Click on Ron’s Picture to learn about his induction into the Oklahoma Broadcasters Hall of Fame

Support our Sponsors- Click on the logos below to go to their websites!

Here’s our coverage of the 2007 AFBF convention held
 in Salt Lake City-

Wednesday Morning and the Fat Lady has Sung! It was a speedy wrapup for this 88th annual convention of the American Farm Bureau- and we wanted to give you an overview of the Post Convention News Conference that President Bob Stallman offered to reporters on Tuesday afternoon after delegates had taken care of their business. Click here for that audio finale!

Tuesday evening- Howdy Neighbors- it turned out to be a short and sweet Delegates Resolution Session- no elections this year and so it was just about policy and they got it all done today! We understand that one issue that Oklahoma Farm Bureau delegates were front and center on was animal ID- leading the charge for a Voluntary Animal ID program- and that measure ended up easily passing with 85% of the delegates of a Voluntary Animal ID effort. As far as some of the other issues from today’s Delegate session- we have linked to the closing News Release from the AFBF- which captures most of the highlights. Click here to read more...

Good Tuesday morning to you as we continue to offer coverage from the American Farm Bureau Convention here in Salt Lake City. We heard a very wide variance in the opinion of what agriculture wants as we write the 2007 farm bill. Collin Peterson offered his thoughts that the 2007 Farm Bill will likely similar to the current farm law written in 2002. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns is thinking we need to throw the baby out with the bath water and adopt substantially different farm policy in 2007- and his aggressive case for that change caught some Farm Bureau members here in SLC by surprise. Click here to listen to our overview of some of the key points that Johanns made for change.

Monday afternoon at 5 pm: Lots of stuff that we were chasing on Monday- and we will share more of it tomorrow morning- but in the meanwhile, we do want to share a gang interview that we were in the middle of just before a Standing Room Only crowd listened to Collin Peterson, the new Chairman of the House Ag Committee. We started the questions off with one for our livestock friends- about COOL and Animal ID. Click here and take a listen.

Midday Monday in downtown Salt Lake City- and the 88th annual meeting of the AFBF continues to be a busy busy place- Click here to hear Ron team up with fellow farm broadcaster Ken Rahjes of Nebraska as we chat with Bruce Knight of USDA on the Animal ID plans of USDA- Undersecretary Knight talked animal ID for an hour with a packed house of Farm Bureau members here at the meeting.

January 8 Howdy Neighbors and a good morning to you! One of the nicest gentlemen that I have ever worked with in the U.S. Congress is former Texas Blue Dog Charlie Stenholm.  He was squeezed out of Congress by how the Congressional District lines were drawn to the benefit of Republicans in that state as his longtime seat disappeared and he was forced to run against one or two Republican incumbents in 2004.  He lost to Randy Neugebauer in a lost contest- but he has kept busy since then and is currently lobbying for several groups as we hit the 2007 farm bill cycle.  Yesterday afternoon, he was honored by the American Farm Bureau with their Distinguished Service Award- and after that session, three farm broadcasters gathered around him and a couple of us asked questions of the former top Democrat on the House Ag Committee- Click here to take a listen.

January 7 at 6 pm- Here are about my last reports of the day from this opening day session of the American Farm Bureau Federation- I am sorry to report that none of our YF&R entries made it to the finals in the three categories where we were competing. I still plan to catch up and visit with Danielle Budy of Alva who is slated to be the next Vice Chairman of the YF&R nationally.

At the opening General Session on Sunday afternoon, they honored Blue Dog Democrat Charlie Stenholm with their Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award- Stenholm is one of those amazing politicians who could get along great with both the Farm Bureaus and the Farmers Unions of the world. Also at the Session, the annual address from AFBF President Bob Stallman was given- and we have the condensed version with our comments sprinkled in for you to listen to- Click Here to ride the magic carpet out to Salt Lake City and this annual meeting.

January 7,2007- It’s a little after 1 in the afternoon here in Salt Lake City and several key presentations were a part of the late morning breakouts that Farm Bureau members had available to them.  One session was on the impact of Ethanol and Biofuels in the days ahead for US agriculture- and lead presentator there was the Chief Economist Dr. Keith Collins of USDA.  He called the rapid expansion of ethanol production in this country “stunning” and likened it to the fundamental changes that happened when we had the Great Russian Grain Robbery of the 1970s. You can hear our exclusive conversation with Dr. Collins by clicking here. We should know fairly soon the fate of the Oklahoma entrant into the Discussion Meet- the Sweet 16 for that will be announced in just a few minutes.

ALSO- we had a chance to catch up with one of the livestock prognosticators during the Livestock Outlook Session- Jim Sartwelle who is the AFBF Livestock Economist. Click on Jim’s name to hear our brief conversation with him about 2007 price outlook. By the way, OFB President Steve Kouplen Chaired the Livestock outlook Session this morrning here at SLC.  More later from the AFBF!

January 7, 2007 It’s 9 am Mountain time and while many of you back in Oklahoma are at church- we are gearing up for a busy first day at the AFBF meeting. Good news from the Oklahoma YF&R as Danielle Budy of Alva has been elected to serve as Vice Chairman of the National YF&R. We’ll have a few more details on that later and catch up with Danielle hopefully later today. Meanwhile, we were at the Oklahoma Breakfast this morning and did our annual overview with President Steve Kouplen of Beggs- which you can hear by clicking on this paragraph. More to come by mid afternoon from Salt Lake City- which is bright and sunny and cold this Sunday morning.

January 6, 2007: We have arrived here in frigid Salt Lake City for the 88th annual convention of the AFBF. Sunday is the first really big day- and things will get cranking very quickly at that point. To help kick off our coverage from here in SLC, we have a preview that was produced by Sam Knipp this past week with Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Steve Kouplen as they consider one of the crucial issues for the organization at this gathering- farm policy and their position.  Click here for that preview.

[Home] [Wheat Harvest!!!] [OALP to China!] [Featured Audio!] [Daily E-Mail Archive] [Markets] [Weather] [Calendar] [Listen to Ron!] [The Beef Buzz] [2007 Farm Bill] [FFA Conventions & More!] [Oklahoma FFA Stars!!!] [Bovine Blog] [AFBF Meeting BLOG] [AFBF 2007] [Contact Ron]