From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 02:14
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 Friday July 20, 2007!
A service of Midwest Farm Shows
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-- House Ag Committee Works Late- but Colin Peterson Got It DONE!
-- COOL Deal!!!! We have Exclusive audio with Jay Truitt
-- HR 3098 Introduced by Congressman Dan Boren and Congresswoman Mary Fallin to put in place Federal Exemption for Farm Trucks to 26,000 pounds
-- Oklahoma Pork Producers just back from Washington
-- Porter Peach Festival- the Show Goes On!
-- Traditions and Transitions- a Conference Celebrating Rural Oklahoma!
-- Cattle Prices the focus of our Friday Beef Buzz with Randy Blach

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.


House Ag Committee Works Late- but Colin Peterson Got It DONE!
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H.R. 2419 was passed by the full House Ag Committee by a unanimous voice vote last night, after two very full days of markup activity that was driven and "kept out of the ditch" by Chairman Colin Peterson of Minnesota. In talking with Congressman Frank Lucas late last night, he believes that getting this markup done on schedule may give the measure a real chance of being considered on the floor of the House as early as Wednesday of next week.

The measure proposes historic investments in conservation, nutrition and renewable energy while maintaining a strong safety net for America's farmers and ranchers. Additionally, for the first time, the 2007 Farm Bill provides substantial funding for the fruit and vegetable industry. There seems to be a lot of carrots in this measure, enough that some of the wind in the sails of the Farm21 proposal from Ron Kind of Wisconsin may be gone. The key now for House passage next week or the week following will be a strong show of support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If Madam Speaker is "on board" then this Chairman's Mark could be voted through.

"This Farm Bill provides strong programs that will help American agriculture meet the 21st Century needs of the United States and the world with a safe, stable food supply, nutrition assistance, environmental benefits, and renewable energy products," Chairman Peterson said. "We have incorporated some new ideas and important reforms in this Farm Bill, focusing farm program benefits so they get to real farmers and boosting investment in programs that help those who haven't received benefits through the Farm Bill before." "It is a tradition for this Committee to produce a bipartisan farm bill and I am pleased that today we upheld a tradition that enables us to truly serve the best interests of American agriculture and all who enjoy the benefits of a safe, reliable and affordable food and fiber supply. I look forward to continuing to work with the Chairman in a bipartisan fashion as we move ahead with this farm bill," said Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte. We have a detailed News Release issued by the House Ag Committee after midnight Washington time early this morning- click below to take a look- it is located on the front page of our web site.

Click here and then look under Today's Ag News for the link to the News Release from the House Ag Committee.


COOL Deal!!!! We have Exclusive audio with Jay Truitt
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As we continue to report from Denver and the mid year meeting of the Cattle Industry, word came as the Farm Bill passed the House Ag Committee that a deal had been struck "in principle" by industry negotiators charged with finding a compromise by Chairman Peterson.

We visited with several folks during the evening here in Denver after that word was announced by Ranking Member of the Committee, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. Among those that we talked with was head of the Washington office for the NCBA, Jay Truitt. Truitt finally got a single page of the key elements of the deal struck between Tom Buis of the National Farmers Union and Randy Russell, who was representing livestock and meat industry interests.

Some of the key points include:
There will be three categories that animals will fall into under the labeling law- the first will be those animals who are clearly US produced beef. That will definitely include animals that have been here all their life- and may include animals that have been the majority of their life as well. The second category will be animals that could fall into a labeling of Product of the USA and Country (ies) X and Y. The third category will likely be clearly a foreign produced piece of beef and it would be labeled as Product of Country X.
Record keeping will be based on things commonly used by producers now- health papers and the like.
Animals born before October 1, 2008 will probably be grandfathered from the regulations.
Mandatory Animal ID won't be required for COOL.
We have a conversation that we recorded with Jay Truitt late last night- in fact we were the only reporter that Jay talked with last night as you are getting the first reaction from the NCBA on this issue- and they are clearly pleased. Terry Stokes, their CEO as well as Truitt agreed that it fell short of everything they wanted- but still it looks like a great win for the livestock industry and one that should put the COOL issue to bed.

Click here for the conversation with Ron and Jay Truitt on the COOL Deal!!!


HR 3098 Introduced by Congressman Dan Boren and Congresswoman Mary Fallin to put in place Federal Exemption for Farm Trucks to 26,000 pounds
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Working with several Oklahoma farm groups, including the Oklahoma Cattlemen, Oklahoma Farm Bureau and American Farmers and Ranchers, Congressman Boren and Congresswoman Fallin have introduced H.R. 3098 which is designed to raise the Federal exemption on the maximum wright for a farm vehicle from 10,000 pounds to 26,000 pounds on a national basis.

Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri and Washington state have had farmers and ranchers being stopped and even ticketed for not having a DOT federal ID number for their heavier trucks- and not having all the necessary paperwork that goes along with the Feds watching over you as a farmer driving across state borders- or even just 150 miles from home.

Alabama Cattlemen's Association officials told of how absurd some Federal officials had gotten with some of their members as the NCBA Ag Policy Committee met and spoke of the need to support this legislation. One Alabama farmer was told he had to have a Disciplinary Plan in his manual that traveled with his truck. He listed that if, as driver violated one of the fed rules the first time, his wife would scold him, the second time, he would fine himself a dollar and the third time a mistake was made, he would not drive the rest of the day.Oklahoma and Alabama officials urged Cattle groups in other states to urge their Members of Congress to study HR 3098 and then sign on as a supporting sponsor. We have the Legislative Language linked below- take a look.

Click here for the language for HR 3098.


Oklahoma Pork Producers just back from Washington
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Oklahoma Pork Council President Roy Lee Lindsey and Oklahoma Pork Producers President Lonnie Hoelscher of Bartlesville are just back from Washington, where they spent time talking to the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation about what they would like to see in the 2007 farm bill that will be positive for pork producers in our state.

Lindsey tells us that they don't want to see things like packer ownership of livestock prohibited, or some mandate of a certain percentage of animals has to be bought on an open market . They also talked about the Mandatory COOL rules that will be going into effect next fall.

They also spent time with the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation know of the difficulties in the swine business these days, given the high costs of the number one input- feed. They also spent time talking about agro-terrorism concerns and the demands on the industry when it comes to animal welfare issues.


Porter Peach Festival- the Show Goes On!
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Despite the freeze damage on this year's peach crop in Green Country this year- at least one orchard survived the Easter Freeze in a rather unique manner. And this weekend, the Livesay Orchard will be one of the few in the Porter area that will have peaches for the 2007 Porter Peach Festival.

Our thanks for Griffin Communications colleague Travis Meyer, who is a weatherman for his "day" job, even though it spills over into the evening and makes it a little tougher for him to be a rancher as well. Travis pens these remarks in an email a most interesting story about the Livesay Orchards from the spring of 2007.

Travis writes "the reason for my note was to remind you of the Porter Peach Festival over in Porter. Normally it's not a big story but this year is interesting. They had 30-40% tree damage from the horrendous ice storms in January. That was followed by the record freeze of April 9th. It would have been a total loss BUT they decided, in cooperation with OSU, to rent a helicopter and fly over the orchard during the

Click here to check out the Weather Site with Travis Meyer and KOTV, the News on 6!


Traditions and Transitions- a Conference Celebrating Rural Oklahoma!
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The state meeting of the Resource Conservation and Development Programs in the state will be happening in August- the 12th through the 14th in southern Oklahoma in Ardmore.

The Oklahoma Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) program helps people in rural areas plan and carry out activities that increase conservation of natural resources, support economic development, and enhance the environment and standard of living in local communities.

They have an excellent program, including Lt. Governor Jari Askins, several state lawmakers, as well as presenters like Steve Rhines of the Noble Foundation talking about the possibilities of Cellulosic Ethanol. We have a link on our Calendar Page in the August portion of that page on our web site. We have that calendar page linked for your consideration below.

Click here for the Calendar page of our website- scroll down to the August listings to find our more about this RC&D Conference.


Cattle Prices the focus of our Friday Beef Buzz with Randy Blach
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Have cattle prices already made their summer lows? Maybe, according to Randy Blach of Cattlefax, the market analysis arm of the cattle industry. We caught up with Randy here at the Midyear meetings of the Cattle Industry in downtown Denver.

We talk slaughter, feeder and stocker cattle price outlook with Blach in our Friday Beef Buzz, our daily beef industry update heard on radio stations across the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network.

We have a full archive of Beef Buzzes over almost a year now- and you can check these programs waiting for you to download them on the Beef Buzz page button on our website. We do have today's Beef Buzz linked for you below to take a listen to- Randy Blach, Beef Buzzing with us!

Click here for Ron with Randy Blach on the Beef Buzz!!!


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows for their support of our daily Farm News Update. Go to their website at the link at the top of today's email and make plans to be an exhibitor at either the Tulsa Farm Show this December or the Southern Plains Farm Show next spring!

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



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