Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. A new sponsor of the daily email is One Resource Environmental. Farm and ranch operators who have gas or diesel storage on their place may be facing regulations handed down by Uncle Sam several years back- but now to be enforced by the EPA in the near future with heavy fines. These folks can help you determine if you need a plan and then if you do- help you get that plan in place. Click here for their website- FarmSPCC for more details.

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 Tulsa Farm Show coming this December- December 8th through the 10th. Click here for the Midwest Farm Show main website to learn more about their lineup of shows around the country!

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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"Since the 1930s, the federal government has been involved in farm, food and conservation policy," adds Scholl. "With today's budget conditions, it's important to consider what is the right role for the government to play in helping farmers manage risk, and what characteristics set the standard for good public policy."

Zulauf's assessment found positives including:

Ninety-percent of the proposals would require the farms to experience a loss in order to receive government assistance, making the farm safety net a risk management partnership between farms and the public.

Ninety-percent of the proposals address both an existing hole in today's crop insurance program: multiple-year revenue declines that are not the fault of the farm, and, the current imbalance in the farm safety net, shallow revenue losses. These nine proposals would in effect make the risk management safety net more equitable across crops and regions.

Eight of the programs would end fixed-prices or a revenue-benchmark, removing the incentive to adjust (production) to risk events.

Click here for more from AFT and a link to a copy of the proposals

There is concern direct payments may be eliminated since the administration is considering reducing the agriculture department's budget.

The proposed resolution states OFB supports keeping direct and counter-cyclical payments to farmers, but if they are going to be reduced more than 33 percent, the remaining funds should be shifted to a revenue assurance program.

Click here for more from Farm Bureau on the safety net for farm income

The American Soybean Association (ASA) also called on the Congressional Agriculture Committees to consider moving to a revenue-based farm program when they make further recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Budget Reduction by Nov. 1.

"The realities of the current federal budget and debt crises make it imperative to find a viable risk management approach that can replace several existing programs," said ASA President Alan Kemper, a soybean producer from Lafayette, Ind., in a joint letter also signed by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and National Farmers Union (NFU). "A new revenue-based program should be designed to complement rather than overlap or replace the existing crop insurance program, which is a key part of the farm program safety net."

Click here for more from ASA on the request for a revenue-based farm program

Kyle Hilbert of Depew FFA advanced in the National Extemporaneous Speech Contest- winning in the Preliminary round and the national semifinal round. Hilbert spoke on what agriculture might look like without subsidies in the first round on Wednesday morning, then on strategies to feed a population of more than nine billion people by the year 2050.

Kaylen Baker of Yukon FFA also has made it to the Final Four- in this case in the National Prepared Public Speech Contest. Her topic was a look at Miniature breeds of beef cattle. Again, as with Hilbert, Baker advanced by giving her speech and answering questions before two different sets of judges, advancing now to the National Prepared Speech Finals where the top four speakers this year will compete.

This is the second time in as many years that Oklahoma has placed a finalist in both contests- as Ashton Mese and Tara Newton- both of Kingfisher, pulled off that feat in 2010. And as you may remember- they both won in the Final Four as well.

We have more on these 2011 winners- and a link to our Flickr page of pictures from the 2011 convention as well- just click on the LINK below. By the way- we appreciate the support of the Oklahoma FFA Association and the Oklahoma FFA Alumni as we cover this 2011 National Convention.

Click here for our Thursday morning recap from the National FFA Convention in Indy.

Keepseagle v. Vilsack was a lawsuit alleging that USDA discriminated against Native American farmers and ranchers in the way it operated its farm loan program. The lawsuit was settled late last year and the settlement has been approved by the court.

The filing period opened June 29, 2011 and continues for 180 days.

Up to $760 million will be made available in monetary relief, debt relief, and tax relief to successful claimants. There are two tracks for claims: Successful Track A claimants may receive up to $50,000; successful Track B claimants may receive up to $250,000. The standard of proof for Track B claims is a higher standard than what will be applied to Track A claims.

Click here for more information on these Keepseagle class action settlements

Conservation Compliance provisions, which guard against excessive soil erosion and ensure mitigation when converting wetlands to crop production, were first established in 1985 to accompany all taxpayer provided support to agricultural producers. The 1996 Farm Bill created a lone exemption so that only federal crop insurance subsidy recipients no longer needed to protect land at high risk for erosion or conserve wetland acres.

Redlin's remarks were directed to Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Representatives Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Collin Peterson (D-MN), who sent a letter to the Super Committee proposing $23 billion in cuts, representing agriculture's share of the deficit reduction measures. These lawmakers have pledged to finalize their bi-partisan, bi-cameral recommendations by November 1. The Super Committee will finalize its recommendations to Congress on November 23.

Click here for more information on this Conservation Compliance

The information submitted by Save the Frogs in this petition does not justify a change in regulations, Taylor said. Current, reputable research indicates no effects by atrazine on amphibians. Following an agency review in 2007, the EPA itself addressed one of the most common charges leveled by critics, stating "that atrazine does not adversely affect amphibian gonadal development based on a review of laboratory and field studies, including studies submitted by the registrant and studies published in the scientific literature." In its 2010 update, the EPA found that no additional testing was warranted to address this issue at this time.

Independent groups conducting research into possible effects of atrazine on amphibians corroborate the EPA's conclusions. As recently as last year, scientists from respected institutions such as the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, the World Health Authority and Yale University have issued multitudinous reports confirming that the proper use of atrazine has not been shown to have negative health effects on either humans or amphibians despite decades of extensive research.

Click here for more from NCGA on the petition against atrazine

Today at the National FFA Convention- the competition continues with the National Profiency Awards to be judged in over 40 categories- Oklahoma has 15 finalists at this year's convention- and we will know the fate of those young people in these contests on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, the National Creed Contest kicks off this morning- with Blair Kloeppel of Kingfisher the Oklahoma standard bearer in 2011. We have been asked by the National FFA to be one of the Creed contest judges- so we look forward to hearing the best that other states have to offer in this year's contest. The Final Four in the Creed happens on Friday morning.

Be sure and keep up with what is going on with Oklahoma FFA members here at the National FFA Convention- we update via Twitter all day long- and you can either follow us on Twitter or one of the programs that help you sort "Tweets" or you can see our last few Tweets anytime by watching the lower right hand column of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Click here for our Ron_on_RON feed on Twitter itself, which lots you scroll back to older tweets and piece together our thoughts from this year's Blue and Gold gathering.

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.