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!

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He adds that pressures surrounding the Ag Committees in responding to the Super Committee is a major driving force behind the focus of the Agriculture Committees in these final three months of 2011.

We spent almost fifteen minutes on the phone with the Secretary talking about the direction of farm policy as House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas and Senate Ag Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow consider a "hurry up" approach in writing the 2012 Farm Bill to get it included in the Super Committee plan for $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction before Christmas. In particular, the conversation centered around the need for a safety net that will work for all sections of the country and a wide variety of commodities- and how farm policy can aid in keeping agriculture "sustainable."

The Secretary also talked about the Obama Administration's reasons for proposing more cuts in Crop Insurance funding in their recent Deficit Reduction proposal, his upcoming Trade Mission to Vietnam and China, the timeline on the GIPSA Rule on the Marketing of Livestock, and a defense on USDA's Animal Disease Traceback plan.

Click here to listen to our conversation with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack

"Most of the pivots in this area each cover 120 acres," she said. "This acreage makes up a quarter section of farmland. When you take away the corners of the quarter section, you have 120 acres under one center pivot system. Many farmers planted 60 acres of corn and 60 acres of cotton under the same pivot. When the corn began to dry down and mature, the farmer simply concentrated on watering the cotton for the rest of the production season. This helped us to keep a lot of the cotton going this year."

When interviewed for this report, Hileman's gin had ginned 400 bales, then had to shut down for a few days due to a 2.7 inch rain in early October. Wet ground was keeping farmers from harvesting the cotton.

Click here for more from Talkin' Cotton and the cotton gin in Carnegie

Click on the LINK below for the link to listen to The Ag Minute. Part of the transcript is written below.

"Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency quietly extended the compliance date for its oil spill containment rule. This rule would require farmers and ranchers who store fuel on their property to make costly improvements to their storage tanks.

"Although the rule has been delayed, farmers and ranchers are still worried about the staggering costs they will incur when the EPA does implement this regulation.

"To combat the EPA's spill containment rule and to protect small farmers and ranchers, I have introduced the FUELS Act. This bill would take into consideration a producer's spill risk and financial resources, and give farms more reasonable exemptions from this regulation."

Click here for more from Rep. Rick Crawford and the SPCC

Together, FFA and Farm American announced this past Friday that the National FFA Organization will become a communications partner with Farm American for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season. FFA and Farm American will work hand in hand in furthering American agriculture by telling the story of agriculture's important role both today and tomorrow. In the Career Show at the National Convention, we caught up with a long time broadcast friend of ours, Pat Driscoll, who now works with the Furniture Row Racing team- and we visited with Pat about the concept advanced by the Farm American race car in offering a positive image of farmers and ranchers to NASCAR fans around the country- as well as how they hope to work more closely with FFA in the coming year than ever before. Click on the LINK below to listen to our conversation.

The National FFA Organization, on the heels of announcing major increases in nationwide membership in the past year, will support Farm American's effort to grow the role the of American agriculture because of the basic connection it has with the goals of FFA and agriculture education.

"FFA is all about making a positive difference in the lives of our members by expanding their leadership and career horizons," said National FFA Organization COO Bill Fleet. "By working with Farm American to increase the stature of American agriculture, we're hoping to increase their future career possibilities while also assisting American agriculture as a whole."

Click here for more on the FFA and Farm American as partners- and a chance to hear our conversation with Pat Driscoll with Farm American

Epplin is a professor of agricultural economics and holder of the university's Jean and Patsy Neustadt Chair. He is the former holder of OSU's Charles A. Breedlove Endowed Professorship in Agribusiness.

"Francis has made and continues to make distinctive and influential contributions to agriculture and those who will impact agriculture's future," said Mike Woods, head of the department of agricultural economics.

Epplin provides support for all three aspects of the university's land-grant mission of teaching, research and Extension. Even though he has no formal Extension appointment, he has been honored by the American Society of Agronomy - twice - for his contributions to Extension educational materials.

Click here for more on Dr. Francis Epplin and the Sarkeys Distinguished Professor Award

Virgil, chief executive officer of J-M Farms and one of the founding members of the FAPC, has served in a leadership role with the center from inception to date.

"As we grew older, Marge and I looked at what we were going to do with our money to help others," Virgil said. "Agriculture has been good to us; Oklahoma has been good to us and is home to us. It's a good feeling to be able to do this."

Virgil said his concern throughout his years of involvement with the FAPC has been the funding of the facility.

"The FAPC needs sources of funding down the road," he said. "Marge and I came to a conclusion that this would be a good place to put our earnings."

Click here for more on the Jurgensmeyers and their gift to FAPC

Meanwhile, we are getting some nice rainfall totals in western and central Oklahoma already from this morning's rain coming in with the cold front- eastern Oklahoma will likely get it's share as well before it is all said and done- unfortunately it looks like the northern tier of Oklahoma counties may not get all that much from this rain making system- and that is especially sad for the Panhandle, as they have missed several of these systems that have rolled in during the month of October. The rains we are seeing this morning will go a long way in getting our 2012 winter canola and winter wheat crops in good condition as they head for the winter dormancy season. Click here for a real time set of totals from the Oklahoma Mesonet- this is a live two day rainfall total map- so it will capture everything the state has seen from this latest system.

We will spotlight the three OSU Division of Ag Alums that will be honored in Stillwater this weekend tomorrow- but wanted to tip our hat this morning to Dr. Joe Williams- long time professor at Oklahoma State- and Director of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program for Classes 11-14. Dr. Joe has been selected to receive the 2011 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexiso State University. At NMSU each department in the college selects a graduate that is recognized. This award is given every year to an outstanding department alumnus." Joe will be on hand in Las Cruces for the award Friday morning- then will be getting back to enjoy homecoming in Stillwater Friday evening and 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.