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 recent Tulsa Farm Show.. Click here for the Midwest Farm Show main website to learn more about their lineup of shows around the country, including the Southern Plains Farm Show April 7-9, 2011 in Oklahoma City.

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 combination of the second significant snow storm in as many weeks and the ridiculous temperatures have many schools closed again- and several ag related events postponed as well. Both OKC West in El Reno and the Southern Oklahoma Livestock Auction in Ada were closed yesterday because of the problem of getting cattle moved from the country to town.

Also we have been told the following meetings have been canceled for today-
The Oklahoma Seed Trade Association annual meeting scheduled for Thursday Feb 10 at the Embassy Suites in OKC has been postponed until further notice.

Ag in the Classroom Advisory Board meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 10th on the campus at OSU in Stillwater has been canceled. It will be rescheduled.

Click here for our weather page with links to several of our weather gurus that we check with on a regular basis. And we have pulled one graphic from the Mesonet that shows the number of hours we have been below zero- with those numbers to grow for at least another 30 hours or so in most locations as little of Oklahoma is expected to sneak above freezing today.

Click here for a picture of the number of hours below freezing in the state- which will increase between now and sometime on Friday.

The committee's proposed Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 would "eliminate portions of the Clean Air Act, the landmark law that all American children and adults rely on to protect them from harmful air pollution," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson told a packed committee hearing.
"This bill appears to be part of a broader effort in this Congress to delay, weaken or eliminate Clean Air Act protections of the American public," she added.

Under questioning, Jackson says that agriculture will not be directly regulated until after 2013. But the American Farm Bureau Federation and others have argued if the courts strike down EPA's so-called tailoring rule - which minimizes impacts on small emitters - then agriculture will feel the full force of the regulations before then. And it might happen anyway, under EPA's timetable by 2016.

Click here for more on the agricultural concerns of Greenhouse Gas Regulations

However, according to a report on Agri-Pulse, the Obama Administration is no where close to being willing to send the FTAs with Panama and Columbia. Agri-Pulse reports "In the case of Colombia and Panama, however, Kirk warned that "there remain serious issues to be resolved before these agreements can be submitted for congressional consideration and some of these issues go to our core U.S. values and interests such as the protection of labor rights." He said "Any timetable will be contingent on the successful resolution of these issues" including "violence against labor leaders and prosecution of the perpetrators" in Colombia. Kirk noted that the administration is sending a team of USTR negotiators to Colombia next week to continue work on finalizing the FTA.

"Drawing on all the times they've worked together in the past as fellow Texans with a shared passion for exports, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, called on Kirk to work harder to get all three pending FTAs finalized. Kirk responded that while he maintains his passion for exports, as USTR he now must consider the entire country - including his Detroit in-laws and others who feel their regions have been hurt, not helped, by trade. He pointed out that "there are strong differences on this committee, whether we go forward or not" and that his job is to "restore the American public's faith" in the benefits of trade."

Click here for more from Agri-Pulse on where the Administration is on these Free Trade Agreements

The plan includes the following highlights:

"Review the impact of regulatory activities by the EPA and its effect on agriculture productivity;

"Review EPA's jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and its impact to U.S. agriculture;

"Review of potential impacts of EPA's Clean Air Act (CAA) regulatory program on U.S. agriculture;

"Review ongoing discussions and potential consequences for American agriculture of the United Nations Climate Change Conference;

"Review of the EPA's regulatory actions in regard to pesticide evaluations;

"Review of EPA's regulation of Animal Feeding Operations;

"Review implementation of the recent FDA Egg Safety rule;

This list is just a very small sample of multi-page list that Congressman Lucas has developed.
Click on the LINK below for the full oversight plan that Congressman Lucas has developed for this committee to consider later this morning.

Click here to see a draft of the oversight plan for the House Ag Committee that Frank Lucas wants to pursue

USDA put U.S. corn ending stocks at 675 million bushels. Analysts on average had expected ending stocks at 728 million bushels, according to a Reuters poll, so the new USDA forecasts sent corn futures prices over $7.00 a bushel- they settled on Wednesday afternoon at $7.13 a bushel.

Corn used for ethanol is projected 50 million bushels higher on a higher-than-expected November final ethanol production estimate and weekly ethanol data that indicate record output for December and January.

Click here for more details from the USDA Supply Demand Report for all of our major commodities

Sides says that the brown stomach worm is the No. 1 most damaging internal parasite in cattle. Because the brown stomach worm, and other stomach worms, are bloodsuckers, they cause irritation and inflammation to the stomach and intestinal linings of cattle. As a result of inflamed or irritated stomach lining caused by parasites, infected cattle can't properly absorb nutrients as they normally would.

In fact, research has shown that the brown stomach worm and other parasites could cost the industry up to $3 billion annually in lost weight gains, poor feed conversion and increased disease.
"Especially with calves, if you don't deworm, the response can be the same as non-implanted cattle - you can give up that many pounds," Sides says. "If you don't deworm while the calves are on grass, then you give up subsequent feedlot performance. You can see poorer dressing percent, lower quality grade, and all just because of the parasite infection while the cattle are on grass. Even if they're dewormed later at the feedlot, it's too late to make up for the lost growth potential."

Click here for more info on the problems caused by the Brown Stomach Worm- and how to push back on this parasite.

Counter-cyclical payments are authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill to provide producers with a safety net during periods of low crop prices; but, Coppes says, - I know our farmers overwhelmingly prefer to receive compensation for their efforts from the marketplace. Also, USDA says it will not issue final 2009-crop counter-cyclical payments for long grain rice and medium grain (including short grain) rice because their average market prices exceeded levels that would trigger these payments.

Click here for the complete news release from the Farm Service Agency on this decision on counter cyclical payments

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.