Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are pleased to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!

It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. One of the great success stories of the Johnston brand is Wrangler Bermudagrass- the most widely planted true cold-tolerant seeded forage bermudagrass in the United States. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website that features their grain, ports and seed business!

And we are proud to have P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy as one of our regular sponsors of our daily email update. P & K is the premiere John Deere dealer in Oklahoma, with ten locations to serve you, and the P & K team are excited about their new Wind Power program, as they offer Endurance Wind Power wind turbines. Click here for more from the P&K website.

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You might remember that the Oklahoma Farm Bureau worked extensively on their farm policy position, initially staring with a recommendation from the Resolutions Committee that scarce government dollars be allocated to revenue assurance type programs like ACRE and Crop Insurance. That initially was passed- and then was reconsidered after lunch when an amendment was offered to inlcude the following statement "We support a program or policy tool that continues to provide a fixed share of the federal budget allocation for agriculture, is a green box policy, and is considered a part of a revenue assurance program. This amendment was amended to add the words "like Direct Payments" to be inserted into the language- and all of that was added to what was approved earlier in the day.

This meant that Oklahoma Farm Bureau- while acknowledging that they wanted to keep programs like Direct Payments an option- also embraced revenue assurance programs like ACRE- and Crop Insurance as well. Also in that resolution that was approved by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau delegates also included the comment that "In the future we should rely less on government and increasingly more on free markets."

Click here for our story from Mid November and the debate that was held that day at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau convention in Oklahoma City.

As we fast forward to today and what American Farm Bureau will be asking for in the 2012 farm bill- we get an Oklahoma Farm Bureau perspective with Tyler Norvell of the OFB staff. Norvell told us that he believes it is a good idea to keep as many options as you can at this early point in the discussion. You can hear our conversation with Norvell by clicking on the LINK below for our webstory of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau delegates here in Atlanta.

Click here for our conversation with Tyler Norvell here in Atlanta at the 2011 meeting of the American Farm Bureau.

Stallman told the opening General Session that AFBF will soon file suit against Environmental Protection Agency regulations aimed at the Chesapeake Bay, which include provisions that will strip power from the states and potentially affect every farm and ranch in the nation.
Later in an afternoon News Conference, Stallman told reporters that the suit will be filed as early as today in a federal court in Pennsylvania.

"EPA likes to call the new regulations a pollution diet, but this diet threatens to starve agriculture out of the entire 64,000 square-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed, and this new approach will not end with the bay. EPA has already revealed its plan to take similar action in other watersheds across the nation, including the Mississippi River watershed," Stallman said.

We have the segment of the Stallman speech where he let loose on the federal agency- and you can hear that by clicking on the LINK below.

Click here for the audio segment of Bob Stallman's speech where he took dead aim at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The pressure will extend over to the next farm bill debate- saying he thinks that doing farm policy by tweaking the previous farm bill is no longer an option. He says that both Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas as well as Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow will have to get creative in writing the farm bill- mostly because of the lack of money in this cycle compared to either 2008 or 2002.

After his part in a special panel that was presented at a Case IH meeting for their dealers and VIP customers here at the AgConnect Equipment Show this past Friday- we talked with him about how he sees Washington with the shifts from this past election and how that may play out in policy that will have impact on farm country. Click on the LINK below to jump to our story where you can listen to that interview.

Click here for our conversation with former Congressman Jim Nussle at AgConnect in Atlanta.

The first of those words is volatile. Basse says the grain markets turned on a dime earlier this year- as news came out that Russia was in the depths of a drought that makes the US the only country that has sizable stocks of grain. Add to that the sharp rise in cotton prices, the third largest corn crop on record which apparently was not enough- and you have a recipe where all of our agricultural markets are tense and will jump up or down with just a sniffle.

Another word that Basse discussed in his presentation- as well as with us after the session in a conversation that we have recorded and have at the bottom of this page- is affluent. The BRIC countries- especially China and India, are rapidly growing- and their income is shooting higher year after year. Basse says their income growth is in the neighborhood of eight to ten percent annually. These countries want consumer goods- and want to eat better- which is driving demand to a point where we are in unknown waters of international demand.

Read more about some of the key words that Dan Basse believes will matter to farmers and ranchers in the days to come.

Oklahoma ranks eighth nationally in total swine numbers and fifth in the number of pigs produced; the state is a major producer of piglets that are finished in nearby states. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oklahoma producers market approximately 7.5-million hogs annually, producing cash receipts of more than 636-million dollars. Nearly 16-thousand Oklahomans are employed in swine production.

Gene Nemechek, a swine veterinarian from Springdale, Arkansas, and president of the National Pork Board, points out that - producers from different parts of the country face unique challenges and sometimes have unique views on issues confronting the pork production industry. Nemechek says, "We look forward to learning from our fellow producers in Oklahoma."

Click here for more details on the National Pork Board Meeting this week in Oklahoma City.

According to the site- "This website has been established to provide you the most up to date information from the Trustee, Jim Knauer, in the Eastern Livestock Bankruptcy as well as all associated pending matters."

Click on the LINK below to check out what is going on in the legal arena in regards to Eastern Livestock.

Click here for the website established for the litigation surrounding the Eastern Livestock Debacle.

Today's the day that you can go into your local FSA office and sign up for the SURE disaster program for the 2009 crop year. SURE is the so called permanent disaster program that was a part of the 2008 Farm Law. It's not a forever program- unless money can be found for it as it was only funded for a part of the life of the 2008 farm law.

Finally- we are sitting in Atlanta and are surrounded by about six inches of the white stuff. The snow is supposed to give way to sleet and freezing rain and this town is shut down. However, it does look like the buses are going to be able to run which means that the Farm Bureau members that are here in Atlanta for their annual meeting will be able to make it to the convention center. Unfortunately for most of the Oklahoma delegation- they are staying in the adjacent hotel to the convention center- and will have to walk a couple of hundred feet outside in the cold, slick conditions.
The other unknown for all of those who are here at this meeting is the airline situation- most flights are cancelled for today- and already some flights for Tuesday are also cancelled. One thing is for certain- those who have traveled to Atlanta for this year's Farm Bureau meeting will long remember their snow days at the 92nd annual meeting of the American Farm Bureau.

By the way- our Beef Buzz today is with Bob Young, Chief Economist of the American Farm Bureau as we talk about tight cattle supplies and the need to rebuild the US Cattle Herd- click HERE to check it out.

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.