Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are proud to welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here!

Our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the springtime 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.

Both Oklahoma and Wisconsin have 18 National Finalists in the Proficiency Awards- while California has 16 finalists and Georgia advances 14. Oklahoma is also one of three states that will have multiple Star Finalists in the four National Stars in Agriculture event. Nocona Cook of Cordell is a regional Star in Production Agriculture, while Chance Simpson of the Timberlake FFA Chapter will compete as a Regional Star in the Star in Agricultural Placement division.

Details on the event each of these young people we list here are involved in can be found in the link we have provided below- but included in the 18 that are National Finalists heading for Indy in October are Christopher Ivy of Perry, Holly Hiebert of Fairview, Colin Lowe of Ninnekah, Slade Nightengale of Cordell, Bobby Kokojan of Waukomis, Sierra Simpson of Kremlin-Hillsdale, and Sage Shoulders of Oilton.
Also Laramie Estes of Glencoe, Mason Keck of Fairview, Seth Hankey of Burlington, Bradley Bradford of Atoka as well as Reith Malachi Claflin of Ringwood.
And finally National Finalists include Clay McCarley of Central, Nicolas Merz of Canute, Ty Runyon of Atoka, Stasha Harp of Kansas, Kalin Jenkins of Stillwater and Chase Alan Kokojan of Drummond.
A HEARTY CONGRATS to all 20 of these outstanding Oklahoma FFA Members!!!

Click here for details of the 46 Oklahoma FFA members that represented Oklahoma in Proficiency Awards- and info on the 18 who are National Finalists

The USDA pegs corn production at 13.1 billion bushels, up 24 percent from last year and 17 percent above 2005. The corn yield is forecast at 152.8 bushels per acre, up from the previous report's 150.3 bushels per acre. That was above the 151-bushel average estimated by a group of crop analysts, according to Francl. Overall, in its supply and demand report, USDA sees a 200-million-bushel increase in corn use, offsetting much of the 214-million-bushel increase in production, as projected by the 2007/08 corn ending stocks figure, which was raised 14 million bushels to 1.516 billion bushels.

"The fact that the corn use increase offset the production increase may take some of the price negativity out of the production report," Francl said. "Some also may take a pessimistic view on USDA's yield forecast given the hot temperatures for the heart of the Corn Belt." Francl explained that while the August survey does measure actual field conditions, such as corn plant population and the length and circumference of corn ears, USDA surveyors do not strip back the husk and get a row and kernel count. That does not occur until the September crop report.

"Given the developmental delays due to the two-week delay in planting activity in much of the Corn Belt in early May, the pollination time for this late planted corn was pushed back into the more harsh summer weather," Francl said. "There have been anecdotal reports in the past week, after the USDA Aug. 1 survey was completed, that suggest the kernel fill on the ear on the later planted corn is much less than normal. That plus the outlook for continuing hot and dry weather in much of the Corn Belt suggests that future yield estimates could well deteriorate."

Starting yesterday, the annual Oklahoma RC& D Conference is underway at the same facility in Ardmore, their beautiful and very functional convention center that is located right on I-35. They have a busy meeting schedule today and tomorrow, with their theme for 2007, Traditions and Transitions. One of their keynote speakers today is Steve Rhines of the Noble Foundation who will speak on Cellulosic Ethanol with an Oklahoma Perspective.

We have their program brochure linked below for those that may want to check out this event that wraps up tomorrow.

Click here for the Oklahoma RC&D Annual Meeting Program details.

We talked with Dr. Randy Taylor of OSU about the use of GPS in agriculture and how it has helped change agriculture for the better- from planting to spraying chemicals to control pests and weeds to harvest.

We thought some of you might want to see this segment- it shows off some of the big spray rigs that were seen at the field day- so take a look via the link below!

Click here for the In The Field Video Segment with Ron and Randy Taylor of OSU.

On Saturday, he repeated several themes that he had discussed with the OCA membership earlier. However, I heard one issue that he brought up that I had not heard earlier at OCA- and we will feature that comment tomorrow in our Beef Buzz as heard on the Radio Oklahoma Network. I will tell you this morning that it was about what he thinks was the major driving factor in the late 1990s early 2000s uptick in beef demand.

Today, we focus on the Beef Buzz on cattle price outlook the balance of 2007 with Mintert. He admits that he was among those who were fooled by the price strength of the cattle market this summer. He thinks we could drift a little lower than the cash prices of this last week at the $90 level- but says he still sees slaughter cattle values back into the upper 90s the latter part of the year. Regarding yearling prices- he says we are fully at the same levels we were a year ago on yearling cattle prices- and the key to whether or not we hold those values into the fall depends on the fall direction of corn prices. Click below and hear today's Beef Buzz with Jim Mintert for his crystal ball reading.

Click here for the Monday Beef Buzz with Ron and Dr. Jim Mintert of K-State.

While the deadline for registration that guarantees you lunch and proceedings, you can still call and see if you can do a late registration by calling Kim Barker at 580-824-9011 or Steve Glasgow at 405-742-1235.

This year's lineup of speakers features grazing luminaries Jim Gerrish, Terry Gompert, and Greg Judy. Together, the three will focus on ways of extending the grazing season for as much of the year as possible. Topics include matching livestock demand and forage supply, planning for successful winter grazing, why you should be out of the hay business, using native range in the winter, stockpiled perennial forages, use of winter annuals and crop residues, and fencing tools and techniques for winter grazing. We have linked the website for the Grazing Lands group below- they have more information on the program that happens this Thursday and Friday at the Biltmore.

Click here for the website of the Oklahoma Grazing Lands Association.

As I read it, the reasons given were logical enough- demand overseas for milk products, higher grain prices here at home- but as I read the article, the light in my cynical brain went on- and I remembered an editorial from Hoards Dairyman that Michael Marlow of Monsanto had sent me a while back. I had meant to use this back in the spring- but it always got pushed back a little and never got in the mix.

I remembered this article because it talked about the nimrods who demagogue modern technology at every opportunity- and when they can't win the scientific battle- they move on and try to find the weakest link in the marketing chain to force their views on everyone. The opponents of rBST technology which in simple terms allows a cow to turn up her metabolism and produce more milk have been getting in the face of various supermarket chains and food service outlets- hoping to convince someone that their view of science was right and the general scientific community was wrong. They have succeeded in several cases, as detailed in this article entitled "Self Inflicted Stupidity"- and we have ourselves a winner as to one of the significant reasons that milk prices are higher- we have handicapped our milk producers with these pseudo science arguments. Click on the link below- it's an editorial worth reading!!!

Click here and read how sound science has been LYNCHED by those who want to eliminate Animal Agriculture in this country!

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.

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