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 Wednesday, October 13 - 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 springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the upcoming 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.

The One Oklahoma Coalition that is opposing State Question 744 says there are four main reasons that they believe voters should oppose this State Question:

No oversight or accountability of how millions of your tax dollars will be spent. No guarantee that any new funding is spent on children, computers, books, classroom needs or teacher pay raises.
No reforms in public schools or any type are included in SQ 744.
No way to pay for SQ 744 without massive tax and fee increases or without devastating budget cuts to all other state programs and services.

The Coalition concludes that State Question 744 is an unfunded mandate. It requires the Oklahoma Legislature to spend billions of dollars, but does not provide any mechanism for generating the money. It will have to come from cutting all other government services a minimum of 20% across the board (over 40% by some estimates) or the passage of significant tax and fee hikes.

Supporters of State Question 744 downplay the impact on other areas of the Oklahoma budget- and say that the state's children do not deserve being last in the region in the amount that the state spends on each pupil.

Click on the LINK below to hear the concerns of Spradling and the general farm organization that he represents. We will be talking to other leaders in the rural community about State Question 744 in the next couple of weeks and sharing their stories with you as well.

Click here for our conversation with Mike Spradling of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau on State Question 744.

Because of bankruptcy law, attorneys representing VeraSun creditors were able to seek repayment from farmers and others who received money from VeraSun within 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing. In late August, hundreds of corn farmers received letters from attorneys threatening legal action. The letters offered to settle the matter with a payment equal to 80 percent of what the farmers received for their corn sales to VeraSun. Farmers had until September 30, 2010 to respond, and NCGA and several state corn associations provided information to growers, encouraged them to respond and helped them find legal resources.

Click on the LINK below for more on how this situation developed- and that it now appears these farmers that had valid contracts with Verasun will likely be able to keep the money paid to them for their crop.

Click here for more on the Verasun Creditors Attempted Grab of Money Paid to Farmers for their corn

EPA also announced the new committee members, who were appointed in May. Oklahoma State University Ag Economics Professor Dr. Larry Sanders is one of the new members selected to serve on this advisory panel. In addition, Tom McDonald with Five Rivers Cattle Feeders has one Oklahoma feedlot in their portfolio- Cimarron Feeders in Texhoma. And- Dennis Treacy of Smithfield Foods has hog operations in Oklahoma with their Murphy Brown subsidiary.

"EPA is working to ensure that American farmers, ranchers and rural communities are more environmentally sustainable and economically resilient than ever before," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "America's farmers have a broad impact on everything from daily food prices to widespread environmental impacts to emerging fuel technologies. We need them to be part of our decision making process, and this meeting is yet another step in our engagement with the agricultural community."

Click here for more details of the EPA Advisory Committee on farm and ranch issues.

Anderson tells Dave Deken on this weekend's SUNUP program that he IS CONCERNED about dry weather and the wheat acres that have been planted thus far. Those worries stretch from Kansas down across much of Western Oklahoma. You can watch Kim Anderson on SUNUP Saturday morning on OETA- and you can listen before then the conversation that Kim had with Dave by clicking on the LINK below.

Besides listening to Kim Anderson- you can also check out the program lineup for SUNUP this Saturday morning in our webstory that we are directing you to. SUNUP is seen on the OETA system at 7:30 AM Saturday morning.

Click here to go and take a listen to Kim Anderson talking wheat crop conditions and marketing.

Woodall said members of Congress need to listen closely to grassroots producers about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration's (GIPSA) proposed rule on livestock marketing; the Environmental Protection Agency's "excessive" regulations on agriculture; and "burdensome and unnecessary" taxes. He said these three issues alone could put many farmers and ranchers out of business while also stifling younger generations from entering the family operation.
"The proposed GIPSA rule goes above and beyond the intent of Congress. This rule, which is void of any legal or economic analysis, has the potential to destroy creativity and innovation of U.S. farmers and ranchers. It could also subject producers to a whole string of expensive frivolous lawsuits. Congress needs to make USDA and the entire Administration aware of their dissatisfaction about the potential consequences their actions could have on agriculture," said Woodall. "Then we have an EPA running wild creating more than 1100 new rules in 17 months with little to no science. Congress must step in and get a solid grip on this Agency in short-order or be held accountable for damaging production agriculture."

The policymakers are not expected to return to their Washington D.C. offices until Nov. 15 for a lame-duck session. Although Woodall said the agenda for the lame-duck session is largely dependent upon the outcome of the Nov. 2 elections, he is hopeful estate tax relief for agriculture and other small businesses will be a topic of discussion. He said if Congress doesn't move on this issue by the end of the year, farmers and ranchers will be hit with a 55 percent death tax.
"If members of Congress listen to rural Americans during this recess period, I am hopeful priority issues like the estate tax will be tackled quickly and appropriately," said Woodall. "It is easy to forget the people working hard to provide food for this country. They have a voice and members of Congress desperately need to hear it."

Speaking of the November Elections- click here for polls of many of the Congressional and Gubernatorial Races Around the Country as detailed by

Smail, a past president of the American Institute of Baking, also said the Sorghum Checkoff is working with ADM Company and other contacts in the baking and snack food industries to promote sorghum as a whole grain flour, which offers many health benefits. ADM is working to produce sorghum flour in commercial quantities to make available to the American food industry. Because sorghum can be ground into gluten-free flour, it is especially useful to those with intolerance to gluten found in wheat flour. ADM is promoting sorghum in their booth at IBIE by distributing cookies made with sorghum flour.

"Consumers are requesting products that are gluten-free, whole grain or an old world grain," said Florentino Lopez, Sorghum Checkoff marketing director. "Judging by the interest generated at IBIE, that request is being heard. Sorghum can offer consumers a cost-competitive option for gluten-free, whole grain products." Lopez said many companies, both domestic and international, are interested in learning more about sorghum and how it can be utilized in existing and new food products. "There are still many questions to be answered and a lot of work has to be done in the sorghum food industry program," Lopez said. "This could be a viable international and domestic opportunity for sorghum."

Click here for some more info from the Sorghum Checkoff folks about Gluten Free possibilities

After checking with our peers within the farm broadcast community and getting good reviews on the quality of work that Holiday Vacations does- we have decided to give it a go. It's a pleasure to invite you to think about traveling with Jan and I to Hawaii in January of 2011 for a three island tour- including several days where we will be making some agricultural stops to get a perspective of agriculture that can only be seen in Hawaii.

For example, we will be stopping at the Monsanto facility on Maui and have a chance to see their work which facilitates their research here on the mainland. With the weather conditions in Hawaii- they can perform trials year round- speeding the process of getting new products through the pipeline.
We will be staying in great locations- right on the beach- will see many of the famous sights of our 50th state- and we'll have some time built in to get out and do some exploring. We have been to Hawaii several times over the last fifteen years- and can help make your time there the best it can be. Click on the LINK below if you have any interest for yourself or perhaps for someone in your family. These folks are not going to pressure you- but simply let you know more about this great opportunity coming in January.

Click here for more on this Hawaiian Adventure coming January 2011.

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.