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 Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Southern Plains Farm Show, coming up April 15,16 and 17, 2010.

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.

"The U.S. wheat industry is very pleased that the U.S. and Brazilian governments have been able to identify a process for negotiating a settlement in the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute between our two countries. Brazil recently won the right to impose countermeasures against U.S. trade and planned to increase U.S. wheat tariffs to 30 percent from 10 percent today as part of its response. Yesterday's agreement ensures that U.S. producers will remain competitive in one of the world's largest wheat markets.

"The demonstrated willingness of the Brazil and U.S. governments to begin in good faith to negotiate a settlement is very encouraging. In particular we commend the efforts of Under Secretary Jim Miller, Ambassador Miriam Sapiro and Ambassador Isi Siddiqui in achieving this outcome, and we look forward to working with them and Members of Congress as discussions on this issue continue."

However, the Deal with Brazil May Mean Meat Exports from the South American Nation.

Specifically, the United States agreed to publish a proposed rule by April 16, 2010, to recognize the state of Santa Catarina as free of foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, classical swine fever, African swine fever, and swine vesicular disease, based on World Organization for Animal Health guidelines.
Washington also agreed to complete a risk evaluation and determine whether fresh beef can be imported from Brazil while preventing foot-and-mouth disease in the United States.

Click here for the release from the USTR- scroll down to the backgrounder and the next to last paragraph that talks about the meat issues.

."Today, Minister Akamatsu and I had the opportunity to discuss many aspects of the U.S. - Japan bilateral trading relationship in agriculture. Among other topics, we addressed the issue of Japan's import conditions for U.S. beef and beef products. The discussion was a useful exchange of respective views. Given the importance of a candid exchange of views regarding import conditions for U.S. beef and beef products based on science and international standards, we both underscored the commitment of our respective governments to continue discussions. The Minister and I share the view that U.S. and Japanese officials will continue the dialogue through a series of senior and working level meetings in order to establish a mutually agreeable framework for the import conditions for U.S. beef and beef products. This issue remains a high priority for the United States and the U.S. objective remains a framework that is consistent with science and international standards. Minister Akamatsu and I concluded our meeting by confirming that the U.S. - Japan bilateral relationship in agriculture is a strong and positive one and vowed to continue in this direction."

According to the News Release provided by USDA- Vilsack is in Japan to promote stronger ties between the United States and Japan in the area of agriculture as part of the President's effort to expand U.S exports through the National Export Initiative. During the 4-day trip, Vilsack delivered the keynote address at the "Partners in Agriculture Global Food Security Symposium" and participated in a town hall with Japanese students. Vilsack will also attend the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ''hog lift'' which led to a lasting friendship between the people of Yamanashi prefecture and the state of Iowa.

Fielding tells us that he thinks the beef industry needs to wake up and start working to figure out how to produce a healthier product. He chides the NCBA for not having a resolution on the books that says something like "We will change breeding to produce a healthier end product for the consumer." He claims that Akaushi cattle have the genetics to deliver on that type of direction.

We also talk in this concluding part four of our four part Beef Buzz look at this Japanese cattle breed about the economic benefits for cattle producers. Fielding points to a recent set of F1 steers that were fed in the southern plains and graded better and had a lower cost of gain than your typical set of steers we find today in our US cattle herd.
Click on the link below to get to Part Four of this series with Bill Fielding- and we also have a Podcast now up on the website with our entire conversation that we had with him at the TSCRA convention. The Beef Buzz shows probably included a little over half of what we discussed. Clic k here for that Ag Perspectives Podcast with Bill Fielding.

Click here to jump to our Beef Buzz Part Four of Four Reports on Akaushi Cattle with Bill Fielding.

Highlights of the rules for these scholarships include the following:
1. This scholarship is open to Oklahoma high school seniors who will be enrolling as fulltime students at an agriculture college or university in Oklahoma and majoring in an ag-related field.
2. Recipient must show organizational leadership, community involvement, and a relationship to agriculture.
3. Up to five scholarships of $1000 each may be awarded for the coming 2010-2011 academic year.
4. GPA of 2.5 or above is necessary to apply.

There are also a couple of scholarships available for upper classmen (or class women). Here's the rundown on this offering:
1. This scholarship is open to college students who will be juniors or seniors and enrolled as fulltime students at an agriculture college or university in Oklahoma and majoring in an ag-related field.
2. Recipient must show scholastic achievement, organizational involvement and leadership.
3. Current GPA in major field of 2.5 or above.
4. Up to two scholarships of $3000 each may be awarded.

Application deadline is May 15, 2010. We have saved the application form and info as a Google Document- if you have trouble with it in this format, email us and we will send you the word document. Click here for the Freshman (High School Senior) application info and Click here for the Upperclassman application info.

Among the groups that coordinate and cooperate on these plots and the tours that happen in April and May are OSU Extension, the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association, Oklahoma Wheat Commission and several agribusinesses.

At this point- we now have twenty four of these tour stops on our April and May calendar on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Click on the link below to see that full list listed by date- scroll down to find the location closest to you. You can check with you local extension service folks to get directions for the plots you want to view.
We encourage you to take the time to look at these plots- and be open to the idea of upgrading your wheat genetics with some of the varieties that have been released by the OSU Wheat Breeding Team- or by some of the other Land Grants or private companies working with Hard Red Winter germplasm. It will be worh your investment.

Click here for our calendar page on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and then scroll down to the end of April and into May to find the listing near you.

With our thanks to Jessica Stewart for getting this up on Facebook- we have the link below of a half dozen pictures that you can take a look at from the day's activities. Click on the link below to check them out,

Click here for the Facebook Pictures of 4-H Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

Sparks will focus on sustainable goat management and the benefits of raising both goats and cattle using management intensive grazing. "Goats are not small cattle," he says. Their unique needs present many challenges to profitable production. Goat parasites thrive in Oklahoma's wet, humid climate, and dewormers are growing less effective. Sparks says this is the biggest current threat to goat health, and he sees cattle as a chemical-free fix.

At the field day, Sparks will also cover other topics, including non-chemical parasite management, kidding and newborns, composting waste and goat mortality, inexpensive working facilities, and performance testing. Sparks received a 2008 producer grant from the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, a nonprofit educational foundation in Poteau, to support the project.
To register, contact the Kerr Center by phone at 918- 647-9123

Click here for the Kerr Center Website- they have lots of other spring events to check out as well.

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.