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.

The letter states "The Kind-Flake farm bill proposal- mistakenly being marketed as "reform" when it is nothing more than "repeal"-would dismantle the farm safety net and put U.S. farmers and ranchers in an unfair competition against heavily subsidized foreign producers. Virtually all of our farmers and ranchers- including those raising fruit, peanuts, vegetables, dairy, soybeans, sugar,corn, cotton, wheat, rice, other grains, livestock, and many others-would be financially harmed by even the most modest price drops if these proposals became law. Kind-Flake would also hurt crop insurance at a time when Congress is trying to bolster crop loss protection. Moreover, Kind-Flake undermines farmers' ability to promote and use conservation methods that protect our water, air, soil, and wildlife.

"Sadly, the Kind-Flake scheme ignores the unparalleled success of the 2002 farm bill, which has saved American taxpayers $25 billion and ensures that all Americans continue to enjoy the world's safest and most affordable food supply. This proposal also fails to recognize that U.S. agriculture is an economic driver, employing 20% of the nation's workforce and contributing $3.5 trillion to the nation's economy annually-supportive policies should not be weakened. The Kind-Flake proposal-in any form-does not represent American farmers or the American citizens we serve every day, and we respectfully urge all Members of Congress to reject it."

"This coalition succeeded in elevating the debate about the future of farm policy in America and pushed the Agriculture Committee to make some changes to our commodity programs," Rep. Kind said. "Unfortunately, the changes they made include loopholes large enough to drive a combine through. They failed to address the real problems with our current farm programs: they direct billions in taxpayer dollars to a few but very wealthy producers in a handful of congressional districts at the expense of programs that truly help family farms; they distort the market; and they make us susceptible to WTO challenges."

The amendment offered by Congressman Kind would quickly phase out Direct Farm Program payments and use those billions for many other "priorities" as defined by those mostly urban lawmakers who don't like farm subsidies. House Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson continues to call this a direct relative of "Freedom to Farm" and wants no part of the Kind plan, which will directly challenge his Committee's work on HR 2419, the 2007 Farm Bill. We have the full draft of the Kind proposal linked below- take a look at how Congressman Kind would like to alter farm policy as he hopes to ambush the 2007 Farm Bill on the House floor this Thursday.

Click here for the "Fairness in Farm and Food Policy" draft.

The 2007 meeting is one that has something for about everyone when it comes to the speaker lineup. The ever popular OSU Cattlemen's College is set for Friday afternoon, while the opening session will feature comments from Jim Link of USDA, as well as a livestock industry spotlight on "Locate in 48" which is a voluntary plan of registering premises for Animal ID.

Saturday morning, the attendees will hear from Congressman Frank Lucas as he relives the 2007 Farm Bill Debate that will hopefully be concluded in the House by then- and the annual look at the cattle market will be presented by Dr. Jim Mintert of K-State. In addition, you have the Oklahoma Cattlewomen and Oklahoma Junior Cattlemen with their meetings going on in conjunction with the OCA gathering. We will be covering the festivities for you- and hope to say howdy to many of you there!

The Beef Verification Solution is a Farm Bureau member-driven, confidential and comprehensive livestock information management program, utilizing international Standards Organization- compliant, U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and a privately managed database. BVS is a program developed by Agriculture Solutions, a division of Kansas Farm Bureau. Oklahoma is the fourth state that will have livestock producers working with the Kansas Farm Bureau in this alliance.

"We want to connect Oklahoma farmers and ranchers with a system that can conveniently and economically provide age and source verification and comply with USDA standards," said Kouplen. "This system adds value to our member's herds and gives them a great tool to efficiently manage their herds. With prices starting at $3.35 per animal, producers can use the program to better manage their herds. The BVS private database was developed by Agriculture Solutions in conjunction with AgInfoLink, USA, a leading animal identification service provider. If you want more information, contact the area Farm Bureau Field Agent in your part of the state- or contact Kathy McNally in Oklahoma City via email- her address is KathyMcNally@okfb.org.

Greg Doud, Chief Economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, is with us on today's Beef Buzz, heard on radio stations around the state via the Radio Oklahoma Network. Doud says that for the Korean housewife, given where our prices are today and the difference in the dollar versus the Korean currency, our beef in the supermarket there is half as much price wise compared to the fall of 2003 before we got booted out because of the Canadian Cow found in the US with BSE.

You can listen to Greg talk with us about currency exchange rates and how they help to put your beef on sale in markets around the world by clicking below- our link is from the Beef Buzz page of our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Check it out.

Click here for the latest Beef Buzz with Ron and Greg on Currency Exchange Rates!

The Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts (OACD) will host the Annual South Central Region Meeting of the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) on July 26-28.The conference will take place at the Cherokee Casino and Resort at Catoosa, Okla. The speakers coming to Oklahoma for this gathering of Conservation leaders include NACD President Olin Sims, OACD President Scotty Herriman, and Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) Executive Director Mike Thralls. Click here to take a look at their agenda for the end of this week

Early next week, we have been asked to speak to an annual event sponsored by Bayer Crop Science in downtown Oklahoma City on Tuesday. Bayer Crop Reps, Crop Advisors and wheat producers will all be a part of this event, which will include Dr. Jeff Edwards, Roger Gribble and others from both OSU and Texas A&M. I will be updating those who attend on the battle over the farm bill and where we may stand when it comes to market conditions domestically and internationally.

"Educational programs and demonstrations will be scheduled throughout the day," said Randy Taylor, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension agricultural engineer. "You can't miss this unique field day that not only shows the technologies but provides an opportunity to speak with the experts who have developed, evaluated and used them." Precision agriculture technologies highlighted will include sensor-based nitrogen management, strategies to reduce sprayer drift, economics of sprayer control systems, selection of a Global Positioning System (GPS) and using technology for on-farm comparisons.

Anyone seeking additional information about the August 9 field day should contact Taylor by e-mail at randy.taylor@okstate.edu or by phone at 405-744- 5277. We also have this and several other events for August listed right now on our agricultural calendar on our website- go to the link below and scroll down to take a look at what is happening. AND- if you have events that we don't have listed- be sure and drop us an email with information(perhaps a link for more information as well) and we will let everybody know!

Click here for the Calendar page of WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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