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!

The newest sponsor on our daily email service is Cusack Meats, and Al Cusack wants everyone to know that he APPRECIATES Oklahoma's Farmers and Ranchers! You can go to the Cusack website and select some great gift packs of meat for giving- or for yourself! And, our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show coming up December 6-8, 2007, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City next spring. 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.

However, Terry Detrick, Vice President of American Farmers and Ranchers, says there is a problem in that he does not believe that this is really what should be called a Permanent Disaster Program. Detrick says that its a fix for the problem of not being able to buy full coverage in your crop insurance policy- you insure for seventy percent of losses in crop insurance- this measure would cover you for the thirty percent you can't buy coverage on.

We talk with Detrick about this as we caught up with him at the Tulsa State Fair midday Friday- and we have linked our conversation below. We also talk about the attack on Direct Payments by Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin and Terry offers us his thoughts on that issue as well.

Click here to listen to Ron and Terry Detrick on the latest Farm Bill Issues.

The Grand Champion Market Lamb was owned by Paige Van Meter, a sophomore from the Fairview FFA- and her animal was purchased by Mr. and Mrs Jerry Murphy for $6000. Carly Smith from Lexington and a part of the Cleveland County 4-H Clubs, exhibited the Champion Broiler Pen- also purchased by the Murphys for $4500.00.

Finally the Grand Champion Wether Meat Goat was shown by Cierra Staats of Alva FFA (her dad is the new Head of Ag Education at Career Tech in Stillwater) and Cierra, a Senior, claimed a very nice payday of $12,500 for her goat from Bank of Western Oklahoma, Texas Transco and Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

All told, 172 animals were sold- and while the top animals brought less than a year ago, the overall average was actually up some, acording to Tulsa Fair officials. We have an audio recap of the top winners and the sounds of the sale, along with a rundown in our audio report of what the Reserve Grands Brought as well- click on the link below for that.

Click here to listen to Ron describe the action at the 2007 Tulsa State Fair Premium Auction from this past Friday!

USDA is sending a team this week, to be led by Dr. Chuck Lambert, to meet with South Korean officials in the hope of dealing with this latest stoppage. Ag Undersecretary Bruce Knight tried to downplay this latest problem with South Korea, calling it a "hiccup" and adding "we are still trying to sort through that."

Lynn Heinze, vice president of information services for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, told Meatingplace.com said this latest stoppage is very disappointing. "The indication was we were doing 3 million pounds a week, or close to 100 containers a week, for a whole two weeks now," he said. "Clearly, the product that was coming in was moving through the pipeline, it was being sold, and more was being ordered. It's unfortunate that we were running hot and heavy for a short period and have to start all over again."

Several Senators have had this called to their attention by the Labor Union that represents Federal Inspectors and lawmakers like Senator Barbara Boxer of California are threatening to block the farm bill if that measure is in there. Senator Tom Harkin, the Chairman of the Committee, also does not like the provision and says that Federal Inspection is not hard to get- and we should leave the law alone.

Well, our State Secretary of Agriculture Terry Peach likes the idea and says it makes a lot of sense to him- he explains why in our Monday Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network. We have today's Buzz on line on our web site- and we have it linked for you below- take a listen and see if you agree with the arguments advanced by Secretary Peach.

Click here to listen to today's Beef Buzz, featuring Ron and Terry Peach on Interstate Shipment of State Inspected Meat.

"The latest Crop Progress report confirms that wheat planting continues slow in Oklahoma. As of the last day of September, the percent of wheat planted in Oklahoma was 41 percent, compared to 48 percent a year ago and a five year average of 56 percent. The percent emerged is even more delayed with 14 percent emerged, compared to 20 percent last year and a five year average of 28 percent. Some producers have delayed planting because of the short supply of seed leaving producers unwilling to take the risk of needing to replant. Although it is hard to imagine after all the rain earlier this year, some parts of the state, notably the northwest and part of the Panhandle and the south central part of Oklahoma are quite dry at this time. Producers are waiting for surface moisture before planting, once again because the risk of dry planting and the possibility of having to replant is too great this year. Some producers have already decided that the wheat production difficulties, the high cost of fertilizer and the risk of negatively impacting yield makes grazing too risky when wheat prices are so high. For all these reasons and more, it appears that wheat pasture grazing is not developing as fast, nor to the degree anticipated earlier.

"Wheat production difficulties notwithstanding, the overall cattle market situation favors forage based gains and offers considerable return potential. Using auction prices this week in Oklahoma, the average value of gain for a 475 pound steer gaining a total of 440 pounds (ending weight over 900 pounds) was $0.89/lb. That is a total gross margin per head of $390. It is not often that feeder cattle markets offer this high of value of gain nor this wide of weight range, let alone both at the same time. Producers with any and all types of forage resources should be evaluating potential stocker cattle or calf retained ownership programs. Risk management should not be overlooked but the generally good potential for forage based stocker programs is likely to persist for the foreseeable future. High grain prices make forage resources more valuable and gives cattle producers a chance to market more forage through cattle. These are unusual times in agriculture and, while that can be frightening, it also opens up new opportunities."

Abby suggests that you look at your farm or ranch to see what is unique on your place- and ask the question, what is on my property that would appeal to our in town neighbors? Here in the fall, there are a bunch of great seasonal activities that can attract folks to your place- whether it is leasing land for hunting, growing a corn maze- setting up to do hay rides and bonfires (make sure you can keep those fires under control!), and maybe just to enjoy the scenery that Mother Nature gives us in the fall months.

To help get you thinking about how this might work on your place- you may want to take advantage of the State Agritourism Conference that Abby and her team are hosting next month in Ardmore. We have details of that event linked on our calendar page of our web site, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. And linked below- we have a conversation with Abby about all the great possibilities that are out there that make up the world of agritourism here in 2007- check it out!

Click here to listen to Ron and Abby Cash talk Agritourism for Oklahoma!

One thing that we will be sharing with you later in the week are the two interviews that we have done with the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Presidential candidates- Mike Spradling and Bob Drake. They will be seeking the office of President for the general farm organization since Steve Kouplen is "Term Limited" from seeking another term as OFB President. Be watching for those interviews later in the week.

The Division of Agriculture at OSU apparently has a prospective Animal Science Department Head- and Dean Bob Whitson says he is waiting until Board of Regents action on the candidate before releasing details on the man that will step into the role handled for a bunch of years now by Don Wagner. We do understand that he has a great first name (you know like the abbreviation for the radio network I am a part of), comes from back east and has a dairy background. One of the cattle industry folks who have had interactions with the candidates says of this anticipated hire- "just get him a cowboy hat and boots and he will be just fine!" The OSU Board of Regents next meet October 26, so this important position should be finalized at that point- we understand his first day on the job will be January second.

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