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 a longstanding 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.

We invite you to listen to us on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network weekdays- if you missed this morning's Farm News - or you are in an area where you can't hear it- click here for this morning's Farm news from Ron Hays on RON.

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It's ironic that the former President's comments came shortly after Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told participants of the Outlook Forum that there was no reason to let up on biofuels production, because U.S. farmers "can do it all."

As you might expect, there came quick reaction from several pro-ethanol groups. The National Corn Growers said in a statement attributed to their President that "The U.S. ethanol industry uses only three percent of the increasing global grain supply and is expected to return 1.2 billion bushels of corn livestock feed in the form of dried distillers grains and corn gluten feed this year alone." NCGA pointed the finger of blame towards high oil prices as the cause for higher food inflation.

Growth Energy- the group that is headed up by Tom Buis- former NFU President- also issued a statement and said that if anything we have a surplus of food. "If there are hungry people in the world, it's not because of production. In fact, overproduction in the United States has helped put farmers in poorer nations out of business as cheap American grain floods their markets. Ethanol consumes that surplus grain, preventing it from being dumped overseas, and helps put farmers in other nations back into business."

The former President talked about more than just biofuels in his address from the Outlook Forum- click on the LINK below to see his full presentation on Thursday to the USDA Annual Outlook Forum.

Click here for the video of the speech offered Thursday at USDA's Outlook Forum by President Bill Clinton

According to Gary McManus, Associate State Climatologist at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. the rains plus the snow that was left on the fields where it actually melted into the soil has made some headway in the drought, especially in the areas where the larger rainfall totals were reported.

Nevertheless, the drought remains for much of the state, especially those areas to the south and west of Oklahoma City where the drought was labeled "severe" and "moderate" by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Even with Thursday's rains, the last 90 days in west central Oklahoma are the driest such period (Nov 27-Feb 24) since 1921. Central and southwestern Oklahoma are not much better with a second- and third-driest ranking for the same period. The statewide average gets a fifth driest ranking.

According to McManus- "Are there good chances of widespread relief? Not according to the Climate Prediction Center. They still indicate persistence/intensification/development of drought in the western two-thirds of the state."

Click here for the total rainfall map for yesterday's rain event.

On the SUNUP show that will be seen on Saturday morning on OETA, Anderson tells Dave Deken that there is some underlying support in the wheat market because of fears that some areas that are very dry in the hard red winter wheat belt will have difficulty producing at least an average crop.

You can listen to Kim's comments ahead of the full SUNUP show on Saturday morning by clicking on the LINK below where you can listen to that conversation. By the way- Kim offers a specific price and a specific date during harvest- listen in to hear that prediction!
We also have the full LINEUP for SUNUP for this Saturday morning with Lyndall Stout and her SUNUP team.

Click here to listen to Kim Anderson on the wheat market situation- and take a look at the weekly SUNUP lineup for this weekend on OETA

According to the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Youth Expo, Jeramy Rich, entries of livestock have exceeded 14,000 head with 7,000 young people entering those animals from all 77 Oklahoma counties. He expects that the 2011 OYE will award appoximately $1.5 million to the young people involved- not just those showing livestock but also those involved in the speech contest, as well as leadership and academic competition.

Our audio conversation with Jeramy is our top Ag News Story this morning on our website and the LINK below will jump you there to take a listen.

Jeramy will also be our guest on Saturday morning on our In the Field Segment seen around 6:40 AM on KWTV News9- this can be seen in central and western Oklahoma.

Click here for our conversation with Jeramy Rich as we preview the 2011 Oklahoma Youth Expo

Robb was on the program with both OSU Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel as well as OSU Grain Market Economist Kim Anderson.

Robb talked about the strength in the cattle markets- and some of the macro factors impacting the business thus far in 2011- as well as what may lie ahead. One of the factors that Robb talked with the producers about was the relatively good strength in beef demand- even in the face of much cheaper poultry prices. Robb says that consumers are continuing to pick beef and pork over chicken in the supermarket meat case, even with chicken at a lower price point.

Our audio conversation with Jim is a Podcast and can be heard by clicking on the LINK below to jump to our website. You can go to Itunes and subscribe to one or all three of our Podcast series- Ag Perspectives are interviews like this one with Jeramy Rich- the Morning Farm and Ranch News is a daily Podcast you can check our and we also have our Beef Buzz series going on up as a Podcast.

We'll write more about the meeting in El Reno first of the week- but kudos to our friend Brad Tipton for a great learning event for the livestock producers in and around Central Oklahoma.

Click here for our Podcast with Jim Robb of the Livestock Market Information Center

With all of this good news we are also facing very serious deficit and budget pressures, and our country needs to live within its means. Stabenow said, - we need to make the best use of our limited dollars, and make sure we're using them on programs and policies that work for production agriculture today. We need to - focus on principles, not programs.

The Senator talked of the need for a functional farm safety net in the next bill. You can read more of what she told those at the USDA Outlook Conference by clicking on the LINK below.

Click here for more on what the Senate Ag Committee Chairman is thinking in regards to writing the 2012 Farm Bill.

At 10 AM- we will be on Main Street in Elk City at the Elk Citian newspaper- where they do a monthly public meeting with a special guest- they wanted to talk agriculture this month so I was asked to be there- will be talking about some of the stories here in today's Email as well as the farm bill efforts that are ahead of Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas and whatever else that is on the mind of those in attendance. Click here for a plug the newspaper gave for the event which gives you a little more information about the event- if you can make it out to say howedy- we would love to see you.

TOMORROW- Saturday February 26 is the date for the Pollard Farms Spring Bull Sale- click here for our listing which includes a link for the catalog- Barry Pollar and his team would love to have you join them as they offer an outstanding set of cattle on Saturday!

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.