From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.ccsend.com] on behalf of Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 7:52 AM
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Monday March 22, 2010
A service of Johnston Enterprises, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy and American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company!
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-- Grand Champions Named at Oklahoma Youth Expo
-- Tara Newton and Stephen Tillinghast Lead Agricultural Academic All State Team
-- Pictures in Abundance on Flickr
-- NCBA Being Challenged By Other Groups Over Restruturing Plan
-- TSCRA Keynoter Calls Manmade Climate Change a Total Scam
-- Cattle on Feed a Yawner on Friday
-- NFU Happy with Healthcare Vote
-- Let's Check the Markets!

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. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!

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 nine 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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Grand Champions Named at Oklahoma Youth Expo
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The final three Grand Champions were named on Sunday night at the 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo- and they include a repeat winner, as well as the son of a former Grand Champion winner of the show.

The Grand Champion Market Lamb was shown by Tyler Rhoads of the Indiahoma FFA Chapter- Tyler's lamb was the Champion Natural Color Division winner. The 162 pound lamb is named Bob, according to Tyler, whose Mom won the Market Lamb show in Oklahoma City back in 1985. Click here for more details of the Sheep Show Champions and Tyler's win at the OYE.

The Grand Champion Barrow came from a family that knows success at the Oklahoma Youth Expo- Brianna Robinson of El Reno FFA won Grand Champion with her Hampshire Breed Champion. Brianna is a repeat Grand Champion winner in the OYE barrow Show- winning it all in 2006. And, in 2009, her sister had the Reserve Grand Champion of the show.
For more details on swine champions at the 2010 OYE, click here.

Finally, Judge Jack Ward liked the Crossbred class of Steers at the 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo- as he went to that Division to pull out both the Grand Champion of the 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo Market Steer show as well as the Reserve Grand Champion. The best steer of the 574 steers that were shown over the weekend at the 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo was a critter named Bullet, shown by Bailey Buck of the Madill FFA.
Click here for more details of Bailey's win- complete with a picture of Bailey and Bullet.

For a full list of the Champions by Breed in the three species- click here.


Tara Newton and Stephen Tillinghast Lead Agricultural Academic All State Team
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Over $147,000 was handed out Sunday night at the 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo in the form of academic educational scholarships- with just over half of that going to the 14 young men and women who make up the 2010 Agricultural Academic All State Team, sponsored by Chesapeake Energy.

The two top students in the competition receive $10,000 scholarships from Express Ranches, while the other twelve each receive $5,000 in scholarships. Another 32 students also were honored on Sunday evening with scholarships coming from a variety of groups and companies that have connected with the Oklahoma Youth Expo. Tara Newton of Kingfisher and Stephen Tillinghast of Owasso were the winners of the $10,000 scholarships, and here are the other twelve members of the All State Team that received $5,000 apiece.

McKenzie Walta, Kingfisher
Aerial Smith, Lexington
Marty Jones, Owasso
Dalton Newell, Minco
Maverick Squires, Noble
Tanner Blosser, Balko
Madison McGolden, Fairview
Kyle Pingelton, Hartshorne
Michael Pendelton, Yukon
Morgan Matlock, Tecumseh
Jamie Baumgardner, Chisholm
Dakota Miller, Amber

Click here for more on the Academic Ag All State Team for 2010


Pictures in Abundance on Flickr
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We now have over 660 pictures on our Flickr page from the 2010 Oklahoma Youth Expo- including pictures of all of the scholarship award winners from last night, the academic ag all state team and the breed champions and Grand Champions in all three species.

Click on the link below to jump to our website and the link to our Flickr page.

Click here to jump to our link for our Flickr page on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


NCBA Being Challenged By Other Groups Over Restruturing Plan
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A coalition of ag organizations headed by the nation's largest farm group has written to USDA expressing its "grave concerns" about a National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) governance plan's impact on the national beef check-off.

Colleague Stewart Doan with Agri-Pulse has worked this story and gives us the latest as this group of organizations, led by the American Farm Bureau, the National Farmers Union and the Livestock Marketing Association, have sent a four page letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack detailing their concerns about the policy side of NCBA getting even closer to the Checkoff or Federation side of the group. In the letter, the groups say they are strong supporters of the checkoff, but "We believe the new governance structure will move the check-off towards more exclusivity rather than inclusivity."

We have a link to the full letter as well as audio from both Farm Bureau and NCBA on this issue- this is our Beef Buzz for this Monday. Click on the link below to check this serious challenge to NCBA and their relationship to the Federation of State Beef Councils that help decide the budget and direction of the beef checkoff.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz on the Challenge to NCBA as they look to Restructure.


TSCRA Keynoter Calls Manmade Climate Change a Total Scam
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Dr. Jay Lehr was in front of a friendly audience on Saturday at the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Annual Meeting in Ft. Worth, as he talked about what he calls the myth of manmade Climate Change. Lehr, who has written extensively about he considers a scam against the general public, told the TSCRA that Climate Change is nothing more but a money grabbing scheme that has been designed to invoke fear in order to seize control.

His business card that he handed out to those in attendance has a list of ten facts about Climate Change that he says you can use to converse with those who believe that man is causing climate change. For example, Lehr's card states that "900,000 years of ice core records show continuous 1,500 year warming cycles." Another of his ten facts about Climate Change says "carbon dioxide is to plants what oxygen is to plants- it is not a pollutant."

You can click on the link below and get our full conversation that we had with Lehr after his presentation in Ft. Worth on Saturday. We also have a link to his website, where you can learn more about his claims on the battle over climate change.

Click here for our visit with Dr. Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute on Climate Change.


Cattle on Feed a Yawner on Friday
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No Surprises on last Friday's Cattle on Feed Report- so says Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities. We have comments from Tom on the report, based on a conversation he had with Ed Richards this past Friday afternoon.
Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.9 million head on March 1, 2010. The inventory was 3 percent below March 1, 2009.

Placements in feedlots during February totaled 1.67 million, 1 percent below 2009. Net placements were 1.60 million head. During February, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds were 320,000, 600-699 pounds were 365,000, 700-799 pounds were 520,000, and 800 pounds and greater were 460,000.
Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 1.72 million, 2 percent above 2009.

Click on the link below to get to the full report- as well as some audio comments with Tom Leffler on the COF report.

Click here for more on the Cattle on Feed Report from Friday


NFU Happy with Healthcare Vote
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National Farmers Union President (NFU) Roger Johnson last night commended the U.S. House of Representatives on the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590). "This is a historic day," said Johnson. "Today's vote is a huge victory for the nation, especially farmers, ranchers and rural Americans."

"The United States has a moral obligation to stop insurance companies from dropping coverage on ailing patients," said Johnson. "Rural Americans are among the oldest in the population, and denying them the coverage they need based on preexisting conditions must be stopped."

Accessible, affordable coverage for rural Americans will be strengthened through the establishment of health insurance exchanges for the self-employed and small businesses.
"As we await the President's signature on this groundbreaking legislation, NFU praises the diligent work of all involved in shaping this legislation that is crucial to the well-being of farmers and ranchers and rural communities," said Johnson.


Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, AFR and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis!

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


Let's Check the Markets!
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We've had requests to include Canola prices for your convenience here- and we will be doing so on a regular basis. Current cash price for Canola is $7.55 per bushel, while the 2010 New Crop contracts for Canola are now available are $7.65 per bushel- delivered to local participating elevators that are working with PCOM.

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.



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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