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.

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Hodges tells us that those southern areas of the state- from Lone Wolf across to Walters(south of this line) is probably 70% done; the Cordell area is about 40% cut and even the Kingfisher area has gotten a lot harvested- perhaps 30% in that area is now cut out. Reports of yield and test weights continue to be good- and the berry color is excellent as well.

We have several reports that our listeners and readers of this email provided yesterday- and we have all of those documented on our website- we have some new pictures as well from the harvest- one of those providing some snapshots was Mary Ann Nickens of the American Farmers & Ranchers- she tells us they had a great harvest on her family's farm now rented out. She got to ride in the combine as they were cutting wheat that ended up yielding over 58 bushels per acre and had a 65 pound test weight.

Continue to let us hear from you. We would love to hear about your harvest experience here in 2008- especially as we get to some of the varieties of wheat other than Jagger and Overly. Drop us a note at the email address at the bottom of this daily news update- and it will be greatly appreciated!

Click here for the Wheat Harvest Webpage found on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Now what does that mean? Well, the discussion piece says that "THE STORM WILL MOVE INTO AN AREA OF STRONG POTENTIAL INSTABILITY AND WILL HELP GENERATE PARTICULARLY STRONG WIND FIELDS. FORECAST HODOGRAPHS FOR THIS EVENING ARE PARTICULARLY IMPRESSIVE... SUGGESTING THE POTENTIAL FOR TORNADOES- AND THE USUAL COMPLEMENTS OF VERY LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS. INDICATIONS ARE THAT THE MID-LEVEL CAP WHICH PREVENTED STORMS YESTERDAY WILL BE OVERCOME BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON IN THE AREA JUST EAST OF THE DRYLINE. THIS DRYLINE IS FORECAST TO BE ACROSS WESTERN OKLAHOMA, APPROXIMATELY FROM WOODWARD TO CHEYENNE BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON. WIND PROFILES SUGGEST THAT STORMS WILL INITIALLY MOVE QUICKLY TOWARD THE NORTHEAST.

The discussion also speaks of the strong winds that this system will generate- with High Wind Warnings highly likely later today in western counties of our state.
We would advise you to stay with the professionals that we work with in the state to stay on top of these developing storms- That of course is News9 (Gary England and the team in central and western Oklahoma) and the News on 6 in Eastern Oklahoma(Travis Meyer and his folks). Click on either of those two links provided on their name and it will jump you to their web pages that feature weather information that is best there is!

Garza says - while many critics have focused on renewable fuels as the culprit for recent food price increases, the situation is significantly more complex. He says - targeting ethanol and other biofuels is misplaced and fails to acknowledge their benefits, including decreased reliance on finite gas and oil reserves.

Garza says - Farm Bureau strongly believes that the food price situation we face today is complex and cannot be resolved by politically expedient scapegoating. He adds - instead, we must address it in a thoughtful and comprehensive manner. Such a plan includes efforts by the international community to help developing countries achieve food sufficiency by investing in agricultural infrastructure and trade facilitation.

While his schedule would not permit Hargis to make the recent Lahoma Research Station Field Day last month, Dean Robert Whitson was able to give Burns Hargis a personal tour of the facility the very next day- allowing Dr. Brett Carver and his team to explain the wheat breeding process- and the OSU President getting a chance to see the difference from old Turkey Wheat and some of the new varieties that OSU has released or is planning to release in the near future. He also got to see the importance of breeding disease resistance into a variety of wheat- as he got a little tutorial in examining a wheat plant for rust.

And, Roger Gribble was on hand as well to help explain how the research that is done is then transferred by Extension out to the country for the betterment of the farmers and ranchers across Oklahoma and well beyond our borders as well.
With Hargis at the reins of our Land Grant Institution in the state- it is important that he see and have an understanding of how that mission is being accomplished, which Dean Whitson says was the reason for the show and tell experience with the new President.

Other winners included: 1st Place Entrée, Carmen L. Bradford, Broken Arrow, Choc'ken Fried Chicken; 2nd Place Entrée, Sherry Verser, Bethany, Okie's Beef Fiesta Cheesecake; 1st Place Dessert, Lori McGrath, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Blueberry Bites; and 2nd Place Dessert, Lori Richardson-Morphew, Bethany, Ft. Washita Explosion Cake.

The MIO Coalition is a group of Oklahoma companies that employ more than 20,000 Oklahomans and last year had a combined payroll of over $480 million and reported sales of over $2.6 billion. If you go to the link we have provided below- you can check out the winning recipes of this year's Made in Oklahoma Contest!

Click here for the Made in Oklahoma Coalition Website.

"Planting in wheat stubble is no problem with most modern cotton planters. We need to plant in moisture instead of dry planting. Wheat at this time of year no longer uses much moisture, so any rainfall received will probably be adequate for planting cotton. One very important thing to consider are herbicides that may have been used on the wheat. Some herbicides such as Ally, Finesse, Glean and Maverick have a year or longer restriction for rotation to cotton. Express has a 45 day restriction. It is best to look at labels of applied herbicides and determine if there will be any problems with carryover.

"Obviously, the earlier the cotton is planted, the better, but we can plant into mid June and still get a reasonable yield potential. Overall, the best planting window is from May 10-20 for maximum yield potential, but the later planting will normally provide an adequate yield. Varieties should be a short season semi-determinate type, but most varieties we normally plant will fall into this category."
If you want more information, our friends at NTOK suggest that you contact Dr. Banks- he is located at the OSU Research Facility just south of Altus.

Click here for more cotton industry information- courtesy of NTOK cotton.

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.