Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. Our email this morning is a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the Tulsa Farm Show December 7-9, 2006 and the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City April 19-21, 2007. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

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We mentioned Healthy Mr. Potato Head- which is the official promotional character being used by the U.S. Potato Board to tout the wonderfulness of U.S. potatoes. He will be making a national TV appearance at the Macy Day's Parade on Thursday and will be seen by up to 65 million people. There will be an Oklahoma tie as Chris and Kendra Slagell of Hydro will be a pair of the handlers for the huge balloon down the parade route.

The Slagell family are one of just a handful of potato growers in the state of Oklahoma- and Chris was a member of Class 11 of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program.

They have a good program lineup for the 2006 meeting- and they have now confirmed that third District Congressman Frank Lucas will appear and address the wheat growers in attendance. Lucas has been a member of the House Ag Committee his entire career in Washington. He has been a Sub Committee Chairman for the last several years- but in 2007 will have to learn to operate as a minority member of the Committee as the Democrats take control of the House.

The OWGA will also hear from Dr. Jeff Edwards, State Wheat Specialist from OSU, Mark Hodges of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and Jeff Krehbiel(their State President) as he leads an explanation and discussion of the National Wheat Growers Farm Bill proposal for 2007.

Here is the link to the OWGA web site- where you can learn more about their 2006 meeting and get directions to the meeting.

We talked with Matt yesterday and he told us they were in the process of finishing up cotton harvest on his irrigated crop- and while he didn't want to speculate on how good the yields were- he said it looked pretty good to him and the experts who had looked at the crop were upbeat on the potential yields.

In fact, Gary Feist of the Anthony, Ks. Cotton Coop who encouraged several producers in that area to give cotton a good try, believes we are talking three or maybe even four bales per acre when it all is said and done. That's a great yield for cotton no matter what your zip code is. You can hear some of Matt's comments by clicking below and listening to part of our conversation with him about his 2006 cotton crop and what he learned by growing cotton this very hot and dry growing season.

Click here to listen to Ron and Matt Gard talking Cotton.

Dr. Smith had high praise for the efforts of the Joplin Regional Stockyards and how they reach out to those smaller operations. You can hear his comments on the Beef Buzz by clicking below.

Click here to listen to Ron and Dr. Smith on today's Beef Buzz

They will feature 50 service age bulls- some of the finest in the Hereford breed to be found anywhere with EPD and ultrasound information available. They will also be selling 50 early bred Heifers- spring calvers bred to low birthweight Hereford bulls.

For more information, contact Gray Land and Cattle Company at 405-341-6861 or 405-341-7445.

The question becomes- can the exemption to the Estate Tax be raised and have the stepped up basis issue be addressed as well? Peterson says such a compromise was available six years ago- but now he's not so sure. You can hear Peterson's answer to the question about what a Democratic Congress will do with the Death Tax as we get ready to roll into 2007- just click below.

Click here for Collin Peterson's comments about the Estate Tax mess Congress has left for the Democrats

Schlosser's fictional account of the industry ended up taking in $410,000 from 321 movie theatre locations in week one of its release. Contrast that to the top two movies of the week- Happy Feet and Casino Royale who both sold more than $40 million worth of tickets in their first week in more than three thousand theatres each.

The Beef Industry made a lot of preparation in getting leaders ready to counter some of the scenes of Fast Food Nation-in case the media came calling. While some of that may still happen in the next couple of weeks- it appears that while Schlosser got his movie out- he just couldn't find many folks that cared enough to go see it.

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