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 recently concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show held each December. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here.

As we arrived in Denver yesterday, a lot of folks- including us- were keeping at least one eye on what was going on back east in Washington as the 2007 Farm Bill markup began at midday yesterday. We had the chance to sit down and talk at length late in the day with Jay Truitt, head of the Washington office of the NCBA, and we talked about the cattle industry perception of the farm bill and what it should have in it and what needs to be left out- and at the top of that second list is a Livestock Concentration title as has been dreamed of by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee. Truitt's message was very simple- LEAVE cattlemen alone and allow them the option to market their cattle in a variety of ways if they choose to do so. We also talked about the reality of COOL- that it will be implemented next fall- and that it's imperative that some modifications to that measure need to occur in order for cattle producers not to shoulder all of the cost and little benefit from COOL. We have our conversation linked below- and we talk about a lot of subjects- the definition of manure, Death Tax, COOL and a lot more. Check it out.

Oklahoma Cattlewomen at this midyear meeting are hopeful of some good news before they leave for home this week as they have proposed one of the major national projects run by the ANCW come to Oklahoma in 2008- the annual Beef Ambassador Competition. We'll let you know when Ddee Haynes, President of the Oklahoma group, gets the final word.

Click here for Ron's conversation with Jay Truitt of the NCBA at the Midyear meeting of the NCBA in Denver.

Under the proposal, farmers would face a tighter payment cap. They would be allowed just one entity under which to collect payments. Those payments would be capped at $60,000 for direct payments and $65,000 for counter-cyclical payments, for a total of $125,000. The current three- entity rule caps direct payments and counter-cyclical payments at $210,000. The plan also means there would be no limit in loan- deficiency payments for producers, which currently is $150,000 under the three-entity rule. High market prices for most major commodities have Congress and USDA projecting few crops receiving marketing-loan gains in the coming years, with the exception of cotton. So the committee proposes getting rid of commodity certificates, which are used primarily by cotton, and allowing unlimited loan-deficiency payments. Peterson says "it's a big change from the current law."

Meanwhile, Senator Charles Grassley is courting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi- asking here to dump her Ag Committee Chairman and let the Senator take her to the Payment Limits Dance instead. In a letter to the speaker, Grassley and Byron Dorgan claim that they have the best plan for payment limits that will save money for other program priorities. The bill would set a limit of $250,000 for farm payments in an attempt to better target farm program payments to family farmers. Specifically, the bill caps direct payments at $20,000; counter-cyclical payments at $30,000; and marketing loan gains (including forfeitures), loan deficiency payments, and commodity certificates at $75,000. They don't speak of a Means Test change in their letter to the Speaker. We have linked their letter below in case you wish to check out this offer made to the Speaker on Payment Limits.

Click here for Chuck Grassley's letter to Nancy Pelosi talking Payment Limits.

Wayne tells us "We have a partner in the biodiesel business who is wanting as much production as we can send them. We did get off to a late start, but have been buying canola since mid June."

If you have questions for Wayne and want to know more about Prairie Gold Oilseeds- or you are looking at market options for your canola production- this year or even as you think about next season, give him a call at 580-822-5116.

The newly expanded oilseed crushing plant in Oklahoma City will offer producers several local delivery points throughout the Southern Great Plains, saving them transportation costs to more northern markets. POP will continue to work with grain handlers across the Southern Great Plains to establish additional local delivery points for growers' oilseed crops.

POP is also working with Monsanto, as they are aggressively marketing their Roundup Ready Winter Canola varieties for fall planting. It is our understanding that Monsanto will provide technicians to help producers transition as they add winter canola to their farm's rotation of crops. There will be more information available about this new alliance at the Oklahoma-Kansas Winter Canola Conference tomorrow at the Garfield County Fairgrounds in Enid.

Click here to view the News Release (a Word Document) from Plains Oilseed Producers Coop on this new Alliance.

Saturday morning and early afternoon will be spent by the group covering a lot of ground through the facilities and research farm of the Noble Foundation. Everything from biotech to biofuels will be examined during this encounter with the Noble Foundation officials. Later that afternoon, they will have some leadership training offered by staffers from the American Farm Bureau, and Sam Knipp will give his insights into traveling to and working with media professionals from the west African nation of Mali.

Sam traveled to Mali back in March with a group of University folks and Media to survey the media found in this emerging Democracy. Here in July, several media outlets, including yours truly and the Radio Oklahoma Network, have hosted radio, TV and print members of the media from this nation as they learn more about how we cover the news. The YF&R group will also leave time for lots of networking and having families get to know one another better as well.

The couple studied sustainable agriculture in college, and interned and worked on a variety of farms before returning to Oakley's native Oklahoma to start a farming enterprise of their own. Their experiences taught them the ins and outs of growing food. However, Oakley says, "the field component is actually just one component." She ticks off some of the many other elements that have to be factored into the larger production plan: infrastructure, equipment, irrigation, fertility, pest control, post-harvest handling and processing, and transportation. The couple's own experiences, and their planned program for the workshop, emphasize the office aspects of farming as a business, and recordkeeping in particular, as essential for keeping all these threads woven together. "Recordkeeping is critical to our crop production plan. It helps us to provide a diversity of products that's exciting to the customer, but still allows us to farm smart in terms of getting the biggest bang for our buck." They will also spend time discussing their marketing efforts of their crops and how they spread their risk through marketing.

The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture is sponsoring the workshop, in partnership with the USDA Risk Management Agency, an equal opportunity provider. For more information, call 918.647.9123 or go to the link we have provided below.

Click here for more information on the Three Springs Farm Farm Direct Workshop on August 2.

If you have used and liked 2174, this wheat may work in your wheat operation as it is a child of 2174 with herbicide resistance built in using the Clearfield system. This is obviously unlike Roundup Ready technology which is genetically modified- this is conventional wheat breeding placing traits that help the plant achieve this ability to handle herbicide applications to knock weeds in your wheat field stands.

OSU has just printed a brochure telling the Centerfield story- and we have it linked on our front page of www.oklahomafarmreport.com. Take a look and consider this technological winner for your efforts to diversify your wheat crop seedings in 2007.

Click here for details on OSU's Hard red Winter Variety- Centerfield!

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