From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 17:14
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 Wednesday October 10, 2007!
A service of Cusack Meats, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- We Continue our Journey along the Rhine River...
-- Pork Industry has a Stake in Farm Bill Direction.
-- Western Farmers Electric and OACD to again Partner on State Conservation Youth Awards
-- Crop Weather Update Shows Limited Progress in Putting 2008 Wheat Crop in the Ground.
-- HACCP- Not Hard- But It Has to Be Applied.
-- Rumors Just Keep Circulating about Mickey Ds and the Beef They Buy- Don't Believe the Rumors!
-- A Midweek Affiliate Salute- WBBZ in Ponca City has got Ron on RON!

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.


We Continue our Journey along the Rhine River...
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We spent most of Tuesday at the original Bayer Company campus in Leverkusen, just north of Cologne, Germany on the banks of the Rhine River. I, along with three other farm broadcasters from across the United States, were invited to cover their Herbicide Innovations Tour, where they are introducing Crop Consultants to a variety of new technology and products in the Bayer Crop Science portfolio.

It is most likely that the product that will have the most impact for farmers in the southern plains is a product that they received EPA approval in wheat back in August -Huskie Herbicide, a product that is aimed at dealing with broadleaf weeds in winter or spring wheat. While the initial push for Huskie will be in the northern plains, Clair Heinbuch, the Cereal Herbicide Marketing Manager for Bayer Crop Science in the United States, tells us that they plan to have several thousand acres of field trails out in the central and southern plains with Huskie being used to help establish best management practices using this "new chemistry" wheat herbicide. He adds that Huskie has a lot of promise in grain sorghum in a few years- and they are considering a push for a label for use in this crop as well.

Beyond Huskie, the folks at Bayer are very excited about Laudis, a brand new corn herbicide that is awaiting EPA approval in the US- they hope to have it in place for the 2008 growing season. They already have approval to use the product in a couple of eastern European countries- and the reception to the product in 2007 has been nothing short of fabulous. Jeff Springsteen, the new US Corn Herbicide Manager for Bayer Crop Science, told the consultants that there are three more corn herbicides in the pipeline for corn producers, with a couple of pre-emergence products in the pipeline, as well as one post-emergence product in addition to Laudis, which is a post- emergence product as well.

We have comments with Clair Heinbuch on their cereal grain herbicide strategy linked below.
In the meantime- here are a few more "observations" made while here in the Cologne area of Germany.

Number One- I did see some Opels today on the streets of Cologne- that is a car made by General Motors so the American automaker is limited coverage in this market.
Number two- Relics from the Three Wisemen are said to be stored under the famous twin towers that stand atop the Cathedral in this town- guess that means they never made it back to check lost and found.
Number Three- I am told the only time you see a pickup truck in these parts is when someone in the American military has his full sized pickup shipped over for him to drive while stationed at one of our bases in this country.
and finally Number Four- They sell an "Angry Whopper" at Burger King- I guess from reading a billboard on the sandwich is that since the burger is made with onions and jalapenos- that's has gotten it mad as a wet hen!

Click here for the conversation between Clair Heinbuch of Bayer on strategy that Bayer Crop Science has to sell their products to producers.


Pork Industry has a Stake in Farm Bill Direction.
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The Immediate Past President of the National Pork Producers Council. Joy Phillipi, says that there are several key areas that pork producers are watching develop during the 2007 Farm Bill debate. They felt pretty good about the House version of farm policy, but feel there is still danger in a couple of areas as the Senate works on their version of the policy later this month.

Those areas of concern are primarily in the livestock concentration area, as well as new rules on how COOL should be implemented. NPPC is opposed to any law that would restrict how a livestock producer could sell their product- and who can own those animals.

When it comes to COOL- they like the compromise struck by the House negotiators- and hope that pork producers and others will urge Senators to adopt the House language and go on down the road. We have a special audio feature with Joy Phillipi linked for you below- take a listen!

Click here to listen to Ron and Joy talk farm policy from a pork perspective.


Western Farmers Electric and OACD to again Partner on State Conservation Youth Awards
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As part of their continuing commitment to the youth of Oklahoma and the Conservation of our state's natural resources, Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) and the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts (OACD) today announced that they will again partner together in presenting the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) Conservation Youth Awards. These awards will go to the winners of the OACD poster, essay and speech contests at the district and state level. Last year over 1000 students from throughout Oklahoma participated in these contests.

"We are honored to again have WFEC as a partner in recognizing the outstanding achievements of our states youth," Scotty Herriman, President of OACD said. "These students work hard in preparing their speeches, posters and essays. The support of WFEC gives us a chance to better recognize their achievements.

Open to students from all areas of Oklahoma, the WFEC Youth Conservation Contests include categories for both high school and grade school students. These contestants research the conservation topic chosen each year and then write essays, develop speeches or create posters to expand on the conservation theme for that year.


Crop Weather Update Shows Limited Progress in Putting 2008 Wheat Crop in the Ground.
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We are now fifty percent done when it comes to planting the 2008 hard red winter wheat crop- an improvement of nine percentage points from last week but twenty points behind the five year average. Most of our seedbed preparation is done- we are waiting on rain showers to provide us moisture for those seeds to have their best chance to germinate.

The top soils of the state continue to dry out. We are now at 55% short to very short- which is a still much better overall than the 89% short to very short of last fall at this date. Some showers came into Oklahoma and helped on a scattered basis over the weekend- but much of our wheat belt as well as south central Oklahoma are awfully dry.

Ninety two percent of our corn crop is now harvested, with grain sorghum now 37% combined, 15% of the soybeans have been cut and thirty percent of the peanuts have been dug- fourteen percent of the peanut crop is moved over to the combined number thus far. For more details on the this latest report- click right below to see the numbers!

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update- one day later than normal this week because of Columbus Day.


HACCP- Not Hard- But It Has to Be Applied.
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We will eventually know exactly what happened inside the walls of the Topps Meat Company that allowed them to get hammered by this frozen beef patty recall that has mounted to over 21 million pounds and has forced the closing of the company and the loss of almost a hundred jobs at that location.

We continue to talk about this today with Jake Nelson of OSU- looking at the problem through the concept of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and what the industry has done right since the days of the Jack in the Box debacle back in the 1990s. Nelson calls a lot of the practices that we have adopted "simple concepts" like putting the carcass through a steam bath to help kill the "bugs" that may reside on the outside of that animal as we prepare the carcass to be opened up and processed.

We also talk about the ultimate place where E-Coli can be stopped- dead in its tracks. That's the grill where the consumer is cooking that fat juicy hamburger. If they will cook it to where it is totally done- 160 degrees- then E-Coli becomes a non- issue.When it comes to ground product- hamburger meat- that's the way you deal with it and stop illness and potentially death. You can listen to Jake visit with me about this on our Wednesday edition of the Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network. Click on the link below and take a listen.

Click here for the latest Beef Buzz featuring comments from Jake Nelson of OSU.


Rumors Just Keep Circulating about Mickey Ds and the Beef They Buy- Don't Believe the Rumors!
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A false rumor about McDonald's continues to circulate around via e-mail claiming that McDonald's is refusing to buy U.S. beef, is importing beef from South America that may be unsafe, and asking recipients of the e-mail to boycott McDonald's. NCBA recently has received a number of inquiries about this e-mail.

This rumor has been circulating in various forms for at least five years and makes the claim that the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) originated the e- mail. This is not true and TCFA has issued the following statement in regard to the rumor:

"Texas Cattle Feeders Association is not connected in any way with the email you received. The email, which has been in wide circulation in various forms for several years now, makes a false claim when it identifies Texas Cattle Feeders Association as the original source of the message. No such message has ever been put out by our organization. Unfortunately, we do not know the identity or motive of the person or persons making this improper use of our name."

The e-mail also represents Dr. David Forrest at Texas A&M University as the email originator. This also is untrue. Dr. Forrest does not know how his name got associated with the rumor and, in regard to the e-mail, Dr. Forrest has said:

"I had nothing to do with composing this e-mail, the information it contains is false, and I do not support any of the actions called for in the e-mail."
The phone number listed for Dr. Forrest in the e-mail is, indeed, the number for the TAMU animal science department but please do not call the number. The animal science department reports it has received a large number of calls as a result of the currently circulating rumor.

There is more information exposing these rumors as just that- rumors- click here to check out one site that has looked into these false reports.


A Midweek Affiliate Salute- WBBZ in Ponca City has got Ron on RON!
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You'll hear lots of Ron Hays and Ed Richards daily on the 1230 AM signal of WBBZ Radio in Ponca City, another of our great radio stations across the state that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma Network team.

Ten times a day, you can hear our radio reports on this home town radio station, offering music, talk, news and sports for Kay County and the surrounding area. Whenever you see a radio station with a "W" starting its call letters west of the Mississippi River, you know that this station has been serving its community for a long, long time- and that's the case with WBBZ! IN fact, they are celebrating EIGHTY years of service to Ponca City this year, signing on back in 1927!

Click below and you can get the full schedule of times that they carry Radio Oklahoma Network reports. And, drop us an email if you need to know your choices to listen to us on the radio in your locale. Of course, you can always hear several of our shows each day via our website, WWW.OkalhomaFarmReport.Com.

Click here for the Full Schedule of Times for WBBZ AM1230 Radio- heard across North Central Oklahoma!


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Cusack Meats and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis!

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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