take. Many featuring the service of EXAR Titleist T011.
- 20 spring yearlings and 13 fancy fall born heifer prospects, halter broke, with show and donor potential
- 8 powerful herd sire prospects sired by Raven, Future Direction, Benchmark, MC 2500 & Papa Equator
- Multiple embryo and pregnancy lots representing the most elite cow families in the breed.

J&J Ranch is located on the south side of State Highway 51, 1.5 miles west of Interstate 35 (exit 174), look for the red barn on top of the hill. If you want more information, you can call Mark or Brenda at 405-880- 5887. We have the sales catalog linked below- click and check it out.

Click here for Sales Information for the J&J Angus Ranch Production Sale Coming May 10, 2008.


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!

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


Checking the Markets...
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We saw cash cattle trade develop in feedlot country on Thursday- steady money at $92 in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Feedlots had expected to be able to get $93 this week for fat cattle- but when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Live Cattle Futures came in sharply lower on Thursday- owners took the $92 and cashed out.

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.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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