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 National Livestock Credit Corporation as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. National Livestock Credit Corporation works diligently to provide unsurpassed service to their customers in the area of livestock financing. Check out the National Livestock Family of Services website by clicking here.

Another of our sponsors 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.

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The National Association of Wheat Growers have catalogued what they are expecting in the way of possible amendments to the Senate Ag Committee Bill. The NAWG says that list includes:

Grassley-Dorgan: This amendment would decrease the limit on direct payments from $40,000 to $20,000, disproportionately affecting wheat growers who have had access to only the direct payment since the 2002 Farm Bill's enactment. This amendment would also cut the counter cyclical payment limit to $60,000 and loan limit to $75,000. The amendment would also set an adjusted gross income cap of $250,000.
Lugar-Lautenberg: Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) have previously introduced a bill similar to the Kind-Flake bill, parts of which were offered as an amendment during the House farm bill process. That amendment, which would have directed commodity funds to other programs, was soundly defeated, but the Senators are likely to offer something similar in their chamber.

Brown 1: This potential amendment will attempt to undo the Roberts amendment to the ACR program adopted by the Agriculture Committee. The Roberts amendment decouples the ACR program from crop insurance and makes it less likely the entire program would fall into the World Trade Organization's Amber Box.

Brown 2: This amendment would have severe effects on the crop insurance system. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D- Ohio) has said the amendment will be similar to a House amendment introduced by Rep. Jim Cooper (D- Tenn.) during the House debate. The Cooper amendment would have reduced A&O by 9 points, imposed a 30 percent tax on companies and lowered premium subsidies to all producers. It was defeated on the House floor.

Meanwhile the NAWG has been proactive in calling on Senators to support the Finance Committee's measure that will likely be married to the Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill that among other things will fund a so called "Permanent Ag Disaster Program." We have a link to their farm bill page below that has on it the letter they have sent to lawmakers urging them to keep intact the Max Baccus plan that his Committee has assembled.

Click here to go to the National Association of Wheat Growers Farm Bill Page.

The National Pork Producers, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Texas Cattle Feeders and a bunch of other groups have come out hard against this measure being in the final language that comes out of the Senate. In addition, there are several amendments that have really got Ross Wilson and the Texas Cattle Feeders all lathered up- they are calling on cattle producers that want a free hand in how they market their cattle to oppose all of the following amendments:

Senator Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) has an amendment that would make it unlawful for cattle producers to engage in confidential, one-on-one business deals with prospective buyers. If accepted, cattle producers would have to conduct all of their business in open markets with competitors and neighbors watching and engaging in the process. The bidding process would also be required to include at least one blind bid. Forward contracts would be prohibited on more than 40 head of cattle and could not use basis pricing.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has an amendment that would create an Agriculture Competition Task Force of virtually unlimited authority to investigate and regulate livestock mergers, acquisitions, transactions and other business arrangements-past, present and future. The task force would assume guilt from the start and require parties to prove their actions do not and would not harm competition.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has an amendment to remove the "competitive injury" standard from the Packers and Stockyards Act and replace it with an undefined "fairness" standard.

All of these need to be rejected according to the TCFA, the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, the NCBA and others. A most interesting read on the Enzi Amendment, which some folks believe is the most dangerous and outlandish of them all comes from Steve Dittmer- we have that linked for you on our web site on our Farm Bill Page- go to the link below and look for the link on our farm bill page on the "Captive Supply Reform Act."

Click here for our Farm Bill Page on our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

As an Eisenhower Fellow, Ms. Pjesky will travel on an intensive 7 week individualized professional program to Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan where her perspectives and contacts will be enriched through professional meetings with farmers, farm organizations, food retailers and manufacturers, national government officials, university researchers and policy experts in the field of agricultural trade.

Hope has served as an Agriculture Advisory Committee member for Senator Tom Coburn, (R-OK) and been awarded numerous accolades, including Top Ten in the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award. She is currently a member of Class 13 of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program. With this announcement of her travels for the Eisenhower Fellowships- she will be spending a lot of time in the Far East, between this award and the International Study Experience planned for the OALP to China and South Korea.

As he has traveled around the state- he reports that he has seen some wheat pasture- but it is very spotty this year- and at least a month or so behind normal. He does report that we have already seen some Hessian Fly problems start to appear- and that is very bad news for those that find them in their wheat fields- as we have no effective treatment and this pest will reduce grain yields significantly.

One bit of advice that he is hopeful that producers will adopt for this 2008 crop is to "not just throw dollars at the crop- but rather throw best management practices into play" for this growing season. If you have not already done so, one of the very best management practices is to establish a nitrogen strip for each of your wheat fields- then develop your top dressing plans this coming spring based on that strip.
We talk about all of these issues and more with Jeff- and we have it linked for you below- check it out!!!

Click here to listen to Ron and Jeff talk about management strategies for the 2007-2008 growing season.

No illnesses are associated with this recall- it is based solely on what USDA discovered in their sampling tests. There are several name brands on the packages of ground beef that are included in the recall- none that I recognize as being a part of normal commerce here in Oklahoma. The Establishment number of the plant in question is "Est. 9400" so if you do have ground beef product that was bought since mid October and it has that number, you might want to call Cargill at a special number they have set up for this recall to answer questions from the general public- that number is 1-877455-1034.

Ann tells us that the real key is what you pay for the cattle you buy- that if you buy cattle for too much money- it's like hoping a lottery ticket will pay for your retirement. And she adds there are quite a number of things she will be teaching those in attendance on the 9th and 10th of November- some of the concepts covered at Bud Williams Marketing Schools include:
How to maximize cash flow while minimizing market risk. She contends that the cash flow from a livestock operation can be just as regular as any job and just as secure as any job "in town".
How to identify the best buys in today's market.
How to identify the classes of cattle that are the most overpriced and should be sold immediately.
Why grass in reserve is as good as money in the bank
How to know if owning cattle through the feedlot will pay before you do it.

Ann says there are a few spots left, so call 1- 8777994577 toll free or go their website for the Bud Williams Marketing School, which is linked below.

Click here for the Bud Williams Marketing School website- then click on the button in the upper right hand side of the page that says "Schools" for more information.

You may not want to remember- but just a year ago at the end of November- we had quite a snow winter event that included everything from thunder to snow to freezing rain- over a foot of snow falling in parts of northern Oklahoma.

This month's Newsletter- we have it linked below- includes info on the wind chill table and maps, cattle stress maps and a lot more-click on our link and check it out.

Click here for the November Edition of AgWeather from the Oklahoma Mesonet team.

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