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 welcome Big Iron Unreserved Online Auctions as our newest sponsor of the daily Email. Their next auction is this Wednesday, May 12- featuring Low Hour, Farmer Owned Equipment. Click here for their website to learn more about their Online Farm Equipment Auctions.

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 just concluded Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more on the December 2010 Tulsa Farm Show, including information on how you can be an exhibitor.

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.

Senator Inhofe continues to predict that no climate change legislation with any sort of "cap and trade" plan will pass the Senate here in 2010. He also believes that the Environmental Protection Agency will not have a chance to regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions, as he believes the premise of their endangerment finding of last year was based on faulty science that has been debunked since that time- and that legal challenges against the finding by the EPA are being filed by many states and numerous groups, including the American Farm Bureau and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Beyond the Climate Change issue, we also talked immigration with Senator Inhofe and he offered his belief that the Republicans will retake the House and he predicted a Republican majority in the Senate as well after the November general elections.

He sees the Republicans holding the seats they have that are up for election this fall- and he believes that voters in ten states will switch their Senator from a Democrat to a Republican. The ten states that Inhofe sees a switch the GOP way includes Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. He adds that Democratic seats in New York and California are in play as well.

Click here to hear Senator Inhofe's comments of all of this- all found on our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

We have a total of 11 venues that will be seen in the TV commercials- and the venue being featured this week is the Orr Family Farm on the south side of Oklahoma City. This 106-acre, working thoroughbred horse farm offers children and visitors of all ages a host of farm attractions and activities. Features two trains, including a new replica of the Jupiter locomotive that accommodates 100 adults and children. Fishing ponds with largemouth bass, crappie and catfish; 1974 carousel; animal barn; apple orchard and pumpkins in the fall; pony and hay rides; and the Amaze'n Maze, one of only 10 mazes of its kind in the world.

Click here to learn more about the Orr Family Farm, found south of I-240 on Western in southern Oklahoma County. And you can click on the link below for the Oklahoma Agritourism site to learn more about the Adventure Passport contest that is now underway.

Click here for the Oklahoma Agritourism website that is on the web and is a part of the general Oklahoma Tourism website.

In Land Judging, FFA competition, the North Miami, Ind., chapter won in the team category and the first place individual winner was Jacob Nall, Roland, Okla., FFA. In the 4-H competition the Benton, Ind., chapter was the winning team and Chelsea Stemler, Barbour County, W.Va., was the 4-H individual winner.
In the Range Judging Contest, the Jacksboro, Texas, chapter won the FFA team competition, and Braydan Besselaar of that team won the FFA individual award. The Butte County, S.D., chapter won the 4-H team category, and Jacob Renfro, Young County, Texas, placed first in the 4-H individual category.
In Homesite Evaluation, the Hot Springs, N.M., chapter won the FFA team competition, and Michelle Shivers of that team took the first place FFA individual award. The Barbour County, W.Va., chapter won the 4-H team category, and Chris Davis, Scott County, Kan., placed first in the 4-H individual category.

Click here for the site where you can dig down and get all of the results of the 2010 Contest. Click on the link below for the rest of the story about the contest itself- and the support offered by a whole host of individuals for the national competition.

Click here for more on the 2010 National Land and Range Judging Contest.

From Dr. Hunger- "Over the last week I have visited fields and plots around Stillwater, around Marshall (30 miles west of Stillwater), Lahoma (10 miles west of Enid), Billings (35 miles northeast of Enid), Mustang [15 miles southwest of Oklahoma City (OKC)], and Apache (75 miles southwest of OKC). Over most of this area wheat ranged in maturity from half to full berry (southwest of OKC) to being just at the completion of flowering and the start of berry formation. Prevalent diseases observed included stripe rust, leaf rust, and barley yellow dwarf. Stripe rust was severe in some locations such as specific areas in fields or trials near Stillwater, Marshall, Lahoma, and Apache. Ratings of stripe rust were as high as 90 MS-S, especially in "hot spots" in some of these trials in Jagalene. Jagger would be close behind with ratings in the 65-80 MS-S range. Other Jagger derivatives were less with readings mostly in the 15-40 MS-S range. In some areas, sparse if any stripe rust, leaf rust or BYD was observed, such as in the Mustang area."

Dr. Hungers adds that "My impression is that the "shift" or adaptation in the stripe rust pathogen to the resistance in Jagalene/Jagger appears to have been highly selective to these two varieties with some type of slight "remnant" resistance still being expressed in Jagger and even a bit more resistance in Jagger derivatives; not sure how to actually explain this. In any location I have been where stripe rust is prevalent, the incidence and severity on Jagalene is greater (and earlier) than on Jagger, which is greater and earlier than the other derivatives.
"Leaf rust is starting to appear in greater incidence and severity. In areas where stripe rust is not severe, Jagalene, Jagger and Overley are the three varieties on which I have seen the most leaf rust - generally in the 25-40 S range on F-1 or lower leaves."

Click here for more on the Wheat Disease situation as described by Dr. Bob Hunger of OSU

"Moreover, higher prices imply higher revenue but that is still only half of the profit equation. There are two important cost considerations to keep in mind. First, higher prices for the things we sell imply, in many cases, a tendency for higher prices for the inputs that we use for production. Feed, fuel, fertilizer and other input prices will likely be pressured upward as a more robust recovery takes hold. Secondly, most sectors of the cattle and beef industry are margin operations. Stocker producers, feedlots, packers and retailers all face the squeeze between purchase prices and selling prices. In the short run, a dramatic market run like this causes a very dynamic margin environment with margins initially expanding as lost cost product sells at higher prices. This is followed by subsequent sales that must cover significantly higher cost inputs. In reality, margin based sectors are less concerned with whether prices are high or low than how purchase prices relate to selling prices. The level and volatility of the margin are the key factors that affect profitability and risk.

"At the current time, the high cost of wholesale beef has not been passed on at the retail level so we really do not know how much resistance there will be at that level. Once retail prices adjust, then in domino fashion, wholesale beef, fed cattle and feeder cattle prices will adjust to reflect the underlying market reality. It will continue to be a dynamic situation for some time yet and there will be considerable pushing and shoving among the various industry sectors for much of the rest of the year."

Gene writes me "An answer plot is sponsored by Cropland genetics, Winfield Solutions, Land-O-Lakes. These plots are set up to be ongoing for several years. They can look at crop rotation and how that increases yields in the following crops such as wheat after canola. They also look at different canola varieties, Sunflowers,  Wheat and other rotational crops. They also look at different herbicides and insecticides."

So, that's what an answer plot is. Justin Stejskal is business Manager for Winfield Solutions LLC and he adds that a third site is also being set up- this site for summer based crops. Justin tells us "we are having our first session for our summer Answer Plot in Pauls Valley on May 18th at 10:00 am.  This plot will only cover corn at the first session, soybeans and other crops will be planted later."
Best way to get signed up for the sesssion and lunch is to contact Winfield Solutions at 1-800-936-3643.

HumaneWatch says "Imagine that you're running a group called Ohioans for Humane Farms. You're (not-so-secretly) controlled by the Humane Society of the United States. And your goal in life is to get a question on the November ballot that would invalidate last year's election, when Ohioans vested control of animal agriculture standards in a thirteen-person board that just started meeting a few days ago.
"Now imagine that your volunteer efforts to gather 402,275 signatures of Ohioans by June 29 are way behind schedule. You started canvassing back on March 10, which means that almost half of your signature-gathering time has already passed. It's April 27, and you've collected barely 115,000 signatures. And you'll probably need 600,000 to reach your goal, since so many of yours will read "Wilbur," "Mickey Mouse," and "Kermit the Frog."

If you're following the typical HSUS playbook, you hire professional signature gatherers. That's how the animal rights group got California's "Proposition 2" over the top. However, In Ohio this could be a big problem. State law prohibits people who are not "residents of this state" from circulating petitions for signatures. But HSUS's full-time staff includes more full-time attorneys than a Law & Order marathon. So why am I not surprised that the group is trying to sue the state of Ohio into submission?

Read more about this latest attack on animal agriculture being plotted by Wayne Pacelle and his HSUS Mob.

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.