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 email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We are also excited to have as one of our sponsors for the daily email Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more information on the oilseed crops they handle, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.

And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the December 2009 Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Tulsa Show, coming up December 10,11 and 12, 2009.

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.

In June, President Obama announced that Secretary Vilsack will lead the Administration's Rural Tour to visit rural communities in states throughout the country. Secretary Vilsack is scheduled to lead Rural Tour events with other top administration officials over the coming weeks in Nebraska and New Mexico. Monday's event will be the nineteenth similar forum Secretary Vilsack has led since being sworn in, and follows rural listening sessions held in Zanesville, Ohio, Modesto, Calif., Sedalia, Mo., Des Moines, Iowa, Hamlet, N.C., Bethel, Alaska, St. John Parish, La., Blairs, Va., West Salem, Wis., Charlotte, Mich., Concord, N.H., Wattsburg, Pa., Danville, Ind., Geneseo, Ill., Harrodsburg, Ky., Ludowici, Ga., Portageville, Mo., and Brush, Colo.

The Secertary will hold this Rural Tour Community Forum at the Redlands Community College in the Ray Porter Complex, 1300 South Country Club in El Reno. Doors will open at 9 AM, with the Forum expected to last from 9:30 AM until 10:45 AM.

Groups like the HSUS want to dictate how animals raised for food are handled and processed- but their ideas are not based in sound science or take into account how the animals should best be treated for their well being. Instead, we have the HSUS wanting to make it more difficult to raise food animals, as they goal is to eliminate meat protein from the diets of most Americans.

Wileman says to make this type program work- we need it to be a single standard. A single standard would be less confusing to our consumer customers- as they learned to notice and look for that logo on the meat they buy in supermarkets or perhaps seeing that same logo in a menu at their favorite restaurant. You can listen to Wileman's explanation of how this type of Commission would work and inform and reassure the consumer and at the same time, take the wind out of the sails of the animal rights extremists- just click on the link below.

Click here for our midweek Beef Buzz as we consider a US Meat Animal Welfare Commission

"And so it is with cattle markets. Most of the past three years (or six if you start with BSE) have been a rollercoaster of shocks and changes, some short run in nature and some likely more permanent. Arguably the biggest of these and one that is likely more permanent is the change in feed prices. Although the massive initial shock waves of high corn prices have subsided a bit, the beef industry is still making adjustments to reestablish profitably in the industry, especially in the feedlot sector. The industry has made significant adjustments by changing the manner and timing of cattle feeding and has been helped by three consecutive large corn crops that are giving us currently the lowest corn prices that can reasonably be expected. Still feedlot profits remain elusive. Although feed costs have moderated in recent months, the global recession has produced weak beef and fed cattle prices resulting in continued feedlot losses. The pain is very real and the long term reality of reducing excess capacity (feedlots closing) is underway at this time. Nevertheless, there is some potential light at the end of tunnel.

The near certainty of a 13 billion bushel corn crop this fall suggests that corn prices will remain in the $3/bushel range and keep feedlots cost of gain in check. Projected feedlot budgets, relative to live cattle futures, are almost at the point of showing a breakeven for cattle feeding. It will take months of profitability to stop the structural adjustments to feedlot capacity that are underway but it would only take a bit more help in terms of lower feeding costs or higher fed cattle prices to begin the process. There may begin to be some opportunities to lock in profitable margins in cattle feeding and that may offer more opportunities for cow-calf and stocker producers to have retained ownership as a viable alternative. Macroeconomic recovery that translates into stronger beef demand is possible in the next few months and will certainly help the process. Markets do not sit still and inevitably markets will continue to adjust and move towards relative input and output prices that allow profitability and more stability (in the absence of additional shocks!). Opportunities will appear and disappear along the way and producers should look for chances to take advantage of those opportunities. History is less of a guide in dynamic times and rules of thumb based on history are downright dangerous. Nevertheless, there are opportunities."

Maintain Congressionally-directed projects for cereal disease research at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Cereal Disease Laboratory, St. Paul, Minn., and funding for Karnal bunt disease research at the USDA-ARS Grain Marketing Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kan.
Increase funding for Ug99 research by $2 million, separate from funding for cereal disease research and a new administrative initiative on fighting hunger through research into emerging cereal diseases.
Maintain $3.74 million in funding for the agricultural research center in Pullman, Wash., as approved in the Senate bill.
Retain language in the Senate bill directing ARS to provide an updated report on the feasibility, requirements and scope of facility needs at the Red River Valley Agricultural Research Center in Fargo, N.D.

The groups also outlined preferred funding levels for a number of special research grants of critical importance to small grains, including projects on jointed goatgrass; barley for rural development; expanded wheat pasture; the regional barley gene mapping project; Russian wheat aphid; the Steep IV project; and wheat genetics research.
Click on the link below to review the case they made to Congress in the letter sent last week.

Click here for the letter sent by the wheat industry on research needs

Lacey Dale Cully, President of the organization for 2009, urges everyone to go to their website and get more information and download the registration form for buying tickets right away. Standard event seating is available for $150 by reservation only. Table sponsorship is available for $1,500 and up . We talked to Lacey Dale at the end of this past week as she joined us for our TV segment on News9 this past Saturday morning. You can hear our conversation with her by clicking on the link below.

To inquire about Diamond Hats or get ticket information for the Diamond Hats Ball, A Diamond Harvest, please call Dusty Burchfield at (405) 880-5385.

Click here for more on the Diamond Hats Gala Ball Coming up September 30 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in OKC

This year's Golden Triangle recipients were selected for their leadership on a variety of issues, including: work to address the crisis in the dairy industry, support for climate change and energy legislation, efforts to increase transparency and oversight of commodity markets, support for increasing the use and production of renewable fuels, and increasing competition in the marketplace.

We have the full list of those that the general farm organization is honoring- click on the link below to jump to our story on our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

Click here for more on the Golden Triangle Awards Being Handed Out to Lawmakers in DC this week by NFU

Under the proposed rule selected establishments will receive inspection services from federally trained and/or supervised State inspection personnel who will verify that the establishments meet all Federal food safety requirements. Meat and poultry products produced under the voluntary cooperative program will bear an official USDA mark of inspection, thereby enabling interstate shipment of the products.

Currently, 27 states operate State meat or poultry inspection programs, and FSIS verifies that the State programs are implementing requirements that are - at least equal to - those imposed under the Federal meat and poultry products inspection acts. For these programs, FSIS provides up to 50 percent of the State's operating funds and provides oversight and enforcement of the program.

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- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat 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.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.