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!

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Bulling says " If a farmer has not grown Canola but has wheat history, then approval can be obtained through the USDA's Risk Management Agency. This is not automatic coverage anywhere in Oklahoma except in Dewey County. All other applicants must be approved by RMA before coverage begins. Even if farmers had coverage last year they must still go through the same process as if they have never had it."

He adds that RMA sets the base yields for each county and those yields may vary quite a bit from county to county. Check with your local crop insurance sales rep- today if possible- in order to get the process in gear to line up coverage for whatever acres of canola you might actually plant next month into early October. There is no cost to get the coverage lined up- and you are under no obligation to actually plant canola- but your rights to crop insurance are put in place by meeting this deadline.

The Radio Oklahoma Network has confirmed with a Washington, D.C. source that Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is circulating a short discussion document that outlines his concepts for Title I of the farm bill. According to the source, Senator Harkin stresses that this is a working document that will be the platform for further discussion.
Harkin's Ideas include:

Direct Payments which would remain intact, except for elimination of advanced direct payments.
A proposed National Counter-Cyclical Revenue Program with targets based on 2008 cost of production data. Targets would be updated annually to account for increases in variable costs of production.
Marketing Loan Program rates which would be set at 85 percent of the 5-year Olympic average, but no loan rates could be increased or decreased by more than 1 percent per year.
Undefined changes in Crop Insurance would improve efficiency and close loopholes.
A proposed Disaster Assistance Program which would provide assistance to farmers facing shallow losses in both insured and noninsured crops. No premiums would be paid by the farmer, and payments would be limited to 150-thousand dollars per year under each program with a cap to ensure that payments do not exceed 90 percent of expected crop revenue on the farm.
Payment Limits are not addressed in Senator Harkin's discussion document. However, we are hearing that Harkin wants a total hard cap of around $275,000 with a means test on gross income of around $250,000- both numbers that were soundly rejected by the House Ag Committee.

As for timing of the farm bill debate, it appears that getting a farm bill deal in 2007 is more and more of a long shot- with the lead cotton lobbyist in Washington saying that he believes that we could easily still be trying to finalize a deal as spring crops are going into the ground in early 2008. He still sees an extension of current policy as a final act of desperation to swing farm policy away from the permanent 1949 farm law.- and that doesn't really have to be done until we reach wheat harvest next spring.

Participating yesterday in Decatur, Ill., in a Farm Progress Show trade roundtable event with Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Stallman said each of the bilateral agreements is "comprehensive and provides benefits for all sectors of U.S. agriculture." Elimination of agricultural tariffs in each of these markets will assure our continued competitiveness and will increase U.S. agriculture's advantage with other competitors in these markets," Stallman said. "Many of our competitors already have trade agreements or are in trade negotiations with these partners."

Stallman said Congress must vote to support the Peru, Colombia and Panama free trade agreements this fall. Once fully implemented, he said the three agreements would increase U.S. agricultural exports by nearly $1.5 billion on an annual basis. "If Congress fails to act, these markets for U.S. agricultural products will be lost and a message will be sent around the world that the United States is not a serious trading partner," Stallman said. He believes the advantage to U.S. agriculture is clear. On average, U.S. agricultural products face tariffs of 18 percent to 30 percent entering the markets of Peru, Colombia and Panama. Currently, 99 percent of the agricultural products from those three countries enter the United States duty-free due to U.S. preference programs.

He says that there are a lot of ways to approach this piece of advice-and we discuss those with him on today's Beef Buzz, heard daily on the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click below to hear today's Beef Buzz with Dr. Mintert at your convenience.

Click here for today's Beef Buzz with Ron and Jim Mintert with that one key critical piece of advice!

Included in the two early regionals that will be held in October is one for the southwestern part of the country at the Dalhart Livestock Market in the northwest corner of the Texas Panhandle in Dalhart, Texas. There are also regional events planned for California, Alabama and Iowa- with eight to qualify from each of these regional locations for the Durant showdown.

Our friend Billy Perrin is excited about hosting the LMA annual meeting and the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship next June in the Durant area- but for those who might want to be involved in the shouting out prices next June- now is the time to check out the entry requirements from the LMA- their toll free number is 1-800-821-2048. We have also linked the LMA website that has details of the qualifying contests as well- note that at the bottom of the form, there is a link for the regional entry form.

Click here for the LMA website with info on the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship to be hosted by Bill Perrin next June in Durant!

The 2007 sale offering will include 100 Spring Calving Heifer Calf Pairs, 55 Spring Calving Bull Calf Pairs, 125 Spring Calving Cows and Bred Heifers, 120 Fall Calving Cows and Bred Heifers, 40 Fall Open Heifer Calves as well as flushes, Pregnancies and embryo lots.

There's a couple of ways to get a complete sale book. First, you can call Express Ranches at 1-800-664- 3977. Or, you can see it right now by going online to the Express Ranches web site linked below and click on the link for the Complete Sale Book. All told, there are some 382 lots to be sold, representing some 600 Registered Angus cattle- some of the best Angus genetics in the world!

Click here for the Home Page of the Express Ranches Website- from there click on their sale book for the Big Event.

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